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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4732-0.txt b/4732-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a64f5b --- /dev/null +++ b/4732-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25785 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROLEGOMENA TO THE HISTORY OF +ISRAEL *** + P R O L E G O M E N A + + to the + + HISTORY OF ISRAEL. + + WITH A REPRINT OF THE ARTICLE "ISRAEL" + FROM THE "ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA." + + by + + JULIUS WELLHAUSEN, + PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF + MARBURG. + + + + + + TRANSLATED FR0M THE GERMAN, UNDER THE AUTHOR'S SUPERVISION, + by + J. SUTHERLAND BLACK, M.A., + and + ALLAN MENZIES, B.D. + + + + with a preface by + PROF. W. ROBERTSON SMITH. + + + +P R E F A C E. + +The work which forms the greater part of the present volume first +appeared in 1878 under the title "History of Israel. By J. +Wellhausen. In two volumes. Volume I." The book produced a great +impression throughout Europe, and its main thesis, that "the Mosaic +history is not the starting-point for the history of ancient +Israel, but for the history of Judaism," was felt to be so +powerfully maintained that many of the leading Hebrew teachers of +Germany who had till then stood aloof from the so-called "Grafian +hypothesis"--the doctrine, that is, that the Levitical Law and +connected parts of the Pentateuch were not written till after the +fall of the kingdom of Judah, and that the Pentateuch in its +present compass was not publicly accepted as authoritative till +the reformation of Ezra--declared themselves convinced by +Wellhausen's arguments. Before 1878 the Grafian hypothesis was +neglected or treated as a paradox in most German universities, +although some individual scholars of great name were known to have +reached by independent inquiry similar views to those for which +Graf was the recognised sponsor, and although in Holland the +writings of Professor Kuenen, who has been aptly termed Graf's +goel, had shown in an admirable and conclusive manner that the +objections usually taken to Graf's arguments did not touch the +substance of the thesis for which he contended. + +Since 1878, partly through the growing influence of Kuenen, but +mainly through the impression produced by Wellhausen's book, all +this has been changed. Almost every younger scholar of mark is on +the side of Vatke and Reuss, Lagarde and Graf, Kuenen and +Wellhausen, and the renewed interest in Old Testament study which +is making itself felt throughout all the schools of Europe must be +traced almost entirely to the stimulus derived from a new view of +the history of the Law which sets all Old Testament problems in a +new light. + +Our author, who since 1878 had been largely engaged in the study +of other parts of Semitic antiquity, has not yet given to the world +his promised second volume. But the first volume was a complete +book in itself; the plan was to reserve the whole narrative of the +history of Israel for vol.ii., so that vol.i. was entirely +occupied in laying the critical foundations on which alone a real +history of the Hebrew nation could be built. Accordingly, the +second edition of the History, vol.i., appeared in 1883 (Berlin, +Reimer), under the new title of "Prolegomena to the History of +Israel." In this form it is professedly, as it really was before, +a complete and self-contained work; and this is the form of which +a translation, carefully revised by the author, is now offered to +the public. + +All English readers interested in the Old Testament will certainly +be grateful to the translators and publishers for a volume which in +its German garb has already produced so profound an impression on +the scholarship of Europe; and even in this country the author's +name is too well known to make it necessary to introduce him at +length to a new public. But the title of the book has a somewhat +unfamiliar sound to English ears, and may be apt to suggest a +series of dry and learned dissertations meant only for Hebrew +scholars. It is worth while therefore to point out in a few words +that this would be quite a false impression; that the matters with +which Professor Wellhausen deals are such as no intelligent student +of the Old Testament can afford to neglect; and that the present +volume gives the English reader, for the first time, an +opportunity to form his own judgment on questions which are within +the scope of any one who reads the English Bible carefully and is +able to think clearly, and without prejudice, about its contents. +The history of Israel is part of the history of the faith by +which we live, the New Testament cannot be rightly understood +without understanding the Old, and the main reason why so many +parts of the Old Testament are practically a sealed book even to +thoughtful people is simply that they have not the historical key +to the interpretation of that wonderful literature. + +The Old Testament does not furnish a history of Israel, though it +supplies the materials from which such a history can be +constructed. For example, the narrative of Kings gives but the +merest outline of the events that preceded the fall of Samaria; to +understand the inner history of thc time we must fill up this +outline with the aid of the prophets Amos and Hosea. But the more +the Old Testament has been studied, the more plain has it become +that for many parts of the history something more is needed than +merely to read each part of the narrative books in connection with +the other books that illustrate the same period. The Historical +Books and the Pentateuch are themselves very composite structures, +in which old narratives occur imbedded in later compilations, and +groups of old laws are overlaid by ordinances of comparatively +recent date. Now, to take one point only, but that the most +important, it must plainly make a vast difference to our whole +view of the providential course of Israel's history if it appear +that instead of the whole Pentateuchal law having been given to +Israel before the tribes crossed the Jordan, that law really grew +up little by little from its Mosaic germ, and did not attain its +present form till the Israelites were the captives or the subjects +of a foreign power. This is what the new school of Pentateuch +criticism undertakes to prove, and it does so in a way that should +interest every one. For in the course of the argument it appears +that the plain natural sense of the old history has constantly +been distorted by the false presuppositions with which we have +been accustomed to approach it--that having a false idea of the +legal and religious culture of the Hebrews when they first entered +Canaan, we continually miss the point of the most interesting +parts of the subsequent story, and above all fail to understand the +great work accomplished by the prophets in destroying Old Israel +and preparing the way first for Judaism and then for the Gospel. +These surely are inquiries which no conscientious student of the +Bible can afford to ignore. + +The process of disentangling the twisted skein of tradition is +necessarily a very delicate and complicated one, and involves +certain operations for which special scholarship is indispensable. +Historical criticism is a comparatively modern science, and in its +application to this, as to other histories, it has made many false +and uncertain steps. But in this, as in other sciences, when the +truth has been reached it can generally be presented in a +comparatively simple form, and the main positions can be justified +even to the general reader by methods much less complicated, and +much more lucid, than those originally followed by the +investigators themselves. The modern view as to the age of the +Pentateuchal law, which is the key to the right understanding of +the History of Israel, has been reached by a mass of +investigations and discussions of which no satisfactory general +account has ever been laid before the English reader. Indeed, even +on the Continent, where the subject has been much more studied than +among us, Professor Wellhausen's book was the first complete and +sustained argument which took up the question in all its +historical bearings. + +More recently Professor Kuenen of Leyden, whose discussions of +the more complicated questions of Pentateuch analysis are perhaps +the finest things that modern criticism can show, has brought out +the second edition of the first volume of his Onderzoek, and when +this appears in English, as it is soon to do, our Hebrew students +will have in their hands an admirable manual of what I may call +the anatomy of the Pentateuch, in which they can follow from +chapter to chapter the process by which the Pentateuch grew to its +present form. But for the mass of Bible-readers such detailed +analysis will always be too difficult. What every one can +understand and ought to try to master, is the broad historical +aspect of the matter. And this the present volume sets forth in a +way that must be full of interest to every one who has tasted the +intense pleasure of following institutions and ideas in their +growth, and who has faith enough to see the hand of God as clearly +in a long providential development as in a sudden miracle. + +The reader will find that every part of the "Prolegomena" is +instinct with historical interest, and contributes something to a +vivid realisation of what Old Israel really was, and why it has +so great a part in the history of spiritual faith. In the first +essay of the Prolegomena a complete picture is given of the +history of the ordinances of worship in Israel, and the +sacrifices, the feasts, the priesthood, are all set in a fresh +light. The second essay, the history of what the Israelites +themselves believed and recorded about their past, will perhaps to +some readers seem less inviting, and may perhaps best be read +after perusal of the article, reprinted from the "Encyclopaedia +Britannica", which stands at the close of the volume and affords a +general view of the course of the history of Israel, as our author +constructs it on the basis of the researches in his Prolegomena. +The essay on Israel and Judaism with which the Prolegomena close, +may in like manner be profitably compared with sect. II of the +appended sketch--a section which is not taken directly from the +"Encyclopaedia", but translated from the German edition of the +article "Israel", where the subject is expanded by the author. +Here the reader will learn how close are the bonds that connect +the critical study of the Old Testament with the deepest and +unchanging problems of living faith. + + W. ROBERTSON SMITH. + + +TRANSLATORS' NOTE. + +Pages 237 [chapter IV . 3] to 425 [end] of the "Prolegomena" and +section II of "Israel" are translated by Mr. Menzies; for the rest of +the volume Mr. Black is responsible. Both desire to express their +indebtedness to Professor Robertson Smith for many valuable +suggestions made as the sheets were passing through the press. + + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + PROLEGOMENA. + + +INTRODUCTION-- + +1. Is the Law the starting-point for the history of ancient +Israel or for that of Judaism ? The latter possibility +is not precluded a priori by the history of the Canon. Reasons +for considering it. De Wette, George, Vatke, Reuss, Graf + +2. The three strata of the Pentateuch: Deuteronomy, Priestly +Code, Jehovist + +3. The question is as to the Priestly Code and its historical +position. Method of the investigation + + +A. HISTORY OF WORSHIP. + + +CHAPTER I. THE PLACE OF WORSHIP-- + +I.I.1. The historical and prophetical books show no trace in Hebrew +antiquity of a sanctuary of exclusive legitimacy + +I.I.2. Polemic of the prophets against the sanctuaries. +Fall of Samaria. Reformation of Josiah + +I.I.3. Influence of the Babylonian exile + +I.II.1. The Jehovist (JE) sanctions a multiplicity of altars + +I.II.2. Deuteronomy (D) demands local unity of worship + +I.II.3. The Priestly Code (RQ) presupposes that unity, and transfers +it, by means of the Tabernacle, to primitive times + +I.III.1. The tabernacle, as a central sanctuary and dwelling +for the ark, can nowhere be found in the historical tradition + +I.III.2. Noldeke's view untenable + + +CHAPTER II. SACRIFICE-- + +II.I.1. The ritual is according to RQ the main subject of the Mosaic +legislation, according to JE it is pre-Mosaic usage; +in RQ the point is How, according to JE and D To Whom, +it is offered + +II.I.2. The historical books agree with JE; the prophets down to +Ezekiel contradict RQ + +II.II.1. Material innovations in RQ. Preliminary remarks on the +notion, contents, mode of offering, and propitiatory effects of +sacrifice. + +II.II.2. Material and ideal refinement of the offerings in RQ + +II.II.3. The sacrificial meal gives way to holocausts + +II.II.4. Development of the trespass-offering. + +II.III.1. The centralisation of worship at Jerusalem destroyed +the connection of sacrifice with the natural occasions of life, +so that it lost its original character + + +CHAPTER III. THE SACRED FEASTS-- + +III.I.1. In JE and D there is a rotation of three festivals. Easter +and Pentecost mark the beginning and the end of the corn-harvest, +and the autumn feast the vintage and the bringing home the corn +from the threshing-floor. With the feast of unleavened bread +(Massoth) is conjoined, especially in D, the feast of the +sacrifice of the male firstborn of cattle (Pesah). + +III.I.2. The feasts based on the offering of firstlings of the field and +of the herd. Significance of the land and of agriculture for religion + +III.II.1. In the historical and prophetical books, the autumn feast +only is distinctly attested, and it is the most important in JE +and D also: of the others there are only faint traces . + +III.II.2. But the nature of the festivals is the same as in JE and D + +III.III.1. In RQ the feasts have lost their reference to harvest +and the first fruits; and this essentially changes their +nature + +III.III.2. The metamorphosis was due to the centralisation of worship, +and may he traced down through Deuteronomy and Ezekiel to RQ, + +III.III.3. To the three festivals RQ adds the great day of atonement, +which arose out of the fast-days of the exile + +III.IV.1. The Sabbath, which is connected with the new moon, was +originally a lunar festival +Exaggeration of the Sabbath rest in the Priestly Code + +III.IV.2. Sabbatical year, and year of Jubilee + + +CHAP. IV. THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES-- + +IV.I.1. According to Ezek. xliv., only the Levites of Jerusalem, +the sons of Zadok, are to continue priests in the new +Jerusalem; the other Levites are to be degraded to their servants +and denuded of their priestly rights. According to RQ +the Levites never possessed the priestly right, but only +the sons of Aaron + +IV.I.2. These answer to the sons of Zadok + +IV.II.1. In the earliest period of the history of Israel there is no +distinction between clergy and laity. Every one may +slaughter and sacrifice; there are professional priests only at the +great sanctuaries. Priestly families at Sihiloh and Dan. + +No setting apart of what is holy + +IV.II.2. Royal temples of the kings; priests at them as royal officials + +IV.II.3. Importance of the North-Israelite priesthood in the time of the +kings + +IV.II.4. The family of Zadok at Jerusalem + +IV.III.1. In the oldest part of JE there are no priests; no Aaron +by the side of Moses + +IV.III.2. In D the Levites are priests. They occur in that character, +not to speak of Judges xviii. seq., only in the literature +of the exile. Their descent from Moses or Aaron. The spiritual +and the secular tribe of Levi. Difficulty of bringing them together + +IV.III.3. Consolidation of the spiritual tribe in RQ; separation of +priests and Levites. Further development of the clergy after the +exile. The high priest as head of the theocracy + + +CHAPTER V. THE ENDOWMENT OF THE CLERGY-- + +V.I.1. The sacrificial dues raised in RQ + +V.I.2. The firstlings were turned into contributions to the priests, +and doubled in amount + +V.II.1. Levitical towns + +V.II.2. The historical situation underlying the priestly pretensions +in RQ + + +B. HISTORY OF TRADITION. + + +CHAPTER VI. CHRONICLES-- + +VI.I.1. David becomes Saul's successor without any exertion, all +Israel being already on his side, namely, the priests and Levites + +Distortion of the original story of the bringing of the ark +to Jerusalem. Omission of unedifying incidents in David's life + +VI.I.2. Preparation for the building of the temple. Delight of the +narrator in numbers and names. Inconsistency with 1Kings i, ii. + +Picture of David in Chronicles + +VI.I.3. Solomon's sacrifice at the tabernacle at Gibeah. Building +of the temple. Retouching of the original narrative + +VI.II.1. Estimate of the relation between Judah and Israel; the +Israelites do not belong to the temple, nor, consequently, +to the theocracy + +VI.II.2. Levitical idealising of Judah. View taken of those acts of +rulers in the temple-worship which the books of Kings condemn or +approve. Inconsistencies with the narrative of the sources; +importation of priests and Levites. + +VI.II.3. Divine pragmatism of the sacred history, and its results + +VI.II.4. The books of Kings obviously present throughout + +VI.III.1. The genealogical registers of I Chron.i-ix The ten tribes + +VI.III.2. Judah and Levi + +VI.III.3. Chronicles had no other sources for the period before the exile +than the historical books preserved to us in the Canon. +The diversity of historical view is due to the influence of the law, +especially the Priestly Code. The Midrash + + +CHAPTER VII. JUDGES, SAMUEL, AND KINGS-- + +VII.I.1. The formula on which the book of Judges is constructed +in point of chronology and of religion + +VII.I.2. Its relation to the stem of the tradition. Judg. xix.-xxi. + +VI.II.3. Occasional additions to the original narratives + +VII.I.4. Difference of religious attitude in the latter + +VII.II.1. Chronological and religious formulas in the books of Samuel + +VII.II.2. The stories of the rise of the monarchy and the elevation +of Saul entirely recast + +VII.II.3. Saul's relation to Samuel + +VII.II.4. The narrative of David's youth +The view taken of Samuel may be regarded as a measure of the growth +of the tradition Saul and David + +VII.III.1. The last religious chronological revision of the books of +Kings. Similar in kind to that of Judges and Samuel +Its standpoint Judaean and Deuteronomistic + +VII.III.2. Its relation to the materials received from tradition + +VII.III.3. Differences of sentiment in the sources + +VII.III.4. In Chronicles the history of ancient Israel is recast +in accordance with the ideas of the Priestly Code; in the +older historical books it is judged according to the standard of +Deuteronomy + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE NARRATIVE OF THE HEXATEUCH-- + +VIII.I.1. Genesis i. and Genesis ii. iii. + +VIII.I.2. Genesis iv.-xi. + +VIII.I.3. The primitive world-history in JE and in Q + +VIII.II.1. The history of the patriarchs in JE + +VIII.II.2. The history of the patriarchs in Q + +VIII.II.3. Periods, numbers, covenants, sacrifices in the patriarchal +age in Q + +VIII.III.1. The Mosaic history in JE and in Q + +VII.III.2. Comparison of the various narratives + +VII.III.3. Conclusion . + + +C. ISRAEL AND JUDAISM. + + +CHAPTER IX. CONCLUSION OF THE CRITICISM OF THE LAW-- + + +IX.I.1. The veto of critical analysis + +IX.I.2. The historical presuppositions of Deuteronomy + +IX.I.3. The Deuteronomistic revision does not extend over the Priestly +Code + +IX.II.1. The final revision of the Hexateuch proceeds from the +Priestly Code, as we see from Leviticus xvii. seq. + +IX.II.2. Examination of Leviticus xxvi. + +IX.II.3. R cannnot be separated from RQ + +IX.III<.1.> The language of the Priestly Code + +<IX.III.2. ?> + + +CHAPTER X. THE ORAL AND THE WRITTEN TORAH-- + +X.I.1. No written law in ancient Israel. The Decalogue + +X.I.2. The Torah of Jehovah in the mouth of priests and prophets + +X.I.3. View of revelation in Jeremiah, Zechariah, and the writer +of Isa. xl.-lxvi. + +X.II.1. Deuteronomy was the first law in our sense of the word. +It obtains authority during the exile. End of prophecy + +X.II.2. The reforming legislation supplemented by that of the +restoration. The usages of worship codified and systematised by +Ezekiel and his successors. The Priestly Code--its introduction +by Ezra + +X.II.3. The Torah the basis of the Canon. Extension of the notion +originally attached to the Torah to the other books + + +CHAPTER XI. THE THEOCRACY AS IDEA AND AS INSTITUTION-- + +XI.I.1. Freshness and naturalness of early Israelite history + +XI.I.2. Rise of the state. Relation of Religion and of the Deity +to the life of state and nation. + +XI.I.3. The Messianic theocracy of the older prophets is built +up on the foundations afforded by the actual community +of their time + +XI.I.4. The idea of the covenant + +XI.II.1. Foundation of the theocratic constitution under the foreign +domination + +XI.II.2. The law and the prophets. + + -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* + + +I S R A E L. + +1. The beginnings of the nation + +2. The settlement in Palestine + +3. The foundation of the kingdom, and the first three kings + +4. From Jeroboam I. to Jeroboam II. + +5. God, the world, and the life of men in Old Israel + +6. The fall of Samaria + +7. The deliverance of Judah + +8. The prophetic reformation + +9. Jeremiah and the destruction of Jerusalem + +10. The captivity and the restoration + +11. Judaism and Christianity + +12. The Hellenistic period + +13. The Hasmonaeans + +14. Herod and the Romans + +15. The Rabbins + +16. The Jewish Dispersion + + +INTRODUCTION. + +In the following pages it is proposed to discuss the place in history +of the "law of Moses;" more precisely, the question to be considered +is whether that law is the starting-point for the history of ancient +Israel, or not rather for that of Judaism, ie., of the religious +communion which survived the destruction of the nation by the +Assyrians and Chaldaeans. + +I. It is an opinion very extensively held that the great mass of +the books of the Old Testament not only relate to the pre-exilic +period, but date from it. According to this view, they are +remnants of the literature of ancient Israel which the Jews rescued +as a heritage from the past, and on which they continued to +subsist in the decay of independent intellectual life. In +dogmatic theology Judaism is a mere empty chasm over which one +springs from the Old Testament to the New; and even where this +estimate is modified, the belief still prevails in a general way +that the Judaism which received the books of Scripture into the +canon had, as a rule, nothing to do with their production. But the +exceptions to this principle which are conceded as regards the +second and third divisions of the Hebrew canon cannot be called so +very slight. Of the Hagiograpba, by far the larger portion is +demonstrably post-exilic, and no part demonstrably older than +the exile. Daniel comes as far down as the Maccabaean wars, and +Esther is perhaps even later. Of the prophetical literature a very +appreciable fraction is later than the fall of the Hebrew kingdom; +and the associated historical books (the "earlier prophets" of the +Hebrew canon) date, in the form in which we now possess them, from +a period subsequent to the death of Jeconiah, who must have +survived the year 560 B.C. for some time. Making all allowance +for the older sources utilised, and to a large extent transcribed +word for word, in Judges, Samuel, and Kings, we find that apart +from the Pentateuch the preexilic portion of the Old Testament +amounts in bulk to little more than the half of the entire volume. +All the rest belongs to the later period, and it includes not +merely the feeble after-growths of a failing vegetation, but also +productions of the vigour and originality of Isa. xl.lxvi. and +Ps.Ixxiii. + +We come then to the Law. Here, as for most parts of the Old +Testament, we have no express information as to the author and date +of composition, and to get even approximately at the truth we are +shut up to the use of such data as can be derived from an analysis +of the contents, taken in conjunction with what we may happen to +know from other sources as to the course of Israel's history. But +the habit has been to assume that the historical period to be +considered in this connection ends with the Babylonian exile as +certainly as it begins with the exodus from Egypt. At first sight +this assumption seems to be justified by the history of the +canon; it was the Law that first became canonical through the +influence of Ezra and Nehemiah; the Prophets became so +considerably later, and the Hagiographa last of all. Now it is +not unnatural, from the chronological order in which these writings +were received into the canon, to proceed to an inference as to +their approximate relative age, and so not only to place the +Prophets before the Hagiographa, but also the five books of Moses +before the Prophets. If the Prophets are for the most part older +than the exile, how much more so the Law! But however trustworthy +such a mode of comparison may be when applied to the middle as +contrasted with the latest portion of the canon, it is not at all +to be relied on when the first part is contrasted with the other +two. The very idea of canonicity was originally associated with +the Torah, and was only afterwards extended to the other books, +which slowly and by a gradual process acquired a certain measure +of the validity given to the Torah by a single public and formal +act, through which it was introduced at once as the Magna Charta of +the Jewish communion (Nehemiah viii.-x.) In their case the canonical-- +that is, legal--character was not intrinsic, but was only +subsequently acquired; there must therefore have been some +interval, and there may have been a very long one, between the +date of their origin and that of their receiving public sanction. +To the Law, on the other hand, the canonical character is much more +essential, and serious difficulties beset the assumption that the +Law of Moses came into existence at a period long before the exile, +aml did not attain the force of law until many centuries +afterwards, and in totally different circumstances from those +under which it had arisen. At least the fact that a collection +claiming public recognition as an ecclesiastical book should have +attained such recognition earlier than other writings which make no +such claim is no proof of superior antiquity. + +We cannot, then, peremptorily refuse to regard it as possible +that what was the law of Judaism may also have been its product; +and there are urgent reasons for taking the suggestion into very +careful consideration. It may not be out of place here to refer +to personal experience. In my early student days I was attracted +by the stories of Saul and David, Ahab and Elijah; the discourses +of Amos and Isaiah laid strong hold on me, and I read myself well +into the prophetic and historical books of the Old Testament. +Thanks to such aids as were accessible to me, I even considered +that I understood them tolerably, but at the same time was troubled +with a bad conscience, as if I were beginning with the roof instead +of the foundation; for I had no thorough acquaintance with the +Law, of which I was accustomed to be told that it was the basis and +postulate of the whole literature. At last I took courage and made +my way through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and even through +Knobel's Commentary to these books. But it was in vain that I +looked for the light which was to be shed from this source on the +historical and prophetical books. On the contrary, my enjoyment +of the latter was marred by the Law; it did not bring them any +nearer me, but intruded itself uneasily, like a ghost that makes a +noise indeed, but is not visible and really effects nothing. Even +where there were points of contact between it and them, differences +also made themselves felt, and I found it impossible to give a +candid decision in favour of the priority of the Law. Dimly I +began to perceive that throughout there was between them all the +difference that separates two wholly distinct worlds. Yet, so far +from attaining clear conceptions, I only fell into deeper +confusion, which was worse confounded by the explanations of Ewald +in the second volume of history of Israel. At last, in the course +of a casual visit in Gottingen in the summer of 1867, I learned +through Ritschl that Karl Heinrich Graf placed the law later than +the Prophets, and, almost without knowing his reasons for the +hypothesis, I was prepared to accept it; I readily acknowledged +to myself thc possibility of understanding Hebrew antiquity +without the book of the Torah. + +The hypothesis usually associated with Graf's name is really not +his, but-that of his teacher, Eduard Reuss. It would be still +more correct to call it after Leopold Gcorge and Wiihelm Vatke, +who, independent alike of Reuss and of each other, were the first +to give it literary currency. All three, again, are disciples of +Martin Lebrecht de Wette, the epochmaking pioneer of historical +criticism in this field./1/ + +-- Footnote +1. M. W. L. de Wette, Beitraege zur Einleitung in das A. T. +(Bd. I. Kritischer Versuch ueber die Glaubwuerdigkeit der Buecher +der Chronik; Bd. II. Kritik der Mosaischen Geschichte, Halle, 1806-07); +J. F. L. George, Die alterer Juedischen Feste mit einer Kritik der +Gesetzgebung des Pentateuch (Berlin, 1835; preface dated 12th +October); W. Vatke, Die biblische Theologie wissenschaftlich +dargestellt (Berlin, 1835; preface dated 18th October; +publication did not get beyond first part of the first volume); +K. H. Graf, Die geschichtlicher Buecher des Alten Testaments +(Leipsic, 1866). That Graf as well as J. Orth (Nouv. Rev. de +Theol., iii. 84 sqq., iv. 350 sqq., Paris, 1859-60) owed the +impulse to his critical labours to his Strassburg master was not +unknown; but how great must have been the share of Reuss in the +hypothesis of Graf has only been revealed in 1879, by the +publication of certain theses which he had formulated as early as +1833, but had hesitated to lay in print before the general +theological public. These are as follows:-- "1. L'element +historique du Pentateuque peut et doit etre examine a part et ne +pas etre confondu avec l'element legal. 2. L'un et l'autre ont pu +exister sans redaction ecrite. La mention, chez d'anciens +ecrivains, de certaines traditions patriarcales ou mosaiques, ne +prouve pas l'existence du Pentateuque, et une nation peut avoir un +droit coutumier sans code ecrit. Les traditions nationales des +Israelites remontent plus haut que les lois du Pentateuque et la +redaction des premieres est anterieure a celle des secondes. +4. L'interet principal de l'historien doit porter sur la date des +lois, parce que sur ce terrain il a plus de chance d'arriver a des +resultats certains. II faut en consequence proceder a +l'interrogatoire des temoins. 5. L'histoire racontee, dans les +livres des Juges et de Samuel, et meme en partie celle comprise +dans les livres des Rois, est en contradiction avec des lois dites +mosaiques; donc celles-ci etaient inconnues a l'epoque de la +redaction de ces livres, a plus forte raison elles n'ont pas existe +dans les temps qui y vent decrits. 6. Les prophetes du 8e et du +7e siecle ne savent rien du code mosaique. 7. Jeremie est le +premier prophete qui connaisse une loi ecrite et ses citations +rapportent au Deuteronome. 8. Le Deuteronome (iv.45-xxviii.68) +est le livre que les pretres pretendaient avoir trouve dans le +temple du temps du roi Josias. Ce code est la partie la plus +ancienne de la legislation (redigee) comprise dans le Pentateuque. +9. L'histoire des Israelites, en tant qu'il s'agit du +developpement national determine par des lois ecrites, se divisera +en deux periodes, avant et apres Josias. 10. Ezechiel est +anterieur a la redaction du code rituel et des lois qui ont +definitivement organise la hierarchie. 11. Le livre du Josue +n'est pas, tant s'en faut, la partie la plus recente de l'ouvrage +entier. 12. Le redacteur du Pentateuque se distingue clairement +de l'ancien prophete Moyse." --L'Histoire Sainte et la Loi, Paris, +1879, pp. 23, 24. +-- Footnote + + +He indeed did not himself succeed in reaching a sure position, +but he was the first clearly to perceive and point out how +disconnected are the alleged starting-point of Israel's history +and that history itself. The religious community set up on so +broad a basis in the wilderness, with its sacred centre and uniform +organisation, disappears and leaves no trace as soon as Israel +settles in a land of its own, and becomes, in any proper sense, a +nation. The period of the Judges presents itself to us as a +confused chaos, out of which order and coherence are gradually +evolved under the pressure of external circumstances, but perfectly +naturally and without the faintest reminiscence of a sacred +unifying constitution that had formerly existed. Hebrew antiquity +shows absolutely no tendencies towards a hierocracy; power is +wielded solely by the heads of families and of tribes, and by +the kings, who exercise control over religious worship also, and +appoint and depose its priests. The influence possessed by the +latter is purely moral; the Torah of God is not a document in +their hands which guarantees their own position, but merely an +instruction for others in their mouths; like the word of the +prophets, it has divine authority but not political sanction, and +has validity only in so far as it is voluntarily accepted. And +as for the literature which has come down to us from the period of +the Kings, it would puzzle the very best intentions to beat up so +many as two or three unambiguous allusions to the Law, and these +cannot be held to prove anything when one considers, by way of +contrast, what Homer was to the Greeks. + +To complete the marvel, in post-exile Judaism the Mosaism which +until then had been only latent suddenly emerges into prominence +everywhere. We now find the Book regarded as the foundation of all +higher life, and the Jews, to borrow the phrase of the Koran, are +"the people of the Book;" we have the sanctuary with its priests +and Levites occupying the central position, and the people as a +congregation encamped around it; the cultus, with its +burnt-offerings and sin-offerings, its purifications and its +abstinences, its feasts and Sabbaths, strictly observed as +prescribed by the Law, is now the principal business of life. +When we take the community of the second temple and compare it +with the ancient people of Israel, we are at once able to realise +how far removed was thc latter from so-called Mosaism. The Jews +themselves were thoroughly conscious of the distance. The +revision of the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings, undertaken +towards the end of the Babylonian exile, a revision much more +thorough than is commonly assumed, condemns as heretical the whole +age of the Kings. At a later date, as the past became more +invested with a certain nimbus of sanctity, men preferred to clothe +it with the characters of legitimacy rather than sit in judgment +upon it. The Book of Chronicles shows in what manner it was +necessary to deal with the history of bygone times when it was +assumed that the Mosaic hierocracy was their fundamental +institution. + +2. The foregoing remarks are designed merely to make it plain that +the problem we have set before us is not an imaginary one, but actual +and urgent. They are intended to introduce it; but to solve it is by +no means so easy. The question what is the historical place of the +Law does not even admit of being put in these simple terms. For the +Law, If by that word we understand the entire Pentateuch, is no +literary unity, and no simple historical quantity./1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Compare the article "Pentateuch" in the Ninth edition +of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xviii. +-- Footnote + + +Since the days of Peyrerius and Spinoza, criticism has acknowledged +the complex character of that remarkable literary production, +and from Jean Astruc onwards has laboured, not without success, +at disentangling its original elements. At present there are +a number of results that can be regarded as settled. The following +are some of them. The five Books of Moses and the Book of Joshua +constitute one whole, the conquest of the Promised Land rather than +the death of Moses forming the true conclusion of the patriarchal +history, the exodus, and the wandering in the wilderness. +From a literary point of view, accordingly, it is more accurate +to speak of the Hexateuch than of the Pentateuch. Out of this whole, +the Book of Deuteronomy, as essentially an independent law-book, +admits of being separated most easily. Of what remains, +the parts most easily distinguished belong to the so-called +"main stock" ("Grundschrift"), formerly also called the Elohistic +document, on account of the use it makes of the divine name Elohim +up to the time of Moses, and designated by Ewald, with reference +to the regularly recurring superscriptions in Genesis, as the Book of +Origins. It is distinguished by its liking for number, and +measure, and formula generally, by its stiff pedantic style, by +its constant use of certain phrases and turns of expression which +do not occur elsewhere in the older Hebrew; its characteristics +are more strongly marked than those of any of the others, and +make it accordingly the easiest to recognise with certainty. Its +basis is the Book of Leviticus and thc allied portions of the +adjoining books,-- Exodus xxv.-xl., with the exception of chaps. +xxxii.-xxxiv., and Num.i.-x., xv.-xix., xxv.-xxxvi., with trifling +exceptions. It thus contains legislation chiefly, and, in point of +fact, relates substantially to the worship of the tabernacle and +cognate matters. It is historical only in form; the history +serves merely as a framework on which to arrange thc legislative +material, or as a mask to disguise it. For the most part, the +thread of the narrative is extremely thin, and often serves +merely to carry out the chronology, which is kept up without a +hiatus from the Creation to the Exodus; it becomes fuller only on +the occasions in which other interests come into play, as, for +example, in Genesis, with regard to the three preludes to the +Mosaic covenant which are connected with the names of Adam, Noah, +and Abraham respectively. When this fundamental document is also +separated out as well as Deuteronomy, there remains the Jehovistic +history-book, which, in contrast with the two others, is +essentially of a narrative character, and sets forth with full +sympathy and enjoyment the materials handed down by tradition. +The story of the patriarchs, which belongs to this document almost +entirely, is what best marks its character; that story is not +here dealt with merely as a summary introduction to something of +greater importance which is to follow, but as a subject of primary +importance, deserving the fullest treatment possible. Legislative +elements have been taken into it only at one point, where they +fit into the historical connection, namely, when the giving of the +Law at Sinai is spoken of (Exodusxx.-xxiii., xxxiv.) + +Scholars long rested satisfied with this twofold division of the +non-Deuteronomic Hexateuch, until Hupfeld demonstrated in certain +parts of Genesis, which until then had been assigned partly to the +"main stock" and partly to the Jehovist, the existence of a third +continuous source, the work of the so-called younger Elohist. The +choice of this name was due to the circumstance that in this +document also Elohim is the ordinary name of the Deity, as it is +in the "main stock" up to Exodus vi.; the epithet "younger," +however, is better left out, as it involves an unproved assumption, +and besides, is no longer required for distinction's sake, now that +the "main stock" is no longer referred to under so unsuitable a +name as that of Elohist. Hupfeld further assumed that all the +three sources continued to exist separately until some one at a +later date brought them together simultaneously into a single +whole. But this is a view that cannot be maintained: not merely +is the Elohist in his matter and in his manner of looking at things +most closely akin to the Jehovist; his document has come down to +us as Noldeke was thc first to perceive, only in extracts embodied +in the Jehovist narrative./1/ + +-- Footnote +Hermann Hupfeld, Die Quellen der Genesis u. die Art ihrer Zusammersetzung, +Berlin, 1853; Theodor Noldeke, Die s. g. Grundschrift des Pentateuch, +in Untersuchungen zur Kritik des Alten Testaments, Kiel, 1869. +-- Footnote + + +Thus, notwithstanding Hupfeld's discovery, the old division +into two great sections continues to hold good, and there is every +reason for adhering to this primary distinction as the basis of +further historical research, in spite of the fact, which is coming +to be more and more clearly perceived, that not only the +Jehovistic document, but the "main stock" as well, are complex +products, and that alongside of them occur hybrid or posthumous +elements which do not admit of being simply referred to either the +one or the other formation. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. J. Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexateuchs, in Jahrb. f. +Deutsche Theologie, 1876, pp. 392-450, 531-602; 1877, pp. 407-479. +I do not insist on all the details, but, as regards the way in which +the literary process which resulted in the formation of the Pentateuch +is to be looked at in general, I believe I had indicated the proper +line of investigation. Hitherto the only important corrections +I have received have been those of Kuenen in his Contributions +to the Criticism of the Pentateuch and Joshua, published in the Leyden +Theologisch Tijdschrift; but these are altogether welcome, +inasmuch as they only free my own fundamental view from some +relics of the old leaven of a mechanical separation of sources +which had continued to adhere to it. For what Kuenen points out +is, that certain elements assigned by me to the Elohist are not +fragments of a once independent whole, but interpolated and +parasitic additions. What effect this demonstration may have on +the judgment we form of the Elohist himself is as yet uncertain. +In the following pages the Jehovistic history-book is denoted by +the symbol JE, its Jehovistic part by J, and the Elohistic by E; +the "main stock" pure and simple, which is distinguished by its +systematising history and is seen unalloyed in Genesis, is called +the Book of the Four Covenants and is symbolised by Q; for the +"main stock" as a whole (as modified by an editorial process) the +title of Priestly Code and the symbol RQ (Q and Revisers) are +employed. +-- Footnote + + +Now the Law, whose historical position we have to determine, +is the so-called "main stack," which, both by its contents +and by its origin, is entitled to be called the Priestly +Code, and will accordingly be so designated. The Priestly Code +preponderates over the rest of the legislation in force, as well as +in bulk; in all matters of primary importance it is the normal +and final authority. It was according to the mode furnished by it +that the Jews under Ezra ordered their sacred community, and upon it +are formed our conceptions of the Mosaic theocracy, with the +tabernacle at its centre, the high priest at its head, the priests +and Levites as its organs, the legitimate cultus as its regular +function. It is precisely this Law, so called par exceIlence, +that creates the difficulties out of which our problem rises, and +it is only in connection with it that the great difference of +opinion exists as to date. With regard to the Jehovistic document, +all are happily agreed that, substantially at all events, in +language, horizon, and other features, it dates from the golden age +of Hebrew literature, to which the finest parts of Judges, Samuel, +and Kings, and the oldest extant prophetical writings also +belong,--the period of the kings and prophets which preceded the +dissolution of the two Israelite kingdoms by the Assyrians. +About the origin of Deuteronomy there is still less dispute; in +all circles where appreciation of scientific results can be looked +for at all, it is recognised that it was composed in the same age +as that in which it was discovered, and that it was made the rule +of Josiah's reformation, which took place about a generation before +the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans. It is only in +the case of the Priestly Code that opinions differ widely; for it +tries hard to imitate the costume of the Mosaic period, and, with +whatever success, to disguise its own. This is not nearly so much +the case with Deuteronomy, which, in fact, allows the real +situation (that of the period during which, Samaria having been +destroyed, only the kingdom of Judah continued to subsist) to +reveal itself very plainly through that which is assumed (xii.8, +xix.8). And the Jehovist does not even pretend to being a Mosaic +law of any kind; it aims at being a simple book of history; the +distance between the present and the past spoken of is not +concealed in the very least. It is here that all the marks are +found which attracted the attention of Abenezra and afterwards of +Spinoza, such as Gen. xii. 6 ("And the Canaanite was then in the +land"), Gen.xxxvi.31 ("These are the kings who reigned in Edom +before the children of Israel had a king"), Num. xii.6, 7, Deut. +xxxiv.10 ("There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto +Moses"). The Priestly Code, on the other hand, guards itself +against all reference to later times and settled life in Canaan, +which both in the Jehovistic Book of the Covenant (Exodus +xxi.-xxiii.) and in Deuteronomy are the express basis of the +legislation: it keeps itself carefully and strictly within the +limits of the situation in the wilderness, for which in all +seriousness it seeks to give the law. It has actually been +successful, with its movable tabernacle, its wandering camp, and +other archaic details, in so concealing the true date of its +composition that its many serious inconsistencies with what we +know, from other sources, of Hebrew antiquity previous to the +exile, are only taken as proving that it lies far beyond all known +history, and on account of its enormous antiquity can hardly be +brought into any connection with it. It is the Priestly Code, +then, that presents us with our problem. + +3. The instinct was a sound one which led criticism for the time +being to turn aside from the historical problem which had +originally presented itself to De Wette, and afterwards had been +more distinctly apprehended by George and Vatke, in order, in the +first instance, to come to some sort of clear understanding as to +the composition of the Pentateuch. But a mistake was committed +when it was supposed that by a separation of the sources (in which +operation attention was quite properly directed chiefly to +Genesis) that great historical question had been incidentally +answered. The fact was, that it had been merely put to sleep, and +Graf has the credit of having, after a considerable interval, +awakened it again. In doing so, indeed, he in turn laboured under +the disadvantage of not knowing what success had been achieved in +separating the sources, and thereby he became involved in a +desperate and utterly untenable assumption. This assumption, +however, had no necessary connection with his own hypothesis, and +at once fell to the ground when the level to which Hupfeld brought +the criticism of the text had been reached. Graf originally +followed the older view, espoused by Tuch in particular, that in +Genesis the Priestly Code, with its so obtrusively bare skeleton, +is the "main stock," and that it is the Jehovist who supplements, +and is therefore of course the later. But since, on the other +hand, he regarded the ritual legislature of the middle books as +much more recent than the work of the Jehovist, he was compelled to +tear it asunder as best he could from its introduction in Genesis, +and to separate the two halves of the Priestly Code by half a +millennium. But Hupfeld had long before made it quite clear that +the Jehovist is no mere supplementer, but the author of a perfectly +independent work, and that the passages, such as Gen. xx.-xxii., +usually cited as examples of the way in which the Jehovist worked +over the "main stock," really proceed from quite another +source,--the Elohist. Thus the stumbling-block of Graf had already +been taken out of the way, and his path had been made clear by an +unlooked-for ally. Following Kuenen's suggestion, he did not +hesitate to take the helping-hand extended to him; he gave up his +violent division of the Priestly Code, and then had no difficulty +in deducing from the results which he had obtained with respect to +the main legal portion similar consequences with regard to the +narrative part in Genesis. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. K. H. Graf, Die s. g. Grundschrift des Pentateucks, in Merx's +Archiv (1869), pp. 466-477. As early as 1866 he had already expressed +himself in a letter to Kuenen November 12) as follows:-- "Vous me +faites pressentir une solution de cette enigme...c'est que les +parties elohistiques de la Genese seraient posterieures aux parties +jehovistiques." Compare Kuenen, Theol. Tijdschrift (1870), p.412. +Graf had also in this respect followed Reuss, who (ut supra, +p. 24) says of himself: "Le cote faible de ma critique a ete que, +a l'egard de tout ce qui ne rentrait pas dans les points enumeres +ci-dessus, je restais dans l'orniere tracee par mes devanciers, +admettant sans plus ample examen que le Pentateuque etait +l'ouvrage de l'HISTORIEN elohiste, complete par l'HISTORIEN +jehoviste, et ne me rendant pas compte de la maniere dont l'element +legal, dont je m'etais occupe exclusivement, serait venu se +joindre a l'element historique. +-- Footnote + + +The foundations were now laid; it is Kuenen who has since done most +for the further development of the hypothesis./2/ + +-- Footnote +2. A. Kuenen, Die Godsdienst van Israel, Haarlem, 1869-70 (Eng. transl. +Religion of Israel, 1874-5), and De priesterlijke Bestanddeelen +van Pentateuch en Josua, in Theol. Tijdschr.(1870), pp. 391-426. +-- Footnote + + +The defenders of the prevailing opinion maintained their ground as well +as they could, but from long possession had got somewhat settled +on their lees. They raised against the assailants a series of +objections, all of which, however, laboured more or less under the +disadvantage that they rested upon the foundation which had +already been shattered. Passages were quoted from Amos and Hosea +as implying an acquaintance with the Priestly Code, but they were +not such as could make any impression on those who were already +persuaded that the latter was the more recent. Again it was +asserted, and almost with violence, that the Priestly Code could +not be later than Deuteronomy, and that the Deuteronomist actually +had it before him. But the evidences of this proved extremely +problematical, while, on the other hand, the dependence of +Deuteronomy, as a whole, on the Jehovist came out with the utmost +clearness. Appeal was made to the latest redaction of the entire +Hexateuch, a redaction which was assumed to be Deuteronomistic; +but this yielded the result that the deuteronomistic redaction +could nowhere be traced in any of the parts belonging to the +Priestly Code. Even the history of the language itself was +forced to render service against Graf: it had already been too +much the custom to deal with that as if it were soft wax. To say +all in a word, the arguments which were brought into play as a +rule derived all their force from a moral conviction that the +ritual legislation must be old, and could not possibly have been +committed to writing for the first time within the period of +Judaism; that it was not operative before then, that it did not +even admit of being carried into effect in the conditions that +prevailed previous to the exile, could not shake the conviction-- +all the firmer because it did not rest on argument--that at least +it existed previously. + +The firemen never came near the spot where the conflagration +raged; for it is only within the region of religious antiquities +and dominant religious ideas,--the region which Vatke in his +Biblische Theologie had occupied in its full breadth, and where the +real battle first kindled--that the controversy can be brought to a +definite issue. In making the following attempt in this direction, +I start from the comparison of the three constituents of the +Pentateuch,--the Priestly Code, Deuteronomy, and the work of the +Jehovist. The contents of the first two are, of course, +legislation, as we have seen; those of the third are narrative; +but, as the Decalogue (Exodus xx.), the Law of the two Tables +(Exodus xxxiv.), and the Book of the Covenant (Exodus xxi.-xxiii.) +show, the legislative element is not wholly absent from the +Jehovist, and much less is the historical absent from the Priestly +Code or Deuteronomy. Further, each writer's legal standpoint is +mirrored in his account of the history, and conversely; thus there +is no lack either of indirect or of direct points of comparison. +Now it is admitted that the three constituent elements are +separated from each other by wide intervals; the question then +arises, In what order? Deuteronomy stands in a relation of +comparative nearness both to the Jehovist and to the Priestly +Code; the distance between the last two is by far the +greatest,--so great that on this ground alone Ewald as early as +the year 183I (Stud. u. Krit., p. 604) declared it impossible +that the one could have been written to supplement the other. +Combining this observation with the undisputed priority of the +Jehovist over Deuteronomy, it will follow that the Priestly Code +stands last in the series. But such a consideration, although, so +far as I know, proceeding upon admitted data, has no value as long +as it confines itself to such mere generalities. It is necessary +to trace the succession of the three elements in detail, and at +once to test and to fix each by reference to an independent +standard, namely, the inner development of the history of Israel +so far as that is known to us by trustworthy testimonies, from +independent sources. + +The literary and historical investigation on which we thus enter +is both wide and difficult. It falls into three parts. In the +first, which lays the foundations, the data relating to sacred +archaeology are brought together and arranged in such a way as to +show that in the Pentateuch the elements follow upon one another +and from one another precisely as the steps of the development +demonstrably do in the history. Almost involuntarily this +argument has taken the shape of a sort of history of the +ordinances of worship. Rude and colourless that history must be +confessed to be,--a fault due to the materials, which hardly allow +us to do more than mark the contrast between pre-exilic and +post-exilic, and, in a secondary measure, that between +Deuteronomic and pre-Deuteronomic. At the same time there is this +advantage arising out of the breadth of the periods treated: they +cannot fail to distinguish themselves from each other in a tangible +manner; it must be possible in the case of historical, and even of +legal works, to recognise whether they were written before or +after the exile. The second part, in many respects dependent on +the first, traces the influence of the successively prevailing +ideas and tendencies upon the shaping of historical tradition, and +follows the various phases in which that was conceived and set +forth. It contains, so to speak, a history of tradition. The +third part sums up the critical results of the preceding two, with +some further determining considerations, and concludes with a more +general survey. + +The assumptions I make will find an ever-recurring justification +in the course of the investigation; the two principal are, that +the work of the Jehovist, so far as the nucleus of it is concerned, +belongs to the course of the Assyrian period, and that Deuteronomy +belongs to its close. Moreover, however strongly I am convinced +that the latter is to be dated in accordance with 2Kings xxii., I +do not, like Graf, so use this position as to make it the fulcrum +for my lever. Deuteronomy is the starting-point, not in the +sense that without it it would be impossible to accomplish +anything, but only because, when its position has been +historically ascertained, we cannot decline to go on, but must +demand that the position of the Priestly Code should also be fixed +by reference to history. My inquiry proceeds on a broader basis +than that of Graf, and comes nearer to that of Vatke, from whom +indeed I gratefully acknowledge myself to have learnt best and +most. + + +A. HISTORY OF THE ORDINANCES OF WORSHIP. + +" Legem non habentes natura faciunt legis opera."--Romans ii. + +[ "(When Gentiles) who do not have the law, do instinctively +what the law requires...." Romans 2:14 NRSV ] + + +CHAPTER I. THE PLACE OF WORSHIP. + +As we learn from the New Testament, the Jews and the Samaritans in +the days of Jesus were not agreed on the question which was the +proper place of worship, but that there could be only one was +taken to be as certain as the unity of God Himself. The Jews +maintained that place to be the temple at Jerusalem, and when it +was destroyed they ceased to sacrifice. But this oneness of the +sanctuary in Israel was not originally recognised either in fact +or in law; it was a slow growth of time. With the help of the Old +Testament we are still quite able to trace the process. In doing +so, it is possible to distinguish several stages of development. +We shall accordingly proceed to inquire whether the three +constituent parts of the Pentateuch give tokens of any +relationship to one or other of these; whether and how they fall +in with the course of the historical development which we are able +to follow by the aid of the historical and prophetic books from +the period of the Judges onwards. + +I.I.1. For the earliest period of the history of Israel, all +that precedes the building of the temple, not a trace can be found +of any sanctuary of exclusive legitimacy. In the Books of Judges +and Samuel hardly a place is mentioned at which we have not at +least casual mention of an altar and of sacrifice. In great +measure this multiplicity of sanctuaries was part of the heritage +taken over from the Canaanites by the Hebrews; as they +appropriated the towns and the culture generally of the previous +inhabitants, so also did they take possession of their sacred +piaces. The system of high places (Bamoth), with all the +apparatus thereto belonging, is certainly Canaanite originally +(Deut. xii.2, 30; Num. xxxiii.52; Exodus xxxiv.12 seq.), but +afterwards is of quite general occurrence among the Hebrews. At +Shechem and Gibeon the transition takes place almost in the full +light of history; some other old-Israelite places of worship, +certain of which are afterwards represented as Levitical towns, +betray their origin by their names at least, e.g., Bethshemesh or +Ir Heres (Sun-town), and Ashtaroth Karnaim (the two-horned +Astarte). In the popular recollection, also, the memory of the +fact that many of the most prominent sacrificial seats were +already in existence at the date of the immigration continues to +survive. Shechem, Bethel, Beersheba, figure in Genesis as +instituted by the patriarchs; other equally important holy +sites, not so. The reason for the distinction can only lie in a +consciousness of the more recent origin of the latter; those of +the one class had been found by the people when they came, those +of the other category they had themselves established. For of +course, if the Hebrews did not hesitate to appropriate to +themselves the old holy places of the country, neither did they +feel any difficulty in instituting new ones. In Gilgal and +Shiloh, in the fixed camps where, in the first instance, they had +found a permanent foothold in Palestine proper, there forthwith +arose important centres of worship; so likewise in other places of +political importance, even in such as only temporarily come into +prominence, as Ophrah, Ramah, and Nob near Gibeah. And, apart from +the greater cities with their more or less regular religious +service, it is perfectly permissible to erect an altar extempore, +and offer sacrifice wherever an occasion presents itself. When, +after the battle of Michmash, the people, tired and hungry, fell +upon the cattle they had taken, and began to devour the flesh with +the blood (that is, without pouring out the blood on the altar), +Saul caused a great stone to be erected, and ordered that every +man should slaughter his ox or his sheep there. This was the +first altar which Saul erected to Jehovah, adds the narrator, +certainly not as a reproach, nor even to signalise his conduct as +anything surprising or exceptional. The instance is all the more +instructive, because it shows how the prohibition to eat flesh +without rendering the blood back to God at a time when the people +did not live crowded together within a quite limited area +necessarily presupposed liberty to sacrifice anywhere--or to +slaughter anywhere; for originally the two words are absolutely +synonymous. + +It need not be said that the sacrificial seats (even when the +improvised ones are left out of account) were not all alike in the +regard in which they were held, or in the frequency with which +they were resorted to. Besides purely local ones, there were +others to which pilgrimages were made from far and near. Towards +the close of the period of the judges, Shiloh appears to have +acquired an importance that perhaps extended even beyond the limits +of the tribe of Joseph. By a later age the temple there was even +regarded as the prototype of the temple of Solomon, that is, as the +one legitimate place of worship to which Jehovah had made a grant +of all the burnt-offerings of the children of Israel (Jer. vii.12; +1Samuel ii. 27-36). But, in point-of fact, if a prosperous man of +Ephraim or Benjamin made a pilgrimage to the joyful festival at +Shiloh at the turn of the year, the reason for his doing so was not +that he could have had no opportunity at his home in Ramah or +Gibeah for eating and drinking before the Lord. Any strict +centralisation is for that period inconceivable, alike in the +religious as in every other sphere. This is seen even in the +circumstance that the destruction of the temple of Shiloh, the +priesthood of which we find officiating at Nob a little later, did +not exercise the smallest modifying influence upon the character +and position of the cultus; Shiloh disappears quietly from the +scene, and is not mentioned again until we learn from Jeremiah that +at least from the time when Solomon's temple was founded its temple +lay in ruins. + +For the period during which the temple of Jerusalem was not yet in +existence, even the latest redaction of the historical books (which +perhaps does not everywhere proceed from the same hand, but all +dates from the same period--that of the Babylonian exile--and has +its origin in the same spirit) leaves untouched the multiplicity +of altars and of holy places. No king after Solomon is left +uncensured for having tolerated the high places, but Samuel is +permitted in his proper person to preside over a sacrificial feast +at the Bamah of his native town, and Solomon at the beginning of +his reign to institute a similar one at the great Bamah of Gibeon, +without being blamed. The offensive name is again and again +employed in the most innocent manner in 1Samuel ix., x., and the +later editors allow it to pass unchallenged. The principle which +guides this apparently unequal distribution of censure becomes +clear from 1Kings iii. 2: "The people sacrificed upon the high +places, for as yet no house to the name of Jehovah had been +built." Not until the house had been built to the name of +Jehovah--such is the idea--did the law come into force which +forbade having other places of worship besides./1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Compare 1Kings viii. 16. According to Deut. xii.10 seq., +the local unity of worship becomes law from the time when +the Israelites have found rest (menuha). Comparing 2Samuel vii.11 +and 1Kings v. 18 (A.V., v.4), we find that "menuha" first came in +with David and Solomon. The period of the judges must at that time +have been regarded as much shorter than appears in the present chronology. +-- Footnote + + +From the building of the temple of Solomon, which is also treated +as a leading epoch in chronology, a new period in the history of worship +is accordingly dated,--and to a certain extent with justice. +The monarchy in Israel owed its origin to the need which, under severe +external pressure, had come to be felt for bringing together +into the oneness of a people and a kingdom the hitherto +very loosely connected tribes and families of the Hebrews; +it had an avowedly centralising tendency, which very naturally +laid hold of the cultus as an appropriate means for the attainment +of the political end. Gideon even, the first who came near +a regal position, erected a costly sanctuary in his city, Ophrah. +David caused the ark of Jehovah to be fetched into his fortress +on Mount Sion, and attached value to the circumstance +of having for its priest the representative of the old family +which had formerly kept it at Shiloh. Solomon's temple also was +designed to increase the attractiveness of the city of his +residence. It is indubitable that in this way political +centralisation gave an impulse to a greater centralisation of +worship also, and the tendency towards the latter continued to +operate after the separation of the two kingdoms,--in Israel not +quite in the same manner as in Judah. Royal priests, great +national temples, festal gatherings of the whole people, sacrifices +on an enormous scale, these were the traits by which the cultus, +previously (as it would seem) very simple, now showed the impress +of a new time. One other fact is significant: the domestic feasts +and sacrifices of single families, which in David's time must still +have been general, gradually declined and lost their importance as +social circles widened and life became more public. + +But this way of regarding the influence of the monarchy upon the +history of the worship is not that of the author of the Books of +Kings. He views the temple of Solomon as a work undertaken +exclusively in the interests of pure worship, and as differing +entirely in origin from the sacred buildings of the kings of +Israel, with which accordingly it is not compared, but contrasted +as the genuine is contrasted with the spurious. It is in its +nature unique, and from the outset had the design of setting aside +all other holy places,--a religious design independent of and +unconnected with politics. The view, however, is unhistorical; it +carries back to the original date of the temple, and imports into +the purpose of its foundation the significance which it had +acquired in Judah shortly before the exile. In reality the +temple was not at the outset all that it afterwards became. Its +influence was due to its own weight, and not to a monopoly +conferred by Solomon. We nowhere learn that that king, like a +forerunner of Josiah, in order to favour his new sanctuary sought +to abolish all the others; there is not the faintest historical +trace of any such sudden and violent interference with the +previously existing arrangements of worship. Never once did +Solomon's successors, confined though they were to the little +territory of Judah, and therefore in a position in which the +experiment might perhaps have been practicable, make the attempt +(which certainly would have been in their interest) to concentrate +all public worship within their own temple, though in other +directions we find them exercising a very arbitrary control over +affairs of religion. The high places were not removed; this is +what is regularly told us in the case of them all. For Israel +properly so called, Jerusalem was at no time, properly speaking, +the place which Jehovah had chosen; least of all was it so after +the division of the kingdom. + +The Ephraimites flocked in troops through the entire length of the +southern kingdom as pilgrims to Beersheba, and, in common with the +men of Judah, to Gilgal on the frontier. Jerusalem they left +unvisited. In their own land they served Jehovah at Bethel and +Dan, at Shechem and Samaria, at Penuel and Mizpah, and at many +other places. Every town had its Bamah, in the earlier times +generally on an open site at the top of the hill on the slopes of +which the houses were. Elijah, that great zealot for purity of +worship, was so far from being offended by the high places and the +multiplicity of altars to Jehovah that their destruction brought +bitterness to his soul as the height of wickedness, and with his +own hand he rebuilt the altar that had fallen into ruins on Mount +Carmel. And that the improvised offering on extraordinary +occasions had also not fallen into disuse is shown by the case of +Elisha, who, when his call came as he was following the plough, +hewed his oxen to pieces on the spot and sacrificed. In this +respect matters after the building of Solomon's temple continued to +be just as they had been before. If people and judges or kings +alike, priests and prophets, men like Samuel and Elijah, sacrificed +without hesitation whenever occasion and opportunity presented +themselves, it is manifest that during the whole of that period +nobody had the faintest suspicion that such conduct was heretical +and forbidden. If a theophany made known to Joshua the sanctity +of Gilgal, gave occasion to Gideon and Manoah to rear altars at +their homes, drew the attention of David to the threshing-floor of +Araunah, Jehovah Himself was regarded as the proper founder of all +these sanctuaries,--and this not merely at the period of the +Judges, but more indubitably still at that of the narrator of +these legends. He rewarded Solomon's first sacrifice on the great +Bamah at Gibeon with a gracious revelation, and cannot, therefore, +have been displeased by it. After all this, it is absurd to speak +of any want of legality in what was then the ordinary practice; +throughout the whole of the earlier period of the history of +Israel, the restriction of worship to a single selected place was +unknown to any one even as a pious desire. Men believed themselves +indeed to be nearer God at Bethel or at Jerusalem than at any +indifferent place, but of such gates of heaven there were several; +and after all, the ruling idea was that which finds its +most distinct expression in 2Kings v.17,--that Palestine as a whole +was Jehovah's house, His ground and territory. Not outside of +Jerusalem, but outside of Canaan had one to sojourn far from His +presence, under the dominion and (cujus regio ejus religio) in the +service of strange gods. The sanctity of the land did not depend +on that of the temple; the reverse was the case. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Gen. iv.14, 16: when Cain is driven out of the land (Canaan), +he is driven from the presence of Jehovah (Jonah i.3, 10). +Gen. xlvi.4: Jacob is not to hesitate about going down into Egypt, +for Jehovah will, by a special act of grace, change His dwelling-place +along with him. Exodus xv.17: "Thou broughtest thy people to the mountain +of thine inheritance, to the place which thou hadst prepared for +thyself to dwell in," the explanation which follows, "to the +sanctuary which thy hand had established," is out of place, for +the mountain of the inheritance can only be the mountainous land +of Palestine. 1Samuel xxvi.19: David, driven by Saul into foreign +parts, is thereby violently sundered from his family share in +the inheritance of Jehovah, and compelled to serve other gods. +Hos. viii.1: one like an eagle comes against the house of +Jehovah, i.e., the Assyrian comes against Jehovah's land. Hos. +ix.15: "I will drive them out of mine house," i.e., the Israelites +out of their land. Most distinct is the language of Hos. ix.3-5: +"They shall not continue to dwell in Jehovah's land; Ephraim must +back to Egypt, and must eat that which is unclean in Assyria. They +shall not any more offer wine-offerings to Jehovah, or set forth +offerings [read with Kuenen Y(RKW for Y(RBW ] before Him; their +bread is as the bread of mourners; whosoever eats of it is +polluted, for their bread shall be only for the staying of hunger, +and shall not be brought into the house of Jehovah. What indeed +will ye do in the time of the solemn assembly and in the day of +the feast of Jehovah? "Compare Jer. xvi.13; Ezek. iv.13; Mal. +ii.11; 2Kings xvii.25 seq. It is also possible that the "great +indignation" of 2Kings iii.27 is regarded less as Jehovah's than as +that of Chemosh, in whose land the army of Israel is at the time. +-- Footnote + + +I.I.2. A change in this respect first begins to be prepared at that +important epoch of the religious history of Israel which is marked +by the fall of Samaria and the rise of the prophets connected +therewith. Amos and Hosea presuppose a condition of matters just +such as has been described: everywhere--in the towns, on the +mountains, under green trees--a multitude of sanctuaries and +altars, at which Jehovah is served in good faith, not with the +purpose of provoking Him, but in order to gain His favour. The +language held by these men was one hitherto unheard of when they +declared that Gilgal, and Bethel, and Beersheba, Jehovah's +favourite seats, were an abomination to Him; that the gifts and +offerings with which He was honoured there kindled His wrath +instead of appeasing it; that Israel was destined to be buried +under the ruins of His temples, where protection and refuge were +sought (Amos ix.). What did they mean ? It would be to +misunderstand the prophets to suppose that they took offence at +the holy places-- which Amos still calls Bamoth (vii.9), and that +too not in scorn, but with the deepest pathos--in and by +themselves, on account of their being more than one, or not being +the right ones. Their zeal is directed, not against the places, +but against the cultus there carried on, and, in fact not merely +against its false character as containing all manner of abuses, but +almost more against itself, against the false value attached to it. +The common idea was that just as Moab showed itself to be the +people of Chemosh because it brought to Chemosh its offerings and +gifts, so Israel proved itself Jehovah's people by dedicating its +worship to Him, and was such all the more surely as its worship +was zealous and splendid; in times of danger and need, when His +help was peculiarly required, the zeal of the worshippers was +doubled and trebled. It is against this that the prophets raise +their protest while they demand quite other performances as a +living manifestation of the relation of Israel to Jehovah. This +was the reason of their so great hostility to the cultus, and the +source of their antipathy to the great sanctuaries, where +superstitious zeal outdid itself; it was this that provoked their +wrath against the multiplicity of the altars which flourished so +luxuriantly on the soil of a false confidence. That the holy +places should be abolished, but the cultus itself remain as before +the main concern of religion, only limited to a single locality +was by no means their wish; but at the same time, in point of +fact, it came about as an incidental result of their teaching that +the high place in Jerusalem ultimately abolished all the other +Bamoth. External circumstances, it must be added, contributed most +essentially towards the result. + +As long as the northern kingdom stood, it was there that the main +current of lsraelite life manifested itself; a glance into the +Books of Kings or into that of Amos is enough to make this clear. +In Jerusalem, indeed, the days of David and of Solomon remained +unforgotten; yearning memories went back to them, and great +pretensions were based upon them, but with these the actual state +of matters only faintly corresponded. When Samaria fell, Israel +shrivelled up to the narrow dimensions of Judah, which alone +survived as the people of Jehovah. Thereby the field was left +clear for Jerusalem. The royal city had always had a weighty +preponderance over the little kingdom, and within it, again, the +town had yielded in importance to the temple. From the few +narratives we have relating to Judah one almost gathers an +impression as if it had no other concern besides those of the +temple; the kings in particular appear to have regarded the +charge of their palace sanctuary as the chief of all their +cares./1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Nearly all the Judaean narratives in the Books of Kings relate +to the temple and the measures taken by the ruling princes with +reference to this their sanctuary. +-- Footnote + + +In this way the increased importance of Judah after the fall of Samaria +accrued in the first instance to the benefit of the capital +and its sanctuary, especially as what Judah gained by the fall +of her rival was not so much political strength as an increase +of religious self-consciousness. If the great house of God +upon Mount Zion had always overtopped the other shrines in Judah, +it now stood without any equal in all Israel. But it was the prophets +who led the way in determining the inferences to be drawn from the change +in the face of things. Hitherto they had principally had their eyes +upon the northern kingdom, its threatened collapse, and the +wickedness of its inhabitants, and thus had poured out their wrath +more particularly upon the places of worship there. Judah they +judged more favourably, both on personal and on substantial +grounds, and they hoped for its preservation, not concealing their +sympathies for Jerusalem (Amos i.2). Under the impression produced +by their discourses accordingly, the fall of Samaria was +interpreted as a judgment of God against the sinful kingdom and in +favour of the fallen house of David, and the destruction of the +sanctuaries of Israel was accepted as an unmistakable declaration +on Jehovah's part against His older seats on behalf of His +favourite dwelling on Zion. Finally, the fact that twenty years +afterwards Jerusalem made her triumphant escape from the danger +which had proved fatal to her haughty rival, that at the critical +moment the Assyrians under Sennacherib were suddenly constrained +to withdraw from her, raised to the highest pitch the veneration +in which the temple was held. In this connection special emphasis +is usually laid-- and with justice--upon the prophetical activity +of Isaiah, whose confidence in the firm foundation of Zion +continued unmoved, even when the rock began to shake in an alarming +way. Only it must not be forgotten that the significance of +Jerusalem to Isaiah did not arise from the temple of Solomon, but +from the fact that it was the city of David and the focus of his +kingdom, the central point, not of the cultus, but of the +sovereignty of Jehovah over His people. The holy mount was to +him the entire city as a political unity, with its citizens, +councillors, and judges (xi.9); his faith in the sure foundation +on which Zion rested was nothing more than a faith in the living +presence of Jehovah in the camp of Israel. But the contemporaries +of the prophet interpreted otherwise his words and the events which +had occurred. In their view Jehovah dwelt on Zion because His +house was there; it was the temple that had been shown by history +to be His true seat, and its inviolability was accordingly the +pledge of the indestructibility of the nation. This belief was +quite general in Jeremiah's time, as is seen in the extremely +vivid picture of the seventh chapter of his book; but even as +early as the time of Micah, in the first third of the seventh +century, the temple must have been reckoned a house of God of an +altogether peculiar order, so as to make it a paradox to put it on +a level with the Bamoth of Judah, and a thing unheard of to believe +in its destruction. + +At the same time, notwithstanding the high and universal reverence +in which the temple was held, the other sanctuaries still +continued, in the first instance, to subsist alongside of it. +King Hezekiah indeed is said to have even then made an attempt +to abolish them, but the attempt, having passed away without leaving +any trace, is of a doubtful nature. It is certain that the +prophet Isaiah did not labour for the removal of the Bamoth. In +one of his latest discourses his anticipation for that time of +righteousness and the fear of God which is to dawn after the +Assyrian crisis is: "Then shall ye defile the silver covering of +your graven images and the golden plating of your molten images--ye +shall cast them away as a thing polluted; Begone! shall ye say +unto them" (xxx.22). If he thus hopes for a purification from +superstitious accretions of the places where Jehovah is worshipped, +it is clear that he is not thinking of their total abolition. Not +until about a century after the destruction of Samaria did men +venture to draw the practical conclusion from the belief in the +unique character of the temple at Jerusalem. That this was not +done from a mere desire to be logical, but with a view to further +reforms, need not be said. With the tone of repudiation in which +the earlier prophets, in the zeal of their opposition, had +occasionally spoken of practices of worship at large, there was +nothing to be achieved; the thing to be aimed at was not +abolition, but reformation, and the end it was believed would be +helped by concentration of all ritual in the capital. Prophets +and priests appear to have made common cause in the prosecution of +the work. It was the high priest Hilkiah who in the first instance +called attention to the discovered book which was to be made the +basis of action; the prophetess Huldah confirmed its divine +contents; the priests and prophets were a prominent element in the +assembly at which the new law was promulgated and sworn to. Now +an intimate fellowship between these two leading classes appears to +be characteristic of the whole course of the religious movement in +Judah, and to have been necessarily connected with the lines on +which that movement advanced; /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. While Hosea, the man of northern Israel, frequently assails +the clergy of his home, and lays upon them the chief share of the +blame for the depraved and blinded condition of the people, Isaiah +even in his fiercest declamation against the superstitious worship +of the multitude, has not a word to say against the priests, with +whose chief, Uriah, on the contrary, he stands in a relation of +great intimacy. But it is from the Book of Jeremiah, the best +mirror of the contemporary relations in Judah, that the close +connection between priests and prophets can be gathered most +particularly. To a certain extent they shared the possession of +the sanctuary between them. (Compare Lam. ii.20.) +-- Footnote + + +we shall be justified therefore in assuming that the display +of harmony between them on this occasion was not got up merely +for the purposes of scenic effect, but that the change +in the national cultus now proposed was really the common suggestion +of prophets and priests. In point of fact, such a change was equally +in accordance with the interests of the temple and with those +of the prophetic party of reform. To the last named the restriction +of the sacrificial worship must have in itself seemed an advantage; +to it in later times the complete abolition of sacrifice was mainly due, +and something of the later effect doubtless lay in the original +intention. Then, too, the Jehovah of Hebron was only too easily +regarded as distinct from the Jehovah of Bethshemesh or of Bethel, +and so a strictly monarchical conception of God naturally led to +the conclusion that the place of His dwelling and of His worship +could also only be one. All writers of the Chaldaean period +associate monotheism in the closest way with unity of worship +(Jer. ii.28, xi.13). And the choice of the locality could +present no difficulty; the central point of the kingdom had of +necessity also to become the central point of the worship. Even +Jerusalem and the house of Jehovah there might need some cleansing, +but it was clearly entitled to a preference over the obscure +local altars. It was the seat of all higher culture, Iying under +the prophets' eyes, much more readily accessible to light and +air, reform and control. It is also possible, moreover, that the +Canaanite origin of most of the Bamoth, which is not unknown, for +example, to Deuteronomy, may have helped to discredit them, while, +on the other hand, the founding of Jerusalem belonged to the +proudest memories of Israelite history, and the Ark, which had been +the origin of the temple there, had a certain right to be +considered the one genuine Mosaic sanctuary. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Luther in his address to the princes of Germany counsels +in the twentieth place that the field chapels and churches be destroyed, +as devices of the devil used by him to strengthen covetousness, +to set up a false and spurious faith, to weaken parochial churches, +to increase taverns and fornication, to squander money and labour +to no purpose, and merely to lead the poor people about by the nose. +(Niemeyer's Reprint, p. 54 ) +-- Footnote + + +In the eighteenth year of Josiah, 601 B.C., the first heavy blow fell +upon the local sacrificial places. How vigorously the king set to +work, how new were the measures taken, and how deeply they cut, +can be learned from the narrative of 2Kings xxiii. Yet what a +vitality did the green trees upon the high mountains still +continue to show! Even now they were but polled, not uprooted. +After Josiah's death we again see Bamoth appearing on all hands, +not merely in the country, but even in the capital itself. +Jeremiah has to lament that there are as many altars as towns in +Judah. All that had been attained by the reforming party was +that they could now appeal to a written law that had been solemnly +sworn to by the whole people, standing ever an immovable witness +to the rights of God. But to bring it again into force and to +carry it out was no easy matter, and would certainly have been +impossible to the unaided efforts of the prophets--a Jeremiah or an +Ezekiel. + +I.3 Had the people of Judah remained in peaceful possession of their +land, the reformation of Josiah would hardly have penetrated to +the masses; the threads uniting the present with the past were too +strong. To induce the people to regard as idolatrous and heretical +centres of iniquity the Bamoth, with which from ancestral times +the holiest memories were associated, and some of which, like +Hebron and Beersheba, had been set up by Abraham and Isaac in +person, required a complete breaking-off of the natural tradition +of life, a total severance of all connection with inherited +conditions. This was accomplished by means of the Babylonian +exile, which violently tore the nation away from its native soil, +and kept it apart for half a century,--a breach of historical +continuity than which it is almost impossible to conceive a +greater. The new generation had no natural, but only an +artificial relation to the times of old; the firmly rooted +growths of the old soil, regarded as thorns by the pious, were +extirpated, and the freshly ploughed fallows ready for a new +sowing. It is, of course, far from being the case that the whole +people at that time underwent a general conversion in the sense of +the prophets. Perhaps the majority totally gave up the past, but +just on that account became lost among the heathen, and never +subsequently came into notice. Only the pious ones, who with +trembling followed Jehovah's word, were left as a remnant; they +alone had the strength to maintain the Jewish individuality amid +the medley of nationalities into which they had been thrown. +From the exile there returned, not the nation, but a religious +sect,--those, namely, who had given themselves up body and soul to +the reformation ideas. It is no wonder that to these people, who, +besides, on their return, all settled in the immediate +neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the thought never once occurred of +restoring the local cults. It cost them no struggle to allow the +destroyed Bamoth to continue Iying in ruins; the principle had +become part of their very being, that the one God had also but one +place of worship, and thenceforward for all time coming this was +regarded as a thing of course. + +I.II + +Such was the actual historical course of the centralisation of +the cultus, and such the three stadia which can be distinguished. +The question now presents itself, whether it is possible to detect +a correspondence between the phases of the actual course of events +and those of the legislation relating to this subject. All three +portions of the legislation contain ordinances on the subject of +sacrificial places and offerings. It may be taken for granted +that in some way or other these have their roots in history, and +do not merely hang in the air, quite away from or above the solid +ground of actuality. + +I.II.1. The main Jehovistic law, the so-called Book of the Covenant, +contains (Exodus xx.24-26) the following ordinance: "An altar of +earth shalt thou make unto me, and thereon shalt thou sacrifice thy +burnt offerings and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine +oxen; in place where I cause my name to be honoured will I come +unto and will bless thee. Or if thou wilt make me an altar of +stones, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones, for if thou hast +lifted up thy tool upon it thou hast polluted it. And thou shalt +not go up to mine altar by steps, that thy nakedness be not +discovered before it." Unquestionably it is not the altar of the +tabernacle, which was made of wood and plated over with brass, nor +that of Solomon's temple, which on its eastern side had a flight of +steps, /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The altar of the second temple had no steps, but a sloping ascent +to it, as also, according to the belief of the Jews, had that of the +tabernacle. The reason, moreover, for which in Exodus xx.26 steps +are forbidden, disappears when the priests are provided with +breeches (Exodus xxviii.42). +-- Footnote + + +and had a passage right round it at half its height, that is here +described as the only true one. On the other hand, it is obvious +that a multiplicity of altars is not merely regarded as permissible, +but assumed as a matter of course. For no stress at all is laid +upon having always the same sacrificial seat, whether fixed or to be +moved about from place to place; earth and unhewn stones /2/ of the field + +-- Footnote +2. The plural "stones" is perhaps worthy of note. There were also +sacrificial places consisting of one great stone (1Samuel xiv.33, +vi.14, 15; 2Samuel xx.8; Judges vi.20, xiii.19, 20; 1Kings i.9); to the same +category also doubtless belongs originally the threshing-floor of +Araunah, 2Samuel xxiv.21; compare Ezra iii.3, [ (L MKWNTW ]. But +inasmuch as such single sacred stones easily came into a +mythological relation to the Deity, offence was taken at them, as +appears from Judges vi.22-24, where the rock altar, the stone under +the oak which was conceived of as the seat of the theophany, upon +which Gideon offers, and out of which the flame issues (vi.19-21), +is corrected into an altar upon the rock. The macceboth are +distinguished from the altar in Exodus xxiv.4, yet elsewhere +clearly put on the same plane with it (Gen. xxxiii.20), and +everywhere more or less identified with the Deity (Gen. xxviii.). +-- Footnote + + +can be found everywhere, and such an altar falls to pieces just as +readily as it is built. A choice of two kinds of material is also +given, which surely implies that the lawgiver thought of more than +one altar; and not at the place, but at every place where He causes +His name to be honoured will Jehovah come to His worshippers and +bless them. Thus the law now under consideration is in harmony +with the custom and usage of the first historical period, has its +root therein, and gives sanction to it. Certainly the liberty to +sacrifice everywhere seems to be somewhat restricted by the added +clause, "in every place where I cause my name to be honoured." +But this means nothing more than that the spots where intercourse +between earth and heaven took place were not willingly regarded +as arbitrarily chosen, but, on the contrary, were considered as +having been somehow or other selected by the Deity Himself for +His service. + +In perfect correspondence with the Jehovistic law is the +Jehovistic narrative of the Pentateuch, as, in particular, the +story of the patriarchs in J and E very clearly shows. At every +place where they take up their abode or make a passing stay, the +fathers of the nation, according to this authority, erect altars, +set up memorial stones, plant trees, dig wells. This does not take +place at indifferent and casual localities, but at Shechem and +Bethel in Ephraim, at Hebron and Beersheba in Judah, at Mizpah, +Mahanaim, and Penuel in Gilead; nowhere but at famous and +immemorially holy places of worship. It is on this that the +interest of such notifications depends; they are no mere +antiquarian facts, but full of the most living significance for the +present of the narrator. The altar built by Abraham at Shechem is +the altar on which sacrifice still continues to be made, and bears +"even unto this day" the name which the patriarch gave it. On the +spot where at Hebron he first entertained Jehovah, there down to +the present day the table has continued to be spread; even as +Isaac himself did, so do his sons still swear Amosos viii.14; Hos. +iv.15) by the sacred well of Beersheba, which he digged, and +sacrifice there upon the altar which he built, under the tamarisk +which he planted. The stone which Jacob consecrated at Bethel the +generation of the living continues to anoint, paying the tithes +which of old he vowed to the house of God there. This also is the +reason why the sacred localities are so well known to the +narrator, and are punctually and accurately recorded +notwithstanding the four hundred years of the Egyptian sojourn, +which otherwise would have made their identification a matter of +some little difficulty. The altar which Abraham built at Bethel +stands upon the hill to the east of the town, between Bethel on the +west and Ai on the east; others are determined by means of a tree +or a well, as that of Shechem or Beersheba. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The correct explanation of this is found in Ewald, Gesch. d. V. +lsraels, i. 436 seq. (3d edit.). A. Bernstein (Ursprung der Sagen +von Abrabam, etc., Berlin, 1871) drags in politics in a repulsive way. +"He does not indeed actually enter Shechem and Bethel-- these are places +hostile to Judah--but in a genuine spirit of Jewish demonstration +he builds altars in their vicinity and calls on the name of +Jehovah" (p. 22). Rather, he builds the altars precisely on the +places where, as can be shown, they afterwards stood, and that was +not inside the towns. In Gen. xviii. also the oak of Mamre is +employed to fix not Abraham's residence, but the place of Jehovah's +appearing. +-- Footnote + + +But of course it was not intended to throw dishonour upon the +cultus of the present when its institution was ascribed to the +fathers of the nation. Rather, on the contrary, do these legends +glorify the origin of the sanctuaries to which they are attached, +and surround them with the nimbus of a venerable consecration. All +the more as the altars, as a rule, are not built by the patriarchs +according to their own private judgment wheresoever they please; +on the contrary, a theophany calls attention to, or at least +afterwards confirms, the holiness of the place. Jehovah appears at +Shechem to Abraham, who thereupon builds the altar "to Jehovah who +had appeared unto him;" he partakes of his hospitality under the +oak of Mamre, which is the origin of the sacrificial service there; +He shows him the place where he is to make an offering of his son, +and here the sanctuary continues to exist. On the first night of +Isaac's sleeping on the sacred soil of Beersheba (xxvi.24) he +receives a visit from the Numen there residing, and in consequence +rears his altar. Surprised by profane glances, Jehovah acts as a +destroyer, but Himself spontaneously points out to His favoured +ones the places where it is His pleasure to allow Himself to be +seen; and where men have seen Him and yet lived, there a sanctuary +marks the open way of access to Him. The substance of the +revelation is in these cases comparatively indifferent: "I am +God." What is of importance is the theophany in and for itself, +its occurrence on that particular place. It must not be regarded +as an isolated fact, but rather as the striking commencement of an +intercourse [ R)H PNY YHWH ] between God and man which is destined +to be continued at this spot, and also as the first and strongest +expression of the sanctity of the soil. This way of looking at +the thing appears most clearly and with incomparable charm in the +story of the ladder which Jacob saw at Bethel. "He dreamed, and +behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to +heaven, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on +it. And he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! This +is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of +heaven." The ladder stands at the place not at this moment merely, +but continually, and, as it were, by nature. Bethel--so Jacob +perceives from this--is a place where heaven and earth meet, where +the angels ascend and descend, to carry on the communication +between earth and heaven ordained by God at this gate. + +All this is only to be understood as a glorification of the +relations and arrangements of the cultus as we find them (say) in +the first centuries of the divided kingdom. All that seems +offensive and heathenish to a later age is here consecrated and +countenanced by Jehovah Himself and His favoured ones,-- the high +places, the memorial stones (maccceboth), the trees, the wells. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. But it is only the public cultus and that of certain leading +sanctuaries that is thus glorified; on the other hand, the domestic +worship of seraphim, to which the women are specially attached, +is already discountenanced (in E) by Jacob. Asherim are not +alluded to, molten images are rejected, particularly by E. +Here perhaps a correction of the ancient legend has already +taken place in JE. +-- Footnote + + +An essential agreement prevails between the Jehovistic law +which sanctions the existing seats of worship and the Jehovistic +narrative; the latter is as regards its nucleus perhaps somewhat older. +Both obviously belong to the pre-prophetic period; a later revision +of the narrative in the prophetic sense has not altered the essential +character of its fundamental elements. It is inconceivable that +Amos or Hosea, or any like-minded person, could go with such +sympathising love and believing reverence into narratives which only +served to invest with a still brighter nimbus and higher respect +the existing religious worship, carried on by the people +on the high places of Isaac as their holiest occupation. + +I.II.2. The Jehovistic Book of the Covenant lies indeed at the +foundation of Deuteronomy, but in one point they differ +materially, and that precisely the one which concerns us here. +As there, so here also, the legislation properly so called begins +(Deut. xii.) with an ordinance relating to the service of the +altar; but now we have Moses addressing the Israeites in the +following terms: "When ye come into the land of Canaan, ye shall +utterly destroy all the places of worship which ye find there, +and ye shall not worship Jehovah your God after the manner in which +the heathen serve theirs. Nay, but only unto the place which the +Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes for His +habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye bring your offerings +and gifts, and there shall ye eat before Him and rejoice. Here at +this day we do every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes, but +when ye have found fixed abodes, and rest from your enemies round +about, then shall the place which Jehovah shall choose for His +habitation in one of your tribes be the one place to which ye shall +bring your offerings and gifts. Take heed that ye offer not in +every place that ye see; ye may not eat your holy gifts in +every town, but only in the place which Jehovah shall choose." + +The Law is never weary of again and again repeating its +injunction of local unity of worship. In doing so, it is in +conscious opposition to "the things that we do here this day," and +throughout has a polemical and reforming attitude towards existing +usage. It is rightly therefore assigned by historical criticism +to the period of the attacks made on the Bamoth by the reforming +party at Jerusalem. As the Book of the Covenant, and the whole +Jehovistic writing in genera], reflects the first pre-prophetic +period in the history of the cultus, so Deuteronomy is the legal +expression of the second period of struggle and transition. The +historical order is all the more certain because the literary +dependence of Deuteronomy on the Jehovistic laws and narratives +can be demonstrated independently, and is an admitted fact. From +this the step is easy to the belief that the work whose discovery +gave occasion to King Josiah to destroy the local sanctuaries was +this very Book of Deuteronomy, which originally must have had an +independent existence, and a shorter form than at present. This +alone, at least, of all the books of the Pentateuch, gives so +imperious an expression to the restriction of the sacrificial +worship to the one chosen place; here only does the demand make +itself so felt in its aggressive novelty and dominate the whole +tendency of the law-maker. The old material which he makes use +of is invariably shaped with a view to this, and on all hands he +follows the rule out to its logical consequences. To make its +fulfilment possible, he changes former arrangements, permitting +what had been forbidden, and prohibiting what had been allowed; +in almost every case this motive lies at the foundation of all his +other innovations. This is seen, for example, when he permits +slaying without sacrificing, and that too anywhere; when, in order +not to abolish the right of asylum (Exodus xxi.13, 14; 1Kings ii. +28) along with the altars, he appoints special cities of refuge for +the innocent who are pursued by the avenger of blood; when he +provides for the priests of the suppressed sanctuaries, +recommending the provincials to take them along with them on their +sacrificial pilgrimages, and giving them the right to officiate in +the temple at Jerusalem just like the hereditarily permanent +clergy there. In other respects also the dominance of the same +point of view is seen: for example, it is chiefly from regard to +it that the old ordinances and customs relating to the religious +dues and the festivals are set forth in the form which they must +henceforth assume. A law so living, which stands at every point +in immediate contact with reality, which is at war with +traditionary custom, and which proceeds with constant reference to +the demands of practical life, is no mere velleity, no mere cobweb +of an idle brain, but has as certainly arisen out of historical +occasions as it is designed to operate powerfully on the course of +the subsequent history. A judgment pronounced in accordance with +the facts can therefore assign to it an historical place only +within that movement of reformation which was brought to a +victorious issue by King Josiah. + +I.II.3. It is often supposed that the Priestly Code is somewhat +indifferent to the question of the one sanctuary, neither +permitting multiplicity of sacrificial centres nor laying stress +upon the unity, and that on account of this attitude it must be +assigned to an earlier date than Deuteronomy. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. De Wette, in the fifth place of his Habilitationsschrift ueber +das Deuteronomium (Jena, 1805): "De hoc unico cultus sacri loco... +priores libri nihil omnino habent. De sacrificiis tantum unice +ante tabernaculum conventus offerendis lex quaedam extat. +Sed in legibus de diebus festis, de primitiis et decimis, +tam saepe repetitis, nihil omnino monitum est de loco unico, +ubi celebrari et offerri debeant " (Opusc. Theol, p. 163-165). +-- Footnote + + +Such an idea is, to say the least, in the highest degree superficial. +The assumption that worship is restricted to one single centre +runs everywhere throughout the entire document. To appeal specially, +in proof of the restriction, to Leviticus xvii. or Josh xxii., is +to indicate a complete failure to apprehend the whole tenor +of Exodus xxv.-Leviticus ix. Before so much as a single regulation +having reference to the matter of worship can be given (such is +the meaning of the large section referred to), the one rightful place +wherein to engage in it must be specified. The tabernacle is +not narrative merely, but, like all the narratives in that book, +law as well; it expresses the legal unity of the worship as +an historical fact, which, from the very beginning, ever since +the exodus, has held good in Israel. One God one sanctuary, +that is the idea. With the ordinances of the tabernacle, which form +the sum of the divine revelation on Sinai, the theocracy was founded; +where the one is, there is the other. The description of it, therefore, +stands at the head of the Priestly Code, just as that of the temple +stands at the head of the legislation in Ezekiel. It is the basis +and indispensable foundation, without which all else would merely +float in the air: first must the seat of the Divine Presence on +earth be given before the sacred community can come into life and +the cultus into force. Is it supposes that the tabernacle +tolerates other sanctuaries besides itself? Why then the +encampment of the twelve tribes around it, which has no military, +but a purely religious significance, and derives its whole meaning +from its sacred centre? Whence this concentration of all Israel +into one great congregation [ QHL, (DH ], without its like anywhere +else in the Old Testament? On the contrary, there is no other +place besides this at which God dwells and suffers Himself to be +seen; no place but this alone where man can draw near to Him and +seek His face with offerings and gifts. This view is the axiom +that underlies the whole ritual legislation of the middle part of +the Pentateuch. It is indicated with special clearness by the +LPNY (HL MW(D (before the tabernacle), introduced at every turn +in the ordinances for sacrifice. + +What then are we to infer from this as to the historical place of +the Priestly Code, if it be judged necessary to assign it such a +place at all? By all the laws of logic it can no more belong to +the first period than Deuteronomy does. But is it older or +younger than Deuteronomy? In that book the unity of the cultus is +COMMANDED, in the Priestly Code it is PRESUPPOSED. Everywhere it +is tacitly assumed as a fundamental postulate, but nowhere does it +find actual expression; /1/ it is nothing new, but quite a thing + +-- Footnote +1. Except in Leviticus xvii.; but the small body of legislation +contained in Leviticus xvii-xxvi is the transition from Deuteronomy +to the Priestly Code. +-- Footnote + + +of course. What follows from this for the question before us? +To my thinking, this:--that the Priestly Code rests +upon the result which is only the aim of Deuteronomy. The latter +is in the midst of movement and conflict: it clearly speaks out +its reforming intention, its opposition to the traditional "what we +do here this day;" the former stands outside of and above the +struggle,--the end has been reached and made a secure possession. +On the basis of the Priestly Code no reformation would ever have +taken place, no Josiah would ever have observed from it that the +actual condition of affairs was perverse and required to be set +right; it proceeds as if everything had been for long in the best +of order. It is only in Deuteronomy, moreover, that one sees to +the root of the matter, and recognises its connection with the +anxiety for a strict monotheism and for the elimination from the +worship of the popular heathenish elements, and thus with a deep +and really worthy aim; in the Priestly Code the reason of the +appointments, in themselves by no means rational, rests upon their +own legitimacy, just as everything that is actual ordinarily seems +natural and in no need of explanation. Nowhere does it become +apparent that the abolition of the Bamoth and Asherim and memorial +stones is the real object contemplated; these institutions are +now almost unknown, and what is really only intelligible as a +negative and polemical ordinance is regarded as full of meaning in +itself. + +The idea as idea is older than the idea as history. In +Deuteronomy it appears in its native colours, comes forward with +its aggressive challenge to do battle with the actual. One step +indeed is taken towards investing it with an historical character, +in so far as it is put into the mouth of Moses; but the beginning +thus made keeps within modest limits. Moses only lays down the +law; for its execution he makes no provision as regards his own +time, nor does he demand it for the immediate future. Rather it is +represented as not destined to come into force until the people +shall have concluded the conquest of the country and secured a +settled peace. We have already found reason to surmise that the +reference to "menuha" is intended to defer the date when the Law +shall come into force to the days of David and Solomon (1Kings +viii.16). This is all the more probable inasmuch as there is +required for its fulfilment "the place which Jehovah shall choose," +by which only the capital of Judah can be meant. Deuteronomy, +therefore, knows nothing of the principle that what ought to be +must actually have been from the beginning. Until the building of +Solomon's temple the unity of worship according to it had, +properly speaking, never had any existence; and, moreover, it is +easy to read between the lines that even after that date it was +more a pious wish than a practical demand. The Priestly Code, on +the other hand, is unable to think of religion without the one +sanctuary, and cannot for a moment imagine Israel without it, +carrying its actual existence back to the very beginning of the +theocracy, and, in accordance with this, completely altering the +ancient history. The temple, the focus to which the worship was +concentrated, and which in reality was not built until Solomon's +time, is by this document regarded as so indispensable, even for +the troubled days of the wanderings before the settlement, that it +is made portable, and in the form of a tabernacle set up in the +very beginning of things. For the truth is, that the tabernacle +is the copy, not the prototype, of the temple at Jerusalem. The +resemblance of the two is indeed unmistakable, /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. In Wisdom of Solomon ix. 8 the temple is called MIMHMA SKHNHS +HAGIAS. Josephus (Antiquities iii. 6,1) says of the tabernacle, +(H D'OUDEN METAFEROMENOU NAOU DIEFERE. +-- Footnote + + +but it is not said in 1Kings vi. that Solomon made use of the old +pattern and ordered his Tyrian workmen to follow it. The posteriority +of the Mosaic structure comes into clearer light from the two following +considerations brought forward by Graf (p. 60 seq.). In the first +place, in the description of the tabernacle mention is repeatedly +made of its south, north, and west side, without any preceding rubric +as to a definite and constantly uniform orientation; the latter is +tacitly taken for granted, being borrowed from that of the temple, +which was a fixed building, and did not change its site. In the +second place, the brazen altar is, strictly speaking, described as +an altar of wood merely plated with brass,--for a fireplace of +very large size, upon which a strong fire continually burns, a +perfectly absurd construction, which is only to be accounted for +by the wish to make the brazen altar which Solomon cast (1Kings +xvi. 14) transportable, by changing its interior into wood. The +main point, however, is this, that the tabernacle of the Priestly +Code in its essential meaning is not a mere provisional shelter for +the ark on the march, but the sole legitimate sanctuary for the +community of the twelve tribes prior to the days of Solomon, and +so in fact a projection of the later temple. How modest, one might +almost say how awkwardly bashful, is the Deuteronomic reference +to the future place which Jehovah is to choose when compared with +this calm matter-of-fact assumption that the necessary centre of +unity of worship was given from the first! In the one case we +have, so to speak, only the idea as it exists in the mind of the +lawgiver, but making no claim to be realised till a much later +date; in the other, the Mosaic idea has acquired also a Mosaic +embodiment, with which it entered the world at the very first. + +By the same simple historical method which carries the central +sanctuary back into the period before Solomon does the Priestly +author abolish the other places of worship. His forty-eight +Levitical cities are for the most part demonstrably a +metamorphosis of the old Bamoth to meet the exigencies of the time. +The altar which the tribes eastward of Jordan build (Josh. xxii.) +is erected with no intention that it should be used, but merely in +commemoration of something. Even the pre-Mosaic period is rendered +orthodox in the same fashion. The patriarchs, having no +tabernacle, have no worship at all; according to the Priestly +Code they build no altars, bring no offerings, and scrupulously +abstain from everything by which they might in any way encroach +on the privilege of the one true sanctuary. This manner of shaping +the patriarchal history is only the extreme consequence of the +effort to carry out with uniformity in history the semper +ubique et ab omnibus of the legal unity of worship. + +Thus in Deuteronomy the institution is only in its birth-throes, +and has still to struggle for the victory against the praxis of +the present, but in the Priestly Code claims immemorial legitimacy +and strives to bring the past into conformity with itself, +obviously because it already dominates the present; the carrying +back of the new into the olden time always takes place at a later +date than the ushering into existence of the new itself. +Deuteronomy has its position in the very midst of the historical +crisis, and still stands in a close relation with the older period +of worship, the conditions of which it can contest, but is unable +to ignore, and still less to deny. But, on the other hand, the +Priestly Code is hindered by no survival to present times of the +older usage from projecting an image of antiquity such as it must +have been; unhampered by visible relics or living tradition of an +older state, it can idealise the past to its heart's content. Its +place, then, is after Deuteronomy, and in the third post-exilian +period of the history of the cultus, in which, on the one hand, +the unity of the sanctuary was an established fact, contested by +no one and impugned by nothing, and in which, on the other hand, +the natural connection between the present and the past had been so +severed by the exile that there was no obstacle to prevent an +artificial and ideal repristination of the latter. + + +I.III. + +The reverse of this is what is usually held. In Deuteronomy, it +is considered, there occur clear references to the period of the +kings; but the Priestly Code, with its historical +presuppositions, does not fit in with any situation belonging to +that time, and is therefore older. When the cultus rests upon the +temple of Solomon as its foundation, as in Ezekiel, then every one +recognises the later date; but when it is based upon the +tabernacle, the case is regarded as quite different. The great +antiquity of the priestly legislation is proved by relegating it +to an historical sphere, created by itself out of its own legal +premisses, but which is nowhere to be found within, and therefore +must have preceded actual history. Thus (so to speak) it holds +itself up in the air by its own waistband. + +I.III.1. It may, however, seem as if hitherto it had only been +asserted that the tabernacle rests on an historical fiction. +In truth it is proved; but yet it may be well to add some things +which have indeed been said long before now, but never as yet +properly laid to heart. The subject of discussion, be it +premised, is the tabernacle of the Priestly Code; for some kind +of tent for the ark there may well have been: in fact, tents were +in Palestine the earliest dwellings of idols (Hos. ix.6), and only +afterwards gave place to fixed houses; and even the Jehovistic +tradition (although not J) knows of a sacred tent /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It is never, however, employed for legislative purposes, +but is simply a shelter for the ark; it stands without the camp, +as the oldest sanctuaries were wont to do outside the cities. +It is kept by Joshua as aedituus, who sleeps in it, as did Samuel +the aedituus for Eli. +-- Footnote + + +in connection with the Mosaic camp, and outside it, just as the older +high places generally had open sites without the city. The question +before us has reference exclusively to the particular tent which, +according to Exodus xxv. seq., was erected at the command of God +as the basis of the theocracy, the pre-Solomonic central sanctuary, +which also in outward details was the prototype of the temple. +At the outset its very possibility is doubtful. Very strange is the +contrast between this splendid structure, on which the costliest +material is lavished and wrought in the most advanced style of +Oriental art, and the soil on which it rises, in the wilderness +amongst the native Hebrew nomad tribes, who are represented as +having got it ready offhand, and without external help. The +incompatibility has long been noticed, and gave rise to doubts as +early as the time of Voltaire. These may, however, be left to +themselves; suffice it that Hebrew tradition, even from the time +of the judges and the first kings, for which the Mosaic tabernacle +was strictly speaking intended, knows nothing at all about it. + +It appears a bold thing to say so when one sees how much many a +modern author who knows how to make a skilful use of the Book of +Chronicles has to tell about the tabernacle. For in 2 Chron. i.3 +seq. we are told that Solomon celebrated his accession to the +throne with a great sacrificial feast at Gibeon, because the +tabernacle and the brazen altar of Moses were there. In like +manner in 1Chron. xxi.29 it is said that David offered sacrifice +indeed on the threshing-floor of Araunah, but that Jehovah's +dwelling-place and the legitimate altar were at that time at +Gibeon; and further (xvi. 39), that Zadok, the legitimate high +priest, officiated there. From these data the Rabbins first, and +in recent times Keil and Movers especially, have constructed a +systematic history of the tabernacle down to the building of the +temple. Under David and Solomon, as long as the ark was on Mount +Zion, the tabernacle was at Gibeon, as is also shown by the fact +that (2Samuel xxi.6, 9) offerings were sacrificed to Jehovah there. +Before that it was at Nob, where ephod and shewbread (1Samuel xxi.) +are mentioned, and still earlier, from Joshua's time onward, it was +at Shiloh. But these were only its permanent sites, apart from +which it was temporarily set up now here, now there, saving by +its rapidity of movement--one might almost say ubiquity--the +unity of the cultus, notwithstanding the variety and great +distances of the places at which that cultus was celebrated. In +every case in which a manifestation of Jehovah and an offering to +Him are spoken of, the tabernacle must be tacitly understood. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Josh. xxiv. 24, 33 (LXX): after the death of Joshua and Eleazar, +LABONTES (OI )UIOI )ISRAHL THN KIBWTON TOU QEOU PERIFEROSAN +)EN )EAUTOIS. After J. Buxtorf and Sal. van Til (Ugol., Thes. viii.), +this theory has been, worked out specially by Movers. See, on the other +hand, De Wette, Beitraege, p. 108 seq., and Vatke, ut supra, p. 316, note. +-- Footnote + + +The dogmatic character of this way of making history, and the absurd +consequences to which it leads, need not in the meantime be insisted on; +what is of greatest importance is that the point from which it starts +is in the last degree insecure; for the statement of Chronicles that +Solomon offered the offering of his accession upon the altar of +the tabernacle at Gibeon is in contradiction with that of the older +parallel narrative of 1Kings iii.1-4. The latter not only is +silent about the Mosaic tabernacle, which is alleged to have stood +at Gibeon, but expressly says that Solomon offered upon a high +place (as such), and excuses him for this on the plea that at that +time no house to the name of Jehovah had as yet been built. That +the Chronicler draws from this narrative is certain on general +grounds, and is shown particularly by this, that he designates +the tabernacle at Gibeon by the name of Bamah--a contradictio in +adjecto which is only to be explained by the desire to give an +authentic interpretation of "the great Bamah at Gibeon" in 1Kings +iii. Here, as elsewhere, he brings the history into agreement +with the Law: the young and pious Solomon can have offered his +sacrifice only at the legal place which therefore must be that +high place at Gibeon. Along with 2 Chron. i.3 seq. also fall the +two other statements (1Chron. xvi.39, xxi.29 both of which are +dependent on that leading passage, as is clear revealed by the +recurring phrase "the Bamah of Gibeon." The tabernacle does not +elsewhere occur in Chronicles; it has not yet brought its +consequences with it, and not yet permeated the historical view of +the author. He would certainly have experienced some embarrassment +at the question whether it had previously stood at Nob, for he +lays stress upon the connection between the legitimate sanctuary +and the legitimate Zadok-Eleazar priestly family, which it is +indeed possible to assume for Shiloh, but not for Nob. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Of the priests at Nob, Abiathar alone escaped the massacre +(1Samuel. xxii.); Gad therefore was not one of them. +-- Footnote + + +The fact that Chronicles represents the Israelite history in accordance +with the Priestly Code has had the effect of causing its view +of the history to be involuntarily taken as fundamental, but ought much +rather to have caused it to be left altogether out of account where +the object to ascertain what was the real and genuine tradition. +The Books of Judges and Samuel make mention indeed of many sanctuaries, +but never among them of the tabernacle, the most important of all. +For the single passage where the name Ohel Moed occurs (1Samuel +ii.22 is badly attested, and from its contents open to suspicion. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. The passage does not occur in the LXX, and everywhere else in +1Samueli-iii the sanctuary of Shiloh is called hekal, that is to say, +certainly not a tent. +-- Footnote + + +Of the existence of the ark of Jehovah there certainly are distinct traces +towards the end of the period of the judges (compare 1Samuel iv.-vi.) +But is the ark a guarantee of the existence of the tabernacle? +On the contrary its whole history down to the period of its being deposited +in the temple of Solomon is a proof that it was regarded as quite +independent of any tent specially consecrated for its reception. +But this abolishes the notion of the Mosaic tabernacle; for +according to the law, the two things belong necessarily to each +other; the one cannot exist without the other; both are of +equally great importance. The tabernacle must everywhere +accompany the symbol of its presence; the darkness of the holy +of holies is at the same time the life-element of the ark; only +under compulsion of necessity, and even then not except under the +covering of the curtains, does it leave its lodging during a +march, only to return to it again as soon as the new halting-place +is reached. But according to 1Samuel iv. seq., on the other hand, +it is only the ark that goes to the campaign; it alone falls into +the hands of the Philistines. Even in chap. v., where the symbol +of Jehovah is placed in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod, not a word +is said of the tabernacle or of the altar which is necessarily +connected with it; and chap. vi. is equally silent, although +here the enemy plainly gives back the whole of his sacred spoil. +It is assumed that the housing of the ark was left behind at +Shiloh. Very likely; but that was not the Mosaic tabernacle, the +inseparable companion of the ark. In fact, the narrator speaks of +a permanent house at Shiloh with doors and doorposts; that +possibly may be an anachronism /1/ (yet why ?) ; + +-- Footnote +1. Compare similar passages in Josh. vi.19, 24, ix.27, where the very +anachronism shows that the idea of the tabernacle was unknown +to the narrator. That, moreover. a permanent house did actually exist +then at Shiloh follows from the circumstance that Jeremiah (vii. 12) +speaks of its ruins. For he could not regard any other than a +pre-Solomonic sanctuary as preceding that of Jerusalem; and +besides, there is not the faintest trace of a more important temple +having arisen at Shiloh within the period of the kings. +-- Footnote + + +but so much at least may be inferred from it that he had not any idea +of the tabernacle, which, however, would have had to go with the ark +to the field. If on this one occasion only an illegal exception +to the Law was made, why in that case was not the ark, at least after +its surrender, again restored to the lodging from which, strictly +speaking, it ought never to have been separated at all? Instead of +this it is brought to Bethshemesh, where it causes disaster, +because the people show curiosity about it. Thence it comes to +Kirjathjearim, where it stays for many years in the house of a +private person. From here David causes it to be brought to +Jerusalem,-- one naturally supposes, if one thinks in the lines of +the view given in the Pentateuch and in Chronicles, in order that +it may be at last restored to the tabernacle, to be simultaneously +brought to Jerusalem. But no thought of this, however obvious it +may seem, occurs to the king. In the first instance, his +intention is to have the ark beside himself in the citadel; but he +is terrified out of this, and, at a loss where else to put it, he +at last places it in the house of one of his principal people, +Obed-Edom of Gath. Had he known anything about the tabernacle, had +he had any suspicion that it was standing empty at Gibeon, in the +immediate neighbourhood, he would have been relieved of all +difficulty. But inasmuch as the ark brings blessing to the house +of Obed-Edom,--the ark, be it remembered, in the house of a soldier +and a Philistine, yet bringing down, not wrath, but blessing,--/1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The Chronicle has good reason for making him a Levite. But Gath +without any qualifying epithet, and particularly in connection with David, +is the Philistine Gath, and Obed-Edom belongs to the bodyquard, which +consisted chiefly of foreigners and Philistines. His name, +moreover, is hardly Israelite. +-- Footnote + + +the king is thereby encouraged to persevere after all with his original +proposal, and establish it upon his citadel. And this he does in a tent +he had caused to be made for it (2Samuel vi.17), which tent of David +in Zion continued to be its lodging until the temple was built. +Some mention of the tabernacle, had it existed, would have been +inevitable when the temple took its place. That it did not serve +as the model of the temple has already been said; but it might +have been expected at least that in the account of the building of +the new sanctuary some word might have escaped about the +whereabouts of the old. And this expectation seems to be realised +in 1Kings viii.4, which says that when the temple was finished +there were brought into it, besides the ark, the Ohel Moed and all +the sacred vessels that were therein. Interpreters hesitate as to +whether they ought to understand by the Ohel Moed the tent of the +ark upon Zion, to which alone reference has been made in the +preceding narrative (1Kings i.39, ii.28-30), or whether it is the +Mosaic tent, which, according to Chronicles, was standing at +Gibeon, but of which the Book of Kings tells nothing, and also +knows nothing (iii.2-4). It is probable that the author of viii.4 +mixed up both together; but we have to face the following +alternative. Either the statement belongs to the original context +of the narrative in which it occurs, and in that case the Ohel Moed +can only be the tent on Mount Zion, or the Ohel Moed of 1Kings +viii.4 is the Mosaic tabernacle which was removed from Gibeon into +Solomon's temple, and in that case the allegation has no +connection with its context, and does not hang together with the +premisses which that furnishes; in other words, it is the +interpolation of a later hand. The former alternative, though +possible, is improbable, for the name Ohel Moed occurs absolutely +nowhere in the Books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings (apart from the +interpolation in 1Samuel ii.22b), and particularly it is not used +to denote David's tent upon Mount Zion; and, moreover, that tent +had received too little of the consecration of antiquity, and +according to 2Samuel vii. was too insignificant and provisional to +be thought worthy of preservation in the temple. But if the Ohel +Moed is here (what it everywhere else is) the tabernacle, as is +indicated also by the sacred vessels, then the verse is, as has +been said, an interpolation. The motive for such a thing is easily +understood; the same difficulty as that with which we set out +must have made it natural for any Jew who started from the ideas +of the Pentateuch to look for the tabernacle here, and, if he did +not find it, to introduce it. Yet even the interpolation does not +remove the difficulties. Where is the Mosaic altar of +burnt-offering? It was quite as important and holy as the +tabernacle itself; even in Chronicles it is invariably mentioned +expressly in connection with it, and did not deserve to be +permitted to go to ruin at Gibeon, which, from another point of +view, would also have been extremely dangerous to the unity of +the sacrificial worship. Further, if the sacred vessels were +transferred from the tabernacle to the temple, why then was it +that Solomon, according to 1Kings vii., cast a completely new +set? /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The brazen altar cast by Solomon (1Kings viii.64; +2Kings xvi.14, 15) is not now found in the inventory of the temple +furniture in 1Kings vii.; but originally it cannot have been +absent, for it is the most important article. It has therefore +been struck out in order to avoid collision with the brazen altar +of Moses. The deletion is the negative counterpart to the +interpolation of the tabernacle in 1Kings viii.4. +-- Footnote + + +The old ones were costly enough, in part even costlier than the new, and, +moreover, had been consecrated by long use. It is clear that +in Solomon's time neither tabernacle, nor holy vessels, nor brazen altar +of Moses had any existence. + +But if there was no tabernacle in the time of the last judges and +first kings, as little was it in existence during the whole of the +previous period. This is seen from 2Samuel vii., a section with +whose historicity we have here nothing to do, but which at all +events reflects the view of a pre-exilian author. It is there told +that David, after he had obtained rest from all his enemies, +contemplated building a worthy home for the ark, and expressed his +determination to the prophet Nathan in the words, "I dwell in a +house of cedar, and the ark of God within curtains." According to +vi.17, he can only mean the tent which he had set up, that is to +say, not the Mosaic tabernacle, which, moreover, according to the +description of Exodus xxv. seq., could not appropriately be +contrasted with a timber erection, still less be regarded as a +mean structure or unworthy of the Deity, for in point of +magnificence it at least competed with the temple of Solomon. +Nathan at first approves of the king's intention, but afterwards +discountenances it, saying that at present God does not wish to +have anything different from that which He has hitherto had. "I +have dwelt in no house since the day that I brought the children +of Israel out of Egypt, but have wandered about under tent and +covering." Nathan also, of course, has not in his eye the Mosaic +tabernacle as the present lodging of the ark, but David's tent upon +Zion. Now he does not say that the ark has formerly been always +in the tabernacle, and that its present harbourage is therefore in +the highest degree unlawful, but, on the contrary, that the present +state of matters is the right one,--that until now the ark has +invariably been housed under an equally simple and unpretentious +roof. As David's tent does not date back to the Exodus, Nathan is +necessarily speaking of changing tents and dwellings; the reading +of the parallel passage in 1Chron. xvii.5, therefore, correctly +interprets the sense. There could be no more fundamental +contradiction to the representation contained in the Pentateuch +than that embodied in these words: the ark has not as its +correlate a single definite sacred tent of state, but is quite +indifferent to the shelter it enjoys--has frequently changed its +abode, but never had any particularly fine one. Such has been +the state of matters since the time of Moses. + +Such is the position of affairs as regards the tabernacle; if it +is determined that the age of the Priestly Code is to hang by +these threads, I have no objection. The representation of the +tabernacle arose out of the temple of Solomon as its root, in +dependence on the sacred ark, for which there is early testimony, +and which in the time of David, and also before it, was sheltered +by a tent. From the temple it derives at once its inner character +and its central importance for the cultus as well as its external +form. + +I.III.2. A peculiar point of view is taken up by Theodor Noldeke. He +grants the premisses that the tabernacle is a fiction, of which the +object is to give pre-existence to the temple and to the unity of +worship, but he denies the conclusion that in that case the +Priestly Code presuppose; the unity of worship as already +existing in its day, and therefore is late, than Deuteronomy. +In his Untersuchungen zur Kritik des Alten Testaments (p. 127 seq.) +he says:-- + +"A strong tendency towards unity of worship MUST have arisen as +soon as Solomon's temple was built. Over against the splendid +sanctuary with its imageless worship at the centre of the kingdom +of Judah, the older holy places MUST ever have shrunk farther into +the background, and that not merely in the eyes of the people, +but quite specially also in those of the better classes and of +those whose spiritual advancement was greatest (compare Amos iv. +4,viii.14). If even Hezekiah carried out the unification in Judah +with tolerable thoroughness, the effort after it MUST surely have +been of very early date; for the determination violently to +suppress old sacred usages would not have been easily made, unless +this had been long previously demanded by theory. The priests at +Jerusalem MUST very specially at an early date have arrived at +the conception that their temple with the sacred ark and the great +altar was the one true place of worship, and an author has clothed +this very laudable effort on behalf of the purity of religion in +the form of a law, which certainly in its strictness was quite +impracticable (ILeviticus xvii.4 seq.), and which, therefore, was +modified later by the Deuteronomist with a view to practice." + +What MUST have happened is of less consequence to know than what +actually took place. Noldeke relies solely upon the statement of +2Kings xviii.4, 22, that Hezekiah abolished the high places and +altars of Jehovah, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, "Before this +altar shall ye worship in Jerusalem." With reference to that +statement doubts have already been raised above. How startling +was the effect produced at a later date by the similar ordinance +of Josiah! Is it likely then that the other, although the +earlier, should have passed off so quietly and have left so little +mark that the reinforcement of it, after an interval of seventy +or eighty years, is not in the least brought into connection with +it, but in every respect figures as a new first step upon a path +until then absolutely untrodden? Note too how casual is the +allusion to a matter which is elsewhere the chief and most favoured +theme of the Book of Kings! And there is besides all this the +serious difficulty, also already referred to above, that the man +from whom Hezekiah must, from the nature of the case, have received +the impulse to his reformatory movement, the prophet Isaiah, in +one of his latest discourses expressly insists on a cleansing +merely of the local sanctuaries from molten and graven images, +that is to say, does not desire their complete removal. So much at +least is certain that, if the alleged fact at present under +discussion amounts to anything at all /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Little importance is to be attached to 2Kings xviii.22. +The narrative of the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem is not a contemporary +one, as appears generally from the entirely indefinite character of +the statements about the sudden withdrawal of the Assyrians and its causes, +and particularly from xix.7, 36, 37. For in this passage the meaning +certainly is that Sennacherib was assassinated soon after the unsuccessful +expedition of 701, but in point of fact he actually reigned until +684 or 681 (Smith, Assyrian Eponym Canon, pp. 90, 170). Thus the +narrator writes not twenty years merely after the event, but so +long after it as to make possible the elision of those twenty +years: probably he is already under the influence of +Deuteronomy. 2Kings xviii.4 is certainly of greater weight than +2Kings xviii.22. But although highly authentic statements have +been preserved to us in the epitome of the Book of Kings, they +have all, nevertheless, been subjected not merely to the +selection, but also to the revision of the Deuteronomic redactor, +and it may very well be that the author thought himself +justified in giving his subject a generalised treatment, according +to which the cleansing (of the temple at Jerusalem in the first +instance) from idols, urged by Isaiah and carried out by +Hezekiah, was changed into an abolition of the Bamoth with their +Macceboth and Asherim. It is well known how indifferent later +writers are to distinctions of time and degree in the heresy of +unlawful worship; they always go at once to the completed +product. But in actual experience the reformation was doubtless +accomplished step by step. At first we have in Hosea and Isaiah +the polemic directed against molten and graven images, then in +Jeremiah that against wood and stone, i.e., against Macceboth and +Asherim; the movement originated with the prophets, and the chief, +or rather the only, weight is to be attached to their authentic +testimony. +-- Footnote + + +Hezekiah only made a feeble and wholly ineffectual attempt in this +direction, and by no means "carried out the unification in Judah with +tolerable thoroughness." At the same time, one might concede even +this last point, and yet not give any ground for the theory at +which Noldeke wishes to arrive. + +For his assumption is that the effort after unity had its old and +original seat precisely in the priestly circles of Jerusalem. If +the Priestly Code is older than Deuteronomy, then of course the +prophetic agitation for reform of worship in which Deuteronomy had +its origin must have been only the repetition of an older +priestly movement in the same direction. But of the latter we +hear not a single word, while we can follow the course of the +former fairly well from its beginnings in thought down to its +issue in a practical result. It was Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah who +introduced the movement against the old popular worship of the high +places; in doing so they are not in the least actuated by a +deep-rooted preference for the temple of Jerusalem, but by ethical +motives, which manifest themselves in them for the first time in +history, and which we can see springing up in them before our very +eyes: their utterances, though historically occasioned by the +sanctuaries of northern Israel, are quite general, and are directed +against the cultus as a whole. Of the influence of a point of view +even remotely akin to the priestly position that worship in this +or that special place is of more value than anywhere else, and on +that account alone deserves to be preserved, no trace is to be +found in them; their polemic is a purely prophetic one, i.e., +individual, "theopneust" in the sense that it is independent of all +traditional and preconceived human opinions. But the subsequent +development is dependent upon this absolutely original +commencement, and has its issue, not in the Priestly Code, but in +Deuteronomy, a book that, with all reasonable regard for the +priests (though not more for those of Jerusalem than for the +others), still does not belie its prophetic origin, and above all +things is absolutely free from all and every hierocratic +tendency. And finally, it was Deuteronomy that brought about the +historical result of Josiah's reformation. Thus the whole +historical movement now under our consideration, so far as it was +effective and thereby has come to our knowledge, is in its origin +and essence prophetic, even if latterly it may have been aided by +priestly influences; and it not merely can, but must be +understood from itself. Any older or independent contemporary +priestly movement in the same direction remained at least entirely +without result, and so also has left no witnesses to itself. +Perhaps it occurs to us that the priests of Jerusalem must after +all have been the first to catch sight of the goal, the attainment +of which afterwards brought so great advantage to themselves, but +it does not appear that they were so clever beforehand as we are +after the event. At least there are no other grounds for the +hypothesis of a long previously latent tendency towards +centralisation on the part of the Jerusalem priesthood beyond the +presumption that the Priestiy Code must chronologically precede, +not Deuteronomy merely, but also the prophets. For the sake of +this presumption there is constructed a purely abstract (and as +such perfectly irrefragable) possibility that furnishes a door of +escape from the historical probability, which nevertheless it is +impossible to evade. + +How absolutely unknown the Priestly Code continued to be even +down to the middle of the exile can be seen from the Books of +Kings, which cannot have received their present shape earlier than +the death of Nebuchadnezzar. The redactor, who cites the +Deuteronomic law and constantly forms his judgment in accordance +with it, considered (as we have learned from 1Kings iii.2) that +the Bamoth were permissible prior to the building of Solomon's +temple; the tabernacle therefore did not exist for him. Jeremiah, +who flourished about a generation earlier, is equally ignorant of +it, but--on account of the ark, though not necessarily in +agreement with traditional opinion--regards the house of God at +Shiloh (whose ruins, it would seem, were at that time still +visible) as the forerunner of the temple of Jerusalem, and in this +he is followed by the anonymous prophecy of 1Samuel ii.27-36, the +comparatively recent date of which appears from the language +(ii.33), and from the circumstance that it anticipates the +following threatening in iii. In all these writers, and still more +in the case of the Deuteronomist himself, who in xii. actually +makes the unity of the cultus dependent on the previous choice of +Jerusalem, it is an exceedingly remarkable thing that, if the +Priestly Code had been then already a long time in existence, +they should have been ignorant of a book so important and so +profound in its practical bearings. In ancient Hebrew literature +such an oversight could not be made so easily as, in similar +circumstances, with the literature of the present day. And how +comes it to pass that in the Book of Chronicles, dating from the +third century, the Priestly Code suddenly ceases to be, to all +outward seeming, dead, but asserts its influence everywhere over +the narrative in only too active and unmistakable a way? To +these difficulties Noldeke is unreasonably indifferent. He seems +to be of the opinion that the post-exilian time would not have +ventured to take in hand so thoroughgoing an alteration, or rather +reconstruction, of tradition as is implied in antedating the temple +of Solomon by means of the tabernacle. /1/ + +-- Footnote-- Footnote +1. Jahrb. fuer prot. Theol., i. p. 352: "And now let me ask whether +a document of this kind presenting, as it does, a picture of the +history, land distribution, and sacrificial rites of Israel, as a whole, +which in so many particulars departs from the actual truth, can belong +to a time in which Israel clung to what was traditional with such timid +anxiety?" +-- Footnote + + +But it is, on the contrary, precisely the mark which distinguished +the post-exile writers that they treat in the freest possible manner, +in accordance with their own ideas, the institutions of the bygone +past, with which their time was no longer connected by any living +bond. For what reason does Chronicles stand in the canon at all, +if not in order to teach us this? + +But when Noldeke excuses the ignorance with regard to the +tabernacle on the plea that it is a mere creature of the brain, /2/ + +-- Footnote +1. Unters., p. 130: "It must always be remembered that the author +in his statements, as in his laws, does not depict actual relations, +but in the first instance his own theories and ideals. Hence the +glorification of the tabernacle," &c. &c. +-- Footnote + + +He for the moment forgets that there underlies this creation the very +real idea of unity of worship, for the sake of which it would +surely have been very welcome, to the Deuteronomist, for example, +even as a mere idea. It is only the embodiment of the tabernacle +that is fancy; the idea of it springs from the ground of history, +and it is by its idea that it is to be apprehended. And when +Noldeke finally urges in this connection as a plea for the +priority of the Priestly Code that, in spite of the limitation of +sacrifice to a single locality, it nevertheless maintains the old +provision that every act of killing must be a sacrifice, while +Deuteronomy, going a step farther, departs from this, here also his +argument breaks down. + +For we read in Leviticus xvii., "What man soever there be of the house +of Israel that killeth an ox or sheep or goat in the camp, or out +of the camp, and bringeth it not to the door of the tabernacle, to +offer them as an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of +the Lord, blood shall be imputed unto that man: he hath shed +blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people: to the +end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which +they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them to +the Lord, to the door of the tabernacle, to the priest, and offer +them for peace-offerings unto the Lord....And they shall no more +offer sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a +whoring." + +The intention of this prescription is simply and solely +to secure the exclusive legitimation of the one lawful place of +sacrifice; it is only for this, obviously, that the profane +slaughtering outside of Jerusalem, which Deuteronomy had +permitted, is forbidden. Plainly the common man did not quite +understand the newly drawn and previously quite unknown +distinction between the religious and the profane act, and when he +slaughtered at home (as he was entitled to do), he in doing so +still observed, half-unconsciously perhaps, the old sacred +sacrificial ritual. From this arose the danger of a multiplicity +of altars again furtively creeping in, and such a danger is met, +in an utterly impracticable way indeed, in Leviticus xvii. And it is +worth noticing how much this law, which, for the rest, is based +upon the Book of Deuteronomy, has grown in the narrowness of its +legitimistic mode of viewing things. Deuteronomy thoroughly +recognises that offerings, even though offered outside of +Jerusalem, are still offered to Jehovah; for the author of Leviticus +xvii. this is an impossible Idea, and he regards such offerings +simply as made to devils. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. With reference to these rural demons, compare my note in +Vakidi's Maghazi (Berlin, 1882), p. 113. It is somewhat similar, +though not quite the same thing, when the Moslems say that the old +Arabs dedicated their worship to the Jinns; and other instances +may be compared in which divinities have been degraded to demons. +-- Footnote + + +I refuse to believe that any such thing could have been possible +for one who lived before the Deuteronomic reformation, or even +under the old conditions that were in existence immediately +before the exile. + +Leviticus xvii., moreover, belongs confessedly to a peculiar little +collection of laws, which has indeed been taken up into the +Priestly Code, but which in many respects disagrees with it, and +particularly in respect of this prohibition of profane +slaughterings. With reference to the Priestly Code as a whole, +Noldeke's assertion is quite off the mark. The code, on the +contrary, already allows slaughter without sacrifice in the +precepts of Noah, which are valid not merely for all the world, +but also for the Jews. Farther on this permission is not +expressly repeated indeed, but it is regarded as a thing of +course. This alone can account for the fact that the +thank-offering is treated so entirely as a subordinate affair and +the sacrificial meal almost ignored, while in Leviticus vii.22-27 +rules are even given for procedure in the slaughter of such animals +as are not sacrificed. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. That Leviticus vii.22-27 is not a repetition of the old and fuller +regulations about the thank-offering, but an appendix containing +new ones relating to slaughtering, is clear from "the beast of +which men offer an offering unto the Lord" (ver. 25), and "in all +your dwellings" (ver. z6), as well as from the praxis of Judaism. +-- Footnote + + +Here accordingly is another instance of what we have already so often +observed: what is brought forward in Deuteronomy as an innovation +is assumed in the Priestly Code to be an ancient custom dating +as far back as to Noah. And therefore the latter code is a growth +of the soil that has been prepared by means of the former. + + +CHAPTER II. SACRIFICE. + +With the Hebrews, as with the whole ancient world, sacrifice +constituted the main part of worship. The question is whether +their worship did not also in this most important respect pass +through a history the stages of which are reflected in the +Pentateuch. From the results already reached this must be +regarded at the outset as probable, but the sources of information +accessible to us seem hardly sufficient to enable us actually to +follow the process, or even so much as definitely to fix its two +termini. + + +II.I.1. The Priestly Code alone occupies itself much with the +subject; it gives a minute classification of the various kinds of +offerings, and a description of the procedure to be followed in the +case of each. In this way it furnishes also the normative scheme +for modern accounts of the matter, into which all the other casual +notices of the Old Testament on the subject must be made to fit as +best they can. This point accordingly presents us with an +important feature by which the character of the book can be +determined. In it the sacrificial ritual is a constituent, and +indeed a very essential element, of the Mosaic legislation: that +ritual is not represented as ancient use handed down to the +Israelites by living practice from ancestral times: it was Moses +who gave them the theory of it--a very elaborate one too--and +he himself received his instruction from God (Exodus xxv. seq.; +Leviticus i. seq.). An altogether disproportionate emphasis is +accordingly laid upon the technique of sacrifice corresponding to +the theory, alike upon the when, the where, and the by whom, and +also in a very special manner upon the how. It is from these that +the sacrifice obtains its specific value; one could almost suppose +that even if it were offered to another God, it would by means of +the legitimate rite alone be at once made essentially Jehovistic. +The cultus of Israel is essentially distinguished from all others +by its form, the distinctive and constitutive mark of the holy +community. With it the theocracy begins and it with the +theocracy; the latter is nothing more than the institution for the +purpose of carrying on the cultus after the manner ordained by +God. For this reason also the ritual, which appears to concern the +priests only, finds its place in a law-book intended for the whole +community; in order to participate in the life of the theocracy, +all must of course, have clear knowledge of its essential nature, +and in this the theory of sacrifice holds a first place. + +The Jehovistic portion of the Pentateuch also knows of no other +kind of divine worship besides the sacrificial, and does not attach +to it less importance than the Priestly Code. But we do not find +many traces of the view that the sacrificial system of Israel is +distinguished from all others by a special form revealed to Moses, +which makes it the [sic] alone legitimate. Sacrifice is +sacrifice: when offered to Baal, it is heathenish; when offered +to Jehovah, it is Israelite. In the Book of the Covenant and in +both Decalogues it is enjoined before everything to serve no other +God besides Jehovah, but also at the proper season to offer +firstlings and gifts to Him. Negative determinations, for the most +part directed against one heathenish peculiarity or another, occur +but there are no positive ordinances relating to the ritual. How +one is to set about offering sacrifice is taken for granted as +already known, and nowhere figures as an affair for the +legislation, which, on the contrary, occupies itself with quite +other things. What the Book of the Covenant and the Decalogue +leave still perhaps doubtful becomes abundantly clear from the +Jehovistic narrative. The narrative has much more to say about +sacrifice than the incorporated law books, and this may be +regarded as characteristic; in the Priestly Code it is quite the +other way. But what is specially important is that, according to +the Jehovistic history, the praxis of sacrifice, and that too of +the regular and God-pleasing sort, extends far beyond the Mosaic +legislation, and, strictly speaking, is as old as the world +itself. A sacrificial feast which the Hebrews wish to celebrate in +the wilderness is the occasion of the Exodus; Moses already +builds an altar at Rephidim (Exodus xvii.), and, still before the +ratification of the covenant on Sinai, a solemn meal in the +presence of Jehovah is set on foot on occasion of Jethro's visit +(Exodus xviii.). But the custom is much older still; it was +known and practiced by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Noah, the +father of all mankind, built the first altar after the Flood, and +long before him Cain and Abel sacrificed in the same way as was +usual in Palestine thousands of years afterwards. Balaam the +Aramaean understands just as well as any Israelite how to offer +sacrifices to Jehovah that do not fail of their effect. All this +brings out, with as much clearness as could be desired, that +sacrifice is a very ancient and quite universal mode of honouring +the Deity, and that Israelite sacrifice is distinguished not by +the manner in which, but by the being to whom, it is offered, in +being offered to the God of Israel. According to this +representation of the matter, Moses left the procedure in +sacrifice, as he left the procedure in prayer, to be regulated by +the traditional praxis; if there was any definite origination of +the cultus of Israel, the patriarchs must be thought of, but even +they were not the discoverers of the ritual; they were merely +the founders of those holy places at which the Israelites +dedicated gifts to Jehovah, a usage which was common to the whole +world. The contrast with the Priestly Code is extremely +striking, for it is well known that the latter work makes mention +of no sacrificial act prior to the time of Moses, neither in +Genesis nor in Exodus, although from the time of Noah slaughtering +is permitted. The offering of a sacrifice of sheep and oxen as the +occasion of the exodus is omitted, and in place of the sacrifice of +the firstlings we have the paschal lamb, which is slaughtered and +eaten without altar, without priest, and not in the presence of +Jehovah. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. With regard to sacrifice, Deuteronomy still occupies the same +standpoint as JE. +-- Footnote + + +The belief that the cultus goes back to pre-Mosaic usage is +unquestionably more natural than the belief that it is the main +element of the Sinaitic legislation; the thought would be a +strange one that God should suddenly have revealed, or Moses +discovered and introduced, the proper sacrificial ritual. At the +same time this does not necessitate the conclusion that the +Priestly Code is later than the Jehovist. Nor does this follow +from the very elaborately-developed technique of the agenda, for +elaborate ritual may have existed in the great sanctuaries at a +very early period,--though that, indeed, would not prove it to be +genuinely Mosaic. On the other hand, it is certainly a +consideration deserving of great weight that the representation of +the exclusive legitimacy of so definite a sacrificial ritual, +treated in the Priestly Code as the only possible one in Israel, +is one which can have arisen only as a consequence of the +centralisation of the cultus at Jerusalem. Yet by urging this the +decision of the question at present before us would only be +referred back to the result already arrived at in the preceding +chapter, and it is much to be desired that it should be solved +independently, so as not to throw too much weight upon a single +support. + +II.I.2. In this case also the elements of a decision can only be +obtained from the historical documents dating from the pre-exilic +time,--the Books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings on the one hand, and +the writings of the prophets on the other. As regards those of the +first class, they represent the cultus and sacrifice on all +occasions as occupying a large place in the life of the nation and +of the individual. But, although it would be wrong to say that +absolutely no weight is attached to the RITE, it is certainly not +the fact that the main stress is laid upon it; the antithesis is +not between RITE and NON-RITE, but between sacrifice TO JEHOVAH and +sacrifice TO STRANGE GODS, the reverse of what we find in the +Priestly Code. Alongside of splendid sacrifices, such as those of +the kings, presumably offered in accordance with all the rules of +priestly skill, there occur others also of the simplest and most +primitive type, as, for example, those of Saul (1Samuel xiv.35) and +Elisha (1Kings xix.2I); both kinds are proper if only they be +dedicated to the proper deity. Apart from the exilian redaction of +the Book of Kings, which reckons the cultus outside of Jerusalem as +heretical, it is nowhere represented that a sacrifice could be +dedicated to the God of Israel, and yet be illegitimate. Naaman +(2Kings v. 17), it is to be supposed, followed his native Syrian +ritual, but this does not in the least impair the acceptability of +his offering. For reasons easily explained, it is seldom that an +occasion arises to describe the ritual, but when such a description +is given it is only with violence that it can be forced into +accordance with the formula of the law. Most striking of all is +the procedure of Gideon in Judges vi.19-21, in which it is manifest +that the procedure still usual at Ophrah in the time of the +narrator is also set forth. Gideon boils a he-goat and bakes in +the ashes cakes of unleavened bread, places upon the bread the +flesh in a basket and the broth in a pot, and then the meal thus +prepared is burnt in the altar flame. It is possible that +instances may have also occurred in which the rule of the +Pentateuch is followed, but the important point is that the +distinction between legitimate and heretical is altogether wanting. +When the Book of Chronicles is compared the difference is at once +perceived. + +The impression derived from the historical books is confirmed by +the prophets. It is true that in their polemic against confounding +worship with religion they reveal the fact that in their day the +cultus was carried on with the utmost zeal and splendour, and was +held in the highest estimation. But this estimation does not rest +upon the opinion that the cultus, as regards its matter, goes back +to Moses or to Jehovah Himself, gives to the theocracy its +distinctive character, and even constitutes the supernatural +priesthood of Israel among the nations, but simply upon the belief +that Jehovah must be honoured by His dependents, just as other +gods are by their subjects, by means of offerings and gifts as +being the natural and (like prayer) universally current +expressions of religious homage. The larger the quantity, and the +finer the quality, so much the better; but that the merit arising +from the presentation depends upon strict observance of etiquette +regarded as Jehovah's law is not suggested. Thus it is that the +prophets are able to ask whether then Jehovah has commanded His +people to tax their energies with such exertions? the fact +presupposed being that no such command exists, and that no one +knows anything at all about a ritual Torah. Amos, the leader of +the chorus, says (iv.4 seq.), + +"Come to Bethel to sin, to Gilgal to sin yet more, and bring your +sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days, for so ye +like, ye children of Israel." + +In passing sentence of rejection upon the value of the cultus he +is in opposition to the faith of his time; but if the opinion had +been a current one that precisely the cultus was what Jehovah had +instituted in Israel, he would not have been able to say, "For so +ye like." "Ye," not Jehovah; it is an idle and arbitrary worship. +He expresses himself still more clearly in v.21 seq. + +"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I smell not on your holy days; +though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your gifts, I will not accept +them; neither do I regard your thank-offerings of fatted calves. +Away from me with the noise of thy songs, the melody of thy viols +I will not hear; but let judgment roll on like waters, and +righteousness like a mighty stream. Did ye offer unto me +sacrifices and gifts in the wilderness the forty years, O house +of Israel?" + +In asking this last question Amos has not the slightest fear +of raising any controversy; on the contrary, he is following +the generally received belief. His polemic is directed against +the praxis of his contemporaries, but here he rests it upon a +theoretical foundation in which they are at one with him,--on +this, namely, that the sacrificial worship is not of Mosaic origin. +Lastly, if ii.4 be genuine, it teaches the same lesson. By the +Law of Jehovah which the people of Judah have despised it is +impossible that Amos can have understood anything in the remotest +degree resembling a ritual legislation. Are we to take it then +that he formed his own special private notion of the Torah? How in +that case would it have been possible for him to make himself +understood by the people, or to exercise influence over them? Of +all unlikely suppositions, at all events it is the least likely +that the herdsman of Tekoah, under the influence of prophetic +tradition (which in fact he so earnestly disclaims), should have +taken the Torah for something quite different from what it actually +was. + +Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah are in agreement with Amos. The first +mentioned complains bitterly (iv.6 seq.) that the priests +cultivate the system of sacrifices instead of the Torah. The +Torah, committed by Jehovah to their order, lays it on them as +their vocation to diffuse the knowledge of God in Israel,--the +knowledge that He seeks truthfulness and love, justice and +considerateness, and no gifts; but they, on the contrary, in a +spirit of base self-seeking, foster the tendency of the nation +towards cultus, in their superstitions over-estimate of which lies +their sin and their ruin. + +"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; ye yourselves +(ye priests!) reject knowledge, and I too will reject you +that ye shall not be priests unto me; seeing ye have forgotten +the law of your God, so will I also forget you. The more they are, +the more they sin against me; their glory they barter for shame. +They eat the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their +iniquity." + +From this we see how idle it is to believe that the prophets +opposed "the Law;" they defend the priestly Torah, which, however, +has nothing to do with cultus, but only with justice and morality. +In another passage (viii.11 seq.) we read, + +"Ephraim has built for himself many altars, to sin; the altars +are there for him, to sin. How many soever my instructions +(torothai) may be, they are counted those of a stranger." +This text has had the unmerited misfortune of having been forced +to do service as a proof that Hosea knew of copious writings +similar in contents to our Pentateuch. All that can be drawn +from the contrast "instead of following my instructions they offer +sacrifice" (for that is the meaning of the passage) is that the prophet +had never once dreamed of the possibility of cultus being made +the subject of Jehovah's directions. In Isaiah's discourses +the well-known passage of the first chapter belongs to this connection: +"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? +saith the Lord. I am weary with the burnt-offerings of rams +and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks +and of lambs and of he-goats. When ye come to look upon my face, +who hath required this at your hands?--to trample my courts!" +This expression has long been a source of trouble, and certainly +the prophet could not possibly have uttered it if the sacrificial +worship had, according to any tradition whatever, passed for being +specifically Mosaic. Isaiah uses the word Torah to denote not +the priestly but the prophetical instruction (i.10, ii.3, v.24, +viii.16, 20, xxx.9); as both have a common source and Jehovah is +the proper instructor (xxx.20), this is easily explicable, and is +moreover full of instruction as regards the idea involved; +the contents of the Priestly Code fit badly in with the Torah of i.10. +Lastly, Micah's answer to the people's question, how a return of +the favour of an angry God is to be secured, is of conspicuous +significance (vi.6 seq.): + +"Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old? +Is the Lord pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of +rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, +the fruit of my body as atonement for my soul?--It hath been +told thee, O man, what is good, and what Jehovah requireth of thee. +Nay, it is to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly +before thy God." + +Although the blunt statement of the contrast between cultus +and religion is peculiarly prophetic, Micah can still take +his stand upon this, "It hath been told thee, O man, what Jehovah +requires." It is no new matter, but a thing well known, +that sacrifices are not what the Torah of the Lord contains. + +That we have not inferred too much from these utterances of the +older prophets is clear from the way in which they are taken up +and carried on by Jeremiah, who lived shortly before the +Babylonian exile. Just as in vi.19 seq. he opposes the Torah to +the cultus, so in vii.11 seq. he thus expresses himself: +"Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh! +For I said nought unto your fathers, and commanded them nought, +in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning +burnt-offerings or sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them: +hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my +people, and walk ye in the way that I shall always teach you, that +it may be well with you." + +The view indeed, that the prophets (who, from the connection, +are the ever-living voice to which Israel is to hearken) are +the proper soul of the theocracy, the organ by which Jehovah +influences and rules it, has no claim to immemorial antiquity. +But no stress lies upon the positive element here; +enough that at all events Jeremiah is unacquainted with the Mosaic +legislation as it is contained in the Priestly Code. His ignoring +of it is not intentional, for he is far from hating the cultus +(xvii.26). But, as priest and prophet, staying continually in +the temple at Jerusalem, he must have known it, if it had existed +and actually been codified. The fact is one which it is difficult +to get over. + +Thus the historical witnesses, particularly the prophets, decide +the matter in favour of the Jehovistic tradition. According to the +universal opinion of the pre-exilic period, the cultus is indeed of +very old and (to the people) very sacred usage, but not a Mosaic +institution; the ritual is not the main thing in it, and is in no +sense the subject with which the Torah deals. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. That the priests were not mere teachers of law and morals, +but also gave ritual instruction (e.g, regarding cleanness +and uncleanness), is of course not denied by this. All that is +asserted is that in pre-exilian antiquity the priests' own praxis +(at the altar) never constituted the contents of the Torah, +but that their Torah always consisted of instructions to the laity. +The distinction is easily intelligible to those who choose +to understand it. +-- Footnote + + +In other words, no trace can be found of acquaintance +with the Priestly Code, but, on the other hand, very clear +indications of ignorance of its contents. + +II.I.3. In this matter the transition from the pre-exilic to the +post-exilic period is effected, not by Deuteronomy, but by +Ezekiel the priest in prophet's mantle, who was one of the first to +be carried into exile. He stands in striking contrast with his +elder contemporary Jeremiah. In the picture of Israel's future +which he drew in B.C. 573 (chaps. xl.-xlviii.), in which +fantastic hopes are indeed built upon Jehovah, but no impossible +demand made of man, the temple and cultus hold a central place. +Whence this sudden change? Perhaps because now the Priestly Code +has suddenly awakened to life after its long trance, and become +the inspiration of Ezekiel? The explanation is certainly not to +be sought in any such occurrence, but simply in the historical +circumstances. So long as the sacrificial worship remained in +actual use, it was zealously carried on, but people did not +concern themselves with it theoretically, and had not the least +occasion for reducing it to a code. But once the temple was in +ruins, the cultus at an end, its PERSONNEL out of employment, it is +easy to understand how the sacred praxis should have become a +matter of theory and writing, so that it might not altogether +perish, and how an exiled priest should have begun to paint the +picture of it as he carried it in his memory, and to publish it as +a programme for the future restoration of the theocracy. Nor is +there any difficulty if arrangements, which as long as they +were actually in force were simply regarded as natural, were seen +after their abolition in a transfiguring light, and from the study +devoted to them gained artificially a still higher value. These +historical conditions supplied by the exile sufffice to make clear +the transition from Jeremiah to Ezekiel, and the genesis of Ezekiel +xl.-xlviii. The co-operation of the Priestly Code is here not +merely unnecessary, it would be absolutely disconcerting. +Ezekiel's departure from the ritual of the Pentateuch cannot be +explained as intentional alterations of the original; they are +too casual and insignificant. The prophet, moreover, has the +rights of authorship as regards the end of his book as well as for +the rest of it; he has also his right to his picture of the future +as the earlier prophets had to theirs. And finally, let its due +weight be given to the simple fact that an exiled priest saw +occasion to draft such a sketch of the temple worship. What need +would there have been for it, if the realised picture, +corresponding completely to his views, had actually existed, and, +being already written in a book, wholly obviated any danger lest +the cultus should become extinct through the mere fact of its +temporary cessation? + +Here again a way of escape is open by assuming a lifeless +existence of the law down to Ezra's time. But if this is done it +is unallowable to date that existence, not from Moses, but from +some other intermediate point in the history of Israel. Moreover, +the assumption of a codification either as preceding all praxis, +or as alongside and independent of it, is precisely in the case of +sacrificial ritual one of enormous difficulty, for it is obvious +that such a codification can only be the final result of an old +and highly developed use, and not the invention of an idle brain. +This consideration also makes retreat into the theory of an +illegal praxis impossible, and renders the legitimacy of the +actually subsisting indisputable. + + +II.II. + +At all times, then, the sacrificial worship of Israel existed, and +had great importance attached to it, but in the earlier period it +rested upon custom, inherited from the fathers, in the post-exilian +on the law of Jehovah, given through Moses. At first it was naive, +and what was chiefly considered was the quantity and quality of +the gifts; afterwards it became legal,--the scrupulous fulfilment +of the law, that is, of the prescribed ritual, was what was looked +to before everything. Was there then, apart from this, strictly +speaking, no material difference? To answer this question our +researches must be carried further afield, after some preliminary +observations have been made in order to fix our position. + +II.II.1. In the Pentateuch the sacrificial ritual is indeed copiously +described, but nowhere in the Old Testament is its significance +formally explained; this is treated as on the whole self-evident +and familiar to every one. The general notion of a sacrifice is +in the Priestly Code that of _qorban_, in the rest of the Old +Testament that of _minha_, /1/ ie., "gift;" + +-- Footnote +1. Genesis iv. 3-5, Numbers xvi. 15; 1Samuel ii. 17, 29, xxvi. 19; +Isaiah i. 13; Malachi i. 10-13, ii. 12, 13, iii. 3, 4. +In the Priestly Code _minha_ is exclusively a terminus technicus +for the meal-offering. The general name in the LXX and in the +New Testament is DWRON (Matthew v. 23-24, viii. 4, xv. 5, +xxiii. 18, 19). Compare Spencer, "De ratione et origine +sacrificiorum" (De Legibus Hebraeorum ritualibus, iii.2), by far +the best thing that has ever been written on the subject. +-- Footnote + + +the corresponding verbs are _haqrib_ and _haggish_, i.e., "to bring +near." Both nouns and both verbs are used originally for the offering +of a present to the king (or the nobles) to do him homage, to make him +gracious, to support a petition (Judges iii. 17 seq.; 1Samuel x. 27; +1Kings v. 1 [A.V. iv.21]), and from this are employed with reference +to the highest King (Malachi i.8). + +DWRA QEOUS PEIQAI, DWR' )AIDOIOUS BASILHAS + +The gift must not be unseasonably or awkwardly thrust upon the +recipient, not when the king's anger is at white heat, and not by +one the sight of whom he hates. + +With respect to the matter of it, the idea of a sacrifice is in +itself indifferent, if the thing offered only have value of some +sort, and is the property of the offerer. Under _qorban_ and _minha_ +is included also that which the Greeks called _anathema_. The sacred +dues which at a later date fall to the priest were without doubt +originally ordinary offerings, and amongst these are found even +wool and flax (Deut. xviii. 4; Hos. ii. 7, 11 [A.V. 5, 9] ). +But it is quite in harmony with the naivete of antiquity that as +to man so also to God that which is eatable is by preference +offered; in this there was the additional advantage, that what God +had caused to grow was thus rendered back to Him. In doing this, +the regular form observed is that a meal is prepared in honour of +the Deity, of which man partakes as God's guest. Offering without +any qualifying expression always means a meat or drink offering. +On this account the altar is called a table, on this account also +salt goes along with flesh, oil with meal and bread, and wine with +both; and thus also are we to explain why the flesh, according to +rule, is put upon the altar in pieces and (in the earlier period) +boiled, the corn ground or baked. Hence also the name "bread of +Jehovah" for the offering (Leviticus xxi.22). It is of course true +that "in his offering the enlightened Hebrew saw no banquet to +Jehovah:" but we hardly think of taking the enlightened Protestant +as a standard for the original character of Protestantism. + +The manner in which the portions pertaining to God are conveyed to +Him varies. The most primitive is the simple "setting in order" +[ (RK, struere] and "pouring out" [#pk, fundere) in the case of the +shewbread and drink offerings; to this a simple eating and +drinking would correspond. But the most usual is burning, or, as +the Hebrews express it, "making a savour" (HQ+YR), to which +corresponds the more delicate form of enjoyment, that of smelling. +Originally, however, it is God Himself who consumes what the flame +consumes. In any case the burning is a means of conveying the +offering, not, as one might perhaps be disposed to infer from the +"sweet savour" (RYX HNYXX Genesis viii.21), a means of preparing it. +For in ancient times the Hebrews did not roast the flesh, but +boiled it; in what is demonstrably the oldest ritual (Judges +vi. 19), the sacrifice also is delivered to the altar flame boiled; +and, moreover, not the flesh only but also the bread and the meal +are burnt. + +As regards the distinction between bloodless and bloody +offerings, the latter, it is well known, are preferred in the Old +Testament, but, strictly speaking, the former also have the same +value and the same efficacy. The incense-offering is represented +as a means of propitiation (Leviticus xvi., Numbers xvii. 12 +[A.V. xvi. 47] ), so also are the ten thousands of rivers of oil +figuring between the thousands of rams and the human sacrifice in +Micah vi. That the cereal offering is never anything but an +accompaniment of the animal sacrifice is a rule which does not hold, +either in the case of the shewbread or in that of the high priest's +daily minxa (Leviticus vi. 13 [A.V. 20]; Nehemiahx.35). Only the +drink-offering has no independent position, and was not in any way +the importance it had among the Greeks. + +When a sacrifice is killed, the offering consists not of the blood +but of the eatable portions of the flesh. Only these can be +designated as the "bread of Jehovah," and, moreover, only the +eatable domestic animals can be presented. At the same time, +however, it is true that in the case of the bloody offerings a new +motive ultimately came to be associated with the original idea of +the gift. The life of which the blood was regarded as the +substance (2Samuel xxiii.17) had for the ancient Semites something +mysterious and divine about it; they felt a certain religious +scruple about destroying it. With them flesh was an uncommon +luxury, and they ate it with quite different feelings from those +with which they partook of fruits or of milk. Thus the act of +killing was not so indifferent or merely preparatory a step as +for example the cleansing and preparing of corn; on the contrary, +the pouring out of blood was ventured upon only in such a way as +to give it back to the Deity, the source of life. In this way, not +by any means every meal indeed, but every slaughtering, came to +be a sacrifice. What was primarily aimed at in it was a mere +restoration of His own to the Deity, but there readily resulted a +combination with the idea of sacrifice, whereby the latter was +itself modified in a peculiar manner. The atoning efficacy of the +gift began to be ascribed mainly to the blood and to the +vicarious value of the life taken away. The outpouring and +sprinkling of blood was in all sacrifices a rite of conspicuous +importance, and even the act of slaughtering in the case of some, +and these the most valued, a holy act. + +II.II.2. The features presented by the various literary sources +harmonise with the foregoing sketch. But the Priestly Code +exhibits some peculiarities by which it is distinguished from the +pre-exilian remains in matters sacrificial. + +In the first place, it is characterised in the case of bloodless +offerings by a certain refinement of the material. Thus in the +meal-offerings it will have SLT (simila) not QMX (far). In the +whole pre-exilian literature the former is mentioned only three +times altogether, but never in connection with sacrifice, where, +on the contrary, the ordinary meal is used (Judges vi. 19; 1Samuel +i. 24). That this is no mere accident appears on the one hand from +the fact that in the later literature, from Ezekiel onwards, QMX as +sacrificial meal entirely disappears, and SLT invariably take its +place; on the other hand, from this that the LXX (or the Hebrew +text from which that version was taken) is offended by the +illegality of the material in 1Samuel i. 24, and alters the reading +so as to bring it to conformity with the Law. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Ezekiel xvi. 13, 19, xlvi. 14; I Chronicles ix. 29, xxiii. 22; +Ecclus. xxxv.2, xxxviii. 11, xxxix. 32; Isaiah i. 13 (LXX); lxvi. 3 (LXX). +In the Priestly Code slt occurs more than forty times. +-- Footnote + + +So also a striking preference is shown for incense. With every +meal-offering incense is offered upon the altar; in the inner sanctuary +a special mixture of spices is employed, the accurately given recipe +for which is not to be followed for private purposes. The offering +of incense is the privilege of the higher priesthood; in the +ritual of the great Day of Atonement, the sole one in which Aaron +must discharge the duties in person, it occupies a conspicuous +place. It has an altogether dangerous sanctity; Aaron's own sons +died for not having made use of the proper fire. It is the cause +of death and destruction to the Levites of Korah's company who are +not entitled to use it, while immediately afterwards, in the hands +of the legitimate high priest, it becomes the means of appeasing +the anger of Jehovah, and of staying the plague. Now of this +offering, thus invested with such a halo of sanctity, the older +literature of the Jewish Canon, down to Jeremiah and Zephaniah, +knows absolutely nothing. The verb Q++R there used invariably +and exclusively of the BURNING of fat or meal, and thereby making +to God a sweet-smelling savour; it is never used to denote the +OFFERING OF INCENSE, and the substantive Q+RT as a sacrificial +term has the quite general signification of that which is burnt on +the altar. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. The verb is used in _piel_ by the older writers, in _hiphil_ +by the Priestly Code (Chronicles), and promiscuously in both forms +during the transition period by the author of the Books of Kings. +This is the case, at least, where the forms can with certainty be +distinguished, namely, in the perfect, imperative, and infinitive; +the distinction between YQ+R and YQ+YR, MQ+R and MQ+YR rests, +as is well known, upon no secure tradition. Compare, for example, +_qatter jaqtirun_, 1Samuel ii. 16; the transcribers and punctuators +under the influence of the Pentateuch preferred the hiphil. In the +Priestly Code (Chronicles) HQ+YR has both meanings alongside of +each other, but when used without a qualifying phrase it generally +means incensing, and when consuming a sacrifice is intended HMZBXH +is usually added, "on the altar," that is, the place on which the +incense-offering strictly so called was NOT offered. The substantive +Q+RT in the sense of "an offering of incense" in which +it occurs exclusively and very frequently in the Priestly +Code, is first found in Ezekiel (viii. 11, xvi. 18, xxiii. 41) and +often afterwards in Chronicles, but in the rest of the Old +Testament only in Proverbs xxvii. 9, but there in a profane sense. +Elsewhere never, not even in passages so late as 1Samuel ii.28; Psalms +lxvi. 15, cxli. 2. In authors of a certainly pre-exilian date the +word occurs only twice, both times in a perfectly general sense. +Isaiah i. 13: "Bring me no more oblations; it is an abominable +incense to me." Deuteronomy xxxiii. 10: "The Levites shall put incense +(i.e.,the fat of thank-offerings) before thee, and whole +burnt-offerings upon thine altar." The name LBNT (frankincense) +first occurs in Jeremiah (vi. 20, xvii. 26, xli. 5); elsewhere only +in the Priestly Code (nine times), in Isaiah xl.-lxvi. (three +times), in Chronicles and Nehemiah (three times), and in Canticles +(three times). Compare Zephaniah iii. 10; 1Kings ix. 25. +-- Footnote + + +In enumerations where the prophets exhaust everything pertaining to +sacred gifts and liturgic performances, in which, for the sake +of lengthening the catalogue, they do not shrink from repetitions even, +there is not any mention of incense-offerings, neither in Amos +(iv. 4 seq., v. 21 seq.) nor in Isaiah (i. 11 seq.) nor in Micah +(vi. 6 seq.). Shall we suppose that they all of them forget this +subject by mere accident, or that they conspired to ignore it? +If it had really existed, and been of so great consequence, surely +one of them at least would not have failed to speak of it. +The Jehovistic section of the Hexateuch is equally silent, so also +the historical books, except Chronicles, and so the rest of the prophets, +down to Jeremiah, who (vi.20) selects incense as the example of a rare +and far-fetched offering: "To what purpose cometh there to me incense +from Sheba, and the precious cane from a far country?" +Thenceforward it is mentioned in Ezekiel, in Isaiah (xl.-lxvi.), +in Nehemiah, and in Chronicles; the references are continuous. The +introduction of incense is a natural result of increased luxury; +one is tempted to conjecture that its use must have first crept +into the Jehovah worship as an innovation from a more +luxuriously-developed foreign cultus. But the importance which it +has attained in the ritual legislation of the Pentateuch is +manifest above all from this, that it has led to the invention of a +peculiar new and highly sacred piece of furniture, namely, the +golden altar in the inner tabernacle, which is unknown to history, +and which is foreign even to the kernel of the Priestly Code +itself. + +We expect to find the altar of incense in Exodus xxv.-xxix., but +find it instead as an appendix at the beginning of Exodus xxx. Why +not until now? why thus separated from the other furnishings of +the inner sanctuary? and not only so, but even after the +ordinances relating to the adornment of the priests, and the +inauguration of the divine service? The reason why the author of +chaps. xxv.-xxix. is thus silent about the altar of incense in +the passage in which the furniture of the tabernacle, consisting of +ark, table, and candlestick, is described, is, that he does not +know of it. There is no other possibility; for he cannot have +forgotten it. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. There is a peculiar perversity in meeting the objection by +alleging other singularities in the ordinance as for example, that +the vessels of the tabernacle are appointed (chap. xxv.) before +the tabernacle itself (chap. xxvi.). This last is no +eccentricity; the order in commanding is first the end, and then +the means; but in obeying, the order is reversed. In like manner, +it is not at all surprising if subsidiary implements, such as +benches for slaughtering. or basins for washing, which have no +importance for the cultus, properly so called, should be either +passed over altogether, or merely brought in as an appendix. The +case is not at all parallel with the omission of the most important +utensil of the sanctuary from the very passage to which it +necessarily belongs. +-- Footnote + + +And the phenomenon is repeated; the altar of incense occurs only +in certain portions of the Priestly Code, and is absent from +others where it could not possibly have been omitted, had it been +known. The rite of the most solemn atoning sacrifice takes place +in Leviticus iv. indeed on the golden altar, but in Exodus xxix., +Leviticus viii., ix., without its use. A still more striking +circumstance is, that in passages where the holiest incense-offering +itself is spoken of, no trace can be discovered of the corresponding +altar. This is particularly the case in Leviticus xvi. To burn incense +in the sanctuary, Aaron takes a censer, fills it with coals from the +altar of burnt-offering (ver. 12, 18-20), and lays the incense +upon them in the adytum. Similarly in Leviticus x., Numbers xvi., +xvii., incense is offered on censers, of which each priest +possesses one. The coals are taken from the altar of +burnt-offering (Numbers xvii. 11; [A.V. xvi. 46]), which is plated +with the censers of the Korahite Levites (xvii. 3, 4; [A.V. +xvi. 38, 39]); whoever takes fire from any other source, incurs +the penalty of death (Leviticus x. 1 seq.). The altar of incense is +everywhere unknown here; the altar of burnt-offering is the only +altar, and, moreover, is always called simply 'the altar', as for +example, even in Exodus xxvii., where it would have been specially +necessary to add the qualifying expression. Only in certain +later portions of the Priestly Code does the name altar of +burnt-offering occur, viz, in those passages which do recognise the +altar of incense. In this connection the command of Exodus xxvii. +as compared with the execution in Exodus xxxviii. is +characteristic. + +The golden altar in the sanctuary is originally simply the +golden table; the variation of the expression has led to a +doubling of the thing. Ezekiel does not distinguish between the +table and the altar in the temple, but uses either expression +indifferently. For he says (xii.21 seq. ): "Before the adytum +stood what looked like an altar of wood, three cubits in height, +two cubits in length and breadth, and it had projecting corners, +and its frame and its walls were of wood; this is the table which +is before the Lord." In like manner he designates the service of +the priests in the inner sanctuary as table-service (xliv.16); +table is the name, altar the function. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Malachi, on the other hand, designates the so-called altar +of burnt-offering as a table. +-- Footnote + + +In 1Kings vii. 48, it is true that the golden altar and the golden +table are mentioned together. It seems strange, however, that in +this case the concluding summary mentions one piece of furniture +more-- and that piece one of so great importance--than the preceding +detailed description; for in the latter only the preparation of the +golden altar is spoken of, and nothing is said of the golden table +(vi. 20-22). As matters stand, nothing is less improbable than that +some later transcriber should have interpolated the golden table +in vii. 48, regarding it, in accordance with the Pentateuch, as +distinct from the golden altar, and therefore considering its +absence as an omission. From other considerations also, it is +clear that the text of the whole chapter is in many ways corrupt +and interpolated. + +It is not to be wondered at if in the post-exilian temple there +existed both a golden altar and a golden table. We learn from +1Maccabees i. 21 seq., iv. 49, that both were carried off by +Antiochus Epiphanes, and renewed at the Feast of the Dedication. +But it causes no small surprise to find that at the destruction +of Jerusalem the Romans found and carried off table and candlestick +only. What can have become, in the meantime, of the golden altar +of incense? And it is further worth remarking that in the LXX the +passage Exodus xxxvii.25-29 is absent; that is to say, the altar +of incense is indeed commanded, but there is no word of its +execution. In these circumstances, finally, the vacillating +statement as to its position in Exodus xxx. 6, and the supposed +mistake of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, are important +and intelligible. Compare also 2Maccabees ii.5, where only the table, +but not the altar, is hidden by Jeremiah. + +So much for the offering of incense and its altar. We may in +like manner venture to regard it as a kind of refinement, though +rather a refinement of idea, that the flesh of the sacrifice in the +Priestly Code is no longer boiled, but consigned to the altar +flames in its raw condition. Such was not the ancient custom, as +is seen, not only from the case of Gideon already cited (Judges +vi.), but also from the procedure at Shiloh, described in 1Samuel +ii., where the sons of Eli will not wait until the flesh of the +sacrifice has been boiled, and the altar pieces burnt, but demand +their share raw for roasting. The meal which the Deity shares +with men is prepared in the same way as for men. This naive +conception gave way before advancing culture, and that at a +comparatively early date. It is possible that another cause may +also have co-operated towards this result. The old method of +preparing flesh in general use among the people, at a later period +also, was by boiling. The word B#L (to seethe in water) occurs +with extreme frequency; CLH (to roast), on the other hand, only +in Exodus xii. 8, and Isaiah xliv. 16, 19. All sacrificial flesh +(B#LH) was boiled, and there was no other kind. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Accordingly one must understand (#H also of boiling (Judges vi. 19). +Compare the boiling-houses of the temple still found in Ezekiel +xlvi. 20-24. In I Sam. i. 9 pronounce _beshela_ instead of _beshilo_, +and delete W)XRY #TH. +-- Footnote + + +But among persons of the upper class roasting must also have come +into use at an early period. "Give flesh to roast for the priest; +for he will not take sodden flesh of thee, but raw," says the +servant of the sons of Eli in 1Samuel ii. 15. The fact that in the +interval the custom of boiling had gone generally somewhat out of +fashion may accordingly have also contributed to bring about the +abandonment of the old usage of offering the sacrificial portions +boiled. In any case this is the explanation of the circumstance +that the paschal lamb, which originally was boiled like all other +offerings, could, according to the express appointment of the +Priestly Code, be eaten roasted only. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Compare the polemical ordinance of Exodus xii. 9 with Deuteronomy +xvi. 7. +-- Footnote + + +The phenomenon that in the Law meal is by preference offered raw, +while in the earlier period, even as an adjunct of the burnt-offering, +it was presented baked, belongs to the same category. The latter +is the case in Judges vi. 19 at least, and the statement of 1Samuel +i. 24 is also to be understood in the same sense; the sacrificer +brings meal along with him in order to bake it into _maccah_ on the spot +(Ezekiel xlvi. 20). But he may bring along with him common, that is +leavened, cakes also (1Samuel x. 3), which seem originally by no +means to have been considered unfit to be offered as in Leviticus +ii. 11. For under this law of Leviticus ii. even the presentation of +the shewbread would be inexplicable, and moreover it is certain +that at first the loaves of the feast of weeks were offerings, +properly so called, and not merely dues to the priests. +According, to Amos iv. 5, leavened bread was made use of precisely +at a particularly solemn sacrifice, and a reminiscence of this +usage has been preserved even in Leviticus vii. 13, although of course +without any practical weight being attached to it. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The loaves are passed over in silence in Leviticus vii. 29 seq., +although it is in this very place that the matter of presenting +on the part of the offerer is most fully described. And when it +is said (vii. 12), +"If he offer it for a thanksgiving (Todah), then he shall offer +with it unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers +anointed with oil and fine flour (LXX), mingled with oil ;" +vii. 13, "[With] leavened cakes shall he offer as a gift with the +thank-offering of the Todah," +the suspicion very readily occurs that verse 12 is an authentic +interpretation prefixed, to obviate beforehand the difficulty +presented by verse 13, and that similarly the first (l in verse 13 +is also a later correction, which does not harmonise well by any +means with the second. Verse 13 connects itself better with +verse 11 than with verse 12.--Exod xxxiv. 25. +-- Footnote + + +Moreover, massah also means, properly speaking, only the bread +that is prepared in haste and in the most primitive manner for +immediate use, and originally implies no contrast with leaven, but +simply with the more artificial and tedious manners of producing +ordinary bread /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Compare Genesis xviii. 6 with xix.3. +-- Footnote + + +In the Priestly Code the materials are finer, but they are as +much as possible left in their raw condition; both are steps +in advance. + +II.II.3. There is another and much more important difference in the +case of the animal sacrifice. Of this the older practice knows +only two kinds apart from extraordinary varieties, which may be +left out of account. These two are the burnt-offering (`Olah) and +the thank-offering (Shelem, Zebah, Zebah Shelamim). In the case of +the first the whole animal is offered on the altar; in the other +God receives, besides the blood, only an honorary portion, while +the rest of the flesh is eaten by the sacrificial guests. Now it +is worth noticing how seldom the burnt-offering occurs alone. It +is necessarily so in the case of human sacrifice (Genesis xxii. 2 +seq.; Judges xi. 31; /1/ 2Kings iii. 27; Jeremiah xix.5); + +-- Footnote +3. It is probable that Jephthah expected a human creature and not an +animal to meet him from his house. +-- Footnote + + +otherwise it is not usual (Genesis viii. 20; Numbers xxiii. 1 seq.; +Judges vi. 20, 26, xiii. 16, 23; 1Samuel vii. 9 seq.; 1Kings +iii. 4, xviii. 34,38); /1/ moreover, all the examples + +-- Footnote +1. In the above list of passages no notice is taken of the +_sacrificium juge_ of 2Kings xvi.15. The statement in 1Kings iii. 4 +is perhaps to be taken along with iii. 15, but does not become at +all more credible on that account. Of course it is understood that +only those passages are cited here in which mention is made of +offerings actually made, and not merely general statements about +one or more kinds of offering. The latter could very well fix +attention upon the `Olah alone without thereby throwing any light +upon the question as to the actual practice. +-- Footnote + + +just cited are extraordinary or mythical in their character, a +circumstance that may not affect the evidence of the existence of +the custom in itself, but is important as regards the statistics of +its frequency. As a rule, the `Olah occurs only in conjunction +with Zebahim, and when this is the case the latter are in the +majority and are always in the plural, while on the other hand +the first is frequently in the singular. /2/ + +-- Footnote +1. Exodus x. 25, xviii. 12, xxiv. 5, xxxii. 6; Joshua viii. 31; +Judges xx. 26, xxi. 4; 1Samuel vi. 14 seq., x. 8, xiii. 9-12; +2Samuel vi. 17 seq., xxiv. 23-25, 1Kings iii. 15, viii. 63 seq.; +2Kings v. 17, x. 24, 25. The zeugma in Judges xx. 26, xxi.4 is +inconsistent with the older _usus loquendi_. The proper name +for the holocaust appears to be KLYL (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 10; +1Samuel vii.9) not (LH. It is impossible to decide whether +the sacrificial due in all sorts of Zebah was the same, +but most probably it was not. Probably the Shelamim are a +more solemn kind of sacrifice than the simple Zebah. The word 'fat' +is used in Genesis iv. 4; Exodus xxiii. 18 in a very general sense. +It is not quite clear what is meant by the blessing of the Zebah +in 1Samuel ix. 13; perhaps a kind of grace before meat. +-- Footnote + + +They supplement each other like two corresponding halves; the +`Olah is, as the name implies, properly speaking, nothing more +than the part of a great offering that reaches the altar. One +might therefore designate as `Olah also that part of a single +animal which is consecrated to the Deity; this, however, is never +done; neither of the blood nor of the fat [Q+R] is the verb H(LH +used, but only of the pieces of the flesh, of which in the case of +the minor offering nothing was burnt. But the distinction is +merely one of degree; there is none in kind; a small Zebah, +enlarged and augmented, becomes an `Olah and Zebahim; out of a +certain number of slaughtered animals which are eaten by the +sacrificial company, one is devoted to God and wholly given to the +flames. For the rest, it must be borne in mind that as a rule it +is only great sacrificial feasts that the historical books take +occasion to mention, and that consequently the burnt-offering, +notwithstanding what has been said, comes before us with greater +prominence than can have been the average case in ordinary life. +Customarily, It is certain, none but thank-offerings were offered; +necessarily so if slaughtering could only be done beside the +altar. Where mention is made of a simple offering in the Books of +Samuel and Kings, that it is a thank-offering is matter of course. +1Samuel ii. 12 seq. is in this connection also particularly +instructive. + +From what has been said it results that according to the praxis of +the older period a meal was almost always connected with a +sacrifice. It was the rule that only blood and fat were laid upon +the altar, but the people ate the flesh; only in the case of very +great sacrificial feasts was a large animal (one or more) given to +Jehovah. Where a sacrifice took place, there was also eating and +drinking (Exodus xxxii. 6; Judges ix. 27; 2Samuel xv. 11 seq.; +Amos ii. 7); there was no offering without a meal, and no meal +without an offering (1Kings i. 9); at no important Bamah was +entertainment wholly wanting, such a LESXH as that in which Samuel +feasted Saul, or Jeremiah the Rechabites (1Samuel ix. 22; Jeremiah +xxxv. 2). To be merry, to eat and drink before Jehovah, is a usual +form of speech down to the period of Deuteronomy; even Ezekiel +calls the cultus on the high places an eating upon the mountains +(1Samuel ix. 13,19 seq ), and in Zechariah the pots in the temple +have a special sanctity (Zech. xiv. 20). By means of the meal in +presence of Jehovah is established a covenant fellowship on the one +hand between Him and the guests, and on the other hand between the +guests themselves reciprocally, which is essential for the idea of +sacrifice and gives their name to the Shelamim (compare Exodus +xviii. 12, xxiv. 11). In ordinary slaughterings this notion is not +strongly present, but in solemn sacrifices it was in full vigour. +It is God who invites, for the house is His; His also is the gift, +which must be brought to Him entire by the offerer before the +altar, and the greater portion of which He gives up to His guests +only affer that. Thus in a certain sense they eat at God's +table, and must accordingly propare or sanctify themselves for +it. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. In order to appear before Jehovah the guest adorns himself +with clothes and ornaments (Exodus iii. 22, xi. 2 seq.; +Hosea ii. 15 [A.V. 13]; Ezekiel xvi. 13; compare Koran, Sur. xx. 61), +sanctifies himself (Numbers xi. 18) and is sanctified (1Samuel xvi. 5; +Exodus xix. 10, 14). The sacrificial meal is regarded as Kodesh +(hallowed) for not only the priests, but all the sanctified persons +eat Kodesh (1Samuel xxi. 5 seq. On what is meant by sanctification +light is thrown by 1Samuel xxi. 5; 2Samuel xi. 2. Compare L) LPNW +XNP YB) ( Job xiii. 16; Leviticus vii. 20; Matthew xxii. 11-13). Jehovah +invites the armies of the nations to His sacrifice, for which +He delivers over to them some other nation, and calls the Medes, +to whom He gives Babylon over, His sanctified ones, that is, +His guests (Zephaniah i. 7 seq.; Jeremiah xlvi. 10; Ezekiel xxxix 17; +Isaiah xiii. 3). +-- Footnote + + +Even on occasions that, to our way of thinking, seem highly unsuitable, +the meal is nevertheless not wanting (Judges xx. 26, xxi. 4; +1Sam xiii. 9-12). That perfect propriety was not always observed +might be taken for granted, and is proved by Isaiah xxviii. 8 +even with regard to the temple of Jerusalem; "all tables are full +of vomit, there is no room." Hence also Eli's suspicion regarding +Hannah was a natural one, and by no means so startling as it appears. + +How different from this picture is that suggested by the Priestly +Code! Here one no longer remarks that a meal accompanies every +sacrifice; eating before Jehovah, which even in Deuteronomy is +just the expression for sacrificing, nowhere occurs, or at all +events is no act of divine worship. Slaying and sacrificing are no +longer coincident, the thank-offering of which the breast and right +shoulder are to be consecrated is something different from the old +simple Zebah. But, precisely for this reason, it has lost its +former broad significance. The _mizbeah_, that is, the place where +the _zebahim_ are to be offered, has been transformed into a _mizbah +ha-'olah_. The burnt-offering has become quite independent and +comes everywhere into the foreground, the sacrifices which are +unconnected with a meal altogether predominate,--so much that, as +is well known, Theophrastus could declare there were no others +among the Jews, who in this way were differentiated from all +other nations. /1/ Where formerly a + +-- Footnote +1. Porphyry, De Abstin. ii.26. Compare Joseph., Contra Apion, +ii. 13: )OUTOI )EUXONTAI <?> UEIN (EKATOMBAS TOIS QEOIS KAI XRWNTAI +TOIS (IEREIOIS PROS )EUWXIAN. +-- Footnote + + +thank-offering which was eaten before Jehovah, and which might with +greater clearness be called a sacrificial meal, was prescribed, the +Priestly Code, as we shall afterwards see, has made out of it +simple dues to the priests, as, for example, in the case of the +first-born and of firstlings. Only in this point it still bears +involuntary testimony to the old custom by applying the names +_Todah, Neder, and Nedabah_, of which the last two in particular must +necessarily have a quite general meaning (Leviticus xxii. 18; Ezekiel +xlvi. 12), exclusively to the thank-offering, while _Milluim_ and +paschal sacrifice are merely subordinate varieties of it. + +II.II.4. What the thank-offering has lost, the sin and trespass +offering have gained; the voluntary private offering which the +sacrificer ate in a joyful company at the holy place has given +way before the compulsory, of which he obtains no share, and from +which the character of the sacred meal has been altogether taken +away. The burnt-offering, it is true, still continues to be a +meal, if only a one-sided one, of which God alone partakes; but +in the case of the sin-offering everything is kept far out of sight +which could recall a meal, as, for example, the accompaniments of +meal and wine, oil and salt; of the flesh no portion reaches the +altar, it all goes as a fine to the priest. Now, of this kind of +sacrifice, which has an enormous importance in the Priestly Code, +not a single trace occurs in the rest of the Old Testament before +Ezekiel, neither in the Jehovist and Deuteronomist, nor in the +historical and prophetical books. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. How great is the difference in Deuteronomy xxi. 1-9; how very +remote the sacrificial idea! +-- Footnote + + +`Olah and Zebah comprehend all animal sacrifices, `Olah and Minhah, +or Zebah and Minhah, all sacrifices whatsoever; nowhere is a special +kind of sacrifice for atonement met with (1Samuel iii. 14). +Hos. iv. 8 does indeed say: "They eat the sin of my people, and they +are greedy for its guilts," but the interpretation which will have it +that the priests are here reproached with in the first instance +themselves inducing the people to falsification of the sacred dues, +in order to make these up again with the produce of the sin and +trespass offerings, is either too subtle or too dull. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. The sin and guilt are the sacrificial worship generally as +carried on by the people (viii. 11; Amos iv. 4); in the entire +section the prophet is preparing the way for the here sharply +accentuated reproach against the priests that they neglect +the Torah and encourage the popular propensity to superstitious +and impure religious service. Besides, where is there any +reproach at all, according to the Pentateuch, in the first section +of iv. 8? And the second speaks of (WNM, not of )#MM. +-- Footnote + + +It would be less unreasonable to co-ordinate with the similarly +named sin and trespass offering of the Pentateuch the five golden +mice, and the five golden emerods with which the Philistines send +back the ark, and which in 1Samuel vi. 3, 4, 8 are designated _asham_, +or, still better, the sin and trespass monies which, according to +2Kings xii. 17 [A.V. 16], fell to the share of the Jerusalem +priests. Only the fact is that even in the second passage the +_asham_ and _hattath_ are no sacrifices, but, more exactly to +render the original meaning of the words, mere fines, and in fact money +fines. On the other hand, the _hattath_ referred to in Micah vi. 7 +has nothing to do with a due of the priests, but simply denotes +the guilt which eventually another takes upon himself. Even in +Isaiah liii. 10, a passage which is certainly late, _asham_ must not +be taken in the technical sense of the ritual legislation, but +simply (as in Micah) in the sense of guilt, borne by the innocent +for the guilty. For the explanation of this prophetic passage +Gramberg has rightly had recourse to the narrative of 2Samuel +xi. 1-14. "Upon Saul and upon his house lies blood-guiltiness, for +having slain the Gibeonites" is announced to David as the cause of +a three years' famine. When asked how it can be taken away, the +Gibeonites answer, + +"It is not a matter of silver and gold to us with respect to Saul +and his house; let seven men of his family be delivered to us that +we may hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul upon the +mountain of the Lord." + +This was done; all the seven were hanged. + +_A*sham_ and _hattath_ as offerings occur for the first time in +Ezekiel, and appear, not long before his day to have come into the +place of the earlier pecuniary fines (2Kings xii. 17 [16]), which +perhaps already also admitted of being paid in kind; probably in +the seventh century, which seems to have been very open to the +mystery of atonement and bloodshedding, and very fertile in the +introduction of new religious usages. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Consider for example the prevalence of child sacrifice precisely +at this time, the introduction of incense, the new fashions which +King Manasseh brought in, and of which certainly much survived +that suited the temper of the period, and admitted of being conjoined +with the worship of Jehovah, or even seemed to enhance its dignity +and solemnity. +-- Footnote + + +The sin and trespass offerings of the Pentateuch still bear traces +of their origin in fines and penalties; they are not gifts to God, +they are not even symbolical, they are simply mulcts payable to the +priests, partly of fixed commutation value (Leviticus v. 15). Apart +from the mechanical burning of the fat they have in common with +the sacrifice only the shedding of blood, originally a secondary +matter, which has here become the chief thing. This circumstance +is an additional proof of our thesis. The ritual of the simple +offering has three acts: + +(1.) the presentation of the living animal before Jehovah, +and the laying on of hands as a token of manumission on the part +of the offerer; + +(2.) the slaughtering and the sprinkling of the blood on the altar; + +(3.) the real or seeming gift of the sacrificial portions to the Deity, +and the meal of the human guests. + +In the case of the burnt-offering the meal in the third act disappears, +and the slaughtering in the second comes into prominence as significant +and sacred, inasmuch as (what is always expressly stated) it must +take place in the presence of Jehovah, at the north side of the altar. +In the case of the sin and trespass offering the third act is dropped +entirely, and accordingly the whole significance of the rite attaches +to the slaughtering, which of course also takes place before the altar, +and to the sprinkling of the blood, which has become peculiarly +developed here. It is obvious how the metamorphosis of the gift +and the meal into a bloody atonement advances and reaches its +acme in this last sacrificial act. + +This ritual seems to betray its novelty even within the Priestly +Code itself by a certain vacillation. In the older corpus of law +(Leviticus xvii.-xxvi.) which has been taken into that document, all +sacrifices are still embraced under one or other of the two heads +ZBX and (LH (xvii. 8, xxii. 18, 21); there are no others. The _asham_ +indeed occurs in xix. 21 seq., but, as is recognised, only in a +later addition; on the other hand,it is not demanded /1/ in +xxii.14, + +-- Footnote +1. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the _asham_ here, +in the case of property unlawfully held, is simply the impost of +a fifth part of the value, and not the sacrifice of a ram, which +in Leviticus v. is required in addition. In Numbers v. also, +precisely this fifth part is called _asham_. +-- Footnote + + +Where it must have been according to Leviticus v. and Numbers v. +And even apart from Leviticus xvii.-xxvi there is on this point +no sort of agreement between the kernel of the Priestly Code +and the later additions, or "novels," so to speak. For one thing, +there is a difference as to the ritual of the most solemn sin-offering +between Exodus xxix., Leviticus ix. on the one hand, and Leviticus iv. +on the other; and what is still more serious, the trespass-offering +never occurs in the primary but only in the secondary passages, +Leviticus iv.-vii., xiv.; Numbers v.7, 8, vi. 1, xviii. 9. In the +latter, moreover, the distinction between _asham_ and _hattath_ is not +very clear, but only the intention to make it, perhaps because in +the old praxis there actually was a distinction between KSP XT)WT +and KSP )#M, and in Ezekiel between X+)T and )#M. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. The three sections, Leviticus iv. 1-35 (hattath), v.1-13 +(hattath-asham), and v. 14-26 (asham), are essentially not +co-ordinate parts of one whole, but independent pieces proceeding +from the same school. For v. 1-13 is no continuation of or appendix +to iv. 27-35, but a quite independent treatment of the same material, +with important differences of form. The place of the systematic +generality of chap. iv. is here taken by the definite individual case, +and what is analogous to it; the ritual is given with less minuteness, +and the hierarchical subordination of ranks has no influence on +the classification of offences. In this section also _asham_ and +_hattath_ occur interchangeably as synonymous. In the third section +a ram as an _asham_ is prescribed (v. 17-19) for the very case in +which in the first a he-goat or a she-goat is required as _hattath_ +(iv. 22, 27). The third section has indeed in form greater +similarity to the second, but cannot be regarded as its true +completion, for this simple reason, that the latter does not +distiguish between _hattath_ and _asham_. If Leviticus v. 13-16, +20-26 be followed simply without regard being had to vers. 17-19, +the _asham_ comes in only in the case of voluntary restitution of +property illegally come by or detained, more particularly of +the sacred dues. The goods must be restored to their owner +augmented by a fifth part of their value; and as an _asham_ there +must be added a ram, which falls to the sanctuary. In Num v. 5-10 +the state of the case is indeed the same, but the language employed +is different, for in this passage it is the restored property that +is called _asham_, and the ram is called )YL HKPRYM. Comp. Leviticus +xxii. 14. +-- Footnote + + +II.III. + +The turning-point in the history of the sacrificial system was +the reformation of Josiah; what we find in the Priestly Code is +the matured result of that event. It is precisely in the +distinctions that are characteristic of the sacrificial law as +compared with the ancient sacrificial praxis that we have evidence +of the fact that, if not all exactly occasioned by the +centralisation of the worship, they were almost all somehow at +least connected with that change. + +In the early days, worship arose out of the midst of ordinary +life, and was in most intimate and manifold connection with it. +A sacrifice was a meal, a fact showing how remote was the idea of +antithesis between spiritual earnestness and secular joyousness. +A meal unites a definite circle of guests, and in this way the +sacrifice brought into connection the members of the family, the +associates of the corporation, the soldiers of the army, and, +generally speaking, the constituents of any permanent or +temporary society. It is earthly relationships that receive +their consecration thereby, and in correspondence are the natural +festal occasions presented by the vicissitudes of life. Year +after year the return of vintage, corn-harvest, and sheep-shearing +brought together the members of the household to eat and to drink +in the presence of Jehovah; and besides these there were less +regularly recurring events which were celebrated in one circle +after another. There was no warlike expedition which was not +inaugurated in this fashion, no agreement that was not thus +ratified, no important undertaking of any kind was gone about +without a sacrifice! /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Sacrifice is used as a pretext in 1Samuel xvi. 1 seq.; +1Kings i. 9 seq. Compare Proverbs vii. 14. +-- Footnote + + +When an honoured guest arrives, there is slaughtered for him a calf, +not without an offering of the blood and fat to the Deity. +The occasion arising out of daily life is thus inseparable +from the holy action, and is what gives it meaning and character; +an end corresponding to the situation always underlies it. +Hence also prayer must not be wanting. The verb H(TYR, to "burn" +(fat and _minha_), means simply to "pray," and conversely BQ# )T +YHWH, "to seek Jehovah," in point of fact not unfrequently means +to "sacrifice." The gift serves to reinforce the question +or the request, and to express thankfulness; and the prayer +is its interpretation. This of course is rather incidentally +indicated than expressly said (Hos. v. 6; Isaiah i. 15; Jeremiah +xiv. 12; 1Kings viii. 27 seq.; Proverbs xv. 8); we have a specimen +of a grace for the offering of the festival gift only in Deuteronomy +xxvi. 3 seq.; a blessing is pronounced when the slaughtering takes place +(1Samuel ix. 13). The prayer of course is simply the expression +of the feeling of the occasion, with which accordingly it varies +in manifold ways. Arising out of the exigencies and directed +to the objects of daily life, the sacrifices reflect in themselves +a correspondingly rich variety. Our wedding, baptismal, and funeral +feasts on the one hand, and our banquets for all sorts of occasions +on the other, might still be adduced as the most obvious comparison, +were it not that here too the divorce between sacred and secular +destroys it. Religious worship was a natural thing in Hebrew antiquity; +it was the blossom of life, the heights and depths of which it was its +business to transfigure and glorify. + +The law which abolished all sacrificial seats, with a single +exception, severed this connection. Deuteronomy indeed does not +contemplate such a result. Here, in marked opposition to what we +find in the Priestly Code, to eat and be merry before Jehovah is +the standing phrase for sacrificing; the idea is that in +concentrating all the worship towards Jerusalem, all that is +effected is a mere change of place, the essence of the thing +remaining unaltered. This, however, was a mistake. To celebrate +the vintage festival among one's native hills, and to celebrate it +at Jerusalem, were two very different things; it was not a matter +of indifference whether one could seize on the spot any occasion +that casually offered itself for a sacrificial meal, or whether it +was necessary that one should first enter upon a journey. And it +was not the same thing to appear by oneself at home before Jehovah +and to lose oneself in a large congregation at the common seat of +worship. Human life has its root in local environment, and so also +had the ancient cultus; in being transplanted from its natural +soil it was deprived of its natural nourishment. A separation +between it and the daily life was inevitable, and Deuteronomy +itself paved the way for this result by permitting profane +slaughtering. A man lived in Hebron, but sacrificed in Jerusalem; +life and worship fell apart. The consequences which lie dormant in +the Deuteronomic law are fully developed in the Priestly Code. + +This is the reason why the sacrifice combined with a meal, +formerly by far the chief, now falls completely into the +background. One could eat flesh at home, but in Jerusalem one's +business was to do worship. Accordingly, those sacrifices were +preferred in which the religious character came to the front with +the utmost possible purity and without any admixture of natural +elements, sacrifices of which God received everything and man +nothing,--burnt-offerings, sin-offerings, and trespass-offerings. + +If formerly the sacrifice had taken its complexion from the +quality of the occasion which led to it, it now had essentially +but one uniform purpose--to be a medium of worship. The warm +pulse of life no longer throbbed in it to animate it; it was no +longer the blossom and the fruit of every branch of life; it had +its own meaning all to itself. It symbolised worship, and that was +enough. The soul was fled; the shell remained, upon the shaping +out of which every energy was now concentrated. A manifoldness +of rites took the place of individualising occasions; technique +was the main thing, and strict fidelity to rubric. + +Once cultus was spontaneous, now it is a thing of statute. The +satisfaction which it affords is, properly speaking, something +which lies outside of itself and consists in the moral satisfaction +arising out of the conscientiousness with which the ritual +precepts, once for all enjoined by God on His people, are +fulfilled. The freewill offering is not indeed forbidden, but +value in the strict sense is attached only to those which have +been prescribed, and which accordingly preponderate everywhere. +And even in the case of the freewill offering, everything must +strictly and accurately comply with the restrictions of the +ordinance; if any one in the fulness of his heart had offered in +a _zebah shelamim_ more pieces of flesh than the ritual enjoined, it +would have been the worse for him. + +Of old the sacrifice combined with a meal had established a +special relation between the Deity and a definite society of +guests; the natural sacrificial society was the family or the +clan (1Samuel i. 1seq., xvi. 1 seq., xx. 6). Now the smaller sacred +fellowships get lost, the varied groups of social life disappear in +the neutral shadow of the universal congregation or church [(DH, +QHL]. The notion of this last is foreign to Hebrew antiquity, but +runs through the Priestly Code from beginning to end. Like the +worship itself, its subject also became abstract, a spiritual +entity which could be kept together by no other means except +worship. As now the participation of the "congregation of the +children of Israel" in the sacrifice was of necessity always +mainly ideal, the consequence was that the sacred action came to +be regarded as essentially perfect by virtue of its own efficacy +in being performed by the priest, even though no one was present. +Hence later the necessity for a special sacrificial deputation, +the _anshe ma'amad_. The connection of all this with the Judaising +tendency to remove God to a distance from man, it may be added, +is clear. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It is not asserted that the cultus before the Iaw (of which +the darker sides are known from Amos and Hosea) was better +than the legal, but merely that it was more original; the standard +of judgment being, not the moral element, but merely the idea, +the primary meaning of worship. Nor is it disputed further that +the belief in the dependence of sacrifices and other sacred acts +upon a laboriously strict compliance with traditional and prescriptive +rites occurs in the case of certain peoples, even in the remotest +antiquity. But with the Israelites, judging by the testimony of the +historical and prophetical books, this was not on the whole the +case any more than with the ancient Greeks; there were no +Brahmans or Magians in either case. Moreover, it must be carefully +noted that not even in the Priestly Code do we yet find the same +childish appreciation of the cultus as occurs in such a work as the +Rigveda, and that the strict rules are not prescribed and +maintained with any such notion in view as that by their +observance alone can the taste of the Deity be pleased; the idea +of God is here even strikingly remote from the anthropomorphic, +and the whole cultus is nothing more than an exercise in piety +which has simply been enjoined so once for all without any one +being in any way the better for it. +-- Footnote + + +Two details still deserve special prominence here. In the Priestly +Code the most important sacrifice is the burnt-offering; that is +to say, in point of fact, the _tamid_, the _holocaustum juge_, +consisting of two yearling lambs which are daily consumed upon +the "altar of burnt-offering," one in the morning, another +in the evening. The custom of daily offering a fixed sacrifice +at a definite time existed indeed, in a simpler form, /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. See Kuenen, Godsdietzst van Israel, ii. 271. According to 2Kings +xvi. 15, an (LH in the morning and a MNXH in the evening were daily +offered in the temple of Jerusalem, in the time of Ahaz. Ezekiel also +(xlvi. 13-15) speaks only of the morning (LH. Compare also Ezra +ix. 4; Nehemiah x. 33. In the Priestly Code the evening _minhah_ has +risen to the dignity of a second _`olah_; but at the same time +survives in the daily _minhah_ of the high priest, and is now +offered in the morning also (Leviticus vi. 12-16). The daily _minhah_ +appears to be older than the daily _`olah_. For while it was a +natural thing to prepare a meal regularly for the Deity, the +expense of a daily `olah was too great for an ordinary place of +worship, and, besides, it was not in accordance with the custom of +men to eat flesh every day. The offering of the daily _minhah_ is +already employed in 1Kings xviii. 29, 36, as a mark of time to +denote the afternoon, and this use is continued down to the latest +period, while the tamid, ie., the `olah, is never so utilised. The +oddest custom of all, however, was doubtless not the daily +_minhah_, but the offering of the shewbread, which served the same +purpose, but was not laid out fresh every day. +-- Footnote + + +Even in the pre-exilian period, but alongside of it at that time, +the freewill private offerings had a much more important place, +and bulked much more largely. In the law the _tamid_ is in point +of fact the fundamental element of the worship, for even the sacrifices +of Sabbaths and feast days consist only of its numerical increase +(compare Numbers xxviii., xxix.). Still later, when it is said +in the Book of Daniel that the _tamid_ was done away, this is equivalent +to saying that the worship was abolished (viii. 11-13, xi. 31, xii. 11). +But now the dominant position of the daily, Sabbath day, and festival +_tamid_ means that the sacrificial worship had assumed a perfectly +firm shape, which was independent of every special motive and of +all spontaneity; and further (what is closely connected with +this), that it took place for the sake of the congregation,--the +"congregation" in the technical sense attached to that word in the +Law. Hence the necessity for the general temple-tax, the +prototype of which is found in the poll-tax of half a shekel for +the service of the tabernacle in Exodus xxx. 11 seq. Prior to the +exile, the regular sacrifice was paid for by the Kings of Judah, +and in Ezekiel the monarch still continues to defray the expenses +not only of the Sabbath day and festival sacrifices (xiv. 17 +seq.), but also of the _tamid_ (xlvi. 13-15). /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Compare LXX*. The Massoretic text has corrected the third person +(referring to the princes) into the second, making it an address +to the priests, which, however, is quite impossible in Ezekiel. +-- Footnote + + +It is also a mark of the date that, according to Exodus xxx., +the expenses of the temple worship are met directly out of the poll-tax +levied from the community, which can only be explained by the fact +that at that time there had ceased to be any sovereign. So completely +was the sacrifice the affair of the community in Judaism that +the voluntary _qorban_ of the individual became metamorphosed +into a money payment as a contribution to the cost of the public +worship (Mark vii., xii. 42 seq; Matthew xxvii. 6). + +The second point is this: Just as the special purposes and +occasions of sacrifice fall out of sight, there comes into +increasing prominence the one uniform and universal occasion--that +of sin; and one uniform and universal purpose--that of +propitiation. In the Priestly Code the peculiar mystery in the +case of all animal sacrifices is atonement by blood; this appears +in its purest development in the case of the sin and trespass +offerings, which are offered as well for individuals as for the +congregation and for its head. In a certain sense the great day +of atonement is the culmination of the whole religious and +sacrificial service, to which, amid all diversities of ritual, +continuously underlying reference to sin is common throughout. Of +this feature the ancient sacrifices present few traces. It was +indeed sought at a very early period to influence the doubtful or +threatening mood of Deity, and make His countenance gracious by +means of rich gifts, but the gift had, as was natural then, the +character of a tentative effort only (Micah vi. 6). There was no +such thought as that a definite guilt must and could be taken away +by means of a prescribed offering. When the law discriminates +between such sins as are covered by an offering and such sins as +relentlessly are visited with wrath, it makes a distinction very +remote from the antique; to Hebrew antiquity the wrath of God was +something quite incalculable, its causes were never known, much +less was it possible to enumerate beforehand those sins which +kindled it and those which did not. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. When the wrath is regulated by the conditions of the "covenant," +the original notion (which scorns the thought of adjustment) is +completely changed. What gave the thing its mysterious awfulness +was precisely this: that in no way was it possible to guard against +it, and that nothing could avail to counteract it. Under the pressure +of Jehovah's wrath not only was sacrifice abandoned, but even +the mention of His name was shunned so as to avoid attracting +His attention (Hos iii. 4, ix. 4; Amos vi. 10). +-- Footnote + + +An underlying reference of sacrifice to sin, speaking generally, +was entirely absent. The ancient offerings were wholly of a joyous +nature,--a merrymaking before Jehovah with music and song, +timbrels, flutes, and stringed instruments (Hos. ix. 1 seq.; Amos +v. 23, viii. 3; Isa xxx. 3). No greater contrast could be conceived +than the monotonous seriousness of the so-called Mosaic worship. + +NOMOS <de> PAREISHLQEN (INA PLEONASH| TO PARAPTWMA +["But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied". +Romans 5:20 NRSV)] + +In this way the spiritualisation of the worship is seen in the +Priestly Code as advancing _pari passu_ with its centralisation. +It receives, so to speak, an abstract religious character; it +separates itself in the first instance from daily life, and then +absorbs the latter by becoming, strictly speaking, its proper +business. The consequences for the future were momentous. The +Mosaic "congregation" is the mother of the Christian church; the +Jews were the creators of that idea. + +We may compare the cultus in the olden time to the green tree +which grows up out of the soil as it will and can; later it +becomes the regularly shapen timber, ever more artificially +shaped with square and compass. Obviously there is a close +connection between the qualitative antithesis we have just been +expounding and the formal one of law and custom from which we set +out. Between "naturaliter ea quae legis sunt facere" ["do +instinctively what the law requires" Romans 2:14 NRSV] and +"secundum legem agere" there is indeed a more than external +difference. If at the end of our first section we found +improbable precisely in this region the independent co-existence +of ancient praxis and Mosaic law, the improbability becomes +still greater from the fact that the latter is filled with a quite +different spirit, which can be apprehended only as Spirit of the age +(Zeitgeist). It is not from the atmosphere of the old kingdom, +but from that of the church of the second temple, that +the Priestly Code draws its breath. It is in accordance with this +that the sacrificial ordinances as regards their positive contents +are no less completely ignored by antiquity than they are +scrupulously followed by the post-exilian time. + + +CHAPTER III. THE SACRED FEASTS. + +The feasts, strictly speaking, belong to the preceding chapter, +for originally they were simply regularly recurring occasions for +sacrifice. The results of the investigation there made accordingly +repeat themselves here, but with such clearness and precision as +make it worth while to give the subject a separate consideration. +In the first place and chiefly, the history of the solar festivals, +that of those festivals which follow the seasons of the year, +claims our attention. + +III.I.1 In the Jehovistic and Deuteronomistic parts of the Pentateuch +there predominates a rotation of three great festivals, which alone +receive the proper designation of _hag_: +"Three times in the year shalt thou keep festival unto me, three times +in the year shall all thy men appear before the Lord Jehovah, +the God of Israel" (Exodus xxiii. 14, 17, xxxiv. 23; Deuteronomy xvi. 16). +"The feast of unleavened bread (maccoth) shalt thou keep; seven days +shalt thou eat _maccoth_ as I commanded thee, in the time appointed +of the month Abib, for in it thou camest out from Egypt; and none +shall appear before me empty; and the feast of harvest (qasir), +the first-fruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field; +and the feast of ingathering (asiph), in the end of the year, +when thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field." +So runs the command in the Book of the Covenant (Exodus xxiii. 15, 16). +The Law of the Two Tables (Exodus xxxiv. 18 seq.) is similar: +"The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days shalt +thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time +of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out of Egypt. +All that openeth the womb is mine; every firstling among thy cattle, +whether ox or sheep, that is male. The firstling of an ass thou shalt +redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break +his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou redeem. And none +shall appear before me empty. Six days shalt thou work; but on the +seventh day shalt thou rest: even in ploughing time and in harvest +shalt thou rest. And the feast of weeks (shabuoth) shalt thou observe, +the feasts of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of +ingathering (asiph) at the change of the year." Minuter, on the other +hand, and of a somewhat different character, are the precepts laid +down in Deuteronomy xvi.: + +"Take heed to the month Abib, and keep the passover unto Jehovah +thy God, for in the month Abib did Jehovah thy God bring thee +forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the +passover unto Jehovah thy God, of the flock or of the herd, in the +place which Jehovah shall choose for the habitation of His name. +Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou +eat unleavened bread (maccoth) therewith, the bread of affliction, +for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in anxious haste, +that all the days of thy life thou mayest remember the day when +thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt. There shall no +leavened bread be seen with thee in all thy border seven days, and +of the flesh which thou didst sacrifice on the first day, in the +evening, nothing shall remain all night until the morning. Thou +mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates which +the Lord thy God giveth thee, but at the place which Jehovah thy +God shall choose for the habitation of His name, there shalt thou +sacrifice the passover, in the evening, at the going down of the +sun, at the time of thy coming forth out of Egypt. And thou +shalt boil and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall +choose, and in the morning shalt thou return to thy home. Six +days shalt thou eat _maccoth_, and on the seventh day shall be the +closing feast to Jehovah thy God; thou shalt do no work therein" +(ver. 1-8). + +"Seven weeks thenceforward shalt thou number unto thee; from such +time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn shalt thou +begin to number seven weeks, and then thou shalt keep the feast +of weeks (shabuoth) to Jehovah thy God, with a tribute of freewill +offerings in thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as the Lord +thy God hath blessed thee. And thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah +thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, +and thy maid-senant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, +and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are +among you in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose +for the habitation of His name. And thou shalt remember that +thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do +these statutes" (ver. 9-12). + +"The feast of tabernacles (sukkoth) thou shalt observe +seven days after thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine; +and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast,--thou, and thy son, and thy +daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the +Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that +are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast +unto Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah shall choose, +because Jehovah thy God cloth bless thee in all thine increase, +and in all the works of thy hands, therefore thou shalt surely +rejoice. Three times in a year shall all thy men appear before +Jehovah thy God in the place which He shall choose: in the feast +of unleavened bread, of weeks, and of tabernacles (hag ha-maccoth,-- +shabuoth,--sukkoth), and they shall not appear before me empty; +every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing +of Jehovah thy God, which He hath given thee" (ver. 13-17). +As regards the essential nature of the two last-named +feasts, these passages are at one. The _sukkoth_ of Deuteronomy and +the _asiph_ of the Jehovistic legislation do not coincide in time +merely, but are in fact one and the same feast, the autumnal +ingathering of the wine and of the oil from the vat and press, and +of the corn from the threshing-floor. The name _asiph_ refers +immediately to the vintage and olive-gathering, to which the word +_sukkoth_ seems also to relate, being most easily explained from the +custom of the whole household, old and young, going out to the +vineyard in time of harvest, and there camping out in the open air +under the improvised shelter of booths made with branches (Isaiah i. +8). _Qacir_ and _shabuoth_ in like manner are only different names +for the same reality, namely, for the feast of the corn-reaping, or, +more strictly, the wheat-reaping, which takes place in the +beginning of summer. Thus both festivals have a purely natural +occasion. On the other hand, the spring festival, which always +opens the series, has a historical motive assigned to it, the +exodus--most expressly in Deuteronomy--being given as the event on +which it rests. The cycle nevertheless seems to presuppose and to +require the original homogeneity of all its members. Now the +twofold ritual of the _pesah_ and the maccoth points to a twofold +character of the feast. The _hag_, properly so named, is called not +_hag ha-pesah_, /1/ but hag ha-maccoth, + +-- Footnote +1. The original form of the expression of Exodus xxxiv. 25 has been +preserved in Exodus xxiii. 18 (XGGY not XG HPSX). In Deuteronomy, +although PSX is more prominent, it is called XG HMCWT in xvi. 16. +-- Footnote + + +and it is only the latter that is co-ordinated with the +other two _haggim_; the name _pesah_ indeed does not occur at all +until Deuteronomy, although in the law of the two tables the +sacrifice of the first-born seems to be brought into connection +with the feast of unleavened bread. It follows that only the +_maccoth_ can be taken into account for purposes of comparison +with _qasir_ and _asiph_. As to the proper significance of _maccoth_, +the Jehovistic legislation does not find it needful to instruct its +contemporaries, but it is incidentally disclosed in Deuteronomy. +There the festival of harvest is brought into a definite relation +in point of time with that of _maccoth_; it is to be celebrated +seven weeks later. This is no new ordinance, but one that rests +upon old custom, for the name, "feast of weeks," occurs in a +passage so early as Exodus xxxiv. (comp Jeremiah v. 24). Now +"seven weeks after Easter " (Deuteronomy xvi. 9) is further explained +with greater elaborateness as meaning seven weeks after the putting +of the sickle to the corn. Thus the festival of _maccoth_ is +equivalent to that of the putting of the sickle to the corn, and +thereby light is thrown on its fixed relation to Pentecost. +Pentecost celebrates the close of the reaping, which commences +with barley harvest, and ends with that of wheat; Easter its +beginning in the "month of corn ears;" and between the two +extends the duration of harvest time, computed at seven weeks. The +whole of this _tempus classicum_ is a great festal season rounded +off by the two festivals. We gain further light from Leviticus xxiii. +9-22. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Against this there is of course possible the objection that +the passage at present forms part of the Priestly Code. But the +collection of laws embraced in Leviticus xvii.-xxvi, it is well +known, has merely been redacted and incorporated by the author of +the Priestly Code, and originally was an independent corpus +marking the transition from Deuteronomy to the Priestly Code, +sometimes approximating more to the one, and at other times +to the other, and the use of Leviticus xxiii. 9-22 in this +connection is completely justified by the consideration that +only in this way do the rites it describes find meaning and vitality. +-- Footnote + + +The Easter point is here, as in Deuteronomy, fixed as being +the beginning of harvest, but is still more definitely determined +as the day after the first Sabbath falling within harvest time, +and Pentecost follows the same reckoning. And the special Easter +ritual consists in the offering of a barley sheaf; before this it +is not lawful to taste of the new crop; and the corresponding +Pentecostal rite is the offering of ordinary wheaten loaves. The +corn harvest begins with barley and ends with wheat; at the +beginning the first-fruits are presented in their crude state as a +sheaf, just as men in like manner partake of the new growth +in the form of parched ears (Leviticus xxiii. 14; Josh. v. 11); +at the end they are prepared in the form of common bread. +Thus the _maccoth_ now begin to be intelligible. As has been +already said (see p. 69), they are not, strictly speaking, +duly prepared loaves, but the bread that is hurriedly baked +to meet a pressing emergency (1Sam. xxviii. 24); thus they +are quite correctly associated with the haste of the exodus, +and described as bread of affliction. At first people do not take +time in a leisurely way to leaven, knead, and bake the year's new +bread, but a hasty cake is prepared in the ashes; this is what is +meant by maccoth. They are contrasted with the Pentecostal +loaves precisely as are the sheaf and the parched ears, which +last, according to Josh. v. 11, may be eaten in their stead, and +without a doubt they were originally not the Easter food of men +merely, but also of the Deity, so that the sheaf comes under the +category of the later spiritual refinements of sacrificial +material. Easter then is the opening, as Pentecost is the closing +festivity, or (what means the same thing) `acereth, /1/ of the seven + +-- Footnote +1. Haneberg, Alterhuemer, 2d edit., p. 656. In Deuteronomy Pentecost +as _`acereth_ lasts for only one day, while Easter and the feast +of tabernacles each ]ast a week. +-- Footnote + + +weeks' "joy of harvest," and the spring festival no longer +puzzles us by the place it holds in the cycle of the three yearly +festivities. But what is the state of the case as regards the +_pesah_? The meaning of the name is not clear; as we have seen, the +word first occurs in Deuteronomy, and there also the time of the +celebration is restricted to the evening and night of the first day +of _maccoth_, from sunset until the following morning. In point of +fact, the _pesah_ points back to the sacrifice of the firstlings +(Exodus xxxiv. 18 seq., xiii. 12 seq.; Deuteronomy xv. 19 seq., xvi. +1 seq.), and it is principally upon this that the historical +character of the whole festivity hinges. It is because Jehovah +smote the first-born of Egypt and spared those of Israel that the +latter thenceforward are held sacred to Him. Such is the +representation given not merely in the Priestly Code but also in +Exodus xiii. 11 seq. But in neither of its sources does the +Jehovistic tradition know anything of this. "Let my people go, +that they may keep a feast unto me in the wilderness with +sacrifices and cattle and sheep: "this from the first is the +demand made upon Pharaoh, and it is in order to be suitably +adorned for this purpose, contemplated by them from the first, +that the departing Israelites borrow festal robes and ornaments +from the Egyptians. Because Pharaoh refuses to allow the Hebrews +to offer to their God the firstlings of cattle that are His due, +Jebovah seizes from him the first-born of men. Thus the exodus is +not the occasion of the festival, but the festival the occasion, if +only a pretended one, of the exodus. If this relationship is +inverted in Exodus xiii, it is because that passage is not one of +the sources of the Jehovistic tradition, but is part of the +redaction, and in fact (as is plain from other reasons with regard +to the entire section xiii. 1-16) of a Deuteronomic redaction. +From this it follows that the elaboration of the historical motive +of the passover is not earlier than Deuteronomy, although perhaps a +certain inclination to that way of explaining it appears before +then, just as in the case of the _maccoth_ (Exodus xii. 34). What +has led to it is evidently the coincidence of the spring festival +with the exodus, already accepted by the older tradition, the +relation of cause and effect having become inverted in course of +time. The only view sanctioned by the nature of the case is that +the Israelite custom of offering the firstlings gave rise to the +narrative of the slaying of the first-born of Egypt; unless the +custom be pre-supposed the story is inexplicable, and the peculiar +selection of its victims by the plague is left without a motive. +The sacrifice of the first-born, of the male first-born, that is to +say--for the females were reared as with us--does not require an +historical explanation, but can be accounted for very simply: it +is the expression of thankfulness to the Deity for fruitful flocks +and herds. If claim is also laid to the human first-born, this is +merely a later generalisation which after all resolves itself +merely into a substitution of an animal offering and an extension +of the original sacrifice. In Exodus xx. 28, 29 and xxxiv. 19 +this consequence does not yet seem to be deduced or even to be +suspected as possible; it first appears in xxxiv. 20 and presents +itself most distinctly in the latest passage (xiii. 12), for +there P+R RXM is contrasted with P+R #GR, and for the first the +expression H(BYR, a technical one in the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel +for child sacrifice, is used. The view of some scholars (most +of them mere casual visitors in the field of Old Testament +research) that the slaying of the first-born male children was +originally precisely the main feature of the passover, hardly +deserves refutation. Like the other festivals, this also, apart +from the view taken of it in the Priestly Code, has a thoroughly +joyous character (Exodus x. 9); Deuteronomy xvi. 7; comp. Isaiah +xxx. 29). There are some historical instances indeed of the +surrender of an only child or of the dearest one, but always +as a voluntary and quite exceptional act; the contrary is not +proved by Hosea xiii. 2. /1/ The offering of + +-- Footnote +1. "They make them molten images of their silver, idols according +to their fancy. To them they speak, men doing sacrifice kiss calves!" +The prophet would hardly blame human sacrifices only thus incidentally, +more in ridicule than in high moral indignation; he would bring it +to prominence the horrible and revolting character of the action +much more than its absurdity. Thus ZBXY )DM means most probably, +"offerers belonging to the human race." At the same time, even if +the expression did mean "sacrificers of men," it would prove nothing +regarding regular sacrifices of children. +-- Footnote + + +human first-born was certainly no regular or commanded exaction in +ancient times; there are no traces of so enormous a blood tax, +but, on the contrary, many of a great preference for eldest sons. +It was not until shortly before the exile that the burning of +children was introduced on a grand scale along with many other +innovations, and supported by a strict interpretation of the +command regarding firstlings (Jeremiah vii. 31, xix. 5; Ezekiel xx. +26). In harmony with this is the fact that the law of Exodus +xiii. 3-16 comes from the hand of the latest redactor of the +Jehovistic history. + +III.I.2. "Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a husbandman. And in +process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit +of the ground an offering unto the Lord; and Abel also brought +an offering of the firstlings of his sheep." +It is out of the simplest, most natural, and most wide-spread +offerings, those of the first-fruits of the flock, herd, and +field, the occasions for which recur regularly with the seasons of +the year, that the annual festivals took their rise. The passover +corresponds with the firstlings of Abel the shepherd, the other +three with the fruits presented by Cain the husbandman; apart +from this difference, in essence and foundation they are all +precisely alike. Their connection with the _aparchai_ of the + +*[first-fruits; firstlings for sacrifice or offering]* + +yearly seasons is indeed assumed rather than expressly stated in +the Jehovistic and Deuteronomistic legislation. Yet in Exodus +xxiii. 17-19, xxxiv. 23-26 we read: + +"Three times in the year shall all thy men appear before the Lord +Jehovah; thou shalt not mingle the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, +neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. +The best of the first-fruits of thy land shalt thou bring into the +house of Jehovah thy God; thou shalt not seethe the kid in the milk +of its mother." + +It is forbidden to appear before Jehovah empty, hence the +connection between the first general sentence and the details +which follow it. Of these, the first seems to relate to the passover; +doubtless indeed it holds good of all animal sacrifices, but in point +of fact these are offered in preponderating numbers at the great +festival after the herds and flocks have produced their young. +The remaining sentences relate to the feasts of harvest and +ingathering, whose connection with the fruits of the field is +otherwise clear. As for Deuteronomy, there also it is required +on the one hand that the dues from the flock and herd and field +shall be personally offered at Jerusalem, and made the occasion +of joyous sacrificial feasts; on the other hand, that three +appearances in the year shall be made at Jerusalem, at Easter, +at Pentecost, and at the feast of tabernacles, and not with empty +hands. These requirements can only be explained on the assumption +that the material of the feasts was that furnished by the dues. +Clearly in Deuteronomy all three coincide; sacrifices, dues, feasts; +other sacrifices than those occasioned by the dues can hardly be +thought of for the purpose of holding a joyous festival before +Jehovah; the dues are, properly speaking, simply those sacrifices +prescribed by popular custom, and therefore fixed and festal, +of which alone the law has occasion to treat. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Deuteronomy xii. 6 seq., 11 seq., xiv. 23-26, xvi. 7, 11, 14. +In the section xiv. 22-xvi. 17, dues and feasts are taken together. +In the first half (xiv. 22-xv. 18) there is a progression from those +acts which are repeated within the course of a year to those which +occur every three years, and finally to those which occur every seven; +in the second half (xv. 19-xvi. 17) recurrence is again made to the +principal, that is, the seasonal dues, first to the firstlings +and the passover feast, and afterwards to the two others, in +connection with which the tithes of the fruits are offered. +-- Footnote + + +It results from the very nature of the case that the people come +together to offer thanks for Jehovah's blessing, but no special +emphasis is laid upon this. In the Jehovistic legislation +(Exodus xxiii., xxxiv.) the terms have not yet come to be fixed, +so that it is hardly possible to speak of a "dies festus" +in the strict sense; festal seasons rather than festal days +are what we have. Easter is celebrated in the month Abib, +when the corn is in the ear (Exodus ix. 31, 32), Pentecost +when the wheat is cut, the autumn festival when the vintage +has been completed,--rather vague and shifting determinations. +Deuteronomy advances a step towards fixing the terms +and intervals more accurately, a circumstance very intimately +connected with the centralisation of the worship in Jerusalem. +Even here, however, we do not meet with one general festive +offering on the part of the community, but only with +isolated private offerings by individuals. + +In correspondence with this the amount of the gifts is left with +considerable vagueness to the good-will of the offerers. Only the +firstlings are definitely demanded. The redemption allowed +in Deuteronomy by means of money which buys a substitute +in Jerusalem has no proper meaning for the earlier time; +yet even then the offerer may in individual instances have availed +himself of liberty of exchange, all the more because even then his +gift, as a sacrificial meal, was essentially a benefit to himself +(Exodus xxiii. 18; Genesis iv. 4, WMXBL<Y>HN). For the +first-fruits of the field Exodus prescribes no measure at all, +Deuteromony demands the tithe of corn, wine, and oil, which, +however, is not to be understood with mathematical strictness, +inasmuch as it is used at sacrificial meals, is not made over to a +second party, and thus does not require to be accounted for. The +tithe, as appears from Deuteronomy xxvi., is offered in autumn, that +is, at the feast of tabernacles; this is the proper autumn +festival of thanksgiving, not only for the wine harvest, but also +for that of the threshing-floor (xvi. 13); it demands seven days, +which must all be spent in Jerusalem, while in the case of maccoth +only one need be spent there. It is self-evident that there is no +restriction to the use of vegetable gifts merely, but sacrifices of +flesh are also assumed--purchased perhaps with the proceeds of the +sale of the tithe. In this way the special character of the +feasts, and their connection with the first-fruits peculiar to +them, could easily disappear, a thing which seems actually to +have occurred in Deuteronomy, and perhaps even earlier. It is not +to be wondered at that much should seem unclear to us which must +have been obvious to contemporaries; in Deuteronomy, moreover, +almost everything is left to standing custom, and only the one +main point insisted on, that the religious worship, and thus also +the festivals, must be celebrated only in Jerusalem. Leaving out +of account the passover, which originally had an independent +standing, and only afterwards through its connection with maccoth +was taken into the regular cycle of the _haggim_, it cannot be +doubted, generally speaking and on the whole, that not only in +the Jehovistic but also in the Deuteronomic legislation the +festivals rest upon agriculture, the basis at once of life and of +religion. The soil, the fruitful soil, is the object of religion; +it takes the place alike of heaven and of hell. Jehovah gives the +land and its produce; He receives the best of what it yields as an +expression of thankfulness, the tithes in recognition of His +seigniorial right. The relation between Himself and His people +first arose from His having given them the land in fee; it continues +to be maintained, inasmuch as good weather and fertility come from Him. +It is in Deuteronomy that one detects the first very perceptible +traces of a historical dress being given to the religion +and the worship, but this process is still confined within modest +limits. The historical event to which recurrence is always made +is the bringing up of Israel out of Egypt, and this is significant +in so far as the bringing up out of Egypt coincides with the leading +into Canaan, that is, with the giving of the land, so that the +historical motive again resolves itself into the natural. In this +way it can be said that not merely the Easter festival but all +festivals are dependent upon the introduction of Israel into Canaan, +and this is what we actually find very clearly in the prayer +(Deuteronomy xxvi.) with which at the feast of tabernacles +the share of the festal gifts falling to the priest is offered +to the Deity. A basket containing fruits is laid upon the altar, +and the following words are spoken: + +"A wandering Aramaean was my father, and he went down into Egypt +and sojourned there, a few men strong, and became there a nation, +great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians evil-entreated them +and oppressed them, and laid upon them hard bondage. Then called +we upon ]ehovah the God of our fathers, and He heard our voice and +looked on our affliction and our labour and our oppression. And +Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and +with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with +signs and with wonders, _and brought us unto this place, and gave us +this land, a land where milk and honey flow!. And now, behold, I +have brought the best of the fruits of the land, which thou, O +Lord, hast given me._" + +Observe here how the act of salvation whereby Israel was founded +issues in the gift of a fruitful land. + +III.II. With this account of the Jehovistic-Deuteronomistic legislation +harmonises the pre-exilic practice so far as that can be traced or +is borne witness to in the historical and prophetical books. +Ancient festivals in Israel must have had the pastoral life as +their basis; only the passover therefore can be regarded as +belonging, to the number of these. /1/ It is + +-- Footnote +1. The ancient Arabs also observed the sacrifice of +the firstlings as a solemnity in the sacred month Rajab, which +originally fell in spring (comp. Ewald, Ztschr. f.d. Kunde +des Morgenlandes, 1840, p. 419; Robertson Smith, Prophets, +p. 383 sq). A festivity mentioned among the earliest, and that +for pastoral Judah, is the sheep-shearing (1Samuel xxv. 2 seq.; +Genesis xxxviii. 12); but it does not appear to have ever developed +into a regular and independent festival. _Aparchai_ of wool and +flax are mentioned in Hosea (ii. 7, 11 [A.V. 5, 9]) as of wool +alone in Deuteronomy (xviii. 4). +-- Footnote + + +with perfect accuracy accordingly that precisely the passover is +postulated as having been the occasion of the exodus, as being a +sacrificial feast that has to be celebrated in the wilderness and +has nothing to do with agriculture or harvest. But it is curious +to notice how little prominence is afterwards given to this +festival, which from the nature of the case is the oldest of all. +It cannot have been known at all to the Book of the Covenant, for +there (Exodus xxii. 29, 30) the command is to leave the firstling +seven days with its dam and on the eighth day to give it to +Jehovah. Probably through the predominance gained by agriculture +and the feasts founded on it the passover fell into disuse in many +parts of Israel, and kept its ground only in districts where the +pastoral and wilderness life still retained its importance. This +would also explain why the passover first comes clearly into +light when Judah alone survives after the fall of Samaria. In +2Kings xxiii. 21 seq. we are told that in the eighteenth year of +King Josiah the passover was held according to the precept of the +law (Deut xvi.), and that for the first time,--never until then from +the days of the Judges had it been so observed. If in this passage +the novelty of the institution is so strongly insisted on, the +reference is less to the essence of the thing than to the manner of +celebration as enjoined in Deuteronomy. Agriculture was learned by +the Hebrews from the Canaanites in whose land they settled, and +in commingling with whom they, during the period of the Judges, +made the transition to a sedentary life. Before the metamorphosis +of shepherds into peasants was effected, they could not possibly +have had feasts which related to agriculture. It would have been +very strange if they had not taken them also over from the +Canaanites. The latter owed the land and its fruits to Baal, and +for this they paid him the due tribute; the Israelites stood in +the same relation to Jehovah. Materially and in itself, the act +was neither heathenish nor Israelite; its character either way +was determined by its destination. There was, therefore, nothing +against a transference of the feasts from Baal to Jehovah; on the +contrary, the transference was a profession of faith that the land +and its produce, and thus all that lay at the foundations of the +national existence, were due not to the heathen deity but to the +God of Israel. The earliest testimony is that which we have to the +existence of the vintage festival in autumn,--in the first instance +as a custom of the Canaanite population of Shechem. In the old and +instructive story of Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal we are told +(Judges ix. 27) of the citizens of Shechem that "they went out +into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, +and celebrated _hillulim_, and went into the house of their god, and +ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech." But this festival must also +have taken root among the Israelites at a tolerably early period. +According to Judges xxi. 19 seq. there was observed yearly at +Shiloh in the vineyards a feast to Jehovah, at which the maidens +went out to dance. Even if the narrative of Judges xix. seq. be +as a whole untrustworthy as history, this does not apply to the +casual trait just mentioned, especially as it is confirmed by +1Samuel i. In this last-cited passage a feast at Shiloh is also +spoken of, as occurring at the end of the year, that is, in autumn +at the time of the _asiph_, /1/ and as being an attraction to pilgrims + +-- Footnote +1. LTQPT HYMYM (i.e., at the new year) 1Samuel i. 20; Exodus +xxxiv. 22. In this sense is also to be understood MYMYM YMYMH +Judges xxi. 19, 1Samuel i. 3. Comp. Zechariah xiv. 16. +-- Footnote + + +from the neighbourhood. Obviously the feast does not occur in all +places at once, but at certain definite places (in Ephraim) which +then influence the surrounding district. The thing is connected +with the origin of larger sanctuaries towards the end of the period +of the Judges, or, more properly speaking, with their being taken +over from the previous inhabitants; thus, for example, on Shechem +becoming an Israelite town the _hillulim_ were no more abolished than +was the sanctuary itself. Over and above this the erection of +great royal temples must have exerted an important influence. +Alike at Jerusalem and at Bethel "the feast" was celebrated from +the days of Solomon and Jeroboam just as previously at Shechem and +Shiloh, in the former place in September, in the latter perhaps +somewhat later. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. 1Kings xii. 32 is, it must be owned, far from trustworthy. +1Kings viii. 2 is difficult to harmonise with vi. 38, if the +interpretation of Bul and Ethanim is correct. +-- Footnote + + +This was at that period the sole actual _panegyris_. [national festivall +The feasts at the beginning of summer may indeed also have been +observed at this early period (Isa ix. 2), but in smaller local +circles. This distinction is still discernible in Deuteronomy, for +although in that book the feast of tabernacles is not theoretically +higher than the others, in point of fact it alone is observed from +beginning to end at the central sanctuary, while Easter, on the +other hand, is for the most part kept at home, being only during +the first day observed at Jerusalem; moreover, the smaller demand +is much more emphatically insisted on than the larger, so that the +first seems to have been an innovation, the latter to have had the +sanction of older custom. Amos and Hosea, presupposing as they do +a splendid cultus and great sanctuaries, doubtless also knew of a +variety of festivals, but they have no occasion to mention any +one by name. More definite notices occur in Isaiah. The +threatening that within a year's time the Assyrians will be in the +land is thus (xxix. 1) given: "Add ye year to year, let the +feasts come round, yet I will distress Jerusalem," and at the +close of the same discourse the prophet expresses himself as +follows (xxxii. 9 seq.): + +"Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless +daughters; give ear unto my speech. Days upon a year shall ye +be troubled, ye careless women; for the vintage shall fail, +the ingathering shall not come. Ye shall smite upon the breasts, +for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine." + +When the two passages are taken together we gather that Isaiah, +following the universal custom of the prophets in coming forward +at great popular gatherings, is here speaking at the time of the +autumn festival, in which the women also took an active part +(Judges xxi. 19 seq.). But this autumn festival, the joyous and +natural character of which is unmistakably revealed, takes place +with him at the change of the year, as may be inferred from a +comparison between the YNQPW of xxix. I, and the TQPT of Exodus +xxxiv. 22, 1Samuel i. 20, and closes a cycle of festivals here +for the first time indicated. + +2. The preceding survey, it must be admitted, scarcely seems fully +to establish the alleged agreement between the Jehovistic law +and the older praxis. Names are nowhere to be found, and in point +of fact it is only the autumn festival that is well attested, +and this, it would appear, as the only festival, as THE feast. +And doubtless it was also the oldest and most important of the +harvest festivals, as it never ceased to be the concluding +solemnity of the year. What has been prosperously brought to +close is what people celebrate most rightly; the conclusion of the +ingathering, both of the threshing and of the vintage, is the most +appropriate of all occasions for a great joint festival,--for this +additional reason, that the term is fixed, not, as in the case of +the joy of reaping, by nature alone, but is in man's hands and +can be regulated by him. Yet even under the older monarchy the +previous festivals must also have already existed as well (Isaiah +xxix. 1). The peculiarity of the feast of tabernacles would then +reduce itself to this, that it was the only general festival at +Jerusalem and Bethel; local celebrations "at all threshing floors +"--i.e., on all high places--are not thereby excluded (Host ix. 1). +But the Jehovistic legislation makes no distinction of local and +central, for it ignores the great temples throughout. /1/ Possibly, + +-- Footnote +1. Exodus xx. 24-26 looks almost like a protest against the arrangements +of the temple of Solomon,--especially ver. 26. +-- Footnote + + +also, it to some extent systematises the hitherto somewhat vaguer +custom; the transition from the _aparchai_ to a feast was perhaps in +practice still somewhat incomplete. In the paucity of positive +data one is justified, however, in speaking of a substantial +agreement, inasmuch as in the two cases the idea of the festivals +is the same. Very instructive in this respect are two sections of +Hosea (chaps. ii. and ix.), which on this account deserve to be +fully gone into. In the first of these Israel is figured as a +woman who receives her maintenance from her husband, that is, from +the Deity; this is the basis of the covenant relationship. But +she falls into error as to the giver of her meat and drink and +clothing, supposing them to come from the idols, and not from +Jehovah. + +"She hath said, I will go after my lovers, who give me +my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my +drink. Doth she then not know that it is I (Jehovah) who have +given her the corn and the wine and the oil, and silver in +abundance, and gold--out of which she maketh false gods? Therefore +will I take back again my corn in its time, and my wine in its +season, and I will take away my wool and my flax that should +cover her nakedness; and now will I discover her shame before the +eyes of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. +And I will bring all her mirth to an end, her festival days, her +new moons and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will +destroy her vines and her fig-trees whereof she saith, 'They are +my hire, that my lovers have given me,' and I will make them a +wilderness, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. Thus will +I visit upon her the days of the false gods, wherein she burnt +fat offerings to them and decked herself with her rings +and her jewels, and went after her lovers and forget me, +saith the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her +into the wilderness, and there I will assign her her vineyards: +then shall she be docile as in her youth, and as in the day +when she came up out of the land of Egypt. Thereafter I +betroth thee unto me anew for ever, in righteousness and in +judgment, in loving kindness and in mercies. In that day, saith +the Lord, will I answer the heavens, and they shall answer the +earth, and the earth shall answer the corn and the wine and the +oil, and these shall answer Jezreel" (ii. 7-24 [5-22]). +The blessing of the land is here the end of religion, and that +quite generally,--alike of the false heathenish and of the true +Israelitish. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Comp. Zech. xiv. 16 seq. All that are left of the nations +which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to +worship Jehovah of hosts and to keep the feast of tabernacles. +And whoso of the families of the earth shall not come up unto +Jerusalem to worship Jehovah of hosts, UPON THEM SHALL BE NO RAIN,. +But for the Egyptians--who on account of the Nile are independent +of rain--another punishment is threatened if they do not come to +keep the feast of tabernacles. +-- Footnote + + +It has for its basis no historical acts of salvation, +but nature simply, which, however, is regarded only as God's +domain and as man's field of labour, and is in no manner itself +deified. The land is Jehovah's house (viii. 1, ix. 15), wherein +He lodges and entertains the nation; in the land and through the +land it is that Israel first becomes the people of Jehovah, just +as a marriage is constituted by the wife's reception into the +house of the husband, and her maintenance there. And as divorce +consists in the wife's dismissal from the house, so is Jehovah's +relation to His people dissolved by His making the land into a +wilderness, or as in the last resort by His actually driving them +forth into the wilderness; He restores it again by "sowing the +nation into the land" anew, causing the heavens to give rain and +the earth to bear, and thereby bringing into honour the name of +"God sown" for Israel (ii. 25 [23]). In accordance with this' +worship consists simply of the thanksgiving due for the gifts of +the soil, the vassalage payable to the superior who has given the +land and its fruits. It _ipso facto_ ceases when the corn and wine +cease; in the wilderness it cannot be thought of, for if God +bestows nothing then man cannot rejoice, and religious worship is +simply rejoicing over blessings bestowed. It has, therefore, +invariably and throughout the character given in the Jehovistic +legislation to the feasts, in which also, according to Hosea's +description, it culminates and is brought to a focus. For the days +of the false gods, on which people adorned themselves and +sacrificed, are just the feasts, and in fact the feasts of +Jehovah, whom however the people worshipped by images, which the +prophet regards as absolutely heathenish. + +Equally instructive is the second passage (ix. 1-6). + +"Rejoice not too loudly, O Israel, like the heathen, that thou +hast gone a whoring from thy God, and lovest the harlot's hire +upon every threshing-floor. The floor and the wine-press shall +not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. They shall not +dwell in Jehovah's land; Ephraim must return to Egypt, and eat +what is unclean in Assyria. Then shall they no more pour out +wine to Jehovah, or set in order sacrifices to Him; like bread of +mourners is their bread, /1/ all that eat thereof become unclean, for + +-- Footnote +1. For Y(RBW (ix. 4) read Y(RKW, and LXMM for LXM. See Kuenen, +National Religions and Universal Religions (1882), p. 312 seq. +-- Footnote + + +their bread shall only be for their hunger, it shall not come +into the house of the Lord. What will ye do in the day of +festival and in the day of the feast of the Lord? For lo, after +they have gone away from among the ruins, Egypt shall keep hold +of them, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant things of +silver shall nettles possess, the thornbush shall be in their +tents." + +It need not surprise us that here again the prophet places +the worship which in intention is obviously meant for Jehovah on +the same footing with the heathen worship which actually has +little to distinguish it externally therefrom, being constrained +to regard the "pleasant things of silver" in the tents in the +high places not as symbols of Jehovah, but as idols, and their +worship as whoredom. Enough that once more we have a clear view +of the character of the popular worship in Israel at that period. +Threshing-floor and wine-press, corn and wine, are its +motives,--vociferous joy, merry shoutings, its expression. All the +pleasure of life is concentrated in the house of Jehovah at the +joyous banquets held to celebrate the coming of the gifts of His +mild beneficence; no more dreadful thought than that a man must +eat his bread like unclean food, like bread of mourners, without +having offered the _aparchai_ at the festival. /2/ It is this + +-- Footnote +2. Times of mourning are, so to speak, times of interdict, during +which intercourse between God and man is suspended. Further, +nothing at all was ever eaten except that of which God had in the +first instance received His share;--not only no flesh but also no +vegetable food, for the "first-fruits" of corn and wine +represented the produce of the year and sanctified the whole. All +else was unclean. Comp. Ezekiel iv. 13. +-- Footnote + + +thought which gives its sting to the threatened exile; for +sacrifice and feast are dependent upon the land, which is the +nursing-mother and the settled home of the nation, the foundation +of its existence and of its worship. + +The complete harmony of this with the essential character of the +worship and of the festivals in the Book of the Covenant, in the +law of the Two Tables, and in Deuteronomy, is clear in itself, +but becomes still more evident by a comparison with the Priestly +Code, to which we now proceed. + + +III.III. + +In the Priestly Code the festal cycle is dealt with in two +separate passages (Leviticus xxiii; Numbers xxviii., xxix.), +of which the first contains a fragment (xxiii. 9-22, and partly +also xxiii. 39-44) not quite homogeneous with the kernel of the +document. In both these accounts also the three great feasts +occur, but with considerable alteration of their essential +character. + +III.III.1. The festal celebration, properly so called, is exhausted +by a prescribed joint offering. There are offered (I.) during +Easter week and also on the day of Pentecost, besides the _tamid_, +two bullocks, one ram, seven lambs as a burnt-offering, and one +he-goat as a sin-offering daily; (2.) at the feast of +tabernacles, from the first to the seventh day two rams, fourteen +lambs, and, in descending series, from thirteen to seven bullocks; +on the eighth day one bullock, one ram, seven lambs as a +burnt offering, besides one he-goat daily as a sin-offering. +Additional voluntary offerings on the part of individuals are not +excluded, but are treated as of secondary importance. Elsewhere, +alike in the older practice (1Samuel i. 4 seq.) and in the law +(Exodus xxiii. 18) it is precisely the festal offering that is a +sacrificial meal, that is to say, a private sacrifice. In +Deuteronomy it has been possible to find anything surprising in +the joyous meals only because people are wont to know their Old +Testament merely through the perspective of the Priestly Code; +at most the only peculiar thing in that book is a certain humane +application of the festal offering, the offerer being required to +invite to it the poor and landless of his acquaintance. But this +is a development which harmonises much more with the old idea of +an offering as a communion between God and man than does the other +self-sufficing general churchly sacrifice. The passover alone +continues in the Priestly Code also to be a sacrificial meal, and +participation therein to be restricted to the family or a limited +society. But this last remnant of the old custom shows itself here +as a peculiar exception; the festival in the house instead of +"before Jehovah " has also something ambiguous about it, and turns +the sacrifice into an entirely profane act of slaughtering +almost--until we come to the rite of expiation, which is +characteristically retained (Exodus xii. 7; comp. Ezekiel xiv. 19). + +Of a piece with this is the circumstance that the "first-fruits" +of the season have come to be separated from the festivals still +more than had been previously the case. While in Deuteronomy +they are still offered at the three great sacrificial meals in +the presence of Jehovah, in the Priestly Code they have +altogether ceased to be offerings at all, and thus also of course +have ceased to be festal offerings, being merely dues payable to +the priests (by whom they are in part collected) and not in any +case brought before the altar. Thus the feasts entirely lose +their peculiar characteristics, the occasions by which they are +inspired and distinguished; by the monotonous sameness of the +unvarying burnt-offering and sin-offering of the community as a +whole they are all put on the same even level, deprived of their +natural spontaneity, and degraded into mere "exercises of +religion." Only some very slight traces continue to bear witness +to, we might rather say, to betray, what was the point from which +the development started, namely, the rites of the barley sheaf, +the loaves of bread, and the booths (Leviticus xxiii.). But these +are mere rites, petrified remains of the old custom; the actual +first-fruits belonging to the owners of the soil are collected by +the priests, the shadow of them is retained at the festival in the +form of the sheaf offered by the whole community--a piece of +symbolism which has now become quite separated from its connection +and is no longer understood. And since the giving of thanks for +the fruits of the field has ceased to have any substantial place +in the feasts, the very shadow of connection between the two also +begins to disappear, for the rites of Leviticus xxiii. are taken +over from an older legislation, and for the most part are passed +over in silence in Numbers xxviii., xxix. Here, again, the passover +has followed a path of its own. Even at an earlier period, +substitution of other cattle and sheep was permitted. But now in +the Priestly Code the firstlings are strictly demanded indeed, +but merely as dues, not as sacrifices; the passover, always a +yearling lamb or kid, has neither in fact nor in time anything to +do with them, but occupies a separate position alongside. But as +it is represented to have been instituted in order that the Hebrew +first born may be spared in the destruction of those of the Egyptians, +this connection betrays the fact that the yearling lambs are after +all only a substitute for the firstlings of all animals fit for +sacrifice, but in comparison with the cattle and sheep of the +Jehovistic tradition and Deuteronomy a secondary substitute, and +one for the uniformity of which there is no motive; and we see +further that if the firstlings are now over and above assigned to +the priests this is equivalent to a reduplication, which has been +made possible first by a complete obscuration, and afterwards +by an artificial revival of the original custom. + +A further symptom also proper to be mentioned here is the fixing of +harvest festival terms by the days of the month, which is to be +found exclusively in the Priestly Code. Easter falls upon the +fifteenth, that is, at full moon, of the first, the feast of +tabernacles upon the same day of the seventh month; Pentecost, +which, strange to say, is left undetermined in Numbers xxviii., +falls, according to Leviticus xxiii., seven weeks after Easter. +This definite dating points not merely to a fixed and uniform +regulation of the cultus, but also to a change in its contents. +For it is not a matter of indifference that according to the +Jehovistic-Deuteronomic legislation Easter is observed in "the +month of corn ears" when the sickle is put to the corn, Pentecost +at the end of the wheat harvest, and the feast of tabernacles +after the ingathering; as harvest feasts they are from their +very nature regulated by the condition of the fruits of the soil. +When they cease to be so, when they are made to depend upon the +phases of the moon, this means that their connection with their +natural occasion is being lost sight of. Doubtless the accurate +determination of dates is correlated with the other circumstance +that the festivals are no longer kept in an isolated way by +people at any place they may choose, but by the whole united +nation at a single spot. It is therefore probable that the fixing +of the date w as accomplished at first in the case of the autumn +festival, which was the first to divest itself of its local +character and most readily suffered a transposition of a week or +two. It was hardest to change in the case of the _maccoth_ +festival; the putting of the sickle to the corn is very +inconvenient to shift. But here the passover seems to have +exerted an influence. For the passover is indeed an annual feast, +but not by the nature of things connected with any particular +season of the year; rather was it dependent originally on the +phases of the moon. Its character as a _pannychis_ [vigil] +(Exodus xii. 42 [LYL #MWRYM]) points in this direction, +as also does the analogy of the Arab feasts. + +The verification of the alleged denaturalisation of the feasts +in the Priestly Code lies in this, that their historical +interpretation, for which the way is already paved by the +Jehovistic tradition, here attains its full development. For +after they have lost their original contents and degenerated into +mere prescribed religious forms, there is nothing to prevent the +refilling of the empty bottles in any way accordant with the +tastes of the period. Now, accordingly, the feast of tabernacles +also becomes historical (Leviticus xxiii.), instituted to commemorate +the booths under which the people had to shelter themselves during +the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. In the case of +Easter a new step in advance is made beyond the assignation of its +motive to the exodus, which is already found in Deuteronomy and +in Exodus xiii. 3 seq. For in the Priestly Code this feast, +which precisely on account of its eminently historical character +is here regarded as by far the most important of all, is much +more than the mere commemoration of a divine act of salvation, it +is itself a saving deed. It is not because Jehovah smote the +firstborn of Egypt that the passover is afterwards instituted on +the contrary, it is instituted beforehand, at the moment of the +exodus, in order that the firstborn of Israel may be spared. +Thus not merely is a historical motive assigned for the custom; +its beginning is itself raised to the dignity of a historical +fact upon which the feast rests,--the shadow elsewhere thrown only +by another historical event here becomes substantial and casts +itself. The state of matters in the case of the unleavened cakes +is very similar. Instead of having it as their occasion and object +to keep in remembrance the hasty midnight departure in which the +travellers were compelled to carry with them their dough +unleavened as it was (Exodus xii. 34), in the Priestly Code they +also are spoken of as having being enjoined beforehand (xii. 15 +seq.), and thus the festival is celebrated in commemoration of +itself; in other words, not merely is a historical motive +assigned to it, it is itself made a historical fact. For this +reason also, the law relating to Easter is removed from all +connection with the tabernacle legislation (Exodus xii. 1 seq.), +and the difficuity that now in the case of the passover the +sanctuary which elsewhere in the Priestly Code is indispensable +must be left out of sight is got over by divesting it as much as +possible of its sacrificial character. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The ignoring of the sanctuary has a reason only in the case of +the first passover, and perhaps ought to be regarded as holding +good for that only. The distinction between the PSX MCRYM and +the PSX HDWRWT is necessary, if only for the reason that the former +is a historical fact, the latter a commemorative observance. +When it is argued for the originality of the passover ritual +in the Priestly Code that it alone fits in with the conditions +of the sojourn in Egypt, the position is not to be disputed. +-- Footnote + + +In the case of Pentecost alone is there no tendency to historical +explanation; that in this instance has been reserved for later +Judaism, which from the chronology of the Book of Exodus +discerned in the feast a commemoration of the giving of the law at +Sinai. But one detects the drift of the later time. + +It has been already pointed out, in what has just been said, that +as regards this development the centralisation of the cultus was +epochmaking. Centralisation is synonymous with generalisation +and fixity, and these are the external features by which +the festivals of the Priestly Code are distinguished from those +which preceded them. In evidence I point to the prescribed +sacrifice of the community instead of the spontaneous sacrifice +of the individual, to the date fixed for the 15th of the month, +to the complete separation between sacrifices and dues, to the +reduction of the passover to uniformity; nothing is free or the +spontaneous growth of nature, nothing is indefinite and still +in process of becoming; all is statutory, sharply defined, +distinct. But the centralisation of the cultus had also not +a little to do with the inner change which the feasts underwent. +At first the gifts of the various seasons of the year are offered +by the individual houses as each one finds convenient; afterwards +they are combined, and festivals come into existence; last of all, +the united offerings of individuals fall into the back ground when +compared with the single joint-offering on behalf of the entire +community. According as stress is laid upon the common character +of the festival and uniformity in its observance, in precisely the +same degree does it become separated from the roots from which it +sprang, and grow more and more abstract. That it is then very +ready to assume a historical meaning may partly also be attributed +to the circumstance that history is not, like harvest, a personal +experience of individual households, but rather an experience of +the nation as a whole. One does not fail to observe, of course, +that the festivals--which always to a certain degree have a +centralising tendency--have IN THEMSELVES a disposition to become +removed from the particular motives of their institution, but in +no part of the legislation has this gone so far as in the Priestly +Code. While everywhere else they still continue to stand, as +we have seen, in a clear relationship to the land and its increase, +and are at one and the same time the great days of homage and +tribute for the superior and grantor of the soil, here this +connection falls entirely out of sight. As in opposition to the +Book of the Covenant and Deuteronomy, nay, even to the corpus +itself which forms the basis of Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., one can +characterise the entire Priestly Code as the wilderness +legislation, inasmuch as it abstracts from the natural conditions +and motives of the actual life of the people in the land of Canaan +and rears the hierocracy on the _tabula rasa_ of the wilderness, the +negation of nature, by means of the bald statutes of arbitrary +absolutism, so also the festivals, in which the connection of the +cultus with agriculture appears most strongly, have as much as +possible been turned into wilderness festivals, but most of all +the Easter festival, which at the same time has become the most +important. + +III.III.2. The centralisation of the cultus, the revolutionising +influence of which is seen in the Priestly Code, is begun by Deuteronomy. +The former rests upon the latter, and draws its as yet unsuspected +consequences. This general relation is maintained also in +details; in the first place, in the names of the feasts, which are +the same in both,--_pesah, shabuoth, sukkoth_. This is not without +its inner significance, for _asiph_ (ingathering) would have placed +much greater hindrances in the way of the introduction of a +historical interpretation than does sukkoth (booths). So also +with the prominence given to the passover, a festival mentioned +nowhere previously--a prominence which is much more striking in the +Priestly Code than in Deuteronomy. Next, this relation is +observed in the duration of the feasts. While Deuteronomy +certainly does not fix their date of commencement with the same +definiteness, it nevertheless in this respect makes a great +advance upon the Jehovistic legislation, inasmuch as it lays down +the rule of a week for Easter and Tabernacles, and of a day for +Pentecost. The Priestly Code is on the whole in agreement with +this, and also with the time determination of the relation of +Pentecost to Easter, but its provisions are more fully developed +in details. The passover, in the first month, on the evening of +the 14th, here also indeed begins the feast, but does not, as in +Deuteronomy xvi. 4, 8, count as the first day of Easter week; +on the contrary, the latter does not begin until the 15th and +closes with the 21st (comp. Leviticus xxiii. 6; Numbers xxviii. 17; +Exodus xii. 18). The beginning of the festival week being +thus distinctly indicated, there arises in this way not merely +an ordinary but also an extra-ordinary feast day more, the day +after the passover, on which already, according to the injunctions +of Deuteronomy, the pilgrims were required to set out early in the +morning on the return journey to their homes. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It is impossible to explain away this discrepancy by the +circumstance that in the Priestly Code the day is reckoned from +the evening; for (1.) this fact has no practical bearing, as the +dating reckons at any rate from the morning, and the evening +preceding the 15th is always called the 14th of the month (Leviticus +xiii. 27, 32); (2.) the first day of the feast in Deuteronomy +is just the day on the evening of which the passover is held, and +upon it there follow not seven but six days more, whereas in the +Priestly Code the celebration extends from the 14th to the 21st of +the month (Exodus xii. 18). When the MXRT H#BT: is made to +refer, not as in Josh. v. 11 to the 14th, but as in Jewish +tradition (LXX on Leviticus xxiii. 11) to the day following the +15th of Nisan, thee 16th of Nisan is added to the 14th and 15th +as a special feast day. +-- Footnote + + +Another advance consists in this, that not only the passover, +as in Deuteronomy, or the additional first day of the feast besides, +but also the seventh (which, according to Deuteronomy xvi. 8, +is marked only by rest), must be observed as _miqra qodesh_ in +Jerusalem. In other words, such pilgrims as do not live in the +immediate neighbourhood are compelled to pass the whole week there, +an exaction which enables us to mark the progress made with +centralisation, when the much more moderate demands of Deuteronomy +are compared. The feast of tabernacles is in the latter law also +observed from beginning to end at Jerusalem, but the Priestly Code +has contrived to add to it an eighth day as an _`acereth_ to the +principal feast, which indeed still appears to be wanting in the +older portion of Leviticus xxiii. From all this it is indisputable +that the Priestly Code has its nearest relations with Deuteronomy, +but goes beyond it in the same direction as that in which Deuteronomy +itself goes beyond the Jehovistic legislation. In any case the +intermediate place in the series belongs to Deuteronomy, and if +we begin that series with the Priestly Code, we must in consistency +close it with the Sinaitic Book of the Covenant (Exodus xx. 23 seq.). + +After King Josiah had published Deuteronomy and had made it the +Book of the Covenant by a solemn engagement of the people (621 +B.C.), he commanded them to "keep the passover to Jehovah your God +as it is written in this Book;" such a passover had never been +observed from the days of the judges, or throughout the entire +period of the kings (2Kings xxiii. 21, 22). And when Ezra the +scribe introduced the Pentateuch as we now have it as the +fundamental law of the church of the second temple (444 B.C.), it +was found written in the Torah which Jehovah had commanded by +Moses, that the children of Israel were to live in booths during +the feast in the seventh month, and further, to use branches +of olive and myrtle and palm for this purpose, and that the people +went and made to themselves booths accordingly; such a thing had +not been done "since the days of Joshua the son of Nun even unto +that day " (Nehemiah viii. 14 seq.). That Josiah's passover rests +upon Deuteronomy xvi. and not upon Exodus xii. is sufficiently +proved by the circumstance that the observance of the festival +stands in connection with the new unity of the cultus, and is +intended to be an exemplification of it, while the precept of +Exodus xii., if literally followed, could only have served to +destroy it. We thus find that the two promulgations of the law, +so great in their importance and so like one another in their +character, both take place at the time of a festival, the one +in spring, the other in harvest; and we also discover that the +festal observance of the Priestly Code first began to show life +and to gain currency about two hundred years later than that +of Deuteronomy. This can be proved in yet another way. The author +of the Book of Kings knows only of a seven days' duration +of the feast of tabernacles (1Kings viii. 66); Solomon dismisses +the people on the eighth day. On the other hand, in the parallel +passage in Chronicles (2Chronicles vii. 9) the king holds +the _`acereth_ on the eighth, and does not dismiss the people until +the following day, the twenty-third of the month; that is to say, +the Deuteronomic use, which is followed by the older author and +by Ezekiel (xiv. 25) who was, roughly speaking, his +contemporary, is corrected by the later writer into conformity +with that of the Priestly Code in force since the time of Ezra +(Nehemiah viii. 18). In later Judaism the inclination to assert +most strongly precisely that which is most open to dispute led +to the well-known result that the eighth day of the feast was +regarded as the most splendid of all (John vii. 37). + +On this question also the Book of Ezekiel stands nearest the +Priestly Code, ordaining as follows (xiv. 21-25):-- +"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall +keep the passover, ye shall eat maccoth seven days; on that day +shall the prince offer for himself and for all the people of the +land a bullock for a sin-offering, and during the seven days +he shall offer a burnt-offering to the Lord, seven bullocks +and seven rams daily for the seven days, and a he-goat daily +for a sin offering; and he shall offer as a meal-offering an ephah +for every bullock and every ram and a hin of oil for the ephah. +In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, in the +feast shall he do the like for seven days, according to the +sin-offering, according to the burnt-offering, and according +to the meal-offering, and according to the oil." +Here indeed in details hardly any point is in agreement with the +prescriptions of the ritual law of Leviticus xxiii., Numbers xxviii., +xxix. Apart from the fact that the day of Pentecost is omitted +(it is restored in the Massoretic text by an absurd correction +in ver. 11), in the first place there is a discrepancy as to the +DURATION of the feasts; both last seven and not eight days, +and the passover is taken for the first day of Easter, as in +Deuteronomy. Further, the offerings differ, alike by their +never-varying number and by their quality; in particular, +nothing is said of the passover lamb, but a bullock as a +general sin-offering is mentioned instead. From the _minha_ the +wine is wanting, but this must be left out of the account, for +Ezekiel banishes wine from the service on principle. Lastly, it +is not the CONGREGATION that sacrifices, but the prince for +himself and for the PEOPLE. But in spite of all differences the +general similarity is apparent; one sees that here for the first +time we have something which at all points admits of correlation +with the Priestly Code, but is quite disparate with the +Jehovistic legislation, and half so with that of Deuteronomy. +On both hands we find the term fixed according to the day +of the month, the strictly prescribed joint burnt-offering +and sin-offering, the absence of relation first-fruits +and agriculture, the obliteration of natural distinctions so as +to make one general churchly festival. But Ezekiel surely could +hardly have had any motive for reproducing Leviticus xxiii. and Numbers +xxviii. seq., and still less for the introduction of a number of +aimless variations as he did so. Let it be observed that in no +one detail does he contradict Deuteronomy, while yet he stands so +infinitely nearer to the Priestly Code; the relationship is not +an arbitrary one, but arises from their place in time. Ezekiel is +the forerunner of the priestly legislator in the Pentateuch; his +pence and people, to some extent invested with the colouring of +the bygone period of the monarchy, are the antecedents of the +congregation of the tabernacle and the second temple. Against +this supposition there is nothing to be alleged, and it is the +rational one, for this reason, that it was not Ezekiel but the +Priestly Code that furnished the norm for the praxis of the later +period. + +For, as the festival system of the Priestly Code absolutely +refuses to accommodate itself to the manner of the older worship as +we are made acquainted with it in Hos. ii., ix. and elsewhere, +in the same degree does it furnish in every respect the standard +for the praxis of post-exilian Judaism, and, therefore, also for +our ideas thence derived. No one in reading the New Testament +dreams of any other manner of keeping the passover than that +of Exodus xii., or of any other offering than the paschal lamb +there prescribed. One might perhaps hazard the conjecture that +if in the wilderness legislation of the Code there is no trace +of agriculture being regarded as the basis of life, which it still +is in Deuteronomy and even in the kernel of Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., +this also is a proof that the Code belongs to a very recent rather +than to a very early period, when agriculture was no longer rather +than not yet. With the Babylonian captivity the Jews lost their +fixed seats, and so became a trading people. + +III.III.3. No notice has as yet been taken of one phenomenon which +distinguishes the Priestly Code, namely, that in it the +tripartite cycle of the feasts is extended and interrupted. In +the chronologically arranged enumeration of Leviticus xxiii. +and Numbers xxviii., xxix., two other feast days are interpolated +between Pentecost and Tabernacles: new year on the first, and the +great day of atonement on the tenth of the seventh month. One +perceives to what an extent the three originally connected +harvest feasts have lost their distinctive character, when it is +observed that these two heterogeneous days make their appearance in +the midst of them;--the _yom kippur_ in the same series with the +old _haggim_, i.e., dances, which were occasions of pure pleasure +and joy, not to be named in the same day with fasts and mournings. +The following points demand notice in detail. + +In the period of the kings the change of the year occurred in +autumn. The autumn festival marked the close of the year and of +the festal cycle (Exodus xxiii. 16, xxxiv. 22; 1Samuel i. 21, 21; +Isaiah xxix. 1, xxxii. 10). Deuteronomy was discovered in +the eighteenth year of Josiah, and in the very same year Easter +was observed in accordance with the prescriptions of that +law--which could not have been unless the year had begun in autumn. +Now the ECCLESIASTICAL festival of new year in the Priestly Code +is also autumnal. /1/ The _yom teruah_ (Leviticus xxiii 24, 2;; + +-- Footnote +1. In this way Tabernacles comes not before but after new year; +this probably is connected with the more definite dating (on the +fifteenth day of the month), but is quite contrary to the old +custom and the meaning of the feast. +-- Footnote + + +Numbers xxix. 1 seq.) falls on the first new moon of autumn, +and it follows from a tradition confirmed by Leviticus xxv. 9, 10, +that this day was celebrated as new year [R)# H#NH). But it is +always spoken of as the first of the seventh month. That is to +say, the civil new year has been separated from the ecclesiastical +and been transferred to spring; the ecclesiastical can only be +regarded as a relic surviving from an earlier period, and betrays +strikingly the priority of the division of the year that +prevailed in the time of the older monarchy. It appears to have +first begun to give way under the influence of the Babylonians, +who observed the spring era. /1/ For the designation of the + +-- Footnote +1. In Exodus xii. 2 this change of era is formally commanded by +Moses: "This month (the passover month) shall be the beginning of +months unto you, it shall be to you the first of the months of the +year." According to George Smith, the Assyrian year commenced at +the vernal equinox; the Assyrian use depends on the Babylonian +(Assyrian Eponym Canon, p. 19). +-- Footnote + + +months by numbers instead of by the old Hebrew names, Abib, Zif, +Bul, Ethanim and the like,--a style which arises together with the +use of the spring era,--does not yet occur in Deuteronomy (xvi.1), +but apart from the Priestly Code, and the last redactor of +the Pentateuch (Deuteronomy i. 3) is found for the first time in +writers of the period of the exile. It is first found in Jeremiah, +but only in those portions of his book which were not committed +to writing by him, or at least have been edited by a later hand; /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Kuenen, Hist.-Krit. Onderzoek (1863), ii. pp. 197, 214. +-- Footnote + + +then in Ezekiel and the author of the Book of Kings, who +explains the names he found in his source by giving the numbers +(1Kings vi. 37, 38, viii. 2); next in Haggai and Zechariah; +and lastly in Chronicles, though here already the +Babylonio-Syrian names of the months, which at first were not used +in Hebrew, have begun to find their way in (Nehemiah i. 1, ii. 1; +Zech. i. 7). The Syrian names are always given along with the +numbers in the Book of Esther, and are used to the exclusion of +all others in that of Maccabees. It would be absurd to attempt to +explain this demonstrable change which took place in the calendar +after the exile as a mere incidental effect of the Priestly Code, +hitherto in a state of suspended animation, rather than by +reference to general causes arising from the circumstances of the +time, under whose influence the Priestly Code itself also stood, +and which then had for their result a complete change in the +greater accuracy and more general applicability of the methods +by which time was reckoned. A similar phenomenon presents itself +in connection with the metric system. The "shekel of the +sanctuary," often mentioned in the Priestly Code, and there only, +cannot possibly have borne this name until the most natural objects +of the old Israelite _regime_ had begun to appear surrounded by a +legendary nimbus, because themselves no longer in actual existence. +Over against it we have the "king's weight" mentioned in a gloss +in 2Samuel xiv. 26, the king being none other than the great king +of Babylon. It is an interesting circumstance that the "shekel +of the sanctuary "spoken of in the Priestly Code is still the ordinary +shekel in Ezekiel; compare Exodus xxx. 13 with Ezekiel xliv. 12. + +During the exile the observance of the ecclesiastical new year +seems to have taken place not on the first but on the tenth of the +seventh month (Leviticus xxv. 9; Ezekiel xl. 1), and there is +nothing to be wondered at in this, after once it had come to be +separated from the actual beginning of the year. /1/ This fact alone + +-- Footnote +1. The tenth of the month is to be taken in Ezekiel as strictly new +year's day; for the designation R)# H#NH occurs in no other +meaning than this, and moreover it is by no mere accident that the +prophet has his vision of the new Jerusalem precisely at the new year. +But according to Leviticus xxv. 9 it is the seventh month that is meant, +on the tenth day of which the trumpets are blown at the commencement +of the year of jubilee. +-- Footnote + + +would suffice to bring into a clear light the late origin of the +great day of atonement in Leviticus xvi., which at a subsequent +period was observed on this date; for although as a ceremonial of +general purification that day occurs appropriately enough at the +change of the year, the joyful sound of the new year trumpets ill +befits its quiet solemnity, the YWM TRW(H in the Priestly Code +being in fact fixed for the first of the seventh month. +Notwithstanding its conspicuous importance, there is nothing known +of the great day of atonement either in the Jehovistic and +Deuteronomic portions of the Pentateuch or in the historical and +prophetical books. It first begins to show itself in embryo +during the exile. Ezekiel (xiv. 18-20) appoints two great +expiations at the beginning of the two halves of the year; for in +xiv. 20 the LXX must be accepted, which reads B#B(Y BXD#, "in +the seventh month at new moon." The second of these, in autumn, +is similar to that of the Priestly Code, only that it falls on +the first and new year on the tenth, while in the latter, on the +contrary, new year is observed on the first and the atonement on +the tenth; the ritual is also much simpler. Zechariah towards +the end of the sixth century looks back upon two regular fast +days, in the fifth and the seventh month, as having been in +observance for seventy years, that is, from the beginning of the +exile (vii. 5), and to these he adds (viii. 19) two others in the +fourth and in the tenth. They refer, according to the very probable +explanation of C. B. Michaelis, to the historical days of calamity +which preceded the exile. On the ninth day of the fourth month +Jerusalem was taken (Jeremiah xxxix. 2); on the seventh of the fifth +the city and the temple were burnt (2Kings xxv. 8); in the seventh +month Gedaliah was murdered, and all that remained of the Jewish state +annihilated (Jeremiah xli.); in the tenth the siege of the city by +Nebuchadnezzar was begun (2Kings xxv. 1). Zechariah also still +knows nothing of the great day of atonement in Leviticus xvi., but +only mentions among others the fast of the seventh month as +having subsisted for seventy years. Even in 444 B.C., the year +of the publication of the Pentateuch by Ezra, the great day of +atonement has not yet come into force. Ezra begins the reading of +the law in the beginning of the seventh month, and afterwards the +feast of tabernacles is observed on the fifteenth; of an atoning +solemnity on the tenth of the month not a word is said in the +circumstantial narrative, which, moreover, is one specially +interested in the liturgical element, but it is made up for on the +twenty-fourth (Nehemiah viii., ix.). This _testimonium e silentio_ +is enough; down to that date the great day of the Priestly Code +(now introduced for the first time) had not existed. /1/ The term is + +-- Footnote +1. "If Leviticus xvi. belongs to the original of the Priestly Code, +and the entire Pentateuch was published by Ezra in the year 444, +and yet the day was not then celebrated, then it has _ipso facto_ +been conceded that it is possible that there can be laws which +yet are not carried into effect." So writes Dillmann in his +introduction to Leviticus xvi. (1880, p. 525); every one will grant +him that the law, before it could attain public currency, must +have been previously written and promulgated. +-- Footnote + + +partly fixed, following Ezekiel, by reference to the old new +year's day (Leviticus xxv. 9); partly, following Zechariah, by +reference to the fast of Gedaliah, which indeed was still observed +later as a separate solemnity. + +Even before the exile general fast days doubtless occurred, but +they were specially appointed, and always arose out of +extraordinary occasions, when some sin was brought home to the +public conscience, or when the divine anger threatened, especially +in connection with calamities affecting the produce of the soil +(1Kings xxi. 9, 12; Jeremiah xiv. 12, xxxvi. 6, 9; Joel i. 14, +ii. 12, 15). In the exile they began to be a regular custom (Isaiah +lviii.), doubtless in the first instance in remembrance of the +_dies atri_ that had been experienced, but also in a certain measure +as a surrogate, suited to the circumstances, for the joyous popular +gatherings of Easter, Pentecost, and Tabernacles which were +possible only in the Holy Land. /l/ + +-- Footnote +1. After the second destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the system +of fasts received such an impulse that it was necessary to draw up +a list of the days on which fasting was forbidden. +-- Footnote + + +At last they came into a position of co-ordination with the feasts, +and became a stated and very important element of the ordinary worship. +In the Priestly Code, the great fast in the tenth of the seventh +month is the holiest day of all the year. Nothing could illustrate +more clearly the contrast between the new cultus and the old; fixing +its regard at all points on sin and its atonement, it reaches its +culmination in a great atoning solemnity. It is as if the temper +of the exile had carried itself into the time of liberation also, +at least during the opening centuries; as if men had felt +themselves not as in an earlier age only momentarily and in +special circumstances, but unceasingly, under the leaden pressure +of sin and wrath. It is hardly necessary to add here expressly +that also in regard to the day of atonement as a day sacred +above all others the Priestly Code became authoritative for the +post-exilian period. "Ritual and sacrifice have through the +misfortunes of the times disappeared, but this has retained all its +old sacredness; unless a man has wholly cut himself adrift from +Judaism he keeps this day, however indifferent he may be to all +its other usages and feasts." + + +III.IV. [.1?] + +A word, lastly, on the lunar feasts, that is, new moon and Sabbath. +That the two are connected cannot be gathered from the Pentateuch, +but something of the sort is implied in Amos viii. 5, and 2Kings +iv. 22, 23. In Amos the corn-dealers, impatient of every +interruption of their trade, exclaim, "When will the new moon be +gone, that we may sell corn; and the Sabbath, that we may set +forth wheat?" In the other passage the husband of the woman of +Shunem, when she begs him for an ass and a servant that she may go +to the prophet Elisha, asks why it is that she proposes such a +journey now, for "it is neither new moon nor Sabbath;" it is +not Sunday, as we might say. Probably the Sabbath was originally +regulated by the phases of the moon, and thus occurred on the +seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first (and twenty-eighth) day of the +month, the new moon being reckoned as the first; at least no other +explanation can be discovered. /2/ For that the week should + +-- Footnote +2 George Smith, Assyrian Eponymn Canon, pp. 19, 20. "Among +the Assyrians the first twenty-eight days of every month were +divided into four weeks of seven days each, the seventh, fourteenth, +twenty-first, and twenty-eight days respectively being Sabbaths; +and there was a general prohibition of work on these days." +See further Hyde, Hist. Rel. Vet. Pers., p. 239. Among the Syrians +$bbh means the week, just as among the Arabs _sanba_ +and _sanbata_ (Pl. _sanabit_), dim. _suneibita_) mean a period of +time (Lagarde, Ps. Hieronymi; p. 158), and in fact, according +to the lexicographers, a comparatively long one. But in the sole +case cited by the _Tag al 'Arus_, it means rather a short interval. +"What is youth? It is the beginning of a _sanbata_," meaning +something like the Sunday of a week. According to this it would +appear as if the sabbath had been originally the week itself, +and only afterwards became the weekly festival day. The identity +of the Syriac word (ta sabbata) in the New Testament) with the +Hebrew is guaranteed by the twofold Arabic form. +-- Footnote + + +be conditioned by the seven planets seems very barely credible. +It was not until after people had got their seven days that they +began to call them after the seven planets; /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The peculiar order in which the names of the planets are used +to designate the days of the week makes this very clear; see Ideler, +Handb. d. Chron. i. 178 seq., ii 77 seq. +-- Footnote + + +the number seven is the only bond of connection between them. +Doubtless the week is older than the names of its days. + +Lunar feasts, we may safely say, are in every case older than +annual or harvest feasts; and certainly they are so in the case +of the Hebrews. In the pre-historic period the new moon must have +been observed with such preference that an ancient name for it, +which is no longer found in Biblical Hebrew, even furnished the +root of the general word for a festive occasion, which is used for +the vintage feast in a passage so early as Judges ix. 27. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Sprenger (Leben Moh. iii. 527) and Lagarde have rightly +correlated the Hebrew _hallel_ with the Arabic _ahalla_ (to call out, +_labbaika_, see, for example Abulf. i. p. 180). But there is no +uncertainty as to the derivation of _ahalla_ from _hilal_ (new +moon) +-- Footnote + + +But it is established by historical testimonies besides that the +new moon festival anciently stood, at least, on a level with that +of the Sabbath. Compare 1Samuel xx. 5, 6; ~2Kings iv. 23; +Annos viii. 5; Isa i. 13; Hos. ii. 13 (A.V. 11). In the +Jehovistic and Deuteronomic legislation, however, it is completely +ignored, and if it comes into somewhat greater prominence in that +of Ezekiel and the Priestly Code (but without being for a moment +to be compared with the Sabbath), this perhaps has to do with the +circumstance that in the latter the great festivals are regulated +by the new moon, and that therefore it is important that this +should be observed. It may have been with a deliberate intention +that the new moon festival was thrust aside on account of all +sorts of heathenish superstition which readily associated +themselves with it; but, on the other hand, it is possible that +the undersigned preponderance gained by the Sabbath may have ultimately +given it independence, and led to the reckoning of time by +regular intervals of seven days without regard to new moon, with +which now it came into collision, instead of, as formerly, being +supported by it. + +As a lunar festival doubtless the Sabbath also went back to a very +remote antiquity. But with the Israelites the day acquired an +altogether peculiar significance whereby it was distinguished +from all other feast days; it became the day of rest _par +excellence_. Originally the rest is only a consequence of the +feast, e.g. that of the harvest festival after the period of +severe labour; the new moons also were marked in this way (Amos +viii. 5; 2Kings iv. 23). In the case of the Sabbath also, rest is, +properly speaking, only the consequence of the fact that the day +is the festal and sacrificial day of the week (Isaiah i. 13; +Ezekiel xlvi. 1 seq.), on which the shewbread was laid out; +but here, doubtless on account of the regularity with which it +every eighth day interrupted the round of everyday work, this +gradually became the essential attribute. In the end even its name +came to be interpreted as if derived from the verb "to rest." +But as a day of rest it cannot be so very primitive in its origin; +in this attribute it presupposes agriculture and a tolerably +hard-pressed working-day life. With this it agrees that an +intensification of the rest of the Sabbath among the Israelites +admits of being traced in the course of the history. The highest +development, amounting even to a change of quality, is seen +in the Priestly Code. + +According to 2Kings iv. 22, 23, one has on Sabbath time for +occupations that are not of an everyday kind; servant and ass +can be taken on a journey which is longer than that "of a +Sabbath day." In Hos. ii. 13 (11) we read, "I make an end of all +your joy, your feasts, your new moons and your Sabbaths," that is +to say, the last-named share with the first the happy joyousness +which is impossible in the exile which Jehovah threatens. With +the Jehovist and the Deuteronomist the Sabbath, which, it is true, +is already extended in Amos viii. 5 to commerce, is an +institution specially for agriculture; it is the day of +refreshment for the people and the cattle, and is accordingly +employed for social ends in the same way as the sacrificial meal +is (Exodus xx. 10, xxiii. 12, xxxiv. 21; Deuteronomy v. 13, 14). +Although the moral turn given to the observance is genuinely +Israelitic and not original, yet the rest even here still +continues to be a feast, a satisfaction for the labouring classes; +for what is enjoined as a duty--upon the Israelite rulers, that +is, to whom the legislation is directed--is less that they should +rest than that they should give rest. In the Priestly Code, on +the contrary, the rest of the Sabbath has nothing at all of the +nature of the joyous breathing-time from the load of life which a +festival affords, but is a thing for itself, which separates the +Sabbath not only from the week days, but also from the festival +days, and approaches an ascetic exercise much more nearly than a +restful refreshment. It is taken in a perfectly abstract manner, +not as rest from ordinary work, but as rest absolutely. On the +holy day it is not lawful to leave the camp to gather sticks or +manna (Exod. xvi.; Numbers xv.), not even to kindle a fire or cook +a meal (Exodus xxxv. 3); this rest is in fact a sacrifice of +abstinence from all occupation, for which preparation must already +begin on the preceding day (Exodus xvi.). Of the Sabbath of the +Priestly Code in fact it could not be said that it was made for +man (Mark ii. 27); rather is it a statute that presents itself +with all the rigour of a law of nature, having its reason with +itself, and being observed even by the Creator. The original +narrative of the Creation, according to which God finished His +work on the seventh day, and therefore sanctified it, is amended so +as to be made to say that He finished in six days and rested on +the seventh. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 The contradiction is indubitable when in Genesis ii. 2 it +is said in the first place that on the seventh day God ended +the work which He had made; and then that He rested on the +seventh day from His work. Obviously the second clause is +an authentic interpretation added from very intelligible motives. +-- Footnote + + +Tendencies to such an exaggeration of the Sabbath rest as would +make it absolute are found from the Chaldaean period. While +Isaiah, regarding the Sabbath purely as a sacrificial day, says, +"Bring no more vain oblations; it is an abominable incense unto +me; new moon and Sabbath, the temple assembly---I cannot endure +iniquity and solemn meeting," Jeremiah, on the other hand, is the +first of the prophets who stands up for a stricter sanctification +of the seventh day, treating it, however, merely as a day of +rest: "Bear no burden on the Sabbath day, neither bring in by +the gates of Jerusalem nor carry forth a burden out of your +houses, neither do ye any work" (xvii. 21, 22). He adds that this +precept had indeed been given to the fathers, but hitherto has not +been kept; thus, what was traditional appears to have been only +the abstinence from field work and perhaps also from professional +pursuits. In this respect the attitude of Jeremiah is that which +is taken also by his exilian followers, not merely by Ezekiel +(xx. 16, xxii. 263 but also by the Great Unknown (Isaiah lvi. 2, +lviii. 13), who does not otherwise manifest any express partiality +for cultus. While according to Hos. ii. 13, and even Lam. ii. 6, +the Sabbath, as well as the rest of the acts of divine worship, +must cease outside of the Holy Land, it in fact gained in +importance to an extraordinary degree during the exile, having +severed itself completely, not merely from agriculture, but in +particular also from the sacrificial system, and gained entire +independence as a holy solemnity of rest. Accordingly, it became +along with circumcision the symbol that bound together the Jewish +diaspora; thus already in the Priestly Code the two institutions +are the general distinguishing marks of religion [)WT Genesis xvii. +10, 11; Exodus xxxi. 13] which also continue to subsist under +circumstances where as in the exile the conditions of the Mosaic +worship are not present (Genesis ii. 3, xvii. 12, 13). The trouble +which in the meantime the organisers of the church of the second +temple had in forcing into effect the new and strict regulations +is clear from Nehemiah xiii. 15 seq. But they were ultimately +successful. The solemnisation of the Sabbath in Judaism continued +to develop logically on the basis of the priestly legislation, but +always approximating with increasing nearness to the idea; of +absolute rest, so that for the straitest sect of the Pharisees the +business of preparing for the sacred day absorbed the whole week, +and half man's life, so to speak, existed for it alone. "From +Sunday onwards think of the Sabbath," says Shammai. Two details +are worthy of special prominence; the distinction between _yom tob_ +and _shabbath_, comparable to that drawn by the Puritans between +Sundays and feast days, and the discussion as to whether the +Sabbath was broken by divine worship; both bring into +recognition that tendency of the Priestly Code in which the later +custom separates itself from its original roots. + +III.IV.2. Connected with the Sabbath is the sabbatical year. +In the Book of the Covenant it is commanded that a Hebrew who has +been bought as a slave must after six years of service be liberated +on the seventh unless he himself wishes to remain (Exodus xxi. 2-6). +By the same authority it is ordained in another passage that the +land and fruit-gardens are to be wrought and their produce gathered +for six years, but on the seventh the produce is to be surrendered +(#M+), that the poor of the people may eat, and what they leave +the beasts of the field may <e>at (xxiii. 10, 11). Here there is +no word of a sabbatical year. The liberation of the Hebrew slave +takes place six years after his purchase, that is, the term is a +relative one. In like manner, in the other ordinance there is +nothing to indicate an absolute seventh year; and besides, it is +not a Sabbath or fallow time for the _land_ that is contemplated, +but a surrender of the _harvest_. + +The first of these commands is repeated in Deuteronomy without +material alteration, and to a certain extent word for word (xv. +12-18). The other has at least an analogue in Deuteronomy xv. 1-6: +"At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release +(surrender, s*m+h), and this is the manner of it; no creditor +that lendeth aught shall exact it of his neighbour or of his +brother, because Jehovah's release has been proclaimed; of a +foreigner thou mayst exact it again, but that which is of thine +with thy brother, thy hand shall release." + +That this precept is parallel with Exodus xxiii. 10, 11, is shown +by the word #m+h~; but this has a different meaning put upon it +which plainly is introduced as new. Here it is not landed property +that is being dealt with, but money, and what has to be +surrendered is not the interest of the debt merely (comparable to +the fruit of the soil), but the capital itself; the last clause +admits of no other construction, however unsuitable the regulation +may be. A step towards the sabbatical year is discernible in it, +in so far as the seventh year term is not a different one for each +individual debt according to the date when it was incurred (in +which case it might have been simply a period of prescription), +but is a uniform and common term publicly fixed: it is absolute, +not relative. But it does not embrace the whole seventh year, +it does not come in at the end of six years as in Exodus, but at +the end of seven; the surrender of the harvest demands the whole +year, the remission of debts, comparatively speaking, only a moment. + +The sabbatical year is peculiar to the Priestly Code, or, to speak +more correctly, to that collection of laws incorporated and edited +by it, which lies at the basis of Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. In Leviticus +xxv. 1-7 we read: + +"When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep +a Sabbath to Jehovah. Six years shalt thou sow thy field and prune +thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh +year shall the land keep a Sabbath of rest unto Jehovah: thy field +shalt thou not sow, thy vineyard shalt thou not prune; that which +groweth of its own accord of thy harvest shalt thou not reap, neither +shalt thou gather the grapes of thy vine undressed; the land shall +have a year of rest, and the Sabbath of the land shall be food for +you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy +hired servant, and for thy cattle, and for all the beasts that are +in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be food." + +The expressions make it impossible to doubt that Exodus xxiii. 10, 11 +lies at the foundation of this law; but out of this as a basis it +is something different that has been framed. The seventh year, +which is there a relative one, has here become fixed,--not varying +for the various properties, but common for the whole land, a +sabbatical year after the manner of the Sabbath day. This amounts +to a serious increase in the difficulty of the matter, for it is +not one and the same thing to have the abstinence from harvest +spread over seven years and to have it concentrated into one out of +every seven. In like manner a heightening of the demand is also seen +in the circumstance that not merely harvesting but also sowing +and dressing are forbidden. In the original commandment this was +not the case; all that was provided for was that in the seventh +year the harvest should not fall to the lot of the proprietor of the +soil, but should be _publici juris_,--a relic perhaps of communistic +agriculture. Through a mere misunderstanding of the verbal suffix +in Exodus xxiii. 11, as has been conjectured by Hupfeld, a surrender +of the _fruit_ of the land has been construed into a surrender of the +land itself--a general fallow year (Leviticus xxv. 4). The +misunderstanding, however, is not accidental, but highly characteristic. +In Exodus xxiii. the arrangement is made for man; it is a limitation, +for the common good, of private rights of property in land,--in fact, +for the benefit of the landless, who in the seventh year are to have +the usufruct of the soil; in Leviticus xxv. the arrangement is for +the sake of the land,--that it may rest, if not on the seventh day, +at least on the seventh year, and for the sake of the Sabbath-- +that it may extend its supremacy over nature also. Of course this +presupposes the extreme degree of Sabbath observance by absolute +rest, and becomes comprehensible only when viewed as an outgrowth +from that. For the rest, a universal fallow season is possible +only under circumstances in which a people are to a considerable +extent independent of the products of their own agriculture; prior +to the exile even the idea of such a thing could hardly have +occurred. + +In the Priestly Code the year of jubilee is further added to +supplement in turn the sabbatical year (Leviticus xxv. 8 seq.). +As the latter is framed to correspond with the seventh day, +so the former corresponds with the fiftieth, i.e., with Pentecost, +as is easily perceived from the parallelism of Leviticus xxv. 8 +with Leviticus xxiii. 15. Asthe fiftieth day after the seven +Sabbath days is celebrated as a closing festival of the forty-nine +days' period, so is the fiftieth year after the seven sabbatic years +as rounding off the larger interval; the seven Sabbaths falling on +harvest time, which are usually reckoned specially (Luke vi. 1 ), +have, in the circumstance of their interrupting harvest work, a +particular resemblance to the sabbatic years which interrupt agriculture +altogether. Jubilee is thus an artificial institution superimposed +upon the years of fallow regarded as harvest Sabbaths after the +analogy of Pentecost. Both its functions appear originally to +have belonged also to the Sabbath year and to be deduced from the +two corresponding regulations in Deuteronomy relating to the +seventh year, so that thus Exod xxiii. would be the basis of Leviticus +xxv. 1-7 and Deuteronomy xv. that of xxv. 8 seq. The emancipation +of the Hebrew slave originally had to take place on the seventh +year after the purchase, afterwards (it would seem) on the seventh +vear absolutely; for practical reasons it was transferred from +that to the fiftieth. Analogous also, doubtless, is the growth of +the other element in the jubilee--the return of mortgaged property +to its hereditary owner--out of the remission of debts enjoined in +Deuteronomy xv. for the end of the seventh year; for the two hang +very closely together, as Leviticus xxv. 23 seq. shows. + +As for the evidence for these various arrangements, those of the +Book of the Covenant are presupposed alike by Deuteronomy and by +the Priestly Code. It seems to have been due to the prompting of +Deuteronomy that towards the end of the reign of Zedekiah the +emancipation of the Hebrew slaves was seriously gone about; the +expressions in Jeremiah xxxiv. 14 point to Deuteronomy xv. 12, +and not to Exodus xxi. 2. The injunction not having had practical +effect previously, it was in this instance carried through by +all parties at the same date: this was of course inevitable when +it was introduced as an extraordinary innovation; perhaps it is +in connexion with this that a fixed seventh year grew out of a +relative one. The sabbatical year, according to the legislator's +own declaration, was never observed throughout the whole +pre-exilic period; for, according to Leviticus xxvi. 34, 35, the +desolation of the land during the exile is to be a compensation +made for the previously neglected fallow years: + +"Then shall the land pay its Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate; +when ye are in your enemies' land then shall the land rest +and pay its Sabbaths; all the days that it lieth desolate shall +it rest, which it rested not in your Sabbaths when ye dwelt upon +it." + +The verse is quoted in 2Chronicles xxxvi. 21 as the language +of Jeremiah,-- a correct and unprejudiced indication of its exilic +origin. But as the author of Leviticus xxvi. was also the writer of +Leviticus xxv. 1-7, that is to say, the framer of the law of the +sabbatic year, the recent date of the latter regulation also +follows at once. The year of jubilee, certainly derived from the +Sabbath year, is of still later origin. Jeremiah (xxxiv. 14) has +not the faintest idea that the emancipation of the slaves must +according to "law" take place in the fiftieth year. The name +drwr, borne by the jubilee in Leviticus xxv. 10, is applied by him +to the seventh year; and this is decisive also for Ezekiel xlvi. 17: +the gift of land bestowed by the prince on one of his servants +remains in his possession only until the seventh year. + + +CHAPTER IV. THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. + + +IV.I. + +IV.I.1 The problem now to be dealt with is exhibited with peculiar +distinctness in one pregnant case with which it will be well to set +out. The Mosaic law, that is to say, the Priestly Code, +distinguishes, as is well known, between the twelve secular tribes +and Levi, and further within the spiritual tribe itself, between +the sons of Aaron and the Levites, simply so called. The one +distinction is made visible in the ordering of the camp in Numbers +ii., where Levi forms around the sanctuary a cordon of protection +against the immediate contact of the remaining tribes; on the +whole, however, it is rather treated as a matter of course, and +not brought into special prominence (Numbers xviii. 22). The other +is accentuated with incomparably greater emphasis. Aaron and his +sons alone are priests, qualified for sacrificing and burning +incense; the Levites are hieroduli (3 Esdras i. 3), bestowed +upon the Aaronidae for the discharge of the inferior services +(Numbers iii. 9). They are indeed their tribe fellows, but it is +not because he belongs to Levi that Aaron is chosen, and his +priesthood cannot be said to be the acme and flower of the general +vocation of his tribe. On the contrary, rather was he a priest +long before the Levites were set apart; for a considerable time +after the cultus has been established and set on foot these do not +make any appearance,--not at all in the whole of the third book, +which thus far does little honour to its name _Leviticus_. Strictly +speaking, the Levites do not even belong to the clergy: they are +not called by Jehovah, but consecrated by the children of Israel +to the sanctuary,--consecrated in the place of the first-born, not +however as priests (neither in Numbers iii., iv., viii., nor +anywhere else in the Old Testament, is there a single trace of the +priesthood of the first-born), but as a gift due to the priests, as +such being even required to undergo the usual "waving" before the altar, +to symbolise their being cast into the altar flame (Numbers viii.). +The relationship between Aaron and Levi, and the circumstance that +precisely this tribe is set apart for the sanctuary in compensation +for the first-born, appears almost accidental, but at all events +cannot be explained by the theory that Aaron rose on the shoulders +of Levi; on the contrary, it rather means that Levi has mounted up +by means of Aaron, whose priesthood everywhere is treated as having +the priority. Equality between the two is not to be spoken of; +their office and their blood relationship separates them more than +it binds them together. + +Now, the prophet Ezekiel, in the plan of the new Jerusalem which he +sketched in the year 573, takes up among other things the reform of +the relations of the _personnel_ of the temple, and in this +connection expresses himself as follows (xliv. 6-16):-- +"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Let it suffice you of all your +abominations, O house of Israel! in that ye have brought in strangers, +uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my +sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, +the fat and the blood, and have broken my covenant by all your +abominations. And ye have not kept the charge of my holy +things, inasmuch as ye have set these /1/ to be keepers of my + +-- Footnote +In ver. 7 for WYPRW read WTPRW, in ver. 8 for WT#YMWN read +WT#YMWM, and for LKM read LKN, in each case following the LXX. +-- Footnote + + +charge in my sanctuary. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, +No stranger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh +shall enter into my sanctuary; none, of all that are among the +children of Israel. But the Levites who went away far from me +when Israel went astray from me after their idols, they shall +even bear their iniquity, and they shall be ministers in my +sanctuary, officers at the gates of the house and ministers of the +house; they shall slay for the people the burnt-offering and +the thank-offering, and they shall stand before them to minister +unto them. Because they ministered unto them before their idols, +and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore +have I lifted up my hand against them, saith the Lord Jehovah, +and they shall bear their iniquity. They shall not come near +unto me to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to +any of my holy things, but they shall bear their shame and +their abominations which they have committed. And I will make +them keepers of the charge of the house, for all its service, and +for all that shall be done therein. But the priests, the Levites, +sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when +the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near +to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to +offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah; +they shall enter into my sanctuary, and come near to my table +to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge." + +From this passage two things are to be learned. First, that the +systematic separation of that which was holy from profane contact +did not exist from the very beginning; that in the temple of +Solomon even heathen (Zech. xiv. 21), probably captives, were +employed to do hierodulic services which, according to the law, +ought to have been rendered by Levites, and which afterwards +actually were so rendered. Ezekiel, it is indeed true, holds +this custom to be a frightful abuse, and one might therefore +maintain it to have been a breach of the temple ordinances +suffered by the Jerusalem priests against their better knowledge, +and in this way escape accusing them of ignorance of their own +law. But the second fact, made manifest by the above-quoted +passage, quite excludes the existence of the Priestly Code so far +as Ezekiel and his time are concerned. The place of the heathen +temple-slaves is in future to be taken by the Levites. Hitherto +the latter had held the priesthood, and that too not by arbitrary +usurpation, but in virtue of their oun good right. For it is no +mere relegation back to within the limits of their lawful position +when they are made to be no longer priests but temple +ministrants, it is no restoration of the _status quo ante_, the +conditions of which they had illegally broken; it is expressly +a degradation, a withdrawal of their right, which appears as a +punishment and which must be justified as being deserved; "they +shall bear their iniquity." They have forfeited their priesthood, +by abusing it to preside over the cultus of the high places, which +the prophet regards as idolatry and hates in his inmost soul. +Naturally those Levites are exempted from the penalty who have +discharged their functions at the legal place,--the Levites the +sons of Zadok,--namely, at Jerusalem, who now remain sole priests +and receive a position of pre-eminence above those who hitherto +have been their equals in office, and who are still associated with +them by Ezekiel, under the same common name, but now are reduced +to being their assistants and hieroduli. + +It is an extraordinary sort of justice when the priests of the +abolished Bamoth are punished simply for having been so, and +conversely the priests of the temple at Jerusalem rewarded for this; +the fault of the former and the merit of the latter consist simply +in their existence. In other words, Ezekiel merely drapes the logic +of facts with a mantle of morality. From the abolition of the +popular sanctuaries in the provinces in favour of the royal one at +Jerusalem, there necessarily followed the setting aside of the +provincial priesthoods in favour of the sons of Zadok at the +temple of Solomon. The original author of the centralisation, the +Deuteronomic lawgiver, seeks indeed to prevent this consequence by +giving to the extraneous Levites an equal right of sacrificing in +Jerusalem with their brethren hereditarily settled there, but it +was not possible to separate the fate of the priests from that of +their altars in this manner. The sons of Zadok were well enough +pleased that all sacrifices should be concentrated within their +temple, but they did not see their way to sharing their +inheritance with the priesthood of the high places, and the idea +was not carried out (2Kings xxiii. 9). Ezekiel, a thorough +Jerusalemite, finds a moral way of putting this departure from +the law, a way of putting it which does not explain the fact, but +is merely a periphrastic statement of it. With Deuteronomy as a +basis it is quite easy to understand Ezekiel's ordinance, but it +is absolutely impossible if one starts from the Priestly Code. +What he regards as the original right of the Levites, the +performance of priestly services, is treated in the latter +document as an unfounded and highly wicked pretension which once +in the olden times brought destruction upon Korah and his company; +what he considers to be a subsequent withdrawal of their right, as +a degradation in consequence of a fault, the other holds to have +been their hereditary and natural destination. The distinction +between priest and Levite which Ezekiel introduces and justifies +as an innovation, according to the Priestly Code has always +existed; what in the former appears as a beginning, in the latter +has been in force ever since Moses,--an original datum, not a thing +that has become or been made./1/ That the prophet should know + +-- Footnote +1. "If by reason of their birth it was impossible for the Levites +to become priests, then it would be more than strange to deprive +them of the priesthood on account of their faults,--much as if one +were to threaten the commons with the punishment of disqualification +to sit or vote in a house of lords" (Kuenen, Theol. Tijdschr., iii. 465). +-- Footnote + + +nothing about a priestly law with whose tendencies he is in +thorough sympathy admits of only one explanation,--that it did +not then exist. His own ordinances are only to be understood as +preparatory steps towards its own exactment. + +IV.I.2. Noldeke, however, interprets the parallelism between the +sons of Aaron and the sons of Zadok in favour of the priority of +the Priestly Code, which, after all, he points out, is not quite +so exclusive as Ezekiel. /1/ But, in the first place, this is a + +-- Footnote +1 Jahrb. f. prot. Theol., 1875, p. 351: "Its doctrine that +the Aaronidae alone are true priests has its parallel in +Ezekiel, who _still more exclusively_ recognises only +the sons of Zadok as priests." +-- Footnote + + +point of subordinate importance, the main thing being that Ezekiel +has to make the distinction between priests and Levites, which is +regarded in the Priestly Code as very ancient. In presence of +the fact that the former introduces as a new thing the separation +which the latter presupposes, the precise degree of the +distinction drawn by the two is of no consequence whatever. In +the next place, to bring the sons of Aaron into comparison with the +sons of Zadok, as a proof of their higher antiquity, is just as +reasonable as to bring the tabernacle into comparison with the +temple of Jerusalem for a similar purpose. The former are priests +of the tabernacle, the latter of the temple; but as in point of +fact the only distinction to be drawn between the Mosaic and the +actual central sanctuary is that between shadow and substance, so +neither can any other be made between the Mosaic and the actual +central priesthood. In the Priestly Code the ancient name is +introduced instead of the historical one, simply in order to +maintain the semblance of the Mosaic time; if the circumstance +is to be taken as betokening the earlier origin of the work, then +a similar inference must be drawn also from the fact that in it +the origin and character of the Levites is quite obscure, while +in Ezekiel it is palpably evident that they are the priests thrown +out of employment by the abolition of the Bamoth, whom necessity +has compelled to take a position of subordination under their +haughty fellow-priests at Jerusalem. In truth it is, quite on the +contrary, a proof of the post-exilian date of the Priestly Code +that it makes sons of Aaron of the priests of the central +sanctuary, who, even in the traditional understanding (2Chronicles +xiii. 10), are in one way or other simply the priests of +Jerusalem. By this means it carries their origin back to the +foundation of the theocracy, and gives them out as from the first +having been alone legitimate. But such an idea no one could have +ventured to broach before the exile. At that time it was too well +known that the priesthood of the Jerusalem sept could not be +traced further back than David's time, but dated from Zadok, who in +Solomon's reign ousted the hereditary house of Eli from the position +it had long previously held, first at Shiloh and Nob, and +afterwards at Jerusalem, at what had become the most prominent +sanctuary of Israel. + +In a passage of Deuteronomic complexion, which cannot have been +written long before the exile, we read in a prediction made to Eli +regarding the overthrow of his house by Zadok: + +"I said indeed, saith Jehovah the God of Israel, that thy house +and the house of thy father shall walk before me for ever; but now +I say, Be it far from me, for them that honour me I will honour, +but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days +come that I will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy father's house, +...and I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do +according to what is in my heart and in my mind; and I will build +him a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever" +(1Samuel ii. 27-36). + +Here it is the house of Eli, and of Eli's father, that is the priestly +family duly chosen in Egypt; _contrary_ to hereditary title, and +contrary to a promise of perpetual continuance, is it deposed at +the higher claims of justice. The faithful priest who is to fill +the vacant place is Zadok. This is expressly said in 1Kings 2:27; +and no other than he ever had a "sure house" and walked uninterruptedly +as its head and ruler before the kings of Judah. This Zadok, +accordingly, belongs neither to Eli's house nor to that of Eli's father; +his priesthood does not go back as far as the time of the founding +of the theocracy, and is not in any proper sense "legitimate;" +rather has he obtained it by the infringement of what might be called +a constitutional privilege, to which there were no other heirs +besides Eli and his family. Obviously he does not figure as an +intermediate link in the line of Aaron, but as the beginner of an +entirely new genealogy; the Jerusalem priests, whose ancestor he is, +are interlopers dating from the beginning of the monarchical period, +in whom the old Mosaic _sacerdotium_ is not continued, but is broken +off. If then they are called in the Priestly Code "sons of Aaron," +or at least figure there among the sons of Aaron, with whom they can +only in point of fact be contrasted, the circumstance is an unmistakable +indication that at this point the threads of tradition from the +pre-exilic period have been snapped completely, which was not yet +the case in Ezekiel's time. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. To satisfy the Pentateuch it is shown in the Book of Chronicles, +by means of artificial genalogies, how the sons of Zadok derived +their origin in an unbroken line from Aaron and Eleazar. +Compare my Pharisaer u. Sadducaer, p. 48 seq. This point was +first observed by Vatke (p. 344 seq.), then by Kuenen (Theol. +Tijdschr., iii. p. 463-509) and lastly by me (Text der BB. Sam., +p. 48-51). +-- Footnote + + +The relation between the priestly legislation and the Book of +Ezekiel, which has now been shown, gives direction and aim +to the following sketch, in which it is sought to exhibit the +individual phenomenon in its general connection. + + +IV.II. + +IV.II.1. The setting apart from the rest of the people of an +entire tribe as holy, and the strongly accentuated distinction of +ranks within that tribe, presuppose a highly systematised separation +between sacred and profane, and an elaborate machinery connected +with cultus. In fact, according to the representation given in +the Priestly Code, the Israelites from the beginning were organised +as a hierocracy, the clergy being the skeleton, the high priest the +head, and the tabernacle the heart. But the suddenness with which +this full-grown hierocracy descended on the wilderness from the skies +is only matched by the suddenness with which it afterwards disappeared +in Canaan, leaving no trace behind it. In the time of the Judges, +priests and Levites, and the congregation of the children of Israel +assembled around them, have utterly vanished; there is hardly a +_people_ Israel,--only individual tribes which do not combine even +under the most pressing necessities, far less support at a common +expense a clerical _personnel_ numbering thousands of men, besides +their wives and families. Instead of the Ecclesiastical History +of the Hexateuch, the Book of Judges forthwith enters upon a secular +history completely devoid of all churchly character. The high priest, +who according to the Priestly Code is the central authority by the +grace of God, is here quite left out in the cold, for the really +acting heads of the people are the Judges, people of an entirely +different stamp, whose authority, resting on no official position, +but on strength of personality and on the force of circumstances, +seldom extends beyond the limits of their tribe. And it is plain +that in this we behold not the sorry remains of an ecclesiastico-political +system once flourishing under Moses and Joshua, now completely +fallen into ruins, but the first natural beginnings of a civil +authority which after a course of further development finally led +to the monarchy. + +In the kernel of the Book of Judges (chaps. iii.-xvi.) there +nowhere occurs a single individual whose profession is to take +charge of the cultus. Sacrifice is in two instances offered, by +Gideon and Manoah; but in neither case is a priest held to be +necessary. In a gloss upon 1Samuel vi. 13 seq. the divergence of +later custom reveals itself. When the ark of Jehovah was brought +back from exile in Philistia upon the new cart, it halted in the +field of Bethshemesh beside the great stone, and the inhabitants +of Bethshemesh, who were at the time busy with the wheat harvest, +broke up the cart and made on the stone a burnt-offering of the kine +by which it had been drawn. After they have finished, the Levites +come up (ver. 15) (in the pluperfect tense) and proceed as if nothing +had happened, lift the ark from the now no longer existent cart, +and set it upon the stone on which the sacrifice is already burning;- +of course only in order to fulfil the law, the demands of which +have been completely ignored in the original narrative. Until +the cultus has become in some measure centralised the priests have +no _locus standi_; for when each man sacrifices for himself and his +household, upon an altar which he improvises as best he can for +the passing need, where is the occasion for people whose +professional and essential function is that of sacrificing for +others? The circumstance of their being thus inconspicuous in the +earliest period of the history of Israel is connected with the +fact that as yet there are few great sanctuaries. But as soon as +these begin to occur, the priests immediately appear. Thus we find +Eli and his sons at the old house of God belonging to the tribe of +Ephraim at Shiloh. Eli holds a very exalted position, his sons are +depicted as high and mighty men, who deal with the worshippers not +directly but through a servant, and show arrogant disregard of their +duties to Jehovah. The office is hereditary, and the priesthood +already very numerous. At least in the time of Saul, after they had +migrated from Shiloh to Nob, on account of the destruction by the +Philistines of the temple at the former place, they numbered more +than eighty-five men, who, however, are not necessarily proper +blood-relations of Eli, although reckoning themselves as belonging +to his clan (1Samuel xxii. 11). /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. In 1Samuel i. seq., indeed, we read only of Eli and his two +sons and one servant, and even David and Solomon appear to have +had only a priest or two at the chief temple. Are we to suppose +that Doeg, single-handed, could have made away with eighty-five +men ? +-- Footnote + + +One sanctuary more is referred to towards the close of the period +of the Judges,--that at Dan beside the source of the Jordan. A rich +Ephraimite, Micah, had set up to Jehovah a silver-covered image, +and lodged it in an appropriate house. At first he appointed one +of his sons to be its priest, afterwards Jonathan ben Gershom +ben Moses, a homeless Levite of Bethlehem-Judah, whom he counted +himself happy in being able to retain for a yearly salary of ten +pieces of silver, besides clothing and maintenance. When, however, +the Danites, hard pressed by the Philistines, removed from their +ancient settlements in order to establish a new home for themselves +on the slopes of Hermon in the north, they in passing carried off +both Micah's image and his priest; what led them to do so was the +report of their spies who had formerly lodged with Micah and there +obtained an oracle. It was in this way that Jonathan came to Dan +and became the founder of the family which retained the priesthood +at this afterwards so important sanctuary down to the period of the +deportation of the Danites at the Assyrian captivity (Judges xvii., +xviii.). His position seems very different from that of Eli. +The only point of resemblance is that both are hereditary priests, +Levites so called, and trace their descent from the family of Moses,-- +of which more anon. But while Eli is a man of distinction, perhaps +the owner of the sanctuary, at all events in a position of +thorough independence and the head of a great house, Jonathan is a +solitary wandering Levite who enters the service of the proprietor +of a sanctuary for pay and maintenance, and is indeed nourished +as a son by his patron, but by no means treated with special +respect by the Danites. + +The latter case, it may well be conjectured, more nearly +represents the normal state of matters than the former. An +independent and influential priesthood could develop itself only +at the larger and more public centres of worship, but that of +Shiloh seems to have been the only one of this class. The +remaining houses of God, of which we hear some word from the +transition period which preceded the monarchy, are not of +importance, and are in private hands, thus corresponding to that +of Micah on Mount Ephraim. That of Ophra belongs to Gideon, and +that of Kirjathjearim to Abinadab. In fact, it appears that +Micah, in appointing one to minister at his sanctuary for hire, +would seem to have followed a more general practice. For the +expression ML( YDW, which still survived as a _terminus technicus_ +for the ordination of priests long after they had attained a +perfectly independent position, can originally in this +connection hardly have meant anything else than a filling of the +hand with money or its equivalent; thus the priestly office +would appear in the older time to have been a paid one, perhaps +the only one that was paid. Whom he shall appoint is at the +discretion of the proprietor: if no one else is available, he +gives it to one of his sons (Judges xvii. 5; 1Samuel vii. 1),-- +of a "character indelibilis" there is of course in such a case +no idea, as one can learn from the earliest example, in which +Micah's son retires again from the service after a brief interval. +David, when he removed the ark, intrusted it in the first instance +to the house of Obededom, a captain of his, a Philistine of Gath, +whom he made its keeper. A priest of regular calling, a Levite, +is, according to Judges xvii. 13, a very unusual person to find +at an ordinary sanctuary. Even at Shiloh, where, however, the +conditions are extraordinary, the privilege of the sons of Eli is +not an exclusive one; Samuel, who is not a member of the family, +is nevertheless adopted as a priest. The service for which a +stated minister was needed was not that of offering sacrifice; +this was not so regular an occurrence as not to admit of being +attended to by one's self. For a simple altar no priest was +required, but only for a house which contained a sacred image; /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. BYT (LHYM, "house of God," is never anything but the house of an +image. Outside of the Priestly Code, _ephod_ is the image, _ephod +bad_ the priestly garment. +-- Footnote + + +this demanded watching and attendance (1 Sam. vii. 1)--in fact, +an ephod like that of Gideon or that of Micah (Judges viii. 26, +27, XVii. 4) was an article well worth stealing, and the houses of +God ordinarily lay in an open place (Exodus xxxiii. 7). The +expressions #MR and #RT to denote the sacred service were +retained in use from this period to later times; and, while every +one knows how to sacrifice, the art of dealing with the ephod and +winning its oracle from it continues from time immemorial to be +the exclusive secret of the priest. In exceptional cases, the +attendant is occasionally not the priest himself, but +his disciple. Thus Moses has Joshua with him as his _aedituus_ /2/ + +-- Footnote +2 M#RT M#H, more precisely m'' (T YY PNY M#H HKHN, 1Samuel. ii. 11. +-- Footnote + + +(Exodus xxxiii. 11), who does not quit the tent of Jehovah; so +also Eli has Samuel, who sleeps at night in the inner portion of +the temple beside the ark of the covenant; even if perhaps the +narrative of Samuel's early years is not quite in accordance with +the actual circumstances as they existed at Shiloh, it is still +in any case a perfectly good witness to a custom of the +existence of which we are apprised from other sources. Compare now +with this simple state of affairs the fact that in the Priestly +Code the sons of Aaron have something like the half of a total of +22,000 Levites to assist them as watchers and ministers of +the sanctuary. + +Any one may slaughter and offer sacrifice (1Samuel xiv. 34 +seq.); and, even in cases where priests are present, there is not +a single trace of a systematic setting apart of what is holy, or +of shrinking from touching it. When David "entered into the house +of God and did eat the shew-bread, which it is not lawful to eat +save for the priests, and gave also to them that were with him" +(Mark ii. 26), this is not represented in 1Sam. xxi. as +illegitimate when those who eat are sanctified, that is, have +abstained on the previous day from women. Hunted fugitives lay +hold of the horns of the altar without being held guilty of +profanation. A woman, such as Hannah, comes before Jehovah, that +is, before the altar, to pray; the words WTTYCB LPNY YY +(1Samuel i. 9) supplied by the LXX, are necessary for the connection, +and have been omitted from the Massoretic text as offensive. In +doing so she is observed by the priest, who sits quietly, as is +his wont, on his seat at the temple door. The history of the ark +particularly, as Vatke justly remarks (pp. 317, 332), affords more +than one proof of the fact that the notion of the unapproachableness +of the holy was quite unknown; I shall content myself with the most +striking of these. Samuel the Ephraimite sleeps by virtue of his +office every night beside the ark of Jehovah, a place whither, +according to Leviticus xvi., the high priest may come only once in the year, +and even he only after the strictest preparation and with the +most elaborate atoning rites. The contrast in the TONE OF FEELING +is so great that no one as yet has even ventured to realise it +clearly to himself. + +IV.II.2. With the commencement of the monarchical period the priests +forthwith begin to come into greater prominence along with the +kings; the advance in centralisation and in publicity of life +makes itself noticeable also in the department of worship. At the +beginning of Saul's reign we find the distinguished Ephraimitic +priesthood, the house of Eli, no longer at Shiloh, but at Nob, in +the vicinity of the king, and to a certain degree in league with +him; for their head, Ahijah the priest, is in immediate +attendance on him when arms are first raised against the +Phiiistines, shares the danger with him, and consults the ephod on +his behalf. Subsequently the _entente cordiale_ was disturbed, +Ahijah and his brethren fell a sacrifice to the king's jealousy, +and thus the solitary instance of an independent and considerable +priesthood to be met with in the old history of Israel came for +ever to an end. Abiathar, who alone escaped the massacre of Nob +(1Samuel xxii.), fled with the ephod to David, for which he was +rewarded afterwards with high honours, but all that he became he +became as servant of David. Under David the regius priesthood +began to grow towards the importance which it from that time +forward had. This king exercised unfettered control over the +sanctuary of the ark which stood in his citadel, as also over +the appointment of the priests, who were merely his officials. +Alongside of Abiathar he placed Zadok (and subsequently Ira also), +as well as some of his own sons. For when it is stated in +2Sam. viii. 18 that the sons of David were priests, the words +must not out of regard to the Pentateuch be twisted so as to mean +something different from what they say. We also (1Kings iv. 5) +find the son of the prophet Nathan figuring as a priest, and on +the other hand the son of Zadok holding a high secular office +(ver. 2); even at this date the line of demarcation afterwards +drawn between holy and non-holy persons has no existence. What +under David was still wanting to the institution of the royal +worship and the regius priests--a fixed centre--was added by +the erection of the temple under his successor. At the beginning +of Solomon's reign there was still no ISRAELITE place of sacrifice +such as sufficed for the greater contingencies; he was compelled +to celebrate his accession at the great Bamah at Gibeon, a town +in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, which, although it had been +subjugated for a considerable time, was still entirely Canaanite. +He now took care to make it possible that his colossal festivals +should be celebrated at his own sanctuary. And next he made Zadok +its priest after having previously deposed and relegated to his +patrimonial property at Anathoth, a village adjoining Jerusalem, +the aged Abiathar, a man of pure and honourable priestly descent, +on account of the support he had given to the legitimate heir +to the crown, thereby bringing to pass the fate with which the +once so proud and powerful family of Eli had in 1Samuel ii. been +threatened. Doubtless other priests also by degrees attached +themselves to the family of Zadok, and ultimately came even to call +themselves his sons, just as the Rechabites regarded Jonathan +ben Rechab, or the "children of the prophets" one or other of +the great prophets, as their father. + +Regarding their sanctuaries as their own private property, +precisely as Micah does in the classical instance recorded in +Judges xvii., xviii., and proceeding quite untrammelled in the +appointment and removal of the officials employed, neither do +these early kings hesitate in the least to exercise personally +the rights which had emanated from themselves, and been delegated +to others. Of Saul, who indeed was in the habit of delegating +but seldom, and of doing with his own hand all that required to +be done, it is several times mentioned that he sacrificed in person; +and it is clear that this is not brought as a charge against him in +1Samuel xiv. and xv. David sacrificed on the occasion of his having +successfully brought the ark to Jerusalem; that it was he himself +who officiated appears from the fact that he wore the priestly +ephod--_the ephod bad_--and at the close of the offering pronounced the +benediction (2Samuel vi. 14, 18). In the same way was the +consecration of the temple conducted by Solomon; it was he who +went before the altar, and after praying there upon his knees with +outstretched arms, rose and blessed the people (1Kings viii. +22, 54, 53),--doubtless also it was he who with his own hands +offered the first sacrifice. The priests' technical skill is +necessary only for inquiring of the oracle before the ephod +(1Samuel xiv. 18). + +IV.II.3. These beginnings are continued in the history of the +priesthood after the division of the kingdom. Jeroboam I., the +founder of the kingdom of Israel, is treated by the historian as +the founder also of Israel's worship in so far as the latter +differed from the Judaean ideal: "he made the two calves of gold, +and set them up at Bethel and at Dan; he made the Bamoth-houses +and made priests from the mass of the people, who were not of the +sons of Levi, and ordained a feast in the eighth month and +ascended to the altar to burn incense" (1Kings xii. 28 seq., +xiii. 33). Here indeed after the well-known manner of pious +pragmatism retrospective validity is given to the Deuteronomic +law which did not come into force until three centuries +afterwards, and judgment is thus passed in accordance with a +historically inadmissable standard; moreover, the facts on which +the judgment is based are on the one hand too much generalised, +and on the other hand laid too exclusively to the charge of +Jeroboam. The first king bears the weight of all the sins in +worship of all his successors and of the whole body of the +people. But the recognition of the sovereign priesthood of the +ruler, of the formative influence which he exercised over the +worship, is just. The most important temples were royal ones, +and the priests who attended at them were the king's priests +(Amos vii. 10 seq.). When therefore Jehu overthrew the house +of Ahab, he did not extirpate all its members merely, and its +officials and courtiers, but also its priests as well; they +too were servants of the crown and in positions of trust +(2Kings x. 11I; comp. 1Kings iv. 5). The statement that they +were chosen at the pleasure of the king is therefore to be taken +as implying that, as in David's and Solomon's time, so also later +they could and might be chosen at pleasure; on the other hand, in +point of fact the sacred office, in Dan at least, continued from +the period of the Judges down to the Assyrian deportation +hereditary in the family of Jonathan. One must, moreover, avoid +imagining that all the "houses of the high places" and all the +priestly posts /1/ belonged to the king; it was impossible that the + +-- Footnote +1. The parallelism between "Bamoth-houses" and a priestly +appointment in 1Kings xii. 31 seems not to be casual merely. +Whilst a Bamah may be a simple altar, a "Bamoth-house" +presupposes a divine image, and renders an _aedituus_ necessary. +-- Footnote + + +government should be so all-pervading in such matters. At this +period most of the sanctuaries were public, but not therefore as +yet on that account royal, and so also doubtless there were +numerous priests who were not servants of the king. The +preponderance of official cultus and of an official personnel to +carry it on was counteracted in the northern kingdom by the +frequent dynastic changes and the unattached particularism of the +separate tribes; the conditions may be presumed to have +developed themselves with great variety and freedom, hereditary +and unhereditary priests, priests with independent benefices and +others in complete poverty, subsisting side by side; the variety +and the equality of rights enjoyed by all is the distinguishing +mark of the time. + +Speaking generally, however, the priesthood has distinctly +consolidated itself as compared with its former condition, and +gained not a little alike in number and in influence; it has become +an important power in public life, without which the nation cannot +be imagined. It would perhaps be somewhat bold to assert this +on the strength merely of the brief and inadequate indications +in the Book of Kings, which is chiefly interested in the extraordinary +interventions of the prophets in the course of Israel's history, +but other and more authentic testimonies justify us in doing so. +First of these is the Blessing of Moses, an independent document +of northern Israel which speaks for itself. Here we read: + + "Thy Thummim and thy Urim belong to the man of thy friendship, + whom thou didst prove at Massah, + for whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; + who saith of father and mother, + I have never seen them, + and acknowledgeth not his brethren + nor knoweth his own children-- + for they observe thy word + and keep thy covenant, + they teach Jacob thy judgments + and Israel thy law; + they bring savour of fat before thee + and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar; + bless, O Lord, his strength, + and accept the work of his hands; + smite through the loins of them that rise up against him, + and of them that hate him that they rise not again" + (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8-11). + +In this passage the priests appear as a strictly close corporation, +so close that they are mentioned only exceptionally in the plural +number, and for the most part are spoken of collectively in the +singular, as an organic unity which embraces not merely the +contemporary members, but also their ancestors, and which begins +its life with Moses, the friend of Jehovah who as its beginning +is identified with the continuation just as the man is identified +with the child out of which he has grown. The history of Moses +is at the same time the history of the priests, the Urim and Thummim +belong--one is not quite sure to which, but it comes to the same +thing; every priest to whom the care of an ephod has been intrusted +interrogates before it the sacred oracle. The first relative clause +relating to Moses passes over without change of subject into one +that refers to the priests, so that the singular immediately falls +into plural and the plural back to the singular. Yet this so +strongly marked solidarity of the priesthood as a profession rests +by no means upon the natural basis of family or clan unity; it is +not blood, but on the contrary the abnegation of blood that constitutes +the priest, as is brought out with great emphasis. He must act for +Jehovah's sake as if he had neither father nor mother, neither +brethren nor children. Blind prepossession in people's conceptions +of Judaism has hitherto prevented the understanding of these words, +but they are thoroughly unambiguous. What they say is, that in +consecrating himself to the service of Jehovah a man abandons his +natural relationships, and severs himself from family ties; +thus, with the brotherhood of the priests in northern Israel the +case is precisely similar as with that of the religious guilds of +the sons of the prophets--the Rechabites, and doubtless too the +Nazarites (Amos ii. 11 seq.)--also native there. Whosoever chose +(or, whomsoever he chose) was made priest by Jeroboam--such is the +expression of the Deuteronomic redactor of the Book of Kings +(1Kings xiii. 33). A historical example of what has been said is +afforded by the young Samuel, as he figures in the narrative of +his early years contained in 1Samuel i.-iii.--a narrative which +certainly reflects the condition of things in Ephraim at the period +of the monarchy. The child of a well-to-do middle class family +at Ramah, in the district of Zuph Ephraim, he is even before his +birth vowed to Jehovah by his mother, and as soon as possible +afterwards is handed over to the sanctuary at Shiloh,--not to +become a Nazarite or one of the Nethinim in the sense of the +Pentateuch, but to be a priest,--for in his ministry he wears +the linen ephod, the _ephod bad_, and even +the pallium (1Samuel ii. 18) /1/ And it is made very plain that + +-- Footnote +1. Comp. Koran, iii. 31: "I vow to thee that which is in my +womb as a devotee of the mosque, to serve it." +*[pallium. "1.Antiq. A large rectangular cloak or mantle worn by men' +chiefly among the Greeks; esp. by philosophers and by early Christian +ascetics...Himation...2.Eccl. A vestment of wool worn by patriarchs +and metropolitans... SOED. Heb. m(yl q+n ii.19?]* +-- Footnote + + +the mother's act, in thus giving up her son, who is properly +hers, or (as she expresses it) lending him to Jehovah for ever +(1Samuel i. 28: #MW)L=MW#)L), is regarded as a renunciation +of family rights. The circumstance that it is by the parents +and not by Samuel himself that the consecration is made makes +no material difference; the one thing is on the same plane with +the other, and doubtless occurred as well as the other, although +seldomer. But, on the other hand, it can hardly have been the +rule that any one should abandon not parents and brethren merely, +but also wife and children as well in order to enter the priesthood; +in Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9 this is adduced only as an extreme instance +of the spirit of self-sacrifice. In any case it is not to be +inferred that celibacy was demanded, but only that the priestly +office was often barely sufficient to support the man, not to +speak of a family. + +So fixed and influential, so independent and exclusive had the +priesthood become at the date of the composition of the Blessing +of Moses, that it takes a place of its own alongside of the tribes +of the nation, is itself a tribe, constituted, however, not by +blood, but by community of spiritual interests. Its importance +is brought into clearness even by the opposition which it +encounters, and which occasions so vigorous a denunciation of its +enemies that one might well believe the person who committed it to +writing to have been himself a priest. The cause of the hostility +is not stated, but it seems to be directed simply against the +very existence of a professional and firmly organised clergy, +and to proceed from laymen who hold fast by the rights of the old +priestless days. + +Next to the Blessing of Moses the discourses of Hosea contain our +most important materials for an estimate of the priesthood of +Northern Israel. How important that institution was for public +life is clear from his expressions also. The priests are the +spiritual leaders of the people; the reproach that they do not fulfil +their high vocation proves in the first place that they have it. +Degenerate they are, to be sure; in Hosea's representation they +are seen in the same light as that in which the sons of Eli appear +as described in 1Samuel ii. 22 seq., from which description one +conjectures the author to have derived his colours from a state of +matters nearer his own day than the period of the judges. The +priests of Shechem are even taxed by the prophet with open highway +robbery (vi. 9), and in one charge after another he accuses them +of taking advantage of their office for base gain, of neglecting +its most sacred duties, and in this way having the principal +blame for the ruin of the people. + +"Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel, +for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, +because there is no truth, nor mercy, +nor knowledge of God in the land. + +(2.) There is swearing, and Iying, and killing, +and stealing, and committing adultery; +they use violence and add murder to murder. + +(3.) Therefore the land mourneth, +and every creature that dwelleth therein languisheth, +even to the wild beasts of the field +and the fowls of heaven; +and even the fishes of the sea are taken away. + +(4.) Yet let no man strive +and no man reprove; +for the people do just as their priests. + +(5.) Therefore shall ye (priests) stumble on that day, +and also the prophets with you on that night; +and I will destroy your kin. + +(6.) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, +because ye yourselves reject knowledge; +I will therefore reject you that ye shall be no longer priests unto me; +ye have forgotten the doctrine of your God, +so will I forget your children. + +(7.) The more they are, +the more they sin against me; +their glory they turn into shame. + +(8.) They eat up the sin of my people, +and they set their heart on their iniquity. + +(9.) And it shall be as with the people so with the priest; +I will punish them for their ways +and requite them for their doings. + +(10.) They shall eat and not have enough, +they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase, +because they have ceased to take heed to the Lord" +(Hosea iv. 1-10). /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. In the introductory words the people are invited to hear what it +is that Jehovah complains of them for; sin prevails to such an +extent that the complete ruin of the country is inevitable (vers. +1-3). With the word "yet" at the beginning of the following verse +the prophet changes the course of his thought; from the people he +passes to the priests; the root of the general corruption is the +want of divine knowledge (the knowledge, namely, that "I will have +mercy and not sacrifice; "compare Jeremiah xxii. 16), and for this +the priests are to blame, whose task it was to diffuse "knowledge," +but who, instead of this for their own selfish interests fostered +the tendency of the people to seek Jehovah's grace by sacrifice +rather than by righteousness. For if it be conceded that it is +the priests who are addressed from ver. 6 onwards, then it is not +easy to see why a change in the address should take place between +ver. 5 and ver. 6, especially as the co-ordination of priests +with prophets seems more reasonable in ver. 5 than that of prophets +and people. As ver. 4 in this way occupies an intermediate position +between the complaint made against the people in vers. 1-3, and +that against the priests in vers. 5-10, the transition from the one +to the other, indicated by the "yet," must occur in it. Hosea +abruptly breaks off from reproaching the people, "Yet let no man +strive and no man reprove"--why not, the words that follow must +explain. In verse 4b some circumstance must be mentioned which +excuses the people, and at the same time draws down indignation +upon the priests who are the subjects of the following. These +considerations necessarily determine the thought which we are +to expect, namely, this--"for the people do just as their priests." +This meaning is obtained by the conjectural reading W(MY KKMRYW +instead of W(MKKMRYB. Comp. ver. 9. The remaining YKH must be +deleted. The ordinary view of ver. 4 is hardly worth refuting. +The )L YWKH, it is said, is spoken from the people's point of view. +The people repel the prophet's reproach and rebuke, because +(such is the interpretation of ver. 4b) they themselves have no +scruples in striving EVEN with the priest. "Even," for want of +subjection to the priests is held to be specially wicked. +But the prophet Hosea would hardly have considered it a capital +offence if the people had withheld from the priests the respect +of which, according to his own language, they were so utterly +unworthy. Moreover, every exegesis which finds in ver. 4 a +reproach brought against the people, leaves in obscurity the point +at which the transition is made from reproach of the people +to reproach of the priests. +-- Footnote + + +In the northern kingdom, according to this, the spiritual +ascendancy of the priests over the people seems hardly to have +been less than that of the prophets, and if in the history we +hear less about it, /1/ the explanation is to be sought in the + +-- Footnote +1. According to 2Kings xvii. 27, 28, the foreign colonies +introduced by the Assyrians into Samaria after it had been +depopulated, were at first devoured by lions because they were +ignorant of the right way of honouring the deity of the land. +Esarhaddon therefore sent one of the exiled Samaritan priests, who +fixed his abode at Bethel, the ancient chief sanctuary, and +instructed (MWRH) the settlers in the religion of the god of the +country. This presupposes a definite priesthood, which +maintained itself even in exile for a considerable time. +-- Footnote + + +fact that they laboured quietly and regularly in limited +circles, taking no part in politics, and fully submissive to the +established order, and that for this reason they attracted less +notice and were less talked about than the prophets who, like +Elijah and Elisha, stirred up Israel by their extraordinary and +oppositional action. + +IV.II.4. In Judah the nucleus of the development was the same as in +Israel. The idea that in Judah the genuine Mosaic priesthood had +by the grace of God been maintained, while in Israel, on the other +hand, a schismatic priesthood had intruded itself by the favour +of the king and man's device, is that of the later Judaeans who +had the last word, and were therefore of course in the right. The +B'ne Zadok of Jerusalem as contrasted with the B'ne Eli whom they +superseded were originally illegitimate (if one may venture to +apply a conception which at that time was quite unknown), and did +not inherit their right from the fathers, but had it from David +and Solomon. They always remained in this dependent condition, +they at all times walked, as 1Samuel ii. 35 has it, "before +Jehovah's anointed," as his servants and officers. To the kings +the temple was a part of their palace which, as is shown by +1Kings vii. and 2Kings xi., stood upon the same hill and was +contiguous with it; they placed their threshold alongside of +that of Jehovah, and made their door-posts adjoin to His, so that +only the wall intervened between Jehovah and them (Ezekiel xliii. +8). They shaped the official cultus entirely as they chose, +and regarded the management of it, at least so far as one gathers +from the epitome of the "Book of the Kings," as the main business +of their government. They introduced new usages and abolished old +ones; and as they did so the priests always bent to their will +and were merely their executive organs. /1/ That they were at + +-- Footnote +1. Compare for example 2Kings xii. 5 seq. (Joash and Jehoiada), +xvi. 10 seq. Ahaz and Urijah), and, finally, chap. xxii. +(Josiah and Hilkiah). +-- Footnote + + +liberty to offer sacrifice also is a thing of course; they did +it, however, only on exceptional occasions, such as, perhaps, at +the dedication of a new altar (2Kings xvi. 12, 13). Even with +Jeremiah, who as a rule does not consider sacrifice and drawing +near to Jehovah (Numbers xvi 5) as every man's business, the king +as such is held to be also the supreme priest; for at the +beginning of the exile and the foreign domination his hope for the +future is: "Their potentate shall be of themselves, and their +governor shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause +him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me; for who else +should have the courage to approach unto me? saith the Lord" +(xxx. 21). Ezekiel is the first to protest against dealing with +the temple as a royal dependency; for him the prerogative of the +prince is reduced to this, that it is his duty to support the +public cultus at his own expense. + +The distinction between the Judaean and the Israelite priesthood +did not exist at first, but arose out of the course of events. +The sheltered and quiet life of the little state in the south +presents a marked contrast with the external and internal conflicts, +the easily raised turmoil, of the northern kingdom. In the latter, +the continual agitation brought extraordinary personalities up +to the surface; in the former, institutions based upon the permanent +order of things and supported by permanent powers were consolidated./1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The Rechabites, who arose in the northern kingdom, continued to +subsist in Judah, and Jeremiah prophesied to them that there +should never fail them a priestly head of the family of their +founder (xxxv. 19). +-- Footnote + + +Naturally the monarchy itself benefited most by this stability. +The king's cultus, which in the kingdom of Samaria was in no +position to supersede the popular and independent worship, +easily obtained a perceptible preponderance in the smaller Judah; +the king's priesthood, which in the former was incidentally involved +in disaster by the overthrow of the dynasty, in the latter gained +in strength side by side with the house of David--even Aaron +and Amminadab were according to the Priestly Code related to the +royal family, as Jehoiada and Ahaziah were in actual fact. +Thus at an early period was the way paved for the Act of Uniformity +by which Josiah made the king's cultus the official and the only one. +One effect which accompanied the measures he took was naturally the +exclusive legitimation of the king's priesthood at Jerusalem. But +the principle of heredity had already pervaded the other priestly +families so thoroughly that to enter any secular calling was +nowhere expected of them. The Deuteronomic legislator had +conferred upon them the right of carrying on their office at +Jerusalem, and of executing it there on behalf of any one who +requested their services; but this regulation, from the opposition +of the B'ne Zadok, was found on the whole impracticable (2Kings +xxiii. 9), although doubtless some extraneous elements may at +that time have succeeded in making their way into the temple +nobility. The bulk of the priests of the high places who had been +superseded had to content themselves (since they could not now +get rid of their spiritual character) with being degraded among +their brethren at Jerusalem, and with admission to a subordinate +share in the service of the sanctuary (comp. 1Samuel ii. 36). +It was thus, at the close of the pre-exilic history, that the +distinction between priests and Levites arose to which Ezekiel +is at pains to give the sanction of law. + + +IV.III. + +IV.III.1. On the whole it is easy here to bring the successive strata +of the Pentateuch into co-ordination with the recognisable steps +of the historical development. In the Jehovistic legislation +there is no word of priests (Exodus xx.-xxiii., xxxiv.), and even +such precepts as "Thou shalt not go up by steps unto mine altar, +that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon " (Exodus xx. 26) +are directed to the general "thou," that is, to the people. With +this corresponds the fact that in the solemn ratification of the +covenant of Sinai (Exodus xxiv. 3-8), it is young men of the +children of Israel who officiate as sacrificers. Elsewhere in the +Jehovist Aaron (Exodus iv. 14, xxxii. 1 seq.) and Moses (xxxiii. +7-lI; Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8) figure as the founders of the clerical +order. Twice (in Exodus xix. 22 and xxxii 29) mention is made of +other priests besides; but Exodus xxxii. 29 rests upon +Deuteronomy, and even Exodus xix. 22 can hardly have been an +original constituent of one of the Jehovistic sources. + +IV.III.2. In Deuteronomy the priests, as compared with the judges and +the prophets, take a very prominent position (xvi. 18-xviii. 22) +and constitute a clerical order, hereditary in numerous families, +whose privilege is uncontested and therefore also does not require +protection. Here now for the first time begins the regular use of +the name of Levites for the priests,--a name of which the +consideration has been postponed until now. + +In the pre-exilic literature apart from the Pentateuch it occurs +very seldom. First in the prophets, once in the Book of Jeremiah +(xxxiii. 17-22), in a passage which in any case is later than +the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans, and certainly was +not written by Jeremiah. /1/ The use of the name is an + +-- Footnote +1. In the LXX, chap. xxxiii. 14-26 is wanting. The parallelism +between vers. 17-22 and 23-26 is striking. It looks as if David +and Levi arose out of a misunderstanding of the families mentioned +in ver. 24, namely, Judah and Ephraim. In any case wdwd in ver. +26 is an interpolation. +-- Footnote + + +established thing in Ezekiel (573 B.C.), and henceforward occurs +without interruption in the writings of the later prophets, a sign +that its earlier absence is not to be explained as accidental, not +even in Jeremiah, who speaks so frequently of the priests. /2/ + +-- Footnote +1. Ezekiel xl. 46, xliii. 19, xliv. 10, 15, xlv. 5, xlviii. +11-13, 22, 31; Isaiah lxvi. 21; Zechariah xii. 13; Malachi +ii. 4, 8, iii. 3. +-- Footnote + + +In the historical books the Levites (leaving out of account +1Samuel vi. 15, 2Samuel xv. 24, and 1Kings viii. 4, xii. 31) /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Upon 1Samuel vi. 15 all that is necessary has been said at IV.II.1; +on 1Kings viii. 4 see. I.III.1. That 1Kings xii. 31 +proceeds from the Deuteronomic redactor, the date of whose writing +is not earlier than the second half of the exile, needs no proof. +The hopeless corruptness of 2Samuel xv. 24 I have shown in Text. d. +BB. Sam. (Goettingen, 1871). +-- Footnote + + +occur only in the two appendices to the Book of Judges (chaps. +xvii., xviii., and xix., xx.), of which, however, the second is +unhistorical and late, and only the first is certainly +pre-exilic. But in this case it is not the Levites who are spoken +of, as elsewhere, but A LEVITE, who passes for a great rarity, +and who is forcibly carried off by the tribe of Dan, which has +none. + +Now this Jonathan, the ancestor of the priests of Dan, +notwithstanding that he belongs to the tribe of Judah, is +represented as a descendant of Gershom the son of Moses (Judges +xviii. 30). The other ancient priestly family that goes back +to the period of the Judges, the Ephraimitic, of Shiloh, appears +also to be brought into connection with Moses; at least in 1Samuel +ii. 27 (a passage, however, which is certainly post-Deuteronomic), +where Jehovah is spoken of as having made himself known to the +ancestors of Eli in Egypt, and as thereby having laid the foundation +for the bestowal of the priesthood, it is clearly Moses who is +thought of as the recipient of the revelation. Historical +probability admits of the family being traced back to Phinehas, +who during the early period of the judges was priest of the ark, +and from whom the inheritance on Mount Ephraim and also the second +son of Eli were named; it is not to be supposed that he is the +mere shadow of his younger namesake, as the latter predeceased his +father and was of quite secondary importance beside him. But +Phinehas is both in the Priestly Code and in Josh. xxiv. 33 (E) +the son of Eleazar, and Eleazar is, according to normal tradition, +indeed a son of Aaron, but according to the sound of his name +(Eliezer) a son of Moses along with Gershom. Between Aaron and +Moses in the Jehovistic portion of the Pentateuch no great +distinction is made; if Aaron, in contradistinction from his +brother, is characterised as THE LEVITE (Exodus iv. 14), Moses on +the other hand bears the priestly staff, is over the sanctuary, +and has Joshua to assist him as Eli had Samuel (Exodus xxxiii. +7-11). Plainly the older claims are his; in the main Jehovistic +source, in J, Aaron originally does not occur at all, /2/ neither + +-- Footnote +1. That Aaron was not originally present in J, but owed his +introduction to tile redactor who combined J nnd E together into +JE, can be shown best from Exod vii. x. For Jehovah's COMMAND +to appear before Pharaoh is in J given to Moses alone (vii. 14, 26 +[viii. 1], viii. 16 [20], ix. 1, 13, x. 1); it is only in the +sequel that Aaron appears along with him four times, always when +Pharaoh in distress summons Moses and Aaron in order to ask their +intercession. But strangely enough Aaron is afterwards completely +ignored again; Moses alone makes answer, speaking solely in his +own name and not in Aaron's also (viii. 5, 22, 25 [9, 26, 29]; +ix. 29), and although he has not come alone ; he goes so and makes +his prayer in the singular (viii. 8, 26 [12, 30], ix. 33, x. 18), +the change of the number in x. 17 is under these circumstances +suspicious enough. It appears as if the Jehovistic editor had held +Aaron's presence to be appropriate precisely at the intercession. +-- Footnote + + +is he mentioned in Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8. In the genealogies of +the Priestly Code one main branch of the tribe of Levi is still +called, like the eldest son of Moses, Gershom, and another important +member is actually called Mushi, 2:e., the Mosaite. + +It is not impossible that the holy office may have continued in +the family of Moses, and it is very likely that the two oldest +houses in which it was hereditary, those at Dan and at Shiloh, +may have claimed in all seriousness to have been descended from him. +Afterwards, as Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8 seq. informs us, all priests +honoured Moses as their father, not as being the head of their clan +but as being the founder of their order. The same took place in +Judah, but there the clerical guild ultimately acquired a hereditary +character, and the order became a sort of clan. _Levite_, +previously an official name, now became a patronymic at the same +time, and all the Levites together formed a blood-kinship, /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The instance of the Rechabites shows how easily the transition +could made. +-- Footnote + + +a race which had not received any land of its own indeed, but in +compensation had obtained the priesthood for its heritage. This +hereditary clergy was alleged to have existed from the very beginning +of the history of Israel, and even then as a numerous body, consisting +of many others besides Moses and Aaron. Such is the representation +made by Deuteronomist and subsequent writers, but in Deuteronomy +we read chiefly of the _Levites_ in the provincial towns of Judah +and of the _priests_, the _Levites_ in Jerusalem, seldom of Levi +as a whole (x. 8 seq., xviii. 1) /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. On Deut xxvii. compare Kuenen, Theol. Tidjdschr., 1878, p. 297. +-- Footnote + + +That the hereditary character of the priesthood is here antedated +and really first arose in the later period of the Kings, has +already been shown in the particular instance of the sons of Zadok +of Jerusalem, who were at first parvenus and afterwards became +the most legitimate of the legitimate. But it is very remarkable +how this artificial construction of a priestly family,--a +construction which has absolutely nothing perplexing in itself-- +was suggested and favoured by the circumstance that in remote +antiquity there once actually did exist a veritable tribe +of Levi which had already disappeared before the period of the +rise of the monarchy. This tribe belonged to the group of the +four oldest sons of Leah,--Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,--who are +always enumerated together in this order, and who settled on both +sides of the Dead Sea, towards the wilderness. Singularly no one +of them succeeded in holding its own except Judah; all the others +became absorbed among the inhabitants of the wilderness or in +other branches of their kindred. The earliest to find this +destiny were the two tribes of Simeon and Levi (in Genesis xlix. +regarded as one), in consequence of a catastrophe which must have +befallen them at some time during the period of the judges. + + "Simeon and Levi are brethren, + their shepherds' staves are weapons of slaughter; + O my soul, come not thou into their assembly! + mine honour, be thou far from their band! + for they slew men in their anger, + and in their self-will they houghed oxen; + cursed be their anger--so fierce! + and their wrath--so cruel! + I will divide them in Jacob + and scatter them over Israel!" + (Genesis xlix.5-7). + +The offence of Simeon and Levi here rebuked cannot have been +committed against Israelites, for in such a case the thought +could not have occurred, which is here emphatically repelled, +that Jacob, that is to say, Israel as a whole, could have made +common cause with them. What is here spoken of must be some crime +against the Canaanites, very probably the identical crime which +is charged upon the two brothers in Genesis xxxiv., and which there +also Jacob (ver. 30) repudiates,--the treacherous attack upon +Shechem and massacre of its inhabitants, in disregard of the +treaty which had been made. In Judges ix. it is related that +Shechem, until then a flourishing town of the Canaanites, with +whom moreover Israelite elements were already beginning to blend, +was conquered and destroyed by Abimelech, but it is quite +impossible to bring into any connection with this the violent deed +of Simeon and Levi, which must have taken place earlier, although +also within the period of the judges. The consequences of their +act, the vengeance of the Canaanites, the two tribes had to bear +alone; Israel, according to the indication given in Genesis xlix. +6, xxxiv. 30, did not feel any call to interfere on their behalf +or make common cause with them. Thus they fell to pieces and +passed out of sight,--in the opinion of their own nation a just +fate. In the historical books they are never again mentioned. + +It is quite impossible to regard this Levi of the Book of Genesis +as a mere shadow of the caste which towards the end of the monarchy +arose out of the separate priestly families of Judah. The utterance +given in Genesis xlix. 5-7 puts the brothers on an exact equality, +and assigns to them an extremely secular and blood-thirsty character. +There is not the faintest idea of Levi's sacred calling or of his +dispersion as being conditioned thereby; the dispersion is a curse +and no blessing, an annihilation and no establishment of his special +character. But it is equally an impossibility to derive the caste +from the tribe; there is no real connection between the two, all +the intermediate links are wanting; the tribe succumbed at an +early date, and the rise of the caste was very late, and demonstrably +from unconnected beginnings. But in these circumstances the +coincidence of name is also very puzzling: Levi the third son of +Jacob, perhaps a mere patronymic derived form his mother Leah, +and levi the official priest. If it were practicable to find +a convincing derivation of levi in its later use from the +appellative meaning of the root, then one might believe the +coincidence to be merley fortuitous, but it is impossible to do +so. the solution therefore has been suggested that the violent +dissolution of the tribe in the period of the judges led the +individual Levites, who now were landless, to seek their maintenance +by the exercise of sacrificial functions; this lay to their hand +and was successful because Moses them an of God had belonged +to their number and had transmitted to them by hereditary +succession a certain preferential claim to the sacred office. +But at that time priestly posts were not numerous, and such +an entrance of the levites _en masse_ into the service of Jehovah +in that early time is in view of the infrequency of the larger +sanctuaries a very difficult assumption. It is perhaps correct +to say that Moses actually was descended from Levi, and that the +later significance of the name Levite is to be explained by +reference to him. In point of fact, the name does appear to +have been given in the first instance only to the descendants of +Moses, and not to have been transferred until a later period +to those priests as a body, who were quite unconnected with him +by blood, but who all desired to stand related to him as their +head. Here it will never be possible to get beyond conjecture. + +IV.III.3 While the clerical _tribe of the Levites_ is still +brought forward only modestly in Deuteronomy (x. 8 seq. +xviii. 1; Joshua xiii. 14, 33), it is dealt with in very real +earnest in the Priestly Code. The _tribe of Levi_ (Numbers i. 47, +49, iii. 6, xvii. 3, xviii. 2) is given over by the remaining +tribes to the sanctuary, is catalogued according to the genealogical +system of its families, reckons 22,000 male members, and even +receives a sort of tribal territory, the forty-eight Levitical +cities (Josh. xxi.). At the beginning of this chapter we have +already spoken of a forward step made in the Priestly Code, +connected with this enlargement of the clergy, but of much greater +importance; hitherto the distinction has been between clergy +and laity, while here there is introduced the great division +of the order itself into sons of Aaron and Levites. +Not in Deuteronomy only, but everywhere in the Old Testament, +apart from Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles, Levite is the priest's +title of honour. /1/ Aaron himself is so styled in the + +-- Footnote +1. Exodus iv. 14; Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8; Judges xvii. seq.; +Exodus xxxii. 26-28; Deuteronomy x. 8 seq., xii. 12, 18 seq. +xiv. 27, 29, xvi. 11, 14, xvii. 9, 18, xviii. 1-8, xxiv. 8, +xxvii. 9, 14, xxxi. 9, 25; Joshua iii. 3,xiii. 14, 33, xiv. 3 seq., +xviii. 7; Judges xix. seq., 1Samuel v1. 15; 1Kings xii. 31, +Jeremiah xxxiii 17-22; Ezekiel xliv. 8 seq.; Isaiah lxvi. 2, +Zechariah xii. 13, Malachi Ii. 4, 8, iii. 3. Only the glosses +2Samuel xv. 24, and 1Kings viii. 4 (compare, however, 2Chronicles +v. 5) can rest upon the Priestly Code. +-- Footnote + + +often-quoted passage, Exodus iv. 14, and that too to denote his +calling, not his family, for the latter he has in common with +Moses, from whom, nevertheless, it is intended to distinguish him +by the style, "thy brother the Levite." In Deuteronomy we are +struck by the deliberate emphasis laid on the equal right of all +the Levites to sacrificial service in Jerusalem-- + +"The priests, the Levites, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have +no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the +offerings of Jehovah and his inheritance....And if a Levite come +from any of thy cities out of all Israel, where he sojourned, +and come to the place which Jehovah shall choose, then he shall +minister in the name of Jehovah his God as all his brethren the +Levites do who stand there before Jehovah" + +(Deuteronomy xviii. 1, 6, 7). Here the legislator has in view +his main enactment, viz., the abolition of all places of worship +except the temple of Solomon; those who had hitherto been the +priests of these could not be allowed to starve. Therefore +it is that he impresses it so often and so earnestly on the people +of the provinces that in their sacrificial pilgrimages to Jerusalem +they ought not to forget the Levite of their native place, but +should carry him with them. For an understanding of the subsequent +development this is very important, in so far as it shows how the +position of the Levites outside of Jerusalem was threatened by +the centralisation of the worship. In point of fact, the good +intention of the Deuteronomist proved impossible of realisation; +with the high places fell also the priests of the high places. +In so far as they continued to have any part at all in the sacred +service, they had to accept a position of subordination under +the sons of Zadok (2Kings xxiii. 9). Perhaps Graf was correct +in referring to this the prophecy of 1Samuel ii. 36 according +to which the descendants of the fallen house of Eli are to come +to the firmly established regius priest, to beg for an alms, +or to say, "Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests' offices, +that I may eat a piece of bread:" that historically the deposed +Levites had no very intimate connection with those ancient +companions in misfortune is no serious objection to such an +interpretation in the case of a post-Deuteronomic writer. +In this way arose as an illegal consequence of Josiah's +reformation, the distinction between priests and Levites. +With Ezekiel this distinction is still an innovation requiring +justification and sanction; with the Priestly Code it is a +"statute for ever," although even yet not absolutely undisputed, +as appears from the Priestly version of the story of Korah's +company. /1/ For all Judaism subsequent to Ezra, and so for + +-- Footnote +1. Distorted references to the historical truth are round also in +Numbers xvii. 25 and xviii. 23, passages which are unintelligible +apart from Ezekiel xliv. Compare Kuenen, Theol. Tijdschr., 1878, +p. 138 seq. +-- Footnote + + +Christian tradition, the Priestly Code in this matter also has +been authoritative. Instead of the Deuteronomic formula "the +priests the Levites," we henceforward have "the priests and +the Levites," particularly in Chronicles, /2/ and in the + +-- Footnote +2. Except in 2 Chrom v. 5, xxx. 27. +-- Footnote + + +ancient versions the old _usus_ loquendi is frequently corrected. /3/ + +-- Footnote +3. E.g., Josh. iii. 3 and Isaiah lxvi. 21 in the LXX, Deuteronomy +xviii. 1 and Judges xvii. 13 in "Jerome; and many passages in +the Syriac. On the carrying out of the new organisation of +the temple _personnel_ after the exile, see Vatke, p. 568, Graf (in +Merx's Archiv, i., p. 225 seq.), and Kuenen (Godsdienst, ii. p. 104 +seq ). With Zerubbabel and Joshua, four priestly families, +4289 persons in all, returned from Babylon in 538 (Ezra iv. 36-39); +with Ezra in 458 came two families in addition, but the number +of persons is not stated (viii. 2). Of Levites there came on the +first occasion 74 (ii. 40); on the second, of the 1500 men who +met at the rendezvous appointed by Ezra to make the journey +through the wilderness, not one was a Levite, and it was only +on the urgent representations of the scribe that some thirty +were at last induced to join the company (viii. 15-20). How can +we explain this preponderance of priests over Levites, which +is still surprising even if the individual figures are not +to be taken as exact? Certainly it cannot be accounted for +if the state of matters for a thousand years had been that +represented in the Priestly Code and in Chronicles. On the +other hand, all perplexity vanishes if the Levites were the +degraded priests of the high places of Judah. These were +certainly not on the whole more numerous than the Jerusalem +college, and the prospect of thenceforward not being permitted +to sacrifice in their native land, but of having slaughtering +and washing for sole duties, cannot have been in any way very +attractive to them; one can hardly blame them if they were +disinclined voluntarily to lower themselves to the position +of mere laborers under the sons of Zadok. Besides, it may be +taken for granted that many (and more particularly Levitical) +elements not originally belonging to it had managed to make way +into the ranks of the Solomonic priesthood; that all were not +successful (Ezra ii. 61) shows that many made the attempt, and +considering the ease with which genealogies hoary with age were +then manufactured and accepted, every such attempt cannot have +failed. + +How then came it to pass that afterwards, as one must conclude +from the statements in Chronicles, the Levites stood to the priests +in a proportion so much more nearly, if even then not quite fully +corresponding to the law? Simply by the "Levitising" of alien +families. At first in the community of the second temple the +Levites continued to be distinguished from the singers, porters, +and Nethinim (Ezra ii. 41-58), guilds which from the outset were +much more numerous and which rapidly grew (Nehemiah xi. 17, 19, 36, +xii. 28 seq.; 1Chronicles ix. 16, 22, 25). But the distinction +had in fact no longer any actual basis, once the Levites had been +degraded to the rank of temple-servitors and become Nethinim to the +priests (Numbers iii. 9). Hence, where the Chronicler, who is at +the same time the author of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, is not +reproducing old sources but is writing freely, he regards the +singers also and the porters as Levites. By artificial genealogies +of rather a rough and ready kind the three families of singers, +Heman, Asaph, and Ethan are traced up (1Chronicles v1.. 1 seq.) +to the old Levitical families of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari +(see Graf, as above, p. 231; and Ewald, iii. p. 380 seq.). +How far the distinction between the Nethinim and the Levites +was afterwards maintained (Josh. ix. 21 seq., I Esdras i. 3; +Ezra viii. 20) is not clear. It would not be amiss if Ezekiel's +intention of banishing foreigners from the temple found its +fulfilment only through these heathen hieroduli, the Mehunim, +the Nephisim, the sons of Shalmai, and the others whose +foreign-sounding names are given in Ezra ii. 43 seq., +obtaining admission into the tribe of Levi by artificial +genealogies. A peculiar side light is thrown upon the course +of development by the fact that the singers who in Ezra's time +were not yet even Levites, afterwards felt shame in being so, and +desired at least externally to be placed on all equality with +priests. They begged of King Agrippa II. to obtain for them the +permission of the synedrium to wear the white priestly dress. +-- Footnote + + +The copestone of the sacred structure reared by the legislation of +the middle books of the Pentateuch is the high priest. As the +Aaronites are above the Levites so is Aaron himself above his +sons; in his person culminates thc development of the unity of +worship inaugurated by Deuteronomy and the agency of Josiah. +No figure of such incomparable importance occurs anywhere else in +the Old Testament; a high priest of pre-eminent sanctity is still +unknown to Ezekiel even. Even before the exile, it is true, the +temple worship at Jerusalem had become so magnificent and its +personnel so numerous as to render necessary an orderly division +of offices and a gradation of ranks. In Jeremiah's time +the priests constituted a guild divided into classes or families +with elders at their head; the principal priest had a potent +voice in the appointment of his inferior colleagues (1Samuel ii. +36); alongside of him stood the second priest, the keepers of the +threshold, the captain of the watch as holders of prominent +charges. /1/ But in the Law the position of Aaron is not merely + +-- Footnote +I The Kohen ha-rosh first occurs in 2Samuel xv. 27, but here HR)# +(so read, instead of HRW)H) comes from the interpolator of ver. 24. +So again 2Kings xii. 11, HKHN HGDWL, but 2Kings xii. is from the +same hand as 2Kings xvi. 10 seq. Elsewhere we have simply "the priest," +compare besides 2Kings xix. 2; Jeremiah xix. 1; 2Kings xxiii. 4; xxv. 18; +Jeremiah xx. 1; xxix. 25, 26; In 1Samuel ii. 36 SPXNY "incorporate +me" shows that KHNH must mean "priestly guild" or "order." In +connection with the name LWY it is noteworthy that SPX is parallel +with LWH in Isaiah xiv. 1. +-- Footnote + + +superior but unique, like that of the Pope in relation to the +episcopate; his sons act under his oversight (Numbers iii. 4); he +alone is the one fully qualified priest, the embodiment of all +that is holy in Israel He alone bears the Urim and Thummim and +the Ephod; the Priestly Code indeed no longer knows what those +articles are for, and it confounds the ephod of gold with the +ephod of linen, the plated image with the priestly robe; but the +dim recollections of these serve to enhance the magical charm of +Aaron's majestic adornment. He alone may enter into the holy of +holies and there offer incense; the way at other times +inaccessible (Nehemiah vi. 10, 11) is open to him on the great day +of atonement. Only in him, at a single point and in a single +moment, has Israel immediate contact with Jehovah. The apex of +the pyramid touches heaven. + +The high priest stands forth as absolutely sovereign in his own +domain. Down to the exile, as we have seen, the sanctuary was the +property of the king, and the priest was his servant; even in +Ezekiel who on the whole is labouring towards emancipation, the +prince has nevertheless a very great importance in the temple +still; to him the dues of the people are paid, and the +sacrificial expenses are in return defrayed by him. In the +Priestly Code, on the other hand, the dues are paid direct into +the sanctuary, the worship is perfectly autonomous, and has its +own head, holding not from man but from the grace of God. Nor is +it merely the autonomy of religion that is represented by the high +priest; he exhibits also its supremacy over Israel. He does not +carry sceptre and sword; nowhere, as Vatke (p. 539) well +remarks, is any attempt made to claim for him secular power. But +just in virtue of his spiritual dignity, as the head of the priesthood, +he is head of the theocracy, and so much so that there is no room +for any other alongside of him; a theocratic king beside him cannot +be thought of (Numbers xxvii. 21). He alone is the responsible +representative of the collective nation, the names of the twelve +tribes are written on his breast and shoulders; his transgression +involves the whole people in guilt, and is atoned for as that of +the whole people, while the princes, when their sin-offerings are +compared with his, appear as mere private persons (Leviticus iv. 3, +13, 22, ix. 7, xvi. 6). His death makes an epoch; it is when the +high priest--not the king--dies that the fugitive slayer obtains +his amnesty (Numbers xxxv. 28). At his investiture he receives +the chrism like a king, and is called accordingly the anointed +priest; he is adorned with the diadem and tiara (Ezekiel xxi. 31, +A.V. 26) like a king, and like a king too he wears the purple, +that most unpriestly of all raiment, of which he therefore must +divest himself when he goes into the holy of holies (Lev. xvi. 4). +What now can be the meaning of this fact,--that he who is at the +head of the worship, in this quality alone, and without any political +attributes besides, or any share in the government, is at the same +time at the head of the nation? What but that civil power has been +withdrawn from the nation and is in the hands of foreigners; that +Israel has now merely a spiritual and ecclesiastical existence? +In the eyes of the Priestly Code Israel in point of fact is not +a people, but a church; worldly affairs are far removed from it +and are never touched by its laws; its life is spent in religious +services. Here we are face to face with the church of the second +temple, the Jewish hierocracy, in a form possible only under +foreign domination. It is customary indeed to designate in the Law +by the ideal, or in other words blind, name of theocracy that +which in historical reality is usually called hierarchy; but +to imagine that with the two names one has gained a real +distinction is merely to deceive oneself. But, this self-deception +accomplished, it is easy further to carry back the hierocratic +churchly constitution to the time of Moses, because it excludes +the kingship, and then either to assert that it was kept secret +throughout the entire period of the judges and the monarchy, +or to use the fiction as a lever by which to dislocate the whole +of the traditional history. + +To any one who knows anything about history it is not necessary +to prove that the so-called Mosaic theocracy, which nowhere suits +the circumstances of the earlier periods, and of which the prophets, +even in their most ideal delineations of the Israelite state as it +ought to be, have not the faintest shadow of an idea, is, so to +speak, a perfect fit for post-exilian Judaism, and had its +actuality only there. Foreign rulers had then relieved the Jews +of all concern about secular affairs; they had it in their +power, and were indeed compelled to give themselves wholly up to +sacred things, in which they were left completely unhampered. +Thus the temple became the sole centre of life, and the prince of +the temple the head of the spiritual commonwealth, to which also +the control of political affairs, so far as these were still left +to the nation, naturally fell there being no other head! /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Very interesting and instructive is Ewald's proof of the way in +which Zech. vi. 9-15 has been tampered with, so as to eliminate +Zerubbabel and leave the high priest alone. Just so in dealing +with Caliphs and Sultans, the Patriarchs were and are the natural +heads of the Greek and Oriental Christians even in secular matters. +-- Footnote + + +The Chronicler gave a corresponding number of high priests to the +twice twelve generations of forty years each which were usually +assumed to have elapsed between the exodus and the building of +Solomon's temple, and again between that and the close of the +captivity; the official terms of office of these high priests, of +whom history knows nothing, have taken the place of the reigns of +judges and kings, according to which reckoning was previously +made (1Chronicles v. 29, seq.). One sees clearly from Sirach l., +and from more than one statement of Josephus (e.g., Ant., xviii. +4, 3, xx. 1, 11), how in the decorations of Aaron (where, however, +the Urim and Thummim were wanting; Nehemiah vii. 65) people +reverenced a transcendent majesty which had been left to the people +of God as in some sense a compensation for the earthly dignity +which had been lost. Under the rule of the Greeks the high priest +became ethnarch and president of the synedrium; only through the +pontificate was it possible for the Hasmonaeans to attain to power, +but when they conjoined it with full-blown secular sovereignty, +they created a dilemma to the consequences of which they succumbed. + + +CHAPTER V. THE ENDOWMENT OF THE CLERGY. + +The power and independence of the clergy run parallel with its +material endowment, which accordingly passes through the same +course of development. Its successive steps are reflected even in +the language that is employed, in the gradual loss of point +sustained by the phrase "to fill the hand," at all times used to +denote ordination. Originally it cannot have had any other +meaning than that of filling the hand with money or its +equivalent; we have seen that at one time the priest was +appointed by the owner of a sanctuary for a salary, and that, +without being thus dependent upon a particular employer, he could +not then live on the income derived from those who might employ +him sacrificially. But when the Levitical hereditary priesthood +arose in the later kingdom of Judah the hands of the priests were +no longer filled by another who had the right to appoint and to +dismiss, but they themselves at God's command "filled their own +hand," or rather they had done so in the days of Moses once for +all, as is said in Exodus xxxii. 26-29, an insertion +corresponding with the position of Deuteronomy. It is obvious +that such a statement, when carefully looked at, is absurd, but +is to be explained by the desire to protest against outside +interference. Even here the etymological sense is still +sufficiently felt to create an involuntary jar and leads to a +change of the construction; but finally all sense of it is lost, +and the expression becomes quite colourless: "to fill the hand " +means simply "to consecrate." In Ezekiel not only the priest but +also the altar has its "hand filled" (xliii. 26); in the +Priestly Code the abstract _milluim_ ["consecrations"] is chiefly +used, with subject and object left out, as the name of a mere +inaugural ceremony which lasts for several days (Leviticus viii. 33; +Exodus xxix. 34), essentially consists in the bringing of an +offering on the part of the person to be consecrated, and has no +longer even the remotest connection with actual filling of the +hand (2Chronicles xiii. 7; comp. xxix. 31). The verb, therefore, +now means simply the performance of this ceremony, and the subject +is quite indifferent (Leviticus xvi. 32, xxi. 10; Numbers iii. 3); +the installation does not depend upon the person who performs the +rite, but upon the rite itself, upon the unction, investiture, +and other formalities (Exodus xxix. 29). + +This variation in the _usus Ioquendi_ is the echo of real changes +in the outuard condition of the clergy, which we must now proceed +to consider more in detail. + + +V.I. + +V.I.1. Of the offerings, it was the custom in the earlier time to +dedicate a portion to the deity but to use the greater part in +sacred feasts, at which a priest, if present, was of course +allowed also in one way or another to participate. But he does +not appear to have had a legal claim to any definite dues of +flesh. + +"Eli's sons were worthless persons, and cared not about +Jehovah, or about the priests' right and duty with the people. +When any man offered a sacrifice the servant of the priest came +(that is all we have here to represent the 22,000 Levites) while +the flesh was in seething, with a three-pronged flesh-hook in his +hand, and stuck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; +and all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took. So they +did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. Even +before the fat was burnt, the servant of the priest came and said +to the man that sacrificed: "Give flesh to roast for the priest; +he will not take sodden flesh of thee, but raw. And if the other +said to him: Let the fat first be burnt, and then take according +to thy soul's desire; then he would answer: Nay, but thou shalt +give it now; and if not, I will take it by force" (1Samuel ii. 12-16). + +The tribute of raw portions of flesh before the burning +of the fat is here treated as a shameless demand which is fitted to +bring Jehovah's offering into contempt (ver. 17), and which has +the ruin of the sons of Eli as its merited reward. More tolerable +is it, though even that is an abuse, when the priests cause +boiled flesh to be brought them from the pot, though not seeking +out the best for themselves, but leaving the selection to chance; +they ought to wait and see what is given to them, or be contented +with an invitation to the banquet. On the other hand we have it +in Deuteronomy as "the priest's due from the people" (xviii. 3 += 1Samuel ii. 12) that he receives the shoulder and the two +cheeks and the maw of the slaughtered animal; and yet this is a +modest claim compared with what the sons of Aaron have in the +Priestly Code (Leviticus vii. 34),--the right leg and the breast. +The course of the development is plain; the Priestly Code became +law for Judaism. In sacrifice, ITS demands were those which were +regarded; but in order to fulfil all righteousness the precept of +Deuteronomy was also maintained, this being applied--against the +obvious meaning and certainly only as a result of later scrupulosity +of the scribes--not to sacrifices but to ordinary secular slaughterings, +from which also accordingly the priests received a portion, the +cheeks (according to Jerome on Malachi ii. 3), including the tongue, +the precept being thus harmonistically doubled. /1/ At an earlier + +-- Footnote +1. Philo, De praem. sacerd., sec. 3. Josephus, Ant., iii. 9. 2; +iv. 4, 4. +-- Footnote + + +date the priests at Jerusalem received money from those who +employed them (Deuteronomy xviii. 8), but for this had the obligation +of maintaining the temple; from this one can discern that the +money was properly speaking paid to the sanctuary, and was only +conditionally delivered to its servitors. When they failed to +observe the condition, King Jehoash took the money also from them +(2Kings xii. 7 seq.). + +The meal-offerings are in the Priestly Code a subordinate matter, +and the share that falls to the priests is here trifling compared +with what they receive of the other sacrifices. The meal, of +which only a handful is sprinkled upon the altar, the baked +bread, and the minha altogether are theirs entirely, so also the +sin and trespass offerings so frequently demanded, of which God +receives only the blood and the fat and the offerer nothing at +all (Ezekiel xliv. 29); of the burnt-offering at least the skin +falls to their lot, These perquisites, however, none of them in +their definite form demonstrably old, and some of them +demonstrably the reverse, may be presumed to have had their +analogues in the earlier period, so that they cannot be regarded +absolutely as augmentation of the priestly income. In Josiah's +time the mac,c,oth were among the principal means of support of +the priests (2Kings xxiii. 9); doubtless they came for the +most part from the minha. Instead of sin and trespass offerings, +which are still unknown to Deuteronomy, there were formerly sin +and trespass dues in the form of money payments to the +priests,--payments which cannot, however, have been so regular +(2Kings xii. 17). It is as if money payments were in the eye of +the law too profane; for atonement there must be shedding of blood. +That the skin of the holocaust, which cannot well be consumed on +the altar, should fall to the priest is so natural an arrangement, +that one will hardly be disposed to regard it as new, although +Ezekiel is silent about a due which was not quite worthless +(xliv. 28-31). + +So far then as departures from earlier custom can be shown in the +sacrificial dues enjoined by the Priestly Code, they must not +indeed be treated as purely local differences, but neither are +they to be regarded as on the whole showing a serious raising of +the tariff. But in the Code the sacrificial dues are only a +subordinate part of the income of the priests. In Deuteronomy the +priests are entirely thrown upon the sacrifices; they live upon +them (xviii. 1) and upon invitations to the sacred banquets (xii. +I2, 18 seq.); if they are not exercising the priestly function +they must starve (1Samuel ii. 36). On the other hand, the +Aaronidae of the Priestly Code do not need to sacrifice at all, +and yet have means of support, for their chief revenue consists +of the rich dues which must be paid them from the products of +the soil. + +V.I.2. The dues falling to the priests according to the law were all +originally offerings--the regular offerings which had to be brought +on the festivals; and these all originally were for sacred +banquets, of which the priests received nothing more than the +share which was generally customary. This is true in the first +instance of the male firstlings of cattle. As we have seen in the +chapter on the sacred feasts, these are sacrifices and sacrificial +meals, alike in the Jehovistic legislation and in the Jehovistic +narrative of the exodus and of Abel, as were all the offerings +brought by private individuals in the olden time. When in Exodus +xxii. 29 it is said that they must be given to JEHOVAH, this does +not mean that they must be given to THE PRIESTS; no such thing +is anywhere said in thc Book of the Covenant. Matters still stand +on essentially the same footing in Deuteronomy also: "THOU +SHALT SANCTIFY THEM UNTO JEHOVAH; thou shalt not plough with the +firstling of the bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep; +THOU SHALT EAT IT BEFORE JEHOVAH year by year in the place which +He shall choose; and if there be any blemish therein, thou shalt +not OFFER IT TO JEHOVAH THY GOD" (Deuteronomy xv. 19, 20). To +sanctify to Jehovah, to eat before Jehovah, to offer to Jehovah, +are here three equivalent ideas. If now, in Numbers xviii. 15 +seq., every first birth is assigned without circumlocution to the +priest, and a special paschal offering is appointed in addition, +this can only be understood as the last phase in the development, +partly because the idea of dues altogether is secondary to that +of offerings, and partly because the immense augmentation in the +income of the priests points to an increase of the hierocratic +power. Ezekiel does not yet reckon the firstlings among the +revenues of the clergy (xliv. 28-3I); the praxis of Judaism, on +the other hand, since Nehemiah x. 37, is regulated, as usual, in +accordance with the norm of the Priestly Code. + +The tithe also is originally given to God, and treated just as the +other offerings are; that is to say, it is not appropriated by +the priests, but eaten by those who bring it in sacred banquets. +It does not occur in the Jehovistic legislation, but Jacob +dedicates it (Genesis xxviii. 22) to the God of Bethel, a place +where, although the whole story is a projection out of a later +time, it would hardly be in harmony with the conceptions of the +narrator to think of the presence of priests. The prophet Amos, +who probably represents much the same stage of the cultus as the +Jehovist does, says: "Come to Bethel to transgress, to Gilgal to +sin still more; and bring every morning your sacrifices, every +three days your tithes, and offer with bread pieces of flesh to the +flames, and proclaim free offerings aloud, for so ye like, ye +children of Israel" (Amos iv. 4 seq.). He ironically recommends +them to persevere in the efforts they have hitherto made in +honour of God, and to double them; to offer daily, instead of, as +was usual (1Samuel i.), yearly at the chief festival; to pay +tithes every three days, instead of, as was the custom, every +three years. It is clear that the tithe here holds rank with Zebah, +Toda, and Nedaba; it is a sacrifice of joy, and a splendid +element of the public cultus, no mere due to the priests. Now, +in this point also Deuteronomy has left the old custom, on the +whole, unchanged. According to xiv. 22 seq. the tithe of the +produce of the soil, or its equivalent in money, must be brought +year by year to the sanctuary, and there consumed before Jehovah +that is, as a sacrificial meal; only every third year it is not +to be offered in Jerusalem, but is to be given as alms to the +people of the locality who have no land, to which category the +Levites in particular belong. This last application is an +innovation, connected on the one hand with the abolition of the +sanctuaries, and on the other with the tendency of the +Deuteronomist to utilise festal mirth for humane ends. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Connection is, however, possible with some older custom, such as +must certainly be assumed for Amos iv. 4. Comp. Deuteronomy xxvi. +12, "the year of tithing." +-- Footnote + + +But this is a mere trifle compared with what we find in the Priestly +Code, where the whole tithe has become a mere due to be collected +by the Levites (Nehemiah x. 38 [37]) on behalf of the clergy, +whose endowment thereby is again very largely increased. Ezekiel +is silent on this point also (xliv. 18-31), but as the tithe is +demanded in Numbers (xviii. 21 seq.), so was it paid from the days +of Nehemiah (x. 38 [37] seq.) by the church of the second temple. +Later there was added over and above, so as to meet the divergent +requirement of Deuteronomy, the so-called second tithe, which usually +was consumed at Jerusalem, but in every third year was given to the +poor (so Deuteronomy xxvi. 12, LXX), and in the end the tithe for +the poor was paid separately over and above the first and second +(Tobit i. 7, 8; Jos., Ant., iv. 8, 22). + +It is absolutely astounding that the tithe which in its proper +nature should apply only to products of definite measure, such +as corn and wine and oil (Deuteronomy xiv. 23), comes to be extended +in the Priestly Code to cattle also, so that besides the male +firstlings every tenth head of cattle and of sheep must also be +paid to the priests. This demand, however, is not yet met with in +Numbers xviii., nor even in Nehemiah x. 38, 39, but first occurs as a +novel in Lev. xxvii. 32 (1Samuel viii. 17). Whether it ever +came into the actual practice of Judaism seems doubtful; in +2Chronicles xxxi. 6 the tithe of cattle is indeed mentioned, +but on the other hand the firstlings are not; in the pre-rabbinical +literature no traces of it are discoverable,--especially not in +Philo, who knows only of the ordinary tithes due to the Levites, +and not of the tithes of cattle due to the priests (De praem. +sacerd. 6). + +With the tithe of the fruit of the soil the first fruits are at +bottom identical; the latter were reduced to definite measure +later and through the influence of the former. This is no doubt +the reason why in the Jehovistic legislation tithe and first +fruits are not both demanded, but only a gift of the first and +best of corn, wine, and oil, left to the free discretion of the +offerer, which is conjoined with the firstling of cattle and sheep +(Exodus xxii. 28 [29]. xxiii. 19, xxxiv. 26). In a precisely +similar way the TITHE of the field stands conjoined with the +firstlings of cattle in Deuteronomy (xiv. 22, 23, xv. 19 seq.). +But also the _reshith_, usually translated first-fruits, occurs in +Deuteronomy,--as a payment of corn, wine, oil, and wool to the +priests (xviii. 4); a small portion, a basketful, thereof is +brought before the altar and dedicated with a significant liturgy +(xxvi. 1 seq.). It appears that it is taken from the tithe, as +might be inferred from xxvi. 12 seq. taken as the continuation +of vers. 1-11; in one passage, xxvi. 2, the more general +_usus loquendi_ reappears, according to which the _reshith_ means +the entire consecrated fruit, which as a whole is consumed by the +offerers before Jehovah, and of which the priests receive only a +portion. But in the Priestly Code not only is the entire tithe +demanded as a due of the clergy, the _reshith_ also is demanded in +addition (Numbers xviii. 12), and it is further multiplied, +inasmuch as it is demanded from the kneading-trough as well as +from the threshing-floor: in every leavening the _halla_ belongs +to Jehovah (xv. 20). Nor is this all; to the _reshith_ (xviii. 12) +are added the _bikkurim_ also (xviii. 13), as something +distinct. The distinction does not occur elsewhere (Exodus xxxiv. +26); prepared fruits alone are invariably spoken of, the yield +of the threshing-floor and the wine-press, of which first +produce--"the fulness and the overflow "--was to be consecrated. +The FAT of oil, wine, and corn is the main thing in Numbers xviii. +also, and is called _reshith_ (ver 12) or _terumah_ (ver. 27); but +the _bikkurim_ (ver. 13) seem to be a separate thing, and, if +this be really the case, must mean those raw fruits which have +ripened earliest. Judaism, here once more moulding itself +essentially in accordance with the tenor of the Priestly Code, +actually drew this distinction; from the publication of the Law +through Ezra the community pledged itself to bring up yearly the +_bikkurim_ to the house of Jehovah, and to deliver the _reshith_ into +the temple cells (Nehemiah x. 36 [35]). The former was a religious +solemnity, associated with processions, and the use of the ritual +in Deuteronomy xxvi.; the latter was rather a simple tax paid from +natural products,--a distinction which perhaps is connected with +the different expressions _they shall bring_ (Numbers xviii. 13) and +_they shall give_ (xviii. 12). The LXX keeps )APARXH and +PRWTOGENNHMATA strictly apart, as also do Philo (De praem. sacerd. +1, 2) and Josephus (Ant., iv. 4, 8, 22). + +V.I.3. The amount which at last is required to be given is enormous. +What originally were alternatives are thrown together, what +originally was left free and undetermined becomes precisely +measured and prescribed. The priests receive all the sin and trespass +offerings, the greater share of the vegetable offerings, the hides +of the burnt offerings, the shoulder and breast of meat offerings. +Over and above are the firstlings, to which are added the tithes +and first-fruits in a duplicate form, in short, all _kodashim_, +which originally were demanded merely as ordinary meat offerings +(Deuteronomy xii. 26 = ver. 6, 7, and so on), and were +consumed at holy places and by consecrated guests indeed, but not +by the priest. And, notwithstanding all this, the clergy are not +even asked (as in Ezekiel is the prince, who there receives the +dues, xlv. 13 seq.) to defray the cost of public worship; for +this there is a poll-tax, which is not indeed enjoined in the body +of the Priestly Code, but which from the time of Nehemiah x. 33 +[32] was paid at the rate of a third of a shekel, till a novel of +the law (Exodus xxx. 15) raised it to half a shekel. + + +V.II. + +V.II.1. To the endowment of the clergy in the Priestly Code belong +finally the forty-eight cities assigned by Joshua in accordance +with the appointment of Moses (Numbers xxxv.; Josh. xxi.). The +tribes gave them up freely; the smaller giving few and the larger +more (Numbers xxxv. 8). The Aaronidae and the three families of +the Levites cast lots about them in four divisions; the sons of +Aaron get thirteen cities in Judah, the Levites ten in +Ephraim-Manasseh, thirteen in Galilee, and twelve in the territory +eastward of Jordan. It is not merely the right to inhabit, but, +in spite of all apologetic rationalism, the right of absolute +possession that they receive (Josh. xxi. 12), inclusive of a portion +of land two thousand ells square (square in the strictly literal +sense; Numbers xxxv. 5), which serves as public common. + +The physical impracticability of such an arrangement has been +conclusively shown, after Gramberg, by Graf (Merx, Archiv, i. +p. 83). The 4 x 12 or the substituted 13+10+13+12 cities, +of which in spite of Numbers xxxv. 8 for the most part four belong +to each of the twelve tribes, are already sufficient to suggest a +suspicion of artificial construction; but the regulation that a +rectangular territory of two thousand ells square should be +measured off as pasture for the Levites around each city (which +at the same time is itself regarded only as a point; Numbers xxxv. +4) might, to speak with Graf, be very well carried out perhaps in +a South Russian steppe or in newly founded townships in the +western States of America, but not in a mountainous country like +Palestine, where territory that can be thus geometrically +portioned off does not exist, and where it is by no means left to +arbitrary legal enactments to determine what pieces of ground are +adapted for pasturage and what for tillage and gardening; there, +too, the cities were already in existence, the land was already +under cultivation, as the Israelites slowly conquered it in the +course of centuries. Besides, from the time of Joshua there is +not a historical trace of the existence of the Levitical cities. +Quite a number of them were in the days of the judges and down +to the early monarchy still in the hands of the Canaanites,-- +Gibeon, Shechem, Gezer, Taanach; some perhaps may even have so +continued permanently. Those on the other hand which passed +into the possession of the Israelites at no time belonged +to the Levites. Shechem, Hebron, Ramoth, were the capital cities +of Ephraim, Judah, and Gilead; and Gibeon, Gezer, Heshbon were in +like manner important but by no means ecclesiastical towns. In +the Deuteronomic period the Levites were scattered throughout +Judah in such a manner that each locality had its own Levites or +Levite; nowhere did they live separated from the rest of the +world in compact masses together, for they made their living by +sacrificing for others, and without a community they could not +exercise their calling. Some indeed possessed land and heritage; +such were at an earlier period the Silonic family at +Gibeath-Phineas, Amaziah at Bethel, and Abiathar at Anathoth, and +at a later period Jeremiah, also at Anathoth. But Anathoth (for +example) was not on that account a priestly city in the sense of +Joshua xxi.; Jeremiah had his holding there as a citizen and not +as a priest, and he shared not with the priests but with the +people (xxxvii. 12). As a tribe Levi was distinguished from the +other tribes precisely by holding no land, and its members +joined themselves to the settled citizens and peasants, for the +most part as dependent inmates (Deuteronomy x. 9, xviii. 1). + +Even after the exile, indeed, matters were not different in this +respect. "Ab excidio templi prioris sublatum est Levitis jus +suburbiorum," says R. Nachman (B. Sotah, 48b), and he is +borne out by the silence of Nehemiah x. The execution of the law +was probably postponed to the days of the Messiah; it was not in +truth within the power of man, and cannot be seriously demanded +in the Priestiy Code itself, which contemplates a purely ideal +Israel, with ideal boundaries, and leaves the sober reality so +far out of sight that on archaeological grounds it never once so +much as mentions Jerusalem, the historical capital of the priests. + +The circumstance that these towns lay _in partibus infiidelium_ +seems to make them unavailable as a means of fixing the antiquity +of the Priestly Code. It is possible with Bleek to explain the +transcendence of history as Mosaicity; such a view is not to be +argued against. But it is also possible with Noldeke to insist +that an invention so bold cannot possibly be imputed to the +spirit of the exilic and post-exilic time, which in everything +is only anxiously concerned to cleave to what is old and to +restore it; and such a contention deserves and admits of refutation. +It is not the case that the Jews had any profound respect for their +ancient history; rather they condemned the whole earlier +development, and allowed only the Mosaic time along with its +Davidic reflex to stand; in other words, not history but the +ideal. The theocratic ideal was from the exile onwards the centre +of all thought and effort, and it annihilated the sense for +objective truth, all regard and interest for the actual facts as +they had been handed down. It is well known that there never +have been more audacious history-makers than the Rabbins. But +Chronicles affords evidence sufficient that this evil propensity +goes back to a very early time, its root the dominating +influence of the Law, being the root of Judaism itself. Judaism +is just the right soil for such an artificial growth as the +forty-eight priestly and Levitical cities. It would hardly have +occurred to an author living in the monarchical period, when the +continuity of the older history was still unbroken, to look so +completely away from all the conditions of the then existing +reality; had he done so, he would have produced upon his +contemporaries the impression merely that he had scarcely all his +wits about him. But after the exile had annihilated the ancient +Israel, and violently and completely broken the old connection +with the ancient conditions, there was nothing to hinder from +planting and partitioning the _tabula rasa_ in thought at pleasure, +just as geographers are wont to do with their map as long as the +countries are unknown. + +But, of course, no fancy is pure fancy; every imagination has +underlying it some elements of reality by which it can be laid +hold of, even should these only be certain prevailing notions of +a particular period. It is clear, if a proper territory is +assigned to the clergy, that the notion of the clerical tribe which +already had begun to strike root in Deuteronomy has here grown +and gathered strength to such a degree that even the last and +differentiating distinction is abolished which separates the +actual tribes from the Levites, viz. communal independence and +the degree of concentration which expresses itself in separate +settlements. For when we read, notwithstanding, in the Priestly +Code that Aaron and Levi are to have no lot nor inheritance in +Israel (Numbers xviii. 20, 23), this is merely a form of speech +taken over from Deuteronomy and at the same time an involuntary +concession to fact; what would the forty-eight cities have been, +had they actually existed, if not a lot, a territorial possession, +and that too a comparatively large one? The general basis which +serves as starting-point for the historical fiction being thus far +recognisable, we are able also to gain a closer view of its +concrete material. The priestly and Levitical cities stand in +close connection with the so-called cities of refuge. These are +also appointed in Deuteronomy (xix.), although not enumerated by +name (for Deuteronomy iv. 41-43 cannot be regarded as genuine). +Originally the altars were asylums (Exodus xxi. 14; 1Kings ii. +28), some in a higher degree than others (Exodus xxi. 13). In +order not to abolish the asylums also along with the altars, the +Deuteronomic legislator desired that certain holy places should +continue as places of refuge, primarily three for Judah, to which, +when the territory of the kingdom extended, three others were to +be afterwards added. The Priestly Code adopts the arrangement, +and specifies three definite cities on this side and three on the +other side of Jordan (Numbers xxxv.; Joshua xx.), four of which +are demonstrably famous old seats of worship,--all the three western +ones, and Ramoth, that is, Mizpah, of the eastern ones (Genesis +xxxi.; Judges xi. 11). But as all these asylums are at the same +time priestly and Levitical cities, it is an obvious conjecture +that these also in like manner arose out of old sanctuaries. We +need not suppose that there is more in this than an echo of the +general recollection that there were once in Israel many holy +places and residences of priesthoods; it is by no means +necessary to assert that each of the towns enumerated in Joshua +xxi. had actually been an ancient sanctuary. In many cases, +however, this also admits of being shown, /1/ although some of the + +-- Footnote +1. In the cases of Hebron, Gibeon, Shechem, Ramoth, Mahanaim and +Tabor (Host v. 1) by historical data; in those of Bethshemesh, +Ashtaroth, Kadesh,, perhaps also Rimmon, by the names. Not even +here can one venture to credit the Priestly Code with consistent +fidelity to history. As for Hosea v. 1, 2, the original +meaning seems to be: "A snare have ye become for Mizpah, and an +outspread net upon Tabor, and the pit-fall of Shittim (#XT +H#+YM) have they made deep." Shittim as a camping-place under +Moses and Joshua must certainly have been a sanctuary, just like +Kadesh, Gilgal, and Shiloh; the prophet names these seats at +which in his opinion the worship was especially seductive and +soul-destroying; his reproach is levelled at the priests +most famous (or according to the later view, infamous) high +places, such as Bethel, Dan, Gilgal, and Beersheba are omitted, +probably of set purpose. +-- Footnote + + +The immediate starting-point, however, for this territorial +donation to the Levites is perhaps to be sought in Ezekiel, +in the picture of the future Israel which he draws at the close +of his book. He concerns himself there in a thorough-going +manner about the demarcation of the national and tribal +boundaries, and in doing so sets quite freely to work, taking, +so to speak, the yard measure in his hand. Leaving the land +eastward of Jordan wholly to the Saracens, he divides the +western portion into thirteen parallel transverse sections; +in the middle of the thirteenth (the rest of which is assigned +to the prince), lying between Judah and Benjamin, the twelve +tribes give up a square with a base line of 25,000 ells as a +sacred offering to Jehovah. This square is divided into three +parallelograms, 25,000 ells long, running east and west; +the southernmost of these, 5000 ells broad, includes the capital +with its territory; the middle one, 10,000 ells broad, contains +the temple and the priestly territory; the northernmost, also +10,000 ells broad, has the inheritance and the cities of the Levites. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. For (S#RYM L#KT (xlv. 5), read, with the LXX, #(RYM L#BT +"to dwell within the gates." Compare a similar transposition of +letters in xiii. 3, LXX. The expression "gates" for "cities" +has its origin in Deuteronomy. +-- Footnote + + +Thus we have here also a surrender of land to the clergy on the +part of the tribes; the comparison with Josh. xxi. is not to be +put aside,--all the less, because nowhere else in the Old Testament +is anything similar met with. Now Ezekiel is quite transparent, +and requires no interpreter but himself. In order that the temple +may be protected in its sanctity in the best possible manner, +it is placed in the centre of the priestly territory, which in its +turn is covered by the city on the south, and by the Levites on the +north. At the same time the _personnel_ connected with the function +of worship is to dwell as much as possible apart on its own soil +and territory, which _shall serve them for separate houses to +sanctify them_, as is expressly remarked for the priests (xiv. 4), +and in an inferior degree holds good also, of course, for the Levites +beside them. Here everything starts from, and has its explanation in, +the temple. Its original is unmistakably the temple of Solomon; +its site is beside the capital, in the heart of the sacred centre +of the land between Judah and Benjamin; there the sons of Zadok +have their abode, and beside them are the Levites whom Josiah had +brought up from all the country to Jerusalem. Obviously the +motives are not here far to seek. In the Priestly Code, on the +other hand, which was not in a position to shape the future freely +out of the present, but was compelled to accept archaeological +restrictions, the motives are historically concealed and almost +paralysed. The result has remained, namely, the holding of +separate territory by the clergy, but the cause or the +purpose of it can no longer be recognised on account of the +sanctuary being now an abstract idea. Jerusalem and the temple, +which, properly speaking, occasioned the whole arrangement, are +buried in silence with a diligence which is in the highest degree +surprising; and on the other hand, in remembrance of the +priesthoods scattered everywhere among the high places of Israel +in earlier days, forty-eight fresh Levitical cities are created, +from which, however, their proper focus, a temple to wit, is +withheld only in the circumstance that precisely the thirteen +cities of Judah and Benjamin happen to fall to the lot of the sons +of Aaron, does the influence of Jerusalem unconsciously betray +itself. + +V.II.2. Apart from this historical fiction, the other claims that +are made for the endowment of the clergy are, however exorbitant, +nevertheless practicable and seriously meant. So far as the +circumstances of their origin are concerned, two possibilities +present themselves. Either the priests demanded what they could +hope to obtain, in which case they were actually supreme over the +nation, or they set up claims which at the time were neither +justified nor even possible; in which case they were not indeed +quite sober, yet at the same time so sane prophetically, that +centuries afterwards the revenues they dreamed of became in +actuality theirs. Is it to be supposed that it was (say) Moses, +who encouraged his people as they were struggling for bare life +in the wilderness to concern themselves about a superabundantly +rich endowment of their clergy? Or is it believed that it was +in the period of the judges, when the individual tribes and +families of Israel, after having forced their way among the +Canaanites, had a hard fight to maintain their position, get +somehow settled in their new dwelling-places and surroundings, +that the thought first arose of exacting such taxes from a people +that was only beginning to grow into a national unity, for an end +that was altogether remote from its interest? What power could +then have been able in those days, when every man did what was +right in his own eyes, to compel the individual to pay? But +even when actually, under the pressure of circumstances, a +political organisation had arisen which embraced all the tribes, +it could hardly have occurred to the priests to utilise the +secular arm as a means for giving to themselves a place of +sovereignty; and still less could they have succeeded WITHOUT +the king on whom they were so completely dependent. In short, +the claims they make in the Law would in the pre-exilic period +have been regarded as utopian in the strict sense of that word; +they allow of explanation only by the circumstances which from +the beginning of the Chaldaean rule, and still more that of the +Persians, lent themselves to the formation of a hierocracy, +to which, as to the truly national and moreover divine authority, +the people gave voluntary obedience, and to which the Persians +also conceded rights they could not have granted to the family +of David. At the very beginning of the exile, Ezekiel begins +to augment the revenues of the priests (xliv. 28-30), yet he +still confines himself on the whole to the lines of Deuteronomy, +and makes no mention of tithes and firstlings. Of the demands +of the Priestly Code in their full extent we hear historically +in Nehemiah x. for the first time; there it is stated +that they were carried through by men who had the authority of +Artaxerxes behind them. This was the most difficult and at the +same time the most important part of the work Ezra and Nehemiah +had to do in introducing the Pentateuch as the law of the Jewish +Church; and that is the reason why it is so specially and +minutely spoken of. Here plainly lies the material basis of the +hierocracy from which the royal throne was ultimately reached. + +For all these dues, apart from sacrificial perquisites, flowed into +a common coffer, and benefited those who had the control of this, +viz., the priestly aristocracy of Jerusalem, whom it helped to +rise to a truly princely position. The ordinary priests, +and especially the Levites, did not gain by all this wealth. +The latter indeed ought, according to law, to have had the tithes, +and to have handed over the tithes of these again to the sons +of Aaron, but as the general tendency of the time was to depress +the Levites, this legal revenue was also gradually withdrawn +from them and appropriated by the priests. Afterwards the chief +priests claimed the tithes for themselves alone, while their +inferior brethren had to suffer severe privation and even +hunger itself (Josephus, Ant., xx. 8, 8; 9, 2). + +Upon the difference just stated between the later practice and +the Law, one argument more has recently been founded against +assigning the latter to the Babylonio-Persian period. "Another +testimony borne by tradition completely excludes the idea of +the Elohistic torah (i.e., the Priestly Code) having been +composed by Ezra. As is well known, it is the Elohistic torah +that carefully regulates the mutual relations of priests and +Levites, while Deuteronomy groups the two together without +bringing forward the distinction. It is the former that assigns +the tithes to the Levites, while requiring these in their turn to +hand over the tithe of their tithes as a due to the priests. Such +was also the practice (Nehemiah x. 38 seq.) soon after the exile +[i.e., a hundred years later; Nehemiah vii. 5]. But subsequently +the payment of the tithes to the Levites fell entirely into +disuse; these were rendered immediately and exclusively to the +priests, so that Jose ben Hanina actually confesses: "We do +not pay the tithes according to the command of God" (Sota, 47b). +But everywhere the Talmud refers this practice back to Ezra. Ezra +it was who punished the Levites by withdrawal of the tithes, and +that because they had not come out from Babylon (Jebam. 386b; +Chullin 11b). The point to be noted is that Ezra, according to +the testimony of tradition, superseded a precept of the Elohistic +torah, supporting himself in this perhaps by reference to the +Deuteronomic torah." So Delitzsch in the Zeitschr. fuer luth. +Theol., 1877, p. 448 seq. That Ezra is not the author of the +Priestly Code may readily be granted--only not on such an +argument as this. If the genuine historical tradition expressly +names Ezra as the man who introduced the Levites' tithe just as +prescribed by law (Nehemiah x. 38 seq.), what conscientious man can +attach any weight to the opposite assertion of the Talmud ? + +But, even assuming that the divergence of practice from the legal +statute actually does go back to the time of Ezra, what would +follow from that against the post-exilic origin of the Priestly +Code? For this is what the question comes to, not to Ezra's +authorship, which is made the main point by a mere piece of +transparent controversial tactics. The demands of the Priestly +Code, which demonstrably were neither laid down, nor in any sense +acted on before the exile, attained the force of law one hundred +years after the return from Babylon (Nehemiah x.); the whole +taxation system of Judaism ever afterwards rested upon it;- - +shall this be held to have no meaning as against the trifling +circumstance that the tithe also was indeed paid to the clergy, +in full accordance with the Priestly Code, and inconsistently with +ancient custom, but paid to the higher, and not to the lower order? + +In point of fact any other difference whatever between Jewish +practice and the Law might better have been adduced against the +thesis of Graf,--for example, the absence of Urim and Thummim (Nehemiah +vii. 65), or of the forty-eight Levitical cities, the church of +the returned exiles instead of that of the twelve tribes of +Israel, the second temple instead of the tabernacle, Ezra instead +of Moses, the sons of Zadok instead of the sons of Aaron, +the absence of the other marks of Mosaicity. For the position +of the Levites is the Achilles heel of the Priestly Code. +If the Levites at a later date were still further lowered beneath +the priests, and put into a worse position in favour of these, +this nevertheless presupposes the distinction between the two; +let it first then be shown that the distinction is known to +the genuine Old Testament, and that, in particular, it is +introduced by Ezekiel not as a new thing, but as of immemorial +antiquity. Or is the primary fact that the separation between +priests and Levites was set up only in the Priestly Code and +in Judaism, and that its genesis can be traced with confidence +from the time of Josiah downwards, a fact of less importance +than the secondary one that the distinction extended itself +somewhat further still in the subsequent development of +Judaism ? + + +B. HISTORY OF TRADITION. + +PLEON (HMISU PANTOS-- Hesiod <Op. 40> + + +CHAPTER VI. CHRONICLES + +Under the influence of the spirit of each successive age, +traditions originally derived from one source were very +variously apprehended and shaped; one way in the ninth and +eighth centuries, another way in the seventh and sixth, and yet +another in the fifth and fourth. Now, the strata of the tradition +show the same arrangement as do those of the legislation. And +here it makes no difference whether the tradition be legendary or +historical, whether it relates to pre-historic or to historic +times; the change in the prevailing ideas shows itself equally in +either case. To show the truth of this in the case of the +Hexateuch is of course our primary object, but we make our +commencement rather with the properly historical books. For on +various grounds we are here able with greater certainty to +assert: Such was the aspect of history at this period and such +at that; such were the influences that had the ascendancy at +one time, and such those which prevailed at another. + +We begin the inquiry where the matter is clearest--namely, with +the Book of Chronicles. Chronicles, which properly speaking forms +but a single book along with Ezra and Nehemiah, is a second +history running parallel with the Books of Samuel and Kings, +and we are here in the favourable position of starting with the +objects of comparison distinctly defined, instead of having as +usual to begin by a critical separation of sources of various age +combined in one document. And, what is more, we can also date the +rival histories with tolerable certainty. The Books of Samuel and +of Kings were edited in the Babylonian exile; Chronicles, on the +other hand, was composed fully three hundred years later, after +the downfall of the Persian empire, out of the very midst of fully +developed Judaism. We shall now proceed to show that the mere +difference of date fully accounts for the varying ways in which +the two histories represent the same facts and events, and the +difference of spirit arises from the influence of the Priestly +Code which came into existence in the interval. De Wette's "Critical +Essay on the Credibility of the Books of Chronicles" (Beitraege, +i.; 1806), is throughout taken as the basis of the discussion: +that essay has not been improved on by Graf (Gesch. Bucher d. +A. T. p. 114 seq.), for here the difficulty, better grappled +with by the former, is not to collect the details of evidence, +but so to shape the superabundant material as to convey a right +total impression. + + +VI.I. + +VI.I.1. After Jehovah had slain Saul (so begins the narrative of +Chronicles), He turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. +All Israel gathered themselves unto David to Hebron and anointed +him king over Israel, according to the word of Jehovah by Samuel +(I Chronicles x. 1.-xi. 3). How simply and smoothly and wholly +without human intervention according to this version did the thing +come to pass! Quite otherwise is it in the narrative of the Book +of Samuel. This also indeed has the statement of Chronicles word +for word, but it has something over and above which gives a quite +different aspect to the matter. Here David, on the lowest step to +the throne, is the guerilla leader in the wilderness of Judah who +finally is compelled by Saul's persecutions to pass over to +Philistine territory, there under the protection of the enemies +of his nation, carrying on his freebooter life. After the battle of +Gilboa he avails himself of the dissolution of the kingdom to set +up a separate principality in the south as a vassal of the +Philistines; he is not chosen, but comes with a following six +hundred strong, and offers himself to the elders of Judah, +whom he has already at an earlier period laid under obligations +to him by various favours and gifts. In the meantime Saul's cousin +Abner takes over what of the kingdom there is, not for himself +but for the legitimate heir Ishbaal; from Gilead, whither the +government had been transferred after the great catastrophe, +he gradually reconquers the territory west of Jordan, and is +scheming how to recover also the lost Judah. Thus it comes +to protracted struggles between Abner and David, in which fortune +is most on the side of the latter; yet he does not leave the +defensive or gain the sovereignty over Israel. That falls +into his hands rather by treachery. Abner himself, indignant +at the ingratitude of his royal nephew, offers the crown to +his rival, and enters into negotiations with him about it; +but as he immediately afterwards falls a victim to blood revenge, +nothing comes of the matter until Ishbaal is privily murdered +in his sleep by two of his captains; then at last the elders +of Israel come to Hebron, and David becomes king in succession +to Saul. What a length of time these affairs demand, how natural +is their development, how many human elements mingle in their +course,--cunning, and treachery, and battle, and murder! +Chronicles indeed knows them all well enough, as is clear from +incidental expressions in chaps. xi. and xii., but they are +passed over in silence. Immediately after his predecessor's death +the son of Jesse is freely chosen by all Israel to be king, +according to the word of Jehovah by Samuel. The sequence of x. +13, 14, xi. 1 does not admit of being understood in any other +way, nor is it in point of fact otherwise understood, for it has +actually been successful, at least to this extent, that the +kingship of Ishbaal has virtually dropped out of traditional Bible +history; after Saul came David is what is said. We have before +us a deliberate and in its motives a very transparent mutilation +of the original narrative as preserved for us in the Book of +Samuel. + +As all Israel has made David the successor of Saul, and all Israel +gone out with him to the conquest of Jerusalem (xi. 4),--in 2Samuel +v. 6 we hear only of David's following,--so now immediately +afterwards, the noblest representatives of all the tribes of +Israel, who even before he had attained the throne were in +sympathy and indeed already on his side, are enumerated by name +and numbers in three lists (xi. 10-xii. 40), which are introduced +between what is said in 2Samuel v. 1-1110 and in 2Samuel v. 11 +seq. The first (xi. 10-47: "these are the mighty men who took +part with him with all Israel to make him king") is the list of +2Samuel xxiii., which the Chronicler, as he betrays in chaps. xx., +xxi., was acquainted with as it stood in that place, and here +gives much too early, for it is for the most part warriors of +David's later campaigns who are enumerated. /1/ The second list (xii. + +-- Footnote +1. The division into a group of three and another of thirty heroes, +obscured in 2Samuel xxiii. by corruption of the text (Text der +BB. Sam. p. 213-216), has not been understood by the +Chronicler, and thus been made quite unrecognisable. In this way +he has been able to bring in at the end (xi. 42-47) a string of +additional names exceeding the number of thirty. In ver. 42 his +style unmistakably betrays itself, wherever it may be that he +met with the elements. +-- Footnote + + +1-22: "these are they that came to David to Ziklag, while he yet +kept himself close because of Saul") is not taken from the Book of +Samuel, but one also observes this difference: along with old +and genuine there are extremely common names, and hardly one +that occurs here only; the notes of ancestry carefully given +in chap. xi. are almost always wanting; and instead of performing +before our eyes such deeds as the rescue of a field of barley +from the enemy, the purchase of a draught of water with blood, +the slaying of a lion in a pit, the heroes receive all sorts +of _epitheta ornantia_ (xii. 1-3) and titles of honour (xii. 14, +20), and ordinarily talk a highly spiritual language (xii. 17, 18). +And as for the historical situation, how impossible that a great +Israelite army should have been gathered around David as the +feudatory of the Philistines in Ziklag (xii. 2 2), with a crowd +of captains of hundreds and thousands! Plainly the banished +fugitive is according to this representation the splendid king +and illustrious ancestor of the established dynasty; hence also +the naive remark of ver. 29. No better is it with the third +list (xii. 23-40: "these are the numbers of the bands, ready +armed for the war, who came to David to Hebron"). Observe the +regular enumeration of the twelve tribes, which nowhere occurs +in the older historical books, and is quite artificial; then +the vast numbers, which are not matters of indifference here, +but the principal thing and make up the entire contents; finally, +the 4600 Levites and 3700 priests, who also take their place in +the martial train, and constitute the proper guard of the king; +to Chronicles the distinction between secular and spiritual soldiers +is not altogether clear. There are but a few details of a special +kind; the remark in xii. 32 is perhaps connected with 2Samuel +xx. 18; Jehoiada the prince of the house of Aaron, i.e., the high +priest, alongside of the historically certain series,--Eli, Phinehas, +Ahitub, Ahiah (Ahimelech ), Abiathar,--an utterly impossible +person, is a reflection of the Jehoiada of 2Kings xi., xii., and +the allegation that Zadok at that time joined David at the head of +twenty-two chief priests is a hardly credible substitute for what +is stated in Samuel, according to which Abiathar, whose older +claims were disagreeable to the B'ne Zadok and those who came +later, was the priest who from the beginning held with David; the +twenty-two chief priests appear to correspond to the heads of the +twenty-two post-exilian priestly families (Nehemiah xii. 1-7, +12-21, x. 3-9; 1Chronicles xxiv. 7-18). Yet it is hardly necessary +to go so minutely into the contents of the above lists, for the +purpose with which they are given is stated without +circumlocution at the close (2Chronicles xii. 38, 39): "All these +men of war, in order of battle, came with a perfect heart to Hebron +to make David king over all Israel, and all the rest of Israel also +were of one heart to make David king. And they were there with David +three days, eating and drinking, for there was joy in Israel." + +After the explication of the idea "all Israel" thus inappropriately +interpolated, the narrative proceeds to reproduce the contents of 2 +Samuel v.-vii. David's first deed, after the conquest of the +stronghold of Jebus, is in Chronicles to make it the holy city +by transferring the ark of Jehovah thither (xiii. 1 seq.). It +seems as if the building of a palace and the Philistine war +(2Samuel v. 11-25) were to be omitted; but after the narrative in +2Samuel vi. 1 seq. has been given down to the place "and the ark +of Jehovah abode in the house of Obed-edom three months " (1Chronicles +xiii. 14 = 2Samuel vi. 11), the pause of a quarter of a +year is utilised for the purpose of overtaking what had been left +out (xiv. 1-17 = 2Samuel v. 11-25), and then the history of +the ark is completed. This indeed is to separate things mutually +connected, but at the same time the secular business which, +according to the older narrative, is the nearest and most +pressing, is reduced to the level of a mere episode in the midst of +the sacred. That there is no room for the building of a house and +a Philistine war within the three months which offer themselves so +conveniently for the interpolation is a subordinate affair. + +As regards the sacred business, the transference of the ark to +Zion, almost everything that is said in 2Samuel vi. is repeated +word for word in Chronicles also (xiii., xv., xvi., xvii. 1). +Two traits only are absent in Chronicles, and in neither case is +the omission helpful to the connection David's wife Michal, it is +said in 2Samuel vi. 16, 20-23, when she saw the king dancing and +leaping in the procession, despised him in her heart; afterwards +when he came home she told him what she thought of his unworthy +conduct. The first of these two statements is found in Chronicles +also (xv. 29), but the second is (all but the introductory +notice, xvi. 43 = 2Samuel vi. 20, here torn from its connection) +omitted, although it contains the principal fact, for the +historical event was the expression of her contempt, not its +psychological origin; a woman--such is the idea--must not say a +thing like that to David. The other case is quite similar. On +account of the calamity by which those who were bringing up the +ark were overtaken, David does not at first venture to receive it +into his citadel, but deposits it in the house of Obed-edom, one +of his captains; but when Jehovah blesses the house of Obed-edom, +he takes courage to bring the ark to his own home (2Samuel vi. 10-12). +Chronicles also tells that Jehovah blessed the house of Obed-edom +(xiii. 14), but mentions no consequent result; again the cause is +given without the effect. Another explanation is substituted; +David perceived that the disaster connected with the removal of +the ark was due to the fact of its not having been carried by the +Levites in accordance with the Law; the Levites accordingly were +made to bear it and no harm ensued (xv. 2, 13-15). This is in complete +and manifest contradiction to the older narrative, and as Chronicles +(chapter xiii.) copies that narrative, it also contradicts itself +(xiii. 10), and that all the more strikingly as by the addition +in xiii. 2 it represents the accompanying clergy as tacitly +approving the carrying of the ark on the ox-cart. Then due +participation in the sacred procession having been thus once +secured them, 1Chronicles xv. positively revels in priests +and Levites, of whom not a sing]e word is to be found in 2 Samuel +vi., and moreover a sort of musical service is instituted by +David himself before the ark, and a festal cantata made up by him +out of post-exilian psalms is quoted (chapter xvi.). In this way, +out of the original narrative, the scattered fragments of which +now show themselves very strangely in the new connection, +something quite different has grown. "In the former everything is +free, simply the affair of king and people, here all is priestly +ceremonial; there the people with their king shout and dance with +joy before the ark,, here the levites are the musicians and +singers in formal order. To seek to combine the two versions is +wholly against the laws of historical interpretation. If the +first were curt and condensed the unification of the two might +perhaps be possible, but no story could be more particular or +graphic, and could it have been that the Levites alone should be +passed over in silence if they had played so very important a +part? The author of Chronicles was able to introduce them only +by distorting and mutilating his original and landing himself in +contradiction after all. He cannot allow anything to happen +without Levites; and was the ark of the covenant to be fetched to +Jerusalem without them? was the Law to be even a second time +broken under the pious king David? This seemed to him impossible. +That Uzzah perished in the first attempt to fetch the ark, and +that on the second occasion--when only a quite short journey is +spoken of--the ark was carried, ~2Samuel vi. 13, may have been +the suggestions by which he was led. Fertile in combinations, +he profited by the hint." So, justly, De Wette (Beitraege, i. +88-91). + +The narrative of 2Samuel vi. having been broken off at the first +half of ver. 19 (1Chronicles xvi. 3), the second half of the verse +and the beginning of the next are reproduced (xvi. 43) after the +interpolation of xvi. 4-42, and then 2Samuel vii. is appended +word for word (1Chronicles xvii.),--the resolution of David to build +a house for the ark, and what Jehovah said to him about the +subject through Nathan. The point of the prophet's address turns +on the antithesis (2Samuel vii.). "Thou wilt build a house FOR +ME? rather will I build a house FOR THEE;" the house of David +is of course the Davidic dynasty. But an interpolation has +already crept into the text of Samuel (vii. 13), which +apprehends the antithesis thus: "THOU wilt build a house for me? +Nay, THY SON shall build a house for me." Now Chronicles, for which +David comes into consideration merely as the proper founder of the +Solomonic temple, takes up the narrative of 2 Samuel vii. precisely +on account of this interpolation, as is clear from xxii. 9, 10-- +increases the misunderstanding by going back to it in an addition +(xvii. 14)--and at the outset destroys the original antithesis +by the innocent alteration, "Thou shalt not build THE HOUSE for me" +instead of "Wilt thou build A house for me? "The house can here +mean only that imperatively needed one, long kept in view alike +by God and men, which must by all means he built, only not by David +but by Solomon; it is without any ambiguity the temple, and does not, +like a house, contain that possibility of a double meaning on +which the original point depends. It is interesting also to compare +2Samuel vii. 14 with 1Chronicles xvii. 13: "I will be to thy seed +a father, and he shall be to me a son. _If he commit iniquity, +then I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes +of the sons of men; but_ my mercy shall not depart from him." +The words in italics are wanting in Chronicles; the meaning, that +Jehovah will not withdraw His grace from the dynasty of Judah +altogether, even though some of its members should deserve +punishment, is thereby destroyed and volatilised into an abstract +idealism, which shows that to the writer the Davidic kingly +family is known only as a dissolving view, and not by historical +experience as it is to the author of 2Samuel vii. + +In chaps xviii.-xx., Chronicles seems to refresh itself with a +little variety, relating as it does the foreign wars of David +after the order of 2Samuel, viii., x., xi. 1, xii. 30, 30, xxi. +18-22. But in this it still keeps in view its purpose, which is +directed towards David as founder of the Jerusalem worship; +those wars brought him the wealth that was required for the +building of the temple. On the other hand, everything so +fully and beautifully told in the Book of Samuel about the +home occurrences of that period is omitted, for after all +it does not contribute much to the glorification of the king. +So the story of Meribaal and Ziba (chap. ix.), of Bathsheba and +Uriah (xi., xii.), of Tamar and Amnon (xiii., xiv.), of Absalom's +rebellion (xv.-xx.), and of the delivering-up of the sons of Saul +(xxi. 1-14). The rude and mechanical manner in which statements +about foreign wars are torn from the connection with domestic +events in which they stand in the older narrative is shown in +1Chronicles xx. 1, 2, as compared with 2Samuel xi. 1, xii. 30. +In 2Samuel xi. the mention of the fact that David remained +in Jerusalem when the army set out against Rabbah, prepares for +the story of his adultery with the wife of a captain engaged +in active service in the field; but 1Chronicles xx. 1 is +meaningless, and involves a contradiction with ver. 2. according +to which David appears after all in the camp at Rabbah, although +the connection,--namely, that he followed the army--and all +the intermediate occurrences relating to Bathsheba and Uriah, are +left out (De Wette, pp. 19, 20, 60). To what extent the veil is +drawn over the scandalous falls of saints may be judged also from +the fact that from the list of David's foreign encounters also, +which are otherwise fully given, a single one is omitted which he +is supposed not to have come through with absolute honour, that +with the giant Ishbi-benob (2Samuel xxi. 15-17). Lastly, the +alteration made in 1Chronicles xx. 5 is remarkable. Elhanan the +son of Jair of Bethlehem, we read in 2Samuel xxi. 19, was he who +slew Goliath of Gath, the shaft of whose spear was as thick as a +weaver's beam. But on the other hand, had not David of Bethlehem +according to 1Samuel xvii. vanquished Goliath the giant, the +shaft of whose spear was as thick as a weaver's beam? In +Chronicles accordingly Elhanan smites the brother of the +veritable Goliath. + +2. The closing chapters of 2Samuel (xxi.-xxiv.) are, admittedly, +an appendix of very peculiar structure. The thread of xxi. 1-14 +is continued in xxiv. 1-25, but in the interval between the two +passages occurs xxi. 15-xxiii. 39, in a very irrational manner, +perhaps wholly due to chance. In this interposed passage itself, +again, the quite similar lists xxi. 15-22 and xxiii. 8-39 are +very closely connected; and the two songs, xxii. 1-51, xxiii. +1-7, are thus an interpolation within an interpolation. This +want of order is imitated by the author of Chronicles also, +who takes 2Samuel xxiii. 8-39 as separated from xxi. 15-22, +and gives 2Samuel xxiv. last, a position which does not belong +to it from any material considerations, but merely because it +had originally been tagged on as an appendix, and besides had +been separated from its connection with xxi. 1-14 by a +large interpolation. + +1Chronicles xxi. (the pestilence as punishment of David's sin +in numbering the people, and the theophany as occasioning the +building of an altar on the threshing-floor of Araunah) is on the +whole a copy of 2Samuel xxiv., but with omission of the precise +and interesting geographical details of ver. 5 seq, and with +introduction of a variety of improving touches. Thus (xxi. 1): +"And Satan stood up against Israel and moved David;" instead +of: "And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he +moved David." Similarly (xxi. 6): "Levi and Benjamin Joab +counted not among them; for the king's word was abominable to him,"-- +an addition which finds its explanation on the one hand in Numbers +i. 49, and on the other in the circumstance that the holy city lay +within the territory of Benjamin. Again (xxi. 16, 27): "David +saw the angel of Jehovah standing between heaven and earth, and +his sword drawn in his hand and stretched out towards Jerusalem;" +compare this with Sam xxiv. 16 (1Chronicles xxi. t5): "The angel +stretched out his hand to Jerusalem to destroy it, and he was +by the threshing floor of Araunah;" according to the older view, +angels have no wings (Genesis xxviii.). Further (xxi. 25): +"David gave to Araunah for his threshing-floor 600 shekels of +gold ;" compare with 2Samuel xxiv. 24, 50 shekels of silver; +to make the king pay right royally costs the Chronicler nothing. +But lastly, his most significant addition is the fire from +heaven which consumes the burnt-offering (xxi. 26); by this means +the altar on the threshing-floor of Araunah, in other words, +that of the sanctuary of Jerusalem, is intended to be put on +a level with that of the tabernacle, its predecessor, the fire +on which was also kindled from heaven (Leviticus ix. 24). +Whoever has understood the narratives of altar-buildings by +the Patriarchs, by Joshua, Gideon, and Manoah, will grant that +the author of Chronicles has quite correctly understood the +intention of 2Samuel xxiv., in accordance with which he here +proposes to relate the divine inauguration of the place of worship +at Jerusalem; but what in that passage, as in similar older +legends about the indication of consecrated places by means of a +theophany, is only hinted at for contemporaries who understood +the idea conveyed, he requires to retouch strongly in order that +a later generation may notice it; and yet he has half spoiled +the point by making the angel not stand by the threshing-floor of +Araunah on the sacred spot, but hover aloft in the air. + +2Samuel xxiv. = 1Chronicles xxi. serves further as a starting point +for the free construction of 1Chronicles xxii.-xxix. The +circumstance that in the last chapter of the Book of Samuel David +builds the altar at Jerusalem is expanded into the statement that +in the last year of his reign he prepared beforehand the building +of the temple of Solomon in all its parts down to the minutest +detail. Unhampered by historical tradition, the author here +expatiates with absolute freedom in his proper element. All that +has hitherto been said about the king on the basis of the older +source is by means of additions and omissions fashioned into what +shall serve as a mere prologue to the proper work of his life, +which is now described thoroughly _con amore_. He himself +unfortunately has not been allowed to build the house, having +shed much blood and carried on great wars (xxii. 8, xxviii. 3), +but he yet in the last year of his reign forestalls from his +successor the whole merit of the business (xxiii. 1, xxviii. 1). +My son Solomon, he says, is young and tender, but the house to be +built for Jehovah must be great and glorious; I will therefore +prepare it for him (xxii. 5). Accordingly he gets ready +beforehand the workmen and artificers, in particular bringing into +requisition the non-Israelitic population; he provides the +material, stone and wood and brass and iron, and gold and silver +and jewels without number; he also gives the plan or rather +receives it direct from Jehovah, and that in black and white +(xxviii. 19), while Moses built the tabernacle only according to +his recollection of the heavenly pattern which had been shown to +him on Sinai. But before all he appoints the _personnel_ for the +temple service,--priests, Levites, porters, singers,-divides their +thousands into classes, and assigns to them their functions by +lot. In doing so he interests himself, naturally, with special +preference, in the music, being the designer of the instruments +(xxiii. 5), and himself acting as principal conductor (xxv. 2, +6). And as he is still king after all, he at the close takes an +inventory also of his secular state, after having duly ordered +the spiritual. All this he does for the future, for his son and +successor; not in reality, but only in plan, are the door-keepers, +for example, assigned to their posts (xxvi. 12 seq.), but none +the less with strictest specification and designation of the +localities of the temple,--and that too the second temple! His +preparations concluded, David calls a great assembly of prelates +and notables (xxiii. 1, xxviii. 1), has Solomon anointed as king, +and Zadok as priest (xxix. 22), and in a long discourse hands over +to the former along with the kingdom the task of his reign, +namely, the execution of what he himself has prepared and +appointed; on this occasion yet more precious stones and noble +metals--among them gold of Ophir and Persian darics--are presented +by David and the princes for the sacred building. The whole +section 1Chronicles xxii.-xxix. is a startling instance of that +statistical phantasy of the Jews which revels in vast sums of +money on paper (xxii. 14), in artificial marshallings of names +and numbers (xxiii.-xxvii.), in the enumeration of mere subjects +without predicates, which simply stand on parade and neither +signify nor do anything. The monotony is occasionally broken +only by unctuous phrases, but without refreshing the reader. +Let the experiment of reading the chapters through be tried. + +According to 1Kings i., ii., King David in his closing days was +sick and feeble in body and mind, and very far from being in a +condition thus to make preparations on behalf of his successor +shortly before his own death, or to prepare his bread for him so +far that nothing remained but to put it into the oven. His +purpose of building a house to Jehovah is indeed spoken of in +2 Samuel vii. in connection with vi. 17, but it is definitively +abandoned in consequence of Jehovah's refusal, on the ground that +it is not man's part to build a house for God, but God's to build +a house for man. In strange contrast with this explanation is +that of Chronicles that David is a man of war and has shed much +blood, and therefore dare not set up the temple; that he had waged +the wars of Jehovah, that Jehovah had given victory by his hand, +would in the older warlike time have seemed no reason against but +rather an argument establishing his fitness for such a work. But +the worst discrepancy is that between the solemn installation of +Solomon as king and of Zadok as priest with all the forms of law +and publicity as related in 1Chronicles xxviii., xxix. (comp. +xxii., xxiii. 1) and the older narrative of 1Kings i., ii. +According to the latter it was much more an ordinary palace +intrigue, by means of which one party at court succeeded in +obtaining from the old king, enfeebled with age, his sanction for +Solomon's succession. Until then Adonijah had been regarded as +heir-apparent to the throne, by David himself, by all Israel, +and the great officers of the kingdom, Joab and Abiathar; what +above all things turned the scale in favour of Solomon was the +weight of Benaiah's six hundred praetorians, a formidable force +in the circumstances of the period. The author of Chronicles +naively supposes he has successfully evaded all difficulties +by giving out the coronation of Solomon related by himself +to be the second (xxix. 22),--an advertence to 1Kings i., ii. +which does not remove but only betrays the contradiction. + +Yet this is as nothing over against the disharmony of the total +impression. See what Chronicles has made out of David! The +founder of the kingdom has become the founder of the temple and +the public worship, the king and hero at the head of his +companions in arms has become the singer and master of ceremonies +at the head of a swarm of priests and Levites; his clearly cut +figure has become a feeble holy picture, seen through a cloud of +incense. It is obviously vain to try to combine the +fundamentally different portraits into one stereoscopic image; +it is only the tradition of the older source that possesses +historical value. In Chronicles this is clericalised in the taste +of the post-exilian time, which had no feeling longer for anything +but cultus and torah, which accordingly treated as alien the old +history (which, nevertheless, was bound to be a sacred history), +if it did not conform with its ideas and metamorphose itself into +church history. Just as the law framed by Ezra as the foundation +of Judaism was regarded as having been the work of Moses, so what +upon this basis had been developed after Moses--particularly the +music of the sanctuary and the ordering of the temple +_personnel_---was carried back to King David, the sweet singer of +Israel, who had now to place his music at the service of the +cultus, and write psalms along with Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, +the Levitical singing families. + +VI.I.3. With regard to Solomon, Chronicles (2Chronicles i.-ix.) +nowhere departs very far from the lines of the Book of Kings. +As the story of 1Kings i., ii., which is not an edifying one, and +mercilessly assails that of 1Chronicles xxii.-xxix., required to +be omitted, the narrative accordingly begins with 1Kings iii., with +Solomon's accession, sacrifices on the great altar at Gibeon, and +the revelation of Jehovah, which was thereupon communicated to him +in a dream. This last is transcribed with slight alterations, +but at the outset a characteristic divergence is found. "Solomon +loved Jehovah, walking in the statutes of David his father, only +he sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places (because +there was no house built unto the name of Jehovah until those +days). And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that +was the great high place; a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon +offer upon that altar, and Jehovah appeared unto him in a dream: +Ask what I shall give thee." So 1Kings iii. 2 seq. Chronicles, +after its manner, first surrounds the king with a great assemblage +of captains of hundreds and thousands, of judges and princes +and heads of houses, and purely Pentateuchal dignities, and then +proceeds: + +"And Solomon and all the congregation with him went to +the high place in Gibeon, for there was God's tent of meeting, +which Moses, the servant of God, had made in the wilderness. +But the ark of God had David brought up from Kirjath-jearim, +where he had prepared for it; for he had pitched a tent for it +at Jerusalem. But the brazen altar that Bezaleel, the son of Uri, +the son of Hur, had made, stood there, before the tabernacle of +Jehovah, and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it. And +Solomon offered there, upon the brazen altar, before Jehovah, +by the tent of meeting, he offered a thousand burnt-offerings, +and God appeared to him in a dream, saying, Ask what I shall +give thee" (2Chronicles i. 3 seq.). + +In the older narrative there is nothing about the tabernacle, +it being assumed that no apology would be either necessary or +possible for Solomon having sacrificed on a high place. Chronicles, +dominated in its views of antiquity by the Priestly Code, has +missed the presence of the tabernacle and supplied the want in +accordance with that norm; the young and pious king could not +possibly have made his solemn inaugural sacrifice, for which +he had expressly left Jerusalem, anywhere else than at the +legally prescribed place; and still less could Jehovah otherwise +have bestowed on him His blessing. It betokens the narrowness, +and at the same time the boldness of the author, that he retains +the expression _high place_ used in 1Kings iii. 3, and co-ordinates +it with _tabernacle_, although the one means precisely the opposite +of the other. But it is instructive to notice how, on other +occasions, he is hampered by his Mosaic central sanctuary, which +he has introduced _ad hoc_ into the history. According to 1Chronicles +xvi. David is in the best position to institute also a sacrificial +service beside the ark of Jehovah, which he has transferred to +Zion; but he dare not, for the Mosaic altar stands at Gibeon, and +he must content himself with a musical surrogate (vers. 37-42). +The narrative of 1Chronicles xxi., that David was led by the +theophany at the threshing-floor of Araunah to build an altar +there, and present upon it an offering that was accepted by +heaven, is at its close maimed and spoiled in a similar way by +the remark, with anticipatory reference to 2Chronicles i., that the +Mosaic tabernacle and altar of burnt offering were indeed at that +time in the high place at Gibeon, but that the king had not the +strength to go before it to inquire of Jehovah, being so smitten +with fear of the angel with the drawn sword. So also must the +sacrifice which Solomon should have offered on his return from +Gibeon before the ark at Jerusalem be similarly ignored (2Chronicles +i. 13), because it uould destroy the force of the previous +explanation of the high place at Gibeon. Thus the shadow takes +the air from the body. In other places the tabernacle is +significantly confounded with the temple of Jerusalem (Graf, p. 56), +but on the whole it remains a tolerably inert conception, only made +use of in the passage before us (2Chronicles i.) in an _ex machina_ +manner in order to clear Solomon of a heavy reproach. + +Upon the last solemn act of worship at the Mosaic sanctuary +immediately follows the building of the temple (i. 18 [ii.1]-vii. 11), +1Kings iii. 10-v. 14 [AV. 34] being passed over. A few little +touches are however brought in to show the wealth of Solomon +(i. 14-17); they do not occur in Kings until chap. x. (vers. 26-29), +and are also repeated in Chronicles (ix. 25 seq.) in this much +more appropriate connection (comp. 1Kings iii., LXX). Strictly +speaking indeed, David has taken the preparations for the sacred +building out of the hands of his successor, but the latter +appears not to be satisfied with these (ii. 16 [17]) and looks +after them once more (i. 18-ii. 17 [ii. 1-18]). A comparison +with Ezra iii. (preparation of the second temple) shows that +the story is an elaboration of the author, although suggested +by 1Kings v. 16 [2] seq., and with preservation of many verbal +reminiscences. While Hiram and Solomon according to the older +record are on a footing of equality and make a contract based +on reciprocity of service, the Tyrian king is here the vassal +of the Israelite, and renders to him what he requires as tribute; +instead of as there explaining himself by word of mouth, he here +writes a letter in which he not only openly avows his faith in +Jehovah the God of Israel, the maker of heaven and earth, but +also betrays an extraordinary acquaintance with the Pentateuchal +Priestly Code. The brassfounder whom Solomon brings from Tyre +(1Kings vii. 13, 14) is (ii. 13) described as a very Daedalus +and prodigy of artistic skill, like Bezaleel (Exodus xxxi. 2 seq.); +his being made the son of a woman of Dan and not of a widow of +Naphtali supplies interpreters with the materials for the +construction of a little family romance, /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. She was by birth a woman of Dan, married into the tribe of +Napthali, lost her husband, and as widow out of the tribe of +Naphtali became the wife of the Tyrian. So Bertheau _in loc_. +-- Footnote + + +but has no more real value than the idea that sandalwood is +obtained from Lebanon. The statement of 1Kings v. 27 [13] +(xi. 28, xii. 4) that Israel was requisitioned in large numbers +to render forced service to the king has substituted for it by +the Chronicler that which occurs in another place (1Kings ix. 2I), +that only the Canaanite serfs were employed for this purpose; at +the same time, he reckons their number from the figures supplied +in 1Kings v. 29 [15] seq. Lastly, the manner in which Solomon +(ii. 2 [3] ) assures Hiram that he will arrange the divine +service in the new house in a thoroughly correct manner according +to the ordinance of the Priestly Code, is also characteristic; +similar remarks, from which the uninterrupted practice of the +Mosaic cultus according to the rules of the Law is made to appear, +are afterwards repeated from time to time (viii. 12-16, xiii. 11). + +In chaps. iii., iv. the author repeats the description of the +temple in 1Kings vi., vii., with the omission of what relates to +profane buildings. Perhaps in one passage (1Kings vii. 23) he +found the now very corrupt text in a better state; otherwise he +has excerpted from it in a wretchedly careless style or word for +word transcribed it, adding merely a few extravagances or +appointments of later date (e.g., the specification of the gold +in iii. 4 seq. 8, 9, of the ten golden tables and hundred golden +basins in iv. 8, of the brass-covered doors of the outer gateway +in iv. 9, of the court of the priests in iv. 9, of the curtain +between the holy place and the holy of holies in iii. 14; +compare Vatke, pp. 332, 333, 340, 341). To deny that the +original (to which reference must in many places be made in order +that the meaning may be understood) exists in 1Kings vi., vii., +requires an exercise of courage which might be much better +employed, all the more because in 2Chronicles iv. 11-v. 1, the +summary list follows the description of details precisely as in +1Kings vii. 40 - 51. + +While the concrete and material details of 1Kings vi., vii. are +reproduced only in an imperfect and cursory manner, the act of +consecration on the other hand, and the discourse delivered by +Solomon on the occasion, is accurately and fully given (v. 2-vii. +10) in accordance with 1Kings viii.; such additions and +omissions as occur are all deliberate. In 1Kings viii. the +priests and Levites on an occasion which so closely concerned +their interests do not play any adequate part, and in particular +give none of the music which nevertheless is quite indispensable +at any such solemnity. Accordingly, the Chronicler at the word +"priests" inserts between the violently separated clauses of 1Kings + +viii. 10, 11, the following: +"For all the priests present had sanctified themselves without +distinction of classes, and the Levites, the singers, all stood in +white linen with cymbals and psalteries and harps at the east end +of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding +with trumpets. And it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers +were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking +the Lord, and when the music began with trumpets, and cymbals, and +instruments, and the song of praise, + + Praise ye Jehovah, + for He is good; + for His mercy endureth for ever, + then the house was filled with a cloud" (v. 11-13). + +Proceeding, the narrative of 1Kings viii. 22 that Solomon came +in front of the altar and there prayed is indeed in the first +instance copied (vi. 12), but forthwith authoritatively interpreted +in the sense that the king did not really and actually stand before +the altar (which was lawful for the priests alone), but upon an +improvised pulpit in the inner court upon a propped-up caldron of +brass (vi. 13), an excellent idea, which has met with the due +commendation of expositors. The close of Solomon's prayer (1Kings +viii. 49-53) is abridged (vi. 39, 40)--perhaps in order to get rid +of viii. 50--and there is substituted for it an original epilogue +(vi. 41, 42) recalling post-exilian psalms. Then comes a larger +omission, that of 1Kings viii. 54-61, explained by the difficulty +involved in the king's here kneeling, not upon the caldron, +but before the altar, then standing up and blessing like a priest; +in place of this it is told (vii. 1-3) how the altar was consecrated +by fire from heaven, which indeed had already descended upon it +(1Chronicles xxi.26), but as it appears had unaccountably gone out. +In vii. 4 the author again returns to his original at 1Kings +viii. 62 seq., but tricks it out, wherever it appears to him too +bare, with trumpeting priests and singing Levites (vii. 6), +and finally dismisses the people, not on the eighth day of +the feast of tabernacles (1Kings viii. 66), but on the ninth +(vii. to), in accordance with the enactment in Numbers xxix. 35. + +The rest of Solomon's history (vii. 11-ix. 28) is taken over from +1Kings ix., x. In doing so what is said in 1Kings ix. 10-IO, +to the effect that Solomon handed over to Hiram twenty Galilaean +cities, is changed into the opposite--that Hiram ceded the cities +to Solomon, who settled them with Israelites (viii. 1, 2); and +similarly the already observed statement of 1Kings ix. 24 +about the removal of Solomon's Egyptian wife out of the city of +David into his new palace /1/ is altered and put in quite a + +-- Footnote +1. Even in the text of Kings this statement has been obscured; +Comp. 1Kings iii. 1. In ix. 24 we must at least say _betho +asher bana lo_, but this perhaps is not enough. +-- Footnote + + +false light: + +"Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the +city of David unto the house that he had built for her; for he +said, No woman shall dwell in the house of David, for the place +is holy whereunto the ark of Jehovah hath come" (viii. 11). + +There is no further need to speak of viii. 12-16 (1Kings ix. 25); +more indifferent in their character are the addition in vii. +12-15, a mere compilation of reminiscences, the embellishment in +viii. 3-6, derived from 1Kings ix. 17-19, and the variations in +viii. 17 seq., ix. 2I, misunderstood from 1Kings ix. 26 seq., +x. 22. The concluding chapter on Solomon's reign (1Kings xi.), +in which the king does not appear in his most glorious aspect, is +passed over in silence, for the same motives as those which +dictated the omission of the two chapters at the beginning. + +The history of the son is treated after the same plan and by the +same means as that of the father, only the subject accommodates +itself more readily to the purpose of the change. The old +picture is retouched in such wise that all dark and repulsive +features are removed, and their place taken by new and brilliant +bits of colour not in the style of the original but in the taste of +the author's period,--priests and Levites and fire from heaven, and +the fulfilment of all righteousness of the law, and much music, +and all sorts of harmless legendary anachronisms and +exaggerations besides. The material of tradition seems broken up +in an extraneous medium, the spirit of post-exilian Judaism. + + +VI.II. + +VI.II.1. After Solomon's death the history of Israel in Chronicles +is traced only through Jehovah's kingdom in the hand of the sons +of David, and all that relates to the ten tribes is put aside. +For according to the notions of the Judaistic period Israel is the +congregation of true worship, and this last is connected with the +temple at Jerusalem, in which of course the Samaritans have no +part. Abijah of Judah makes this point of view clear to Jeroboam +I. and his army in a speech delivered from Mount Zemaraim before +the battle. + +"Think ye to withstand the kingdom of Jehovah in the +hand of the sons of David, because ye are a great multitude, and +with you are the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods ? +Have ye not cast out the priests of Jehovah, the sons of Aaron and +the Levites, and made for yourselves priests after the manner of +the Gentiles? so that whosoever cometh to fill his hands with a +young bullock and seven rams, even he may become a priest for the +false gods? But as for us, we have not forsaken Jehovah our God, +and our priests minister to Jehovah, the sons of Aaron and the +Levites in the service; and they burn unto Jehovah every morning +and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense; the shewbread +also is upon the pure table; for we have maintained the service of +Jehovah our God, but ye have forsaken Him. And behold, God Himself +is with us at our head, and His priests, and the loud-sounding +trumpets to cry an alarm against you. O children of Israel, +fight ye not against Jehovah the God of your fathers, for ye shall +not prosper" (2Chronicles xiii. 8-12; comp. xi. 13-17). + +The kingdom which bore the name of Israel was actually in point of +fact in the olden time the proper Israel, and Judah was merely a +kind of appendage to it. When Amaziah of Judah after the +conquest of the Edomites challenged to battle King Jehoash of +Samaria, whose territory had at that time suffered to the utmost +under the continual wars with the Syrians, the latter bid say to +him: + +"The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was +in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife;--then +passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trode down the +thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thy heart hath +lifted thee up. Enjoy thy glory, but tarry at home." + +(2Kings xiv. 9, 10). And as the other would not listen, he +punished him as if he had been a naughty boy and then let him go. +Religiously the relative importance of the two corresponded +pretty nearly to what it was politically and historically. +Israel was the cradle of prophecy; Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha +exercised their activity there; what contemporary figure from +Judah is there to place alongside of these? Assuredly the author +of the Book of Kings would not have forgotten them had any such +there been, for he is a Judaean with all his heart, yet is compelled +purely by the nature of the case to interest himself chiefly about +the northern kingdom. And yet again at the very close it was the +impending fall of Samaria that called into life a new phase of +prophecy; he who inaugurated it, the Judaean Amos of Tekoah, was +sent not to Judah but to Israel, the history of which had the +first and fullest sympathy of his inmost soul as that of the people +of Jehovah. Isaiah was the first who placed Jerusalem in the centre +of his field of vision and turned away from Israel; for at the time +of his first public appearance war was raging between the sister +nations, and when his activity was at its acme all was over with +the northern kingdom and all hope had to cling to the remnant,-- +the fallen tabernacle of David. As regards the cultus, certainly, +matters may have been somewhat less satisfactory in Israel than +in Judah, at least in the last century before the Assyrian captivity, +but at the outset there was no essential difference. On all hands +Jehovah was worshipped as the peculiar divinity of the nation at +numerous fanes, in the service at the high places there were wanting +neither in the one nor in the other sacred trees, posts, and +stones, images of silver and gold (Isaiah ii. 8 seq., xvii. 8, +xxxi. 22; Micah v. 12). It is a question whether in the time +before Hezekiah the cultus of the kingdom at Jerusalem had so much +to distinguish it above that at Bethel or at Dan; against +Jeroboam's golden calves must be set the brazen serpent of Moses, +and the ark of Jehovah itself--which in ancient times was an idol +(1Samuel iv.-vi.) and did not become idealised into an ark of the +covenant, ie., of the law, until probably it had actually +disappeared. As for the prophetic reaction against the popular +cultus, the instance of Hosea shows that it came into activity as +early and as powerfully in Israel as in Judah. Even after +Josiah's reformation Jeremiah complains that the sister who +hitherto had been spared is in no respect better than the other +who a hundred years before had fallen a victim to the Assyrians +(iii. 6-1O); and though in principle the author of the Book of +Kings, taking his stand upon Deuteronomy, prefers Judah and +Jerusalem, yet he does not out of deference to this judgment alter +the facts which show that old Israel was not further than old +Judah from compliance with the Deuteronomic precepts. Chronicles, +on the other hand, not only takes the Law--the Penta<teu>chal Law +as a whole, but more particularly the Priestly Code therein +preponderating--as its rule of judgment on the past; but also +idealises the facts in accordance with that norm, and figures to +itself the old Hebrew people as in exact conformity with the +pattern of the later Jewish community,--as a monarchically graded +hierocracy with a strictly centralised cultus of rigidly +prescribed form at the holy place of Jerusalem. When, +accordingly, the ten tribes fail to exhibit all the marks of the +kingdom of God, this is taken to mean their falling away from the +true Israel; they have made goats and calves their gods, driven +away the priests and Levites, and in a word broken quite away +from the institutions which shaped themselves in Judah during the +period subsequent to Josiah and received their finishing-touches +from Ezra. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The Chronicler indeed is unable, even in the case of these +schismatics, to divest himself of his legal notions, as appears +almost comically in the circumstance that the priests of Jeroboam +set about their heretical practices quite in accordance with the +prescriptions of the Priestly Code, and procure their +consecration by means of a great sacrifice (2 Chron xiii. 9). +-- Footnote + + +Like other heathen, therefore, they are taken account of by the +sacred history only in so far as they stood in relations of +friendship or hostility with the people of Jehovah properly so +called, the Israel in the land of Judah (2Chronicles xxiii. 2), +and in all references to them the most sedulous and undisguised +partisanship on behalf of Judah is manifested, even by the +inhabitants of the northern kingdom itself. /2/ If one seriously + +-- Footnote +2. Compare xi. 16, xv. 9, xix. 2, xx. 35 seq.. xxv 7, xxviii. +9 seq., xxx. 6. +-- Footnote + + +takes the Pentateuch as Mosaic law, this exclusion of the ten +tribes is, in point of fact, an inevitable consequence, for the +mere fact of their belonging to the people of Jehovah destroys the +fundamental pre-supposition of that document, the unity and +legitimacy of the worship as basis of the theocracy, the priests +and Levites as its most important organs, "the sinews and muscles +of the body politic, which keep the organism together as a living +and moving whole." + +VI.II.2. The reverse side is, of course, the idealisation of Judah +from the point of view of the legitimate worship,--a process which +the reader can imagine from the specimens already given with +reference to David and Solomon. The priests and Levites who +migrated from Israel are represented as having strengthened the +southern kingdom (xi. 17), and here constitute the truly +dominant element in the history. It is for their sake that kings +exist as protectors and guardians of the cultus, with the internal +arrangements of which, however, they dare not intermeddle (xxvi. +16 seq.); to deliver discourses and ordain spiritual solemnities +(which figure as the culminating points in the narrative) are +among the leading duties of their reign. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. xiii. 7 seq., xv. 10 seq., xx. 6 seq., xxix. 5 seq., xxx. 1 seq., +xxxv. 1 seq. +-- Footnote + + +Those among them who are good apprehend their task and are +inseparable from the holy servants of Jehovah,--so, in particular, +Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Of the first mentioned we are +told that in the third year of his reign he appointed a royal +commission of notables, priests, and Levites, to go about with the +Book of the Law, and teach in the cities of Judah (xvii. 7-9); in +the larger places, in the strongholds, he further instituted +colleges of justice, and over them a supreme tribunal at +Jerusalem, also consisting of priests, Levites, and notables, +under the presidency of the high priest for spiritual, and of the +Prince of the house of Judah for secular affairs (xix. 5-11). +There is nothing about this in the Book of Kings, although what is +of less importance is noticed (1Kings xxii. 47); the Chronicler +makes the statement in his own language, which is unmistakable, +especially in the pious speeches. Probably it is the +organisation of justice as existing in his own day that he here +carries back to Jehoshaphat, so that here most likely we have the +oldest testimony to the synedrium of Jerusalem as a court of +highest instance over the provincial synedria, as also to its +composition and presidency. The impossibility of such a judiciary +system in antiquity is clear from its presupposing the Book of +the Law as its basis, from its co-ordination of priests and +Levites, and also from its actual inconsistency with incidental +notices, particularly in Isaiah and the older prophets (down to +Jeremiah xxvi.), in which it everywhere is taken for granted as a +thing of course that the rulers are also at the same time the +natural judges. Moreover, Chronicles already tells us about +David something similar to what it says about Jehoshaphat +(1Chronicles xxiii. 4, xxvi. 29-32); the reason why the latter +is selected by preference for this work lies simply in his name +"Jehovah is Judge," as he himself is made to indicate in various +ways (xix. 5-11; compare Joel iv. 12). But the king of Judah +is strengthened by the priests and Levites, not only in these +domestic affairs, but also for war. As the trumpets of the priests +give to Abijah courage and the victory against Jeroboam of +Israel, so do the Levites also to Jehoshaphat against Moab and +Ammon. Having fasted, and received, while praying, the +comfortable assurance of the singer Jahaziel ("See God"), he +advances next morning, with his army, against the enemy, having +in the van the Levites, who march in sacred attire in front of +the armed men and sing: + +"Praise ye the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever." + +He then finds that the fighting has already been done by the enemy +themselves, who, at the sound of that song of praise, have fallen +upon and annihilated one another. Three days are spent in +dividing the spoil, and then he returns as he came, the Levitical +music leading the van, with psalteries, and harps, and trumpets to +the house of Jehovah (2Chronicles xx. 1-28). Hezekiah is +glorified in a similar manner. Of the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem +and the memorable relief, comparatively little is made (xxxii. 1 +seq.; comp. De Wette, i. 75); according to Chronicles, his +master-work is that, as soon as he has mounted the throne, in the +first month of the year, and of his reign (Exodus xl. 2; Leviticus +ix. 1). he institutes by means of the priests and Levites, whom +he addresses quite paternally as his children (xxix. 11), a +great feast of consecration of the temple, alleged to have been +closed and wasted by Ahaz; thereupon in the second month to +celebrate the passover in the most sumptuous manner; and finally, +from the third to the seventh month to concern himself about the +accurate rendering of their dues to the clergy. All is described +in the accustomed style, in the course of three long chapters, +which tell us nothing indeed about the time of Hezekiah, but are +full of information for the period in which the writer lived, +particularly with reference to the method then followed in +offering the sacred dues (xxix. 1-xxxi. 21). In the case of +Josiah also the account of his epoch-making reformation of the +worship is, on the whole, reproduced in Chronicles only in a +mutilated manner, but the short notice of 2Kings xxiii. 21-23 +is amplified into a very minute description of a splendid +passover feast, in which, as always, the priests and above all +the Levites figure as the leading personalities. In this last +connection one little trait worth noticing remains, namely, that +the great assembly in which the king causes the Book of the Law +to be sworn to, is, in every other respect, made up in 2Chronicles +xxxiv. 29 seq. exactly as it is in 2Kings xxiii. 1, , except +that instead of "the priests and _prophets_" we find "the priests +and _Levites_." The significance of this is best seen from the +Targum, where "the priests and prophets" are translated into "the +priests and scribes." + +By this projection of the legitimate cultus prescribed in the Law +and realised in Judaism, the Chronicler is brought however into a +peculiar conflict with the statements of his authority, which show +that the said cultus was not a mature thing which preceded all +history, but came gradually into being in the course of history; +he makes his escape as well as he can, but yet not without a +strange vacillation between the timeless manner of looking at +things which is natural to him, and the historical tradition +which he uses and appropriates. The verses in 1Kings (xiv. 22, 23): +Judah (not Rehoboam merely) did that which was evil in the sight +of Jehovah and provoked Him to jealousy by their sins which +they sinned, above all that their fathers had done; and they +set up for themselves high places, macceboth and asherim, &c., +which in the passage where they occur are, like the parallel +statement regarding Israel (xii. 25 seq.), of primary importance, +and cancel by one bold stroke the alleged difference of worship +between the Levitical and non-Levitical kingdom, are omitted as +quite too impossible, although the whole remaining context is +preserved (2Chronicles xii. 1-16). In the same way the +unfavourable judgment upon Rehoboam's successor Abijah (1Kings xv. +3-5) is dropped, because the first kings of Judah, inasmuch as +they maintain the true religion against those of Israel who have +fallen away from it, must of necessity have been good. But +though the Chronicler is silent about what is bad, for the sake of +Judah's honour, he cannot venture to pass over the improvement +which, according to 1Kings xv. 12 seq., was introduced in Asa's +day, although one does not in the least know what need there was +for it, everything already having been in the best possible +state. Nay, he even exaggerates this improvement, and makes of +Asa another Josiah (2Chronicles xv. 1-15), represents him also +(xiv. 3) as abolishing the high places, and yet after all (xv. 1 +7) repeats the statement of 1Kings xv. 14 that the high places +were not removed. So also of Jehoshaphat, we are told in the +first place that he walked in the first ways of his father Asa +and abolished the high places in Judah (2Chronicles xvii. 3, 6, +xix. 3), a false generalisation from 1Kings (xxii. 43, 47); +and then afterwards we learn (xx. 32, 33) that the high places +still remained, word for word according to 1Kings xxii. 43, 44. +To thc author it seems on the one hand an impossibility that +the worship of the high places, which in spite of xxxiii.17 is +to him fundamentally idolatry, should not have been repressed +even by pious, i.e., law-observing kings, and yet on the other +hand he mechanically transcribes his copy. + +In the case of the notoriously wicked rulers his resort is to make +them simply heathen and persecutors of the covenant religion, +for to him they are inconceivable within the limits of Jehovism, +which always in his view has had the Law for its norm, and is one +and the same with the exclusive Mosaism cf Judaism. So first, in +the case of Joram: he makes high places on the hills of Judah and +seduces the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and +Judah to apostatise (xxi. 11), and moreover slays all his brethren +with the sword (ver. 4)--the one follows from the other. His widow +Athaliah breaks up the house of Jehovah by the hand of her sons +(who had been murdered, but for this purpose are revived), and +makes images of Baal out of the dedicated things (xxiv. 7); none +the less on that account does the public worship of Jehovah go on +uninterrupted under Jehoiada the priest. Most unsparing is the +treatment that Ahaz receives. According to 2Kings xvi. 10 seq., +be saw at Damascus an altar which took his fancy, and he caused a +similar one to be set up at Jerusalem after its pattern, while +Solomon's brazen altar was probably sent to the melting-pot; it +was Urijah the priest who carried out the orders of the king. One +observes no sign of autonomy, or of the inviolable divine right of +the sanctuary; the king commands and the priest obeys. To the +Chronicler the story so told is quite incomprehensible; what +does he make of it? Ahaz introduced the idolatrous worship of +Damascus, abolished the worship of Jehovah, and shut up the +temple (2Chronicles xxviii. 23 seq.). He regards not the person +of a man, the inflexible unity of the Mosaic cultus is everything +to the Chronicler, and its historical identity would be destroyed +if an orthodox priest, a friend of the prophet Isaiah, had lent a +helping hand to set up a foreign altar. To make idolaters pure +and simple of Manasseh and Amon any heightening of what is said +in 2Kings xxi. was hardly necessary; and besides, there were +here special reasons against drawing the picture in too dark +colours. It is wonderful also to see how the people, which is +always animated with alacrity and zeal for the Law, and rewards +its pious rulers for their fidelity to the covenant (xv. 15, +xvii. 5, xxiv. 10, xxxi. 10), marks its censure of these wicked +kings by withholding from them, or impairing, the honour of royal +burial (xxi. 19, 20, xxviii. 27, xxxiii. 10),--in spite of 2Kings +ix. 28, xvi. 20, xxi. 1 8. + +The periodically recurring invasions of heathenism help, at the +same time, to an understanding of the consequent reforms, which +otherwise surpass the comprehension of the Jewish scribe. +According to the Books of Kings, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah hit +upon praiseworthy innovations in the temple cultus, set aside +deeply rooted and immemorial customs, and reformed the public +worship of Jehovah. These advances WITHIN Jehovism, which, of +course, are quite incompatible with its Mosaic fixity, are made +by the Chronicler to be simple restorations of the pure religion +following upon its temporary violent suspension. It is in Hezekiah's +case that this is done in the most thoroughgoing manner. After +his predecessor has shut the doors of the house of Jehovah, put out +the lights, and brought the service to an end, he sets all in +operation again by means of the resuscitated priests and Levites; +the first and most important act of his reign is the consecration +of the temple (2Chronicles xxix.), with which is connected +(xxx., xxx).) the restoration of the passover and the restitution +of the temporalia to the clergy, who, as it seems, have hitherto +been deprived of them. That 2Kings xviii. 1-7, although very +different, has supplied the basis for all these extravagances, +is seen by comparing 2Chronicles xxix. 1, 2, xxxi. 1, 20, 21, +xxxii. 22 only, that the king destroyed the brazen serpent +Nehushtan (2Kings xviii. 4) is passed over in silence, as if +it were incredible that such an image should have been worshipped +down to that date in the belief that it had come down from the +time of Moses; the not less offensive statement, on the other +hand, that he took away _the Asherah_ (by which only that of +the temple altar can be understood; comp. Deuteronomy xvi. 21) +is got over by charging the singular into the plural; he took +away _the Asherahs_ (xxx). 1 ), which occurred here and there +throughout Judah, of course at heathen altars. + +In the cases of Joash and Josiah the free flight of the +Chronicler's law-crazed fancy is hampered by the copy to which +he is tied, and which gives not the results merely, but the +details of the proceedings themselves (2Chronicles xxii., xxiii.; +2Kings xi., xii.). It is precisely such histories as these, +almost the only circumstantially told ones relating to Judah +in the Book of Kings, which though in their nature most akin +to our author's preference for cultus, bring him into the greatest +embarrassment, by introducing details which to his notions are +wholly against the Law, and yet must not be represented otherwise +than in the most favourable light. + +It cannot be doubted that the sections about Joash in 2Kings +(xi. 1-xii. 17 [16]), having their scene end subject laid in the +temple, are at bottom identical with 2Chronicles xxii. 10-xxiv. +14. In the case of 2Kings xi., to begin with, the beginning and +the close, vers. 1-3, vers. 13-20, recur verbatim in 2Chronicles +xxii. 10-12, xxiii. 12-21, if trifling alterations be left +out of account. But in the central portion also there occur +passages which are taken over into 2Chronicles without any +change. Only here they are inappropriate, while in the original +connection they are intelligible. For the meaning and colour of +the whole is entirely altered in Chronicles, as the following +comparison in the main passage will show; to understand it one +must bear in mind that the regent Athaliah has put to death all +the members of the house of David who had escaped the massacre of +Jehu, with the exception of the child Joash, who, with the +knowledge of Jehoiada, the priest, has found hiding and protection +in the temple. + +2 KINGS xi + + 4. In the seventh year Jehoiada + sent and took the captains of + the Carians and runners, + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 1. _In the seventh year Jehoiada_ + sent and took the captains of + strengthened himself and _took the + captains_, Azariah the son of Jeroham, + and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, + and Azariah the son of Obed, + and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, + and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, + into covenant with him. + + 2. And they went about in Judah + and gathered the Levites out of + all the cities in Judah, and the + chiefs of the fathers of Israel, + land they came to Jerusalem. + +2 KINGS xi + + and brought them to him into + the house of Jehovah, and made a + covenant with them, and took + an oath of them in the house of + Jehovah, and showed them the + king's son; + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 3. And the whole congregation + made _a covenant in the house of + God_ with the king. And he said + unto them, _Behold, the king's + son_ shall reign, as Jehovah said + concerning the sons of David. + +2 KINGS xi + + 5. And commanded them, saying, + This is the thing that ye shall + do; the third part of you which + enter on the Sabbath and keep the + watch of the king's house, + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 4. _This is the thing that ye shall + do: the third part of you, which + enter on the Sabbath_, of the + priests and of the Levites, + shall keep the doors. + +2 KINGS xi + + [6. And the third part in the + gate of Jesod, and the third + part in the gate behind the + runners, and ye shall keep + the watch in the house...]: + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 5. And the third part of you shall + be _in the house of the king_, and + the third part in the gate Jesod; and + all the people shall be in the courts + of the house of Jehovah. + +2 KINGS xi + + 7. And the two other third + parts of you, those who go + forth on the Sabbath and + keep the watch in the house + of Jehovah about the king. + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 6. And no one shall come into the + house of Jehovah save the priests + and they of the Levites that minister; + but all the people shall keep the + ordinance of Jehovah. + +2 KINGS xi + + 8. Ye shall encompass the king + round about, every man with + his weapons in his hand, + and whosoever cometh within + the ranks, shall be put to + death, and ye shall be with + the king whithersoever he goeth. + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 7. And the Levites shall _compass + the king round about, every man + with his weapons in his hands, and + whosoever cometh_ into the house, + _shall be put to death; and they shall + be with the king whithersoever he + goeth._ + +2 KINGS xi + + 9. And the captains did according + to all that Jehoiada the priest + had commanded, and took each his + men, those that were to come in + on the Sabbath with those that + were to go out on the Sabbath, + and came to Jehoiada the priest. + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 8. And the Levites and all Judah + _did according to all that Jehoiada + the priest had commanded, and took + each his men, those that were to come + in on the Sabbath with those that + were to go out on the Sabbath_, for + Jehoiada the priest dismissed not + the divisions. + +2 KINGS xi + + 10. And to the captains the + priest gave King David's + spears and shields that were + in the house of Jehovah. + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 9. And Jehoiada the priest delivered + to the captains of hundreds the spears + and the bucklers and the shields that + King David had, which were in the + house of God. + +2 KINGS xi + + 11. And the runners stood, every + man with his weapons in his hand, + from the south side of the house + to the north side, along by + the altar and the house, + round about the king. + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 10. And he set all the people, _every + man having his weapon in his hand, + from the south side of the house to + the north side, along by the altar + and the house, round about the king_. + +2 KINGS xi + + 12. And he brought forth the + king's son and put upon him + the crown and the bracelet, + and they made him king and + anointed him, and they clapped + their hands and said: + Long live the king. + +2CHRONICLES xxiii. + + 11. _And they brought out the king's + son and put upon him the crown and + the bracelet and they made him king_, + and Jehoiada and his sons _anointed + him and said: + Long live the king_. + + +Can the enthronement of Joash, as on a former occasion that of +Solomon, possibly have been accomplished by the agency of the +bodyguard of the kings of Judah? Is it possible that the high +priest should have made a covenant with the captains within the +house of Jehovah, and himself have held out the inducement to +those half-pagan mercenaries to penetrate into the temple +precincts? That were indeed an outrage upon the Law not lightly +to be imputed to so holy a man! Why then did not Jehoiada make +use of his own guard, the myriads of Levites who were at his +command? Such a course was the only right one, and therefore +that which was followed. "No one shall come into the house of +Jehovah save the priests and they of the Levites that minister:" +in accordance with this fundamental principle stated by himself +(xxiii. 6; comp ver. 7 INTO THE HOUSE instead of WITHIN THE RANKS), +our pious historian substitutes his priests and Levites for the +Carians and runners. Hereby also Jehoiada comes into the place +that belongs to him as sovereign of the sanctuary and of the +congregation. He therefore needs no longer to set on foot in +secret a conspiracy with the chiefs of the body-guard, but +through his own spiritual officers calls together the Levites and +heads of houses from all the cities of Judah into the temple, +and causes the whole assemblage there to enter into a covenant +with the young king. The glaring inconsistencies inevitably +produced by the new colouring thus given to individual parts of +the old picture must simply be taken as part of the bargain. +If Jehoiada has unrestricted sway over such a force and sets +about his revolution with the utmost publicity, then it is he +and not Athaliah who has the substance of power; why then all +this trouble about the deposition of the tyrant? Out of mere +delight in Levitical pomp and high solemnities? What moreover +is to be done with the captains who are retained in xxiii. 1, 9, +and in ver. 14 are even called officers of the host as in 2Kings +xi 15, after their soldiers have been taken from them or +metamorphosed? Had the Levites a military organisation, and, +divided into three companies, did they change places every +week in the temple service? The commentators are inclined to call +in to their aid such inventive assumptions, with which, however, +they may go on for ever without attaining their end, for the error +multiplies itself. As a specially striking instance of the manner +in which the procedure of Chronicles avenges itself may be mentioned +chapter xxiii. 8: "and they took each his men," &c. The words are +taken from 2Kings xi. 9, but there refer to the captains, while +here the antecedents are the Levites and all the men of Judah--as +if each one of these last had a company of his own which entered +upon service, or left it, every Sabbath day. + +The comparison of 2Chronicles xxiv. 4-14 with 2Kings xii. 5-17 +[4-16] is not much less instructive. According to 2Kings xii. +Joash enjoined that all the money dues payable to the temple +should in future fall to the priests, who in turn were to be under +obligation to maintain the building in good repair. But they took +the money and neglected the other side of the bargain, and when +they and Jehoiada in particular were blamed by the king on that +account, they gave up the dues so as not to be liable to the +burden. Thereupon the king set up a kind of sacred treasury, a +chest with a hole in the lid, near the altar, "on the right hand +as one goes into the temple," into which the priests were to cast +the money which came in, with the exception of the sin and +trespass moneys, which still belonged to them. And as often as +the chest became full, the king's scribes and the chief priest +removed the money, weighed it, and handed it over to the +contractors for payment of the workmen; that none of it was to be +employed for sacred vessels is expressly said (ver. 14). This +arrangement by King Joash was a lasting one, and still subsisted +in Josiah's time (2Kings . . xxii. 3 seq.). + +The arbitrary proceeding of Joash did not well suit the ideas of +an autonomous hierocracy. According to the Law the current money +dues fell to the priests; no king had the right to take them away +and dispose of them at his pleasure. How was it possible that +Jehoiada should waive his divine right and suffer such a +sacrilegious invasion of sacred privileges? how was it possible +that he should be blamed for his (at first) passive resistance of +the illegal invasion; how was it possible at all that the priest +in his own proper department should be called to account by the +king? Chronicles knows better than that. The wicked Athaliah had +wasted and plundered the temple; Joash determined to restore it, +and for this purpose to cause money to be collected throughout +all Israel by the agency of the Levites. But as these last were +in no hurry, he made a chest and set it outside in the doorway of +the sanctuary; there the people streamed past, and gentle and simple +with joyful heart cast in their gifts until the chest was full. +This being announced by the keepers of the door, the king's scribe +and the delegate of the high priest came to remove the money; +with it the king and the high priest paid the workmen, and what +remained over was made into costly vessels (2Chronicles xxiv. 5-14). +According to this account Joash makes no arrangement whatever +about the sacred dues, but sets on foot an extraordinary collection, +as had once been done by Moses for the building of the tabernacle +(xxiv. 6, 9); following upon this, everything else also which in +2Kings xii. is a permanent arrangement, here figures as an isolated +occurrence; instead of necessary repairs of the temple constantly +recurring, only one extraordinary restoration of it is mentioned, +and for this occasional purpose only is the treasure chest set up,-- +not, however, beside the altar, but only at the doorway (xxiv. 8; +comp. 2Kings xii. 10). The clergy, the Levites, are charged +only with making the collection, not with maintaining the building +out of the sacred revenues; consequently they are not +reproached with keeping the money to themselves, but only with +not being heartily enough disposed towards the collection. It +appears, however, that they were perfectly justified in this +backwardness, for the king has only to set up the "treasury of +God," when forthwith it overflows with the voluntary offerings of +the people who flock to it, so that out of the proceeds something +remains over (ver. 14) for certain other purposes--which according +to 2Kings xii. 14 [13] were expressly excluded. Joash imposes +no demands at all upon the priests, and Jehoiada in particular +stands over against him as invested with perfectly equal rights; +if the king sends his scribe, the high priest also does not appear +personally, but causes himself to be represented by a delegate +(xxiv. 11; comp. 2Kings xii. 11 [10]). Here also many a new piece +does not come well into the old garment, as De Wette (i. 10O) shows. +Chronicles itself tacitly gives the honour to the older narrative +by making Joash at last apostatise from Mosaism and refuse the +grateful deference which he owed to the high priest; this is the +consequence of the unpleasant impression, derived not from its +own story, but from that of the Book of Kings, with regard to the +undue interference of the otherwise pious king in the affairs of +the sanctuary and of the priests. + +Chronicles reaps the fruits of its perversion of 2Kings xii. in +its reproduction of the nearly related and closely connected +section 2Kings xxii. 3-IO. It is worth while once more to bring +the passages together. + +2Kings xxii. + + 3. And in the eighteenth year + of king Josiah the king sent + Shaphan the son of Azaliah, + the son of Meshullam, the scribe, + to the house of Jehovah, saying, + +2Chronicles xxxiv. + + 8. And in the eighteenth year + of his reign, to cleanse the + land and the house, he sent + Shaphan the son of Azaliah, + and Maaseiah the governor of + the city, and Joah the son of + Joahaz the recorder, to repair + the house of Jehovah his God. + +2Kings xxii. + + 4. Go up to Hilkiah the high + priest, that he may empty the + money which hath been brought + into the house of Jehovah + which the keepers of the + threshold have gathered of + the people. + +2Chronicles xxxiv. + + 9. And they came to Hilkiah + the high priest, and they + delivered the money that had + been brought into the house + of God which the Levites that + kept the threshold had gathered + from Ephraim and Manasseh and + all the remnant of Israel and + from all Judah and Benjamin, + and had returned therewith + to Jerusalem. + +2Kings xxii. + + 5. And let them deliver it into + the hand of the doers of the + work that have the oversight + of the house of Jehovah, and + let them give it to the doers + of the work who are in the + house of Jehovah to repair + the breaches of the house. + +2Chronicles xxxiv. + + 10. And they gave it into the + hand of the workmen that had the + oversight of the house of Jehovah, + and of the workmen that wrought in + the house of Jehovah to repair + and amend the house. + +2Kings xxii. + + 6. Unto carpenters, and builders, + and masons, and to buy timber + and hewn stones to repair the + house. + + 7. But let no reckoning be + made with them as to the money + that is delivered into their + hand, because they deal faithfully. + +2Chronicles xxxiv. + + 11. They gave it to the artificers + and to the builders to buy + hewn stone and timber for roofs + and beams of the houses which + the kings of Judah had destroyed. + + 12. And the men did the work + faithfully. And the overseers of + them were Jahath and Obadiah, + the Levites, of the sons of + Merari; and Zechariah and + Meshullam, of the Kohathites, + to preside; and all the Levites + that had skill in instruments + of music + + 13. Were over the bearers of + burdens and overseers of all + that wrought the work in any + manner of service; and others + of the Levites were scribes + and officers and porters. + + 14. And when they brought out + the money that had been brought + into the house of Jehovah, + Hilkiah the priest found the book + of the law of Jehovah by the hand + of Moses. + +2Kings xxii. + + 8. And Hilkiah the high priest + said unto Shaphan the scribe: + I have found the book of the + law in the house of Jehovah. + And Hilkiah gave the book to + Shaphan, and he read it. + +2Chronicles xxxiv. + + 15. And Hilkiah answered and + said to Shaphan the scribe: + I have found the book of the law + in the house of Jehovah. And + Hilkiah delivered the book + to Shaphan. + +2Kings xxii. + + 9. And Shaphan the scribe came + to the king and brought the king + word again, and said: Thy + servants have emptied out the + money that was found in the + house and have delivered it + into the hand of them that + do the work, that have the + oversight of the house of + Jehovah. + +2Chronicles xxxiv. + + 16. And Shaphan carried the book + to the king, and besides brought + word back to the king, saying: + All that was committed to thy + servants they are doing. + + 17. And they have emptied out + the money that was found in the + house of Jehovah, and have + delivered it into the hand + of the overseers and into + the hand of the workmen. + +2Kings xxii. + + 10. And Shaphan the scribe + told the king, saying: Hilkiah + the priest hath delivered + to me a book. And Shaphan + read it before the king. + +2Chronicles xxxiv. + + 18. And Shaphan the scribe + told the king, saying: Hilkiah + the priest hath given me a book. + And Shaphan read out of it + before the king. + +The occasion on which the priest introduces the Book of the Law +to the notice of Shaphan has presuppositions in the arrangement +made by Joash which Chronicles has destroyed, substituting others +in its place,--that the temple had been destroyed under the +predecessors of Josiah, but that under the latter money was raised +by the agency of peripatetic Levites throughout all Israel for the +restoration, and in the first instance deposited in the treasure-chest. +At the emptying of this chest the priest is then alleged to have +found the book (ver. 14, after Deuteronomy xxxi. 26), notwithstanding +that on this occasion Shaphan also and the two accountants added +in ver. 8 were present, and ought therefore to have had a share +in the discovery which, however, is excluded by ver. 15 (= 2Kings +xxii. 8). There are other misunderstandings besides; in particular, +the superintendents of the works (_muphkadim_), to whom, according +to the original narrative, the money is handed over for payment, +are degraded to the rank of simple workmen, from whom, nevertheless, +they are again afterwards distinguished; and while in 2Kings xxii. +7 they are represented as dealing faithfully _in paying out the money_, +in 2Chronicles xxxiv. 12 they deal faithfully in their work. +Perhaps, however, this is no mere misunderstanding, but is +connected with the endeavour to keep profane hands as far off as +possible from that which is holy, and, in particular, to give the +management of the work to the Levites (vers. 12,13). To what +length the anxiety of later ages went in this matter is seen in +the statement of Josephus (Ant., xv. 11, 2), that Herod caused one +thousand priests to be trained as masons and carpenters for the +building of his temple. The two most interesting alterations in +Chronicles are easily overlooked. In ver. 1 8 the words: "He +read the book to the king," are changed into "He read out of the +book to the king;" and after "Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan" +(ver. 15) the words "and he read it" are omitted. In 2Kings the +book appears as of very moderate size, but the author of +Chronicles figures to himself the whole Pentateuch under that +name. + +In the sequel 2Kings xxii. 11-xxiii.3 is indeed repeated verbatim +in 2Chronicles xxxiv. 19-32, but the incomparably more important +section connected with it (xxiii. 4-10), giving a detailed +account of Josiah's vigorous reformation, is omitted, and its +place taken by the meagre remark that the king removed all +abominations out of Israel (xxxiv. 33); in compensation his +passover feast is described all the more fully (chap. xxxv.). +In recording also the finding and publication of the Law, +Chronicles fails to realise that this document begins now for the +first time to be historically operative, and acquires its great +importance quite suddenly. On the contrary, it had been from the +days of Moses the basis on which the community rested, and had +been in force and validity at all normal times; only +temporarily could this life-principle of the theocracy be +repressed by wicked kings, forthwith to become vigorous and +active again as soon as the pressure was removed. As soon as Ahaz +has closed his eyes, Hezekiah, in the first month of his first +year, again restores the Mosaic cultus; and as soon as Josiah +reaches years of discretion he makes good the sins of his fathers. +Being at his accession still too young, the eighth year of his +reign is, as a tribute to propriety, selected instead of the +eighth year of his life, and the great reformation assigned +to that period which in point of fact he undertook at a much +later date (xxxiv. 3-7 = 2Kings xxiii. 4-20> Thus the movement +happily becomes separated from its historical occasion, and +in character the innovation appears rather as a simple recovery +of the spring after the pressure on it has been removed. The mist +disappears before the sun of the Law, which appears in its old +strength; its light passes through no phases, but shines from +the beginning with uniform brightness. What Josiah did had also +been done before him already by Asa, then by Jehoshaphat, then +by Hezekiah; the reforms are not steps in a progressive development, +but have all the same unchanging contents. Such is the influence +upon historical vision of that transcendental Mosaism raised far +above all growth and process of becoming, which can be traced even +in the Book of Kings, but is so much more palpable in the Book +of Chronicles. + +VI.II.3. Apart from the fact that it represents the abiding tradition +of the legitimate cultus at Jerusalem, the history of Judah in the +Book of Chronicles has yet another instructive purpose. In the +kingdom of Judah it is not a natural and human, but a divine +pragmatism that is operative. To give expression to this is what +the prophets exist for in unbroken succession side by side with +high priests and kings; they connect the deeds of men with the +events of the course of the world, and utilise the sacred history +as a theme for their preaching, as a collection of examples +illustrative of the promptest operation of the righteousness of +Jehovah. In doing so they do not preach what is new or free, but +have at their command, like Jehovah Himself, only the Law of +Moses, setting before their hearers prosperity and adversity in +conformity with the stencil pattern, just as the law is +faithfully fulfilled or neglected. Of course their prophecies +always come exactly true, and in this way is seen an astonishing +harmony between inward worth and outward circumstance. Never +does sin miss its punishment, and never where misfortune occurs is +guilt wanting. + +In the fifth year of Rehoboam Judah and Jerusalem were ravaged by +Pharaoh Shishak (1Kings xiv. 25). The explanation is that three +years they walked in the ways of David and Solomon, because for +three years they were strengthened and reinforced by the priests +and Levites and other pious persons who had immigrated from the +northern kingdom (2Chronicles xi. 17); but thereafter in the fourth +year, after the kingdom of Rehoboam had been strengthened and +confirmed, he forsook the Law and all Israel with him (xii. 1)-- +and in the fifth year followed the invasion of Shishak. A prophet +announces this, and in consequence the king humbles himself +along with his people and escapes with comparatively trifling +punishment, being thought worthy to reign yet other twelve years. + +Asa in his old age was diseased in his feet (1Kings xv. 23). +According to 2Chronicles xvi. 12, he died of this illness, which is +described as extremely dangerous, in the forty-first year of his +reign, after having already been otherwise unfortunate in his +later years. And why? He had invoked foreign aid, instead of +the divine, against Baasha of Israel. Now, as Baasha survived only +to the twenty-sixth year of Asa, the wickedness must have been +perpetrated before that date. But in that case its connection +with the punishment which overtook the king only towards the +close of his life would not be clear. Baasha's expedition against +Jerusalem, accordingly, and the Syrian invasion of Israel +occasioned by Asa on that account are brought down in Chronicles +to the thirty-sixth year of the latter (xvi. 1). It has been +properly observed that Baasha was at that date long dead, and the +proposal has accordingly been made to change the number +thirty-six into sixteen,--without considering that the first half +of the reign of Asa is expressly characterised as having been +prosperous, that the thirty-fifth year is already reached in +chap. xv. 19, and that the correction destroys the connection of +the passage with what follows (xvi. 7 seq.). For it is in +connection with that flagitious appeal for aid to the Syrians that +the usual prophet makes his appearance (xvi. 7), and makes the +usual announcement of impending punishment. It is Hanani, a man +of Northern Israel (1Kings xvi. 7), but Asa treats him as if he +were one of his own subjects, handles him severely, and shuts him +in prison. By this he hastens and increases his punishment, +under which he falls in the forty-first year of his reign. + +Jehoshaphat, the pious king, according to 1Kings xxii., took part +in the expedition of the godless Ahab of Israel against the +Damascenes. Chronicles cannot allow this to pass unrebuked, +and accordingly when the king returns in peace, the same Hanani +announces his punishment, albeit a gracious one (2Chronicles xix. +I-3). And gracious indeed it is; the Moabites and Ammonites +invade the land, but Jehoshaphat without any effort on his part +wins a glorious victory, and inexhaustible plunder (xx. 1 seq.). +One cannot blame him, therefore, for once more entering into an +alliance with Ahab's successor for a naval expedition to be +undertaken in common, which is to sail from a port of the Red Sea, +probably round Africa, to Tarshish (Spain, 2Chronicles ix. 21). +But this time he is punished more seriously as Eliezer the son of +Dodavah had prophesied, the ships are wrecked. Compare on the +other hand 1Kings xxii. 48, 49: + +"Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, +but they went not, for the ships were wrecked in the harbour +on the Red Sea. At that time Ahaziah the son of Ahab had said +to Jehoshaphat: Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships; +but Jehoshaphat would not." + +So the original statement. But in Chronicles a moral ground must +be found for the misfortune, and Jehoshaphat therefore makes with +the king of Samaria a sinful alliance, which in point of fact he +had declined, not indeed from religious motives. + +Joram, the son of Jehoshaphat, conducted himself very ill, it is +said in 2Kings viii. 18; Chronicles enhances his offence, and +above all adds the merited reward (xxi. 4, seq.). Elijah, +although he had quitted this earth long before (2Kings iii. 11 +seq.), must write to the offender a letter, the threats of which +are duly put into execution by Jehovah. The Philistines and +Arabians having previously pressed him hard, he falls into an +incurable sickness of the bowels, which afflicts him for years, +and finally brings him to his end in a most frightful manner +(xxi. 12, seq.). In concurrence with the judgment of God, the +people withhold from the dead king the honours of royalty, and he +is not buried beside his fathers, notwithstanding 2Kings viii. 24. + +Joash, according to 2Kings xii., was a pious ruler, but met with +misfortune; he was compelled to buy off Hazael, who had laid +siege to Jerusalem, at a heavy price, and finally he died by +the assassin's hand. Chronicles is able to tell how he deserved +this fate. In the sentence: "He did what was right in the sight +of the Lord all his days, because Jehoiada the high priest had +instructed him " (2Kings xii. 3 [2]), it alters the last +expression into "all the days of Jehoiada the priest," (xxiv. 2). +After the death of his benefactor he fell away, and showed his +family the basest ingratitude; at the end of that very year the +Syrians invade him; after their departure his misfortunes are +increased by a dreadful illness, under which he is murdered +(xxiv. 17 seq.). + +Amaziah was defeated, made prisoner, and severely punished by +Jehoash, king of Samaria, whom he had audaciously challenged +(2Kings xiv. 8 seq.). Why? because he had set up in Jerusalem +idols which had been carried off from Edom, and served them +(2Chronicles xxv. 1 4). He prefers the plundered gods of a +vanquished people to Jehovah at the very moment when the latter +has proved victorious over them! From the time of this apostasy-- +a crime for which no punishment could be too great--his own servants +are also stated to have conspired against him and put him to death +(xxv. 27), and yet we are assured in ver. 25 (after 2Kings xiv. +I;) that Amaziah survived his adversary by fifteen years. + +Uzziah, one of the best kings of Judah, became a leper, and was +compelled to hand over the regency to his son Jotham (2Kings xv. +5); for, adds Chronicles, "when he had become strong, his heart +was lifted up, even to ruin, so that he transgressed against +Jehovah his God, and went into the temple of Jehovah, to burn +incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in +after him, and with him fourscore priests of Jehovah, and +withstood him and said: It is not for thee to burn incense, but +only for the sons of Aaron who are consecrated thereto. Then +Uzziah was wroth and laid not the censer aside, and the leprosy +rose up in his forehead, and the priests thrust him out from +thence" (xxvi. 16-20). The matter is now no longer a mystery. + +Ahaz was a king of little worth, and yet he got fairly well out +of the difficulty into which the invasion of the allied Syrians +and Israelites had brought him by making his kingdom tributary +to the Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser (2Kings xvi. 1 seq.). But +Chronicles could not possibly let him off so cheaply. By it he +is delivered into the hand of the enemy: the Israelites alone +slaughter 120,000 men of Judah, including the king's son and his +most prominent servants, and carry off to Samaria 200,000 women +and children, along with a large quantity of other booty. The +Edomites and Philistines also fall upon Ahaz, while the Assyrians +whom he has summoned to his aid misunderstand him, and come up +against Jerusalem with hostile intent; they do not, indeed, carry +the city, but yet become possessors, without trouble, of its +treasures, which the king himself hands over to them (xxviii. 1-21). + +The Book of Kings knows no worse ruler than Manasseh was; yet he +reigned undisturbed for fifty-five years--a longer period than was +enjoyed by any other king (2Kings xxi.1-18). This is a stone +of stumbling that Chronicles must remove. It tells that Manasseh +was carried in chains by the Assyrians to Babylon, but there prayed +to Jehovah, who restored him to his kingdom; he then abolished +idolatry in Judah (xxxiii. 11-20). Thus on the one hand he does +not escape punishment, while on the other hand the length of his +reign is nevertheless explained. Recently indeed it has been +sought to support the credibility of these statements by means of +an Assyrian inscription, from which it appears that Manasseh did +pay tribute to Esarhaddon. That is to say, he had been +overpowered by the Assyrians; that is again to say, that he had +been thrown into chains and carried off by them. Not so rapid, +but perhaps quite as accurate, would be the inference that as a +tributary prince he must have kept his seat on the throne of Judah, +and not have exchanged it for the prison of Babylon. In truth, +Manasseh's temporary deposition is entirely on the same plane +with Nebuchadnezzar's temporary grass-eating. The unhistorical +character of the intermezzo (the motives of which are perfectly +transparent) follows not only from the silence of the Book of +Kings (a circumstance of no small importance indeed), but also, +for example, from Jeremiah xv. 4; for when it is there said that +all Judah and Jerusalem are to be given up to destruction because +of Manasseh, it is not presupposed that his guilt has been already +borne and atoned for by himself. + +To justify the fact of Josiah's defeat and death at Megiddo, there +is attached to him the blame of not having given heed to the words +of Necho from the mouth of God warning him against the struggle +(xxxv. 21, 22). Contrariwise, the punishment of the godless +Jehoiakim is magnified; he is stated to have been put in irons by +the Chaldaeans and carried to Babylon (xxxvi. 6)--an impossibility +of course before the capture of Jerusalem, which did not take place +until the third month of his successor. The last prince of +David's house, Zedekiah, having suffered more severely than all +his predecessors, must therefore have been stiff-necked and +rebellious (xxxvi.12, 13),--characteristics to which, according to +the authentic evidence of the prophet Jeremiah, he had in reality +the least possible claim. + +It is thus apparent how inventions of the most circumstantial kind +have arisen out of this plan of writing history, as it is +euphemistically called. One is hardly warranted, therefore, in +taking the definiteness of statements vouched for by Chronicles +alone as proof of their accuracy. The story about Zerah the +Ethiopian (2Chronicles xiv. 9 seq.) is just as apocryphal as that +of Chushan-Rishathaim (Judges iii 10). Des Vignoles has indeed +identified the first-named with the Osorthon of Manetho, who again +occurs in the Egyptian monuments as Osorkon, son of Shishak, though +not as renewing the war against Palestine; but Osorkon was an Egyptian, +Zerah an Ethiopian, and the resemblance of the names is after all +not too obvious. But, even if Zerah were really a historical +personage, of what avail would this be for the unhistorical +connection? With a million of men the king of the Libyans and +Moors, stepping over Egypt, comes against Judah. Asa, ruler of a +land of about sixty German square miles, goes to meet the enemy +with 580,000, and defeats him on the plain to the north of Mareshah +so effectually that not a single soul survives. Shall it be said +that this story, on account of the accurate statement of locality +(although Mareshah instead of Gath is not after all suggestive of +an old source), is credible-at all events after deduction of the +incredibilities? If the incredibilities are deducted, nothing at +all is left. The invasion of Judah by Baasha of Israel, and Asa's +deportment towards him (1Kings xv. 17 seq.), are quite enough +fully to dispose of the great previous victory over the +Ethiopians claimed for Asa. The case is no better with the victory +of Jehoshaphat over the Ammonites and Moabites (2Chronicles xx.); +here we have probably an echo of 2Kings iii., where we read of +Jehoshaphat's taking part in a campaign against Moab, and where +also recurs that characteristic feature of the self-destruction of +the enemy, so that for the opposing force nothing remains but the +work of collecting the booty (iii. 23; compare 2Chronicles xx. +23). The Chronicler has enemies always at his command when +needed,--Arabians, Ethiopians (xvii. 11, xxi. 16, xxii. 1, xxvi. +7), Mehunims (xx. 1, xxvi. 1), Philistines (xvii. 11, xxi. 16, +xxvi. 6 seq., xxviii. 18), Ammonites (xx. 1, xxvi. 8, xxvii. 5), +whose very names in some cases put them out of the question +for the older time. Such statements as that the Ammonites became +subject to Kings Uzziah and Jotham, are, in the perfect silence of +the credible sources, condemned by their inherent impossibility; +for at that period the highway to Ammon was Moab, and this country +was by no means then in the possession of Judah, nor is it +anywhere said that it was. The Philistines as vindictive enemies +are rendered necessary by the plan of the history (xxi. 16, +xxviii. 18), and this of itself throws suspicion upon the previous +statements (xvii. 11, xxvi. 6 seq.) that they were laid under +tribute by Jehoshaphat, and subjugated by Uzziah; it is utterly +impossible to believe that the latter should have broken down +the walls of Ashdod (Amos i. 7), or have established fortresses +in Philistia. According to the Book of Kings, he did indeed conquer +Edom anew; Edom is according to this authority the one land to +which the descendants of David lay claim and against which they +wage war, while Moab and Philistia (the most important towns being +excepted, however, in the case of the latter) virtually belong to +the territory of Ephraim. + +The triumphs given by the Chronicler to his favourites have none +of them any historical effect, but merely serve to add a +momentary splendour to their reigns. Merit is always the obverse +of success. Joram, Joash, Ahaz, who are all depicted as +reprobates, build no fortresses, command no great armies, have no +wealth of wives and children; it is only in the case of the +pious kings (to the number of whom even Rehoboam and Abijah also +belong) that the blessing of God manifests itself by such tokens. +Power is the index of piety, with which accordingly It rises and +fall. Apart from this it is of no consequence if, for example, +Jehoshaphat possesses more than 1,100.000 soldiers (xvii, 14 +seq.), for they are not used for purposes of war; the victory +comes from God and from the music of the Levites (chap. xx.). +In the statements about fortress-building which regularly recur +in connection with the names of good rulers, /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 viii. 3-6, xi. 5-12, xiii. 19, xiv. 5, 6 [6, 7], xvii. 12, +xix. 5, xxvi. 9, 10, xxvii. 4, xxxii. 5,, xxxiii. 14. +-- Footnote + + +general statements, such as those of Hosea viii. 14, 2Kings +xviii. 13, are illustrated by concrete examples, a few elements +of tradition being also employed (Lachish). It is not possible, +but, indeed, neither is it necessary, to demonstrate in every case +the imaginary character of the statements; according to xix. 5 +it would appear as if simply every city of any kind of +consequence was regarded as a fortress and in the list given in +chap. xi. 6 seq., we chiefly meet with names which were also +familiar in the post-exile period. That Abijah deprived Jeroboam +of Bethel amongst others, and that Jehoshaphat set governors over +the Ephraimite cities which had been taken by Asa his father +(xiii. 19, xvii. 2), would excite surprise if it stood anywhere +else than in Chronicles. In forming a judgment on its family +history of the descendants of David, the statement contained in +xiii. 21 is specially helpful both in manner and substance: "And +Abijah waxed mighty, and he married fourteen wives, and begat +twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters." This can only be +taken as referring to the reign of Abijah, and that too after the +alleged victory over Jeroboam; but he reigned altogether for only +three years, and is it to be supposed that within this interval +one of his sons should even have attained to man's estate? +In reality, however, Abijah had no son at all, but was succeeded +by his brother, for the definite and doubtless authentic +statement that Maachah, the wife of Rehoboam, was the mother +both of Abijah and of Asa, and that the latter removed her from +her position at court (1Kings xv. 2, 10, 13), must override +the allegation of ver. 8, that the successor of Abijah was his +son. After Jehoshaphat's death it is said in the first place +that Jehoram slew all his brethren (2 Chr. xxi. 4), and +afterwards that the Arabians slew all Jehoram's children +with the exception of one (xxii. 1); how many of the Davidic +house in that case survive for Jehu, who nevertheless slew +forty-two of them (2Kings x. 14)? In short, the family +history of the house of David is of equal historical value with +all the other matters on which the Chronicler is more widely and +better informed than all the older canonical books. The remark +applies to names and numbers as well; about such trifles, which +produce an appearance of accuracy, the author is never in any +embarrassment. + +VI.II.4. The Book of Kings then everywhere crops up as the real +foundation of the portion of Chronicles relating to Judah after +the period of Solomon. Where the narrative of the former is +detailed and minute, our author also has fuller and more +interesting material at his command; so, for example, in the +history relating to the temple and to the common and mutual +relations of Judah and Israel (2 Chr. x., xviii., xxiii., seq., +xxv. 17-24, xxxiii. seq.). Elsewhere he is restricted to the +epitome that constitutes the framework of the Book of Kings; by +it he is guided in his verdicts as to the general character of the +successive sovereigns as well as in his chronological statements, +although, in accordance with his plan, he as a rule omits the +synchronisms (xiii. 1, xxv. 25). The positive data also, given by +the epitome with reference to the legislation in matters of +worship by the various kings, are for the most part reproduced +word for word, and float in a fragmentary and readily +distinguishable way in the mixture of festivals, sermons, +choruses, law, and prophets. For this is an important +verification of all the results already obtained; all in +Chronicles that is not derived from Samuel and Kings, has a +uniform character not only in its substance, but also in its +awkward and frequently unintelligible language--plainly belonging +to a time in which Hebrew was approaching extinction--in its +artificiality of style, deriving its vitality exclusively +from Biblical reminiscences. This is not the place for the +proof of these points, but the reader may compare Staehelin's +Einleitung (1862), p. 139 seq.; Bertheau, p. xiv. seq., and +Graf, p. 116. + + +VI.III. + +VI.III.1. When the narrative of Chronicles runs parallel with the +older historical books of the canon, it makes no real additions, but +the tradition is merely differently coloured, under the influence +of contemporary motives. In the picture it gives the writer's own +present is reflected, not antiquity. But neither is the case very +different with the genealogical lists prefixed by way of +introduction in 1Chronicles i.-ix.; they also are in the main valid +only for the period at which they were drawn up--whether for its +actual condition or for its conceptions of the past. + +The penchant for pedigrees and genealogical registers, made up from +a mixture of genealogico-historical and ethnologico-statistical +elements, is a characteristic feature of Judaism; along with the +thing the word YX# also first came into use during the later +times. Compendious histories are written in the form of TLDWT and +YWX#YN. The thread is thin and inconspicuous, and yet apparently +strong and coherent; one does not commit oneself to much, and yet +has opportunity to introduce all kinds of interesting matter. +Material comes to one's hand, given a beginning and an end, the +bridge is soon completed. Another expression of the same tendency +is the inclination to give a genealogical expression to all +connections and associations of human society whatsoever, to +create artificial families on all hands and bring them into blood +relationship, as if the whole of public life resolved itself into +a matter of cousinship,--an inclination indicative of the times of +political stagnation then prevalent. We hear of the families of +the scribes at Jabesh, of the potters and gardeners and +byssus-workers, of the sons of the goldsmiths, apothecaries, and +fullers, these corporations being placed on the same plane with +actual families. The division into classes of the persons engaged +in religious service is merely the most logical development of +this artificial system which is applied to all other social +relations as well. + +Proceeding now to a fuller examination of the contents of 1 Chron +i.-ix. and other texts connected with that, we have here, apart +from the first chapter, which does not demand further attention, +an ethno-genealogical survey of the twelve tribes of Israel, which +is based mostly on the data of the Priestly Code (Genesis xlvi.; +um. <?> xxvi.), expanded now more now less. But while the statements +of the Priestly Code have to hold good for the Mosaic period only, +those of Chronicles have also to apply to the succeeding +ages,--those, for example, of Saul and David, of Tiglath-Pileser and +Hezekiah. As early as the time of the judges, however, very +important changes had taken place in the conditions. While Dan +continued to subsist with difficulty, Simeon and Levi had been +completely broken up (Genesis xlix. 7); in the Blessing of Moses +the latter name denotes something quite different from a tribe, and +the former is not even so much as named, although the enumeration +is supposed to be complete; in David's time it had already been +absorbed by families of mingled Judaic and Edomitic descent in the +district where it had once had independent footing. Eastward of +Jordan Leah's first-born had a similar fate, although somewhat +later. After it has been deposed from its primacy in Genesis xlix. +and twitted in Judges v. with its brave words unaccompanied by +corresponding deeds, the faint and desponding wish is expressed in +Deuteronomy xxxiii. 6 that "Reuben may live and not die," and King +Mesha is unaware that any other than the Gadite had ever dwelt in +the land which, properly speaking, was the heritage of Reuben. +But in Chronicles these extinct tribes again come to life--and not +Levi alone, which is a special case, but also Simeon and Reuben, +with which alone we are here to deal--and they exist as +independent integral twelfths of Israel, precisely like Ephraim +and Manasseh, throughout the whole period of the monarchy down to +the destruction of the kingdom by the Assyrians. /1/ This is + +-- Footnote +1. For Reuben see (in addition to 1Chronicles v. 1-10) v. 18, xi. +42, xii. 37. xxvi. 32, xxvii. 16, for Simeon, 1Chronicles iv. +24-43, with xii. 25, and 2Chronicles xv. 9, xxxiv. 6, observing +that in the last two passages Simeon is reckoned as belonging to +the northern kingdom, so as to complete the number of the ten +tribes. +-- Footnote + + +diametrically opposed to all authentic tradition; for to +maintain that nothing else is intended than a continued +subsistence of individual Simeonite and Reubenite families within +other tribes is merely a desperate resort of the harmonists, and +every attempt to tone down the fact that those extinct and +half-mythical tribes are in Chronicles placed side by side with +the rest without any distinction is equally illegitimate. The +historical value thus lost by the narrative as a whole cannot be +restored by the seeming truthfulness of certain details. Or is +more significance really to be attached to the wars of the Simeonites +and Reubenites against the Arabians than to the rest of the extemporised +wars of the kings of Judah against these children of the wilderness? +If only at least the names had not been "sons of Ham, and Mehunim +and Hagarenes " (iv. 40 seq. [Heb.], v. 10)! As for the +pedigrees and genealogical lists, are they to be accepted as +historical merely because their construction is not apparent to +us, and they evade our criticism? The language affords no room +for the conjecture that we here possess extracts from documents of +high antiquity (iv. 33, 38, 4I, v. 1 seq., 7, 9 seq.), and +proper names such as Elioenai and the like (iv. 35 seq.) are not +striking for their antique originality. + +Of the remaining tribes, so far as they belong to Israel and not +to Judah, the next in the series after Reuben are the +trans-Jordanic (v. 11-26). They are said to have been numbered +in the days of Jotham of Judah and Jeroboam of Israel, on which +occasion 44,760 warriors were returned; they took the field +against the Hagarenes, Ituraeans, Nephishites, and Nabataeans, +gaining the victory and carrying off much booty, "for they +cried to God in the battle, and He was entreated of them because +they put their trust in Him." But afterwards they fell away +from the God of their fathers, and as a punishment were carried off +by Pul and Tiglath-Pileser to Armenia by the Chaboras and the +river of Gozan. Apart from the language, which in its edifying +tone is that of late Judaism, and leaving out of account the +enumeration "the sons of Reuben and the Gadites and half of the +tribe of Manasseh," the astonishing and highly doubtful +combinations are eloquent: Pul and Tiglath-Pileser, the Chaboras +and the river of Gozan, are hardly distinguished from each other; +Jotham and Jeroboam, on the other hand, make so impossible a +synchronism that the partisans of Chronicles will have it that +none is intended,--forgetful, to be sure, of Hosea i. 2, and +omitting to say what in that case Jotham of Judah has to do here +at all in this connection. The Hagarenes and Ituraeans too, +instead of (say) the Moabites and Ammonites, furnish food for +reflection, as also do the geographical statements that Gad had +his seat in Bashan and Manasseh in and near Lebanon. As for the +proper names of families and their heads, they are certainly +beyond our means of judging; the phrases however of the scheme +they fill (anshe shemoth rashe l'beth abotham, migrash, jahes) +are peculiar to the Priestly Code and Chronicles, and alongside of +elements which are old and attested from other quarters, occur +others that look very recent, as for example (v. 24) Eliel, +Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, Jahdiel. + +In the introduction the Galilaean tribes have no prominent place, +but in the rest of the book they make a favourable appearance +(see especially 1Chronicles xii. 32-34, 40, and 2Chronicles xxx. +10, 11, 18); it readily occurs to one, especially in the +last-cited passage, to think of the later Judaising process in +Galilee. In Issachar there are stated to have been 87,000 +fighting men in David's time (misparam l'toledotham l'beth +abotham, vii. 1-5); out of Zebulun and Naphtali, again, exactly +87,000 men came to David at Hebron, to anoint him and be feasted +three days,--it is carefully mentioned, however (xii. 40), that +they took their provisions up with them. The proper kernel of +Israel, Ephraim and Manasseh, is, in comparison with Simeon, +Reuben, Gad, Issachar, treated with very scant kindness (vii. +14-29),--a suspicious sign. The list of the families of Manasseh +is an artificial _rechauffe_ of elements gleaned anywhere; Maachah +passes for the wife as well as the sister of Machir, but being a +Gileaditess (Beth-Maachah), ought not to have been mentioned at +all in this place where the cis-Jordanic Manasseh is being spoken +of; to fill up blanks every contribution is thankfully +received. /1/ In the case of Ephraim a long and meagre genealogy + +-- Footnote +1 Kuenen, Th. Tijdschr., 1877, pp. 484, 488; Godsdienst v. +Isr., i. 165. +-- Footnote + + +only is given, which, begun in vers. 20, 21, and continued in +ver. 25, constantly repeats the same names (Tahath, Tahan, +1Samuel i. 1; Eladah, Laadan, Shuthelah, Telah), and finally +reaches its end and goal in Joshua, whose father Nun alone is +known to the older sources! Into the genealogy a wonderful +account of the slaying of the children of Ephraim by the men of +Gath (1Samuel iv.?) has found its way, and (like viii. 6, 7) +according to the prevailing view must be of venerable antiquity. +But in that case the statement of iv. 9 must also be very +ancient, which yet obviously is connected with the rise of the +schools of the scribes stated in ii. 55 to have existed in Jabez. + +Everywhere it is presupposed that Israel throughout the entire +period of the monarchy was organised on the basis of the twelve +tribes (ii.-ix.; xii.; xxvii.), but the assumption is certainly +utterly false, as can be seen for example from 1Kings iv. +Further, the _penchant_ of later Judaism for statistics is carried +back to the earlier time, to which surveys and censuses were +repugnant in the extreme. In spite of 2Samuel xxiv., we are told +that under David enumerations both of the spiritual and of the +secular tribes were made again and again; so also under his +successors, as may be inferred partly from express statements +and partly from the precise statistics given as to the number +of men capable of bearing arms: in these cases the most astounding +figures are set down,--always, however, as resting on original +documents and accurate enumeration. In the statistical +information of Chronicles, then, so far as it relates to +pre-exilic antiquity, we have to do with artificial compositions. +It is possible, and occasionally demonstrable, that in these +some elements derived from tradition have been used. But it +is certain that quite as many have been simply invented; and +the combination of the elements--the point of chief importance-- +dates, as both form and matter show, from the very latest period. +One might as well try to hear the grass growing as attempt to +derive from such a source as this a historical knowledge of +the conditions of ancient Israel. + +VI.III.2. As regards Judah and Benjamin, and to a certain extent +Levi also, the case of course is somewhat different from that +of the ten extinct tribes. It is conceivable that here a living +ethno-genealogical tradition may have kept the present connected +with the past. Nevertheless, on closer examination, it comes out +that most of what the Chronicler here relates has reference to the +post-exilic time, and that the few fragments which go up to a +higher antiquity are wrought into a connection which on the +whole is of a very recent date. Most obtrusively striking is it +that the list of the heads of the people dwelling in Jerusalem +given in ix. 4--17 is simply identical with Nehemiah xi. 3-19. In +this passage, introducing as it does the history of the kings (x. +seq.), one is by no means prepared to hear statements about the +community of the second temple; but our author is under the +impression that in going there he is letting us know about the old +Jerusalem; from David to Nehemiah is no leap for him, the times +are not distinct from one another to his mind. For chap. viii. +also, containing a full enumeration of the Benjamite families, +with special reference to those which had their seat in the +capital, Bertheau has proved the post-exilic reference; it is +interesting that in the later Jerusalem there existed a widespread +family which wished to deduce its origin from Saul and rested its +claims to this descent on a long genealogy (viii. 33-40). /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Equivalent to ix. 35-44, which perhaps proves the later +interpolation of ix. 1-34. +-- Footnote + + +It cannot be said that this produces a very favourable impression +for the high antiquity of the other list of the Benjamites in vii. +6-11; to see how little value is to be attached to the pretensions +of the latter to be derived from original documents of hoary +antiquity, it is only necessary to notice the genuinely Jewish +phraseology of vers. 7, 9, 11, such proper names as Elioenai, +and the numbers given (22,034 + 20,200 + 17,200, making in all +59,434 fighting men). + +The registers of greatest historical value are those relating +to the tribe of Judah (ii. 1-iV. 23). But in this statement +the genealogy of the descendants of David must be excepted +(chapter iii.), the interest of which begins only with Zerubbabel, +the rest being merely an exceedingly poor compilation of materials +still accessible to us in the older historical books of the canon, +and in Jeremiah. According to iii. 5, the first four of David's +sons, born in Jerusalem, were all children of Bathsheba; the +remaining seven are increased to nine by a textual error which +occurs also in the LXX version of 2Samuel v. 16. Among the sons +of Josiah (iii. 15 seq.), Johanan, i.e. Jehoahaz, is +distinguished from Shallum (Jeremiah xxii. 11), and because he +immediately succeeded his father, is represented as the +first-born, though in truth Jehoiakim was older (2Kings xxiii. +3I, 36); Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother, is given out to be the +son of Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, because he was the +successor of Jeconiah, who succeeded Jehoiakim. Similar things +occur also in the Book of Daniel, but are usually overlooked, with +a mistaken piety. Whoever has eyes to see cannot assign any high +value except to the two great Jewish genealogies in chaps. ii. +and iv. Yet even here the most heterogeneous elements are tossed +together, and chaff is found mingled with wheat. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. For further details the reader is referred to the author's +dissertation De gentibus et familiis Judaeis, Gottingen, 1870. +-- Footnote + + +Apart from the introduction, vers.1-8, chap. ii. is a genealogy +of the children of Hezron, a tribe which in David's time had not +yet been wholly amalgamated with Judah, but which even then +constituted the real strength of that tribe and afterwards became +completely one with it. The following scheme discloses itself +amid the accompanying matters: "The sons of Hezron are Jerahmeel +and Celubai" (Caleb) (ver. 9). "and the sons of Jerahmeel, the +first-born of Hezron, were..." (ver. 25). "These were the +sons of Jerahmeel. And the sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel +were..." (ver. 42). "These were the sons of Caleb " (ver. 50 a). +That which is thus formally defined and kept by itself apart +(compare in this connection "Jerahmeel the first-born of Hezron," +"Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel") is materially also distinguished +from all else. It is the kernel of the whole, and refers to the +pre-exilian time. Even the unusual _et fuerunt_ (vers. 25, 33, +50) points to this conclusion, as well as, in the case of Caleb, +the positive fact that the towns named in ver. 42-49 are all +situated near Hebron and in the Negeb of Judah, where after the +exile the Idumaeans were settled, and, in the case of Jerahmeel, +the negative circumstance that here no towns at all are mentioned +among the families, Molid, ver. 29, being perhaps a single +exception, and thus the extreme south is indicated. But this +kernel is amplified by a number of post-exilian additions. In +the first place, in connection with Jerahmeel, an appendix +(vers. 34-41) is given which is not ethnological but purely +genealogical, and brings a pedigree of fifteen members manifestly +down to near the age of the Chronicler, and which moreover is only +in apparent connection with what precedes it (comp. ver. 34 with +ver. 31), and invariably uses the hiphil form _holid_, a form +which occurs in vers. 25-33 never, and in vers. 42-50 only +sporadically in three places open to the suspicion of later +redaction (comp. especially ver. 47). Much more important, +however, are the additions under Caleb; of these the one is +prefixed (vers. 18-24), the other, more appropriately, brought in +at the close (vers. 50-55, beginning with "and the sons of Hur, +the firstborn of Ephrath," Caleb's second wife, ver. 19). Here +Caleb no longer presents himself in the extreme south of Judah and +the vicinity of Jerahmeel (1Samuel xxv. 3, xxvii. 10, xxx. 14, +29), where he had his settlement prior to the exile, but his +families, which are all of them descended from his son Hur, +inhabit Bethlehem, Kirjath-jearim, Zorah, Esthaol, and other towns +in the north, frequently mentioned in Ezra and Nehemiah. Thus +the Calebites in consequence of the exile have forsaken their old +seats and have taken up new ones on their return; this fact is +expressed in ver. 18 to the effect that Caleb's first wife Azubah +bath Jerioth (Deserta filia Nomadum) had died, and that he had then +married a second, Ephrath, by whom he became the father of Hur: +Ephrath is the name of the district in which Bethlehem and Kirjath- +jearim are situated, and properly speaking is merely another +form of Ephraim, as is shown by the word Ephrathite. In addition +to these appendices to Jerahmeel and Caleb, we have also the +genealogy of David (vers. 10-17). The Book of Samuel knows only +of his father Jesse; on the other hand, Saul's genealogy is +carried further back, and there was no reason for not doing so in +David's case also if the materials had existed. But here, as in +Ruth, the pedigree is traced backwards through Jesse, Obed, Boaz, +up to Salma. Salma is the father of Bethlehem (ii. 54), and hence +the father of David. But Salma is the father of Bethlehem and the +neighbouring towns or fractions of towns AFTER THE EXILE; he belongs +to Kaleb Abi Hur. /1/ + +-- Footnote +I In the Targum, Caleb's kindred the Kenites are designated as +Salmaeans; the name also occurs in Canticles (i. 5, the tents of +Kedar, the curtains of Salmah), and also as the name of a +Nabataean tribe in Pliny. Among the families of the Nethinim +enumerated in Nehemiah vii. 46-60 the B'ne Salmah also occur, +along with several other names which enable us distinctly to +recognise (Ezekiel xliv.) the non-Israelite and foreign origin +of these temple slaves; see, for example, vers. 48, 52, 55, 57. +-- Footnote + + +But if anything at all is certain, it is this, that in ancient times +the Calebites lived in the south and not in the north of Judah, and +in particular that David by his nativity belonged not to them but +rather to the older portion of Judah which gravitated towards +Israel properly so called, and stood in most intimate relations +with Benjamin. Of the first three members of the genealogy, +Nahshon and Amminadab occur as princes of Judah in the Priestly +Code, and are fitly regarded as the ancestors of those who come +after them; Ram is the first-born of Hezron's first-born (ver. +25), and by the meaning of his name also (Ram = the high one), +is, like Abram, qualified to stand at the head of the princely +line. + +While in chap ii. we thus in point of fact fall in with an old +kernel, and one that necessarily goes back to sound tradition +(apparently preserved indeed, however, merely for the sake of +the later additions), the quite independent and parallel list, +on the other hand, contained in iv. 1-23 is shown by many +unmistakable indications to be a later composition having its +reference only to post-exilian conditions, perhaps incorporating +a few older elements, which, however, it is impossible with any +certainty to detect. /2/ + +-- Footnote +I Pharez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, Shobal (iv. 1), is a genealogically +descending series; Chelubai must therefore of necessity be read +instead of Carmi, all the more because Chelub and not Carmi appears +in the third place in the subsequent expansion; for this, ascending +from below, begins with Shobal (ver. 2), then goes on to Hur +(vers. 5-10), who stands in the same relation to Ash-hur as Tob +to Ish-tob, and finally deals with Chelub or Caleb (vers. 11-15). +-- Footnote + + +Levi of course receives the fullest treatment (1Chronicles v. 27 +[vi. 1]-vi. 66 [81], ix. 10 seq., xv., xvi., xxiii.-xxvii., +&c.). We know that this clerical tribe is an artificial +production, and that its hierarchical subdivision, as worked out in +the Priestly Code, was the result of the centralisation of the +cultus in Jerusalem. Further, it has been already shown that in +the history as recorded in Chronicles the effort is most +conspicuous to represent the sons of Aaron and the Levites, in all +cases where they are absent from the older historical books of +the canon, as playing the part to which they are entitled according +to the Priestly Code. How immediate is the connection with the +last-named document, how in a certain sense that code is even +carried further by Chronicles, can be seen for example from this +circumstance, that in the former Moses in a novel reduces the +period of beginning public service in the case of a Levite from +thirty years of age to twenty-five (Numbers iv. 3 seq., viii. 23 +seq.), while in the latter David (1Chronicles xxiii. 3, 24 seq.) +brings it down still further to the age of twenty; matters are +still to some extent in a state of flux, and the ordering of the +temple worship is a continuation of the beginning made with the +tabernacle service by Moses. Now, in so far as the statistics of +the clergy have a real basis at all, that basis is post-exilian. +It has long ago been remarked how many of the individuals +figuring under David and his successors (e.g., Asaph, Heman, +Jeduthun) bear names identical with families or guilds of a later +time, how the two indeed are constantly becoming confluent, and +difficulty is felt in determining whether by the expression +"head" a person or a family ought to be understood. But, +inasmuch as the Chronicler nevertheless desires to depict the +older time and not his own, he by no means adheres closely to +contemporary statistics, but gives free play at the same time to +his idealising imagination; whence it comes that in spite of the +numerous and apparently precise data afforded, the reader still +finds himself unable to form any clear picture of the +organisation of the clergy,--the ordering of the families and +tribes, the distribution of the offices,--nay, rather, is +involved in a maze of contradictions. Obededom, Jeduthun, Shelomith, +Korah, occur in the most different connections, belong now to one, +now to another section of the Levites, and discharge at one time +this function, at another, that. Naturally the commentators are +prompt with their help by distinguishing names that are alike, +and identifying names that are different. + +Some characteristic details may still be mentioned here. The +names of the six Levitical classes according to 1Chronicles xxv. 4, +Giddalti, V'romamti-Ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, +Mahazioth, are simply the fragments of a consecutive sentence +which runs: I have magnified | and exalted the help | of him who +sat in need: | I have spoken | abundance of | prophecies. The +watchman or singer Obededom who is alleged to have discharged his +functions in the days of David and Amaziah, is no other than the +captain to whom David intrusted for three months the custody of +the ark, a Philistine of Gath. The composition of the singers' +pedigrees is very transparent, especially in the case of Heman +(1Chronicles vi. 7-l2 [22-27] = ver 18-23, [33-37]). Apart from +Exodus vi. 16-l9, use is chiefly made of what is said about the +family of Samuel (1Samuel i. 1, viii. 2), who must of course have +been of Levitical descent, because his mother consecrated him +to the service of the sanctuary. Heman is the son of Joel +b. Samuel b. Elkanah b. Jeroham b. Eliab b. Tahath b. Zuph, +only the line does not terminate with Ephraim as in 1Samuel +i. 1 (LXX) because it is Levi who is the goal; Zuph. <sic> however, +is an Ephraitic district, and Tahath (Tohu, Toah, Tahan, Nahath) +is an Ephraimite family (vii. 20). Further back the same elements +are individually repeated more than once, Elkanah four times +in all; he occurs once as early as in Exodus vi. 24, where also +he is doubtless borrowed from 1Samuel i. The best of it is that, +contrary to the scope of the genealogies recorded in1 Chronicles +vi., which is to provide a Levitical origin for the guilds of singers, +there is found in close contiguity the statement (ii. 6) that Heman +and Ethan were descendants of Zerah b. Pharez, b. JUDAH. The +commentators are indeed assisted in their efforts to differentiate +the homonyms by their ignorance of the fact that even as late as +Nehemiah's time the singers did not yet pass for Levites, but their +endeavours are wrecked by the circumstance that the names of +fathers as well as of sons are identical (Psalm lxxxviii. 1, +lxxxix. 1; Ewald, iii. 380 seq.). In point of history these +musicians of the second temple are descended of course neither +from Levi nor from the sons of Mahol (1Kings v. 11 [iv. 31), but +they have at least derived their names from the latter. On all +hands we meet with such artificial names in the case of Levites. +One is called Issachar; it would not be surprising to meet with a +Naphtali Cebi, or Judah b. Jacob. Jeduthun is, properly +speaking, the name of a tune or musical mode (Psalm xxxix. 1, +lxii. 1, [xxvii. 1), whence also of a choir trained in that. +Particularly interesting are a few pagan names, as for example +Henadad, Bakbuk, and some others, which, originally borne by the +temple servitors (Nehemiah vii. 46 seq.), were doubtless transferred +along with these to the Levites. + +With the priests, of whom so many are named at all periods of the +history of Israel, matters are no better than with the inferior +Levites, so far as the Books of Samuel and Kings are not drawn +upon. In particular, the twenty-four priestly courses or orders +are an institution, not of King David, but of the post-exilic period. +When Hitzig, annotating Ezekiel viii. 16, remarks that the +five-and-twenty men standing between the temple and the altar +worshipping the sun toward the east are the heads of the twenty-four +priestly courses with the high priest at their head (because no one +else had the right to stand in the inner court between temple and +altar), he reveals a trait that is characteristic, not only of +himself, but also of the entire so-called historico-critical school, +who exert their whole subtlety on case after case, but never give +themselves time to think matters over in their connection with each +other; nay, rather simply retain the traditional view as a whole, +only allowing themselves by way of gratification a number of +heresies. It is almost impossible to believe that Hitzig, when he +annotated Ezekiel viii., could have read those passages Ezekiel +xliii. 7 seq., xliv. 6 seq, from which it is most unambiguously +clear that the later exclusion of the laity from the sanctuary +was quite unknown in the pre-exilic period. The extent of the +Chronicler's knowledge about the pre-exilic priesthood is revealed +most clearly in the list of the twenty-two high priests in +1Chronicles v. 29-41 (vi. 3-15). From the ninth to the eighteenth +the series runs--Amariah, Ahitub, Zadok, Ahimaaz, Azariah, +Johanan, Azariah, Amariah, Ahitub, Zadok. As for the first five, +Azariah was not the son, but the brother of Ahimaaz, and the +latter apparently not a priest (1Kings iv. 2); but Ahitub, the +alleged father of Zadok, was, on the contrary, the grandfather of +Zadok's rival, Abiathar, of the family of Eli (1Samuel xiv. 3, +xxii. 20); the whole of the old and famous line--Eli, Phinehas, +Ahitub; Ahimelech, Abiathar--which held the priesthood of the ark +from thc time of the judges down into the days of David, is passed +over in absolute silence, and the line of Zadok, by which it was +not superseded until Solomon (1Kings ii. 35), is represented as +having held the leadership of the priesthood since Moses. As for +the last four in the above-cited list, they simply repeat the +earlier. In the Book of Kings, Azariah II., Amariah, Ahitub, +Zadok, do not occur, but, on the contrary, other contemporary high +priests, Jehoiada and Urijah, omitted from the enumeration in +Chronicles. At the same time this enumeration cannot be asserted +to be defective; for, according to Jewish chronology, the ancient +history is divided into two periods, each of 480 years, the one +extending from the exodus to the building of the temple, the other +from that epoch down to the establishment of the second theocracy. +Now, 480 years are twelve generations of forty years, and in +1Chronicles v. there are twelve high priests reckoned to the period +during which there was no temple (ver. 36b to come after ver. 35a), +and thence eleven down to the exile; that is to say, twelve generations, +when the exile is included. The historical value of the genealogy +in 1Chronicles v. 26-41 is thus inevitably condemned. But if +Chronicles knew nothing about the priestly princes of the olden +time, its statements about ordinary priests are obviously little +to be relied on. + +VI.III.3. To speak of a tradition handed down from pre-exilic times +as being found in Chronicles, either in 1Chronicles i.-ix. or in +1Chronicles x.-2Chronicles xxxvi., is thus manifestly out of the +question. As early as 1806 this had been conclusively shown by +the youthful De Wette (then twenty-six years of age). But since +that date many a theological Sisyphus has toiled to roll the +stone again wholly or half-way up the hill--Movers especially, in +genius it might seem the superior of the sober Protestant +critic--with peculiar results. This scholar mixed up the inquiry +into the historical value of those statements in Chronicles which +we are able to control, with the other question as to the probable +sources of its variations from the older historical books of the +canon. In vain had De Wette, at the outset, protested against +such a procedure, contending that it was not only possible, but +conceded that Chronicles, where at variance or in contradiction, +was following older authority, but that the problem still really +was, as before, how to explain the complete difference of general +conception and the multitude of discrepancies in details; that +the hypothesis of "sources," as held before Movers by Eichhorn, +was of no service in dealing with this question, and that in the +critical comparison of the two narratives, and in testing their +historical character, it was after all incumbent to stick to what +lay before one (Beitr., i. pp. 24, 29, 38). For so ingenious +an age such principles were too obvious; Movers produced a great +impression, especially as he was not so simple as to treat the +letters of Hiram and Elijah as authentic documents, but was by way +of being very critical. At present even Dillmann also +unfortunately perceives "that the Chronicler everywhere has +worked according to sources, and that in his case deliberate +invention or distortion of the history are not for a moment to be +spoken of" (Herzog, Realencyk., ii. p. 693, 1st edit.; iii. +223, 2d edit.). And from the lofty heights of science the author +of Part V. of the Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament +looks compassionately down upon K. H. Graf, "who has loitered +so far behind the march of Old Testament research, as to have +thought of resuscitating the views of De Wette;" in fact, +that Chronicles may be established on an independent footing and +placed on a level with the Books of Samuel and Kings, he utterly +denies any indebtedness at all, on its part, to these, and in +cases where the transcription is word for word, maintains that +separate independent sources were made use of,--a needless +exaggeration of the scientific spirit, for the author of the Book +of Kings himself wrote the prayer of Solomon and the epitome, at +least, without borrowing from another source; the Chronicler +therefore can have derived it, directly or indirectly, only from +him. + +In reply to all this, one can only repeat what has already been +said by De Wette. It may be that the Chronicler has produced +this picture of old Israel, so different in outline and colour +from the genuine tradition, not of his own suggestion and on his +own responsibility, but on the ground of documents that lay +before him. But the historical character of the work is not +hereby altered in the smallest degree, it is merely shared by +the so-called "sources." 2Maccabees and a multitude of other +compositions have also made use of "sources," but how does this +enhance the value of their statements? That value must in the +long run be estimated according to their contents, which, again, +must be judged, not by means of the primary sources which have +been lost, but by means of the secondary literary products +which have survived. The whole question ultimately resolves +itself into that of historical credibility; and to what +conclusions this ]eads we have already seen. The alterations and +additions of Chronicles are all traceable to the same +fountain-head--the Judaising of the past, in which otherwise the +people of that day would have been unable to recognise their +ideal. It was not because tradition gave the Law and the +hierocracy and the _Deus ex Machina_ as sole efficient factor in +the sacred narrative, but because these elements were felt to be +missing, that they were thus introduced. If we are to explain +the _omissions_ by reference to the "author's plan," why may we +not apply the same principle to the _additions_? The passion +displayed by Ewald ( Jahrbb. x. 261) when, in speaking of the +view that Manasseh's captivity has its basis in Jewish dogmatic, +he calls it "an absurdly infelicitous idea, and a gross injustice +besides to the Book of Chronicles," recalls B. Schaefer's +suggestive remark about the Preacher of Solomon, that God would +not use a liar to write a canonical book. What then does Ewald +say to the narratives of Daniel or Jonah? Why must the new turn +given to history in the case of Manasseh be judged by a different +standard than in the equally gross case of Ahaz, and in the numerous +analogous instances enumerated in preceding pages (p. 203 seq.). +With what show of justice can the Chronicler, after his statements +have over and over again been shown to be incredible, be held at +discretion to pass for an unimpeachable narrator? In those cases +at least where its connection with his "plan" is obvious, one ought +surely to exercise some scepticism in regard to his testimony; +but it ought at the same time to be considered that such +connections may occur much oftener than is discernible by us, +or at least by the less sharp-sighted of us. It is indeed possible +that occasionally a grain of good corn may occur among the chaff, +but to be conscientious one must neglect this possibility of +exceptions, and give due honour to the probability of the rule. +For it is only too easy to deceive oneself in thinking that one +has come upon some sound particular in a tainted whole. To what +is said in 2Samuel v. 9, "So David dwelt in the stronghold (Jebus), +and he called it the city of David, and he built round about from +the rampart and inward," there is added in 1Chronicles xi. 8, the +statement that "Joab restored the rest of the city (Jerusalem)." +This looks innocent enough, and is generally accepted as a fact. +But the word XYH for BNH shows the comparatively modern date of +the statement, and on closer consideration one remembers also that +the town of Jebus at the time of its conquest by David consisted +only of the citadel, and the new town did not come into existence +at all until later, and therefore could not have been repaired by +Joab; in what interest the statement was made can be gathered from +Nehemiah vii. 11. In many cases it is usual to regard such +additions as having had their origin in a better text of Samuel +and Kings which lay before the Chronicler; and this certainly +is the most likely way in which good additions could have got in. +But the textual critics of the _Exegetical Handbook_ are only too +like-minded with the Chronicler, and are always eagerly seizing +with both hands his paste pearls and the similar gifts of the +Septuagint. + +It must be allowed that Chronicles owes its origin, not to the +arbitrary caprice of an individual, but to a general tendency of +its period. It is the inevitable product of the conviction that +the Mosaic law is the starting-point of Israel's history, and +that in it these is operative a play of sacred forces such as +finds no other analogy; this conviction could not but lead to +a complete transformation of the ancient tradition. +Starting from a similar assumption, such an author as C. F. Keil +could even at the present day write a book of Chronicles, if this +were not already in existence. Now, in this aspect, for the +purpose of appraising Chronicles as the type of that conception of +history which the scribes cherished, the inquiry into its "sources" +is really important and interesting. References to other writings, +from which further particulars can be learned, are appended as a rule, +to the account of each sovereign's reign, the exceptions being in +the cases of Joram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Amon, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, +Zedekiah. The titles referred to in this way may be classed under +two groups: + +(1.) The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, or of Judah and Israel +(in the cases of Asa, Amaziah, Jotham; Ahaz, Josiah, and Jehoiakim), +with which the Book of the Kings of Israel (in the cases of Jehoshaphat +and Manasseh; comp. 1Chronicles ix. 1) is identical, for the kingdom +of the ten tribes is not reckoned by the Chronicler. + +(2.) The Words of Samuel the Seer, Nathan the Prophet, and Gad the Seer +(for David; 1Chronicles xxix. 29; comp. xxvii. 24; Ecclus. xlvi. 13, +xlvii. 1); the Words of Nathan the Prophet, the Prophecy of Ahijah +of Shiloh and the Vision of Iddo the Seer concerning Jeroboam +ben Nebat (for Solomon; 2Chronicles ix. 29); the Words of Shemaiah +the Prophet and Iddo the Seer (for Rehoboam; xii. 15); the words +of Jehu ben Hanani, which are taken over into the Book of the Kings +of Israel (Jehoshaphat; xx. 34); a writing of Isaiah the prophet +(Uzziah; xxvi. 22), more precisely cited as the Vision of Isaiah +the Prophet, the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah +and Israel (Hezekiah; xxxii. 32); the Words of the Seer in the Book +of the Kings of Israel (Manasseh; xxxiii. 18; comp. also ver. 19). +Following in the footsteps of Movers, Bertheau and others have shown +that under these different citations it is always one and the same +book that is intended, whether by its collective title, or by the +conventional sub-titles of its separate sections. /1/ Bertheau calls + +-- Footnote +1. In Ezra and Nehemiah also the Chronicler has not used so many +sources as are usually supposed. There is no reason for refusing +to identify the "lamentations" of 2Chronicles xxxv. 25, with our +Lamentations of Jeremiah: at least the reference to the death of +Josiah (Jos., Ant. x. 5, 1), erroneously attributed to them, +ought not in candour to be regarded as such. +-- Footnote + + +attention to the fact that ordinarily it is either the one or the +other title that is given, and when, as is less usual, there are +two, then for the most part the prophetic writing is designated as +a portion of the Book of the Kings of Israel (xx. 34, xxxii. 32; +and, quite vaguely, xxxiii. 18). The peculiar mode of naming the +individual section-/1/-at a time when chapters and verses were + +-- Footnote +1 Romans xi. 2: )EN (HLLLA| TI LEGEI )H GRAFH i.e., How stands it +written in the section relating to Elijah? +-- Footnote + + +unknown--has its origin in the idea that each period of the sacred +history has its leading prophet [)AXRIBHS TWN PROFHTWN DIADOXH; +Jos., c. Ap. i. 8), but also at the same time involves (according +to xxvi. 22, in spite of ix. 29, xii. 15, xiii. 22; 1Chronicles xxix. +29) the notion that each prophet has himself written the history +of his own period. Obviously, this is the explanation of the title +_prophetae priores_ borne by the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, +and Kings in the Jewish canon, and of the view which led to the +introduction of 2Kings xviii. 18 seq. into the Book of Isaiah. +The claims of history being slight, it was easy to find the needful +_propheta eponymus_ for each section. Jehu ben Hanani, a northern +Israelite of Baasha's time, has to do duty for Asa, and also for +Jehoshaphat as well. Iddo the seer, who prophesied against Jeroboam +ben Nebat, is the anonymous prophet of 1Kings xiii. (Jos., Ant. +viii. 8, 5; Jer. on Zechariah i. 1); by this time it was possible, +also, to give the names of the wives of Cain, and of the patriarchs. + +As regards a more definite determination of the date of the "Book +of Kings" which lies at the foundation of Chronicles, a +co-ordination of the two series of the Kings of Israel and Judah +can only have been made after both had been brought to a close; +in other words, not before the Babylonian exile. And in the +Babylonian exile it was that the canonical Book of Kings actually +came into existence, and the "Chronicles" of Israel and those of +Judah were for the first time worked together by its author; at +least he refers only to the separate works and knows of no +previous combination of them. It would seem, therefore, very +natural to identify the work alluded to in Chronicles with our +present canonical book, which is similar in title and has +corresponding contents. But this we cannot do, for in the former +there were matters of which there are in the latter no trace; for +example, according to 1Chronicles ix. 1, it contained family and +numerical statistics for the whole of Israel after the manner of +1Chronicles i.-ix. (chapters for the most part borrowed from it) +and according to 1Chronicles xxxiii 19, the Prayer of Manasseh. +From these two data, as well as from the character of the items +of information which may have been conjectured to have been derived +from this source, the conclusion is forced upon us that the Book +of Kings cited by the Chronicler is a late compilation far removed +from actual tradition, and in relation to the canonical Book of +Kings it can only be explained as an apocryphal amplification after +the manner in which the scribes treated the sacred history. This +conclusion, derived from the contents themselves, is supported by +an important positive datum, namely, the citation in 2Chronicles +xxiv. 27 of the Midrash [A.V. "Story"] of the Book of Kings, and +in xiii. 22 of the Midrash of the prophet Iddo. Ewald is undoubtedly +right when he recognises here the true title of the writing elsewhere +named simply the Book of Kings. Of course the commentators assert +that the word Midrash, which occurs in the Bible only in these two +passages, there means something quite different from what it means +everywhere else; but the natural sense suits admirably well and +in Chronicles we find ourselves fully within the period of the +scribes. Midrash is the consequence of the conservation of all +the relics of antiquity, a wholly peculiar artificial reawakening +of dry bones, especially by literary means, as is shown by +the preference for lists of names and numbers. Like ivy it +overspreads the dead trunk with extraneous life, blending old and +new in a strange combination. It is a high estimate of tradition +that leads to its being thus modernised; but in the process it is +twisted and perverted, and set off with foreign accretions in the +most arbitrary way. Jonah as well as Daniel and a multitude of +apocryphal writings (2Maccabees ii. 13) are connected with this +tendency to cast the reflection of the present back into the past; +the Prayer of Manasseh, which now survives only in Greek, +appears, as Ewald has conjectured, actually to have been taken +direct from the book quoted in 2Chronicles xxxiii. 19. Within this +sphere, wherein all Judaism moves, Chronicles also has had its +rise. Thus whether one says Chromcles or Midrash of the Book of +Kings is on the whole a matter of perfect indifference; they are +children of the same mother, and indistinguishable in spirit and +language, while on the other hand the portions which have been +retained verbatim from the canonical Book of Kings at once betray +themselves in both respects. + + +CHAPTER VII. JUDGES, SAMUEL, AND KINGS. + +In the history of Hebrew literature, so full as it is of +unfortunate accidents, one lucky circumstance at least requires +to be specially mentioned. Chronicles did not succeed in +superseding the historical books upon which it was founded; the +older and the newer version have been preserved together. But in +Judges, Samuel, and Kings even, we are not presented with +tradition purely in its original condition; already it is +overgrown with later accretions. Alongside of an older narrative +a new one has sprung up, formerly independent, and intelligible in +itself, though in many instances of course adapting itself to the +former. More frequently the new forces have not caused the old +root to send forth a new stock, or even so much as a complete +branch; they have only nourished parasitic growths; the +earlier narrative has become clothed with minor and dependent +additions. To vary the metaphor, the whole area of tradition has +finally been uniformly covered with an alluvial deposit by which +the configuration of the surface has been determined. It is with +this last that we have to deal in the first instance; to +ascertain its character, to find out what the active forces were +by which it was produced. Only afterwards are we in a position +to attempt to discern in the earlier underlying formation the +changing spirit of each successive period. + + +VII.I. + +VII.I.1. The following prologue supplies us with the point of view +from which the period of the judges is estimated. +"After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel did evil in the +sight of the Lord and forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who +brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, +of the gods of the people that were round about them, the Baals +and Astartes. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, +and He delivered them into the hands of spoilers, that spoiled +them and sold them into the hand of their enemies round about; +whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was against +them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn +unto them; and they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless the +Lord raised up unto them judges, and was with the judge, and +delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days +of the judge, for it repented the Lord because of their +groanings, by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. +And it came to pass when the judge was dead that they returned +and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following +other gods to serve them; they ceased not from their own doings, +nor from their stubborn way. And the anger of the Lord was hot +against Israel," &c. &c. (Judges ii.). + +Such is the text, afterwards come the examples. +"And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, +and forget the Lord their God, and served the Baals and Astartes. +Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He +sold them into the hand of Chushan-Rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, +and they served him eight years. And when the children of Israel +cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up to them a helper, Othniel +b. Kenaz, and delivered the king of Mesopotamia into his hand, +and the land had rest forty years. And Othniel b. Kenaz died." +The same points of view and also for the most part the same +expressions as those which in the case of Othniel fill up the +entire cadre, recur in the cases of Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, +Jephthah, and Samson, but there form only at the beginning and at +the end of the narratives a frame which encloses more copious and +richer contents, occasionally they expand into more exhaustive +disquisitions, as in vi. 7, x. 6. It is in this way that Judges +ii.-xvi. has been constructed with the workman-like regularity it +displays. Only the six great judges, however are included within +the scheme; the six small ones stand in an external relation to it, +and have a special scheme to themselves, doubtless having been +first added by way of appendix to complete the number twelve. + +The features which characterise this method of historical work are +few and strongly distinctive. A continuous chronology connects +the times of rest and their separating intervals, and thereby the +continuity of the periods is secured. In order justly to +estimate this chronology, it is necessary to travel somewhat +beyond the limits of Judges. The key to it is to be found in +1Kings vi. 1. + +"In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of +Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year +of the reign of Solomon, he began to build the house of the Lord." + +As observed by Bertheau, and afterwards by Noldeke, who has still +farther pursued the subject, these 480 years correspond to 12 +generations of 40 years each. Analogously in 1Chronicles v. 29-34 +[vi. 2-8], 12 high priests from Aaron to Ahimaaz are assumed for +the same period of time, and the attempt was made to make their +successions determine those of the generations (Numbers xxxv. 28). +Now it is certainly by no means at once clear how this total is +to be brought into accord with the individual entries. Yet even +these make it abundantly plain that 40 is the fundamental number +of the reckoning. The wandering in the wilderness, during which +the generation born in Egypt dies out, lasts for 40 years; the +land has 40 years of rest under Othniel, Deborah, and again under +Gideon; it has 80 under Ehud; the domination of the Philistines +lasts for 40 years, the duration also of David's reign. On the +necessary assumption that the period of the Philistines +(Judges xiii. 1), which far exceeds the ordinary duration of the +foreign dominations, coincides with that of Eli (1Samuel iv. 18), +and at the same time includes the 20 years of Samson (Judges +xvi. 31), and the 20 of the interregnum before Samuel (1Samuel +vii. 2), we have already 8 x 40 accounted for, while 4 x 40 still +remain. For these we must take into account first the years of +the two generations for which no numbers are given, namely, +the generation of Joshua and his surviving contemporaries +(Judges ii. 7), and that of Samuel to Saul, each, it may be +conjectured, having the normal 40, and the two together +certainly reckoning 80 years. For the remaining 80 the most +disputable elements are the 71 years of interregna or of +foreign dominations, and the 70 of the minor judges. One +perceives that these two figures cannot both be counted in,--they +are mutually exclusive equivalents. For my own part, I prefer to +retain the interregna; they alone, so far as we can see at +present, being appropriate to the peculiar scheme of the Book of +Judges. The balance of 9 or IO years still remaining to be +applied are distributed between Jephthah (6 years), and Solomon +(down to the building of the temple), who claims 3 or 4 years, or, +if these are left out of account, 3 years may be given to +Abimelech. + +The main thing, however, is not the chronology, but the religious +connection of the events. The two are intimately associated, not +only formally, as can be gathered from the scheme, but also by a +real inner connection. For what is aimed at in both alike is a +connected view of large periods of time, a continuous survey +of the connection and succession of race after race, the detailed +particulars of the occurrences being disregarded; the historical +factors with which the religious pragmatism here has to do are so +uniform that the individual periods in reality need only to be +filled up with the numbers of the years. One is reminded of the +"Satz," `"Gegensatz," and "Vermittelung" of the Hegelian philosophy +when one's ear has once been caught by the monotonous beat with +which the history here advances, or rather moves in a circle. +Rebellion, affliction, conversion, peace; rebellion, affliction, +conversion, peace. The sole subjects of all that is said are +Jehovah and Israel; their mutual relation alone it is that keeps +the course of things in motion, and that too in opposite directions, +so that in the end matters always return to their original position. + +"They did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, they went +a-whoring after strange gods,"-such is the uninterrupted key-note. +Although Jehovistic monolatry is so potently recommended from +without, it yet takes no firm root, never becomes natural to the +people, always remains a precept above and beyond their powers. +For decennia on end indeed they hold fast to it, but soon their +idolatrous tendency, which has only been repressed by fear of the +judge during his lifetime, again finds expression; they must have +a change. Now this rebellion is indeed quite indispensable for +the pragmatism, because otherwise there would be nothing at all +to tell; it is on the unrest in the clock that the whole movement +depends. But at the same time this is of course no extenuation; +the conduct of the people is manifestly totally inexcusable, +the main actions, the deeds of the judges, are for this manner +of historical treatment always only proofs of Israel's sin and +of the unmerited grace of Jehovah that puts them to shame. + +That all this is no part of the original contents of the tradition, +but merely a uniform in which it is clothed, is admitted. _Numero +Deus impare gaudet_. It is usual to call this later revision +Deuteronomistic. The law which Jehovah has enjoined upon the +fathers, and the breach of which He has threatened severely to +punish (ii. 15, 21), is not indeed more definitely characterised, +but it is impossible to doubt that its quintessence is the +injunction to worship Jehovah alone and no other God. Now in this +connection it is impossible to think of the Priestly Code, for +in that document such a command is nowhere expressly enjoined, +but, on the contrary, is assumed as a matter of course. +Deuteronomy, on the other hand, has in fact no precept on which it +lays greater emphasis than the "Hear, O Israel-"-that Jehovah is +the only God, and the worship of strange gods the sin of sins. +This precept was apprehended much more clearly by contemporaries +than the moral demands in the interest of humanity and kindness +which are also insisted on in Deuteronomy, but are not new, being +derived from older collections; on this side alone, in so far as +it follows up the monotheism of the prophets into its practical +consequences within the sphere of worship, has Josiah's law-book +had historical importance, on this side alone has it continued to +act upon Ezekiel and those who came after him. If, then, the norm +of the theocratic relationship assumed in the redaction of the +Book of Judges is to be sought in a written Torah, this can +indubitably only be that of Deuteronomy. The decisive +settlement of the question depends in a comparison with the Book +of Kings, and must accordingly be postponed until then. + +VII.I.2. As for the relation between this superstructure and that +on which it rests, there is a striking difference between the two +styles. The revised form in which the Book of Judges found its +way into the canon is unquestionably of Judaean origin, but the +histories themselves are not such,--nay, in the song of Deborah, +Judah is not reckoned at all as belonging to Israel. The one judge +who belongs to the tribe of Judah is Othniel, who however is not a +person, but only a clan. What is said of him is quite void of +contents, and is made up merely of the schematic devices of the +redactor, who has set himself to work here, so as to make the +series open with a man of Judah; the selection of Othniel was +readily suggested by Judges i. 12-15. Here again we have an +exception which proves the rule. More important are the inner +differences which reveal themselves. To begin with the most +general,--the historical continuity on which so much stress is +laid by the scheme, is in no way shown in the individual +narratives of the Book of Judges. These stand beside one another +unconnectedly and without any regard to order or sequence, like +isolated points of light which emerge here and there out of the +darkness of forgetfulness. They make no presence of actually +filling up any considerable space of time; they afford no +points of attachment whereon to fasten a chronology. In truth, it +is hardly the dim semblance of a continuity that is imparted to +the tradition by the empty framework of the scheme. The +conception of a period of the judges between Joshua and Saul, +during which judges ruled over Israel and succeeded one another +almost as regularly as did the kings at a later period, is quite +foreign to that tradition. It is impossible to doubt that +Judges i., xvii., xviii. have the best right to be reckoned as +belonging to the original stock; but these portions are excluded +from reception within the scheme, because they have nothing to +say about any judges, and give a picture of the general state +of affairs which accords but ill with that plan. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The redaction, as is well knows, extends only from ii. 6 xvi. 31, +thus excluding both i. 1-ii. 5, and xvii. 1-xxi. 24. But +it is easy to perceive how excellently the first portion fits +into its place as a general introduction to the period between +Moses and the monarchy, and how much more informing and +instructive it is in this respect than the section which follows. +There exists besides a formal connection between i. 16 and iv. 11. +As regards chaps. xvii., xviii., this story relating to the +migration of Dan northwards is plainly connected with that +immediately preceding where the tribe still finds itself "in the +camp of Dan," but is hard pressed and obtains no relief even with +the aid of Samson. In the case of chaps. xix.-xxi., indeed, it +admits of doubt whether they were excluded from the redaction, or +whether they were not extant as yet; but it is worth noticing +that here also chaps. xvii., xviii. are assumed as having gone +before. The Levite of Bethlehem-Judah testifies to this, and +especially the reminiscence contained in xix. 1, which, as we +shall see, has nothing to rest on in chaps. xix.-xxi. +Compare further xx. 19 with i. 1 seq. +-- Footnote + + +At the bottom of the spurious continuity lies an erroneous +widening of the areas in which the judges exerted their influence. +Out of local contiguity has arisen succession in time, what was +true of the part having been transferred to the whole; it is +always the children of Israel in a body who come upon the scene, +are oppressed by the enemy, and ruled by the judges. In reality +it is only the individual tribes that come into the action; the +judges are tribal heroes,--Ehud of Benjamin, Barak and Deborah of +Issachar, Gideon of Joseph, Jephthah of Gilead, Samson of Dan. It +was only for the struggle against Sisera that a number of tribes +were united, receiving on that account extraordinary praise in +the song of Deborah. It is nowhere said "at the time when the +judges ruled," but "at the time when there was yet no king over +Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes; " the +regular constitution of the period is the patriarchal anarchy of +the system of families and septs. And in chap. i, division and +isolation are made to appear not unclearly as the reason why the +Canaanites were so long of being driven out from the greater +cities; matters did not change until Israel became strong, that +is to say, until his forces were welded into one by means of the +monarchy. + +But the unity of Israel is the presupposition upon which rests the +theocratic relation, the reciprocal attitude between Israel and +Jehovah, whereby according to the scheme the course of the +history is solely conditioned. In the genuine tradition the +presupposition disappears, and in connection with this the whole +historical process assumes an essentially different, not to say a +more natural aspect. The people are no longer as a body driven +hither and thither by the same internal and external impulses, +and everything that happens is no longer made to depend on the +attraction and repulsion exercised by Jehovah. Instead of the +alternating see-saw of absolute peace and absolute affliction, +there prevails throughout the whole period a relative unrest; +here peace, there struggle and conflict. Failure and success +alternate, but not as the uniform consequences of loyalty or +disobedience to the covenant. When the anonymous prophet who, in +the insertion in the last redaction (chap. vi. 7-10), makes his +appearance as suddenly as his withdrawal is abrupt, improves the +visitation of the Midianites as the text for a penitential +discourse, the matter is nevertheless looked at immediately +thereafter with quite different eyes. For to the greeting of the +angel, "Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of velour," Gideon +answers, "If Jehovah be with us, why then is all this befallen +us? and where be all His miracles, of which our fathers told +us ? "He knows nothing about any guilt on the part of Israel. +Similarly the heroic figures of the judges refuse to fit in with +the story of sin and rebellion: they are the pride of their +countrymen, and not humiliating reminders that Jehovah had +undeservedly again and again made good that which men had +destroyed. Finally, with what artificiality the sins which +appear to be called for are produced, is incidentally made very +clear. After the death of Gideon we read in chap. viii. 33, +"the children of Israel went a-whoring after the Baals, and made +Baal Berith their god." But from the following chapter it appears +that Baal or El Berith was only the patron god of Shechem and some +other cities belonging to the Canaanites; the redactor transforms +the local worship of the Canaanites into an idolatrous worship on +the part of all Israel. In other cases his procedure is still +more simple,--for example, in x. 6 seq., where the number seven +in the case of the deities corresponds with the number seven of +the nations mentioned in that connection. Ordinarily he is +content with "Baals " or "Astartes " or "Asheras," where the +plural number is enough to show how little of what is individual +or positive underlies the idea, not to mention that Asheras are +no divinities at all, but only sacred trees or poles. + +In short, what is usually given out as the peculiar theocratic +element in the history of Israel is the element which has been +introduced by the redaction. There sin and grace are introduced +as forces into the order of events in the most mechanical way, the +course of events is systematically withdrawn from all analogy, +miracles are nothing extraordinary, but are the regular form in +which things occur, are matters of course, and produce absolutely +no impression. This pedantic supra-naturalism, "sacred history" +according to the approved recipe, is not to be found in the +original accounts. In these Israel is a people just like other +people, nor is even his relationship to Jehovah otherwise conceived +of than is for example that of Moab to Chemosh (chap. xi. 24). +Of theophanies and manifestations of the Godhead there is no lack, +but the wonders are such as to make one really wonder. Once and +again they interrupt the earthly nexus, but at the same time +they form no connected system; they are poetry, not prose and +dogma. But on the whole the process of history, although to +appearance rougher and more perplexed, is nevertheless in reality +much more intelligible, and though seemingly more broken up, +actually advances more continuously. There is an ascent upward +to the monarchy, not a descent from the splendid times of Moses +and Joshua (Judges i. 28-35, xiii. 5, xviii. 1). + +One narrative, it is true, apart from that relating to Othniel, +which is not to be reckoned here, is exactly what sacred history +ought to be in order to fit into the theoretical scheme,--I mean +Judges xix.-xxi. To appreciate it rightly it will be well first +of all to cast a glance upon the preceding narrative relating to +the migration of the tribe of Dan to the north. The Danites, 600 +strong, fall upon the Canaanite town of Laish not because it lies +within the limits assigned to the people of God, and because its +conquest is a duty--though they inquire of the oracle, they are +nevertheless far from relying on the divine right so plainly made +known in the Book of Joshua--but because it is inhabited by a +peaceable and unsuspecting people, which is quite defenceless +against such a band of desperadoes; and they have as little +scruple in practicing the same treachery to Israelites such as +Micah. They take it that might is right, and recognise no +restraining consideration; their conduct is natural to the verge +of absolute shamelessness. And yet they are pious in their way; +how highly they value Jehovah they show by this, that they steal +His image out of the house of God, and the priest who keeps it +into the bargain. As for the religious usages mentioned in the +two chapters, hardly an abomination forbidden by the Law is wanting: +the private sanctuary in the possession of the Ephraimite Micah, +the grandson of Moses as priest in his service and pay, ephod +and teraphim as the requisite necessaries in the worship of Jehovah; +and yet all this is so recounted by the narrator as if it were all +quite regular and void of offence, although his purpose in doing so +is not to narrate temporary departures from rule, but the origin of +permanent institutions at a chief sanctuary of ancient Israel. +One is translated into another world on passing from this to the +narrative immediately following, about the shameful deed of the +Benjamites and their exemplary punishment; a greater or more +instructive contrast as regards religious history is hardly to be +found in all the Old Testament. In Judges xx.-xxi. it is not as +invariably elsewhere the individual tribes which act, not even +the people Israel, but the congregation of the covenant, which has +its basis in the unity of worship. The occasion of their action +is a sin committed in their midst which must be done away; it is +the sanctity of the theocracy which brings these 400,000 men to +arms and fills them at once with unction and with sanguinary +zeal. The clerical instincts have entirely taken possession of +this uniform mass, have passed into their flesh and blood, and +moulded them into a single automaton, so that all that takes place +is invariably done by all at once. No individuals come to the +front, not even by name, still less by deeds of velour; the +moral tone is anything but heroic. When the godless reprobates of +Gibeah seek to assail the person of the Levite who is passing the +night there, he hands over to them his wife in order to save +himself, and all Israel finds nothing objectionable in this +revolting act of cowardice, the opinion probably being that by +his conduct the holy man had kept the sinners from still graver +guilt. + +"Of the Mosaic law not a word is said in these chapters, +but who could fail to perceive that the spirit which finds its +expression in the law pervaded the community which acted thus? +Had we more narratives of similar contents we should be able to +solve many a riddle of the Pentateuch. Where under the monarchy +could we find an Israel so united, vigorous, earnest, so willing +to enter upon the severest conflict for the sake of the highest +ends? "Thus Bertheau, rightly feeling that this story has a +quite exceptional position, and contradicts all that we learn from +other quarters of the period of the judges or even the kings. +Only we cannot reckon it a proof of the historic value of the story, +that it gives the lie to the rest of the tradition in the Books of +Judges, Samuel, and Kings, and is homogeneous not with these books +but with the Law. On the other hand, the writer betrays himself +with a self-contradiction, when, unconsciously remembering the +preceding chapters, he laments the disorganisation of the time he +is dealing with (xix. 1, xxi. 25), and yet describes Israel to +us as existing in a religious centralisation, such as demonstrably +was never attained in the earlier life of the nation, but only +came about as a consequence of the exile, and is the distinctive +mark of Judaism. + +As this narrative is not one of those included in the +Deuteronomistic scheme of the Book of Judges, there may be a +question whether it presupposes the Deuteronomic law only, or the +priestly law as well. Its language has most points of contact +with Deuteronomy; but one extremely important expression and +notion, that of "the congregation of the children of Israel," +points rather to the Priestly Code. The same may be said of +Phinehas ben Eleazar ben Aaron (xx. 28). The latter, however, +occurs but once, and that in a gloss which forms a very awkward +interruption between "and the children of Israel inquired of +Jehovah," and the word "saying" which belongs to that phrase. +We have also to remark that there is no mention of the tabernacle, +for which there is no room in addition to Mizpeh (p. 256), +so that the principal mark of the Priestly Code is wanting. +It is only in preparation, it has not yet appeared: we are still +standing on the ground of Deuteronomy, but the way is being +prepared for the transition. + +VII.I.3. Going a step further back from the last revision we meet +with an earlier effort in the same direction, which, however, is +less systematically worked out, in certain supplements and emendations, +which have here and there been patched on to the original narratives. +These may be due in part to the mere love of amplification or of +talking for talking's sake, and in so far we have no further +business with them here. But they originated partly in the +difficulty felt by a later age in sympathising with the religious +usages and ideas of older times. Two instances of this kind occur +in the history of Gideon. We read (vi. 25-32), that in the night +after his call Gideon destroyed, at the commandment of Jehovah, +the altar of Baal in Ophra, his native town, as well as the +Ashera which stood beside it; and that in place of it he built an +altar to Jehovah, and burned on it a yearling bullock, with the +wood of the Ashera for fuel. The next morning the people of Ophra +were full of indignation, and demanded that the author of the +outrage should be given up to them to be put to death; his +father, however, withstood them, saying, "Will ye contend for Baal? +Will ye save him? If he be a god, let Baal contend (Heb. Jareb +Baal) for himself." In consequence of this speech Gideon received +his second name of Jerubbaal. This conflicts with what is said in +an earlier part of the chapter. There Gideon has already made an +altar of the great stone under the oak of Ophra, where he saw +Jehovah sitting, and has offered upon it the first sacrifice, which +was devoured by flames breaking out of themselves, the Deity +Himself ascending in the flames to heaven. Why the two altars +and the two stories of their inauguration, both tracing their +origin to the patron of Ophra? They do not agree together, and +the reason is plain why the second was added. The altar of a +single stone, the flames bursting out of it, the evergreen tree, +the very name of which, Ela, seems to indicate a natural +connection with El, /1/--all this was in the eyes of a later + +-- Footnote +1. )LH, )LWN, in Aramaic simply tree, in Hebrew the evergreen, +and in general the holy tree (Isaiah i. 29 seq.) mostly without +distinguishing the species. Not only are oaks and terebinths +included, but also palms. For the )LWN DBWRH at Bethel is +elsewhere called TMR; Elim derives its names from the 70 palms, +and the same may be the case with Elath on the Red sea. +-- Footnote + + +generation far from correct, indeed it was Baal-work. A desire +that the piety of Gideon should be above suspicion gave rise to +the second story, in which he erects an altar of Jehovah in place +of the former altar of Baal. How far this desire attained its end +we may best judge from the kindred effort to remove another +ground of offence, which lies in the name Jerubbaal. In accordance +with the occasion out of which the name is said to have arisen it +is said to mean, "Let Baal contend." Etymologically this +derivation is extremely far-fetched, and from every point of +view impossible: the name of a god is only assumed by those who +are his worshippers. In Hebrew antiquity Baal and El are +interchangeable and used indifferently; Jehovah Himself is spoken +of up to the times of the prophet Hosea as the Baal, i.e., the +lord. This is distinctly proved by a series of proper names in +the families of Saul and David, Ishbaal, Meribaal, Baaljada, to +which we may now add the name Jerubbaal given to the conqueror of +Midian. If then even in the time of the kings Baal was by no means +simply the antipode of Jehovah, whence the hostile relation of the +two deities, which Jerubbaal displays by the acts he does, although +he praises the great Baal by wearing his name? The view, also, +that the Ashera was incompatible with the worship of Jehovah, +does not agree with the belief of the earlier age; according to +Deuteronomy xvi. 21, these artificial trees must have stood often +enough beside the altars of Jehovah. The inserted passage itself +betrays in a remarkable manner that its writer felt this sort of +zeal for the legitimate worship to be above the level of the age +in question. We receive the impression that the inhabitants of +Ophra do not know their worship of Baal to be illegitimate, that +Gideon also had taken part in it in good faith, and that there had +never been an altar of Jehovah in the place before. + +Of a somewhat different form is a correction which is to be found +at the close of the history of Gideon (viii. 22 seq.). After +the victory over the Midianites the Israelites are said to have +asked Gideon to be king over them. This he declined out of regard +to Jehovah the sole ruler of Israel, but he asked for the gold +nose-rings which had been taken from the enemy, and made of them +an image of Jehovah, an ephod, which he set up in Ophra to be +worshipped. "And all Israel went thither a-whoring after it, and +it became a snare to Gideon and to his house." Now the way in +which such a man acts in such a moment is good authority for the +state of the worship of Israel at the time, and not only so, but +we cannot impute it to the original narrator that he chose to +represent his hero as showing his thankfulness to the Deity by +the most gratuitous declension from His worship, as in fact crowning +His victory with an act of idolatry. This is seen to be the more +impossible when we consider that according to the testimony of +Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah, such images were even in the Assyrian +period a regular part of the belongings of the "houses of God" +not only in Samaria but in Judah as well. We have also to +remember that the contradiction between a human kingship and the +kingship of Jehovah, such as is spoken of in these verses, rests +upon theories which arose later, and of which we shall have more +to say. /1/ Studer will thus be correct in his assertion that the + +-- Footnote +1. "The words of Gideon are only intelligible on the presupposition +that the rule of Jehovah had a visible representative prophet or +priest. But this was not the case in the period of the judges, +as Gideon's own history shows us." Vatke, p. 263. We see besides +from ix. 1 seq. that Gideon really was the ruler of Ephraim and +Manasseh. +-- Footnote + + +old tradition could not see anything in Gideon's refusing the gold +for himself and dedicating it to God but a fine proof of his +unselfishness and piety, and that in viii. 22-27 we have a +secondary product, in which the original features of the story +are distorted so as to make them suit later tastes. The second +hand has unfortunately supplanted in this instance the work of +the first. The older narrative breaks off (viii. 21) with the +words: "Gideon took away the ornaments that were on the necks of +the camels of the kings." What he did with them we do not learn, +but naturally we must suppose that it was of them that he made +the ephod. According to the secondary passage, which begins +immediately after viii. 21, he used for this purpose the +nose-rings which the whole of Israel had taken from all the +Midianites, amounting in weight to 1700 shekels, besides the +ornaments of the kings and of their camels. The proportion is +similar to that between the 600 Danites in chap. xviii. and the +25,700 Benjamites in chap. xx., or between the 40,000 men of +Israel in v. 8, and the 400,000 in xx. 2. + +VII.I.4. In the last place it is possible to trace even in the +original narratives themselves certain differences of religious +attitude which indicate to us unobtrusively and yet clearly that +tendency in the development of the tradition which reached its +end in the revision and ornamentation of which we have hitherto +been speaking. This is especially the case with regard to those +narratives which are preserved to us in a double form. These are +not frequent in Judges, but they do occur. A very simple case +of the kind is seen on comparing chap. iv. with chap. v. + +The Canaanites again lift their heads under their great king +Sisera, and from their towns in the plains harass the hill +villages of the new settlers. Deborah unites the Hebrew tribes +for the contest. From the North and from the South the hosts of +Jehovah descend before our eyes towards Jezreel, the prophetess +Deborah at their head, the warrior Barak at her side. The conflict +takes place at the brook Kishon, and ends with the defeat of the +kings of Canaan. Sisera himself is killed in the flight by Jael, +the wife of a nomad Kenite. Such are the contents of the song in +chap. v. In the preceding narrative (chap. iv.) we should +expect to find a historical commentary on the song, but we find a +mere reproduction in which the special features of the story are +blurred and falsified. Instead of the kings of Canaan we have the +king of Canaan, as if Canaan had been a kingdom. Sisera, the head +of the Canaanite kings, is transformed into a mere general; the +oppression of the Hebrews is made general and indefinite. Jael +murders Sisera when he is Iying in a deep sleep by driving a +tent-peg into the ground through his temples. There is nothing +of this in the song: there he is drinking when she strikes the +blow, and is conceived as standing at the time, else he could +not bow down at her feet and fall, and lie struck dead where +he fell (ver. 27). + +In the song the campaign is prepared with human means. +Negotiations are carried on among the tribes, and in the course of +these differences crop up. The lukewarmness or the swelling words +of some tribes are reproved, the energetic public spirit and +warlike courage of others praised. In the narrative, on the +contrary, the deliverance is the work of Jehovah alone; the men of +Israel are mere dummies, who show no merit and deserve no praise. +To make up for this, interest is concentrated on the act of Jael, +which instead of being an episode becomes the central point of the +whole narrative. Indeed it is announced as being so, for Deborah +prophesies to Barak that the glory of the conflict will not be his +but a woman's, into whose hand the enemy is to be sold; it is not +the hero, not human strength, that accomplishes what is done: +Jehovah shows His strength in man's weakness. And Barak's part in +the work is depreciated in yet another way. Deborah summons him +to go not to the battle, but to the holy hill of Tabor, where +Jehovah will bring about what is further to happen; he, however, +objects to this, and insists that the prophetess herself shall go +with him. This is regarded as a caprice of unbelief, because the +prophetess is thought to have exhausted her mission when she +transmitted the command of the Deity to His instrument: she has +appeared for no end but to make it known through her prophecy that +Jehovah alone brings everything to pass. In the song this is +different. There Barak is not summoned against his will; on the +contrary, he has a personal motive for taking up arms: "Arise, +Barak; take captive thy captors, thou son of Ahinoam." And the +prophetess has not only to prophesy; she works in a more +psychological manner; she is part of the battle, and inflames with +her song the courage of the fighting battalions: "Awake, +Deborah, awake, sing the song!" /1/ Throughout these variations of + +-- Footnote +1. Ver. 12 is a summons to begin the battle, and Deborah cannot +here be singing the song of triumph which celebrates its happy +issue. For a similar reason the translation given above, "take +captive thy captors," is the more natural and correct. +-- Footnote + + +the prose reproduction we feel that the rich colour of the events +as they occurred is bleached out of them by the one universal first +cause, Jehovah. The presence and energy of Jehovah are not wanting +in the song; they are felt in the enthusiasm which fills the Hebrew +warriors, and in the terror and panic which confound the prancing +vigour of the foe. But in the prose narrative, the Divine action +is stripped of all mystery, and mechanic prophecy finds no +difficulty in showing distinctly and with sober accuracy what the +part of the Deity in the history has been. But the more special +the intervention of Deity, the further is it from us; the more +precise the statements about it, the less do we feel it to be there. + +There is another instance in the Book of Judges of the occurrence +of the same historical material in two different forms; it is the +story of Gideon of the Manassite house of Abiezer. Studer saw +that there is a break between viii. 3 and viii. 4, and that the +two stories, from the one of which we pass to the other at that +point, have to be understood separately; viii. 1-3 is the +conclusion of the first story. We have been told how, after the +success of the first attack on the Midianites, Gideon raised the +levy of all Israel for the pursuit, and how then the Ephraimites +seized the fords of the Jordan before the arrival of the flying +nomads and got the two leaders of the Midianites into their hands. +Now we hear in conclusion that the Ephraimites, elated by their +success began to find fault with Gideon, but that he pacified +their wrath by saying, "What have I done now in comparison of +you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the +vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hand the princes +of Midian, and what was I able to do in comparison of you?" +A domestic contention like this about the respective shares in +the victory could only arise when the victory had been gained, +when the strife with the enemy was fought out; the metaphor of +harvest and gleaning shows that the victory was complete and +all the fruits of it gathered in. Chapter viii. 1-3 concludes +the business, and the following narrative is not a continuation +of what has gone before, but a second version of the story in +which many of the circumstances are quite different. According +to vii. 23 seq. there was a great army on foot, but in viii. 4 +seq. Gideon has only his own three hundred men with him. In +viii. 1-3 the vintage and the gleaning are over and the object +of the fighting is attained; but in viii. 4 seq. Gideon pursues +the enemy without any interruption, and when he asks the men of +Succoth and Penuel for bread for his wearied and hungry troops, +they inquire sarcastically whether he is already certain of +success, so that it should be necessary for them to espouse his +cause. The two chiefs who in the former account are called the +princes Oreb and Zeeb, and are already taken, are here called +the kings Zebah and Zalmunna, and are not taken yet. Unfortunately +the beginning of viii. 4 seq. is not preserved, and we cannot make +out whether the pursuit in which we find Gideon here engaged was +preceded by an action. Such a supposition is not exactly impossible, +yet the distance to which the nomads had carried their booty, and +their carelessness in camp, make it more likely that the occurrence +was like that in 1Samuel xxx. This, however, makes no difference as +to the particulars with regard to which the two narratives conflict +with each other. + +But how did the difference arise? This we shall best learn by +comparing the beginnings of the two stories. We remarked that the +second, as it stands, wanted a beginning, but what is wanting may +be to some extent supplied from what follows. According to viii. +4 seq., Gideon's aim is to get hold of the two kings of the +Midianites: these appear all through as the particular enemies +whom he is pursuing: as to the rest of the Midianites he is more +or less indifferent. And the reason, as we learn from viii. 18 +seq., is that the two kings had slain his brothers at Tabor; it +is to take vengeance for them that he sets out to pursue the +slayers, and does not rest till they are in his hand. It is the +duty of blood-revenge which causes him to take the war-path with +his household, unconcerned by the disproportion in numbers +between his followers and theirs: it is the powerful sentiment of +family which sets him in motion and causes him to become, as it +were incidentally, the liberator of Israel from the spoilers. In +the first account (vi. 11-viii. 3) these natural motives have +completely disappeared, and others have taken their place which +are almost of an opposite character. Before anything has +happened, before the Midianites have made their yearly incursion, +Gideon, who expects nothing of the kind, is summoned by a +theophany to battle against them. When they arrive he is seized +by the Spirit and sets out against them. What is human in him +has no part in the act he is called to do; flesh and blood set +themselves against it. He is impelled by the direct impulse of +Jehovah, and here, of course, he goes forth in behalf of the +public interests of Israel, against the Midianites, not against +their princes personally. And accordingly everything possible is +done to cast the man into the shade behind the Deity. Gideon, +according to the second account a distinguished and royal man, +is in the first of a poor house and family; in the second story +he is remarkable for irrepressible energy, but here he is timid +and shrinking up to the last moment, and new miracles have +constantly to be wrought to encourage and strengthen him. +The 32,000 men with whom he takes the field he is ordered by +Jehovah to send away all but l,000 and again all but 300, "lest +Israel vaunt themselves against Me, and say, Mine own hand hath +saved me." The weapons with which the nocturnal attack of the 300 +is made are torches, pitchers, and trumpets; the men have not a +hand left to hold swords (vii. 20); and the hostile army has +accordingly to do itself the work of its own destruction (vii. +22). + +Few of the deviations of the religious version from the natural one +are not transparent; one of these few is the removal of the scene +to this side of the Jordan. Most of them are at once recognisable +as due to the process of glorification, illumination, and +religious inflation, by which the body of the tradition is +etherealised and the story lifted up into the region of the air. +For example, the company of Gideon at the main action, the attack +on the hostile camp, consists of 300 men in chap. vii. as well +as in chap viii.; but in chap. vii., to draw out the +significance of the small number, they are treated as the last +residuum of what was at first quite a considerable army; and this +gives rise to a long story. We may also remark that chap. vi. +begins with the relation in which the judge stood to the sanctuary +of his native town, while chap. viii. closes with this. In the +one case he discovers by a theophany, like the patriarchs in +Genesis, the sacredness of the altar-stone under the oak; in the +other he sets up, in far more realistic fashion, the plated image +(ephod) he has made of the golden ornaments of the Midianite +kings. History has to take account principally, if not +exclusively, of the natural version, which is dry in tone and lets +things speak for themselves, not overlaying the simple story with +the significance of its consequences. The relation, however, is +somewhat different from that which we found existing between +Judges iv. and v. Chapter vi. seq. is not based directly on +chap. viii., but was probably formed from independent oral +material Though the local colour is lively, the historical +reminiscences are extremely vague, and there has been a much +freer growth of legend than in Jud. iv., producing pictures of +greater art and more naivete. But in the field of miracle poetry +is manifestly earlier than prose. + +In the case of those narratives which have come down to us in +double form, the difference of standpoint is unmistakable; but it +may also be perceived in cases where we have no direct parallels +to compare. How noticeably does the story of Abimelech differ, +say from that of Jephthah which follows it, in the rich detail of +its facts, and in the spontaneous interest it shows in the +secondary and subordinate links in the chain of events! There is +no gilding with a supernatural nimbus; facts are simply and +plainly set down such as they are; the moral is left to speak +for itself as the story goes on. In the Samson legends again we +find two souls united, as it were, in one body. Traits belonging +to the rough life and spirit of the people are wrought, especially +at the beginning and end of the narrative, into a religious +national form; yet the two stand in an inner contrast to each other, +and it is scarcely probable that the exploits of this grotesque +religious hero were at first conceived in the Spirit of Jehovah, +of which, in the story as we have it, they are the product. More +probably the religious way of telling the story was preceded +by a way considerably more profane; but we cannot now separate +the older stage from that which is more recent. We may also +remark that the contrast of historical and unhistorical is +obviously inapplicable to this case, and, moreover, is +unessential for the end we have in view. Only it may stand +as a general principle, that the nearer history is to its +origin the more profane it is. In the pre-Deuteronomic narratives, +the difference is to be recognised less in the _kind_ of piety than +in the _degree_ of it. + + +VII.II. + +VII.II.1. The comprehensive revision which we noticed in the Book +of Judges has left its mark on the Books of Samuel too. As, however, +in this case the period is short, and extremely rich in incident, +and really forms a connected whole, the artificial frame- and +net-work does not make itself so much felt. Yet it is by no +means wanting, as the dates of themselves indicate, whose place in +the chronological system was shown above. It is worthy of notice +how very loosely these are fitted into their context. In 1Samuel +iv. 18 seq. we read: + +"And when the messenger made mention of the ark of God, Eli fell +backwards off his seat, and his neck brake, and he died, for he +was an old man and heavy, and _he judged Israel forty years_; +and when his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, who was with +child, heard the tidings," etc. + +The statement of the date is not altogether inappropriately +dragged in, indeed, yet it is easy to see that it is dragged in. +In 2Samuel ii. 8-13 we read: + +"Abner, the captain of Saul's host, took Ishbaal the son of Saul, +and brought him over the Jordan to Mahanaim, and made him king +over Gilead and Geshur, and Jezreel, and Ephraim, and Benjamin, +and all Israel. _Ishbaal was forty years old when he began to +reign over lsrael, and he reigned two years_. But the house of +Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in +Hebron was seven years and six months. And Abner and the servants +of Ishbaal went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon, and Joab with the +servants of David went out to meet him." + +The words in italics <_..._> manifestly interrupt the connection; +and with regard to Ishbaal's dates we have also to remark that from +what we learn of him elsewhere he was, in the first place, still +in the years of pupilage, and in the next must have reigned as long +in Mahanaim as Oavid in Hebron. The number two connected with his +reign is to be explained as in the case of Saul (1Samuel xiii. 1): +_Saul was...years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two +years over Israel_. In this verse, which is not found in the LXX, +the number for the years of his life is wanting; and originally +the number for the years of his reign was left out too: the _two_ +is quite absurd, and has grown out of the following word for year, +which in Hebrew has a somewhat similar appearance. + +In company with the chronological formulas, we find also the +religious (1Samuel vii. 2-4). + +"While the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, it was twenty years; +and all the house of Israel came together after Jehovah. And +Samuel spake unto the whole house of Israel, saying: 'If ye do +return to Jehovah with all your hearts, then put away the strange +gods and the Astartes from among you, and prepare your hearts unto +Jehovah, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you out of the +hand of the Philistines.' And the children of Israel did put away +the Baals and Astartes, and served Jehovah only." + +We are not told, in what precedes this passage, of any act of +declension from Jehovah, and according to chap. iv. the Israelites +showed no want of faith in Jehovah in the unfortunate battle with +the Philistines. This taking for granted that the yoke of a +foreign rule was laid on them as a punishment for their sins is +characteristic. A further example occurs in the speech of Samuel +(1Samuel. xii.), which, as the introduction to the time of the +kings, may be compared with Judges ii., the introduction to the +time of the judges. + +"Stand still that I may reason with you before +Jehovah of all the righteous acts of Jehovah with which He did +right to you and to your fathers! When Jacob was come into +Egypt, your fathers cried to Jehovah, and He sent Moses and Aaron +and brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this +land. And when they forget Jehovah their God, He sold them into +the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the +hand of the Philistines, and the Moabites, and they fought +against them. And they cried unto Jehovah, and said, We have +sinned, because we have forsaken Jehovah and have served Baal and +Astarte, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies and we +will serve Thee. And Jehovah sent Jerubbaal, and Barak, and +Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your +enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe. And when ye saw that +Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said +unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when Jehovah your God +is your king. Now therefore behold the king whom ye have desired; +behold, Jehovah has set a king over you. If ye will hear Jehovah +and serve Him and obey His voice, and not rebel +against the commandment of Jehovah, good: but if ye rebel against +the commandment of Jehovah, then shall the hand of Jehovah be +against you as it was against your fathers." + +It is the familiar strain: rebellion, affliction, conversion, +peace, Jehovah the keynote, and the first word and the last. +The eye does not dwell on the details of the story; the gaps in +the tradition are turned to account as well as its contents, which +are concentrated at so few points. Details are regarded only as +they bear on the whole; the periods are passed in review in a broad +and general style, and the law enunciated which connects them with +one another. In doing this Samuel seems to presuppose in his +hearers a knowledge of the biblical history in a distinct form; +and he even speaks without hesitation of his own historical +significance. The hearers are bidden to look back upon a period +in the living movement of which they themselves are standing, as +if it were a dead past. As they are thus lifted up to the height +of an objective contemplation of themselves and their fathers, +in the end the result which was to be expected takes place: +they become conscious of their grievous sin. Confronted with +the Deity they have always an uneasy feeling that they deserve +to be punished. + +VII.II.2. The Deuteronomist revision asserts itself, it is true, +only in these two places, or rather this one place; but this +is the principal epoch in the book--the transition to the monarchy +which is associated with the name of Samuel. And on this account +the revision here acts the more trenchantly; it is not only an +addition to give a new flavour to the older tradition; it changes +the nature of the tradition entirely. For the passages we have +just quoted from it are merely fragments of a considerable +connected historical scheme. The first piece of this scheme, vii. +2-17, first claims our attention. After summoning the children of +Israel to repentance (vii. 2-4), Samuel convokes an assembly of +them at Mizpeh, near Jerusalem, in order to entreat for them that +the Philistine affliction may be turned away. This measure is of +course closely connected with the previously-mentioned abolition +of idolatry: for, after the guilt has ceased, the punishment also +must be removed. They assemble, draw water to pour it out before +Jehovah, fast, and confess their sins, at Mizpeh. When the +Philistines hear this, they are on the spot the very same day +and fall upon the assembly at its prayers. Samuel, however, +sacrifices a sucking lamb and cries for help to Jehovah, and the +engagement takes place while he is so occupied. Jehovah thunders +terribly against the Philistines and throws them into disorder, so +that they are forced to yield, and are pursued to a great +distance. And the Philistines, this is the end of the narrative, +were humbled and came no more into the coasts of Israel; and the +hand of Jehovah was against the Philistines all the days of +Samuel, and the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel +were recovered; Ekron and Gath and their coasts did Israel take +from the Philistines, and there was peace between Israel and the +Amorites. + +The mere recapitulation of the contents of this narrative makes us +feel at once what a pious make-up it is and how full of inherent +impossibilities: to think of all that is compressed into the +space of this one day! But we have also to remark the utter +contradiction of the whole of the rest of the tradition. In the +history which follows we find the domination of the Philistines +by no means at an end; not only do they invade the Israelite +territory several times in Samuel's lifetime, they are in +possession of the land of lsrael, and one of their governors lives +at Gibeah in the midst of Benjamin. The struggle with them is the +true and real origin and task of the monarchy. The writer had no +idea that Samuel had discharged this labour and won this victory +already, and had even "restored " Ekron and Gath. On the contrary, +the yoke of the Philistines lay most heavily on Israel just in +his days. There cannot be a word of truth in the whole narrative. +Its motives, however, are easily seen. Samuel is a saint of the +first degree (Jeremiah xv. 1), and in the theocracy, i.e., in the +religious community such as ancient Israel is represented to have +been, cut to the pattern of Judaism, such a man must take his +place at the head of the whole. His influence must have prevailed +to exclude idolatry and unfaithfulness to Jehovah on the part of +the people; and the general character of the time must on the +whole have answered to the type he set before it. But here a very +unpleasant difficulty suggests itself. If the fact of Samuel being +at the head is sufficient guarantee that all was as it should be +within the state, how can there have been such great pressure +externally, so as to endanger the very existence of the people? +If men do their part, how can Jehovah fail to do His? On the +contrary, it must be believed that the righteousness which +prevailed within had its counterpart in the external vindication +of His people by Jehovah. Even under Samuel the Philistines were +with God's help driven across the border, and as long as he lived +they were not seen within it again. The piety of a praying +assembly was suitably acknowledged by Jehovah, who dropped into +its lap a success such as in after times the sword of warlike +kings sought long and in vain to achieve. + +But this example of history corrected does not stand alone, and +becomes completely intelligible only when taken in connection +with the similar pieces which belong to it. 1Samuel vii. is +continued in chap. viii., and chap. viii. again in x. 17-xii. +25. Samuel, after setting the land free from foreign tyranny, +conducts a quiet and successful reign till old age comes upon him. +His sons, however, whom he has made his assessors, do not walk in +his steps; and the elders of Israel make this the occasion to ask +him to give them a king. But this is a mere pretext for their +sinful desire to shake off the divine rule and to be like the +heathen round about them. Samuel is extremely indignant at their +ingratitude, but is directed by Jehovah to comply with their +request. + +"They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected +Me, that I should not reign over them; according to all the works +that they have done since the day that I brought them up out of +Egypt, wherewith they have forsaken Me and served other gods. so +do they also unto thee." + +It is in vain that Samuel exhibits to them an alarming catalogue +of the rights of the king: they are not to be moved from their +determination, and he accordingly summons a general convention of +the people at Mizpeh (viii. 22, x. 17). There, after the +opening lecture, lots are drawn for the king, and Saul is chosen, +whereupon Samuel has still to write down the law of the kingdom and +lay it up before Jehovah. The people are then dismissed; "and +Saul also went home to Gibeah, and with him the warriors whose +heart God had touched, but the children of Belial despised him, +and said 'How shall this man save us!'" + +But Saul is at this point only king _de jure_; he does not become +king _de facto_ until after he has proved himself, chap. xi. After +an interval of a month (x. 27 LXX) the men of Jabesh, besieged by +the Ammonites and in great straits, send messengers throughout +Israel to implore speedy assistance, since in seven days they +have to surrender to their enemies and each of them to lose his +right eye. The messengers come to the town of Saul, Gibeah in +Benjamin, and tell their message before the people; the people +lift up their voices and weep. Saul meanwhile comes from the +field with a yoke of oxen, and, observing the general weeping, +asks what has happened. The story is told him, and at once the +Spirit of God comes upon him and his anger is kindled greatly; +he hews in pieces his oxen and sends the pieces throughout Israel +with the summons: Whoever does not come forth to the battle, so +shall it be done to his oxen! And the fear of Jehovah falls on +the people, and they go out as one man and relieve the besieged +town. Hereupon "the kingdom is renewed" for Saul at Gilgal, and +only now does Samuel abdicate his government, in the long speech +(chap. xii.) a considerable portion of which was given above. + +That chap. xi. is now an integral part of this version of the +history is clear from xii. 12, and also from xi. 12-14. But it +was not originally designed for this connection. For we hear +nothing of the warriors who according to x. 26 were in company +with Saul; it is not on his account that the messengers of Jabesh +came to Gibeah. When the supposed king comes home from ploughing, +nothing is done to indicate that the news concerns him specially: +no one tells him what has happened, he has to ask the reason of +the general weeping. He summons the levy of Israel not in virtue +of his office as king, but in the authority of the Spirit, and it +is owing to the Spirit acting on the people that he is obeyed. +Only after he has showed his power and defeated the Ammonites do +the people make him king (xi. 15); the "renewal" of the kingdom +(xi. 14), after a month's interval, is a transparent artifice of +the author of viii. 10, 1) seq. to incorporate in his own narrative +the piece which he had borrowed from some other quarter: the verses +xi. 12-14 are due to him. + +Chapter xi. stood originally in connection with the other +narrative of the elevation of Saul (ix. 1-X. 16). Hero Saul +first appears engaged in searching for strayed she-asses. After +a vain search of several days he arrives in the neighbourhood +of Ramah, and at the suggestion of his servant applies for +information as to the asses to a seer there, to Samuel. His +approach has been announced to the seer by Jehovah the day +before: "To-morrow I will send to thee a man out of the land of +Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be ruler over My people +Israel; he shall save them from the Philistines." He was +accordingly expecting him, and had instituted a sacrificial feast +on the bamah for him even before he arrived. At this moment +Samuel has gone down to the town between the sacrificial act and +the meal which followed it, and just as he is going back to his +guests he meets in the gate Saul, who is asking for him, and at a +whisper from Jehovah he recognises in him his man. He takes him up +with him to the bamah, reassures him about the asses, and then at +once tells him to what high things he is called, and gives him +convincing proofs that he had reckoned on his presence at the feast +as the guest of the occasion. He then gives him lodgings for the +night, and accompanies him on his way next morning. The servant is +sent on a little way before, Samuel stands still and anoints Saul, +for a sign that he is chosen by Jehovah to be the king and deliverer +of Israel, and in conclusion instructs him that, when the opportunity +for action comes, he is to use it, in the consciousness that God +is with him. On his way home three signs come to pass which the +seer had announced to him. He is thus assured that all that was +said to him was true; his heart is changed by degrees till he +cannot contain himself; on his arrival at Gibeah his acquaintances +are struck with his strange demeanour, but he does not disclose +even to his most intimate friend at home what Samuel had said to +him, but waits for the things that shall come to pass. + +This is the point arrived at in x. 16. It is clear that thus far +no conclusion has yet been reached: the seed that is sown must +spring up, the changed spirit must produce its effects. And this +requirement is abundantly satisfied if chap. xi. is regarded as +immediately continuing the story from x. 16. After about a +month, the opportunity presents itself for Saul to act, which +Samuel had bidden him to look for. While others are weeping at +the disgrace which threatens an Israelite town at the hands of +the Ammonites, he is filled with the Spirit and with rage, +the arrow is still in his heart from that conversation, and he +now does "what his hand finds to do." The result is a great +success; the word of the seer finds its fulfilment in the most +natural way in the world. + +If chap. xi. belongs originally to the narrative of ix. 1.-x. 16, +it follows at once that the other sections are dependent and +later. But what is the inner relation of the one version to the +other? They coincide in their ideas here and there. In the one +story Saul seeks the asses and finds the crown, in the other he +hides himself among the stuff and is drawn forth king. In the one +he is called by the seer, in the other he is chosen by lot--the +divine causality operative in both cases. But how the idea is +exaggerated at the later stage, and how nakedly it is put forward! +And if there is this similarity of view, yet the deviation of the +secondary version from the original is much more striking than +the resemblance. For its tendency we are prepared by chapter +vii. Samuel has set his countrymen free from their enemies, and +ruled over them afterwards in righteousness and prosperity; why +then should they desire a change in the form of government? They +have just as much and as little reason for desiring this as for +the falling away from Jehovah, which also is a periodical +craving on their part, whenever they have had some years' rest: +it is the expression of the deep-seated heathenism of their nature. +That is the account of chapter viii. with what belongs to it. +Chapter ix. seq., however, gives quite a different account. Here, +at the end of the period of the judges, Israel is not at the +summit of power and prosperity, but in a state of the deepest +humiliation and the means of saving the people from this state is +seen in the monarchy alone. And this difference is closely +connected with another as to the view taken of the authority of +Samuel. In chap. viii. as in chap. vii. he is the vicegerent +of Jehovah, with unlimited authority. He feels the institution of +the monarchy to be his own deposition, yet the children of Israel +by no means rebel against him; they come to him to ask him for +a king. He might have refused the request; he might also have +given them a ruler according to his own good pleasure, but as a +correct theocrat he leaves the decision to Jehovah. At the end he +solemnly lays down the government he has hitherto carried on, and +hands it over to his successor. The latter is superior to him in +point of title, but not in point of power: indeed in the latter +respect he is rather inferior to Samuel, being a mere earthly +prince (xii. 23 seq.). But how do matters stand in chap. ix. seq.? +Here Samuel is quite a stranger to Saul, who knows neither his +name nor his residence. Only his servant has heard of Samuel, +who enjoys a high reputation as a seer in his own neighbourhood. +What we are to think of when we read of a seer of that period, +we are clearly and circumstantially informed: for Samuel is +consulted as to the whereabouts of strayed she-asses, and a fee +of a quarter of a silver shekel is tendered to him for his advice. +This seer stands, it is clear, above the average of those who +practiced the same calling; yet his action on the history is quite +within the limits of what was possible, say to Calchas: it +exhibits not a trace of the legislative and executive power of +a regent of the theocracy. He does not bring help; he only +descries help and the helper. The very event which, according +to chap. viii. seq., involved the removal of Samuel from his +place and his withdrawal to the background of the history, is +here the sole basis of his reputation: the monarchy of Saul, +if not his work, is his idea. He announces to the Benjamite his +high calling, interpreting in this the thoughts of the man's own +heart (ix. 19). With this his work is done; he has no commission +and no power to nominate his successor in the government. +Everything else he leaves to the course of events and to the +Spirit of Jehovah which will place Saul on his own feet. + +In the great difference which separates these two narratives we +recognise the mental interval between two different ages. In the +eyes of Israel before the exile the monarchy is the culminating +point of the history, and the greatest blessing of Jehovah. It +was preceded by a period of unrest and affliction, when every man +did what was right in his own eyes, and the enemies of Israel +accordingly got everything their own way. Under it the people +dwell securely and respected by those round about; guarded by +the shelter of civil order, the citizen can sit under his own +vine and his own fig-tree. That is the work of the first two +kings, who saved Israel from his spoilers, and gave him power +and rest. No difference is made between them in this respect: +the one commenced the work which the other completed (1Samuel +ix. 16, xiv. 48; 2Samuel iii. 18, xix. 9). Before them there was +no breathing space left in the hard work of fighting, but now +there is time to think of other things. Even Deuteronomy, +which was written not long before the exile, regards the period +before the monarchy as a time of preparation and transition, +not to be counted complete in itself: Israel must first acquire +fixed seats and a settled way of living, and then Jehovah also +will choose a seat for Himself and make known His desires with +regard to the cultus. David brought things so far that the +people had room and struck firm roots into the ground, and +ceased to tremble before their enemies, who had kept them on the +strain from the beginning, and all the days of the judges; and +under his successor the time came when the temple could be built +and higher interests receive attention. That Hebrew antiquity +knew nothing of any hostility or incompatibility between the +heavenly and the earthly ruler is plain from the title Anointed +of Jehovah, and from the hope of the prophets, whose ideal future +would be incomplete without a human king. The ancient Israelites +were as fully conscious as any other people of the gratitude +they owed to the men and to the institutions by whose aid they +had been lifted out of anarchy and oppression, and formed into an +orderly community, capable of self-defence. Of this the Books of +Samuel afford the most eloquent testimony. /1/ + +-- Footnote +l In Balaam's view of the happy future of Israel (Numbers xxiii. +seq.), the monarchy is spoken of as one of Israel's chief +blessings. Generally (xxiii. 21): "Jehovah his God is with +him, and the shout of a king is among them." With reference to +Saul (xxiv. 7): "And his king triumphs over Agag. and his +kingdom shall be exalted." To David (xxiv. 17): "I see him, +though not now; I behold him, though not nigh: there rises (ZRX) +a star out of Jacob and a rod out of Israel, and smites in pieces +the temples of Moab and the skull of all the sons of Seth: and Edom +also becomes a conquest." According to Deuteronomy xxxiii. 4, 5, +the monarchy and the Torah are the two great gifts of God's grace +to Israel. +-- Footnote + + +The position taken up in the version of 1 Samuel vii. viii. x. 17 +seq. xii., presents the greatest possible contrast to this way +of thinking. There, the erection of the monarchy only forms a +worse stage of backsliding from Jehovah. There can be no progress +beyond the Mosaic ideal; the greater the departure from it the +greater the declension. The capital sin of placing a human ruler +on the throne of Jehovah makes even the period of the judges +appear not quite black. Dark as the colours are with which that +period is generally painted, it held fast to the original form of +the theocracy, and so appears somewhat brighter: at last indeed, +to heighten the contrast, it is represented as a splendid age. +Under the rule of Samuel, everything was as it should be. Should +we ask, _how_ were things then? what was exactly the nature of +the theocratic constitution? we receive, it is true, no +satisfactory answer to the question. We might draw conclusions +with regard to the body from the head: but what sort of an idea +can we form of the position of Samuel? As he appears in these +chapters, we entirely fail to dispose of him in any of the +categories applicable to the subject; he is not a judge, not +a priest, not a prophet,--if at least we use these words with +their true historical meaning. He is a second Moses? Yes, but +that does not tell us much. So much only is clear, that the +theocracy is arranged on quite a different footing from the +kingdoms of this world, and that it amounts to a falling away +into heathenism when the Israelites place a king at their head +like other nations, and he keeps courtiers and ministers, officers +and soldiers, horses and chariots. It is accordingly a spiritual +community: the spiritual character of the regent places this +beyond doubt. Samuel admonishes the people to give up idolatry; +he presides at the great day of repentance at Mizpeh, which forms +an epoch in the sacred history; and Jehovah can refuse nothing to +his prayers and cries (xii. 1 7). "God forbid," he says in +taking leave of them (xii. 23), "that I should cease to pray for +you and teach you the good way." Such is his position: and the +citizens of the theocracy have the corresponding duty of +cultivating the worship of Jehovah, and not withdrawing themselves +from the guidance of the representative of Deity. They do not +need to trouble themselves about means for warding off the attacks +of their enemies; if they fast and pray, and give up their sins, +Jehovah hurls back the foe with His thunder and lightning, and so +long as they are pious He will not allow their land to be +invaded. All the expenses are then naturally superfluous by +which a people usually safeguards it own existence. That this +view is unhistorical is self-evident; and that it contradicts the +genuine tradition we have seen. The ancient Israelites did not +build a church first of all: what they built first was a house +to live in, and they rejoiced not a little when they got it +happily roofed over (xi. 15). But we have still to add, in +conclusion, that the idea here before us can only have arisen in +an age which had no knowledge of Israel as a people and a state, +and which had no experience of the real conditions of existence in +these forms; in other words. It is the offspring of exilic or +post-exilic Judaism. At that time the nation was transformed into +a religious community, whose members were at liberty to +concentrate themselves on what they held to be the great business +of life, worship and religiousness, because the Chaldeans or the +Persians had relieved them of all care for worldly concerns. At +that time, accordingly, the theocracy _existed_, and it is from +that time that it is transported in an idealised form to early +times. The material basis on which the theocracy rested in fact, +namely, the foreign domination, is put out of sight, and it is +counted heathenism in the old Israelites that they cared for the +external conditions of their national existence, that they are a +people in the full sense of the word, and seek to maintain +themselves as such with the weapons which are found necessary in +the work-a-day world. It naturally never came into the heads of +these epigoni to conceive that the political organisation and +centralisation which the monarchy called into being provided the +basis for the organisation and centralisation of the worship, and +that their church was merely a spiritualised survival of the +nation. What is added to Moses is taken away from the monarchy. + +One more point has to be noticed. The chapters vii. viii. x. 17 +seq. xii. betray a close relationship with Judges xix.-xxi., +not only by their general tendency, but by a geographical +detail in which the two passages agree. It is only here that +Mizpeh, near Jerusalem, occurs as the place of meeting of all +Israel; we find no further mention of the place in the whole +period of the judges and the kings. Only after the destruction +of Jerusalem is it mentioned, and there as the centre of the new +Jewish community instituted by the Chaldeans (Jeremiah xl. seq.) as +the substitute of the old capital. It appears once more, and in a +similar character, in I Maccabees iii. 46 seq. at a time when the +temple of Jerusalem was in the hands of the Syrians, and the Jews +could not get to it. The Mizpeh of Judges xx., 1Samuel vii. 10, +is probably the same as that of Jeremiah xl. seq., and intended to +be, like these, in place of Jerusalem, the only legitimate +sanctuary, which, however, did not exist at that early time. +This is a further proof of the post-Deuteronomic and Jewish origin +of these narratives, but at the same time an indication that, with +every inclination to the views of the Priestly Code, the writer +yet had not that code before him. For in that work the projection +of Jerusalem into the period before Solomon is carried out in +quite a different way: the tabernacle renders Mizpeh superfluous. +It has also to be remarked that the rite of pouring out water +(1Samuel vii.) is foreign to the Priestly Code. + +VII.II.3. The relation of Saul to Samuel is a subject which lends +itself readily to general views, and the development of the +tradition is visible in it in other particulars besides those we +have mentioned. Taking the view of 1Samuel vii. viii. xii. as +the lower limit, the narrative nearest in character is the story +about Samuel contained in an insertion in chap. xiii. After Saul +is made king at Gilgal by the levy with which he relieved Jabesh, +he selects from it a body of men who camp with him and Jonathan +at Gibeah and the neighbouring Michmash: and Jonathan, by killing +the officer at Gibeah, gives the signal for battle with the old +enemy of his race. The Philistines advance, and take up a position +to the north of Gibeah, with only a deep valley between them and +the Israelites. But Saul, we hear all at once, xiii. 7 (cf. ver. 4) +was yet in Gilgal, and waited seven days for Samuel, according +to the set time the latter had appointed; but Samuel did not come, +and the warriors began to scatter. As he was himself offering the +sacrifice without which no campaign could be commenced, Samuel +arrived, and at once opened upon him. Saul defended his act +with great force: the people were scattering, and Samuel had not +come at the appointed time, and as the Philistines had advanced +close up to Gibeah, he had found it impossible to delay longer, +and had offered the sacrifice in order to advance against them. +To all this Samuel's only answer was: + +"Thou hast done foolishly; if thou hadst kept the commandment of +Jehovah, He would have established thy kingdom for ever, but +now thy kingdom shall not continue; Jehovah has sought Him a man +after His own heart, and appointed him to be ruler over His people, +because thou hast not kept that which Jehovah commanded thee." + +So he said, and walked off; but Saul went with the army from Gilgal +to Gibeah. At Gibeah, the following verse (xiii. 16) goes on, +abode Saul and Jonathan, and their men, when the Philistines +encamped in Michmash. + +The change of place distinctly shows the whole passage about the +meeting of the king with the prophet at Gilgal (xiii. 7-15) to be +an insertion by a later hand. At the beginning of the narrative +Saul is at Gibeah (ver. 2, 3), and the Philistines seek him +there, and halt before the place because they meet with +resistance. All at once, at ver. 7, it is assumed without being +stated, that Saul had stayed at Gilgal since he was chosen king +till now, and had only now advanced from there against the +Philistines who were waiting for him before Gibeah. Verse 16, +however, gives us the impression that Saul had been posted at +Gibeah with his men for some time, when the Philistines took up +their camp over against them. Only in this way is justice done +to the contrasted participle of state (_sedentes_) and inchoative +perfect (_castrametati sunt_). And in the sequel the triumphant +continuation of the story, especially in chap. xiv., shows no +indication that the ominous scene in Gilgal weighed on the mind of +Saul, or of the people, or of the historian. + +According to xiii. 7-15, Saul is to wait seven days for Samuel at +Gilgal. Here there is a reference to x. 8, where the seer says +to the future king, "Thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and +I will come after thee there to offer sacrifices; seven days +shalt thou tarry till I come and show thee what thou shalt do." +This verse is condemned by other arguments than its connection +with xii. 7-15. Samuel's object at this point, according to x. +I-7, is to overcome the reluctance of the Benjamite who had gone +forth to seek his asses, to undertake the high calling announced +to him, and to inspire him with faith and confidence,--not to give +him unintelligible directions as to what he is to do first when he +has actually become king, and how long he has to wait for the +seer at Gilgal. The schoolmaster tone of x. 8 is particularly +out of place after the preceding words of ver. 7, that, when the +three signs have come to pass, Saul is to do what his hand finds, +because God is with him. This is surely giving him perfect +freedom of action, and for the reason that God's Spirit is working +in him, which "bloweth where it listeth," and suffers no +interference from any authority. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It is also clear that the writer of x. 8, xiii. 7-15 cannot +possibly have found Samuel in Gilgal in chap. xi. before making +him go there in chap. xiii. We have already seen xi. 12-14 to +be a later addition; the name of Samuel must be interpolated +in xi.7, too. In fact in xi. 15 the people, i.e., the army, +acts quite of itself even in our present text. Hence it follows +also, that x. 8, xiii. 7-15 are older than vii. viii. x. 17 seq. +xii. +-- Footnote + + +This insertion is based on an older account of the breach between +Samuel and Saul in 1Samuel xv. Here also the matter of dispute is +a sacrifice, and Gilgal is the scene; and this alone serves to +explain how Gilgal is adhered to in xiii. 7-15 in spite of all +impossibility, as being the right and necessary place for the +occurrence. Jehovah, by the mouth of Samuel, commands the king +to devote the Amalekites to destruction because of an act of +treachery they had committed against Israel in ancient times, +and to spare no living thing. Saul accordingly makes war on the +Amalekites and defeats them; but he does not carry out the +proscription entirely, as he spares the best of their cattle and +their king Agag, whom he takes prisoner. At Gilgal, where the +victory is celebrated before Jehovah, he is called to account for +this by Samuel, and states that he intended the booty for a +sacrifice to Jehovah. His statement, however, makes no +impression. "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to +hearken than the fat of rams: behold, rebellion is as the sin +of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. +Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, He also hath +rejected thee." + +The king acknowledges his guilt, and tries to pacify Samuel; +but the latter turns from him in anger, and when Saul lays +hold of him, his mantle tears. + +"Jehovah hath torn the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, +and given it to one better than thee; and the Truthful One of +Israel will not lie nor repent; for He is not a man, that He +should repent." + +Yet at Saul's entreaty that he would at least not refuse +to honour him before the people, Samuel takes part in the +sacrifice, and even begins it by hewing Agag in pieces before +Jehovah. Then they part, never to see each other again; but +Samuel mourns for Saul, that Jehovah had repented of having made +him king over Israel. There is another narrative intimately +connected with this one in subject and treatment, thought and +expression, namely, that of the witch of Endor. When Saul, shortly +before the battle in which he fell, surveyed the hostile army, he +was seized with anxiety and terror. He inquired of Jehovah, but +received no answer, neither by dreams, nor by the ephod, nor by +prophets. In his extremity he was driven into the arms of a +black art which he had formerly persecuted and sought to +extirpate. By night and in disguise, with two companions, he +sought out a woman at Endor who practiced the raising of the dead, +and after reassuring her with regard to the mortal danger +connected with the practice of her art, he bade her call up +Samuel. She, on seeing the spirit ascending, at once perceives +that the man he had come up to converse with is the king himself; +she cries out loud, but allows herself to be reassured, and +describes the appearance of the dead person. Saul does not see +him, only hears him speak. + +"Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? Jehovah doeth to +thee as He spake by me: He rends the kingdom out of thy hand, +and gives it to another, because thou obeyedst not the voice of +Jehovah, nor executedst His fierce wrath upon Amalek; to-morrow +shalt thou and thy sons be with me, and Jehovah also shall deliver +the host of Israel into the hands of the Philistines." + +At these words Saul falls all his length on the ground. He had +eaten nothing all the day before and all night; he is with +difficulty induced to take some food: then he rises up with his +men to go and meet his fate (1 Samuel xxviii. 3-25). + +Comparing with this original the copy in xiii. 7-15, we are +struck, in the first place, with the placing of the rupture so +much earlier. Scarcely is Saul made king when he is deposed, on +the spot, at Gilgal. And for what reason? Samuel has fixed, in +a purely arbitrary fashion, the time he is to wait, and Saul waits, +and makes arrangements for departure only when the time has run out, +although the need is pressing; and for this he is rejected! It is +clear that Samuel has from the first felt towards him as a +legitimate prince feels to a usurper; he has arranged so as to +find an occasion to show unmistakably where they both stand. +Strictly speaking he did not find the occasion, Saul having +observed the appointed time; but the opinion is present, though +unexpressed, that the king was not entitled to sacrifice, either +before the expiry of the seven days or at any time: his sacrificing +is regarded as sacrilege. And thus the autonomous theocracy stands +all at once before our eyes, which no one thought of before Ezekiel. +We are reminded of the stories of Joash and Uzziah in the Chronicles. +The incidents in 1Samuel xv. xxviii. are similar, but the spirit +of the narrative is different and more antique. The rejection does +not come here with such mad haste, and we do not get the impression +that Samuel is glad of the opportunity to wash his hands of the +king. On the contrary, he honours him before the people, he +mourns that Jehovah has rejected him; and Saul, who never again +sees him alive, turns to him dead in the hour of his extremity, +and does not regard him as his implacable enemy. Again, in the +former case the king's offence is that he has too low an estimate +of the sacredness of sacrifice, and fails to regard the altar as +unapproachable to the laity: while in the latter case he is +reproached with attaching. to sacrifice far too high a value. In +the former case, in fine, the Deity and the representative of the +Deity act with absolute caprice, confront men stiffly with +commands of incredible smallness, and challenge them to opposition; +in the latter, the conduct of Samuel is not (supposing it to have +been the custom to devote enemies to destruction) unintelligible, +nor his demeanour devoid of natural spirit; he appeals not to an +irresponsible position, but to the manifest truth that obedience +is better than the fat of rams. + +Not that chapters xv. and xxviii. belong to the original growth of +the tradition. In the case of xxviii. 3-25 it is easy to show +the insertion: the thread of xxviii. 1, 2, coming from chapter +xxvii. is continued at xxix. 1. According to xxviii. 4 the +Philistines have advanced as far as Shunem in Jezreel; in xxix. 1 +they are only at Aphek in Sharon, and they do not go on to +Jezreel till xxix. 11. To prove an insertion in the case of +chap. xv. we might point to the fact that there is a direct +connection between xiv. 52 and xvi. 14; but this must be proved +somewhat circumstantially. Let it suffice, then, to say that in +the preceding narrative of Saul's history, the war with the +Amalekites appears in quite a different light (ix. 1-X. 16, xi. xiii. +xiv.; cf. also Numbers xxiv. 7). The occasion of it, according to +xiv. 48, lay in the needs of the time, and the object was the +very practical one of "saving Israel out of the hands of them +that spoiled them." There is nothing here to suggest that the +campaign was undertaken in consequence of a religious command, +to punish the Amalekites for an offence over which long ages had +passed, and information about which could only be gathered from +historical books dealing with the age of Moses. Both the +narratives, chap. xv. as well as chap. xxviii, are preludes of +events afterwards to happen. At chap. xvi. David appears upon +the scene; he is thenceforth the principal person of the story, +and thrusts Saul on one side. Chapter xv. is the prophetic +introduction to this change. The fact had been handed down that +Saul was chosen by Jehovah to be king. How was it possible that in +spite of this his rule had no continuance? Jehovah, who as a rule +does not change His mind, was mistaken in him; and Samuel, who +called the king, had now to his great sorrow to pronounce the +sentence of rejection against him. The occasion on which he does +this is evidently historical, namely, the festival of victory +at Gilgal, at which the captured leader of the Amalekites was +offered up as the principal victim. The sacrifice of Agag being +quite repugnant to later custom, it was sought to account for it +by saying that Saul spared the king, but Jehovah required his +death, and caused him to be hewn in pieces at the altar by +Samuel. The rest could easily be spun out of this; it is +superfluous to discuss how. Chapter xxviii., again, is related to +chap. xv. as the second step to the first. No proof is wanted to +show that this is the prophetic shadow cast before the fall of +Saul in his last fight with the Philistines. His turning to the +witch to call up to him the departed Samuel suggests in the most +powerful way his condition of God-forsakenness since Samuel +turned away from him. And, to conclude-the general colouring of +the hostile relation between Saul and Samuel is borrowed from the +actual relations which must have come to subsist between the +prophets and the kings, particularly in the kingdom of Samaria (I +Kings xiv. 7). In their treatment of this relation our +narratives manifestly take up the prophetic position; and the +doctrinal ideas of which they are made the vehicles clearly +show them to be prophetic conceptions. + +VII.II.4. David is the first hero of Judah whom we meet with; +and he at once throws all others into the shade. His acts are +narrated to us in two detailed and connected works which are +mutually complementary. The first of these is contained in 1Samuel +xiv. 52-2 Sam viii 18, and in it we are circumstantially informed +how David rose to the throne. There follows his principal achievement +as king, the humiliation of the Philistines and the foundation of +Jerusalem, the work concluding with a short notice of other +remarkable circumstances. This narrative is preserved to us +complete, only not in the earliest form, but with many +interruptions and alterations. The second work, 2Samuel ix.-2Kings +ii. is mutilated at its commencement, but otherwise almost +completely intact, if 2Samuel xxi.-xxiv. be removed. It tells +chiefly of the occurrences at the court of Jerusalem in the later +years of the king, and carefully traces the steps by which +Solomon, whose birth, with its attendant circumstances, is +narrated at the outset, reached the throne over the heads of his +brothers Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah, who stood before him. Both +works are marked by an essentially historical character. The +treatment is much more detailed, while not nearly so poetical as +in the history of Saul (1Samuel ix. seq.). There are no +exaggerations, such as xiv. 46 seq. The second is the better +work of the two, and frequently affords us a glance into the very +heart of events, showing us the natural occasions and human motives +which gave rise to the different actions. The point of view is, +however, the narrow one of Jerusalem; for example, the real +reasons of the revolt of the men of Judah under Absalom are +scarcely even hinted at. The leading sentiment of the writer, +there can be no doubt, is enthusiasm for David, but his weaknesses +are not concealed; the relations prevailing at his court, far from +edifying as they are, are faithfully reported, and the palace +intrigue which placed Solomon upon the throne is narrated with a +naivete which is almost malicious. The first work (1Samuel xvi.- +2Samuel viii.) gives a less circumstantial narrative, but follows +the thread of events not less conscientiously, and is based on +information little inferior to that of the second. The author's +partisanship is more noticeable, as he follows the style of a +biographer, and makes David the hero of the history from his very +first appearance, although king Saul is the ruling and motive power +in it. But Judaistic leanings were unavoidable, and they have +not gone so far as to transform the facts, nor indeed operated +in a different way or to a greater degree here than local +interest in the tribal hero, which is always the earliest motive +for narration, has done in other cases. This praise applies to +1Samuel xvi. seq., however, only so far as its original form goes. +It is different with the insertions, here very numerous, which +have crept into the older connection, or replaced a genuine piece +of the old story with a newer edition of it. In these the +tendency to idealise the founder of the dynasty of Judah has +worked creatively, and here we find rich materials for the history +of the tradition, in the rude style in which alone it is possible +as yet to construct that history. The beginning of the first work +especially is overgrown with later legendary formations. + +David, known as a man of courage and prudence, and of a skilful +tongue, and recommended, moreover, by his skill on the harp, came +to the king's court and became his armour-bearer (xvi. 14-23). +He so approved himself in the war with the Philistines that Saul +advanced him step after step, and gave him his daughter in +marriage (xviii. 6 seq.). But the success and fame of the man of +Judah filled Saul with jealousy, and in one of his fits of frenzy +(to which x. 10 also shows him to have been subject) he threw his +javelin at David, who was seeking to drive away the evil spirit +by his playing (xix. 8-10). David agreed with Jonathan that it +was advisable for him to absent himself, but this only confirmed +the king's suspicions, which prompted him to destroy the priests +of Nob, because their head had provided David with food and +consulted the oracle for him (xxi 2-7, xxii. 6-23). The fugitive +himself Saul failed to lay hands on; he gathered round him his +own family and other desperate men, and became their leader in +the wilderness of Judah (xxii. 1-5, xxiii. 1-13, xxv. 2 seq.). +To escape the repeated persecutions of Saul, he at length passed +over to the country of the Philistines, and received the town of +Ziklag in Judah as a fief from the hands of the prince Achish +(xxvii. 1 seq.). + +Such is the beginning of the history of David according to the +simple thread of the old narrative. The first accretion we +notice is the legend of the encounter of the shepherd boy with +Goliath (xvii. 1-xviii. 5), which is involved in contradiction +both with what goes before and with what follows it. According to +xvi. 14-23, David, when he first came in contact with Saul, was no +raw lad, ignorant of the arts of war, but "a mighty valiant man, +skilful in speech, and of a goodly presence;" and according to +xviii. 6 the women sang at the victorious return of the army, +"Saul has slain his thousands of the Philistines, and David his +tens of thousands," so that the latter was the leader of Israel +beside the king, and a proved and well-known man. Evidently +something of a different nature must originally have stood +between xvi. 23 and xviii. 6. Now the fate of the story of +Goliath (xvii. 1-xviii. 5) involves that of the story of the +anointing of David (xvi. 1-13), which is dependent on it +(xvi. 12, xvii. 42); and, as we have already decided that chapter +xv. is a secondary production, xiv. 52 joins on at once to xvi. 14. +In xviii. 6 seq., where we are told of the origin of Saul's +jealousy, several of the worst additions and interruptions are +wanting in the LXX, especially the first throwing of the javelin +(xviii. 9-11) and the betrothal to Merab (xviii. 17-19). +The insertions are most varied and confusing in the account of +the outbreak of the hostility of Saul and of David's flight +(chapters xix. xx). Chapter xix. 1-7, a pointless and artificial +passage, betrays its later origin by its acquaintance with chapter +xvii.; xviii. 29a (LXX) is continued at xix. 8. After Saul's +spear-cast David takes flight for the first time, but at verse 11 +he is still at home, and makes his escape the second time with the +aid of feminine artifice, going to Samuel at Ramah, but to appear +in chap. xx. at Gibeah as before. The king remarks his absence +from table; Jonathan assures him of his father's favour, which, +however, David doubts, though he has no distinct evidence to the +contrary. When quite certain of the deadly hatred of the king, +David takes flight in earnest; in chapter xxi. seq. we find him +at Nob on his way to Judah, but at xxi. 10 he goes away afresh +from the face of Saul. It is evident that in reality and in the +original narrative the flight took place only once, and that it +must from the first have been directed to the place of refuge, +i.e., to Judah. This is enough to dispose of xix. 11-24: the +twentieth chapter is impossible in the connection, at least in +its present form, and in chapter xxi. verses 8-10 and 11-16 must +be left out. In the section which deals with the freebooter life +of David, chaps. xxiii-xxvii., considerable pieces have been added; +xxvii. 7-12 of course is one; but also the encounters of David with +his pursuers. There are two versions: the one, xxvi. 1-25, is +placed before chapter xxvii. on account of verse 19; the other, +xxiii. 14-xxiv. 22, is placed before chapter xxv. to avoid too near +a contact. There is a good deal of verbal coincidence between the +two, and we are entitled to regard the shorter and more pointed +version (chapter xxvi.) as the basis. But the sequence (xxvi. 25, +xxvii. 1) shows beyond a doubt that chapter xxvi. does not belong +to the original tradition. The process of inserting the additions +naturally was not completed without all sorts of editorial changes +in the older materials, e.g., xvi. 14. + +Though proceeding from the same root, these offshoots are by no +means of the same nature, nor do they all belong to the same +stage of the process. Some of them are popular legends and +unconscious fictions. Of this nature is the story of Michal, who +takes the part of her husband against her father, lets him down in +the evening with a rope through the window, detains the spies for a +time by saying that David is sick, and then shows them the +household god which she has arranged on the bed and covered with +the counterpane (xix. 11-17). The scenes in which Saul and David +meet are of a somewhat different colour, yet we notice that the +conviction that the latter is the king of the future does not +interfere with the recognition of the former as the king _de facto_ +and the anointed of Jehovah; Saul too appears not wicked, but +blinded. The secondary version (xxiii. 14 seq.) contains (not +to speak of the distinctly later insertion between verse 15 and +19), in addition to the touching features of the story, a +good-natured jest, telling how the two played hide-and-seek round a +hill, which took its name from the circumstance. These stories +present certain marks which serve to fix their date in the history +of the religion: one is, that the image in David's house is +spoken of quite simply; another, the expression in xxvi. 19, + +"If Jehovah have stirred thee up against me, let Him accept an +offering, but if it be men, cursed be they before Jehovah, +because they have driven me out this day from the fellowship in +the land of Jehovah, and obliged me to serve other gods." + +It is perhaps not by mere chance that this speech is wanting in +the parallel version, and that there is added in place of it a +formal act of recognition which Saul pays at the end to his +destined successor. As for the story of Goliath, it is also quite +artless, but its religious colouring is much more marked. The +speech with which David goes to meet the giant is characteristic on +this side (xvii. 4 seq.): + +"Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear, but I come unto thee +in the name of Jehovah of hosts, whom thou hast defied. This day will +He deliver thee into mine hand, that all the earth may know that there +is a God in Israel, and that this assembly (hqhl = Israel) may know that +Jehovah saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is His." +This approaches to the religious language of the post-Deuteronomic +time. According to 2Samuel xxi. 19, Goliath of Gath, whose +spear-shaft was as thick as a weaver's beam, /1/ fought in the + +-- Footnote +1. This expression occurs in I Samuel xvii., and shows this legend +to be dependent on 2Samuel xxi. xxiii., a collection of anecdotes +about heroes from the Philistine wars of David in the genuine short +popular style. Cf., on 1Chronicles xii., supra, p. 173. +-- Footnote + + +wars, not in Saul's time, but in that of his successor, and was +killed, not by a shepherd boy but by a warrior of Bethlehem +named Elhanan. + +The theme of David and Jonathan has no doubt a historical basis, +but for us it is found only in second-hand versions. The story +of the farewell (chapter xx.) must be placed in this category. +Yet it appears to point back to an earlier basis, and the earlier +story may very possibly have belonged to the connection of the +original work. For the shooting of the arrow could only have a +meaning if it was impossible for the two friends to have an +interview. But as the story goes, they come together and speak +out freely what they have in their hearts, and so the dumb +signal is not only superfluous, but unintelligible and +meaningless. But if the most characteristic trait of the whole +story does not fit into it as it now stands, that is just saying +that the story has not come down to us in its true form. +Originally Jonathan only discharged the arrow, and called to his +boy where it lay; and David, hid in the neighbourhood of the +shooting range, heard in the call to the boy the preconcerted +signal. In calling that the arrow was nearer him or beyond him, +Jonathan was apparently telling the boy, but in reality telling +his friend, to come towards him or go farther away from him. The +latter was the case, and if so, the friends could not enter into +conversation; the tearful farewell then disappears, and the +sentimental speeches spoken before it in the same style, in which +Jonathan virtually admits that his father is right, and yet +decidedly espouses David's cause, disregarding the fact that David +will deprive him of his inheritance. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Only in one direction does he set limits to his self-denial: +he makes the future king solemnly promise to spare his family. +Here manifests itself an interest belonging to the time of the +narrator. The oriental custom according to which the new ruler +extirpates the preceding dynasty, was not systematically carried +out by David, and a special exception was made in favour of a son +left by Jonathan. "All my father's house," says Meribaal (2Samuel +xix. 28), "were dead men before my lord the king yet thou didst set +me at thy table: what right have I therefore yet to complain unto +the king (even about injustice)?" Now this son of Jonathan was the +ancestor of a Jerusalem family which flourished till after the exile. +Older traits in 1Samuel xx. are the importance attached to the new +moon, the family sacrifice at Bethlehem, perhaps the stone )BN )CL +which appears to have implied something inconsistent with later +orthodoxy, the name being in two passages so singularly corrupted. +-- Footnote + + +Chapter xviii. 6 seq. manifests tendency in a bad sense, even +apart from the additions of the Masoretic text. Here Saul's +enmity against David is carried back to the very beginning of +their relations together, and even his friendship is represented +as dissembled hatred. All the honours with which the king covers +his armour-bearer are interpreted as practices to get rid of him. +He makes him his son-in-law in order to expose him to deadly +danger in his efforts to procure the hundred foreskins of the +Philistines which were the price of the daughter. The connection +cannot dispense with xviii. 6 seq, but at the same time it is +beyond doubt that the venomous way of interpreting the facts is a +mark of later revision. For Saul here practices his perfidies +with the cognisance of his servants, who must therefore have been +well aware of his disposition towards David; but the old narrator +proceeds on the opposite assumption, that his hatred appeared all +at once, and that David had been held by all up to that time to +be one of the king's favourite servants: cf. xxi. 2-xxii. 14 +seq., not to speak of chapter xx. And this alone agrees with the +nature of Saul as it is everywhere described to us. + +It is a characteristic circumstance that the corruption of the +tradition is greatest in those narratives in which Samuel enters +into the history of David. There are two insertions of this +kind. According to xix. 18-24 David flees to the old man at +Ramah, where the school of the prophets is; Saul sends messengers +to take him, but these, when they come near Samuel and see him in +command of a troop of ecstatic enthusiasts, are seized by the +frenzy like the rest. The second set of messengers whom Saul +sends, and the third, fare no better; and Saul has at last to +come himself. But he also is drawn into the vortex, tears off his +clothes and dances before Samuel and David, the only +self-possessed spectators of the bacchantic company, till he falls +down; and he lies naked as he is a whole day and a whole night +upon the ground--whence the proverb, "Is Saul also among the +prophets?" But that David when he fled, fled in earnest and went +in the direction of Judah, instead of amusing himself by going +first towards the north, is perfectly evident, as much so as that +it is a serious abuse of the spirit of prophecy to make it serve +ends which are foreign to its nature, and turn it into a mere +instrument for the personal safety of David, who had no need +whatever to wait for Saul at Ramah to play him a trick +there. The narrative, which is unknown to the author of xv. 35, +arose out of the proverb which is quoted in it, but this receives +elsewhere (x. 12) a much more worthy interpretation. We can +scarcely avoid the suspicion that what we have before us here is +a pious caricature; the point can be nothing but Samuel's and +David's enjoyment of the disgrace of the naked king. For the +general history of the tradition the most interesting +circumstance is that Samuel has here become the head of a school +of prophets and the leader of their exercises. In the original +view of the matter (chaps. ix. x.) he appears alone and +independent, and has nothing to do with the companies of the +ecstatics, the Nebiim. He is a _Roeh_ or seer, not a _Nabi_ or +prophet. True, it is asserted in the gloss, ix. 9, that the two +words mean the same thing, that what is now called _Nabi_ was +formerly called _Roeh_. But that is scarcely quite correct. The +author of ix. x. knows the name _Nabi_ very well too, but he +never applies it to Samuel; he only uses it, in the plural, of +the troops of Jehovah--intoxicated dervishes. He gives it quite +a different meaning from _Roeh_, and also quite a different meaning +from that in which Isaiah and Jeremiah use the word _Nabi_. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 As the words are used in 1Samuel i.Y., Isaiah and Jeremiah would +rather be called Roeh; and this is the justification of the +gloss, ix. 9. +-- Footnote + + +We cannot doubt that these distinctions rest on a historical basis, +and only gradually melted away in later times: so that Samuel +the seer need not be degraded into one of the flagellants. + +David's flight to Samuel presupposes some previous relation to +him, and xix. 18 seq. seems to point back to xvi. 1-13. In +this piece David's career begins with his being anointed king in +Saul's place at Jehovah's command, when a mere shepherd boy, who +was not even counted in the family he belonged to. But in the +sequel no one knows anything about this. Even in the story of +Goliath (which in other respects harmonizes better with xvi. 1-13 +than any other piece) the older brothers, here three, not seven, +know nothing of the anointing of the youngest, although they were +present and heard their own claims discussed (xvii. 28). In the +stories of David's persecution also, chapter xxiv. xxvi., Saul +alone is the sacred person, the anointed of Jehovah, not David. +A belief that David is chosen for high things by God is quite a +different matter from an anointing which has already taken place +in fact. And if consequent and antecedent be inseparable, +we must remember how, according to xv. 35, Samuel not only +withdraws himself from Saul till his death, but also feels grieved +for him till his death. It is a harsh transition from xv. 35: + +"Samuel came no more to see Saul till the day of his death, +because he mourned over him," to xvi. 1: + +"and Jehovah spake to him, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, +seeing I have rejected him?" + +But it appears clearly that the appointment of the successor +was connected with, and a consequence of, the deposition of the +predecessor. + +The anointing of David by Samuel is at the same time the set-off +to the anointing of Saul by Samuel. This is clearly seen on +comparing x. 6, xi. 6, "and the Spirit of God leapt upon Saul," +with xvi. 13, 14, "and the Spirit of Jehovah leapt upon David, +and it departed from Saul." In the former case the inspiration is +a momentary foaming over, in the latter (the leaping +notwithstanding) it is a permanent property; and this difference +alone leaves no doubt as to where the original is to be looked +for, and where the imitation. Saul alone, according to the old +tradition, was made king in a divine, i.e. an overpowering and +ideal manner: David was made king in a tedious human way, and +after many intermediate stages. Of Saul alone was it originally +told that the sudden outbreak of the spirit with which he, +unelected as he was, summoned the levy of Israel, placed himself +at its head, defeated the Ammonites, and became king, was quietly +prepared by an old seer, who pointed out to him his great +calling, and filled him with confidence in himself by secretly +anointing him in the name of Jehovah. All that was known of David +was how by his own energy he raised himself from a soldier to be +the leader of a band, from that to be the vassal prince, under the +Philistines, of Ziklag and Judah, and from a vassal prince to be +the independent and powerful king of Israel. He also was anointed, +not, however, beforehand by God, but after his elevation, by the +elders of Judah and Israel. But this human origin and this +inferiority in point of divine consecration to a predecessor +whose kingdom, as it turned out, Jehovah had not made to stand, +was found by a later age to be unworthy of him: he must at least +have received his anointing from Samuel as well as Saul. And this +was accordingly made good by the legend (xvi. 1-13). It is a +step further on this downward path that in the Judaistic version +(x. 17 seq.) all mention is omitted of the anointing of Saul. + +We return to Samuel. The Books of Samuel take their name from +him, and he is a figure of great importance, if not for the history +itself, yet for the history of the tradition, the progress of +which may be measured by the change of view about his person. +In the views taken about him we may distinguish four stages. +Originally (ix. 1-x. 16) he is simply a seer, but at the same +time a patriotic Israelite, who feels deeply the need of his +country, and uses his authority as seer to suggest to the ear and +to the mind of one whom he recognises as fit for the purpose, his +destination to be Israel's deliverer and leader. This relation +between seer and warrior must be held fast and regarded as +historical if Samuel is to mean anything at all. Similar instances +are those of Deborah and Barak in earlier times, and later, that +of Elisha and Hazael, and still more, that of Elisha and Jehu. +Samuel's greatness consists in this, that he rouses to activity +the man who comes after him, and is greater than he: after +kindling the light which now burns in its full brightness, he +himself disappears. But his meteoric appearance and disappearance +excited wonder, and this in early times produced a story of his +youth, in which, while still a boy, he predicts the ruin of +pre-monarchical Israel (1Samuel i.-iii.). After he has done this, +darkness closes completely around him. Even in chapter iv. he +has completely disappeared, and when we meet him again he is an +old man. On the other side the circumstance that we hear nothing +more of the seer after his meeting with Saul, caused it to be +believed that a rupture very soon took place between the two. + +This belief we meet with at the second stage of the tradition which +is represented by the prophetical narratives recorded in chaps. +xvi. and xxviii. It arose out of the inconsistency involved in +the fact that Jehovah did not afterwards confirm in his reign the +man whom He had chosen to be king, but overthrew his dynasty. +Thus it becomes necessary that Samuel, who anointed Saul, should +afterwards sorrowfully reject him. Even here he appears no longer +as the simple seer, but as a prophet in the style of Elijah and +Elisha who regards the Lord's anointed as his own handiwork, and +lays on him despotic commands (xv. 1), though according to x. 7 +he had expressly left him to be guided by his own inspiration. + +The transition from the second to the third stage is easy. Here +Samuel, after withdrawing the unction from Saul, at once transfers +it to David, and sets him up against his rejected predecessor as +being now de jure king by the grace of God. The respect with +v.hich he is regarded has meanwhile increased still further; +when he comes to Bethlehem the elders tremble at his approach +(xvi. 4 seq.); and in xix. 18 seq. he has a magical power over men. +Up to this stage, however, he has always been regarded as +intellectually the author of the monarchy. It is reserved for the +last (exilian or post-exilian) stage of the development of the +tradition to place him in the opposite position of one who resists +to the uttermost the desire of the people to have a king. Here +pre-monarchical Israel is advanced to a theocracy, and Samuel is +the head of the theocracy, which accounts for the feelings aroused +in him by their demand. + +The modern judgment has been prejudiced in Saul's favour by +Samuel's curse, and to David's disadvantage by Samuel's blessing; +the picture of the one has not suffered from the blackening so +much as that of the other from the glorification. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The efforts of later writers to glorify David are at their worst +in their account of his last testament (1Kings ii. 1-12). Even +the language betrays this piece as a post-Deuteronomic insertion +(v. 2-4); the contents are borrowed from the succeeding narrative. +But in the narrative Solomon's conduct towards Adonijah, Abiathar, +Joab, and Shimei is not dictated by any means by the testament, +but by other considerations; and it is the declared object of the +narrator to show how Solomon's throne was established by the +removal of the elements of danger. Nor do the acute calculations +of the weak old king agree very well with the general impression +given of him at this time by 1Kings i. ii. +-- Footnote + + +Some critics, who are unencumbered either by prejudice or by +knowledge of the subject, regard Saul as the antagonist and David +as the creature of the clerical lust of rule, of which they see +the embodiment in Samuel. But this view gives Samuel a powerful +position over against the king such as he cannot have possessed +unless he had broad ground under his feet and an influence well and +extensively organised. Did he find support in the Nebiim? These +were only then rising into view out of an irregular enthusiasm +which was not yet confined to any definite circle or school; and +besides, the old tradition speaks of a close connection between +them and the king, but not between them and the seer. The belief +that the latter was the founder and president of their guild is +based on the worthless anachronistic anecdote, 1Samuel xix. 18 +seq. Or was Samuel in conspiracy with the priests against Saul? +This is inferred from 1Samuel xxi.-xxii. where Abimelech of Nob +provides David with bread on his wanderings, and expiates this +offence with his own death and that of the whole race of Eli. But +in the first place these priests have no connection with Samuel. +In the second place there is nothing to make it probable that they +had an understanding with David, or were acquainted with his +ambitious plans if he had then begun to cherish them. In the third +place, it is positively certain that they represented no distinct +power in the state as against the king, but on the contrary were +entirely the creatures of his smile or frown; on the occurrence +of a faint suspicion they were put to death to a man without a dog +barking to remonstrate. The liberal view we are discussing of +Samuel's relation to Saul and David is based on the erroneous +assumption that Samuel had the hierocracy to rest on in his acts +of opposition to the monarchy. But the student who carries back the +hierocracy to these early times has still to learn the very +elements of what is necessary to a true historical appreciation of +Hebrew antiquity. + + +VI.III. + +It is in the Book of Kings that the last revision works most +unrestrictedly. Here also chronological and religious elements +combine to the building up of the framework, and we begin with +examining the chronological system. + +From the exodus from Egypt to the beginning of the building of +the temple was a period of 430 years; and from the latter to the +destruction of Jerusalem, a period, according to the numbers of +the kings of Judah, of 430 years, or reckoning the exile, of 480 +years, as before. In Chronicles, the succession from Azariah ben +Ahimaaz, who was, according to the correct reading, the first to +officiate in the temple of Solomon, to Jozadak, who was carried +away in the captivity, consists of eleven high priests; thus, +reckoning the exile, we have again twelve generations of 40 years +each. The detailed figures which compose the total are here more +complicated, which is no doubt partly due to the fact that some +of them are dates which the reviser found given. Yet in this +instance also the number 40 is the basis of calculation, as we see +in the reigns of the kings of Judah. From the division of the +kingdom to the destruction of Samaria in the 6th year of Hezekiah, +the numbers are as follows: Rehoboam and Abijam, 20; Asa, 41; +Jehoshaphat, Joram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, 40; Joash, 40; Amaziah and +Uzziah, 81; Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, 38. From the destruction of +Samaria to the last date in Kings (2Kings xxv. 27), Hezekiah, +Manasseh, Amon, have 80; Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, +79 1/4. Let him believe who can that it is a mere chance that the +figures 41 + 81 + 38 make up exactly 40 + 80 + 40. + +The series of the kings of Israel is in point of chronology +dependent on the series of Judah. According to the numbers of the +latter, 393 years elapsed from the division of the kingdom to the +Babylonian captivity; and if we assume with Ezekiel (iv. 4) that +Samaria fell 150 years earlier than Judah, 243 years remain for +the duration of the northern kingdom. The figures given amount in +fact to 242 years. These 150 Israelite years, from the +destruction of Samaria to the destruction of Jerusalem, exceed, it +is true, by 17 the sum of the parallel years of Judah; and the +Israelite years from 1 Jeroboam to 9 Hosea fall short of the years +in Judah from 1 Rehoboam to 6 Hezekiah by about the same number. +This shows that no effort was made at first to synchronise the +individual reigns in the two series. The 242 years of the +northern kingdom are divided, by the epoch of 1 Jehu, into 98 and +144. If we take them at 240, the half of 480, the 98 must be +changed into 96, which then agree with the contemporary 96 Jewish +years. The deduction must be made at the reign of Baasha. Then +we get the following play of figures: Jeroboam 22, Nadab 2, +Baasha 22, Elah 2, Omri 12, Ahab 22, Ahaziah 2, Joram 12. That is +to say, the eight kings have together 96 years, the first four and +the last four 48 each. Two have the average number 12; the other +6 consists of three pairs of father and son; and the twice 12 +years belonging to each pair are divided so that the father gets +12 + 10, and the son 12 - 10, obviously because the father was +considered much more important than the son. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Numbers of the kings of Judah from Solomon : 37+ 17+ 3 + 41 + 25 ++ 8 + 1 + 6 + 40 + 29 + 52 + 16 + 29 + 55 + 2 + 31 + 11 + 11=430 years. +Jehoahaz and Jechoiachin are not counted; if they are included and a +year allowed for them, we must say 36 for Solomon. Numbers of the +kings of Israel from 1 Jeroboam: 22 + 2 + 24 +2+ 12 + 22 + 2+ 12 + 28 + +17 + 16 + 41 + 1 + 10 + 2 + 20 + 9. The artificial relations of the +numbers, as explained above, were communicated to me by Ernst Krey. +On the point that the synchronisms do not belong to the original +arrangement, see Jahrb. fur Deutsche Theol., 1875, p. 607 seq. +The correct view of Ezekiel iv. was first published by Bernhard Duhm +(Theol. dir Proph., p. 253). The number 390, given in the Massoretic +text in verse 5 for the duration of the captivity of the northern +Israelites, is impossible. For Ezekiel cannot mean that they have +been 350 years in exile already, and on the other hand he cannot +reckon the remaining period of their punishment at more than 40 years, +because 40 years is his calculation of the period of exile of +Judah, and the restitution of Israel and that of Judah are in his +view to take place at the same time; and indeed that of Egypt as well, +obviously because brought about by the same cause (xxix. 1 1-16), +the fall of the Chaldeans, which may be expected to take place in +40 years. The number 390 has got into verse 5 by mistake from verse 9, +where it is used of a quite different subject, not the years of the +exile, but the days of the last siege of Jerusalem. The gloss verse +13 rests on a similar confusion. The Septuagint correctly gives +for the Israelite exile the number of 150 years, or 190, according +as the last 40 years in which their punishment continued, along +with that of Judah, were included or omitted. It may be remarked +that 390 = 240 + 150. Compare further Robertson Smith, in the +Journal of Philologie, vol x., p. 209-213. +-- Footnote + + +The great period thus marked off and artificially divided into +subperiods, is surveyed and appraised at every important epoch in +sermon-like discourses. These are much more frequent in Kings +than in Judges and Samuel. It makes no difference whether the +writer speaks in his own person, or by the mouth of another; in +reviews of the past he speaks himself, 2Kings xvii.; in +anticipations of the future he makes another speak (1Kings viii. +ix.). A few examples must be cited to show what we mean. + +The great epoch of the work is the building of the temple. On this +occasion Solomon makes a great dedicatory oration, in which he +entreats Jehovah to hear from heaven the prayer of those who shall +seek Him in this place. He concludes as follows: + +"If they sin against Thee (for there is no man that sinneth not) +and Thou be angry with them and deliver them to be carried away +captive into the land of the enemy, far or near, if they then +bethink themselves and make supplication to Thee, saying, We have +sinned and have done perversely and are guilty, and so return unto +Thee with all their heart and all their soul in the land of the +enemies which led them away captive, and pray unto Thee toward +their land which Thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which +Thou hast chosen, and the house which Thou hast built for Thy name, +then hear Thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and +maintain their cause, and forgive thy people their +unfaithfulness, and give them compassion before them that carried +them away captive, that they may have compassion upon them. For +they be Thy people and Thine inheritance, which Thou broughtest +forth out of Egypt from the midst of the furnace of iron, and +didst separate them to Thyself from among all the people of the +earth, as Thou spakest by Moses thy servant." + +What Jehovah answered to this we learn in chapter ix. + +"I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication which thou hast made +before me; I have hallowed this house, to put my name there for ever, +and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. If thou wilt +walk before me, as did David thy father, in integrity of heart +and in uprightness, to do all that I have commanded thee, and wilt +keep my statutes and my judgments, I will establish the throne of +thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, +saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. +But if YE or YOUR CHILDREN turn away from me, and will not keep +my statutes and my judgments which I have set before you, but +worship other gods, then will I cut off Israel out of the land +which I have given them, and this house which I have hallowed for +my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel shall be a +proverb and a byword among all people, and this house a ruin. +And when they ask: Why hath Jehovah done thus to this land and +to this house? the answer shall be: Because they forsook Jehovah +their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of +Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped +them and served them." + +The division of the kingdom is also a very marked era in the +history. It is introduced by a prophecy of Abijah to the first +Jeroboam. + +"Behold, I rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will +give ten tribes to thee; but he shall have one tribe for my servant +David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen; +because he has forsaken me, and worshipped Astarte of Sidon, and +Chemosh of Moab, and Milcom of Ammon, and has not walked in my ways +to do that which is right in my eyes, my statutes, and my judgments, +like David his father. And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto +all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do what is +right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments as David +my servant did, that I will be with thee and build thee a sure house +as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee. And I will +for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever." + +We pass over a series of prophecies in a similar strain which occur +regularly at the changes of dynasty in the northern kingdom, and +cite only the concluding words which accompany the fall of the +kingdom of the ten tribes (2Kings xvii.). This fall came about +"because the children of Israel sinned against Jehovah their God, +which brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and feared other +gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen whom they had +driven out, and in the innovations of the kings of Israel; and +because the children of Israel imputed to Jehovah their God things +which are not so, and built them high places in all their cities, +from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city; and they set up +pillars and Asheras on every high hill and under every green tree, +and there they sacrificed in all the high places, as did the people +whom Jehovah had driven out before them: and wrought wicked things +to provoke Jehovah to anger, and served the abominations which +Jehovah had forbidden. Yet Jehovah testified to them by all the +prophets and seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep +my commandments and my statutes according to all the torah which +I commanded your fathers, and which I sent unto you by my servants +the prophets; but they would not hear, but hardened their necks +like their fathers, that they did not believe in Jehovah their +God; and they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He +made with their fathers, and His testimonies with which He warned +them, and they followed vanity and became vain, and went after +the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom Jehovah +had charged them that they should not do like them. And they +left all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them +molten images and an Asherah, and worshipped the whole host of +heaven, and served Baal; and they caused their children to pass +through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold +themselves to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke Him to +anger. And Jehovah was very wroth with Israel, and removed them +out of His sight; there was none left but the men of Judah only. +But they of Judah also kept not the commandment of their God, but +walked in the manner of Israel: and Jehovah rejected the whole +race of Israel, and humbled them, and delivered them unto the hand +of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight." +No special concluding discourse is given for Judah, but that for +Israel applies to Judah as well. This we see both directly from +the last words of the passage cited, and from the circumstance +that two very characteristic abominations in the foregoing catalogue, +the worship of the host of heaven and the sacrifice of children, +were introduced, according to the testimony of the prophets, which +alone can determine the point, not in the eighth but only in the +seventh century, under Manasseh, and accordingly are not +chargeable on Israel, but only on Judah. + +The water accumulates, so to speak, at these gathering places of +the more important historical epochs: but from these reservoirs +it finds its way in smaller channels on all sides. /1/ The first + +-- Footnote +1. Such additions as MCWT YHWH, 1Kings xviii. 18 [LXX has +correctly YHWH, without MCWT] (ZBW BRYTK [LXX correctly (ZBW +without BRYTK] and more extensive ones, as 1Kings xviii. 31, 32a; +2Samuel vii. 2b [)#R NQR) WGW''] <error! read vi. 2b> ) I do not +reckon because they proceed from various periods, and are mostly +younger than the Deuteronomic revision, and belong rather to textual +than to literary criticism. It is certainly in itself very important +to detect and remove these re-touchings. The whole old tradition +is covered with them. +-- Footnote + + +question asked with regard to each ruler is, what position he took +up to the pure religion--whether he did what was right or what was +evil in the sight of Jehovah. Even in the case of those who only +reigned a week, this question receives an answer. In general it +has to be stated that they did evil. All except David and Hezekiah +and Josiah, were defective, says Jesus Sirach (xlix. 4),--not quite +accurately perhaps, but yet truly in so far as there is always some +objection even to the good kings. But the sin here reproved is no +longer, at least not principally, the worship of strange gods; it +is the perverted worship of Jehovah. A more special standard, and +therefore a stricter one, is now employed, and we know the reason +of this: the temple having once been built in the place which Jehovah +has chosen for Himself, the kindly naturalness hitherto belonging to +His worship comes to an end (Deuteronomy xii. 8): and in particular +the prohibition of the bamoth comes into force (1Kings iii. 2). +That these continued to exist is the special sin of the period, +a sin widespread and persistent. It is aggravated by the fact, +that with the bamoth all kinds of unlawful abuses crept into the +worship of Jehovah, Maccebas and Asheras, evergreen trees, and +prostitutes of both sexes. Israel, continually compared with Judah +in the matter, is further charged with a second great sin, the sin +of Jeroboam, i.e., the golden calves at Bethel and at Dan. The +religious estimate combines with the chronological facts to form +that scheme in which every single reign of the kings of Israel +and Judah is uniformly framed. Sometimes the frame is well filled +in with interesting matter, but in not a few cases historical matter +is almost entirely absent. The scheme appears most nakedly in such +chapters as 1Kings xv. xvi., 2Kings xiii. xiv. xv. + +That this redaction of our book is essentially uniform with that +of the two historical books which precede it, requires no proof. +Only it has here a warmer and more lively tone, and a much +closer relation to the facts. In consequence of this we find it +much easier to determine the point of view from which it proceeds. +The mere fact that the narrative extends to the destruction of +Jerusalem, nay, to the death of the captive king Jehoiachin, shows +that we must place the date of the work not earlier than the +Babylonian exile, and, indeed, the second part of the exile. +The chronology reckons the exile in the period of 480 years, giving +50 years to it; and this would bring us still lower down; but it +is open to us to assume that this is a later modification, which +has not further affected the general character of the work. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Krey surmises that the last date mentioned, the liberation from +prison of, Jehoiachin in the 37th year after his accession to the +throne, was originally intended to form the lower limit of the +chronology, especially as the periods of 40 years under which, as +we have seen, the Jewish figures naturally fall, come exactly to +this date. But if this be the case, we cannot regard the 4th or +5th year of Solomon as the era started from, for then there is no +room for the 36 or 37 remaining years of Solomon's reign. But such +a starting-point is entirely unnatural; Solomon's 40 years +cannot be torn up in this way: if we are to make a division at +all in that period, it must be at the disruption of the monarchy, +the natural point of departure for the series of kings of Israel +and of Judah. It deserves remark, that the 37 years of Jehoiachin, +at the close of the older mode of calculation, which perhaps only +tried to bring out generations of 40 years, but also perhaps a +period of 500 years from David (40+40+20+ 41+40+40+81 + 38+ 80 + 79 +1/4), answer to the 37 years of Solomon at the beginning of the +method now carried through. That a process of alteration and +improvement of the chronology was busily carried on in later +times, we see from the added svnchronisms of the kings of Israel +and Judah, from the uncertain statements in the Book of Judges, +some of them parallel with each other (e.g., the interregna and +minor judges, and the threefold counting of the time of the +Philistines) and even from the variants of the LXX. +-- Footnote + + +The writer looks back on the time of the kings as a period past +and closed, on which judgment has already been declared. Even at +the consecration of the temple the thought of its destruction is +not to be restrained; and throughout the book the ruin of the nation +and its two kingdoms is present to the writer's mind. This is the +light in which the work is to be read; it shows why the catastrophe +was unavoidable. It was so because of unfaithfulness to Jehovah, +because of the utterly perverted tendency obstinately followed +by the people in spite of the Torah of Jehovah and His prophets. +The narrative becomes, as it were, a great confession--of sins of +the exiled nation looking back on its history. Not only the +existing generation, but the whole previous historical development +is condemned--a fashion which we meet with first in Jeremiah (ii. +1 seq., iv. 3), who was actually confronted with the question as +to the cause of the calamity. /2/ + +-- Footnote +1. The fall of Samaria suggested similar reflections to the earlier +prophets with reference to the northern kingdom, but their views +are, as a rule (Amos v., Isaiah ix.), not nearly so radical nor so +far-fetched. Hosea does certainly trace the guilt of the present +up to the commencement, but he exemplifies the principle (like Micah, +chapter vi.) chiefly from the early history of Jacob and Moses: as for +the really historical period he belongs to it too much himself to survey +it from so high a point of view. In this also he is a precursor of +later writers, that he regards the human monarchy as one of the +great evils of Israel: he certainly had very great occasion for +this in the circumstances of the time he lived in. +-- Footnote + + +Ezekiel carried out this negative criticism of the past to greater +lengths, with particular reference to the abominations of the older +worship (chapter xvi., xx., xxiii.); and it is also to be found in +Isaiah xl.-xlvi. (xlii. 24, xliii. 27), though here it is +supplemented by a positive and greatly more suggestive view; +we find it also in Deuteronomy xxviii.-xxx., and in Leviticus xxvi. +The whole of the past is regarded as one enormous sin, which is to +be expiated in the exile (Jeremiah xxxii. 30; Ezekiel xviii. 2, +xxxiii. 10; Isaiah xl. 1); the duration of the punishment is even +calculated from that of the sin (Leviticus xxvi. 34). The same +attitude towards old times is continued after the return +(Zechariah viii. 13 seq., ix. 7 seq.; Nehemiah ix. 7 seq.). + +The treatment is naturally from a Judaean point of view. Outside +of Jerusalem the worship of Jehovah is heretical, so that the +political revolt of the Northern Israelites was at the same time +an ecclesiastical schism. Yet they are not excluded in +consequence from community with the people of God, as in the +Chronicles: the old traditions are not thrown so completely +overboard as yet: only after the destruction of Samaria by the +Assyrians does Judah continue the history alone. Almost the same +reverence is paid to David and his house as to the city and the +temple. His house has the promise of eternal continuance, with +regard to which the writer likes to make use of the words of +Jeremiah xxxiii. 17. The book closes, doubtless not by chance, +with the liberation from prison of the Davidide Jehoiachin; this +is the earnest of greater things yet in store. In the words of +Abijah to Jeroboam, also, when he says that the humiliation of +the house of David and the revolt from it of the ten tribes will +not last for ever, we see the Messianic hope appear, which, as we +learn from Haggai and Zechariah, largely occupied the minds of +the Jews at the time of the exile and after it. + +In the case of the books of Judges and Samuel it is not perhaps +possible to decide with perfect certainty what was the norm +applied by the last reviser in forming his estimates of the past. +In the Books of Kings there can be no doubt on this point. The +writer deals not only in indefinite references to the will of +Jehovah, which Israel ought to obey, but resists; he speaks now +and again (1Kings ii. 3, 2Kings xiv. 6, xvii. 37) of the written +Torah in which the judgments and statutes of Jehovah are contained, +a difference which indicates, one must allow, a historical feeling. +Now the code which is implicitly regarded as the standard is that +the discovery of which under Josiah is circumstantially narrated +in 2Kings xxii. xxiii., viz., Deuteronomy. We are led to this +conclusion, it is allowed on all hands, both by the phraseology +of the reviser and by the spirit of his judgments. He condemns +those sins specially against which Deuteronomy and the reformation +of King Josiah were directed. And the one verbal quotation made +from the book of the Torah is from Deuteronomy (2Kings xiv. 6; +Deuteronomy xxiv. 16). On the other hand, there are clear signs +that the author of the revision was not acquainted with the +Priestly Code. Nowhere is any distinction drawn between priests +and Levites; the sons of Aaron are never mentioned. The idea of +a central sanctuary before Solomon is contradicted by 1Kings iii. +2. In one section only, a section which has been greatly exposed +to corrections and interpolations of all kinds, namely, the +description of the temple and its consecration, 1Kings vi.-viii., +do we meet with signs of the influence of the Priestly Code, +especially in the Massoretic text; in the Septuagint this is not +so much the case. The most important example of this has already +been investigated, p. 43, 44. + +If, accordingly, we are fully justified in calling the revision +Deuteronomistic, this means no more than that it came into +existence under the influence of Deuteronomy, which pervaded the +whole century of the exile. The difference between +Deuteronomistic and Deuteronomic is one not of time only but of +matter as well: /1/ Deuteronomy itself has not yet come to regard + +-- Footnote +1. Post-deuteronomic, but still from the time of the kings, are +1Samuel ii. 27 seq.; 2Samuel vii, 1 seq.; 2Kings xviii. 13, 17 +seq., xix. 1 seq.; chaps. xi. xii. xxi. xxiii. +-- Footnote + + +the cultus in this way as the chief end of Israel, and is much +closer to the realism of the actual life of the people. A +difference in detail which allows of easy demonstration is +connected with the mode of dating. The last reviser distinguishes +the months not by their old Hebrew names, Zif, Bul, Ethanim, but +by numbers, commencing with spring as the beginning of the year. +In this he differs not only from his older sources (1Kings vi. +37, 38, viii. 2), but also from Deuteronomy. + +VII.III.2. This revision is, as we expect to find, alien to the +materials it found to work on, so that it does violence to them. +They have been altered in particular by a very one-sided selection, +which is determined by certain religious views. In these views an +interest in the prophets mingles with the interest in worship. It +is not meant that the selection is due entirely to the last +reviser, though it is thoroughly according to his taste; others +had probably worked before him in this direction. But for us it +is neither possible nor important to distinguish the different +steps in the process of sifting through which the traditions of +the time of the kings had to pass. + +The culminating point of the whole book is the building of the +temple; almost all that is told about Solomon has reference to +it. This at once indicates to us the point of view; it is one +which dominates all Judaistic history: the history is that of +the temple rather than of the kingdom. The fortunes of the +sanctuary and its treasures, the institution and arrangements of +the kings with reference to worship--we are kept _au courant_ about +these, but about hardly anything else. The few detailed +narratives given (2Kings xi seq. xvi. xxii. seq.) have the +temple for their scene, and turn on the temple. Only in +<2Kings?> xviii. seq. does the prophetical interest +predominate. + +As for the kingdom of Israel, the statements about the cultus of +that state are very scanty and for the most part rather vague. +Here the prophetical narratives come to the front, generally such +as are told from the prophetic point of view, or at least tell of +the public appearances and acts of the prophets. Here and there +we are told of occasions on which the Northern kingdom came in +contact with Judah; here the Jewish feeling appears which dictated +the selection. What is merely historical, purely secular, is +communicated only in the scantiest measure: often there is +nothing but the names and succession of the kings. We learn +hardly anything about King Omri, the founder of the town of +Samaria and re-founder of the kingdom, who seems to have reduced +Judah also to the position of a dependent ally, nor do we learn +more about Jeroboam II., the last great ruler of Israel; while +the conflict with the Assyrians and the fall of Samaria are +despatched in a couple of verses which tell us scarcely anything +at all. Sometimes a brilliant breaks in on the surrounding night +(2Kings ix. x.), but after it we grope in the dark again. Only +so much of the old tradition has been preserved as those of a +later age held to be of religious value: it has lost its original +centre of gravity, and assumed an attitude which it certainly had +not at first. It may have been the case in Judah that the temple +was of more importance than the kingdom, but there can be no +doubt that the history of Israel was not entirely, not even +principally, the history of prophecy. The losses we have to +deplore must have affected the Israelitish tradition most +seriously. + +The damage done by the revision by its _positive_ meddling with +the materials as found in the sources, is not so irreparable; yet +it is considerable enough. The change of colour which was effected +may be best seen and characterised in the far-reaching +observations which introduce the Israelite series of kings; +"Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the +house of David; if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house +of Jehovah at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn +again to their rightful lord, and they will kill me, and become +subject again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took +counsel and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, Cease to +go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought +thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel +and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; for the +people went as one man, even unto Dan. And he made temples of +high places, and took priests from the midst of the people which +were not of the house of Levi; whomsoever he would he installed +as priest of the high places " (1Kings xii. 26-30, xiii. 33). +The perversion is scarcely so great as in Chronicles, but the +anachronism is sufficiently glaring in the mode of view +discernible in these reflections of Jeroboam, who appears to feel +that the Ephraimite kingdom was illegitimate in its origin and +could only be kept separate from the south by artificial means. +The blessing of Jacob and the blessing of Moses show us what the +sentiment of Northern Israel actually was. In the former Joseph +is called the crowned of his brethren, in the second we read +"His first-born bullock, full of majesty (the king), has the horns +of a buffalo, with which he thrusts down the peoples; these are the +ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh." +Whence came the charm of the name of Ephraim but from its being the +royal tribe, and the most distinguished representative of the proud +name of Israel? Of Judah we read in the same chapter, "Hear, +Jehovah, the voice of Judah, and bring him back to his people." +There can be no doubt what the people is to which Judah belongs: +we cannot but agree with Graf, that this tribe is here regarded as +the alienated member, and its reunion with the greater kingdom +spoken of as the desire of Judah itself, and this is not so +remarkable when we reflect that the part belongs to the whole +and not the whole to the part. Only by long experience did Judah +learn the blessing of a settled dynasty, and Ephraim the curse of +perpetual changes on the throne. + +Judah's power of attraction for the inhabitants of the Northern +Kingdom is thought to lie in the cultus of the Solomonic temple; +and Jeroboam is said to have tried to meet this by creating new +sanctuaries, a new form of the worship of Jehovah, and a new order +of priesthood. The features in which the Samaritan worship +differed from the Jewish pattern are represented as intentional +innovations of the first king, in whose sin posterity persisted. +But in making Bethel and Dan temples of the kingdom--that he set up +high places, is a statement which need not be considered--Jeroboam +did nothing more than Solomon had done before him; only he had +firmer ground under his feet than Solomon, Bethel and Dan being +old sanctuaries, which Jerusalem was not. The golden calves, +again, which he set up, differed in their gold but not in their +object from the ephods and idols of other kinds which were +everywhere to be found in the older "houses of God"; e.g. from +the brazen serpent at Jerusalem. /l/ + +-- Footnote +1. "Although Jeroboam had lived in Egypt, it would he wrong to say +that he brought animal worship with him from that country, as +wrong as to regard Aaron's golden calf as a copy of Apis. The +peculiarity of the animal-worship of Egypt, and of its +bull-worship in particular, was that sanctity was attributed to +_living_ animals." Vatke, p. 398. Egyptian gods cannot help +against Egypt, Exodus xxxii. 4; 1Kings xii. 28. +-- Footnote + + +Even Eichhorn remarked with force and point, that though Elijah +and Elisha protested against the imported worship of Baal of Tyre, +they were the actual champions of the Jehovah of Bethel and Dan, +and did not think of protesting against His pictorial +representation; even Amos makes no such protest, Hosea is the +first who does so. As for the non-Levitical priests whom the king +is said to have installed, all that is necessary has been said on +this subject above (p. 138 seq.). + +A remarkable criticism on this estimate of the Samaritan worship +follows immediately afterwards in the avowal that that of Judah +was not different at the time, at any rate not better. In the +report of Rehoboam's reign we read (1Kings xiv. 22 seq.): + +"They of Judah also set up high places and pillars on every high +hill, and under every green tree, and whoredom at sacred places +was practiced in the land." + +This state of things continued to exist, with some fluctuations, +till near the time of the exile. If then the standard according +to which Samaria is judged never attained to reality in Judah +either, it never existed in ancient Israel at all. We know the +standard is the book of the law of Josiah: but we see how the +facts were not merely judged, but also framed, in accordance +with it. + +One more instance is worthy of mention in this connection. King +Solomon, we are told, had, besides the daughter of Pharaoh, many +foreign wives, from Moab, Ammon, and other peoples, intermarriage +with whom Jehovah had forbidden (Deuteronomy xvii 17). And when he was +old, they seduced him to the worship of their gods, and he +erected on the Mount of Olives at Jerusalem high places for +Chemosh of Moab, and for Milcom of Ammon, and for the gods of his +other wives. As a punishment for this Jehovah announced to him +that his kingdom should be torn from him after his death and given +to his servant, and also raised up adversaries to him, in Hadad +the Edomite, who freed Edom, and in the Syrian Rezon teen Eliadah, +who made Damascus independent. And by the prophet Abijah of +Shiloh, he caused the Ephraimite Jeroboam, who then had the +supervision of the forced labour of the house of Joseph in the +fortification of the city of David, to be nominated as the future +king of the ten tribes. So we read in 1Kings xi. But Edom, and, +as it appears, Damascus as well, broke away from the kingdom of +David immediately after his death (xi. 2I seq., 25); and the +fortification of the citadel, in which Jeroboam was employed when +incited to revolt by Abijah, though it falls somewhat later, yet +belongs to the first half of Solomon's reign, since it is +connected with the rest of his buildings (ix. 15, 24). Now +Solomon cannot have been punished by anticipation, in his youth, +for an offence which he only committed in his old age, and the +moral connected with these events is contradicted by chronology +and cannot possibly be ascribed to the original narrator. The +Deuteronomistic revision betrays itself, in fact, in every word +of xi. 1-13. To the original tradition belongs only the mention +of the many wives--without the reprobation attached to it,--and +the statement about the building of the altars of Chemosh and +Milcom and perhaps Astarte, on the Mount of Olives, where they +stood till the time of Josiah (2Kings xxiii. 13). The connection +of the two events, in the relation of cause and effect, belongs to +the last editor, as well as the general statement that the king +erected altars of the gods of all the nationalities represented by +his wives. + +In the Books of Kings, it is true, the tradition is not +systematically translated into the mode of view of the Law, as +is the case in Chronicles. What reminds us most strongly of +Chronicles is the introduction from time to time of a prophet who +expresses himself in the spirit of Deuteronomy and in the +language of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and then disappears. /l/ + +-- Footnote +1. Cf. Kuenen, Profeten onder Israel (1875), ii. p. 143; English +translation (1877), p 398. One of these Deuteronomistic prophecies +is cited above, p. 275. They are in part anonymous, e.g, 2Kings +x. 30, xxi. 10 seq, in part connected with old names, e.g 1Kings +xvi. 1 seq. In many instances no doubt the reviser found +flints in his sources and worked them out in his own style; thus, +1Kings xiv. 7 seq., xxi 21 seq. 2Kings ix. 7 seq. In these +passages the Deuteronomistic ideas and the phraseology of +Jeremiah and Ezekiel are distinctly present [ HNNY MBY) R(h ], but +detached expressions of an original type also occur,--which, it is +true, are then constantly repeated, e.g. (CWN W(ZWB. Names, +too, like Jehu ben Hanani, are certainly not fictitious: we are +not so far advanced as in Chronicles. Cf. 1Samuel ii. 27 seq.; +2Samuel vii. 1 seq. +-- Footnote + + +In this way the Law is introduced into the history in a living +way; the prophets keep it effective and see it applied, according +to the principle stated, 2Kings xvii. 13, which is founded on +Jeremiah vii. 25; Deuteronomy xviii. 18: +"Jehovah testified to them by all the prophets and seers saying, +Turn ye from your evil ways and keep my commandments and statutes, +according to all the Torah which I commanded your fathers and which +I sent unto you by my servants the prophets." +The most unblushing example of this kind, a piece which, for historical +worthlessness may compare with Judges xix.-xxi. or 1Samuel vii. seq., +or even stands a step lower, is 1Kings xiii. A man of God from Judah +here denounces the altar of Bethel, at which King Jeroboam is in the +act of offering sacrifice, in these terms: + +"O altar, altar, behold a son shall be born to the house of David, +Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the +high places, that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be +burned upon thee." + +And to guarantee the truth of this prophecy, to be fulfilled three +hundred years afterwards, he gives the sign that the altar shall +burst asunder, and the ashes of the sacrifice upon it be poured +out--which at once takes place. This legend, however, does not +really belong to the Deuteronomist, but is a still later +addition, as is easily to be seen from the fact that the sentence +xii. 31 is only completed at xiii. 34. It deserves remark that +in the two verses which introduce the thirteenth chapter, xii. 32 +seq., the feast of tabernacles is fixed, in accordance with the +Priestly Code, as the 15th of the 7th month. + +VII.III.3. In this case also we are able to discern considerable +shades and gradations in the sources the reviser had at command. +In the Books of Kings for the first time we meet with a series of +short notices which arrest attention, in the surroundings they are +in, by their brevity and directness of statement and the terseness +of their form, and have the semblance of contemporary records. In +spite of their looseness of arrangement these form the real basis +of our connected knowledge of the period; and the religious +chronological framework is regularly filled in with them (e.g. +1Kings xiv.-xvi.); their loose connection and neutral tone made +it specially easy for later editors to interweave with them +additions of their own, as has actually been done to no small +extent. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The passage discussed above, 1Kings xi. 1 seq., gives a good +example of this; we at once pick out the terse )z ybnh wgw'' from +the barren diffuseness surrounding it. +-- Footnote + + +These valuable notes commence even with Solomon, though here they +are largely mixed with anecdotic chaff. They are afterwards found +principally, almost exclusively, in the series of Judah. Several +precise dates point to something of the nature of annals, /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. 5th of Rehoboam (1Kings xiv. 25); 23rd of Jehoash (2Kings xii, +6); 14th of Hezekiah (2Kings xviii. 13); 18th of Josiah (2Kings +xxii. 3); 4th and 5th of Solomon (1Kings vi. 37, 38). These +dates occur, it is true, partly in circumstantial Jewish +narratives, but these are intimately related to the brief notices +spoken of above, and appear to be based on them. It may be +surmised that such definite numbers, existing at one time in much +greater abundance, afforded the data for an approximate +calculation of the figures on which the systematic chronology is +built up. These single dates at any rate are not themselves +parts of the system. The same is true of the statements of the +age of the Jewish kings when they ascended the throne. These +also perhaps go back to the "Annals." The )Z is found 1Kings iii. +16, viii. 1, 12, ix. 11, xi. 7, xvi. 21, xxii. 50; 2Kings +viii. 22, xii. 18, xiv. 8, xv. 16, xvi. 5. +-- Footnote + + +and with these the characteristic then might be thought to be +connected, which frequently introduces the short sentences, and +as it now stands is generally meaningless. In what circles these +records were made, we can scarcely even surmise. Could we be +certain that the reference to the royal temple of Judah, which is +a prevailing feature of them, is due not to selection at a later +time but to the interest of the first hands, we should be led to +think of the priesthood at Jerusalem. The loyalist, perfectly +official tone would agree very well with this theory, for the +sons of Zadok were, down to Josiah's time, nothing else than the +obedient servants of the successors of David, and regarded the +unconditional authority claimed by these kings over their +sanctuary as a matter of course (2Kings xvi. TO seq., xii. 18). +These notices, however, as we have them, are not drawn from the +documents themselves, but from a secondary compilation, perhaps +from the two sets of chronicles cited at the end of each reign of the +kings of Israel and those of Judah, from which at all events the +succession of the rulers appears to the drawn. These chronicles +are not to be identified, it is clear, with the original annals. +The _book_ of the annals must be distinguished from the Dibre-hajamim +themselves. Whether the chronicle of Israel_-hardly anything out +of which is communicated to us--was composed much earlier than the +chronicle of Judah (which seems to close with Jehoiachim), and +whether it and the chronicle of Solomon (1Kings xi. 41) are a +quite independent work, I am inclined to consider doubtful. + +The excerpts from the annals are interrupted by more extensive +episodes which are interwoven with them, and are also embraced in +the Deuteronomistic scheme. Of these the Jewish ones are the +minority, the greater part are Samaritan, but they all belong to +a very limited period of time. I select the miraculous history +of Elijah as an example of these, to show the sentiment and the +change of sentiment in this instance also. + +The prophet Elijah, from Tishbeh in Gilead, appears before King +Ahab of Samaria, and says, + +"By the life of Jehovah the God of Israel, whom I serve, there +shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word." + +The story begins abruptly; we require to know that Ahab, stirred +up by Jezebel, has been propagating in Israel the worship of the +Tyrian Baal, and has killed the prophets of Jehovah by hundreds: +this is the reason of the punishment which comes on him and his +land (xviii. 13, 22). Elijah vanishes as suddenly as he appeared. +We find him again at the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan; +then in the land of Baal with a widow at Zarepta; while following +his fortunes we are made to feel in a simple and beautiful way +the severity of the famine. Ahab in the meantime had sent out +messengers to take him, and had required of every state to which +the vain search had extended, an oath that he was not to be found +there. Now, however, necessity obliged him to think of other +things; he had to go out himself with his minister Obadiah to +seek fodder for the still remaining war-horses (Amos vii. 1). In +this humiliating situation he all at once met the banished man. +He did not believe his eyes. "Is it thou, O troubler of Israel?" + +"I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house!" + +After this greeting Elijah challenged the king to institute a +contest between the 450 prophets of Baal, and him, the only +prophet of Jehovah left remaining. A trial by sacrifice took +place on Mount Carmel before the whole people. Each party was to +prepare a bullock and lay it on the altar without setting fire to +the wood; and the divinity who should answer by fire was the +true God. The prophets of Baal came first and sought after their +own manner to influence their deity. They shouted and leapt +wildly, wounded themselves with swords and lances till they were +covered with blood, and kept up their raving ecstasy from morning +till mid-day, and from mid-day till evening. During this time +Elijah looked at them and mocked them, saying, "Cry louder, for he +is a god; either he is talking, or he is somehow engaged, or he +is asleep and must be awaked." At last his turn came; he repaired +the altar of Jehovah, which was broken down, spread the pieces of +the sacrifice upon it, and, to make the miracle still more +miraculous, caused them to be flooded two or three times with +water. Then he prayed to Jehovah, and fire fell from heaven, and +consumed the sacrifice. The people, up to this point divided in +their mind, now took the side of the zealot for Jehovah, laid hold +of the prophets of Baal, and slaughtered them down below at the +brook. A great storm of rain at once came to refresh the land. + +This triumph of Elijah was only a prelude. When Jezebel heard +what had happened she swore vengeance against him, and he fled for +his life to Beersheba in Judah, the sanctuary of Isaac. Wearied +to death he lay down under a juniper-bush in the wilderness, and +with the prayer, It is enough: now, O Jehovah, take away my +life, he fell asleep. Then he was strengthened with miraculous +food by a heavenly messenger, and bidden to go to Horeb, the +mount of God. He arrived there after a long journey, and withdrew +into a cave; a rushing wind sweeps past; the wind and the +earthquake and the lightning are the forerunners of Jehovah; and +after them He comes Himself in the low whispering that follows the +storm. His head covered, Elijah steps out of the cave and hears a +voice ask what ails him. Having poured out his heart, he receives +the divine consolation that his cause is by no means lost; that +the direst vengeance, the instruments of which he is himself to +summon to their task, is to go forth on all the worshippers of +Baal, and that those 7000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal +shall gain the day--"Thou shalt anoint Hazael to be King over +Damascus, and Jehu ben Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be +iiing over Israel, and Elisha ben Shaphat to be prophet in thy +room; and him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, +and him that escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay." +The account of the execution of these commands by Elijah is at +present wanting; we shall soon see why it was omitted. The +conclusion of chapter xix. only tells us that he called Elisha +from the plough to follow him. Of the account of the judgment +which overtook the worshippers of Baal, this group of +narratives contains only the beginning, in chapter xxi. Ahab +wanted to have a vineyard which was situated beside his palace in +Jezreel, his favourite residence: but Naboth, the owner, was +unwilling to enter on a sale or an exchange. The king was angry, +yet thought he could do no more in the matter; but Jezebel of +Tyre had other notions of might and right and said to him, + +"Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? be of good courage; +I will get thee the vineyard." + +She wrote a letter to the authorities of the town, and got Naboth +put out of the way by means of corrupt judges. As Ahab was just +going to take possession of the vineyard which had fallen into his +hands, his enemy came upon him. The prophet Elijah, always on the +spot at the right moment, hurled the word at him, + +"Hast thou killed and also taken possession? Behold, in the place +where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood also." + +Here this story breaks off. What follows is not the true continuation. + +The thread of the narrative xvii.-xix. xxi. is also broken off +here, without reaching its proper conclusion. The victory of +Jehovah over Baal, of the prophet over the king, is wanting; the +story of Naboth is, as we said, only the introduction to it. We +are sufficiently informed about the facts, but in form the +narratives do not answer to the announcement in chapter xix. and +xxi.; they are drawn from other sources. According to xix. 1 7 +the Syrian wars ought to result in vengeance on the worshippers of +Baal, and specially on the idolatrous royal house; but in the +narrative of the wars (1Kings xx. xxii. 2Kings vii. ix. ) +this point of view does not prevail. On the contrary, Ahab and +Joram there maintain themselves in a manly and honourable way +against the superior power of Damascus it is ONLY AFTER the +extirpation of Baal worship under Jehu that affairs took an +unfortunate turn, and Hazael, who brought about this change, was +not anointed by Elijah but by Elisha (2Kings viii. 7 seq.) /.l/ + +-- Footnote +1. The same applies to Jehu (2Kings ix. 1 seq.). This is the +reason of the above remarked omission after 1Kings xix. 21: cf. +Thenius's commentary. +-- Footnote + + +The massacre at Jezreel, too, which is predicted in the threat of +1Kings xxi. 19, would need to be told otherwise than in 2Kings ix. +x., to form a proper literary sequel to the story of Naboth. +According to 1Kings xxi. 19 the blood of Ahab is to be shed at +Jezreel; according to 2Kings ix. 25 his son's blood was shed there, +to avenge Naboth. It is true, the explanation is appended in xxi. +27-29, that, as the king took to heart the threats of Elijah, +Jehovah made a supplementary communication to the prophet that +the threat against Ahab's house would only be fulfilled in the +days of his son; but who does not see in this an attempt to +harmonise conflicting narratives? /2/ A whole series of + +-- Footnote +2 In spite of xxi. 27-29, an attempt is made at xxii. 38 to show +that the threat was fulfilled in Ahab himself. We are told that +Ahab was shot in his chariot and that his servants brought his +body from Ramoth-Gilead to bury it there. Then we read xxii. 38 +"and they washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs +licked up his blood, and the harlots bathed in it, according to +the word of Jehovah." +Thus it is explained how the dogs were able to lick his blood in +Samaria, though it had had plenty of time to dry up after the +battle! The fact was unfortunately over-looked that according +to xxi. 19 the dogs were to lick the blood of Ahab not at Samaria +but at Jezreel, the place of Naboth. The verse xxii. 38 is an +interpolation which does credit to Jewish acuteness. +-- Footnote + + +subordinate discrepancies might be mentioned, which prove that +2Kings ix. x. does not look back to the story of the murder of +Naboth as told in 1Kings xxi. According to ix. 25, 26, the dispute +was not about the vineyard, but about the field of Naboth, which +lay some distance from the town. His family was put to death +along with him, and on the following day, when Ahab rode out IN +COMPANY WITH JEHU and Ben Deker to take possession of the field, +the word of the prophet (not framed so specially against him +personally) met him: "Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of +Naboth and of his sons, and I will requite it in this plat." + +With the help of these other accounts, among which there is a +considerable group of uniform character (1Kings xx. xxii. 2Kings +iii. vi. 24-xii. 20. ix. 1-x. 27) favourably distinguished +from the rest, we are placed in a position to criticise the history +of Elijah, and to reach a result which is very instructive for +the history of the tradition, namely that the influence of the +mighty prophet on his age has after all been appraised much too +highly. His reputation could not be what it is but for the wide +diffusion of Baal worship in Israel: and this is not a little +exaggerated. Anything like a suppression of the national religion +at the time of Elijah is quite out of the question, and there is +no truth in the statement that the prophets of Jehovah were entirely +extirpated at the time and Elijah alone left surviving. The +prophetic guilds at Bethel, Jericho, and Gilgal continued without +any interruption. In the Syrian wars prophets of Jehovah stand by +the side of Ahab; before his last campaign there are four hundred +of them collected in his capital, one of them at least long known +to the king as a prophet of evil, but left alive before and left +alive now, though he persisted in his disagreeable practices. Of +the sons whom Jezebel bore him, Ahab called one Ahaziah, i.e. +Jehovah holds, and another Jehoram, i.e. Jehovah is exalted: he +adhered to Jehovah as the god of Israel, though to please his wife +he founded at Samaria a temple and a cultus of the Syrian goddess. +This being so, Elijah's contest with Baal cannot have possessed +the importance attributed to it from the point of view of a later time. +In the group of popular narratives above referred to, there is no +trace of a religious commotion that tore Israel asunder: the whole +strength of the people is absorbed in the Syrian wars. The kings +are the prominent figures, and do well and according to their office +in battle: Elijah stands in the background. From several indications, +though from no direct statements, we learn of the high esteem which +Ahab enjoyed from friend and foe alike (xx. 3I, xxii. 32-34 seq.). +Joram also, and even Jezebel, are drawn not without sympathy (2Kings +vi. 30, ix. 31). We can scarcely say the same of Jehu, the murderer, +instigated by the prophets, of the house of Ahab (2Kings ix. 10). + +It is the fact, certainly, that the prophets' hatred of Baal +succeeded at last in overturning the dynasty of Omri. But in +what manner was this done? At a time when King Joram was +prevented by a wound he had received from being with his army in +the field, a messenger of Elisha went to the camp, called the +captain apart from a banquet at which he found him, to a secret +interview, and anointed him king. When Jehu returned to his +comrades at their wine, they asked him what that mad fellow had +wanted, and, his evasive answers failing to satisfy them, he told +them the truth. They at once raised him on an improvised throne, +and caused the trumpets to proclaim him king: they were quite +ready for such an exploit, not that they cared in the least for +"that mad fellow." Jehu justified their confidence by his +astounding mastery in treachery and bloodshed, but he placed his +reliance entirely on the resources of his own talent for murder. +He was not borne along by any general movement against the dynasty; +the people, which he despised (x. 9), stood motionless and horrified +at the sight of the crimes which came so quickly one after another; +even a hundred years afterwards the horror at the massacre of Jezreel +still lived (Hosea i. 4). The crown once gained, the reckless +player showed his gratitude to the fanatics, and sent the priests +and worshippers of Baal after the priests of Jehovah whom he had +slaughtered along with all belonging to the royal house (x. 11). +The manner in which he led them into the snare (x. 18 seq.) shows +that no one had thought before this of regarding him as the +champion of Jehovah; and even at this time his zeal was manifestly +only ostensible: he was not fighting for an idea (x. 15. +seq.). Thus we see that Baal did not bring about the fall of +the house of Ahab, but common treason; the zealots employed for +their purposes a most unholy instrument, which employed them in +turn as a holy instrument for its purposes; they did not +succeed in rousing the people to a storm against Baal, far from it. +The execution of Naboth seems to have excited greater indignation: +it was a crime against morals, not against religion. Even in the +history of Elijah the admission is made that this struggle +against Baal, in spite of his sacrificial victory on Carmel, was +in the end without result, and that only the judicial murder of +Naboth brought about a change in the popular sentiment. But +according to 2Kings ix. 25, this murder proved a momentous event, +not because it led, as we should expect, to a popular agitation, +but from the fortuitous circumstance that Jehu was a witness of the +never-to-be-forgotten scene between Ahab and Elijah, and seemed +therefore to the prophets to be a fit person to carry out his +threatenings. + +It is certainly the case that the grand figure of Elijah could not +have been drawn as we have it except from the impression produced +by a real character. /1/ But it is too much torn away from the + +-- Footnote +1. The distance of the narrator is not so very great in point of +time from the events he deals with. He is a North-Israelite, as +the )#R LYHWDH of xix. 3 shows: this may also be gathered from +xix. 8 compared with Deuteronomy i. 2. A man of Judah could not +easily make so considerable a mistake about the distance, though +we have to remember that with this narrator the situation of +Horeb can scarcely have been that which we have long been +accustomed to assume. Another sign of antiquity is the way in +which Elijah is represented as combating Baal in Israel, and in +the land of Sidon associating with the worshippers of Baal on the +most friendly terms (Luke iv. 25 seq.). +-- Footnote + + +historical position it belongs to, and is thereby magnified to +colossal proportions. It may be said of this class of narratives +generally, that the prophets are brought too much into the foreground +in them, as if they had been even in their lifetime the principal +force of Israelite history, and as if the influence which moved +them had ruled and pervaded their age as well. That was not the case; +in the eyes of their contemporaries they were completely overshadowed +by the kings; only to later generations did they become the principal +personages. They were important ideally, and influenced the future +rather than the present; but this was not enough, a real tangible +importance is attributed to them. In the time of Ahab and Jehu the +Nebiim were a widespread body, and organised in orders of their own, +but were not highly respected; the average of them were miserable +fellows, who ate out of the king's hand and were treated with disdain +by members of the leading classes. Amos of Tekoa, who, it is true, +belonged to a younger generation, felt it an insult to be counted +one of them. Elijah and Elisha rose certainly above the level of +their order; but the first, whose hands remained pure, while he no +doubt produced a great impression at the time by his fearless words, +effected nothing against the king, and quite failed to draw the +people over to his side: while Elisha, who did effect something, +made use of means which could not bear the light, and which attest +rather the weakness than the strength of prophecy in Israel. + +VII.III.4. Let us conclude by summing up the results to which we +have been led by our eclectic pilgrimage through the historical +books. What in the common view appears to be the specific character +of Israelite history, and has chiefly led to its being called sacred +history, rests for the most part on a later re-painting of the +original picture. The discolouring influences begin early. I do +not reckon among these the entrance of mythical elements, such as +are not wanting even in the first beginnings to which we can trace +the course of the tradition, nor the inevitable local colour, +which is quite a different thing from tendency. I think only of +that uniform stamp impressed on the tradition by men who regarded +history exclusively from the point of view of their own +principles. Here we observe first a religious influence, which in +the Books of Samuel and Kings turns out to be the prophetical +one. The view appears to me erroneous that it is to the prophets +that the Hebrew people owe their history as a whole. The song, +Judges v., though perhaps the oldest historical monument in the Old +Testament, cannot be cited in support of that view, for even if it +were actually composed by Deborah, the seer stands in no connection +with the prophets. Least of all can the colleges of the B'ne Nebiim +at Gilgal and other places be regarded as nurseries of historic +tradition: the products which are to be traced to these circles +betray a somewhat narrow field of vision (2Kings ii., iv. 1-6, 23). +The prophets did not form the tradition at first, but came after, +shedding upon it their peculiar light. Their interest in history +was not so great that they felt it necessary to write it down; +they only infused their own spirit into it subsequently. + +But the systematic recoining of the tradition was only effected +when a firmer stamp had become available than the free ideas of +the prophets, the will of God having been formulated in writing. +When this point was reached, no one could fail to see the +discrepancy between the ideal commencement, which was now sought +to be restored as it stood in the book, and the succeeding +development. The old books of the people, which spoke in the most +innocent way of the most objectionable practices and +institutions, had to be thoroughly remodelled according to the +Mosaic form, in order to make them valuable, digestible, and +edifying, for the new generation. A continuous revision of them +was made, not only in the Chronicles, at the beginning of the +Greek domination, but, as we have seen in this chapter, even in +the Babylonian exile. The style of the latter revision differed +from that of the former. In Chronicles the past is remodelled on +the basis of the law: transgressions take place now and then, but +as exceptions from the rule. In the Books of Judges, Samuel, and +Kings, the fact of the radical difference of the old practice from +the law is not disputed. In these works also the past is in some +cases remodelled on the basis of the ideal, but as a rule it is +simply condemned. That is one difference; another has to be +added which is of far greater importance. In the Chronicles the +pattern according to which the history of ancient Israel is +represented is the Pentateuch, i.e. the Priestly Code. In the +source of Chronicles, in the older historical books, the revision +does not proceed upon the basis of the Priestly Code, which indeed +is completely unknown to them, but on the basis of Deuteronomy. +Thus in the question of the order of sequence of the two great +bodies of laws, the history of the tradition leads us to the same +conclusion as the history of the cultus. + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE NARRATIVE OF THE HEXATEUCH. + +In the historical books the tradition is developed by means of +supplement and revision; double narratives occur here and there, +but not great parallel pieces of connected matter side by side. +In the Hexateuch additions and supplements have certainly taken +place on the most extensive scale, but the significant feature +is here that continuous narratives which can and must be understood +each by itself are woven together in a double or threefold cord. +Critics have shown a disposition, if not in principle yet in fact, +to take the independence of these so-called sources of the Hexateuch +as if it implied that in point of matter also each is a distinct +and independent source. But this is, even _a priori_, very +improbable. Even in the case of the prophets who received their +word from the Lord the later writer knows and founds upon the earlier +one. How much more must this be the case with narrators whose +express business is with the tradition? Criticism has not done +its work when it has completed the mechanical distribution; it +must aim further at bringing the different writings when thus +arranged into relation with each other, must seek to render them +intelligible as phases of a living process, and thus to make it +possible to trace a graduated development of the tradition. + +The striking agreement of the different works, not only in +matter, but in their arrangement of the narratives, makes the +office of criticism as now described not less but more necessary. +There is no primitive legend, it is well known, so well knit as the +biblical one, and thus it is no wonder that it became the frame +for many others and infused into them some of its own colour. +This connection is common in its main features to all the sources +alike. The Priestly Code runs, as to its historical thread, +quite parallel to the Jehovist history. This alone made it +possible to interfuse the two writings as we now have them in the +Pentateuch. That this was not done altogether without violence +is less to be wondered at than that the violence which was done +is so small, and particularly that the structure of each writing +is left almost unimpaired. This can only be explained from the +intimate agreement of the two works in point of plan. When the +subject treated is not history but legends about pre-historic +times, the arrangement of the materials does not come with the +materials themselves, but must arise out of the plan of a +narrator: even the architecture of the generations, which forms +the scaffolding of Genesis, is not inseparably bound up with the +matters to be disposed of in it. From the mouth of the people +there comes nothing but the detached narratives, which may or may +not happen to have some bearing on each other: to weave them +together in a connected whole is the work of the poetical or +literary artist. Thus the agreement of the sources in the plan +of the narrative is not a matter of course, but a matter requiring +explanation, and only to be explained on the ground of the +literary dependence of one source on the other. The question how +this relation of dependence is to be defined is thus a much more +pressing one than is commonly assumed. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The agreement extends not only to the thread of the narrative, +but also to particulars, and even to expressions. I do not speak +of _mabbul_ (flood), or _tebah_ (ark), but the following examples +have struck me:-In Q Genesis vi. 9, Noah is said to be _righteous +in his generations_, in J E vii. 1 he is _righteous in his generation_-- +an unusual form of speech, which gave a vast amount of trouble to +the Rabbins and to Jerome. Similarly Q Genesis xvii. 21, _the son +whom Sarah shall bear at this set time next year_, and JE xviii. 14: +_at the same time I will come to thee again next year, and then +Sarah shall have a son_. In the same way Q Exodus vi. 12 vii. 1. +(Moses) _I am of uncircumcised lips_. (Jehovah) _See, I make thee +a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet_; +compared with JE iv. 10, 16. (Moses) _I am slow of speech, and of +a slow tongue_; (Jehovah) _Aaron shall be to thee instead of a mouth, +and thou shalt be to him instead of God_. Comp. Genesis xxvii. 46, +with xxv: 22. +-- Footnote + + +This, however, is not the place to attempt a history of the +development of the Israelite legend. We are only to lay the +foundation for such a work, by comparing the narrative of the +Priestly Code with the Jehovistic one. In doing so we shall see +that Buttmann (Mythologus, i. p. 122 seq.) is right in asserting +against de Wette (Beitraege, ii.), that, the Jehovistic form of the +legend is the earlier of the two . /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. The line indicated by Buttmann was first taken up again by +Th. Noldeke in his Essay on the main-stock of the Pentateuch, +which opened the way to a proper estimate of the narrative part +of the work. +-- Footnote + + +VIII.I. + +VIII.I.1 The Bible begins with the account of the Priestly Code of the +creation of the world. In the beginning is chaos; darkness, +water, brooding spirit, which engenders life, and fertilises the +dead mass. The primal stuff contains in itself all beings, as yet +undistinguished: from it proceeds step by step the ordered +world; by a process of unmixing, first of all by separating out +the great elements. The chaotic primal gloom yields to the +contrast of light and darkness; the primal water is separated by +the vault of heaven into the heavenly water, out of which there +grows the world above the firmament which is withdrawn from our +gaze, and the water of the earth: the latter, a slimy mixture, is +divided into land and sea, whereupon the land at once puts on its +green attire. The elements thus brought into existence, light, +heaven, water, land, are then enlivened, pretty much in the order +in which they were created, with individual beings; to the light +correspond the lamps of the stars, fishes to the water, to the +heaven the birds of heaven, and the other creatures to the land. +The last act of creation is markedly emphasised. "And God said: +Let us make man after our likeness; and let them have dominion +over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over +the cattle, and over all the living creatures of the earth, and +over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God +created man after His own image, in the image of God created He +him, and He created them male and female. And God blessed them, +and said: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and +subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over +the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon +the face of the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given unto +you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the +earth, and every tree with seed-fruits: to you it shall be for +food: and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the +air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there +is life, I have given the green herb for meat. Thus the heavens +and the earth were made and all the host of them, and on the +seventh day God ended His work, and blessed the seventh day, and +hallowed it." (Genesis i. 1-ii. 4a). + +It is commonly said that the aim of this narrative is a purely +religious one. The Israelite certainly does not deny himself in +it: the religious spirit with which it is penetrated even comes +at some points into conflict with the nature of its materials. +The notion of chaos is that of uncreated matter; here we find +the remarkable idea that it is created in the beginning by God. +Brooded over by the Spirit, it is further of a nature for development +to take place out of it, and the trait that the creation is +represented throughout as a separation of elements which in chaos +were mixed together, betrays even now the original design: but +in the Hebrew narrative the immanent Spirit has yielded to the +transcendent God, and the principle of evolution is put aside in +favour of the fiat of creation. Yet for all this the aim of the +narrator is not mainly a religious one. Had he only meant to say +that God made the world out of nothing, and made it good, he could +have said so in simpler words, and at the same time more distinctly. +There is no doubt that he means to describe the actual course of +the genesis of the world, and to be true to nature in doing so; +he means to give a cosmogonic theory. Whoever denies this confounds +two different things--the value of history for us, and the aim of the +writer. While our religious views are or seem to be in conformity +with his, we have other ideas about the beginning of the world, +because we have other ideas about the world itself, and see in the +heavens no vault, in the stars no lamps, nor in the earth the +foundation of the universe. But this must not prevent us from +recognising what the theoretical aim of the writer of Genesis i. +really was. He seeks to deduce things as they are from each +other: he asks how they are likely to have issued at first from +the primal matter, and the world he has before his eyes in doing +this is not a mythical world but the present and ordinary one. + +The pale colour which generally marks the productions of the +earliest reflection about nature, when they are not mythical +theories, is characteristic of Genesis i. also. We are indeed +accustomed to regard this first leaf of the Bible as surrounded +with all the charm that can be derived from the combination of high +antiquity and childlike form. lt would be vain to deny the +exalted ease and the uniform greatness that give the narrative its +character. The beginning especially is incomparable: "The +earth was without form and void, and darkness lay upon the deep, +and the Spirit of God moved upon the water. Then God said: Let +there be light, and there was light." But chaos being given, all +the rest is spun out of it: all that follows is reflection, +systematic construction; we can easily follow the calculation +from point to point. The considerations are very simple which +lead the writer to make first what is great appear, and then what +is small; first the foundation and then that which exists upon it, +the water before the fishes, heaven before the birds of heaven, +land and plants before the animals. The arrangement of the things +to be explained stands here for the explanation; there is nothing +more than a succession which proceeds from the simple to the +complicated; there is no effort of fancy to describe the process +more closely; everywhere cautious consideration which shrinks +from going beyond generalities. Only the framework of creation, +in fact, is given; it is not filled up. Hence also the form of +the whole, the effect of which cannot be reproduced in an epitome; +the formula gets the better of the contents, and instead of +descriptions our ears are filled with logical definitions. The +graduated arrangement in separating particular things out of chaos +indicates the awakening of a "natural" way of looking at nature, +and of a reasoned reflection about natural objects, just as this +is manifest in the attempts of Thales and his successors, which +are also remarkable as beginnings of the theory of nature and of +an objective interest in the things of the outer world, but further +than this do not exactly rouse us to enthusiasm. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. "There is nothing whatever in the piece that merits the name of +invention but the chronological order of the various creations." +Buttmann, p. 133. +-- Footnote + + +The first sentence of the Jehovistic account of the beginning of +the world's history has been cut off by the reviser. [It was +all a dry waste] when Jehovah formed the earth, and nowhere did +the green herb spring up, for Jehovah had not yet caused it to +rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. +But a mist (?) went up out of the earth, and watered the face of +the ground. And Jehovah formed man of the dust of the ground, and +breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Then he planted a +garden far to the eastward in Eden, in the place where the four +chief rivers of the earth part asunder from their common source; +there grow among other fine trees the tree of life and the tree of +knowledge. In this garden Jehovah placed the man, to dress it and +keep it and to eat of all the trees, forbidding him to eat of the +fruit of the tree of knowledge only. But the man is utterly +alone in his garden: he must have company that is suitable for +him. So Jehovah first forms the beasts, if perchance the man will +associate with them and make friends with them. He brings them to +him one after another to see what impression they make on him, +and what the man will call them. He calls them by their right +names, ox, ass, bear, thus expressing his feeling that he finds +in them nothing relate to himself, and Jehovah has to seek other +counsel. Then he forms the woman out of a rib of the sleeping man, +and causes him to awake. Wearied as it were by all the fruitless +experiments with the beasts, the man cries out delighted when he +looks at the woman: This surely is flesh of my flesh and bone of +my bone; she may be called wo-man. + +Thus the scene is drawn, the persons introduced, and an action +secretly prepared: now the tragedy begins, which ends with the +expulsion of man from the garden. Seduced by the serpent, man +stretches out his hand after the food which is forbidden him, in +order to become like God, and eats of the tree of knowledge. The +first consequence of this is the beginning of dress, the first step +in civilisation; other and sadder consequences soon follow. In +the evening the man and his wife hear Jehovah walking in the +garden; they hide before Him, and by doing so betray +themselves. It is useless to think of denying what has taken +place, and as each of them puts the blame on the other, they show +themselves one after the other to be guilty. The sentence of the +judge concludes the investigation. The serpent is to creep on its +belly, to eat dust, and to perish in the unequal contest with man. +The woman is to bear many children with sorrow, and to long for +the man, who yet will be her tyrant. The principal curse is +directed against the man. "Cursed be the ground for thy sake: in +sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns +also and thistles shall it bring forth to, thee, and thou shalt +eat the herb of the field, till thou return unto the ground, for +out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt +thou return." Sentence being thus spoken, Jehovah prepares the man +and woman for their future life by making coats of skins to dress +them with. Then turning to His celestial company, "Behold," He +says, "the man is become like one of us to know good and evil; +and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of +life, and eat, and live for ever." With these words he drives man +out of Paradise, and places before it the cherubs, and the flaming +sword, which turns every way, to keep the way of the tree of +Life (Genesis i. 4b-iii. 24). + +The gloomiest view of life as it now is, lies at the root of this +story. Man's days are mere hardship and labour and task-work, a +task-work with no prospect of relief, for the only reward of it +is that he returns to the earth from which he was taken. No +thought appears of any life AFTER death, and life WITHOUT death +might have been, but has been forfeited, now the cherub guards +the approach to the tree of life, of which man might have eaten +when in Paradise but did not. This actual, cheerless lot of man +upon the earth is the real problem of the story. It is felt to be +the very opposite of our true destiny; at first, things must have +been otherwise. Man's lot now is a perversion of what it was at +first, it is the punishment of primeval guilt now resting on us all. +At first man lived in Paradise; he had a happy existence, and one +worthy of his nature, and held familiar intercourse with Jehovah; +it was his forbidden striving after the knowledge of good and evil +that drove him out of Paradise and brought all his miseries upon him. + +What is the knowledge of good and evil? The commentators say it +is the faculty of moral distinction,--conscience, in fact. They +assume accordingly that man was in Paradise morally indifferent, +in a state which allowed of no self-conscious action and could not +be called either good or evil. A state like this not being an +ideal one, some of them consider that man gained more than he lost +by the fall, while others admit that it could not be the divine +intention to keep him always at this stage of childish +irresponsibility, and that this cannot be the view of the narrator +either. + +But it is plain that the narrator is not speaking of a relative +prohibition of knowledge, but an absolute one: he means that it +is only for God, and that when man stretches out his hand towards +it he is transcending his limits and seeking to be as God. On the +other side he cannot of course mean to say that conscience is a +doubtful blessing, and its possession to be deplored, or that it is +a thing that God in fact refuses to men and reserves to Himself +alone. The knowledge spoken of cannot be moral knowledge. What +could the assertion mean that God would have no one but Himself +know the difference between good and evil, and would deny to man +this knowledge? One would think that conscience is a thing +belonging specifically to man and not to God. + +And what could be the sense of representing Adam and Eve as so +intent to know what was sin and what was virtue? No one is +curious about that, and sin never came into existence in the way +of ethical experiment, by men's desiring to know what it is. And +it is manifestly assumed that men knew in paradise that obedience +to Jehovah was good and disobedience evil. And finally, it +conflicts with the common tradition of all peoples to represent the +first man as a sort of beast; he is regarded as undeveloped only in +point of outward culture. The knowledge which is here forbidden is +rather knowledge as such, general knowledge, or getting the eyes +opened, as it is afterwards called. This is what transcends, in +the writer's view, the limits of our nature; prying out the secret +of things, the secret of the world, and overlooking, as it were, +God's hand to see how He goes to work in His living activity, so as, +perhaps, to learn His secret and imitate Him. For knowledge is to +the ancient world also power, and no mere metaphysic. This knowing +in the highest sense is the attribute of God alone, who stands in +the creative centre of things and penetrates and surveys the whole; +it is sealed to man, who has to labour and weary himself at little +things. And yet the forbidden good has the most powerful +attraction for him; he burns to possess it, and instead of +resigning himself in trust and reverence he seeks to steal the +jewel which is jealously guarded from him, and so to become like +God--to his own sorrow. + +This explanation is not new; it is the old and popular one, for +which reason also Goethe adopted it in Faust. One objection +certainly may be taken to it; the words are not merely +_knowledge_, but _knowledge of good and evil_. But good and evil +in Hebrew mean primarily nothing more than salutary and hurtful; +the application of the words to virtue and sin is a secondary +one, these being regarded as serviceable or hurtful in their +effects. Good and evil as spoken of in Genesis ii. iii. point +to no contrast of some actions with others according to their +moral distinctions: the phrase is only a comprehensive one for +things generally, according to the contradictory attributes which +constitute their interest to man, as they help or injure him: +for, as said, he desires to know not what things are +metaphysically, but what is the use of them. /1/ Besides the + +-- Footnote +I Sur. 20, 91. Hudh. 22, 10 (Agh. xv. 105, 12). Hamasa, 292, +8 seq. Tabari i. 847, 18 +-- Footnote + + +lengthier expression we have the shorter one, knowledge, simply +(iii. 6); and it must also be remarked that the phrase is not: +know the good and the evil, but know good and evil. + +But more, we must regard this knowledge not as it affects the +individual, but in the light of history; what is meant is what we +call civilisation. As the human race goes forward in +civilisation, it goes backward in the fear of God. The first step +in civilisation is clothing; and here this is the first result of +the fall. The story is continued in chapter iv. Adam's sons +begin to found cities, Jubal is the first musician, Cain discovers +the oldest and the most important of the arts, that of the smith-- +hence the sword and bloody vengeance. Of the same tendency is the +connected story of the city and the tower of Babel, in which is +represented the foundation of the great empires and cities of the +world, which concentrate human strength and seek to use it to press +into heaven itself. In all this we have the steps of man's +emancipation; with his growing civilisation grows also his alienation +from the highest good; and--this is evidently the idea, though it +is not stated--the restless advance never reaches its goal after all; +it is a Sisyphus-labour; the tower of Babel, which is incomplete +to all eternity, is the proper symbol for it. The strain is that +strain of unsatisfied longing which is to be heard among all +peoples. On attaining to civilisation they become aware of the +value of those blessings which they have sacrificed for it. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Dillmann thinks this idea insipid: Genesis (1882), p. 44 +-- Footnote + + +It was necessary to discuss the notion of knowledge at some +length, because the misunderstanding of this point on the part of +philosophers and theologians has cast over our story an +appearance of modernness, which has, in its turn, done something +to influence general opinion as to the age of this story compared +with the other. Having got rid of this impression we turn to +those features of Genesis ii. iii. which help to determine +positively its relation to chapter i. + +What has been untruly asserted of Genesis i. is true of Genesis ii. +iii. The Jehovist narrative does shine by the absence of all +efforts after rationalistic explanation, by its contempt for +every kind of cosmological speculation. The earth is regarded as +being at first not moist and plastic but (as in Job xxxviii. 38) +hard and dry: it must rain first in order that the desert may be +turned into a green meadow, as is the case still every year when +the showers of spring come. The ground further requires +cultivation by man that the seed may spring forth. No regard is +paid to any natural sequence of the acts of creation: man, the +most helpless of all beings, appears first, and finds himself +placed on a world entirely bare, without tree or bush, without +the animals, without woman. Man is confessedly the exclusive +object of interest, the other creatures are accounted for by +their importance to him, as if this only conferred on them a +right to exist. The idea explains matter: mechanical possibility +is never consulted, and we do not think of asking about it. Want +of taste could find no lower deeps than when this or that scholar +goes from Genesis ii. 21 to count his ribs, or comes to +the conclusion that the first man was hermaphrodite. + +In the first account we stand before the first beginnings of sober +reflection about nature, in the second we are on the ground of +marvel and myth. Where reflection found its materials we do not +think of asking; ordinary contemplation of things could furnish +it. But the materials for myth could not be derived from +contemplation, at least so far as regards the view of nature which +is chiefly before us here; they came from the many-coloured +traditions of the old world of Western Asia. Here we are in the +enchanted garden of the ideas of genuine antiquity; the fresh +early smell of earth meets us on the breeze. The Hebrews breathed +the air which surrounded them; the stories they told on +the Jordan, of the land of Eden and the fall, were told in the same +way on the Euphrates and the Tigris, on the Oxus and the Arius. +The true land of the world, where dwells the Deity, is Eden. It +was not removed from the earth after the fall; it is there still, +else whence the need of cherubs to guard the access to it? The +rivers that proceed from it are real rivers, all well known to the +narrator, they and the countries they flow through and the +products that come from these countries. Three of them, the Nile, +the Euphrates, and the Tigris, are well known to us also; and if +we only knew how the narrator conceived their courses to lie, it +would be easy to determine the position of their common source and +the situation of Paradise. Other peoples of antiquity define the +situation of their holy land in a similar manner; the streams +have different names, but the thing is the same. The wonderful +trees also in the garden of Eden have many analogies even in the +Germanic mythology. The belief in the cherubs which guard +Paradise is also widely diffused. _Krub_ is perhaps the same name, +and certainly represents the same idea, as _Gryp_ in Greek, and +_Grei_f in German. We find everywhere these beings wonderfully +compounded out of lion, eagle, and man. They are everywhere +guardians of the divine and sacred, and then also of gold and of +treasures. The ingredients of the story seem certainly to have +parted with some of their original colour under the influence of +monotheism. The Hebrew people no doubt had something more to tell +about the tree of life than now appears. It is said to have been +in the midst of the garden, and so it seems to have stood at the +point whence the four streams issued, at the fountain of life, +which was so important to the faith of the East, and which +Alexander marched out to discover. Paradise, moreover, was +certainly not planted originally for man, it was the dwelling of +the Deity Himself. Traces of this may still be recognised. +Jehovah does not descend to it from heaven, but goes out walking +in the garden in the evening as if He were at home. The garden of +Deity is, however, on the whole somewhat naturalised. A similar +weakening down of the mythic element is apparent in the matter of +the serpent; it is not seen at once that the serpent is a demon. +Yet parting with these foreign elements has made the story no +poorer, and it has gained in noble simplicity. The mythic +background gives it a tremulous brightness: we feel that we are +in the golden age when heaven was still on earth; and yet +unintelligible enchantment is avoided, and the limit of a sober +chiaroscuro is not transgressed. + +The story of the creation in six days played, we know, a great +part in the earlier stages of cosmological and geological science. +It is not by chance that natural science has kept off Genesis ii. +iii. There is scarcely any nature there. But poetry has at +all times inclined to the story of Paradise. Now we do not +require to ask at this time of day, nor to argue the question, +whether mythic poetry or sober prose is the earlier stage in the +contemplation of the world. + +Intimately connected with the advanced views of nature, which we +find in Genesis i., is the "purified" notion of God found there. +The most important point is that a special word is employed, which +stands for nothing else than the creative agency of God, and so +dissociates it from all analogy with human making and shaping-- +a word of such exclusive significance that it cannot be reproduced +either in Latin, or in Greek, or in German. In a youthful people +such a theological abstraction is unheard of; and so with the +Hebrews we find both the word and the notion only coming into use +after the Babylonian exile; they appear along with the emphatic +statement of the creative omnipotence of Jehovah with reference to +nature, which makes its appearance, we may say suddenly, in the +literature of the exile, plays a great part in the Book of Job, +and frequently presents itself in Isaiah xl.-lxvi. In Genesis ii. +iii., not nature but man is the beginning of the world and of +history; whether a creation out of nothing is assumed there at +all, is a question which only the mutilation of the commencement +(before ii. 4b) makes it not quite impossible to answer in the +affirmative. At any rate it is not the case here that the command +of the Creator sets things in motion at the first so that they +develop themselves to separate species out of the universal chaos; +Jehovah Himself puts His hand to the work, and this supposes that +the world in its main features was already in existence. He plants +and waters the garden, He forms man and breathes life into his +nostrils, He builds the woman out of the man's rib, having made +a previous attempt, which was unsuccessful, to provide him with +company; the beasts are living witnesses of the failure of His +experiments. In other respects, too, He proceeds like a man. +In the evening when it grows cool He goes to walk in the garden, +and when there discovers by chance the transgression which has +taken place, and holds an investigation in which He makes not +the least use of His omniscience. And when He says: +"Behold, the man is become like one of us to know good and evil: +and now lest he stretch forth his hand, and take of the tree of +life, and eat and live for ever," +that is not said in irony, any more than when He expresses +Himself on the occasion of the building of Babel; +"Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, +and this is only the beginning of their doings, and now nothing +will be too difficult for them that they have imagined to do; +go to, let us go down and confound their language." +That at the same time the majesty of Jehovah is in no way compromised +is the mystery of poetic genius. How would the colourless God of +abstraction fare in such a situation ? + +The treatment, finally, of the microcosm in the two accounts, +reflects the difference between them. In chapter i. man is +directed at the very outset to the ground on which he moves to +this day: "Replenish the earth, and subdue it," he is told; a +perfectly natural task. In chaps. ii. iii. he is placed in +Paradise, and his sphere of activity there, nestled, as he may +be said still to be, in the lap of the Deity, is very limited. +The circumstances of his life as it now is, the man's toil in the +fields, the woman's toil in bearing children, do not answer to his +original destiny; they are not a blessing, but a curse. In the +Jehovistic narrative man is as wonderful to himself as the +external world; in the other he is as much a matter of course as +it is. In the one he sees astonishing mysteries in the difference +of the sexes, in marriage, in child-birth (iv. 1); in the other +these are physiological facts which raise no questions or +reflections: "He made them male and female, and said, Be +fruitful and multiply." There his attitude towards the beasts +is one of mixed familiarity and bewilderment; he does not know +exactly what to make of them; they are allied to him and yet +not quite suitable society for him; here they are beings not +related to him, over which he rules. + +The chief point in which the difference between the two accounts +comes to a head is this. In Genesis ii. iii., man is virtually +forbidden to lift the veil of things, and to know the world, +represented in the tree of knowledge. In Genesis i. this is the +task set him from the beginning; he is to rule over the whole +earth, and rule and knowledge come to the same thing--they mean +civilisation. There nature is to him a sacred mystery: here it +is a mere fact, an object; he is no longer bewildered over +against nature, but free and superior. There it is a robbery for +man to seek to be equal with God: here God makes him at first in +His own image and after His own likeness, and appoints him His +representative in the realm of nature. We cannot regard it as +fortuitous that in this point Genesis i. asserts the opposite of +Genesis ii. iii.; the words spoken with such emphasis, and +repeated i. 27, v. 1, ix. 6, sound exactly like a protest +against the view underlying Genesis ii. iii., a protest to be +explained partly by the growth of moral and religious +cultivation, but partly also no doubt due to the convulsive +efforts of later Judaism to deny that most firmly established of +all the lessons of history, that the sons suffer for the sins of +the fathers. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. A coarser counterpart to Genesis ii. iii, is Genesis vi. 1-4. +Here also there is a kind of fall of man in an attempt to overpass +the boundary between the human race and the divine. In the priestly +narrative (Q) the gulf between spirit, which is divine substance, +and flesh, which is human substance, is bridged over by the doctrine +of man's creation in the image of God. +-- Footnote + + +What are generally cited as points of superiority in Genesis i. +over Genesis ii. iii. are beyond doubt signs of progress in outward +culture. The mental individuality of the two writers, the systematiser +and the genius, cannot be compared, and the difference in this +respect tells nothing of their respective dates; but in its general +views of God, nature, and man, Genesis i. stands on a higher, +certainly on a later, level. To our way of thinking its views are +more intelligible, simpler, more natural, and on this account they +have been held to be also older. But this is on the one hand to +identify naturalness with originality, two things which every one +knows not to be the same, and on the other hand it is applying +a standard to prehistoric tradition which applies to historical +tradition only: freedom from miracle and myth count in favour +of the latter, but not of the former. But the secret root of the +manifest preference long shown by historic-critical theology for +Genesis i. appears to lie in this, that scholars felt themselves +responsible for what the Bible says, and therefore liked it to +come as little as possible in conflict with general culture. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. I merely assert that Genesis ii. iii. is prior to Genesis i.; +I do not believe the story of Paradise and of the Fall to be very +old with the Israelites. We are led to think so by the fact that +the man and the woman stand at the head of the genealogy of the +human race; a place we should rather expect to be assigned to the +serpent (according to primitive Semitic belief the serpent was by +no means opposed to God). This is the case in the Chronicon +Edessenum and in Abyssinian legend, and a trace of this is perhaps +preserved in the name of Eve, as Noldeke thinks. The name +certainly receives this interpretation in Philo (de agric. Noe, +# 21) and in the Midrash Rabba on Genesis iii. 20 (D. M. Z. 1877, +p. 239, 326). Moreover, the true seat of God to the Hebrews was +Mount Sinai, and the original Hebrew life was the nomadic life of +the patriarchs, not gardening or agriculture. And finally we +cannot believe barbarians to have indulged in reflections on the +advantages and disadvantages of civilisation. The materials of +Genesis ii. iii. can hardly have been imported before the time +of Solomon. Where they came from we can scarcely guess; it +would be most natural to think of the Phoenicians or the +Canaanites generally, and this theory is favoured by Genesis iv. +But in JE Babel is regarded as the last home of the primitive +human race, Eden and Nod having preceded it; and the Hebrews +probably derived the legend in the last instance from Babylon. +But this does not prove that this or that parallel brought forward +by Assyriologists is necessarily of value. +-- Footnote + + +VIII.I.2. After the beginning of the world we have in Genesis i.-xi., +both in the Priestly Code and in the Jehovist, the transition from +Adam to Noah (chapters iv. v.), then the flood (vi.-ix.), then the +transition from Noah to Abraham (chapters x. xi.). + +In the dry names, which are enumerated in Genesis v. and Genesis iv. +Buttmann recognised the remains of an historical connection once +woven together out of primitive stories. These narratives were +evidently mythological: their original contents are destroyed +both in Genesis v. (Q) and in Genesis iv. (JE), but only the list +of the Jehovist now bears the appearance of a ruin. In the other +the fragments have been used for a careful new building in which +they no longer look like fragments. Here they are made to serve +as the pillars of a chronology which descends from Adam to Moses, +computing the period from the one to the other as 2666 years. +These 2666 years represent 26 2/3 generations of a hundred years +each: namely, 1-20 Adam to Abraham, 21 Isaac, 22 Jacob, 23 Levi, +24 Kohath, 25 Amram, 26 Aaron; the last 2/3 of a generation is +Eleazar, who was a man of mature years at the time of the Exodus. +/2/ + +-- Footnote +2. So Noldeke in the Jahrbb. fuer protest. Theol., 1875, p. 344. +Genesis xv. 13-16 expressly states that the generation is reckoned +as 100 years in this period. +-- Footnote + + +Such a chronology is totally at variance with the simplicity of the +legend. /1/ It is also evident, that if even in the case of the + +-- Footnote +1. "Exact chronological dates are a sure sign of later working up +of old poetical legends." Buttmann, I. p. 181. +-- Footnote + + +historical books the systematic chronology is no older than the +period of the exile, that of the Pentateuch must be of still later +origin. For the historical period there were certain fixed points +for chronology to lay hold of; it cannot have begun with the +patriarchs and gone on to the kings, it must have begun with the +kings and then gone higher up to the patriarchs; it must have +begun at the lower end, where alone it had any firm ground to stand +on. The belief that the men of the early world lived to a great +age is no doubt old, but the settled chronology, based on the years +in which each patriarch begat his son, is an artifice in which we +manifestly see the doctrinaire treatment of history which was coming +into vogue for later periods, attempting to lay hold of the earliest +legends as well. Only when the living contents of the legend had +completely disappeared could its skeleton be used as a framework +of chronology. + +Buttmann has also shown that the elements of the ten-membered +genealogy of Q (Genesis v.) and of the seven-membered of JE (Genesis +iv.) are identical. In Q, Noah comes after Lamech at the end, and +at the beginning Adam Cain is doubled and becomes Adam Seth Enos +Cainan. Adam and Enos being synonymous, this amounts to Adam Seth +Adam Cainan: that is to say Adam Seth are prefixed, and the +series begins anew with Enos Cainan, just as in JE. The Priestly +Code itself offers a remarkable testimony to the superior +originality of the Jehovist genealogy, by ascribing to Lamech, +here the ninth in order, the age of 777 years. This can only be +explained from JE, where Lamech is seventh in order, and moreover +specially connects himself with the number seven by his speech. +Cain is avenged seven times, and Lamech seventy times seven. +Another circumstance shows Q to be posterior to E. The first man +is called here not Ha Adam as in JE, but always Adam, without the +article (v. 1-5), a difference which Kuenen pertinently compares +with that between ho Xristos and Xristos. But in Q itself (Genesis +i.) the first man is only the generic man; if in spite of this +he is called simply Adam (Genesis v.), as if that were his proper +name, the only way to account for this is to suppose a +reminiscence of Genesis ii. iii., though here the personification +does not as yet extend to the name. + +We come to the story of the flood, Genesis vi.-ix. In JE the flood +is well led up to: in Q we should be inclined to ask in surprise +how the earth has come all at once to be so corrupted, after being +so far in the best of order, did we not know from JE. In omitting +the fall, the fratricide of Cain, the sword-song of Lamech, the +intercourse of the sons of God with the daughters of men, and +parting with the distinctive gloomy colouring which is +unmistakably spread over the whole early history of man in JE, +the Priestly Code has entirely lost the preparation for the +flood, which now appears in the most abrupt and unaccountable way. +As to the contents of the story, the priestly version here agrees +to an unusual extent with the Jehovistic one; differing from it +chiefly in the artificial, mathematical marking out of the +framework. The flood lasts twelve months and ten days, i.e., +exactly a solar year. It begins in the six hundredth year of +Noah, on the seventeenth of the second month, rises for one +hundred and fifty days, and begins to fall on the seventeenth of +the seventh month. On the first month the tops of the mountains +become visible; in the six hundred and first year, on the first +of the first month, the water has abated; on the twenty-seventh of +the second month the earth is dry. God Himself gives instructions +and measurements for the building of the ark, as for the +tabernacle: it is to be three stories high, and divided +throughout into small compartments; three hundred cubits long, +fifty cubits broad, thirty cubits high; and Noah is to make it +accurately according to the cubit. When the water is at its +height, on the seventeenth of the second month, the flood is +fifteen cubits above the highest mountains--Noah having apparently +not forgotten, in spite of his anxiety, to heave the lead and to +mark the date in his log-book. This prematurely modern measuring +and counting cannot be thought by any one to make the narrative +more lifelike; it simply destroys the illusion. All that is +idyllic and naive is consistently stripped off the legend as far +as possible. As the duration of the flood is advanced from forty +days (JE) to a whole year, its area also is immeasurably +increased. The Priestly Code states with particular emphasis that +it was quite universal, and went over the tops of the highest +mountains; indeed it is compelled to take this view by its +assumption that the human race was diffused from the first over +the whole earth. Such traits as the missions of the birds and the +broken-off olive-leaf are passed over: poetic legend is smoothed +down into historic prose. But the value and the charm of the story +depend on such little traits as these; they are not mere +incidents, to poetry they are the most important thing of all. +These are the features which are found just in the same way +in the Babylonian story of the flood; and if the Jehovist has a +much greater affinity with the Babylonian story than the Priestly +Code, that shows it to have preserved more faithfully the international +character of those early legends. This appears most plainly in +his accounting for the flood by the confounding of the boundaries +between spirit and flesh, and the intercourse of the sons of God +and the daughters of men: the Jehovist here gives us a piece, but +little adulterated, of mythical heathenism--a thing quite +inconceivable in Q. + +The Priestly Code has the rainbow, which the Jehovist, as we now +have him, wants. But we have to remember that in Genesis vi.-ix. +the Jehovist account is mutilated, but the priestly one preserved +entire. If the rainbow occurred both in JE and in Q, one of the +accounts of it had to be omitted, and according to the editor's +usual procedure the omission had to be from JE. It is accordingly +very possible that it was not at first wanting in JE; it agrees +better, indeed, with the simple rain, which here brings about the +flood, than with the opening of the sluices of heaven and the +fountains of the deep, which produce it in Q, and it would stand +much better after viii. 21, 22 than after ix. 1-7. In the +Priestly Code, moreover, the meaning of the rainbow is half +obliterated. On the one hand, the story is clumsily turned into +history, and we receive the impression either that the rainbow +only appeared in the heavens at this one time after the flood, or +that it had been there ever since; on the other hand, it is made +the token of the covenant between Elohim and Noah, and the use of +language in other passages, with the analogy of Genesis xvii., +would point to the covenant described in ix. 1-7: the rainbow +would then be the counterpart of circumcision. /1/ The covenant, + +-- Footnote +1. The celestial bow is originally the instrument of the +arrow-darting God, and therefore a symbol of His hostility; but +He lays it out of His hand to signify that He has laid aside His +wrath, and it is a token of His reconciliation and favour. When +there has been such a storm that one might dread a repetition of +the flood, the rainbow appears in heaven, the sun, and grace, +breaking forth again. In the 0. T. Q#T has not the meaning of +a mere arc, it always means the war-bow. And what is most +important of all, the Arabs also always take the iris to be the +war-bow of God; Kuzah shoots arrows from his bow, and then hangs +it up in the clouds (D. M. Z. 1849, p. 200 seq.). With the Jews +and their kin, the rainbow has retained far into Christian times a +remarkably near relation to the Deity. It is singular that the +Edomites have a God named Kaus, as well as Kuzah. +-- Footnote + + +i.e., the law of ch. ix. 1-7, a modification of the first ordinance +given to Adam (i.229, 30) for the world after the flood which still +subsists, is for the Priestly Code the crown, the end, the substance, +of the whole narrative. Its interest in the law always completely +absorbs the simple interest of its story. + +We have also to remark that in this source vengeance for the +spilling of blood is not the affair of the relatives but the +affair of God; and that it is demanded for man as man, whether +master or slave, and no money compensation allowed. The words +sound simple and solemn: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man +shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man." +Yet the religious notion of HUMANITY underlying this sentence +is not ancient with the Hebrews any more than with other nations; +cf. Genesis iv. 15, 24, and Exodus xxi. 20 seq. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. De Wette, Beitrage, p. 57. The religious notion of the people +is old. +-- Footnote + + +The ark lands, according to Q, on Mount Ararat. In JE, as we have +it, no landing-place is named. But this is not original, as +mythic geography belongs to the Jehovist in all other passages +where it occurs. In Q the primitive history is never localised, +the whole earth is given to man for a dwelling from the first. In +JE, on the contrary, they live first in the land of Eden far to +the East, and presumably high up in the North; expelled from +Eden they come to the land of Nod, where Cain builds the town of +Enoch, and departing from this district, which is still far to the +East, they settle in the land of Shinar, at the mouths of the +Euphrates and Tigris, where they build the town of Babel. Shinar +is the point of departure of that history of the world which is +no longer merely mythical, it is the home of the present human +race. In this point the contrast is very noticeable between the +local definiteness of the Jehovist legend, which lends it the +character of the idyllic, and the vague generalness of the other. +In Shinar, according to JE, Genesis xi. 1-9, men are still all +together, and they desire to remain together there. Not to be +scattered, they build a great city, which is to hold them all; +and to make themselves a name, they add to it a high tower which +is to reach heaven. Jehovah, perceiving in these attempts the +danger of further progress in the same direction, comes down to +confound their language, and by such violent means brings about +the dispersion of the human race by the unity of which He feels +himself threatened. In Q it is understood that men are scattered +over the whole earth; they are never represented as all living at +one point, and pains are accordingly taken to describe the flood +as quite universal. The division of the people comes about quite +simply in the way of genealogy, and the division of the languages +is not the cause but the result of it. Accompanying this we find +once more a notable difference in point of mental attitude; what +JE regards as unnatural, and only to be understood as a violent +perversion of the original order, is in Q the most natural thing +in the world. + +The period between the flood and Abraham is filled up in Q by +another ten-membered genealogy, which, to judge from the analogy +of Genesis iv., had probably only seven members in JE. It cannot +have been wanting there, and may have passed straight from Shem +to Heber, and left out the grandfather Nahor (x. 21, 24, xxiv. +15, xxix. 5), who is even less to be distinguished from his +grandson of the same name than Adam from Enos. The original +dwelling-place of the Terahites is, according to Q, not the +Mesopotamian Haran (Carrhae), as in JE (xii. 1, xxiv. 4), but Ur +Casdim, which can only mean Ur of the Chaldees. From there +Terah, the father of Abraham, Nahor, and Haran, is said to have +emigrated with Abraham and Lot, the son of Haran, who was already +dead. If this was so, Nahor must have stayed at Ur Casdim, and +Haran must have died there. But neither of these assumptions is +consistent with the indications of the narrative. The different +aspirates notwithstanding, it is scarcely allowable to separate +the man Haran from the town Haran and to make him die elsewhere. +It is equally impossible to regard Ur in Chaldaea as the +residence of Nahor, whether the grandfather or the grandson of the +same name matters nothing; for it is obviously not without +relation to real facts that the place, which in any case must be +in Syria, where the Nahorides Laban and Rebecca dwell, is called +in J the town of Nahor, and in E Haran. Even in Q though Nahor +stays in Ur, Laban and Rebecca do not live in Chaldaea, but in +Padan Aram, ie., in Mesopotamian Syria. What helps to show that +Ur Casdim does not belong to the original form of the tradition, +is that even in Serug the father of Nahor, we are far away from +Babylon towards the West. Serug is the name of a district which +borders Haran on the North; how can the son of Serug all at once +leap back to Ur Casdim? What the reasons were for making Babylon +Abraham's point of departure, we need not now consider; but after +having left Ur Casdim with Terah, it is curious how he only gets +as far as Haran, and stays there till his father's death. In Q +also it is from Haran that he enters Palestine. Here, if anywhere, +we have in the doubling of the point of departure an attempt to +harmonise and to gain a connection with JE. + + +VII.I.3. The view is happily gaining ground that, in the mythical +universal history of mankind in Genesis i.-xi., the Jehovist +version is more primitive than the priestly one. And we are, in +fact, compelled to adopt this view when we observe that the +materials of the narratives in question have not an Israelite, but +a universal ethnic origin. The traces of this origin are much +more distinctly preserved in the Jehovist, whence it comes that +comparative mythology occupies itself chiefly with his +narratives, though without knowing that it is doing so. The +primitive legend has certainly undergone alterations in his hands +too; its mythic character is much obliterated, and all sorts of +Israelite elements have crept in. Even the fratricide of Cain, +with the contrast in the background between the peaceful life of +the Hebrews in the land of Canaan and the restless wanderings of +the Cainites (Kenites) in the neighbouring desert, quite falls out +of the universal historical and geographical framework. Still +more does the curse of Canaan do so; here the trait is evidently +old, that Noah was the first to make wine, but this has been made +a merely subordinate feature of a pronouncedly national +Israelite narrative. But in the Jehovist the process of emptying +the primitive legend of its true meaning and contents has not gone +nearly so far as in the Priestly Code, where it actually creates +surprise when some mythic element shines through, as in the cases +of Enoch, and of the rainbow. + +The mythic materials of the primitive world-history are suffused +in the Jehovist with a peculiar sombre earnestness, a kind of +antique philosophy of history, almost bordering on pessimism: as +if mankind were groaning under some dreadful weight, the pressure +not so much of sin as of creaturehood (vi. 1-4). We notice a shy, +timid spirit, which belongs more to heathenism. The rattling of +the chains at intervals only aggravates the feeling of confinement +that belongs to human nature; the gulf of alienation between man +and God is not to be bridged over. Jehovah does not stand high +enough, does not feel Himself secure enough, to allow the +earth-dwellers to come very near Him; there is almost a suggestion +of the notion of the jealousy of the gods. This mood, though in +many ways softened, is yet recognisable enough in Genesis ii. iii., +in vi. 1-4, and xi. 1-9. In the Priestly Code it has entirely +disappeared; here man no longer feels himself under a secret curse, +but allied to God and free, as lord of nature. True, the Priestly +Code also recognises in its own fashion the power of sin--this we +saw in the chapter on sacrifice; but sin as the root of ruin, +explaining it and capable of being got rid of, is the very opposite +of blind, not-to-be-averted fate. The slavery of sin and the +freedom of the children of God are in the Gospel correlated. The +mythical mode of view is destroyed by the autonomy of morality; +and closely connected with this is the rational way of looking at +nature, of which we find the beginnings in the Priestly Code. This +view of nature presupposes that man places himself as a person over +and outside of nature, which he regards as simply a thing. We may +perhaps assert that were it not for this dualism of Judaism, mechanical +natural science would not exist. + +The removal of colour from the myths is the same thing as the +process of Hebraising them. The Priestly Code appears to +Hebraise less than the Jehovist; it refrains on principle from +confounding different times and customs. But in fact it Hebraises +much more: it cuts and shapes the whole of the materials so that +they may serve as an introduction to the Mosaic legislation. It +is true that the Jehovist also placed these ethnic legends at the +entrance to his sacred legend, and perhaps selected them with a +view to their forming an introduction to it; for they are all +ethical and historical in their nature, and bear on the problems +of the world of man, and not the world of nature. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 Yet it is possible the selection presented him with no difficulty, +since cosmological myths were not popular tales, but priestly +speculations, with which he was quite unacquainted. +-- Footnote + + +But with the Jehovist justice was yet done to some extent to the +individuality of the different narratives: in the Priestly Code +their individuality is not only modified to suit the purpose of +the whole, but completely destroyed. The connection leading up +to the Torah of Moses is everything, the individual pieces have +no significance but this. It follows of course from this mode of +treatment that the connection itself loses all living reality; it +consists, apart from the successive covenants, in mere genealogy +and chronology. De Wette thinks all this beautiful because it is +symmetrical and intelligible, and leads well up to a conclusion. +But this will not be every one's taste; there is such a thing as +poetical material without manufacture. + +How loosely the narratives of the primitive history are connected +with each other in the Jehovist we see very clearly in the +section dealing with the flood. It disagrees both with what goes +before and with what follows it. The genealogy Genesis iv. 16-24 +issues not in Noah but in Lamech; instead of Shem, Ham, and +Japhet, the sons of Noah, we have Jabal, Jubal, Tubal, the sons of +Lamech, as the inaugurators of the second period. We have also the +characteristic difference, that Shem, Ham, and Japhet give us a +division of mankind according to nations, while Jabal, Jubal, Tubal +give a division according to guilds, which are necessarily those +of the same people, as no people consists entirely of musicians +or entirely of smiths. And it is undoubtedly the aim of chapter +iv. 16 seq. to describe the origin of the present civilisation, +not of that which is extinct, having been destroyed by the flood. +Tubal-Cain is the father of the smiths of the present, not of +those before the flood; Jubal the father of the musicians, Jabal +of the shepherds of the narrator's own period; hence they stand +at the end of the genealogy and open the second period. But as +Genesis iv. 16-24 does not look forward to the flood, so neither +does Genesis xi. 1-9 (the building of the tower of Babel) look back +to it. This piece is obviously not the continuation of chapter x. +That chapter brought us to a point at which the earth was occupied +by different peoples and different tongues; and here (xi. 1) we +are suddenly carried back to a time when the whole earth was of +one language and one speech. Can this have been the time when +Noah's family made up the whole population of the earth? or in +other words, does xi. 1-9 go back before chap x. and join on to +vi.-ix.? Manifestly not: "the whole earth" (xi. 1) is not +merely Shem and Ham and Japhet; the multitude of men who seek by +artificial means to concentrate themselves, and are then split up +into different peoples, cannot consist of only one family. The +point of view is quite different from what it would be if chaps. +vi.-ix. were taken into account; the narrator knows nothing of +the flood, which left Noah's family alone surviving out of the +whole world. Nor would it avail to place xi. 1 at a period so +long subsequent to the flood that the family might have increased +again to a great people; even this would not give the requisite +connection with the idea of Noah and his three sons. If the latter +united themselves afterwards in one family, and one coherent +people thus grew out of them, which was then split up by a higher +power into different languages, then Shem, Ham, and Japhet +entirely lose their significance as the great heads of the +nations. + +The fact is simply this, that the whole section of the flood +(Genesis vi.-ix.) is an isolated piece without any connection +with the rest of the narrative of the Jehovist. Another strange +erratic boulder is the intercourse of the sons of God with the +daughters of men (Genesis vi. 1-4). /l/ The connection between + +-- Footnote +1 See p. 307, note. +-- Footnote + + +this piece and the story of the flood which follows it, is of the +loosest; and it is in entire disagreement with the preceding part +of the Jehovist narrative, as it tells of a second fall of man, +with a point of view morally and mentally so different from that +of the first, that this story can in no wise be regarded as +supplementing or continuing that one. In Genesis vi. 1-4 morality +has nothing to do with the guilt that is incurred. We have further +examples which illustrate the fragmentary character of the Jehovist +primitive history as we have it, in the story of the fratricide +of Cain, and the curse of Canaan, which indeed ought not to be +here at all, but belong by rights to the history of the +patriarchs. + +We may close this section by reproducing the words in which +Buttmann (i. 208 seq.) indicates his disagreement with De Wette +in regard to the treatment of the early legends of the Bible: +they are well worth noting. "Thoroughly familiar with the +antiquities of the race in whose sacred writings these monuments +have been preserved to us, De Wette recognises and follows the +national spirit of that race in their most ancient records. In +this way he discovers amidst these ruins the thread of an old +connection, a kind of epos, the theme of which was the +glorification of the people of Israel, a theme which finds a +prelude even in the primitive history of the human race. This +view is of the first importance for the object he has before him, +which is the true criticism of these books; and for the moment +other considerations must necessarily yield to it. My object in +this whole investigation is only to find the universal element in +the legends of different nations, and especially to discover what +is common property in the myths of the different branches of the +great family of nations to which the Hebrews and the Greeks and we +ourselves alike belong. Thus each myth reveals itself +to me as existing for itself, having a basis and completeness of +its own, and even when I find it in other nations I at once assert +for it its character as already known to me. Thus De Wette and I +come to differ in the view we take of individual myths. To him they +commonly appear as spontaneous free inventions of individual men +for their own purposes; not in the ignoble sense in which the vulgar +view speaks of the religious narratives of ancient peoples, but free +inventions in which there is no intention to deceive. I, on the +contrary, can allow no invention in these oldest portions of +mythology. A true myth is never invented; it is handed down. +It is not true, but it is honest. From small elements which fancy +offered as true, these myths arose and grew, without any contributor +to their growth feeling that he had of himself added to them. Those +only had any conscious intention in the matter, who touched up the +oldest pure myths, and drew them into the great circle of their +national history; and their intention, though conscious, was quite +innocent and harmless, as De Wette describes it. Now De Wette +sees the chief traces of that unity, or of that national epos +which winds its way through the Mosaic history, in the Elohim +document. For his critical purpose, therefore, this document is +the most important, and it he for the most part follows. My aim +forbids me to attend to anything but the inner completeness of the +stories taken one by one, and this I see most clearly in the +Jehovah fragments; whence I have had to yield the preference to +them in the foregoing discussions. Should each of us attain his +end, our views will excellently supplement each other." + +We may add that just that linked unity of its narrative, which +has procured for the Priestly Code the title of the "mainstock," +shows that it presents us with a more developed form of the myths; +while the Jehovist, just because of the defective connection +(in form) of his "fragments," which long caused him to be regarded +as a mere filler-up of the fundamental work, must be judged to stand +nearer to the fountain. + + +VIII.II. + +VIII.II.1. In the history of the patriarchs also, the outlines of +the narrative are the same in Q and in JE. We find in both Abraham's +immigration into Canaan with Sarah and Lot, his separation from +Lot, the birth of Ishmael by Hagar, the appearance of God for the +promise of Isaac, Isaac's birth, the death of Sarah and Abraham, +Ishmael, Isaac's marriage with Rebecca, Jacob and Esau, Jacob's +journey to Mesopotamia and the foundation of his family there, his +return, Esau, Joseph in Egypt, Jacob in Egypt, Jacob's blessing on +Joseph and his other sons, his death and burial. The materials here +are not mythical but national, and therefore more transparent, and in +a certain sense more historical. It is true, we attain to no +historical knowledge of the patriarchs, but only of the time when the +stories about them arose in the Israelite people; this later age is +here unconsciously projected, in its inner and its outward features, +into hoar antiquity, and is reflected there like a glorified mirage. +The skeleton of the patriarchal history consists, it is well known, +of ethnographic genealogy. The Leah-tribes are connected with the +Rachel-tribes under the common father Jacob-Israel: then entire +Israel is connected with the people of Edom under the old name of +Isaac (Amos vii 9, 16). Isaac again is connected under Abraham +with Lot, the father of Moab and Ammon. All these nearly related +and once closely allied Hebrew tribes are shown to be intimately +connected with the inhabitants of the Mesopotamian desert, and +sharply marked off from the Canaanites, in whose land they +dwelt. The narrative speaks of its characters as succeeding each +other in time or contemporary; in this form it indicates logical +or statistical subordination and co-ordination. As a fact the +elements are generally older than the groups and the smaller +groups than the greater. The migrations which are mentioned of +peoples and tribes are necessary consequences of the assumed +relationship. It would be quite possible to present the +composition and relative position of any given people at a given +time in a similar way in the form of a genealogical early +history. True genealogy can scarcely represent precisely the +existing relations. It cannot always be determined as a matter +of fact whether a tribe is the cousin or the brother or the +twin-brother of another tribe, or whether there is any affinity +at all between the two; the affinity can be understood and +interpreted in different ways, the grouping always depends to some +extent on the point of view of the genealogist, or even on his +likings and antipathies. The reason why the Arameans are made so +nearly related to the Israelites is probably that the +patriarchal legend arose in Middle and North Israel; as indeed +the pronounced preference shown for Rachel and Joseph clearly +proves to have been the case. Did the legend belong originally +to Judah, it is likely that more prominence would be given to the +Cainite (Kenite) tribes of the peninsula of Sinai, which, as it +is, are too much thrust into the background; for there can be no +doubt that in the earliest history of Israel these tribes were of +no small importance. Nor are apparent contradictions wanting in +the ethnographic genealogy. Ishmael, Edom, and the Cainite tribes +first mentioned, come into mutual contact in different ways, which +may be quite naturally explained from different views and arrangements +of their mutual relationships. And lastly we may add that the +genealogical form lends itself to the reception of every sort of +materials. In the patriarchal legend, however, the ethnographic +element is always predominant. Abraham alone is certainly not +the name of a people like Isaac and Lot: he is somewhat difficult +to interpret. That is not to say that in such a connection as this +we may regard him as a historical person; he might with more +likelihood be regarded as a free creation of unconscious art. He is +perhaps the youngest figure in the company, and it was probably at +a comparatively late period that he was put before his son Isaac. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The stories about Abraham and those about Isaac are so similar, +that they cannot possibly be held to be independent of each +other. The stories about Isaac, however, are more original, as +may be seen in a striking way on comparing Genesis xx. 2-16 with +xxvi 6-12. The short nnd profane version, of which Isaac is the +hero, is more lively and pointed; the long and edifying version +in which Abraham replaces Isaac, makes the danger not possible but +actual, thus necessitating the intervention of the Deity and so +bringing about a glorification of the patriarch, which he little +deserved. All the commentators on Genesis indeed, regard chapter +xx. as the original of xxvi.; they do not base their judgment, +however, on a comparison of the parallel passages, but merely +consider that as the father is older than the son, the story +about the father is older than the corresponding story about the +son; and they regard Isaac generally as a mere echo of Abraham. +The obviousness of this principle is too great, and against it we +have to consider that the later development of the legend shows a +manifest tendency to make Abraham the patriarch par excellence and +cast the others into the shade. In the earlier literature, on the +other hand, Isaac is mentioned even by Amos, Abraham first appears +in Isaiah xl.-lxvii. Micah vii 20 belongs to the exile, and the +words "who redeemed Abraham" in Isaiah xxix. 22 are not genuine; +they have no possible position in the sentence, and the idea of +the salvation of Abraham (from the fire of the Chaldaeans) is of +late occurrence. I certainly do not mean to maintain that +Abraham was not yet known when Amos wrote; but he scarcely stood +by this time at the same stage as Isaac and Jacob. As a saint of +Hebron he might he of Calibite ordain, and have something to do +with Ram (1Chronicles ii.). Abram may stand for Abiram, as Abner +for Abiner and Ahab for Ahiab. The name Abu Ruham occurs in the +Hadith as _nomen proprium viri_. +-- Footnote + + +In the Jehovist this skeleton of ethnographic genealogy is found +covered throughout with flesh and blood. The patriarchs, Abraham, +Isaac, and Jacob, are not mere names, but living forms, ideal +prototypes of the true Israelite. They are all peace-loving +shepherds, inclined to live quietly beside their tents, anxious +to steer clear of strife and clamour, in no circumstances prepared +to meet force with force and oppose injustice with the sword. +Brave and manly they are not, but they are good fathers of +families, a little under the dominion of their wives, who are +endowed with more temper. They serve Jehovah in essentially the +same way as their descendants in historical times; religion with +them does not consist of sacrifice alone, but also of an upright +conversation and trustful resignation to God's providence. Jacob +is sketched with a more realistic touch than the other two; he has +a strong dash of artifice and desire of gain, qualities which do +not fail to secure the ends he aims at. He escapes from every +difficulty and danger, not only safely but with profit: Jehovah +helps him, but above all he helps himself, without showing, as +we should judge, any great scruple in his choice of means. The +stories about him do not pretend to be moral, the feeling they +betray is in fact that of undissembled joy in all the successful +artifices and tricks of the patriarchal rogue. Of the subordinate +figures Esau is drawn with some liking for him, then Laban, and +the weak-kneed saint, Lot. Ishmael is drawn as the prototype of +the Bedouin, as a wild ass of a man, whose hand is against every +man, and every man's hand against him. + +It is remarkable that the heroes of Israelite legend show so little +taste for war, and in this point they seem to be scarcely a true +reflection of the character of the Israelites as known from their +history. Yet it is not difficult to understand that a people +which found itself incessantly driven into war, not only dreamed +of an eternal peace in the future, but also embodied the wishes of +its heart in these peaceful forms of the golden age in the past. +We have also to consider that the peaceful shepherd life of the +patriarchs is necessary to the idyllic form in which the early +history of the people is cast; only peoples or tribes can make +war, not single men. /1/ This also must serve to explain why + +-- Footnote +1. This consideration is certainly less decisive than the +foregoing one. Jacob is a peaceful shepherd, not only because +of the idyllic form of the narrative, but in his own being and +character. He forms the strongest contrast to his brother Esau, +who in spite of the idyllic form is a man of war. +Such exceptions as Genesis xiv. and xlviii.'22 (chapter xxxiv.) +only prove the rule. +-- Footnote + + +the historical self-consciousness of the nation finds so little +expression in the personal character of the patriarchs. It makes +vent for itself only in the inserted prophecies of the future; +in these we trace that national pride which was the fruit of the +exploits of David, yet always in a glorified form, rising to +religious exaltation. + +In the traits of personal character ascribed to the patriarchs they +represent substantially the nature and the aspirations of the +individual Israelite. The historic-political relations of Israel +are reflected with more life in the relations borne by the patriarchs +to their brothers; cousins, and other relatives. The background is +never long concealed here, the temper of the period of the kings +is everywhere discernible. This is the case most clearly perhaps +in the story about Jacob and Esau. The twins are at variance, even +in the womb; even in the matter of his birth the younger refuses +precedence to the elder, and tries to hold him back by the heel. +This is interpreted to the anxious mother by the oracle at +Beersheba as follows: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two +peoples are separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall +be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the +younger." The boys grow up very different. Esau is a rough and +sunburnt hunter, ranges about in the desert, and lives from day to +day without care: Jacob, a pious, smooth man, stays at home +beside the tents, and understands the value of things which his +unsophisticated brother disregards. The former is the favourite +of his father, the autochthonous Isaac, the latter is preferred by +the mother, the Aramaean Rebecca; the former stays in his own +land and takes his wives from the original population of south +Canaan and the Sinaitic peninsula, the latter emigrates, and +brings his wives from Mesopotamia. Thus the contrast is distinctly +prefigured, which at a later time appeared, between the rough Edom, +sprung from the soil and having his roots in it, and smoother, +more civilised Israel, which had more affinity with the great +powers of the world. By means of deceit and trickery the +younger brother succeeds in depriving the elder of the paternal +blessing and of the right of the first-born; the elder, in +consequence of this, determines to kill him, and the situation +becomes strained. Edom was a people and a kingdom before Israel, +but was then overshadowed by Israel, and even subjugated at last +by David: hence the fierce hatred between the brother nations, of +which Amos speaks. The words of the blessing of Jacob show this +quite distinctly to be the historical basis of the legend, a +basis of which the Jews were perfectly conscious: we hear in the +blessing of repeated attempts of the Edomites to cast off the yoke +of Israel, and it is predicted that these efforts will be at last +successful. Thus the stories about Jacob and Esau cannot have +taken form even in outline, before the time of David; in their +present form (Genesis xxvii. 40) their outlook extends to times +still later. The roots of the legend being thus traceable in +later history, a circumstance which the Jehovist does not attempt +to conceal, it is no more than an apparent anachronism when he +takes occasion to give a complete list of the Edomite kings +down to David, interspersing it with historical notes, as, for +example, that Hadad ben Bedad (possibly a contemporary of +Gideon) defeated the Midianites on the plains of Moab. In the +story of Jacob and Laban, again, the contemporary background +shines through the patriarchal history very distinctly. The +Hebrew, on his half-migration, half-flight from Mesopotamia to the +land of Jordan, is hotly pursued by his Aramean father-in-law, +who overtakes him at Gilead. There they treat with each other +and pile up a heap of stones, which is to be the boundary between +them, and which they mutually pledge themselves not to overstep +with hostile intentions. This answers to the actual state of the +facts. The Hebrew migration into Canaan was followed by the +Aramaean, which threatened to overwhelm it. Gilead was the +boundary between the two peoples, and the arena, during a long +period, of fierce conflicts which they waged with each other. +The blessing of Jacob, in the oracle on Joseph, also mentions the +Syrian wars: the archers who press Joseph hard, but are not able +to overcome him, can be no other than the Arameans of Damascus, to +whose attacks he was exposed for a whole century. Joseph here +appears always as the pillar of the North-Israelite monarchy, the +wearer of the crown among his brethren, a position for which he +was marked out by his early dreams. The story of Joseph, +however, in so far as historical elements can be traced in it at +all, and not merely the free work of poetry, is based on much +earlier events, from a time when the union was just being +accomplished of the two sections which together became the people +of Israel. The trait of his brother's jealousy of him points +perhaps to later events. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It deserves to be considered that at first Joseph is in Egypt +alone, and that his brothers came after, at his request. When the +notion of united Israel was transferred to the distant past, one +consequence was that the fortunes of the part could not be +separated from those of the whole. In the same way, Rachel being +an Aramaean, Leah must be one too. Perhaps the combination of +Rachel and Leah in a national unity was only accomplished by +Moses. Moses came from the peninsula of Sinai (Leah) to lead the +Israelites there from Goshen (Joseph). The designation of Levite +he could not receive in Joseph, only in Leah. +-- Footnote + + +The historical associations which form the groundwork of the +stories of the other sons of Jacob are also comparatively old. +They afford us almost the only information we possess about the +great change which must have taken place in the league of the +tribes soon after Moses. This change principally affected the +group of the four old Leah tribes which were closely connected +with each other. Reuben assumes the rights of his father +prematurely and loses the leadership. Simeon and Levi make, +apart from the others, a faithless attack on the Canaanites, +and collective Israel lets them suffer the consequences alone, +so that they succumb to the vengeance of their enemies and cease +to be tribes. Hence the primogeniture is transferred to Judah. +Judah also suffers great losses, no doubt in the conflict which +accompanied the settlement in the land of Canaan, and is reduced +to a fraction of his former importance. But this breach is made +good by fresh accessions from the mother-stock of the Leah tribes, +by the union of Pharez and Zarah, i.e. of Caleb, Kenaz, Cain (Ken), +Jerahmeel, with the remnant of ancient Judah. The Jehovist +narratives about Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, are undoubtedly +based on occurrences connected with the period of the conquest of +the holy land; but this is not the place to trace the historical +interpretation of the stories further. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. See "Israel," sec. 2, infra. Genesis iv. 1-15 is a similar +tribal history. The old tribe of Cain, the name of which is +indicative of settlement and culture, appears to have been broken +up and scattered to the four winds in very early times (Judges v. +24) in the same way as Levi, with which it appears to have +divided the priesthood. We have already said that Genesis iv. 1-l5 +can only have found its way into the primitive legend by +interpolation. +-- Footnote + + +It may, however, be remarked, and it is important to +do so, that even where true historic motives are indisputably +present in the patriarchal legend, it is not exactly a +reproduction of the facts as they occurred. In reality Edom +always kept up his hatred against Israel and suppressed his feeling +of relationship (Amos i. 11); in Genesis he meets his brother +returning from Mesopotamia, and trembling with anxiety at the +encounter, in a conciliatory temper which is quite affecting. +The touch is one to reflect no small honour on the ancient +Israelite. To set against this we have the touch, manifestly +inspired by hatred, of Genesis xix. 30-38. No one can fail to +wonder why the daughters of Lot are nameless, but this shows that +they are inserted between Lot and his sons Moab and Ammon purely +for the sake of the incest. Sympathies and antipathies are +everywhere at work, and the standpoint is throughout that of +Northern Israel, as appears most evidently from the circumstance +that Rachel is the fair and the beloved wife of Jacob, whom alone +in fact he wished to marry, and Leah the ugly and despised one who +was imposed on him by a trick. /2. On the whole, the rivalries + +-- Footnote +2 This, however, only warrants us to conclude that these legends +first arose in Ephraim, not that they were written down there in +the form in which we have them. +-- Footnote + + +which really existed are rather softened than exaggerated in this +poetical illustration of them; what tends to unity is more prominent +and is more carefully treated than what tends to separation. There +is no trace of any side glances at persons and events of the day, as, +e.g., at the unseemly occurrences at the court of David, and as +little of any twisting or otherwise doctoring the materials to +make them advance this or that tendency. + +But these stories would be without point were it not for other +elements which enter into them and attach them to this and that +particular locality. In this aspect we have first of all to +consider that the patriarchs are regarded as the founders of the +popular worship at Shechem, Bethel, Beersheba, and Hebron, as we +saw above, <I.II.1. "In perfect correspondence...">. A whole series +of stories about them are cultus-myths; in these they discover +by means of a theophany that a certain spot of earth is holy ground; +there they erect an altar, and give it the name of the place. +They dwell exclusively at places which were afterwards regarded as +primeval sanctuaries and inaugurate the sacrifices which are offered +there. The significance of these stories is entirely bound up with +the locality; they possess an interest only for those who still +sacrifice to Jehovah on the same altar as Abraham once did, under +the same sacred oak of Moreh or Mamre. In the same way the +patriarchs discover or excavate the caves, or springs, or wells, +and plant the trees, which their posterity still count sacred or +at least honourable, after the lapse of thousands of years. In +some cases also striking or significant formations of the earth's +surface receive a legendary explanation from the patriarchal age. +Were the Dead Sea not there, Sodom and Gomorrha would not have +perished; were there not a small flat tongue of land projecting +into the marsh from the south-east, Lot would have directed his +flight straight to the mountains of his sons Moab and Ammon, and +would not have made the detour by Zoar, which only serves to +explain why this corner was not included in the ruin to the area +of which it properly belongs. The pillar of salt into which Lot's +wife was turned was still pointed out in the days of Josephus; +perhaps the smoke of the furnace which Abraham saw from the +Jewish shore the morning after the catastrophe has some connection +with the town of the same name which was situated there. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 Joshua HNB#N xv. 62 is no doubt more correctly HKB#N: the +name, having the article prefixed to it, must be susceptible of a +clear meaning. +-- Footnote + + +The origin of Mount Gilead is explained from its historical +significance: it is an immense mound which was once heaped up by +Laban and Jacob in order to serve as a boundary between Aram and +Israel. In many instances the names of places gave rise to a +legend which does not always hit upon the true reason of the name. +The spring of Lahai Roi, for example, is an instance of this. The +discovery of this spring saved Hagar and Ishmael from dying of +thirst. Hagar called the name of Jehovah who spoke with her, El +Roi (God of Seeing), for she said, "Have I seen God, and am I +kept in life after my seeing?" Wherefore the well is called +Beer Lahai Roi (he lives who sees me); it is between Kadesh and +Berdan. According to Judges xv. 18-20, 2Samuel xxiii. 11, a +more correct interpretation of Lahai Roi would be " jawbone of the +antelope "--this being the appearance presented by a series of +rocky teeth standing close together there. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 Compare Onugnathos and the camel's jawbone in Vakidi, op. cit. +p. 298, note 2: Jakut iv. 353, 9 seq. R)Y is an obsolete name +of an animal. For HLM, Genesis xvi. 15, we should read )LHYM (cf. +1Samuel iii. 13), and before )XRY we should probably insert +W)XY. +-- Footnote + + +The original motive of the legend, however, as we have now +indicated it, appears in the Jehovist always and everywhere +covered over with the many-coloured robe of fancy. The longer a +story was spread by oral tradition among the people, the more +was its root concealed by the shoots springing from it. For +example, we may assume with regard to the story of Joseph that, +just because it has almost grown into a romance, its origin +stretches back to a remote antiquity. The popular fancy plays as +it will; yet it does not make such leaps as to make it impossible +to trace its course. Miracles, angels, theophanies, dreams, are +never absent from the palette. When Rachel eats the mandrakes +which Reuben had found, and which Leah had given up to her, and +they remove her barrenness so that she becomes the mother of +Joseph, we have a story based on a vulgar superstition. Purely +mythical elements are found isolated in the story of Jacob's +wrestling with the Deity at the ford of the Jabbok. Etymology +and proverbs are a favourite motive, and often give rise to lively +and diversified tales. Even in pieces which we should be inclined +to attribute to the art of individuals, old and characteristic +themes may be involved. The story of Jacob and Laban, for +example, is entirely composed of such materials. The courtship at +the well is twice repeated with no great variation. The trait of +the father-in-law's wish to get his oldest daughter first off his +hands and craftily bringing her to the son-in-law after the +wedding-feast, is scarcely due to the invention of an individual. +The shepherd's tricks, by which Jacob colours the sheep as he likes, +have quite the flavour of a popular jest. The observance of +hospitality or transgressions against it, occupy a prominent place +in the Genesis of the Jehovist; Lot's entertainment, and the +Sodomites' insulting maltreatment, of the Deity who comes among +them in disguise, is an incident that appears in the legends of +many races. There is little psychological embellishment, little +actual making-up; for the most part we have the product of a +countless number of narrators, unconsciously modifying each +other's work. How plastic and living the materials must have +been even in the ninth and eighth century, we see from the +manifold variants and repetitions of the same stories, which, +however, scarcely change the essential character of the themes. + +One more trait must be added to the character of the Jehovist. +Each of his narratives may be understood by itself apart from +the rest; the genealogy serves merely to string them together; +their interest and significance is not derived from the connection +in which they stand. Many of them have a local colour which +bespeaks a local origin; and how many of them are in substance +inconsistent with each other, and stand side by side only by +compulsion! The whole literary character and loose connection of +the Jehovist story of the patriarchs reveals how gradually its +different elements were brought together, and how little they +have coalesced to a unity. In this point the patriarchal history +of the Jehovist, stands quite on the same footing with his legend +of the origins of the human race, the nature of which we have +already demonstrated. + +VIII.II.2. It is from the Jehovistic form of the legends that we +derive our picture of the patriarchs, that picture which children +learn at school and which they find it easy to retain. To compare +the parallel of the Priestly Code it is necessary to restore it as +a whole, for few are aware of the impression it produces. + +"And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of +Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, +and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls +that they had gotten in Haran, and they went forth to go into +the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came (xii. +4b, 5). And the land was not able to bear them that they might +dwell together, for their substance was great so that they could +not dwell together. And they separated themselves the one from +the other; Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled +in the cities of the Kikkar. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Where the Dead Sea was afterwards. +-- Footnote + + +And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the +Kikkar, that God remembered Abram, and sent Lot out of the midst +of the overthrow-, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt... +(xiii. 6, 11b, 12ab, xix. 29). And Sarai was barren: she had +no child. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her +maid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and +gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And Hagar bare Abram +a son; and Abram called his son's name which Hagar bare, Ishmael. +And Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to +Abram" (xi. 30, xvi. 3, 15, 16) +Then follows the covenant of God with Abram, whose name he now +changes to Abraham, and the institution of circumcision as the +mark of those who belong to the covenant; then the announcement +of the birth of Isaac by Sarai, now ninety years old, who is +henceforth to be called Sarah, and Isaac's nomination as heir +of the covenant in place of Ishmael (chapter xvii.). + +"And Sarah bore Abraham a son at the set time of which God had +spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was +born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham +circumcised his son Isaac, after eight days, as God had commanded +him. And Abraham was an hundred years old when Isaac his +son was born unto him (xxi. 2-5). And the life of Sarah was an +hundred and twenty seven years; these were the years of the life +of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-Arba, the same is Hebron in +the land of Canaan" (xxiii. 1, 2). + +Then comes the treaty of Abraham, reported with all due legal +accuracy, with Ephron the Hittite, from whom he purchases the +cave of Machpelah, which is over against Mamre, for a family +burying-place (xxiii.). + +"And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he +lived, a hundred and seventy five years. And Abraham gave up the +ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years; +and was gathered to his fellow tribesmen. And his sons Isaac and +Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron +ben Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; the field which Abraham +purchased of the sons of Heth; there was Abraham buried and Sarah +his wife. And after Abraham was dead, God blessed his son Isaac" +(xxv. 7-11a). + +Next come the Toledoth (generations) of Ishmael according to the +regular practice of first exhausting the collaterals (xxv. 12-17). + +"These are the Toledoth of Isaac the son of Abraham. Abraham begat +Isaac...and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca to wife, the +daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister to Laban +the Syrian....And Isaac was 60 years old when Esau and Jacob +were born (xxv. 19, 20, 26c). And Esau was 40 years old when he +took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and +Bashemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they were a +grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. And Rebekah said to +Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; +if Jacob also take such wives of the daughters of Heth, of the +daughters of the land, what good shall my life do to me? Then +Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, saying, Thou +shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; arise, go to +Padan-Aram to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father, and take +thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's +brother. And El Shaddai will bless thee, and make thee fruitful +and multiply thee, and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee +and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land +wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. And +Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Padan-Aram unto Laban ben +Bethuel, the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, Jacob and Esau's +mother. And Esau saw that Isaac blessed Jacob, and sent him to +Padan-Aram to take him a wife from thence, and that as he blessed +him, he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of +the daughters of Canaan. Now Jacob hearkened to his father, and +went to Padan-Aram. But Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan +pleased not Isaac his father; then went Esau unto Ishmael, and +took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the sister of Nebaioth +to be his wife (xxvi. 34 seq., xxvii. 46, xxviii. 1-9). And +Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for her +handmaid. And he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife. And Laban +gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid +(xxix.24, 28b, 29). And the sons of Jacob were twelve. The sons +of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, +Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of +Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid: Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah, +Leah's handmaid: Gad and Asher; these are the sons of Jacob, +which were born to him in Padan-Aram (xxxv. 23-26)....[and Jacob +took] all his goods which he had gotten, the gear of his property +which he had gotten in Padan-Aram, to go home to Isaac his father +in the land of Canaan (xxx). 18). And God appeared unto Jacob +when he was coming home from Padan-Aram, and blessed him; and God +said unto him, Thy name is Jacob; thy name shall not be called any +more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And God said unto him; +I am El Shaddai; be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company +of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; +and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, +and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up +from him in the place where He talked with him. And Jacob called +the name of the place where God spake with him Bethel (xxxv. 9-13, +15). And they departed from Bethel; and when there was but a little +way to come unto Ephrath, Rachel died, and was buried there in the +way to Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem (xxxv. 16a, 19, cf. xlviii. +7, xlix. 3I). And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, +unto Kirjath-Arba, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac dwelt +as strangers. And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty +years. And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered +unto his people, being old and full of days; and his sons Esau +and Jacob buried him" (xxxv. 27-29.) Then follow the generations +of Esau in chapter xxxvi. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Only part of this chapter, however, belongs to the Priestly +Code. +-- Footnote + + +"And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all +the souls of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all +his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan, and went +into the land of Seir from the face of his brother Jacob. For their +riches were more than that they might dwell together, and the land +of their sojourn could not bear them because of their cattle. And +Esau dwelt in Mount Seir; Esau is Edom. And Jacob dwelt in the land +of the sojourn of his father, in the land of Canaan (xxxvi. 6-8, +xxxvii. 1). + +These are the Toledoth of Jacob...(xxxxvii. 2). And they took their +cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, +and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him, his sons, +and his sons' sons, and all his seed, brought he with him +into Egypt" (xlvi. 6, 7). + +Then follows the enumeration of the seventy souls of which his seed +was then composed. + +"And Jacob and his sons came to Egypt to Joseph; and Pharaoh the king +of Egypt heard it. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days +of the years of thy life? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days +of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years; few and +evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained +unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of +their sojourning. And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, +and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best part of +the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded (xlvii. +5b, 6, LXX, xlvii. 7-11). And they settled there, and grew and +multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt +seventeen years, and the whole age of Jacob was 7 years and 140 +years (xlvii. 27b, 28)....And Jacob said unto Joseph, El Shaddai +appeared unto me at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, +and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply +thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of peoples; and will give +this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. +And now thy two sons which were born unto thee in Egypt, before I +came unto thee in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be +mine, as Reuben and Simeon. And the issue which thou begettest +after them shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of +their brethren in their inheritance. And when I came from Padan, +Rachel died to me in the land of Canaan, in the way, when there +was but a little way to come into Ephrath, and I buried her +there, in the way to Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem (xlviii. +3-7, and v. 7, cf. xlix. 31)...[and his other sons also] he +blessed; and he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be +gathered unto my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave of +the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of +Canaan, which field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite, for a +hereditary burying-place-there they buried Abraham and Sarah his +wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I +buried Leah--the possession of the field and of the cave that is +therein from the children of Heth. And Jacob made an end of +commanding his sons, and he gathered up his feet into the bed, +and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his fellow-tribesmen +(xlix. 28b-33). And his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, +and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham +had bought for a hereditary burying-place from Ephron the Hittite, +over against Mamre (l. 12, 13). And these are the names of the +children of Israel which came into Egypt, with Jacob they came, +every one with his house; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, +Zebulon, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher. And all the souls +that came out of Jacob's loins were seventy souls; and Joseph was +in Egypt. And the children of Israel were fruitful and increased +abundantly, and the land was filled with them, and the Egyptians +made the children of Israel their servants with rigour, in all +their work which they wrought by them with rigour, and they +made their lives bitter with hard bondage (Exodus i. 1-7, 13, +14). And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage; +and they cried, and their cry because of the bondage came up +unto God, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered His +covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and God took +notice (ii. 23-25). And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, +I am Jehovah. I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob +by the name of El Shaddai; but by my name Jehovah was I not +known unto them; and I made a covenant with them to give them the +land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were +strangers. And I have heard the groaning of the children of +Israel, that the Egyptians keep them in bondage, and I have +remembered my covenant" (vi. 2 seq.). + +That is the whole of it. As a rule nothing more is aimed at than +to give the mere links and articulations of the narrative. It is +as if Q were the scarlet thread on which the pearls of JE are +hung. In place of the somewhat loose connections of the Jehovist, +the narrative of the Priestly Code shows a firmly jointed +literary form; one remarkable feature of which is to be seen in +the regular titles which stand at the head of the various +sections. Each section begins with the words )LH TWLDWT (_hae sunt +generationes_), from which Genesis derives its name. /l/ + +-- Footnote +1 *)AUTH (H BIBLOS GENESEWS ii. 4 LXX. Hence Ewald's name for the +Priestly Code, which is very appropriate for Genesis, or perhaps +generally for the book of the four covenants--the Book of Origins. +-- Footnote + + +In the rest of the historical literature of the Old Testament nothing +like this as yet appears. It is also characteristic that whenever +the title occurs, introducing a new, section, the contents of the +preceding section are first of all briefly recapitulated so as to +show the place of the link upon the chain. + +The Priestly Code enters as little as possible on the contents of +the various narratives. The predicates are stripped off, so far +as they admit of such treatment, and the subjects duly entered +in a catalogue with connecting text. In this way the history +almost shrinks to the compass of a genealogy with explanations-- +the genealogy at least forms the principal contents of the history, +and here appears in such proportions and such systematic fashion +as nowhere else. This has been regarded as a proof that Q belongs +to an older stage of development of Hebrew historiography than JE. +There can be no doubt, it is said, /1/ that the oldest Hebrew, + +-- Footnote +I Riehm, "die s.g. Grundschrift des Pentateuchs" in Studien und +Kritiken, 1872, p. 296. +-- Footnote + + +or indeed Oriental, history began with the historical notices +and traditions inserted in the tribal or family catalogues. +Yet we know positively that in the Books of Judges, Samuel, +and Kings, there are no genealogical statistics at all, while +Chronicles, and what belongs to Chronicles, is full of them. +We know also that songs such as those in Josh. x. 12, 13; Jud. v.; +2Samuel i. 19 seq., iii. 33 seq. are the oldest historical +monuments, and that a number of them are found in JE and not +a single one in Q. Herder's theory of the development of history +out of genealogy will not apply here, /2/ but indeed what we have + +-- Footnote +2 Nor in the case of the Arabs, as has been well shown by Sprenger +against Caussin de Perceval (Essai, preface, p. ix.). +-- Footnote + + +to do with here is not history proper at all, but folklore. + +It is true that with the Jehovist also the genealogy underlies +the narrative as its skeleton. It is the natural chain to link +the different stories together, and even at a time when the +latter were still separate and only circulated orally, the +genealogy was not unknown to the people. When stories were told +of Isaac and Ishmael, and Lot and Esau, every one knew at once +who these personages were, and how they were related to Israel +and to one another. But this was merely the presupposition of +the narratives, known as a matter of course to the hearers; +the interesting element in them consisted in those traits +which the Priestly Code omits. Stories of this kind compel +attention because they set forth the peculiarities of different +peoples as historically and really related to each other, not +according to an empty embryological relation. It is the temper +displayed by different races, not the stem of their relationship, +that makes the point of the stories; their charm and their very +life depend on their being transparent and reflecting the historic +attitude of the time which gave them birth. The clearer the traces +they display of love and hatred, jealousy of rivals and joy in +their fall, the nearer are we to the forces which originated the +tradition about early times. In the Priestly Code all those +stories are absent in which there is anything morally objectionable,-- +those for example in which the cowardice of the patriarchs +endangers the honour of their wives, those of Sarah's cruel +jealousy of Hagar, and of the unlovely contention of Leah and +Rachel for husband and children, of the incest of Lot's +daughters, of the violation of Dinah. All hatred, and strife, +and deceit in the patriarchal family disappear: Lot and Abraham, +Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, agree to separate: of the +tricks of Laban and Jacob to each other, of the treachery of +Simeon and Levi to Shechem, of the enmity Joseph's brethren bore +to him, there is not a word in the Priestly Code. It is not +merely that "psychological decorations," as they have been +called, are left out; the very heart of the business has been +cut out. That Moab and Ammon, Ishmael and Edom, were Hebrew +peoples, all more nearly or more distantly related to the +Israelites, that the Aramaeans too were closely connected with +the Hebrews by blood and by marriage, that this tribe lives in +one district contiguous to Palestine, that in another--this is what +the Priestly Code has to tell. Dry ethnographical and +geographical facts like these are presented in a genealogical +form; all we learn of the patriarchs is their marriages and +births and how they separated to the various dwelling-places of +their descendants. And folklore could not possibly be directed +to such facts as these at a period when these relations were all +matters of fact and familiar to every child. The Priestly Code, +moreover, strips the legends of the patriarchs of their local as +well as their historical colour; they are kept at a distance from +all the places of the sacredness of which the Jehovist makes them +the founders. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Hupteld gives a curious turn to this, saying that in the +Priestly Code Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have much more permanent +settlements. But it is this work that insists so often on the +fact that the patriarchs were pilgrims and had nowhere a fixed +residence: it only says that Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, +and names no particular place even as the scene of the theophany +in chapter xvii. It is only when the question of burying Sarah +and Abraham arises that there is a change. Something must be +done, and the field of Machpelah near Hebron is acquired (no doubt +JE reported this, but the account of it in that source is lost) as +a possession of the patriarchal family, where it now settles more +permanently. That Isaac and Jacob continue to dwell at the grave +of Abraham is a statement of which the significance is negative +rather than positive, and on the other hand the patriarchal +journeys up and down in JE are not designed to represent them as +wandering nomads, but serve to bring them in contact with all the +sacred places with which they had special associations, +-- Footnote + + +No historical geography is needed in order to understand the +narrative of the Priestly Code in Genesis: but that is only to +say that it stands quite away from the soil out of which oral +tradition arises. It deals in no etymology, no proverbs nor +songs, no miracles, theophanies nor dreams, and is destitute of +all that many-coloured poetic charm which adorns the Jehovistic +narratives. But this proves not its original simplicity but its +neglect of the springs from which legend arises, and of its most +essential elements. /1/ What remains is anything but historical +objectivity: it is the formula and nothing more. + +-- Footnote +1. Riehm (op. cit. p. 302 seq.) thinks it is made out that the +religious tradition of remote antiquity is distinguished by its +"modest simplicity", and by a "style suited to its exalted +subject." Only in the course of time was it adorned with all sorts +of miraculous and mysterious elements, and that by the "fancy of +the people," which, however, does not so easily gain entrance +into serious literature(!) He appeals to the fact that the +conception of angels, though certainly long developed with the +people, occurs in the earlier prophets only in isolated instances, +and in the later prophets, as Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, more +frequently. It is difficult to sift out what is true and what is +false in this confused argument. In the Priestly Code there are, +it is true, no angels, but on the other hand we have Azazel and +Seirim (2Chronicles xi. 15; Isaiah xiii. 21, xxxiv. 14, comp. +supra), for where the gods are not, the ghosts have sway. +In one of the two main sources of the Jehovist (J), we find +chiefly the Mal'ak Jahve (message of Jehovah); that is Jehovah +Himself in so far as He appears and manifests Himself, whether in +a natural phenomenon or in human form. Different are the B'ne +Elohim, beings of divine substance: they perhaps are indicated +in the 1st plural in the mouth of Jehovah (Genesis iii. 22, xi. 7). +Both of these are doubtless very old. In the other principal +source (E) a mixture appears to have taken place: the heavenly +hosts are not only the children and companions of Deity, but also +its messengers, conductors of the communication between heaven and +earth (:xviii. 12); here we have the Mal'akim beside God and in +the plural. This view also is not exactly a late one, as we see +from the vision of Micaiah (t Kings xxii. 19). What does Riehm +mean by high antiquity? A period from which no monuments are +preserved to us? Why does he limit his attention to the +prophetic literature? He concedes that the idea of angels was +early present "in the fancy of the people," and he should have +been equal to the further concession that those who wrote down the +FOLKLORE occupied a somewhat different position to POPULAR BELIEF +from that of the prophetic preachers of repentance. Not even the +historical books admit of being measured by the same standard in +this matter as the pre-historic tradition. And which is the more +original--that the angels use a ladder as in Genesis, or that they +have wings as in Isaiah? And finally as for the reference to +Ezekiel (?), Zechariah, and Daniel, the difference appears to me to +be tolerably plain between a systematic angelology which +operates always with numbers and names and the childlike belief in +angels. The former removes God to a distance, the latter brings Him +near. +-- Footnote + +As with the legend of the beginnings of things, so with the legend +of the patriarchs: what is essential and original is the individual +element in the several stories; the connection is a secondary matter, +and only introduced on the stories being collected and reduced to +writing. But in the Priestly Code the individuality of the several +stories is simply destroyed: to such an extent is the connection +dwelt on. What meaning is there in the statement that Jacob was all +at once called Israel, i.e., Fight-God (xxxv. 10), if no mention is +made of his wrestling with El, which was the occasion of his change +of name? Have we anything like the true history of Joseph in the +Priestly Code? Can we regard it as the original history, when +the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is dismissed in a +subordinate clause, as is done in xix. 29 ? The remarkable +admission has been made, /1/ that it is plain from the summary + +-- Footnote +1. Riehm, op.. cit. p. 292. +-- Footnote + + +manner of reporting of the Priestly Code, that the author could +have told his story at much greater length, had it been +consistent with the plan of his work to do so, and that this +certainly points to sources where greater detail was used. The +more detailed source, however, which is thus taken for granted, +need by no means, it is said, have been a written one, and least +of all the Jehovistic narrative before us; on the contrary, we +are told, the state of the case is best satisfied by the +assumption that the author held a more detailed narrative to be +unnecessary, because the oral tradition, living in the mouth of +the people, was quite able to fill in the colours in his outlines +and to convert his chronistic notices into living pictures. But +this is merely an attempt to elude the necessity for exactly +comparing the Priestly Code and the Jehovist. The question is, +which of the two writings stands nearest to the starting-point? +Is it the one which attaches most importance to elements which are +foreign to the nature of oral tradition altogether and only added +in literary composition? It would be a curious thing if the +writing down of the tradition began with writing down what the +legend did not contain. What is set before us in the Priestly +Code is the quintessence not of the oral tradition, but of the +tradition when already written down. And the written account of +the primitive history which it employs is the Jehovistic +narrative. The order in which the popular legends are there placed +here becomes the very kernel of the narrative. There the plan +was hidden behind the execution, but here it comes forward not +indeed essentially changed, but sharp and accentuated, as the +principal feature of the whole. + + +VIII.II.3. The Jehovist still lives in the spirit of the legend, +but the Priestly Code is strange to that spirit, and does violence +to the legend, by treating it from its own point of view, which is +quite different from the old one. Moral and religious culture is +further advanced; and hence the removal of real or apparent offences +against morality and of notions which are too childish, or superstitious, +or even mythical. If the Godhead appears, it must not be patent +to the senses, at least it must not be seen in visible form. +Jehovah speaks with Jacob, but not in a dream from the heavenly +ladder; He reveals Himself to Moses, but not in the burning bush; +the notion of revelation is retained, but the subsidiary +incidents which must be added to make a concrete of the abstract, +are stripped off. It is a matter of indifference under what forms +or through what media a man receives revelation, if only the fact +stands sure; in other words, revelation is no longer a living +reality of the present, but a dead dogma for the past. The +progress of culture in the Priestly Code is most of all evident +in the learned historical treatment with which the legend is +overlaid. First of all there is the chronology, which we +encountered even in the legend of the origins of mankind, and +which is naturally continued in the patriarchal legend. Here +indeed we see with special plainness how foreign learned +calculation is to the poetical materials; in some instances the +facts lead to quite a different view from that of the numbers. +Following the numbers of the Priestly Code we may, with the +Rabbis, regard Shem and Eber as the venerable heads of the Jewish +school in which the child Jacob learned his letters and the Torah. +Then Jacob's sojourn in Mesopotamia lasts about eighty years, and +all this time Isaac is Iying on his death-bed; after being long +dead for us, he suddenly appears again, but only to die. And +hand in hand with the chronology there goes the general +predilection of the Priestly Code for numbers and names, which +displays itself even in Genesis, though not nearly so marked +there as in the later books of the Pentateuch. Oral folklore can +very well contain round numbers, such as the twelve sons and the +seventy souls of the family of Jacob, the twelve wells and the +seventy palm trees at Elim, the seventy elders and the twelve +spies; but a chronological system, whole lists of exact and +considerable numbers, bare catalogues of personal names, none of +them having any significance, dates and measurements such as +those in the account of the flood in the Priestly Code, require +writing even to originate, not to speak of transmitting them. +These art-products of pedantry toke the place of the living +poetic detail of the Jehovist narrative; the element of episode +has to give way to the seriousness of dry history. + +It is also a mark of historical pedantry that the mixing up of +the period of the patriarchs with a later period is avoided as +anachronistic. In the Jehovist the present everywhere shines +through, he in no way conceals his own age; we are told that +Babylon is the great world-city, that the Assyrian Empire is in +existence, with the cities of Niniveh and Calah and Resen; that +the Canaanites had once dwelt in Palestine, but had long been +absorbed in the Israelites. The writer of the Priestly Code is +very careful not to do anything like this. /1/ He brushes up the + +-- Footnote +1. Hence also archaisms such as Kirjath-Arba, Luz, Ephrath. +Compare the antiquarian lore in Deuteronomy i.-iv. and in +Genesis xiv. +-- Footnote + + +legend and makes history of it according to the rules of art; he +kills it as legend, and deprives it of all real value, such as it +possesses, not indeed for the history of primitive times, but for +that of the age of the kings. + +The history of the first men and of the patriarchs is divided by +the Priestly Code into three periods, each of them opened by a +covenant. The covenant with Adam (Genesis i. 28-ii. 4) is the +simplest; it is not called a covenant, but it is the basis of the +second covenant with Noah (ix. 1-17), which modifies it in +important particulars, and brings it nearer to the present age. +The covenant with Abraham (Genesis xvii.), which alone is ratified +with the succeeding patriarchs, does not apply to the whole of +mankind, but only to Abraham's seed, and especially to Israel. +The first sign of the covenant is the Sabbath (Genesis ii. 3; +comp. Exodus xxxi. 12 seq.; Ezekiel xx. 12, 20), the second +the rainbow (Genesis ix. 12), the third circumcision (xvii. 10). +The first parent of mankind is enjoined to use a purely vegetable +diet, the father of mankind after the, flood receives permission +to slaughter animals; but he is expressly ordered not to eat +flesh in the blood, and besides, to shed the blood of no man. +What is said to Noah remains good for Abraham; but to the latter +God promises that his posterity by Sarah shall possess the land +of Canaan, and this is further assured by the purchase of the +cave of Machpelah for a family burying-place, the purchase being +executed according to all the forms of law, with prolonged +negotiations. Further, God reveals Himself to Abraham as El +Shaddai, and under this name He also manifests Himself to Isaac +(xxviii. 3) and Jacob (xxxv. 11), repeating to them the promise +of the possession of the land. It is pointed out with emphasis +that God was not known to the pre-Mosaic time under His Israelite +name, that He revealed Himself to the patriarchs only as El +Shaddai, and as Jehovah first to Moses (Exod. vi. 2, 3). With +a similar intention, which is not far to seek, the time of the +patriarchs is kept free of the other Mosaic forms of worship; +hence we have here no sacrifices nor altars, no distinction of +clean and unclean beasts, nor anything of the kind. Now till +within a short time ago, there was a great inclination (no one +will be found at this date to acknowledge that he felt it) to +admire the sobriety and faithfulness of the Priestly Code, as +shown in this observance of the different religious stages. +But in fact we can only admire these advantages in it, if we +believe that the religion was at first naturalistic, that then +all at once it became a good deal more positive, and then quite +positive in the year 1500 B.C. How can we regard it as showing +historical faithfulness, that the patriarchs were allowed to +slaughter, but not to sacrifice, and that first the Sabbath was +introduced, then the rainbow, then circumcision, and at last +sacrifice, under Moses? It is natural that Jacob at Bethel should +give tithes of all that he possesses, unnatural that the eponymous +hero should not in worship above all things have left a good example +to his posterity. What is it but a theory, that the name Jehovah +was first revealed to Moses, and through him to the Israelites, +and that it was quite unknown before?--a theory which certainly +cannot be upheld, for Moses could have done nothing more irrational +than to introduce a new name for the God of their fathers, to whom +he directed his people,--and yet a theory which, from the correlation +between Jehovah the God of Israel and Israel the people of Jehovah, +readily suggests itself, and is not altogether peculiar to the +author of the Priestly Code. /1/. He had a pattern which suggested + +-- Footnote +1. Exodus vi. 2, 3 (Q) = iii. 13, 14 (JE). The burning bush shows +the theophany in the Jehovist to be the earlier. In the Priestly +Code it almost loses the character of a theophany entirely. But +this is also quite clear on a comparison of Exodus vii. 1 (Q) and +iv. 16 (JE). The phrase vii. 1, " Behold, I make thee a god to +Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet," is a +degradation of the corresponding passage, iv. 16 "Aaron shall be +to thee for a mouth, and thou shalt be to him for a god." For if +Aaron is the prophet or the mouth of Moses, then in the original +and only appropriate way of thinking of the matter, Moses is a +god for Aaron, not for Pharaoh. By the way is there anything in +the similarity between Sene and Sinai? +-- Footnote + + +certain lines, and these he traces strongly and with a system; +and he even goes so far as to avoid the name of Jehovah even in +his own narrative of the pre-Mosaic period. Even when speaking +in his own person, he says Elohim, not Jehovah, down to Exodus vi. + +The three periods and the three corresponding covenants of the +early age are preliminaries to the fourth period and the fourth +covenant. The narrator everywhere has an eye to the Mosaic law, +and the thought of it determined the plan which comes so prominently +into view in his representation of the origins of human history. +The great features of this plan are the great official transactions +of Jehovah with the patriarchs. In these we have not a narrative +but only speeches and negotiations; the preliminary laws are given +in them, which, as they advance step by step, prepare the way +for the great Law, namely, the Mosaic. The law of worship has +taken the place of the legend of worship. In the legend the +sacred usages and customs arise, as it were, spontaneously, in +connection with any occasion, placed in the early sacred time, +which may serve to account for them. Jehovah does not make it +statutory that the sinew of the thigh may not be eaten; but He +wrestles with Israel, and injures the sinew of his thigh during +the wrestling, and for this reason the children of Israel do not +eat thereof. In the following story it is explained how it came +about that the Israelites circumcise young boys (Exodus iv. 25 +seq.). As Moses was returning from Midian to Goshen, he spent a +night on the road, and Jehovah fell upon him with the intention of +killing him. His wife, Zipporah, however, took a flint and cut +off the foreskin of her son, and touched Moses L:RAGLFYW with it, +saying, Thou art a blood-bridegroom to me. Then Jehovah let him +go. Thus Zipporah circumcises her son instead of her husband, +makes the latter symbolically a blood-bridegroom, and thereby +delivers him from the wrath of Jehovah to which he is exposed, +because he is not a blood-bridegroom, ie., because he has not +submitted to circumcision before his marriage. In other words, +the circumcision of male infants is here explained as a milder +substitute for the original circumcision of young men before +marriage. /1/ Compare with this the style in which in Genesis xvii + +-- Footnote +1. That this is in fact the original custom is clear from the word +XTN, which signifies both circumcision and bridegroom (or in +Arabic, son-in-law). This explains the meaning of XTN DMYM in +Exodus iv. 25. The original usage is still in force with some +Arab tribes. In Genesis xxxiv. Shechem has to submit to +circumcision before marriage. +-- Footnote + + +the Priestly Code institutes the circumcision of male children on +the eighth day after birth. This institution completely throws +into the shade and spoils the story out of which it arose, namely, +the promise of the birth of Isaac as a reward to Abraham of the +hospitality he showed Jehovah at Hebron. But there is more than +a difference in form, there is a material contradiction between +the Jehovistic legend and the priestly law. The law purifies the +legend, that is to say, denies all its main features and motives. +As we saw in the first chapter there is a conscious polemic at work +in the representation in the Priestly Code that Abraham, Isaac, +and Jacob erect no altars, and practice no religious rites, and +that they have no connection with the sacred places with which +in JE they are inseparably associated. The popular religious +book preserved to us in the Jehovistic Genesis, not corrected +to any great extent, though certainly to some extent, tells how +the ancestors and representatives of Israel founded the old popular +worship at the principal sites at which it was kept up. The law +of the legitimate cultus of Jerusalem, as it lies before us in the +Priestly Code, reforms and destroys the old popular worship on +the basis of Mosaic, i.e., prophetical ideas. The tabernacle +does not harmonize with the sanctuaries of Hebron, Beersheba, +Shechem, Kadesh, Mahanaim, Lahai-Roi, Bethel; the patriarchs live +at Hebron only because they are to be buried there, not to +entertain the Deity under the oak of Mamre and to build an altar +there. The heretical mac,c,ebas, trees and wells, disappear, and +with them the objectionable customs: that God should have +summoned Abraham to offer up to Him his only son is an idea the +Priestly Code could not possibly entertain. The whole material +of the legend is subordinated to legislative designs: the +modifying influence of the law on the narrative is everywhere +apparent. + +The attitude of Judaism to the old legend is on the whole negative, +but it added some new elements. While the patriarchs are not +allowed to sacrifice, only to slaughter, they have, on the other +hand, the Sabbath /1/ and circumcision. In this they are like + +-- Footnote +I The Sabbath is not a Mosaic institution according to the Priestly +Code. But it is presupposed in Exodus xvi., and according to Genesis +ii. 3, it was in force from the beginning of the world. With the +old Israelites the Sabbath was much less important in relation to +worship than the festivals: in Judaism the opposite was the case. +-- Footnote + + +the Jews in Babylon, who were deprived of the national cultus, and +replaced it with these two symbols of religious membership and +union, which were independent of the temple of Jerusalem. In the +exile, after the cessation of the service of the altar, the Sabbath +and circumcision attained that significance as symbols--in the +genuine old meaning of the Greek word--as practical symbols of +Judaism, which they retain to the present day. The emphasis is +noteworthy with which the Priestly Code always insists on the +fact that the patriarchs sojourned in a strange land, that they +were _Gerim_. If we also consider that Abraham is said to have +migrated into Palestine from Ur, from Chaldaea, it is hardly possible +to reject the idea that the circumstances of the exile had some +influence in moulding the priestly form of the patriarchal +legend. In spite of all the efforts of the historian, and all the +archaic appearance of his work, it may in that case still be the +fact that the surroundings of the narrator found positive +expression in his description of the patriarchal times. + + +VIII.III. + +<VIII.III.1.> In the Jehovistic history-book Genesis is a most +important part, and occupies at least a half of the whole work: +in the Priestly Code, Genesis quite disappears in comparison with +the later books. Only with the Mosaic legislation does this work +arrive at its own ground, and it at once stifles the narrative +under a mass of legislative matter. Here also there is a thin +historical thread running parallel to the Jehovist, but we constantly +lose sight of it from the repeated interruptions made by extensive +ritual laws and statistical statements. + +"These last four books of Moses have been made quite unreadable by +a most melancholy, most incomprehensible, revision. The course of +the history is everywhere interrupted by the insertion of +innumerable laws, with regard to the greater part of which it is +impossible to see any reason for their being inserted where they +are." The dislocation of the narrative by these monstrous growths +of legislative matter is not, as Goethe thinks, to be imputed to +the editor; it is the work of the unedited Priestly Code itself, +and is certainly intolerable; nor can it be original; the +literary form of the work at once shows this. It is still +possible to trace how the legal matter forces its way into the +narrative, and once there spreads itself and takes up more and +more room. In the Jehovist, one form of the tradition may still +be discerned, according to which the Israelites on crossing the +Red Sea at once proceeded towards Kadesh, without making the detour +to Sinai. We only get to Sinai in Exodus xix., but in Exodus +xvii. we are already at Massah and Meribah, ie., on the ground +of Kadesh. That is the scene of the story of Moses striking water +out of the rock with his staff: there the fight with the Amalekites +took place--they lived there and not at Sinai--there also the visit +of Jethro, which requires a locality at some distance from his home +(at Sinai), a place where the people had not merely a temporary +encampment, but their permanent seat of justice. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Kadesh is also called Meribah, the seat of justice, or Meribath +Kadesh, the seat of justice at the holy spring. Meribah is in +its meaning the same as Midian. +-- Footnote + + +Hence the narratives which are told before the arrival at Sinai are +repeated after the departure from it, because the locality is the +same before and after, namely, the wilderness of Kadesh, the true +scene of the Mosaic history. The institution of judges and elders +concludes the narrative before the great Sinai section, and begins +the narrative after it (Ex. xviii., Numbers xi ). The story of +the manna and the quails occurs not only in Exodus xvi., but also +in Numbers xi; and the rocky spring called forth by Moses at +Massah and Meribah is both in Exodus xvii. and Numbers xx. In +other words, the Israelites arrived at Kadesh, the original object +of their wanderings, not after the digression to Sinai but +immediately after the Exodus, and they spent there the forty +years of their residence in the wilderness. Kadesh is also the +original scene of the legislation. "There He made them statute and +judgment, and there He proved them," we read in a poetical +fragment, before the Sinai section (Exodus xv. 25), which is now +placed in the narrative of the healing of the waters at Marah, but +stands there quite isolated and without bearing on its context. +The curious conjunction of judgment and trial points unmistakably +to Massah and Meribah (ie., judgment and trial-place), that is, to +Kadesh, as the place spoken of. But the legislation at the seat of +judgment at Kadesh is not represented as a single act in which +Moses promulgates to the Israelites once for all a complete and +comprehensive body of laws; it goes on for forty years, and +consists in the dispensation of justice at the sanctuary, which he +begins and the priests and judges carry on after him according to +the pattern he set. This is the idea in the extremely +instructive narrative in Exodus xviii., of which Kadesh is the +scene. And in this way the Torah has its place in the historical +narrative, not in virtue of its matter as the contents of a code, +but from its form as constituting the professional activity of +Moses. It is in the history not as a result, as the sum of the +laws and usages binding on Israel, but as a process; it is shown +how it originated, how the foundation was laid for the living +institution of that Torah which still exists and is in force in +Israel. + +The true and original significance of Sinai is quite independent +of the legislation. It was the seat of the Deity, the sacred +mountain, doubtless not only for the Israelites, but generally +for all the Hebrew and Cainite (Kenite) tribes of the surrounding +region. The priesthood of Moses and his successors was derived +from the priesthood there: there Jehovah appeared to him in the +burning bush when he was keeping the sheep of the priest of Midian, +from there He sent him to Egypt. There, to the Israelites, Jehovah +still dwelt long after they had settled in Palestine; in the song +of Deborah He is summoned to come from Sinai to succour His +oppressed people and to place Himself at the head of His +warriors. According to the view of the poet of Deuteronomy xxxiii. +the Israelites did not go to Jehovah to Sinai, but the converse; +He came to them from Sinai to Kadesh: "Jehovah came from Sinai +and shone from Seir unto them; He lightened from Mount Paran and +came to Meribath Kadesh." /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. We do not know where Sinai was situated, and the Bible is +scarcely at one on the subject. Only dilettanti care much for +controversy on the matter. The Midian of Exodus ii. tells us +most: it is probably Madian on the Arabic shore of the Ked sea. +In our passage Sinai seems to be S.E. of Edom; the way from +Sinai to Kadesh is by Seir and Paran. +-- Footnote + + +But it is not difficult to see how it came to be thought more seemly +that the Israelites should undertake the journey to Jehovah. This +was at first put in the form that they appeared there before the +face of Jehovah to worship Him and offer Him a sacrifice (Exodus +iii. 12), and at their departure they received the ark instead +of Jehovah Himself, who continued to dwell on Sinai (Exodus +xxxiii.); for the ark represents Jehovah, that constitutes its +significance, and not the tables of the law, which were not in it +at first. It was a further step to make Sinai the scene of the +solemn inauguration of the historical relation between Jehovah and +Israel. This was done under the poetic impulse to represent the +constituting of the people of Jehovah as a dramatic act on an +exalted stage. What in the older tradition was a process which +went on quietly and slowly, occupied completely the whole period +of Moses, and was at the beginning just such as it still continued +to be, was now, for the sake of solemnity and vividness, +compressed into a striking scene of inauguration. If this were +done, the covenant between Jehovah and Israel must receive a +positive (as well as a negative) character, that is to say, +Jehovah Himself must announce to the people the basis and the +conditions of it. Thus the necessity arose to communicate in +this place the contents of the fundamental laws, and so the matter +of the legislation made its way into the historical narrative. +But that it did not belong originally to this place we see from +the confusion which obtains even in the Jehovistic Sinai section +(Exodus xix.-xxiv., xxxii.-xxxiv.). The small bodies of laws +which are here communicated may in themselves be old enough, +but they are forced into the narrative. It is only of what is +relatively the most recent corpus, the Decalogue (in E), that +this cannot be asserted. + +As the Jehovistic work was originally a pure history-book, so +Deuteronomy, when it was first discovered, was a pure law-book. +/1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Chapters xii.-xxvii. The two historical introductions, chapter +i.-iv. and chapter v.-xi. were added later, as well as the +appendices, chapter xxviii. seq. +-- Footnote + + +These two works, the historical and legal, were at first quite +independent of each other; only afterwards were they conjoined, +perhaps that the new law might share in the popularity of the old +people's book, and at the same time infuse into it its own spirit. +It made it the easier to do this, that, as we have just seen, a +piece of law had already been taken up into the Jehovistic +history-book. To the Decalogue, at the beginning of the period of +the forty years, was now added Deuteronomy at the close of that +period. The situation--of which the law itself knows nothing--is +very well chosen, not only because Moses is entitled when making +his testament to anticipate the future and make a law for the time +to come, but also because, the law being placed at the close of +his life, the thread of the narrative is not further interrupted, +the law being simply inserted between the Pentateuch and the Book +of Joshua. This combination of Deuteronomy with the Jehovist was +the beginning of the combination of narrative and law; and the +fact that this precedent was before the author of the Priestly +Code explains how, though his concern was with the Torah alone, +he yet went to work from the very outset and comprised in his work +the history of the creation, as if it also belonged to the Torah. +This manner of setting forth the Torah in the form of a history +book is not in the least involved in the nature of the case; on +the contrary, it introduces the greatest amount of awkwardness. +How it came about can only be explained in the way above +described; an antecedent process of the same nature in literary +history led the way and made the suggestion. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. That the author of the Priestly Code had before him the +combination of the Sinai legislation of the Jehovist and +Deuteronomy is shown further by the circumstance that he has both +a legislation at Mount Sinai and a legislation in the Arboth Moah, +and in addition to these one in the wilderness of Sinai. +-- Footnote + + +As from the literary point of view, so also from the historical, +the Moses of the Jehovist appears more original than the Moses of +the Priestly Code. To prove this is, it is true, the aim of the +entire present work: yet it will not on that account be thought +out of place if we take advantage of this convenient opportunity +for a brief sketch and criticism of the conflicting historical views +of Moses and his work in the two main sources of the Pentateuch. +According to the Priestly Code Moses is a religious founder and +legislator, as we are accustomed to think of him. He receives and +promulgates the Torah, /1/ perhaps not as a book--though, when we + +-- Footnote +1. The law might accordingly be called Moses, as with the Ethiopians +the Psalter is called David, +-- Footnote + + +come to think of it, we can hardly represent the transaction to +ourselves in any other way--but certainly fixed and finished as +an elaborate and minutely organised system, which comprises the +sacred constitution of the congregation for all time to come. +The whole significance of Moses consists in the office of messenger +which he holds as mediator of the law; what else he does is of no +importance. That the law is given once for all is the great event +of the time, not that the people of Israel begins to appear on the +stage of the world. The people is there for the sake of the law, +not the law for the sake of the people. With the Jehovist, on the +contrary, Moses' work consists in this, that he delivers his +people from the Egyptians and cares for it in every way in the +wilderness. In the prelude scene from his youth, when he smites +the Egyptian and seeks to adjust the dispute of his brethren +(Exodus ii. 11 seq.), his whole history is prefigured. His care +for the Israelites embraces both catering for their sustenance, +and making and preserving peace and order among them (Numbers xi.). +The Torah is but a part of his activity, and proceeds from his +more general office as the guardian of the young people, who has, +as it were, to teach the fledgling to fly (Numbers xi. xii.). +According to Exodus xviii. his Torah is nothing but a giving of +counsel, a finding the way out of complications and difficulties +which had actually arisen. Individuals bring their different +cases before him; he pronounces judgment or gives advice, and in +so doing teaches the people the way they should go. Thus he is +the beginner of the teaching of Jehovah which lives on after him +in priest and prophet. Here all is life and movement: as Jehovah +Himself, so the man of God, is working in a medium which is alive; +is working practically, by no means theoretically, in history, +not in literature. His work and activity may be told in a +narrative, but the contents of it are more than a system, and are +not to be reduced to a compendium; it is not done and finished off, +it is the beginning of a series of infinite activities. In the +Priestly Code the work of Moses lies before us clearly defined +and rounded off; one living a thousand years after knows it as +well as one who saw it with his eyes. It is detached from its +originator and from his age: lifeless itself, it has driven the +life out of Moses and out of the people, nay, out of the very +Deity. This precipitate of history, appearing as law at the +beginning of the history, stifles and kills the history itself. +Which of the two views is the more historical, we can accordingly +be at no loss to decide. It may be added that in the older Hebrew +literature the founding of the nation and not the giving of the +law is regarded as the theocratic creative act of Jehovah. The +very notion of the law is absent: only covenants are spoken of, +in which the representatives of the people undertake solemn +obligations to do or leave undone something which is described +in general terms. + +Another point of difference must be mentioned here, though indeed +it is a matter which has been before us more than once already. +That which is in the Priestly Code the subject-matter of the +Torah of Moses, namely, the institution of the cultus, the +Jehovist traces to the practice of the patriarchs--one more result +of the difference between law and legend. The Moses of the +Priestly Code conflicts not only with the future, but with the +past; he comes into collision with history on every side. That +view is manifestly the only natural one according to which the +worship is not specifically Israelite, not a thing instituted by +Moses in obedience to a sudden command of the Deity, but an +ancestral tradition. But at the time when the Priestly Code was +drawn up the worship was certainly the one thing that made Israel +Israel. In it the church, the one congregation of worship, takes +the place of the people even in the Mosaic age--sorely against +history, but characteristically for the author's point of view. + +Now even such authorities as Bleek, Hupfeld, and Knobel have been +misled by the appearance of historical reality which the Priestly +Code creates by its learned art here as well as in the history +of the patriarchs. They have regarded the multiplicity of +numbers and names, the minute technical descriptions, the strict +keeping up of the scenery of camp-life, as so many signs of +authentic objectivity. Noldeke made an end of this critical +position once for all, but Colenso is properly entitled to the +credit of having first torn the web asunder. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. See Kuenen in the Theol. Tijdschrift, 1870, p. 393-401. +-- Footnote + + +The boldness with which numbers and names are stated, and the +preciseness of the details about indifferent matters of furniture, +do not prove them to be reliable: they are not drawn from +contemporary records, but are the fruit solely of late Jewish +fancy, a fancy which, it is well known, does not design nor +sketch, but counts and constructs, and produces nothing more than +barren plans. Without repeating the description of the tabernacle +in Exodus xxv. word for word, it is difficult to give an idea how +circumstantial it is; we must go to the source to satisfy +ourselves what the narrator can do in this line. One would imagine +that he was giving specifications to measurers for estimates, or +that he was writing for carpet-makers and upholsterers; but they +could not proceed upon his information, for the incredibly matter- +of-fact statements are fancy all the same, as was shown in chapter +i. The description of the tabernacle is supplemented in the Book +of Numbers by that of the camp; the former being the centre, this +is the circle drawn about it, and consists of an outer ring, the +twelve secular tribes, a middle ring, the Levites, and an innermost +one, the sons of Aaron: a mathematical demonstration of the +theocracy in the wilderness. The two first chapters contain the +census of the twelve tribes, and their allocation in four quarters, +nothing but names and numbers. To this first census chapter xxxiv. +adds another at the close of the forty years, in which the various +detailed figures are different, but the total is about the same. +This total, 600,000 warriors, comes from the older tradition, but +is proved to be quite worthless by the fact that in a really +authentic document the levy of Israel in the time of Deborah is +stated to be 40,000 strong. Still, the Priestly Code is entitled +to the credit of having made the total a little less round, and of +having broken it up into artificial component parts. The muster of +the people is followed in Numbers iii. iv. by the dedication of +the tribe of Levi to the sanctuary, in compensation for the +firstborn males of the Israelites who up to that time had not been +sacrificed nor yet redeemed. There are 22,273 firstborn males to +be provided for, and there are 22,000 male Levites above a month +old. The 273 extra firstborn males are specially redeemed at five +shekels a head. What accuracy! But what of the fact that a people +of at least two millions has only 22,273 firstborn males, or say +50,000 firstborn of both sexes? This gives an average of forty +children to every woman, for the firstborn in the sense of the law +is that which first opens the womb. The continuation of Numbers iii. +iv. is in chapter viii. As the Levites are an offering of firstlings +to the sanctuary on the part of the people, which, however, is not +to be sacrificed but made over to the priests, the characteristic +rite of this sort of sacred due has to be gone through with them, +namely, an act imitating that of throwing into the flame of the altar +(Aristeas 31,1. 5). To think of Moses and Aaron heaving the 22,000 +men! Not less striking as an example of this kind of fiction is the +story of Numbers xxxi. Twelve thousand Israelites, a thousand from +each tribe, take the field against Midian, extirpate without any +fighting--at least nothing is anywhere said of this important +point--the whole people, slay all the men and a part of the women, +take captive the unmarried girls, and suffer themselves no loss +whatever. The latter point is asserted very definitely. + +"The captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds came to +Moses, and said to him, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men +of war which are under our charge, and there lacketh not one of us." + +Of the immeasurable booty of men and cattle Jehovah assigns half +to those who took the field and took part in the battle, the other +half to the congregation; and the former are to give the 500th +part to the priests, the latter the 50th part to the Levites. The +execution of this order is especially reported as follows: + +"The booty which the men of war had taken was 675,000 sheep, 72,000 +beeves, 61,000 asses, and 32,000 women that had not lain by man. +And the half which was the portion of them that went out to war +was 337,500 sheep, and Jehovah's tribute of the sheep was 675; +36,000 beeves, tribute to Jehovah 72; 30,500 asses, tribute to +Jehovah 61; 16,000 persons, tribute to Jehovah 32. And Moses +gave the tribute to Jehovah to Eleazar the priest. But the other +half, which Moses divided to the children of Israel, the half due +to the congregation, was 337,500 sheep, 36,000 beeves, 30,500 asses, +16,000 persons, and of the children of Israel's half Moses took one +of fifty and gave them to the Levites." + +The calculation of the contribution to Jehovah was quite +easy for Moses, as the 500th part of the half is equivalent to +the 1000th part of the whole; he had only to leave off the +thousands from the first totals. In conclusion, the captains +brought offerings to Jehovah of golden dishes, chains, bracelets, +rings, and earrings, altogether 16,750 shekels weight, as +atonement for their souls + +"But that was only the gold which the captains had taken as booty, +for the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself." + +We may perhaps be allowed to speculate as to the relation between +these 16,750 shekels which in this passage the captains alone offer +to the tabernacle OF THE GOLD ORNAMENTS OF THE MIDIANITES, and the +1700 shekels which in Judges viii. the whole people dedicate OF THE +GOLD ORNAMENTS OF THE MIDIANITES to set up an image in Ophra. + +It is less easy to account on the theory of pure fiction for the +numerous names sometimes arranged together like a catalogue than +for reported circumstances and numbers. There can certainly be +no doubt that the forty places which are mentioned in the list of +encampments in the wanderings, really existed in the region the +Israelites are reported to have traversed. But he who is +satisfied with this as evidence that we have before us here a +historical document of primitive antiquity, will never be +disturbed by criticism. Was it such a difficult matter to find +out forty definite stations in the wilderness for the forty +years of the wanderings? Even if the elements of the composition +are not fictitious, that is far from proving the composition +itself to be authentic. And in the case of lists of the names of +persons, the elements are often of an extremely doubtful nature; +and here it is well to keep in view the principle of Vatke (op. +cit. p. 675) that no confidence is to be placed in subjects devoid +of predicates, and that persons are not to be taken for real who +have nothing to do. The dozens of names in Numbers i. vii. x. +are almost all made to the same pattern, and have no similarity +whatever to the names genuinely old. The fact that the name of +Jehovah does not enter into their composition only shows that the +composer was not forgetful of his religio-historical theory. + +By its taste for barren names and numbers and technical +descriptions, the Priestly Code comes to stand on the same line +with the Chronicles and the other literature of Judaism which +labours at an artificial revival of the old tradition [VI.I.2 +VI.III.2., VI.III.3. ad fin.]. Of a piece with this tendency is +an indescribable pedantry, belonging to the very being of the +author of the Priestly Code. He has a very passion for classifying +and drawing plans; if he has once dissected a genus into different +species, we get all the species named to us one by one every +time he has occasion to mention the genus. The subsuming use of +the prepositions Lamed and Beth is characteristic of him. He +selects a long-drawn expression wherever he can; he does not weary +of repeating for the hundredth time what is a matter of course +(Numbers viii.), he hates pronouns and all abbreviating substitutes. +What is interesting is passed over, what is of no importance is +described with minuteness, his exhaustive clearness is such as +with its numerous details to confuse our apprehension of what is +in itself perfectly clear. This is what used to be described +in the phraseology of historical criticism as epic breadth. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Riehm, p. 292. "The style is quiet, simple, free from all +rhetorical and poetical ornament, and the expression in speaking +of similar objects has an epic uniformity. Impressive as many +pieces are, just from their unassuming simplicity and +objectivity, there is nowhere any apparent effort to produce +effect or to raise the interest of the reader by the resources of +literary art." For an opposite opinion compare Lichtenberg, +Werke, ii. 162. +-- Footnote + + +VIII.III.2. Having thus attempted to describe the general contrast +of the Priestly Code and the Jehovist in the Mosaic period, it +remains for us to compare the several stories in the two works. +The Exodus from Egypt is everywhere regarded as the commencement +of Israelite history. In the Priestly Code it is made the epoch +of an era (Exodus xii. 2), which is afterwards dated from, not only +in years but even in months and days. It is unquestionable that +this precise style of dating only came into use among the Hebrews +at a very late period. *We find in the historical books only one +statement of the month in which an event took place (1Kings vi. +38), and in that case the day is not given. To the prophetic +writers dates were of some importance, and the growth of the +practice may to some extent be traced with them. Amos first came +forward "two years before the earthquake." /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Agh. xv. 11, 17: when al-Walid b. al-Mughira was dead, the +Arabs dated after his death to the year of the elephant, which +thereafter was made an epoch. According to others they reckoned +nine years after the death of Hisham b. al-Mughira, to the time +when they built the Caaba, and then they dated from the building +of the Caaba. Comp. the 'Am al Ramada and the 'Am al Ru'af. +-- Footnote + + +The most precise date in Isaiah is "the year in which king Uzziah +died." Numbers of years are first found in Jeremiah, "the thirteenth +year of king Josiah," and a few more instances. All at once there was +a change: Haggai and Zechariah, prophets who grew up in the Babylonian +exile, always give dates, not only the year and month, but the day of +the month as well. In the Priestly Code this precise reckoning, +which the Jews obviously learned from the Chaldeans, is in use +from the age of Moses onwards. + +In the Jehovist the ostensible occasion of the Exodus is a festival +which the children of Israel desire to hold in honour of their God +in the wilderness. In the Priestly Code this occasion +disappears; there can be no pre-Mosaic festivals. But with this +the reason falls away for which Jehovah kills the firstborn of the +Egyptians, He does it because the king of Egypt is keeping from Him +the firstborn of the Israelites, which ought to be offered to Him +at the festival; for the celebration in question is the sacrificial +festival of the first-fruits of cattle in spring. In the older +tradition the festival is the first thing; it explains the circumstances +of the Exodus and the time of year at which it took place: in the +later one the relation is reversed--the killing of the firstborn of +the Egyptians leads to the sacrifice of the firstborn of Israel, +the Exodus in spring is followed by the festival in spring as its +consequence. The Priestly Code follows this younger tradition, +and deviates from the original account still more widely in the +view it gives of the passover. It obliterates completely the +connection between the passover and the sacrifice of the +firstborn, and represents it not as a giving of thanks to Jehovah +for having slain the firstborn of Egypt, but as instituted at the +moment of the Exodus to induce Jehovah to spare the firstborn of +Israel. How all this is to be understood and judged of we have +discussed more at large in the chapter on the festivals (III.I.1., +III.III.1.). + +As to the accounts given in the two sources of the crossing of the +Red Sea, all we can say is that that of the Jehovist (J) is the +more complicated. According to him the sea is dried up by a +strong wind, and the Egyptians succeed at first in crossing it, +and encounter the Hebrews on the eastern shore during he night. +"But in the morning watch Jehovah turned, in the pillar of fire +and of the cloud, against the host of the Egyptian, and overthrew +the host of the Egyptian, and hindered the wheels of his chariot +and caused him to drive heavily. Then the Egyptian said: I will +flee before Israel, for Jehovah fighteth for them against Egypt. +But the sea turned back towards morning to its ordinary level, +and the Egyptians fled against it, and Jehovah shook them into +the midst of the sea" (Exodus xiv. 24, 25, 27). +According to the Priestly Code /1/ the waves meet over the pursuers, + +-- Footnote +1. And the younger tradition generally: also according to the +song Exodus xv., which apart from the beginning, which is old, +is a psalm in the manner of the Psalms and has no similarity +with the historical songs, Judges v., 2Samuel i., Numbers xxi. +-- Footnote + + +before they reach the further shore; the idea is much simpler, +but poorer in incidental features. + +The miracle of the manna (Exodus xvi.) is taken advantage of +in the Priestly Code as a very suitable occasion for urging on +the people a strict sanctification of the Sabbath: none falls +on the seventh day, but what is gathered on the sixth keeps two +days, while at other times it requires to be eaten quite fresh. +This pursuit of a legal object destroys the story and obscures +its original meaning, as no one can help seeing. Nor is it any +sign of originality, rather of senility, that in the Priestly Code +the manna is not eaten raw, but boiled and baked. + +At Mount Sinai Moses receives, according to the Priestly Code, +the revelation of--the model of the tabernacle, and he follows +the pattern thus presented to him in the construction, down below, +of the real tabernacle. All further revelation takes place, even +in Moses' time, as far as possible in the tabernacle (Exodus xxv. +22). Even Sinai must not stand any longer than necessary by the +side of the one legitimate seat of Deity. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Compare, however, Jahrbb.fur Deutsche Theologie, 1877, p. 453, +note 1. +-- Footnote + + +The tables of the law, it appears, are silently presupposed +without being mentioned beforehand, it being of course assumed +that the readers would know all about them from the old tradition. +The outside of the ark, however, is furnished in the most extravagant +style, and with a splendour which other descriptions of the chest +of acacia-wood are far from suggesting. The ark in the Priestly Code +differs indeed in every way from the appearance of it in 1Kings +vii. 23 seq. We are reminded of the Haggada by the covering which +Moses has to put before his face, which is shining with the reflection +of the glory of Jehovah (Exodus xxxiv. 29-35), and by the making of +the brazen laver of the looking-glasses of the women who serve the +temple (Exodus xxxviii. 8, cf. Numbers xvii. 1, 9); these traits +do not, it is true, belong to the original contents of the Priestly +Code, but they belong to its circle. + +From Sinai the old tradition takes us by this and that station, +mentioned by name, without delay to Kadesh. Here the chief part +of the forty years' sojourn in the wilderness is spent; this, +as we said before, is the true scene of all the stories that are +told about Moses. The Priestly Code takes us in this period, as +in the legend of the patriarchs, not to definite places, but up and +down in the wilderness of Sinai, in the wilderness of Paran, in +the wilderness of Sin. Kadesh is with evident intention thrust as +far as possible into the background--no doubt on account of the +high sanctity the place originally had as the encampment for +many years of the Israelites under Moses. + +The spies are sent out according to the Jehovist from Kadesh, +according to the Priestly Code from the wilderness of Paran. +In the former authority they penetrate to Hebron, whence they +bring back with them fine grapes, but they find that the land +where these grow is not to be conquered. In the latter they +proceed without any difficulty throughout the whole of Palestine +to Lebanon, but have nothing to bring back with them, and advise +against attacking the land because they have not found it +particularly desirable, as if its advantages had been accessible +to faith alone and not to be discovered by unbelieving eyes, as +was actually the case in the time of Haggai and Zechariah, and at +the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. To the genuine Israelite of old, +however, the goodness of his beloved land was not a mere point of +faith which he could ever have doubted. In the former source, as +we judge from Deuteronomy i. 23, only the number of the spies was +given; in the latter all the twelve are named. In the former +Caleb is the only good spy, in the latter Caleb and Joshua. At +first probably neither the one nor the other belonged to this +story; but Caleb easily came to be named as an exception, +because he actually conquered the district from Kadesh to Hebron, +which the spies had declared it impossible to take, and which the +Israelites, alarmed by their account, had not ventured to attack. +Joshua, again, was added from the consideration that, according to +the principle enunciated by the Jehovist in Numbers xiv. 23, 24, +he must have shared the merit of Caleb, because he partook of the +same exceptional reward with him. + +In the Jehovist Moses alone instructs the spies and receives their +report on their return; in the Priestly Code Moses and Aaron do +so. In the oldest source of the Jehovist (J) Aaron has not yet +made his appearance; in the Priestly Code Moses must not do any +public act without him. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. In the same way, in the former source Joshua always acts alone; +in the latter, he always has the priest Eleazar at his side. +Compare notes [in IV.III.2.] +-- Footnote + + +Moses is still the moving spirit here as well as there, but Aaron +is the representative of the theocracy, and pains are taken to +secure that he shall never be absent where the representatives of +the theocracy are brought face to face with the community. The +desire to introduce the leader of the hierocracy, and with its +leader the hierocracy itself, into the Mosaic history, has borne +the most remarkable fruits in the so-called story of the rebellion +of the company of Korah. According to the Jehovistic tradition +the rebellion proceeds from the Reubenites, Dathan, and Abiram, +prominent members of the firstborn tribe of Israel, and is directed +against MOSES AS LEADER AND JUDGE OF THE PEOPLE. According to the +version of the main-stock of the Priestly Code (Q), the author of +the agitation is Korah, a prince of the tribe of Judah, and he rebels +not only against Moses, but against MOSES AND AARON AS REPRESENTING +THE PRIESTHOOD. In a later addition, which, to judge from its style, +belongs likewise to the Priestly Code, but not to its original +contents, the Levite Korah appears at the head of a revolt of the +Levites against AARON AS HIGH PRIEST, and demands the equalisation +of the lower with the higher clergy. Starting from the Jehovistic +version, the historical basis of which is dimly discerned to be the +fall of Reuben from its old place at the head of the brother-tribes, +we have no difficulty in seeing how the second version arose out of +it. The people of the congregation, i.e., of the church, having once +come on the scene, the spiritual heads, Moses and Aaron, take the +place of the popular leader Moses, and the jealousy of the secular +grandees is now directed against the class of hereditary priests, +instead of against the extraordinary influence on the community of +a heaven-sent hero. All these changes are the natural outcome of +the importation of the hierocracy into Mosaic times. From the +second version we can go further and understand the origin of the +third. In the earlier version the princes of the tribe of Reuben +were forced to give way to a prince of the tribe of Judah. In +the progress of time Korah the prince of the tribe of Judah is +replaced by the eponymous head of a post-exilic Levitical family, +of the same name. The contest between clergy and aristocracy is +here transformed into a domestic strife between the higher and the +inferior clergy, which was no doubt raging in the time of the +narrator. Thus the three versions are developed, the origin and +collocation of which appears from every other point of view to be +an insoluble enigma. The one arises out of the other in the +direct line of descent: the metamorphoses took place under the +influence of great historical changes which are well known to us; +and in the light of Jewish history from Josiah downwards they +are by no means unintelligible. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 The details of the demonstration will be found in the Jahrbb. +fuer Deutsche Theologie, 1776, p. 572 seq., 1877, p. 454, note, +and in the Leyden Theol. Tijdschrift, 1878, p. 139 seq. +-- Footnote + + +We come to the migration of the Israelites to the land east of the +Jordan. According to the Jehovist the neighbouring tribes place +obstacles in their way, and the land in which they desire to +settle has to be conquered with the sword. The Priestly Code tells +us as little of all this as in an earlier instance of the war with +Amalek; from all it says we should imagine that the Israelites went +straight to their mark and met with no difficulty in the region +in question; the land is ownerless, and the possession of it is +granted by Moses and Eleazar to the two tribes Reuben and Gad +(Numbers xxxii.). But that war may not be completely wanting +under Moses, we have afterwards the war with the Midianites, on +which we have already commented (Numbers xxxi.). There is not much +story about it, only numbers and directions; and in verse 27 +there is a suspicion of 1Samuel xxx. 24, as if that passage were +the groundwork of the whole. The passage is extremely +interesting as showing us the views taken of war by the Jews of +the later time who had grown quite unaccustomed to it. The +occasion of the war also is noticeable; it is undertaken not for +the acquisition of territory, nor with any other practical +object, but only to take vengeance on the Midianites for having +seduced some of the Israelites to uncleanness. + +The elders of Midian, so the story goes, went to the soothsayer +Balaam to ask his advice as to what should be done against the +Israelite invaders. He suggested a means by which the edge of +the invasion might be broken; the Midianites should give their +daughters to the Israelites for wives, and so deprive the holy +people of their strength, the secret of which lay in their +isolation from other peoples. The Midianites took Balaam's advice +and succeeded in entangling many of the Israelites with the +charms of their women; in consequence of which Jehovah visited +the faithless people with a severe plague. The narrative of the +Priestly Code up to this point has to be pieced together from Numbers +xxxi. 8, 16 and Joshua xiii. 22, and from what is implied in the +sequel of it; at this point the portion of it begins which is +preserved to us (Numbers xxv. 6 seq.), and we are told how the +plague was ultimately stayed. A certain man coolly brings a +Midianitish woman into the camp before the very eyes of Moses and +the weeping children of Israel: then the young hereditary priest +Phinehas takes a spear, transfixes the godless pair, and by this +zeal averts the anger of Jehovah. This narrative is based on the +Jehovistic one, which is also preserved to us only in part (Numbers +xxv. 1-5), about the backsliding of Israel in the camp of Shittim +to the service of Baal-Peor, to which they were seduced by the +daughters of Moab. In the Priestly Code the idolatry has quite +disappeared, all but some unconscious reminiscences, and no +sin is alleged but that of whoredom, which in the original story +merely led up to the main offence. This is done manifestly with +the idea that marriage with foreign women is in itself a falling +away from Jehovah, a breach of the covenant. This change was +extremely suitable to the circumstances of exilic and post-exilic +Judaism, for in these later days there was no immediate danger of +gross idolatry, but it took a good deal of trouble to prevent +heathenism from making its way into the midst of the people under +the friendly form of mixed marriages. The version of the +Priestly Code, however, mixes up with the Baal-Peor story of the +Jehovist the figure of Balaam, which is also borrowed from the +Jehovist but entirely transformed in the process. In the form +under which he appears in the early history he transgresses all +the ideas of the Priestly Code. An Aramaean seer, who is hired +for money and makes all sorts of heathen preparations to +prophesy, but who yet is not an impostor, but a true prophet as +much as any in Israel, who even stands in the most intimate +relations with Jehovah, though cherishing the intention of cursing +Jehovah's people--that is too much for exclusive Judaism. The +correction is effected by the simple device of connecting Balaam +with the following section, and making him the intellectual +instigator of the devilry of the Midianitish women; and in this +new form which he assumes in the Priestly Code he lives on in the +Haggada. The reason for changing the Moabites into Midianites +is not made clear; but the fact is undoubted that the Midianites +never lived in that part of the world. + +In the Book of Numbers the narrative sections, which are in the +style and colour of the Priestly Code, have more and more the +character of mere additions and editorial supplements to a +connection which was already there and had a different origin. +The independent main stock of the Priestly Code, the Book of the +Four Covenants, or the Book of Origins (Q), more and more gives way +to later additions, and ceases altogether, it appears, at the +death of Moses. It is at least nowhere to be traced in the first +half of the Book of Joshua, and so we cannot reckon as part of it +those extensive sections of the second half, belonging to the +Priestly Code, which treat of the division of the land. Without a +preceding history of the conquest these sections are quite in the +air; they cannot be taken as telling a continuous story of +their own, but presuppose the Jehovistic-Deuteronomic work. In +spite of distaste to war and to records of war (1Chronicles xxii. +8, xxviii. 3), an independent work like the Book of the Four Covenants +could not possibly have passed over the wars of Joshua in silence. + +A comparison of the different accounts of the entry of the +Israelite tribes into the occupation of the conquered land may +close this discussion. The Priestly Code, agreeing in this with +the Deuteronomistic revision, represents the whole of Canaan as +having been made a _tabula rasa_, and then, masterless and denuded +of population, submitted to the lot. First the tribe of Judah +receives its lot, then Manasseh and Ephraim, then the two tribes +which attached themselves to Ephraim and Judah, Benjamin and +Simeon, and lastly the five northern tribes, Zebulon, Issachar, +Asher, Naphtali, Dan. + +"These are the inheritances which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua +ben Nun, and the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel +divided for an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Jehovah at +the door of the tabernacle." + +According to the Jehovist, Judah and Joseph appear to have had +their territory allocated to them at Gilgal (xiv. 6), and not by +lot, and to have entered into occupation of it from there. A good +while afterwards the land remaining over is divided by lot among +the seven small tribes still unprovided for, from Shiloh, or +perhaps originally from Shechem (xviii. 2-10). Joshua alone +casts the lot and gives instructions; Eleazar the priest does not +act with him. Even here the general principle of the Priestly +Code, which knows no differences among the tribes, is somewhat +limited; but it is much more decidedly contradicted by +the important chapter, Judges i. + +The chapter is, in fact, not a continuation of the Book of Joshua +at all, but a parallel to it, which, while it presupposes the +conquest of the east-Jordan lands, does not speak of the +west-Jordan lands as conquered, but tells the story of the +conquest, and that in a manner somewhat differing from the other +source. From Gilgal, where the "Angel of Jehovah" first set up +his tent, the tribes march out one by one to conquer their "lot" +by fighting; first Judah, then Joseph. We hear only of these two, +and with regard to Joseph we only hear of the very beginning of +the conquest of his land. There is no mention of Joshua; nor +would his figure as commander-general of Israel suit the view here +given of the situation; though it would very well admit of him as +leader of his tribe. The incompleteness of the conquest is +acknowledged unreservedly; the Canaanites lived on quietly in the +cities of the plain, and not till the period of the monarchy, +when Israel had grown strong, were they subdued and made tributary. +This chapter, as well as the main stem of the Book of Judges, +corresponds to the Jehovistic stratum of the tradition, to which +also passages in Joshua, of an identical or similar import, may +be added without hesitation. The Angel of Jehovah is enough to tell +us this. The difference which exists between it and the +Jehovistic main version in the Book of Joshua is to be explained +for the most part by the fact that the latter is of Ephraimite origin, +and in consequence ascribes the conquest of the whole land to the +hero of Ephraim or of Joseph, while Judges i. leans more to the tribe +of Judah. Moreover, we find in the Book of Joshua itself the remnant +of a version (ix. 4-7, 12-14) in which, just as in Judges i., the +actors are the "men of Israel," who "ask counsel of the mouth of +Jehovah," while elsewhere Joshua alone has anything to say, being +the successor of Moses, and drawing his decisions from no source +but the authority of his own spirit. And finally, we have to consider +Exodus xxiii., 20 seq., where also there is a correspondence with +Judges i., in the fact that not Joshua but the Angel of Jehovah +(Judges v. 23) is the leader of Israel, and that the promised land +is not conquered all at once but gradually, in the process of time. + +Judges i. presents certain anachronisms, and is partly made up of +anecdotes, but these should not prevent us from acknowledging that +the general view given in this chapter of the process of the +conquest, is, when judged by what we know of the subsequent +period of Israel, incomparably more historical than that in the +Book of Joshua, where the whole thing is done at once with +systematic thoroughness, the whole land being first denuded of its +inhabitants, and then divided by lot among the different tribes. +The latter view may have come about partly from a literal +interpretation of "lot" (Judges xviii. 1), an expression which +properly applies to the farm of a family but is here used for the +territory of a tribe. It was also favoured no doubt by the +tendency to compress a long development into its first great act; +and as this tendency is carried out with the greatest +thoroughness in the Priestly Code, that document stands furthest +from the origin of the tradition. /1/ The same conclusion is led up + +-- Footnote +1. In the Deuteronomistic revision (Joshua xxi, 43-45) there is +still a trace of hesitation, a certain difficulty in parting with +the old view altogether (Deuteronomy vii. 22; Judg. iii. 1, 2); +and besides the motives for the change are much plainer here: +the Canaanites are extirpated to guard against the infection of the +new settlers with their idolatary. +-- Footnote + + +to by the circumstance that the tribe of Joseph is never mentioned, +one of the two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, being always spoken of +instead, and that these two tribes are almost put out of sight by +Judah. And yet Joshua, the leader of Ephraim, is leader here also +of all Israel, having been preserved from the old original tradition, +which was Ephraimitic. + +It involves no contradiction that, in comparing the versions of the +tradition, we should decline the historical standard in the case +of the legend of the origins of mankind and of the legend of the +patriarchs, while we employ it to a certain extent for the epic +period of Moses and Joshua. The epic tradition certainly +contains elements which cannot be explained on any other +hypothesis than that there are historical facts underlying them; +its source is in the period it deals with, while the patriarchal +legend has no connection whatever with the times of the +patriarchs. /1/ This justifies the difference of treatment. + +-- Footnote +1. Some isolated statements there are here also to which the +historical standard may be applied. We may call it a more +accurate representation that Hebron was inhabited in the time of +Abraham by the, Canaanites and Perizzites, than that the Hittites +dwelt there at that time. The latter, according to 2Samuel +xxiv. 6 (Bleek, Einleitung, 4th edition, pp. 228, 597), dwelt in +Coele-Syria, and according to 2Kings vii. 6, in the neihbourhood +of the Aramaeans of Damascus. The statement that the Israelites +received from Pharaoh because they were shepherds the pasture-land +of Goshen on the north-east frontier of Egypt and there dwelt by +themselves, is to be preferred to the statement that they were +settled among the Egyptians in the best part of the land, +-- Footnote + + +Our last result is still the same: whether tried by the standard of +poetry or by that of history, the Priestly Code stands both in +value and in time far below the Jehovist. + + +VIII.III.3. In rough strokes I have sought to place before the +reader's view the contrast between the beginning and the end of +the tradition of the Hexateuch. It would not be impossible to trace +the inner development of the tradition in the intermediate stages +between the two extremities. To do this we should have to make +use of the more delicate results of the process of source-sifting, +and to call to our aid the hints, not numerous indeed, but +important, which are to be found in Deuteronomy and in the +historical and prophetical books, especially Hosea. It would +appear that legend from its very nature causes those who deal with +it to strike out variations, that it cannot be represented +objectively at all. Even at the first act of reducing it to +writing the discolouring influences are at work, without any +violence being done to the meaning which dwells in the matter. +We can trace first of all the influence on the tradition of that +specific prophetism which we are able to follow from Amos onwards. +This is least traceable in the old main source of the Jehovist, +in J; and yet it is remarkable that the Asheras never occur in +the worship of the patriarchs. The second Jehovistic source, E, +breathes the air of the prophets much more markedly, and shows a +more advanced and thorough-going religiosity. Significant in this +view are the introduction of Abraham as a Nabi, Jacob's burying the +teraphim, the view taken of the macceba at Shechem (Jos. xxiv. +27), and above all the story of the golden calf. The Deity +appears less primitive than in J, and does not approach men in +bodily form, but calls to them from heaven, or appears to them in +dreams. The religious element has become more refined, but at the +same time more energetic, and has laid hold even of elements +heterogeneous to itself, producing on occasion such strange +mixtures as that in Genesis xxxi. 10-13. Then the law comes in +and leavens the Jehovistic narrative, first the Deuteronomic (in +Genesis even, and then quite strongly in Exodus and Joshua), while +last of all, in the Priestly Code, under the influence of the +legislation of the post-exile restoration, there is brought about +a complete metamorphosis of the old tradition. The law is the key +to the understanding even of the narrative of the Priestly Code. +All the distinctive peculiarities of the work are connected with +the influence of the law: everywhere we hear the voice of theory, +rule, judgment. What was said above of the cultus may be +repeated word for word of the legend: in the early time it may +be likened to the green tree which grows out of the ground as it +will and can; at a later time it is dry wood that is cut and made +to a pattern with compass and square. It is an extraordinary +objection to this when it is said that the post-exile period had +no genius for productions such as the tabernacle or the chronology. +It certainly was not an original age, but the matter was all there +in writing, and did not require to be invented. What great genius +was needed to transform the temple into a portable tent? What sort +of creative power is that which brings forth nothing but numbers +and names? In connection with such an age there can be no question +at least of youthful freshness. With infinitely greater justice +may it be maintained that such theoretical modelling and adaptation +of the legend as is practiced in the Priestly Code, could only gain +an entrance when the legend had died away from the memory and +the heart of the people, and was dead at the root. + +The history of the pre-historic and the epic tradition thus passed +through the same stages as that of the historic; and in this +parallel the Priestly Code answers both as a whole, and in every +detail, to the Chronicles. The connecting link between old and +new, between Israel and Judaism, is everywhere Deuteronomy. + +The Antar-romance says of itself, that it had attained an age of +670 years, 400 years of which it had spent in the age of ignorance +(i.e. old Arabic heathenism), and the other 270 in Islam. The +historical books of the Bible might say something similar, if +they were personified, and their life considered to begin with +the reduction to writing of the oldest kernel of the tradition and +to close with the last great revision. The time of ignorance +would extend to the appearance of "the book," which, it is true, +did not in the Old Testament come down from heaven all at once +like the Koran, but came into existence during a longer period, +and passed through various phases. + + +C. ISRAEL AND JUDAISM. + +"The Law came in between."--VATKE, p. 183. + + +CHAPTER IX. CONCLUSION OF THE CRITICISM OF THE LAW. + +Objections have been made to the general style of the proof on +which Graf's hypothesis is based. It is said to be an illicit +argument _ex silentio_ to conclude from the fact that the priestly +legislation is latent in Ezekiel, where it should be in operation, +unknown where it should be known, that in his time it had not yet +come into existence. But what would the objectors have? Do they +expect to find positive statements of the non-existence of what +had not yet come into being? Is it more rational, to deduce _ex +silentio_, as they do, a positive proof that it did exist?-_to say, +that as there are no traces of the hierocracy in the times of the +judges and the kings it must have originated in the most remote +antiquity, with Moses? The problem would in this case still be +the same, namely, to explain how it is that with and after the +exile the hierocracy begins to come into practical activity. +What the opponents of Graf's hypothesis call its argument _ex +silentio_, is nothing more or less than the universally valid +method of historical investigation. + +The protest against the argument _ex silentio_ takes another form. +It is pointed out that laws are in many cases theories, and that +it is no disproof of the existence of a theory that it has not +got itself carried out into practice. Deuteronomy was really +nothing more than a theory during the pre-exile period, but who +would argue from this that it was not there at all? Though laws +are not kept, this does not prove they are not there,--provided, +that is to say, that there is sufficient proof of their existence +on other grounds. But these other proofs of the existence of the +Priestly Code are not to be found--not a trace of them. It is, +moreover, rarely the case with laws that they are theory and +nothing more: the possibility that a thing may be mere theory +is not to be asserted generally, but only in particular cases. +And even where law is undoubtedly theory, the fact does not +prevent us from fixing its position in history. Even legislative +fancy always proceeds upon some definite presupposition or other; +and these presuppositions, rather than the laws themselves, must +guide the steps of historical criticism. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Cf. <I.III.2. ad fin., IV.III.3., V.II.1., VII.II.2.>. This is +the reason why the strata of the tradition require to be compared as +carefully as those of the law. +-- Footnote + + +An argument which is the very opposite of this is also urged. +The fact is insisted on that the laws of the Priestly Code are +actually attested everywhere in the practice of the historical +period; that there were always sacrifices and festivals, priests +and purifications, and everything of the kind in early Israel. +These statements must, though this seems scarcely possible, +proceed on the assumption that on Graf's hypothesis the whole +cultus was invented all at once by the Priestly Code, and only +introduced after the exile. But the defenders of Graf's +hypothesis do not go so far as to believe that the Israelite cultus +entered the world of a sudden,--as little by Ezekiel or by Ezra +as by Moses,--else why should they be accused of Darwinism by +Zoeckler and Delitzsch? They merely consider that the works of +the law were done before the law, that there is a difference +between traditional usage and formulated law, and that even where +this difference appears to be only in form it yet has a material +basis, being connected with the centralisation of the worship and +the hierocracy which that centralisation called into existence. +Here also the important point is not the matter, but the spirit +which is behind it, and may everywhere be recognised as the +spirit of the age at one period or another. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Comp. <II.III., III.III.1.> +-- Footnote + + +All these objections, meanwhile, labour under the same defect, +namely, that they leave out of view that which is the real point +at issue. The point is not to prove that the Mosaic law was not +in force in the period before the exile. There are in the +Pentateuch three strata of law and three strata of tradition, and +the problem is to place them in their true historical order. So +far as the Jehovist and Deuteronomy are concerned, the problem +has found a solution which may be said to be accepted +universally, and all that remains is to apply to the Priestly Code +also the procedure by which the succession and the date of these +two works has been determined--that procedure consisting in the +comparison of them with the ascertained facts of Israelite +history. /3/ + +-- Footnote +3. The method is stated in the introduction: and special pains are +taken to bring it out distinctly in the first chapter, that about +the place of worship. +-- Footnote + + +One would imagine that this could not be objected to. But +objections have been raised; the procedure which, when applied to +Deuteronomy, is called historico-critical method, is called, when +applied to the Priestly Code, construction of history. But +history, it is well known, has always to be constructed: the +order, Priestly Code, Jehovist, Deuteronomy, is not a thing +handed down by tradition or prescribed by the nature of the case, +but a hypothesis as yet only a score of years old or thereby, the +reasons for which were somewhat incomprehensible, so that people +have forgotten them and begun to regard the hypothesis as +something objective, partaking of the character of dogma. The +question is whether one constructs well or ill. Count Baudissin +thinks a grave warning necessary of a certain danger, that, +namely, of an exaggerated application of logic: that the laws +follow each other in a certain order logically, he says, does not +prove that they appeared in the same order in history. But it is +not for the sake of logical sequence that we consider the +development which began with the prophets to have issued finally +in the laws of cultus; and those who set out from "sound human +reason" have generally forced the reverse process of this on the +history, in spite of the traces which have come down to us, and +which point the other way. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. And it would not be surprising when we consider the whole +character of the polemic against Graf's hypothesis, if the next +objection should be the very opposite of the above, viz. that it +is not able to construct the history. +-- Footnote + + +After laboriously collecting the data offered by the historical +and prophetical books, we constructed a sketch of the Israelite +history of worship; we then compared the Pentateuch with this +sketch, and recognised that one element of the Pentateuch bore +a definite relation to this phase of the history of worship, and +another element of the Pentateuch to that phase of it. This is not +putting logic in the place of historical investigation. The new +doctrine of the irrationality of what exists is surely not to be +pushed so far, as that we should regard the correspondence between +an element of the law and a particular phase of the history as a +reason for placing the two as far as possible asunder. At least +this principle would have to be applied to the Jehovist and +Deuteronomy too, and not to the Priestly Code only. What is +right in the one case is fair in the other too; a little logic +unfortunately is almost unavoidable. + +Not everything that I have brought forward in the history of the +cultus and the tradition, is a proof of the hypothesis; there is +much that serves merely to explain phenomena at the basis of the +hypothesis, and cannot be used as proving it. This is a matter +of course. My procedure has intentionally differed from that of +Graf in this respect. He brought forward his arguments somewhat +unconnectedly, not seeking to change the general view which prevailed +of the history of Israel. For this reason he made no impression +on the majority of those who study these subjects; they did not see +into the root of the matter, they could still regard the system +as unshaken, and the numerous attacks on details of it as +unimportant. I differ from Graf chiefly in this, that I always +go back to the centralisation of the cultus, and deduce from it the +particular divergences. My whole position is contained in my +first chapter: there I have placed in a clear light that which is +of such importance for Israelite history, namely, the part taken +by the prophetical party in the great metamorphosis of the +worship, which by no means came about of itself. Again I attach +much more weight than Graf did to the change of ruling ideas which +runs parallel with the change in the institutions and usages of +worship; this has been shown mostly in the second part of the +present work. Almost more important to me than the phenomena +themselves, are the presuppositions which lie behind them. + +Not everything that we have hitherto discussed proves, or is meant +to prove, Graf's hypothesis. On the other hand, however, there is +abundance of evidence, which has not yet been noticed. To discuss +it all in detail, would take another book: in this work only a +selection can be with all brevity indicated, if the limits are +not to be transgressed which are imposed by the essentially +historical character of these prolegomena. In these discussions +the Pro will as a rule naturally suggest itself in the refutation +of the Contra. + + +IX.I. + +IX.I.1. Eberhard Schrader mentions, in his Introduction to the Old +Testament, that Graf assigns the legislation of the middle books +of the Pentateuch to the period after the exile; but he does not +give the least idea of the arguments on which that position is +built up, simply dismissing it with the remark, that "even +critical analysis enters its veto" against it. Even critical +analysis? How does it manage that? How can it prove that the +one and sole cultus, worked out on every side to a great system, +the denaturalising of the sacrifices and festivals, the distinction +between the priests and Levites, and the autonomous hierarchy, are +older than the Deuteronomic reform? Schrader's meaning is +perhaps, that while the signs collected by a comparison of the +sources as bearing on the history of worship show the order of +succession to be Jehovist, Deuteronomy, Priestly Code, other +signs of a more formal and literary nature would show the Priestly +Code to be entitled to the first place, or at any rate not the +last, and that the latter kind of evidence is of as much force as +the former. Were this so, the scales would be equally balanced, +and the question would not admit of a decision. But this awkward +situation would only occur if the arguments of a literary nature +to be urged on that side really balanced those belonging to the +substance of the case which plead for Graf's hypothesis. In +discussing the composition of the Hexateuch, /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Jahrb. Deutsche Theol., 1876, p. 392 seq, 531 seq; 1877, +p. 407 seq. +-- Footnote + + +I have shown, following in the steps of other scholars, that this +is by no means the case; and for the sake of completeness I will +here repeat the principal points of that discussion. + +IX.I.2. It is asserted that the historical situation of Deuteronomy +is based not only on the Jehovistic, but also on the Priestly +narrative. Deuteronomy proper (chaps. xii.-xxvi.) contains +scarcely any historical matter, but before Moses comes to the +business in hand, we have two introductions, chapter v.-xi. and +chapter i.-iv., to explain the situation in which he promulgates +"this Torah" shortly before his death. We are in the Amorite +kingdom, east of the Jordan, which has already been conquered. +The forty years' wanderings are about to close: the passage to +the land of Canaan, for which this legislation is intended, is +just approaching. Till this time, we hear in chapter v. 9, 10, +the only law was that which is binding in all circumstances, and +was therefore promulgated by God Himself from Horeb, the Law of +the Ten Words on that occasion. The people deprecated any +further direct revelation by Jehovah, and commissioned Moses to +be their representative; and he accordingly betook himself to the +sacred mount, stayed there forty days and forty nights, and +received the two tables of the decalogue, and besides them the +statutes and laws which now, forty years after, he is on the +point of publishing, as they will come into force at the +settlement. In the meantime the golden calf had been made down +below; and when Moses descended from the mount, in his anger he +broke the tables and destroyed the idol. Then he betook himself +for a second period of forty days and nights to the mount, pleaded +for mercy for the people and for Aaron; and after he had made, +according to divine command, two new tables and a wooden chest +for them, Jehovah once more wrote down exactly what stood on the +tables which were broken. On this occasion, it is remarked in x. +8 seq., the Levites received their appointment as priests. + +This is evidently a reproduction of the Jehovistic narrative, +Exodus xix. xx. xxiv. xxxii-xxxiv. The Priestly Code, on the +contrary, is entirely ignored. Deuteronomy knows only two +laws, the decalogue, which the people received, and the statutes +and judgments which Moses received, at Mount Horeb. They were +both given at the same time, one directly after the other: but +only the decalogue had till now been made public. Where is the +whole wilderness-legislation as given from the tabernacle? Is +it not denying the very notion of its existence, that Moses only +publishes the Torah at the passage into the Holy Land, because it +has application and force for that land, and not for the +wilderness? Apart from the fact that the Deuteronomist, +according to chapter xii., knew nothing of a Mosaic central +sanctuary, can he have read what we now read between Exodus xxiv. +and xxxii.? He passes over all that is there inserted from the +Priestly Code. Noldeke finds, it is true, /1 / + +-- Footnote +1. Jahrbb. fuer prot. Theologie, 1875, p. 350. +-- Footnote + + +a reminiscence of that code in the ark of acacia wood, Deuteronomy +x. 1. But the ark is here spoken of in a connection which answers +exactly to that of the Jehovist (Exod xxxii. xxxiii.), and is +quite inconsistent with that, of the Priestly Code (Exodus xxv. +seq.). It is only instituted after the erection of the golden +calf, not at the very beginning of the divine revelation, as the +foundation-stone of the theocracy. True, the ark is not mentioned +in JE, Exodus xxxiii., as we now have it, but in the next +Jehovistic piece (Numbers x. 33) it suddenly appears, and there +must have been some statement in the work as to how it came there. +The tabernacle also appears ready set up in xxxiii. 7, without +any foregoing account of its erection. The institution of the +ark as well as the erection of the tabernacle must have been +narrated between xxxiii. 6 and 7, and then omitted by the present +editor of the Pentateuch from the necessity of paying some regard +to Q, Exodus xxv.; that this is the case many other +considerations also tend to prove. /2/ + +-- Footnote-- Footnote +2. Without the ark there is no use of the tabernacle, and the +distinction in Exodus xxxiii. which is treated as one of +importance, between the representation (Mal'ak) of Jehovah and +Jehovah Himself, has no meaning. By making an image the Israelites +showed that they could not do without a sensible representation of +the Deity, and Jehovah therefore gave them the ark instead of the calf. +-- Footnote-- Footnote + +That the Deuteronomist found JE in a more complete form, before +it was worked up with Q, than that in which we have it after the +working up, is not such a difficult assumption that one should be +driven into utter impossibilities in order to avoid it. For +according to Noldeke either the author of Deuteronomy v.-xi. had +before him the Pentateuch as it now is, and was enabled, very +curiously, to sift out JE from it, or he used JE as an independent +work, but read Q as well, only in such a way that his general view +was in no way influenced by that of the priestly work, but on the +contrary contradicts it entirely and yet unconsciously--since his +work leaves no opening for a ritual legislation given side by side +with the Decalogue, and that ritual legislation is the whole sum +and substance of the Priestly Code. To such a dilemma are we to +make up our minds, because one trait or another of the Deuteronomic +narrative cannot be traced in JE as we now have it, and is preserved +in Q? Does this amount, in the circumstances, to a proof that such +traits were derived from that source? Must not some regard in fairness +be paid to the ensemble of the question ? + +We may, further, remember in this connection Vatke's remark, that +the wooden ark in Deuteronomy x. 1, is by no means very similar to +that of Exodus xxv., which, to judge by the analogy of the +golden table and altar, must rather have been called a golden ark. +It takes even more good will to regard the statement about Aaron's +death and burial in Mosera and the induction of Eleazar in his +place (Deuteronomy x. 6, 7) as a reminiscence of Q (Numbers xx. 22 +seq.), where Aaron dies and is buried on Mount Hor. In JE also +the priests Aaron and Eleazar stand by the side of Moses and +Joshua (cf. Joshua xxiv. 33). The death and burial of Aaron are +certainly no longer preserved in JE; but we cannot require of the +editor of the Pentateuch that he should make a man die twice, once +according to Q and once according to JE. And it must further be +said that Deuteronomy x. 6, 7 is an interpolation; for the following +verses x. 8 seq., in which not only Aaron and Eleazar, but all +the Levites are in possession of the priesthood, are the +continuation of x. 5, and rest on Exodus xxxii. Here we are still +in Horeb, not in Mosera. + +The historical thread which runs through Deuteronomy v. ix. x. may +be traced further in chaps. i.-iv. After their departure from +Horeb the Israelites come straight to Kadesh Barnea, and from this +point, being commanded to invade the hill-land of Judaea, they first +send twelve spies to reconnoitre the country, guided thereto by +their own prudence, but also with the approval of Moses. Caleb is +one of the spies, but not Joshua. After penetrating as far as the +brook Eshcol they return; and though they praise the goodness of +the land, yet the people are so discouraged by their report, that +they murmur and do not venture to advance. Jehovah is angry at +this, and orders them to turn back to the wilderness, where they +are to wander up and down till the old generation is extinct and +a new one grown up. Seized with shame they advance after all, +but are beaten and driven back. Now they retreat to the wilderness, +where for many years they march up and down in the neighbourhood +of Mount Seir, till at length, 38 years after the departure from +Kadesh, they are commanded to advance towards the north, but to +spare the brother-peoples of Moab and Ammon. They conquer the +territory of the Amorite kings, Sihon of Heshbon and Og of +Bashan. Moses assigns it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the +half-tribe of Manasseh, on condition that their army is to yield +assistance in the remaining war. The continuous report comes to an +end with the nomination of Joshua as future leader of the people. + +This same narrative, with the addition of some scattered +particulars in the Book of Deuteronomy, /1/ will serve perfectly + +-- Footnote +1. Appointment of judges and wardens (#W+RYM = peace-officials, +who, according to xx. 9, are in war replaced by the captains), +i. 9-18, Taberah, Massah, Kibroth Taavah (ix. 22), Dathan and Abiram +(xi. 6), Balaam (xxiii. 5), Baal-peor (iv. 3). Only the +Jehovist narrative of Numbers xii. seems to be nowhere referred to. +In Deuteronomy i. 9-18 the scene is still at Horeb, but this passage +shows acquaintance with Numbers xi. and uses both versions for a +new and somewhat different one. +-- Footnote + + +well as a thread to understand JE. What, on the contrary, is +peculiar to the Priestly Code is passed over in deep silence, +and from Exodus xxxiv. Deuteronomy takes us at once to Numbers x. +While not a few of the narratives which Deuteronomy repeats or +alludes to, occur only in JE and not in Q, the converse does not +occur at all. And in those narratives which are found both in JE +and in Q, Deuteronomy follows, in every case in which there is a +distinct divergence, the version of JE. The spies are sent out +from Kadesh, not from the wilderness of Paran; they only reach +Hebron, not the neighbourhood of Hamath; Caleb is one of them, and +not Joshua. The rebels of Numbers xvi. are the Reubenites Dathan +and Abiram, not Korah and the Levites. After the settlement in +the land east of Jordan the people have to do with Moab and Ammon, +not with Midian: Balaam is connected with the former, not with the +latter. The same of Baal-peor: Deuteronomy iv. 3 agrees with JE +(Numbers xxv. 1-5), not with Q (Numbers xxv. 6 seq.). Things being +so, we cannot, with Noldeke, see in the number of the spies (Deuteronomy +i. 23) an unmistakable sign of the influence of Q (Numbers xiii. +2). Had the author read the narrative as it is now before us in +Numbers xiii. xiv., it would be impossible to understand how, as we +have seen, the Jehovist version alone made any impression on him. +He must, accordingly, have known Q as a separate work, but it is a +bold step to argue from such a small particular to the use of a +source which everywhere else is entirely without influence and +unknown, especially as the priority of this source is by no +means established on independent grounds, but is to be proved by +this alleged use of it. lf there were a palpable difference +between JE and Q in this point, if we could say that in Q there +were twelve spies sent out, and in JE; three, the case would be +different; but in Numbers xiii. the beginning of the narrative of +JE has been removed and that of Q put in place of it, so that we +do not know how the narrative of JE began, and what number, if +any, was given in it. In such a state of matters the only +reasonable course is to supply what is lacking in JE from +Deuteronomy, which generally follows the Jehovist alone, and to +conclude that the spies were twelve in number in this source also. + +The instance in which the proof would be strongest that Deuteronomy +was acquainted with the narrative of the Priestly Code, is x. 22. +For the seventy souls which make up the whole of Israel at the +immigration into Egypt, are not mentioned in JE, and there is no +gap that we are aware of in the Jehovist tradition at this point. +But they are by no means in conflict with that tradition, and +even should we not take Deuteronomy x. 22 for a proof that the +seventy souls found a place in it also, yet it must at least be +acknowledged, that that passage is by no means sufficient to +break down the evidence that the priestly legislation has the +legislation of Deuteronomy for its starting-point. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Noldeke frequently argues from such numbers as 12 and 70, as +if they only occurred in Q. But that is not the case. As Q in +the beginning of Genesis has groups of 10, JE has groups of 7; +12 and 40 occur in JE as frequently as in Q, and 70 not less +frequently. It is therefore surprising to find the story of the +12 springs of water and the 70 palm-trees of Elim ascribed to Q +for no other reason than because of the 12 and the 70. Not even +the statements of the age of the patriarchs--except so far as they +serve the chronological system--are a certain mark of Q: compare +Genesis xxxi. 18, xxxvii. 2, xli. 26, l. 26; Deuteronomy xxxiv. +7; Joshua xxiv. 29. Only the names of the 12 spies and the 70 +souls are incontestably the property of the Priestly Code, but +it is by no means diflicult to show (especially in Genesis xlvi. +8-27) that they are far less original than the figures. The +numbers are round numbers, and in fact do not admit of such a +recital of the items of which they are made up. +-- Footnote + + +VIII.I.3. As a further objection to Graf's hypothesis, the +Deuteronomistic revision of the Hexateuch is brought into the +field. That revision appears most clearly, it is said, in those +parts which follow the Deuteronomic Torah and point back to it. +It used to be taken for granted that it extends over the Priestly +portions as well as the Jehovistic; but since the occasion arose +to look into this point, it is found that it is not so. The +traces which Noldeke brings together on the point are trifling, +and besides this do not stand the test. He says that the +Deuteronomistic account of the death of Moses (Deuteronomy xxxii. 48 +seq., xxxiv. 1 seq.) cannot be regarded as anything else than an +amplification of the account of the main stem (Q), which is +preserved almost in the same words. But Deuteronomy xxxiv. 1b-7 +contains nothing of Q and xxxii. 48-52 has not undergone +Deuteronomistic revision. He also refers to Josh. ix. 27: +"Joshua made the Gibeonites at that day hewers of wood and drawers +of water for the congregation and for the altar of Jehovah even +unto this day, in the place which He should choose." +The second part of this sentence, he says, is a Deuteronomistic +addition to the first, which belongs to the Priestly narrative. +But Noldeke himself acknowledges that the Deuteronomistically-revised +verses ix. 22 seq. are not the continuation of the priestly version +15c, 17-21, but of the Jehovistic version 15ab, 16; and between +verse 16 and verse 22 there is nothing wanting but the +circumstance referred to in verse 26. The phrase _hewer of wood +and drawer of water_ is not enough to warrant us to separate verse +27 from 22-26; the phrase occurs not only in verse 21 but also +in JE verse 23. The words FOR THE CONGREGATION do certainly +point to the Priestly Code, but are balanced by the words which +follow, FOR THE ALTAR OF JEHOVAH, which is according to the +Jehovistic view. The original statement is undoubtedly that the +Gibeonites are assigned to the altar or the house of Jehovah. But +according to Ezekiel xliv. the hierodulic services in the temple +were not to be undertaken by foreigners, but by Levites; hence +in the Priestly Code the servants of the altar appear as servants +of the congregation. From this it results that LMZBX is to be +preferred in verse 27 to L(DH W, the latter being a later +correction. As such it affords a proof that the last revision of +the Hexateuch proceeded from the Priestly Code, and not from Deuteronomy. +As for Joshua xviii. 3-10, where Noldeke sees in the account of the +division of the land another instance of Deuteronomistic addition, +I have already indicated my opinion, <VIII.III.2.>. The piece is +Jehovistic, and if the view were to be found in the Priestly Code +at all, that Joshua first allotted their territory to Judah and Ephraim, +and then, a good while after, to the other seven tribes, that source +must have derived such a view from JE, where alone it has its roots. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Jahrbb. fur Deutsche Theol., 1876, p. 596 seq. +-- Footnote + + +And lastly, Noldeke considers Josh. xxii. to speak quite decidedly +for his view; but in the narrative of the Priestly Code, xxii. 9-34, +to which the verses l-8 do not belong, there is no sign of +Deuteronomistic revision to be found. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Joh. Hollenberg in Stud. und Krit., 1874, p. 462 seq. +-- Footnote + + +There is a more serious difficulty only in the case of the short +chapter, Josh. xx., of which the kernel belongs to the Priestly +Code, though it contains all sorts of additions which savour +strongly of the Deuteronomistic revision. Kayser declares these +awkward accretions to be glosses of quite a late period. This may +seem to be pure tendency-criticism; but it is reinforced by the +confirmation of the Septuagint, which did not find any of those +alleged Deuteronomistic additions where they now are. /3/ + +-- Footnote +3. Aug. Kayser, Das vorexilische Buch der Urgeschichtc Israels +(Strassburg, 1874), p. 147, seq.; Joh. Hollenberg, der +Charactcr der Alex. Uebersetzung des B. Josua (Programm des +Gymn. zu Moers, 1876), p. 15. +-- Footnote + + +But were it the case that some probable traces of Deuteronomistic +revision were actually to be found in the Priestly Code, we must +still ask for an explanation of the disproportionately greater +frequency of such traces in JE. Why, for example, are there none +of them in the mass of laws of the middle books of the Hexateuch? +This is undoubtedly and everywhere the fact, and this must +dispose us a priori to attach less weight to isolated instances to +the contrary: the more so, as Joshua xx. shows that the later +retouchings of the canonical text often imitate the tone of the +Deuteronomist. + + +IX.II. + +IX.II.1. I have said that in the L)DH W of Josh. ix. 27, we have +the addition of a final priestly revision. Such a revision must be +assumed to have taken place, if the Priestly Code is younger than +Deuteronomy. But the assumption of its existence does not depend +on deduction merely: Kuenen argued for it inductively, even +before he became a supporter of Graf's hypothesis. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Historisch-Kritisch Onderzoek I. (Leyden, 1861), p. 165; the +reviser of the Pentateuch must be sought in the same circles in +which the Book of Origins (Q) arose and was gradually extended +and modified, i.e., among the priests of Jerusalem, p. 194; it is +generally thought that the Deuteronomist is the reviser of the +whole Book of Joshua, but his hand is not to be traced +everywhere,--not, for example, in the priestly sections; the last +reviser is to be distinguished from the Deuteronomist. In +certain narratives of Numbers and Joshua, Kuenen detected very +considerable additions by the last reviser, and the results of +his investigation have now been published in the first part of the +second edition of his great isagogic work (Leyden, 1885). +-- Footnote + + +This may be best demonstrated by examining the chapters Leviticus +xvii.-xxvi. At present they are incorporated in the Priestly +Code, having undergone a revision with that view, which in some +places adds little, in others a good deal. Viewed, however, as +they originally were, they form a work of a peculiar character +by themselves, a work pervaded by a somewhat affected religious +hortatory tone, which harmonises but little with the Priestly +Code. The author worked largely from earlier authorities, which +explains, for example, how chapter xviii. and chapter xx. both +find a place in his production. Leviticus xvii.-xxvi is incomparably +instructive for the knowledge it affords of literary relationships: +it is a perfect compendium of the literary history of the Pentateuch. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Compare Jahrbb. fur Deutsche Theol., 1877, p. 422-444, +especially on the elimination of the additions of the reviser. +In the present discussion I shall not take these into account. +In chapter xxiii., for example, I only take account of verses +9-22, 39-44, in chapter xxiv. only of vers. 15-22 +-- Footnote + + +As with Deuteronomy, so with this legislation; it is clear that +it goes back to the Jehovistic legislation of Sinai (Exodus +xx.-xxiii.) as its source. It also bears to have been given on +Mount Sinai (xxv. 1, xxvi. 46). It is addressed to the people, +and is popular in its contents, which are chiefly of a civic and +moral character. It is meant only for the promised land and for +settled life, not for the wilderness as well. The festivals are +three in number, and have not quite parted with their character +as feasts of harvest. Among the sacrifices the sin-offering and +the trespass-offering are wanting. The legislation does deal with +the cultus to a disproportionate extent, but the directions about +it do not go into technical details, and are always addressed to +the people. Even in those directions which concern the priests +the people are addressed, and the priests are spoken of in the +third person. Nor are palpable points of contact wanting. Leviticus +xix. 2-8, 9-18, may be regarded as counterparts of the first and +second tables of the decalogue. The precept, "Thou shalt not +respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty," +xix. 15, is a development of that in Exodus xxiii. 3, and a number +of other precepts in Leviticus xix. could stand with equal +appropriateness in Exodus xxii. 17 seq. The directions in Leviticus +xxii. 27-29 are similar to those of Exodus xxii. 29, xxiii. 18, 19. +In the same way those of Leviticus xxiv. 15-22 are based both in +contents and form on Exodus xxi. 12. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Compare xxiv. 15 seq. with Exodus xxii. 27 (xxi. 17); xxiv. +18 with Exodus xxi. 28 seq.; xxiv. 19, 20 with Exodus xxi. 33, +34; xxiv. 21 with Exodus xxi. 28 seq. +-- Footnote + + +In xxiv. 22 we notice a polemical reference to Exodus xxi. 20 +seq., 26 seq. In xxv. 1-7 the whole of the expressions of Exodus +xxiii. 10, 11 are repeated. In xx. 24, we have the Jehovistic +phrase, "a land flowing with milk and honey." + +Yet Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. only takes its starting-point from the +Jehovistic legislation, and modifies it very considerably, +somewhat in the manner of Deuteronomy. There is a demonstrable +affinity with Deuteronomy both in the ideas and in the +expressions. Common to both is the care for the poor and the +undefended: to both humanity is a main object of legislation. +"If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex +him; he shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt +love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" +(xix. 34). + +Leviticus xvii. seq. attaches great importance to unity of worship. +It is still a demand, not a presupposition (xvii. 8 seq., xix. 30, +xxvi. 2); the motive of it is to guard against heathen influences +and to secure the establishment of a monotheism without images. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. xvii. 7 (cf. 2Chronicles xi. 15), xviii. 21, xix. 4, 19, 26, +29, 31, xx. 2 seq. 6, xxvi. 1, 30. With regard to the date we +have to note the stern prohibition of the service of Moloch. On +Lev, xvii. see above, p. 376. +-- Footnote + + +This is quite recognisable, and forms an important point of +contact with Deuteronomy. The same contact may be observed in +the prohibition of certain observances of mourning (xix. 27 seq.), +the calculation of Pentecost from the beginning of barley harvest +(xxiii. 15), the seven days' duration of the feast of tabernacles, +and the cheerful sacrificial feasts which are to accompany its +observance. Add to this a similarity by no means slight in the +colour of the language, e.g., in xviii. 1-5, 24-30, xix. 33-37, +xx. 22 seq., xxv. 35 seq. Some of the phrases may be mentioned. +"When ye are come into the land that I shall give you." "Ye shall +rejoice before Jehovah." "I am Jehovah that brought you up out +of the land of Egypt." "Ye shall keep my commandments and statutes +and laws, to do them." + +But the legislation we have here is further advanced than +Deuteronomy. In the festivals the joint sacrifice of the +congregation is already prominent (xxiii. 9-22). The priests +are not the Levites, but the sons and brothers of Aaron, their +income has grown materially, their separate holiness has reached a +higher point. Stricter demands are also made on the laity for +personal holiness, especially as regards continence from the sins +of the flesh, and the marriage of relatives (Leviticus xviii. xx.). +Marriage with an uncle's wife is forbidden (xviii. 14, xx. 20), +whereas in Deuteronomy it is still legal. The work dates from a +time when exile was a familiar idea: xviii. 26 seq.: +"Ye shall keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit +any of those abominations; for the men that were in the land before +you did these things, and the land vomited them out. Take care +that the land spue not you out also as it spued out the nations +that were before you." +Similarly xx. 23 seq.: and in a legislative work such utterances +prove more than they would in a prophecy. Now as our section +departs from Deuteronomy, it approaches to Ezekiel. This is its +closest relationship, and that to which attention has been most +drawn. It appears in the peculiar fusion of cultus and morality, +in the notion of holiness, in a somewhat materialistic sense, as +the great requirement of religion, and in the fact that the demand +of holiness is made to rest on the residence of the people near +the sanctuary and in the holy land. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. On Leviticus xxii. 24, 25, compare Kuenen's Hibbert Lectures. +-- Footnote + + +But the affinity is still more striking in the language: many +unusual phrases, and even whole sentences, from Ezekiel, are +repeated in Leviticus xvii. seq. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Compare Colenso, Pentateuch and Joshua, vi. p. 3-23. Kayser, +op. cit. p. 177- 179. Smend on Ezekiel, p. xxv. +-- Footnote + + +The 10th of the 7th month is in Leviticus xxv. 9 as in Ezekiel, +new-year's day, not, as in the Priestly Code, the great day of +atonement. This led Graf to regard Ezekiel himself as the author +of this collection of laws in Leviticus; and Colenso and Kayser +followed him. But this is out of the question; notwithstanding +the numerous points of contact both in linguistic and material +respects, the agreement is by no means complete. Ezekiel knows +no seed of Aaron, and no wine at the sacrifices (Leviticus xxiii. +13); his festival legislation shows considerable differences, +and in spirit is more akin to the Priestly Code. And if he were +the author he would have said something about the proper place +in the cultus of the Levites and of the prince. + +The corpus in question, which Klostermann called, not +inappropriately, the Law of Holiness, inclines from Ezekiel +towards the Priestly Code: in such pieces as xvii. xxi. xxii. +it takes some closeness of attention to see the differences from +the latter, though in fact they are not inconsiderable. It stands +between the two, somewhat nearer, no doubt, to Ezekiel. How are +we to regard this fact? Jehovist, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, are a +historical series; Ezekiel, Law of Holiness, Priestly Code, must +also be taken as historical steps, and this in such a way as to +explain at the same time the dependence of the Law of Holiness on +the Jehovist and on Deuteronomy. To assume that Ezekiel, having +the Pentateuch in all other respects as we have it, had a great +liking for this piece of it, and made it his model in the +foundation of his style of thought and expression--such an +assumption does not free us from the necessity of seeking the +historical order, and of assigning his natural place in that order +to Ezekiel; we cannot argue on such a mere chance. Now the +question is not a complicated one, whether in the Law of Holiness +we are passing from the Priestly Code to Ezekiel or from Ezekiel +to the Priestly Code. The Law of Holiness underwent a last +revision, which represents, not the views of Ezekiel, but those of +the Priestly Code, and by means of which it is incorporated in +that code. This revision has not been equally incisive in all +parts. Some of its corrections and supplements are very +considerable, e.g., xxiii. 1-8, 23-38; xxiv. 1-14, 23. Some +of them are quite unimportant, e.g., the importation of the Ohel +Moed (instead of the Mikdash or the Mishkan), xvii. 4, 6, 9, xix. +21 seq.; the trespass-offering, xix. 21 seq.; the Kodesh +Kodashim, xxi. 22. Only in xxv. 8 seq. is the elimination of +the additions difficult. But the fact that the last edition of +the Law of Holiness proceeds from the Priestly Code, is +universally acknowledged. Its importance for the literary history +of Israel cannot be over-estimated. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. L. Horst, in his discussion on Leviticus XVii,-XXYi, and Ezekiel +(Colmar, 1881), has strikingly shown that the mechanical style of +criticism in which Dillmann even surpasses his predecessor Knobel, +is not equal to the problem presented by the Law of Holiness. He +goes on, however, to an attempt to save, by modifying it, the old +Strassburg view of Ezekiel's authorship; and as Kuenen justly +remarks, he makes ship-wreck on Leviticus xxvi. (Theol. Tijdschr. +1882, p. 646). Cf. <next note, beginning "Horst...">. +-- Footnote + + +IX.II.2. The concluding oration, Leviticus xxvi. 3-46, calls for +special consideration. Earlier scholars silently assumed that this +piece belonged to Leviticus xvii. 1-XXVI. 2; but many critics, +Noldeke for example, now regard it as an interpolation in Leviticus +of a piece which from its character should be elsewhere. At any rate +the oration is composed with special reference to what precedes it. +If it is not taken as a peroration, such as Exodus xxiii. 30-33, +Deuteronomy xxviii., its position in such a part of the Priestly Code +is quite incomprehensible. It has, moreover, a palpable +connection with the laws in xvii.-xxv. The _land_, and _agriculture_, +have here the same significance for religion as in chaps. xix. +xxiii. xxv.; the threat of vomiting out (xviii. 25 seq., xx. +22) is repeated here more circumstantially; the only statute +actually named is that of the fallow of the seventh year (xxvi. +34, xxv. 1-7). The piece begins with the expression, which is so +characteristic of the author of chapter xvii. seq. "If ye walk +in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them," and the +same phrase recurs, with slight alteration, in vers. 15 and 43. +The conclusion, verse 46, is, "These are the statutes and +judgments and laws which Jehovah gave, to regulate the relation +between Him and Israel on Mount Sinai, by Moses." This is +obviously the subscription of a preceding corpus of statutes and +judgments, such as we have in, xvii. 1-xxvi. 2. Mount Sinai is +mentioned also in xxv. 1 as the place of revelation. + +If Leviticus xxvi. is incontestably intended to form the conclusion +of chaps. xvii.-xxv., it would be natural to suppose that the +author of that collection was also the author of the oration. +Noldeke thinks, however, that the language differs too much from +that of xvii.-xxv. Yet he is obliged to acknowledge several +resemblances, and these not unimportant; while some of the +differences which he adduces (Bamoth, Gillulim, Hammanim, xxvi. +30) are really examples of similarity. Rare and original words +may be found in the preceding chapters also. It may be that in +chapter xxvi they are more frequent in proportion: yet this does +not entitle us to say that the language generally is very original. +On the contrary, it is everywhere characterised by borrowed +expressions. So much of linguistic difference as actually remains +is sufficiently accounted for by the difference of subject: first +come laws in a dry matter-of-fact style, then prophecy in a +poetical pathetic style. The idiosyncrasy of the writer has no +scope in the former case, from the nature of the materials, some +of which had already assumed their form before he made use of them. +In the latter case he can express himself freely; and it is fair +that this should not be overlooked. + +The arguments brought forward by Noldeke against the probability +that Leviticus xxvi. belongs to chaps. xvii.-xxv. and is not merely +tacked on to them, disappear completely on a closer comparison of +the literary character of the two pieces. Chapter xxvi. reminds +us most strongly of Ezekiel's style, both in thought and +language. The most significant passage is Leviticus xxvi. 39. +The threat has been uttered that Israel is to be destroyed as a +people, and that the remnant which escapes the destroying sword +of the enemy is to be carried into exile, to sink under the weight +of past calamity and present affliction. Then the speech goes +on: "And they that are left of you shall _pine away_ in their +iniquity in your enemies' land; and also in the iniquities of +their fathers shall they _pine away_. Then they will confess +their own sin and the sin of their fathers." In Ezekiel, this +confession actually occurs in the mouth of one of his +fellow-exiles: they say (xxxiii. 10), "Our transgressions +and our sins are heavy upon us, and we _pine away_ in them, and +cannot live." In the same strain the prophet says (xxiv. 23) +that in his dull sorrow for the death of his wife he will be an +emblem of the people: "ye shall not mourn nor weep, but ye shall +_pine away_ in your iniquities." + +Nor are the other traits wanting in the oration which, as we say, +accompanied the Ezekielic colouring of the preceding chapters. +We do not expect to find traces of the influence of the Jehovist +legislation (further than that Exodus xxiii. 20 seq. formed the +model both for Deuteronomy xxviii. and Leviticus xxvi.); but to +make up for this we find very distinct marks of the influence of +the prophets, the older prophets too, as Amos (verse 31). We can +as little conceive the existence of the Book of Ezekiel as of this +chapter without the prophetic literature having preceded it and +laid the foundation for it. + +As for the relation to Deuteronomy, the resemblance of Leviticus xxvi. +to Deuteronomy xxviii. is very great, in the arrangement as well as in +the ideas. True, there are not many verbal coincidences, but the +few which do occur are important. The expressions of xxvi. 16 +occur nowhere in the Old Testament but in Deuteronomy xxviii. 22, 65: +similarly R)#YM with the meaning it has in verse 45 only occurs +in Deuteronomy xix. 14 and in the later literature (Isaiah lxi. 6). +The metaphor of the uncircumcised heart (verse 41) only occurs in +one other passage in the law, in Deuteronomy; the other instances +of it are in prophecy, of contemporary or later date (Jeremiah iv. +4, ix. 24, 25, Ezekiel xliv. 7, 9). There are several more +reminiscences of Jeremiah, most of them, however, not very +distinct. We may remark on the relation between Jeremiah xvi. 18 +in one respect to verse 30, and in another to verse 18 of our +chapter. Here the sin is punished sevenfold, in Jeremiah double. +The same is said in Isaiah xl. 2, lx. 7; and our chapter has +also in common with this prophet the remarkable use of rtc,h (with +sin or trespass as object). Did not the chapter stand in +Leviticus, it would, doubtless, be held to be a reproduction, some +small part of it of the older prophecies, the most of it of those +of Jeremiah and Ezekiel: Leviticus xxvi. 34 is actually quoted in +2Chronicles xxxvi 22 as a word of the prophet Jeremiah. + +Leviticus xxvi. has points of contact, finally, with the Priestly +Code, in PRH WRBH, HQYM BRYT, HTWDH, )NY, (never )NKY), in the +excessive use of the accusative participle and avoidance of verbal +suffixes, and in its preferring the colourless NTN to verbs of +more special meaning. + +The only reason for the attempt to separate Leviticus xxvi. from +xvii.-xxv. lies in the fact, that the exilic or post-exilic origin +of this hortatory and denunciatory oration is too plain to be +mistaken. To us, this circumstance can only prove that it belongs +to xvii.-xxv., providing a weighty confirmation of the opinion we +have already formed on other grounds as to the period which produced +these laws. + +"If ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary to me, +then I will also walk contrary to you in fury; and I will chastise you +seven times for your sins. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons +and daughters, and I will destroy your high places, and cast down +your sun-pillars' and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of +your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your +cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries into desolation, and I +will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring +the land into desolation, and your enemies who settle therein +shall be astonished at it; and I will scatter you among the peoples, +and will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be +desolate and your cities ruins. Then shall the land pay her +sabbaths all the years of the desolation when you are in your +enemies' land: even then shall the land rest and pay her +sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall make up the +celebration of the sabbaths which it did not celebrate as long as +you dwelt in it. And upon them that are left alive of you I will +send a faintness into their hearts in the land of their enemies, +and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them, and they shall +flee as fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when none +pursueth. And they shall fall one upon another as it were before +a sword when none pursueth, and there shall be no stopping in the +flight before your enemies. And ye shall lose yourselves among +the peoples, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And +they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in +your enemies' lands, and also in the iniquities of their fathers +shall they pine away. And they shall confess their iniquity +and the iniquity of their fathers in regard to their +unfaithfulness which they committed against me, and that because +they have walked contrary to me, I also walk contrary to them, +and bring them into the land of their enemies. Then their +uncircumcised heart is humbled, and then they pay their penalty, +and I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with +Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham, and I remember the land. +The land also, left by them, pays its sabbaths, while she lieth +without inhabitant and waste, and they themselves pay the penalty +of their iniquity because, even because, they despised my judgments, +and their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when +they be in the land of their enemies, I have not rejected them, +neither have I abhorred them to destroy them utterly, and to break +my covenant with them: for I am Jehovah their God. And I will for +their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought +forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the peoples, that +I might be their God: I am Jehovah" (xxvi. 27-45). + +These words undoubtedly cannot have been written before the +Babylonian exile. It is said that the Assyrian exile will explain +the passage: but where is there any similarity between the +oration before us and the old genuine Isaiah? In Ezekiel's day +such thoughts, feelings, and expressions as we have here can be +shown to have prevailed: but it would be difficult to show that +the fall of Samaria gave rise to such depression at Jerusalem: +and Leviticus xxvi. was not written outside Jerusalem, for it +presupposes unity of worship. The _Jews_ are addressed here, as +in Deuteronomy xxix., xxx., and they had no such lively feeling +of solidarity with the deported Israelites as to think of them +in connection with such threats. I even think it certain that +the writer lived either towards the end of the Babylonian exile +or after it, since at the close of the oration he turns his eyes +to the restoration. In such prophets as Jeremiah and Ezekiel +there is a meaning in such forecasting of the joyful future but +here it contradicts both the historical position and the object +of the threats, and appears to be explained most naturally as +the result of an accident, i.e., of actuality. That in a +comparison of Leviticus xxvi. with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the +former cannot claim priority, appears distinctly from the +comparative use of the phrase _uncircumised heart_. That phrase +originates in Jeremiah (iv. 4, ix. 24 seq.), but in Leviticus +xxvi. it is used as a well-known set term. In the same way the +phrase _pine away in their iniquity_ is repeated by Ezekiel as he +heard it in the mouth of the people. He is its originator in +literature; in Leviticus xxvi. it is borrowed. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Horst tries to find a place for Leviticus xxvi. in the last +years of king Zedekiah (op. cit. p. 65, 66), but in this he is +merely working out his theory that the author was the youthful +Ezekiel; and the theory is sufficiently condemned if it leads +to this consequence. Delitzsch (Zeitschr. fur Kirchl. Wissench. +1880, p. 619) thinks it a piece of impertinence in me to read out +of Ezekiel xxxiii. what that passage says. On Deuteronomy x. 16, +xxx. 6, and generally on the color Hieremianus in Deuteronomy, see +Jahrb. fur D. Thhcol., 1877, p. 464. +-- Footnote + + +The criticism of Leviticus xvii. seq. Ieads us to the result, that +a collection of laws which took form during the period of the exile +was received into the Priestly Code, and there clothed with fresh +life. We need not then tremble at Schrader's threatening us with +"critical analysis," and Graf's hypothesis will not be thereby +overturned. + + +IX.II.3. Two or three further important traces of the final priestly +revision of the Hexateuch may here find mention. In the story +of the flood the verses vii. 6-9 are an editorial addition, with +the object of removing a contradiction between JE and Q; it +shares the ideas and speaks the language of the Priestly Code. +In the title of Deuteronomy the verse, "It came to pass in the +fortieth year, in the eleventh [(#TY] month, on the first day of +the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel according +to all that Jehovah had given him in commandment unto them" (i. 3) +is shown by the most undoubted signs to belong to the Priestly Code, +and is intended to incorporate Deuteronomy in that work. We have +already shown that the Priestly Code in the Book of Joshua is simply +a filling-up of the Jehovistic-Deuteronomistic narrative. + +That the Priestly Code consists of elements of two kinds, first of +an independent stem, the Book of the Four Covenants (Q), and +second, of innumerable additions and supplements which attach +themselves principally to the Book of the Four Covenants, but not +to it alone, and indeed to the whole of the Hexateuch--this +assertion has not, strange to say, met with the opposition which +might have been expected. Ryssel has even seen in the twofold +nature of the Priestly Code a means to maintain the position of +the Book of the Four Covenants before the exile: he sacrifices +the additions, and places the necessary interval between them and +the main body of the work. He thinks the close affinity between +the two parts is sufficiently explained by the supposition that +they both issued from the same circle, that of the priesthood of +Jerusalem. Were it the case that the temple of Jerusalem was as +autonomous and as solely legitimate in the days of Solomon as in +those of the foreign domination, that the priests had as much to +say under Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Josiah as after the exile, if it +were allowable to represent them according as it suits one's views, +and not according to the historical evidence, if, in short, there +were no Israelite history at all, such an explanation might be +allowed to stand. The secondary part of the Priestly Code of +necessity draws the primary part with it. The similarity in +matter and in form, the perfect agreement in tendencies and ideas, +in expressions and ways of putting things, all compel us to think +that the whole, if not a literary, is yet a historical, unity. + + +IX.III. + +<IX.III.1.> It has lately been the fashion to regard the language of +the Priestly Code as an insuperable barrier to the destructive +efforts of tendency criticism. But it is unfortunate that this veto +of language is left as destitute of detailed proof, by Delitzsch, +Riehm, and Dillmann, as the veto of critical analysis by Schrader; +and we cannot be called upon to show proof against a contention +which is unsupported by evidence. But I take advantage of the +opportunity to communicate some detached observations, which I +may perhaps remark did not occur to me in connection with the +investigation of the Pentateuch, but on a quite different occasion. +In the passage 2Samuel vi. 12 I was exceedingly struck with L(MT, +and not less with BR) in the two passages Isaiah iv. 5, Amos iv. 13, +and while following out the distribution of these two words I came +on the traces of similar phenomena. + +The language of the pre-exilic historical books is in general much +akin to that of the Jehovistic work; that of the Priestly Code, +on the contrary, is quite different. It is common enough to +interpret this fact, as if the latter belonged to an earlier +period. But not to mention that in that case the Code must have +been entirely without influence on the history of the language, +it agrees ill with this view, that on going back to the oldest +documents preserved to us of the historical literature of the +Hebrews we find the difference increasing rather than diminishing. +Take Judges v. and 2Samuel i.; the poetical pieces in JE may be +compared with them, but in Q there is nothing like them. And on +the other hand, it is in the narratives which were introduced very +late into the history, such as Judges xix.-xxi.; 1Samuel vii. +viii. x. 17 seq. xii.; 1Kings xiii., and the apocryphal +additions in 1Kings vi.-viii. that we recognise most readily +some linguistic approximation to the Priestly Code. And as in the +historical so also in the prophetical literature. The speech of +Amos, Isaiah, Micah, answers on the whole to that of the Jehovist, +not to that of the priestly author. + +Deuteronomy and the Book of Jeremiah first agree with the Priestly +Code in certain important expressions. In Ezekiel such expressions +are much more numerous, and the agreement is by no means with +Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. alone. /1/ + +-- Footnote +I Especially noticeable is P)T NGB TYMNH in Ezekiel and the +Priestly Code. In the latter Negeb, even when it refers to the +actual Negeb, yet is used as denoting south (Numbers xxxiv. 3, +xxv. 2-4), i.e., it has completely lost its original meaning. +-- Footnote + + +In the subsequent post-exilic prophets down to Malachi the points +of contact are limited to details, but do not cease to occur; they +occur also in the Psalms and in Ecclesiastes. Reminiscences of the +Priestly Code are found nowhere but in the Chronicles and some of +the Psalms. For that Amos iv. 11 is borrowed from Genesis xix. 29 +is not a whit more clear than that the original of Amos i. 2 must +be sought in Joel iv. 19 [iii. 16]. + +The Priestly Code maintains its isolated literary character as +against the later literature also. This is the result partly of +the use of a number of technical terms, partly of the incessant +repetition of the same formulae, and of its great poverty of +language. But if we neglect what is due to the stiff and hard +idiosyncrasy of the author, it is undoubtedly the case that he +makes use of a whole series of characteristic expressions which +are not found before the exile, but gradually emerge and come +into use after it. The fact is not even denied, it is merely +put aside. To show what weight is due to it we may find room +here for a short statement of the interesting points for the +history of language to be found in Genesis i. + +Genesis i. 1, R)#YT means in the older Hebrew, not the COMMENCEMENT +of a process which goes forward in time, but the FIRST +(and generally the BEST) part of a thing. In the sense of a +beginning in time, as the contrary to )XRYT, it is first found in +a passage of Deuteronomy, xi. 12; then in the titles in the Book +of Jeremiah, xxvi. 1, xxvii. 1, xxviii. 1, xlix. 34, and in Isaiah +xlvi. 10, and lastly in the Hagiographa, Job viii. 7, xili. 12; +Proverbs xvii. 14; Ecclesiastes vii. 8. In Genesis x. 10 +R)#YT MMLKTW has a different meaning from that in Jeremiah xxvi. 1 +in the one it is the principal part of the kingdom; in the other +it is the beginning of the reign. _In the beginning_ was in the +early time, if absolute, BFR)#NH, BATTXLH; if relative, BTXLT +TXLT. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 The vocalisation B:R#YT is very curious: we should expect +BFRA$YT. It has been attempted to do justice to it by translating: + +"In the beginning, when God created heaven and earth--but the earth +was without form and void, and darkness lay upon the deep, and the +spirit of God brooded over the water--then God spake: Let there be +light." + +But this translation is desperate, and certainly not that followed +by the punctuators, for the Jewish tradition (Septuagint, Aquila, +Onkelos) is unanimous in translating: + +"In the beginning God created heaven and earth." +In Aramaic, on the contrary, such adverbs take, as is well known, +the form of the _status constructus_. Cf. RBT Psalm lxvv. 10, cxx. 6. +-- Footnote + + +We have already spoken <VIII.I.1. "a special word"> of the word +BR), a word remarkable for its specific theological import. Apart +from Amos iv. 13 and Isaiah iv. 5 it is first found outside the +Priestly Code in the Deuteronomist in Exodus xxxiv. 10, Numbers xvi. +30 (?), Deuteronomy iv. 32, and in the Book of Jeremiah, xxxi. 22: +then in Ezekiel xxi. 35, xxviii. 13, 15; Malachi ii. 10; in Psalms +li. 12, lxxxix. 13, 48, cii. 19, civ. 30, cxlviii. 5; Ecclesiastes +xii. 1. It occurs, however, most frequently, 20 times in fact, +in Isaiah xl.-lxvi.; and curiously enough, never in Job, where we +should expect to find it. It has nothing to do with B"R") (cut down +wood) and BRY) (fat). /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. I do not speak of the use of _Elohim_ and the application of +the names of God in the Priestly Code: the matter is not yet clear +to me. Very curious is H#M, Leviticus xxiv. 11. +-- Footnote + + +Genesis i. 2, THW WBHW occurs also in Jeremiah iv. 23; Isaiah xxxiv. +11. THW alone is not so rare, but it also occurs, Isaiah xxix. 21 +excepted, only in the later literature Deuteronomy xxxii. 10; 1Samuel +xii. 21; Isaiah xxiv. 10, xl. 17, 23, xli. 29, xliv. 9, xlv. +18 seq., xlix. 4, lix. 4; Job vi. 18, xii.24, xxvi. 7; Psalm +cvii. 40. The verb RXP (brood), which is common in Aramaic, only +recurs in a single passage in the Old Testament, and that a late +one, Deuteronomy xxxii. 11. Yet the possibility must be conceded +that there was no occasion for its more frequent employment. + +Genesis i. 4, HBDYL and NBDL (divide and divide one's self), common +in the Priestly Code, is first used by Deuteronomy and the +Deuteronomist (Deuteronomy iv. 41, x.8, xix. 7, xxix. 10; 1Kings +viii. 53), then by Ezekiel (xxii. 26, xxxix. 14, xlii. 10) and +the author of Isaiah xl. seq. (lvi. 3, lix. 2). It is most used by +the writer of Chronicles, (1Chronicles xii. 8, xxiii. 13, xxv. 1; +2Chronicles xxv. 10; Ezra vi. 21, viii.24, ix. 1, x. 8, 11, 16 ; +Nehemiah x. 2, 29, xiii. 3). On YWM )XD Genesis i. 5 compare +Josephus, Antiquities I. i. 1: "That now would be the FIRST day, +but Moses says ONE day; I could give the reason of this here, but +as I have promised (in the Introduction) to give such reasons for +everything in a separate work, I shall defer the exposition till +then." The Rabbis also, in Genesis Rabba, feel the difficulty of +the expression, which, however, has its parallel in the )XD LXD#, +which belongs to the later way of speaking. In Syriac the +ordinary expression is XD B#B); hence in the New Testament MIA +SABBATWN for the first day of the week. + +Genesis i. 6, RQY( (firmament) is found, outside the Priestly +Code, only in Ezekiel (i. 22-26, x. 1), and in still later +writers ; Psalms xix. 2, cl. 1 ; Daniel xii. 3; cf. Job +xxxviii. 18. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It does not mean, as is generally assumed, that which is +beaten out thin, is stretched out. For, firstly, the heaven is +never considered to be made of sheet-metal; secondly, the meaning +in question only belongs to the Piel, and the substantive derived +from it is RIQQUA(. The Kal, with which RQY( must be connected, +is found in Isaiah xiii. 5, xliv. 24; Psalms cxxxvi. 6. It is +generally translated _spread out_, but quite unwarrantably. +Parallel with it are YSD and KWNN (compare Psalms xxiv. 2 with cxxxvi. +6); the Septuagint translates in all three passages with stereoun, +and accordingly renders RQY( with STEREWMA (firmamentum). This +rendering, which alone is supported by tradition, and which is very +satisfactory, is confirmed by the Syriac, where the verb RQ( is +frequent in the sense of _fortify_. +-- Footnote + + +Genesis i. 10 YMYM (the sea, singular, see i. 22; Leviticus xi. 9, +10), is rare in older times, and belongs to lofty poetical +language; it is, on the contrary, frequent in Ezekiel (ten +times), and in the Psalms (seven times); and occurs besides in Job +vi. 3; Nehemiah ix. 6 ; Jonah ii. 4 ; Daniel xi. 45. Genesis i. 11 +MYN (kind), a very peculiar word, especially in the form _Jeminehu_, +is found outside of this chapter and Leviticus xiv., Genesis vi. 20, +vii. 14, only in Deuteronomy xiv. and Ezekiel xlvii. 10. + +Genesis i. 26, DMWT (likeness, verses 1, 3) does not occur in the +earlier literature. It first appears in 2Kings xvi. 10, in a +post-Deuteronomic passage, for the writer is that of chapter xi. +seq., xxi. seq. Then in Ezekiel (15 times), Isaiah xiii. 4, xl. +18; 2Chronicles iv. 3; Psalms lxviii. 5. It is a borrowed word +from Aramaic; and the corresponding verb only came into use in +the period when Aramaic began to find its way in. + +Genesis i. 27 ZFKFR (male) is in earlier times ZFKW.R; for +this is the vocalization in Exodus xxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23; Deuteronomy +xvi. 16, xx. 13; and if it is right in these passages, as we cannot +doubt it is, it must be introduced in Exodus xxxiv. 19; Deuteronomy +xv. 19; 1Kings xi. 15 seq. as well. In the Priestly Code ZFKFR +occurs with great frequency, and elsewhere only in the later +literature, Deuteronomy iv. 16; Jeremiah xx. 15, xxx. 6; Ezekiel xvi. +17; Isaiah lxvi. 7; Malachi i. 14; Judges xxi. 11, 12; 2Chronicles +xxxi. 16; Ezra viii. As for NQBH (female), matters are even worse. +Outside the Priestly Code it is only found in Jeremiah (xxxi. 22) +and the Deuteronomist (iv. 16). The Jehovist, it is well known, +always says )Y#, W)Y#H even of the lower animals: the editor of +the Hexateuch, on the contrary, always follows the usage of the +Priestly Code. + +Genesis i. 28 XYH HRM#T attracts attention by the omission of the +article with the substantive and its being merely prefixed to the +following adjective; as if one should say in Greek, )ANHR (O +)AGATHOS instead of (O )ANER (O )AGATHOS. In the same way i. 21 +YWM H##Y, and ii. 3 YWM H#BY(Y. In Arabic there are some +analogies for this, but on seeking one in Hebrew we have to come +down to the period when it was usual to say KNST HGDWLH. KB# +and RDH are Aramaisms. In KBSHWH we find the only verbal suffix +in Genesis i. Instead we have always the forms )TM )TW; this is +so in the Priestly Code generally. In the Jehovistic main work, +in J, these substitutes with )T are only used sometimes and for +special reasons: it may be generally asserted that they are +more used the later we come down. Parallel with this is the use +of )nky in J and )ny in the Priestly Code; the latter form +grows always more frequent in later times. + +These remarks carry us beyond Genesis i.; for the Priestly Code +generally I am now able to refer to F. Giesebrecht's essay on +the criticism of the Hexateuch. Such words as QRBN, (CM, L(MT, +(#TY are each, by itself, strong arguments for assuming a late +date for the production of the Priestly Code. We cannot believe +that such everyday words should never have come into use in the +other literature before the exile, if they were in existence. +They cannot be counted technical terms: QRBN used in Hebrew for +sacrifice and offering is simply as if an English writer should +say priere instead of worship. In such comparisons of the +vocabulary we have, however, to consider first the working up +and revision which has been at work in every part of the books +of the Bible, and secondly the caprice of the writers in apparent +trifles, such as )NKY and )NY, especially outside the Pentateuch. +These two agencies have so dislocated the original facts in this +matter, that in general we can only deal in proportions, and must +be content with showing that a word occurs say 3 times in the +other literature and 27 times in an equal extent of the later. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Too much importance must not be attached to Aramaisms: even when +they admit of clear demonstration they prove little while +occurring merely in single instances. We early find remarkable +phenomena, such as NDR for NZR (hence NZYR = vovens), N+R for NCR +(Amos i. 11 , Y+R for Y+RP?), comp. Arabic _lata_ for _laisa_, Sur. +38, 2. Hudh. 84, 1. And yet such an Aramaism as BT #NTH in Numbers +xv. 27, or even QRBN, is very remarkable. +-- Footnote + + +IX.III.2. The study of the history of language is still at a very +elementary stage in Hebrew. In that which pertains to the +lexicographer it would do well to include in its scope the proper +names of the Old Testament; when it would probably appear that +not only Parnach (Numbers xxxiv. 25) but also composite names such +as Peda-zur, Peda-el, Nathana-el, Pazi-el, Eli-asaph, point less to +the Mosaic than to the Persian period, and have their analogies in +the Chronicles. On the other hand, the prepositions and particles +would have to be examined the use of the prepositions Beth and +Lamed in the Priestly Code is very peculiar. That would lead +further, to syntax; or better still, to rhetoric and style--a +diffcult and little cultivated field of study, but one of great +importance and lending itself readily to comparative treatment. +This treatment yields the most far-reaching results in the case +of those parallels which have an undoubted and direct relation +to each other. The dependence of the Priestly Code on the Jehovist +cannot be more strikingly demonstrated than by comparing its CDYQ, +Genesis vi. 9, with the CDYQ BDWR HZH, of Genesis vii. 1 (JE.). +The plural DRWT is quite on a line with the MYNYM, and the (MY +H)RC, of the Rabbis, and the SPERMATA of Galatians iii. 15; it +does not denote the successive generations, but contemporaries, +the contemporaneous individuals of one and the same generation. + +From words we are brought back to things again by noting that the +age of the word depends in many cases on the introduction of the +thing. The name BTR in the Song of Songs, for example, +presupposes the cultivation of the malobathron in Syria and +Palestine. The Priestly Code enumerates colours, stuffs, +goldsmiths' work and jewels, which nowhere occur in the older +literature: along with the Book of Ezekiel it is the principal +quarry in the Old Testament for the history of art; and this is +the less likely to be due to chance, as the geographical horizon +of the two works is also the same. There is also some contact in +this respect, though to a less degree, between the Priestly Code +and Isaiah xl.-lxvi., and this must doubtless receive a historical +explanation in the circumstances of the Babylonian age. /l/ + +-- Footnote +1. On Canticles cf. Schuerer's Theol. Lit. Z., 1879, p. 31. It +also, by the names of plants and similar details mentioned in it, +is an important source for the history of external civilisation. +In Isaiah liv. 11, read with the Septuagint NPK: instead of the +meaningless PWK:, and )DNYK instead of )BNYK. +-- Footnote + + +CHAPTER X. THE ORAL AND THE WRITTEN TORAH. + +What importance the written letter, the book of the law, possessed +for the Jews, we all know from the New Testament. Of ancient +Israel, again, it is said in the introductory poem of Goethe's +West-Oestlicher Divan, that the word was so important there, +because it was a spoken word. The contrast which Goethe evidently +perceived is really characteristic, and deserves some further +attention. + + +X.I. + +X.I.1. Even if it be the case that Deuteronomy and the Priestly +Code were only reduced to writing at a late period, still there +remains the Jehovistic legislation (Exodus xx.-xxiii. xxxiv.) +which might be regarded as the document which formed the +starting-point of the religious history of Israel. And this +position is in fact generally claimed for it; yet not for the +whole of it, since it is commonly recognised that the Sinaitic +Book of the Covenant (Exodus xx.-xxiii. 19) was given to a +people who were settled and thoroughly accustomed to agriculture, +and who, moreover, had passed somewhat beyond the earliest stage +in the use of money. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Exodus xxi. 35: compare xxi. 33 with Judges ix. 4 +-- Footnote + + +The Decalogue alone is commonly maintained to be in the strictest +sense Mosaic. This is principally on account of the statement +that it was written down on the two stone tables of the sacred +ark. Yet of Deuteronomy also we read, both that it was written +on twelve stones and that it was deposited in the sacred ark +(Deuteronomy xxxi. 26). We cannot therefore place implicit reliance +on such statements. What is attested in this way of the Decalogue +seems to find confirmation in 1Kings viii. 9. But the authority +of this statement is greatly weakened by the fact that it occurs +in a passage which has undergone the Deuteronomistic revision, and +has been, in addition to this, subjected to interpolation. The more +weight must we therefore allow to the circumstance, which makes for +a different conclusion, that the name "The Ark of the Covenant" +(i.e., the box of the law) /1/ is peculiar to the later writers, + +-- Footnote +1. Compare 1Kings viii. 21, "the ark wherein is the covenant of +Jehovah," and viii 9, "there was nothing in the ark save the two +tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, the tables of the +covenant which Jehovah had made with the children of Israel." The +Deuteronomistic expression "tables of the covenant", alternates +in the Priestly Code with that of "tables of testimony"; i e., +likewise of the law. For H(DWT, "the testimony," 2Kings xi. 12, +read HC(DWT, "the bracelets," according to 2Samuel i. 10. +-- Footnote + + +and, when it occurs in older narratives, is proved by its sporadic +appearance, as well as by a comparison of the Septuagint with +the Massoretic text, to be a correction. In early times the ark +was not a mere casket for the law; the "the ark of Jehovah" was of +itself important, as we see clearly enough from 1Samuel iv.-vi. +Like the twelve maccebas which surrounded the altar on the holy hill +of Shechem, and which only later assumed the character of monuments +of the law, so the ark of the covenant no doubt arose by a change +of meaning out of the old idol. If there were stones in it at all, +they probably served some other purpose than that of writing materials, +otherwise they would not have been hidden as a mystery in the +darkness of the sanctuary; they must have been exposed to public +view. Add to this that the tradition is not agreed as to the +tenor of the ten words said to have been inserted on the two +tables; two decalogues being preserved to us, Exodus xx. and +Exodus xxxiv., which are quite different from each other. It +results from this that there was no real or certain knowledge as +to what stood on the tables, and further that if there were such +stones in the ark--and probably there were--there was nothing +written on them. This is not the place to decide which of the two +versions is prior to the other; the negative result we have +obtained is sufficient for our present purpose. + +X.I.2. Ancient Israel was certainly not without God-given bases +for the ordering of human life; only they were not fixed in +writing. Usage and tradition were looked on to a large extent as +the institution of the Deity. Thus, for example, the ways and +rules of agriculture. Jehovah had instructed the husbandman and +taught him the right way. He it was whose authority gave to +the unwritten laws of custom their binding power. "It is never so +done in Israel," "that is folly in Israel," and similar +expressions of insulted public conscience are of frequent occurrence, +and show the power of custom: the fear of God acts as a +motive for respecting it. "Surely there is no fear of God in +this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake," so +Abraham says to himself in Gerar. "How shall I do such great +wrong and sin against God?" says Joseph to the woman in Egypt. +"The people of Sodom were wicked and sinned grievously against +Jehovah," we read in Genesis xiii. 13. Similarly Deuteronomy +xxv. 18: "The Amalekites attacked Israel on the march, and killed +the stragglers, all that were feeble and fell behind, and feared +not God." We see that the requirements of the Deity are known and +of force, not to the Israelites only, but to all the world; and +accordingly they are not to be identified with any positive +commands. The patriarchs observed them long before Moses. "I +know Abraham," Jehovah says, xviii. 19, "that he will command his +children to keep the way of Jehovah, to do justice and judgment." + +Much greater importance is attached to the special Torah of +Jehovah, which not only sets up laws of action of universal +validity, but shows man the way in special cases of difficulty, +where he is at a loss. This Torah is one of the special gifts +with which Israel is endowed (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 4); and it is +intrusted to the priests, whose influence, during the period of +the Hebrew kings, of which we are now speaking, rested much more +on this possession than on the privilege of sacrifice. The verb +from which Torah is derived signifies in its earliest usage to +give direction, decision. The participle signifies _giver of +oracles_ in the two, examples _gibeath moreh_ and _allon moreh_. +The latter expression is explained by another which alternates +with it, "oak of the soothsayers." Now we know that the priests +in the days of Saul and David gave divine oracles by the ephod +and the lots connected with it, which answered one way or the other +to a question put in an alternative form. Their Torah grew no doubt +out of this practice. /1/ The Urim and Thummim are regarded, + +-- Footnote +1. 1Sam xiv. xxiii. xxx. In connection with 1Samuel xxxi. 3 +I have conjectured that the verb of which Torah is the abstract +means originally to throw the lot-arrows. The Thummim have been +compared in the most felicitous way by Freytag, and by Lagarde +independently of him (Proph. Chald. p. xlvii.) with the +Arabian Tamaim, which not only signifies children's amulets but +any means of "averruncatio". Urim is probably connected with +)RR "to curse" (cf. Iliad i. 11 and Numbers xxiii. 23): the two +words of the formula seem mutually to supplement each other. +-- Footnote + + +according to Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8, as the true and universal insignia +of the priesthood; the ephod is last mentioned in the historical +books in 1Kings ii. 26, /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 Bleek, Einleiung in das A. T., 1878, p. 642. +-- Footnote + + +but appears to have remained in use down to the time of Isaiah +(Hosea iii. 4; Isaiah xxx. 22). The Torah freed itself in the +process of time, following the general mental movement, from such +heathenish media and vehicles (Hab. ii. 19). But it continued +to be an oral decision and direction. As a whole it is only a +power and activity of God, or of the priests. Of this subject +there can be no abstract; the TEACHING; is only thought of as +the action of the TEACHER. There is no torah as a ready-made +product, as a system existing independently of its originator and +accessible to every one: it becomes actual only in the various +utterances, which naturally form by degrees the basis of a fixed +tradition. "They preserve Thy word, and keep Thy law; they teach +Jacob Thy judgments and Israel Thy statutes " (Deuteronomy xxxiii. +9, 10). + +The Torah of the priests appears to have had primarily a legal +character. In cases which there was no regular authority to +decide, or which were too difficult for human decision, the latter +was brought in the last instance before God, i.e., before the +sanctuary or the priests (Exodus xviii. 25 seq.). The priests +thus formed a kind of supreme court, which, however, rested on a +voluntary recognition of its moral authority, and could not +support its decisions by force. "If a man sin against another, +God shall judge him," 1Samuel ii. 25 says, very indefinitely. +Certain legal transactions of special solemnity are executed +before God (Exodus xxi. 6). Now in proportion as the executive +gained strength under the monarchy, _jus_--civil justice--necessarily +grew up into a separate existence from the older sacred _fas_. The +knowledge of God, which Hosea (chapter iv.) regards as the contents +of the torah, has as yet a closer connection with jurisprudence +than with theology; but as its practical issue is that God +requires of man righteousness, and faithfulness, and good-will, +it is fundamentally and essentially morality, though morality +at that time addressed its demands less to the conscience than +to society. A ritual tradition naturally developed itself even +before the exile (2Kings xvii. 27, 28). But only those rites +were included in the Torah which the priests had to teach others, +not those which they discharged themselves; even in Leviticus +this distinction may be traced; the instructions characterised +as toroth being chiefly those as to animals which might or might +not be eaten, as to clean and unclean states, as to leprosy and +its marks (cf. Deuteronomy xxiv. 8). + +So it was in Israel, to which the testimony applies which we have +cited: and so it was in Judah also. There was a common proverb in +the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, "The Torah shall not perish +from the priest, nor counsel from the ancient, nor the word from +the prophet:" but no doubt the saying was not new in their time, +and at any rate it will apply to the earlier time as well. Not +because they sacrifice but because they teach, do the priests +here appear as pillars of the religious order of things; and +their Torah is a living power, equal to the occasion and +never-failing. Micah reproaches them with judging for reward +(iii. 11), and this shows their wisdom to have been based on a +tradition accessible to them alone; this is also shown by some +expressions of Deuteronomy (xvii. 10 seq., xxiv. 8). We have +the counterpart to the proverb above cited (Jeremiah xviii. 18; +Ezekiel vii. 26) in the complaint in Lamentations (ii. 9): +"Jerusalem is destroyed; her king and her princes are among the +Gentiles: the Torah is no more; the prophets obtain no vision +from Jehovah;" after the ruin of the sanctuary and the priests +there is no longer any Torah; and if that be so, the axe is laid +to the root of the life of the people. In the post-exile prophets +the torah, which even in Deuteronomy (xvii. 11) was mainly +legal in its nature, acquires a strong savour of ritual which one +did not notice before; yet even here it is still an oral teaching +of the priests (Haggai ii. 11). + +The priests derived their Torah from Moses: they claimed only +to preserve and guard what Moses had left (Deuteronomy xxxiii 4, +9 seq.). He counted as their ancestor (xxxiii. 8; Judges xviii. +30); his father in-law is the PRIEST of Midian at Mount Sinai, +as Jehovah also is derived in a certain sense from the older deity +of Sinai. But at the same time Moses was reputed to be the +incomparable originator and practicer of PROPHECY (Numbers xii. 6 +seq.; Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10; Hos. xii. 14), as his brother Aaron +also is not only a Levite (Exodus iv. 14), but also a prophet +(iv. 15; Numbers xii. 2). There is thus a close relation between +priests and prophets, i.e., seers; as with other peoples (1Samuel +vi.,; 1Kings xviii. 19, compare with 2Kings x. 19), so also +with the Hebrews. In the earliest time it was not knowing the +technique of worship, which was still very simple and +undeveloped, but being a man of God, standing on an intimate +footing with God, that made a man a priest, that is one who keeps +up the communication with heaven for others; and the seer is +better qualified than others for the office (1Kings xviii. 30 +seq.). There is no fixed distinction in early times between the +two offices; Samuel is in 1Samuel i.-iii. an aspirant to the +priesthood; in ix. x. he is regarded as a seer. + +In later times also, when priests and prophets drew off and +separated from each other, they yet remained connected, both in +the kingdom of Israel (Host iv. 5) and in Judah. In the latter +this was very markedly the case (2Kings xxiii. 2; Jeremiah xxvi. +7 seq., v. 31; Deuteronomy xviii. 1-8, 9-22; Zechariah vii. 3). +What connected them with each other was the revelation of Jehovah +which went on and was kept alive in both of them. It is Jehovah +from whom the torah of the priest and the word of the prophet +proceeds: He is the true DIRECTOR, as Isaiah calls Him in the +passage xxx. 20 seq., where, speaking of the Messianic time, +he says to the people, "Then thy director (MWRYK) is no more +concealed, but thine eyes see thy director, and thine ears hear +the words of One calling behind thee; this is the way, walk ye +in it; when ye are turning to the right hand or to the left." +TORAH and WORD are cognate notions, and capable of being +interchanged (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9; Isaiah i. 10, ii. 3, v. 24, +viii. 16, 20). This explains how both priests and prophets +claimed Moses for their order: he was not regarded as the founder +of the cultus. + +The difference, in the period when it had fully developed itself, +may be said to be this: the Torah of the priests was like a +spring which runs always, that of the prophets like a spring which +is intermittent, but when it does break forth, flows with all the +greater force. The priests take precedence of the prophets when +both are named together; they obviously consolidated themselves +earlier and more strongly. The order, and the tradition which +propagates itself within the order, are essential to them: +they observe and keep the torah (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9). +For this reason, that they take their stand so entirely on the +tradition, and depend on it, their claim to have Moses for +their father, the beginner and founder of their tradition, +is in itself the better founded of the two. /l/ + +-- Footnote +1 It is also more firmly rooted in history; for if Moses did +anything at all, he certainly founded the sanctuary at Kadesh +and the torah there, which the priests of the ark carried on after +him, thus continuing the thread of the history of Israel, which +was taken up again in power by the monarchy. The prophets only +appeared among the Hebrews from the time of Samuel onwards, but +the seers were older than Moses, and can scarcely have had such +a close connection with his tradition as the priests at the +sanctuary of the ark of Jehovah. +-- Footnote + + +In the ordinary parlance of the Hebrews torah always meant first, +and chiefly the Priestly Torah. The prophets have notoriously no +father (1Samuel x. 12), their importance rests on the +individuals; it is characteristic that only names and sketches +of their lives have reached us. They do indeed, following the +tendency of the times, draw together in corporations; but in +doing so they really renounce their own distinctive +characteristics: the representative men are always single, +resting on nothing outside themselves. We have thus on the one +side the tradition of a class, which suffices for the occasions of +ordinary life, and on the other the inspiration of awakened +individuals, stirred up by occasions which are more than ordinary. +After the spirit of the oldest men of God, Moses at the head of +them, had been in a fashion laid to sleep in institutions, +it sought and found in the prophets a new opening; the old fire +burst out like a volcano through the strata which once, too, rose +fluid from the deep, but now were fixed and dead. + +The element in which the prophets live is the storm of the world's +history, which sweeps away human institutions; in which the +rubbish of past generations with the houses built on it begins to +shake, and that foundation alone remains firm, which needs no +support but itself. When the earth trembles and seems to be passing +away, then they triumph because Jehovah alone is exalted. They +do not preach on set texts; they speak out of the spirit which +judges all things and itself is judged of no man. Where do they +ever lean on any other authority than the truth of what they +say; where do they rest on any other foundation than their own +certainty? It belongs to the notion of prophecy of true +revelation, that Jehovah, overlooking all the media of ordinances +and institutions, communicates Himself to the INDIVIDUAL, the +called one, in whom that mysterious and irreducible rapport in +which the deity stands with man clothes itself with energy. +Apart from the prophet, _in abstracto_, there is no revelation; +it lives in his divine-human ego. This gives rise to a synthesis +of apparent contradictions: the subjective in the highest sense, +which is exalted above all ordinances, is the truly objective, +the divine. This it proves itself to be by the consent of the +conscience of all, on which the prophets count, just as Jesus +does in the Gospel of John, in spite of all their polemic +against the traditional religion. They are not saying anything +new: they are only proclaiming old truth. While acting in the +most creative way they feel entirely passive: the _homo tantum +et audacia_ which may with perfect justice be applied to such men +as Elijah, Amos, and Isaiah, is with them equivalent to _deus +tantum et servitus_. But their creed is not to be found in +any book. It is barbarism, in dealing with such a phenomenon, to +distort its physiognomy by introducing the law. + +X.I.3. It is a vain imagination to suppose that the prophets +expounded and applied the law. Malachi (circa 450 B.C.) says, +it is true, iv. 4, "Remember ye the torah of Moses my servant;" +but where shall we look for any second expression of this nature? +Much more correctly than modern scholars did these men judge, who +at the close of the preexilic history looked back on the forces +which had moulded it, both the divine and those opposed to God. +In their eyes the prophets are not the expounders of Moses, but +his continuators and equals; the word of God in their mouth is +not less weighty than in the mouth of Moses; they, as well as he, +are organs of the spirit of Jehovah by which He is present in +Israel. The immediate revelation to the people, we read in Deuteronomy +xviii., ceased with the ten commandments: from that point onwards +Jehovah uses the prophets as His mouth: "A prophet like unto +thee," He says to Moses, "will I raise up to them from among their +brethren, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak +unto them all that I shall command him; and whosoever shall not +hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will +require it of him." + +We find it the same in Jeremiah; the voice of the prophets, always +sounding when there is need for it, occupies the place which, +according to the prevailing view, should have been filled by the +law: this living command of Jehovah is all he knows of, and not +any testament given once for all. + +"This only I commanded your fathers when I brought them up out +of Egypt: Obey my voice, and walk ye in all the ways that I will +command you. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of Egypt, +I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up +early and sending them; but ye would not hear." + +And even after the exile we meet in Zechariah (520 B.C.) the +following view of the significance of the prophets: "Thus spake +Jehovah of hosts [to the fathers before the exile], Speak true +judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother, +and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the stranger nor the +poor: and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in his +heart. But they refused to hearken, and shrugged the shoulder, +and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made +their hearts as a flint, lest they should hear the Torah and the +words which Jehovah Sebaoth hath sent by His Spirit through the +old prophets: therefore came a great wrath from Jehovah Sebaoth. +And as He cried and they would not hear, so now shall they cry +and I will not hear, and I will blow them away among the +peoples.... Thus saith Jehovah Sebaoth [after the exile to the +present generation], As I thought to punish you without pity +because your fathers provoked me to anger, so again have I +thought in these days to do well to the house of Judah: fear +ye not. These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every +man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth +and peace in your gates; and let none of you imagine evil in +your hearts against his neighbour, and love no false oath, +for all these are things which I hate, saith Jehovah" +(Zechariah vii. 9-11, viii. 14-16). + +The contents of the Torah, on obedience to which the theocracy is +here based, are very suggestive, as also its derivation from the +"old" prophets. Even Ezra can say (ix. 10, 11): + +"We have forsaken Thy commandments which Thou hast commanded by the +servants the prophets, saying, The land unto which ye go to +possess it is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of +the land, which have filled it from one end to another with their +uncleanness." + +He is thinking of Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, and Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. + +Of those who at the end reflected on the meaning of the +development which had run its course, the writer of Isaiah +xl.-lxvi. occupies the first place. The Torah, which he also +calls _mishpat_, right (i.e., truth), appears to him to be the +divine and imperishable element in Israel. With him, however, +it is inseparable from its mouthpiece, the servant of Jehovah, +xlii. 1-4, xlix. 1-6, l. 4-9, lii. 13-liii. 12. The name would +denote the prophet, but here it stands for the people, a prophet +on a large scale. Israel's calling is not that of the +world-monarchies, to make sensation and noise in the streets +(xiii. 1-4), but the greater one of promulgating the Torah and +getting it received. This is to be done both in Israel and among +the heathen. What makes Israel a prophet is not his own inner +qualities, but his relation to Jehovah, his calling as the +depository of divine truth: hence it involves no contradiction +that the servant should begin his work in Israel itself. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. This is as if one were to say that there is much to be done +before we Evangelicals are truly evangelical. Yet the +distinction as worked out in Isaiah xl. seq. is certainly very +remarkable, and speaks for a surprising degree of profound +meditation. +-- Footnote + + +Till now he has spent his strength only in the bosom of his own +people, which is always inclined to fall away from Jehovah and +from itself: heedless of reproach and suffering he has laboured +unweariedly in carrying out the behests of his Master and has +declared His word. All in vain. He has not been able to avert +the victory of heathenism in Israel, now followed by its victory +over Israel. Now in the exile Jehovah has severed His relation +with His people; the individual Hebrews survive, but the servant, +the people of Jehovah, is dead. Then is the Torah to die with +him, and truth itself to succumb to falsehood, to heathenism? +That cannot be; truth must prevail, must come to the light. +As to the Apostle Paul the Spirit is the earnest of the +resurrection of those who are born again, so to our author the +Torah is the pledge of the resurrection of Israel, the +justification of the servant of Jehovah. The final triumph of +the cause, which is God's, will surpass all expectations. Not +only in Israel itself will the Torah, will the servant of Jehovah +prevail and bring about a regeneration of the people: the truth +will in the future shine forth from Israel into the whole world, +and obtain the victory among all the Gentiles (xlix. 6). Then it +will appear that the work of the servant, resultless as it seemed +to be up to the exile, has yet not been in vain. + +It is surely unnecessary for me to demonstrate how uncommonly +vivid, I might say how uncommonly historical, the notion of the +Torah is as here set forth, and how entirely incompatible that +notion is with "the Torah of Moses." It might most fitly be +compared with the Logos of the prologue of John, if the latter +is understood in accordance with John x. 35, an utterance +certainly authentic, and not according to Philo. As Jesus is +the revelation of God made man, so the servant of Jehovah is +the revelation of God made a people. The similarity of their +nature and their significance involves the similarity of their +work and of their sufferings, so that the Messianic interpretation +of Isaiah lii. 13-liii. 12 is in fact one which could not fail to +suggest itself. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The personification is carried further in this passage than +anywhere else, and it is possible that the colours of the sketch +are borrowed from some actual instance of a prophet-martyr: yet +the Ebed Jahve cannot have a different meaning here from that +which it has everywhere else. It is to be noted that the +sufferings and death of the servant are in the past, and his +glorification in the future, a long pause lying between them in +the present. A resurrection of the individual could not be in +the mind of the writer of Isaiah xl seq., nor do the details of +the description, lii. 12 seq., at all agree with such an idea. +Moreover, it is clear that liv. 1-lvi. 8 is a kind of sermon on +the text lii. 13-liii. 12; and there the prophecy of the +glorification of the servant has reference to Zion. See Vatke, +p. 528 seq. +-- Footnote + + +X.II. + +X.II.1. In the 18th year of King Josiah (621 B.C) Deuteronomy was +found and published. In the account of the discovery, 2Kings +xxii. xxiii., it is always called simply _the book of the Torah_; +it was accordingly the first, and in its time the only book of +the kind. It is certainly the case that the prophets had written +down some of their speeches before this, and the priests also may +before this time have written down many of their precepts: it +appears in fact, as Vatke surmises, that we have a monument of +their spirit, e.g., in the Sinaitic Book of the Covenant. +Deuteronomy presupposes earlier attempts of this kind, and +borrows its materials largely from them; but on the other hand it +is distinguished from them not only by its greater compass but +also by its much higher claims. It is written with the distinct +intention not to remain a private memorandum, but to obtain public +authority as a book. The idea of making a definite formulated +written Torah the law of the land, is the important point /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Duhm, ap. Cil. p. 201. +-- Footnote + + +it was a first attempt and succeeded at the outset beyond +expectation. A reaction set in afterwards, it is true; but the +Babylonian exile completed the triumph of the law. Extraordinary +excitement was at that time followed by the deepest depression +(Amos viii. 11 seq.). At such a time those who did not despair +of the future clung anxiously to the religious acquisitions of the +past. These had been put in a book just in time in Deuteronomy, +with a view to practical use in the civil and religious life of +the people . The book of the Torah did not perish in the general +ruin, but remained in existence, and was the compass of those who +were shaping their course for a new Israel. How thoroughly +determined they were to use it as their rule we see from the +revision of the Hexateuch and of the historical books which was taken +in hand during the exile. + +With the appearance of the law came to an end the old freedom, +not only in the sphere of worship, now restricted to Jerusalem, +but in the sphere of the religious spirit as well. There was now +in existence an authority as objective as could be; and this was +the death of prophecy. + +For it was a necessary condition of prophecy that the tares +should be at liberty to grow up beside the wheat. The signs given +in Deuteronomy to distinguish the true from the false prophet, +are no doubt vague and unpractical: still they show the tendency +towards control and the introduction of uniformity; that is the +great step which is new. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The difference between Deuteronomy xviii. 22 and 1Kings xxii. +19-23 may be thought to throw light on the two positions. In the +former passage we read that if a prophet says something in the +name of Jehovah which does not come to pass, it is a word which +Jehovah has not spoken. Here, on the contrary, Micaiah ben Imlah, +when the prophets of Jehovah promise the king of Israel a happy +issue of the campaign against the Syrians, regards the prediction +as contrary to the truth, but as none the less on that account +inspired by the spirit of prophecy; Jehovah, he said, had made +his spirit a Iying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. It +may be that this difference reflects to us the interval between +two different ages: but on the whole Micaiah's view appears to be +rather a piece of ingenuity which might have been resorted to in +later times as well. In the seventh century the command, "every +firstborn is mine," was held to apply to the human firstborn as +well, the sacrifice of which Jehovah was thought to require: this +appears from Jeremiah's protest, "I commanded them not, neither +came it into my mind," vii. 31, xix. 5. With reference to this +Ezekiel says that because the Israelites despised the wholesome +commandments of Jehovah, He gave them laws which were not good and +statutes by which they could not live. That is a similar +ingenious escape from a difficulty, without deeper meaning. See +the converse, Koran, Sura ii. 174. +-- Footnote + + +It certainly was not the intention of the legislator to encroach +upon the spoken Torah or the free word. But the consequence, +favoured by outward circumstances, was not to be avoided: the +feeling that the prophets had come to an end did not arise in the +Maccabean wars only. In the exile we hear the complaint that the +instruction of the priests and the word of the prophets are silent +(Lamentations ii. 9); it is asked, where he is who in former times +put his spirit in Israel (Isa lxiii. 11); in Nehemiah's time a +doubtful question is left unsettled, at least theoretically, till +the priest with Urim and Thummim, i.e., with a trustworthy +prophecy, shall appear (Nehemiah vii. 69). We may call Jeremiah the +last of the prophets: /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. In his early years Jeremiah had a share in the introduction of +the law: but in later times he shows himself little edified by +the effects it produced: the Iying pen of the scribes, he says, +has written for a lie. People despised the prophetic word because +they had the Torah in black and white (viii. 7-9). +-- Footnote + + +those who came after him were prophets only in name. Ezekiel had +swallowed a book (iii. 1-3), and gave it out again. He also, +like Zechariah, calls the pre-exilic prophets the old prophets, +conscious that he himself belongs to the epigoni: he meditates on +their words like Daniel and comments on them in his own prophecy +(xxxviii. 17, xxxix. 8). The writer of Isaiah xl. seq. might with +much more reason be called a prophet, but he does not claim to be +one; his anonymity, which is evidently intentional, leaves no doubt +as to this. He is, in fact, more of a theologian: he is principally +occupied in reflecting on the results of the foregoing development, +of which prophecy had been the leaven; these are fixed possessions +now secured; he is gathering in the harvest. As for the prophets +after the exile, we have already seen how Zechariah speaks of the +old prophets as a series which is closed, in which he and those +like him are not to be reckoned. In the writing of an anonymous +contemporary which is appended to his book we find the following +notable expression: + +"In that (hoped-for) day, saith Jehovah, I will cut off the names +of the idols out of the land, that they be no more remembered, +and also I will cause to cease the prophets and the unclean +spirit; and if a man will yet prophesy, his parents shall say +unto him, Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest lies in the name +of Jehovah, and his parents shall thrust him through when he +prophesieth" (xiii. 2-3). + +X.II.2. Deuteronomy was the programme of a reform, not of a +restoration. It took for granted the existence of the cultus, +and only corrected it in certain general respects. But the temple +was now destroyed and the worship interrupted, and the practice of +past times had to be written down if it was not to be lost. Thus +it came about that in the exile the conduct of worship became the +subject of the Torah, and in this process reformation was naturally +aimed at as well as restoration. We have seen <II.II.1.>) that +Ezekiel was the first to take this step which the circumstances of +the time indicated. In the last part of his work he made the +first attempt to record the ritual which had been customary in +the temple of Jerusalem. Other priests attached themselves to him +(Leviticus xvii.-xxvi.), and thus there grew up in the exile from +among the members of this profession a kind of school of people +who reduced to writing and to a system what they had formerly +practiced in the way of their calling. After the temple was +restored this theoretical zeal still continued to work, and the +ritual when renewed was still further developed by the action and +reaction on each other of theory and practice: the priests who +had stayed in Babylon took as great a part, from a distance, in +the sacred services, as their brothers at Jerusalem who had +actually to conduct them. The latter indeed lived in adverse +circumstances and do not appear to have conformed with great +strictness or accuracy to the observances which had been agreed +upon. The last result of this labour of many years is the +Priestly Code. It has indeed been said that we cannot ascribe +the creation of such a work to an age which was bent on nothing +but repristination. Granted that this is a correct description of +it, such an age is peculiarly fitted for an artificial +systematising of given materials, and this is what the originality +of the Priestly Code in substance amounts to. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Dillmann arrives at the conclusion that the assumption is the +most natural one in the world, and still capable of proof from ACD +(!) that the priesthood of the central sanctuary wrote down their +toroth even in early times; and that it is absurd to suppose +that the priestly and ceremonial laws were first written down, +or even made, in the exile and in Babylon, where there was no +worship. We will let it be absurd, if it is true. It is not +progress, though it is a fact, that the kings were succeeded by +the high-priests, and the prophets by the Rabbis. Yet it is a +thing which is likely to occur, that a body of traditional +practice should only be written down when it is threatening to +die out, and that a book should be, as it were, the ghost of a +life which is closed. +-- Footnote + + +The Priestly Code, worked into the Pentateuch as the standard +legislative element in it, became the definite "Mosaic law." +As such it was published and introduced in the year 444 B.C., +a century after the exile . In the interval, the duration of which +is frequently under-estimated, Deuteronomy alone had been known +and recognised as the written Torah, though as a fact the essays of +Ezekiel and his successors may have had no inconsiderable +influence in leading circles. The man who made the Pentateuch the +constitution of Judaism was the Babylonian priest and scribe, +Ezra. He had come from Babylon to Jerusalem as early as the year +458 B.C., the seventh of Artaxerxes Longimanus, at the head of a +considerable company of zealous Jews, provided it is said with a +mandate from the Persian king, empowering him to reform according +to the law the congregation of the temple, which had not yet been +able to consolidate itself inwardly nor to shut itself off +sufficiently from those without. + +"Thou art sent of the king and of his seven counsellors to hold an +inquiry concerning Judah and Jerusalem _according to the law of thy +God which is in thine hand_....And thou Ezra, according to _the +wisdom of thy God which is in thine hand_, set magistrates and +judges which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, +all such as acknowledge the laws of thy God, and teach ye them +that know them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God +and the law of the king, let him be prosecuted." + +So we read in the commission of the Persian king to Ezra, vii. +12-26; which, even should it be spurious, must yet reflect the +views of his contemporaries. The expression taken from Ezra's +own memoirs, vii. 27, leaves no doubt that he was assisted by +Artaxerxes in the objects he had in view. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. With regard to his relation to the law, we have to consider the +following points: he was a scribe (SWPR = literatus), at home in +the Torah of Moses, vii. 6. He had directed his mind to study +the Torah of Jehovah, and to do and to teach in Israel judgment +and statute, vii. 10. "The priest Ezra, the master of the law +of the God of heaven," vii. 21. The most important expression, +however, is that which states that the law (the wisdom) of his God +was in his hand: thus it was his private property, though it +claimed authority for all Israel. With this agree the statements +as to the object of the learned priest's mission. +-- Footnote + + +But Ezra did not, as we should expect, at once introduce the law +on his arrival in Judah. In concert with the heads of the people, +and proceeding on the existing Torah, that, namely, of +Deuteronony, he ordained and relentlessly carried out a strict +separation of the returned exiles from the heathen and +half-heathen inhabitants of the land. This was done a few months +after his arrival in Jerusalem. But a long time, at least +fourteen years, elapsed before he produced the law which he had +brought with him. Why he delayed so long we can at the best only +surmise, as no accounts have reached us of what he did in the +interval; there is a great gap in the narrative of the Books of +Ezra and Nehemiah between the 7th and the 20th year of Artaxerxes. +Perhaps the outward circumstances of the young community, which, +probably in consequence of the repellent attitude taken up to the +surrounding peoples, were not of the happiest, made it unadvisable +at once to introduce a legislative innovation; perhaps, too, Ezra +desired to wait to see the correcting influence of the practice of +Jerusalem on the product of Babylonian scholarship, and moreover +to train up assistants for the work. The principal reason, +however, appears to have been, that in spite of the good-will of +the king he did not enjoy the energetic support of the Persian +authorities on the spot, and could not without it get the +authority of the new law recognised. + +But in the year 445 it came about that a Jew and a sympathiser of +Ezra, Nehemiah ben Hakkelejah, cup-bearer and favourite of +Artaxerxes, appeared in Judea as Persian governor. With +straightforward earnestness he first addressed himself to the task +of liberating the Jewish community from outward pressure and +lifting them up from their depressed condition; and, this being +accomplished, the time had come to go forward with the introduction +of the Pentateuch. Ezra and Nehemiah were manifestly in concert +as to this. On the 1st day of the 7th month--we do not know the +year, but it cannot have been earlier than 444 B.C.--the whole +people came together as one man before the water-gate, and Ezra +was called on to produce the book of the law of Moses, which +Jehovah had commanded Israel. The scribe mounted a wooden pulpit; +seven priests stood beside him on the right hand, and seven on the +left. When he opened the book all present stood up, both men and +women; with loud Amen they joined in the opening blessing, lifted +up their heads, and cast themselves on the ground. Then he read +the book, from early morning till mid-day, in small sections, +which were repeated and expounded by a number of Levites dispersed +throughout the crowd. The effect was that a general weeping arose, +the people being aware that they had not till then followed the +commandments of God. Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites had to +allay the excitement, and said: "This day is holy unto Jehovah +your God; mourn not nor weep. Go your way, eat the fat and drink +the sweet, and give unto them that have brought nothing with them." +The assembled people then dispersed and set on foot a "great mirth," +because they had understood the words which had been communicated +to them. The reading was continued the next day, but before the +heads of families only, and a very appropriate section was read, +viz., the ordinances as to festivals, and particularly that about +the feast of tabernacles, which was to be kept under branches of +trees on the 15th day of the 7th month, the month then just +beginning. The matter was taken up with the greatest zeal, and +the festival, which had not been kept RITE <sic!> since the days +of Joshua ben Nun, was now instituted in accordance with the +precepts of Leviticus xxiii. and celebrated with general enthusiasm +from the 15th to the 22nd of the month. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. For eight days, according to Leviticus xxiii. 39: as against +Deuteronomy xvi. 13-15. +-- Footnote + + +On the 24th, however, a great day of humiliation was held, with +sackcloth and ashes. On this occasion also the proceedings began +with reading the law, and then followed a confession of sins +spoken by the Levites in the name of the people, and concluding +with a prayer for mercy and compassion. This was preparatory to +the principal and concluding act, in which the secular and +spiritual officials and elders, 85 in number, bound themselves +in writing to the Book of the Law, published by Ezra, and all +the rest undertook an obligation, with oath and curse, to walk +in the Torah of God, given by His servant Moses, and to keep +all the commandments of Jehovah and His statutes and laws. +Special attention was directed to such provisions of the Pentateuch +as were of immediate importance for the people in the circumstances +of the day--the greater part of the whole work is about the ritual +of the priests--and those were in particular insisted on which +refer to the contributions of the laity to the priesthood, on +which the very existence of the hierocracy depended. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Nehemiah viii. 1-x. 40. The credibility of the narrative +appears on the face of it. The writer of Chronicles did not write +it himself, but took it from his main source, from which also he +drew the fragments he gives us of the memoirs of Ezra and +Nehemiah. This we see from the fact that while copying Nehemiah vii. +in Ezra ii. he unconsciously goes on with the beginning of Nehemiah +viii. (= Ezra iii. 1). That shows that he found Nehemiah vii. and +viii. in their present connection, and did not write viii. seq. +himself, as we might suppose. +-- Footnote + + +Lagarde expresses great surprise--and the surprise is reasonable-- +that so little importance is attributed to this narrative by Old +Testament critics; only Kuenen had rightly appreciated its +significance. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2 Goettinger Gel. Anzeigen, 1870, p. 1557 seq. Kuenen, Religion +of Israel, vol. ii. chapter viii. +-- Footnote + + +It is obvious that Nehemiah viii.-x. is a close parallel to 2Kings +xxii. xxiii., especially to xxiii. 1-3. There we read that +Josiah caused all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to come +together, and went up with the men of Judah and the inhabitants of +Jerusalem, with the priests and the prophets and all the people, +high and low, to the house of Jehovah; where he read to the +assemblage all the words of the Book of the Law, and bound himself +with all the people before Jehovah to keep all the words of the +book. Just as it is in evidence that Deuteronomy became known in +the year 621, and that it was unknown up to that date, so it is in +evidence that the remaining Torah of the Pentateuch--for there is +no doubt that the law of Ezra was the whole Pentateuch--became +known in the year 444 and was unknown till then. This shows in the +first place, and puts it beyond question, that Deuteronomy is the +first, and the priestly Torah the second, stage of the +legislation. But in the second place, as we are accustomed to +infer the date of the composition of Deuteronomy from its +publication and introduction by Josiah, so we must infer the date +of the composition of the Priestly Code from its publication and +introduction by Ezra and Nehemiah. It would require very strong +internal evidence to destroy the probability, thus based on a +most positive statement of facts, that the codification of the +ritual only took place in the post-exile period. We have already +seen of what nature the internal evidence is which is brought +forward with this view. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It is not, however, necessary, and it can scarcely be correct, +to make Ezra more than the editor, the real and principal editor, +of the Hexateuch: and in particular he is not likely to have +been the author of Q. Nor on the other hand is it meant to deny +that many new features may have been added and alterations made +after Ezra. A body of customs is a subject which can scarcely +be treated quite exhaustively. There are no directions about the +_nervus ischiadicus_ <**sciatic nerve??**>, about the priests +having their feet bare, about shutting up before Jehovah +(1Samuel xxi cf. Jeremiah xxxvi. 5), or about the stoning of adulterers. +-- Footnote + + +X.II.3. Ezra and Nehemiah, and the eighty-five men of the great +assembly (Nehemiah viii. seq.), who are named as signatories of +the covenant, are regarded by later tradition as the founders of +the canon. And not without reason: only King Josiah has a still +stronger claim to this place of honour. The introduction of the +law, first Deuteronomy, and then the whole Pentateuch, was in fact +the decisive step, by which the written took the place of the +spoken word, and the people of the word became a "people of the +book." To THE BOOK were added in course of time THE BOOKS; the +former was formally and solemnly introduced in two successive +acts, the latter acquired imperceptibly a similar public authority +for the Jewish church. The notion of the canon proceeds entirely +from that of the written Torah; the prophets and the hagiographa +are also called Torah by the Jews, though not Torah of Moses. + +The origin of the canon thus lies, thanks to the two narratives +2Kings xxii. xxiii., Nehemiah viii.-x. in the full light of +history; but the traditional science of Biblical introduction has +no clear or satisfactory account to give of it. Josiah, the +ordinary notion is, introduced the law, but not the canon; Ezra, +on the other hand, the canon and not the law. An analogy drawn +from the secondary part of the canon, the prophets and +hagiographa, is applied without consideration to the primary +part, the Torah of Moses. The historical and prophetical books +were, in part at least, a long time in existence before they +became canonical, and the same, it is thought, might be the case +with the law. But the case of the law is essentially different. +The law claims to have public authority, to be a book of the +community; the difference between law and canon, does not exist. +Hence it is easy to understand that the Torah, though as a +literary product later than the historical and prophetical books, +is yet as law older than these writings, which have originally +and in their nature no legal character, but only acquired such +a character in a sort of metaphorical way, through their association +with the law itself. + +When it is recognised that THE CANON is what distinguishes Judaism +from ancient Israel, it is recognised at the same time that what +distinguishes Judaism from ancient Israel is THE WRITTEN TORAH. +The water which in old times rose from a spring, the Epigoni +stored up in cisterns. + + +CHAPTER XI. THE THEOCRACY AS IDEA AND AS INSTITUTION. + +Writers of the present day play with the expressions "theocracy," +and "theocratic" without making it clear to themselves +what these words mean and how far they are entitled to use them. +But we know that the word theokratia was only coined by +Josephus; /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. )OUKOUN )APEIROI MEN (AI KATA MEROS TWN )ETHWN KAI TWN NOMWN PARA +TOIS )APASIN )ANTHRWPOS DIAFORAI. )OI MEN GAR MONARXIAIS, (OI DE +TAIS )OLIGWN DUNASTEIAIS, )ALLOI DE TOIS PLHTHESIN )EPETREPYAN THN +'ECOUSIAN TWN POLITEUMATWN. (O D' (HMETEROS NOMOQETHS )EIS MEN +TOUTWN OUD' (OTIOUN )APEIDEN, (WS D' )AN TIS )EIPOI BIASAMENOS TON +LOGON QEOKRATIAN )APEDEICE TO POLITEUMA, QEW| THN )ARXHN KAI TO +KRATOS )ANAQEIS (contra Apion ii. 17). (" There are innumerable +differences in the particular customs and laws that are among +mankind; some have intrusted the power of their states to +monarchies, some to oligarchies, and some to democracies: but our +legislator had no regard to any of these forms, _but he ordered +our governmernt to be what I may call by a strained expression a +theocracy_, attributing the power and the authority to God." +Compare also, on this whole chapter, Die Pharisaer und die +Sadducaer, Greifswald, 1874. +-- Footnote + + +and when this writer speaks of the Mosaic constitution, he has +before his eyes, it is well known, the sacred community of his +own day as it existed down to the year 70 A.D. In ancient Israel +the theocracy never existed in fact as a form of constitution. +The rule of Jehovah is here an ideal representation; only after +the exile was it attempted to realise it in the shape of a Rule of +the Holy with outward means. It is perhaps the principal merit +of Vatke's Biblical Theology to have traced through the centuries +the rise of the theocracy and the metamorphosis of the idea to an +institution. + + +XI.I. + +XI.I.1. The upholders of the prevailing view do not assert that +Moses wrote the Pentateuch, but they maintain all the more firmly +that he organised the congregation of the tabernacle in the +wilderness after the fashion described in the Priestly Code. They +seem to think that Moses had no importance further than this; as +if it were an act of no moment to cast into the field of time a +seed which the action and reaction thence arising bring an +immeasurable time after to maturity (Mark iv. 26 seq.). In fact +Moses is the originator of the Mosaic constitution in about the +same way as Peter is the founder of the Roman hierarchy. Of the +sacred organisation supposed to have existed from the earliest +times, there is no trace in the time of the judges and the kings. +It is thought to have been a sort of pedagogic strait-waistcoat, +to subdue the ungovernable obstinacy of the Hebrews and to guard +them from evil influences from without. But even should it be +conceded that a constitution could come into existence in ancient +times which was so utterly out of relation to the peculiar life +and temper of the people, the history of the ancient Israelites +shows us nothing so distinctly as the uncommon freshness and +naturalness of their impulses. The persons who appear always +act from the constraining impulse of their nature, the men of +God not less than the murderers and adulterers: they are such +figures as could only grow up in the open air. Judaism, which +realised the Mosaic constitution and carried it out logically, +left no free scope for the individual; but in ancient Israel +the divine right did not attach to the institution but was in +the Creator Spirit, in individuals. Not only did they speak +like the prophets, they also acted like the judges and kings, +from their own free impulse, not in accordance with an outward +norm, and yet, or just because of this, in the Spirit of Jehovah. +The different view of different times is seen very characteristically +in the views taken of Saul by the two versions above sifted and +compared <VII.II.2 >. + +XI.I.2. It is a simple and yet a very important remark of Vatke, +that the sacred constitution of the congregation, so circumstantially +described to us in the Priestly Code, is after all very +defective, and presupposes the existence of that which it was the +chief task of the age of Moses to bring about, namely the state, +in the absence of which the church cannot have any subsistence +either. To maintain an elaborate and expensive worship, and an +immense swarm of clergy, must have required considerable rates and +taxes: and to raise these, as well as to uphold the authority of +the sacred persons and institutions, and most of all to enforce +the strict centralization and uniformity of the legitimate +worship, all this among a people not yet very civilised, must have +required an executive power which embraced and was able to +control, the whole people. But where is this central authority +in the period of the judges? Judicial competence resided at that +time chiefly in the smallest circles, the families and houses. +These were but little controlled, as it appears, by the superior +power of the tribe, and the very notion of the state or of the +kingdom did not as yet exist. Houses related to each other +sometimes united for common undertakings, as no doubt also did +neighbouring tribes; but this was not on the basis of any +constitutional order, but from necessity, when it happened that +a well-known man came forward to take the command and his summons +to the levy was obeyed. These transient combinations under generals +were the forerunners of a permanent union under a king: and even +at the time of the Midianite war an attempt seems to have been +made in this direction, which, however, was not quite successful. +In the severe and protracted struggle with the Philistines the +necessity for a solid union of the tribes was cryingly manifest, +and the man came forward to meet the hour. Saul, a distinguished +Benjamite of Gibeah, was overcome by anger at the scornful +challenge which even the Ammonites ventured at such a time to cast +in the teeth of his people: he called his fellow-countrymen to battle, +not in virtue of any office he held, but on the strength of his +own impulses; his enthusiasm proved contagious, none dared to say +him nay. He began his career just like one of the earlier judges, +but after he had led his people to victory they did not let him +retire again. The person sought for, the king, was found. + +Out of such natural beginnings did the state at that time arise: +it owed nothing to the pattern of the "Mosaic theocracy," but +bears all the marks of a new creation. Saul and David first made +out of the Hebrew tribes a real people in the political sense +(Deuteronomy xxxiii. 5). David was in the eyes of later generations +inseparable from the idea of Israel: he was the king par +excellence: Saul was thrown into the shade, but both together are +the founders of the kingdom, and have thus a much wider importance +than any of their successors. It was they who drew the life of +the people together at a centre, and gave it an aim; to them the +nation is indebted for its historical self-consciousness. All the +order of aftertimes is built up on the monarchy; it is the soil +out of which all the other institutions of Israel grow up. In the +time of the judges, we read, every man did that which was right +in his own eyes, not because the Mosaic constitution was not in +force, but because there was no king in those days. The +consequences were very important in the sphere of religion as well: +since the political advance of the people brought the historic +and national character of Jehovah to the front again. During the +time of the judges the Canaanite festival cultus had gradually +been coming to be embodied in the worship of Jehovah, a process +which was certainly necessary; but in this process there was for +some time a danger that Jehovah would become a God of husbandry +and of cattle, like Baal-Dionysus. The festivals long continued +to be a source of heathenism, but now they were gradually divested +of their character as nature-festivals, and forced at length to +have reference to the nation and to its history, if they were not +to disappear completely. The relation of Jehovah to people and +kingdom remained firm as a rock: even to the worst idolaters He was +the God of Israel; in war no one thought of looking for victory +and success to any other God. This was the result of Israel's +becoming a kingdom: the kingship of Jehovah, in that precise +sense which we associate with it, is the religious expression of +the fact of the foundation of the kingdom by Saul and David. The +theocracy was the state of itself; the ancient Israelites +regarded the civil state as a miracle, or, in their own words, +a help of God. When the later Jews thought or spoke of the +theocracy, they took the state for granted as already there, and +so they could build the theocracy on the top of it as a +specially spiritual feature: just as we moderns sometimes see the +divine element in settled ordinances, such as marriage, not in +their own nature, but in the consecration added to them by the church. + +XI.I.3. The kingdom of Saul and David did not long remain at its +height. Decay set in even at the separation, and when once the +Assyrians were heard at the door, it advanced with steps not to be +arrested. But the memory of the period of glory and power was +all the greener, and the hope arose of its return. From the +contrast between the sorrowful present and the brilliant past there +arose the picture of the state as it should be; when ruin was +seen without and anarchy within, the prophets set against this +the pattern of the theocracy. The theocracy as the prophets +represent it to themselves is not a thing essentially different +from the political community, as a spiritual differs from a secular +power; rather, it rests on the same foundations and is in fact +the ideal of the state. Isaiah gave this ideal its classical form +in those pictures of the future which we are accustomed to call +Messianic prophecies. These passages are not predictions of this +or that occurrence, but announcements of the aims which, it is true, +the prophet only expects the future to realise, but which are of +force or ought to be of force in the present, and towards which the +community, if true to its own nature, must strive. + +The first feature of these Messianic descriptions is the expulsion +of the Assyrians; but most emphasis is laid on the restoration of +the inner bases of the state, the rottenness of which has brought +about and rendered inevitable the present crisis. The collapse of +the government, the paralysis fallen on the law, the spoliation of +the weak by the strong, these are the evils that call for redress. +"How is the honourable city become a harlot; it was full of +judgment, righteousness lodged in it--but now murderers! Thy +princes are rascals and companions of thieves, every one loveth +gifts and followeth after bribes; they judge not the fatherless, +neither cloth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore +saith the Lord: Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge +me of mine enemies! And I will turn my hand against thee, Zion, +and as with Iye I will purge away thy dross, and I will restore +thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the +beginning; afterwards thou shalt be called a righteous and +honourable city. Zion shall be redeemed by judgment and her +inhabitants by righteousness" (Isaiah i. 21-27). +The state the prophet has before his eye is always the natural +state as it exists, never a community distinguished by a peculiar +holiness in its organisation. The kingdom of Jehovah is with him +entirely identical with the kingdom of David; the tasks he sets +before it are political in their nature, similar, we might say, +to the demands one would address to the Turkish Empire in our own +days. He is unconscious of any difference between human and divine +law: law in itself, jurist's law in the proper juristic sense of +the word, is divine, and has behind it the authority of the Holy +One of Israel. + +In that day shall Jehovah of hosts be for a crown of glory and a +diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people, and for a spirit +of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and a spirit of strength +to them that drive back the battle from the borders " (xxviii. 5, 6). +Jehovah is a true and perfect King, hence justice is His principal +attribute and His chief demand. And this justice is a purely forensic +or social notion: the righteousness of the Sermon on the Mount can +only come into consideration when civil justice and order have come +to be a matter of course--which at that time they had not yet done. + +The representative of Jehovah is the human king. The earthly +ruler is not in the way of the heavenly: even the glorious +kingdom of the future cannot dispense with him. + +"Then a king shall reign in righteousness and princes shall rule +in judgment; each of them shall be as an hiding-place from the wind +and as a covert from the tempest; as rivers of waters in a dry place, +as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land" (xxxii. 1, 2). + +As the reigning king is in general unsatisfactory, Isaiah hopes for +a new one who will answer the pattern of David of old, the Messiah. + +"There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a +branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of Jehovah +shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the +spirit of counsel and of warlike might, the spirit of knowledge +and of the fear of the Lord; and His breath shall be drawn in the +fear of Jehovah. And He shall not judge after the sight of His +eyes, nor decide by hearsay: but with righteousness shall He +judge the poor, and give sentence with equity for the meek of the +earth; but He shall smite the scorners with the rod of His mouth, +and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked, so that +righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness +the girdle of His reins. Then the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, +and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the +young lion together, and a little child shall lead them. And the +cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down +together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox: and the +sucking child shall stroke the head of the adder, and the weaned +child shall put his hand on the eye-ball of the basilisk. They +shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain" (xi. 1-9) + +This is generally considered to be a prediction of a universal +golden age on earth; but Isaiah only speaks of the holy +mountain as the scene, meaning by this the whole city of David +as the centre of his kingdom. The just and strict government of +the descendant of David is to bring it about that righteousness +and truth kiss each other, and that the strong do not dare to +injure the weak. Fear of the severity of the law engenders +general confidence; the lamb is no longer afraid of the wolf. The +opposite of this ideal is lawlessness and anarchy within, not war +without; the hope is not that of international peace, as we see +both from verse 1-5 and from verse 9. The Messiah is adorned just +with the virtues which befit a ruler; and this shows sufficiently +what is the nature of the kingdom of which he is to be the head, +i.e., what is the notion of the theocracy. + +The other prophets of this period agree with Isaiah (Lamentations iv. +20), only Hosea is peculiar in this as in other points. He +appears to have regarded the kingdom as such as an evil; in more +than one expression he makes it the antithesis of the rule of +Jehovah. But we have to remember that this judgment of his is +based entirely on his historical experience. In the kingdom of +the ten tribes the supreme power was constantly being seized by +usurpers, so that instead of being the pillar of order and law it +was the plaything of parties and the occasion of incessant +disturbances. It is this North-Israelite kingdom that Hosea has +in view; and he reprobates it for no other reason than that, in +the three hundred years of its existence, it has not approved +itself, and does not approve itself in the present time of need. +He does not proceed as on _a priori_ theory, he does not apply as +his rule a pattern of the theocratic constitution given +antecedently to any historical development. There can be no +doubt that it never entered his head that the form God desired the +community to take was not a thing to be determined by circumstances, +but had been revealed at Mount Sinai. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. He even speaks with favour of David and the kingdom of Judah, +but I consider all such references in Hosea (as well as in Amos) +to, be interpolations. In i. 7 there is a reference to the +deliverance of Jerusalem under Hezekiah. +-- Footnote + + +XI.I.4. Nor did the theocracy exist from the time of Moses in the +form of the covenant, though that was afterwards a favourite mode +of regarding it. The relation of Jehovah to Israel was in its nature +and origin a natural one; there was no interval between Him and +His people to call for thought or question. Only when the +existence of Israel had come to be threatened by the Syrians and +Assyrians, did such prophets as Elijah and Amos raise the Deity +high above the people, sever the natural bond between them, and +put in its place a relation depending on conditions, conditions of +a moral character. To them Jehovah was the God of righteousness +in the first place, and the God of Israel in the second place, and +even that only so far as Israel came up to the righteous demands +which in His grace He had revealed to him. They inverted the +order of these two fundamental articles of faith. "If your sins +are as scarlet, how should they be reckoned white as snow? If +they are red like crimson, how should they be as wool? If ye +be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land, +but if ye refuse and rebel, ye must eat the sword, for the mouth +of Jehovah hath spoken it." + +Thus the nature of the conditions which Jehovah required of His +people came to the very front in considering His relations with +them: the Torah of Jehovah, which originally, like all His dealings, +fell under the category of divine aid, especially in the doing of +justice, of divine guidance in the solution of difficult questions, +was now conceived of as incorporating the demands on the fulfilment +of which His attitude towards Israel entirely depended. In this way +arose, from ideas which easily suggested it, but yet as an entirely +new thing, the substance of the notion of covenant or treaty. The +name Berith, however, does not occur in the old prophets, not even +in Hosea, who certainly presents us as clearly as possible with +the thing, in his figure of the marriage of Jehovah and Israel +(Isaiah i. 21). That he was unacquainted with the technical usage +of Berith is strikingly proved by ii. 20 and vi. 7; and these +passages must decide the view we take of viii. 1, a passage which +is probably interpolated. + +The NAME Berith comes, it is likely, from quite a different +quarter. The ancient Hebrews had no other conception of law nor +any other designation for it than that of a treaty. A law only +obtained force by the fact of those to whom it was given binding +themselves to keep it. So it is in Exodus xxiv. 3-8, and in +2Kings xxiii. 1-3; so also in Jeremiah xxxiv. 8 seq.--curiously +enough just as with the people of Mecca at the time of Mohammed +(lbn Hisham, p. 230 seq.). Hence also the term Sepher Berith for +the Deuteronomic as well as the Jehovistic Book of the Law. + +This use of the phrase Berith (ie., treaty) for law, fitted very +well with the great idea of the prophets, and received from it in +turn an interpretation, according to which the relation of Jehovah +to Israel was conditioned by the demands of His righteousness, as +set forth in His word and instruction. In this view of the matter +Jehovah and Israel came to be regarded as the contracting parties +of the covenant by which the various representatives of the people +had originally pledged each other to keep, say, the Deuteronomic +law. /1/ + +-- Footnote +I This variation gained entrance the more easily as Berith is used +in various applications, e.g:, of the capitulation, the terms of +which are imposed by the stronger on the weaker party: that the +contracting parties had equal rights was by no means involved in +the notion of the Berith. See the wavering of the notion in +Jeremiah xxxiv. 13-18. +-- Footnote + + +After the solemn and far-reaching act by which Josiah introduced +this law, the notion of covenant-making between Jehovah and Israel +appears to have occupied the central position in religious thought: +it prevails in Deuteronomy, in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, in Isaiah xl.-lxvi., +Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., and most of all in the Book of the Four +Covenants. The Babylonian exile no doubt helped, as the Assyrian +exile had previously done, to familiarise the Jewish mind with the +idea that the covenant depended on conditions, and might possibly be +dissolved. + + +XI.II. + +XI.II.1. The tabernacle of David fell at last, and no king was born +to set it up again. The state suffered not a crisis, but +destruction. And the result was that such of the religious hopes +of the people as they still held fast, were no longer limited to +existing political conditions, but now took a freer flight, became +tinged with enthusiasm, and cast off all restrictions. In former +times there was always an enemy threatening in the background, a +danger really approaching, to give rise to the expectation of a +great conflagration, the materials for which had long been +collected in the nation itself: but after the exile fancy dealt +in general coalitions of God knows what peoples against the New +Jerusalem, vaticinations for which there was no ground whatever +in reality. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 Ezekiel xxxviii. xxxix.; Isaiah lxvi. 18-24; Joel iv.; +Zechariah xii. xiv. In Isaiah v. 26, on the other hand, we must, +of course, read GWY, for GWYM, the singular instead of the plural. +-- Footnote + + +In earlier times the national state as it had existed under David +was the goal of all wishes. Now a universal world empire was +erected in imagination, which was to lift up its head at Jerusalem +over the ruins of the heathen powers. Prophecy was no longer +tied to history, nor supported by it. + +But the extravagant hopes now built on Jehovah were balanced on +the other side by sober and realisable aims which the course of +history presented. Those who waited for the consolation of +Israel were then confronted from the nature of their situation +with practical tasks. The old prophets were satisfied with +expressing their ideas, with criticising existing evils; as to +practical points they had nothing to say, the leadership of the +people was in other hands. But the old community being now gone +and its heads having fallen with it, the godly both had the power +and felt the obligation to place themselves at the head of the +Israel now to be anew created, after which they had long been +striving, and their faith in which was still unshaken. In former +times the nation had not been so seriously threatened as that its +continued existence, notwithstanding the dangerous crises it might +have to pass through, should ever cease to be regarded as natural, +as a thing of course. But now this was by no means a thing of +course, the danger was a pressing one that the Jewish exiles, +like the Samaritan exiles before them, would be absorbed by the +heathens among whom they dwelt. In that case the Messianic hopes +also would have lost their point of application, for, however true +it was that the realising of them was Jehovah's concern, the men must +still be there to whom they were to be fulfilled. Thus everything +depended on getting the sacred remnant safe across this danger, and +giving it so solid an organisation that it might survive the +storms and keep alive the expectation of the promise. + +But in the eyes of those whose words had weight in the restoration +the old community, as it had existed formerly, was not in good +repute. They could not but allow Jehovah's sentence of +condemnation to be just which He had spoken by the mouth of His +servants and through the voice of history. The utterances of the +prophets, that fortresses and horses and men of war, that kings and +princes, cannot help, were called to mind and turned into practical +principles: the sole rule of Jehovah was to be carried out in earnest. +Circumstances favoured the design, and this was the great point. +As matters then were, the reconstitution of an actual state was +not to be thought of, the foreign rule would not admit of it (Ezra +iv. 19 seq.). What plan was to be taken, what materials to be +used for such a building as the times allowed? The prophetic +ideas would not serve as building stones; they were not +sufficiently practical. Then appeared the importance of +institutions, of traditional forms, for the conservation even of +the spiritual side of the religion. + +The Jewish royal temple had early overshadowed the other +sanctuaries, and in the course of the seventh century they were +extinct or verging on extinction. Under the shelter of the +monarchy the priests of Jerusalem had grown great and had at last +attained, as against their professional brethren elsewhere, a +position of exclusive legitimacy. The weaker the state grew, the +deeper it sank from the fall of Josiah onwards, the higher became +the prestige of the temple in the eyes of the people, and the +greater and the more independent grew the power of its numerous +priesthood; how much more do we feel it in Jeremiah's time than in +that of Isaiah! This advance of the priesthood indicates unmistakably +the rise into prominence of the cultus in the seventh century, +a rise rather helped than hindered by the long reign of Manasseh, +evil as is the reputation of that reign. It shows itself not only +in the introduction of more luxurious materials, incense, for example, +but even more in the importance given to great and striking services, +e.g., the sacrifice of children, and the expiatory offering. Even +after the abolition of the horrid atrocities of Manasseh's time, +the bloody earnestness remained behind with which the performance +of divine service was gone about. + +So closely was the cultus of Jerusalem interwoven with the +consciousness of the Jewish people, and so strongly had the +priesthood established their order, that after the collapse of the +kingdom the elements still survived here for the new formation of +a "congregation" answering to the circumstances and needs of the +time. Around the ruined sanctuary the community once more lifted +up its head (1Kings viii.; Haggai i. seq.; Zechariah i. seq.). +The usages and ordinances were, though everywhere changes in +detail, yet not created afresh. Whatever creating there was lay +in this, that these usages were bound together in a system and +made the instruments of restoring an organisation of "the remnant." + +Ezekiel first pointed out the way which was suited for the time. +He is the connecting link between the prophets and the law. He +claims to be a prophet, and starts from prophetic ideas: but they +are not his own ideas, they are those of his predecessors which +he turns into dogmas. He is by nature a priest, and his peculiar +merit is that he enclosed the soul of prophecy in the body of a +community which was not political, but founded on the temple and +the cultus. The chapters xl.-xlviii. are the most important in +his book, and have been called by J. Orth, not incorrectly, the +key of the Old Testament. + +Thus arose that artificial product, the sacred constitution of +Judaism. In the Priestly Code we have the picture of it in +detail. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It is not the case that the hierocracy is based on the +Priestly Code: that code was only introduced after the +hierocracy was already in existence, but helped, no doubt, to +consolidate and legalise it. The written law afterwards +undermined the rule of the priests; and the scriptures played +into the hands of the scribes and Pharisees. (Compare the case +of the Parsees and Sabians, and <the reference given here,.. +namely "p.157, note" is in error. There is no note on p. 157 +and I do not know what is being referred to ..>.) +-- Footnote + + +The distinction, drawn with such pains between the Mosaic +theocracy and the post-exilic hierocracy, is too fine. Theocracy +as a constitution is hierocracy. If Moses founded such a +constitution, he did it prophetically, with a view to circumstances +which only arose a thousand years after his day, <V.II.1.; VII.II.4.>. +Old Israel had not shrunk to a religious congregation, public life +was not quite absorbed in the service of the sanctuary; the high +priest and the dwelling of Jehovah were not the centre round which +all revolved <p.170 is not correct; >. These great changes were +wrought by the destruction of the political existence first of +Samaria, then of Judah. In this way the people became "a kingdom +of priests and a holy nation," as we read in a Deuteronomistic +passage, Exodus xix. 6. If the divine rule was formerly a belief +supporting the natural ordinances of human society, it was now set +forth in visible form as a divine state, in an artificial sphere +peculiar to itself and transcending the ordinary life of the people. +The idea had formerly informed and possessed the natural body, but +now, in order that it might be thoroughly realised, it was to have +spiritual body of its own. There arose a material, external antithesis +of a sacred and profane; men's minds came to be full of this, and +it was their great endeavour to draw the line as sharply as possible +and to repress the natural sphere more and more. Holiness is the +ruling idea in Ezekiel, in Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., and in the Priestly +Code. The notion is a somewhat empty one, expressing rather what +a thing is not than what it is; at first it meant the same as divine, +but now it is used mainly in the sense of spiritual, priestly, as if +the divine could be distinguished from the worldly, the natural, by +outward visible marks of that kind. + +The Mosaic theocracy, the residuum of a ruined state, is itself not +a state at all, but an unpolitical artificial product created in +spite of unfavourable circumstances by the impulse of an +ever-memorable energy: and foreign rule is its necessary +counterpart. In its nature it is intimately allied to the old +Catholic church, which was in fact its child. As a matter of taste +it may be objectionable to speak of the Jewish church, but as a +matter of history it is not inaccurate, and the name is perhaps +preferable to that of theocracy, which shelters such confusion of +ideas. + +XI.II.2. The Mosaic theocracy appears to show an immense +retrogression. The law of Jehovah should denote what is +characteristic of His people over against the heathen. But +this certainly did not consist in the cultus of Israel: it would +be vain labour to seek in this and that slight variation between +the Hebrew and the Greek ritual a difference of principle between +them. The cultus is the heathen element in the Israelite religion-- +the word heathen not being understood, of course, in an ignoble or +unworthy sense. If the Priestly Code makes the cultus the principal +thing, that appears to amount to a systematic decline into the +heathenism which the prophets incessantly combated and yet were +unable to eradicate. It will be readily acknowledged that at the +constitution of the new Jerusalem the prophetic impulses were +deflected by a previously existing natural tendency of the mass on +which they had to operate. Yet in every part of the legal worship +we see the most decided traces of their influence. We have seen to +what a large extent that worship is everywhere marked by a +centralising tendency. This tendency is not connected in the Priestly +Code with opposition to improper or foreign worship; yet it must be +interpreted as a polemical measure; and if it be regarded as an +axiom necessary in the Priestly Code from the nature of the case, +that is only saving that the demands of the prophets had prevailed +most completely in a field where they had the greatest obstacles to +contend with. Exclusive monolatry is by no means innate in the +cultus; it can only be deduced from considerations which are +foreign to the nature of the cultus: it is the antitype of strict +monotheism. The prohibition of images, too, in the worship of the +Deity, is not expressly insisted on, as in Deuteronomy, but is a +provision which is taken for granted; so little is this position +in danger of question that even doubtful and repugnant elements are +embodied in the worship and assimilated by it without hesitation. +The golden ephod, denounced by Isaiah, has become an insignificant +decoration of the high-priest: talismans, forbidden even by +Ezekiel, are allowed (Numbers xv. 37-41), but the object of them is +"that ye may look upon them and remember all the commandments of +Jehovah, and do them, and that ye follow not after your own heart +and your own eyes, after which ye used to go a whoring." The gross +idolatry, with which the expression znh is always connected in +other passages, is by this time out of the question: the heart +itself with its lawless motions is the strange God, whose service +is forbidden. + +We may go further and say that by the cultus-legislation the +cultus is estranged from its own nature, and overthrown in its own +sphere. That is most unmistakably the case with regard to the +festivals. They have lost their reference to harvest and cattle, +and have become historical commemorations: they deny their +birth from nature, and celebrate the institution of supernatural +religion and the gracious acts of Jehovah therewith connected. +The broadly human, the indigenous element falls away, they receive +a statutory character and a significance limited to Israel. +They no longer draw down the Deity into human life on all important +occasions, to take part in its joys and its necessities: they are +not HUMAN ATTEMPTS with such naive means as are at command to please +the Deity and render Him favourable. They are removed from the +natural sphere, and made DIVINE MEANS OF GRACE, which Jehovah has +instituted in Israel as sacraments of the theocracy. The worshipper +no longer thinks that in his gift he is doing God a pleasure, +providing Him with an enjoyment: what pleases Him and is effectual +is only the strict observance of the rite. The sacrifices must be +offered exactly according to prescription: at the right place, at +the right time, by the right individuals, in the right way. They are +not based on the inner value of what is done, on the impulse arising +out of fresh occasions, but on the positive command of a will outside +the worshipper, which is not explained, and which prescribes every +particular. The bond between cultus and sensuality is severed: +no danger can arise of an admixture of impure immoral elements, +a danger which was always present in Hebrew antiquity. Worship no +longer springs from an inner impulse, it has come to be an +exercise of religiosity. It has no natural significance; its +significance is transcendental, incomparable, not to be defined; +the chief effect of it, which is always produced with certainty, +is atonement. For after the exile the consciousness of sin, called +forth by the rejection of the people from the face of Jehovah, +was to a certain extent permanent: even when the hard service of +Israel was accomplished and the wrath really blown over, it would +not disappear. + +If then the value of the sacred offerings lay not in themselves +but in obedience to the commandments of God, the centre of gravity +of the cultus was removed from that exercise itself and +transferred to another field, that of morality. The consequence +was that sacrifices and gifts gave way to ascetic exerctses, +which were more strictly and more simply connected with morality. +Precepts given originally in reference to the consecration of the +priests for their religious functions were extended to the laity: +the observance of these laws of physical cleanliness was of much +more radical importance in Judaism than the great public cultus, +and led by the straightest road towards the theocratic ideal of +holiness and of universal priesthood. The whole of life was +compressed into a certain holy path; there was always a divine +command to be fulfilled, and by thinking of it a man kept himself +from following after the desires and lusts of his own heart. +On the other hand this private cultus, which constantly required +attention, kept alive and active the individual sense of sin. + +The great pathologist of Judaism is quite right: in the Mosaic +theocracy the cultus became a pedagogic instrument of discipline. +It is estranged from the heart; its revival was due to old +custom, it would never have blossomed again of itself. It no +longer has its roots in childlike impulse, it is a dead work, in +spite of all the importance attached to it, nay, just because of +the anxious conscientiousness with which it was gone about. At +the restoration of Judaism the old usages were patched together in +a new system, which, however, only served as the form to preserve +something that was nobler in its nature, but could not have been +saved otherwise than in a narrow shell that stoutly resisted all +foreign influences. That heathenism in Israel against which the +prophets vainly protested was inwardly overcome by the law on +its own ground; and the cultus, after nature had been killed in +it, became the shield of supernaturalistic monotheism. + +The end of the Prolegomena + + + +ISRAEL + +Reprinted from the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" + + +I S R A E L. + + +1. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. + +According to the Book of Genesis, Israel was the brother of Edom, +and the cousin of Moab and Ammon. These four petty peoples, +which may be classed together as the Hebrew group, must at one +time have formed some sort of a unity and have passed through a +common history which resulted in their settlement in +south-eastern Palestine. The Israelites, or rather that section of +the Hebrew group which afterwards developed into Israel, appear at +first to have been the immediate neighbours of Edom, and to have +extended westwards towards the border of Egypt. As regards the +ethnological position of the Hebrews as a whole, tradition has it +that they had connexions not only with the Aramaeans of Osrhoene +(Nahor), but also with certain of the old half-Arab inhabitants of +the Sinaitic peninsula (Kenites, Amalek, Midian). To the Canaanites, +whose language they had adopted, their relation was that of foreign +conquerors and lords to a subject race (Gen. ix, 26). + +Some fifteen centuries before our era a section of the Hebrew group +left its ancient seat in the extreme south of Palestine to occupy +the not distant pasture lands of Egypt (Goshen), where they +carried on their old calling, that of shepherds and goatherds. +Although settled within the territory of the Pharaohs, +and recognising their authority, they continued to retain all +their old characteristics,--their language, their patriarchal +institutions, their nomad habits of life. + +But in course of time these foreign guests were subjected to +changed treatment. Forced labour was exacted of them for the +construction of new public works in Goshen, an exaction which was +felt to be an assault upon their freedom and honour, and which in +point of fact was fitted to take away all that was distinctive of +their nationality. But they had no remedy at hand, and had +submitted in despair, until Moses at last saw a favourable +opportunity of deliverance. Reminding his oppressed brethren +of the God of their fathers, and urging that their cause was His, +he taught them to regard self-assertion against the Egyptians as +an article of religion; and they became once more a united people +in a determination to seek refuge from oppression in the wilderness +which was the dwelling-place of their kindred and the seat of their +God. At a time when Egypt was scourged by a grievous plague, the +Hebrews broke up their settlement in Goshen one night in spring, +and directed their steps towards their old home again. According +to the accounts, the king had consented to the exodus, and latterly +had even forced it on, but it was none the less a secret flight. + +To a not very numerous pastoral people such an undertaking +presented no great difficulty. Nevertheless its execution was not +to be carried out unimpeded. The Hebrews, compelled to abandon +the direct eastward road (Exod. xiii. 17, 18), turned towards +the south-west and encamped at last on the Egyptian shore of the +northern arm of the Red Sea, where they were overtaken by +Pharaoh's army. The situation was a critical one; but a high +wind during the night left the shallow sea so low that it became +possible to ford it. Moses eagerly accepted the suggestion, and +made the venture with success. The Egyptians, rushing after, came +up with them on the further shore, and a struggle ensued. But the +assailants fought at a disadvantage, the ground being ill suited +for their chariots and horsemen; they fell into confusion and +attempted a retreat. Meanwhile the wind had changed; the waters +returned, apd the pursuers were annihilated./1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Exod. xvi. 21, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31. According to the Old +Testament the exodus took place 480 years before the building of +Solomon's temple, and 960 years before the end of the Babylonian +captivity. These figures are "systematic" or at least +systematised, but even so they are certainly more trustworthy +than the combinations of the Egyptologists. +-- Footnote + + +After turning aside to visit Sinai as related in Exodus, the +emigrants settled at Kadesh, eastwards from Goshen, on the +southern borders of Palestine, /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. The site of Sinai (= Horeb?) hardly admits of ascertainment. +The best datum would be the sanctuary of Jethro, if we could +identify it with Midian (Jakut, iv. 451), which lies +on the Arabian coast of the Red Sea obliquely facing the +traditional Sinai. With regard to Qadesh, see Quarterly +Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1871), pp. 20, 21. +-- Footnote + + +where they remained for many years, having at the well of Kadesh +their sanctuary and judgment-seat only, while with their flocks +they ranged over an extensive tract. In all probability their +stay at Kadesh was no involuntary detention; rather was it this +locality they had more immediately had in view in setting out. +For a civilised community of from two to three millions such a +settlement would, of course, have been impossible; but it was +quite sufficient for the immediate requirements of the Goshen +shepherds, few in number as they were and inured to the life of +the desert. That attempts may have been made by them to obtain +possession of the more fertile country to the north is very likely; +but that from the outset they contemplated the conquest of the +whole of Palestine proper, and that it was only in expiation of +a fault that they were held back at the gate of the promised land +until the whole generation of the disobedient had died out, is not +historically probable. + +We can assign a definite reason for their final departure from +Kadesh. In the district to the east of Jordan the (Canaanite) +Amorites had, sometime previously, driven the Ammonites from the +lower Jabbok and deprived the Moabites of all their territory to +the north of the Arnon; on the plateau opposite Jericho Heshbon +had become the capital of Sihon, the Amorite king. This sovereign +now set himself to subdue southern Moab also, and not without +success. + +"Fire went out from Heshbon, flame from the stronghold of Sihon, +devoured the cities of Moab upon the heights of Arnon. +Woe to thee, O Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh!" + +From these straits the Moabites were rescued by their cousins, +the nomads of the wilderness of Kadesh. The Israelites came +forward on behalf of what was at once the common Hebrew cause +and their own particular interest; they took the field against +the Amorites, vanquished them in battle, and broke up the kingdom +of Sihon. The consequence was that the land to the south of the +Arnon remained in the undisputed possession of Moab, while the +victors themselves became masters of the territory immediately +to the north. Settled thus between Moab and Ammon their kinsmen, +the Israelites supplied the link that was wanting in the chain of +petty Hebrew nationalities established in the south of eastern +Palestine. + +The army that went out against the Amorites from Kadesh was +certainly not exclusively composed of men who, or whose fathers, +had accomplished the passage of the Red Sea Israel was not a +formed nation when it left Egypt; and throughout the whole period +of its sojourn in the wilderness it continued to be in process of +growth. Instead of excluding the kindred elements which offered +themselves to it on its new soil, it received and assimilated them. +The life they had lived together under Moses had been the first +thing to awaken a feeling of solidarity among the tribes which +afterwards constituted the nation; whether they had previously +been a unity in any sense of the word is doubtful. On the other +hand, the basis of the unification of the tribes must certainly +have been laid before the conquest of Palestine proper; for with +that it broke up, though the memory of it continued. At the same +time it must not be supposed that all the twelve tribes already +existed side be side in Kadesh. The sons of the concubines of +Jacob--Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher--manifestly do not pertain +to Israel in the same sense as do those of Leah and Rachel; +probably they were late arrivals and of very mixed origin. +We know, besides, that Benjamin was not born until afterwards, +in Palestine. If this view be correct, Israel at first consisted +of seven tribes, of which one only, that of Joseph, traced its +descent to Rachel, though in point of numbers and physical strength +it was the equal of all the others together, while in intellectual +force it surpassed them. The remaining six were the sons of +Leah:--Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah; Issachar, Zebulon. They are +always enumerated in this order; the fact that the last two are +also invariably mentioned apart from the rest and after Joseph +has its explanation in geographical considerations. + +The time of Moses is invariably regarded as the properly creative +period in Israel's history, and on that account also as giving +the pattern and norm for the ages which followed. In point of +fact the history of Israel must be held to have begun then, and +the foundations of a new epoch to have been laid. The prophets +who came after gave, it is true, greater distinctness to the peculiar +character of the nation, but they did not make it; on the contrary, +it made them. Again, it is true that the movement which +resulted in the establishment of the monarchy brought together +for the first time into organic unity the elements which +previously had existed only in an isolated condition; but +Israel's sense of national personality was a thing of much earlier +origin, which even in the time of the judges bound the +various tribes and families together, and must have had a great +hold on the mind of the nation, although there was no formal and +binding constitution to give it support. When the Israelites +settled in Palestine they found it inhabited by a population +superior to themselves both in numbers and in civilisation, which +they did not extirpate, but on the contrary gradually subdued +and absorbed. The process was favoured by affinity of race +and similarity of speech; but, however far it went, it never had +the effect of making Israelites Canaanites; on the contrary, it +made Canaanites Israelites. Notwithstanding their inferiority, +numerical and otherwise, they maintained their individuality, +and that without the support of any external organisation. +Thus a certain inner unity actually subsisted long before it +had found any outward political expression; it goes back to +the time of Moses, who is to be regarded as its author. + +The foundation upon which, at all periods, Israel's sense of its +national unity rested was religious in its character. It was the +faith which may be summed up in the formula, Jehovah is the God +of Israel, and Israel is the people of Jehovah. Moses was not the +first discoverer of this faith, but it was through him that it +came to be the fundamental basis of the national existence and +history. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Jehovah is to be regarded as having originally been a family +or tribal god, either of the family to which Moses belonged or of +the tribe of Joseph, in the possession of which we find the ark of +Jehovah, and within which occurs the earliest certain instance of +a composite proper name with the word Jehovah for one of its +elements (Jeho-shua, Joshua). No essential distinction was felt to +exist between Jehovah and El, any more than between Asshur and +El; Jehovah was only a special name of El which had become +current within a powerful circle, and which on that account was +all the more fitted to become the designation of a national god. +-- Footnote + + +The exigencies of their position severe a number of kindred clans +from their customary surroundings, and drove them into his arms. +He undertook the responsibilities of their leader, and the +confidence of success which he manifested was justified by the +result. But it was not through any merit of his that the +undertaking (of which he was the soul) prospered as it did; his +design was aided in a wholly unlooked-for way, by a marvellous +occurrence quite beyond his control, and which no sagacity could +possibly have foreseen. One whom the wind and sea obeyed had +given him His aid. Behind him stood One higher than he, whose +spirit wrought in him and whose arm wrought for him,--not for his +personal aggrandisement indeed, but for the weal of the nation. +It was Jehovah. Alike what was done by the deliberate purpose of +Moses and what was done without any human contrivance by nature +and by accident came to be regarded in one great totality as the +doing of Jehovah for Israel. Jehovah it was who had directed each +step in that process through which these so diverse elements, +brought together by the pressure of necessity, had been caused to +pass, and in the course of which the first beginnings of a feeling +of national unity had been made to grow. + +This feeling Moses was the first to elicit; he it was also who +maintained it in life and cherished its growth. The extraordinary +set of circumstances which had first occasioned the new national +movement continued to subsist, though in a less degree, throughout +the sojourn of the people in the wilderness, and it was under +their pressure that Israel continued to be moulded. To Moses, who +had been the means of so brilliantly helping out of their first +straits the Hebrews who had accompanied him out of Egypt, they +naturally turned in all subsequent difficulties; before him they +brought all affairs with which they were not themselves able to +cope. The authority which his antecedents had secured for him +made him as matter of course the great national "Kadhi" in the +wilderness. Equally as matter of course did he exercise his +judicial functions, neither in his own interest nor in his own +name, but in the interest of the whole community and in the name +of Jehovah. By connecting them with the sanctuary of Jehovah, +which stood at the well of Kadesh, he made these functions +independent of his person, and thus he laid a firm basis for a +consuetudinary law and became the originator of the Torah in +Israel. In doing this he succeeded in inspiring the national +being with that which was the very life of his own soul; through +the Torah he gave a definite positive expression to their sense +of nationality and their idea of God. Jehovah was not merely +the God of Israel; as such he was the God at once of law and +of justice, the basis, the informing principle, and the implied +postulate of their national consciousness. + +The relationship was carried on in precisely the same manner as +that in which it had been begun. It was most especially in the +graver moments of its history that Israel awoke to full +consciousness of itself and of Jehovah. Now, at that time and +for centuries afterwards, the highwater marks of history were +indicated by the wars it recorded. The name "Israel" means +"El does battle," and Jehovah was the warrior El, after whom the +nation styled itself. The camp was, so to speak, at once the +cradle in which the nation was nursed and the smithy in which it +was welded into unity; it was also the primitive sanctuary. +There Israel was, and there was Jehovah. If in times of peace the +relations between the two had become dormant, they were at once +called forth into fullest activity when the alarm of danger was +raised; Israel's awakening was always preceded by the awakening +of Jehovah. Jehovah awakened men who under the guidance of His +spirit placed themselves at the nation's head; in them His proper +leadership was visibly expressed. Jehovah went forth with the +host to battle, and in its enthusiasm His presence was seen +(Judges. v. 13, 23). With signs and wonders from heaven Jehovah +decided the struggle carried on upon earth. In it He was always +upon Israel's side; on Israel was His whole interest concentrated, +although His power (for He was God) reached far beyond their local +limits. + +Thus Jehovah was in a very real sense a living God; but the +manifestations of His life in the great crises of His people's +history were of necessity separated by considerable intervals +of time. His activity had something abrupt and tumultuary about +it, better suited for extraordinary occasions than for ordinary +daily life. Traces of this feeling appear very prominently in +the later stages of the development. But although the relations +between Israel and Israel's God came most strongly into +prominence in times of excitement, yet it did not altogether die +out in the periods of comparative repose. It was in the case of +Jehovah just as in the case of the human leaders of the people, who +did not in times of peace wholly lose the influence they had +gained in war. Jehovah had His permanent court at the places of +worship where in times of quietude men clung to Him that they +might not lose Him in times of trouble. His chief, perhaps in the +time of Moses His only, sanctuary was with the so-called ark of +the covenant. It was a standard, adapted primarily to the +requirements of a wandering and warlike life; brought back from +the field, it became, as symbol of Jehovah's presence, the central +seat of His worship. The cultus itself was more than a mere +paying of court to Jehovah, more than a mere expedient for +retaining His sympathies against times of necessity; the Torah of +Jehovah, the holy administration of law, was conjoined with it. +This had first of all been exercised, at the instance of the +priest of Midian, by Moses at the well of Kadesh; it was +continued after him, at the sanctuary, within the circle of those +who had attached themselves to him and were spiritually his heirs. +In cases where the wisdom or the competency of the ordinary +judges failed, men turned direct to the Godhead, i.e., to the +sanctuary and those who served it. Their decisions, whether +given according to their own lights or by lot (according to the +character of the question), were not derived from any law, +but were received direct from Jehovah. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 They were consulted chiefly on points of law, but also on all +sorts of difficulties as to what was right and to be done, or +wrong and to be avoided. +-- Footnote + + +The execution of their decisions did not lie with them; they +could only advise and teach. Their authority was divine, or, +as we should say, moral, in its character; it rested upon that +spontaneous recognition of the idea of right which, though +unexpressed, was alive and working among the tribes--upon Jehovah +Himself, who was the author of this generally diffused sense of +right, but revealed the proper determinations on points of detail +only to certain individuals. The priestly Torah was an entirely +unpolitical or rather prepolitical institution; it had an +existence before the state had, and it was one of the invisible +foundation pillars on which the state rested. + +War and the administration of justice were regarded as matters +of religion before they became matters of obligation and civil +order; this is all that is really meant when a theocracy is +spoken of. Moses certainly organised no formal state, endowed +with specific holiness, upon the basis of the proposition "Jehovah +is the God of Israel;" or, at all events, if he did so, the fact +had not in the slightest degree any practical consequence or +historical significance. The old patriarchal system of families +and clans continued as before to be the ordinary constitution, if +one can apply such a word as constitution at all to an unorganised +conglomeration of homogeneous elements. What there was +of permanent official authority lay in the hands of the elders +and heads of houses; in time of war they commanded each his own +household force, and in peace they dispensed justice each within +his own circle. But this obviously imperfect and inefficient +form of government showed a growing tendency to break down just +in proportion to the magnitude of the tasks which the nation in +the course of its history was called upon to undertake. Appeal +to Jehovah was always in these circumstances resorted to; His +court was properly that of last resort, but the ordinary authorities +were so inadequate that it had often enough to be applied to. +Theocracy, if one may so say, arose as the complement of anarchy. +Actual and legal existence (in the modern sense) was predicable +only of each of the many clans; the unity of the nation was +realised in the first instance only through its religion. It was +out of the religion of Israel that the commonwealth of Israel +unfolded itself,--not a HOLY state, but THE state. And the state +continued to be, consciously, rooted in religion, which prevented +it from quitting or losing its rapport with the soil from which +it had originally sprung. With the intermediate and higher stages +of political organisation, with the building of the upper structure, +however, religion had no concern; they were too far removed from +the foundation. The derivative, which did not carry immediately +in itself its own title to exist, was a matter of indifference +to it; what had come into being it suffered to go its own way +as soon as it was capable of asserting its independence. For +this reason it always turned by preference to the future, not +in a utopian but in a thoroughly practical way; by a single +step only did it keep ahead of the present. It prepared the +way for such developments as are not derived from existing +institutions, but spring immediately from the depths in +which human society has its secret and mysterious roots. + +The expression "Jehovah is the God of Israel," accordingly, meant +that every tosk of the nation, internal as well as external, was +conceived as holy. It certainly did not mean that the almighty +Creator of heaven and earth was conceived of as having first made +a covenant with this one people that by them He might be truly +known and worshipped. It was not as if Jehovah had originally +been regarded as the God of the universe who subsequently became +the God of Israel; on the contrary, He was primarily Israel's +God, and only afterwards (very long afterwards) did He come to +be regarded as the God of the universe. For Moses to have given +to the Israelites an "enlightened conception of God" would have +been to have given them a stone instead of bread; it is in the +highest degree probable that, with regard to the essential nature +of Jehovah, as distinct from His relation to men, he allowed them +to continue in the same way of thinking with their fathers. With +theoretical truths, which were not at all in demand, He did not +occupy himself, but purely with practical questions which were +put and urged by the pressure of the times. The religious +starting-point of the history of Israel was remarkable, not for +its novelty, but for its normal character. In all ancient +primitive peoples the relation in which God is conceived to stand +to the circumstances of the nation--in other words, +religion--furnishes a motive for law and morals; in the case of +none did it become so with such purity and power as in that of +the Israelites. Whatever Jehovah may have been conceived to be +in His essential nature-God of the thunderstorm or the like--this +fell more and more into the background as mysterious and +transcendental; the subject was not one for inquiry. All stress +was laid upon His activity within the world of mankind, whose ends +He made one with His own. Religion thus did not make men partakers +in a divine life, but contrariwise it made God a partaker in the +life of men; life in this way was not straitened by it, but enlarged. +The so-called "particularism" of Israel's idea of God was in fact +the real strength of Israel's religion; it thus escaped from barren +mythologisings, and became free to apply itself to the moral +tasks which are always given, and admit of being discharged, only +in definite spheres. As God of the nation, Jehovah became the God +of justice and of right; as God of justice and right, He came to +be thought of as the highest, and at last as the only, power in +heaven and earth. + + +In the preceding sketch the attempt has been made to exhibit +Mosaism as it must be supposed to have existed on the assumption +that the history of Israel commenced with it, and that for +centuries it continued to be the ideal root out of which that +history continued to grow. This being assumed, we cannot treat +the legislative portion of the Pentateuch as a source from which +our knowledge of what Mosaism really was can be derived; for it +cannot in any sense be regarded as the starting-point of the +subsequent development. If it was the work of Moses, then we +must suppose it to have remained a dead letter for centuries, +and only through King Josiah and Ezra the scribe to have become +operative in the national history (compare sections 8 and 10). +The historical tradition which has reached us relating to the +period of the judges and of the kings of Israel is the main +source, though only of course in an indirect way, of our knowledge +of Mosaism. But within the Pentateuch itself also the historical +tradition about Moses (which admits of being distinguished, and +must carefully be separated, from the legislative, although the +latter often clothes itself in narrative form) is in its main +features manifestly trustworthy, and can only be explained as +resting on actual facts. + +From the historical tradition, then, it is certain that Moses was +the founder of the Torah. But the legislative tradition cannot +tell us what were the positive contents of his Torah. In fact it +can be shown that throughout the whole of the older period the +Torah was no finished legislative code, but consisted entirely +of the oral decisions and instructions of the priests, as a whole +it was potential only; what actually existed were the individual +sentences given by the priesthood as they were asked for. Thus +Moses was not regarded as the promulgator once for all of a +national constitution, but rather as the first to call into +activity the actual sense for law and justice, and to begin the +series of oral decisions which were continued after him by the +priests. He was the founder of the nation out of which the Torah +and prophecy came as later growths. He laid the basis of +Israel's subsequent peculiar individuality, not by any one formal +act, but in virtue of his having throughout the whole of his long +life been the people's leader, judge, and centre of union. + +A correct conception of the manner in which the Torah was made by +him can be derived from the narrative contained in Exod. xviii., +but not from the long section which follows, relating to the +Sinaitic covenant (chap. xix. seq.). The giving of the law at +Sinai has only a formal, not to say dramatic, significance. It +is the product of the poetic necessity for such a representation +of the manner in which the people was constituted Jehovah's people +as should appeal directly and graphically to the imagination. +Only so can we justly interpret those expressions according to +which Jehovah with His own mouth thundered the ten commandments +down from the mountain to the people below, and afterwards for +forty days held a confidential conference with Moses alone on the +summit. For the sake of producing a solemn and vivid impression, +that is represented as having taken place in a single thrilling +moment which in reality occurred slowly and almost unobserved. +Why Sinai should have been chosen as the scene admits of ready +explanation. It was the Olympus of the Hebrew peoples, the earthly +seat of the Godhead, and as such it continued to be regarded by +the Israelites even after their settlement in Palestine (Judges +v. 4, 5). This immemorial sanctity of Sinai it was that led to +its being selected as the ideal scene of the giving of the law, +not conversely. If we eliminate from the historical narrative +the long Sinaitic section which has but a loose connection with it, +the wilderness of Kadesh becomes the locality of the preceding +and subsequent events. It was during the sojourn of many years +here that the organisation of the nation, in any historical sense, +took place. "There He made for them statute and ordinance, and +there He proved them," as we read in Exod. xv. 26 in a dislocated +poetical fragment. "Judgment and trial," "Massa and Meribah," +point to Kadesh as the place referred to; there at all events is +the scene of the narrative immediately following (Exod. xvii. = +Num. xx.), and doubtless also of Exod. xviii. + +If the legislation of the Pentateuch cease as a whole to be +regarded as an authentic source for our knowledge of what Mosaism +was, it becomes a somewhat precarious matter to make any +exception in favour of the Decalogue. In particular, the +following arguments against its authenticity must be taken into +account. + +(1) According to Exod. xxxiv. the commandments which stood upon +the two tables were quite different. + +(2) The prohibition of images was during the older period quite +unknown; Moses himself is said to have made a brazen serpent which +down to Hezekiah's time continued to be worshipped at Jerusalem as +an image of Jehovah. + +(3) The essentially and necessarily national character of the older +phases of the religion of Jehovah completely disappears in the quite +universal code of morals which is given in the Decalogue as the +fundamental law of Israel; but the entire series of religious +personalities throughout the period of the judges and the kings-- +from Deborah, who praised Jael's treacherous act of murder, to David, +who treated his prisoners of war with the utmost cruelty--make it +very difficult to believe that the religion of Israel was from +the outset one of a specifically moral character. The true spirit +of the old religion may be gathered much more truly from Judges v. +than from Exod. xx. + +(4) It is extremely doubtful whether the actual monotheism which +is undoubtedly pre-supposed in the universal moral precepts of +the Decalogue could have formed the foundation of a national +religion. It was first developed out of the national religion at +the downfall of the nation, and thereupon kept its hold upon the +people in an artificial manner by means of the idea of a covenant +formed by the God of the universe with, in the first instance, +Israel alone (compare sections 6-10). + +As for the question regarding the historical presuppositions of +Mosaism, there generally underlies it a misunderstanding arising +out of theological intellectualism-an attribute found with +special frequency among nontheologians. Moses gave no new idea +of God to his people. The question whence he could have derived +it therefore need not be raised. It could not possibly be worse +answered, however, than by a reference to his relations witb the +priestly caste of Egypt and their wisdom. It is not to be +believed that an Egyptian deity could inspire the Hebrews of +Goshen with courage for the struggle against the Egyptians, or +that an abstraction of esoteric speculation could become the +national deity of Israel. It is not inconceivable indeed, +although at the same time quite incapable of proof, that Moses +was indebted to the Egyptian priests for certain advantages of +personal culture, or that he borrowed from them on all hands in +external details of organisation or in matters of ritual. But +the origin of the germ which developed into Israel is not to be +sought for in Egypt, and Jehovah has nothing in common with the +colourless divinity of Penta-ur or with the God-forsaken dreariness +of certain modern Egyptologists. That monotheism must have been +a foreign importation, because it is contrary to that sexual +dualism of Godhead which is the fundamental characteristic of +Semitic religion, is an untenable exaggeration which has recently +become popular out of opposition to the familiar thesis about the +monotheistic instinct of the Semites (Noldeke, Literar. +Centralbl., 1877, p. 365). Moab, Ammon, and Edom, Israel's +nearest kinsfolk and neighbours, were monotheists in precisely +the same sense in which Israel itself was; but it would be foolish +surely in their case to think of foreign importation. + +Manetho's statements about the Israelites are for the most part +to be regarded as malicious inventions: whether any genuine +tradition underlies them at all is a point much needing to be +investigated. The story of Exod. ii. 1 seq. is a mythus of +frequent recurrence elsewhere, to which no further significance is +attached, for that Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the +Egyptians is vouched for by no earlier authorities than Philo and +the New Testament. According to the Old Testament tradition his +connexion is with Jethro's priesthood or with that of the Kenites. +This historical presupposition of Mosaism has external evidence in +its favour, and is inherently quite probable. + + +2. THE SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE. + +The kingdom of Sihon did not permanently suffice the Israelites, +and the disintegration of the Canaanites to the west of Jordan in +an endless number of kingdoms and cities invited attack. The +first essay was made by Judah in conjunction with Simeon and +Levi, but was far from prosperous. Simeon and Levi were +annihilated; Judah also, though successful in mastering the +mountain land to the west of the Dead Sea, was so only at the cost +of severe losses which were not again made up until the accession +of the Kenite families of the south (Caleb). As a consequence of +the secession of these tribes, a new division of the nation into +Israel and Judah took the place of that which had previously +subsisted between the families of Leah and Rachel; under Israel +were included all the tribes except Simeon, Levi, and Judah, +which three are no longer mentioned in Judges v., where all +the others are carefully and exhaustively enumerated. This +half-abortive first invasion of the west was followed by a second, +which was stronger and attended with much better results. It was +led by the tribe of Joseph, to which the others attached themselves, +Reuben and Gad only remaining behind in the old settlements. +The district to the north of Judah, inhabited afterwards by +Benjamin, was the first to be attacked. It was not until after +several towns of this district had one by one fallen into the +hands of the conquerors that the Canaanites set about a united +resistance. They were, however, decisively repulsed by Joshua +in the neighbourhood of Gibeon; and by this victory the Israelites +became masters of the whole central plateau of Palestine. +The first camp, at Gilgal, near the ford of Jordan, which had +been maintained until then, was now removed, and the ark of Jehovah +brought further inland (perhaps by way of Bethel) to Shiloh, where +henceforward the headquarters were fixed, in a position which +seemed as if it had been expressly made to favour attacks upon +the fertile tract Iying beneath it on the north. The Bne Rachel +now occupied the new territory which up to that time had been +acquired,--Benjamin, in immediate contiguity with the frontier +of Judah, then Ephraim, stretching to beyond Shiloh, and lastly +Manasseh, furthest to the north, as far as to the plain of Jezreel. +The centre of gravity, so to speak, already lay in Ephraim, +to which belonged Joshua and that is mentioned as the last +achievement of Joshua that at the waters of Merom he defeated +Jabin, king of Hazor, and the allied princes of Galilee, thereby +opening up the north for Israelitish settlers. It is quite what +we should expect that a great and united blow had to be struck +at the Canaanites of the north before the new comers could occupy +it in peace; and King Jabin, who reappears at a later date, +certainly does not suit the situation described in Judges iv. v. + +The Book of Joshua represents the conquest of western Palestine as +having been the common undertaking of all the tribes together, +which, after the original inhabitants have been extirpated, are +exhibited as laying the ownerless country at Joshua's feet in +order that he may divide it by lot amongst them. But this is a +"systematic" generalisation, contradicted by the facts which we +otherwise know. For we possess another account of the conquest of +Palestine, that of Judges i., which runs parallel with the Book of +Joshua. It is shorter indeed and more superficial, yet in its +entire mode of presenting the subject more historical. According +to its narrative, it appears that Joshua was the leader of Joseph +and Benjamin only, with whom indeed Issachar, Zebulon, Dan, +Naphtali, and Asher made common cause. But before his time the +tribe of Judah had already crossed the Jordan and effected a +lodgment in the territory which lay between the earlier seat of +the nation in the wilderness of Kadesh and its then settlement on +the plateau of Moab, forming in some degree a link of connection +between the two. It might be supposed that the tribe of Judah had +not taken the longer route to the eastward of the Dead Sea at +all, but had already at Kadesh broken off from the main body and +thence turned its steps directly northward. But the representation +actually given in Judges i., to the effect that it was from the +direction of the Jordan and not from that of the Negeb that they +came to take possession of their land, finds its confirmation +in the fact that the southern portion of their territory was +the last to come into their possession. The tradition is +unwavering that Hebron was taken not by Judah but by Caleb, +a family which stood in friendly relations with Israel, but had +no connexion with it by blood. It was only through the policy +of David that Caleb, Othniel, Jerachmeel, and the rest of the +Kenites who had their homes in the Negeb became completely +incorporated with Judah, so that Hebron became at last the capital +of that tribe. Its oldest seats, however, lay further to the +north, in the region of Tekoa, Bethlehem, Baal Judah. + +It harmonises well with this view to suppose that Simeon +and Levi must have made at the same time their attempt to +effect a settlement in the hill country of Ephraim. One +of their families, Dinah bath Leah, met with a favourable +reception in the town of Shechem, and began to mix freely with +its population, and thus the way was paved for the establishment +of peaceable relations between the old inhabitants of the land +and the new importations. But these relations were brought to +an end by the two brothers who, in concert it must be supposed +with their sister, fell upon the Shechemites and massacred +them. The final result proved disastrous. The Canaanites +of the surrounding country united against them and completely +destroyed them. There can be no doubt as to the trustworthiness +of the somewhat enigmatical records of those events which are +given in Gen. xlix. and xxxiv.; in no other way is it possible +to explain why Simeon and Levi, which originally came upon the +stage of history on an equal footing with Reuben and Judah, should +have already disappeared as independent tribes at the very +beginning of the period of the judges. Now, that the destruction +of Shechem by the Manassite Abimelech is quite distinct from the +attack made by Simeon and Levi need hardly be said. On the +other hand, the occurrence cannot be regarded as pre-Mosaic, but +must be assigned to a time previous to the conquest of the hill +country of Ephraim by Joseph; for after Joseph's settlement +there the two sons of Leah had manifestly nothing more to hope +for in that locality. We are shut up, therefore, to the +conclusion that they crossed the Jordan at the same time as Judah +separated himself from the main body in search of a suitable +territory. That Simeon accompanied Judah in the first westward +attempt is expressly stated in Judges i. The fate of Levi, +again, cannot be separated from that of Simeon (Gen. xlix. 5-7); +that he is not expressly mentioned in Judges i. ought not to +cause surprise, when it is considered that later generations which +regarded Levi as neither more nor less than a priest would have +some difficulty in representing him as a thoroughly secular +tribe. Such nevertheless he must have been, for the poet in Genesis +xlix. 5-7 puts him on a footing of perfect equality with Simeon, +and attributes to both brothers a very secular and bloodthirsty +character; he has no conception that Levi has a sacred vocation +which is the reason of the dispersion of the tribe; the +dispersion, on the contrary, is regarded as a curse and no +blessing, an annihilation and not the means of giving permanence +to its tribal individuality. The shattered remains of Simeon, +and doubtless those of Levi also, became incorporated with Judah, +which thenceforward was the sole representative of the three sons +of Leah, who according to the genealogy had been born immediately +after Reuben the first-born. Judah itself seems at the same time +to have suffered severely. Of its three older branches, Er, Onan, +and Shelah, one only survived, and only by the accession of +foreign elements did the tribe regain its vigour,--by the fresh +blood which the Kenites of the Negeb brought. For Zarah and +Pharez, which took the place of Er and Onan after these had +disappeared, belonged originally, not to Israel, but to Hezron or +the Kenites; under this designation are included families like +those of Othniel, Jerachmeel, and Caleb, and, as has been already +remarked, even in David's time these were not reckoned as strictly +belonging to Judah. Thus the depletion which the tribe had to +suffer in the struggle with the Canaanites at the beginning of the +period of the judges was the remote cause of the prominence which, +according to 1Chronicles ii., the Bne Hezron afterwards attained in +Judah. The survivors of Simeon also appear to have been forced +back upon these Hezronites in the Negeb; the cities assigned to +them in the Book of Joshua all belong to that region. + +Even after the united resistance of the Canaanites had been broken, +each individual community had still enough to do before it could +take firm hold of the spot which it had searched out for itself or +to which it had been assigned. The business of effecting permanent +settlement was just a continuation of the former struggle, only +on a diminished scale; every tribe and every family now fought +for its own land after the preliminary work had been accomplished +by a united effort. Naturally, therefore, the conquest was at first +but an incomplete one. The plain which fringed the coast was +hardly touched; so also the valley of Jezreel with its girdle +of fortified cities stretching from Acco to Bethshean. All that +was subdued in the strict sense of that word was the mountainous +land, particularly the southern hill country of "Mount Ephraim;" +yet, even here the Canaanites retained possession of not a few +cities, such as Jebus, Shechem, Thebez. It was only after the +lapse of centuries that all the lacunae were filled up, and the +Canaanite enclaves made tributary. + +The Israelites had the extraordinarily disintegrated state of +the enemy to thank for the ease with which they had achieved +success. The first storm subsided comparatively soon, and +conquerors and conquered alike learned to accommodate themselves +to the new circumstances. Then the Canaanites once more collected +all their energies to strike a blow for freedom. Under the +hegemony of Sisera a great league was formed, and the plain of +Jezreel became the centre of the reorganised power which made +itself felt by its attacks both northwards and southwards. The +Israelites were strangely helpless; it was as if neither shield +nor spear could be found among their 40,000 fighting men. But at +last there came an impulse from above, and brought life and soul to +the unorganised mass; Deborah sent out the summons to the tribes, +Barak came forward as their leader against the kings of Canaan who +had assembled under Sisera's command by the brook of Kishon. The +cavalry of the enemy was unable to withstand the impetuous rush +of the army of Jehovah, and Sisera himself perished in the +flight. From that day the Canaanites, although many strong +towns continued to be held by them, never again raised their +heads. + +After these occurrences some further changes of a fundamental +character took place in the relations of the tribes. The Danites +proved unable to hold against the forward pressure of the +Philistines their territory on the coast to the west of Benjamin +and Ephraim; they accordingly sought a new settlement, which was +found in the north at the foot of Hermon. In this way all the +secondary tribes westward of Jordan (Asher, Naphtali, Dan) came +to have their seats beside each other in the northern division +of the land. Eastward of Jordan, Reuben rapidly fell from his +old prominence, sharing the fate of his next eldest brethren +Simeon and Levi. When Eglon of Moab took Jericho, and laid +Benjamin under tribute, it is obvious that he must previously +have made himself master of Reuben's territory. This territory +became thenceforward a subject of constant dispute between Moab +and Israel; the efforts to recover it, however, did not proceed +from Reuben himself, but from Gad, a tribe which knew how to +assert itself with vigour against the enemies by which it was +surrounded. But if the Hebrews lost ground in the south, they +materially enlarged their borders in the north of the land +eastward of Jordan. Various Manassite families, finding their +holdings at home too small, crossed the Jordan and founded +colonies at Bashan and northern Gilead. Although this +colonisation, on account of the rivalry of the Aramaeans, who +were also pressing forward in this direction, was but +imperfectly successful, it nevertheless was of very great +importance, inasmuch as it seemed to give new strength to the bonds +that united the eastern with the western tribes. Not only was +Gilead not lost; it even became a very vigorous member of the +body politic. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It is probable that Manasseh's migration to the territory +eastward of Jordan took place from the west, and later than the +time of Moses. The older portions of the Hexateuch speak not of +two and a half but only of two trans-Jordanic tribes, and exclude +Manasseh; according to them the kingdom of Sihon alone was subdued +by Moses, not that of Og also, the latter, indeed, being a wholly +legendary personage. In the song of Deborah, Machir is reckoned +among the western tribes, and it was not until much later that +this became the designation of the Manassites eastward of Jordan. +It is also worth noticing that Jair's colonisation of northern +Gilead did not take place until the time of the judges (Judges x. +3 seq.), but is related also in Num. xxxii. 39-42. +-- Footnote + + +The times of agitation and insecurity which followed upon the +conquest of Palestine invited attacks by the eastern nomads, and +once more the Israelite peasantry showed all its old helplessness, +until at last the indignation of a Manassite of good family, +Gideon or Jerubbaal, was roused by the Midianites, who had +captured some of his brothers and put them to death. With his +family, that of Abiezer, he gave pursuit, and, overtaking the enemy +on the borders of the wilderness, inflicted on them such +chastisement as put an end to these incursions. His heroism +had consequences which reached far beyond the scope of his original +purpose. He became the champion of the peasantry against the +freebooters, of the cultivated land against the waste; social +respect and predominance were his rewards. In his native town +of Ophrah he kept up a great establishment, where also he built +a temple with an image of Jehovah overlaid with the gold which +he had taken from the Midianites. He transmitted to his sons +an authority, which was not limited to Abiezer and Manasseh +alone, but, however slightly and indirectly, extended over +Ephraim as well. + +On the foundations laid by Gideon Abimelech his son sought to +establish a kingship over Israel, that is, over Ephraim and +Manasseh. The predominance, however, which had been naturally +accorded to his father in virtue of his personal merits, Abimelech +looked upon as a thing seized by force and to be maintained with +injustice; and in this way he soon destroyed those fair +beginnings out of which even at that time a kingdom might have +arisen within the house of Joseph. The one permanent fruit of his +activity was that Shechem was destroyed as a Canaanite city and +rebuilt for Israel. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. On the narratives contained in the Book of Judges see Bleek, +Einl. ins Alte Testament (4th ed.), 88-98, and especially the +sections on Barak and Sisera, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, the Danite +migration, and the Benjamites of Gibeah (93-98). +-- Footnote + + +The most important change of the period of the judges went on +gradually and in silence. The old population of the country, +which, according to Deuteronomy, was to have been exterminated, +slowly became amalgamated with the new. In this way the +Israelites received a very important accession to their numbers. +In Deborah's time the fighting men of Israel numbered 40,000; +the tribe of Dan when it migrated to Laish, counted 600 warriors; +Gideon pursued the Midianites with 300. But in the reigns of Saul +and David we find a population reckoned by millions. The rapid +increase is to be accounted for by the incorporation of the +Canaanites. + +At the same time the Hebrews learned to participate in the culture +of the Canaanites, and quietly entered into the enjoyment of the +labours of their predecessors. From the pastoral they advanced +to the agricultural stage; corn and wine, the olive and the fig, +with them are habitually spoken of as the necessaries of life. +It was not strange that this change in the manner of their +everyday life should be attended with certain consequences in +the sphere of religion also. It is inconceivable that the +Israelites should have brought with them out of the desert the +cultus they observed in the time of the kings (Exod. xxii. xxiii. +xxiv.), which throughout presupposed the fields and gardens of +Palestine; they borrowed it from the Canaanites. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. In the earliest case where the feast of the ingathering, +afterwards the chief feast of the Israelites, is mentioned, it is +celebrated by Canaanites of Shechem in honour of Baal (Judges ix. +27). +-- Footnote + + +This is confirmed by the fact that they took over from these the +"Bamoth" or "high places" also, notwithstanding the prohibition +in Deuteronomy xii. + +It was natural enough that the Hebrews should also appropriate +the divinity worshipped by the Canaanite peasants as the giver +of their corn, wine, and oil, the Baal whom the Greeks identified +with Dionysus. The apostasy to Baal, on the part of the first +generation which had quitted the wilderness and adopted a settled +agricultural life, is attested alike by historical and prophetical +tradition. Doubtless Baal, as the god of the land of Canaan, and +Jehovah, as the God of the nation of Israel, were in the first +instance co-ordinated. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. In Judges v. Jehovah retains his original abode in the +wilderness of Sinai, and only on occasions of necessity quits it +to come to Palestine. +-- Footnote + + +But it was not to be expected that the divinity of the land +should permanently be different from the God of the dominant +people. In proportion as Israel identified itself with the +conquered territory, the divinities also were identified. Hence +arose a certain syncretism between Baal and Jehovah, which had not +been got over even in the time of the prophet Hosea. At the same +time the functions of Baal were more frequently transferred to +Jehovah than conversely. Canaan and Baal represented the female, +Israel and Jehovah the male, principle in this union. + +Had the Israelites remained in the wilderness and in barbarism, +the historical development they subsequently reached would hardly +have been possible; their career would have been like that of +Amalek, or, at best, like those of Edom, Moab, and Ammon. Their +acceptance of civilisation was undoubtedly a step in the forward +direction; but as certainly did it also involve a peril. It +involved an overloading, as it were, of the system with materials +which it was incapable of assimilating at once. The material +tasks imposed threatened to destroy the religious basis of the +old national life. The offensive and defensive alliances +among the tribes gradually dissolved under the continuance of +peace; the subsequent occupation of the country dispersed those +whom the camp had united. The enthusiastic _elan_ with which the +conquest had been achieved gave way to the petty drudgery by which +the individual families, each in its own circle, had to accommodate +themselves to their new surroundings. Yet under the ashes the +embers were still aglow; and the course of history ever fanned +them anew into flame, bringing home to Israel the truths that man +does not live by bread alone, and that there are other things of +worth than those which Baal can bestow; it brought ever again +into the foreground the divineness of heroical self sacrifice of +the individual for the good of the nation. + + +3. THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM, AND THE FIRST THREE KINGS. + +The Philistines were the means of arousing from their slumber +Israel and Jehovah. From their settlements by the sea on the +low-lying plain which skirts the mountains of Judah on the west, +they pressed northwards into the plain of Sharon, and thence into +the plain of Jezreel beyond, which is connected with that of +Sharon by the upland valley of Dothan. Here, having driven out +the Danites, they came into direct contact with the tribe of +Joseph, the chief bulwark of Israel, and a great battle took +place at Aphek, where the plain of Sharon merges into the valley +of Dothan. The Philistines were victorious and carried off as a +trophy the Israelite standard, the ark of Jehovah. Their further +conquests included, not only the plain of Jezreel and the hill +country bordering it on the south, but also the proper citadel +of the country, "Mount Ephraim." The old sanctuary at Shiloh +was destroyed by them; its temple of Jehovah thenceforward lay +in ruins. Their supremacy extended as far as to Benjamin; the +Philistines had a nec,ib in Gibeah. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. _nec,ib_ is an Aramaic word of uncertain meaning. In the name of +the town _Nec,ibin_ (Nisibis) it certainly seems to mean "pillars;" +according to 1Kings iv. 5 and xxii. 48 (where it is pointed +niccab), "governor", seems the best translation, and this is the +only rendering consistent with the expression in 1Samuel xiii. 3 +("Jonathan slew the _necib_," &c.). +-- Footnote + + +But the assertion that they had confiscated all weapons and +removed all smiths must be regarded as an unhistorical +exaggeration; under their regime at all events it was possible +for the messengers of a beleaguered city on the east of Jordan +to summon their countrymen in the west to their relief. + +The shame of the Israelites under the reproach of Philistine +oppression led, in the first instance, to a widespread exaltation +of religious feeling. Troops of ecstatic enthusiasts showed +themselves here and there, and went about with musical +accompaniments in processions which often took the shape of wild +dances; even men of the most sedate temperament were sometimes +smitten with the contagion, and drawn into the charmed circle. +In such a phenomenon, occurring in the East, there was nothing +intrinsically strange; among the Canaanites, such "Nebiim"--for +so they were styled--had long been familiar, and they continued +to exist in the country after the old fashion, long after their +original character, so far as Israel was concerned, had been wholly +lost. The new thing at this juncture was that this spirit passed +over upon Israel, and that the best members of the community were +seized by it. It afforded an outlet for the suppressed excitement +of the nation. + +The new-kindled zeal had for its object, not the abolition of Baal +worship, but resistance to the enemies of Israel. Religion and +patriotism were then identical. This spirit of the times was +understood by an old man, Samuel ben Elkanah, who lived at Ramah +in south-western Ephraim. He was not himself one of the Nebiim; +on the contrary, he was a seer of that old type which had for a +long time existed amongst the Hebrews much as we find it amongst +the Greeks or Arabs. Raised by his foreseeing talent to a +position of great prominence, he found opportunity to occupy +himself with other questions besides those which he was +professionally called on to answer. The national distress +weighed upon his heart; the neighbouring peoples had taught him to +recognise the advantages which are secured by the consolidation of +families and tribes into a kingdom. But Samuel's peculiar merit +lay, not in discovering what it was that the nation needed, but in +finding out the man who was capable of supplying that need. +Having come to know Saul ben Kish, a Benjamite of the town of +Gibeah, a man of gigantic form, and swift, enthusiastic nature, he +declared to him his destiny to become king over Israel. + +Saul very soon had an opportunity for showing whether Samuel +had been a true seer or no. The city of Jabesh in Gilead was +besieged by the Ammonites, and the inhabitants declared +themselves ready to surrender should they fail in obtaining +speedy succour from their countrymen. Their messengers had +passed through all Israel without meeting with anything more +helpful than pity, until at last tidings of their case reached +Saul as he was returning with a yoke of oxen from the field. +Hewing his cattle in pieces, he caused the portions to be sent +in all directions, with the threat that so should it be done +with the oxen of every one who should refuse to help in relieving +Jabesh. The people obeyed the summons, fell suddenly one morning +upon the Ammonites, and delivered the beleaguered city. + +Having thus found Saul the man for their need, they refused to +let him go. In Gilgal, Joshua's old camp, they anointed him king. +The act was equivalent to imposing upon him the conduct of the +struggle against the Philistines, and so he understood it. The +first signal for the attack was given by his son Jonathan, when +he slew the _necib_ of the Philistines at Gibeah. These in +consequence advanced in force towards the focus of the revolt, +and took up a position opposite Gibeah on the north, being divided +from it only by the gorge of Michmash. Only a few hundred +Benjamites ventured to remain with Saul. The struggle opened +with a piece of genuine old heroic daring. While the Philistines +were dispersed over the country in foraging expeditions, Jonathan, +accompanied by his armour-bearer only, and without the knowledge +of Saul, made an attack upon the weak post which they had left +behind at the pass of Michmash. After the first had been +surprised and overmastered, the others took to flight, no doubt +in the belief that the two assailants were supported. They +carried their panic with them into the half-deserted camp, whence +it spread among the various foraging bands. The commotion was +observed from Gibeah opposite, and, without pausing to consult the +priestly oracle, King Saul determined to attack the camp. The +attempt was completely successful, but involved no more than the +camp and its stores; the Philistines themselves effected an +unmolested retreat by the difficult road of Bethhoron. + +Saul was no mere raw stripling when he ascended the throne; +he already had a grown-up son at his side. Nor was he of +insignificant descent, the family to which he belonged being a +widespread one, and his heritage considerable. His establishment +at Gibeah was throughout his entire reign the nucleus of his +kingdom. The men on whom he could always reckon were his Benjamite +kinsmen. He recognised as belonging to him no other public +function besides that of war; the internal affairs of the country +he permitted to remain as they had been before his accession. +War was at once the business and the resource of the new kingdom. +It was carried on against the Philistines without interruption, +though for the most part not in the grand style but rather in a +series of border skirmishes. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1 As regards the position of Samuel in the theocracy and the +relation in which the stood to Saul, the several narratives in the +Book of Samuel differ widely. The preceding account, so far as it +relates to Samuel, is based upon 1Samuel ix., x. 1-15, xi., where +he appears simply as a Roeh at Ramah, and has nothing to do +either with the administration of the theocracy or with the +Nebiim. Compare Prolegomena above, chap. VII. +-- Footnote + + +It is not without significance that the warlike revival of the +nation proceeded from Benjamin. By the battle of Aphek Ephraim +had lost at once the hegemony and its symbols (the camp-sanctuary +at Shiloh, the ark of the covenant). The centre of Israel +gravitated southward, and Benjamin became the connecting link +between Ephraim and Judah. It would appear that there the tyranny +of the Philistines was not so much felt. Their attacks never were +made through Judah, but always came from the north; on the other +hand, people fled from them southwards, as is instanced by the +priests of Shiloh, who settled in Nob near Jerusalem. Through +Saul Judah entered definitely into the history of Israel; it +belonged to his kingdom, and it more than most others supplied him +with energetic and faithful supporters. His famous expedition +against the Amalekites had been undertaken purely in the +interests of Judah, for it only could possibly suffer from their +marauding hordes. + +Among the men of Judah whom the war brought to Gibeah, David ben +Jesse of Bethlehem took a conspicuous place; his skill on the harp +brought him into close relations with the king. He became Saul's +armour-bearer, afterwards the most intimate friend of his son, +finally the husband of his daughter. While he was thus winning +the affections of the court, he at the same time became the +declared favourite of the people, the more so because unexampled +good fortune attended him in all he undertook. This excited the +jealousy of Saul, naturally enough in an age in which the king +always required to be the best man. Its first outburst admitted +of explanation as occasioned by an attack of illness; but soon +it became obtrusively clear that the king's love for his +son-in-law had changed into bitter hatred. Jonathan warned his +friend and facilitated his flight, the priests of Nob at the same +time providing him with arms and food. He went into the +wilderness of Judah, and became the leader of a miscellaneous band +of outlaws who had been attracted by his name to lead a roving life +under his leadership. His kinsmen from Bethlehem were of their +number, but also Philistines and Hittites. Out of this band David's +bodyguard subsequently grew, the nucleus of his army. They reckoned +also a priest among them, Abiathar ben Ahimelech ben Ahitub ben +Phinehas ben Eli, the solitary survivor of the massacre of the +sons of Eli at Nob which Saul had ordered on account of suspected +conspiracy with David. Through him David was able to have +recourse to the sacred lot before the ephod. In the end he found +it impossible to hold his own in Judah against Saul's +persecutions, especially as his countrymen for the most part +withheld their assistance. He therefore took the desperate step +of placing his services at the disposal of Achish the Philistine +king of Gath, by whom he was received with open arms, the town of +Ziklag being assigned him as a residence. Here with his band he +continued to follow his old manner of life as an independent +prince, subject only to an obligation to render military service +to Achish. + +Meanwhile the Philistines had once more mustered their forces and +marched by the usual route against Israel. Saul did not allow +them to advance upon Gibeah, but awaited their attack in the plain +of Jezreel. A disastrous battle on Mount Gilboa ensued; after +seeing his three eldest sons fall one after another at his side, +Saul threw himself upon his sword, and was followed by his +armour-bearer. The defeat seemed to have undone the work of his +life. The immediate consequence at least was that the Philistines +regained their lost ascendancy over the country to the west of +Jordan. Beyond Jordan, however, Abner, the cousin and +generalissimo of Saul, made his son Ishbaal, still a minor, king +in Mahanaim, and he was successful in again establishing the +dominion of the house over Jezreel, Ephraim, and Benjamin, +of course in uninterrupted struggle with the Philistines. + +But he did not regain hold of Judah. David seized the opportunity +to set up for himself, with the sanction of the Philistines, and, +it may safely be presumed, as their vassal, a separate +principality which had its centre of gravity in the south, which +was inhabited, not by the tribe of Judah properly so called, but +by the Calebites and Jerachmeelites. This territory Abner +disputed with him in vain. In the protracted feud between the +houses of Saul and David, the fortunes of war declared themselves +ever increasingly for the latter. Personal causes at last +brought matters to a crisis. Abner, by taking to himself a +concubine of Saul's called Rizpah, had roused Ishbaal's suspicions +that he was aiming at the inheritance, and was challenged on the +point. This proved too much for his patience, and forthwith he +abandoned the cause of his ward (the hopelessness of which had +already perhaps become apparent), and entered into negotiations +with David at Hebron. When about to set out on his return he fell +by the hand of Joab in the gate of Hebron, a victim of jealousy +and blood-feud. His plans nevertheless were realised. His death +left Israel leaderless and in great confusion; Ishbaal was personally +insignificant, and the people's homage continued to be rendered to +him only out of grateful fidelity to his father's memory. At +this juncture he also fell by assassins' hands. As he was +taking his midday rest, and even the portress had gone to sleep +over her task of cleaning wheat, two Benjamite captains introduced +themselves into his palace at Mahanaim and murdered him in the +vain hope of earning David's thanks. The elders of Israel no +longer hesitated about offering David the crown, which he accepted. + +His residence was immediately transferred from Hebron to Jebus, +which until then had remained in possession of the Canaanites, +and first derives historical importance from him. It lay on the +border between Israel and Judah,--still within the territory of +Benjamin, but not far from Bethlehem; near also to Nob, the old +priestly city. David made it not only the political but also +the religious metropolis by transferring thither from +Kirjathjearim the ark of the covenant, which he placed within +his citadel on what afterwards became the temple hill. + +Still the crown was far from being a merely honorary possession; +it involved heavy responsibilities, and doubtless what +contributed more than anything else to David's elevation to the +throne was the general recognition of the fact that he was the man +best fitted on the whole to overtake the labour it brought with +it, viz., the prosecution of the war with the Philistines, a war +which was as it were the forge in which the kingdom of Israel was +welded into one. The struggle began with the transference of the +seat of royalty to Jerusalem; unfortunately we possess only +scanty details as to its progress, hardly anything more indeed +than a few anecdotes about deeds of prowess by individual heroes. +The result was in the end that David completed what Saul had +begun, and broke for ever the Philistine yoke. This was +undoubtedly the greatest achievement of his reign. + +From the defensive against the Philistines David proceeded to +aggressive war, in which he subjugated the three kinsfolk of +Israel,--Moab, Ammon, and Edom. He appears to have come into +conflict first with the Moabites, whom he vanquished and treated +with savage atrocity. Not long afterwards the king of Ammon died, +and David sent an embassy of condolence to Hanun his successor. +Hanun suspected in this a sinister design,--a suspicion we can +readily understand if David had already, as is probable, +subjugated Moab,--and with the utmost contumely sent back the +messengers to their master forthwith, at the same time making +preparations for war by entering into alliance with various +Syrian kings, and particularly with the powerful king of Soba /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Soba appears to have been situated somewhat to the north of +Damascus, and to have bordered on the west with Hamath. The +Aramaeans were beginning even at that period to press westwards; +the Hittites, Phoenicians, and Israelites had common interests +against them. To the kingdom of Soba succeeded afterwards that +of Damascus. +-- Footnote + + +David took the initiative, and sent his army under command of Joab +against Rabbath-Ammon. The Syrians advanced to the relief of the +besieged city; but Joab divided his forces, and, leaving his +brother Abishai to hold the Ammonites in the town in check, +proceeded himself against the Syrians and repulsed them. On their +afterwards threatening to renew the attack in increased force, +David went against them in strength and defeated them at Helam +"on the river." It seems that as a result of this the kingdom of +Soba was broken up and made tributary to Damascus. Rabbath-Ammon +could not now hold out any longer, and the Ammonites shared the +fate of their Moabite brethren. Finally, Edom was about the same +time coerced and depopulated; and thus was fulfilled the vision of +Balaam,--the youngest of the four Hebrew nationalities trod the +three elder under his feet. + +So far as external foes were concerned, David henceforward had +peace; but new dangers arose at home within his own family. +At once by ill-judged leniency and equally ill-timed severity +he had completely alienated his son Absalom, who, after Amnon's +death, was heir-apparent to the throne. Absalom organised a +revolt against his father, and to foster it availed himself of a +misunderstanding which had arisen between David and the men of +Judah, probably because they thought they were not treated with +sufficient favour. The revolt had its focus in Hebron; +Ahithophel, a man of Judah, was its soul; Amasa, also of Judah, +its arm; but the rest of Israel was also drawn into the +rebellion, and only the territory to the east of Jordan remained +faithful. Thither David betook himself with precipitancy, for +the outbreak had taken him completely by surprise. At Mahanaim, +which had once before been the centre from which the kingdom was +regained, he collected his faithful followers around him with his +600 Cherethites and Pelethites for a nucleus, Absalom against +Ahithophel's advice allowing him time for this. In the +neighbourbood of Mahanaim, in the wood of Ephraim, the decisive +blow was struck. Absalom fell, and with his death the rebellion +was at an end. It was Joseph that, in the first instance, +penitently sent a deputation to the king to bring him back. Judah, +on the other hand, continued to hold aloof. Ultimately a piece +of finesse on the king's part had the effect of bringing Judah +also to its allegiance, though at the cost of kindling such +jealousy between Israel and Judah that Sheba the Benjamite raised +a new revolt, this time of Israelites, which was soon, however, +repressed by Joab. + +David seems to have died soon afterwards. His historical +importance is very great. Judah and Jerusalem were wholly his +creation, and, though the united kingdom of Israel founded by him +and Saul together soon fell to pieces, the recollection of it +nevertheless continued in all time to be proudly cherished by +the whole body of the people. His personal character has been +often treated with undue disparagement. For this we must chiefly +blame his canonisation by the later Jewish tradition which made a +Levitical saint of him and a pious hymn-writer. It then becomes a +strange inconsistency that he caused military prisoners to be +treated with barbarity, and the bastard sons of Saul to be hanged +up before the Lord in Gibeon. But if we take him as we find him, +an antique king in a barbarous age, our judgment of him will be +much more favourable. The most daring courage was combined in him +with tender susceptibility; even after he had ascended the throne +be continued to retain the charm of a pre-eminent and at the same +time child-like personality. Even his conduct in the affair of +Uriah is not by any means wholly to his discredit; not many +kings can be mentioned who would have shown repentance public and +deep such as he manifested at Nathan's rebuke. Least to his +credit was his weakness in relation to his sons and to Joab. +On the other hand, the testament attributed to him in 1Kings ii. +cannot be justly laid to his charge; it is the libel of a later +hand seeking to invest him with a fictitious glory. In like +manner it is unjust to hold him responsible for the deaths of +Abner and Amasa, or to attribute to him any conspiracy with +the hierocracy for the destruction of Saul, and thus to deprive +him of the authorship of the elegy in 2Samuel i, which certainly +was not the work of a hypocrite. + +Solomon had already reached the throne, some time before his +father's death, not in virtue of hereditary right, but by palace +intrigue which had the support of the bodyguard of the Six +Hundred. His glory was not purchased on the battlefield. So far +was he from showing military capacity that he allowed a new +Syrian kingdom to arise at Damascus, a far more dangerous thing for +Israel than that of Soba which had been destroyed, and which it +succeeded. During this reign Edom also regained its independence, +nothing but the port of Elath remaining in Solomon's hands. As +regards Moab and Ammon we have no information; it is not +improbable that they also revolted. But if war was not Solomon's +forte, he certainly took much greater pains than either of his +predecessors in matters of internal administration; according to +tradition, the wisdom of the ruler and the judge was his special +"gift." Disregarding the tribal system, he divided his kingdom +into twelve provinces, over each of which he placed a royal +governor, thus making a beginning of vigorous and orderly +administration. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Very possibly the Canaanites, whose complete absorption falls +within this period, were an element that helped to loosen the +bonds of tribal unity, and consolidate a state in its place. +-- Footnote + + +Judah alone he exempted from this arrangement, as if to show +special favour. For his aim was less the advantage of his +subjects than the benefit of his exchequer, and the same object +appears in his horse traffic (1Kings ix. 19), his Ophir trade +(1Kings x. 11), and his cession of territory to Hiram (1Kings ix. +11). His passions were architecture, a gorgeous court, and the +harem, in which he sought to rival other Oriental kings, as for +example his Egyptian father-in-law. For this he required copious +means-forced labour, tribute in kind, and money. He had +especially at heart the extension and improvement of Jerusalem as +a strong and splendid capital; the temple which he built was only +a portion of his vast citadel, which included within its precincts +a number of private and public buildings designed for various +uses. + +It is plain that new currents were introduced into the stream of +the nation's development by such a king as this. As formerly, +after the occupation, Canaanite culture had come in, so now, after +the establishment of the kingdom, the floodgate was open for the +admission of Oriental civilisation in a deeper and wider sense. +Whatever the personal motives which led to it may have been, +the results were very importent, and by no means disadvantageous +on the whole. On the basis of the firmer administration now +introduced, stability and order could rest; Judah had no cause +to regret its acceptance of this yoke. Closer intercourse with +foreign lands widened the intellectual horizon of the people, +and at the same time awakened it to a deeper sense of its own +peculiar individuality. If Solomon imported Phoenician and +Egyptian elements into the worship of Jehovah at his court +temple, the rigid old Israelite indeed might naturally +enough take offence (Exodus xx. 24-26), but the temple itself +nevertheless ultimately acquired a great and positive +importance for religion. It need not be denied that mischievous +consequences of various kinds slipped in along with the good. +The king, moreover, can hardly be blamed for his conduct in +erecting in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem altars to deities of +Ammon and Egypt. For those altars remained undisturbed until +the time of Josiah, although between Solomon and him there +reigned more than one pious king who would certainly have +destroyed them had he found them as offensive as did the author +of Deuteronomy. + + +4. FROM JEROBOAM I. TO JEROBOAM II. + +After the death of Solomon the discontent which had been aroused by +his innovations, and especially by the rigour of his government, +openly showed itself against his successor; and when Rehoboam +curtly refused the demands which had been laid before him by an +assembly of the elders at Shechem, they withdrew from their +allegiance and summoned to be their king the Ephraimite Jeroboam +ben Nebat, who already had made an abortive attempt at revolt +from Solomon, and afterwards had taken refuge in Egypt. Only +Judah and Jerusalem remained faithful to the house of David. +Among the causes of the revolt of the ten tribes, jealousy of +Judah must certainly be reckoned as one. The power of Joseph had +been weakened by the Philistines, and by the establishment of the +monarchy the centre of gravity had been shifted from the north +where it naturally lay. But now it was restored to its old seat; +for once more it was situated, not in Judah, but in Joseph. +Monarchy itself, however, was not abolished by the revolting +tribes, conclusively showing how unavoidable and how advantageous +that institution was now felt to be; but at the same time they did +not refrain from attempts to combine its advantages with those +of anarchy, a folly which was ultimately the cause of their ruin. +As for their departure from the Mosaic cultus observed at +Jerusalem on the other hand, it was first alleged against them as +a sin only by the later Jews. At the time religion put no +obstacle in the way of their separation; on the contrary, it +actually suggested and promoted it (Ahijah of Shiloh). The +Jerusalem cultus had not yet come to be regarded as the alone +legitimate; that instituted by Jeroboam at Bethel and at Dan was +recognised as equally right; images of the Deity were exhibited +in all three places, and indeed in every place where a house of +God was found. So far as the religious and intellectual life of +the nation was concerned, there was no substantial difference +between the two kingdoms, except indeed in so far as new displays +of vigorous initiative generally proceeded from Israel. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Even in the Deuteronomic redaction of the Book of Kings indeed, +and still more by the Chronicler, the political rebellion of +Israel is regarded as having been ecclesiastical and religious in +its character. The Book of Chronicles regards Samaria as a +heathen kingdom, and recognises Judah alone as Israel. But in +point of fact Judah takes up the history of Israel only after +the fall of Samaria; see ## 6, 7. +-- Footnote + + +Rehoboam did not readily accept the situation; he sought to +reduce the revolt by force of arms, with what degree of success +is shown by the fact that his rival found himself constrained to +take up his residence at Peniel (near Mahanaim) on the other side +of Jordan. The invasion of Shishak, however, who took Jerusalem +and burnt it, gave Jeroboam at last a breathing space. The feud +continued indeed, but Rehoboam could no longer dream of bringing +back the ten tribes. The scale by and by turned in Israel's +favour. King Baasha, who had seated himself on the throne in +place of Nadab, Jeroboam's son, took the offensive, and Asa ben +Rehoboam had no help for it but to call in Benhadad of Damascus +against his adversary. In this way he gained his immediate +purpose, it is true, but by the most dangerous of expedients. + +Baasha's son Elah was supplanted by his vizier Zimri, who, +however, was in his turn unable to hold his own against Omri, who +had supreme command of the army. Against Omri there arose in +another part of the country a rival, Tibni ben Ginath, who +succeeded in maintaining some footing until his death, when Omri +became supreme. Omri must be regarded as the founder of the first +dynasty, in the proper sense of that word, in Israel, and as the +second founder of the kingdom itself, to which he gave a permanent +capital in Samaria. The Bible has hardly anything to tell us about +him, but his importance is evident from the fact that among the +Assyrians "the kingdom of Omri" / 1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Bit Humri, like )OIKOS *LUSANIOU, and similar territorial names +in Syriac. +-- Footnote + + +was the ordinary name of Israel. According to the inscription of +Mesha, it was he who again subjugated Moab, which had become +independent at the death of David or of Solomon. He was not so +successful against the Damascenes, to whom he had to concede +certain privileges in his own capital (1Kings xx. 34) /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Omri's accession is to be placed somewhere about 900 B.C It is +a date, and the first, that can be determined with some precision, +if we place the battle of Karkar (854) near the end of Ahab's +reign, and take the servitude of Moab, which lasted forty years +and ended with Ahab's deatb, to begin in Omri's first decade. +-- Footnote + + +Ahab, who succeeded Omri his father, seems during the greater part +of his reign to have in some sort acknowledged Syrian suzerainty. +In no other way can we account for the fact that in the battle of +Karkar against the Assyrians (854 B.C.) a contingent was +contributed by him. But this very battle made the political +situation so clear that he was led to break off his relations with +Damascus. With this began a series of ferocious attacks on Israel +by Benhadad and Hazael. They were met by Ahab with courage +and success, but in the third year of that fifty years' war he +fell in the battle at Ramoth Gilead (c. 851). + +After the events recorded in 1Kings xx., a forced alliance with +Damascus on the part of Samaria is incredible; but the idea of +spontaneous friendly relations is also inadmissible. Schrader +indeed finds support for the latter theory in 1Kings xx. 34; +but in that passage there is no word of any offensive or defensive +alliance between the rival kings; all that is stated is that Ahab +releases the captive Benhadad on condition (BBRYT) that the latter +undertakes certain obligations, particularly those of keeping the +peace and restoring the cities which had been taken. By this +arrangement no change was made in the previously strained +relations of the two kingdoms; and, moreover, the BRYT was not +kept (xxii. 1 seq.). Not much nearer the truth than the +preceding is the view that the danger threatened by Assyria drove +the kings of Syria and Palestine into one another's arms, and so +occasioned an alliance between Ahab and Benhadad also. For if +feelings of hostility existed at all between the two last named, +then Ahab could not do otherwise than congratulate himself that +in the person of Shalmaneser II. there had arisen against +Benhadad an enemy who would be able to keep him effectually in +check. That Shalmaneser might prove dangerous to himself probably +did not at that time occur to him; but if it had he would still +have chosen the remote in preference to the immediately +threatening evil. For it was the political existence of Israel +that was at stake in the struggle with Damascus; in such +circumstances every ally would of course be welcome, every enemy +of the enemy would be hailed as a friend, and the political +wisdom which Max Duncker attributes to Ahab would have been +nothing less than unpardonable folly. The state of matters was at +the outset in this respect just what it continued to be throughout +the subsequent course of events; the Assyrian danger grew in +subsequent years, and with it grew the hostility between Damascus +and Samaria. This fact admits only of one explanation,--that the +Israelites utilised to the utmost of their power for their own +protection against the Syrians the difficulties into which the +latter were thrown by Shalmaneser II., and that these in their +turn, when the Assyrians gave them respite, were all the fiercer +in their revenge. On the evidence of the monuments and the Bible +we may even venture to assert that it was the Assyrian attacks upon +Damascus which at that time preserved Israel from becoming +Aramaic,--of course only because Israel made the most of them for +her political advantage. + +Assuming that Ahab the Israelite (Ahabu Sirlaai) fought in the +battle of Karkar (854) on the side of the king of Damascus, it +was only because he could not help himself; but if it is actually +the case that he did so, the battle of Karkar must have taken +place BEFORE the events recorded in 1Kings xx. + +The Moabites took advantage of an accession under such critical +circumstances to shake off the yoke imposed by Omri forty years +before; an accurate account of their success, obviously written +while the impression of it was still fresh, /1/ has come down to + +-- Footnote +1. It is obvious that Mesha's narrative is to be taken with +2Kings i. 1, and not with 2Kings iii. +-- Footnote + + +us in the famous inscription of King Mesha. Ahaziah, Ahab's +immediate successor, was obliged to accept the situation; after +his early death a futile attempt again to subjugate them was made +by his brother Joram. Such a campaign was possible to him only +in the event of the Syrians keeping quiet, and in point of fact +it would appear that they were not in a position to follow up the +advantage they had gained at Ramoth; doubtless they were +hampered by the inroads of the Assyrians in 850 and 849. As soon +as they got a little respite, however, they lost no time in +attacking Joram, driving him into his capital, where they +besieged him. Samaria had already been brought to the utmost +extremities of famine, when suddenly the enemy raised the siege +on account of a report of an invasion of their own land by the +"Egyptians and Hittites." Possibly we ought to understand by these +the Assyrians rather, who in 846 renewed their attacks upon Syria; +to ordinary people in Israel the Assyrians were an unknown quantity, +for which it would be natural in popular story to substitute something +more familiar. This turn of affairs relieved Joram from his straits; +it would even seem that, favoured by a change of dynasty at +Damascus, he had succeeded in taking from the Syrians the fortress +of Ramoth in Gilead, which had been the object of Ahab's +unsuccessful endeavours, when suddenly there burst upon the house +of Omri the overwhelming catastrophe for which the prophets had +long been preparing. + +When the prophets first made their appearance, some time before the +beginning of the Philistine war, they were a novel phenomenon in +Israel; but in the interval they had become so naturalised that +they now had a recognised and essential place in connection with +the religion of Jehovah. They had in the process divested +themselves of much that had originally characterised them, but +they still retained their habit of appearing in companies and +living together in societies, and also that of wearing a peculiar +distinctive dress. These societies of theirs had no ulterior +aims; the rabbinical notion that they were schools and academies +in which the study of the Torah and of sacred history was pursued +imports later ideas into an earlier time. First-rate importance +on the whole cannot be claimed for the Nebiim, but occasionally +there arose amongst them a man in whom the spirit which was +cultivated within their circles may be said to have risen to the +explosive pitch. Historical influence was exercised at no time +save by these individuals, who rose above their order and even +placed themselves in opposition to it, but always at the same time +had their base of operations within it. The prototype of this +class of exceptional prophets, whom we not unjustly have been +accustomed to regard as the true, is Elijah of Thisbe, the +contemporary of Ahab. + +ln compliment to Jezebel his wife, Ahab had set up in Samaria a +temple with richly endowed religious services in honour of the +Syrian Baal. In doing so he had no intention of renouncing +Jehovah; Jehovah continued to be the national God after whom he +named his sons Ahaziah and Jehoram. The destruction of Jehovah's +altars or the persecution of His prophets was not at all proposed, +or even the introduction of a foreign cultus elsewhere than in +Samaria. Jehovah's sovereignty over Israel being thus only +remotely if at all imperilled, the popular faith found nothing +specially offensive in a course of action which had been followed +a hundred years before by Solomon also. Elijah alone was strenuous +in his opposition; the masses did not understand him, and were far +from taking his side. To him only, but not to the nation, did it +seem like a halting between two opinions, an irreconcilable +inconsistency, that Jehovah should be worshipped as Israel's God +and a chapel to Baal should at the same time be erected in Israel. + +In solitary grandeur did this prophet tower conspicuously over +his time; legend, and not history, could alone preserve the +memory of his figure. There remains a vague impression that with +him the development of Israel's conception of Jehovah entered upon +a new stadium, rather than any data from which it can be +ascertained wherein the contrast of the new with the old lay. +After Jehovah, acting more immediately within the political +sphere, had established the nation and kingdom, he now began in +the spiritual sphere to operate against the foreign elements, the +infusion of which previously had been permitted to go on almost +unchecked. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. It is worth noticing how much more frequent from this period +onwards proper names compounded with the word Jehovah become. +Among the names of the judges and of the kings before Ahab in +Israel and Asa in Judah, not a single instance occurs; +thenceforward they become the rule. +-- Footnote + + +The Rechabites, who arose at that time, protested in their zeal +for Jehovah altogether against all civilisation which presupposes +agriculture, and in their fundamental principles aimed at a +recurrence to the primitive nomadic life of Israel in the +wilderness; the Nazarites abstained at least from wine, the chief +symbol of Dionysiac civilisation. In this indeed Elijah was not +with them; had he been so, he would doubtless have been +intelligible to the masses. But, comprehending as he did the +spirit from which these demonstrations proceeded, he thought of +Jehovah as a great principle which cannot coexist in the same +heart with Baal. To him first was it revealed that we have not +in the various departments of nature a variety of forces worthy +of our worship, but that there exists over all but one Holy One +and one Mighty One, who reveals Himself not in nature but in law +and righteousness in the world of man. The indignation he displayed +against the judicial murder at Jezreel was as genuine and strong +as that which he manifested against the worship of Baal in +Samaria; the one was as much a crime against Jehovah as the +other. + +Elijah ascended to heaven before he had actually achieved much +in the world. The idea which his successors took from him was that +it was necessary to make a thorough clearance from Samaria of the +Baal worship and of the house of Ahab as well. For this practical +end Elisha made use of practical means. When Elijah, after the +murder of Naboth, had suddenly appeared before Ahab and +threatened him with a violent end, an officer of high command had +been present, Jehu ben Nimshi, and he had never forgotten the +incident. He now found himself at the head of the troops at +Ramoth Gilead after the withdrawal to Jezreel of Joram ben Ahab +from the field to be healed of his wound. To Elisha the moment +seemed a suitable one for giving to Jehu in Jehovah's name the +command now to carry out Elijah's threat against the house of +Ahab. Jehu gained over the captains of the army, and carried out +so well the task with which the prophet had commissioned him that +not a single survivor of Ahab's dynasty or of his court was left. +He next extirpated Baal and his worshippers in Samaria. From that +date no worship of foreign gods seems ever to have recurred in +Israel. Idolatry indeed continued to subsist, but the images, +stones, and trees, even the seraphim apparently, belonged to the +cultus of Jehovah, or were at least brought into relation with it. + +Jehu founded the second and last dynasty of the kingdom of Samaria +His inheritance from the house of Omri included the task of +defending himself against the Syrians. The forces at his disposal +being insufficient for this, he resorted to the expedient of +seeking to urge the Assyrians to renew their hostilities against +the Arameeans. For this end his ambassadors carried presents to +Shalmaneser II.; these were not of a regular but only of an +occasional character, but the vanity of the great king represents +them as the tribute of a vassal. In the years 842 and 839 Assyrian +campaigns against Hazael of Damascus actually took place; then +they were intermitted for a long time, and the kings of Samaria, +Jehu and his two successors, were left to their own resources. +These were evil times for Israel. With a barbarity never +intermitted the frontier war went on in Gilead, where Ammon and +Moab showed themselves friendly to the Syrian cause (Amos i.); +occasionally great expeditions took place, one of which brought +King Hazael to the very walls of Jerusalem. It was only with +the greatest difficulty that Israel's independence was maintained. +Once more religion went hand in hand with the national cause; +the prophet Elisha was the main stay of the kings in the struggle +with the Syrians, "the chariot and horsemen of Israel." Joash ben +Joahaz ben Jehu at last succeeded in inflicting upon Syria several +blows which proved decisive. Thenceforward Israel had nothing to +fear from that quarter. Under Joash's son, Jeroboam II., the +kingdom even reached a height of external power which recalled the +times of David. Moab was again subdued; southwards the frontier +extended to the brook of the wilderness (Amos vi. 14), and northward +to Hamath. + + +5. GOD, THE WORLD, AND THE LIFE OF MEN IN OLD ISRAEL. + +Before proceeding to consider the rise of those prophets who were +the makers of the new Israel, it will not be out of place here to +cast a glance backwards upon the old order of things which +perished with the kingdom of Samaria. With reference to any +period earlier than the century 850-750 B.C., we can hardly be +said to possess any statistics. For, while the facts of history +admit of being handed down with tolerable accuracy through a +considerable time, a contemporary literature is indispensable for +the description of standing conditions. But it was within this +period that Hebrew literature first flourished--after the Syrians +had been finally repulsed, it would seem. Writing of course had +been practiced from a much earlier period, but only in formal +instruments, mainly upon stone. At an early period also the +historical sense of the people developed itself in connection +with their religion; but it found its expression in songs, which +in the first instance were handed down by word of mouth only. +Literature began with the collection and writing out of those +songs; _the Book of the Wars of the Lord_ and _the Book of Jashar_ +were the oldest historical books. The transition was next made to +the writing of prose history with the aid of legal documents and +family reminiscences; a large portion of this early +historiography has been preserved to us in the Books of Judges, +Samuel, and Kings. Contemporaneously also certain collections of +laws and decisions of the priests, of which we have an example in +Exodus xxi. xxii., were committed to writing. Somewhat later, +perhaps, the legends about the patriarchs and primitive times, +the origin of which cannot be assigned to a very early date, /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Even the Jehovistic narratives about the patriarchs belong +to the time when Israel had already become a powerful kingdom; +Moab, Ammon,, and Edom had been subjugated (Genesis xxvii. 29), +and vigorous frontier wars were being carried on with the Syrians +about Gilead (Genesis xxxi. 52). In Genesis xxvii. 40 +allusion is made to the constantly repeated subjugations of Edom +by Judah, alternating with successful revolts on the part of the +former; see Delitzsch on K)$R;. +-- Footnote + + +received literary shape. Specially remarkable is the rise of +a written prophecy. The question why it was that Elijah and +Elisha committed nothing to writing, while Amos a hundred years +later is an author, hardly admits of any other answer than that +in the interval a non-literary had developed into a literary age. +How rapid the process was may be gathered from a comparison between +the singularly broken utterances of the earlier oracle contained +in Isaiah xv. xvi. with the orations of Isaiah himself. + +We begin our survey with that of the family relations. Polygamy +was rare, monogamy the rule; but the right of concubinage was +unlimited. While a high position was accorded both by affection +and custom to the married wife, traces still existed of a state of +society in which she was regarded as property that went with the +inheritance. The marriage of relations was by no means +prohibited; no offence was taken at the circumstance that Abraham +was the husband of his sister (by a different mother). Parents +had full power over their children; they had the right to sell +and even to sacrifice them. In this respect, however, the +prevailing usage was mild, as also in regard to slaves, who +socially held a position of comparative equality with their +masters, and even enjoyed some measure of legal protection. +Slavery, it is plain, had not thc same political importance as +with the Greeks and Romans; it could have been abolished without +any shock to the foundations of the state. + +Throughout this period agriculture and gardening continued to be +regarded as man's normal calling (Genesis iii. iv.); the laws +contained in Exod. xxi.-xxiii. rest entirely upon this +assumption. To dwell in peace under his vine and under his +fig-tree was the ideal of every genuine lsraelite. Only in a few +isolated districts, as in the country to the east of Jordan and +in portions of Judah, did the pastoral life predominate. Art and +industry were undeveloped, and were confined to the production of +simple domestic necessaries. + +Commerce was in old time followed exclusively by the Canaanite +towns, so that the word "Canaanite" was used in the general sense +of "trader." But by and by Israel began to tread in Canaan's +footsteps (Hosea xii. 8, 9), /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. "Canaan (i.e., Ephraim Canaanised) has deceitful balances in his +hand, and loves to overreach. Ephraim indeed saith, I am become +rich, I have gained weealth; but all his profits will not suffice +for (expiation of) the guilt which he has incurred." +-- Footnote + + +The towns grew more influential than the country; money notably +increased; and the zeal of piety was quite unable to arrest the +progress of the change which set in. The kings themselves, from +Solomon onwards, were the first to set the bad example; they eagerly +sought to acquire suitable harbours, and in company or in competition +with the Syrians entered upon large commercial transactions. +The extortions of the corn-market, the formation of large estates, +the frequency of mortgages, all show that the small peasant +proprietorship was unable to hold its own against the accumulations +of wealth. The wage-receiving class increased, and cases in which +free Hebrews sold themselves into slavery were not rare. + +On all hands the material progress of the commonwealth made itself +felt, the old simplicity of manners disappeared, and luxury +increased. Buildings of hewn stone began to be used even by +private individuals. The towns, especially the chief ones, were +fortified; and in time of war refuge was sought in them, and not +as formerly in woods and caves. Even in the time of David the +Israelites always fought on foot; but now horses and chariots were +regarded as indispensable. The bow came to be the principal weapon +of offence, and a military class appears to have sprung up. + +The monarchy retained in the kingdom of the ten tribes its +military character; the commander-in-chief was the first person +in the kingdom. In internal affairs its interference was slight; +with systematic despotism it had little in common, although of +course within its narrow sphere it united executive and +legislative functions. It was little more than the greatest house +in Israel. The highest official was called "master of the +household." The court ultimately grew into a capital, the +municipal offices of which were held by royal officials. The +provinces had governors who, however, in time of war withdrew to +the capital (1Kings xx.); the presumption is that their sole +charge was collection of the revenue. + +The state was not charged with affairs of internal administration; +all parties were left free to maintain their own interests. Only +in cases in which conflicts had emerged in consequence could the +king be approached. Ruling and judging were regarded as one and +the same; there was but one word for both (2Kings xv. 5). +Still, the king was not altogether the only judge; there were, in +fact, a number of independent jurisdictions. Wherever within a +particular circle the power lay, there the right of judging was +also found, whether exercised by heads of families and communities +or by warriors and powerful lords. It was only because the king +was the most powerful that he was regarded as the judge of last +resort; but it was equally permitted to apply to him from the first. +Of method and rule in these things there was but little; a man was +glad to find any court to receive his complaint. Of course without +complaint one got no justice. The administration of justice was at +best but a scanty supplement to the practice of self-help. The heir +of the murdered man would not forego the right of blood revenge; but +his family or the commune gave him aid, and in case of need took +his place, for bloodshed had at all hazards to be atoned for. + +The firm establishment of civil order was rendered all the more +difficult by the continual wars and violent changes of dynasty +which ever and anon made its very existence problematical. +Power, which is more important than righteousness to a judicatory, +was what the government was wanting in In the simpler social +conditions of the earlier time a state which was adapted merely +for purposes of war might easily be found to work satisfactorily +enough, but a more complex order of things had now arisen. Social +problems had begun to crop up; for the poor and the proletariat +the protection of a thoughtful government had come to be required, +but was not forthcoming. + +But these defects did not check all progress. The weakness of the +government, the want of political consolidation, were insufficient +to arrest intellectual advance or to corrupt the prevailing moral +tone and feeling for justice; in fact it was precisely in this +period (the period in which the main part of the Jehovistic +history must have been written) that the intellectual and moral +culture of the people stood at its highest. Even when the +machinery of the monarchy had got out of order, the organisation +of the families and communes continued to subsist; the smaller +circles of social life remained comparatively untouched by the +catastrophes that shook the greater. Above all, the national +religion supplied the spiritual life with an immovable basis. + +The favourite illustrations of the power of religion in the Israel +of that period are drawn from the instances of great prophets who +raised kings out of the dust and smote them to it again. But the +influence and importance of these is generally exaggerated in the +accounts we have. That among them there occasionally occurred +manifestations of such power as to give a new turn in history is +indeed true; a figure like that of Elijah is no mere invention. +But such a man as he was a prophecy of the future rather than an +actual agent in shaping the present. On the whole, religion was +a peaceful influence, conserving rather than assailing the existing +order of things. The majority of the prophets were no revolutionists; +rather in fact were they always too much inclined to prophesy in +accordance with the wishes of the party in power. Besides, in +ordinary circumstances their influence was inferior to that of +the priests, who were servants of royalty at the chief +sanctuaries, but everywhere attached to the established order. + +The Torah of Jehovah still continued to be their special charge. +It was not even now a code or law in our sense of the word; +Jehovah had not yet made His Testament; He was still living and +active in Israel. But the Torah appears during this period to +have withdrawn itself somewhat from the business of merely +pronouncing legal decisions and to have begun to move in a freer +field. It now consisted in teaching the knowledge of God, in +showing the right God-given way where men were not sure of +themselves. Many of the counsels of the priests had become a +common stock of moral convictions, which, indeed, were all of them +referred to Jehovah as their author, yet had ceased to be matters +of direct revelation. Nevertheless the Torah had still occupation +enough, the progressive life of the nation ever affording matter +for new questions. + +Although in truth the Torah and the moral influence of Jehovah +upon the national life were things much weightier and much more +genuinely Israelitic than the cultus, yet this latter held on the +whole a higher place in public opinion. To the ordinary man it +was not moral but liturgical acts that seemed to be truly +religious. Altars of Jehovah occurred everywhere, with sacred +stones and trees--the latter either artificial (Asheras) or +natural--beside them; it was considered desirable also to have +water in the neighbourhood (brazen sea). In cases where a temple +stood before the altar it contained an ephod and teraphim, a kind +of images before which the lot was cast by the priest. Of the +old simplicity the cultus retained nothing; at the great +sanctuaries especially (Bethel, Gilgal, Beersheba) it had become +very elaborate. Its chief seasons were the agricultural +festivals--the passover, the feast of weeks, and most especially +the feast of the ingathering at the close of the year. These were +the only occasions of public worship properly so called, at which +every one was expected to attend; in other cases each worshipper +sought the presence of God only in special circumstances, as for +example at the beginning and at the end of particular undertakings. +The cultus, as to place, time, matter, and form, belonged almost +entirely to the inheritance which Israel had received from Canaan; +to distinguish what belonged to the worship of Jehovah from that +which belonged to Baal was no easy matter. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The description of the cultus by the Prophet Hosea shows this +very clearly. It is obvious enough, however, that the object +was to serve JEHOVAH, and not any foreign deity, by this worship. +-- Footnote + + +It was the channel through which also paganism could and did ever +anew gain admittance into the worship of Jehovah. Yet that +publicity of the cultus which arose out of the very nature of Jehovah, +and in consequence of which the teraphim even were removed from the +houses to the temples, cannot but have acted as a corrective against +the most fatal excesses. + +As for the substance of the national faith, it was summed up +principally in the proposition that Jehovah is the God of Israel. +But "God" was equivalent to "helper;" that was the meaning of +the word. "Help," assistance in all occasions of life,--that was +what Israel looked for from Jehovah, not "salvation" in the +theological sense. The forgiveness of sins was a matter of +subordinate importance; it was involved in the "help," and was a +matter not of faith but of experience. The relation between the +people and God was a natural one as that of son to father; it did +not rest upon observance of the conditions of a pact. But it was +not on that account always equally lively and hearty; Jehovah +was regarded as having varieties of mood. To secure and retain +His favour sacrifices were useful; by them prayer and +thanksgiving were seconded. + +Another main article of faith was that Jehovah judges and +recompenses, not after death (then all men were thought to be +alike), but upon the earth. Here, however, but little account +was taken of the individual; over him the wheel of destiny +remorselessly rolled; his part was resignation and not hope. +Not in the career of the individual but in the fate of families +and nations did the righteousness of Jehovah find scope for its +manifestation; and this is the only reason why the religion +could dispense with the conceptions of heaven and hell. For the +rest, it was not always easy to bring the second article into +correlation with the first; in practice the latter received the +superior place. + +It need hardly be said that superstition of every kind also +abounded. But the superstition of the Israelites had as little +real religious significance as had that poetical view of nature +which the Hebrews doubtless shared in greater or less degree with +all the other nations of antiquity. + + +6. THE FALL OF SAMARIA. + +Under King Jeroboam II., two years before a great earthquake that +served ever after for a date to all who had experienced it, there +occurred at Bethel, the greatest and most conspicuous sanctuary +of Jehovah in Israel, a scene full of significance. The multitude +were assembled there with gifts and offerings for the observance +of a festival, when there stepped forward a man whose grim +seriousness interrupted the joy of the feast. It was a Judaean, +Amos of Tekoa, a shepherd from the wilderness bordering on the +Dead Sea. Into the midst of the joyful tones of the songs which +with harp and tabor were being sung at the sacred banquet he +brought the discordant note of the mourner's wail. For over all +the joyous stir of busy life his ear caught the sounds of death: +"the virgin of Israel is fallen, never more to rise; +lies prostrate in her own land with no one to lift her up." +He prophesied as close at hand the downfall of the kingdom which +just at that moment was rejoicing most in the consciousness of +power, and the deportation of the people to a far-off northern land. + +There was something rotten in the state of Israel in spite of +the halcyon days it enjoyed under Jeroboam II. From the indirect +results of war, from changes in the tenure and in the culture of +the soil, from defective administration of justice, the humbler +classes had much to suffer; they found that the times were evil. +But it was not this that caused Amos to foresee the end of Israel, +not a mere vague foreboding of evil that forced him to leave his +flocks; the dark cloud that threatened on the horizon was plain +enough--the Assyrians. Once already at an earlier date they had +directed their course south-westwards, without, however, on that +occasion becoming a source of danger to the Israelites. But now +that the bulwark against the Assyrians, Aram of Damascus, was +falling into ruins, a movement of these against Lebanon in the time +of Jeroboam II. opened to Israel the alarming prospect that +sooner or later they would have to meet the full force of the +irresistible avalanche. + +What then? The common man was in no position truly to estimate +the danger; and, so far as he apprehended it, he lived in the +firm faith that Jehovah would not abandon His people in their +straits. The governing classes prided themselves on the military +resources of Israel, or otherwise tried to dismiss from their +minds all thought of the gravity of the situation. But Amos heard +the question distinctly enough, and did not hesitate to answer +it: the downfall of Israel is imminent. It was nothing short of +blasphemy to utter anything of this kind, for everything, Jehovah +Himself included, depended on the existence of the nation. But +the most astounding thing has yet to come; not Asshur, but Jehovah +Himself, is bringing about the overthrow of Israel; through Asshur +it is Jehovah that is triumphing over Israel. A paradoxical +thought--as if the national God were to cut the ground from under +His own feet! For the faith in Jehovah as the God of Israel was +a faith that He intervenes on behalf of His people against all +enemies, against the whole World; precisely in times of danger +was religion shown by staying oneself upon this faith. Jehovah +might indeed, of course, hide His face for a time, but not +definitively; in the end He ever arose at last against all +opposing powers. "The day of the Lord" was an object of hope +in all times of difficulty and oppression; it was understood +as self-evident that the crisis would certainly end in favour of +Israel. Amos took up the popular conception of that day; but how +thoroughly did he change its meaning! "Woe to them who long +for the day of the Lord!--What to you is the day of the Lord,? +It is darkness, not light." His own opposition to the popular +conception is formulated in a paradox which he prefixes as theme +to the principal section of his book:--"Us alone does Jehovah +know," say the Israelites, drawing from this the inference that +He is on their side, and of course must take their part. "You +only do I know," Amos represents Jehovah as saying, "therefore do +I visit upon you all your sins." + +If the question, Whereon did Jehovah's relation to Israel +ultimately rest? be asked, the answer, according to the popular +faith, must substantially be that it rested on the fact that +Jehovah was worshipped in Israel and not among the heathen, that +in Israel were His altars and His dwelling. His cultus was the +bond between Him and the nation; when therefore it was desired +to draw the bond still closer, the solemn services of religion +were redoubled. But to the conception of Amos Jehovah is no +judge capable of accepting a bribe; with the utmost indignation +he repudiates the notion that it is possible to influence +Him by gifts and offerings. Though Israel alone has served Him +he does not on that account apply any other standard to it than +to other nations (chaps. i. ii.). If Israel is better known to +Him, it does not follow that on that account He shuts His eyes and +blindly takes a side. Neither Jehovah nor His prophet recognises +two moral standards; right is everywhere right, wrong always +wrong, even though committed against Israel's worst enemies (ii. 1). +What Jehovah demands is righteousness,--nothing more and +nothing less; what He hates is injustice. Sin or offence to the +Deity is a thing of purely moral character; with such emphasis +this doctrine had never before been heard. Morality is that for +the sake of which all other things exist; it is the alone +essential thing in the world. It is no postulate, no idea, but at +once a necessity and a fact, the most intensely living of +personal powers-Jehovah the God of Hosts. In wrath, in ruin, this +holy reality makes its existence known; it annihilates all that +is hollow and false. + +Amos calls Jehovah the God of Hosts, never the God of Israel. +The nation as such is no religious conception to him; from its mere +existence he cannot formulate any article of faith. Sometimes it +seems as if he were denying Israel's prerogative altogether. He +does not really do so, but at least the prerogative is +conditional and involves a heavy responsibility. The saying in +iii. 2 recalls Luke xii. 47. The proposition "Jehovah knows +Israel" is in the mouth of Amos almost the same thing as "Israel +knows Jehovah; " save only that this is not to be regarded as +any merit on Israel's part, but as a manifestation of the grace of +Jehovah, who has led His people by great deeds and holy men, and +so made Himself known. Amos knows no other truth than that +practical one which he has found among his own people and nowhere +else, Iying at the foundation of life and morality, and which he +regards as the product of a divine providential ordering of +history. From this point of view, so thoroughly Israelitish, he +pronounces Israel's condemnation. He starts from premisses +generally conceded, but he accentuates them differently and +draws from them divergent conclusions. + +Amos was the founder, and the purest type, of a new phase of +prophecy. The impending conflict of Asshur with Jehovah and +Israel, the ultimate downfall of Israel, is its theme. Until that +date there had subsisted in Palestine and Syria a number of petty +kingdoms and nationalities, which had their friendships and +enmities with one another, but paid no heed to anything outside +their own immediate environment, and revolved, each on its own axis, +careless of the outside world, until suddenly the Assyrians burst +in upon them. These commenced the work which was carried on by +the Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks, and completed by the Romans. +They introduced a new factor, the conception of the world,--the world +of course in the historical sense of that expression. In presence +of that conception the petty nationalities lost their centre of +gravity, brute fact dispelled their illusions, they flung their +gods to the moles and to the bats (Isaiah ii.). The prophets of +Israel alone did not allow themselves to be taken by surprise by +what had occurred, or to be plunged in despair; they solved by +anticipation the grim problem which history set before them. +They absorbed into their religion that conception of the world +which was destroying the religions of the nations, even before it +had been fully grasped by the secular consciousness. Where +others saw only the ruin of everything that is holiest, they saw +the triumph of Jehovah over delusion and error. Whatever else +might be overthrown, the really worthy remained unshaken. They +recognised ideal powers only, right and wrong truth and falsehood; +second causes were matters of indifference to them, they were no +practical politicians. But they watched the course of events +attentively, nay, with passionate interest. The present, which +was passing before them, became to them as it were the plot of a +divine drama which they watched with an intelligence that +anticipated the _denouement_. Everywhere the same goal of the +development, everywhere the same laws. The nations are the +_dramatis personae_, Israel the hero, Jehovah the poet of the +tragedy. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. In very much the same way the threatened and actual political +annihilation of Ionia led to the rise of Greek philosophy +(Xenophanes, Heraclitus). +-- Footnote + + +The canonical prophets, the series of whom begins with Amos, were +separated by an essential distinction from the class which had +preceded them and which still continued to be the type of the +common prophet. They did not seek to kindle either the +enthusiasm or the fanaticism of the multitude; they swam not +with but against the stream. They were not patriotic, at least +in the ordinary acceptation of that word; they prophesied not good +but evil for their people (Jer. xxviii. 8). Until their time +the nation had sprung up out of the conception of Jehovah; now +the conception of Jehovah was casting the nation into the shade. +The natural bond between the two was severed, and the relation +was henceforward viewed as conditional. As God of the +righteousness which is the law of the whole universe, Jehovah +could be Israel's God only in so far as in Israel the right was +recognised and followed. The ethical element destroyed the +national character of the old religion. It still addressed itself, +to be sure, more to the nation and to society at large than to +the individual; it insisted less upon a pure heart than upon +righteous institutions; but nevertheless the first step towards +universalism had been accomplished, towards at once the general +diffusion and the individualisation of religion. Thus, although +the prophets were far from originating a new conception of God, +they none the less were the founders of what has been called +"ethical monotheism." But with them this ethical monotheism was no +product of the "self-evolution of dogma," but a progressive step +which had been called forth simply by the course of events. The +providence of God brought it about that this call came at an +opportune period, and not too suddenly. The downfall of the nation +did not take place until the truths and precepts of religion were +already strong enough to be able to live on alone; to the +prophets belongs the merit of having recognised the independence +of these, and of having secured perpetuity to Israel by refusing +to allow the conception of Jehovah to be involved in the ruin of +the kingdom. They saved faith by destroying illusion. + +The event which Amos had foreseen was not long in coming. The +Israelites flew spontaneously, like "silly doves," into the net +of the Assyrians. Zechariah ben Jeroboam was overthrown after a +short reign, Shallum his murderer and successor was also unable to +hold his own, and was followed after the horrors of a civil war by +Menahem ben Gadi (745 B.C). But Menahem, in the presence of +domestic (and perhaps also foreign) assailants, /1/ had no other + +-- Footnote +1. It is not inconceivable that the wars carried on by +Tiglath-pileser II. against Hamath had some connection with his +interventions in favour of Menahem. The kingdom of Hamath, which +may have been threatened by Jeroboam II., may have availed +itself of the state of matters which followed his death to secure +its own aggrandisement at Israel's expense; in correspondence +with this attack from the northern side another by Judah in +concert with Hamath may well have been made from the south. In +this way, though not without the aid of pure hypothesis, it might +be possible to fit into the general historical connection the +fragmentary Assyrian notices about Azariah of Judah and his +relations to Hamath; the explanations suggested by the +Assyriologists have hitherto been total failures. But in that +case it would certainly be necessary to assume that the Assyrians +were badly informed as to the nature of the relations between +Hamath and Judah, and also as to the individual who at that time +held the throne of Judah. Uzziah (= Azariah), who in his old age +had become a leper, could only nominally at best have been king +of Judah then. +-- Footnote + + +resort than to purchase by payment of a great tribute the assistance +of King Tiglath-pileser II., who at that time was giving new force +to the Assyrian predominance in these regions. By such means he +succeeded in attaining his immediate end, but the further +consequence was that the rival party in the state turned for +support to Egypt, and Palestine now became the arena of conflict +between the two great world-powers. + +Menahem transmitted his kingdom to Pekahiah; Pekahiah was murdered +about 735 B.C. by Pekah, and Pekah himself shortly afterwards +was overthrown. All this happened within a few years. It would +have been possible to conjecture the state of the country in +these circumstances, even if we had not been informed of it by +means of the prophetical book of Hosea, which dates from the time +when the Assyrians had begun indeed to tamper with the country, +but had not yet shown their full design. After the death of +Jeroboam II. there had been wild outbursts of partisan war; none +of the kings who in quick succession appeared and disappeared had +real power, none established order. It was as if the danger from +without, which was only too obviously threatening the existence +of the kingdom, had already dissolved all internal bonds; every +one was at war with his neighbour. Assyrians and Egyptians were +called in to support this or that government; by such expedients +the external confusion was, naturally, only increased. Was there +any other quarter in which help could yet be sought? The +people, led by the priests, turned to the altars of Jehovah, and +outdid itself in pious works, as if by any such illusory means, +out of all relation to the practical problem in hand, the gangrene +of anarchy could possibly be healed. Still more zealous than +Amos against the cultus was Hosea, not merely on the ground that +it had the absurd motive of forcing Jehovah's favour, but also +because it was of heathenish character, nature-worship and +idolatry. That Jehovah is the true and only helper is certainly +not denied by Hosea. But His help is coupled with the condition +that Israel shall undergo a complete change, and of such a change +he sees no prospect. On this account the downfall of the state is +in Hosea's view inevitable, but not final ruin, only such an +overthrow as is necessary for the transition to a new and fair +recommencement. In Hosea's prophecies the relation between Jehovah +and Israel is conceived of as dissoluble, and as actually on the point +of being dissolved, but it has struck its roots so deep that it +must inevitably at last establish itself again. + +The first actual collision between Israel and Assyria occurred in +734. Resin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Samaria, had +united in an expedition against Judah, where at that time Ahaz ben +Jotham occupied the throne. But Ahaz parried the blow by placing +himself under the protection of the Assyrians, who perhaps would +in any case have struck in against the alliance between Aram and +Israel. Tiglath-pileser made his first appearance in 734, first on +the sea-coast of Palestine, and subsequently either in this or in +the following year took up his quarters in the kingdom of the ten +tribes. After he had ravaged Galilee and Gilead, he finally +concluded a peace with Samaria conditionally on his receiving the +head of King Pekah and a considerable yearly tribute. Hosea ben +Elah was raised to the throne in Pekah's place and acknowledged by +the Assyrian as a vassal For some ten years he held his position +quietly, regularly paying his dues. But when at the death of +Tiglath-pileser the Syro-Palestinian kingdoms rebelled _en masse_, +Samaria also was seized with the delirium of patriotic fanaticism +(Isaiah xxviii.). Relying upon the help of Seve, king of Ethiopia +and Egypt, Hosea ventured on a revolt from Assyria. But the +Egyptians left him in the lurch as soon as Shalmaneser IV., +Tiglath-pileser's successor, invaded his territory. Before his +capital had fallen, Hosea himself fell into the hands of the +Assyrians. Samaria offered a desperate resistance, and succumbed +only to Sargon, Shalmaneser's successor (72I). Energetic +measures were adopted by the victor for the pacification of the +country; he carried all the inhabitants of mark into captivity +to Calachene, Gozanitis, and Armenia. Much light is thrown upon +the conditions of the national religion then and upon its +subsequent development by the single fact that the exiled +Israelites were absorbed by the surrounding heathenism without +leaving a trace behind them, while the population of Judah, who +had the benefit of a hundred years respite, held their faith fast +throughout the period of the Babylonian exile, and by means of it +were able to maintain their own individuality afterwards in all +the circumstances that arose. The fact that the fall of Samaria +did not hinder but helped the religion of Jehovah is entirely due +to the prophets. That they had foreseen the downfall of the +state, and declared in the name of religion that it was +inevitable, was a matter of much greater historical importance +than the actual downfall itself. + + +7. THE DELIVERANCE OF JUDAH. + +Hitherto the small kingdom of Judah had stood in the background. +Its political history had been determined almost exclusively by +its relation to Israel. Under the dynasty of Omri the original +enmity had been changed into a close but perhaps not quite +voluntary friendship. Judah found itself drawn completely into +the train of the more powerful neighbouring state, and seems even +to have rendered it military service. The fall of the house of +Omri was an ominous event for Judah as well as Israel; Jehu, as +he passed to the throne, put to death not only Ahaziah the king +but also two and forty other members of the royal house of David +who had fallen into his hands; and those who still survived, +children for the most part, were murdered wholesale by the regent +Athaliah for reasons that are unknown. Only one little boy, +Joash, was concealed from her fury, and by a successful +conspiracy six years afterwards was placed upon the throne of his +ancestors. At that time the Syrians were extending their +incursions to Judah and Philistia, and Joash bought them off from +Jerusalem with the temple treasures. Perhaps it was this disgrace +that he expiated with his death; in like manner perhaps the +assassination of his successor Amaziah is to be accounted for by +the discredit he had incurred by a reckless and unsuccessful war +against Israel. Just as Israel was beginning to recover itself +after the happy termination of the Syrian wars, Judah also +experienced its period of highest prosperity. What Jeroboam II. +was to the northern kingdom, Uzziah was to that of the south. He +appears to have obtained possession of Edom, and for a +considerable time to have held that one province of David's +conquests which fell to Judah; and at the trading port of Elath +he revived the commerce which Solomon had created. The prosperity +of his long reign was uninterrupted till in his later years he was +smitten with leprosy, and found it necessary to hand over the +affairs of the kingdom to his son Jotham. But Jotham appears to +have died about the same time as his father,--his successor, still +in very early youth (Isaiah iii. 12), being Ahaz ben Jotham +ben Uzziah. + +If Judah could not compare with Israel in political and general +historical importance, it nevertheless enjoyed more than one +considerable advantage over the larger kingdom. It was much safer +from foreign foes; for the Egyptians, as a rule, were not +dangerous neighbours. But its chief advantage consisted in the +stability of its dynasty. It was David who had elevated Judah +and Jerusalem to a position of historical significance, and the +prosperity of his house was most intimately connected with that +of the town and territory, and even with that of religion. On two +separate occasions it occurred that a king of Judah was murdered +by subjects, but in both cases the "people of the land" rose up +against the assassins and once more placed a member of the Davidic +family upon the throne. The one actual recorded revolution was +that against Athaliah, which had for its object the restoration of +the throne to the legitimate heir. Under shelter of the monarchy +the other institutions of the state also acquired a measure of +permanency such as was not found at all in Israel, where +everything depended on the character of individuals, and the +existing order of things was ever liable to be subjected to fresh +dispute. Life in Judah was a much more stable affair, though not +so exciting or dramatic. Possibly the greater isolation of the +little kingdom, its more intimate relations with the neighbouring +wilderness, and the more primitive modes of life which resulted, +were also factors which contributed to this general result. + +In the capital of course the life was not primitive, and its +influence was undoubtedly greater than that of the country. +Successive kings exerted themselves for its external improvement, +and in this respect Hezekiah ben Ahaz was specially +distinguished. Above all they manifested sincere interest in the +temple, which from an early period exerted a powerful force of +attraction over the entire mass of the population. They +regulated the cultus according to their individual tastes, added +to it or curtailed it at their pleasure, and dealt with the sacred +treasures as they chose. Although the priests had in a certain +sense great power--the conspiracy against Athaliah was led not by +a prophet but by a priest,--they were nevertheless subjects of +the king, and had to act according to his orders. That the cultus +of Jehovah at Jerusalem was purer than that at Bethel or at +Samaria is an assertion which is contradicted by more than one +well-attested fact. In this respect there was no essential +difference between Israel and Judah. It was in Israel that the +reaction against Baal-worship originated which afterwards passed +over into Judah; the initiative in all such matters was Israel's. +There the experiments were made from which Jerusalem learned the +lesson. How deep was the interest felt in the affairs of the larger +kingdom by the inhabitants even of one of the smaller provincial +towns of Judah is shown in the instance of Amos of Tekoah. + +Step by step with the decline of Israel after the death of +Jeroboam II. did Judah rise in importance; it was already +preparing to take the inheritance. The man through whom the +transition of the history from Israel to Judah was effected, and +who was the means of securing for the latter kingdom a period of +respite which was fruitful of the best results for the +consolidation of true religion, was the Prophet Isaiah. The +history of his activity is at the same time the history of +Judah during that period. + +Isaiah became conscious of his vocation in the year of King +Uzziah's death; his earliest discourses date from the beginning +of the reign of Ahaz. In them he contemplates the imminent +downfall of Samaria, and threatens Judah also with the +chastisement its political and social sins deserve. In chapter ix., +and also in chapters ii.-v., he still confines himself on the whole +to generalities quite after the manner of Amos. But on the +occasion of the expedition of the allied Syrians and Ephraimites +against Jerusalem he interposed with bold decision in the sphere of +practical politics. To the very last he endeavoured to restrain +Ahaz from his purpose of summoning the Assyrians to his help; he +assured him of Jehovah's countenance, and offered him a token in +pledge. When the king refused this, the prophet recognised that +matters had gone too far, and that the coming of the Assyrians +could not be averted. He then declared that the dreaded danger +would indeed be obviated by that course, but that another far +more serious would be incurred. For the Egyptians would resist +the westward movement of Assyria, and Judah as the field of war +would be utterly laid waste; only a remnant would remain as the +basis of a better future. + +The actual issue, however, was not yet quite so disastrous. The +Egyptians did not interfere with the Assyrians, and left Samaria +and Damascus to their fate. Judah became indeed tributary to +Assyria, but at the same time enjoyed considerable prosperity. +Henceforward the prophet's most zealous efforts were directed to +the object of securing the maintenance, at any price, of this +condition of affairs. He sought by every means at his command to +keep Judah from any sort of intervention in the politics of the +great powers, in order that it might devote itself with undivided +energies to the necessities of internal affairs. He actually +succeeded in maintaining the peace for many years, even at times +when in the petty kingdoms around the spirit of revolt was abroad. +The ill success of all attempts elsewhere to shake off the yoke +confirmed him in the conviction that Assyria was the rod of +chastisement wielded by Jehovah over the nations, who had no +alternative but to yield to its iron sway. + +While thirty years passed thus peacefully away so far as foreign +relations were concerned, internal changes of all the greater +importance were taking place. Hezekiah ben Ahaz undertook for +the first time a thoroughgoing reformation in the cultus of +Jehovah. "He removed the high places, and brake the pillars, +and cut down the Ashera, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent +that Moses had made;" so we are told in 2Kings xviii. 4, with +a mixture of the general and the special that does not inspire +much confidence. For, e.g., the "high places" which Solomon +had raised on the Mount of Olives were not removed by Hezekiah, +although they stood quite close to Jerusalem, and moreover were +consecrated to foreign deities. But in every respect there must +have been a wide difference between the objects and results of +the reformations of Hezekiah and Josiah. Undoubtedly Hezekiah +undertook his reforms in worship under the influence of Isaiah. +Following in the footsteps of Hosea, who had been the first to +take and to express offence at the use of images in the worship +of Jehovah, this prophet, utilising the impression which the +destruction of Samaria had produced in Jerusalem (Isaiah +xvii., cf. Jeremiah iii.), strove to the utmost against the +adoration of the work of men's hands in the holy places, against +the Asheras and pillars (sun-pillars), and above all against the +ephods, i.e., the idols of silver and gold, of which the land was +full. But against the high places in and by themselves, against +the multiplicity of the altars of Jehovah, he made no protest. +"( In the Messianic time) ye shall loathe and cast away as an +unclean thing your graven images with silver coverings and your +molten images overlaid with gold," he says (xxx. 22); and the +inference is that he contemplated the purification of the high +places from superstitious excesses, but by no means their abolition. +To this one object /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. That is, to the abolition of the images. Jeremiah's polemic +is directed no longer against the images, but against wood +and stone, i.e, Asheras and pillars. The date of the reformation +under Hezekiah is uncertain; perhaps it ought to be placed after +Sennacherib's withdrawal from Jerusalem. +-- Footnote + + +Hezekiah's reformation seems to have confined itself,--an object +of much greater primary importance than the destruction of the +altars themselves. Their destruction was a measure which arose +simply out of despair of the possibility of cleansing them. + +Sargon, king of Assyria, was succeeded in 705 by Sennacherib. +The opportunity was seized by Merodach Baladan of Babylon to secure +his independence; and by means of an embassy he urged Hezekiah +also to throw off the yoke. The proposal was adopted, and the +king of Judah was joined by other petty kingdoms, especially +some of the Philistine towns. Relations with Egypt were +established to secure its support in case of need. Sennacherib's +more immediate and pressing business in Babylon enabled Palestine +to gain some time; but the issue of that revolt made +self-deception impossible as to the probable result of the other +movement. + +This was the period at which Isaiah, already far advanced in life, +wielded his greatest influence. The preparations for revolt, the +negotiations with Egypt, were concealed from him,-a proof how +greatly he was feared at court. When he came to know of them, it +was already too late to undo what had been done. But he could at +least give vent to his anger. With Jerusalem, it seemed to him, +the story of Samaria was repeating itself; uninstructed by that +sad lesson, the capital was giving itself up to the mad +intoxication of leaders who would inevitably bring her to ruin. +"Quietness and rest" had been the motto given by Jehovah to +Judah, powerless as it was and much in need of a period of peace; +instead of this, defiance based on ignorance and falsehood +expressed the prevailing temper. But those who refused to listen +to the intelligible language of Jehovah would be compelled to hear +Him speak in Assyrian speech in a way that would deafen and blind +them. Isaiah shows himself no less indignant against the crowd +that stupidly stared at his excitement than against the +God-forsaken folly of the king, with his counsellors, his priests, +and his prophets. They do not suffer themselves to be shaken out +of their ordinary routine by the gravity of such a crisis as +this; the living work of Jehovah is to them a sealed book; their +piety does not extend beyond the respect they show for certain +human precepts learnt by rote. + +Meanwhile Sennacherib, at the head of a great army, was advancing +against Philistia and Judah along the Phoenician coast (701). +Having captured Ascalon, he next laid siege to Ekron, which, +after the combined Egyptian and Ethiopian army sent to its relief +had been defeated at Eltheke, fell into the enemy's hand, and was +severely dealt with. Simultaneously various fortresses of Judah +were occupied, and the level country was devastated (Isaiah i.). +The consequence was that Hezekiah, in a state of panic, offered +to the Assyrians his sub-mission, which was accepted on payment of +a heavy penalty, he being permitted, however, to retain possession +of Jerusalem. He seemed to have got cheaply off from the unequal +contest. + +The way being thus cleared, Sennacherib pressed on southwards, for +the Egyptians were collecting their forces against him. The nearer +he came to the enemy the more undesirable did he find it that he +should leave in his rear so important a fortress as Jerusalem in +the hands of a doubtful vassal. Notwithstanding the recently +ratified treaty, therefore, he demanded the surrender of the +city, believing that a policy of intimidation would be enough to +secure it from Hezekiah. But there was another personality in +Jerusalem of whom his plans had taken no account. Isaiah had +indeed regarded the revolt from Assyria as a rebellion against +Jehovah Himself, and therefore as a perfectly hopeless undertaking +which could only result in the utmost humiliation and sternest +chastisement for Judah. But still more distinctly than those who +had gone before him did he hold firm as an article of faith the +conviction that the kingdom would not be utterly annihilated; all +his speeches of solemn warning closed with the announcement that +a remnant should return and form the kernel of a new commonwealth +to be fashioned after Jehovah's own heart. For him, in contrast to +Amos, the great crisis had a positive character; in contrast to +Hosea, he did not expect a temporary suspension of the theocracy, +to be followed by its complete reconstruction, but in the pious +and God-fearing individuals who were still to be met with in this +Sodom of iniquity, he saw the threads, thin indeed yet sufficient, +which formed the links between the Israel of the present and its +better future. Over against the vain confidence of the multitude +Isaiah had hitherto brought into prominence the darker obverse of +his religious belief, but now he confronted their present +depression with its bright reverse; faint-heartedness was still +more alien to his nature than temerity. In the name of Jehovah he +bade King Hezekiah be of good courage, and urged that he should by +no means surrender. The Assyrians would not be able to take the +city, not even to shoot an arrow into it nor to bring up their +siege train against it. "I know thy sitting, thy going, and thy +standing," is Jehovah's language to the Assyrian, "and also thy +rage against me. And I will put my ring in thy nose, and my +bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by +which thou camest." And thus it proved in the issue. By a still +unexplained catastrophe, the main army of Sennacherib was +annihilated on the frontier between Egypt and Palestine, and +Jerusalem thereby freed from all danger. The Assyrian king had to +save himself by a hurried retreat to Nineveh; Isaiah was +triumphant. A more magnificent close of a period of influential +public life can hardly be imagined. + +What Sennacherib himself relates of his expedition against his +rebellious vassals in Palestine (George Smith, Assyrian Eponym +Canon, p. 67, 68, 131-136) runs parallel with 2 Kings xviii. 14-16, +but not with the rest of the Bible narrative. These three verses +are peculiar, and their source is different from that of the context. +After having captured various Phoenician cities, and received tribute +from a number of kings, his first measure is forcibly to restore the +Assyrian governor who had been expelled from Ascalon, and next he +turns his arms against Ekron. This city had put in irons its own +king, Padi (who remained loyal to the suzerain), and handed him over +to Hezekiah, who appears as the soul of the rebellion in these +quarters. The Egyptians, who as usual have a hand in the matter, +advance with an army for the relief of the beleaguered city, but +are defeated near Eltheke in the immediate neighbourhood; Ekron is +taken, remorselessly chastised, and forced to take Padi back again +as its king. For Hezekiah in the meantime has delivered up his +prisoner, and, terrified by the fall of his fortresses and the +devastation of his territory, has accepted the position of a vassal +once more, paying at the same time a heavy fine, inclusive of +30 talents of gold and 800 of silver. Such is the Assyrian account. +If we treat the 300 talents mentioned in 2Kings xviii. 14 as +Syrian (=800 Babylonian), it completely fills in the vague outlines +given in 2Kings xviii. 14-16, and, while confirming in their place +immediately after ver. 13 these verses, unrelated as they are to +the main connection of the Biblical narrative, corrects them only +in one point, by making it probable that the subjection of +Hezekiah (which is not equivalent to the surrender of his city) +took place while Sennacherib was still before Ekron, and not at +later date when he had gone further south towards Libnah. As +regards his further advance towards Egypt, and the reasons of his +sudden withdrawal (related by Herodotus also from Egyptian tradition), +the great king is silent, having nothing to boast of in it. +The battle of Eltheke, which is to be regarded only as an episode +in the siege of Ekron, being merely the repulse of the Egyptian +relieving army, was not an event of great historical importance, +and ought not to be brought into any connection either with 2Kings +xix. 7 or with xix. 35; Sennacherib's inscription speaks only of +the first and prosperous stage of the expedition, not of the decisive +one which resulted so disastrously for him, as must be clear from +the words themselves to every unprejudiced reader. + + +8. THE PROPHETIC REFORMATION. + +Isaiah was so completely a prophet that even his wife was called +the prophetess after him. No such title could have been bestowed +on the wife of either Amos or Hosea. But what distinguished him +more than anything else from those predecessors was that his +position was not, like theirs, apart from the government; he sat +close to the helm, and took a very real part in directing the +course of the vessel. He was more positive and practical than +they; he wished to make his influence felt, and when for the +moment he was unsuccessful in this so far as the great whole of the +state was concerned, he busied himself in gathering round him a +small circle of like-minded persons on whom his hope for the future +rested. Now that Israel had been destroyed, he wished at all +events to save Judah. The lofty ideality of his faith (ii. 1 seq.) +did not hinder him from calling in the aid of practical means +for this end. But the current of his activities was by the +circumstances of the case directed into a channel in which after +his death they continued to flow towards a goal which had hardly +been contemplated by himself. + +The political importance of the people of Jehovah was reduced to a +minimum when Judah only was left. Already at an earlier period +in that kingdom the sacred had come to be of more importance than +the secular; much more was this the case under the suzerainty of +Assyria. The circumstances of the time themselves urged that the +religion of Israel should divest itself of all politico-national +character; but Isaiah also did his best to further this end. It +was his most zealous endeavour to hold king and people aloof from +every patriotic movement; to him the true religious attitude was +one of quietness and sitting still, non-intervention in political +affairs, concentration on the problems of internal government. But +he was compelled to leave over for the coming Messiah (xi. 1 seq.) +that reformation in legal and social matters which seemed to him so +necessary; all that he could bring the secular rulers of his +country to undertake was a reform in worship. This was the most +easily solved of the problems alluded to above, and it was also +that which most closely corresponded to the character of the +kingdom of Judah. Thus it came about that the reform of the +theocracy which had been contemplated by Isaiah led to its +transformation into an ecclesiastical state. No less influential +in effecting a radical change in the old popular religion was +Isaiah's doctrine which identified the true Israel with the +holy remnant which alone should emerge from the crisis unconsumed. +For that remnant was more than a mere object of hope; it actually +stood before him in the persons of that little group of pious +individuals gathered around him. Isaiah founded no "ecclesiola +in ecclesia" indeed, but certainly an "ecclesia in civitate Dei." +Now began that distinction between the true Israel and the Israel +according to the flesh, that bipartite division of the nation +which became so important in later times. As head and founder +of the prophetic party in Judah, Isaiah was, involuntarily, +the man who took the first steps towards the institution of +the church. + +The catastrophe which befell the army of Sennacherib had no very +great effect upon the external affairs of Judah. Sennacherib +indeed, being busy in the east, was unable to retrieve the loss he +had sustained, but his son Esarhaddon, who succeeded him in 681, +resumed the Egyptian war with better success. He made himself +master of the Nile valley, and brought the Ethiopians into +submission. That the petty kingdoms of Palestine returned to the +old relations of dependence is to be taken as a matter of course. +Judah appears to have resumed the yoke voluntarily, but the +Samaritans only after force had been applied; they were +afterwards deported, whereupon the deserted country was occupied +by foreign colonists, who, however, accepted the cultus of the god +of the land. + +That Manasseh ben Hezekiah should have again come under Assyrian +suzerainty appears at that time to have made but little impression; +since the time of Ahaz Judah had been accustomed to this +relation. The Book of Kings speaks only of internal affairs under the +reign of Manasseh. According to it, he was a bad ruler, who +permitted, and even caused, innocent blood to flow like water. +But what was of greater consequence for the future, he took up an +attitude of hostility towards the prophetic party of reform, and +put himself on the side of the reaction which would fain bring back +to the place of honour the old popular half-pagan conception of +Jehovah, as against the pure and holy God whom the prophets +worshipped. The revulsion manifested itself as the reform had +done, chiefly in matters of worship. The old idolatrous +furniture of the sanctuaries was reinstated in its place, and new +frippery was imported from all quarters, especially from Assyria +and Babylon, to renovate the old religion; with Jehovah was now +associated a "queen of heaven." Yet, as usual, the restoration did +more than merely bring back the old order of things. What at an +earlier period had been mere naivete now became superstition, and +could hold its ground only by having imparted to it artificially +a deeper meaning which was itself borrowed from the prophetical +circle of ideas. Again, earnestness superseded the old joyousness +of the cultus; this now had reference principally to sin and its +atonement. Value was attached to services rendered to the Deity, +just in proportion to their hardness and unnaturalness; at this +period it was that the old precept to sacrifice to Jehovah the male +that opens the matrix was extended to children. The counter- +reformation was far from being unaffected by the preceding +reformation, although it understood religious earnestness in +quite another sense, and sought, not to eliminate heathenism from +the cultus, but to animate it with new life. On the other hand, +the reaction was, in the end, found to have left distinct traces of +its influence in the ultimate issue of the reformation. + +We possess one document dating from Manasseh's time in Micah vi. 1- +vii. 6. Here, where the lawlessness and utter disregard of +every moral restraint in Judah are set in a hideous light, the +prophetic point of view, as contrasted with the new refinements in +worship, attains also its simplest and purest expression. Perhaps +to this period the Decalogue also, which is so eloquently +silent in regard to cultus, is to be assigned. Jehovah demands +nothing for Himself, all that He asks is only for men; this is +here the fundamental law of the theocracy. + +Manasseh's life was a long one, and his son Amon walked in his +ways. The latter died after a brief reign, and with his death a +new era for Judah began. It was introduced by the great +catastrophe in which the Assyrian empire came to an end. The +sovereignty of the world was beginning to pass out of the hands of +the Semites into those of the Aryans. Phraortes of Media indeed +was unsuccessful in his attempt against the Assyrians, but Cyaxares +beat them and proceeded to besiege their capital. The Scythian +invasion of Media and Western Asia (c. 630) at this juncture gave +them another respite of more than twenty years; but even it +tended to break in pieces the great, loosely-compacted monarchy. +The provinces became gradually disintegrated, and the kingdom +shrivelled up till it covered no more than the land of Asshur. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Our knowledge of the events of the second half of the 7th century +has remained singularly imperfect hitherto, notwithstanding the +importance of the changes they wrought on the face of the ancient +world. The account given above is that of Herodotus (i. 103-106), +and there the matter must rest until really authentic sources shall +have been brought to light. With regard to the final +siege of Nineveh, our chief informant is Ctesias as quoted by +Diodorus (ii. 26, 27). Whether the prophecy of Nabum relates to +the LAST siege is doubtful (in spite of ii. 7, and the oracle +given in Diodorus, (OTI THN *NINON )OUDEIS (ELEI KATA KRATOS )EAN +MH PROTERON (O POTAMOS TH| POLEI GENHTAI POLEMOS), inasmuch as Nahum +(i. 9) expressly speaks of the siege alluded to by him as the +first, saying, "the trouble shall not rise up the second time." +-- Footnote + + +The inroad of the Scythians aroused to energy again the voice of +prophecy which had been dumb during the very sinful but not very +animated period of Manasseh's reign. Zephaniah and Jeremiah +threatened with the mysterious northern foe, just as Amos and Hosea +had formerly done with the Assyrians. The Scythians actually did +invade Palestine in 626 (the 13th year of Josiah), and penetrated +as far as to Egypt; but their course lay along the shore line, +and they left Judah untouched. This danger that had come so near +and yet passed them by, this instance of a prophetic threatening +that had come to pass and yet been mercifully averted, made a +powerful impression upon the people of Judah; public opinion went +through a revolution in favour of the reforming party which was +able to gain for itself the support also of the young king Josiah +ben Amon. The circumstances were favourable for coming forward +with a comprehensive programme for a reconstruction of the +theocracy. In the year 621 (the eighteenth of Josiah) Deuteronomy +was discovered, accepted, and carried into effect. + +The Deuteronomic legislation is designed for the reformation, by +no means of the cultus alone, but at least quite as much of the +civil relations of life. The social interest is placed above the +cultus, inasmuch as everywhere humane ends are assigned for the +rites and offerings. In this it is plainly seen that +Deuteronomy is the progeny of the prophetic spirit. Still more +plainly does this appear in the _motifs_ of the legislation; +according to these, Jehovah is the only God, whose service demands +the whole heart and every energy; He has entered into a covenant +with Israel, but upon fundamental conditions that, as contained +in the Decalogue, are purely moral and of absolute universality. +Nowhere does the fundamental religious thought of prophecy find +clearer expression than in Deuteronomy,--the thought that Jehovah +asks nothing for Himself, but asks it as a religious duty that man +should render to man what is right, that His will lies not in any +unknown height, but in the moral sphere which is known and +understood by all. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The commandments which I command thee are not unattainable for +thee, neither are they far off; not in heaven so that one might +say, Who can climb up into heaven and bring them down, and tell us +them that we might do them! not beyond the sea so that one might +say, Who shall go over the sea, and fetch them, and tell us them +that we might do them!--but the matter lies very near thee, in thy +mouth and in thy heart, so that thou canst do it (Deut. xxx. 11-14). +-- Footnote + + +But the result of the innovation did not correspond exactly to its +prophetic origin. Prophecy died when its precepts attained to the +force of laws; the prophetic ideas lost their purity when they +became practical. Whatever may have been contemplated, only +provisional regulations actually admitted of being carried, and +even these only in co-operation with the king and the priests, and +with due regard to the capacity of the masses. The final outcome +of the Deuteronomic reformation was principally that the cultus +of Jehovah was limited to Jerusalem and abolished everywhere +else,--such was the popular and practical form of prophetic +monotheism. The importance of the Salomonic temple was thereby +increased in the highest degree, and so also the influence of the +priests of Jerusalem, the sons of Zadok, who now in point of fact +got rid entirely of their rivals, the priests of the country +districts. + + +9. JEREMIAH AND THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. + +Josiah lived for thirteen years after the accomplishment of his +great work. It was a happy period of external and internal +prosperity. The nation possessed the covenant, and kept it. It +seemed as if the conditions had been attained on which, according +to the prophets, the continuance of the theocracy depended; if +their threatenings against Israel had been fulfilled, so now was +Judah proving itself the heir of their promises. Already in +Deuteronomy is the "extension of the frontier" taken into +consideration, and Josiah actually put his hand to the task of +seeking the attainment of this end. + +Jehovah and Israel, religion and patriotism, once more went hand in +hand. Jeremiah alone did not suffer himself to be misled by the +general feeling. He was a second Amos, upon a higher platform-- +but, unlike his predecessor, a prophet by profession; his +history, like Isaiah's, is practically the history of his time. +In the work of introducing Deuteronomy he had taken an active part, +and throughout his life he showed his zeal against unlawful altars +and against the adoration of wood and stone (Asheras and pillars). +But he was by no means satisfied with the efforts of the reformation +that had been effected; nothing appeared to him more sinful or +more silly than the false confidence produced by it in Jehovah +and in the inviolability of His one true temple. This confidence +he maintained to be delusive; Judah was not a whit better than +Israel had been, Jerusalem would be destroyed one day like the +temple of Shiloh. The external improvements on which the people +of Judah prided themselves he held to leave this severe judgment +unaffected; what was needed was a quite different sort of change, +a change of heart, not very easy positively to define. + +An opportunity for showing his opposition presented itself to the +prophet at the juncture when King Josiah had fallen at Megiddo in +the battle with Pharaoh Necho (608), and when the people were +seeking safety and protection by cleaving to Jehovah and His holy +temple. At the instance of the priests and the prophets he had +almost expiated with his blood the blasphemies he had uttered +against the popular belief; but he did not suffer himself to be +driven from his course. Even when the times had grown quiet again, +he persisted, at the risk of his life and under universal reproach +and ridicule, in his work as a prophet of evil. Moments of despair +sometimes came to him; but that he had correctly estimated the +true value of the great conversion of the nation was speedily +proved by the facts. Although Deuteronomy was not formally +abolished under Jehoiakim, who as the vassal of Egypt ascended the +throne of his father Josiah, nevertheless it ceased to have +practical weight, the battle of Megiddo having shown that in spite +of the covenant with Jehovah the possibilities of non-success in +war remained the same as before. Jehoiakim tended to return to the +ways of Manasseh, not only as regarded idolatry, but also in his +contempt for law and the private rights of his subjects;--the two +things seem to stand in connection. + +The course of events at last brought upon the theocracy the +visible ruin which Jeremiah had been so long expecting. After the +Egyptians had, with comparative ease, subjugated Syria at the time +when the Medes and Chaldaeans were busied with the siege of +Nineveh, Nebuchadnezzar, that task accomplished, came upon them +from Babylon and routed them on the Euphrates near Carchemish (605-4). +The people of Judah rejoiced at the fall of Nineveh, and also at +the result of Carchemish; but they were soon undeceived when the +prospect began to open on them of simply exchanging the Egyptian +for the Chaldaean yoke. The power of the Chaldaeans had been quite +unsuspected, and now it was found that in them the Assyrians had +suddenly returned to life. Jeremiah was the only man who gained +any credit by these events. His much ridiculed "enemy out of +the north," of whom he had of old been wont to speak so much, now +began to be talked of with respect, although his name was no longer +"the Scythian" but "the Babylonian." It was an epoch,--the close +of an account which balanced in his favour. Therefore it was that +precisely at this moment he received the Divine command to commit +to writing that which for twenty-three years he had been preaching, +and which, ever pronounced impossible, had now showed itself so +close at hand. + +After the victory of Carchemish the Chaldaeans drove Pharaoh out +of Syria, and also compelled the submission of Jehoiakim (c. 602). +For three years he continued to pay his tribute, and then he +withheld it; a mad passion for liberty, kindled by religious +fanaticism, had begun to rage with portentous power amongst the +influential classes, the grandees, the priests, and the prophets. +Nebuchadnezzar satisfied himself in the first instance with raising +against Judah several of the smaller nationalities around, +especially the Edomites; not till 597 did he appear in person +before Jerusalem. The town was compelled to yield; the more +important citizens were carried into exile, amongst them the young +king Jechoniah, son of Jehoiakim, who had died in the interval; +Zedekiah ben Josiah was made king in his stead over the remnant +left behind. The patriotic fanaticism that had led to the revolt +was not broken even by this blow. Within four years afterwards +new plans of liberation began to be again set on foot; but on this +occasion the influence of Jeremiah proved strong enough to avert +the danger. But when a definite prospect of help from Pharaoh +Hophra (Apries) presented itself in 589, the craving for +independence proved quite irrepressible. Revolt was declared; and +in a very short time the Chaldaean army, with Nebuchadnezzar at +its head, lay before Jerusalem. For a while everything seemed to +move prosperously; the Egyptians came to the rescue, and the +Chaleaeans were compelled to raise the siege in order to cope +with them. At this there was great joy in Jerusalem; but Jeremiah +continued to express his gloomy views. The event proved that he +was right; the Egyptians were repulsed and the siege resumed. +The city was bent on obstinate resistance; in vain did Jeremiah, +at continual risk of his life, endeavour to bring it to reason. +The king, who agreed with the prophet, did not venture to assert +his opinion against the dominant terrorism. The town in these +circumstances was at last taken by storm, and along with the temple, +reduced to ruins. Cruel vengeance was taken on the king and grandees, +and the pacification of the country was ensured by another and +larger deportation of the inhabitants to Babylon. Thus terminated +in 586 the kingdom of Judah. + +The prophets had been the spiritual destroyers of the old Israel. +In old times the nation had been the ideal of religion in actual +realisation; the prophets confronted the nation with an ideal to +which it did not correspond. Then to bridge over this interval the +abstract ideal was framed into a law, and to this law the nation +was to be conformed. The attempt had very important consequences, +inasmuch as Jehovah continued to be a living power in the law, +when He was no longer realised as present in the nation; but that +was not what the prophets had meant to effect. What they were +unconsciously labouring towards was that religious individualism +which had its historical source in the national downfall, and +manifested itself not exclusively within the prophetical sphere. +With such men as Amos and Hosea the moral personality based upon +an inner conviction burst through the limits of mere nationality; +their mistake was in supposing that they could make their way of +thinking the basis of a national life. Jeremiah saw through the +mistake; the true Israel was narrowed to himself. Of the truth of +his conviction he never had a moment's doubt; he knew that Jehovah +was on his side, that on Him depended the eternal future. But, +instead of the nation, the heart and the individual conviction were +to him the subject of religion. On the ruins of Jerusalem he gazed +into the future filled with joyful hope, sure of this that Jehovah +would one day pardon past sin and renew the relation which had +been broken off-though on the basis of another covenant than that +laid down in Deuteronomy. "I will put my law upon their heart, +and write it on their mind; none shall say to his neighbour, Know +the Lord, for all shall have that knowledge within them." + + +10. THE CAPTIVITY AND THE RESTORATION + +The exiled Jews were not scattered all over Chaldaea, but were +allowed to remain together in families and clans. Many of them, +notwithstanding this circumstance, must have lapsed and become +merged in the surrounding heathenism; but many also continued +faithful to Jehovah and to Israel. They laboured under much +depression and sadness, groaning under the wrath of Jehovah, who +had rejected His people and cancelled His covenant. They were +lying under a sort of vast interdict; they could not celebrate +any sacrifice or keep any feast; they could only observe days of +fasting and humiliation, and such rites as had no inseparable +connection with the holy land. The observance of the Sabbath, +and the practice of the rite of circumcision, acquired much +greater importance than they formerly possessed as signs of a +common religion. The meetings on the Sabbath day out of which +the synagogues were afterwards developed appear to have first +come into use during this period; perhaps also even then it had +become customary to read aloud from the prophetic writings which +set forth that all had happened in the providence of God, and +moreover that the days of adversity were not to last for ever. + +Matters improved somewhat as Cyrus entered upon his victorious +career. Was he the man in whom the Messianic prophecies had found +their fulfilment? The majority were unwilling to think so. For it +was out of Israel (they argued) that the Messiah was to proceed who +should establish the kingdom of God upon the ruins of the kingdoms +of the world; the restitution effected by means of a Persian could +only be regarded as a passing incident in the course of an historical +process that had its goal entirely elsewhere. This doubt was met by +more than one prophetical writer, and especially by the great +anonymous author to whom we are indebted for Isaiah xl.-lxvi. + +"Away with sorrow; deliverance is at the door! Is it a humiliating +thing that Israel should owe its freedom to a Persian? Nay, is it +not rather a proof of the world-wide sway of the God of Jacob that He +should thus summon His instruments from the ends of the earth? Who +else than Jehovah could have thus sent Cyrus? Surely not the false +gods which he has destroyed? Jehovah alone it was who foretold and +foreknew the things which are now coming to pass,--because long ago +He had prearranged and predetermined them, and they are now being +executed in accordance with his plan. Rejoice therefore in the +prospect of your near deliverance; prepare yourselves for the new era; +gird yourselves for the return to your homes." + +It is to be observed, as characteristic in this prophecy, how the +idea of Jehovah as God alone and God over all--in constantly recurring +lyrical parenthesis he is praised as the author of the world and of +all nature--is yet placed in positive relation to Israel alone, and +that upon the principle that Israel is in exclusive possession of the +universal truth, which cannot perish with Israel, but must through +the instrumentality of Israel, become the common possession of the +whole world. "There is no God but Jehovah, and Israel is his prophet." + +For many years the Persian monarch put the patience of the Jews to +the proof; Jehovah's judgment upon the Chaldaeans, instead of +advancing, seemed to recede. At length, however, their hopes were +realised; in the year 538 Cyrus brought the empire of Babylon to +an end, and gave the exiles leave to seek their fatherland once more. +This permission was not made use of by all, or even by a majority. +The number of those who returned is stated at 42,360; whether women +and children are included in this figure is uncertain. On arriving +at their destination, after the difficult march through the desert, +they did not spread themselves over the whole of Judah, but settled +chiefly in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. The Calebites, for example, +who previously had had their settlements in and around Hebron, now +settled in Bethlehem and in the district of Ephrath. They found +it necessary to concentrate themselves in face of a threatened +admixture of doubtful elements. From all sides people belonging +to the surrounding nations had pressed into the depopulated territory +of Judah. Not only had they annexed the border territories--where, +for example, the Edomites or Idumaeans held the whole of the Negeb +as far as to Hebron; they had effected lodgments everywhere, and-- +as the Ammonites, Ashdodites, and especially the Samaritans--had +amalgamated with the older Jewish population, a residue of which +had remained in the country in spite of all that had happened. +These half-breed "pagani" (Amme haarec 'oxloi) gave a friendly +reception to the returning exiles (Bne haggola); particularly +did the Samaritans show themselves anxious to make common cause +with them. But they were met with no reciprocal cordiality. +The lesson of religious isolation which the children of the +captivity had learned in Babylon, they did not forget on their +return to their home. Here also they lived as in a strange land. +Not the native of Judaea, but the man who could trace his descent +from the exiles in Babylon, was reckoned as belonging to their +community. + +The first decennia after the return of the exiles, during which +they were occupied in adjusting themselves to their new homes, +were passed under a variety of adverse circumstances and by no +means either in joyousness or security. Were these then the +Messianic times which, it had been foretold, were to dawn at the +close of their captivity? They did not at all events answer the +expectations which had been formed. A settlement had been again +obtained, it was true, in the fatherland; but the Persian yoke +pressed now more heavily than ever the Babylonian had done. The +sins of God's people seemed still unforgiven, their period of +bond-service not yet at an end. A slight improvement, as is shown +by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, followed when in the +year 520 the obstacles disappeared which until then had stood in +the way of the rebuilding of the temple; the work then begun was +completed in 516. Inasmuch as the Jews were now nothing more +than a religious community, based upon the traditions of a national +existence that had ceased, the rebuilding of the temple, naturally, +was for them an event of supreme importance. + +The law of the new theocracy was the Book of Deuteronomy; this +was the foundation on which the structure was to be built. But the +force of circumstances, and the spirit of the age, had even before +and during the exile exerted a modifying influence upon that +legislative code; and it continued to do so still. At first a +"son of David" had continued to stand at the head of the Bne +haggola, but this last relic of the old monarchy soon had to give +way to a Persian governor who was under the control of the satrap +of trans-Euphratic Syria, and whose principal business was the +collection of revenue. Thenceforward the sole national chief was +Joshua the high priest, on whom, accordingly, the political +representation also of the community naturally devolved. In the +circumstances as they then were no other arrangement was possible. +The way had been paved for it long before in so far as the +Assyrians had destroyed the kingdom of Israel, while in the kingdom +of Judah which survived it the religious cultus had greater importance +attached to it than political affairs, and also inasmuch as in +point of fact the practical issue of the prophetic reformation +sketched in Deuteronomy had been to make the temple the national +centre still more than formerly. The hierocracy towards which +Ezekiel had already opened the way was simply inevitable. It took +the form of a monarchy of the high priest, he having stepped into +the place formerly occupied by the theocratic king. As his peers +and at his side stood the members of his clan, the Levites of the +old Jerusalem, who traced their descent from Zadok (Sadduk); +the common Levites held a much lower rank, so far as they had +maintained their priestly rank at all and had not been degraded, +in accordance with Ezekiel's law (chapter xliv.), to the position +of mere temple servitors. "Levite," once the title of honour +bestowed on all priests, became more and more confined to members +of the second order of the clergy. + +Meanwhile no improvement was taking place in the condition of the +Jewish colonists. They were poor; they had incurred the +hostility of their neighbours by their exclusiveness; the +Persian Government was suspicious; the incipient decline of the +great kingdom was accompanied with specially unpleasant +consequences so far as Palestine was concerned (Megabyzus). All +this naturally tended to produce in the community a certain +laxity and depression. To what purpose (it was asked) all this +religious strictness, which led to so much that was unpleasant? +Why all this zeal for Jehovah, who refused to be mollified by it? +It is a significant fact that the upper ranks of the priesthood +were least of all concerned to counteract this tendency. Their +priesthood was less to them than the predominance which was based +upon it; they looked upon the neighbouring ethnarchs as their +equals, and maintained relations of friendship with them. The +general community was only following their example when it also +began to mingle with the Amme haarec. + +The danger of Judaism merging into heathenism was imminent. But it +was averted by a new accession from without. In the year 458 Ezra +the scribe, with a great number of his compatriots, set out from +Babylon, for the purpose of reinforcing the Jewish element in +Palestine. The Jews of Babylon were more happily situated than +their Palestinian brethren, and it was comparatively easy for +them to take up a separatist attitude, because they were +surrounded by heathenism not partial but entire. They were no +great losers from the circumstance that they were precluded from +participating directly in the life of the ecclesiastical +community; the Torah had long ago become separated from the +people, and was now an independent abstraction following a career +of its own. Babylonia was the place where a further codification +of the law had been placed alongside of Deuteronomy. Ezekiel had +led the way in reducing to theory and to writing the sacred praxis +of his time; in this he was followed by an entire school; in their +exile the Levites turned scribes. Since then Babylon continued to +be the home of the Torah; and, while in Palestine itself the +practice was becoming laxer, their literary study had gradually +intensified the strictness and distinctive peculiarities of +Judaism. And now there came to Palestine a Babylonian scribe +having the law of his God in his hand, and armed with authority +from the Persian king to proceed upon the basis of this law with a +reformation of the community. + +Ezra did not set about introducing the new law immediately on his +arrival in Judaea In the first instance he concentrated his +attention on the task of effecting a strict separation between the +Bne haggola and the heathen or half-heathen inhabitants. So much +he could accomplish upon the basis of Deuteronomy, but it was long +before he gave publicity to the law which he himself had brought. +Why he hesitated so long it is impossible to say; between the +seventh and the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus (458-445 +B.C.) there is a great hiatus in the narrative of the books of Ezra +and Nehemiah. The main reason appears to have been that, in spite +of the good will of the Persian king, Ezra had not the vigorous +support of the local authorities. But this was indispensably +necessary in order to secure recognition for a new law. + +At last, in 445, it fell to the lot of a Jew, who also shared the +views of Ezra, Nehemiah ben Hakkelejah, /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. According to the present punctuation this name is Hakalja +(Hachaljah), but such a pronunciation is inadmissible; it has no +possible etymology, the language having no such word as _hakal_. +The name in its correct form means "wait upon Jehovah." +-- Footnote + + +the cupbearer and the favourite of Artaxerxes, to be sent as Persian +governor to Judaea. After he had freed the community from external +pressure with vigour and success, and brought it into more tolerable +outward circumstances, the business of introducing the new law-book +was next proceeded with; in this Ezra and Nehemiah plainly acted in +concert. + +On the first of Tisri--the year is unfortunately not given, but it +cannot have been earlier than 444 B.C.--the promulgation of the +law began at a great gathering in Jerusalem; Ezra, supported by +the Levites, was present. Towards the end of the month, the +concluding act took place, in which the community became solemnly +bound by the contents of the law. Special prominence was given to +those provisions with which the people were directly concerned, +particularly those which related to the dues payable by the laity +to the priests. + +The covenant which hitherto had rested on Deuteronomy was thus +expanded into a covenant based upon the entire Pentateuch. +Substantially at least Ezra's law-book, in the form in which it +became the Magna Charta of Judaism in or about the year 444, must +be regarded as practically identical with our Pentateuch, although +many minor amendments and very considerable additions may have +been made at a later date. + +The character of the post-Deuteronomic legislation (Priestly Code) +is chiefly marked, in its external aspects, by the immense +extension of the dues payable to the priests, and by the sharp +distinction made between the descendants of Aaron and the common +Levites; this last feature is to be traced historically to the +circumstance that after the Deuteronomic reformation the legal +equality between the Levites who until then had ministered at the +"high places" and the priests of the temple at Jerusalem was not +_de facto_ recognised. Internally, it is mainly characterised by +its ideal of Levitical holiness, the way in which it everywhere +surrounds life with purificatory and propitiatory ceremonies, and +its prevailing reference of sacrifice to sin. Noteworthy also is +the manner in which everything is regarded from the point of view +of Jerusalem, a feature which comes much more boldly into +prominence here than in Deuteronomy; the nation and the temple are +strictly speaking identified. That externalisation towards which +the prophetical movement, in order to become practical, had +already been tending in Deuteronomy finally achieved its acme +in the legislation of Ezra; a new artificial Israel was the +result; but, after all, the old would have pleased an Amos better. +At the same time it must be remembered that the kernel needed a +shell. It was a necessity that Judaism should incrust itself in +this manner; without those hard and ossified forms the preservation +of its essential elements would have proved impossible. At +a time when all nationalities, and at the same time all bonds of +religion and national customs, were beginning to be broken up in +the seeming cosmos and real chaos of the Graeco-Roman empire, the +Jews stood out like a rock in the midst of the ocean. When the +natural conditions of independent nationality all failed them, +they nevertheless artificially maintained it with an energy +truly marvellous, and thereby preserved for themselves, and at the +same time for the whole world, an eternal good. + +As regards the subsequent history of the Jewish community under +the Persian domination, we have almost no information. The high +priest in Nehemiah's time was Eliashib, son of Joiakim and grandson +of Joshua, the patriarchal head of the sons of Zadok, who had +returned from Babylon; he was succeeded in the direct line by +Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua (Nehemiah xii. 10, 11, 22); the +last-named was in office at the time of Alexander the Great +(Josephus, Antiquities, xi. 8). Palestine was the province which +suffered most severely of all from the storms which marked the last +days of the sinking Persian empire, and it is hardly likely that +the Jews escaped their force; we know definitely, however, of only +one episode, in which the Persian general Bagoses interfered in a +disagreeable controversy about the high-priesthood (cir. 375). + +To this period also (and not, as Josephus states, to the time of +Alexander) belongs the constitution of the Samaritan community on +an independent footing by Manasseh, a Jewish priest of rank. He +was expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah in 432, for refusing to +separate from his alien wife. He took shelter with his father-in-law +Sanballat, the Samaritan prince, who built him a temple on Mount +Gerizim near Shechem, where he organised a Samaritan church and a +Samaritan worship, on the Jerusalem model, and on the basis of a +but slightly modified Jerusalem Pentateuch. If the Samaritans +had hitherto exerted, themselves to the utmost to obtain admission +into the fellowship of the Jews, they henceforward were as averse +to have anything to do with these as these were to have any +dealings with them; the temple on Mount Gerizim was now the symbol +of their independence as a distinct religious sect. For the Jews +this was a great advantage, as they had no longer to dread the +danger of syncretism. They could now quite confidently admit +the Amme haarec into their communion, in the assurance of +assimilating them without any risk of the opposite process taking +place. The Judaizing process began first with the country +districts immediately surrounding Jerusalem, and then extended to +Galilee and many portions of Peraea. In connection with it, the +Hebrew language, which hitherto had been firmly retained by the +Bne haggola, now began to yield to the Aramaic, and to hold its own +only as a sacred speech. + + +11. JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY. + +The post-Deuteronomic legislation is not addressed to the people, +but to the congregation; its chief concern is the regulation of +worship. Political matters are not touched upon, as they are in +the hands of a foreigner lord. The hierocracy is taken for granted +as the constitution of the congregation. The head of the cultus is +the head of the whole; the high priest takes the place of the +king. The other priests, though his brothers or his sons, are +officially subordinate to him, as bishops to the supreme pontiff. +They, again, are distinguished from the Levites not only by their +office but also by their noble blood, though the Levites belong by +descent to the clergy, of which they form the lowest grade. The +material basis of the hierarchical pyramid is furnished by the +contributions of the laity, which are required on a scale which +cannot be called modest. Such is the outward aspect of the rule +of the holy in Israel. Inwardly, the ideal of holiness governs +the whole of life by means of a net of ceremonies and observances +which separate the Jew from the natural man. "Holy" means almost +the same as "exclusive." Originally the term was equivalent to +divine, but now it is used chiefly in the sense of religious, +priestly, as if the divine were to be known from the worldly, the +natural, by outward marks. + +It had so fallen out, even before the exile, that the reform of +the theocracy which the prophets demanded began in the cultus; +and after the exile this tendency could not fail to be persisted in. +The restoration of Judaism took place in the form of a +restoration of the cultus. Yet this restoration was not a relapse +into the heathen ways which the prophets had attacked. The old +meaning of the festivals and of the sacrifices had long faded away, +and after the interruption of the exile they would scarcely have +blossomed again of themselves; they had become simply statutes, +unexplained commands of an absolute will. The cultus had no longer +any real value for the Deity; it was valuable only as an +exercise of obedience to the law. If it had been at first the +bond connecting Israel with heathenism, now, on the contrary, it +was the shield behind which Judaism retreated to be safe from +heathenism. There was no other means to make Judaism secure; +and the cultus was nothing more than a means to that end. It was +the shell around the faith and practice of the fathers, around the +religion of moral monotheism, which it alone preserved until it +could become the common property of the world. The great public +worship gave the new theocracy a firm centre, thus keeping it one +and undivided, and helped it to an organisation. But of more +importance was the minor private cultus of pious exercises, which +served to Judaize the whole life of every individual. For the centre +of gravity of Judaism was in the individual. Judaism was gathered +from scattered elements, and it depended on the labour of the +individual to make himself a Jew. This is the secret of the +persistence of Judaism, even in the diaspora. The initiatory act +of circumcision, which conferred an indelible character, was not +the only safeguard; the whole of the education which followed that +act went to guard against the disintegrating effects of individualism. +This is the real significance of the incessant discipline, which +consisted mainly in the observance of laws of purity and generally +of regulations devised to guard against sin. For what holiness +required was not to do good, but to avoid sin. By the sin and +trespass offerings, and by the great day of atonement, this +private cultus was connected with that of the temple; hence it was +that all these institutions fitted so admirably into the system. +The whole of life was directed in a definite sacred path; every +moment there was a divine command to fulfil, and this kept a man +from following too much the thoughts and desires of his own heart. +The Jews trained themselves with an earnestness and zeal which have +no parallel to create, in the absence of all natural conditions, +a holy nation which should answer to the law, the concrete embodiment +of the ideals of the prophets. + +In the individualism thus moulded into uniformity lay the chief +difference which separated the new period from the old. The aim +was universal culture by the law, that the prophecy should be +fulfilled which says: "They shall all be taught of God." This +universal culture was certainly of a peculiar kind, and imposed +more troublesome observances than the culture of our day. Yet the +strange duties which the law imposed were not universally felt +to be a heavy burden. Precepts which were plain and had to do +with something outward were very capable of being kept; the +harder they seemed at first, the easier were they when the habit +had been formed. A man saw that he was doing what was prescribed, +and did not ask what was the use of it. The ever-growing body of +regulations even came to be felt as a sort of emancipation from +self. Never had the individual felt himself so responsible for all +he did and left undone, but the responsibility was oppressive, and +it was well that there should be a definite precept for every hour +of his life, thus diminishing the risk of his going astray. Nor +must we forget that the Torah contained other precepts than those +which were merely ceremonial. The kernel did not quite harden into +wood inside the shell; we must even acknowledge that moral sentiment +gained very perceptibly in this period both in delicacy and in +power. This also is connected with the fact that religion was not, +as before, the custom of the people, but the work of the +individual. A further consequence of this was, that men began to +reflect upon religion. The age in question saw the rise of the +so-called "Wisdom," of which we possess examples in the Book of +Job, in the Proverbs of Solomon and of the Son of Sirach, and in +Ecclesiastes. This wisdom flourished not only in Judah, but also +at the same time in Edom; it had the universalistic tendency +which is natural to reflection. The Proverbs of Solomon would +scarcely claim attention had they arisen on Greek or Arabian +soil; they are remarkable in their pale generality only because +they are of Jewish origin. In the Book of Job, a problem of faith +is treated by Syrians and Arabians just as if they were Jews. In +Ecclesiastes religion abandons the theocratic ground altogether, +and becomes a kind of philosophy in which there is room even for +doubt and unbelief. Speculation did not on the whole take away +from depth of feeling; on the contrary, individualism helped to +make religion more intense. This is seen strikingly in the Psalms, +which are altogether the fruit of this period. Even the sacrificial +practice of the priests was made subjective, being incorporated in +the Torah, i.e., made a matter for every one to learn. Though the +laity could not take part in the ceremony, they were at least to +be thoroughly informed in all the minutiae of the system; the law +was a means of interesting every one in the great public +sacrificial procedure. Another circumstance also tended to remove +the centre of gravity of the temple service from the priests to +the congregation. The service of song, though executed by choirs +of singers, was yet in idea the song of the congregation, and came +to be of more importance than the acts of worship which it +accompanied and inspired. The Holy One of Israel sat enthroned, +not on the smoke-pillars of the altar, but in the praises of the +congregation pouring out its heart in prayer; the sacrifices were +merely the external occasion for visiting the temple, the real +reason for doing so lay in the need for the strength and +refreshment to be found in religious fellowship. + +By the Torah religion came to be a thing to be learned. Hence the +need of teachers in the church of the second temple. As the +scribes had codified the Torah, it was also their task to imprint +it on the minds of the people and to fill their life with it; in +this way they at the same time founded a supplementary and +changing tradition, which kept pace with the needs of the time. +The place of teaching was the synagogue; there the law and the +prophets were read and explained on the Sabbath. The synagogue and +the Sabbath were of more importance than the temple and the +festivals; and the moral influence of the scribes transcended that +of the priests, who had to be content with outward power and +dignity. The rule of religion was essentially the rule of the +law, and consequently the Rabbis at last served themselves heirs +to the hierarchs. At the same time, while the government of the +law was acknowledged in principle, it could at no time be said to +be even approximately realised in fact. The high-born priests who +stood at the head of the theocracy, cared chiefly, as was quite +natural, for the maintenance of their own supremacy. And there +were sheep in the flock not to be kept from breaking out, both in +the upper and in the lower classes of society; the school could not +suppress nature altogether. It was no trifle even to know the six +hundred and thirteen commandments of the written law, and the +incalculable number of the unwritten. Religion had to be made a +profession of, if it was to be practiced aright. It became an art, +and thereby at the same time a matter of party:, the leaders of the +religious were of course the scribes. The division became very apparent +in the time of the Hellenization which preceded the Maccabaean revolt; +at that period the name of Pharisees, i.e., the Separated, came +into vogue for the party of the religious. But the separation and +antipathy between the godly and the ungodly had existed before +this, and had marked the life of the congregation after the exile +from the very first. + +It was the law that gave the Jewish religion its peculiar +character. But, on the other hand, a hope was not wanting to that +religion; the Jews cherished the prospect of a reward for the +fulfilling of the law. This hope attached itself to the old +prophecies, certainly in a very fantastic way. The Jews had no +historical life, and therefore painted the old time according to +their ideas, and framed the time to come according to their wishes. +They stood in no living relation with either the past or the +future; the present was not with them a bridge from the +one to the other; they did not think of bestirring themselves +with a view to the kingdom of God. They had no national and +historical existence, and made no preparations to procure such a +thing for themselves; they only hoped for it as a reward of +faithful keeping of the law. Yet they dreamed not only of a +restoration of the old kingdom, but of the erection of a universal +world-monarchy, which should raise its head at Jerusalem over the +ruins of the heathen empires. They regarded the history of the +world as a great suit between themselves and the heathen. In this +suit they were in the right; and they waited for right to be +done them. If the decision was delayed, their sins were the +reason; Satan was accusing them before the throne of God, and +causing the judgment to be postponed. They were subjected to hard +trials, and if tribulation revived their hopes, with much greater +certainty did it bring their sins into sorrowful remembrance. +Outward circumstances still influenced in the strongest way +their religious mood. + +But the old belief in retribution which sought to justify itself +in connection with the fortunes of the congregation proved here +also unequal to the strain laid upon it. Even in Deuteronomy it +is maintained that the race is not to suffer for the act of an +individual. Jeremiah's contemporaries thought it monstrous that +because the fathers had eaten sour grapes the teeth of the children +should be set on edge. Ezekiel championed in a notable way the +cause of individualism on this ground. He denounced the Jews who +had remained in Palestine, and who regarded themselves as the +successors of the people of Jehovah because they dwelt in the Holy +Land and had maintained some sort of existence as a people. In his +view only those souls which were saved from the dispersion of the +exile were to count as heirs of the promise; the theocracy was +not to be perpetuated by the nation, but by the individual +righteous men. He maintained that each man lived because of his +own righteousness, and died because of his own wickedness; nay +more, the fate of the individual corresponded even in its +fluctuations to his moral worth at successive times. The aim he +pursued in this was a good one; in view of a despair which thought +there was nothing for it but to pine and rot away because of +former sins, he was anxious to maintain the freedom of the will, +ie., the possibility of repentance and forgiveness. But the way +he chose for this end was not a good one; on his showing it was +chance which ultimately decided who was good and who was wicked. +The old view of retribution which allowed time for judgment to +operate far beyond the limit of the individual life had truth in it, +but this view had none. Yet it possessed one merit, that it brought +up a problem which had to be faced, and which was a subject of +reflection for a long time afterwards. + +The problem assumed the form of a controversy as to the principle +on which piety was rewarded--this controversy taking the place of +the great contest between Israel and the heathen. Were the wicked +right in saying that there was no God, i.e., that He did not rule +and judge on earth? Did He in truth dwell behind the clouds, and +did He not care about the doings of men? In that case piety +would be an illusion. Piety cannot maintain itself if God makes +no difference between the godly and the wicked, and has nothing +more to say to the one than to the other; for piety is not +content to stretch out its hands to the empty air, it must meet an +arm descending from heaven. It must have a reward, not for the +sake of the reward, but in order to be sure of its own reality, in +order to know that there is a communion of God with men and a road +which leads to it. The usual form of this reward is the +forgiveness of sins; that is the true motive of the fear of God. +That is to say, as long as it is well with him, the godly man does +not doubt, and so does not require any unmistakable evidence by +which he may be justified and assured of the favour of God. But +misfortune and pain destroy this certainty. They are accusers +of sin, God's warnings and corrections. Now is the time to hold +fast the faith that God leads the godly to repentance, and +destroys the wicked, that He forgives the sin of the former, but +punishes and avenges that of the latter. But this faith involves a +hope of living to see better things; the justification of which +the good man is sure must at last be attested by an objective +judgment of God before the whole world, and the godly delivered +from his sufferings. Hence the constant anxiety and restlessness +of his conscience; the judgment passed upon him is ultimately +to be gathered from the external world, and he can never be sure +how it is to turn out. And a principle is also at stake the whole +time, namely, the question whether godliness or ungodliness is +right in its fundamental conviction. Each individual case at once +affects the generality, the sufferings of one godly person touch +all the godly. When he recovers and is saved, they triumph; when +he succumbs, or seems to succumb, to death, they are cast down, +unless in this case they should change their minds about him and hold +him to be a hypocrite whom God has judged and unmasked. In the same +way, they are all hurt at the prosperity of an ungodly man, and +rejoice together at his fall, not from jealousy or pleasure in +misfortune for its own sake, but because in the one case their +faith is overturned, while in the other it is confirmed. + +The tortures incident to this curious oscillation between believing +and seeing are set forth in the most trenchant way in the Book of +Job. Job, placed in an agonizing situation, condemned without hope +to the death of sinners, and yet conscious of his godliness, +demands vengeance for his blood unjustly shed. But the +vengeance is to be executed on God, and in such a case who can be +the avenger? There is no one but God Himself, and thus the +striking thought arises, that God will be the champion against God +of his innocence, after having first murdered it. From the God of +the present he appeals to the God of the future; but the identity +between these two is yet maintained, and even now the God who slays +him is the sole witness of his innocence, in which the world and +his friends have ceased to believe. God must be this now if He is to +avenge him in the future. An inner antinomy is in this way +impersonated; the view of the friends is one of which the sufferer +himself cannot divest himself; hence the conflict in his soul. +But, supported by the unconquerable power of his good conscience, +he struggles till he frees himself from the delusion; he believes +more firmly in the direct testimony of his conscience than in the +evidence of facts and the world's judgment about him, and against +the dreadful God of reality, the righteous God of faith +victoriously asserts Himself. + +Job in the end reaches the conclusion that he cannot understand +God's ways. This is a negative expression of the position that he +holds fast, in spite of all, to himself and to God; that is to +say, that not outward experience, but inner feeling, is to +decide. This inner feeling of the union of God with the godly +meets us also in some of the Psalms, where, in spite of depression +arising from untoward circumstances, it maintains itself as a +reality which cannot be shaken, which temptations and doubts even +tend to strengthen. It was a momentous step when the soul in its +relations to God ventured to take its stand upon itself, to trust +itself. This was an indirect product of prophecy, but one of not +less importance than its direct product, the law. The prophets +declared the revelation of God, which had authority for all, but +along with this they had their own personal experience, and the +subjective truth of which they thus became aware proved a more +powerful solvent and emancipator than the objective one which formed +the subject of their revelation. They preached the law to deaf ears, +and laboured in vain to convert the people. But if their labour had +produced no outward result, it had an inner result for them. +Rejected by the people, they clung the more closely to Jehovah, +in the conviction that the defeated cause was favoured by Him, +that He was with them and not with the people. Especially with +Jeremiah did prophecy, which is designed primarily to act on +others, transform itself into an inner converse with the Deity, +which lifted him above all the annoyances of his life. In this +relation, however, there was nothing distinctively prophetical, +just because it was a matter of the inner life alone, and was +sufficient for itself; it was just the essence of the life of +religion that the prophets thus brought to view and helped to +declare itself. The experience of Jeremiah propagated itself and +became the experience of religious Israel. This was the power by +which Israel was enabled to rise again after every fall; the good +conscience towards God, the profound sentiment of union with Him, +proved able to defy all the blows of outward fortune. In this +strength the servant, despised and slain, triumphed over the world; +the broken and contrite heart was clothed and set on high with the +life and power of the Almighty God. This divine spirit of +assurance rises to its boldest expression in the 73rd Psalm: + + "Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; + Thou holdest me by my right hand; + Thou guidest me with Thy counsel, + and drawest me after Thee by the hand. + If I have Thee, I desire not heaven nor earth; + if my flesh and my heart fail, + Thou, God, art for ever the strength of my heart, and my portion." + +The life surrendered is here found again in a higher life, without +any expression of hope of a hereafter. In the Book of Job we do +indeed find a trace of this hope, in the form that even after the +death of the martyr, God may still find opportunity to justify +him and pronounce him innocent; yet this idea is only touched on +as a distant possibility, and is at once dropped. Certainly the +position of that man is a grand one who can cast into the scale +against death and devil his inner certainty of union with God-- +so grand indeed that we must in honesty be ashamed to repeat those +words of the 73d Psalm. But the point of view is too high. +The danger was imminent of falling from it down into the dust +and seeking comfort and support in the first earthly experience +that might offer, or, on the other hand, sinking into despair. +Subjective feeling was not enough of itself to outbid the +contradictions of nature; the feeling must take an objective form, +a world other than this one, answering the demands of morality, +must build itself up to form a contrast to the world actually +existing. The merit of laying the foundations for this +religious metaphysic which the time called for belongs, if not to +the Pharisees themselves, at least to the circles from which they +immediately proceeded. The main features of that metaphysic first +appear in the Book of Daniel, where we find a doctrine of the last +things. We have already spoken of the transition from the old +prophecy to apocalypse. With the destruction of the nation and +the cessation of historical life, hope was released from all +obligation to conform to historical conditions; it no longer set +up an aim to which even the present might aspire, but ran riot +after an ideal, at the advent of which the historical development +would be suddenly broken off. To be pious was all the Jews could +do at the time; but it caused them bitter regret that they had no +part in the government of the world, and in thought they anticipated +the fulfilment of their wishes. These they raised to an ever-higher +pitch in proportion as their antagonism to the heathen became more +pronounced, and as the world became more hostile to them and they +to the world. As the heathen empires stood in the way of the +universal dominion of Israel, the whole of them together were +regarded as one power, and this world-empire was then set over +against the kingdom of God, i.e., of Israel. The kingdom of God +was entirely future; the fulfilling of the law did not prepare the +way for it, but was only a statutory condition for its coming, +not related to it inwardly as cause to effect. History was suddenly +to come to a stop and cease. The Jews counted the days to the +judgment; the judgment was the act by which God would at once realise +all their wishes. The view thus taken of the world's history was a +very comprehensive one and well worked out from its principle, yet +of an entirely negative character; the further the world's history +went wilfully away from its goal, the nearer did it unintentionally +approach its goal. In this view, moreover, the earth always continued +to be the place of hope; the kingdom of God was brought by the judgment +into earthly history; it was on earth that the ideal was to be +realised. A step further, and the struggle of the dualism of the +earth was preluded in the skies by the angels, as the representatives +of the different powers and nations. In this struggle a place was +assigned to Satan; at first he was merely the accuser whom God Himself +had appointed, and in this character he drew attention to the sins +of the Jews before God's judgment-seat, and thereby delayed the judicial +sentence in their favour; but ultimately (though this took place late, +and is not met with in the Book of Daniel) he came to be the independent +leader of the power opposed to God, God's cause being identified +with that of the Jews. But as this prelude of the struggle took +place in heaven, its result was also anticipated. The kingdom of +God is on earth a thing of the future, but even now it is preserved +in heaven with all its treasures, one day to descend from there to +the earth. Heaven is the place where the good things of the future +are kept, which are not and yet must be; that is its original and +true signification. But the most important question came at last +to be, how individuals were to have part in the glory of the +future? How was it with the martyrs who had died in the +expectation of the kingdom of God, before it came? The doctrine of +the _zakuth_ was formed: if their merit was not of service to +themselves, it was yet of service to others. But this was a +solution with which individualism could not rest content. And what +of the ungodly? Were they to escape from wrath because they +died before the day of judgment? It was necessary that the +departed also should be allowed to take some part in the coming +retribution. Thus there arose--it is remarkable how late and how +slowly--the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, that the +kingdom of God might not be of service only to those who happened +to be alive at the judgment. Yet at first this doctrine was only +used to explain particularly striking cases. The Book of Daniel +says nothing of a general resurrection, but speaks in fact only of +a resurrection of the martyrs and a punishment of the wicked after +death. With all this the resurrection is not the entrance to a +life above the earth but to a second earthly life, to a world in +which it is no longer the heathen but the Jews who bear rule and +take the lead. Of a general judgment at the last day, or of heaven +and hell in the Christian sense, the Jews know nothing, though +these ideas might so easily have suggested themselves to them. + +It is not easy to find points of view from which to pronounce on +the character of Judaism. It is a system, but a practical system, +which can scarcely be set forth in relation to one leading +thought, as it is an irregular product of history. It lives on the +stores of the past, but is not simply the total of what had been +previously acquired; it is full of new impulses, and has an +entirely different physiognomy from that of Hebrew antiquity, +so much so that it is hard even to catch a likeness. Judaism is +everywhere historically comprehensible, and yet it is a mass of +antinomies. We are struck with the free flight of thought and the +deep inwardness of feeling which are found in some passages in the +Wisdom and in the Psalms; but, on the other hand, we meet with a +pedantic asceticism which is far from lovely, and with pious +wishes the greediness of which is ill-concealed; and these +unedifying features are the dominant ones of the system. +Monotheism is worked out to its furthest consequences, and at the +same time is enlisted in the service of the narrowest selfishness; +Israel participates in the sovereignty of the One God. The +Creator of heaven and earth becomes the manager of a petty scheme +of salvation; the living God descends from His throne to make way +for the law. The law thrusts itself in everywhere; it commands +and blocks up the access to heaven; it regulates and sets limits +to the understanding of the divine working on earth. As far as it +can, it takes the soul out of religion and spoils morality. It +demands a service of God, which, though revealed, may yet with truth +be called a self-chosen and unnatural one, the sense and use of which +are apparent neither to the understanding nor the heart. The labour +is done for the sake of the exercise; it does no one any good, and +rejoices neither God nor man. It has no inner aim after which it +spontaneously strives and which it hopes to attain by itself, but +only an outward one, namely, the reward attached to it, which +might as well be attached to other and possibly even more curious +conditions. The ideal is a negative one, to keep one's self from +sin, not a positive one, to do good upon the earth; the morality +is one which scarcely requires for its exercise the existence of +fellow-creatures. Now pious exercises can dam up life and hold it +in bounds, they may conquer from it more and more ground, and at +last turn it into one great Sabbath, but they cannot penetrate it +at the root. The occupation of the hands and the desire of the +heart fall asunder. What the hands are doing has nothing in common +with the earth, and bears no reference to earthly objects; but +with the Jews the result of this is that their hope assumes a more +worldly complexion. There is no connection between the Good One +and goodness. There are exceptions, but they disappear in the +system. + +The Gospel develops hidden impulses of the Old Testament, but it is +a protest against the ruling tendency of Judaism. Jesus understands +monotheism in a different way from his contemporaries. They think +in connection with it of the folly of the heathen and their great +happiness in calling the true God their own; He thinks of the claims, +not to be disputed or avoided, which the Creator makes on the creature. +He feels the reality of God dominating the whole of life, He breathes +in the fear of the Judge who requires an account for every idle word, +and has power to destroy body and soul in hell. "No man can serve two +masters; ye cannot serve God and Mammon; where your treasure is, there +will your heart be also." This monotheism is not to be satisfied with +stipulated services, how many and great soever; it demands the whole +man, it renders doubleness of heart and hypocrisy impossible. Jesus +casts ridicule on the works of the law, the washing of hands and +vessels, the tithing of mint and cummin, the abstinence even from +doing good on the Sabbath. Against unfruitful self-sanctification +He sets up another principle of morality, that of the service of one's +neighbour. He rejects that lofty kind of goodness, which says to father +and mother, If I dedicate what I might give to you, that will be best +even for you yourselves; He contends for the weightier matters in the +law, for the common morality which sees its aim in the furtherance of +the well-being of others, and which commends itself at once to the +heart of every one. Just this natural morality of self-surrender +does He call the law of God; that supernatural morality which thinks +to outbid this, He calls the commandment of men. Thus religion +ceases to be an art which the Rabbis and Pharisees understand better +than the unlearned people which know nothing of the law. The +arrogance of the school fares ill at the hands of Jesus; He will +know nothing of the partisanship of piety or of the separateness +of the godly; He condemns the practice of judging a man's value +before God. Holiness shrinks from contact with sinners, but He +helps the world of misery and sin; and there is no commandment +on which He insists more than that of forgiving others their debts +as one hopes for forgiveness himself from heaven. He is most +distinctly opposed to Judaism in His view of the kingdom of heaven, +not as merely the future reward of the worker, but as the present +goal of effort, it being the supreme duty of man to help it to +realise itself on earth, from the individual outwards. Love is +the means, and the community of love the end. + +Self-denial is the chief demand of the Gospel; it means the same +thing as that repentance which must precede entrance into the +kingdom of God. The will thereby breaks away from the chain of +its own acts, and makes an absolutely new beginning not conditioned +by the past. The causal nexus which admits of being traced comes +here to an end, and the mutual action, which cannot be analysed, +between God and the soul begins. Miracle does not require to be +understood, only to be believed, in order to take place. With men +it is impossible, but with God it is possible. Jesus not only +affirmed this, but proved it in His own person. The impression of +His personality convinced the disciples of the fact of the +forgiveness of their sins and of their second birth, and gave them +courage to believe in a new divine life and to live it. He had in +fact lost His life and saved it; He could do as he would. He had +escaped the limits of the race and the pains of self-seeking +nature; He had found freedom and personality in God, who alone is +master of Himself, and lifts those up to Himself who seek after +Him. + +Jesus works in the world and for the world, but with His faith He +stands above the world and outside it. He can sacrifice Himself +for the world because He asks nothing from the world, but has +attained in retirement with God to equanimity and peace of soul. +And further, the entirely supra-mundane position, at which Jesus +finds courage and love to take an interest in the world, does not +lead Him to anything strained or unnatural. He trusts God's +Providence, and resigns Himself to His will, He takes up the +attitude of a child towards Him, and loves best to call Him the +Heavenly Father. The expression is simple, but the thing +signified is new. He first knows Himself, not in emotion but in +sober quietness, to be God's child; before Him no one ever felt +himself to be so, or called himself so. He is the first-born of +the Father, yet, according to His own view, a first-born among +many brethren. For He stands in this relation to God not because +His nature is unique, but because He is man; He uses always and +emphatically this general name of the race to designate His own +person. In finding the way to God for Himself He has opened it to +all; along with the nature of God He has at the same time +discovered in Himself the nature of man. + +Eternity extends into the present with Him, even on earth He lives +in the midst of the kingdom of God; even the judgment He sees +inwardly accomplished here below in the soul of man. Yet He is +far from holding the opinion that he who loves God aright does not +desire that God should love him in return. He teaches men to bear +the cross, but he does not teach that the cross is sweet and that +sickness is sound. A coming reconciliation between believing and +seeing, between morality and nature, everywhere forms the +background of His view of the world; even if He could have done +without it for His own person, yet it is a thing He takes for +granted, as it is an objective demand of righteousness. So much is +certain; for the rest the eschatology of the New Testament is so +thoroughly saturated with the Jewish ideas of the disciples, that +it is difficult to know what of it is genuine. + +Jesus was so full of new and positive ideas that He did not feel +any need for breaking old idols, so free that no constraint could +depress Him, so unconquerable that even under the load of the +greatest accumulations of rubbish He could still breathe. This +ought ye to do, He said, and not to leave the other undone; He did +not seek to take away one iota, but only to fulfil. He never +thought of leaving the Jewish community. The Church is not His +work, but an inheritance from Judaism to Christianity. Under the +Persian domination the Jews built up an unpolitical community on +the basis of religion. The Christians found themselves in a +position with regard to the Roman Empire precisely similar to that +which the Jews had occupied with regard to the Persian; and so +they also founded, after the Jewish pattern, in the midst of the +state which was foreign and hostile to them, and in which they +could not feel themselves at home, a religious community as +their true fatherland. The state is always the presupposition of +the Church; but it was at first, in the case both of the Jewish +and of the Christian Church, a foreign state. The original meaning +of the Church thus disappeared when it no longer stood over against +the heathen world-power, it having become possible for the +Christians also to possess a natural fatherland in the nation. +In this way it became much more difficult to define accurately the +spheres of the state and the Church respectively, regarding the +Church as an organisation, not as an invisible community of the +faithful. The distinction of religious and secular is a variable +one; every formation of a religious community is a step towards +the secularisation of religion; the religion of the heart alone +remains an inward thing. The tasks of the two competing +organisations are not radically different in their nature; on the +one side it may be said that had not the Christian religion found +civil order already in existence, had it come, like Islam, in +contact with the anarchy of Arabia instead of the Empire of Rome +it must have founded not the Church, but the state; on the other +side it is well known that the state has everywhere entered into +possession of fields first reclaimed to cultivation by the Church. +Now we must acknowledge that the nation is more certainly created +by God than the Church, and that God works more powerfully in the +history of the nations than in Church history. The Church, at +first a substitute for the nation which was wanting, is affected by +the same evils incident to an artificial cultivation as meet us in +Judaism. We cannot create for ourselves our sphere of life and +action; better that it should be a natural one, given by God. +And yet it would be unjust to deny the permanent advantages of +the differentiation of the two. The Church will always be able +to work in advance for the state of the future. The present state +unfortunately is in many respects only nothing more than a barrier +to chaos; if the Church has still a task, it is that of preparing +an inner unity of practical conviction, and awakening a sentiment, +first in small circles, that we belong to each other. + +Whether she is to succeed in this task is certainly the question. +The religious individualism of the Gospel is, and must remain for +all time, the true salt of the earth. The certainty that neither +death nor life can separate us from the love of God drives out that +fear which is opposed to love; an entirely supra-mundane faith +lends courage for resultless self-sacrifice and resigned obedience +on earth. We must succeed: _sursum corda_! + + +12. THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD. + +Palestine fell into Alexander's possession in 332; after his death +it had an ample share of the troubles arising out of the partition +of his inheritance. In 320 it was seized by Ptolemy I., who on a +Sabbath-day took Jerusalem; but in 3I5 he had to give way before +Antigonus. Even before the battle of Ipsus, however, he recovered +possession once more, and for a century thereafter Southern Syria +continued to belong to the Egyptian crown, although the Seleucidae +more than once sought to wrench it away. + +In the priestly dynasty during the period of the Ptolemies, Onias +I. ben Jaddua was succeeded by his son Simon I., after whom +again came first his brothers Eleazar and Manasseh, and next his +son Onias II.; the last-named was in his turn followed by his son +Simon II., whose praises are sung by the son of Sirach (xlix. 14-16). +At the side of the high priest stood the gerusia of the town of +Jerusalem, as a council of state, including the higher ranks of the +priesthood. The new sovereign power was at once stronger and +juster than the Persian,--at least under the earlier Ptolemies; +the power of the national government increased; to it was +intrusted the business of raising the tribute. + +As a consequence of the revolutionary changes which had taken +place in the conditions of the whole East, the Jewish dispersion +(diaspora) began vigorously to spread. It dated its beginning +indeed from an earlier period,--from the time when the Jews had lost +their land and kingdom, but yet, thanks to their religion, could +not part with their nationality. They did not by any means all +return from Babylon; perhaps the majority permanently settled +abroad. The successors of Alexander (diadochi) fully appreciated +this international element, and used it as a link between their +barbarian and Hellenic populations. Everywhere they encouraged +the settlement of Jews,--in Asia Minor, in Syria, and especially +in Egypt. Alongside of the Palestinian there arose a Hellenistic +Judaism which had its metropolis in Alexandria. Here, under +Ptolemy I. and II., the Torah had already been translated into +Greek, and around this sprung up a Jewish-Greek literature which +soon became very extensive. At the court and in the army of the +Ptolemies many Jews rose to prominent positions; everywhere they +received the preference over, and everywhere they in consequence +earned the hatred of, the indigenous population. + +After the death of Ptolemy IV. (205) Antiochus III. attained the +object towards which he and his predecessors had long been vainly +striving; after a war protracted with varying success through +several years, he succeeded at last in incorporating Palestine with +the kingdom of the Seleucidae. The Jews took his side, less perhaps +because they had become disgusted with the really sadly +degenerate Egyptian rule, than because they had foreseen the issue +of the contest, and preferred to attach themselves voluntarily to +the winning side. In grateful acknowledgment, Antiochus +confirmed and enlarged certain privileges of the "holy camp," +i.e., of Jerusalem (Josephus, Antiquities, xii. 3, 3). It soon, +however, became manifest that the Jews had made but a poor bargain +in this exchange. Three years after his defeat at Magnesia, +Antiochus III. died (187), leaving to his son Seleucus IV. an immense +burden of debt, which he had incurred by his unprosperous Roman +war. Seleucus, in his straits, could not afford to be over-scrupulous +in appropriating money where it was to be found: he did not need to +be twice told that the wealth of the temple at Jerusalem was out of +all proportion to the expenses of the sacrificial service. The +sacred treasure accordingly made the narrowest possible escape +from being plundered; Heliodorus, who had been charged by the +king to seize it, was deterred at the last moment by a heavenly +vision. But the Jews derived no permanent advantage from this. + +It was a priest of rank, Simon by name, who had called the +attention of the king to the temple treasure; his motive had been +spite against the high priest Onias III., the son and successor of +Simon II. The circumstance is one indication of a melancholy +process of disintegration that was at that time going on within the +hierocracy. The high-priesthood, although there were exceptional +cases, such as that of Simon II., was regarded less as a sacred +office than as a profitable princedom; within the ranks of the +priestly nobility arose envious and jealous factions; personal +advancement was sought by means of the favour of the overlord, who +had something to say in the making of appointments. A collateral +branch of the ruling family, that of the children of Tobias, had by +means of the ill-gotten wealth of Joseph ben Tobias attained to a +position of ascendancy, and competed in point of power with the +high priest himself. It appears that the above-mentioned Simon, +and his still more scandalous brother AIenelaus, also belonged to +the Tobiadae, and, relying upon the support of their powerful party +(Josephus, Antiquities, xii. 5, 1), cherished the purpose of securing +the high-priesthood by the aid of the Syrian king. + +The failure of the mission of Heliodorus was attributed by Simon +to a piece of trickery on the part of Onias the high priest, who +accordingly found himself called upon to make his own +justification at court and to expose the intrigues of his +adversary. Meanwhile Seleucus IV. died of poison (175), and +Antiochus IV. Epiphanes did not confirm Onias in his dignity, +but detained him in Antioch, while he made over the office to his +brother Jason, who had offered a higher rent. Possibly the +Tobiadae also had something to do with this arrangement; at all +events, Menelaus was at the outset the right hand of the new high +priest. To secure still further the favour of the king, Jason held +himself out to be an enlightened friend of the Greeks, and begged +for leave to found in Jerusalem a gymnasium and an ephebeum, and to +be allowed to sell to the inhabitants there the rights of citizenship +in Antioch,--a request which was readily granted. + +The malady which had long been incubating now reached its acute +phase. Just in proportion as Hellenism showed itself friendly did +it present elements of danger to Judaism. From the periphery it +slowly advanced towards the centre, from the diaspora to +Jerusalem, from mere matters of external fashion to matters of the +most profound conviction. /1/ Especially did the upper and cultivated + +-- Footnote +1. The Hellenising fashion is amusingly exemplified in the Grecising +of the Jewish names; e.g., Alcimus = Eljakim, Jason = Jesus, Joshua; +Menelaus = Menahem. +-- Footnote + + +classes of society begin to feel ashamed, in presence of the +refined Greeks, of their Jewish singularity, and to do all in +their power to tone it down and conceal it. In this the priestly +nobility made itself conspicuous as the most secular section of +the community, and it was the high priest who took the initiative +in measures which aimed at a complete Hellenising of the Jews. He +outdid every one else in paganism. Once he sent a considerable +present for offerings to the Syrian Hercules on the occasion of his +festival; but his messenger, ashamed to apply the money to such +a purpose, set it apart for the construction of royal ships of war. + +The friendship shown by Jason for the Greek king and for all that +was Hellenic did not prevent Antiochus IV. from setting pecuniary +considerations before all others. Menelaus, intrusted with the +mission of conveying to Antioch the annual Jewish tribute, availed +himself of the opportunity to promote his own personal interests +by offering a higher sum for the high-priesthood, and having +otherwise ingratiated himself with the king, gained his object +(171). But though nominated, he did not find it quite easy to +obtain possession of the post. The Tobiadae took his side, but the +body of the people stuck to Jason, who was compelled to give way +only when Syrian troops had been brought upon the scene. Menelaus +had immediately, however, to encounter another difficulty, for he +could not at once pay the amount of tribute which he had promised. +He helped himself so far indeed by robbing the temple, but this +landed him in new embarrassments. Onias III., who was living out +of employment at Antioch, threatened to make compromising revelations +to the king; he was, however, opportunely assassinated. +The rage of the people against the priestly temple-plunderer now +broke out in a rising against a certain Lysimachus, who at the +instance of the absent Menelaus had made further inroads upon the +sacred treasury. The Jews' defence before the king (at Tyre) on +account of this uproar resolved itself into a grievous complaint +against the conduct of Menelaus. His case was a bad one, but money +again helped him out of his straits, and the extreme penalty of the +law fell upon his accusers. + +The feelings of the Jews with reference to this wolfish shepherd +may easily be imagined. Nothing but fear of Antiochus held them +in check. Then a report gained currency that the king had +perished in an expedition against Egypt (170); and Jason, who +meanwhile had found refuge in Ammanitis, availed himself of the +prevailing current of feeling to resume his authority with the +help of one thousand men. He was not able, however, to hold the +position long, partly because he showed an unwise vindictiveness +against his enemies, partly (and chiefly) because the rumour of +the death of Antiochus turned out to be false. The king was +already, in fact, close at hand on his return from Egypt, full of +anger at an insurrection which he regarded as having been directed +against himself. He inflicted severe and bloody chastisement +upon Jerusalem, carried off the treasures of the temple, and +restored Menelaus, placing Syrian officials at his side. Jason +fled from place to place, and ultimately died in misery at +Lacedaemon. + +The deepest despondency prevailed in Judaea; but its cup of +sorrow was not yet full. Antiochus, probably soon after his last +Egyptian expedition (168), sent Apollonius with an army against +Jerusalem. He fell upon the unsuspecting city, disarmed the +inhabitants and demolished the walls, but on the other hand +fortified Acra, and garrisoned it strongly, so as to make it a +standing menace to the whole country. Having thus made his +preparations, he proceeded to carry out his main instructions. +All that was religiously distinctive of Judaism was to be removed; +such was the will of the king. The Mosaic cultus was abolished, +Sabbath observance and the rite of circumcision prohibited, all +copies of the Torah confiscated and burnt. In the desecrated and +partially-destroyed temple pagan ceremonies were performed, and +upon the great altar of burnt-offering a small altar to Jupiter +Capitolinus was erected, on which the first offering was made on +25th Kislev 168. In the country towns also heathen altars were +erected, and the Jews compelled, on pain of death, publicly to +adore the false gods and to eat swine's flesh that had been +sacrificed to idols. + +The princes and grandees of the Jews had represented to Antiochus +that the people were ripe for Hellenisation; and inasmuch as, +apart from this, to reduce to uniformity the extremely motley +constituents of his kingdom was a scheme that lay near his heart, +he was very willing to believe them. That the very opposite was +the case must of course have become quite evident very soon; but +the resistance of the Jews taking the form of rebellious risings +against his creatures, he fell upon the hopeless plan of +coercion,--hopeless, for he could attain his end only by making +all Judaea one vast graveyard. There existed indeed a pagan party; +the Syrian garrison of Acra was partly composed of Jews who sold +themselves to be the executioners of their countrymen. Fear also +influenced many to deny their convictions; but the majority +adhered firmly to the religion of their fathers. Jerusalem, +the centre of the process of Hellenisation, was abandoned by its +inhabitants, who made their escape to Egypt, or hid themselves in +the country, in deserts and caves. The scribes in especial held +fast by the law; and they were joined by the party of the +Asidaeans (i.e., pious ones). + + +13. THE HASMONAEANS. + +At first there was no thought of meeting violence with violence; +as the Book of Daniel shows, people consoled themselves with +thoughts of the immediate intervention of God which would occur in +due time. Quite casually, without either plan or concert, a +warlike opposition arose. There was a certain priest Mattathias, +of the family of the Hasmonaeans, a man far advanced in life, +whose home was in Modein, a little country town to the west of +Jerusalem. Hither also the Syrian soldiers came to put the +population to a positive proof of their change of faith; they +insisted upon Mattathias leading the way. But he was steadfast in +his refusal; and, when another Jew addressed himself before his +eyes to the work of making the heathen offering, he killed him and +the Syrian officer as well, and destroyed the altar. Thereupon he +fled to the hill country, accompanied by his sons (Johannes Gaddi, +Simon Thassi, Judas Maccabaeus, Eleazar Auaran, Jonathan Apphus) +and other followers. But he resolved to defend himself to the +last, and not to act as some other fugitives had done, who about +the same time had allowed themselves to be surrounded and butchered +on a Sabbath-day without lifting a finger. Thus he became the head +of a band which defended the ancestral religion with the sword. +They traversed the country, demolished the altars of the false gods, +circumcised the children, and persecuted the heathen and heathenishly +disposed. The sect of the Asidaeans also intrusted itself to their +warlike protection (1Maccabees ii. 42). + +Mattathias soon died and left his leadership to Judas Maccabaeus, +by whom the struggle was carried on in the first instance after +the old fashion; soon, however, it assumed larger dimensions, when +regular armies were sent out against the insurgents. First +Apollonius, the governor of Judaea, took the field; but he was +defeated and fell in battle. Next came Seron, governor of +Ccelesyria, who also was routed near Bethhoron (I66). Upon this +Lysias, the regent to whom Antiochus IV., who was busied in the far +east, had intrusted the government of Syria and the charge of his +son, Antiochus Philopator, a minor, sent a strong force under the +command of three generals. Approaching from the west, it was their +design to advance separately upon Jerusalem, but Judas anticipated +their plan and compelled them to quit the field (166). The regent +now felt himself called on to interpose in person. Invading Judaea +from the south, he encountered the Jews at Bethsur, who, however, +offered an opposition that was not easily overcome; he was +prevented from resorting to the last measures by the intelligence +which reached him of the death of the king in Elymais (165). + +The withdrawal of Lysias secured the fulfilment of the desires of +the defenders of the faith in so far as it now enabled them to +restore the Jerusalem worship to its previous condition. They +lost no time in setting about the accomplishment of this. They +were not successful indeed in wresting Acra from the possession of +the Syrians, but they so occupied the garrison as to prevent it +from interfering with the work of restoration. On 25th Kislev 165, +the very day on which, three years before, "the abomination of +desolation" had been inaugurated, the first sacrifice was offered +on the new altar, and in commemoration of this the feast of the +dedication was thenceforth celebrated. + +As it was easy to see that danger still impended, the temple was +put into a state of defence, as also was the town of Bethsur, where +Lysias had been checked. But the favourable moment presented by +the change of sovereign was made use of for still bolder attempts. +Scattered over the whole of Southern Syria there were a number of +Jewish localities on which the heathens now proceeded to wreak +their vengeance. + +For the purpose of rescuing these oppressed co-religionists, and of +bringing them in safety to Judaea, the Maccabees made a series of +excursions, extending in some cases as far as to Lebanon and +Damascus. Lysias had his hands otherwise fully occupied, and +perhaps did not feel much disposed to continue the fight on behalf +of the cultus of Jupiter Capitolinus. Daily gaining in boldness, +the Jews now took in hand also to lay regular siege to Acra. Then +at last Lysias yielded to the pressure of Syrian and Jewish +deputations and determined to take serious steps (162). With a +large force he entered Judaea, again from the south, and laid siege +to Bethsur. Judas vainly attempted the relief of the fortress; +he sustained near Bethzachariah a defeat in which his brother Eleazar +perished. Bethsur was unable to hold out, being short of provisions +on account of the sabbatic year. The Syrians advanced next to Jerusalem +and besieged the temple; it also was insufficiently provisioned, and +would soon have been compelled to surrender, had not Lysias been again +called away at the critical moment by other exigencies. A certain +Philip was endeavouring to oust him from the regency; as it was +necessary for him to have his hands free in dealing with this new +enemy, he closed a treaty with the temple garrison and the people at +large, in accordance with which at once the political subjection +and the religious freedom of the Jews were to be maintained; Thus +the situation as it had existed before Antiochus IV. was restored. +Only no attempt was made to replace Menelaus as high priest and +ethnarch; this post was to be filled by Alcimus. + +The concessions thus made by Lysias were inevitable; and even +King Demetrius I., son of Seleucus IV., who towards the end of 162 +ascended the throne and caused both Lysias and his ward to be put +to death, had no thought of interfering with their religious +freedom. But the Maccabees desired something more than the _status +quo ante_; after having done their duty they were disinclined to +retire in favour of Alcimus, whose sole claim lay in his descent +from the old heathenishly-disposed high-priestly family. Alcimus +was compelled to invoke the assistance of the king, who caused him +to be installed by Bacchides. He was at once recognised by the +scribes and Asidaeans, for whom, with religious liberty, everything +they wished had been secured; the claims to supremacy made by +the Hasmonaeans were of no consequence to them. Doubtless the +masses also would ultimately have quietly accepted Alcimus, who of +course refrained from interference with either law or worship, had +he not abused the momentary power he derived from the presence of +Bacchides to take a foolish revenge. But the consequence of his +action was that, as soon as Bacchides had turned his back, Alcimus +was compelled to follow him. For the purpose of restoring him a +Syrian army once more invaded Judaea under Nicanor (I60), but +first at Kapharsalama and afterwards at Bethhoron was defeated by +Judas, and almost annihilated in the subsequent flight, Nicanor +himself being among the slain (13th Adar = Nicanor's day). Judas +was now at the acme of his prosperity; about this time he concluded +his (profitless) treaty with the Romans. But disaster was impending. +In the month of Nisan, barely a month after the defeat of Nicanor, +a new Syrian army under Bacchides entered Judaea from the north; +near Elasa, southward from Jerusalem, a decisive battle was fought +which was lost by Judas, and in which he himself fell. + +The religious war properly so called had already been brought +once for all to an end by the convention of Lysias. If the +struggle continued to be carried on, it was not for the faith but +for the supremacy,--less in the interests of the community than in +those of the Hasmonaeans. After the death of Judas the secular +character which the conflict had assumed ever since 162 continually +became more conspicuous. Jonathan Apphus fought for his house, and +in doing so used thoroughly worldly means. The high-priesthood, +i.e., the ethnarchy, was the goal of his ambition. So long as +Alcimus lived, it was far from his reach. Confined to the rocky +fastnesses beside the Dead Sea, he had nothing for it but, +surrounded by his faithful followers, to wait for better times. +But on the death of Alcimus (159) the Syrians refrained from +appointing a successor, to obviate the necessity of always having +to protect him with military force. During the interregnum of +seven years which followed, Jonathan again came more and more to +the front, so that at last Bacchides concluded an armistice with +him on the basis of the _status quo_ (1Maccabees ix. 13). From his +residence at Michmash Jonathan now exercised a _de facto_ authority +over the entire nation. + +When accordingly Alexander Balas, a reputed son of Antiochus IV., +rose against Demetrius, both rivals exerted themselves to secure +the alliance of Jonathan, who did not fail to benefit by their +competition. First of all, Demetrius formally recognised him as +prince of Judah; in consequence of this he removed to Jerusalem, +and expelled the heathen and heathenishly disposed, who continued +to maintain a footing only in Acra and Bethsur. Next Alexander +Balas conferred on him the title of "high priest of the nation +and friend of the king;" in gratitude for which Jonathan went +over to his side (152). He remained loya], although Demetrius +now made larger offers; he was justified by the event, for +Demetrius I. had the worst of it and was slain (150). The +victorious Balas heaped honours upon Jonathan, who maintained +his fidelity, and fought successfully in his interests when +in I47 Demetrius II., the son of Demetrius I., challenged a +conflict. The high priest was unable indeed to prevent the +downfall of Alexander in 145; but Demetrius II., won by presents, +far from showing any hostility, confirmed him in his position +in consideration of a tribute of 300 talents. + +Jonathan was grateful to the king, as he showed by going with 3000 +men to his aid against the insurgent Antiochenes. But when the +latter drew back from his promise to withdraw the garrison from +Acra, he went over to the side of Trypho, who had set up a son of +Alexander Balas (Antiochus) as a rival. In the war which he now +waged as Seleucid-strategus against Demetrius he succeeded in +subduing almost the whole of Palestine. Meanwhile his brother +Simon remained behind in Judaea, mastered the fortress of Bethsur, +and resumed with great energy the siege of Acra. All this was +done in the names of Antiochus and Trypho, but really of course in +the interests of the Jews themselves. There were concluded also +treaties with the Romans and Lacedaemonians, certainly not to +the advantage of the Syrians. + +Trypho sought now to get rid of the man whom he himself had made +so powerful. He treacherously seized and imprisoned Jonathan in +Ptolemais, and meditated an attack upon the leaderless country. +But on the frontier Simon, the last remaining son of Mattathias, +met him in force. All Trypho's efforts to break through proved +futile; after skirting all Judaea from west to south, without +being able to get clear of Simon, he at last withdrew to Peraea +without having accomplished anything. On the person of Jonathan, +whom he caused to be executed, he vented the spleen he felt on the +discovery that the cause for which that prince had fought was able +to gain the victory even when deprived of his help. Simon, in +point of fact, was Jonathan's equal as a soldier and his superior +as a ruler. He secured his frontier by means of fortresses, made +himself master of Acra (141), and understood how to enable the +people in time of peace to reap the advantages that result from +successful war; agriculture, industry, and commerce (from the +haven of Joppa) began to flourish vigorously. In grateful +recognition of his services the high-priesthood and the ethnarchy +were bestowed upon him as hereditary possessions by a solemn +assembly of the people, "until a trustworthy prophet should +arise." + +Nominally the Seleucidae still continued to possess the +suzerainty. Simon naturally had detached himself from Trypho +and turned to Demetrius II., who confirmed him in his position, +remitted all arrears of tribute, and waived his rights for the +future (142). The friendship of Demetrius II. and of his +successor Antiochus Sidetes with Simon, however, lasted only as +long as Trypho still remained in the way. But, he once removed, +Sidetes altered his policy. He demanded of Simon the surrender of +Joppa, Gazara, and other towns, besides the citadel of Jerusalem, +as well as payment of all tribute resting due. The refusal of +these demands led to war, which in its earlier stages was carried +on with success, but the scales were turned after the murder of +Simon, when Sidetes in person took the field against John Hyrcanus, +Simon's son and successor. Jerusalem capitulated; in the +negotiations for peace the surrender of all the external +possessions of the Jews was insisted upon; the suzerainty of the +Syrians became once more a reality (I35). But in 130 the powerful +Antiochus Sidetes fell in an expedition against the Parthians, and +the complications anew arising in reference to the succession to +the Syrian throne placed Hyrcanus in a position to recover what he +had lost and to make new acquisitions. He subjugated Samaria +and Idumaea, compelling the inhabitants of the latter to accept +circumcision. Like his predecessors, he too sought to secure the +favour of the Romans, but derived no greater benefit from the +effort than they had done. After a prosperous reign of thirty +years he died in 105. By Josephus he is represented as a pattern +of all that a pious prince ought to be; by the rabbins as +representing a splendid high-priesthood. The darkness of the +succeeding age lent a brighter colour to his image. + +The external splendour of the Hasmonaean kingdom did not at once +die away,--the downfall of the Seleucidae, which was its negative +condition, being also a slow affair. Judah Aristobulus, the son +of Hyrcanus, who reigned for only one year, was the first to +assume the Greek title of royalty; Ituraea was subdued by him, +and circumcision forced upon the inhabitants. His brother Jonathan +(Jannaeus) Alexander (104-79), in a series of continual wars, +which were never very prosperous, never-theless succeeded in adding +the whole coast of Philistia (Gaza) as well as a great portion of +Peraea to his hereditary dominions. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. A number of half-independent towns and communes lay as tempting +subjects of dispute between the Seleucidae, the Nabathaeans or +Arabs of Petra, and the Jews. The background was occupied by the +Parthians and the Romans. +-- Footnote + + +But the external enlargement of the structure was secured at the cost +of its internal consistency. + +From the time when Jonathan, the son of Mattathias, began to carry +on the struggle no longer for the cause of God but for his own +interests, the scribes and the Asidaeans, as we have seen, had +withdrawn themselves from the party of the Maccabees There can +be no doubt that from their legal standpoint they were perfectly +right in contenting themselves, as they did, with the attainment +of religious liberty, and in accepting Alcimus. The Hasmonaeans +had no hereditary right to the high-priesthood, and their +politics, which aimed at the establishment of a national monarchy, +were contrary to the whole spirit and essence of the second +theocracy. The presupposition of that theocracy was foreign +domination; in no other way could its sacred--i.e., clerical-- +character be maintained. God and the law could not but be +forced into the background if a warlike kingdom, retaining indeed +the forms of a hierocracy, but really violating its spirit at +every point, should ever grow out of a mere pious community. +Above all, how could the scribes hope to retain their importance +if temple and synagogue were cast into the shade by politics and +clash of arms? But under the first great Hasmonaeans the +zealots for the law were unable to force their way to the front; +the enthusiasm of the people was too strong for them; they had +nothing for it but to keep themselves out of the current and refuse +to be swept along by it. Even under Hyrcanus, however, they +gained more prominence, and under Jannaeus their influence upon +popular opinion was paramount. For under the last-named the +secularisation of the hierocracy no longer presented any +attractive aspects; it was wholly repellent. It was looked upon +as a revolting anomaly that the king, who was usually in the +field with his army, should once and again assume the sacred mantle +in order to perform the sacrifice on some high festival, and that +his officers, profane persons as they were, should at the same +time be holders of the highest spiritual offices. The danger which +in all this threatened "the idea of Judaism" could not in these +circumstances escape the observation of even the common people; for +this idea was God and the law, not any earthly fatherland. The +masses accordingly ranged themselves with ever-growing unanimity +on the side of the Pharisees (i.e., the party of the scribes) as +against the Sadducees (i.e., the Hasmonaean party). /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. PRW# means "separated," and refers perhaps to the attitude of +isolation taken by the zealots for the law during the interval +between 162 and 105. CDWQY (*SADDOUKAIOS) comes from CDWQ (*SADDOUK, +LXX.) the ancestor of the higher priesthood of Jerusalem (1Kings ii. +35; 1Samuel ii. 35; Ezekiel xliv. 15), and designates the +governing nobility. The original character of the opposition, as +it appeared under Jannaeus, changed entirely with the lapse of +time, on account of the Sadducees' gradual loss of political +power, till they fell at last to the condition of a sort of "fronde." +-- Footnote + + +On one occasion, when Alexander Jannaeus had returned to Jerusalem +at the feast of tabernacles, and was standing in his priestly +vestments before the altar to sacrifice, he was pelted by the +assembled crowd of worshippers with citrons from the green branches +they carried. By the cruelty with which he punished this insult +he excited the populace to the highest pitch, and, when he lost +his army in the disaster of Gadara, rebellion broke out. The +Pharisees summoned the Syrian king Demetrius Eucaerus; Jannaeus +was worsted and fled into the desert. But as he wandered in +helplessness there, the patriotism of the people and sympathy for +the heir of the Maccabees suddenly awoke; nature proved itself +stronger than that consistency which in the cause of the Divine +honour had not shrunk from treason. The insurgents for the most +part went over to the side of the fugitive king; the others he +ultimately overpowered after a struggle which lasted through +several years, Demetrius having withdrawn his intervention. The +vengeance which he took on the Pharisees was a bloody one; their +only escape was by voluntary exile. Thenceforward he had peace +so far as they were concerned. His last years were occupied with +the reacquisition of the conquests which he had been compelled to +yield to the Arabs during the civil war. He died in the field +at the siege of Ragaba in Peraea (79). + +Under Queen Salome, his widow, matters were as if they had been +specially arranged for the satisfaction of the Pharisees. The +high-priesthood passed to Salome's son, Hyrcanus II.; she herself +was only queen. In the management of external affairs her +authority was absolute (Antiquities, xiii. 16, 6); in home policy +she permitted the scribes to wield a paramount influence. The +common assertion, indeed, that the synedrium was at that time +practically composed of scribes, is inconsistent with the known +facts of the case; the synedrium at that time was a political +and not a scholastic authority. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Kuenen, "Over de Samenstelling van het Sanhedrin," in +Proceedings of Royal Netherl. Acad., 1866. +-- Footnote + + +In its origin it was the municipal council of Jerusalem (so also +the councils of provincial towns are called synedria, Mark xiii. 9), +but its authority extended over the entire Jewish community; +alongside of the elders of the city the ruling priests were those +who had the greatest number of seats and votes. John Hyrcanus +appears to have been the first to introduce some scribes into its +composition; it is possible that Salome may have increased their +number, but even so this high court was far from being changed into +a college of scribes like that at Jamnia. If the domination of the +Pharisees at this time is spoken of, the expression cannot be +understood as meaning that they already held all the public +offices, but only at most that the holders of those offices found +it necessary to administer and to judge in their spirit and +according to their fundamental principles. + +The party of the Sadducees (consisting of the old Hasmonaean +officers and officials, who were of priestly family indeed, but +attached only slight importance to their priestly functions) at +length lost all patience. Led by Aristobulus, the second son of +Jannaeus, the leaders of the party came to the palace, and begged +the queen to dismiss them from the court and to send them into the +provinces. There they were successful in securing possession of +several fortresses /2/ in preparation for insurrection, a favourable + +-- Footnote +2. Alexandrium, Coreae, and similar citadels, which were at that +time of great importance for Palestine and Syria. +-- Footnote + + +opportunity for which they were watching. Such an opportunity +occurred, it seemed to Aristobulus, as his mother lay on her +death-bed. The commandants of the fortresses were at his orders, +and by their assistance an army also, with which he accordingly +advanced upon Jerusalem, and, on the death of Salome, made himself +master of the situation (69). Hyrcanus was compelled to resign +office. With this event the good understanding between the civil +government and the Pharisees came to an end; the old antagonisms +became active once more, and now began to operate for the advantage +of a third party, the Idumaean Antipater, Hyrcanus's confidential +friend. After the latter, aided by Antipater, had at length with +great difficulty got himself into a position for asserting his +rights against Aristobulus, the Pharisees could not do otherwise +than rank themselves upon his side, and the masses joined them +against the usurper. With the help of the Nabataean monarch the +effort to restore the elder brother to the supreme authority would +doubtless have succeeded had not the Romans procured relief for +Aristobulus, besieged as he was in Jerusalem (65), though without +thereby recognising his claims. Pompey continued to delay a decision +on the controversy in 64 also when the rival claimants presented +themselves before him at Damascus; he wished first to have the +Nabataeans disposed of, and to have free access to them through +Judaea. This hesitation roused the suspicions of Aristobulus; +still he did not venture to take decisive action upon them. He +closed the passes (to Mount Ephraim) against the Romans, but +afterwards gave them up; he prepared Jerusalem for war, and then +went in person to the Roman camp at Jericho, where he promised +to open the gates of the city and also to pay a sum of money. +But the Roman ambassadors found the gates barred, and had to +return empty-handed. Aristobulus thereupon was arrested, and +siege was laid to Jerusalem. The party of Hyrcanus, as soon +as it had gained the upper hand, surrendered the town; but the +supporters of Aristobulus took their stand in the temple, and +defended it obstinately. In June 63 the place was carried by +storm; Pompey personally inspected the Holy of Holies, but +otherwise spared the religious feelings of the Jews. But he +caused the chief promoters of the war to be executed, and carried +Aristobulus and his family into captivity. He abolished the +kingship, but restored the high-priestly dignity to Hyrcanus. +The territory was materially reduced in area, and made tributary +to the Romans; the city was occupied by a Roman garrison. + + +14. HEROD AND THE ROMANS. + +Henceforward Roman intervention forms a constant disturbing factor +in Jewish history. The struggle between the Pharisees and the +Sadducees continued indeed to be carried on, but only because the +momentum of their old feud was not yet exhausted. The Pharisees in +a sense had been victorious. While the two brothers were pleading +their rival claims before Pompey, ambassadors from the Pharisees +had made their appearance in Damascus to petition for the abolition +of the kingship; this object had now to some extent been gained. +Less ambiguous than the victory of the Pharisees was the fall of +the Sadducees, who in losing the sovereignty of the Jewish state +lost all real importance. But the intervention of the foreign +element exercised its most powerful influence upon the temper of +the lower classes. Though in times of peace the masses still +continued to accept the guidance of the rabbins, their patriotism +instantly burst into flame as soon as a pretender to the throne, +belonging to the family of Aristobulus, appeared in Palestine. +During the decennia which immediately followed, Jewish history +was practically absorbed in vain attempts to restore the old +Hasmonaean kingdom. Insurrections of steadily increasing +dimensions were made in favour of Aristobulus, the representative +of the national cause. For Hyrcanus was not regarded as a +Hasmonaean at all, but merely as the creature of Antipater and the +Romans. First, in the year 57, Alexander the son of Aristobulus +broke into rebellion, then in 56 Aristobulus himself and his son +Antigonus, and in 55 Alexander again. Antipater was never able to +hold his own; Roman intervention was in every case necessary. +The division of the Hasmonaean state into five "aristocracies" by +Gabinius had no effect in diminishing the feeling of national unity +cherished by the Jews of Palestine. Once again, after the battle +of Carrhae, a rising took place, which Cassius speedily repressed. + +In 49 the great Roman civil war broke out; Caesar instigated +Aristobulus against Antipater, who in common with the whole East +had espoused the cause of Pompey. But Aristobulus was poisoned by +the opposite party while yet in Italy, and about the same time his +son Alexander was also put to death at Antioch; thus the danger +to Antipater passed away. After the battle of Pharsalus he went +over to Caesar's side, and soon after rendered him an important +service by helping him out of his difficulties at Alexandria. By +this means he earned the good-will of Caesar towards the whole body +of the Jews and secured for himself (or Hyrcanus) a great extension +of power and of territory. The five "synedria" or "aristocracies" +of Gabinius were superseded, the most important conquest of the +Hasmonaeans restored, the walls of Jerusalem, which Pompey had razed, +rebuilt. + +However indisputable the advantages conferred by the rule of +Antipater, the Jews could not forget that the Idumaean, in name +of Hyrcanus, the rightful heir of the Hasmonaeans, was in truth +setting up an authority of his own. The Sadducaean aristocracy +in particular, which formerly in the synedrium had shared the +supreme power with the high priest, endeavoured to restore +reality once more to the nominal ascendancy which still continued +to be attributed to the ethnarch and the synedrium. "When the +authorities (hoi 'en telei) of the Jews saw how the power of +Antipater and his sons was growing, their disposition towards him +became hostile" (Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. 9, 3). They were +specially jealous of the youthful Herod, to whom Galilee had been +entrusted by his father. On account of the arbitrary execution +of a robber chief Ezechias, who perhaps had originally been a +Hasmonaean partisan, they summoned him before the synedrium, +under the impression that it was not yet too late to remind him +that he was after all but a servant. But the defiant demeanour +of the culprit, and a threatening missive which at the same time +arrived from Sextus Caesar demanding his acquittal, rendered his +judges speechless, nor did they regain their courage until they +had heard the stinging reproaches of Sameas the scribe. Yet the +aged Hyrcanus, who did not comprehend the danger that was +threatening himself, postponed judgment upon Herod, and gave him +opportunity to withdraw. Having been appointed strategus of +Coelesyria by Sextus Caesar in the meanwhile he soon afterwards +appeared before Jerusalem at the head of an army, and the +authorities were compelled to address themselves in a conciliatory +manner to his father and to Phasael his brother in order to secure +his withdrawal. + +The attempt to crush the serpent which had thus effected a lodgment +in the Hasmonaean house came too late. The result of it simply +was that the Herodians had now the advantage of being able to +distinguish between Hyrcanus and his "evil counsellors." From that +moment the downfall of the Sadducaean notables was certain. It was +of no avail to them that after the battle of Philippi (42) they +accused Herod and Phasael (Antipater having been murdered in 43) +before Antony of having been helpful in every possible way to +Cassius; Antony declared himself in the most decisive manner for +the two brothers. In their despair--for properly speaking they +were not national fanatics but only egoistic politicians--they +ultimately made common cause with Antigonus the son of +Aristobulus, and threw themselves into the arms of the Parthians, +perceiving the interests of the Romans and of Herod to be +inseparable (40). Fortune at first seemed to have declared in +favour of the pretender. The masses unanimously took his side; +Phasael committed suicide in prison; with a single blow Herod was +stripped of all his following and made a helpless fugitive. He +took refuge in Rome, however, where he was named king of Judaea +by the senate, and after a somewhat protracted war he finally, +with the help of the legions of Sosius, made himself master of +Jerusalem (37). The captive Antigonus was beheaded at Antioch. + +King Herod began his reign by reorganising the synedrium; he +ordered the execution of forty-five of its noblest members, his +most zealous opponents. These were the Sadducaean notables who +long had headed the struggle against the Idumaean interlopers. +Having thus made away with the leaders of the Jerusalem +aristocracy, he directed his efforts to the business of corrupting +the rest. He appointed to the most important posts obscure +individuals, of priestly descent, from Babylon and Alexandria, +and thus replaced with creatures of his own the old aristocracy. +Nor did he rest content with this; in order to preclude the +possibility of any independent authority ever arising alongside +of his own, he abolished the life-tenure of the high-priestly +office, and brought it completely under the control of the secular +power. By this means he succeeded in relegating the Sadducees to +utter insignificance. They were driven out of their native +sphere--the political--into the region of theoretical and +ecclesiastical discussion, where they continued, but on quite +unequal terms, their old dispute with the Pharisees. + +It was during the period of Herod's activity that the Pharisees, +strictly speaking, enjoyed their greatest prosperity (Sameas and +Abtalion, Hillel and Shammai); in the synedrium they became so +numerous as almost to equal the priests and elders. Quite +consistently with their principles they had abstained from +taking any part in the life and death struggle for the existence +of the national state. Their leaders had even counselled the +fanatical defenders of Jerusalem to open the gates to the enemy; +for this service they were treated with the highest honour by Herod. +He made it part of his general policy to favour the Pharisees +(as also the sect of the Essenes, insignificant though it was), +it being his purpose to restrict the national life again within +those purely ecclesiastical channels of activity which it had +abandoned since the Maccabaean wars. However reckless his conduct +in other respects, he was always scrupulously careful to avoid +wounding religious susceptibilities (Antiquities, xiv. 16, 3). +But although the Pharisees might be quite pleased that the +high-priesthood and the kingship were no longer united in one +and the same person, and that interest in the law again overshadowed +interest in politics, the populace for their part could never +forgive Herod for overthrowing the old dynasty. That he himself, +at least in religious profession, was a Jew did not improve his +position, but rather made it worse. It was not easy for him to +stifle the national feeling after it had once been revived among +the Jews; they could not forget the recent past, and objected to +being thrust back into the time when foreign domination was endured +by them as a matter of course. The Romans were regarded in quite +a different light from that in which the Persians and the Greeks +had been viewed, and Herod was only the client of the Romans. + +His greatest danger seemed to arise from the still surviving +members of the Hasmonaean family, to whom, as is easily +understood, the national hopes clung. In the course of the earlier +years of his reign he removed every one of them from his path, +beginning with his youthful brother-in-law Aristobulus (35), after +whom came his old patron Hyrcanus II. (30), then Mariamne his wife +(29), and finally his stepmother Alexandra (28), the daughter of +Hyrcanus and the widow of Alexander Aristobuli. Subsequently, +in 25, he caused Costobarus and the sons of Babas to be executed. +While thus occupied with domestic affairs, Herod had constant +trouble also in his external relations, and each new phase in his +political position immediately made itself felt at home. In the +first instance he had much to suffer from Cleopatra, who would +willingly have seen Palestine reduced under Egyptian domination +once more, and who actually succeeded in inducing Antony to take +from Herod several fair and valuable provinces of his realm. Next, +his whole position was imperilled by the result of the battle of +Actium; he had once more ranged himself upon the wrong side. But +his tact did not fail him in winning Octavianus, as before it had +made Antony his friend. In fact he reaped nothing but advantage +from the great overturn which took place in Roman affairs; it +rid him of Cleopatra, a dangerous enemy, and gave him in the new +imperator a much better master than before. + +During the following years he had leisure to carry out those +splendid works of peace by which it was his aim to ingratiate +himself with the emperor. He founded cities and harbours +(Antipatris, Caesarea), constructed roads, theatres, and temples, +and subsidised far beyond his frontier all works of public utility. +He taxed the Jews heavily, but in compensation promoted their +material interests with energy and discretion, and built for them, +from 20 or 19 B.C. onwards, the temple at Jerusalem. To gain their +sympathies he well knew to be impossible. Apart from the Roman +legions at his back his authority had its main support in his +fortresses and in his system of espionage. + +But just as the acme of his splendour had been reached, he himself +became the instrument of a terrible vengeance for the crimes by +which his previous years had been stained; as executioner of all +the Hasmonaeans, he was now constrained to be the executioner of +his own children also. His suspicious temper had been aroused +against his now grown-up sons by Mariamne, whose claims through +their mother to the throne were superior to his own; his brother +Pheroras and his sister Salome made it their special business to +fan his jealousy into flame. To show the two somewhat arrogant +youths that the succession was not so absolutely secure in their +favour as they were supposing, the father summoned to his court +Antipater, the exiled son of a former marriage. Antipater, under +the mask of friendship, immediately began to carry on infamous +intrigues against his half brothers, in which Pheroras and Salome +unconsciously played into his hands. For years he persevered +alike in favouring and unfavouring circumstances with his part, +until at last, by the machinations of a Lacedemonian, Eurycles, +who had been bribed, Herod was induced to condemn the sons of +Mariamne at Berytus, and cause them to be strangled (Samaria, 7-6 +B.C.). Not long afterwards a difference between Antipater and +Salome led to the exposure of the former. Herod was compelled +to drain the cup to the dregs; he was not spared the knowledge +that he had murdered his children without a cause. His remorse +threw him into a serious illness, in which his strong constitution +wrestled long with death. While he lay at Jericho near his end +he gave orders for the execution of Antipater also; and to embitter +the joy of the Jews at his removal he caused their elders to be +shut up together in the hippodrome at Jericho with the injunction +to butcher them as soon as he breathed his last, that so there +might be sorrow throughout the land. The latter order, however, +was not carried out. + +His death (4 B.C.) gave the signal for an insurrection of small +beginnings which gradually spread until it ultimately infected +all the people; it was repressed by Varus with great cruelty. +Meanwhile Herod's connexions were at Rome disputing about the +inheritance. The deceased king (who was survived by several +children of various marriages) had made a will, which was +substantially confirmed by Augustus. By it his son Philip +received the northern portion of the territory on the east +of the Jordan along with the district of Paneas (Caesarea +Philippi); his thirty-seven years' reign over this region was +happy. Another son, Herod Antipas, obtained Galilee and Peraea; +he beautified his domains with architectural works (Sepphoris, +Tiberias; Livias, Machaerus), and succeeded by his fox-like +policy in ingratiating himself with the emperors, particularly +with Tiberius, for that very cause, however, becoming odious to +the Roman provincial officials. The principal heir was Archelaus, +to whom Idumaea, Judaea, and Samaritis were allotted; Augustus at +first refused him the title of king. Archelaus had experienced +the greatest difficulty in carrying through his claims before +the emperor in face of the manifold oppositions of his enemies; +the vengeance which he wreaked upon his subjects was so severe +that in 6 A,D. a Jewish and Samaritan embassy besought the emperor +for his deposition. Augustus assented, banishing Archelaus to +Vienne, and putting in his place a Roman procurator. Thenceforward +Judaea continued under procurators, with the exception of a brief +interval (41-44 A.D.), during which Herod Agrippa I. united under +his sway all the dominions of his grandfather. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Agrippa was the grandson of Mariamne through Aristobulus. +Caligula, whose friendship he had secured in Rome, bestowed upon +him in 37 the dominions of Philip with the title of king, and +afterwards the tetrarchy of Antipas, whom he deposed and banished +to Lugdunum (39). Claudius added the possessions of Archelaus. +But the kingdom was again taken away from his son Agrippa II. +(44), who, however, after the death of his uncle, Herod of Chalcis, +obtained that principality for which at a later period (52) the +tetrarchy of Philip was substituted. His sister Berenice is known +as the mistress of Titus; another sister, Drusilla, was the wife +of the procurator Felix. The descendants of Mariamne through +Alexander held for some time an Armenian principality. +-- Footnote + + +The termination of the vassal kingship resulted in manifest +advantage to the Sadducees. The high priest and synedrium again +acquired political importance; they were the responsible +representatives of the nation in presence of the suzerain power, +and conceived themselves to be in some sort lords of land and +people (John xi. 48). For the Pharisees the new state of affairs +appears to have been less satisfactory. That the Romans were +much less oppressive to the Jews than the rulers of the house of +Herod was a consideration of less importance to them than the +fact that the heathen first unintentionally and then deliberately +were guilty of the rudest outrages upon the law, outrages against +which those sly half-Jews had well understood how to be on their +guard. It was among the lower ranks of the people, however, that +hatred to the Romans had its proper seat. On the basis of the views +and tendencies which had long prevailed there, a new party was now +formed, that of the Zealots, which did not, like the Pharisees, aim +merely at the fulfilment of all righteousness, i.e., of the law, +and leave everything else in the hands of God, but was determined +to take an active part in bringing about the realisation of the +kingdom of God (Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. 1, 1). + +As the transition to the new order of things was going on, the +census of Quirinius took place (6-7 A.D.); it occasioned an +immense excitement, which, however, was successfully allayed. +On the withdrawal of Quirinius, Coponius remained behind as +procurator of Judaea; he was followed, under Augustus, by Marcus +Ambivius and Annius Rufus; under Tiberius, by Valerius Gratus +(15-26 A.D.) and Pontius Pilatus (26-36 A.D.); under Caligula, +by Marcellus (36-37) and Marullus (37-41 A.D.). The procurators +were subordinate to the imperial legati of Syria; they resided +in Caesarea, and visited Jerusalem on special occasions only. +They had command of the military, and their chief business was +the maintenance of the peace and the care of the revenue. They +interested themselves in affairs of religion only in so far as +these had a political side; the temple citadel Antonia was constantly +garrisoned with a cohort. The administration of justice appears +to have been left to a very considerable extent in the hands of +the synedrium, but it was not allowed to give effect to any capital +sentence. At the head of the native authorities stood at this time +not so much the actual high priest as the college of the chief priests. +The actual office of high priest had lost its political importance +in consequence of the frequency with which its holders were changed; +thus, for example, Annas had more influence than Caiaphas. + +The principle of interfering as little as possible with the +religious liberty of the Jews was rudely assailed by the Emperor +Caius, who like a second Antiochus, after various minor vexations, +gave orders that his image should be set up in the temple of +Jerusalem as in others elsewhere. It was entirely through the +courage and tact of the Syrian governor P. Petronius that the +execution of these orders was temporarily postponed until the +emperor was induced by Agrippa I. to withdraw them. Caius soon +afterwards died, and under the rule of Agrippa I., to whom the +government of the entire kingdom of his grandfather was committed +by Claudius, the Jews enjoyed much prosperity; in every respect +the king was all they could wish. This very prosperity seems, +however, to have caused them fresh danger. For it made them feel +the government by procurators, which was resumed after the death +of Agrippa I., to be particularly hard to bear, whatever the +individual characters of these might be. They were Cuspius Fadus +(from 44, under whom Theudas), Tiberius Alexander (the Romanised +nephew of Philo, till 48), Cumanus (48-52, under whom the volcano +already began to give dangerous signs of activity), and Felix +(52-60). Felix, who has the honour to be pilloried in the pages of +Tacitus, contrived to make the dispeace permanent. The influence +of the two older parties, both of which were equally interested in +the maintenance of the existing order, and in that interest were +being drawn nearer to each other, diminished day by day. The +masses broke loose completely from the authority of the scribes; +the ruling nobility adapted itself better to the times; under the +circumstances which then prevailed, it is not surprising that +they became thoroughly secular and did not shrink from the +employment of directly immoral means for the attainment of their +ends. The Zealots became the dominant party. It was a combination +of noble and base elements; superstitious enthusiasts (Acts xxi. +38) and political assassins, the so-called sicarii, were conjoined +with honest but fanatical patriots. Felix favoured the sicarii in +order that he might utilise them; against the others his hostility +raged with indiscriminating cruelty, yet without being able to +check them. The anarchy which he left behind him as a legacy was +beyond the control of his able successor Porcius Festus (60-62), +and the last two procurators, Albinus (62-64) and Gessius Florus, +acted as if it had been their special business to encourage and +promote it. All the bonds of social order were dissolved; no +property was secure; the assassins alone prospered, and the +procurators went shares with them in the profits. + +It was inevitable that deep resentment against the Romans should +be felt in every honest heart. At last it found expression. +During his visit to Jerusalem in May 66 Florus laid hands upon the +temple treasure; the Jews allowed themselves to go so far as to +make a joke about it, which he avenged by giving over a portion of +the city to be plundered, and crucifying a number of the +inhabitants. He next insisted upon their kissing the rod, ordering +that a body of troops which was approaching should be met and +welcomed. At the persuasion of their leaders the Jews forced +themselves even to this; but a constant succession of fresh +insults and cruelties followed, till patience was quite exhausted +at last, and in a violent street fight the Romans were so handled +that the procurator withdrew from the town, leaving only the +cohort in Antonia. Once again was an attempt at pacification made +by Agrippa II., who hastened from Alexandria with this purpose, +but the Jews could not bring themselves to make submission to +Gessius Florus. It so happened that at this juncture the fortress +of Masada on the Dead Sea fell into the hands of the Zealots; the +courage of the party of action rose, and at the instance of the +hot-headed Eleazar the son of Ananias, a man, still young, of +highest priestly family, the sacrifice on behalf of the emperor +was discontinued, ie., revolt was declared. But the native +authorities continued opposed to a war. At their request King +Agrippa sent soldiers to Jerusalem; at first they appeared to +have some effect, but ultimately they were glad to make their +escape in safety from the city. The cohort in Antonia was in like +manner unable to hold its own; freedom was given it to withdraw; +but, contrary to the terms of capitulation, it was put to the +sword. The war party now signalised its triumph over all elements +of opposition from within by the murder of the high priest +Ananias. + +A triumph was gained also over the outer foe. The Syrian legate, +Cestius Gallus, appeared before Jerusalem in the autumn of 66, but +after a short period raised the siege; his deliberate withdrawal +was changed into a precipitate flight in an attack made by the +Jews at Bethhoron. The revolt now spread irresistibly through +all ranks and classes of the population, and the aristocracy found +it expedient itself to assume the leadership. An autonomous +government was organised, with the noblest members of the community +at its head; of these the most important was the high priest +Ananus. + +Meanwhile Nero entrusted the conduct of the Jewish war to Vespasian, +his best general. In the spring of 67 he began his task in +Galilee, where the historian Josephus had command of the +insurgents. The Jews entirely distrusted him and he them; in a +short time the Romans were masters of Galilee, only a few strong +places holding out against them. Josephus was besieged in +Jotapata, and taken prisoner; the other places also were unable to +hold out long. Such of the champions of freedom in Galilee as +escaped betook themselves to Jerusalem; amongst these was the +Zealot leader John of Giscala. There they told the story of their +misfortunes, of which they laid the blame upon Josephus, and upon +the aristocratic government as having no heart for the common cause +and having treachery for their motto. The Zealots now openly aimed +at the overthrow of the existing government, but Ananus bravely +withstood them, and pressed so hard on them that they summoned +the Idumaeans into the city to their aid. These honourable fanatics +indeed withdrew again as soon as they had discovered that they were +being used for sinister designs; but in the meanwhile they had +accomplished the work of the Zealots. The old magistracy of +Jerusalem was destroyed, Ananus with the heads of the aristocracy +and very many other respectable citizens put to death. The radicals, +for the most part not natives of the city, came into power; John +of Giscala at their head tyrannized over the inhabitants. + +While these events were taking place in Jerusalem, Vespasian had +subdued the whole country, with the exception of one or two +fortresses. But as he was setting about the siege of the capital, +tidings arrived of the death of Nero, and the offensive was +discontinued. For almost two years (June 68 to April 70), with +a short break, war was suspended. When Vespasian at the end of +this period became emperor, he entrusted to Titus the task of +reducing Jerusalem. There in the interval the internal struggle +had been going on, even after the radicals had gained the mastery. +As a counterpoise to John of Giscala the citizens had received +the guerilla captain Simon bar Giora into the city; the two were +now at feud with each other, but were alike in their rapacity +towards the citizens. John occupied the temple, Simon the upper +city Iying over against it on the west. For a short time a third +entered into competition with the two rivals, a certain Eleazar +who had separated from John and established himself in the inner +temple. But just as Titus was beginning the siege (Easter, 70) +John contrived to get rid of this interloper. + +Titus attacked from the north. After the lower city had fallen +into his hands, he raised banks with a view to the storm of the +temple and the upper city. But the defenders, who were now united +in a common cause, taught him by their vigorous resistance that +his object was not to be so quickly gained. He therefore +determined to reduce them by famine, and for this end completely +surrounded the city with a strong wall. In the beginning of July +he renewed the attack, which he directed in the first instance +against the temple. The tower of Antonia fell on the 5th, but the +temple continued to beheld notwithstanding; until the I7th the +daily sacrifice continued to be offered. The Romans succeeded in +gaining the outer court in August only. To drive them out, the +Jews in the night of August 10-11 made a sortie, but were +compelled to retire, the enemy forcing their way behind them into +the inner court. A legionary flung a firebrand into an annexe of +the temple, and soon the whole structure was in flames. A terrible +slaughter of the defenders ensued, but John with a determined band +succeeded in cutting his way out, and by means of the bridge over +the Tyropceon valley made his escape into the upper city. + +No attack had as yet been directed against this quarter; but +famine was working terrible ravages among the crowded population. +Those in command, however, refused to capitulate unless freedom to +withdraw along with their wives and children were granted. These +terms being withheld, a storm, after the usual preparations on the +part of the Romans, took place. The resistance was feeble; the +strong towers were hardly defended at all; Simon bar Giora and +John of Giscala now thought only of their personal safety. In the +unprotected city the Roman soldiers spread fire and slaughter +unchecked (September 7, 70). + +Of those who survived also some were put to death; the rest were +sold or carried off to the mines and amphitheatres. The city was +levelled with the ground; the tenth legion was left behind in +charge. Titus took with him to Rome for his triumphal procession +Simon bar Giora and John of Giscala, along with seven hundred other +prisoners, also the sacred booty taken from the temple, the +candlestick, the golden table, and a copy of the Torah. He was +slightly premature with his triumph; for some time elapsed, and +more than one bloody battle was necessary before the rebellion +was completely stifled. It did not come wholly to an end until +the fall of Masada (April 73). + + +I5. THE RABBINS. + +Even now Palestine continued for a while to be the centre of Jewish +life, but only in order to prepare the way for its transition +into thoroughly cosmopolitan forms. The development of thought +sustained no break on account of the sad events which had taken +place, but was only directed once more in a consistent manner +towards these objects which had been set before it from the time of +the Babylonian exile. On the ruins of the city and of the temple +the Pharisaic Judaism which rests upon the law and the school +celebrated its triumph. National fanaticism indeed was not yet +extinguished, but it burnt itself completely out in the vigorous +insurrection led by Simeon bar Koziba (Bar Cochebas, 132-135). +That a conspicuous rabbin, Akiba, should have taken part in it, +and have recognised in Simeon the Messiah, was an inconsistency +on his part which redounds to his honour. + +Inasmuch as the power of the rabbins did not depend upon the +political or hierarchical forms of the old commonwealth, it +survived the fall of the latter. Out of what hitherto had been a +purely moral influence something of an official position now +grew. They formed themselves into a college which regarded +itself as a continuation of the old synedrium, and which carried +forward its name. At first its seat was at Jamnia, but it soon +removed to Galilee, and remained longest at Tiberias. The +presidency was hereditary in the family of Hillel, with the last +descendants of whom the court itself came to an end. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The following is the genealogy of the first Nasi:--Gamaliel ben +Simeon (Josephus, Vita, 38) ben Gamaliel (Acts v. 34, xxii. 3) ben +simeon ben Hillel. The name Gamaliel was that which occurred most +frequently among the patriarchs; see Codex Theod. xvi. 8, 22. +-- Footnote + + +The respect in which the synedrial president was held rapidly +increased; like Christian patriarchs under Mahometan rule, he was +also recognised by the imperial government as the municipal head +of the Jews of Palestine, and bore the secular title of the old +high priests (nasi, ethnarch, patriarch). Under him the Palestinian +Jews continued to form a kind of state within a state until the 5th +century. From the non-Palestinian Jews he received offerings of +money. (Compare Gothofredus on Codex Theod., xvi. 8, "De Judaeis;" +and Morinus, Exer. Bibl., ii. exerc. 3, 4). + +The task of the rabbins was so to reorganise Judaism under the new +circumstances that it could continue to assert its distinctive +character. What of external consistency had been lost through the +extinction of the ancient commonwealth required to be compensated +for by an inner centralisation proportionately stronger. The +separation from everything heathenish became more pronounced than +before; the use of the Greek language was of necessity still +permitted, but at least the Septuagint was set aside by Aquila +(Cod. Justinian., Nov. 146) inasmuch as it had now become the +Christian Bible. For to this period also belongs the definitive +separation between the synagogue and the church; henceforward +Christianity could no longer figure as a Jewish sect. +Intensified exclusiveness was accompanied by increased internal +stringency. What at an earlier period had still remained to some +extent fluid now became rigidly fixed; for example, an authentic +text of the canon was now established, and at the same time the +distinction between canon and apocrypha sharply drawn. The old +tendency of the scribes to leave as little as possible free to the +individual conscience, but to bring everything within the scope of +positive ordinance, now celebrated its greatest triumphs. It was +only an apparent movement in the direction of liberty, if +regulations which had become quite impossible were now modified or +cancelled. The most influential of the rabbins were indeed the +least solicitous about the maintenance of what was old, and had no +hesitation in introducing numerous and thoroughgoing innovations; +but the conservatives R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and R. Ishmael ben +Elisha were in truth more liberal-minded than the leaders of the +party of progress, notably than R. Akiba. Even the Ultramontanes +have never hesitated at departures from the usage of the ancient +and mediaeval church; and the Pharisaic rabbins were guided in +their innovations by liberal principles no more than they. +The object of the new determinations was simply to widen the +domain of the law in a consistent manner, to bring the individual +entirely under the iron rule of system. But the Jewish +communities gave willing obedience to the hierarchy of the +rabbins; Judaism had to be maintained, cost what it might. That +the means employed were well adapted to the purpose of maintaining +the Jews as a firmly compacted religious community even after all +bonds of nationality had fallen away cannot be doubted. But +whether the attainment of this purpose by incredible exertion was +a real blessing to themselves and the world may very well be +disputed. + +One consequence of the process of intellectual isolation and of the +effort to shape everything in accordance with hard and fast rules +and doctrines was the systematisation and codification of juristic +and ritual tradition, a work with which a beginning was made in the +century following the destruction of Jerusalem. Towards the end +of the 2nd century the Pharisaic doctrine of Hillel as it had been +further matured by Akiba was codified and elevated to the position +of statute law by the patriarch Rabban Judah the Holy (Mishna). /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. The Mishna succeeded almost, but not quite, in completely doing +away with all conflicting tendencies. At first the heterodox +tradition of that time was also committed to writing (R. Ishmael +ben Elisha) and so handed down,--in various forms (col]ection of +the Baraithas, that is, of old precepts which had not been received +into the Mishna, in the Tosephtha). Nor did the active opposition +altogether die out even at a later period; under favouring +circumstances it awoke to new life in Karaism, the founder of which, +Anan ben David, lived in Babylonia in the middle of the 8th century. +-- Footnote + + +But this was only the first stage in the process of systematising +and fixing tradition. The Mishna became itself the object of +rabbinical comment and supplement; the Tannaim, whose work was +registered in the Mathnetha (Mishna, DEUTERWSIS = doctrine), were +followed by the Amoraim, whose work in turn took permanent shape +in the Gemara (= doctrine). The Palestinian Gemara was reduced +to writing in perhaps the 4th or 5th century; unfortunately it +has been preserved to us only in part, but appears to have reached +the Middle Ages in a perfect state (compare Schiller-Szinessy in +the Academy, 1878, p. 170 seq.). Even thus the process which +issued in the production of the Talmud was not yet completed; +the Babylonian Amoraim carried it forward for some time longer, +until at last at the rise of Islam the Babylonian Gemara was +also written down. + +In the sth century Palestine ceased to be the centre of Judaism. +Several circumstances conspired to bring this about. The position +of the Jews in the Roman Empire had changed for the worse with the +elevation of Christianity to be the religion of the state; the +large autonomy which until then they had enjoyed in Palestine +was now restricted; above all, the family of the Patriarchs, +which had come to form a veritable dynasty, became extinct. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Compare Gothofredus on Cod. Theod., xvi. 8, 29, ad voc. "post +excessum patriarcharum." +-- Footnote + + +But this did not make an end of what may be called the Jewish +church-state; henceforward it had its home in Babylonia. From the +period of the exile, a numerous and coherent body of Jews had +continued to subsist there; the Parthians and Sassanidae granted +them self-government; at their head was a native prince (Resh +Galutha,--can be clearly traced from 2nd century A.D. onwards) +who, when the Palestinian patriarchate came to an end, was left +without a rival. This remarkable relic of a Jewish commonwealth +continued to exist until the time of the Abassides. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. See Noeldeke, Tabari; 68, 118, and Kremer, Culturgeschichte des +Orients unter den Chalifen, i. 188, ii. 176. +-- Footnote + + +Even as early as the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. certain +rabbins, at their head Abba Areka (Rab), had migrated from Palestine +and founded a settlement for learning in the law in Babylonia. +The schools there (at Pumbeditha, Sora, Nahardea) prospered greatly, +vied with those of Palestine, and continued to exist after the +cessation of the latter, when the patriarchate became extinct; thus +they had the last word in the settlement of doctrine. + +Alongside of the settlement of tradition went another task, that +of fixing the letters of the consonantal text of the Bible (by the +Massora), its vowel pronunciation (by the punctuation), and its +translation into the Aramaic vernacular (Targum). Here also the +Babylonians came after the Palestinians, yet of this sort of +erudition Palestine continued to be the headquarters even after the +5th century. + +With this task--that of attaining to the greatest possible +conformity to the letter and of continuing therein--the inner +development of Jewish thought came to an end. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Compare F. Weber, System der altsynagagalen palaestinischen +Theologie, Leipsic, 1880. +-- Footnote + + +The later Hebrew literature, which does not fall to be considered +here, contributed very few new elements; in so far as an intellectual +life existed at all among the Jews of the Middle Ages, it was not +a growth of native soil but proceeded from the Mahometan or Latin +culture of individuals. The Kabbala at most, and even it hardly +with justice, can be regarded as having been a genuine product of +Judaism. It originated in Palestine, and subsequently flourished +chiefly in the later Middle Ages in Spain, and, like all other +methodised nonsense, had strong attractions for Christian scholars. + + +16. THE JEWISH DISPERSION. + +Something still remains to be said with reference to the diaspora. +We have seen how it began; in spite of Josephus (Antiquities, +xi. 5, 2), it is to be carried back not to the Assyrian but merely +to the Babylonian captivity; it was not composed of Israelites, +but solely of citizens of the southern kingdom. It received its +greatest impulse from Alexander, and then afterwards from Caesar. +In the Graeco-Roman period Jerusalem at the time of the great +festival presented the appearance of a veritable Babel (Acts ii. +9-11); with the Jews themselves were mingled the proselytes (Acts +ii. 11), for even already that religion was gaining considerable +conquests among the heathen; as King Agrippa I. writes to the +Emperor Caius (Philo, Legat. ad Gaium, sec. 36), + +"Jerusalem is the metropolis not only of Judaea but of very many +lands, on account of the colonies which on various occasions +('epi xairwn) it has sent out into the adjoining countries of Egypt, +Phoenicia, Syria, and Coelesyria, and into the more remote Pamphylia, +Cilicia, the greater part of Asia Minor as far as to Bithynia and +the remotest parts of Pontus; likewise into Europe--Thessaly, +Boeotia, Macedonia, AEtolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth, most parts +(and these the fairest) of the Peloponnesus. Nor are the Jewish +settlements confined to the mainland only; they are found also in +the more important islands, Euboea, Cyprus, Crete. I do not insist +on the countries beyond the Euphrates, for with few exceptions all +of them, Babylon and the fertile regions around it, have Jewish +inhabitants." + +In the west of Europe also they were not wanting; many thousands +of them lived in Rome. In those cities where they were at all +numerous they, during the imperial period, formed separate +communities; Josephus has preserved a great variety of documents +in which the Roman authorities recognise their rights and liberties +(especially as regards the Sabbath rest and the observance of +festivals). Of greatest importance was the community in Alexandria; +according to Philo a million of Jews had their residence there under +an ethnarch for whom a gerusia was afterwards substituted by Augustus +(In Flac., secs. 6, 10). The extent to which this diaspora was +helpful in the diffusion of Christianity, the manner in which the +mission of the apostles everywhere attached itself to the synagogues +and proseuchai, is well known from the New Testament. That the +Christians of the 1st cenentury had much to suffer along with the Jews +is also a familiar fact. For at this period, in other respects +more favourable to them than any other had previously been, the +Jews had occasionally to endure persecution. The emperors, taking +umbrage at their intrusiveness, more than once banished them from +Rome (Acts xviii. 2). The good will of the native population they +never secured; they were most hated in Egypt and Syria, where they +were strongest. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Compare Schuerer, Neutest. Zeitgeschichte (1874), sec. 31. +The place taken by the Jewish element in the world of that time +is brilliantly set forth by Mommsen in his History of Rome (book +v. chapter ii.; English translation iv. p. 538 seq., 1866):-- +"How numerous even in Rome the Jewish population was already before +Caesar's time, and how closely at the same time the Jews even then +kept together as fellow-countrymen, is shown by the remark of an +author of this period, that it was dangerous for a governor to offend +the Jews in his province, because he might then certainly reckon on +being hissed after his return, by the populace of the capital. +Even at this time the predominant business of the Jews was trade.... +At this period too we encounter the peculiar antipathy of the +Occidentals touards this so thoroughly Oriental race and their +foreign opinions and customs. This Judaism, although not the most +pleasing feature in the nowhere pleasing picture of the mixture of +nations which then prevailed, was, nevertheless, an historical +element developing itself in the natural course of things,... +which Caesar just like his predecessor Alexander fostered as far +as possible....They did not, of course, contemplate placing the +Jewish nationality on an equal footing with the Hellenic or +Italo-Hellenic. But the Jew who has not, like the Occidental, +received the Pandora's gift of political organisation, and stands +substantially in a relation of indifference to the state, who, +moreover, is as reluctant to give up the essence of his national +idiosyncrasy as he is ready to clothe it with any nationality at +pleasure and to adapt himself up to a certain degree to foreign +habits--the Jew was, for this very reason, as it were, made for +a state which was to be built on the ruins of a hundred living +polities, and to be endowed with a somewhat abstract and, from +the outset, weakened nationality. In the ancient world also Judaism +was an effective leaven of cosmopolitanism and of national +decomposition." +-- Footnote + + +The position of the Jews in the Roman Empire was naturally not +improved by the great risings under Nero, Trajan (in Cyrene, +Cyprus, Mesopotamia), and Hadrian. The East strictly so called, +became more and more their proper home. The Christianization of +the empire helped still further in a very special way to detach +them from the Western world. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. For a brief time only were they again favoured by Julian the +Apostate; compare Gibbon, chapter xxiii. +-- Footnote + + +They sided with the Persians against the Byzantines; in the year +614 they were even put in possession of Jerusalem by Chosroes, +but were not long able to hold their own against Heraclius. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Gibbon, chapter xlvi. +-- Footnote + + +With Islam also they found themselves in greater sympathy than with +Christianity, although they were cruelly treated by Mahomet in Arabia, +and driven by Omar out of the Hejaz, and notwithstanding the facts +that they were as matter of course excluded from citizenship, and +that they were held by Moslems as a whole in greater contempt than +the Christians. They throve especially well on what may be called +the bridge between East and West, in Mauretania and Spain, where they +were the intellectual intermediaries between the Arab and the Latin +culture. In the Sephardim and Ashkenazim the distinction between the +subtler Oriental and the more conservative Western Jews has maintained +itself in Europe also. From the 8th century onwards Judaism put +forth a remarkable side shoot in the Khazars on the Volga; if +legend Is to he believed, but little was required at one time to +have induced the Russians to accept the Jewish rather than the +Christian faith. + +In the West the equal civil rights which Caracalla had conferred on +all free inhabitants of the empire came to an end, so far as the +Jews were concerned, in the time of Constantine. The state then +became the secular arm of the church, and took action, though with +less severity, against Jews just as against heretics and pagans. +As early as the year 315, Constantine made conversion from +Christianity to Judaism a penal offence, and prohibited Jews, on +pain of death, from circumcising their Christian slaves. These +laws were re-enacted and made more severe by Constantius, who +attached the penalty of death to marriages between Jews and +Christians. Theodosius I. and Honorius, indeed, by strictly +prohibiting the destruction of synagogues, and by maintaining the +old regulation that a Jew was not to be summoned before a court of +justice on a Sabbath-day, put a check upon the militant zeal of the +Church, by which even Chrysostom, for example, allowed himself to +be carried away at Antioch. But Honorius rendered them ineligible +for civil or military service, leaving open to them only the bar +and the decurionate, the latter being a _privilegiium odiosum_. +Their liberty to try cases by their own law was curtailed; the cases +between Jews and Christians were to be tried by Christian judges +only. Theodosius II. prohibited them from building new synagogues, +and anew enforced their disability for all state employments. Most +hostile of all was the orthodox Justinian, who, however, was still +more severe against Pagans and Samaritans. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Cod. Theod., xvi. 8: "De Judaeis, Coelicolis, et Samaritanis;" +Cod. Just., i. 9: "De Judaeis et Coelicolis." With regard to +these coelicolae, see Gothofredus on Cod. Theod., xvi. 8, 9, and +also J. Bernays, "Ueber die Gottesfuerchtigen bei Juvenal," in +the Comm. Philol in hon. Th. Mommsen, 1877, p. 163. +-- Footnote + + +He harassed the Jews with a law enjoining them to observe Easter on +the same day as the Christians, a law which it was of course found +impossible to carry out. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Gibbon, chapter xlvii. +-- Footnote + + +In the Germanic states which arose upon the ruins of the Roman +empire, the Jews did not fare badly on the whole. It was only +in cases where the state was dominated by the Catholic Church, as, +for example; among the Spanish Visigoths, that they were cruelly +oppressed; among the Arian Ostrogoths, on the other hand, they +had nothing to complain of. One thing in their favour was the +Germanic principle that the law to be applied depended not on the +land but on the nationality, as now in the East Europeans are +judged by the consuls according to the law of their respective +nations. The autonomy of the Jewish communities, which had been +curtailed by the later emperors, was now enlarged once more under +the laxer political and legal conditions. The Jews fared +remarkably well under the Frankish monarchy; the Carolingians helped +them in every possible way, making no account of the complaints of +the bishops. They were allowed to hold property in land, but +showed no eagerness for it; leaving agriculture to the Germans, they +devoted them selves to trade. The market was completely in their +hands; as a specially lucrative branch of commerce they still +carried on the traffic in slaves, which had engaged them even in +ancient times. /1/ + +-- Footnote +1. Agobardus Lugdunensis, Die Insolentia Judaeorum, De Judaicis +superstitionibus. Agobard was no superstitious fanatic, but one +of the weightiest and most enlightened ecclesiastics of the Middle +Ages. +-- Footnote + + +Meanwhile the Church was not remiss in seeking constantly repeated +re-enactments of the old imperial laws, in the framing of which she +had had paramount influence, and which she now incorporated with +her own canon law. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Compare Decret. i., dist. 45, c. 3; Decr. ii., caus. 23, +qaest. 8, c. 9, caus. 28, qu. 1, c. 10-12; Decr. iii., de +consecr., dist. 4, c. 93; Decretal. Greg. 5, 6 ("De Judaeis, +Sarracenis, et eorum servis"), 5, 19, 18; Extrav. commun 5, 2. +-- Footnote + + +Gradually she succeeded in attaining her object. In the later Middle +Ages the position of the Jews in the Christian society deteriorated. +Intercourse with them was shunned; their isolation from being +voluntary became compulsory; from the I3th century onwards they were +obliged to wear, as a distinctive mark (more necessary in the East +than in the West), a round or square yellow badge on their breast. /3/ + +-- Footnote +3. Compare Du Cange, s. v. "Judaei;" also Reuter, Gesch. d. +Aufklaerung im Mittelalter, i. 154 seq. In spite of all the legal +restrictions laid upon them, the Jews still continued to have great +influence with the princes, and more especially with the popes, of +the Middle Ages. +-- Footnote + + +The difference of religion elicited a well-marked religious hate with +oft-repeated deadly outbreaks, especially during the period of the +crusades, and afterwards when the Black Death was raging (1348-50). +Practical consequences like these the Church of course did not +countenance; the popes set themselves against persecutions of +the Jews, /4/ + +-- Footnote +4. Decr. ii. 23, 8, 9. Alexander II. omnibus episeopis Hispaniae: +Dispar...est Judaeorum et Sarracenorum eausa; in illos enim, qui +Christianos persequuntur et ex urbibus et propriis sedibus pellunt, +juste pugnatur, hi vero ubique servire parati sunt. +-- Footnote + + +but with imperfect success. The popular aversion rested by no means +exclusively on religious considerations; worldly motives were also +present. The Jews of that period had in a still higher degree +than now the control of financial affairs in their hands; and they +used it without scruple. The Church herself had unintentionally +given them a monopoly of the money market, by forbidding +Christians to take interest. /5/ + +-- Footnote +5. Decretal. Greg. v. 19, 18. Innocent III. in name of the +Lateran Council: Quanto amplius Christiana religio ab exactione +compescitur usurarum, tanto gravisu super his Judaeorum perfidia +insolescit, ita quod brevi tempore Christianorum exhauriunt +facultates. Volentes igitur in hac parse prospicere Christianis, +ne a Judaeis immaniter aggraventur, synodali decreto statuimus, ut, +si de caetero quocunque praetextu Judaaei a Christianis graves +immoderatasve usuras extorserint, Christianorum eis participium +subtrahatur, donec de immoderato gravamine satisfecerint competenter.... +Principibus autem injungimus, ut propter hoc non sint Christianis +infesti, sed potius a tanto gravamine studeant cohibere Judaeos. +-- Footnote + + +In this way the Jews became rich indeed, but at the same time made +themselves still more repugnant to the Christian population than +they previously were by reason of their religion. + +Having, according to the later mediaeval system, no rights in the +Christian state, the Jews were tolerated only in those territories +where the sovereign in the exercise of free favour accorded them +protection. This protection was granted them in many quarters, +but never for nothing; numerous and various taxes, which could be +raised or changed in a perfectly arbitrary way, were exacted in +exchange. But in countries where the feeling of nationality +attained to a vigorous development, the spirit of toleration was +speedily exhausted; the Jews were expelled by the act of the +state. England was the first kingdom in which this occurred +(1290); France followed in 1395, Spain and Portugal in 1492 and +1495. In this way it came about that the Holy Roman Empire-- +Germany, Italy, and adjoining districts--became the chief abode of +the Jews. /1/ In the anarchy which here prevailed they could best + +-- Footnote +1. The Polish Jews are German Jews who migrated in the Middle Ages +to Poland, but have maintained to the present day their German +speech, a mediaeval South-Frankish dialect, of course greatly +corrupted. In Russian "German" and "Jew" mean the same thing. +-- Footnote + + +maintain their separate attitude, and if they were expelled from +one locality they readily found refuge in some other. The +emperor had indeed the right of extirpating them altogether (with +the exception of a small number to be left as a memorial); but, +in the first place, he had in various ways given up this right to +the states of the empire, and, moreover, his pecuniary resources +were so small that he could not afford to want the tax which the +Jews as his "servi camerae" paid him for protecting their persons +and property. In spite of many savage persecutions the Jews +maintained their ground, especially in those parts of Germany +where the political confusion was greatest. They even succeeded +in maintaining a kind of autonomy by means of an arrangement in +virtue of which civil processes which they had against each other +were decided by their own rabbins in accordance with the law of +the Talmud. /2/ + +-- Footnote +2. Stobbe, Die Juden in Deutschl. waehr. d. Mittelalt., +Brunsw., 1866. +-- Footnote + + +The Jews, through their having on the one hand separated theselves, +and on the other hand been excluded on religious grounds +from the Gentiles, gained an internal solidarity and solidity +which has hitherto enabled them to survive all the attacks of time. +The hostility of the Middle Ages involved them in no danger; the +greatest peril has been brought upon them by modern times, along +with permission and increasing inducements to abandon their +separate position. It is worth while to recall on this point the +opinion of Spinoza, who was well able to form a competent judgment +(Tract. Theol. polit., c. 4, ad fin.):-- + +"That the Jews have maintained themselves so long in spite of their +dispersed and disorganised condition is not at all to be wondered at, +when it is considered how they separated themselves from all other +nationalities in such a way as to bring upon themselves the hatred +of all, and that not only by external rites contrary to those of +other nations, but also by the sign of circumcision, which they +maintain most religiously. Experience shows that their +conservation is due in a great degree to the very hatred which +they have incurred. When the king of Spain compelled the Jews +either to accept the national religion or to go into banishment, +very many of them accepted the Roman Catholic faith, and in +virtue of this received all the privileges of Spanish subjects, and +were declared eligible for every honour; the consequence was that +a process of absorption began immediately, and in a short time +neither trace nor memory of them survived. Quite different was +the history of those whom the king of Portugal compelled to accept +the creed of his nation; although converted, they continued to +live apart from the rest of their fellow-subjects, having been +declared unfit for any dignity. So great importance do I attach +to the sign of circumcision also in this connection, that I am +persuaded that it is sufficient by itself to maintain the separate +existence of the nation for ever." + +The persistency of the race may of course prove a harder thing to +overcome than Spinoza has supposed; but nevertheless he will be +found to have spoken truly in declaring that the so-called +emancipation of the Jews must inevitably lead to the extinction +of Judaism wherever the process is extended beyond the political +to the social sphere. For the accomplishment of this centuries +may be required. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROLEGOMENA TO THE HISTORY OF +ISRAEL ***
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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Prolegomena to the History of Israel + +Author: Julius Wellhausen + +Release Date: December, 2003 [EBook #4732] +[Most recently updated February 17, 2003] + +Edition: 11 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +************************************************************************ + + + + +This etext was produced by Geoffrey Cowling. + + + + P R O L E G O M E N A + + to the + + HISTORY OF ISRAEL. + + WITH A REPRINT OF THE ARTICLE "ISRAEL" + FROM THE "ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA." + + by + + JULIUS WELLHAUSEN, + PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF + MARBURG. + + + + + + TRANSLATED FR0M THE GERMAN, UNDER THE AUTHOR'S SUPERVISION, + by + J. SUTHERLAND BLACK, M.A., + and + ALLAN MENZIES, B.D. + + + + with a preface by + PROF. W. ROBERTSON SMITH. + + + +P R E F A C E. + + +The work which forms the greater part of the present volume first +appeared in 1878 under the title "History of Israel. By J. +Wellhausen. In two volumes. Volume I." The book produced a great +impression throughout Europe, and its main thesis, that "the Mosaic +history is not the starting-point for the history of ancient +Israel, but for the history of Judaism," was felt to be so +powerfully maintained that many of the leading Hebrew teachers of +Germany who had till then stood aloof from the so-called "Grafian +hypothesis"--the doctrine, that is, that the Levitical Law and +connected parts of the Pentateuch were not written till after the +fall of the kingdom of Judah, and that the Pentateuch in its +present compass was not publicly accepted as authoritative till +the reformation of Ezra--declared themselves convinced by +Wellhausen's arguments. Before 1878 the Grafian hypothesis was +neglected or treated as a paradox in most German universities, +although some individual scholars of great name were known to have +reached by independent inquiry similar views to those for which +Graf was the recognised sponsor, and although in Holland the +writings of Professor Kuenen, who has been aptly termed Graf's +goel, had shown in an admirable and conclusive manner that the +objections usually taken to Graf's arguments did not touch the +substance of the thesis for which he contended. + Since 1878, partly through the growing influence of Kuenen, but +mainly through the impression produced by Wellhausen's book, all +this has been changed. Almost every younger scholar of mark is on +the side of Vatke and Reuss, Lagarde and Graf, Kuenen and +Wellhausen, and the renewed interest in Old Testament study which +is making itself felt throughout all the schools of Europe must be +traced almost entirely to the stimulus derived from a new view of +the history of the Law which sets all Old Testament problems in a +new light. + +Our author, who since 1878 had been largely engaged in the study +of other parts of Semitic antiquity, has not yet given to the world +his promised second volume. But the first volume was a complete +book in itself; the plan was to reserve the whole narrative of the +history of Israel for vol.ii., so that vol.i. was entirely +occupied in laying the critical foundations on which alone a real +history of the Hebrew nation could be built. Accordingly, the +second edition of the History, vol.i., appeared in 1883 (Berlin, +Reimer), under the new title of "Prolegomena to the History of +Israel." In this form it is professedly, as it really was before, +a complete and self-contained work; and this is the form of which +a translation, carefully revised by the author, is now offered to +the public. + +All English readers interested in the Old Testament will certainly +be grateful to the translators and publishers for a volume which in +its German garb has already produced so profound an impression on +the scholarship of Europe; and even in this country the author's +name is too well known to make it necessary to introduce him at +length to a new public. But the title of the book has a somewhat +unfamiliar sound to English ears, and may be apt to suggest a +series of dry and learned dissertations meant only for Hebrew +scholars. It is worth while therefore to point out in a few words +that this would be quite a false impression; that the matters with +which Professor Wellhausen deals are such as no intelligent student +of the Old Testament can afford to neglect; and that the present +volume gives the English reader, for the first time, an +opportunity to form his own judgment on questions which are within +the scope of any one who reads the English Bible carefully and is +able to think clearly, and without prejudice, about its contents. +The history of Israel is part of the history of the faith by +which we live, the New Testament cannot be rightly understood +without understanding the Old, and the main reason why so many +parts of the Old Testament are practically a sealed book even to +thoughtful people is simply that they have not the historical key +to the interpretation of that wonderful literature. + +The Old Testament does not furnish a history of Israel, though it +supplies the materials from which such a history can be +constructed. For example, the narrative of Kings gives but the +merest outline of the events that preceded the fall of Samaria; to +understand the inner history of thc time we must fill up this +outline with the aid of the prophets Amos and Hosea. But the more +the Old Testament has been studied, the more plain has it become +that for many parts of the history something more is needed than +merely to read each part of the narrative books in connection with +the other books that illustrate the same period. The Historical +Books and the Pentateuch are themselves very composite structures, +in which old narratives occur imbedded in later compilations, and +groups of old laws are overlaid by ordinances of comparatively +recent date. Now, to take one point only, but that the most +important, it must plainly make a vast difference to our whole +view of the providential course of Israel's history if it appear +that instead of the whole Pentateuchal law having been given to +Israel before the tribes crossed the Jordan, that law really grew +up little by little from its Mosaic germ, and did not attain its +present form till the Israelites were the captives or the subjects +of a foreign power. This is what the new school of Pentateuch +criticism undertakes to prove, and it does so in a way that should +interest every one. For in the course of the argument it appears +that the plain natural sense of the old history has constantly +been distorted by the false presuppositions with which we have +been accustomed to approach it--that having a false idea of the +legal and religious culture of the Hebrews when they first entered +Canaan, we continually miss the point of the most interesting +parts of the subsequent story, and above all fail to understand the +great work accomplished by the prophets in destroying Old Israel +and preparing the way first for Judaism and then for the Gospel. +These surely are inquiries which no conscientious student of the +Bible can afford to ignore. + +The process of disentangling the twisted skein of tradition is +necessarily a very delicate and complicated one, and involves +certain operations for which special scholarship is indispensable. +Historical criticism is a comparatively modern science, and in its +application to this, as to other histories, it has made many false +and uncertain steps. But in this, as in other sciences, when the +truth has been reached it can generally be presented in a +comparatively simple form, and the main positions can be justified +even to the general reader by methods much less complicated, and +much more lucid, than those originally followed by the +investigators themselves. The modern view as to the age of the +Pentateuchal law, which is the key to the right understanding of +the History of Israel, has been reached by a mass of +investigations and discussions of which no satisfactory general +account has ever been laid before the English reader. Indeed, even +on the Continent, where the subject has been much more studied than +among us, Professor Wellhausen's book was the first complete and +sustained argument which took up the question in all its +historical bearings. + +More recently Professor Kuenen of Leyden, whose discussions of +the more complicated questions of Pentateuch analysis are perhaps +the finest things that modern criticism can show, has brought out +the second edition of the first volume of his Onderzoek, and when +this appears in English, as it is soon to do, our Hebrew students +will have in their hands an admirable manual of what I may call +the anatomy of the Pentateuch, in which they can follow from +chapter to chapter the process by which the Pentateuch grew to its +present form. But for the mass of Bible-readers such detailed +analysis will always be too difficult. What every one can +understand and ought to try to master, is the broad historical +aspect of the matter. And this the present volume sets forth in a +way that must be full of interest to every one who has tasted the +intense pleasure of following institutions and ideas in their +growth, and who has faith enough to see the hand of God as clearly +in a long providential development as in a sudden miracle. + +The reader will find that every part of the "Prolegomena" is +instinct with historical interest, and contributes something to a +vivid realisation of what Old Israel really was, and why it has +so great a part in the history of spiritual faith. In the first +essay of the Prolegomena a complete picture is given of the +history of the ordinances of worship in Israel, and the +sacrifices, the feasts, the priesthood, are all set in a fresh +light. The second essay, the history of what the Israelites +themselves believed and recorded about their past, will perhaps to +some readers seem less inviting, and may perhaps best be read +after perusal of the article, reprinted from the "Encyclopaedia +Britannica", which stands at the close of the volume and affords a +general view of the course of the history of Israel, as our author +constructs it on the basis of the researches in his Prolegomena. +The essay on Israel and Judaism with which the Prolegomena close, +may in like manner be profitably compared with sect. II of the +appended sketch--a section which is not taken directly from the +"Encyclopaedia", but translated from the German edition of the +article "Israel", where the subject is expanded by the author. +Here the reader will learn how close are the bonds that connect +the critical study of the Old Testament with the deepest and +unchanging problems of living faith. + + W. ROBERTSON SMITH. + + +TRANSLATORS' NOTE. + + Pages 237 [chapter IV . 3] to 425 [end] of the "Prolegomena" +and section II of "Israel" are translated by Mr. Menzies; +for the rest of the volume Mr. Black is responsible. +Both desire to express their indebtedness to Professor Robertson Smith +for many valuable suggestions made as the sheets were passing +through the press. + + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + PROLEGOMENA. + +INTRODUCTION-- + +1. Is the Law the starting-point for the history of ancient +Israel or for that of Judaism ? The latter possibility +is not precluded a priori by the history of the Canon. Reasons +for considering it. De Wette, George, Vatke, Reuss, Graf + +2. The three strata of the Pentateuch: Deuteronomy, Priestly +Code, Jehovist + +3. The question is as to the Priestly Code and its historical +position. Method of the investigation + + + +A. HISTORY OF WORSHIP. + + +CHAPTER I. THE PLACE OF WORSHIP-- + +I.I.1. The historical and prophetical books show no trace in Hebrew +antiquity of a sanctuary of exclusive legitimacy + +I.I.2. Polemic of the prophets against the sanctuaries. +Fall of Samaria. Reformation of Josiah + +I.I.3. Influence of the Babylonian exile + +I.II.1. The Jehovist (JE) sanctions a multiplicity of altars + +I.II.2. Deuteronomy (D) demands local unity of worship + +I.II.3. The Priestly Code (RQ) presupposes that unity, and transfers +it, by means of the Tabernacle, to primitive times + +I.III.1. The tabernacle, as a central sanctuary and dwelling +for the ark, can nowhere be found in the historical tradition + +I.III.2. Noldeke's view untenable + + +CHAPTER II. SACRIFICE-- + +II.I.1. The ritual is according to RQ the main subject of the Mosaic +legislation, according to JE it is pre-Mosaic usage; +in RQ the point is How, according to JE and D To Whom, +it is offered + +II.I.2. The historical books agree with JE; the prophets down to +Ezekiel contradict RQ + +II.II.1. Material innovations in RQ. Preliminary remarks on the +notion, contents, mode of offering, and propitiatory effects of +sacrifice. + +II.II.2. Material and ideal refinement of the offerings in RQ + +II.II.3. The sacrificial meal gives way to holocausts + +II.II.4. Development of the trespass-offering. + +II.III.1. The centralisation of worship at Jerusalem destroyed +the connection of sacrifice with the natural occasions of life, +so that it lost its original character + + + + +CHAPTER III. THE SACRED FEASTS-- + + +III.I.1. In JE and D there is a rotation of three festivals. Easter +and Pentecost mark the beginning and the end of the corn-harvest, +and the autumn feast the vintage and the bringing home the corn +from the threshing-floor. With the feast of unleavened bread +(Massoth) is conjoined, especially in D, the feast of the +sacrifice of the male firstborn of cattle (Pesah). + +III.I.2. The feasts based on the offering of firstlings of the field and +of the herd. Significance of the land and of agriculture for religion + +III.II.1. In the historical and prophetical books, the autumn feast +only is distinctly attested, and it is the most important in JE +and D also: of the others there are only faint traces . + +III.II.2. But the nature of the festivals is the same as in JE and D + +III.III.1. In RQ the feasts have lost their reference to harvest +and the first fruits; and this essentially changes their +nature + +III.III.2. The metamorphosis was due to the centralisation of worship, +and may he traced down through Deuteronomy and Ezekiel to RQ, + +III.III.3. To the three festivals RQ adds the great day of atonement, +which arose out of the fast-days of the exile + +III.IV.1. The Sabbath, which is connected with the new moon, was +originally a lunar festival +Exaggeration of the Sabbath rest in the Priestly Code + +III.IV.2. Sabbatical year, and year of Jubilee + + +CHAP. IV. THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES-- + + +IV.I.1. According to Ezek. xliv., only the Levites of Jerusalem, +the sons of Zadok, are to continue priests in the new +Jerusalem; the other Levites are to be degraded to their servants +and denuded of their priestly rights. According to RQ +the Levites never possessed the priestly right, but only +the sons of Aaron + +IV.I.2. These answer to the sons of Zadok + +IV.II.1. In the earliest period of the history of Israel there is no +distinction between clergy and laity. Every one may +slaughter and sacrifice; there are professional priests only at the +great sanctuaries. Priestly families at Sihiloh and Dan. + +No setting apart of what is holy + +IV.II.2. Royal temples of the kings; priests at them as royal officials + +IV.II.3. Importance of the North-Israelite priesthood in the time of the +kings + +IV.II.4. The family of Zadok at Jerusalem + +IV.III.1. In the oldest part of JE there are no priests; no Aaron +by the side of Moses + +IV.III.2. In D the Levites are priests. They occur in that character, +not to speak of Judges xviii. seq., only in the literature +of the exile. Their descent from Moses or Aaron. The spiritual +and the secular tribe of Levi. Difficulty of bringing them together + +IV.III.3. Consolidation of the spiritual tribe in RQ; separation of +priests and Levites. Further development of the clergy after the +exile. The high priest as head of the theocracy + + + +CHAPTER V. THE ENDOWMENT OF THE CLERGY-- + + +V.I.1. The sacrificial dues raised in RQ + +V.I.2. The firstlings were turned into contributions to the priests, +and doubled in amount + +V.II.1. Levitical towns + +V.II.2. The historical situation underlying the priestly pretensions +in RQ + + + +B. HISTORY OF TRADITION. + + +CHAPTER VI. CHRONICLES-- + +VI.I.1. David becomes Saul's successor without any exertion, all +Israel being already on his side, namely, the priests and Levites + +Distortion of the original story of the bringing of the ark +to Jerusalem. Omission of unedifying incidents in David's life + +VI.I.2. Preparation for the building of the temple. Delight of the +narrator in numbers and names. Inconsistency with 1Kings i, ii. + +Picture of David in Chronicles + +VI.I.3. Solomon's sacrifice at the tabernacle at Gibeah. Building +of the temple. Retouching of the original narrative + +VI.II.1. Estimate of the relation between Judah and Israel; the +Israelites do not belong to the temple, nor, consequently, +to the theocracy + +VI.II.2. Levitical idealising of Judah. View taken of those acts of +rulers in the temple-worship which the books of Kings condemn or +approve. Inconsistencies with the narrative of the sources; +importation of priests and Levites. + +VI.II.3. Divine pragmatism of the sacred history, and its results + +VI.II.4. The books of Kings obviously present throughout + +VI.III.1. The genealogical registers of I Chron.i-ix The ten tribes + +VI.III.2. Judah and Levi + +VI.III.3. Chronicles had no other sources for the period before the exile +than the historical books preserved to us in the Canon. +The diversity of historical view is due to the influence of the law, +especially the Priestly Code. The Midrash + + +CHAPTER VII. JUDGES, SAMUEL, AND KINGS-- + +VII.I.1. The formula on which the book of Judges is constructed +in point of chronology and of religion + +VII.I.2. Its relation to the stem of the tradition. Judg. xix.-xxi. + +VI.II.3. Occasional additions to the original narratives + +VII.I.4. Difference of religious attitude in the latter + +VII.II.1. Chronological and religious formulas in the books of Samuel + +VII.II.2. The stories of the rise of the monarchy and the elevation +of Saul entirely recast + +VII.II.3. Saul's relation to Samuel + +VII.II.4. The narrative of David's youth +The view taken of Samuel may be regarded as a measure of the growth +of the tradition Saul and David + +VII.III.1. The last religious chronological revision of the books of +Kings. Similar in kind to that of Judges and Samuel +Its standpoint Judaean and Deuteronomistic + +VII.III.2. Its relation to the materials received from tradition + +VII.III.3. Differences of sentiment in the sources + +VII.III.4. In Chronicles the history of ancient Israel is recast +in accordance with the ideas of the Priestly Code; in the +older historical books it is judged according to the standard of +Deuteronomy + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE NARRATIVE OF THE HEXATEUCH-- + +VIII.I.1. Genesis i. and Genesis ii. iii. + +VIII.I.2. Genesis iv.-xi. + +VIII.I.3. The primitive world-history in JE and in Q + +VIII.II.1. The history of the patriarchs in JE + +VIII.II.2. The history of the patriarchs in Q + +VIII.II.3. Periods, numbers, covenants, sacrifices in the patriarchal +age in Q + +VIII.III.1. The Mosaic history in JE and in Q + +VII.III.2. Comparison of the various narratives + +VII.III.3. Conclusion . + + +C. ISRAEL AND JUDAISM. + + +CHAPTER IX. CONCLUSION OF THE CRITICISM OF THE LAW-- + + +IX.I.1. The veto of critical analysis + +IX.I.2. The historical presuppositions of Deuteronomy + +IX.I.3. The Deuteronomistic revision does not extend over the Priestly +Code + +IX.II.1. The final revision of the Hexateuch proceeds from the +Priestly Code, as we see from Leviticus xvii. seq. + +IX.II.2. Examination of Leviticus xxvi. + +IX.II.3. R cannnot be separated from RQ + +IX.III<.1.> The language of the Priestly Code + +<IX.III.2. ?> + + +CHAPTER X. THE ORAL AND THE WRITTEN TORAH-- + + +X.I.1. No written law in ancient Israel. The Decalogue + +X.I.2. The Torah of Jehovah in the mouth of priests and prophets + +X.I.3. View of revelation in Jeremiah, Zechariah, and the writer +of Isa. xl.-lxvi. + + +X.II.1. Deuteronomy was the first law in our sense of the word. +It obtains authority during the exile. End of prophecy + +X.II.2. The reforming legislation supplemented by that of the +restoration. The usages of worship codified and systematised by +Ezekiel and his successors. The Priestly Code--its introduction +by Ezra + +X.II.3. The Torah the basis of the Canon. Extension of the notion +originally attached to the Torah to the other books + + + +CHAPTER XI. THE THEOCRACY AS IDEA AND AS INSTITUTION-- + + +XI.I.1. Freshness and naturalness of early Israelite history + +XI.I.2. Rise of the state. Relation of Religion and of the Deity +to the life of state and nation. + +XI.I.3. The Messianic theocracy of the older prophets is built +up on the foundations afforded by the actual community +of their time + +XI.I.4. The idea of the covenant + +XI.II.1. Foundation of the theocratic constitution under the foreign +domination + +XI.II.2. The law and the prophets. + + -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* + + + + + + + +I S R A E L. + +1. The beginnings of the nation + +2. The settlement in Palestine. + +3. The foundation of the kingdom, and the first three kings + +4. From Jeroboam I. to Jeroboam II. + +5. God, the world, and the life of men in Old Israel + +6. The fall of Samaria + +7. The deliverance of Judah + +8. The prophetic reformation . + +9. Jeremiah and the destruction of Jerusalem . + +10. The captivity and the restoration + +11. Judaism and Christianity + +12. The Hellenistic period + +13. The Hasmonaeans + +14. Herod and the Romans + +15. The Rabbins + +16. The Jewish Dispersion + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +In the following pages it is proposed to discuss the place in +history of the "law of Moses;" more precisely, the question to be +considered is whether that law is the starting-point for the +history of ancient Israel, or not rather for that of Judaism, ie., +of the religious communion which survived the destruction of the +nation by the Assyrians and Chaldaeans. + +I. It is an opinion very extensively held that the great mass of +the books of the Old Testament not only relate to the pre-exilic +period, but date from it. According to this view, they are +remnants of the literature of ancient Israel which the Jews rescued +as a heritage from the past, and on which they continued to +subsist in the decay of independent intellectual life. In +dogmatic theology Judaism is a mere empty chasm over which one +springs from the Old Testament to the New; and even where this +estimate is modified, the belief still prevails in a general way +that the Judaism which received the books of Scripture into the +canon had, as a rule, nothing to do with their production. But the +exceptions to this principle which are conceded as regards the +second and third divisions of the Hebrew canon cannot be called so +very slight. Of the Hagiograpba, by far the larger portion is +demonstrably post-exilic, and no part demonstrably older than +the exile. Daniel comes as far down as the Maccabaean wars, and +Esther is perhaps even later. Of the prophetical literature a very +appreciable fraction is later than the fall of the Hebrew kingdom; +and the associated historical books (the "earlier prophets" of the +Hebrew canon) date, in the form in which we now possess them, from +a period subsequent to the death of Jeconiah, who must have +survived the year 560 B.C. for some time. Making all allowance +for the older sources utilised, and to a large extent transcribed +word for word, in Judges, Samuel, and Kings, we find that apart +from the Pentateuch the preexilic portion of the Old Testament +amounts in bulk to little more than the half of the entire volume. +All the rest belongs to the later period, and it includes not +merely the feeble after-growths of a failing vegetation, but also +productions of the vigour and originality of Isa. xl.lxvi. and +Ps.Ixxiii. + +We come then to the Law. Here, as for most parts of the Old +Testament, we have no express information as to the author and date +of composition, and to get even approximately at the truth we are +shut up to the use of such data as can be derived from an analysis +of the contents, taken in conjunction with what we may happen to +know from other sources as to the course of Israel's history. But +the habit has been to assume that the historical period to be +considered in this connection ends with the Babylonian exile as +certainly as it begins with the exodus from Egypt. At first sight +this assumption seems to be justified by the history of the +canon; it was the Law that first became canonical through the +influence of Ezra and Nehemiah; the Prophets became so +considerably later, and the Hagiographa last of all. Now it is +not unnatural, from the chronological order in which these writings +were received into the canon, to proceed to an inference as to +their approximate relative age, and so not only to place the +Prophets before the Hagiographa, but also the five books of Moses +before the Prophets. If the Prophets are for the most part older +than the exile, how much more so the Law! But however trustworthy +such a mode of comparison may be when applied to the middle as +contrasted with the latest portion of the canon, it is not at all +to be relied on when the first part is contrasted with the other +two. The very idea of canonicity was originally associated with +the Torah, and was only afterwards extended to the other books, +which slowly and by a gradual process acquired a certain measure +of the validity given to the Torah by a single public and formal +act, through which it was introduced at once as the Magna Charta of +the Jewish communion (Nehemiah viii.-x.) In their case the canonical-- +that is, legal--character was not intrinsic, but was only +subsequently acquired; there must therefore have been some +interval, and there may have been a very long one, between the +date of their origin and that of their receiving public sanction. +To the Law, on the other hand, the canonical character is much more +essential, and serious difficulties beset the assumption that the +Law of Moses came into existence at a period long before the exile, +aml did not attain the force of law until many centuries +afterwards, and in totally different circumstances from those +under which it had arisen. At least the fact that a collection +claiming public recognition as an ecclesiastical book should have +attained such recognition earlier than other writings which make no +such claim is no proof of superior antiquity. + +We cannot, then, peremptorily refuse to regard it as possible +that what was the law of Judaism may also have been its product; +and there are urgent reasons for taking the suggestion into very +careful consideration. It may not be out of place here to refer +to personal experience. In my early student days I was attracted +by the stories of Saul and David, Ahab and Elijah; the discourses +of Amos and Isaiah laid strong hold on me, and I read myself well +into the prophetic and historical books of the Old Testament. +Thanks to such aids as were accessible to me, I even considered +that I understood them tolerably, but at the same time was troubled +with a bad conscience, as if I were beginning with the roof instead +of the foundation; for I had no thorough acquaintance with the +Law, of which I was accustomed to be told that it was the basis and +postulate of the whole literature. At last I took courage and made +my way through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and even through +Knobel's Commentary to these books. But it was in vain that I +looked for the light which was to be shed from this source on the +historical and prophetical books. On the contrary, my enjoyment +of the latter was marred by the Law; it did not bring them any +nearer me, but intruded itself uneasily, like a ghost that makes a +noise indeed, but is not visible and really effects nothing. Even +where there were points of contact between it and them, differences +also made themselves felt, and I found it impossible to give a +candid decision in favour of the priority of the Law. Dimly I +began to perceive that throughout there was between them all the +difference that separates two wholly distinct worlds. Yet, so far +from attaining clear conceptions, I only fell into deeper +confusion, which was worse confounded by the explanations of Ewald +in the second volume of history of Israel. At last, in the course +of a casual visit in Gottingen in the summer of 1867, I learned +through Ritschl that Karl Heinrich Graf placed the law later than +the Prophets, and, almost without knowing his reasons for the +hypothesis, I was prepared to accept it; I readily acknowledged +to myself thc possibility of understanding Hebrew antiquity +without the book of the Torah. + +The hypothesis usually associated with Graf's name is really not +his, but-that of his teacher, Eduard Reuss. It would be still +more correct to call it after Leopold Gcorge and Wiihelm Vatke, +who, independent alike of Reuss and of each other, were the first +to give it literary currency. All three, again, are disciples of +Martin Lebrecht de Wette, the epochmaking pioneer of historical +criticism in this field./1/ + + ******************************* +1. M. W. L. de Wette, Beitraege zur Einleitung in das A. T. +(Bd. I. Kritischer Versuch ueber die Glaubwuerdigkeit der Buecher +der Chronik; Bd. II. Kritik der Mosaischen Geschichte, Halle, 1806-07); +J. F. L. George, Die alterer Juedischen Feste mit einer Kritik der +Gesetzgebung des Pentateuch (Berlin, 1835; preface dated 12th +October); W. Vatke, Die biblische Theologie wissenschaftlich +dargestellt (Berlin, 1835; preface dated 18th October; +publication did not get beyond first part of the first volume); +K. H. Graf, Die geschichtlicher Buecher des Alten Testaments +(Leipsic, 1866). That Graf as well as J. Orth (Nouv. Rev. de +Theol., iii. 84 sqq., iv. 350 sqq., Paris, 1859-60) owed the +impulse to his critical labours to his Strassburg master was not +unknown; but how great must have been the share of Reuss in the +hypothesis of Graf has only been revealed in 1879, by the +publication of certain theses which he had formulated as early as +1833, but had hesitated to lay in print before the general +theological public. These are as follows:-- "1. L'element +historique du Pentateuque peut et doit etre examine a part et ne +pas etre confondu avec l'element legal. 2. L'un et l'autre ont pu +exister sans redaction ecrite. La mention, chez d'anciens +ecrivains, de certaines traditions patriarcales ou mosaiques, ne +prouve pas l'existence du Pentateuque, et une nation peut avoir un +droit coutumier sans code ecrit. Les traditions nationales des +Israelites remontent plus haut que les lois du Pentateuque et la +redaction des premieres est anterieure a celle des secondes. +4. L'interet principal de l'historien doit porter sur la date des +lois, parce que sur ce terrain il a plus de chance d'arriver a des +resultats certains. II faut en consequence proceder a +l'interrogatoire des temoins. 5. L'histoire racontee, dans les +livres des Juges et de Samuel, et meme en partie celle comprise +dans les livres des Rois, est en contradiction avec des lois dites +mosaiques; donc celles-ci etaient inconnues a l'epoque de la +redaction de ces livres, a plus forte raison elles n'ont pas existe +dans les temps qui y vent decrits. 6. Les prophetes du 8e et du +7e siecle ne savent rien du code mosaique. 7. Jeremie est le +premier prophete qui connaisse une loi ecrite et ses citations +rapportent au Deuteronome. 8. Le Deuteronome (iv.45-xxviii.68) +est le livre que les pretres pretendaient avoir trouve dans le +temple du temps du roi Josias. Ce code est la partie la plus +ancienne de la legislation (redigee) comprise dans le Pentateuque. +9. L'histoire des Israelites, en tant qu'il s'agit du +developpement national determine par des lois ecrites, se divisera +en deux periodes, avant et apres Josias. 10. Ezechiel est +anterieur a la redaction du code rituel et des lois qui ont +definitivement organise la hierarchie. 11. Le livre du Josue +n'est pas, tant s'en faut, la partie la plus recente de l'ouvrage +entier. 12. Le redacteur du Pentateuque se distingue clairement +de l'ancien prophete Moyse." --L'Histoire Sainte et la Loi, Paris, +1879, pp. 23, 24. + + ****************************************** + +He indeed did not himself succeed in reaching a sure position, +but he was the first clearly to perceive and point out how +disconnected are the alleged starting-point of Israel's history +and that history itself. The religious community set up on so +broad a basis in the wilderness, with its sacred centre and uniform +organisation, disappears and leaves no trace as soon as Israel +settles in a land of its own, and becomes, in any proper sense, a +nation. The period of the Judges presents itself to us as a +confused chaos, out of which order and coherence are gradually +evolved under the pressure of external circumstances, but perfectly +naturally and without the faintest reminiscence of a sacred +unifying constitution that had formerly existed. Hebrew antiquity +shows absolutely no tendencies towards a hierocracy; power is +wielded solely by the heads of families and of tribes, and by +the kings, who exercise control over religious worship also, and +appoint and depose its priests. The influence possessed by the +latter is purely moral; the Torah of God is not a document in +their hands which guarantees their own position, but merely an +instruction for others in their mouths; like the word of the +prophets, it has divine authority but not political sanction, and +has validity only in so far as it is voluntarily accepted. And +as for the literature which has come down to us from the period of +the Kings, it would puzzle the very best intentions to beat up so +many as two or three unambiguous allusions to the Law, and these +cannot be held to prove anything when one considers, by way of +contrast, what Homer was to the Greeks. + +To complete the marvel, in post-exile Judaism the Mosaism which +until then had been only latent suddenly emerges into prominence +everywhere. We now find the Book regarded as the foundation of all +higher life, and the Jews, to borrow the phrase of the Koran, are +"the people of the Book;" we have the sanctuary with its priests +and Levites occupying the central position, and the people as a +congregation encamped around it; the cultus, with its +burnt-offerings and sin-offerings, its purifications and its +abstinences, its feasts and Sabbaths, strictly observed as +prescribed by the Law, is now the principal business of life. +When we take the community of the second temple and compare it +with the ancient people of Israel, we are at once able to realise +how far removed was thc latter from so-called Mosaism. The Jews +themselves were thoroughly conscious of the distance. The +revision of the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings, undertaken +towards the end of the Babylonian exile, a revision much more +thorough than is commonly assumed, condemns as heretical the whole +age of the Kings. At a later date, as the past became more +invested with a certain nimbus of sanctity, men preferred to clothe +it with the characters of legitimacy rather than sit in judgment +upon it. The Book of Chronicles shows in what manner it was +necessary to deal with the history of bygone times when it was +assumed that the Mosaic hierocracy was their fundamental +institution. + + 2. The foregoing remarks are designed merely to make it plain +that the problem we have set before us is not an imaginary one, +but actual and urgent. They are intended to introduce it; but to +solve it is by no means so easy. The question what is the +historical place of the Law does not even admit of being put in +these simple terms. For the Law, If by that word we understand +the entire Pentateuch, is no literary unity, and no simple +historical quantity./1/ + +************************* +1. Compare the article "Pentateuch" in the Ninth edition +of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xviii. +************************* + +Since the days of Peyrerius and Spinoza, criticism has acknowledged +the complex character of that remarkable literary production, +and from Jean Astruc onwards has laboured, not without success, +at disentangling its original elements. At present there are +a number of results that can be regarded as settled. The following +are some of them. The five Books of Moses and the Book of Joshua +constitute one whole, the conquest of the Promised Land rather than +the death of Moses forming the true conclusion of the patriarchal +history, the exodus, and the wandering in the wilderness. +From a literary point of view, accordingly, it is more accurate +to speak of the Hexateuch than of the Pentateuch. Out of this whole, +the Book of Deuteronomy, as essentially an independent law-book, +admits of being separated most easily. Of what remains, +the parts most easily distinguished belong to the so-called +"main stock" ("Grundschrift"), formerly also called the Elohistic +document, on account of the use it makes of the divine name Elohim +up to the time of Moses, and designated by Ewald, with reference +to the regularly recurring superscriptions in Genesis, as the Book of +Origins. It is distinguished by its liking for number, and +measure, and formula generally, by its stiff pedantic style, by +its constant use of certain phrases and turns of expression which +do not occur elsewhere in the older Hebrew; its characteristics +are more strongly marked than those of any of the others, and +make it accordingly the easiest to recognise with certainty. Its +basis is the Book of Leviticus and thc allied portions of the +adjoining books,-- Exodus xxv.-xl., with the exception of chaps. +xxxii.-xxxiv., and Num.i.-x., xv.-xix., xxv.-xxxvi., with trifling +exceptions. It thus contains legislation chiefly, and, in point of +fact, relates substantially to the worship of the tabernacle and +cognate matters. It is historical only in form; the history +serves merely as a framework on which to arrange thc legislative +material, or as a mask to disguise it. For the most part, the +thread of the narrative is extremely thin, and often serves +merely to carry out the chronology, which is kept up without a +hiatus from the Creation to the Exodus; it becomes fuller only on +the occasions in which other interests come into play, as, for +example, in Genesis, with regard to the three preludes to the +Mosaic covenant which are connected with the names of Adam, Noah, +and Abraham respectively. When this fundamental document is also +separated out as well as Deuteronomy, there remains the Jehovistic +history-book, which, in contrast with the two others, is +essentially of a narrative character, and sets forth with full +sympathy and enjoyment the materials handed down by tradition. +The story of the patriarchs, which belongs to this document almost +entirely, is what best marks its character; that story is not +here dealt with merely as a summary introduction to something of +greater importance which is to follow, but as a subject of primary +importance, deserving the fullest treatment possible. Legislative +elements have been taken into it only at one point, where they +fit into the historical connection, namely, when the giving of the +Law at Sinai is spoken of (Exodusxx.-xxiii., xxxiv.) + +Scholars long rested satisfied with this twofold division of the +non-Deuteronomic Hexateuch, until Hupfeld demonstrated in certain +parts of Genesis, which until then had been assigned partly to the +"main stock" and partly to the Jehovist, the existence of a third +continuous source, the work of the so-called younger Elohist. The +choice of this name was due to the circumstance that in this +document also Elohim is the ordinary name of the Deity, as it is +in the "main stock" up to Exodus vi.; the epithet "younger," +however, is better left out, as it involves an unproved assumption, +and besides, is no longer required for distinction's sake, now that +the "main stock" is no longer referred to under so unsuitable a +name as that of Elohist. Hupfeld further assumed that all the +three sources continued to exist separately until some one at a +later date brought them together simultaneously into a single +whole. But this is a view that cannot be maintained: not merely +is the Elohist in his matter and in his manner of looking at things +most closely akin to the Jehovist; his document has come down to +us as Noldeke was thc first to perceive, only in extracts embodied +in the Jehovist narrative./1/ + +*************************** +Hermann Hupfeld, Die Quellen der Genesis u. die Art ihrer Zusammersetzung, +Berlin, 1853; Theodor Noldeke, Die s. g. Grundschrift des Pentateuch, +in Untersuchungen zur Kritik des Alten Testaments, Kiel, 1869. +*************************** + +Thus, notwithstanding Hupfeld's discovery, the old division +into two great sections continues to hold good, and there is every +reason for adhering to this primary distinction as the basis of +further historical research, in spite of the fact, which is coming +to be more and more clearly perceived, that not only the +Jehovistic document, but the "main stock" as well, are complex +products, and that alongside of them occur hybrid or posthumous +elements which do not admit of being simply referred to either the +one or the other formation. /2/ + +************************ + 2. J. Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexateuchs, in Jahrb. f. +Deutsche Theologie, 1876, pp. 392-450, 531-602; 1877, pp. 407-479. +I do not insist on all the details, but, as regards the way in which +the literary process which resulted in the formation of the Pentateuch +is to be looked at in general, I believe I had indicated the proper +line of investigation. Hitherto the only important corrections +I have received have been those of Kuenen in his Contributions +to the Criticism of the Pentateuch and Joshua, published in the Leyden +Theologisch Tijdschrift; but these are altogether welcome, +inasmuch as they only free my own fundamental view from some +relics of the old leaven of a mechanical separation of sources +which had continued to adhere to it. For what Kuenen points out +is, that certain elements assigned by me to the Elohist are not +fragments of a once independent whole, but interpolated and +parasitic additions. What effect this demonstration may have on +the judgment we form of the Elohist himself is as yet uncertain. +In the following pages the Jehovistic history-book is denoted by +the symbol JE, its Jehovistic part by J, and the Elohistic by E; +the "main stock" pure and simple, which is distinguished by its +systematising history and is seen unalloyed in Genesis, is called +the Book of the Four Covenants and is symbolised by Q; for the +"main stock" as a whole (as modified by an editorial process) the +title of Priestly Code and the symbol RQ (Q and Revisers) are +employed. +************************* + +Now the Law, whose historical position we have to determine, +is the so-called "main stack," which, both by its contents +and by its origin, is entitled to be called the Priestly +Code, and will accordingly be so designated. The Priestly Code +preponderates over the rest of the legislation in force, as well as +in bulk; in all matters of primary importance it is the normal +and final authority. It was according to the mode furnished by it +that the Jews under Ezra ordered their sacred community, and upon it +are formed our conceptions of the Mosaic theocracy, with the +tabernacle at its centre, the high priest at its head, the priests +and Levites as its organs, the legitimate cultus as its regular +function. It is precisely this Law, so called par exceIlence, +that creates the difficulties out of which our problem rises, and +it is only in connection with it that the great difference of +opinion exists as to date. With regard to the Jehovistic document, +all are happily agreed that, substantially at all events, in +language, horizon, and other features, it dates from the golden age +of Hebrew literature, to which the finest parts of Judges, Samuel, +and Kings, and the oldest extant prophetical writings also +belong,--the period of the kings and prophets which preceded the +dissolution of the two Israelite kingdoms by the Assyrians. +About the origin of Deuteronomy there is still less dispute; in +all circles where appreciation of scientific results can be looked +for at all, it is recognised that it was composed in the same age +as that in which it was discovered, and that it was made the rule +of Josiah's reformation, which took place about a generation before +the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans. It is only in +the case of the Priestly Code that opinions differ widely; for it +tries hard to imitate the costume of the Mosaic period, and, with +whatever success, to disguise its own. This is not nearly so much +the case with Deuteronomy, which, in fact, allows the real +situation (that of the period during which, Samaria having been +destroyed, only the kingdom of Judah continued to subsist) to +reveal itself very plainly through that which is assumed (xii.8, +xix.8). And the Jehovist does not even pretend to being a Mosaic +law of any kind; it aims at being a simple book of history; the +distance between the present and the past spoken of is not +concealed in the very least. It is here that all the marks are +found which attracted the attention of Abenezra and afterwards of +Spinoza, such as Gen. xii. 6 ("And the Canaanite was then in the +land"), Gen.xxxvi.31 ("These are the kings who reigned in Edom +before the children of Israel had a king"), Num. xii.6, 7, Deut. +xxxiv.10 ("There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto +Moses"). The Priestly Code, on the other hand, guards itself +against all reference to later times and settled life in Canaan, +which both in the Jehovistic Book of the Covenant (Exodus +xxi.-xxiii.) and in Deuteronomy are the express basis of the +legislation: it keeps itself carefully and strictly within the +limits of the situation in the wilderness, for which in all +seriousness it seeks to give the law. It has actually been +successful, with its movable tabernacle, its wandering camp, and +other archaic details, in so concealing the true date of its +composition that its many serious inconsistencies with what we +know, from other sources, of Hebrew antiquity previous to the +exile, are only taken as proving that it lies far beyond all known +history, and on account of its enormous antiquity can hardly be +brought into any connection with it. It is the Priestly Code, +then, that presents us with our problem. + +3. The instinct was a sound one which led criticism for the time +being to turn aside from the historical problem which had +originally presented itself to De Wette, and afterwards had been +more distinctly apprehended by George and Vatke, in order, in the +first instance, to come to some sort of clear understanding as to +the composition of the Pentateuch. But a mistake was committed +when it was supposed that by a separation of the sources (in which +operation attention was quite properly directed chiefly to +Genesis) that great historical question had been incidentally +answered. The fact was, that it had been merely put to sleep, and +Graf has the credit of having, after a considerable interval, +awakened it again. In doing so, indeed, he in turn laboured under +the disadvantage of not knowing what success had been achieved in +separating the sources, and thereby he became involved in a +desperate and utterly untenable assumption. This assumption, +however, had no necessary connection with his own hypothesis, and +at once fell to the ground when the level to which Hupfeld brought +the criticism of the text had been reached. Graf originally +followed the older view, espoused by Tuch in particular, that in +Genesis the Priestly Code, with its so obtrusively bare skeleton, +is the "main stock," and that it is the Jehovist who supplements, +and is therefore of course the later. But since, on the other +hand, he regarded the ritual legislature of the middle books as +much more recent than the work of the Jehovist, he was compelled to +tear it asunder as best he could from its introduction in Genesis, +and to separate the two halves of the Priestly Code by half a +millennium. But Hupfeld had long before made it quite clear that +the Jehovist is no mere supplementer, but the author of a perfectly +independent work, and that the passages, such as Gen. xx.-xxii., +usually cited as examples of the way in which the Jehovist worked +over the "main stock," really proceed from quite another +source,--the Elohist. Thus the stumbling-block of Graf had already +been taken out of the way, and his path had been made clear by an +unlooked-for ally. Following Kuenen's suggestion, he did not +hesitate to take the helping-hand extended to him; he gave up his +violent division of the Priestly Code, and then had no difficulty +in deducing from the results which he had obtained with respect to +the main legal portion similar consequences with regard to the +narrative part in Genesis. /1/ + +*************************** +1. K. H. Graf, Die s. g. Grundschrift des Pentateucks, in Merx's +Archiv (1869), pp. 466-477. As early as 1866 he had already expressed +himself in a letter to Kuenen November 12) as follows:-- "Vous me +faites pressentir une solution de cette enigme...c'est que les +parties elohistiques de la Genese seraient posterieures aux parties +jehovistiques." Compare Kuenen, Theol. Tijdschrift (1870), p.412. +Graf had also in this respect followed Reuss, who (ut supra, +p. 24) says of himself: "Le cote faible de ma critique a ete que, +a l'egard de tout ce qui ne rentrait pas dans les points enumeres +ci-dessus, je restais dans l'orniere tracee par mes devanciers, +admettant sans plus ample examen que le Pentateuque etait +l'ouvrage de l'HISTORIEN elohiste, complete par l'HISTORIEN +jehoviste, et ne me rendant pas compte de la maniere dont l'element +legal, dont je m'etais occupe exclusivement, serait venu se +joindre a l'element historique. +*************************** + +The foundations were now laid; it is Kuenen who has since done most +for the further development of the hypothesis./2/ + +************************** +2. A. Kuenen, Die Godsdienst van Israel, Haarlem, 1869-70 (Eng. transl. +Religion of Israel, 1874-5), and De priesterlijke Bestanddeelen +van Pentateuch en Josua, in Theol. Tijdschr.(1870), pp. 391-426. +************************** + +The defenders of the prevailing opinion maintained their ground as well +as they could, but from long possession had got somewhat settled +on their lees. They raised against the assailants a series of +objections, all of which, however, laboured more or less under the +disadvantage that they rested upon the foundation which had +already been shattered. Passages were quoted from Amos and Hosea +as implying an acquaintance with the Priestly Code, but they were +not such as could make any impression on those who were already +persuaded that the latter was the more recent. Again it was +asserted, and almost with violence, that the Priestly Code could +not be later than Deuteronomy, and that the Deuteronomist actually +had it before him. But the evidences of this proved extremely +problematical, while, on the other hand, the dependence of +Deuteronomy, as a whole, on the Jehovist came out with the utmost +clearness. Appeal was made to the latest redaction of the entire +Hexateuch, a redaction which was assumed to be Deuteronomistic; +but this yielded the result that the deuteronomistic redaction +could nowhere be traced in any of the parts belonging to the +Priestly Code. Even the history of the language itself was +forced to render service against Graf: it had already been too +much the custom to deal with that as if it were soft wax. To say +all in a word, the arguments which were brought into play as a +rule derived all their force from a moral conviction that the +ritual legislation must be old, and could not possibly have been +committed to writing for the first time within the period of +Judaism; that it was not operative before then, that it did not +even admit of being carried into effect in the conditions that +prevailed previous to the exile, could not shake the conviction-- +all the firmer because it did not rest on argument--that at least +it existed previously. + +The firemen never came near the spot where the conflagration +raged; for it is only within the region of religious antiquities +and dominant religious ideas,--the region which Vatke in his +Biblische Theologie had occupied in its full breadth, and where the +real battle first kindled--that the controversy can be brought to a +definite issue. In making the following attempt in this direction, +I start from the comparison of the three constituents of the +Pentateuch,--the Priestly Code, Deuteronomy, and the work of the +Jehovist. The contents of the first two are, of course, +legislation, as we have seen; those of the third are narrative; +but, as the Decalogue (Exodus xx.), the Law of the two Tables +(Exodus xxxiv.), and the Book of the Covenant (Exodus xxi.-xxiii.) +show, the legislative element is not wholly absent from the +Jehovist, and much less is the historical absent from the Priestly +Code or Deuteronomy. Further, each writer's legal standpoint is +mirrored in his account of the history, and conversely; thus there +is no lack either of indirect or of direct points of comparison. +Now it is admitted that the three constituent elements are +separated from each other by wide intervals; the question then +arises, In what order? Deuteronomy stands in a relation of +comparative nearness both to the Jehovist and to the Priestly +Code; the distance between the last two is by far the +greatest,--so great that on this ground alone Ewald as early as +the year 183I (Stud. u. Krit., p. 604) declared it impossible +that the one could have been written to supplement the other. +Combining this observation with the undisputed priority of the +Jehovist over Deuteronomy, it will follow that the Priestly Code +stands last in the series. But such a consideration, although, so +far as I know, proceeding upon admitted data, has no value as long +as it confines itself to such mere generalities. It is necessary +to trace the succession of the three elements in detail, and at +once to test and to fix each by reference to an independent +standard, namely, the inner development of the history of Israel +so far as that is known to us by trustworthy testimonies, from +independent sources. + +The literary and historical investigation on which we thus enter +is both wide and difficult. It falls into three parts. In the +first, which lays the foundations, the data relating to sacred +archaeology are brought together and arranged in such a way as to +show that in the Pentateuch the elements follow upon one another +and from one another precisely as the steps of the development +demonstrably do in the history. Almost involuntarily this +argument has taken the shape of a sort of history of the +ordinances of worship. Rude and colourless that history must be +confessed to be,--a fault due to the materials, which hardly allow +us to do more than mark the contrast between pre-exilic and +post-exilic, and, in a secondary measure, that between +Deuteronomic and pre-Deuteronomic. At the same time there is this +advantage arising out of the breadth of the periods treated: they +cannot fail to distinguish themselves from each other in a tangible +manner; it must be possible in the case of historical, and even of +legal works, to recognise whether they were written before or +after the exile. The second part, in many respects dependent on +the first, traces the influence of the successively prevailing +ideas and tendencies upon the shaping of historical tradition, and +follows the various phases in which that was conceived and set +forth. It contains, so to speak, a history of tradition. The +third part sums up the critical results of the preceding two, with +some further determining considerations, and concludes with a more +general survey. + +The assumptions I make will find an ever-recurring justification +in the course of the investigation; the two principal are, that +the work of the Jehovist, so far as the nucleus of it is concerned, +belongs to the course of the Assyrian period, and that Deuteronomy +belongs to its close. Moreover, however strongly I am convinced +that the latter is to be dated in accordance with 2Kings xxii., I +do not, like Graf, so use this position as to make it the fulcrum +for my lever. Deuteronomy is the starting-point, not in the +sense that without it it would be impossible to accomplish +anything, but only because, when its position has been +historically ascertained, we cannot decline to go on, but must +demand that the position of the Priestly Code should also be fixed +by reference to history. My inquiry proceeds on a broader basis +than that of Graf, and comes nearer to that of Vatke, from whom +indeed I gratefully acknowledge myself to have learnt best and +most. + + + +A. HISTORY OF THE ORDINANCES OF WORSHIP. + +" Legem non habentes natura faciunt legis opera."--Romans ii. + +[ "(When Gentiles) who do not have the law, do instinctively +what the law requires...." Romans 2:14 NRSV ] + + + +CHAPTER I. THE PLACE OF WORSHIP. + + +As we learn from the New Testament, the Jews and the Samaritans in +the days of Jesus were not agreed on the question which was the +proper place of worship, but that there could be only one was +taken to be as certain as the unity of God Himself. The Jews +maintained that place to be the temple at Jerusalem, and when it +was destroyed they ceased to sacrifice. But this oneness of the +sanctuary in Israel was not originally recognised either in fact +or in law; it was a slow growth of time. With the help of the Old +Testament we are still quite able to trace the process. In doing +so, it is possible to distinguish several stages of development. +We shall accordingly proceed to inquire whether the three +constituent parts of the Pentateuch give tokens of any +relationship to one or other of these; whether and how they fall +in with the course of the historical development which we are able +to follow by the aid of the historical and prophetic books from +the period of the Judges onwards. + +I.I.1. For the earliest period of the history of Israel, all +that precedes the building of the temple, not a trace can be found +of any sanctuary of exclusive legitimacy. In the Books of Judges +and Samuel hardly a place is mentioned at which we have not at +least casual mention of an altar and of sacrifice. In great +measure this multiplicity of sanctuaries was part of the heritage +taken over from the Canaanites by the Hebrews; as they +appropriated the towns and the culture generally of the previous +inhabitants, so also did they take possession of their sacred +piaces. The system of high places (Bamoth), with all the +apparatus thereto belonging, is certainly Canaanite originally +(Deut. xii.2, 30; Num. xxxiii.52; Exodus xxxiv.12 seq.), but +afterwards is of quite general occurrence among the Hebrews. At +Shechem and Gibeon the transition takes place almost in the full +light of history; some other old-Israelite places of worship, +certain of which are afterwards represented as Levitical towns, +betray their origin by their names at least, e.g., Bethshemesh or +Ir Heres (Sun-town), and Ashtaroth Karnaim (the two-horned +Astarte). In the popular recollection, also, the memory of the +fact that many of the most prominent sacrificial seats were +already in existence at the date of the immigration continues to +survive. Shechem, Bethel, Beersheba, figure in Genesis as +instituted by the patriarchs; other equally important holy +sites, not so. The reason for the distinction can only lie in a +consciousness of the more recent origin of the latter; those of +the one class had been found by the people when they came, those +of the other category they had themselves established. For of +course, if the Hebrews did not hesitate to appropriate to +themselves the old holy places of the country, neither did they +feel any difficulty in instituting new ones. In Gilgal and +Shiloh, in the fixed camps where, in the first instance, they had +found a permanent foothold in Palestine proper, there forthwith +arose important centres of worship; so likewise in other places of +political importance, even in such as only temporarily come into +prominence, as Ophrah, Ramah, and Nob near Gibeah. And, apart from +the greater cities with their more or less regular religious +service, it is perfectly permissible to erect an altar extempore, +and offer sacrifice wherever an occasion presents itself. When, +after the battle of Michmash, the people, tired and hungry, fell +upon the cattle they had taken, and began to devour the flesh with +the blood (that is, without pouring out the blood on the altar), +Saul caused a great stone to be erected, and ordered that every +man should slaughter his ox or his sheep there. This was the +first altar which Saul erected to Jehovah, adds the narrator, +certainly not as a reproach, nor even to signalise his conduct as +anything surprising or exceptional. The instance is all the more +instructive, because it shows how the prohibition to eat flesh +without rendering the blood back to God at a time when the people +did not live crowded together within a quite limited area +necessarily presupposed liberty to sacrifice anywhere--or to +slaughter anywhere; for originally the two words are absolutely +synonymous. + +It need not be said that the sacrificial seats (even when the +improvised ones are left out of account) were not all alike in the +regard in which they were held, or in the frequency with which +they were resorted to. Besides purely local ones, there were +others to which pilgrimages were made from far and near. Towards +the close of the period of the judges, Shiloh appears to have +acquired an importance that perhaps extended even beyond the limits +of the tribe of Joseph. By a later age the temple there was even +regarded as the prototype of the temple of Solomon, that is, as the +one legitimate place of worship to which Jehovah had made a grant +of all the burnt-offerings of the children of Israel (Jer. vii.12; +1Samuel ii. 27-36). But, in point-of fact, if a prosperous man of +Ephraim or Benjamin made a pilgrimage to the joyful festival at +Shiloh at the turn of the year, the reason for his doing so was not +that he could have had no opportunity at his home in Ramah or +Gibeah for eating and drinking before the Lord. Any strict +centralisation is for that period inconceivable, alike in the +religious as in every other sphere. This is seen even in the +circumstance that the destruction of the temple of Shiloh, the +priesthood of which we find officiating at Nob a little later, did +not exercise the smallest modifying influence upon the character +and position of the cultus; Shiloh disappears quietly from the +scene, and is not mentioned again until we learn from Jeremiah that +at least from the time when Solomon's temple was founded its temple +lay in ruins. + +For the period during which the temple of Jerusalem was not yet in +existence, even the latest redaction of the historical books (which +perhaps does not everywhere proceed from the same hand, but all +dates from the same period--that of the Babylonian exile--and has +its origin in the same spirit) leaves untouched the multiplicity +of altars and of holy places. No king after Solomon is left +uncensured for having tolerated the high places, but Samuel is +permitted in his proper person to preside over a sacrificial feast +at the Bamah of his native town, and Solomon at the beginning of +his reign to institute a similar one at the great Bamah of Gibeon, +without being blamed. The offensive name is again and again +employed in the most innocent manner in 1Samuel ix., x., and the +later editors allow it to pass unchallenged. The principle which +guides this apparently unequal distribution of censure becomes +clear from 1Kings iii. 2: "The people sacrificed upon the high +places, for as yet no house to the name of Jehovah had been +built." Not until the house had been built to the name of +Jehovah--such is the idea--did the law come into force which +forbade having other places of worship besides./1/ + +********************************** +1. Compare 1Kings viii. 16. According to Deut. xii.10 seq., +the local unity of worship becomes law from the time when +the Israelites have found rest (menuha). Comparing 2Samuel vii.11 +and 1Kings v. 18 (A.V., v.4), we find that "menuha" first came in +with David and Solomon. The period of the judges must at that time +have been regarded as much shorter than appears in the present chronology. +*********************************** + +From the building of the temple of Solomon, which is also treated +as a leading epoch in chronology, a new period in the history of worship +is accordingly dated,--and to a certain extent with justice. +The monarchy in Israel owed its origin to the need which, under severe +external pressure, had come to be felt for bringing together +into the oneness of a people and a kingdom the hitherto +very loosely connected tribes and families of the Hebrews; +it had an avowedly centralising tendency, which very naturally +laid hold of the cultus as an appropriate means for the attainment +of the political end. Gideon even, the first who came near +a regal position, erected a costly sanctuary in his city, Ophrah. +David caused the ark of Jehovah to be fetched into his fortress +on Mount Sion, and attached value to the circumstance +of having for its priest the representative of the old family +which had formerly kept it at Shiloh. Solomon's temple also was +designed to increase the attractiveness of the city of his +residence. It is indubitable that in this way political +centralisation gave an impulse to a greater centralisation of +worship also, and the tendency towards the latter continued to +operate after the separation of the two kingdoms,--in Israel not +quite in the same manner as in Judah. Royal priests, great +national temples, festal gatherings of the whole people, sacrifices +on an enormous scale, these were the traits by which the cultus, +previously (as it would seem) very simple, now showed the impress +of a new time. One other fact is significant: the domestic feasts +and sacrifices of single families, which in David's time must still +have been general, gradually declined and lost their importance as +social circles widened and life became more public. + +But this way of regarding the influence of the monarchy upon the +history of the worship is not that of the author of the Books of +Kings. He views the temple of Solomon as a work undertaken +exclusively in the interests of pure worship, and as differing +entirely in origin from the sacred buildings of the kings of +Israel, with which accordingly it is not compared, but contrasted +as the genuine is contrasted with the spurious. It is in its +nature unique, and from the outset had the design of setting aside +all other holy places,--a religious design independent of and +unconnected with politics. The view, however, is unhistorical; it +carries back to the original date of the temple, and imports into +the purpose of its foundation the significance which it had +acquired in Judah shortly before the exile. In reality the +temple was not at the outset all that it afterwards became. Its +influence was due to its own weight, and not to a monopoly +conferred by Solomon. We nowhere learn that that king, like a +forerunner of Josiah, in order to favour his new sanctuary sought +to abolish all the others; there is not the faintest historical +trace of any such sudden and violent interference with the +previously existing arrangements of worship. Never once did +Solomon's successors, confined though they were to the little +territory of Judah, and therefore in a position in which the +experiment might perhaps have been practicable, make the attempt +(which certainly would have been in their interest) to concentrate +all public worship within their own temple, though in other +directions we find them exercising a very arbitrary control over +affairs of religion. The high places were not removed; this is +what is regularly told us in the case of them all. For Israel +properly so called, Jerusalem was at no time, properly speaking, +the place which Jehovah had chosen; least of all was it so after +the division of the kingdom. + +The Ephraimites flocked in troops through the entire length of the +southern kingdom as pilgrims to Beersheba, and, in common with the +men of Judah, to Gilgal on the frontier. Jerusalem they left +unvisited. In their own land they served Jehovah at Bethel and +Dan, at Shechem and Samaria, at Penuel and Mizpah, and at many +other places. Every town had its Bamah, in the earlier times +generally on an open site at the top of the hill on the slopes of +which the houses were. Elijah, that great zealot for purity of +worship, was so far from being offended by the high places and the +multiplicity of altars to Jehovah that their destruction brought +bitterness to his soul as the height of wickedness, and with his +own hand he rebuilt the altar that had fallen into ruins on Mount +Carmel. And that the improvised offering on extraordinary +occasions had also not fallen into disuse is shown by the case of +Elisha, who, when his call came as he was following the plough, +hewed his oxen to pieces on the spot and sacrificed. In this +respect matters after the building of Solomon's temple continued to +be just as they had been before. If people and judges or kings +alike, priests and prophets, men like Samuel and Elijah, sacrificed +without hesitation whenever occasion and opportunity presented +themselves, it is manifest that during the whole of that period +nobody had the faintest suspicion that such conduct was heretical +and forbidden. If a theophany made known to Joshua the sanctity +of Gilgal, gave occasion to Gideon and Manoah to rear altars at +their homes, drew the attention of David to the threshing-floor of +Araunah, Jehovah Himself was regarded as the proper founder of all +these sanctuaries,--and this not merely at the period of the +Judges, but more indubitably still at that of the narrator of +these legends. He rewarded Solomon's first sacrifice on the great +Bamah at Gibeon with a gracious revelation, and cannot, therefore, +have been displeased by it. After all this, it is absurd to speak +of any want of legality in what was then the ordinary practice; +throughout the whole of the earlier period of the history of +Israel, the restriction of worship to a single selected place was +unknown to any one even as a pious desire. Men believed themselves +indeed to be nearer God at Bethel or at Jerusalem than at any +indifferent place, but of such gates of heaven there were several; +and after all, the ruling idea was that which finds its +most distinct expression in 2Kings v.17,--that Palestine as a whole +was Jehovah's house, His ground and territory. Not outside of +Jerusalem, but outside of Canaan had one to sojourn far from His +presence, under the dominion and (cujus regio ejus religio) in the +service of strange gods. The sanctity of the land did not depend +on that of the temple; the reverse was the case. /1/ + +*********************************** +1. Gen. iv.14, 16: when Cain is driven out of the land (Canaan), +he is driven from the presence of Jehovah (Jonah i.3, 10). +Gen. xlvi.4: Jacob is not to hesitate about going down into Egypt, +for Jehovah will, by a special act of grace, change His dwelling-place +along with him. Exodus xv.17: "Thou broughtest thy people to the mountain +of thine inheritance, to the place which thou hadst prepared for +thyself to dwell in," the explanation which follows, "to the +sanctuary which thy hand had established," is out of place, for +the mountain of the inheritance can only be the mountainous land +of Palestine. 1Samuel xxvi.19: David, driven by Saul into foreign +parts, is thereby violently sundered from his family share in +the inheritance of Jehovah, and compelled to serve other gods. +Hos. viii.1: one like an eagle comes against the house of +Jehovah, i.e., the Assyrian comes against Jehovah's land. Hos. +ix.15: "I will drive them out of mine house," i.e., the Israelites +out of their land. Most distinct is the language of Hos. ix.3-5: +"They shall not continue to dwell in Jehovah's land; Ephraim must +back to Egypt, and must eat that which is unclean in Assyria. They +shall not any more offer wine-offerings to Jehovah, or set forth +offerings [read with Kuenen Y(RKW for Y(RBW ] before Him; their +bread is as the bread of mourners; whosoever eats of it is +polluted, for their bread shall be only for the staying of hunger, +and shall not be brought into the house of Jehovah. What indeed +will ye do in the time of the solemn assembly and in the day of +the feast of Jehovah? "Compare Jer. xvi.13; Ezek. iv.13; Mal. +ii.11; 2Kings xvii.25 seq. It is also possible that the "great +indignation" of 2Kings iii.27 is regarded less as Jehovah's than as +that of Chemosh, in whose land the army of Israel is at the time. +******************************************* + +I.I.2. A change in this respect first begins to be prepared at that +important epoch of the religious history of Israel which is marked +by the fall of Samaria and the rise of the prophets connected +therewith. Amos and Hosea presuppose a condition of matters just +such as has been described: everywhere--in the towns, on the +mountains, under green trees--a multitude of sanctuaries and +altars, at which Jehovah is served in good faith, not with the +purpose of provoking Him, but in order to gain His favour. The +language held by these men was one hitherto unheard of when they +declared that Gilgal, and Bethel, and Beersheba, Jehovah's +favourite seats, were an abomination to Him; that the gifts and +offerings with which He was honoured there kindled His wrath +instead of appeasing it; that Israel was destined to be buried +under the ruins of His temples, where protection and refuge were +sought (Amos ix.). What did they mean ? It would be to +misunderstand the prophets to suppose that they took offence at +the holy places-- which Amos still calls Bamoth (vii.9), and that +too not in scorn, but with the deepest pathos--in and by +themselves, on account of their being more than one, or not being +the right ones. Their zeal is directed, not against the places, +but against the cultus there carried on, and, in fact not merely +against its false character as containing all manner of abuses, but +almost more against itself, against the false value attached to it. +The common idea was that just as Moab showed itself to be the +people of Chemosh because it brought to Chemosh its offerings and +gifts, so Israel proved itself Jehovah's people by dedicating its +worship to Him, and was such all the more surely as its worship +was zealous and splendid; in times of danger and need, when His +help was peculiarly required, the zeal of the worshippers was +doubled and trebled. It is against this that the prophets raise +their protest while they demand quite other performances as a +living manifestation of the relation of Israel to Jehovah. This +was the reason of their so great hostility to the cultus, and the +source of their antipathy to the great sanctuaries, where +superstitious zeal outdid itself; it was this that provoked their +wrath against the multiplicity of the altars which flourished so +luxuriantly on the soil of a false confidence. That the holy +places should be abolished, but the cultus itself remain as before +the main concern of religion, only limited to a single locality +was by no means their wish; but at the same time, in point of +fact, it came about as an incidental result of their teaching that +the high place in Jerusalem ultimately abolished all the other +Bamoth. External circumstances, it must be added, contributed most +essentially towards the result. + +As long as the northern kingdom stood, it was there that the main +current of lsraelite life manifested itself; a glance into the +Books of Kings or into that of Amos is enough to make this clear. +In Jerusalem, indeed, the days of David and of Solomon remained +unforgotten; yearning memories went back to them, and great +pretensions were based upon them, but with these the actual state +of matters only faintly corresponded. When Samaria fell, Israel +shrivelled up to the narrow dimensions of Judah, which alone +survived as the people of Jehovah. Thereby the field was left +clear for Jerusalem. The royal city had always had a weighty +preponderance over the little kingdom, and within it, again, the +town had yielded in importance to the temple. From the few +narratives we have relating to Judah one almost gathers an +impression as if it had no other concern besides those of the +temple; the kings in particular appear to have regarded the +charge of their palace sanctuary as the chief of all their +cares./1/ + +****************************************** +1. Nearly all the Judaean narratives in the Books of Kings relate +to the temple and the measures taken by the ruling princes with +reference to this their sanctuary. +********************************************** + +In this way the increased importance of Judah after the fall of Samaria +accrued in the first instance to the benefit of the capital +and its sanctuary, especially as what Judah gained by the fall +of her rival was not so much political strength as an increase +of religious self-consciousness. If the great house of God +upon Mount Zion had always overtopped the other shrines in Judah, +it now stood without any equal in all Israel. But it was the prophets +who led the way in determining the inferences to be drawn from the change +in the face of things. Hitherto they had principally had their eyes +upon the northern kingdom, its threatened collapse, and the +wickedness of its inhabitants, and thus had poured out their wrath +more particularly upon the places of worship there. Judah they +judged more favourably, both on personal and on substantial +grounds, and they hoped for its preservation, not concealing their +sympathies for Jerusalem (Amos i.2). Under the impression produced +by their discourses accordingly, the fall of Samaria was +interpreted as a judgment of God against the sinful kingdom and in +favour of the fallen house of David, and the destruction of the +sanctuaries of Israel was accepted as an unmistakable declaration +on Jehovah's part against His older seats on behalf of His +favourite dwelling on Zion. Finally, the fact that twenty years +afterwards Jerusalem made her triumphant escape from the danger +which had proved fatal to her haughty rival, that at the critical +moment the Assyrians under Sennacherib were suddenly constrained +to withdraw from her, raised to the highest pitch the veneration +in which the temple was held. In this connection special emphasis +is usually laid-- and with justice--upon the prophetical activity +of Isaiah, whose confidence in the firm foundation of Zion +continued unmoved, even when the rock began to shake in an alarming +way. Only it must not be forgotten that the significance of +Jerusalem to Isaiah did not arise from the temple of Solomon, but +from the fact that it was the city of David and the focus of his +kingdom, the central point, not of the cultus, but of the +sovereignty of Jehovah over His people. The holy mount was to +him the entire city as a political unity, with its citizens, +councillors, and judges (xi.9); his faith in the sure foundation +on which Zion rested was nothing more than a faith in the living +presence of Jehovah in the camp of Israel. But the contemporaries +of the prophet interpreted otherwise his words and the events which +had occurred. In their view Jehovah dwelt on Zion because His +house was there; it was the temple that had been shown by history +to be His true seat, and its inviolability was accordingly the +pledge of the indestructibility of the nation. This belief was +quite general in Jeremiah's time, as is seen in the extremely +vivid picture of the seventh chapter of his book; but even as +early as the time of Micah, in the first third of the seventh +century, the temple must have been reckoned a house of God of an +altogether peculiar order, so as to make it a paradox to put it on +a level with the Bamoth of Judah, and a thing unheard of to believe +in its destruction. + +At the same time, notwithstanding the high and universal reverence +in which the temple was held, the other sanctuaries still +continued, in the first instance, to subsist alongside of it. +King Hezekiah indeed is said to have even then made an attempt +to abolish them, but the attempt, having passed away without leaving +any trace, is of a doubtful nature. It is certain that the +prophet Isaiah did not labour for the removal of the Bamoth. In +one of his latest discourses his anticipation for that time of +righteousness and the fear of God which is to dawn after the +Assyrian crisis is: "Then shall ye defile the silver covering of +your graven images and the golden plating of your molten images--ye +shall cast them away as a thing polluted; Begone! shall ye say +unto them" (xxx.22). If he thus hopes for a purification from +superstitious accretions of the places where Jehovah is worshipped, +it is clear that he is not thinking of their total abolition. Not +until about a century after the destruction of Samaria did men +venture to draw the practical conclusion from the belief in the +unique character of the temple at Jerusalem. That this was not +done from a mere desire to be logical, but with a view to further +reforms, need not be said. With the tone of repudiation in which +the earlier prophets, in the zeal of their opposition, had +occasionally spoken of practices of worship at large, there was +nothing to be achieved; the thing to be aimed at was not +abolition, but reformation, and the end it was believed would be +helped by concentration of all ritual in the capital. Prophets +and priests appear to have made common cause in the prosecution of +the work. It was the high priest Hilkiah who in the first instance +called attention to the discovered book which was to be made the +basis of action; the prophetess Huldah confirmed its divine +contents; the priests and prophets were a prominent element in the +assembly at which the new law was promulgated and sworn to. Now +an intimate fellowship between these two leading classes appears to +be characteristic of the whole course of the religious movement in +Judah, and to have been necessarily connected with the lines on +which that movement advanced; /1/ + +****************************** +1. While Hosea, the man of northern Israel, frequently assails +the clergy of his home, and lays upon them the chief share of the +blame for the depraved and blinded condition of the people, Isaiah +even in his fiercest declamation against the superstitious worship +of the multitude, has not a word to say against the priests, with +whose chief, Uriah, on the contrary, he stands in a relation of +great intimacy. But it is from the Book of Jeremiah, the best +mirror of the contemporary relations in Judah, that the close +connection between priests and prophets can be gathered most +particularly. To a certain extent they shared the possession of +the sanctuary between them. (Compare Lam. ii.20.) +*************************************** + +we shall be justified therefore in assuming that the display +of harmony between them on this occasion was not got up merely +for the purposes of scenic effect, but that the change +in the national cultus now proposed was really the common suggestion +of prophets and priests. In point of fact, such a change was equally +in accordance with the interests of the temple and with those +of the prophetic party of reform. To the last named the restriction +of the sacrificial worship must have in itself seemed an advantage; +to it in later times the complete abolition of sacrifice was mainly due, +and something of the later effect doubtless lay in the original +intention. Then, too, the Jehovah of Hebron was only too easily +regarded as distinct from the Jehovah of Bethshemesh or of Bethel, +and so a strictly monarchical conception of God naturally led to +the conclusion that the place of His dwelling and of His worship +could also only be one. All writers of the Chaldaean period +associate monotheism in the closest way with unity of worship +(Jer. ii.28, xi.13). And the choice of the locality could +present no difficulty; the central point of the kingdom had of +necessity also to become the central point of the worship. Even +Jerusalem and the house of Jehovah there might need some cleansing, +but it was clearly entitled to a preference over the obscure +local altars. It was the seat of all higher culture, Iying under +the prophets' eyes, much more readily accessible to light and +air, reform and control. It is also possible, moreover, that the +Canaanite origin of most of the Bamoth, which is not unknown, for +example, to Deuteronomy, may have helped to discredit them, while, +on the other hand, the founding of Jerusalem belonged to the +proudest memories of Israelite history, and the Ark, which had been +the origin of the temple there, had a certain right to be +considered the one genuine Mosaic sanctuary. /1/ + +************************************ +1. Luther in his address to the princes of Germany counsels +in the twentieth place that the field chapels and churches be destroyed, +as devices of the devil used by him to strengthen covetousness, +to set up a false and spurious faith, to weaken parochial churches, +to increase taverns and fornication, to squander money and labour +to no purpose, and merely to lead the poor people about by the nose. +(Niemeyer's Reprint, p. 54 ) +************************************* + +In the eighteenth year of Josiah, 601 B.C., the first heavy blow fell +upon the local sacrificial places. How vigorously the king set to +work, how new were the measures taken, and how deeply they cut, +can be learned from the narrative of 2Kings xxiii. Yet what a +vitality did the green trees upon the high mountains still +continue to show! Even now they were but polled, not uprooted. +After Josiah's death we again see Bamoth appearing on all hands, +not merely in the country, but even in the capital itself. +Jeremiah has to lament that there are as many altars as towns in +Judah. All that had been attained by the reforming party was +that they could now appeal to a written law that had been solemnly +sworn to by the whole people, standing ever an immovable witness +to the rights of God. But to bring it again into force and to +carry it out was no easy matter, and would certainly have been +impossible to the unaided efforts of the prophets--a Jeremiah or an +Ezekiel. + +I.3 Had the people of Judah remained in peaceful possession of their +land, the reformation of Josiah would hardly have penetrated to +the masses; the threads uniting the present with the past were too +strong. To induce the people to regard as idolatrous and heretical +centres of iniquity the Bamoth, with which from ancestral times +the holiest memories were associated, and some of which, like +Hebron and Beersheba, had been set up by Abraham and Isaac in +person, required a complete breaking-off of the natural tradition +of life, a total severance of all connection with inherited +conditions. This was accomplished by means of the Babylonian +exile, which violently tore the nation away from its native soil, +and kept it apart for half a century,--a breach of historical +continuity than which it is almost impossible to conceive a +greater. The new generation had no natural, but only an +artificial relation to the times of old; the firmly rooted +growths of the old soil, regarded as thorns by the pious, were +extirpated, and the freshly ploughed fallows ready for a new +sowing. It is, of course, far from being the case that the whole +people at that time underwent a general conversion in the sense of +the prophets. Perhaps the majority totally gave up the past, but +just on that account became lost among the heathen, and never +subsequently came into notice. Only the pious ones, who with +trembling followed Jehovah's word, were left as a remnant; they +alone had the strength to maintain the Jewish individuality amid +the medley of nationalities into which they had been thrown. +From the exile there returned, not the nation, but a religious +sect,--those, namely, who had given themselves up body and soul to +the reformation ideas. It is no wonder that to these people, who, +besides, on their return, all settled in the immediate +neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the thought never once occurred of +restoring the local cults. It cost them no struggle to allow the +destroyed Bamoth to continue Iying in ruins; the principle had +become part of their very being, that the one God had also but one +place of worship, and thenceforward for all time coming this was +regarded as a thing of course. + +I.II + +Such was the actual historical course of the centralisation of +the cultus, and such the three stadia which can be distinguished. +The question now presents itself, whether it is possible to detect +a correspondence between the phases of the actual course of events +and those of the legislation relating to this subject. All three +portions of the legislation contain ordinances on the subject of +sacrificial places and offerings. It may be taken for granted +that in some way or other these have their roots in history, and +do not merely hang in the air, quite away from or above the solid +ground of actuality. + +I.II.1. The main Jehovistic law, the so-called Book of the Covenant, +contains (Exodus xx.24-26) the following ordinance: "An altar of +earth shalt thou make unto me, and thereon shalt thou sacrifice thy +burnt offerings and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine +oxen; in place where I cause my name to be honoured will I come +unto and will bless thee. Or if thou wilt make me an altar of +stones, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones, for if thou hast +lifted up thy tool upon it thou hast polluted it. And thou shalt +not go up to mine altar by steps, that thy nakedness be not +discovered before it." Unquestionably it is not the altar of the +tabernacle, which was made of wood and plated over with brass, nor +that of Solomon's temple, which on its eastern side had a flight of +steps, /1/ + +************************************** +1. The altar of the second temple had no steps, but a sloping ascent +to it, as also, according to the belief of the Jews, had that of the +tabernacle. The reason, moreover, for which in Exodus xx.26 steps +are forbidden, disappears when the priests are provided with +breeches (Exodus xxviii.42). +**************************************** + +and had a passage right round it at half its height, that is here +described as the only true one. On the other hand, it is obvious +that a multiplicity of altars is not merely regarded as permissible, +but assumed as a matter of course. For no stress at all is laid +upon having always the same sacrificial seat, whether fixed or to be +moved about from place to place; earth and unhewn stones /2/ of the field + +**************************************** +2. The plural "stones" is perhaps worthy of note. There were also +sacrificial places consisting of one great stone (1Samuel xiv.33, +vi.14, 15; 2Samuel xx.8; Judges vi.20, xiii.19, 20; 1Kings i.9); to the same +category also doubtless belongs originally the threshing-floor of +Araunah, 2Samuel xxiv.21; compare Ezra iii.3, [ (L MKWNTW ]. But +inasmuch as such single sacred stones easily came into a +mythological relation to the Deity, offence was taken at them, as +appears from Judges vi.22-24, where the rock altar, the stone under +the oak which was conceived of as the seat of the theophany, upon +which Gideon offers, and out of which the flame issues (vi.19-21), +is corrected into an altar upon the rock. The macceboth are +distinguished from the altar in Exodus xxiv.4, yet elsewhere +clearly put on the same plane with it (Gen. xxxiii.20), and +everywhere more or less identified with the Deity (Gen. xxviii.). +******************************************** + +can be found everywhere, and such an altar falls to pieces just as +readily as it is built. A choice of two kinds of material is also +given, which surely implies that the lawgiver thought of more than +one altar; and not at the place, but at every place where He causes +His name to be honoured will Jehovah come to His worshippers and +bless them. Thus the law now under consideration is in harmony +with the custom and usage of the first historical period, has its +root therein, and gives sanction to it. Certainly the liberty to +sacrifice everywhere seems to be somewhat restricted by the added +clause, "in every place where I cause my name to be honoured." +But this means nothing more than that the spots where intercourse +between earth and heaven took place were not willingly regarded +as arbitrarily chosen, but, on the contrary, were considered as +having been somehow or other selected by the Deity Himself for +His service. + +In perfect correspondence with the Jehovistic law is the +Jehovistic narrative of the Pentateuch, as, in particular, the +story of the patriarchs in J and E very clearly shows. At every +place where they take up their abode or make a passing stay, the +fathers of the nation, according to this authority, erect altars, +set up memorial stones, plant trees, dig wells. This does not take +place at indifferent and casual localities, but at Shechem and +Bethel in Ephraim, at Hebron and Beersheba in Judah, at Mizpah, +Mahanaim, and Penuel in Gilead; nowhere but at famous and +immemorially holy places of worship. It is on this that the +interest of such notifications depends; they are no mere +antiquarian facts, but full of the most living significance for the +present of the narrator. The altar built by Abraham at Shechem is +the altar on which sacrifice still continues to be made, and bears +"even unto this day" the name which the patriarch gave it. On the +spot where at Hebron he first entertained Jehovah, there down to +the present day the table has continued to be spread; even as +Isaac himself did, so do his sons still swear Amosos viii.14; Hos. +iv.15) by the sacred well of Beersheba, which he digged, and +sacrifice there upon the altar which he built, under the tamarisk +which he planted. The stone which Jacob consecrated at Bethel the +generation of the living continues to anoint, paying the tithes +which of old he vowed to the house of God there. This also is the +reason why the sacred localities are so well known to the +narrator, and are punctually and accurately recorded +notwithstanding the four hundred years of the Egyptian sojourn, +which otherwise would have made their identification a matter of +some little difficulty. The altar which Abraham built at Bethel +stands upon the hill to the east of the town, between Bethel on the +west and Ai on the east; others are determined by means of a tree +or a well, as that of Shechem or Beersheba. /1/ + +******************************* +1. The correct explanation of this is found in Ewald, Gesch. d. V. +lsraels, i. 436 seq. (3d edit.). A. Bernstein (Ursprung der Sagen +von Abrabam, etc., Berlin, 1871) drags in politics in a repulsive way. +"He does not indeed actually enter Shechem and Bethel-- these are places +hostile to Judah--but in a genuine spirit of Jewish demonstration +he builds altars in their vicinity and calls on the name of +Jehovah" (p. 22). Rather, he builds the altars precisely on the +places where, as can be shown, they afterwards stood, and that was +not inside the towns. In Gen. xviii. also the oak of Mamre is +employed to fix not Abraham's residence, but the place of Jehovah's +appearing. +**************************************************************** + +But of course it was not intended to throw dishonour upon the +cultus of the present when its institution was ascribed to the +fathers of the nation. Rather, on the contrary, do these legends +glorify the origin of the sanctuaries to which they are attached, +and surround them with the nimbus of a venerable consecration. All +the more as the altars, as a rule, are not built by the patriarchs +according to their own private judgment wheresoever they please; +on the contrary, a theophany calls attention to, or at least +afterwards confirms, the holiness of the place. Jehovah appears at +Shechem to Abraham, who thereupon builds the altar "to Jehovah who +had appeared unto him;" he partakes of his hospitality under the +oak of Mamre, which is the origin of the sacrificial service there; +He shows him the place where he is to make an offering of his son, +and here the sanctuary continues to exist. On the first night of +Isaac's sleeping on the sacred soil of Beersheba (xxvi.24) he +receives a visit from the Numen there residing, and in consequence +rears his altar. Surprised by profane glances, Jehovah acts as a +destroyer, but Himself spontaneously points out to His favoured +ones the places where it is His pleasure to allow Himself to be +seen; and where men have seen Him and yet lived, there a sanctuary +marks the open way of access to Him. The substance of the +revelation is in these cases comparatively indifferent: "I am +God." What is of importance is the theophany in and for itself, +its occurrence on that particular place. It must not be regarded +as an isolated fact, but rather as the striking commencement of an +intercourse [ R)H PNY YHWH ] between God and man which is destined +to be continued at this spot, and also as the first and strongest +expression of the sanctity of the soil. This way of looking at +the thing appears most clearly and with incomparable charm in the +story of the ladder which Jacob saw at Bethel. "He dreamed, and +behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to +heaven, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on +it. And he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! This +is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of +heaven." The ladder stands at the place not at this moment merely, +but continually, and, as it were, by nature. Bethel--so Jacob +perceives from this--is a place where heaven and earth meet, where +the angels ascend and descend, to carry on the communication +between earth and heaven ordained by God at this gate. + +All this is only to be understood as a glorification of the +relations and arrangements of the cultus as we find them (say) in +the first centuries of the divided kingdom. All that seems +offensive and heathenish to a later age is here consecrated and +countenanced by Jehovah Himself and His favoured ones,-- the high +places, the memorial stones (maccceboth), the trees, the wells. /1/ + +****************************** +1. But it is only the public cultus and that of certain leading +sanctuaries that is thus glorified; on the other hand, the domestic +worship of seraphim, to which the women are specially attached, +is already discountenanced (in E) by Jacob. Asherim are not +alluded to, molten images are rejected, particularly by E. +Here perhaps a correction of the ancient legend has already +taken place in JE. +************************************ + +An essential agreement prevails between the Jehovistic law +which sanctions the existing seats of worship and the Jehovistic +narrative; the latter is as regards its nucleus perhaps somewhat older. +Both obviously belong to the pre-prophetic period; a later revision +of the narrative in the prophetic sense has not altered the essential +character of its fundamental elements. It is inconceivable that +Amos or Hosea, or any like-minded person, could go with such +sympathising love and believing reverence into narratives which only +served to invest with a still brighter nimbus and higher respect +the existing religious worship, carried on by the people +on the high places of Isaac as their holiest occupation. + +I.II.2. The Jehovistic Book of the Covenant lies indeed at the +foundation of Deuteronomy, but in one point they differ +materially, and that precisely the one which concerns us here. +As there, so here also, the legislation properly so called begins +(Deut. xii.) with an ordinance relating to the service of the +altar; but now we have Moses addressing the Israeites in the +following terms: "When ye come into the land of Canaan, ye shall +utterly destroy all the places of worship which ye find there, +and ye shall not worship Jehovah your God after the manner in which +the heathen serve theirs. Nay, but only unto the place which the +Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes for His +habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye bring your offerings +and gifts, and there shall ye eat before Him and rejoice. Here at +this day we do every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes, but +when ye have found fixed abodes, and rest from your enemies round +about, then shall the place which Jehovah shall choose for His +habitation in one of your tribes be the one place to which ye shall +bring your offerings and gifts. Take heed that ye offer not in +every place that ye see; ye may not eat your holy gifts in +every town, but only in the place which Jehovah shall choose." + +The Law is never weary of again and again repeating its +injunction of local unity of worship. In doing so, it is in +conscious opposition to "the things that we do here this day," and +throughout has a polemical and reforming attitude towards existing +usage. It is rightly therefore assigned by historical criticism +to the period of the attacks made on the Bamoth by the reforming +party at Jerusalem. As the Book of the Covenant, and the whole +Jehovistic writing in genera], reflects the first pre-prophetic +period in the history of the cultus, so Deuteronomy is the legal +expression of the second period of struggle and transition. The +historical order is all the more certain because the literary +dependence of Deuteronomy on the Jehovistic laws and narratives +can be demonstrated independently, and is an admitted fact. From +this the step is easy to the belief that the work whose discovery +gave occasion to King Josiah to destroy the local sanctuaries was +this very Book of Deuteronomy, which originally must have had an +independent existence, and a shorter form than at present. This +alone, at least, of all the books of the Pentateuch, gives so +imperious an expression to the restriction of the sacrificial +worship to the one chosen place; here only does the demand make +itself so felt in its aggressive novelty and dominate the whole +tendency of the law-maker. The old material which he makes use +of is invariably shaped with a view to this, and on all hands he +follows the rule out to its logical consequences. To make its +fulfilment possible, he changes former arrangements, permitting +what had been forbidden, and prohibiting what had been allowed; +in almost every case this motive lies at the foundation of all his +other innovations. This is seen, for example, when he permits +slaying without sacrificing, and that too anywhere; when, in order +not to abolish the right of asylum (Exodus xxi.13, 14; 1Kings ii. +28) along with the altars, he appoints special cities of refuge for +the innocent who are pursued by the avenger of blood; when he +provides for the priests of the suppressed sanctuaries, +recommending the provincials to take them along with them on their +sacrificial pilgrimages, and giving them the right to officiate in +the temple at Jerusalem just like the hereditarily permanent +clergy there. In other respects also the dominance of the same +point of view is seen: for example, it is chiefly from regard to +it that the old ordinances and customs relating to the religious +dues and the festivals are set forth in the form which they must +henceforth assume. A law so living, which stands at every point +in immediate contact with reality, which is at war with +traditionary custom, and which proceeds with constant reference to +the demands of practical life, is no mere velleity, no mere cobweb +of an idle brain, but has as certainly arisen out of historical +occasions as it is designed to operate powerfully on the course of +the subsequent history. A judgment pronounced in accordance with +the facts can therefore assign to it an historical place only +within that movement of reformation which was brought to a +victorious issue by King Josiah. + +I.II.3. It is often supposed that the Priestly Code is somewhat +indifferent to the question of the one sanctuary, neither +permitting multiplicity of sacrificial centres nor laying stress +upon the unity, and that on account of this attitude it must be +assigned to an earlier date than Deuteronomy. /1/ + +************************************** +1. De Wette, in the fifth place of his Habilitationsschrift ueber +das Deuteronomium (Jena, 1805): "De hoc unico cultus sacri loco... +priores libri nihil omnino habent. De sacrificiis tantum unice +ante tabernaculum conventus offerendis lex quaedam extat. +Sed in legibus de diebus festis, de primitiis et decimis, +tam saepe repetitis, nihil omnino monitum est de loco unico, +ubi celebrari et offerri debeant " (Opusc. Theol, p. 163-165). +**************************************** + +Such an idea is, to say the least, in the highest degree superficial. +The assumption that worship is restricted to one single centre +runs everywhere throughout the entire document. To appeal specially, +in proof of the restriction, to Leviticus xvii. or Josh xxii., is +to indicate a complete failure to apprehend the whole tenor +of Exodus xxv.-Leviticus ix. Before so much as a single regulation +having reference to the matter of worship can be given (such is +the meaning of the large section referred to), the one rightful place +wherein to engage in it must be specified. The tabernacle is +not narrative merely, but, like all the narratives in that book, +law as well; it expresses the legal unity of the worship as +an historical fact, which, from the very beginning, ever since +the exodus, has held good in Israel. One God one sanctuary, +that is the idea. With the ordinances of the tabernacle, which form +the sum of the divine revelation on Sinai, the theocracy was founded; +where the one is, there is the other. The description of it, therefore, +stands at the head of the Priestly Code, just as that of the temple +stands at the head of the legislation in Ezekiel. It is the basis +and indispensable foundation, without which all else would merely +float in the air: first must the seat of the Divine Presence on +earth be given before the sacred community can come into life and +the cultus into force. Is it supposes that the tabernacle +tolerates other sanctuaries besides itself? Why then the +encampment of the twelve tribes around it, which has no military, +but a purely religious significance, and derives its whole meaning +from its sacred centre? Whence this concentration of all Israel +into one great congregation [ QHL, (DH ], without its like anywhere +else in the Old Testament? On the contrary, there is no other +place besides this at which God dwells and suffers Himself to be +seen; no place but this alone where man can draw near to Him and +seek His face with offerings and gifts. This view is the axiom +that underlies the whole ritual legislation of the middle part of +the Pentateuch. It is indicated with special clearness by the +LPNY (HL MW(D (before the tabernacle), introduced at every turn +in the ordinances for sacrifice. + +What then are we to infer from this as to the historical place of +the Priestly Code, if it be judged necessary to assign it such a +place at all? By all the laws of logic it can no more belong to +the first period than Deuteronomy does. But is it older or +younger than Deuteronomy? In that book the unity of the cultus is +COMMANDED, in the Priestly Code it is PRESUPPOSED. Everywhere it +is tacitly assumed as a fundamental postulate, but nowhere does it +find actual expression; /1/ it is nothing new, but quite a thing + +******************************************* +1. Except in Leviticus xvii.; but the small body of legislation +contained in Leviticus xvii-xxvi is the transition from Deuteronomy +to the Priestly Code. +******************************** + +of course. What follows from this for the question before us? +To my thinking, this:--that the Priestly Code rests +upon the result which is only the aim of Deuteronomy. The latter +is in the midst of movement and conflict: it clearly speaks out +its reforming intention, its opposition to the traditional "what we +do here this day;" the former stands outside of and above the +struggle,--the end has been reached and made a secure possession. +On the basis of the Priestly Code no reformation would ever have +taken place, no Josiah would ever have observed from it that the +actual condition of affairs was perverse and required to be set +right; it proceeds as if everything had been for long in the best +of order. It is only in Deuteronomy, moreover, that one sees to +the root of the matter, and recognises its connection with the +anxiety for a strict monotheism and for the elimination from the +worship of the popular heathenish elements, and thus with a deep +and really worthy aim; in the Priestly Code the reason of the +appointments, in themselves by no means rational, rests upon their +own legitimacy, just as everything that is actual ordinarily seems +natural and in no need of explanation. Nowhere does it become +apparent that the abolition of the Bamoth and Asherim and memorial +stones is the real object contemplated; these institutions are +now almost unknown, and what is really only intelligible as a +negative and polemical ordinance is regarded as full of meaning in +itself. + +The idea as idea is older than the idea as history. In +Deuteronomy it appears in its native colours, comes forward with +its aggressive challenge to do battle with the actual. One step +indeed is taken towards investing it with an historical character, +in so far as it is put into the mouth of Moses; but the beginning +thus made keeps within modest limits. Moses only lays down the +law; for its execution he makes no provision as regards his own +time, nor does he demand it for the immediate future. Rather it is +represented as not destined to come into force until the people +shall have concluded the conquest of the country and secured a +settled peace. We have already found reason to surmise that the +reference to "menuha" is intended to defer the date when the Law +shall come into force to the days of David and Solomon (1Kings +viii.16). This is all the more probable inasmuch as there is +required for its fulfilment "the place which Jehovah shall choose," +by which only the capital of Judah can be meant. Deuteronomy, +therefore, knows nothing of the principle that what ought to be +must actually have been from the beginning. Until the building of +Solomon's temple the unity of worship according to it had, +properly speaking, never had any existence; and, moreover, it is +easy to read between the lines that even after that date it was +more a pious wish than a practical demand. The Priestly Code, on +the other hand, is unable to think of religion without the one +sanctuary, and cannot for a moment imagine Israel without it, +carrying its actual existence back to the very beginning of the +theocracy, and, in accordance with this, completely altering the +ancient history. The temple, the focus to which the worship was +concentrated, and which in reality was not built until Solomon's +time, is by this document regarded as so indispensable, even for +the troubled days of the wanderings before the settlement, that it +is made portable, and in the form of a tabernacle set up in the +very beginning of things. For the truth is, that the tabernacle +is the copy, not the prototype, of the temple at Jerusalem. The +resemblance of the two is indeed unmistakable, /1/ + +**************************** +1. In Wisdom of Solomon ix. 8 the temple is called MIMHMA SKHNHS +HAGIAS. Josephus (Antiquities iii. 6,1) says of the tabernacle, +(H D'OUDEN METAFEROMENOU NAOU DIEFERE. +******************************* + +but it is not said in 1Kings vi. that Solomon made use of the old +pattern and ordered his Tyrian workmen to follow it. The posteriority +of the Mosaic structure comes into clearer light from the two following +considerations brought forward by Graf (p. 60 seq.). In the first +place, in the description of the tabernacle mention is repeatedly +made of its south, north, and west side, without any preceding rubric +as to a definite and constantly uniform orientation; the latter is +tacitly taken for granted, being borrowed from that of the temple, +which was a fixed building, and did not change its site. In the +second place, the brazen altar is, strictly speaking, described as +an altar of wood merely plated with brass,--for a fireplace of +very large size, upon which a strong fire continually burns, a +perfectly absurd construction, which is only to be accounted for +by the wish to make the brazen altar which Solomon cast (1Kings +xvi. 14) transportable, by changing its interior into wood. The +main point, however, is this, that the tabernacle of the Priestly +Code in its essential meaning is not a mere provisional shelter for +the ark on the march, but the sole legitimate sanctuary for the +community of the twelve tribes prior to the days of Solomon, and +so in fact a projection of the later temple. How modest, one might +almost say how awkwardly bashful, is the Deuteronomic reference +to the future place which Jehovah is to choose when compared with +this calm matter-of-fact assumption that the necessary centre of +unity of worship was given from the first! In the one case we +have, so to speak, only the idea as it exists in the mind of the +lawgiver, but making no claim to be realised till a much later +date; in the other, the Mosaic idea has acquired also a Mosaic +embodiment, with which it entered the world at the very first. + +By the same simple historical method which carries the central +sanctuary back into the period before Solomon does the Priestly +author abolish the other places of worship. His forty-eight +Levitical cities are for the most part demonstrably a +metamorphosis of the old Bamoth to meet the exigencies of the time. +The altar which the tribes eastward of Jordan build (Josh. xxii.) +is erected with no intention that it should be used, but merely in +commemoration of something. Even the pre-Mosaic period is rendered +orthodox in the same fashion. The patriarchs, having no +tabernacle, have no worship at all; according to the Priestly +Code they build no altars, bring no offerings, and scrupulously +abstain from everything by which they might in any way encroach +on the privilege of the one true sanctuary. This manner of shaping +the patriarchal history is only the extreme consequence of the +effort to carry out with uniformity in history the semper +ubique et ab omnibus of the legal unity of worship. + +Thus in Deuteronomy the institution is only in its birth-throes, +and has still to struggle for the victory against the praxis of +the present, but in the Priestly Code claims immemorial legitimacy +and strives to bring the past into conformity with itself, +obviously because it already dominates the present; the carrying +back of the new into the olden time always takes place at a later +date than the ushering into existence of the new itself. +Deuteronomy has its position in the very midst of the historical +crisis, and still stands in a close relation with the older period +of worship, the conditions of which it can contest, but is unable +to ignore, and still less to deny. But, on the other hand, the +Priestly Code is hindered by no survival to present times of the +older usage from projecting an image of antiquity such as it must +have been; unhampered by visible relics or living tradition of an +older state, it can idealise the past to its heart's content. Its +place, then, is after Deuteronomy, and in the third post-exilian +period of the history of the cultus, in which, on the one hand, +the unity of the sanctuary was an established fact, contested by +no one and impugned by nothing, and in which, on the other hand, +the natural connection between the present and the past had been so +severed by the exile that there was no obstacle to prevent an +artificial and ideal repristination of the latter. + + +I.III. + + +The reverse of this is what is usually held. In Deuteronomy, it +is considered, there occur clear references to the period of the +kings; but the Priestly Code, with its historical +presuppositions, does not fit in with any situation belonging to +that time, and is therefore older. When the cultus rests upon the +temple of Solomon as its foundation, as in Ezekiel, then every one +recognises the later date; but when it is based upon the +tabernacle, the case is regarded as quite different. The great +antiquity of the priestly legislation is proved by relegating it +to an historical sphere, created by itself out of its own legal +premisses, but which is nowhere to be found within, and therefore +must have preceded actual history. Thus (so to speak) it holds +itself up in the air by its own waistband. + +I.III.1. It may, however, seem as if hitherto it had only been +asserted that the tabernacle rests on an historical fiction. +In truth it is proved; but yet it may be well to add some things +which have indeed been said long before now, but never as yet +properly laid to heart. The subject of discussion, be it +premised, is the tabernacle of the Priestly Code; for some kind +of tent for the ark there may well have been: in fact, tents were +in Palestine the earliest dwellings of idols (Hos. ix.6), and only +afterwards gave place to fixed houses; and even the Jehovistic +tradition (although not J) knows of a sacred tent /1/ + +************************************* +1. It is never, however, employed for legislative purposes, +but is simply a shelter for the ark; it stands without the camp, +as the oldest sanctuaries were wont to do outside the cities. +It is kept by Joshua as aedituus, who sleeps in it, as did Samuel +the aedituus for Eli. +**************************************** + +in connection with the Mosaic camp, and outside it, just as the older +high places generally had open sites without the city. The question +before us has reference exclusively to the particular tent which, +according to Exodus xxv. seq., was erected at the command of God +as the basis of the theocracy, the pre-Solomonic central sanctuary, +which also in outward details was the prototype of the temple. +At the outset its very possibility is doubtful. Very strange is the +contrast between this splendid structure, on which the costliest +material is lavished and wrought in the most advanced style of +Oriental art, and the soil on which it rises, in the wilderness +amongst the native Hebrew nomad tribes, who are represented as +having got it ready offhand, and without external help. The +incompatibility has long been noticed, and gave rise to doubts as +early as the time of Voltaire. These may, however, be left to +themselves; suffice it that Hebrew tradition, even from the time +of the judges and the first kings, for which the Mosaic tabernacle +was strictly speaking intended, knows nothing at all about it. + +It appears a bold thing to say so when one sees how much many a +modern author who knows how to make a skilful use of the Book of +Chronicles has to tell about the tabernacle. For in 2 Chron. i.3 +seq. we are told that Solomon celebrated his accession to the +throne with a great sacrificial feast at Gibeon, because the +tabernacle and the brazen altar of Moses were there. In like +manner in 1Chron. xxi.29 it is said that David offered sacrifice +indeed on the threshing-floor of Araunah, but that Jehovah's +dwelling-place and the legitimate altar were at that time at +Gibeon; and further (xvi. 39), that Zadok, the legitimate high +priest, officiated there. From these data the Rabbins first, and +in recent times Keil and Movers especially, have constructed a +systematic history of the tabernacle down to the building of the +temple. Under David and Solomon, as long as the ark was on Mount +Zion, the tabernacle was at Gibeon, as is also shown by the fact +that (2Samuel xxi.6, 9) offerings were sacrificed to Jehovah there. +Before that it was at Nob, where ephod and shewbread (1Samuel xxi.) +are mentioned, and still earlier, from Joshua's time onward, it was +at Shiloh. But these were only its permanent sites, apart from +which it was temporarily set up now here, now there, saving by +its rapidity of movement--one might almost say ubiquity--the +unity of the cultus, notwithstanding the variety and great +distances of the places at which that cultus was celebrated. In +every case in which a manifestation of Jehovah and an offering to +Him are spoken of, the tabernacle must be tacitly understood. /1/ + +************************************ +1. Josh. xxiv. 24, 33 (LXX): after the death of Joshua and Eleazar, +LABONTES (OI )UIOI )ISRAHL THN KIBWTON TOU QEOU PERIFEROSAN +)EN )EAUTOIS. After J. Buxtorf and Sal. van Til (Ugol., Thes. viii.), +this theory has been, worked out specially by Movers. See, on the other +hand, De Wette, Beitraege, p. 108 seq., and Vatke, ut supra, p. 316, note. +************************************ + +The dogmatic character of this way of making history, and the absurd +consequences to which it leads, need not in the meantime be insisted on; +what is of greatest importance is that the point from which it starts +is in the last degree insecure; for the statement of Chronicles that +Solomon offered the offering of his accession upon the altar of +the tabernacle at Gibeon is in contradiction with that of the older +parallel narrative of 1Kings iii.1-4. The latter not only is +silent about the Mosaic tabernacle, which is alleged to have stood +at Gibeon, but expressly says that Solomon offered upon a high +place (as such), and excuses him for this on the plea that at that +time no house to the name of Jehovah had as yet been built. That +the Chronicler draws from this narrative is certain on general +grounds, and is shown particularly by this, that he designates +the tabernacle at Gibeon by the name of Bamah--a contradictio in +adjecto which is only to be explained by the desire to give an +authentic interpretation of "the great Bamah at Gibeon" in 1Kings +iii. Here, as elsewhere, he brings the history into agreement +with the Law: the young and pious Solomon can have offered his +sacrifice only at the legal place which therefore must be that +high place at Gibeon. Along with 2 Chron. i.3 seq. also fall the +two other statements (1Chron. xvi.39, xxi.29 both of which are +dependent on that leading passage, as is clear revealed by the +recurring phrase "the Bamah of Gibeon." The tabernacle does not +elsewhere occur in Chronicles; it has not yet brought its +consequences with it, and not yet permeated the historical view of +the author. He would certainly have experienced some embarrassment +at the question whether it had previously stood at Nob, for he +lays stress upon the connection between the legitimate sanctuary +and the legitimate Zadok-Eleazar priestly family, which it is +indeed possible to assume for Shiloh, but not for Nob. /1/ + +************************************ +1. Of the priests at Nob, Abiathar alone escaped the massacre +(1Samuel. xxii.); Gad therefore was not one of them. +************************************ + +The fact that Chronicles represents the Israelite history in accordance +with the Priestly Code has had the effect of causing its view +of the history to be involuntarily taken as fundamental, but ought much +rather to have caused it to be left altogether out of account where +the object to ascertain what was the real and genuine tradition. +The Books of Judges and Samuel make mention indeed of many sanctuaries, +but never among them of the tabernacle, the most important of all. +For the single passage where the name Ohel Moed occurs (1Samuel +ii.22 is badly attested, and from its contents open to suspicion. /2/ + +************************************** +2. The passage does not occur in the LXX, and everywhere else in +1Samueli-iii the sanctuary of Shiloh is called hekal, that is to say, +certainly not a tent. +*************************************** + +Of the existence of the ark of Jehovah there certainly are distinct traces +towards the end of the period of the judges (compare 1Samuel iv.-vi.) +But is the ark a guarantee of the existence of the tabernacle? +On the contrary its whole history down to the period of its being deposited +in the temple of Solomon is a proof that it was regarded as quite +independent of any tent specially consecrated for its reception. +But this abolishes the notion of the Mosaic tabernacle; for +according to the law, the two things belong necessarily to each +other; the one cannot exist without the other; both are of +equally great importance. The tabernacle must everywhere +accompany the symbol of its presence; the darkness of the holy +of holies is at the same time the life-element of the ark; only +under compulsion of necessity, and even then not except under the +covering of the curtains, does it leave its lodging during a +march, only to return to it again as soon as the new halting-place +is reached. But according to 1Samuel iv. seq., on the other hand, +it is only the ark that goes to the campaign; it alone falls into +the hands of the Philistines. Even in chap. v., where the symbol +of Jehovah is placed in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod, not a word +is said of the tabernacle or of the altar which is necessarily +connected with it; and chap. vi. is equally silent, although +here the enemy plainly gives back the whole of his sacred spoil. +It is assumed that the housing of the ark was left behind at +Shiloh. Very likely; but that was not the Mosaic tabernacle, the +inseparable companion of the ark. In fact, the narrator speaks of +a permanent house at Shiloh with doors and doorposts; that +possibly may be an anachronism /1/ (yet why ?) ; + +***************************************** +1. Compare similar passages in Josh. vi.19, 24, ix.27, where the very +anachronism shows that the idea of the tabernacle was unknown +to the narrator. That, moreover. a permanent house did actually exist +then at Shiloh follows from the circumstance that Jeremiah (vii. 12) +speaks of its ruins. For he could not regard any other than a +pre-Solomonic sanctuary as preceding that of Jerusalem; and +besides, there is not the faintest trace of a more important temple +having arisen at Shiloh within the period of the kings. +***************************************** + +but so much at least may be inferred from it that he had not any idea +of the tabernacle, which, however, would have had to go with the ark +to the field. If on this one occasion only an illegal exception +to the Law was made, why in that case was not the ark, at least after +its surrender, again restored to the lodging from which, strictly +speaking, it ought never to have been separated at all? Instead of +this it is brought to Bethshemesh, where it causes disaster, +because the people show curiosity about it. Thence it comes to +Kirjathjearim, where it stays for many years in the house of a +private person. From here David causes it to be brought to +Jerusalem,-- one naturally supposes, if one thinks in the lines of +the view given in the Pentateuch and in Chronicles, in order that +it may be at last restored to the tabernacle, to be simultaneously +brought to Jerusalem. But no thought of this, however obvious it +may seem, occurs to the king. In the first instance, his +intention is to have the ark beside himself in the citadel; but he +is terrified out of this, and, at a loss where else to put it, he +at last places it in the house of one of his principal people, +Obed-Edom of Gath. Had he known anything about the tabernacle, had +he had any suspicion that it was standing empty at Gibeon, in the +immediate neighbourhood, he would have been relieved of all +difficulty. But inasmuch as the ark brings blessing to the house +of Obed-Edom,--the ark, be it remembered, in the house of a soldier +and a Philistine, yet bringing down, not wrath, but blessing,--/1/ + +********************************************* +1. The Chronicle has good reason for making him a Levite. But Gath +without any qualifying epithet, and particularly in connection with David, +is the Philistine Gath, and Obed-Edom belongs to the bodyquard, which +consisted chiefly of foreigners and Philistines. His name, +moreover, is hardly Israelite. +********************************************** + +the king is thereby encouraged to persevere after all with his original +proposal, and establish it upon his citadel. And this he does in a tent +he had caused to be made for it (2Samuel vi.17), which tent of David +in Zion continued to be its lodging until the temple was built. +Some mention of the tabernacle, had it existed, would have been +inevitable when the temple took its place. That it did not serve +as the model of the temple has already been said; but it might +have been expected at least that in the account of the building of +the new sanctuary some word might have escaped about the +whereabouts of the old. And this expectation seems to be realised +in 1Kings viii.4, which says that when the temple was finished +there were brought into it, besides the ark, the Ohel Moed and all +the sacred vessels that were therein. Interpreters hesitate as to +whether they ought to understand by the Ohel Moed the tent of the +ark upon Zion, to which alone reference has been made in the +preceding narrative (1Kings i.39, ii.28-30), or whether it is the +Mosaic tent, which, according to Chronicles, was standing at +Gibeon, but of which the Book of Kings tells nothing, and also +knows nothing (iii.2-4). It is probable that the author of viii.4 +mixed up both together; but we have to face the following +alternative. Either the statement belongs to the original context +of the narrative in which it occurs, and in that case the Ohel Moed +can only be the tent on Mount Zion, or the Ohel Moed of 1Kings +viii.4 is the Mosaic tabernacle which was removed from Gibeon into +Solomon's temple, and in that case the allegation has no +connection with its context, and does not hang together with the +premisses which that furnishes; in other words, it is the +interpolation of a later hand. The former alternative, though +possible, is improbable, for the name Ohel Moed occurs absolutely +nowhere in the Books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings (apart from the +interpolation in 1Samuel ii.22b), and particularly it is not used +to denote David's tent upon Mount Zion; and, moreover, that tent +had received too little of the consecration of antiquity, and +according to 2Samuel vii. was too insignificant and provisional to +be thought worthy of preservation in the temple. But if the Ohel +Moed is here (what it everywhere else is) the tabernacle, as is +indicated also by the sacred vessels, then the verse is, as has +been said, an interpolation. The motive for such a thing is easily +understood; the same difficulty as that with which we set out +must have made it natural for any Jew who started from the ideas +of the Pentateuch to look for the tabernacle here, and, if he did +not find it, to introduce it. Yet even the interpolation does not +remove the difficulties. Where is the Mosaic altar of +burnt-offering? It was quite as important and holy as the +tabernacle itself; even in Chronicles it is invariably mentioned +expressly in connection with it, and did not deserve to be +permitted to go to ruin at Gibeon, which, from another point of +view, would also have been extremely dangerous to the unity of +the sacrificial worship. Further, if the sacred vessels were +transferred from the tabernacle to the temple, why then was it +that Solomon, according to 1Kings vii., cast a completely new +set? /1/ + +************************************* +1. The brazen altar cast by Solomon (1Kings viii.64; +2Kings xvi.14, 15) is not now found in the inventory of the temple +furniture in 1Kings vii.; but originally it cannot have been +absent, for it is the most important article. It has therefore +been struck out in order to avoid collision with the brazen altar +of Moses. The deletion is the negative counterpart to the +interpolation of the tabernacle in 1Kings viii.4. +*************************************** + +The old ones were costly enough, in part even costlier than the new, and, +moreover, had been consecrated by long use. It is clear that +in Solomon's time neither tabernacle, nor holy vessels, nor brazen altar +of Moses had any existence. + +But if there was no tabernacle in the time of the last judges and +first kings, as little was it in existence during the whole of the +previous period. This is seen from 2Samuel vii., a section with +whose historicity we have here nothing to do, but which at all +events reflects the view of a pre-exilian author. It is there told +that David, after he had obtained rest from all his enemies, +contemplated building a worthy home for the ark, and expressed his +determination to the prophet Nathan in the words, "I dwell in a +house of cedar, and the ark of God within curtains." According to +vi.17, he can only mean the tent which he had set up, that is to +say, not the Mosaic tabernacle, which, moreover, according to the +description of Exodus xxv. seq., could not appropriately be +contrasted with a timber erection, still less be regarded as a +mean structure or unworthy of the Deity, for in point of +magnificence it at least competed with the temple of Solomon. +Nathan at first approves of the king's intention, but afterwards +discountenances it, saying that at present God does not wish to +have anything different from that which He has hitherto had. "I +have dwelt in no house since the day that I brought the children +of Israel out of Egypt, but have wandered about under tent and +covering." Nathan also, of course, has not in his eye the Mosaic +tabernacle as the present lodging of the ark, but David's tent upon +Zion. Now he does not say that the ark has formerly been always +in the tabernacle, and that its present harbourage is therefore in +the highest degree unlawful, but, on the contrary, that the present +state of matters is the right one,--that until now the ark has +invariably been housed under an equally simple and unpretentious +roof. As David's tent does not date back to the Exodus, Nathan is +necessarily speaking of changing tents and dwellings; the reading +of the parallel passage in 1Chron. xvii.5, therefore, correctly +interprets the sense. There could be no more fundamental +contradiction to the representation contained in the Pentateuch +than that embodied in these words: the ark has not as its +correlate a single definite sacred tent of state, but is quite +indifferent to the shelter it enjoys--has frequently changed its +abode, but never had any particularly fine one. Such has been +the state of matters since the time of Moses. + +Such is the position of affairs as regards the tabernacle; if it +is determined that the age of the Priestly Code is to hang by +these threads, I have no objection. The representation of the +tabernacle arose out of the temple of Solomon as its root, in +dependence on the sacred ark, for which there is early testimony, +and which in the time of David, and also before it, was sheltered +by a tent. From the temple it derives at once its inner character +and its central importance for the cultus as well as its external +form. + +I.III.2. A peculiar point of view is taken up by Theodor Noldeke. He +grants the premisses that the tabernacle is a fiction, of which the +object is to give pre-existence to the temple and to the unity of +worship, but he denies the conclusion that in that case the +Priestly Code presuppose; the unity of worship as already +existing in its day, and therefore is late, than Deuteronomy. +In his Untersuchungen zur Kritik des Alten Testaments (p. 127 seq.) +he says:-- + +"A strong tendency towards unity of worship MUST have arisen as +soon as Solomon's temple was built. Over against the splendid +sanctuary with its imageless worship at the centre of the kingdom +of Judah, the older holy places MUST ever have shrunk farther into +the background, and that not merely in the eyes of the people, +but quite specially also in those of the better classes and of +those whose spiritual advancement was greatest (compare Amos iv. +4,viii.14). If even Hezekiah carried out the unification in Judah +with tolerable thoroughness, the effort after it MUST surely have +been of very early date; for the determination violently to +suppress old sacred usages would not have been easily made, unless +this had been long previously demanded by theory. The priests at +Jerusalem MUST very specially at an early date have arrived at +the conception that their temple with the sacred ark and the great +altar was the one true place of worship, and an author has clothed +this very laudable effort on behalf of the purity of religion in +the form of a law, which certainly in its strictness was quite +impracticable (ILeviticus xvii.4 seq.), and which, therefore, was +modified later by the Deuteronomist with a view to practice." + +What MUST have happened is of less consequence to know than what +actually took place. Noldeke relies solely upon the statement of +2Kings xviii.4, 22, that Hezekiah abolished the high places and +altars of Jehovah, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, "Before this +altar shall ye worship in Jerusalem." With reference to that +statement doubts have already been raised above. How startling +was the effect produced at a later date by the similar ordinance +of Josiah! Is it likely then that the other, although the +earlier, should have passed off so quietly and have left so little +mark that the reinforcement of it, after an interval of seventy +or eighty years, is not in the least brought into connection with +it, but in every respect figures as a new first step upon a path +until then absolutely untrodden? Note too how casual is the +allusion to a matter which is elsewhere the chief and most favoured +theme of the Book of Kings! And there is besides all this the +serious difficulty, also already referred to above, that the man +from whom Hezekiah must, from the nature of the case, have received +the impulse to his reformatory movement, the prophet Isaiah, in +one of his latest discourses expressly insists on a cleansing +merely of the local sanctuaries from molten and graven images, +that is to say, does not desire their complete removal. So much at +least is certain that, if the alleged fact at present under +discussion amounts to anything at all /1/ + +********************************** +1. Little importance is to be attached to 2Kings xviii.22. +The narrative of the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem is not a contemporary +one, as appears generally from the entirely indefinite character of +the statements about the sudden withdrawal of the Assyrians and its causes, +and particularly from xix.7, 36, 37. For in this passage the meaning +certainly is that Sennacherib was assassinated soon after the unsuccessful +expedition of 701, but in point of fact he actually reigned until +684 or 681 (Smith, Assyrian Eponym Canon, pp. 90, 170). Thus the +narrator writes not twenty years merely after the event, but so +long after it as to make possible the elision of those twenty +years: probably he is already under the influence of +Deuteronomy. 2Kings xviii.4 is certainly of greater weight than +2Kings xviii.22. But although highly authentic statements have +been preserved to us in the epitome of the Book of Kings, they +have all, nevertheless, been subjected not merely to the +selection, but also to the revision of the Deuteronomic redactor, +and it may very well be that the author thought himself +justified in giving his subject a generalised treatment, according +to which the cleansing (of the temple at Jerusalem in the first +instance) from idols, urged by Isaiah and carried out by +Hezekiah, was changed into an abolition of the Bamoth with their +Macceboth and Asherim. It is well known how indifferent later +writers are to distinctions of time and degree in the heresy of +unlawful worship; they always go at once to the completed +product. But in actual experience the reformation was doubtless +accomplished step by step. At first we have in Hosea and Isaiah +the polemic directed against molten and graven images, then in +Jeremiah that against wood and stone, i.e., against Macceboth and +Asherim; the movement originated with the prophets, and the chief, +or rather the only, weight is to be attached to their authentic +testimony. +************************************* + +Hezekiah only made a feeble and wholly ineffectual attempt in this +direction, and by no means "carried out the unification in Judah with +tolerable thoroughness." At the same time, one might concede even +this last point, and yet not give any ground for the theory at +which Noldeke wishes to arrive. + +For his assumption is that the effort after unity had its old and +original seat precisely in the priestly circles of Jerusalem. If +the Priestly Code is older than Deuteronomy, then of course the +prophetic agitation for reform of worship in which Deuteronomy had +its origin must have been only the repetition of an older +priestly movement in the same direction. But of the latter we +hear not a single word, while we can follow the course of the +former fairly well from its beginnings in thought down to its +issue in a practical result. It was Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah who +introduced the movement against the old popular worship of the high +places; in doing so they are not in the least actuated by a +deep-rooted preference for the temple of Jerusalem, but by ethical +motives, which manifest themselves in them for the first time in +history, and which we can see springing up in them before our very +eyes: their utterances, though historically occasioned by the +sanctuaries of northern Israel, are quite general, and are directed +against the cultus as a whole. Of the influence of a point of view +even remotely akin to the priestly position that worship in this +or that special place is of more value than anywhere else, and on +that account alone deserves to be preserved, no trace is to be +found in them; their polemic is a purely prophetic one, i.e., +individual, "theopneust" in the sense that it is independent of all +traditional and preconceived human opinions. But the subsequent +development is dependent upon this absolutely original +commencement, and has its issue, not in the Priestly Code, but in +Deuteronomy, a book that, with all reasonable regard for the +priests (though not more for those of Jerusalem than for the +others), still does not belie its prophetic origin, and above all +things is absolutely free from all and every hierocratic +tendency. And finally, it was Deuteronomy that brought about the +historical result of Josiah's reformation. Thus the whole +historical movement now under our consideration, so far as it was +effective and thereby has come to our knowledge, is in its origin +and essence prophetic, even if latterly it may have been aided by +priestly influences; and it not merely can, but must be +understood from itself. Any older or independent contemporary +priestly movement in the same direction remained at least entirely +without result, and so also has left no witnesses to itself. +Perhaps it occurs to us that the priests of Jerusalem must after +all have been the first to catch sight of the goal, the attainment +of which afterwards brought so great advantage to themselves, but +it does not appear that they were so clever beforehand as we are +after the event. At least there are no other grounds for the +hypothesis of a long previously latent tendency towards +centralisation on the part of the Jerusalem priesthood beyond the +presumption that the Priestiy Code must chronologically precede, +not Deuteronomy merely, but also the prophets. For the sake of +this presumption there is constructed a purely abstract (and as +such perfectly irrefragable) possibility that furnishes a door of +escape from the historical probability, which nevertheless it is +impossible to evade. + +How absolutely unknown the Priestly Code continued to be even +down to the middle of the exile can be seen from the Books of +Kings, which cannot have received their present shape earlier than +the death of Nebuchadnezzar. The redactor, who cites the +Deuteronomic law and constantly forms his judgment in accordance +with it, considered (as we have learned from 1Kings iii.2) that +the Bamoth were permissible prior to the building of Solomon's +temple; the tabernacle therefore did not exist for him. Jeremiah, +who flourished about a generation earlier, is equally ignorant of +it, but--on account of the ark, though not necessarily in +agreement with traditional opinion--regards the house of God at +Shiloh (whose ruins, it would seem, were at that time still +visible) as the forerunner of the temple of Jerusalem, and in this +he is followed by the anonymous prophecy of 1Samuel ii.27-36, the +comparatively recent date of which appears from the language +(ii.33), and from the circumstance that it anticipates the +following threatening in iii. In all these writers, and still more +in the case of the Deuteronomist himself, who in xii. actually +makes the unity of the cultus dependent on the previous choice of +Jerusalem, it is an exceedingly remarkable thing that, if the +Priestly Code had been then already a long time in existence, +they should have been ignorant of a book so important and so +profound in its practical bearings. In ancient Hebrew literature +such an oversight could not be made so easily as, in similar +circumstances, with the literature of the present day. And how +comes it to pass that in the Book of Chronicles, dating from the +third century, the Priestly Code suddenly ceases to be, to all +outward seeming, dead, but asserts its influence everywhere over +the narrative in only too active and unmistakable a way? To +these difficulties Noldeke is unreasonably indifferent. He seems +to be of the opinion that the post-exilian time would not have +ventured to take in hand so thoroughgoing an alteration, or rather +reconstruction, of tradition as is implied in antedating the temple +of Solomon by means of the tabernacle. /1/ + +************************************************ +1. Jahrb. fuer prot. Theol., i. p. 352: "And now let me ask whether +a document of this kind presenting, as it does, a picture of the +history, land distribution, and sacrificial rites of Israel, as a whole, +which in so many particulars departs from the actual truth, can belong +to a time in which Israel clung to what was traditional with such timid +anxiety?" +************************************************* + +But it is, on the contrary, precisely the mark which distinguished +the post-exile writers that they treat in the freest possible manner, +in accordance with their own ideas, the institutions of the bygone +past, with which their time was no longer connected by any living +bond. For what reason does Chronicles stand in the canon at all, +if not in order to teach us this? + + But when Noldeke excuses the ignorance with regard to the +tabernacle on the plea that it is a mere creature of the brain, /2/ + +************************************* +1. Unters., p. 130: "It must always be remembered that the author +in his statements, as in his laws, does not depict actual relations, +but in the first instance his own theories and ideals. Hence the +glorification of the tabernacle," &c. &c. +************************************* + +he for the moment forgets that there underlies this creation the very +real idea of unity of worship, for the sake of which it would +surely have been very welcome, to the Deuteronomist, for example, +even as a mere idea. It is only the embodiment of the tabernacle +that is fancy; the idea of it springs from the ground of history, +and it is by its idea that it is to be apprehended. And when +Noldeke finally urges in this connection as a plea for the +priority of the Priestly Code that, in spite of the limitation of +sacrifice to a single locality, it nevertheless maintains the old +provision that every act of killing must be a sacrifice, while +Deuteronomy, going a step farther, departs from this, here also his +argument breaks down. + +For we read in Leviticus xvii., "What man soever there be of the house +of Israel that killeth an ox or sheep or goat in the camp, or out +of the camp, and bringeth it not to the door of the tabernacle, to +offer them as an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of +the Lord, blood shall be imputed unto that man: he hath shed +blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people: to the +end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which +they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them to +the Lord, to the door of the tabernacle, to the priest, and offer +them for peace-offerings unto the Lord....And they shall no more +offer sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a +whoring." +The intention of this prescription is simply and solely +to secure the exclusive legitimation of the one lawful place of +sacrifice; it is only for this, obviously, that the profane +slaughtering outside of Jerusalem, which Deuteronomy had +permitted, is forbidden. Plainly the common man did not quite +understand the newly drawn and previously quite unknown +distinction between the religious and the profane act, and when he +slaughtered at home (as he was entitled to do), he in doing so +still observed, half-unconsciously perhaps, the old sacred +sacrificial ritual. From this arose the danger of a multiplicity +of altars again furtively creeping in, and such a danger is met, +in an utterly impracticable way indeed, in Leviticus xvii. And it is +worth noticing how much this law, which, for the rest, is based +upon the Book of Deuteronomy, has grown in the narrowness of its +legitimistic mode of viewing things. Deuteronomy thoroughly +recognises that offerings, even though offered outside of +Jerusalem, are still offered to Jehovah; for the author of Leviticus +xvii. this is an impossible Idea, and he regards such offerings +simply as made to devils. /1/ + +************************************* +1. With reference to these rural demons, compare my note in +Vakidi's Maghazi (Berlin, 1882), p. 113. It is somewhat similar, +though not quite the same thing, when the Moslems say that the old +Arabs dedicated their worship to the Jinns; and other instances +may be compared in which divinities have been degraded to demons. +************************************ + +I refuse to believe that any such thing could have been possible +for one who lived before the Deuteronomic reformation, or even +under the old conditions that were in existence immediately +before the exile. + +Leviticus xvii., moreover, belongs confessedly to a peculiar little +collection of laws, which has indeed been taken up into the +Priestly Code, but which in many respects disagrees with it, and +particularly in respect of this prohibition of profane +slaughterings. With reference to the Priestly Code as a whole, +Noldeke's assertion is quite off the mark. The code, on the +contrary, already allows slaughter without sacrifice in the +precepts of Noah, which are valid not merely for all the world, +but also for the Jews. Farther on this permission is not +expressly repeated indeed, but it is regarded as a thing of +course. This alone can account for the fact that the +thank-offering is treated so entirely as a subordinate affair and +the sacrificial meal almost ignored, while in Leviticus vii.22-27 +rules are even given for procedure in the slaughter of such animals +as are not sacrificed. /2/ + +*********************************** +2. That Leviticus vii.22-27 is not a repetition of the old and fuller +regulations about the thank-offering, but an appendix containing +new ones relating to slaughtering, is clear from "the beast of +which men offer an offering unto the Lord" (ver. 25), and "in all +your dwellings" (ver. z6), as well as from the praxis of Judaism. +********************************** + +Here accordingly is another instance of what we have already so often +observed: what is brought forward in Deuteronomy as an innovation +is assumed in the Priestly Code to be an ancient custom dating +as far back as to Noah. And therefore the latter code is a growth +of the soil that has been prepared by means of the former. + + + +CHAPTER II. SACRIFICE. + + +With the Hebrews, as with the whole ancient world, sacrifice +constituted the main part of worship. The question is whether +their worship did not also in this most important respect pass +through a history the stages of which are reflected in the +Pentateuch. From the results already reached this must be +regarded at the outset as probable, but the sources of information +accessible to us seem hardly sufficient to enable us actually to +follow the process, or even so much as definitely to fix its two +termini. + + +II.I.1. The Priestly Code alone occupies itself much with the +subject; it gives a minute classification of the various kinds of +offerings, and a description of the procedure to be followed in the +case of each. In this way it furnishes also the normative scheme +for modern accounts of the matter, into which all the other casual +notices of the Old Testament on the subject must be made to fit as +best they can. This point accordingly presents us with an +important feature by which the character of the book can be +determined. In it the sacrificial ritual is a constituent, and +indeed a very essential element, of the Mosaic legislation: that +ritual is not represented as ancient use handed down to the +Israelites by living practice from ancestral times: it was Moses +who gave them the theory of it--a very elaborate one too--and +he himself received his instruction from God (Exodus xxv. seq.; +Leviticus i. seq.). An altogether disproportionate emphasis is +accordingly laid upon the technique of sacrifice corresponding to +the theory, alike upon the when, the where, and the by whom, and +also in a very special manner upon the how. It is from these that +the sacrifice obtains its specific value; one could almost suppose +that even if it were offered to another God, it would by means of +the legitimate rite alone be at once made essentially Jehovistic. +The cultus of Israel is essentially distinguished from all others +by its form, the distinctive and constitutive mark of the holy +community. With it the theocracy begins and it with the +theocracy; the latter is nothing more than the institution for the +purpose of carrying on the cultus after the manner ordained by +God. For this reason also the ritual, which appears to concern the +priests only, finds its place in a law-book intended for the whole +community; in order to participate in the life of the theocracy, +all must of course, have clear knowledge of its essential nature, +and in this the theory of sacrifice holds a first place. + +The Jehovistic portion of the Pentateuch also knows of no other +kind of divine worship besides the sacrificial, and does not attach +to it less importance than the Priestly Code. But we do not find +many traces of the view that the sacrificial system of Israel is +distinguished from all others by a special form revealed to Moses, +which makes it the [sic] alone legitimate. Sacrifice is +sacrifice: when offered to Baal, it is heathenish; when offered +to Jehovah, it is Israelite. In the Book of the Covenant and in +both Decalogues it is enjoined before everything to serve no other +God besides Jehovah, but also at the proper season to offer +firstlings and gifts to Him. Negative determinations, for the most +part directed against one heathenish peculiarity or another, occur +but there are no positive ordinances relating to the ritual. How +one is to set about offering sacrifice is taken for granted as +already known, and nowhere figures as an affair for the +legislation, which, on the contrary, occupies itself with quite +other things. What the Book of the Covenant and the Decalogue +leave still perhaps doubtful becomes abundantly clear from the +Jehovistic narrative. The narrative has much more to say about +sacrifice than the incorporated law books, and this may be +regarded as characteristic; in the Priestly Code it is quite the +other way. But what is specially important is that, according to +the Jehovistic history, the praxis of sacrifice, and that too of +the regular and God-pleasing sort, extends far beyond the Mosaic +legislation, and, strictly speaking, is as old as the world +itself. A sacrificial feast which the Hebrews wish to celebrate in +the wilderness is the occasion of the Exodus; Moses already +builds an altar at Rephidim (Exodus xvii.), and, still before the +ratification of the covenant on Sinai, a solemn meal in the +presence of Jehovah is set on foot on occasion of Jethro's visit +(Exodus xviii.). But the custom is much older still; it was +known and practiced by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Noah, the +father of all mankind, built the first altar after the Flood, and +long before him Cain and Abel sacrificed in the same way as was +usual in Palestine thousands of years afterwards. Balaam the +Aramaean understands just as well as any Israelite how to offer +sacrifices to Jehovah that do not fail of their effect. All this +brings out, with as much clearness as could be desired, that +sacrifice is a very ancient and quite universal mode of honouring +the Deity, and that Israelite sacrifice is distinguished not by +the manner in which, but by the being to whom, it is offered, in +being offered to the God of Israel. According to this +representation of the matter, Moses left the procedure in +sacrifice, as he left the procedure in prayer, to be regulated by +the traditional praxis; if there was any definite origination of +the cultus of Israel, the patriarchs must be thought of, but even +they were not the discoverers of the ritual; they were merely +the founders of those holy places at which the Israelites +dedicated gifts to Jehovah, a usage which was common to the whole +world. The contrast with the Priestly Code is extremely +striking, for it is well known that the latter work makes mention +of no sacrificial act prior to the time of Moses, neither in +Genesis nor in Exodus, although from the time of Noah slaughtering +is permitted. The offering of a sacrifice of sheep and oxen as the +occasion of the exodus is omitted, and in place of the sacrifice of +the firstlings we have the paschal lamb, which is slaughtered and +eaten without altar, without priest, and not in the presence of +Jehovah. /1/ + +******************************************* +1. With regard to sacrifice, Deuteronomy still occupies the same +standpoint as JE. +******************************************* + +The belief that the cultus goes back to pre-Mosaic usage is +unquestionably more natural than the belief that it is the main +element of the Sinaitic legislation; the thought would be a +strange one that God should suddenly have revealed, or Moses +discovered and introduced, the proper sacrificial ritual. At the +same time this does not necessitate the conclusion that the +Priestly Code is later than the Jehovist. Nor does this follow +from the very elaborately-developed technique of the agenda, for +elaborate ritual may have existed in the great sanctuaries at a +very early period,--though that, indeed, would not prove it to be +genuinely Mosaic. On the other hand, it is certainly a +consideration deserving of great weight that the representation of +the exclusive legitimacy of so definite a sacrificial ritual, +treated in the Priestly Code as the only possible one in Israel, +is one which can have arisen only as a consequence of the +centralisation of the cultus at Jerusalem. Yet by urging this the +decision of the question at present before us would only be +referred back to the result already arrived at in the preceding +chapter, and it is much to be desired that it should be solved +independently, so as not to throw too much weight upon a single +support. + +II.I.2. In this case also the elements of a decision can only be +obtained from the historical documents dating from the pre-exilic +time,--the Books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings on the one hand, and +the writings of the prophets on the other. As regards those of the +first class, they represent the cultus and sacrifice on all +occasions as occupying a large place in the life of the nation and +of the individual. But, although it would be wrong to say that +absolutely no weight is attached to the RITE, it is certainly not +the fact that the main stress is laid upon it; the antithesis is +not between RITE and NON-RITE, but between sacrifice TO JEHOVAH and +sacrifice TO STRANGE GODS, the reverse of what we find in the +Priestly Code. Alongside of splendid sacrifices, such as those of +the kings, presumably offered in accordance with all the rules of +priestly skill, there occur others also of the simplest and most +primitive type, as, for example, those of Saul (1Samuel xiv.35) and +Elisha (1Kings xix.2I); both kinds are proper if only they be +dedicated to the proper deity. Apart from the exilian redaction of +the Book of Kings, which reckons the cultus outside of Jerusalem as +heretical, it is nowhere represented that a sacrifice could be +dedicated to the God of Israel, and yet be illegitimate. Naaman +(2Kings v. 17), it is to be supposed, followed his native Syrian +ritual, but this does not in the least impair the acceptability of +his offering. For reasons easily explained, it is seldom that an +occasion arises to describe the ritual, but when such a description +is given it is only with violence that it can be forced into +accordance with the formula of the law. Most striking of all is +the procedure of Gideon in Judges vi.19-21, in which it is manifest +that the procedure still usual at Ophrah in the time of the +narrator is also set forth. Gideon boils a he-goat and bakes in +the ashes cakes of unleavened bread, places upon the bread the +flesh in a basket and the broth in a pot, and then the meal thus +prepared is burnt in the altar flame. It is possible that +instances may have also occurred in which the rule of the +Pentateuch is followed, but the important point is that the +distinction between legitimate and heretical is altogether wanting. +When the Book of Chronicles is compared the difference is at once +perceived. + +The impression derived from the historical books is confirmed by +the prophets. It is true that in their polemic against confounding +worship with religion they reveal the fact that in their day the +cultus was carried on with the utmost zeal and splendour, and was +held in the highest estimation. But this estimation does not rest +upon the opinion that the cultus, as regards its matter, goes back +to Moses or to Jehovah Himself, gives to the theocracy its +distinctive character, and even constitutes the supernatural +priesthood of Israel among the nations, but simply upon the belief +that Jehovah must be honoured by His dependents, just as other +gods are by their subjects, by means of offerings and gifts as +being the natural and (like prayer) universally current +expressions of religious homage. The larger the quantity, and the +finer the quality, so much the better; but that the merit arising +from the presentation depends upon strict observance of etiquette +regarded as Jehovah's law is not suggested. Thus it is that the +prophets are able to ask whether then Jehovah has commanded His +people to tax their energies with such exertions? the fact +presupposed being that no such command exists, and that no one +knows anything at all about a ritual Torah. Amos, the leader of +the chorus, says (iv.4 seq.), +"Come to Bethel to sin, to Gilgal to sin yet more, and bring your +sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days, for so ye +like, ye children of Israel." +In passing sentence of rejection upon the value of the cultus he +is in opposition to the faith of his time; but if the opinion had +been a current one that precisely the cultus was what Jehovah had +instituted in Israel, he would not have been able to say, "For so +ye like." "Ye," not Jehovah; it is an idle and arbitrary worship. +He expresses himself still more clearly in v.21 seq. +"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I smell not on your holy days; +though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your gifts, I will not accept +them; neither do I regard your thank-offerings of fatted calves. +Away from me with the noise of thy songs, the melody of thy viols +I will not hear; but let judgment roll on like waters, and +righteousness like a mighty stream. Did ye offer unto me +sacrifices and gifts in the wilderness the forty years, O house +of Israel?" +In asking this last question Amos has not the slightest fear +of raising any controversy; on the contrary, he is following +the generally received belief. His polemic is directed against +the praxis of his contemporaries, but here he rests it upon a +theoretical foundation in which they are at one with him,--on +this, namely, that the sacrificial worship is not of Mosaic origin. +Lastly, if ii.4 be genuine, it teaches the same lesson. By the +Law of Jehovah which the people of Judah have despised it is +impossible that Amos can have understood anything in the remotest +degree resembling a ritual legislation. Are we to take it then +that he formed his own special private notion of the Torah? How in +that case would it have been possible for him to make himself +understood by the people, or to exercise influence over them? Of +all unlikely suppositions, at all events it is the least likely +that the herdsman of Tekoah, under the influence of prophetic +tradition (which in fact he so earnestly disclaims), should have +taken the Torah for something quite different from what it actually +was. + +Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah are in agreement with Amos. The first +mentioned complains bitterly (iv.6 seq.) that the priests +cultivate the system of sacrifices instead of the Torah. The +Torah, committed by Jehovah to their order, lays it on them as +their vocation to diffuse the knowledge of God in Israel,--the +knowledge that He seeks truthfulness and love, justice and +considerateness, and no gifts; but they, on the contrary, in a +spirit of base self-seeking, foster the tendency of the nation +towards cultus, in their superstitions over-estimate of which lies +their sin and their ruin. +"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; ye yourselves +(ye priests!) reject knowledge, and I too will reject you +that ye shall not be priests unto me; seeing ye have forgotten +the law of your God, so will I also forget you. The more they are, +the more they sin against me; their glory they barter for shame. +They eat the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their +iniquity." +From this we see how idle it is to believe that the prophets +opposed "the Law;" they defend the priestly Torah, which, however, +has nothing to do with cultus, but only with justice and morality. +In another passage (viii.11 seq.) we read, +"Ephraim has built for himself many altars, to sin; the altars +are there for him, to sin. How many soever my instructions +(torothai) may be, they are counted those of a stranger." +This text has had the unmerited misfortune of having been forced +to do service as a proof that Hosea knew of copious writings +similar in contents to our Pentateuch. All that can be drawn +from the contrast "instead of following my instructions they offer +sacrifice" (for that is the meaning of the passage) is that the prophet +had never once dreamed of the possibility of cultus being made +the subject of Jehovah's directions. In Isaiah's discourses +the well-known passage of the first chapter belongs to this connection: +"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? +saith the Lord. I am weary with the burnt-offerings of rams +and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks +and of lambs and of he-goats. When ye come to look upon my face, +who hath required this at your hands?--to trample my courts!" +This expression has long been a source of trouble, and certainly +the prophet could not possibly have uttered it if the sacrificial +worship had, according to any tradition whatever, passed for being +specifically Mosaic. Isaiah uses the word Torah to denote not +the priestly but the prophetical instruction (i.10, ii.3, v.24, +viii.16, 20, xxx.9); as both have a common source and Jehovah is +the proper instructor (xxx.20), this is easily explicable, and is +moreover full of instruction as regards the idea involved; +the contents of the Priestly Code fit badly in with the Torah of i.10. +Lastly, Micah's answer to the people's question, how a return of +the favour of an angry God is to be secured, is of conspicuous +significance (vi.6 seq.): +"Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old? +Is the Lord pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of +rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, +the fruit of my body as atonement for my soul?--It hath been +told thee, O man, what is good, and what Jehovah requireth of thee. +Nay, it is to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly +before thy God." +Although the blunt statement of the contrast between cultus +and religion is peculiarly prophetic, Micah can still take +his stand upon this, "It hath been told thee, O man, what Jehovah +requires." It is no new matter, but a thing well known, +that sacrifices are not what the Torah of the Lord contains. + +That we have not inferred too much from these utterances of the +older prophets is clear from the way in which they are taken up +and carried on by Jeremiah, who lived shortly before the +Babylonian exile. Just as in vi.19 seq. he opposes the Torah to +the cultus, so in vii.11 seq. he thus expresses himself: +"Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh! +For I said nought unto your fathers, and commanded them nought, +in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning +burnt-offerings or sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them: +hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my +people, and walk ye in the way that I shall always teach you, that +it may be well with you." +The view indeed, that the prophets (who, from the connection, +are the ever-living voice to which Israel is to hearken) are +the proper soul of the theocracy, the organ by which Jehovah +influences and rules it, has no claim to immemorial antiquity. +But no stress lies upon the positive element here; +enough that at all events Jeremiah is unacquainted with the Mosaic +legislation as it is contained in the Priestly Code. His ignoring +of it is not intentional, for he is far from hating the cultus +(xvii.26). But, as priest and prophet, staying continually in +the temple at Jerusalem, he must have known it, if it had existed +and actually been codified. The fact is one which it is difficult +to get over. + +Thus the historical witnesses, particularly the prophets, decide +the matter in favour of the Jehovistic tradition. According to the +universal opinion of the pre-exilic period, the cultus is indeed of +very old and (to the people) very sacred usage, but not a Mosaic +institution; the ritual is not the main thing in it, and is in no +sense the subject with which the Torah deals. /1/ + +********************************* +1. That the priests were not mere teachers of law and morals, +but also gave ritual instruction (e.g, regarding cleanness +and uncleanness), is of course not denied by this. All that is +asserted is that in pre-exilian antiquity the priests' own praxis +(at the altar) never constituted the contents of the Torah, +but that their Torah always consisted of instructions to the laity. +The distinction is easily intelligible to those who choose +to understand it. +******************************** + +In other words, no trace can be found of acquaintance +with the Priestly Code, but, on the other hand, very clear +indications of ignorance of its contents. + +II.I.3. In this matter the transition from the pre-exilic to the +post-exilic period is effected, not by Deuteronomy, but by +Ezekiel the priest in prophet's mantle, who was one of the first to +be carried into exile. He stands in striking contrast with his +elder contemporary Jeremiah. In the picture of Israel's future +which he drew in B.C. 573 (chaps. xl.-xlviii.), in which +fantastic hopes are indeed built upon Jehovah, but no impossible +demand made of man, the temple and cultus hold a central place. +Whence this sudden change? Perhaps because now the Priestly Code +has suddenly awakened to life after its long trance, and become +the inspiration of Ezekiel? The explanation is certainly not to +be sought in any such occurrence, but simply in the historical +circumstances. So long as the sacrificial worship remained in +actual use, it was zealously carried on, but people did not +concern themselves with it theoretically, and had not the least +occasion for reducing it to a code. But once the temple was in +ruins, the cultus at an end, its PERSONNEL out of employment, it is +easy to understand how the sacred praxis should have become a +matter of theory and writing, so that it might not altogether +perish, and how an exiled priest should have begun to paint the +picture of it as he carried it in his memory, and to publish it as +a programme for the future restoration of the theocracy. Nor is +there any difficulty if arrangements, which as long as they +were actually in force were simply regarded as natural, were seen +after their abolition in a transfiguring light, and from the study +devoted to them gained artificially a still higher value. These +historical conditions supplied by the exile sufffice to make clear +the transition from Jeremiah to Ezekiel, and the genesis of Ezekiel +xl.-xlviii. The co-operation of the Priestly Code is here not +merely unnecessary, it would be absolutely disconcerting. +Ezekiel's departure from the ritual of the Pentateuch cannot be +explained as intentional alterations of the original; they are +too casual and insignificant. The prophet, moreover, has the +rights of authorship as regards the end of his book as well as for +the rest of it; he has also his right to his picture of the future +as the earlier prophets had to theirs. And finally, let its due +weight be given to the simple fact that an exiled priest saw +occasion to draft such a sketch of the temple worship. What need +would there have been for it, if the realised picture, +corresponding completely to his views, had actually existed, and, +being already written in a book, wholly obviated any danger lest +the cultus should become extinct through the mere fact of its +temporary cessation? + +Here again a way of escape is open by assuming a lifeless +existence of the law down to Ezra's time. But if this is done it +is unallowable to date that existence, not from Moses, but from +some other intermediate point in the history of Israel. Moreover, +the assumption of a codification either as preceding all praxis, +or as alongside and independent of it, is precisely in the case of +sacrificial ritual one of enormous difficulty, for it is obvious +that such a codification can only be the final result of an old +and highly developed use, and not the invention of an idle brain. +This consideration also makes retreat into the theory of an +illegal praxis impossible, and renders the legitimacy of the +actually subsisting indisputable. + + + +II.II. + +At all times, then, the sacrificial worship of Israel existed, and +had great importance attached to it, but in the earlier period it +rested upon custom, inherited from the fathers, in the post-exilian +on the law of Jehovah, given through Moses. At first it was naive, +and what was chiefly considered was the quantity and quality of +the gifts; afterwards it became legal,--the scrupulous fulfilment +of the law, that is, of the prescribed ritual, was what was looked +to before everything. Was there then, apart from this, strictly +speaking, no material difference? To answer this question our +researches must be carried further afield, after some preliminary +observations have been made in order to fix our position. + +II.II.1. In the Pentateuch the sacrificial ritual is indeed copiously +described, but nowhere in the Old Testament is its significance +formally explained; this is treated as on the whole self-evident +and familiar to every one. The general notion of a sacrifice is +in the Priestly Code that of _qorban_, in the rest of the Old +Testament that of _minha_, /1/ ie., "gift;" + +*************************************** +1. Genesis iv. 3-5, Numbers xvi. 15; 1Samuel ii. 17, 29, xxvi. 19; +Isaiah i. 13; Malachi i. 10-13, ii. 12, 13, iii. 3, 4. +In the Priestly Code _minha_ is exclusively a terminus technicus +for the meal-offering. The general name in the LXX and in the +New Testament is DWRON (Matthew v. 23-24, viii. 4, xv. 5, +xxiii. 18, 19). Compare Spencer, "De ratione et origine +sacrificiorum" (De Legibus Hebraeorum ritualibus, iii.2), by far +the best thing that has ever been written on the subject. +*************************************** + +the corresponding verbs are _haqrib_ and _haggish_, i.e., +"to bring near." Both nouns and both verbs are used originally +for the offering of a present to the king (or the nobles) to do +him homage, to make him gracious, to support a petition +(Judges iii. 17 seq.; 1Samuel x. 27; 1Kings v. 1 +[A.V. iv.21]), and from this are employed with reference to the +highest King (Malachi i.8). + +DWRA QEOUS PEIQAI, DWR' )AIDOIOUS BASILHAS + +The gift must not be unseasonably or awkwardly thrust upon the +recipient, not when the king's anger is at white heat, and not by +one the sight of whom he hates. + +With respect to the matter of it, the idea of a sacrifice is in +itself indifferent, if the thing offered only have value of some +sort, and is the property of the offerer. Under _qorban_ and _minha_ +is included also that which the Greeks called _anathema_. The sacred +dues which at a later date fall to the priest were without doubt +originally ordinary offerings, and amongst these are found even +wool and flax (Deut. xviii. 4; Hos. ii. 7, 11 [A.V. 5, 9] ). +But it is quite in harmony with the naivete of antiquity that as +to man so also to God that which is eatable is by preference +offered; in this there was the additional advantage, that what God +had caused to grow was thus rendered back to Him. In doing this, +the regular form observed is that a meal is prepared in honour of +the Deity, of which man partakes as God's guest. Offering without +any qualifying expression always means a meat or drink offering. +On this account the altar is called a table, on this account also +salt goes along with flesh, oil with meal and bread, and wine with +both; and thus also are we to explain why the flesh, according to +rule, is put upon the altar in pieces and (in the earlier period) +boiled, the corn ground or baked. Hence also the name "bread of +Jehovah" for the offering (Leviticus xxi.22). It is of course true +that "in his offering the enlightened Hebrew saw no banquet to +Jehovah:" but we hardly think of taking the enlightened Protestant +as a standard for the original character of Protestantism. + +The manner in which the portions pertaining to God are conveyed to +Him varies. The most primitive is the simple "setting in order" +[ (RK, struere] and "pouring out" [#pk, fundere) in the case of the +shewbread and drink offerings; to this a simple eating and +drinking would correspond. But the most usual is burning, or, as +the Hebrews express it, "making a savour" (HQ+YR), to which +corresponds the more delicate form of enjoyment, that of smelling. +Originally, however, it is God Himself who consumes what the flame +consumes. In any case the burning is a means of conveying the +offering, not, as one might perhaps be disposed to infer from the +"sweet savour" (RYX HNYXX Genesis viii.21), a means of preparing it. +For in ancient times the Hebrews did not roast the flesh, but +boiled it; in what is demonstrably the oldest ritual (Judges +vi. 19), the sacrifice also is delivered to the altar flame boiled; +and, moreover, not the flesh only but also the bread and the meal +are burnt. + +As regards the distinction between bloodless and bloody +offerings, the latter, it is well known, are preferred in the Old +Testament, but, strictly speaking, the former also have the same +value and the same efficacy. The incense-offering is represented +as a means of propitiation (Leviticus xvi., Numbers xvii. 12 +[A.V. xvi. 47] ), so also are the ten thousands of rivers of oil +figuring between the thousands of rams and the human sacrifice in +Micah vi. That the cereal offering is never anything but an +accompaniment of the animal sacrifice is a rule which does not hold, +either in the case of the shewbread or in that of the high priest's +daily minxa (Leviticus vi. 13 [A.V. 20]; Nehemiahx.35). Only the +drink-offering has no independent position, and was not in any way +the importance it had among the Greeks. + +When a sacrifice is killed, the offering consists not of the blood +but of the eatable portions of the flesh. Only these can be +designated as the "bread of Jehovah," and, moreover, only the +eatable domestic animals can be presented. At the same time, +however, it is true that in the case of the bloody offerings a new +motive ultimately came to be associated with the original idea of +the gift. The life of which the blood was regarded as the +substance (2Samuel xxiii.17) had for the ancient Semites something +mysterious and divine about it; they felt a certain religious +scruple about destroying it. With them flesh was an uncommon +luxury, and they ate it with quite different feelings from those +with which they partook of fruits or of milk. Thus the act of +killing was not so indifferent or merely preparatory a step as +for example the cleansing and preparing of corn; on the contrary, +the pouring out of blood was ventured upon only in such a way as +to give it back to the Deity, the source of life. In this way, not +by any means every meal indeed, but every slaughtering, came to +be a sacrifice. What was primarily aimed at in it was a mere +restoration of His own to the Deity, but there readily resulted a +combination with the idea of sacrifice, whereby the latter was +itself modified in a peculiar manner. The atoning efficacy of the +gift began to be ascribed mainly to the blood and to the +vicarious value of the life taken away. The outpouring and +sprinkling of blood was in all sacrifices a rite of conspicuous +importance, and even the act of slaughtering in the case of some, +and these the most valued, a holy act. + +II.II.2. The features presented by the various literary sources +harmonise with the foregoing sketch. But the Priestly Code +exhibits some peculiarities by which it is distinguished from the +pre-exilian remains in matters sacrificial. + +In the first place, it is characterised in the case of bloodless +offerings by a certain refinement of the material. Thus in the +meal-offerings it will have SLT (simila) not QMX (far). In the +whole pre-exilian literature the former is mentioned only three +times altogether, but never in connection with sacrifice, where, +on the contrary, the ordinary meal is used (Judges vi. 19; 1Samuel +i. 24). That this is no mere accident appears on the one hand from +the fact that in the later literature, from Ezekiel onwards, QMX as +sacrificial meal entirely disappears, and SLT invariably take its +place; on the other hand, from this that the LXX (or the Hebrew +text from which that version was taken) is offended by the +illegality of the material in 1Samuel i. 24, and alters the reading +so as to bring it to conformity with the Law. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. Ezekiel xvi. 13, 19, xlvi. 14; I Chronicles ix. 29, xxiii. 22; +Ecclus. xxxv.2, xxxviii. 11, xxxix. 32; Isaiah i. 13 (LXX); lxvi. 3 (LXX). +In the Priestly Code slt occurs more than forty times. +************************************** + + So also a striking preference is shown for incense. With every +meal-offering incense is offered upon the altar; in the inner sanctuary +a special mixture of spices is employed, the accurately given recipe +for which is not to be followed for private purposes. The offering +of incense is the privilege of the higher priesthood; in the +ritual of the great Day of Atonement, the sole one in which Aaron +must discharge the duties in person, it occupies a conspicuous +place. It has an altogether dangerous sanctity; Aaron's own sons +died for not having made use of the proper fire. It is the cause +of death and destruction to the Levites of Korah's company who are +not entitled to use it, while immediately afterwards, in the hands +of the legitimate high priest, it becomes the means of appeasing +the anger of Jehovah, and of staying the plague. Now of this +offering, thus invested with such a halo of sanctity, the older +literature of the Jewish Canon, down to Jeremiah and Zephaniah, +knows absolutely nothing. The verb Q++R there used invariably +and exclusively of the BURNING of fat or meal, and thereby making +to God a sweet-smelling savour; it is never used to denote the +OFFERING OF INCENSE, and the substantive Q+RT as a sacrificial +term has the quite general signification of that which is burnt on +the altar. /2/ + +************************************** +2. The verb is used in _piel_ by the older writers, in _hiphil_ +by the Priestly Code (Chronicles), and promiscuously in both forms +during the transition period by the author of the Books of Kings. +This is the case, at least, where the forms can with certainty be +distinguished, namely, in the perfect, imperative, and infinitive; +the distinction between YQ+R and YQ+YR, MQ+R and MQ+YR rests, +as is well known, upon no secure tradition. Compare, for example, +_qatter jaqtirun_, 1Samuel ii. 16; the transcribers and punctuators +under the influence of the Pentateuch preferred the hiphil. In the +Priestly Code (Chronicles) HQ+YR has both meanings alongside of +each other, but when used without a qualifying phrase it generally +means incensing, and when consuming a sacrifice is intended HMZBXH +is usually added, "on the altar," that is, the place on which the +incense-offering strictly so called was NOT offered. The substantive +Q+RT in the sense of "an offering of incense" in which +it occurs exclusively and very frequently in the Priestly +Code, is first found in Ezekiel (viii. 11, xvi. 18, xxiii. 41) and +often afterwards in Chronicles, but in the rest of the Old +Testament only in Proverbs xxvii. 9, but there in a profane sense. +Elsewhere never, not even in passages so late as 1Samuel ii.28; Psalms +lxvi. 15, cxli. 2. In authors of a certainly pre-exilian date the +word occurs only twice, both times in a perfectly general sense. +Isaiah i. 13: "Bring me no more oblations; it is an abominable +incense to me." Deuteronomy xxxiii. 10: "The Levites shall put incense +(i.e.,the fat of thank-offerings) before thee, and whole +burnt-offerings upon thine altar." The name LBNT (frankincense) +first occurs in Jeremiah (vi. 20, xvii. 26, xli. 5); elsewhere only +in the Priestly Code (nine times), in Isaiah xl.-lxvi. (three +times), in Chronicles and Nehemiah (three times), and in Canticles +(three times). Compare Zephaniah iii. 10; 1Kings ix. 25. +************************************ + +In enumerations where the prophets exhaust everything pertaining to +sacred gifts and liturgic performances, in which, for the sake +of lengthening the catalogue, they do not shrink from repetitions even, +there is not any mention of incense-offerings, neither in Amos +(iv. 4 seq., v. 21 seq.) nor in Isaiah (i. 11 seq.) nor in Micah +(vi. 6 seq.). Shall we suppose that they all of them forget this +subject by mere accident, or that they conspired to ignore it? +If it had really existed, and been of so great consequence, surely +one of them at least would not have failed to speak of it. +The Jehovistic section of the Hexateuch is equally silent, so also +the historical books, except Chronicles, and so the rest of the prophets, +down to Jeremiah, who (vi.20) selects incense as the example of a rare +and far-fetched offering: "To what purpose cometh there to me incense +from Sheba, and the precious cane from a far country?" +Thenceforward it is mentioned in Ezekiel, in Isaiah (xl.-lxvi.), +in Nehemiah, and in Chronicles; the references are continuous. The +introduction of incense is a natural result of increased luxury; +one is tempted to conjecture that its use must have first crept +into the Jehovah worship as an innovation from a more +luxuriously-developed foreign cultus. But the importance which it +has attained in the ritual legislation of the Pentateuch is +manifest above all from this, that it has led to the invention of a +peculiar new and highly sacred piece of furniture, namely, the +golden altar in the inner tabernacle, which is unknown to history, +and which is foreign even to the kernel of the Priestly Code +itself. + +We expect to find the altar of incense in Exodus xxv.-xxix., but +find it instead as an appendix at the beginning of Exodus xxx. Why +not until now? why thus separated from the other furnishings of +the inner sanctuary? and not only so, but even after the +ordinances relating to the adornment of the priests, and the +inauguration of the divine service? The reason why the author of +chaps. xxv.-xxix. is thus silent about the altar of incense in +the passage in which the furniture of the tabernacle, consisting of +ark, table, and candlestick, is described, is, that he does not +know of it. There is no other possibility; for he cannot have +forgotten it. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. There is a peculiar perversity in meeting the objection by +alleging other singularities in the ordinance as for example, that +the vessels of the tabernacle are appointed (chap. xxv.) before +the tabernacle itself (chap. xxvi.). This last is no +eccentricity; the order in commanding is first the end, and then +the means; but in obeying, the order is reversed. In like manner, +it is not at all surprising if subsidiary implements, such as +benches for slaughtering. or basins for washing, which have no +importance for the cultus, properly so called, should be either +passed over altogether, or merely brought in as an appendix. The +case is not at all parallel with the omission of the most important +utensil of the sanctuary from the very passage to which it +necessarily belongs. +***************************************** + +And the phenomenon is repeated; the altar of incense occurs only +in certain portions of the Priestly Code, and is absent from +others where it could not possibly have been omitted, had it been +known. The rite of the most solemn atoning sacrifice takes place +in Leviticus iv. indeed on the golden altar, but in Exodus xxix., +Leviticus viii., ix., without its use. A still more striking +circumstance is, that in passages where the holiest incense-offering +itself is spoken of, no trace can be discovered of the corresponding +altar. This is particularly the case in Leviticus xvi. To burn incense +in the sanctuary, Aaron takes a censer, fills it with coals from the +altar of burnt-offering (ver. 12, 18-20), and lays the incense +upon them in the adytum. Similarly in Leviticus x., Numbers xvi., +xvii., incense is offered on censers, of which each priest +possesses one. The coals are taken from the altar of +burnt-offering (Numbers xvii. 11; [A.V. xvi. 46]), which is plated +with the censers of the Korahite Levites (xvii. 3, 4; [A.V. +xvi. 38, 39]); whoever takes fire from any other source, incurs +the penalty of death (Leviticus x. 1 seq.). The altar of incense is +everywhere unknown here; the altar of burnt-offering is the only +altar, and, moreover, is always called simply 'the altar', as for +example, even in Exodus xxvii., where it would have been specially +necessary to add the qualifying expression. Only in certain +later portions of the Priestly Code does the name altar of +burnt-offering occur, viz, in those passages which do recognise the +altar of incense. In this connection the command of Exodus xxvii. +as compared with the execution in Exodus xxxviii. is +characteristic. + +The golden altar in the sanctuary is originally simply the +golden table; the variation of the expression has led to a +doubling of the thing. Ezekiel does not distinguish between the +table and the altar in the temple, but uses either expression +indifferently. For he says (xii.21 seq. ): "Before the adytum +stood what looked like an altar of wood, three cubits in height, +two cubits in length and breadth, and it had projecting corners, +and its frame and its walls were of wood; this is the table which +is before the Lord." In like manner he designates the service of +the priests in the inner sanctuary as table-service (xliv.16); +table is the name, altar the function. /1/ + +**************************************** +1. Malachi, on the other hand, designates the so-called altar +of burnt-offering as a table. +**************************************** + +In 1Kings vii. 48, it is true that the golden altar and the golden +table are mentioned together. It seems strange, however, that in +this case the concluding summary mentions one piece of furniture +more-- and that piece one of so great importance--than the preceding +detailed description; for in the latter only the preparation of the +golden altar is spoken of, and nothing is said of the golden table +(vi. 20-22). As matters stand, nothing is less improbable than that +some later transcriber should have interpolated the golden table +in vii. 48, regarding it, in accordance with the Pentateuch, as +distinct from the golden altar, and therefore considering its +absence as an omission. From other considerations also, it is +clear that the text of the whole chapter is in many ways corrupt +and interpolated. + +It is not to be wondered at if in the post-exilian temple there +existed both a golden altar and a golden table. We learn from +1Maccabees i. 21 seq., iv. 49, that both were carried off by +Antiochus Epiphanes, and renewed at the Feast of the Dedication. +But it causes no small surprise to find that at the destruction +of Jerusalem the Romans found and carried off table and candlestick +only. What can have become, in the meantime, of the golden altar +of incense? And it is further worth remarking that in the LXX the +passage Exodus xxxvii.25-29 is absent; that is to say, the altar +of incense is indeed commanded, but there is no word of its +execution. In these circumstances, finally, the vacillating +statement as to its position in Exodus xxx. 6, and the supposed +mistake of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, are important +and intelligible. Compare also 2Maccabees ii.5, where only the table, +but not the altar, is hidden by Jeremiah. + +So much for the offering of incense and its altar. We may in +like manner venture to regard it as a kind of refinement, though +rather a refinement of idea, that the flesh of the sacrifice in the +Priestly Code is no longer boiled, but consigned to the altar +flames in its raw condition. Such was not the ancient custom, as +is seen, not only from the case of Gideon already cited (Judges +vi.), but also from the procedure at Shiloh, described in 1Samuel +ii., where the sons of Eli will not wait until the flesh of the +sacrifice has been boiled, and the altar pieces burnt, but demand +their share raw for roasting. The meal which the Deity shares +with men is prepared in the same way as for men. This naive +conception gave way before advancing culture, and that at a +comparatively early date. It is possible that another cause may +also have co-operated towards this result. The old method of +preparing flesh in general use among the people, at a later period +also, was by boiling. The word B#L (to seethe in water) occurs +with extreme frequency; CLH (to roast), on the other hand, only +in Exodus xii. 8, and Isaiah xliv. 16, 19. All sacrificial flesh +(B#LH) was boiled, and there was no other kind. /1/ + +*********************************************** +1. Accordingly one must understand (#H also of boiling (Judges vi. 19). +Compare the boiling-houses of the temple still found in Ezekiel +xlvi. 20-24. In I Sam. i. 9 pronounce _beshela_ instead of _beshilo_, +and delete W)XRY #TH. +********************************************** + +But among persons of the upper class roasting must also have come +into use at an early period. "Give flesh to roast for the priest; +for he will not take sodden flesh of thee, but raw," says the +servant of the sons of Eli in 1Samuel ii. 15. The fact that in the +interval the custom of boiling had gone generally somewhat out of +fashion may accordingly have also contributed to bring about the +abandonment of the old usage of offering the sacrificial portions +boiled. In any case this is the explanation of the circumstance +that the paschal lamb, which originally was boiled like all other +offerings, could, according to the express appointment of the +Priestly Code, be eaten roasted only. /2/ + +********************************** +2. Compare the polemical ordinance of Exodus xii. 9 with Deuteronomy +xvi. 7. +********************************* + +The phenomenon that in the Law meal is by preference offered raw, +while in the earlier period, even as an adjunct of the burnt-offering, +it was presented baked, belongs to the same category. The latter +is the case in Judges vi. 19 at least, and the statement of 1Samuel +i. 24 is also to be understood in the same sense; the sacrificer +brings meal along with him in order to bake it into _maccah_ on the spot +(Ezekiel xlvi. 20). But he may bring along with him common, that is +leavened, cakes also (1Samuel x. 3), which seem originally by no +means to have been considered unfit to be offered as in Leviticus +ii. 11. For under this law of Leviticus ii. even the presentation of +the shewbread would be inexplicable, and moreover it is certain +that at first the loaves of the feast of weeks were offerings, +properly so called, and not merely dues to the priests. +According, to Amos iv. 5, leavened bread was made use of precisely +at a particularly solemn sacrifice, and a reminiscence of this +usage has been preserved even in Leviticus vii. 13, although of course +without any practical weight being attached to it. /1/ + +*********************************************** +1. The loaves are passed over in silence in Leviticus vii. 29 seq., +although it is in this very place that the matter of presenting +on the part of the offerer is most fully described. And when it +is said (vii. 12), +"If he offer it for a thanksgiving (Todah), then he shall offer +with it unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers +anointed with oil and fine flour (LXX), mingled with oil ;" +vii. 13, "[With] leavened cakes shall he offer as a gift with the +thank-offering of the Todah," +the suspicion very readily occurs that verse 12 is an authentic +interpretation prefixed, to obviate beforehand the difficulty +presented by verse 13, and that similarly the first (l in verse 13 +is also a later correction, which does not harmonise well by any +means with the second. Verse 13 connects itself better with +verse 11 than with verse 12.--Exod xxxiv. 25. +********************************************* + +Moreover, massah also means, properly speaking, only the bread +that is prepared in haste and in the most primitive manner for +immediate use, and originally implies no contrast with leaven, but +simply with the more artificial and tedious manners of producing +ordinary bread /2/ + +************************************* +2. Compare Genesis xviii. 6 with xix.3. +************************************* + +In the Priestly Code the materials are finer, but they are as +much as possible left in their raw condition; both are steps +in advance. + +II.II.3. There is another and much more important difference in the +case of the animal sacrifice. Of this the older practice knows +only two kinds apart from extraordinary varieties, which may be +left out of account. These two are the burnt-offering (`Olah) and +the thank-offering (Shelem, Zebah, Zebah Shelamim). In the case of +the first the whole animal is offered on the altar; in the other +God receives, besides the blood, only an honorary portion, while +the rest of the flesh is eaten by the sacrificial guests. Now it +is worth noticing how seldom the burnt-offering occurs alone. It +is necessarily so in the case of human sacrifice (Genesis xxii. 2 +seq.; Judges xi. 31; /1/ 2Kings iii. 27; Jeremiah xix.5); + +********************************** +3. It is probable that Jephthah expected a human creature and not an +animal to meet him from his house. +********************************* + +otherwise it is not usual (Genesis viii. 20; Numbers xxiii. 1 seq.; +Judges vi. 20, 26, xiii. 16, 23; 1Samuel vii. 9 seq.; 1Kings +iii. 4, xviii. 34,38); /1/ moreover, all the examples + +**************************************** +1. In the above list of passages no notice is taken of the +_sacrificium juge_ of 2Kings xvi.15. The statement in 1Kings iii. 4 +is perhaps to be taken along with iii. 15, but does not become at +all more credible on that account. Of course it is understood that +only those passages are cited here in which mention is made of +offerings actually made, and not merely general statements about +one or more kinds of offering. The latter could very well fix +attention upon the `Olah alone without thereby throwing any light +upon the question as to the actual practice. +**************************************** + +just cited are extraordinary or mythical in their character, a +circumstance that may not affect the evidence of the existence of +the custom in itself, but is important as regards the statistics of +its frequency. As a rule, the `Olah occurs only in conjunction +with Zebahim, and when this is the case the latter are in the +majority and are always in the plural, while on the other hand +the first is frequently in the singular. /2/ + +******************************************** +1. Exodus x. 25, xviii. 12, xxiv. 5, xxxii. 6; Joshua viii. 31; +Judges xx. 26, xxi. 4; 1Samuel vi. 14 seq., x. 8, xiii. 9-12; +2Samuel vi. 17 seq., xxiv. 23-25, 1Kings iii. 15, viii. 63 seq.; +2Kings v. 17, x. 24, 25. The zeugma in Judges xx. 26, xxi.4 is +inconsistent with the older _usus loquendi_. The proper name +for the holocaust appears to be KLYL (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 10; +1Samuel vii.9) not (LH. It is impossible to decide whether +the sacrificial due in all sorts of Zebah was the same, +but most probably it was not. Probably the Shelamim are a +more solemn kind of sacrifice than the simple Zebah. The word 'fat' +is used in Genesis iv. 4; Exodus xxiii. 18 in a very general sense. +It is not quite clear what is meant by the blessing of the Zebah +in 1Samuel ix. 13; perhaps a kind of grace before meat. +******************************************** + +They supplement each other like two corresponding halves; the +`Olah is, as the name implies, properly speaking, nothing more +than the part of a great offering that reaches the altar. One +might therefore designate as `Olah also that part of a single +animal which is consecrated to the Deity; this, however, is never +done; neither of the blood nor of the fat [Q+R] is the verb H(LH +used, but only of the pieces of the flesh, of which in the case of +the minor offering nothing was burnt. But the distinction is +merely one of degree; there is none in kind; a small Zebah, +enlarged and augmented, becomes an `Olah and Zebahim; out of a +certain number of slaughtered animals which are eaten by the +sacrificial company, one is devoted to God and wholly given to the +flames. For the rest, it must be borne in mind that as a rule it +is only great sacrificial feasts that the historical books take +occasion to mention, and that consequently the burnt-offering, +notwithstanding what has been said, comes before us with greater +prominence than can have been the average case in ordinary life. +Customarily, It is certain, none but thank-offerings were offered; +necessarily so if slaughtering could only be done beside the +altar. Where mention is made of a simple offering in the Books of +Samuel and Kings, that it is a thank-offering is matter of course. +1Samuel ii. 12 seq. is in this connection also particularly +instructive. + +From what has been said it results that according to the praxis of +the older period a meal was almost always connected with a +sacrifice. It was the rule that only blood and fat were laid upon +the altar, but the people ate the flesh; only in the case of very +great sacrificial feasts was a large animal (one or more) given to +Jehovah. Where a sacrifice took place, there was also eating and +drinking (Exodus xxxii. 6; Judges ix. 27; 2Samuel xv. 11 seq.; +Amos ii. 7); there was no offering without a meal, and no meal +without an offering (1Kings i. 9); at no important Bamah was +entertainment wholly wanting, such a LESXH as that in which Samuel +feasted Saul, or Jeremiah the Rechabites (1Samuel ix. 22; Jeremiah +xxxv. 2). To be merry, to eat and drink before Jehovah, is a usual +form of speech down to the period of Deuteronomy; even Ezekiel +calls the cultus on the high places an eating upon the mountains +(1Samuel ix. 13,19 seq ), and in Zechariah the pots in the temple +have a special sanctity (Zech. xiv. 20). By means of the meal in +presence of Jehovah is established a covenant fellowship on the one +hand between Him and the guests, and on the other hand between the +guests themselves reciprocally, which is essential for the idea of +sacrifice and gives their name to the Shelamim (compare Exodus +xviii. 12, xxiv. 11). In ordinary slaughterings this notion is not +strongly present, but in solemn sacrifices it was in full vigour. +It is God who invites, for the house is His; His also is the gift, +which must be brought to Him entire by the offerer before the +altar, and the greater portion of which He gives up to His guests +only affer that. Thus in a certain sense they eat at God's +table, and must accordingly propare or sanctify themselves for +it. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. In order to appear before Jehovah the guest adorns himself +with clothes and ornaments (Exodus iii. 22, xi. 2 seq.; +Hosea ii. 15 [A.V. 13]; Ezekiel xvi. 13; compare Koran, Sur. xx. 61), +sanctifies himself (Numbers xi. 18) and is sanctified (1Samuel xvi. 5; +Exodus xix. 10, 14). The sacrificial meal is regarded as Kodesh +(hallowed) for not only the priests, but all the sanctified persons +eat Kodesh (1Samuel xxi. 5 seq. On what is meant by sanctification +light is thrown by 1Samuel xxi. 5; 2Samuel xi. 2. Compare L) LPNW +XNP YB) ( Job xiii. 16; Leviticus vii. 20; Matthew xxii. 11-13). Jehovah +invites the armies of the nations to His sacrifice, for which +He delivers over to them some other nation, and calls the Medes, +to whom He gives Babylon over, His sanctified ones, that is, +His guests (Zephaniah i. 7 seq.; Jeremiah xlvi. 10; Ezekiel xxxix 17; +Isaiah xiii. 3). +**************************************** + +Even on occasions that, to our way of thinking, seem highly unsuitable, +the meal is nevertheless not wanting (Judges xx. 26, xxi. 4; +1Sam xiii. 9-12). That perfect propriety was not always observed +might be taken for granted, and is proved by Isaiah xxviii. 8 +even with regard to the temple of Jerusalem; "all tables are full +of vomit, there is no room." Hence also Eli's suspicion regarding +Hannah was a natural one, and by no means so startling as it appears. + +How different from this picture is that suggested by the Priestly +Code! Here one no longer remarks that a meal accompanies every +sacrifice; eating before Jehovah, which even in Deuteronomy is +just the expression for sacrificing, nowhere occurs, or at all +events is no act of divine worship. Slaying and sacrificing are no +longer coincident, the thank-offering of which the breast and right +shoulder are to be consecrated is something different from the old +simple Zebah. But, precisely for this reason, it has lost its +former broad significance. The _mizbeah_, that is, the place where +the _zebahim_ are to be offered, has been transformed into a _mizbah +ha-'olah_. The burnt-offering has become quite independent and +comes everywhere into the foreground, the sacrifices which are +unconnected with a meal altogether predominate,--so much that, as +is well known, Theophrastus could declare there were no others +among the Jews, who in this way were differentiated from all +other nations. /1/ Where formerly a + +**************************************** +1. Porphyry, De Abstin. ii.26. Compare Joseph., Contra Apion, +ii. 13: )OUTOI )EUXONTAI <?> UEIN (EKATOMBAS TOIS QEOIS KAI XRWNTAI +TOIS (IEREIOIS PROS )EUWXIAN. +****************************************** + +thank-offering which was eaten before Jehovah, and which might with +greater clearness be called a sacrificial meal, was prescribed, the +Priestly Code, as we shall afterwards see, has made out of it +simple dues to the priests, as, for example, in the case of the +first-born and of firstlings. Only in this point it still bears +involuntary testimony to the old custom by applying the names +_Todah, Neder, and Nedabah_, of which the last two in particular must +necessarily have a quite general meaning (Leviticus xxii. 18; Ezekiel +xlvi. 12), exclusively to the thank-offering, while _Milluim_ and +paschal sacrifice are merely subordinate varieties of it. + +II.II.4. What the thank-offering has lost, the sin and trespass +offering have gained; the voluntary private offering which the +sacrificer ate in a joyful company at the holy place has given +way before the compulsory, of which he obtains no share, and from +which the character of the sacred meal has been altogether taken +away. The burnt-offering, it is true, still continues to be a +meal, if only a one-sided one, of which God alone partakes; but +in the case of the sin-offering everything is kept far out of sight +which could recall a meal, as, for example, the accompaniments of +meal and wine, oil and salt; of the flesh no portion reaches the +altar, it all goes as a fine to the priest. Now, of this kind of +sacrifice, which has an enormous importance in the Priestly Code, +not a single trace occurs in the rest of the Old Testament before +Ezekiel, neither in the Jehovist and Deuteronomist, nor in the +historical and prophetical books. /1/ + +********************************************** +1. How great is the difference in Deuteronomy xxi. 1-9; how very +remote the sacrificial idea! +********************************************* + +`Olah and Zebah comprehend all animal sacrifices, `Olah and Minhah, +or Zebah and Minhah, all sacrifices whatsoever; nowhere is a special +kind of sacrifice for atonement met with (1Samuel iii. 14). +Hos. iv. 8 does indeed say: "They eat the sin of my people, and they +are greedy for its guilts," but the interpretation which will have it +that the priests are here reproached with in the first instance +themselves inducing the people to falsification of the sacred dues, +in order to make these up again with the produce of the sin and +trespass offerings, is either too subtle or too dull. /2/ + +**************************************** +2. The sin and guilt are the sacrificial worship generally as +carried on by the people (viii. 11; Amos iv. 4); in the entire +section the prophet is preparing the way for the here sharply +accentuated reproach against the priests that they neglect +the Torah and encourage the popular propensity to superstitious +and impure religious service. Besides, where is there any +reproach at all, according to the Pentateuch, in the first section +of iv. 8? And the second speaks of (WNM, not of )#MM. +******************************************* + +It would be less unreasonable to co-ordinate with the similarly +named sin and trespass offering of the Pentateuch the five golden +mice, and the five golden emerods with which the Philistines send +back the ark, and which in 1Samuel vi. 3, 4, 8 are designated _asham_, +or, still better, the sin and trespass monies which, according to +2Kings xii. 17 [A.V. 16], fell to the share of the Jerusalem +priests. Only the fact is that even in the second passage the +_asham_ and _hattath_ are no sacrifices, but, more exactly to +render the original meaning of the words, mere fines, and in fact money +fines. On the other hand, the _hattath_ referred to in Micah vi. 7 +has nothing to do with a due of the priests, but simply denotes +the guilt which eventually another takes upon himself. Even in +Isaiah liii. 10, a passage which is certainly late, _asham_ must not +be taken in the technical sense of the ritual legislation, but +simply (as in Micah) in the sense of guilt, borne by the innocent +for the guilty. For the explanation of this prophetic passage +Gramberg has rightly had recourse to the narrative of 2Samuel +xi. 1-14. "Upon Saul and upon his house lies blood-guiltiness, for +having slain the Gibeonites" is announced to David as the cause of +a three years' famine. When asked how it can be taken away, the +Gibeonites answer, +"It is not a matter of silver and gold to us with respect to Saul +and his house; let seven men of his family be delivered to us that +we may hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul upon the +mountain of the Lord." +This was done; all the seven were hanged. + +_A*sham_ and _hattath_ as offerings occur for the first time in +Ezekiel, and appear, not long before his day to have come into the +place of the earlier pecuniary fines (2Kings xii. 17 [16]), which +perhaps already also admitted of being paid in kind; probably in +the seventh century, which seems to have been very open to the +mystery of atonement and bloodshedding, and very fertile in the +introduction of new religious usages. /1/ + +********************************************* +1. Consider for example the prevalence of child sacrifice precisely +at this time, the introduction of incense, the new fashions which +King Manasseh brought in, and of which certainly much survived +that suited the temper of the period, and admitted of being conjoined +with the worship of Jehovah, or even seemed to enhance its dignity +and solemnity. +********************************************** + +The sin and trespass offerings of the Pentateuch still bear traces +of their origin in fines and penalties; they are not gifts to God, +they are not even symbolical, they are simply mulcts payable to the +priests, partly of fixed commutation value (Leviticus v. 15). Apart +from the mechanical burning of the fat they have in common with +the sacrifice only the shedding of blood, originally a secondary +matter, which has here become the chief thing. This circumstance +is an additional proof of our thesis. The ritual of the simple +offering has three acts: +(1.) the presentation of the living animal before Jehovah, +and the laying on of hands as a token of manumission on the part +of the offerer; +(2.) the slaughtering and the sprinkling of the blood on the altar; +(3.) the real or seeming gift of the sacrificial portions to the Deity, +and the meal of the human guests. +In the case of the burnt-offering the meal in the third act disappears, +and the slaughtering in the second comes into prominence as significant +and sacred, inasmuch as (what is always expressly stated) it must +take place in the presence of Jehovah, at the north side of the altar. +In the case of the sin and trespass offering the third act is dropped +entirely, and accordingly the whole significance of the rite attaches +to the slaughtering, which of course also takes place before the altar, +and to the sprinkling of the blood, which has become peculiarly +developed here. It is obvious how the metamorphosis of the gift +and the meal into a bloody atonement advances and reaches its +acme in this last sacrificial act. + +This ritual seems to betray its novelty even within the Priestly +Code itself by a certain vacillation. In the older corpus of law +(Leviticus xvii.-xxvi.) which has been taken into that document, all +sacrifices are still embraced under one or other of the two heads +ZBX and (LH (xvii. 8, xxii. 18, 21); there are no others. The _asham_ +indeed occurs in xix. 21 seq., but, as is recognised, only in a +later addition; on the other hand,it is not demanded /1/ in +xxii.14, + +************************************ +1. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the _asham_ here, +in the case of property unlawfully held, is simply the impost of +a fifth part of the value, and not the sacrifice of a ram, which +in Leviticus v. is required in addition. In Numbers v. also, +precisely this fifth part is called _asham_. +************************************* + +where it must have been according to Leviticus v. and Numbers v. +And even apart from Leviticus xvii.-xxvi there is on this point +no sort of agreement between the kernel of the Priestly Code +and the later additions, or "novels," so to speak. For one thing, +there is a difference as to the ritual of the most solemn sin-offering +between Exodus xxix., Leviticus ix. on the one hand, and Leviticus iv. +on the other; and what is still more serious, the trespass-offering +never occurs in the primary but only in the secondary passages, +Leviticus iv.-vii., xiv.; Numbers v.7, 8, vi. 1, xviii. 9. In the +latter, moreover, the distinction between _asham_ and _hattath_ is not +very clear, but only the intention to make it, perhaps because in +the old praxis there actually was a distinction between KSP XT)WT +and KSP )#M, and in Ezekiel between X+)T and )#M. /2/ + +*************************************** +2. The three sections, Leviticus iv. 1-35 (hattath), v.1-13 +(hattath-asham), and v. 14-26 (asham), are essentially not +co-ordinate parts of one whole, but independent pieces proceeding +from the same school. For v. 1-13 is no continuation of or appendix +to iv. 27-35, but a quite independent treatment of the same material, +with important differences of form. The place of the systematic +generality of chap. iv. is here taken by the definite individual case, +and what is analogous to it; the ritual is given with less minuteness, +and the hierarchical subordination of ranks has no influence on +the classification of offences. In this section also _asham_ and +_hattath_ occur interchangeably as synonymous. In the third section +a ram as an _asham_ is prescribed (v. 17-19) for the very case in +which in the first a he-goat or a she-goat is required as _hattath_ +(iv. 22, 27). The third section has indeed in form greater +similarity to the second, but cannot be regarded as its true +completion, for this simple reason, that the latter does not +distiguish between _hattath_ and _asham_. If Leviticus v. 13-16, +20-26 be followed simply without regard being had to vers. 17-19, +the _asham_ comes in only in the case of voluntary restitution of +property illegally come by or detained, more particularly of +the sacred dues. The goods must be restored to their owner +augmented by a fifth part of their value; and as an _asham_ there +must be added a ram, which falls to the sanctuary. In Num v. 5-10 +the state of the case is indeed the same, but the language employed +is different, for in this passage it is the restored property that +is called _asham_, and the ram is called )YL HKPRYM. Comp. Leviticus +xxii. 14. +**************************************** + + + +II.III. + + +The turning-point in the history of the sacrificial system was +the reformation of Josiah; what we find in the Priestly Code is +the matured result of that event. It is precisely in the +distinctions that are characteristic of the sacrificial law as +compared with the ancient sacrificial praxis that we have evidence +of the fact that, if not all exactly occasioned by the +centralisation of the worship, they were almost all somehow at +least connected with that change. + +In the early days, worship arose out of the midst of ordinary +life, and was in most intimate and manifold connection with it. +A sacrifice was a meal, a fact showing how remote was the idea of +antithesis between spiritual earnestness and secular joyousness. +A meal unites a definite circle of guests, and in this way the +sacrifice brought into connection the members of the family, the +associates of the corporation, the soldiers of the army, and, +generally speaking, the constituents of any permanent or +temporary society. It is earthly relationships that receive +their consecration thereby, and in correspondence are the natural +festal occasions presented by the vicissitudes of life. Year +after year the return of vintage, corn-harvest, and sheep-shearing +brought together the members of the household to eat and to drink +in the presence of Jehovah; and besides these there were less +regularly recurring events which were celebrated in one circle +after another. There was no warlike expedition which was not +inaugurated in this fashion, no agreement that was not thus +ratified, no important undertaking of any kind was gone about +without a sacrifice! /1/ + +****************************************** +1. Sacrifice is used as a pretext in 1Samuel xvi. 1 seq.; +1Kings i. 9 seq. Compare Proverbs vii. 14. +***************************************** + +When an honoured guest arrives, there is slaughtered for him a calf, +not without an offering of the blood and fat to the Deity. +The occasion arising out of daily life is thus inseparable +from the holy action, and is what gives it meaning and character; +an end corresponding to the situation always underlies it. +Hence also prayer must not be wanting. The verb H(TYR, to "burn" +(fat and _minha_), means simply to "pray," and conversely BQ# )T +YHWH, "to seek Jehovah," in point of fact not unfrequently means +to "sacrifice." The gift serves to reinforce the question +or the request, and to express thankfulness; and the prayer +is its interpretation. This of course is rather incidentally +indicated than expressly said (Hos. v. 6; Isaiah i. 15; Jeremiah +xiv. 12; 1Kings viii. 27 seq.; Proverbs xv. 8); we have a specimen +of a grace for the offering of the festival gift only in Deuteronomy +xxvi. 3 seq.; a blessing is pronounced when the slaughtering takes place +(1Samuel ix. 13). The prayer of course is simply the expression +of the feeling of the occasion, with which accordingly it varies +in manifold ways. Arising out of the exigencies and directed +to the objects of daily life, the sacrifices reflect in themselves +a correspondingly rich variety. Our wedding, baptismal, and funeral +feasts on the one hand, and our banquets for all sorts of occasions +on the other, might still be adduced as the most obvious comparison, +were it not that here too the divorce between sacred and secular +destroys it. Religious worship was a natural thing in Hebrew antiquity; +it was the blossom of life, the heights and depths of which it was its +business to transfigure and glorify. + +The law which abolished all sacrificial seats, with a single +exception, severed this connection. Deuteronomy indeed does not +contemplate such a result. Here, in marked opposition to what we +find in the Priestly Code, to eat and be merry before Jehovah is +the standing phrase for sacrificing; the idea is that in +concentrating all the worship towards Jerusalem, all that is +effected is a mere change of place, the essence of the thing +remaining unaltered. This, however, was a mistake. To celebrate +the vintage festival among one's native hills, and to celebrate it +at Jerusalem, were two very different things; it was not a matter +of indifference whether one could seize on the spot any occasion +that casually offered itself for a sacrificial meal, or whether it +was necessary that one should first enter upon a journey. And it +was not the same thing to appear by oneself at home before Jehovah +and to lose oneself in a large congregation at the common seat of +worship. Human life has its root in local environment, and so also +had the ancient cultus; in being transplanted from its natural +soil it was deprived of its natural nourishment. A separation +between it and the daily life was inevitable, and Deuteronomy +itself paved the way for this result by permitting profane +slaughtering. A man lived in Hebron, but sacrificed in Jerusalem; +life and worship fell apart. The consequences which lie dormant in +the Deuteronomic law are fully developed in the Priestly Code. + +This is the reason why the sacrifice combined with a meal, +formerly by far the chief, now falls completely into the +background. One could eat flesh at home, but in Jerusalem one's +business was to do worship. Accordingly, those sacrifices were +preferred in which the religious character came to the front with +the utmost possible purity and without any admixture of natural +elements, sacrifices of which God received everything and man +nothing,--burnt-offerings, sin-offerings, and trespass-offerings. + +If formerly the sacrifice had taken its complexion from the +quality of the occasion which led to it, it now had essentially +but one uniform purpose--to be a medium of worship. The warm +pulse of life no longer throbbed in it to animate it; it was no +longer the blossom and the fruit of every branch of life; it had +its own meaning all to itself. It symbolised worship, and that was +enough. The soul was fled; the shell remained, upon the shaping +out of which every energy was now concentrated. A manifoldness +of rites took the place of individualising occasions; technique +was the main thing, and strict fidelity to rubric. + +Once cultus was spontaneous, now it is a thing of statute. The +satisfaction which it affords is, properly speaking, something +which lies outside of itself and consists in the moral satisfaction +arising out of the conscientiousness with which the ritual +precepts, once for all enjoined by God on His people, are +fulfilled. The freewill offering is not indeed forbidden, but +value in the strict sense is attached only to those which have +been prescribed, and which accordingly preponderate everywhere. +And even in the case of the freewill offering, everything must +strictly and accurately comply with the restrictions of the +ordinance; if any one in the fulness of his heart had offered in +a _zebah shelamim_ more pieces of flesh than the ritual enjoined, it +would have been the worse for him. + +Of old the sacrifice combined with a meal had established a +special relation between the Deity and a definite society of +guests; the natural sacrificial society was the family or the +clan (1Samuel i. 1seq., xvi. 1 seq., xx. 6). Now the smaller sacred +fellowships get lost, the varied groups of social life disappear in +the neutral shadow of the universal congregation or church [(DH, +QHL]. The notion of this last is foreign to Hebrew antiquity, but +runs through the Priestly Code from beginning to end. Like the +worship itself, its subject also became abstract, a spiritual +entity which could be kept together by no other means except +worship. As now the participation of the "congregation of the +children of Israel" in the sacrifice was of necessity always +mainly ideal, the consequence was that the sacred action came to +be regarded as essentially perfect by virtue of its own efficacy +in being performed by the priest, even though no one was present. +Hence later the necessity for a special sacrificial deputation, +the _anshe ma'amad_. The connection of all this with the Judaising +tendency to remove God to a distance from man, it may be added, +is clear. /1/ + +************************************* +1. It is not asserted that the cultus before the Iaw (of which +the darker sides are known from Amos and Hosea) was better +than the legal, but merely that it was more original; the standard +of judgment being, not the moral element, but merely the idea, +the primary meaning of worship. Nor is it disputed further that +the belief in the dependence of sacrifices and other sacred acts +upon a laboriously strict compliance with traditional and prescriptive +rites occurs in the case of certain peoples, even in the remotest +antiquity. But with the Israelites, judging by the testimony of the +historical and prophetical books, this was not on the whole the +case any more than with the ancient Greeks; there were no +Brahmans or Magians in either case. Moreover, it must be carefully +noted that not even in the Priestly Code do we yet find the same +childish appreciation of the cultus as occurs in such a work as the +Rigveda, and that the strict rules are not prescribed and +maintained with any such notion in view as that by their +observance alone can the taste of the Deity be pleased; the idea +of God is here even strikingly remote from the anthropomorphic, +and the whole cultus is nothing more than an exercise in piety +which has simply been enjoined so once for all without any one +being in any way the better for it. +****************************************** + +Two details still deserve special prominence here. In the Priestly +Code the most important sacrifice is the burnt-offering; that is +to say, in point of fact, the _tamid_, the _holocaustum juge_, +consisting of two yearling lambs which are daily consumed upon +the "altar of burnt-offering," one in the morning, another +in the evening. The custom of daily offering a fixed sacrifice +at a definite time existed indeed, in a simpler form, /2/ + +**************************************** +2. See Kuenen, Godsdietzst van Israel, ii. 271. According to 2Kings +xvi. 15, an (LH in the morning and a MNXH in the evening were daily +offered in the temple of Jerusalem, in the time of Ahaz. Ezekiel also +(xlvi. 13-15) speaks only of the morning (LH. Compare also Ezra +ix. 4; Nehemiah x. 33. In the Priestly Code the evening _minhah_ has +risen to the dignity of a second _`olah_; but at the same time +survives in the daily _minhah_ of the high priest, and is now +offered in the morning also (Leviticus vi. 12-16). The daily _minhah_ +appears to be older than the daily _`olah_. For while it was a +natural thing to prepare a meal regularly for the Deity, the +expense of a daily `olah was too great for an ordinary place of +worship, and, besides, it was not in accordance with the custom of +men to eat flesh every day. The offering of the daily _minhah_ is +already employed in 1Kings xviii. 29, 36, as a mark of time to +denote the afternoon, and this use is continued down to the latest +period, while the tamid, ie., the `olah, is never so utilised. The +oddest custom of all, however, was doubtless not the daily +_minhah_, but the offering of the shewbread, which served the same +purpose, but was not laid out fresh every day. +***************************************** + +even in the pre-exilian period, but alongside of it at that time, +the freewill private offerings had a much more important place, +and bulked much more largely. In the law the _tamid_ is in point +of fact the fundamental element of the worship, for even the sacrifices +of Sabbaths and feast days consist only of its numerical increase +(compare Numbers xxviii., xxix.). Still later, when it is said +in the Book of Daniel that the _tamid_ was done away, this is equivalent +to saying that the worship was abolished (viii. 11-13, xi. 31, xii. 11). +But now the dominant position of the daily, Sabbath day, and festival +_tamid_ means that the sacrificial worship had assumed a perfectly +firm shape, which was independent of every special motive and of +all spontaneity; and further (what is closely connected with +this), that it took place for the sake of the congregation,--the +"congregation" in the technical sense attached to that word in the +Law. Hence the necessity for the general temple-tax, the +prototype of which is found in the poll-tax of half a shekel for +the service of the tabernacle in Exodus xxx. 11 seq. Prior to the +exile, the regular sacrifice was paid for by the Kings of Judah, +and in Ezekiel the monarch still continues to defray the expenses +not only of the Sabbath day and festival sacrifices (xiv. 17 +seq.), but also of the _tamid_ (xlvi. 13-15). /1/ + +************************************* +1. Compare LXX*. The Massoretic text has corrected the third person +(referring to the princes) into the second, making it an address +to the priests, which, however, is quite impossible in Ezekiel. +************************************* + +It is also a mark of the date that, according to Exodus xxx., +the expenses of the temple worship are met directly out of the poll-tax +levied from the community, which can only be explained by the fact +that at that time there had ceased to be any sovereign. So completely +was the sacrifice the affair of the community in Judaism that +the voluntary _qorban_ of the individual became metamorphosed +into a money payment as a contribution to the cost of the public +worship (Mark vii., xii. 42 seq; Matthew xxvii. 6). + +The second point is this: Just as the special purposes and +occasions of sacrifice fall out of sight, there comes into +increasing prominence the one uniform and universal occasion--that +of sin; and one uniform and universal purpose--that of +propitiation. In the Priestly Code the peculiar mystery in the +case of all animal sacrifices is atonement by blood; this appears +in its purest development in the case of the sin and trespass +offerings, which are offered as well for individuals as for the +congregation and for its head. In a certain sense the great day +of atonement is the culmination of the whole religious and +sacrificial service, to which, amid all diversities of ritual, +continuously underlying reference to sin is common throughout. Of +this feature the ancient sacrifices present few traces. It was +indeed sought at a very early period to influence the doubtful or +threatening mood of Deity, and make His countenance gracious by +means of rich gifts, but the gift had, as was natural then, the +character of a tentative effort only (Micah vi. 6). There was no +such thought as that a definite guilt must and could be taken away +by means of a prescribed offering. When the law discriminates +between such sins as are covered by an offering and such sins as +relentlessly are visited with wrath, it makes a distinction very +remote from the antique; to Hebrew antiquity the wrath of God was +something quite incalculable, its causes were never known, much +less was it possible to enumerate beforehand those sins which +kindled it and those which did not. /1/ + +********************************** +1. When the wrath is regulated by the conditions of the "covenant," +the original notion (which scorns the thought of adjustment) is +completely changed. What gave the thing its mysterious awfulness +was precisely this: that in no way was it possible to guard against +it, and that nothing could avail to counteract it. Under the pressure +of Jehovah's wrath not only was sacrifice abandoned, but even +the mention of His name was shunned so as to avoid attracting +His attention (Hos iii. 4, ix. 4; Amos vi. 10). +*********************************** + +An underlying reference of sacrifice to sin, speaking generally, +was entirely absent. The ancient offerings were wholly of a joyous +nature,--a merrymaking before Jehovah with music and song, +timbrels, flutes, and stringed instruments (Hos. ix. 1 seq.; Amos +v. 23, viii. 3; Isa xxx. 3). No greater contrast could be conceived +than the monotonous seriousness of the so-called Mosaic worship. + +NOMOS <de> PAREISHLQEN (INA PLEONASH| TO PARAPTWMA +["But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied". +Romans 5:20 NRSV)] + +In this way the spiritualisation of the worship is seen in the +Priestly Code as advancing _pari passu_ with its centralisation. +It receives, so to speak, an abstract religious character; it +separates itself in the first instance from daily life, and then +absorbs the latter by becoming, strictly speaking, its proper +business. The consequences for the future were momentous. The +Mosaic "congregation" is the mother of the Christian church; the +Jews were the creators of that idea. + +We may compare the cultus in the olden time to the green tree +which grows up out of the soil as it will and can; later it +becomes the regularly shapen timber, ever more artificially +shaped with square and compass. Obviously there is a close +connection between the qualitative antithesis we have just been +expounding and the formal one of law and custom from which we set +out. Between "naturaliter ea quae legis sunt facere" ["do +instinctively what the law requires" Romans 2:14 NRSV] and +"secundum legem agere" there is indeed a more than external +difference. If at the end of our first section we found +improbable precisely in this region the independent co-existence +of ancient praxis and Mosaic law, the improbability becomes +still greater from the fact that the latter is filled with a quite +different spirit, which can be apprehended only as Spirit of the age +(Zeitgeist). It is not from the atmosphere of the old kingdom, +but from that of the church of the second temple, that +the Priestly Code draws its breath. It is in accordance with this +that the sacrificial ordinances as regards their positive contents +are no less completely ignored by antiquity than they are +scrupulously followed by the post-exilian time. + + + +CHAPTER III. THE SACRED FEASTS. + + +The feasts, strictly speaking, belong to the preceding chapter, +for originally they were simply regularly recurring occasions for +sacrifice. The results of the investigation there made accordingly +repeat themselves here, but with such clearness and precision as +make it worth while to give the subject a separate consideration. +In the first place and chiefly, the history of the solar festivals, +that of those festivals which follow the seasons of the year, +claims our attention. + +III.I.1 In the Jehovistic and Deuteronomistic parts of the Pentateuch +there predominates a rotation of three great festivals, which alone +receive the proper designation of _hag_: +"Three times in the year shalt thou keep festival unto me, three times +in the year shall all thy men appear before the Lord Jehovah, +the God of Israel" (Exodus xxiii. 14, 17, xxxiv. 23; Deuteronomy xvi. 16). +"The feast of unleavened bread (maccoth) shalt thou keep; seven days +shalt thou eat _maccoth_ as I commanded thee, in the time appointed +of the month Abib, for in it thou camest out from Egypt; and none +shall appear before me empty; and the feast of harvest (qasir), +the first-fruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field; +and the feast of ingathering (asiph), in the end of the year, +when thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field." +So runs the command in the Book of the Covenant (Exodus xxiii. 15, 16). +The Law of the Two Tables (Exodus xxxiv. 18 seq.) is similar: +"The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days shalt +thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time +of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out of Egypt. +All that openeth the womb is mine; every firstling among thy cattle, +whether ox or sheep, that is male. The firstling of an ass thou shalt +redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break +his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou redeem. And none +shall appear before me empty. Six days shalt thou work; but on the +seventh day shalt thou rest: even in ploughing time and in harvest +shalt thou rest. And the feast of weeks (shabuoth) shalt thou observe, +the feasts of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of +ingathering (asiph) at the change of the year." Minuter, on the other +hand, and of a somewhat different character, are the precepts laid +down in Deuteronomy xvi.: +"Take heed to the month Abib, and keep the passover unto Jehovah +thy God, for in the month Abib did Jehovah thy God bring thee +forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the +passover unto Jehovah thy God, of the flock or of the herd, in the +place which Jehovah shall choose for the habitation of His name. +Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou +eat unleavened bread (maccoth) therewith, the bread of affliction, +for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in anxious haste, +that all the days of thy life thou mayest remember the day when +thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt. There shall no +leavened bread be seen with thee in all thy border seven days, and +of the flesh which thou didst sacrifice on the first day, in the +evening, nothing shall remain all night until the morning. Thou +mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates which +the Lord thy God giveth thee, but at the place which Jehovah thy +God shall choose for the habitation of His name, there shalt thou +sacrifice the passover, in the evening, at the going down of the +sun, at the time of thy coming forth out of Egypt. And thou +shalt boil and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall +choose, and in the morning shalt thou return to thy home. Six +days shalt thou eat _maccoth_, and on the seventh day shall be the +closing feast to Jehovah thy God; thou shalt do no work therein" +(ver. 1-8). +"Seven weeks thenceforward shalt thou number unto thee; from such +time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn shalt thou +begin to number seven weeks, and then thou shalt keep the feast +of weeks (shabuoth) to Jehovah thy God, with a tribute of freewill +offerings in thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as the Lord +thy God hath blessed thee. And thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah +thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, +and thy maid-senant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, +and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are +among you in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose +for the habitation of His name. And thou shalt remember that +thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do +these statutes" (ver. 9-12). +"The feast of tabernacles (sukkoth) thou shalt observe +seven days after thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine; +and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast,--thou, and thy son, and thy +daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the +Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that +are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast +unto Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah shall choose, +because Jehovah thy God cloth bless thee in all thine increase, +and in all the works of thy hands, therefore thou shalt surely +rejoice. Three times in a year shall all thy men appear before +Jehovah thy God in the place which He shall choose: in the feast +of unleavened bread, of weeks, and of tabernacles (hag ha-maccoth,-- +shabuoth,--sukkoth), and they shall not appear before me empty; +every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing +of Jehovah thy God, which He hath given thee" (ver. 13-17). +As regards the essential nature of the two last-named +feasts, these passages are at one. The _sukkoth_ of Deuteronomy and +the _asiph_ of the Jehovistic legislation do not coincide in time +merely, but are in fact one and the same feast, the autumnal +ingathering of the wine and of the oil from the vat and press, and +of the corn from the threshing-floor. The name _asiph_ refers +immediately to the vintage and olive-gathering, to which the word +_sukkoth_ seems also to relate, being most easily explained from the +custom of the whole household, old and young, going out to the +vineyard in time of harvest, and there camping out in the open air +under the improvised shelter of booths made with branches (Isaiah i. +8). _Qacir_ and _shabuoth_ in like manner are only different names +for the same reality, namely, for the feast of the corn-reaping, or, +more strictly, the wheat-reaping, which takes place in the +beginning of summer. Thus both festivals have a purely natural +occasion. On the other hand, the spring festival, which always +opens the series, has a historical motive assigned to it, the +exodus--most expressly in Deuteronomy--being given as the event on +which it rests. The cycle nevertheless seems to presuppose and to +require the original homogeneity of all its members. Now the +twofold ritual of the _pesah_ and the maccoth points to a twofold +character of the feast. The _hag_, properly so named, is called not +_hag ha-pesah_, /1/ but hag ha-maccoth, + +******************************** +1. The original form of the expression of Exodus xxxiv. 25 has been +preserved in Exodus xxiii. 18 (XGGY not XG HPSX). In Deuteronomy, +although PSX is more prominent, it is called XG HMCWT in xvi. 16. +******************************** + +and it is only the latter that is co-ordinated with the +other two _haggim_; the name _pesah_ indeed does not occur at all +until Deuteronomy, although in the law of the two tables the +sacrifice of the first-born seems to be brought into connection +with the feast of unleavened bread. It follows that only the +_maccoth_ can be taken into account for purposes of comparison +with _qasir_ and _asiph_. As to the proper significance of _maccoth_, +the Jehovistic legislation does not find it needful to instruct its +contemporaries, but it is incidentally disclosed in Deuteronomy. +There the festival of harvest is brought into a definite relation +in point of time with that of _maccoth_; it is to be celebrated +seven weeks later. This is no new ordinance, but one that rests +upon old custom, for the name, "feast of weeks," occurs in a +passage so early as Exodus xxxiv. (comp Jeremiah v. 24). Now +"seven weeks after Easter " (Deuteronomy xvi. 9) is further explained +with greater elaborateness as meaning seven weeks after the putting +of the sickle to the corn. Thus the festival of _maccoth_ is +equivalent to that of the putting of the sickle to the corn, and +thereby light is thrown on its fixed relation to Pentecost. +Pentecost celebrates the close of the reaping, which commences +with barley harvest, and ends with that of wheat; Easter its +beginning in the "month of corn ears;" and between the two +extends the duration of harvest time, computed at seven weeks. The +whole of this _tempus classicum_ is a great festal season rounded +off by the two festivals. We gain further light from Leviticus xxiii. +9-22. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. Against this there is of course possible the objection that +the passage at present forms part of the Priestly Code. But the +collection of laws embraced in Leviticus xvii.-xxvi, it is well +known, has merely been redacted and incorporated by the author of +the Priestly Code, and originally was an independent corpus +marking the transition from Deuteronomy to the Priestly Code, +sometimes approximating more to the one, and at other times +to the other, and the use of Leviticus xxiii. 9-22 in this +connection is completely justified by the consideration that +only in this way do the rites it describes find meaning and vitality. +******************************************* + + The Easter point is here, as in Deuteronomy, fixed as being +the beginning of harvest, but is still more definitely determined +as the day after the first Sabbath falling within harvest time, +and Pentecost follows the same reckoning. And the special Easter +ritual consists in the offering of a barley sheaf; before this it +is not lawful to taste of the new crop; and the corresponding +Pentecostal rite is the offering of ordinary wheaten loaves. The +corn harvest begins with barley and ends with wheat; at the +beginning the first-fruits are presented in their crude state as a +sheaf, just as men in like manner partake of the new growth +in the form of parched ears (Leviticus xxiii. 14; Josh. v. 11); +at the end they are prepared in the form of common bread. +Thus the _maccoth_ now begin to be intelligible. As has been +already said (see p. 69), they are not, strictly speaking, +duly prepared loaves, but the bread that is hurriedly baked +to meet a pressing emergency (1Sam. xxviii. 24); thus they +are quite correctly associated with the haste of the exodus, +and described as bread of affliction. At first people do not take +time in a leisurely way to leaven, knead, and bake the year's new +bread, but a hasty cake is prepared in the ashes; this is what is +meant by maccoth. They are contrasted with the Pentecostal +loaves precisely as are the sheaf and the parched ears, which +last, according to Josh. v. 11, may be eaten in their stead, and +without a doubt they were originally not the Easter food of men +merely, but also of the Deity, so that the sheaf comes under the +category of the later spiritual refinements of sacrificial +material. Easter then is the opening, as Pentecost is the closing +festivity, or (what means the same thing) `acereth, /1/ of the seven + +******************************************* +1. Haneberg, Alterhuemer, 2d edit., p. 656. In Deuteronomy Pentecost +as _`acereth_ lasts for only one day, while Easter and the feast +of tabernacles each ]ast a week. +******************************************* + +weeks' "joy of harvest," and the spring festival no longer +puzzles us by the place it holds in the cycle of the three yearly +festivities. But what is the state of the case as regards the +_pesah_? The meaning of the name is not clear; as we have seen, the +word first occurs in Deuteronomy, and there also the time of the +celebration is restricted to the evening and night of the first day +of _maccoth_, from sunset until the following morning. In point of +fact, the _pesah_ points back to the sacrifice of the firstlings +(Exodus xxxiv. 18 seq., xiii. 12 seq.; Deuteronomy xv. 19 seq., xvi. +1 seq.), and it is principally upon this that the historical +character of the whole festivity hinges. It is because Jehovah +smote the first-born of Egypt and spared those of Israel that the +latter thenceforward are held sacred to Him. Such is the +representation given not merely in the Priestly Code but also in +Exodus xiii. 11 seq. But in neither of its sources does the +Jehovistic tradition know anything of this. "Let my people go, +that they may keep a feast unto me in the wilderness with +sacrifices and cattle and sheep: "this from the first is the +demand made upon Pharaoh, and it is in order to be suitably +adorned for this purpose, contemplated by them from the first, +that the departing Israelites borrow festal robes and ornaments +from the Egyptians. Because Pharaoh refuses to allow the Hebrews +to offer to their God the firstlings of cattle that are His due, +Jebovah seizes from him the first-born of men. Thus the exodus is +not the occasion of the festival, but the festival the occasion, if +only a pretended one, of the exodus. If this relationship is +inverted in Exodus xiii, it is because that passage is not one of +the sources of the Jehovistic tradition, but is part of the +redaction, and in fact (as is plain from other reasons with regard +to the entire section xiii. 1-16) of a Deuteronomic redaction. +From this it follows that the elaboration of the historical motive +of the passover is not earlier than Deuteronomy, although perhaps a +certain inclination to that way of explaining it appears before +then, just as in the case of the _maccoth_ (Exodus xii. 34). What +has led to it is evidently the coincidence of the spring festival +with the exodus, already accepted by the older tradition, the +relation of cause and effect having become inverted in course of +time. The only view sanctioned by the nature of the case is that +the Israelite custom of offering the firstlings gave rise to the +narrative of the slaying of the first-born of Egypt; unless the +custom be pre-supposed the story is inexplicable, and the peculiar +selection of its victims by the plague is left without a motive. +The sacrifice of the first-born, of the male first-born, that is to +say--for the females were reared as with us--does not require an +historical explanation, but can be accounted for very simply: it +is the expression of thankfulness to the Deity for fruitful flocks +and herds. If claim is also laid to the human first-born, this is +merely a later generalisation which after all resolves itself +merely into a substitution of an animal offering and an extension +of the original sacrifice. In Exodus xx. 28, 29 and xxxiv. 19 +this consequence does not yet seem to be deduced or even to be +suspected as possible; it first appears in xxxiv. 20 and presents +itself most distinctly in the latest passage (xiii. 12), for +there P+R RXM is contrasted with P+R #GR, and for the first the +expression H(BYR, a technical one in the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel +for child sacrifice, is used. The view of some scholars (most +of them mere casual visitors in the field of Old Testament +research) that the slaying of the first-born male children was +originally precisely the main feature of the passover, hardly +deserves refutation. Like the other festivals, this also, apart +from the view taken of it in the Priestly Code, has a thoroughly +joyous character (Exodus x. 9); Deuteronomy xvi. 7; comp. Isaiah +xxx. 29). There are some historical instances indeed of the +surrender of an only child or of the dearest one, but always +as a voluntary and quite exceptional act; the contrary is not +proved by Hosea xiii. 2. /1/ The offering of + +******************************************* +1. "They make them molten images of their silver, idols according +to their fancy. To them they speak, men doing sacrifice kiss calves!" +The prophet would hardly blame human sacrifices only thus incidentally, +more in ridicule than in high moral indignation; he would bring it +to prominence the horrible and revolting character of the action +much more than its absurdity. Thus ZBXY )DM means most probably, +"offerers belonging to the human race." At the same time, even if +the expression did mean "sacrificers of men," it would prove nothing +regarding regular sacrifices of children. +******************************************** + +human first-born was certainly no regular or commanded exaction in +ancient times; there are no traces of so enormous a blood tax, +but, on the contrary, many of a great preference for eldest sons. +It was not until shortly before the exile that the burning of +children was introduced on a grand scale along with many other +innovations, and supported by a strict interpretation of the +command regarding firstlings (Jeremiah vii. 31, xix. 5; Ezekiel xx. +26). In harmony with this is the fact that the law of Exodus +xiii. 3-16 comes from the hand of the latest redactor of the +Jehovistic history. + +III.I.2. "Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a husbandman. And in +process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit +of the ground an offering unto the Lord; and Abel also brought +an offering of the firstlings of his sheep." +It is out of the simplest, most natural, and most wide-spread +offerings, those of the first-fruits of the flock, herd, and +field, the occasions for which recur regularly with the seasons of +the year, that the annual festivals took their rise. The passover +corresponds with the firstlings of Abel the shepherd, the other +three with the fruits presented by Cain the husbandman; apart +from this difference, in essence and foundation they are all +precisely alike. Their connection with the _aparchai_ of the + +*[first-fruits; firstlings for sacrifice or offering]* + +yearly seasons is indeed assumed rather than expressly stated in +the Jehovistic and Deuteronomistic legislation. Yet in Exodus +xxiii. 17-19, xxxiv. 23-26 we read: +"Three times in the year shall all thy men appear before the Lord +Jehovah; thou shalt not mingle the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, +neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. +The best of the first-fruits of thy land shalt thou bring into the +house of Jehovah thy God; thou shalt not seethe the kid in the milk +of its mother." +It is forbidden to appear before Jehovah empty, hence the +connection between the first general sentence and the details +which follow it. Of these, the first seems to relate to the passover; +doubtless indeed it holds good of all animal sacrifices, but in point +of fact these are offered in preponderating numbers at the great +festival after the herds and flocks have produced their young. +The remaining sentences relate to the feasts of harvest and +ingathering, whose connection with the fruits of the field is +otherwise clear. As for Deuteronomy, there also it is required +on the one hand that the dues from the flock and herd and field +shall be personally offered at Jerusalem, and made the occasion +of joyous sacrificial feasts; on the other hand, that three +appearances in the year shall be made at Jerusalem, at Easter, +at Pentecost, and at the feast of tabernacles, and not with empty +hands. These requirements can only be explained on the assumption +that the material of the feasts was that furnished by the dues. +Clearly in Deuteronomy all three coincide; sacrifices, dues, feasts; +other sacrifices than those occasioned by the dues can hardly be +thought of for the purpose of holding a joyous festival before +Jehovah; the dues are, properly speaking, simply those sacrifices +prescribed by popular custom, and therefore fixed and festal, +of which alone the law has occasion to treat. /1/ + +***************************************** +1. Deuteronomy xii. 6 seq., 11 seq., xiv. 23-26, xvi. 7, 11, 14. +In the section xiv. 22-xvi. 17, dues and feasts are taken together. +In the first half (xiv. 22-xv. 18) there is a progression from those +acts which are repeated within the course of a year to those which +occur every three years, and finally to those which occur every seven; +in the second half (xv. 19-xvi. 17) recurrence is again made to the +principal, that is, the seasonal dues, first to the firstlings +and the passover feast, and afterwards to the two others, in +connection with which the tithes of the fruits are offered. +**************************************** + +It results from the very nature of the case that the people come +together to offer thanks for Jehovah's blessing, but no special +emphasis is laid upon this. In the Jehovistic legislation +(Exodus xxiii., xxxiv.) the terms have not yet come to be fixed, +so that it is hardly possible to speak of a "dies festus" +in the strict sense; festal seasons rather than festal days +are what we have. Easter is celebrated in the month Abib, +when the corn is in the ear (Exodus ix. 31, 32), Pentecost +when the wheat is cut, the autumn festival when the vintage +has been completed,--rather vague and shifting determinations. +Deuteronomy advances a step towards fixing the terms +and intervals more accurately, a circumstance very intimately +connected with the centralisation of the worship in Jerusalem. +Even here, however, we do not meet with one general festive +offering on the part of the community, but only with +isolated private offerings by individuals. + +In correspondence with this the amount of the gifts is left with +considerable vagueness to the good-will of the offerers. Only the +firstlings are definitely demanded. The redemption allowed +in Deuteronomy by means of money which buys a substitute +in Jerusalem has no proper meaning for the earlier time; +yet even then the offerer may in individual instances have availed +himself of liberty of exchange, all the more because even then his +gift, as a sacrificial meal, was essentially a benefit to himself +(Exodus xxiii. 18; Genesis iv. 4, WMXBL<Y>HN). For the +first-fruits of the field Exodus prescribes no measure at all, +Deuteromony demands the tithe of corn, wine, and oil, which, +however, is not to be understood with mathematical strictness, +inasmuch as it is used at sacrificial meals, is not made over to a +second party, and thus does not require to be accounted for. The +tithe, as appears from Deuteronomy xxvi., is offered in autumn, that +is, at the feast of tabernacles; this is the proper autumn +festival of thanksgiving, not only for the wine harvest, but also +for that of the threshing-floor (xvi. 13); it demands seven days, +which must all be spent in Jerusalem, while in the case of maccoth +only one need be spent there. It is self-evident that there is no +restriction to the use of vegetable gifts merely, but sacrifices of +flesh are also assumed--purchased perhaps with the proceeds of the +sale of the tithe. In this way the special character of the +feasts, and their connection with the first-fruits peculiar to +them, could easily disappear, a thing which seems actually to +have occurred in Deuteronomy, and perhaps even earlier. It is not +to be wondered at that much should seem unclear to us which must +have been obvious to contemporaries; in Deuteronomy, moreover, +almost everything is left to standing custom, and only the one +main point insisted on, that the religious worship, and thus also +the festivals, must be celebrated only in Jerusalem. Leaving out +of account the passover, which originally had an independent +standing, and only afterwards through its connection with maccoth +was taken into the regular cycle of the _haggim_, it cannot be +doubted, generally speaking and on the whole, that not only in +the Jehovistic but also in the Deuteronomic legislation the +festivals rest upon agriculture, the basis at once of life and of +religion. The soil, the fruitful soil, is the object of religion; +it takes the place alike of heaven and of hell. Jehovah gives the +land and its produce; He receives the best of what it yields as an +expression of thankfulness, the tithes in recognition of His +seigniorial right. The relation between Himself and His people +first arose from His having given them the land in fee; it continues +to be maintained, inasmuch as good weather and fertility come from Him. +It is in Deuteronomy that one detects the first very perceptible +traces of a historical dress being given to the religion +and the worship, but this process is still confined within modest +limits. The historical event to which recurrence is always made +is the bringing up of Israel out of Egypt, and this is significant +in so far as the bringing up out of Egypt coincides with the leading +into Canaan, that is, with the giving of the land, so that the +historical motive again resolves itself into the natural. In this +way it can be said that not merely the Easter festival but all +festivals are dependent upon the introduction of Israel into Canaan, +and this is what we actually find very clearly in the prayer +(Deuteronomy xxvi.) with which at the feast of tabernacles +the share of the festal gifts falling to the priest is offered +to the Deity. A basket containing fruits is laid upon the altar, +and the following words are spoken: +"A wandering Aramaean was my father, and he went down into Egypt +and sojourned there, a few men strong, and became there a nation, +great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians evil-entreated them +and oppressed them, and laid upon them hard bondage. Then called +we upon ]ehovah the God of our fathers, and He heard our voice and +looked on our affliction and our labour and our oppression. And +Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and +with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with +signs and with wonders, _and brought us unto this place, and gave us +this land, a land where milk and honey flow!. And now, behold, I +have brought the best of the fruits of the land, which thou, O +Lord, hast given me._" +Observe here how the act of salvation whereby Israel was founded +issues in the gift of a fruitful land. + +III.II. With this account of the Jehovistic-Deuteronomistic legislation +harmonises the pre-exilic practice so far as that can be traced or +is borne witness to in the historical and prophetical books. +Ancient festivals in Israel must have had the pastoral life as +their basis; only the passover therefore can be regarded as +belonging, to the number of these. /1/ It is + +********************************************* +1. The ancient Arabs also observed the sacrifice of +the firstlings as a solemnity in the sacred month Rajab, which +originally fell in spring (comp. Ewald, Ztschr. f.d. Kunde +des Morgenlandes, 1840, p. 419; Robertson Smith, Prophets, +p. 383 sq). A festivity mentioned among the earliest, and that +for pastoral Judah, is the sheep-shearing (1Samuel xxv. 2 seq.; +Genesis xxxviii. 12); but it does not appear to have ever developed +into a regular and independent festival. _Aparchai_ of wool and +flax are mentioned in Hosea (ii. 7, 11 [A.V. 5, 9]) as of wool +alone in Deuteronomy (xviii. 4). +********************************************* + +with perfect accuracy accordingly that precisely the passover is +postulated as having been the occasion of the exodus, as being a +sacrificial feast that has to be celebrated in the wilderness and +has nothing to do with agriculture or harvest. But it is curious +to notice how little prominence is afterwards given to this +festival, which from the nature of the case is the oldest of all. +It cannot have been known at all to the Book of the Covenant, for +there (Exodus xxii. 29, 30) the command is to leave the firstling +seven days with its dam and on the eighth day to give it to +Jehovah. Probably through the predominance gained by agriculture +and the feasts founded on it the passover fell into disuse in many +parts of Israel, and kept its ground only in districts where the +pastoral and wilderness life still retained its importance. This +would also explain why the passover first comes clearly into +light when Judah alone survives after the fall of Samaria. In +2Kings xxiii. 21 seq. we are told that in the eighteenth year of +King Josiah the passover was held according to the precept of the +law (Deut xvi.), and that for the first time,--never until then from +the days of the Judges had it been so observed. If in this passage +the novelty of the institution is so strongly insisted on, the +reference is less to the essence of the thing than to the manner of +celebration as enjoined in Deuteronomy. Agriculture was learned by +the Hebrews from the Canaanites in whose land they settled, and +in commingling with whom they, during the period of the Judges, +made the transition to a sedentary life. Before the metamorphosis +of shepherds into peasants was effected, they could not possibly +have had feasts which related to agriculture. It would have been +very strange if they had not taken them also over from the +Canaanites. The latter owed the land and its fruits to Baal, and +for this they paid him the due tribute; the Israelites stood in +the same relation to Jehovah. Materially and in itself, the act +was neither heathenish nor Israelite; its character either way +was determined by its destination. There was, therefore, nothing +against a transference of the feasts from Baal to Jehovah; on the +contrary, the transference was a profession of faith that the land +and its produce, and thus all that lay at the foundations of the +national existence, were due not to the heathen deity but to the +God of Israel. The earliest testimony is that which we have to the +existence of the vintage festival in autumn,--in the first instance +as a custom of the Canaanite population of Shechem. In the old and +instructive story of Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal we are told +(Judges ix. 27) of the citizens of Shechem that "they went out +into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, +and celebrated _hillulim_, and went into the house of their god, and +ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech." But this festival must also +have taken root among the Israelites at a tolerably early period. +According to Judges xxi. 19 seq. there was observed yearly at +Shiloh in the vineyards a feast to Jehovah, at which the maidens +went out to dance. Even if the narrative of Judges xix. seq. be +as a whole untrustworthy as history, this does not apply to the +casual trait just mentioned, especially as it is confirmed by +1Samuel i. In this last-cited passage a feast at Shiloh is also +spoken of, as occurring at the end of the year, that is, in autumn +at the time of the _asiph_, /1/ and as being an attraction to pilgrims + +********************************************* +1. LTQPT HYMYM (i.e., at the new year) 1Samuel i. 20; Exodus +xxxiv. 22. In this sense is also to be understood MYMYM YMYMH +Judges xxi. 19, 1Samuel i. 3. Comp. Zechariah xiv. 16. +********************************************** + +from the neighbourhood. Obviously the feast does not occur in all +places at once, but at certain definite places (in Ephraim) which +then influence the surrounding district. The thing is connected +with the origin of larger sanctuaries towards the end of the period +of the Judges, or, more properly speaking, with their being taken +over from the previous inhabitants; thus, for example, on Shechem +becoming an Israelite town the _hillulim_ were no more abolished than +was the sanctuary itself. Over and above this the erection of +great royal temples must have exerted an important influence. +Alike at Jerusalem and at Bethel "the feast" was celebrated from +the days of Solomon and Jeroboam just as previously at Shechem and +Shiloh, in the former place in September, in the latter perhaps +somewhat later. /2/ + +******************************************** +2. 1Kings xii. 32 is, it must be owned, far from trustworthy. +1Kings viii. 2 is difficult to harmonise with vi. 38, if the +interpretation of Bul and Ethanim is correct. +******************************************** + +This was at that period the sole actual _panegyris_. [national festivall +The feasts at the beginning of summer may indeed also have been +observed at this early period (Isa ix. 2), but in smaller local +circles. This distinction is still discernible in Deuteronomy, for +although in that book the feast of tabernacles is not theoretically +higher than the others, in point of fact it alone is observed from +beginning to end at the central sanctuary, while Easter, on the +other hand, is for the most part kept at home, being only during +the first day observed at Jerusalem; moreover, the smaller demand +is much more emphatically insisted on than the larger, so that the +first seems to have been an innovation, the latter to have had the +sanction of older custom. Amos and Hosea, presupposing as they do +a splendid cultus and great sanctuaries, doubtless also knew of a +variety of festivals, but they have no occasion to mention any +one by name. More definite notices occur in Isaiah. The +threatening that within a year's time the Assyrians will be in the +land is thus (xxix. 1) given: "Add ye year to year, let the +feasts come round, yet I will distress Jerusalem," and at the +close of the same discourse the prophet expresses himself as +follows (xxxii. 9 seq.): +"Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless +daughters; give ear unto my speech. Days upon a year shall ye +be troubled, ye careless women; for the vintage shall fail, +the ingathering shall not come. Ye shall smite upon the breasts, +for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine." +When the two passages are taken together we gather that Isaiah, +following the universal custom of the prophets in coming forward +at great popular gatherings, is here speaking at the time of the +autumn festival, in which the women also took an active part +(Judges xxi. 19 seq.). But this autumn festival, the joyous and +natural character of which is unmistakably revealed, takes place +with him at the change of the year, as may be inferred from a +comparison between the YNQPW of xxix. I, and the TQPT of Exodus +xxxiv. 22, 1Samuel i. 20, and closes a cycle of festivals here +for the first time indicated. + +2. The preceding survey, it must be admitted, scarcely seems fully +to establish the alleged agreement between the Jehovistic law +and the older praxis. Names are nowhere to be found, and in point +of fact it is only the autumn festival that is well attested, +and this, it would appear, as the only festival, as THE feast. +And doubtless it was also the oldest and most important of the +harvest festivals, as it never ceased to be the concluding +solemnity of the year. What has been prosperously brought to +close is what people celebrate most rightly; the conclusion of the +ingathering, both of the threshing and of the vintage, is the most +appropriate of all occasions for a great joint festival,--for this +additional reason, that the term is fixed, not, as in the case of +the joy of reaping, by nature alone, but is in man's hands and +can be regulated by him. Yet even under the older monarchy the +previous festivals must also have already existed as well (Isaiah +xxix. 1). The peculiarity of the feast of tabernacles would then +reduce itself to this, that it was the only general festival at +Jerusalem and Bethel; local celebrations "at all threshing floors +"--i.e., on all high places--are not thereby excluded (Host ix. 1). +But the Jehovistic legislation makes no distinction of local and +central, for it ignores the great temples throughout. /1/ Possibly, + +************************************** +1. Exodus xx. 24-26 looks almost like a protest against the arrangements +of the temple of Solomon,--especially ver. 26. +************************************** + +also, it to some extent systematises the hitherto somewhat vaguer +custom; the transition from the _aparchai_ to a feast was perhaps in +practice still somewhat incomplete. In the paucity of positive +data one is justified, however, in speaking of a substantial +agreement, inasmuch as in the two cases the idea of the festivals +is the same. Very instructive in this respect are two sections of +Hosea (chaps. ii. and ix.), which on this account deserve to be +fully gone into. In the first of these Israel is figured as a +woman who receives her maintenance from her husband, that is, from +the Deity; this is the basis of the covenant relationship. But +she falls into error as to the giver of her meat and drink and +clothing, supposing them to come from the idols, and not from +Jehovah. +"She hath said, I will go after my lovers, who give me +my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my +drink. Doth she then not know that it is I (Jehovah) who have +given her the corn and the wine and the oil, and silver in +abundance, and gold--out of which she maketh false gods? Therefore +will I take back again my corn in its time, and my wine in its +season, and I will take away my wool and my flax that should +cover her nakedness; and now will I discover her shame before the +eyes of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. +And I will bring all her mirth to an end, her festival days, her +new moons and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will +destroy her vines and her fig-trees whereof she saith, 'They are +my hire, that my lovers have given me,' and I will make them a +wilderness, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. Thus will +I visit upon her the days of the false gods, wherein she burnt +fat offerings to them and decked herself with her rings +and her jewels, and went after her lovers and forget me, +saith the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her +into the wilderness, and there I will assign her her vineyards: +then shall she be docile as in her youth, and as in the day +when she came up out of the land of Egypt. Thereafter I +betroth thee unto me anew for ever, in righteousness and in +judgment, in loving kindness and in mercies. In that day, saith +the Lord, will I answer the heavens, and they shall answer the +earth, and the earth shall answer the corn and the wine and the +oil, and these shall answer Jezreel" (ii. 7-24 [5-22]). +The blessing of the land is here the end of religion, and that +quite generally,--alike of the false heathenish and of the true +Israelitish. /1/ + +********************************************* +1. Comp. Zech. xiv. 16 seq. All that are left of the nations +which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to +worship Jehovah of hosts and to keep the feast of tabernacles. +And whoso of the families of the earth shall not come up unto +Jerusalem to worship Jehovah of hosts, UPON THEM SHALL BE NO RAIN,. +But for the Egyptians--who on account of the Nile are independent +of rain--another punishment is threatened if they do not come to +keep the feast of tabernacles. +********************************************** + +It has for its basis no historical acts of salvation, +but nature simply, which, however, is regarded only as God's +domain and as man's field of labour, and is in no manner itself +deified. The land is Jehovah's house (viii. 1, ix. 15), wherein +He lodges and entertains the nation; in the land and through the +land it is that Israel first becomes the people of Jehovah, just +as a marriage is constituted by the wife's reception into the +house of the husband, and her maintenance there. And as divorce +consists in the wife's dismissal from the house, so is Jehovah's +relation to His people dissolved by His making the land into a +wilderness, or as in the last resort by His actually driving them +forth into the wilderness; He restores it again by "sowing the +nation into the land" anew, causing the heavens to give rain and +the earth to bear, and thereby bringing into honour the name of +"God sown" for Israel (ii. 25 [23]). In accordance with this' +worship consists simply of the thanksgiving due for the gifts of +the soil, the vassalage payable to the superior who has given the +land and its fruits. It _ipso facto_ ceases when the corn and wine +cease; in the wilderness it cannot be thought of, for if God +bestows nothing then man cannot rejoice, and religious worship is +simply rejoicing over blessings bestowed. It has, therefore, +invariably and throughout the character given in the Jehovistic +legislation to the feasts, in which also, according to Hosea's +description, it culminates and is brought to a focus. For the days +of the false gods, on which people adorned themselves and +sacrificed, are just the feasts, and in fact the feasts of +Jehovah, whom however the people worshipped by images, which the +prophet regards as absolutely heathenish. + +Equally instructive is the second passage (ix. 1-6). +"Rejoice not too loudly, O Israel, like the heathen, that thou +hast gone a whoring from thy God, and lovest the harlot's hire +upon every threshing-floor. The floor and the wine-press shall +not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. They shall not +dwell in Jehovah's land; Ephraim must return to Egypt, and eat +what is unclean in Assyria. Then shall they no more pour out +wine to Jehovah, or set in order sacrifices to Him; like bread of +mourners is their bread, /1/ all that eat thereof become unclean, for + +************************************** +1. For Y(RBW (ix. 4) read Y(RKW, and LXMM for LXM. See Kuenen, +National Religions and Universal Religions (1882), p. 312 seq. +************************************** + +their bread shall only be for their hunger, it shall not come +into the house of the Lord. What will ye do in the day of +festival and in the day of the feast of the Lord? For lo, after +they have gone away from among the ruins, Egypt shall keep hold +of them, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant things of +silver shall nettles possess, the thornbush shall be in their +tents." +It need not surprise us that here again the prophet places +the worship which in intention is obviously meant for Jehovah on +the same footing with the heathen worship which actually has +little to distinguish it externally therefrom, being constrained +to regard the "pleasant things of silver" in the tents in the +high places not as symbols of Jehovah, but as idols, and their +worship as whoredom. Enough that once more we have a clear view +of the character of the popular worship in Israel at that period. +Threshing-floor and wine-press, corn and wine, are its +motives,--vociferous joy, merry shoutings, its expression. All the +pleasure of life is concentrated in the house of Jehovah at the +joyous banquets held to celebrate the coming of the gifts of His +mild beneficence; no more dreadful thought than that a man must +eat his bread like unclean food, like bread of mourners, without +having offered the _aparchai_ at the festival. /2/ It is this + +*********************************************** +2. Times of mourning are, so to speak, times of interdict, during +which intercourse between God and man is suspended. Further, +nothing at all was ever eaten except that of which God had in the +first instance received His share;--not only no flesh but also no +vegetable food, for the "first-fruits" of corn and wine +represented the produce of the year and sanctified the whole. All +else was unclean. Comp. Ezekiel iv. 13. +********************************************** + +thought which gives its sting to the threatened exile; for +sacrifice and feast are dependent upon the land, which is the +nursing-mother and the settled home of the nation, the foundation +of its existence and of its worship. + +The complete harmony of this with the essential character of the +worship and of the festivals in the Book of the Covenant, in the +law of the Two Tables, and in Deuteronomy, is clear in itself, +but becomes still more evident by a comparison with the Priestly +Code, to which we now proceed. + + + +III.III. + +In the Priestly Code the festal cycle is dealt with in two +separate passages (Leviticus xxiii; Numbers xxviii., xxix.), +of which the first contains a fragment (xxiii. 9-22, and partly +also xxiii. 39-44) not quite homogeneous with the kernel of the +document. In both these accounts also the three great feasts +occur, but with considerable alteration of their essential +character. + +III.III.1. The festal celebration, properly so called, is exhausted +by a prescribed joint offering. There are offered (I.) during +Easter week and also on the day of Pentecost, besides the _tamid_, +two bullocks, one ram, seven lambs as a burnt-offering, and one +he-goat as a sin-offering daily; (2.) at the feast of +tabernacles, from the first to the seventh day two rams, fourteen +lambs, and, in descending series, from thirteen to seven bullocks; +on the eighth day one bullock, one ram, seven lambs as a +burnt offering, besides one he-goat daily as a sin-offering. +Additional voluntary offerings on the part of individuals are not +excluded, but are treated as of secondary importance. Elsewhere, +alike in the older practice (1Samuel i. 4 seq.) and in the law +(Exodus xxiii. 18) it is precisely the festal offering that is a +sacrificial meal, that is to say, a private sacrifice. In +Deuteronomy it has been possible to find anything surprising in +the joyous meals only because people are wont to know their Old +Testament merely through the perspective of the Priestly Code; +at most the only peculiar thing in that book is a certain humane +application of the festal offering, the offerer being required to +invite to it the poor and landless of his acquaintance. But this +is a development which harmonises much more with the old idea of +an offering as a communion between God and man than does the other +self-sufficing general churchly sacrifice. The passover alone +continues in the Priestly Code also to be a sacrificial meal, and +participation therein to be restricted to the family or a limited +society. But this last remnant of the old custom shows itself here +as a peculiar exception; the festival in the house instead of +"before Jehovah " has also something ambiguous about it, and turns +the sacrifice into an entirely profane act of slaughtering +almost--until we come to the rite of expiation, which is +characteristically retained (Exodus xii. 7; comp. Ezekiel xiv. 19). + +Of a piece with this is the circumstance that the "first-fruits" +of the season have come to be separated from the festivals still +more than had been previously the case. While in Deuteronomy +they are still offered at the three great sacrificial meals in +the presence of Jehovah, in the Priestly Code they have +altogether ceased to be offerings at all, and thus also of course +have ceased to be festal offerings, being merely dues payable to +the priests (by whom they are in part collected) and not in any +case brought before the altar. Thus the feasts entirely lose +their peculiar characteristics, the occasions by which they are +inspired and distinguished; by the monotonous sameness of the +unvarying burnt-offering and sin-offering of the community as a +whole they are all put on the same even level, deprived of their +natural spontaneity, and degraded into mere "exercises of +religion." Only some very slight traces continue to bear witness +to, we might rather say, to betray, what was the point from which +the development started, namely, the rites of the barley sheaf, +the loaves of bread, and the booths (Leviticus xxiii.). But these +are mere rites, petrified remains of the old custom; the actual +first-fruits belonging to the owners of the soil are collected by +the priests, the shadow of them is retained at the festival in the +form of the sheaf offered by the whole community--a piece of +symbolism which has now become quite separated from its connection +and is no longer understood. And since the giving of thanks for +the fruits of the field has ceased to have any substantial place +in the feasts, the very shadow of connection between the two also +begins to disappear, for the rites of Leviticus xxiii. are taken +over from an older legislation, and for the most part are passed +over in silence in Numbers xxviii., xxix. Here, again, the passover +has followed a path of its own. Even at an earlier period, +substitution of other cattle and sheep was permitted. But now in +the Priestly Code the firstlings are strictly demanded indeed, +but merely as dues, not as sacrifices; the passover, always a +yearling lamb or kid, has neither in fact nor in time anything to +do with them, but occupies a separate position alongside. But as +it is represented to have been instituted in order that the Hebrew +first born may be spared in the destruction of those of the Egyptians, +this connection betrays the fact that the yearling lambs are after +all only a substitute for the firstlings of all animals fit for +sacrifice, but in comparison with the cattle and sheep of the +Jehovistic tradition and Deuteronomy a secondary substitute, and +one for the uniformity of which there is no motive; and we see +further that if the firstlings are now over and above assigned to +the priests this is equivalent to a reduplication, which has been +made possible first by a complete obscuration, and afterwards +by an artificial revival of the original custom. + +A further symptom also proper to be mentioned here is the fixing of +harvest festival terms by the days of the month, which is to be +found exclusively in the Priestly Code. Easter falls upon the +fifteenth, that is, at full moon, of the first, the feast of +tabernacles upon the same day of the seventh month; Pentecost, +which, strange to say, is left undetermined in Numbers xxviii., +falls, according to Leviticus xxiii., seven weeks after Easter. +This definite dating points not merely to a fixed and uniform +regulation of the cultus, but also to a change in its contents. +For it is not a matter of indifference that according to the +Jehovistic-Deuteronomic legislation Easter is observed in "the +month of corn ears" when the sickle is put to the corn, Pentecost +at the end of the wheat harvest, and the feast of tabernacles +after the ingathering; as harvest feasts they are from their +very nature regulated by the condition of the fruits of the soil. +When they cease to be so, when they are made to depend upon the +phases of the moon, this means that their connection with their +natural occasion is being lost sight of. Doubtless the accurate +determination of dates is correlated with the other circumstance +that the festivals are no longer kept in an isolated way by +people at any place they may choose, but by the whole united +nation at a single spot. It is therefore probable that the fixing +of the date w as accomplished at first in the case of the autumn +festival, which was the first to divest itself of its local +character and most readily suffered a transposition of a week or +two. It was hardest to change in the case of the _maccoth_ +festival; the putting of the sickle to the corn is very +inconvenient to shift. But here the passover seems to have +exerted an influence. For the passover is indeed an annual feast, +but not by the nature of things connected with any particular +season of the year; rather was it dependent originally on the +phases of the moon. Its character as a _pannychis_ [vigil] +(Exodus xii. 42 [LYL #MWRYM]) points in this direction, +as also does the analogy of the Arab feasts. + +The verification of the alleged denaturalisation of the feasts +in the Priestly Code lies in this, that their historical +interpretation, for which the way is already paved by the +Jehovistic tradition, here attains its full development. For +after they have lost their original contents and degenerated into +mere prescribed religious forms, there is nothing to prevent the +refilling of the empty bottles in any way accordant with the +tastes of the period. Now, accordingly, the feast of tabernacles +also becomes historical (Leviticus xxiii.), instituted to commemorate +the booths under which the people had to shelter themselves during +the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. In the case of +Easter a new step in advance is made beyond the assignation of its +motive to the exodus, which is already found in Deuteronomy and +in Exodus xiii. 3 seq. For in the Priestly Code this feast, +which precisely on account of its eminently historical character +is here regarded as by far the most important of all, is much +more than the mere commemoration of a divine act of salvation, it +is itself a saving deed. It is not because Jehovah smote the +firstborn of Egypt that the passover is afterwards instituted on +the contrary, it is instituted beforehand, at the moment of the +exodus, in order that the firstborn of Israel may be spared. +Thus not merely is a historical motive assigned for the custom; +its beginning is itself raised to the dignity of a historical +fact upon which the feast rests,--the shadow elsewhere thrown only +by another historical event here becomes substantial and casts +itself. The state of matters in the case of the unleavened cakes +is very similar. Instead of having it as their occasion and object +to keep in remembrance the hasty midnight departure in which the +travellers were compelled to carry with them their dough +unleavened as it was (Exodus xii. 34), in the Priestly Code they +also are spoken of as having being enjoined beforehand (xii. 15 +seq.), and thus the festival is celebrated in commemoration of +itself; in other words, not merely is a historical motive +assigned to it, it is itself made a historical fact. For this +reason also, the law relating to Easter is removed from all +connection with the tabernacle legislation (Exodus xii. 1 seq.), +and the difficuity that now in the case of the passover the +sanctuary which elsewhere in the Priestly Code is indispensable +must be left out of sight is got over by divesting it as much as +possible of its sacrificial character. /1/ + +******************************************* +1. The ignoring of the sanctuary has a reason only in the case of +the first passover, and perhaps ought to be regarded as holding +good for that only. The distinction between the PSX MCRYM and +the PSX HDWRWT is necessary, if only for the reason that the former +is a historical fact, the latter a commemorative observance. +When it is argued for the originality of the passover ritual +in the Priestly Code that it alone fits in with the conditions +of the sojourn in Egypt, the position is not to be disputed. +******************************************* + +In the case of Pentecost alone is there no tendency to historical +explanation; that in this instance has been reserved for later +Judaism, which from the chronology of the Book of Exodus +discerned in the feast a commemoration of the giving of the law at +Sinai. But one detects the drift of the later time. + +It has been already pointed out, in what has just been said, that +as regards this development the centralisation of the cultus was +epochmaking. Centralisation is synonymous with generalisation +and fixity, and these are the external features by which +the festivals of the Priestly Code are distinguished from those +which preceded them. In evidence I point to the prescribed +sacrifice of the community instead of the spontaneous sacrifice +of the individual, to the date fixed for the 15th of the month, +to the complete separation between sacrifices and dues, to the +reduction of the passover to uniformity; nothing is free or the +spontaneous growth of nature, nothing is indefinite and still +in process of becoming; all is statutory, sharply defined, +distinct. But the centralisation of the cultus had also not +a little to do with the inner change which the feasts underwent. +At first the gifts of the various seasons of the year are offered +by the individual houses as each one finds convenient; afterwards +they are combined, and festivals come into existence; last of all, +the united offerings of individuals fall into the back ground when +compared with the single joint-offering on behalf of the entire +community. According as stress is laid upon the common character +of the festival and uniformity in its observance, in precisely the +same degree does it become separated from the roots from which it +sprang, and grow more and more abstract. That it is then very +ready to assume a historical meaning may partly also be attributed +to the circumstance that history is not, like harvest, a personal +experience of individual households, but rather an experience of +the nation as a whole. One does not fail to observe, of course, +that the festivals--which always to a certain degree have a +centralising tendency--have IN THEMSELVES a disposition to become +removed from the particular motives of their institution, but in +no part of the legislation has this gone so far as in the Priestly +Code. While everywhere else they still continue to stand, as +we have seen, in a clear relationship to the land and its increase, +and are at one and the same time the great days of homage and +tribute for the superior and grantor of the soil, here this +connection falls entirely out of sight. As in opposition to the +Book of the Covenant and Deuteronomy, nay, even to the corpus +itself which forms the basis of Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., one can +characterise the entire Priestly Code as the wilderness +legislation, inasmuch as it abstracts from the natural conditions +and motives of the actual life of the people in the land of Canaan +and rears the hierocracy on the _tabula rasa_ of the wilderness, the +negation of nature, by means of the bald statutes of arbitrary +absolutism, so also the festivals, in which the connection of the +cultus with agriculture appears most strongly, have as much as +possible been turned into wilderness festivals, but most of all +the Easter festival, which at the same time has become the most +important. + +III.III.2. The centralisation of the cultus, the revolutionising +influence of which is seen in the Priestly Code, is begun by Deuteronomy. +The former rests upon the latter, and draws its as yet unsuspected +consequences. This general relation is maintained also in +details; in the first place, in the names of the feasts, which are +the same in both,--_pesah, shabuoth, sukkoth_. This is not without +its inner significance, for _asiph_ (ingathering) would have placed +much greater hindrances in the way of the introduction of a +historical interpretation than does sukkoth (booths). So also +with the prominence given to the passover, a festival mentioned +nowhere previously--a prominence which is much more striking in the +Priestly Code than in Deuteronomy. Next, this relation is +observed in the duration of the feasts. While Deuteronomy +certainly does not fix their date of commencement with the same +definiteness, it nevertheless in this respect makes a great +advance upon the Jehovistic legislation, inasmuch as it lays down +the rule of a week for Easter and Tabernacles, and of a day for +Pentecost. The Priestly Code is on the whole in agreement with +this, and also with the time determination of the relation of +Pentecost to Easter, but its provisions are more fully developed +in details. The passover, in the first month, on the evening of +the 14th, here also indeed begins the feast, but does not, as in +Deuteronomy xvi. 4, 8, count as the first day of Easter week; +on the contrary, the latter does not begin until the 15th and +closes with the 21st (comp. Leviticus xxiii. 6; Numbers xxviii. 17; +Exodus xii. 18). The beginning of the festival week being +thus distinctly indicated, there arises in this way not merely +an ordinary but also an extra-ordinary feast day more, the day +after the passover, on which already, according to the injunctions +of Deuteronomy, the pilgrims were required to set out early in the +morning on the return journey to their homes. /1/ + +********************************************* +1. It is impossible to explain away this discrepancy by the +circumstance that in the Priestly Code the day is reckoned from +the evening; for (1.) this fact has no practical bearing, as the +dating reckons at any rate from the morning, and the evening +preceding the 15th is always called the 14th of the month (Leviticus +xiii. 27, 32); (2.) the first day of the feast in Deuteronomy +is just the day on the evening of which the passover is held, and +upon it there follow not seven but six days more, whereas in the +Priestly Code the celebration extends from the 14th to the 21st of +the month (Exodus xii. 18). When the MXRT H#BT: is made to +refer, not as in Josh. v. 11 to the 14th, but as in Jewish +tradition (LXX on Leviticus xxiii. 11) to the day following the +15th of Nisan, thee 16th of Nisan is added to the 14th and 15th +as a special feast day. +*********************************************** + +Another advance consists in this, that not only the passover, +as in Deuteronomy, or the additional first day of the feast besides, +but also the seventh (which, according to Deuteronomy xvi. 8, +is marked only by rest), must be observed as _miqra qodesh_ in +Jerusalem. In other words, such pilgrims as do not live in the +immediate neighbourhood are compelled to pass the whole week there, +an exaction which enables us to mark the progress made with +centralisation, when the much more moderate demands of Deuteronomy +are compared. The feast of tabernacles is in the latter law also +observed from beginning to end at Jerusalem, but the Priestly Code +has contrived to add to it an eighth day as an _`acereth_ to the +principal feast, which indeed still appears to be wanting in the +older portion of Leviticus xxiii. From all this it is indisputable +that the Priestly Code has its nearest relations with Deuteronomy, +but goes beyond it in the same direction as that in which Deuteronomy +itself goes beyond the Jehovistic legislation. In any case the +intermediate place in the series belongs to Deuteronomy, and if +we begin that series with the Priestly Code, we must in consistency +close it with the Sinaitic Book of the Covenant (Exodus xx. 23 seq.). + +After King Josiah had published Deuteronomy and had made it the +Book of the Covenant by a solemn engagement of the people (621 +B.C.), he commanded them to "keep the passover to Jehovah your God +as it is written in this Book;" such a passover had never been +observed from the days of the judges, or throughout the entire +period of the kings (2Kings xxiii. 21, 22). And when Ezra the +scribe introduced the Pentateuch as we now have it as the +fundamental law of the church of the second temple (444 B.C.), it +was found written in the Torah which Jehovah had commanded by +Moses, that the children of Israel were to live in booths during +the feast in the seventh month, and further, to use branches +of olive and myrtle and palm for this purpose, and that the people +went and made to themselves booths accordingly; such a thing had +not been done "since the days of Joshua the son of Nun even unto +that day " (Nehemiah viii. 14 seq.). That Josiah's passover rests +upon Deuteronomy xvi. and not upon Exodus xii. is sufficiently +proved by the circumstance that the observance of the festival +stands in connection with the new unity of the cultus, and is +intended to be an exemplification of it, while the precept of +Exodus xii., if literally followed, could only have served to +destroy it. We thus find that the two promulgations of the law, +so great in their importance and so like one another in their +character, both take place at the time of a festival, the one +in spring, the other in harvest; and we also discover that the +festal observance of the Priestly Code first began to show life +and to gain currency about two hundred years later than that +of Deuteronomy. This can be proved in yet another way. The author +of the Book of Kings knows only of a seven days' duration +of the feast of tabernacles (1Kings viii. 66); Solomon dismisses +the people on the eighth day. On the other hand, in the parallel +passage in Chronicles (2Chronicles vii. 9) the king holds +the _`acereth_ on the eighth, and does not dismiss the people until +the following day, the twenty-third of the month; that is to say, +the Deuteronomic use, which is followed by the older author and +by Ezekiel (xiv. 25) who was, roughly speaking, his +contemporary, is corrected by the later writer into conformity +with that of the Priestly Code in force since the time of Ezra +(Nehemiah viii. 18). In later Judaism the inclination to assert +most strongly precisely that which is most open to dispute led +to the well-known result that the eighth day of the feast was +regarded as the most splendid of all (John vii. 37). + +On this question also the Book of Ezekiel stands nearest the +Priestly Code, ordaining as follows (xiv. 21-25):-- +"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall +keep the passover, ye shall eat maccoth seven days; on that day +shall the prince offer for himself and for all the people of the +land a bullock for a sin-offering, and during the seven days +he shall offer a burnt-offering to the Lord, seven bullocks +and seven rams daily for the seven days, and a he-goat daily +for a sin offering; and he shall offer as a meal-offering an ephah +for every bullock and every ram and a hin of oil for the ephah. +In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, in the +feast shall he do the like for seven days, according to the +sin-offering, according to the burnt-offering, and according +to the meal-offering, and according to the oil." +Here indeed in details hardly any point is in agreement with the +prescriptions of the ritual law of Leviticus xxiii., Numbers xxviii., +xxix. Apart from the fact that the day of Pentecost is omitted +(it is restored in the Massoretic text by an absurd correction +in ver. 11), in the first place there is a discrepancy as to the +DURATION of the feasts; both last seven and not eight days, +and the passover is taken for the first day of Easter, as in +Deuteronomy. Further, the offerings differ, alike by their +never-varying number and by their quality; in particular, +nothing is said of the passover lamb, but a bullock as a +general sin-offering is mentioned instead. From the _minha_ the +wine is wanting, but this must be left out of the account, for +Ezekiel banishes wine from the service on principle. Lastly, it +is not the CONGREGATION that sacrifices, but the prince for +himself and for the PEOPLE. But in spite of all differences the +general similarity is apparent; one sees that here for the first +time we have something which at all points admits of correlation +with the Priestly Code, but is quite disparate with the +Jehovistic legislation, and half so with that of Deuteronomy. +On both hands we find the term fixed according to the day +of the month, the strictly prescribed joint burnt-offering +and sin-offering, the absence of relation first-fruits +and agriculture, the obliteration of natural distinctions so as +to make one general churchly festival. But Ezekiel surely could +hardly have had any motive for reproducing Leviticus xxiii. and Numbers +xxviii. seq., and still less for the introduction of a number of +aimless variations as he did so. Let it be observed that in no +one detail does he contradict Deuteronomy, while yet he stands so +infinitely nearer to the Priestly Code; the relationship is not +an arbitrary one, but arises from their place in time. Ezekiel is +the forerunner of the priestly legislator in the Pentateuch; his +pence and people, to some extent invested with the colouring of +the bygone period of the monarchy, are the antecedents of the +congregation of the tabernacle and the second temple. Against +this supposition there is nothing to be alleged, and it is the +rational one, for this reason, that it was not Ezekiel but the +Priestly Code that furnished the norm for the praxis of the later +period. + +For, as the festival system of the Priestly Code absolutely +refuses to accommodate itself to the manner of the older worship as +we are made acquainted with it in Hos. ii., ix. and elsewhere, +in the same degree does it furnish in every respect the standard +for the praxis of post-exilian Judaism, and, therefore, also for +our ideas thence derived. No one in reading the New Testament +dreams of any other manner of keeping the passover than that +of Exodus xii., or of any other offering than the paschal lamb +there prescribed. One might perhaps hazard the conjecture that +if in the wilderness legislation of the Code there is no trace +of agriculture being regarded as the basis of life, which it still +is in Deuteronomy and even in the kernel of Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., +this also is a proof that the Code belongs to a very recent rather +than to a very early period, when agriculture was no longer rather +than not yet. With the Babylonian captivity the Jews lost their +fixed seats, and so became a trading people. + +III.III.3. No notice has as yet been taken of one phenomenon which +distinguishes the Priestly Code, namely, that in it the +tripartite cycle of the feasts is extended and interrupted. In +the chronologically arranged enumeration of Leviticus xxiii. +and Numbers xxviii., xxix., two other feast days are interpolated +between Pentecost and Tabernacles: new year on the first, and the +great day of atonement on the tenth of the seventh month. One +perceives to what an extent the three originally connected +harvest feasts have lost their distinctive character, when it is +observed that these two heterogeneous days make their appearance in +the midst of them;--the _yom kippur_ in the same series with the +old _haggim_, i.e., dances, which were occasions of pure pleasure +and joy, not to be named in the same day with fasts and mournings. +The following points demand notice in detail. + +In the period of the kings the change of the year occurred in +autumn. The autumn festival marked the close of the year and of +the festal cycle (Exodus xxiii. 16, xxxiv. 22; 1Samuel i. 21, 21; +Isaiah xxix. 1, xxxii. 10). Deuteronomy was discovered in +the eighteenth year of Josiah, and in the very same year Easter +was observed in accordance with the prescriptions of that +law--which could not have been unless the year had begun in autumn. +Now the ECCLESIASTICAL festival of new year in the Priestly Code +is also autumnal. /1/ The _yom teruah_ (Leviticus xxiii 24, 2;; + +******************************************** +1. In this way Tabernacles comes not before but after new year; +this probably is connected with the more definite dating (on the +fifteenth day of the month), but is quite contrary to the old +custom and the meaning of the feast. +******************************************* + +Numbers xxix. 1 seq.) falls on the first new moon of autumn, +and it follows from a tradition confirmed by Leviticus xxv. 9, 10, +that this day was celebrated as new year [R)# H#NH). But it is +always spoken of as the first of the seventh month. That is to +say, the civil new year has been separated from the ecclesiastical +and been transferred to spring; the ecclesiastical can only be +regarded as a relic surviving from an earlier period, and betrays +strikingly the priority of the division of the year that +prevailed in the time of the older monarchy. It appears to have +first begun to give way under the influence of the Babylonians, +who observed the spring era. /1/ For the designation of the + +*************************************************** +1. In Exodus xii. 2 this change of era is formally commanded by +Moses: "This month (the passover month) shall be the beginning of +months unto you, it shall be to you the first of the months of the +year." According to George Smith, the Assyrian year commenced at +the vernal equinox; the Assyrian use depends on the Babylonian +(Assyrian Eponym Canon, p. 19). +*************************************************** + +months by numbers instead of by the old Hebrew names, Abib, Zif, +Bul, Ethanim and the like,--a style which arises together with the +use of the spring era,--does not yet occur in Deuteronomy (xvi.1), +but apart from the Priestly Code, and the last redactor of +the Pentateuch (Deuteronomy i. 3) is found for the first time in +writers of the period of the exile. It is first found in Jeremiah, +but only in those portions of his book which were not committed +to writing by him, or at least have been edited by a later hand; /2/ + +**************************************************** +2. Kuenen, Hist.-Krit. Onderzoek (1863), ii. pp. 197, 214. +**************************************************** + +then in Ezekiel and the author of the Book of Kings, who +explains the names he found in his source by giving the numbers +(1Kings vi. 37, 38, viii. 2); next in Haggai and Zechariah; +and lastly in Chronicles, though here already the +Babylonio-Syrian names of the months, which at first were not used +in Hebrew, have begun to find their way in (Nehemiah i. 1, ii. 1; +Zech. i. 7). The Syrian names are always given along with the +numbers in the Book of Esther, and are used to the exclusion of +all others in that of Maccabees. It would be absurd to attempt to +explain this demonstrable change which took place in the calendar +after the exile as a mere incidental effect of the Priestly Code, +hitherto in a state of suspended animation, rather than by +reference to general causes arising from the circumstances of the +time, under whose influence the Priestly Code itself also stood, +and which then had for their result a complete change in the +greater accuracy and more general applicability of the methods +by which time was reckoned. A similar phenomenon presents itself +in connection with the metric system. The "shekel of the +sanctuary," often mentioned in the Priestly Code, and there only, +cannot possibly have borne this name until the most natural objects +of the old Israelite _regime_ had begun to appear surrounded by a +legendary nimbus, because themselves no longer in actual existence. +Over against it we have the "king's weight" mentioned in a gloss +in 2Samuel xiv. 26, the king being none other than the great king +of Babylon. It is an interesting circumstance that the "shekel +of the sanctuary "spoken of in the Priestly Code is still the ordinary +shekel in Ezekiel; compare Exodus xxx. 13 with Ezekiel xliv. 12. + +During the exile the observance of the ecclesiastical new year +seems to have taken place not on the first but on the tenth of the +seventh month (Leviticus xxv. 9; Ezekiel xl. 1), and there is +nothing to be wondered at in this, after once it had come to be +separated from the actual beginning of the year. /1/ This fact alone + +*********************************************** +1. The tenth of the month is to be taken in Ezekiel as strictly new +year's day; for the designation R)# H#NH occurs in no other +meaning than this, and moreover it is by no mere accident that the +prophet has his vision of the new Jerusalem precisely at the new year. +But according to Leviticus xxv. 9 it is the seventh month that is meant, +on the tenth day of which the trumpets are blown at the commencement +of the year of jubilee. +************************************************ + +would suffice to bring into a clear light the late origin of the +great day of atonement in Leviticus xvi., which at a subsequent +period was observed on this date; for although as a ceremonial of +general purification that day occurs appropriately enough at the +change of the year, the joyful sound of the new year trumpets ill +befits its quiet solemnity, the YWM TRW(H in the Priestly Code +being in fact fixed for the first of the seventh month. +Notwithstanding its conspicuous importance, there is nothing known +of the great day of atonement either in the Jehovistic and +Deuteronomic portions of the Pentateuch or in the historical and +prophetical books. It first begins to show itself in embryo +during the exile. Ezekiel (xiv. 18-20) appoints two great +expiations at the beginning of the two halves of the year; for in +xiv. 20 the LXX must be accepted, which reads B#B(Y BXD#, "in +the seventh month at new moon." The second of these, in autumn, +is similar to that of the Priestly Code, only that it falls on +the first and new year on the tenth, while in the latter, on the +contrary, new year is observed on the first and the atonement on +the tenth; the ritual is also much simpler. Zechariah towards +the end of the sixth century looks back upon two regular fast +days, in the fifth and the seventh month, as having been in +observance for seventy years, that is, from the beginning of the +exile (vii. 5), and to these he adds (viii. 19) two others in the +fourth and in the tenth. They refer, according to the very probable +explanation of C. B. Michaelis, to the historical days of calamity +which preceded the exile. On the ninth day of the fourth month +Jerusalem was taken (Jeremiah xxxix. 2); on the seventh of the fifth +the city and the temple were burnt (2Kings xxv. 8); in the seventh +month Gedaliah was murdered, and all that remained of the Jewish state +annihilated (Jeremiah xli.); in the tenth the siege of the city by +Nebuchadnezzar was begun (2Kings xxv. 1). Zechariah also still +knows nothing of the great day of atonement in Leviticus xvi., but +only mentions among others the fast of the seventh month as +having subsisted for seventy years. Even in 444 B.C., the year +of the publication of the Pentateuch by Ezra, the great day of +atonement has not yet come into force. Ezra begins the reading of +the law in the beginning of the seventh month, and afterwards the +feast of tabernacles is observed on the fifteenth; of an atoning +solemnity on the tenth of the month not a word is said in the +circumstantial narrative, which, moreover, is one specially +interested in the liturgical element, but it is made up for on the +twenty-fourth (Nehemiah viii., ix.). This _testimonium e silentio_ +is enough; down to that date the great day of the Priestly Code +(now introduced for the first time) had not existed. /1/ The term is + +************************************************ +1. "If Leviticus xvi. belongs to the original of the Priestly Code, +and the entire Pentateuch was published by Ezra in the year 444, +and yet the day was not then celebrated, then it has _ipso facto_ +been conceded that it is possible that there can be laws which +yet are not carried into effect." So writes Dillmann in his +introduction to Leviticus xvi. (1880, p. 525); every one will grant +him that the law, before it could attain public currency, must +have been previously written and promulgated. +*********************************************** + +partly fixed, following Ezekiel, by reference to the old new +year's day (Leviticus xxv. 9); partly, following Zechariah, by +reference to the fast of Gedaliah, which indeed was still observed +later as a separate solemnity. + +Even before the exile general fast days doubtless occurred, but +they were specially appointed, and always arose out of +extraordinary occasions, when some sin was brought home to the +public conscience, or when the divine anger threatened, especially +in connection with calamities affecting the produce of the soil +(1Kings xxi. 9, 12; Jeremiah xiv. 12, xxxvi. 6, 9; Joel i. 14, +ii. 12, 15). In the exile they began to be a regular custom (Isaiah +lviii.), doubtless in the first instance in remembrance of the +_dies atri_ that had been experienced, but also in a certain measure +as a surrogate, suited to the circumstances, for the joyous popular +gatherings of Easter, Pentecost, and Tabernacles which were +possible only in the Holy Land. /l/ + +************************************** +1. After the second destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the system +of fasts received such an impulse that it was necessary to draw up +a list of the days on which fasting was forbidden. +************************************* + +At last they came into a position of co-ordination with the feasts, +and became a stated and very important element of the ordinary worship. +In the Priestly Code, the great fast in the tenth of the seventh +month is the holiest day of all the year. Nothing could illustrate +more clearly the contrast between the new cultus and the old; fixing +its regard at all points on sin and its atonement, it reaches its +culmination in a great atoning solemnity. It is as if the temper +of the exile had carried itself into the time of liberation also, +at least during the opening centuries; as if men had felt +themselves not as in an earlier age only momentarily and in +special circumstances, but unceasingly, under the leaden pressure +of sin and wrath. It is hardly necessary to add here expressly +that also in regard to the day of atonement as a day sacred +above all others the Priestly Code became authoritative for the +post-exilian period. "Ritual and sacrifice have through the +misfortunes of the times disappeared, but this has retained all its +old sacredness; unless a man has wholly cut himself adrift from +Judaism he keeps this day, however indifferent he may be to all +its other usages and feasts." + + +III.IV. [.1?] + +A word, lastly, on the lunar feasts, that is, new moon and Sabbath. +That the two are connected cannot be gathered from the Pentateuch, +but something of the sort is implied in Amos viii. 5, and 2Kings +iv. 22, 23. In Amos the corn-dealers, impatient of every +interruption of their trade, exclaim, "When will the new moon be +gone, that we may sell corn; and the Sabbath, that we may set +forth wheat?" In the other passage the husband of the woman of +Shunem, when she begs him for an ass and a servant that she may go +to the prophet Elisha, asks why it is that she proposes such a +journey now, for "it is neither new moon nor Sabbath;" it is +not Sunday, as we might say. Probably the Sabbath was originally +regulated by the phases of the moon, and thus occurred on the +seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first (and twenty-eighth) day of the +month, the new moon being reckoned as the first; at least no other +explanation can be discovered. /2/ For that the week should + +************************************ +2 George Smith, Assyrian Eponymn Canon, pp. 19, 20. "Among +the Assyrians the first twenty-eight days of every month were +divided into four weeks of seven days each, the seventh, fourteenth, +twenty-first, and twenty-eight days respectively being Sabbaths; +and there was a general prohibition of work on these days." +See further Hyde, Hist. Rel. Vet. Pers., p. 239. Among the Syrians +$bbh means the week, just as among the Arabs _sanba_ +and _sanbata_ (Pl. _sanabit_), dim. _suneibita_) mean a period of +time (Lagarde, Ps. Hieronymi; p. 158), and in fact, according +to the lexicographers, a comparatively long one. But in the sole +case cited by the _Tag al 'Arus_, it means rather a short interval. +"What is youth? It is the beginning of a _sanbata_," meaning +something like the Sunday of a week. According to this it would +appear as if the sabbath had been originally the week itself, +and only afterwards became the weekly festival day. The identity +of the Syriac word (ta sabbata) in the New Testament) with the +Hebrew is guaranteed by the twofold Arabic form. +*************************************** + +be conditioned by the seven planets seems very barely credible. +It was not until after people had got their seven days that they +began to call them after the seven planets; /1/ + +********************************************** +1. The peculiar order in which the names of the planets are used +to designate the days of the week makes this very clear; see Ideler, +Handb. d. Chron. i. 178 seq., ii 77 seq. +****************************************** + +the number seven is the only bond of connection between them. +Doubtless the week is older than the names of its days. + +Lunar feasts, we may safely say, are in every case older than +annual or harvest feasts; and certainly they are so in the case +of the Hebrews. In the pre-historic period the new moon must have +been observed with such preference that an ancient name for it, +which is no longer found in Biblical Hebrew, even furnished the +root of the general word for a festive occasion, which is used for +the vintage feast in a passage so early as Judges ix. 27. /2/ + +***************************************** +2. Sprenger (Leben Moh. iii. 527) and Lagarde have rightly +correlated the Hebrew _hallel_ with the Arabic _ahalla_ (to call out, +_labbaika_, see, for example Abulf. i. p. 180). But there is no +uncertainty as to the derivation of _ahalla_ from _hilal_ (new +moon) +***************************************** + +But it is established by historical testimonies besides that the +new moon festival anciently stood, at least, on a level with that +of the Sabbath. Compare 1Samuel xx. 5, 6; ~2Kings iv. 23; +Annos viii. 5; Isa i. 13; Hos. ii. 13 (A.V. 11). In the +Jehovistic and Deuteronomic legislation, however, it is completely +ignored, and if it comes into somewhat greater prominence in that +of Ezekiel and the Priestly Code (but without being for a moment +to be compared with the Sabbath), this perhaps has to do with the +circumstance that in the latter the great festivals are regulated +by the new moon, and that therefore it is important that this +should be observed. It may have been with a deliberate intention +that the new moon festival was thrust aside on account of all +sorts of heathenish superstition which readily associated +themselves with it; but, on the other hand, it is possible that +the undersigned preponderance gained by the Sabbath may have ultimately +given it independence, and led to the reckoning of time by +regular intervals of seven days without regard to new moon, with +which now it came into collision, instead of, as formerly, being +supported by it. + +As a lunar festival doubtless the Sabbath also went back to a very +remote antiquity. But with the Israelites the day acquired an +altogether peculiar significance whereby it was distinguished +from all other feast days; it became the day of rest _par +excellence_. Originally the rest is only a consequence of the +feast, e.g. that of the harvest festival after the period of +severe labour; the new moons also were marked in this way (Amos +viii. 5; 2Kings iv. 23). In the case of the Sabbath also, rest is, +properly speaking, only the consequence of the fact that the day +is the festal and sacrificial day of the week (Isaiah i. 13; +Ezekiel xlvi. 1 seq.), on which the shewbread was laid out; +but here, doubtless on account of the regularity with which it +every eighth day interrupted the round of everyday work, this +gradually became the essential attribute. In the end even its name +came to be interpreted as if derived from the verb "to rest." +But as a day of rest it cannot be so very primitive in its origin; +in this attribute it presupposes agriculture and a tolerably +hard-pressed working-day life. With this it agrees that an +intensification of the rest of the Sabbath among the Israelites +admits of being traced in the course of the history. The highest +development, amounting even to a change of quality, is seen +in the Priestly Code. + +According to 2Kings iv. 22, 23, one has on Sabbath time for +occupations that are not of an everyday kind; servant and ass +can be taken on a journey which is longer than that "of a +Sabbath day." In Hos. ii. 13 (11) we read, "I make an end of all +your joy, your feasts, your new moons and your Sabbaths," that is +to say, the last-named share with the first the happy joyousness +which is impossible in the exile which Jehovah threatens. With +the Jehovist and the Deuteronomist the Sabbath, which, it is true, +is already extended in Amos viii. 5 to commerce, is an +institution specially for agriculture; it is the day of +refreshment for the people and the cattle, and is accordingly +employed for social ends in the same way as the sacrificial meal +is (Exodus xx. 10, xxiii. 12, xxxiv. 21; Deuteronomy v. 13, 14). +Although the moral turn given to the observance is genuinely +Israelitic and not original, yet the rest even here still +continues to be a feast, a satisfaction for the labouring classes; +for what is enjoined as a duty--upon the Israelite rulers, that +is, to whom the legislation is directed--is less that they should +rest than that they should give rest. In the Priestly Code, on +the contrary, the rest of the Sabbath has nothing at all of the +nature of the joyous breathing-time from the load of life which a +festival affords, but is a thing for itself, which separates the +Sabbath not only from the week days, but also from the festival +days, and approaches an ascetic exercise much more nearly than a +restful refreshment. It is taken in a perfectly abstract manner, +not as rest from ordinary work, but as rest absolutely. On the +holy day it is not lawful to leave the camp to gather sticks or +manna (Exod. xvi.; Numbers xv.), not even to kindle a fire or cook +a meal (Exodus xxxv. 3); this rest is in fact a sacrifice of +abstinence from all occupation, for which preparation must already +begin on the preceding day (Exodus xvi.). Of the Sabbath of the +Priestly Code in fact it could not be said that it was made for +man (Mark ii. 27); rather is it a statute that presents itself +with all the rigour of a law of nature, having its reason with +itself, and being observed even by the Creator. The original +narrative of the Creation, according to which God finished His +work on the seventh day, and therefore sanctified it, is amended so +as to be made to say that He finished in six days and rested on +the seventh. /1/ + +************************************** +1 The contradiction is indubitable when in Genesis ii. 2 it +is said in the first place that on the seventh day God ended +the work which He had made; and then that He rested on the +seventh day from His work. Obviously the second clause is +an authentic interpretation added from very intelligible motives. +*************************************** + +Tendencies to such an exaggeration of the Sabbath rest as would +make it absolute are found from the Chaldaean period. While +Isaiah, regarding the Sabbath purely as a sacrificial day, says, +"Bring no more vain oblations; it is an abominable incense unto +me; new moon and Sabbath, the temple assembly---I cannot endure +iniquity and solemn meeting," Jeremiah, on the other hand, is the +first of the prophets who stands up for a stricter sanctification +of the seventh day, treating it, however, merely as a day of +rest: "Bear no burden on the Sabbath day, neither bring in by +the gates of Jerusalem nor carry forth a burden out of your +houses, neither do ye any work" (xvii. 21, 22). He adds that this +precept had indeed been given to the fathers, but hitherto has not +been kept; thus, what was traditional appears to have been only +the abstinence from field work and perhaps also from professional +pursuits. In this respect the attitude of Jeremiah is that which +is taken also by his exilian followers, not merely by Ezekiel +(xx. 16, xxii. 263 but also by the Great Unknown (Isaiah lvi. 2, +lviii. 13), who does not otherwise manifest any express partiality +for cultus. While according to Hos. ii. 13, and even Lam. ii. 6, +the Sabbath, as well as the rest of the acts of divine worship, +must cease outside of the Holy Land, it in fact gained in +importance to an extraordinary degree during the exile, having +severed itself completely, not merely from agriculture, but in +particular also from the sacrificial system, and gained entire +independence as a holy solemnity of rest. Accordingly, it became +along with circumcision the symbol that bound together the Jewish +diaspora; thus already in the Priestly Code the two institutions +are the general distinguishing marks of religion [)WT Genesis xvii. +10, 11; Exodus xxxi. 13] which also continue to subsist under +circumstances where as in the exile the conditions of the Mosaic +worship are not present (Genesis ii. 3, xvii. 12, 13). The trouble +which in the meantime the organisers of the church of the second +temple had in forcing into effect the new and strict regulations +is clear from Nehemiah xiii. 15 seq. But they were ultimately +successful. The solemnisation of the Sabbath in Judaism continued +to develop logically on the basis of the priestly legislation, but +always approximating with increasing nearness to the idea; of +absolute rest, so that for the straitest sect of the Pharisees the +business of preparing for the sacred day absorbed the whole week, +and half man's life, so to speak, existed for it alone. "From +Sunday onwards think of the Sabbath," says Shammai. Two details +are worthy of special prominence; the distinction between _yom tob_ +and _shabbath_, comparable to that drawn by the Puritans between +Sundays and feast days, and the discussion as to whether the +Sabbath was broken by divine worship; both bring into +recognition that tendency of the Priestly Code in which the later +custom separates itself from its original roots. + +III.IV.2. Connected with the Sabbath is the sabbatical year. +In the Book of the Covenant it is commanded that a Hebrew who has +been bought as a slave must after six years of service be liberated +on the seventh unless he himself wishes to remain (Exodus xxi. 2-6). +By the same authority it is ordained in another passage that the +land and fruit-gardens are to be wrought and their produce gathered +for six years, but on the seventh the produce is to be surrendered +(#M+), that the poor of the people may eat, and what they leave +the beasts of the field may <e>at (xxiii. 10, 11). Here there is +no word of a sabbatical year. The liberation of the Hebrew slave +takes place six years after his purchase, that is, the term is a +relative one. In like manner, in the other ordinance there is +nothing to indicate an absolute seventh year; and besides, it is +not a Sabbath or fallow time for the _land_ that is contemplated, +but a surrender of the _harvest_. + +The first of these commands is repeated in Deuteronomy without +material alteration, and to a certain extent word for word (xv. +12-18). The other has at least an analogue in Deuteronomy xv. 1-6: +"At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release +(surrender, s*m+h), and this is the manner of it; no creditor +that lendeth aught shall exact it of his neighbour or of his +brother, because Jehovah's release has been proclaimed; of a +foreigner thou mayst exact it again, but that which is of thine +with thy brother, thy hand shall release." +That this precept is parallel with Exodus xxiii. 10, 11, is shown +by the word #m+h~; but this has a different meaning put upon it +which plainly is introduced as new. Here it is not landed property +that is being dealt with, but money, and what has to be +surrendered is not the interest of the debt merely (comparable to +the fruit of the soil), but the capital itself; the last clause +admits of no other construction, however unsuitable the regulation +may be. A step towards the sabbatical year is discernible in it, +in so far as the seventh year term is not a different one for each +individual debt according to the date when it was incurred (in +which case it might have been simply a period of prescription), +but is a uniform and common term publicly fixed: it is absolute, +not relative. But it does not embrace the whole seventh year, +it does not come in at the end of six years as in Exodus, but at +the end of seven; the surrender of the harvest demands the whole +year, the remission of debts, comparatively speaking, only a moment. + +The sabbatical year is peculiar to the Priestly Code, or, to speak +more correctly, to that collection of laws incorporated and edited +by it, which lies at the basis of Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. In Leviticus +xxv. 1-7 we read: +"When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep +a Sabbath to Jehovah. Six years shalt thou sow thy field and prune +thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh +year shall the land keep a Sabbath of rest unto Jehovah: thy field +shalt thou not sow, thy vineyard shalt thou not prune; that which +groweth of its own accord of thy harvest shalt thou not reap, neither +shalt thou gather the grapes of thy vine undressed; the land shall +have a year of rest, and the Sabbath of the land shall be food for +you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy +hired servant, and for thy cattle, and for all the beasts that are +in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be food." +The expressions make it impossible to doubt that Exodus xxiii. 10, 11 +lies at the foundation of this law; but out of this as a basis it +is something different that has been framed. The seventh year, +which is there a relative one, has here become fixed,--not varying +for the various properties, but common for the whole land, a +sabbatical year after the manner of the Sabbath day. This amounts +to a serious increase in the difficulty of the matter, for it is +not one and the same thing to have the abstinence from harvest +spread over seven years and to have it concentrated into one out of +every seven. In like manner a heightening of the demand is also seen +in the circumstance that not merely harvesting but also sowing +and dressing are forbidden. In the original commandment this was +not the case; all that was provided for was that in the seventh +year the harvest should not fall to the lot of the proprietor of the +soil, but should be _publici juris_,--a relic perhaps of communistic +agriculture. Through a mere misunderstanding of the verbal suffix +in Exodus xxiii. 11, as has been conjectured by Hupfeld, a surrender +of the _fruit_ of the land has been construed into a surrender of the +land itself--a general fallow year (Leviticus xxv. 4). The +misunderstanding, however, is not accidental, but highly characteristic. +In Exodus xxiii. the arrangement is made for man; it is a limitation, +for the common good, of private rights of property in land,--in fact, +for the benefit of the landless, who in the seventh year are to have +the usufruct of the soil; in Leviticus xxv. the arrangement is for +the sake of the land,--that it may rest, if not on the seventh day, +at least on the seventh year, and for the sake of the Sabbath-- +that it may extend its supremacy over nature also. Of course this +presupposes the extreme degree of Sabbath observance by absolute +rest, and becomes comprehensible only when viewed as an outgrowth +from that. For the rest, a universal fallow season is possible +only under circumstances in which a people are to a considerable +extent independent of the products of their own agriculture; prior +to the exile even the idea of such a thing could hardly have +occurred. + +In the Priestly Code the year of jubilee is further added to +supplement in turn the sabbatical year (Leviticus xxv. 8 seq.). +As the latter is framed to correspond with the seventh day, +so the former corresponds with the fiftieth, i.e., with Pentecost, +as is easily perceived from the parallelism of Leviticus xxv. 8 +with Leviticus xxiii. 15. Asthe fiftieth day after the seven +Sabbath days is celebrated as a closing festival of the forty-nine +days' period, so is the fiftieth year after the seven sabbatic years +as rounding off the larger interval; the seven Sabbaths falling on +harvest time, which are usually reckoned specially (Luke vi. 1 ), +have, in the circumstance of their interrupting harvest work, a +particular resemblance to the sabbatic years which interrupt agriculture +altogether. Jubilee is thus an artificial institution superimposed +upon the years of fallow regarded as harvest Sabbaths after the +analogy of Pentecost. Both its functions appear originally to +have belonged also to the Sabbath year and to be deduced from the +two corresponding regulations in Deuteronomy relating to the +seventh year, so that thus Exod xxiii. would be the basis of Leviticus +xxv. 1-7 and Deuteronomy xv. that of xxv. 8 seq. The emancipation +of the Hebrew slave originally had to take place on the seventh +year after the purchase, afterwards (it would seem) on the seventh +vear absolutely; for practical reasons it was transferred from +that to the fiftieth. Analogous also, doubtless, is the growth of +the other element in the jubilee--the return of mortgaged property +to its hereditary owner--out of the remission of debts enjoined in +Deuteronomy xv. for the end of the seventh year; for the two hang +very closely together, as Leviticus xxv. 23 seq. shows. + +As for the evidence for these various arrangements, those of the +Book of the Covenant are presupposed alike by Deuteronomy and by +the Priestly Code. It seems to have been due to the prompting of +Deuteronomy that towards the end of the reign of Zedekiah the +emancipation of the Hebrew slaves was seriously gone about; the +expressions in Jeremiah xxxiv. 14 point to Deuteronomy xv. 12, +and not to Exodus xxi. 2. The injunction not having had practical +effect previously, it was in this instance carried through by +all parties at the same date: this was of course inevitable when +it was introduced as an extraordinary innovation; perhaps it is +in connexion with this that a fixed seventh year grew out of a +relative one. The sabbatical year, according to the legislator's +own declaration, was never observed throughout the whole +pre-exilic period; for, according to Leviticus xxvi. 34, 35, the +desolation of the land during the exile is to be a compensation +made for the previously neglected fallow years: +"Then shall the land pay its Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate; +when ye are in your enemies' land then shall the land rest +and pay its Sabbaths; all the days that it lieth desolate shall +it rest, which it rested not in your Sabbaths when ye dwelt upon +it." +The verse is quoted in 2Chronicles xxxvi. 21 as the language +of Jeremiah,-- a correct and unprejudiced indication of its exilic +origin. But as the author of Leviticus xxvi. was also the writer of +Leviticus xxv. 1-7, that is to say, the framer of the law of the +sabbatic year, the recent date of the latter regulation also +follows at once. The year of jubilee, certainly derived from the +Sabbath year, is of still later origin. Jeremiah (xxxiv. 14) has +not the faintest idea that the emancipation of the slaves must +according to "law" take place in the fiftieth year. The name +drwr, borne by the jubilee in Leviticus xxv. 10, is applied by him +to the seventh year; and this is decisive also for Ezekiel xlvi. 17: +the gift of land bestowed by the prince on one of his servants +remains in his possession only until the seventh year. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. + +IV.I. + + +IV.I.1 The problem now to be dealt with is exhibited with peculiar +distinctness in one pregnant case with which it will be well to set +out. The Mosaic law, that is to say, the Priestly Code, +distinguishes, as is well known, between the twelve secular tribes +and Levi, and further within the spiritual tribe itself, between +the sons of Aaron and the Levites, simply so called. The one +distinction is made visible in the ordering of the camp in Numbers +ii., where Levi forms around the sanctuary a cordon of protection +against the immediate contact of the remaining tribes; on the +whole, however, it is rather treated as a matter of course, and +not brought into special prominence (Numbers xviii. 22). The other +is accentuated with incomparably greater emphasis. Aaron and his +sons alone are priests, qualified for sacrificing and burning +incense; the Levites are hieroduli (3 Esdras i. 3), bestowed +upon the Aaronidae for the discharge of the inferior services +(Numbers iii. 9). They are indeed their tribe fellows, but it is +not because he belongs to Levi that Aaron is chosen, and his +priesthood cannot be said to be the acme and flower of the general +vocation of his tribe. On the contrary, rather was he a priest +long before the Levites were set apart; for a considerable time +after the cultus has been established and set on foot these do not +make any appearance,--not at all in the whole of the third book, +which thus far does little honour to its name _Leviticus_. Strictly +speaking, the Levites do not even belong to the clergy: they are +not called by Jehovah, but consecrated by the children of Israel +to the sanctuary,--consecrated in the place of the first-born, not +however as priests (neither in Numbers iii., iv., viii., nor +anywhere else in the Old Testament, is there a single trace of the +priesthood of the first-born), but as a gift due to the priests, as +such being even required to undergo the usual "waving" before the altar, +to symbolise their being cast into the altar flame (Numbers viii.). +The relationship between Aaron and Levi, and the circumstance that +precisely this tribe is set apart for the sanctuary in compensation +for the first-born, appears almost accidental, but at all events +cannot be explained by the theory that Aaron rose on the shoulders +of Levi; on the contrary, it rather means that Levi has mounted up +by means of Aaron, whose priesthood everywhere is treated as having +the priority. Equality between the two is not to be spoken of; +their office and their blood relationship separates them more than +it binds them together. + +Now, the prophet Ezekiel, in the plan of the new Jerusalem which he +sketched in the year 573, takes up among other things the reform of +the relations of the _personnel_ of the temple, and in this +connection expresses himself as follows (xliv. 6-16):-- +"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Let it suffice you of all your +abominations, O house of Israel! in that ye have brought in strangers, +uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my +sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, +the fat and the blood, and have broken my covenant by all your +abominations. And ye have not kept the charge of my holy +things, inasmuch as ye have set these /1/ to be keepers of my + +******************************************* +In ver. 7 for WYPRW read WTPRW, in ver. 8 for WT#YMWN read +WT#YMWM, and for LKM read LKN, in each case following the LXX. +****************************************** + +charge in my sanctuary. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, +No stranger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh +shall enter into my sanctuary; none, of all that are among the +children of Israel. But the Levites who went away far from me +when Israel went astray from me after their idols, they shall +even bear their iniquity, and they shall be ministers in my +sanctuary, officers at the gates of the house and ministers of the +house; they shall slay for the people the burnt-offering and +the thank-offering, and they shall stand before them to minister +unto them. Because they ministered unto them before their idols, +and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore +have I lifted up my hand against them, saith the Lord Jehovah, +and they shall bear their iniquity. They shall not come near +unto me to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to +any of my holy things, but they shall bear their shame and +their abominations which they have committed. And I will make +them keepers of the charge of the house, for all its service, and +for all that shall be done therein. But the priests, the Levites, +sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when +the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near +to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to +offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah; +they shall enter into my sanctuary, and come near to my table +to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge." + +From this passage two things are to be learned. First, that the +systematic separation of that which was holy from profane contact +did not exist from the very beginning; that in the temple of +Solomon even heathen (Zech. xiv. 21), probably captives, were +employed to do hierodulic services which, according to the law, +ought to have been rendered by Levites, and which afterwards +actually were so rendered. Ezekiel, it is indeed true, holds +this custom to be a frightful abuse, and one might therefore +maintain it to have been a breach of the temple ordinances +suffered by the Jerusalem priests against their better knowledge, +and in this way escape accusing them of ignorance of their own +law. But the second fact, made manifest by the above-quoted +passage, quite excludes the existence of the Priestly Code so far +as Ezekiel and his time are concerned. The place of the heathen +temple-slaves is in future to be taken by the Levites. Hitherto +the latter had held the priesthood, and that too not by arbitrary +usurpation, but in virtue of their oun good right. For it is no +mere relegation back to within the limits of their lawful position +when they are made to be no longer priests but temple +ministrants, it is no restoration of the _status quo ante_, the +conditions of which they had illegally broken; it is expressly +a degradation, a withdrawal of their right, which appears as a +punishment and which must be justified as being deserved; "they +shall bear their iniquity." They have forfeited their priesthood, +by abusing it to preside over the cultus of the high places, which +the prophet regards as idolatry and hates in his inmost soul. +Naturally those Levites are exempted from the penalty who have +discharged their functions at the legal place,--the Levites the +sons of Zadok,--namely, at Jerusalem, who now remain sole priests +and receive a position of pre-eminence above those who hitherto +have been their equals in office, and who are still associated with +them by Ezekiel, under the same common name, but now are reduced +to being their assistants and hieroduli. + +It is an extraordinary sort of justice when the priests of the +abolished Bamoth are punished simply for having been so, and +conversely the priests of the temple at Jerusalem rewarded for this; +the fault of the former and the merit of the latter consist simply +in their existence. In other words, Ezekiel merely drapes the logic +of facts with a mantle of morality. From the abolition of the +popular sanctuaries in the provinces in favour of the royal one at +Jerusalem, there necessarily followed the setting aside of the +provincial priesthoods in favour of the sons of Zadok at the +temple of Solomon. The original author of the centralisation, the +Deuteronomic lawgiver, seeks indeed to prevent this consequence by +giving to the extraneous Levites an equal right of sacrificing in +Jerusalem with their brethren hereditarily settled there, but it +was not possible to separate the fate of the priests from that of +their altars in this manner. The sons of Zadok were well enough +pleased that all sacrifices should be concentrated within their +temple, but they did not see their way to sharing their +inheritance with the priesthood of the high places, and the idea +was not carried out (2Kings xxiii. 9). Ezekiel, a thorough +Jerusalemite, finds a moral way of putting this departure from +the law, a way of putting it which does not explain the fact, but +is merely a periphrastic statement of it. With Deuteronomy as a +basis it is quite easy to understand Ezekiel's ordinance, but it +is absolutely impossible if one starts from the Priestly Code. +What he regards as the original right of the Levites, the +performance of priestly services, is treated in the latter +document as an unfounded and highly wicked pretension which once +in the olden times brought destruction upon Korah and his company; +what he considers to be a subsequent withdrawal of their right, as +a degradation in consequence of a fault, the other holds to have +been their hereditary and natural destination. The distinction +between priest and Levite which Ezekiel introduces and justifies +as an innovation, according to the Priestly Code has always +existed; what in the former appears as a beginning, in the latter +has been in force ever since Moses,--an original datum, not a thing +that has become or been made./1/ That the prophet should know + +********************************************** +1. "If by reason of their birth it was impossible for the Levites +to become priests, then it would be more than strange to deprive +them of the priesthood on account of their faults,--much as if one +were to threaten the commons with the punishment of disqualification +to sit or vote in a house of lords" (Kuenen, Theol. Tijdschr., iii. 465). +********************************************* + +nothing about a priestly law with whose tendencies he is in +thorough sympathy admits of only one explanation,--that it did +not then exist. His own ordinances are only to be understood as +preparatory steps towards its own exactment. + + +IV.I.2. Noldeke, however, interprets the parallelism between the +sons of Aaron and the sons of Zadok in favour of the priority of +the Priestly Code, which, after all, he points out, is not quite +so exclusive as Ezekiel. /1/ But, in the first place, this is a + +******************************************* +1 Jahrb. f. prot. Theol., 1875, p. 351: "Its doctrine that +the Aaronidae alone are true priests has its parallel in +Ezekiel, who _still more exclusively_ recognises only +the sons of Zadok as priests." +****************************************** + +point of subordinate importance, the main thing being that Ezekiel +has to make the distinction between priests and Levites, which is +regarded in the Priestly Code as very ancient. In presence of +the fact that the former introduces as a new thing the separation +which the latter presupposes, the precise degree of the +distinction drawn by the two is of no consequence whatever. In +the next place, to bring the sons of Aaron into comparison with the +sons of Zadok, as a proof of their higher antiquity, is just as +reasonable as to bring the tabernacle into comparison with the +temple of Jerusalem for a similar purpose. The former are priests +of the tabernacle, the latter of the temple; but as in point of +fact the only distinction to be drawn between the Mosaic and the +actual central sanctuary is that between shadow and substance, so +neither can any other be made between the Mosaic and the actual +central priesthood. In the Priestly Code the ancient name is +introduced instead of the historical one, simply in order to +maintain the semblance of the Mosaic time; if the circumstance +is to be taken as betokening the earlier origin of the work, then +a similar inference must be drawn also from the fact that in it +the origin and character of the Levites is quite obscure, while +in Ezekiel it is palpably evident that they are the priests thrown +out of employment by the abolition of the Bamoth, whom necessity +has compelled to take a position of subordination under their +haughty fellow-priests at Jerusalem. In truth it is, quite on the +contrary, a proof of the post-exilian date of the Priestly Code +that it makes sons of Aaron of the priests of the central +sanctuary, who, even in the traditional understanding (2Chronicles +xiii. 10), are in one way or other simply the priests of +Jerusalem. By this means it carries their origin back to the +foundation of the theocracy, and gives them out as from the first +having been alone legitimate. But such an idea no one could have +ventured to broach before the exile. At that time it was too well +known that the priesthood of the Jerusalem sept could not be +traced further back than David's time, but dated from Zadok, who in +Solomon's reign ousted the hereditary house of Eli from the position +it had long previously held, first at Shiloh and Nob, and +afterwards at Jerusalem, at what had become the most prominent +sanctuary of Israel. + +In a passage of Deuteronomic complexion, which cannot have been +written long before the exile, we read in a prediction made to Eli +regarding the overthrow of his house by Zadok: +"I said indeed, saith Jehovah the God of Israel, that thy house +and the house of thy father shall walk before me for ever; but now +I say, Be it far from me, for them that honour me I will honour, +but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days +come that I will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy father's house, +...and I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do +according to what is in my heart and in my mind; and I will build +him a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever" +(1Samuel ii. 27-36). +Here it is the house of Eli, and of Eli's father, that is the priestly +family duly chosen in Egypt; _contrary_ to hereditary title, and +contrary to a promise of perpetual continuance, is it deposed at +the higher claims of justice. The faithful priest who is to fill +the vacant place is Zadok. This is expressly said in 1Kings 2:27; +and no other than he ever had a "sure house" and walked uninterruptedly +as its head and ruler before the kings of Judah. This Zadok, +accordingly, belongs neither to Eli's house nor to that of Eli's father; +his priesthood does not go back as far as the time of the founding +of the theocracy, and is not in any proper sense "legitimate;" +rather has he obtained it by the infringement of what might be called +a constitutional privilege, to which there were no other heirs +besides Eli and his family. Obviously he does not figure as an +intermediate link in the line of Aaron, but as the beginner of an +entirely new genealogy; the Jerusalem priests, whose ancestor he is, +are interlopers dating from the beginning of the monarchical period, +in whom the old Mosaic _sacerdotium_ is not continued, but is broken +off. If then they are called in the Priestly Code "sons of Aaron," +or at least figure there among the sons of Aaron, with whom they can +only in point of fact be contrasted, the circumstance is an unmistakable +indication that at this point the threads of tradition from the +pre-exilic period have been snapped completely, which was not yet +the case in Ezekiel's time. /1/ + +******************************************** +1. To satisfy the Pentateuch it is shown in the Book of Chronicles, +by means of artificial genalogies, how the sons of Zadok derived +their origin in an unbroken line from Aaron and Eleazar. +Compare my Pharisaer u. Sadducaer, p. 48 seq. This point was +first observed by Vatke (p. 344 seq.), then by Kuenen (Theol. +Tijdschr., iii. p. 463-509) and lastly by me (Text der BB. Sam., +p. 48-51). +******************************************** + +The relation between the priestly legislation and the Book of +Ezekiel, which has now been shown, gives direction and aim +to the following sketch, in which it is sought to exhibit the +individual phenomenon in its general connection. + + +IV.II. + + +IV.II.1. The setting apart from the rest of the people of an +entire tribe as holy, and the strongly accentuated distinction of +ranks within that tribe, presuppose a highly systematised separation +between sacred and profane, and an elaborate machinery connected +with cultus. In fact, according to the representation given in +the Priestly Code, the Israelites from the beginning were organised +as a hierocracy, the clergy being the skeleton, the high priest the +head, and the tabernacle the heart. But the suddenness with which +this full-grown hierocracy descended on the wilderness from the skies +is only matched by the suddenness with which it afterwards disappeared +in Canaan, leaving no trace behind it. In the time of the Judges, +priests and Levites, and the congregation of the children of Israel +assembled around them, have utterly vanished; there is hardly a +_people_ Israel,--only individual tribes which do not combine even +under the most pressing necessities, far less support at a common +expense a clerical _personnel_ numbering thousands of men, besides +their wives and families. Instead of the Ecclesiastical History +of the Hexateuch, the Book of Judges forthwith enters upon a secular +history completely devoid of all churchly character. The high priest, +who according to the Priestly Code is the central authority by the +grace of God, is here quite left out in the cold, for the really +acting heads of the people are the Judges, people of an entirely +different stamp, whose authority, resting on no official position, +but on strength of personality and on the force of circumstances, +seldom extends beyond the limits of their tribe. And it is plain +that in this we behold not the sorry remains of an ecclesiastico-political +system once flourishing under Moses and Joshua, now completely +fallen into ruins, but the first natural beginnings of a civil +authority which after a course of further development finally led +to the monarchy. + +In the kernel of the Book of Judges (chaps. iii.-xvi.) there +nowhere occurs a single individual whose profession is to take +charge of the cultus. Sacrifice is in two instances offered, by +Gideon and Manoah; but in neither case is a priest held to be +necessary. In a gloss upon 1Samuel vi. 13 seq. the divergence of +later custom reveals itself. When the ark of Jehovah was brought +back from exile in Philistia upon the new cart, it halted in the +field of Bethshemesh beside the great stone, and the inhabitants +of Bethshemesh, who were at the time busy with the wheat harvest, +broke up the cart and made on the stone a burnt-offering of the kine +by which it had been drawn. After they have finished, the Levites +come up (ver. 15) (in the pluperfect tense) and proceed as if nothing +had happened, lift the ark from the now no longer existent cart, +and set it upon the stone on which the sacrifice is already burning;- +of course only in order to fulfil the law, the demands of which +have been completely ignored in the original narrative. Until +the cultus has become in some measure centralised the priests have +no _locus standi_; for when each man sacrifices for himself and his +household, upon an altar which he improvises as best he can for +the passing need, where is the occasion for people whose +professional and essential function is that of sacrificing for +others? The circumstance of their being thus inconspicuous in the +earliest period of the history of Israel is connected with the +fact that as yet there are few great sanctuaries. But as soon as +these begin to occur, the priests immediately appear. Thus we find +Eli and his sons at the old house of God belonging to the tribe of +Ephraim at Shiloh. Eli holds a very exalted position, his sons are +depicted as high and mighty men, who deal with the worshippers not +directly but through a servant, and show arrogant disregard of their +duties to Jehovah. The office is hereditary, and the priesthood +already very numerous. At least in the time of Saul, after they had +migrated from Shiloh to Nob, on account of the destruction by the +Philistines of the temple at the former place, they numbered more +than eighty-five men, who, however, are not necessarily proper +blood-relations of Eli, although reckoning themselves as belonging +to his clan (1Samuel xxii. 11). /1/ + +*********************************************** +1. In 1Samuel i. seq., indeed, we read only of Eli and his two +sons and one servant, and even David and Solomon appear to have +had only a priest or two at the chief temple. Are we to suppose +that Doeg, single-handed, could have made away with eighty-five +men ? +************************************************ + +One sanctuary more is referred to towards the close of the period +of the Judges,--that at Dan beside the source of the Jordan. A rich +Ephraimite, Micah, had set up to Jehovah a silver-covered image, +and lodged it in an appropriate house. At first he appointed one +of his sons to be its priest, afterwards Jonathan ben Gershom +ben Moses, a homeless Levite of Bethlehem-Judah, whom he counted +himself happy in being able to retain for a yearly salary of ten +pieces of silver, besides clothing and maintenance. When, however, +the Danites, hard pressed by the Philistines, removed from their +ancient settlements in order to establish a new home for themselves +on the slopes of Hermon in the north, they in passing carried off +both Micah's image and his priest; what led them to do so was the +report of their spies who had formerly lodged with Micah and there +obtained an oracle. It was in this way that Jonathan came to Dan +and became the founder of the family which retained the priesthood +at this afterwards so important sanctuary down to the period of the +deportation of the Danites at the Assyrian captivity (Judges xvii., +xviii.). His position seems very different from that of Eli. +The only point of resemblance is that both are hereditary priests, +Levites so called, and trace their descent from the family of Moses,-- +of which more anon. But while Eli is a man of distinction, perhaps +the owner of the sanctuary, at all events in a position of +thorough independence and the head of a great house, Jonathan is a +solitary wandering Levite who enters the service of the proprietor +of a sanctuary for pay and maintenance, and is indeed nourished +as a son by his patron, but by no means treated with special +respect by the Danites. + +The latter case, it may well be conjectured, more nearly +represents the normal state of matters than the former. An +independent and influential priesthood could develop itself only +at the larger and more public centres of worship, but that of +Shiloh seems to have been the only one of this class. The +remaining houses of God, of which we hear some word from the +transition period which preceded the monarchy, are not of +importance, and are in private hands, thus corresponding to that +of Micah on Mount Ephraim. That of Ophra belongs to Gideon, and +that of Kirjathjearim to Abinadab. In fact, it appears that +Micah, in appointing one to minister at his sanctuary for hire, +would seem to have followed a more general practice. For the +expression ML( YDW, which still survived as a _terminus technicus_ +for the ordination of priests long after they had attained a +perfectly independent position, can originally in this +connection hardly have meant anything else than a filling of the +hand with money or its equivalent; thus the priestly office +would appear in the older time to have been a paid one, perhaps +the only one that was paid. Whom he shall appoint is at the +discretion of the proprietor: if no one else is available, he +gives it to one of his sons (Judges xvii. 5; 1Samuel vii. 1),-- +of a "character indelibilis" there is of course in such a case +no idea, as one can learn from the earliest example, in which +Micah's son retires again from the service after a brief interval. +David, when he removed the ark, intrusted it in the first instance +to the house of Obededom, a captain of his, a Philistine of Gath, +whom he made its keeper. A priest of regular calling, a Levite, +is, according to Judges xvii. 13, a very unusual person to find +at an ordinary sanctuary. Even at Shiloh, where, however, the +conditions are extraordinary, the privilege of the sons of Eli is +not an exclusive one; Samuel, who is not a member of the family, +is nevertheless adopted as a priest. The service for which a +stated minister was needed was not that of offering sacrifice; +this was not so regular an occurrence as not to admit of being +attended to by one's self. For a simple altar no priest was +required, but only for a house which contained a sacred image; /1/ + +******************************************** +1. BYT (LHYM, "house of God," is never anything but the house of an +image. Outside of the Priestly Code, _ephod_ is the image, _ephod +bad_ the priestly garment. +******************************************** + +this demanded watching and attendance (1 Sam. vii. 1)--in fact, +an ephod like that of Gideon or that of Micah (Judges viii. 26, +27, XVii. 4) was an article well worth stealing, and the houses of +God ordinarily lay in an open place (Exodus xxxiii. 7). The +expressions #MR and #RT to denote the sacred service were +retained in use from this period to later times; and, while every +one knows how to sacrifice, the art of dealing with the ephod and +winning its oracle from it continues from time immemorial to be +the exclusive secret of the priest. In exceptional cases, the +attendant is occasionally not the priest himself, but +his disciple. Thus Moses has Joshua with him as his _aedituus_ /2/ + +******************************************************* +2 M#RT M#H, more precisely m'' (T YY PNY M#H HKHN, 1Samuel. ii. 11. +******************************************************** + +(Exodus xxxiii. 11), who does not quit the tent of Jehovah; so +also Eli has Samuel, who sleeps at night in the inner portion of +the temple beside the ark of the covenant; even if perhaps the +narrative of Samuel's early years is not quite in accordance with +the actual circumstances as they existed at Shiloh, it is still +in any case a perfectly good witness to a custom of the +existence of which we are apprised from other sources. Compare now +with this simple state of affairs the fact that in the Priestly +Code the sons of Aaron have something like the half of a total of +22,000 Levites to assist them as watchers and ministers of +the sanctuary. + +Any one may slaughter and offer sacrifice (1Samuel xiv. 34 +seq.); and, even in cases where priests are present, there is not +a single trace of a systematic setting apart of what is holy, or +of shrinking from touching it. When David "entered into the house +of God and did eat the shew-bread, which it is not lawful to eat +save for the priests, and gave also to them that were with him" +(Mark ii. 26), this is not represented in 1Sam. xxi. as +illegitimate when those who eat are sanctified, that is, have +abstained on the previous day from women. Hunted fugitives lay +hold of the horns of the altar without being held guilty of +profanation. A woman, such as Hannah, comes before Jehovah, that +is, before the altar, to pray; the words WTTYCB LPNY YY +(1Samuel i. 9) supplied by the LXX, are necessary for the connection, +and have been omitted from the Massoretic text as offensive. In +doing so she is observed by the priest, who sits quietly, as is +his wont, on his seat at the temple door. The history of the ark +particularly, as Vatke justly remarks (pp. 317, 332), affords more +than one proof of the fact that the notion of the unapproachableness +of the holy was quite unknown; I shall content myself with the most +striking of these. Samuel the Ephraimite sleeps by virtue of his +office every night beside the ark of Jehovah, a place whither, +according +to Leviticus xvi., the high priest may come only once in the year, +and even he only after the strictest preparation and with the +most elaborate atoning rites. The contrast in the TONE OF FEELING +is so great that no one as yet has even ventured to realise it +clearly to himself. + +IV.II.2. With the commencement of the monarchical period the priests +forthwith begin to come into greater prominence along with the +kings; the advance in centralisation and in publicity of life +makes itself noticeable also in the department of worship. At the +beginning of Saul's reign we find the distinguished Ephraimitic +priesthood, the house of Eli, no longer at Shiloh, but at Nob, in +the vicinity of the king, and to a certain degree in league with +him; for their head, Ahijah the priest, is in immediate +attendance on him when arms are first raised against the +Phiiistines, shares the danger with him, and consults the ephod on +his behalf. Subsequently the _entente cordiale_ was disturbed, +Ahijah and his brethren fell a sacrifice to the king's jealousy, +and thus the solitary instance of an independent and considerable +priesthood to be met with in the old history of Israel came for +ever to an end. Abiathar, who alone escaped the massacre of Nob +(1Samuel xxii.), fled with the ephod to David, for which he was +rewarded afterwards with high honours, but all that he became he +became as servant of David. Under David the regius priesthood +began to grow towards the importance which it from that time +forward had. This king exercised unfettered control over the +sanctuary of the ark which stood in his citadel, as also over +the appointment of the priests, who were merely his officials. +Alongside of Abiathar he placed Zadok (and subsequently Ira also), +as well as some of his own sons. For when it is stated in +2Sam. viii. 18 that the sons of David were priests, the words +must not out of regard to the Pentateuch be twisted so as to mean +something different from what they say. We also (1Kings iv. 5) +find the son of the prophet Nathan figuring as a priest, and on +the other hand the son of Zadok holding a high secular office +(ver. 2); even at this date the line of demarcation afterwards +drawn between holy and non-holy persons has no existence. What +under David was still wanting to the institution of the royal +worship and the regius priests--a fixed centre--was added by +the erection of the temple under his successor. At the beginning +of Solomon's reign there was still no ISRAELITE place of sacrifice +such as sufficed for the greater contingencies; he was compelled +to celebrate his accession at the great Bamah at Gibeon, a town +in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, which, although it had been +subjugated for a considerable time, was still entirely Canaanite. +He now took care to make it possible that his colossal festivals +should be celebrated at his own sanctuary. And next he made Zadok +its priest after having previously deposed and relegated to his +patrimonial property at Anathoth, a village adjoining Jerusalem, +the aged Abiathar, a man of pure and honourable priestly descent, +on account of the support he had given to the legitimate heir +to the crown, thereby bringing to pass the fate with which the +once so proud and powerful family of Eli had in 1Samuel ii. been +threatened. Doubtless other priests also by degrees attached +themselves to the family of Zadok, and ultimately came even to call +themselves his sons, just as the Rechabites regarded Jonathan +ben Rechab, or the "children of the prophets" one or other of +the great prophets, as their father. + +Regarding their sanctuaries as their own private property, +precisely as Micah does in the classical instance recorded in +Judges xvii., xviii., and proceeding quite untrammelled in the +appointment and removal of the officials employed, neither do +these early kings hesitate in the least to exercise personally +the rights which had emanated from themselves, and been delegated +to others. Of Saul, who indeed was in the habit of delegating +but seldom, and of doing with his own hand all that required to +be done, it is several times mentioned that he sacrificed in person; +and it is clear that this is not brought as a charge against him in +1Samuel xiv. and xv. David sacrificed on the occasion of his having +successfully brought the ark to Jerusalem; that it was he himself +who officiated appears from the fact that he wore the priestly +ephod--_the ephod bad_--and at the close of the offering pronounced the +benediction (2Samuel vi. 14, 18). In the same way was the +consecration of the temple conducted by Solomon; it was he who +went before the altar, and after praying there upon his knees with +outstretched arms, rose and blessed the people (1Kings viii. +22, 54, 53),--doubtless also it was he who with his own hands +offered the first sacrifice. The priests' technical skill is +necessary only for inquiring of the oracle before the ephod +(1Samuel xiv. 18). + +IV.II.3. These beginnings are continued in the history of the +priesthood after the division of the kingdom. Jeroboam I., the +founder of the kingdom of Israel, is treated by the historian as +the founder also of Israel's worship in so far as the latter +differed from the Judaean ideal: "he made the two calves of gold, +and set them up at Bethel and at Dan; he made the Bamoth-houses +and made priests from the mass of the people, who were not of the +sons of Levi, and ordained a feast in the eighth month and +ascended to the altar to burn incense" (1Kings xii. 28 seq., +xiii. 33). Here indeed after the well-known manner of pious +pragmatism retrospective validity is given to the Deuteronomic +law which did not come into force until three centuries +afterwards, and judgment is thus passed in accordance with a +historically inadmissable standard; moreover, the facts on which +the judgment is based are on the one hand too much generalised, +and on the other hand laid too exclusively to the charge of +Jeroboam. The first king bears the weight of all the sins in +worship of all his successors and of the whole body of the +people. But the recognition of the sovereign priesthood of the +ruler, of the formative influence which he exercised over the +worship, is just. The most important temples were royal ones, +and the priests who attended at them were the king's priests +(Amos vii. 10 seq.). When therefore Jehu overthrew the house +of Ahab, he did not extirpate all its members merely, and its +officials and courtiers, but also its priests as well; they +too were servants of the crown and in positions of trust +(2Kings x. 11I; comp. 1Kings iv. 5). The statement that they +were chosen at the pleasure of the king is therefore to be taken +as implying that, as in David's and Solomon's time, so also later +they could and might be chosen at pleasure; on the other hand, in +point of fact the sacred office, in Dan at least, continued from +the period of the Judges down to the Assyrian deportation +hereditary in the family of Jonathan. One must, moreover, avoid +imagining that all the "houses of the high places" and all the +priestly posts /1/ belonged to the king; it was impossible that the + +******************************************** +1. The parallelism between "Bamoth-houses" and a priestly +appointment in 1Kings xii. 31 seems not to be casual merely. +Whilst a Bamah may be a simple altar, a "Bamoth-house" +presupposes a divine image, and renders an _aedituus_ necessary. +******************************************** + +government should be so all-pervading in such matters. At this +period most of the sanctuaries were public, but not therefore as +yet on that account royal, and so also doubtless there were +numerous priests who were not servants of the king. The +preponderance of official cultus and of an official personnel to +carry it on was counteracted in the northern kingdom by the +frequent dynastic changes and the unattached particularism of the +separate tribes; the conditions may be presumed to have +developed themselves with great variety and freedom, hereditary +and unhereditary priests, priests with independent benefices and +others in complete poverty, subsisting side by side; the variety +and the equality of rights enjoyed by all is the distinguishing +mark of the time. + +Speaking generally, however, the priesthood has distinctly +consolidated itself as compared with its former condition, and +gained not a little alike in number and in influence; it has become +an important power in public life, without which the nation cannot +be imagined. It would perhaps be somewhat bold to assert this +on the strength merely of the brief and inadequate indications +in the Book of Kings, which is chiefly interested in the extraordinary +interventions of the prophets in the course of Israel's history, +but other and more authentic testimonies justify us in doing so. +First of these is the Blessing of Moses, an independent document +of northern Israel which speaks for itself. Here we read: +"Thy Thummim and thy Urim belong to the man of thy friendship, +whom thou didst prove at Massah, +for whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; +who saith of father and mother, +I have never seen them, +and acknowledgeth not his brethren +nor knoweth his own children-- +for they observe thy word +and keep thy covenant, +they teach Jacob thy judgments +and Israel thy law; +they bring savour of fat before thee +and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar; +bless, O Lord, his strength, +and accept the work of his hands; +smite through the loins of them that rise up against him, +and of them that hate him that they rise not again" +(Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8-11). +In this passage the priests appear as a strictly close corporation, +so close that they are mentioned only exceptionally in the plural +number, and for the most part are spoken of collectively in the +singular, as an organic unity which embraces not merely the +contemporary members, but also their ancestors, and which begins +its life with Moses, the friend of Jehovah who as its beginning +is identified with the continuation just as the man is identified +with the child out of which he has grown. The history of Moses +is at the same time the history of the priests, the Urim and Thummim +belong--one is not quite sure to which, but it comes to the same +thing; every priest to whom the care of an ephod has been intrusted +interrogates before it the sacred oracle. The first relative clause +relating to Moses passes over without change of subject into one +that refers to the priests, so that the singular immediately falls +into plural and the plural back to the singular. Yet this so +strongly marked solidarity of the priesthood as a profession rests +by no means upon the natural basis of family or clan unity; it is +not blood, but on the contrary the abnegation of blood that constitutes +the priest, as is brought out with great emphasis. He must act for +Jehovah's sake as if he had neither father nor mother, neither +brethren nor children. Blind prepossession in people's conceptions +of Judaism has hitherto prevented the understanding of these words, +but they are thoroughly unambiguous. What they say is, that in +consecrating himself to the service of Jehovah a man abandons his +natural relationships, and severs himself from family ties; +thus, with the brotherhood of the priests in northern Israel the +case is precisely similar as with that of the religious guilds of +the sons of the prophets--the Rechabites, and doubtless too the +Nazarites (Amos ii. 11 seq.)--also native there. Whosoever chose +(or, whomsoever he chose) was made priest by Jeroboam--such is the +expression of the Deuteronomic redactor of the Book of Kings +(1Kings xiii. 33). A historical example of what has been said is +afforded by the young Samuel, as he figures in the narrative of +his early years contained in 1Samuel i.-iii.--a narrative which +certainly reflects the condition of things in Ephraim at the period +of the monarchy. The child of a well-to-do middle class family +at Ramah, in the district of Zuph Ephraim, he is even before his +birth vowed to Jehovah by his mother, and as soon as possible +afterwards is handed over to the sanctuary at Shiloh,--not to +become a Nazarite or one of the Nethinim in the sense of the +Pentateuch, but to be a priest,--for in his ministry he wears +the linen ephod, the _ephod bad_, and even +the pallium (1Samuel ii. 18) /1/ And it is made very plain that + +*********************************************** +1. Comp. Koran, iii. 31: "I vow to thee that which is in my +womb as a devotee of the mosque, to serve it." +*[pallium. "1.Antiq. A large rectangular cloak or mantle worn by men' +chiefly among the Greeks; esp. by philosophers and by early Christian +ascetics...Himation...2.Eccl. A vestment of wool worn by patriarchs +and metropolitans... SOED. Heb. m(yl q+n ii.19?]* +********************************************** + +the mother's act, in thus giving up her son, who is properly +hers, or (as she expresses it) lending him to Jehovah for ever +(1Samuel i. 28: #MW)L=MW#)L), is regarded as a renunciation +of family rights. The circumstance that it is by the parents +and not by Samuel himself that the consecration is made makes +no material difference; the one thing is on the same plane with +the other, and doubtless occurred as well as the other, although +seldomer. But, on the other hand, it can hardly have been the +rule that any one should abandon not parents and brethren merely, +but also wife and children as well in order to enter the priesthood; +in Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9 this is adduced only as an extreme instance +of the spirit of self-sacrifice. In any case it is not to be +inferred that celibacy was demanded, but only that the priestly +office was often barely sufficient to support the man, not to +speak of a family. + +So fixed and influential, so independent and exclusive had the +priesthood become at the date of the composition of the Blessing +of Moses, that it takes a place of its own alongside of the tribes +of the nation, is itself a tribe, constituted, however, not by +blood, but by community of spiritual interests. Its importance +is brought into clearness even by the opposition which it +encounters, and which occasions so vigorous a denunciation of its +enemies that one might well believe the person who committed it to +writing to have been himself a priest. The cause of the hostility +is not stated, but it seems to be directed simply against the +very existence of a professional and firmly organised clergy, +and to proceed from laymen who hold fast by the rights of the old +priestless days. + +Next to the Blessing of Moses the discourses of Hosea contain our +most important materials for an estimate of the priesthood of +Northern Israel. How important that institution was for public +life is clear from his expressions also. The priests are the +spiritual leaders of the people; the reproach that they do not fulfil +their high vocation proves in the first place that they have it. +Degenerate they are, to be sure; in Hosea's representation they +are seen in the same light as that in which the sons of Eli appear +as described in 1Samuel ii. 22 seq., from which description one +conjectures the author to have derived his colours from a state of +matters nearer his own day than the period of the judges. The +priests of Shechem are even taxed by the prophet with open highway +robbery (vi. 9), and in one charge after another he accuses them +of taking advantage of their office for base gain, of neglecting +its most sacred duties, and in this way having the principal +blame for the ruin of the people. +"Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel, +for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, +because there is no truth, nor mercy, +nor knowledge of God in the land. +(2.) There is swearing, and Iying, and killing, +and stealing, and committing adultery; +they use violence and add murder to murder. +(3.) Therefore the land mourneth, +and every creature that dwelleth therein languisheth, +even to the wild beasts of the field +and the fowls of heaven; +and even the fishes of the sea are taken away. +(4.) Yet let no man strive +and no man reprove; +for the people do just as their priests. +(5.) Therefore shall ye (priests) stumble on that day, +and also the prophets with you on that night; +and I will destroy your kin. +(6.) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, +because ye yourselves reject knowledge; +I will therefore reject you that ye shall be no longer priests unto me; +ye have forgotten the doctrine of your God, +so will I forget your children. +(7.) The more they are, +the more they sin against me; +their glory they turn into shame. +(8.) They eat up the sin of my people, +and they set their heart on their iniquity. +(9.) And it shall be as with the people so with the priest; +I will punish them for their ways +and requite them for their doings. +(10.) They shall eat and not have enough, +they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase, +because they have ceased to take heed to the Lord" +(Hosea iv. 1-10). /1/ + +********************************************** +1. In the introductory words the people are invited to hear what it +is that Jehovah complains of them for; sin prevails to such an +extent that the complete ruin of the country is inevitable (vers. +1-3). With the word "yet" at the beginning of the following verse +the prophet changes the course of his thought; from the people he +passes to the priests; the root of the general corruption is the +want of divine knowledge (the knowledge, namely, that "I will have +mercy and not sacrifice; "compare Jeremiah xxii. 16), and for this +the priests are to blame, whose task it was to diffuse "knowledge," +but who, instead of this for their own selfish interests fostered +the tendency of the people to seek Jehovah's grace by sacrifice +rather than by righteousness. For if it be conceded that it is +the priests who are addressed from ver. 6 onwards, then it is not +easy to see why a change in the address should take place between +ver. 5 and ver. 6, especially as the co-ordination of priests +with prophets seems more reasonable in ver. 5 than that of prophets +and people. As ver. 4 in this way occupies an intermediate position +between the complaint made against the people in vers. 1-3, and +that against the priests in vers. 5-10, the transition from the one +to the other, indicated by the "yet," must occur in it. Hosea +abruptly breaks off from reproaching the people, "Yet let no man +strive and no man reprove"--why not, the words that follow must +explain. In verse 4b some circumstance must be mentioned which +excuses the people, and at the same time draws down indignation +upon the priests who are the subjects of the following. These +considerations necessarily determine the thought which we are +to expect, namely, this--"for the people do just as their priests." +This meaning is obtained by the conjectural reading W(MY KKMRYW +instead of W(MKKMRYB. Comp. ver. 9. The remaining YKH must be +deleted. The ordinary view of ver. 4 is hardly worth refuting. +The )L YWKH, it is said, is spoken from the people's point of view. +The people repel the prophet's reproach and rebuke, because +(such is the interpretation of ver. 4b) they themselves have no +scruples in striving EVEN with the priest. "Even," for want of +subjection to the priests is held to be specially wicked. +But the prophet Hosea would hardly have considered it a capital +offence if the people had withheld from the priests the respect +of which, according to his own language, they were so utterly +unworthy. Moreover, every exegesis which finds in ver. 4 a +reproach brought against the people, leaves in obscurity the point +at which the transition is made from reproach of the people +to reproach of the priests. +*********************************************** + +In the northern kingdom, according to this, the spiritual +ascendancy of the priests over the people seems hardly to have +been less than that of the prophets, and if in the history we +hear less about it, /1/ the explanation is to be sought in the + +******************************************** +1. According to 2Kings xvii. 27, 28, the foreign colonies +introduced by the Assyrians into Samaria after it had been +depopulated, were at first devoured by lions because they were +ignorant of the right way of honouring the deity of the land. +Esarhaddon therefore sent one of the exiled Samaritan priests, who +fixed his abode at Bethel, the ancient chief sanctuary, and +instructed (MWRH) the settlers in the religion of the god of the +country. This presupposes a definite priesthood, which +maintained itself even in exile for a considerable time. +******************************************* + +fact that they laboured quietly and regularly in limited +circles, taking no part in politics, and fully submissive to the +established order, and that for this reason they attracted less +notice and were less talked about than the prophets who, like +Elijah and Elisha, stirred up Israel by their extraordinary and +oppositional action. + +IV.II.4. In Judah the nucleus of the development was the same as in +Israel. The idea that in Judah the genuine Mosaic priesthood had +by the grace of God been maintained, while in Israel, on the other +hand, a schismatic priesthood had intruded itself by the favour +of the king and man's device, is that of the later Judaeans who +had the last word, and were therefore of course in the right. The +B'ne Zadok of Jerusalem as contrasted with the B'ne Eli whom they +superseded were originally illegitimate (if one may venture to +apply a conception which at that time was quite unknown), and did +not inherit their right from the fathers, but had it from David +and Solomon. They always remained in this dependent condition, +they at all times walked, as 1Samuel ii. 35 has it, "before +Jehovah's anointed," as his servants and officers. To the kings +the temple was a part of their palace which, as is shown by +1Kings vii. and 2Kings xi., stood upon the same hill and was +contiguous with it; they placed their threshold alongside of +that of Jehovah, and made their door-posts adjoin to His, so that +only the wall intervened between Jehovah and them (Ezekiel xliii. +8). They shaped the official cultus entirely as they chose, +and regarded the management of it, at least so far as one gathers +from the epitome of the "Book of the Kings," as the main business +of their government. They introduced new usages and abolished old +ones; and as they did so the priests always bent to their will +and were merely their executive organs. /1/ That they were at + +******************************************* +1. Compare for example 2Kings xii. 5 seq. (Joash and Jehoiada), +xvi. 10 seq. Ahaz and Urijah), and, finally, chap. xxii. +(Josiah and Hilkiah). +****************************************** + +liberty to offer sacrifice also is a thing of course; they did +it, however, only on exceptional occasions, such as, perhaps, at +the dedication of a new altar (2Kings xvi. 12, 13). Even with +Jeremiah, who as a rule does not consider sacrifice and drawing +near to Jehovah (Numbers xvi 5) as every man's business, the king +as such is held to be also the supreme priest; for at the +beginning of the exile and the foreign domination his hope for the +future is: "Their potentate shall be of themselves, and their +governor shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause +him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me; for who else +should have the courage to approach unto me? saith the Lord" +(xxx. 21). Ezekiel is the first to protest against dealing with +the temple as a royal dependency; for him the prerogative of the +prince is reduced to this, that it is his duty to support the +public cultus at his own expense. + +The distinction between the Judaean and the Israelite priesthood +did not exist at first, but arose out of the course of events. +The sheltered and quiet life of the little state in the south +presents a marked contrast with the external and internal conflicts, +the easily raised turmoil, of the northern kingdom. In the latter, +the continual agitation brought extraordinary personalities up +to the surface; in the former, institutions based upon the permanent +order of things and supported by permanent powers were consolidated./1/ + +************************************************* +1. The Rechabites, who arose in the northern kingdom, continued to +subsist in Judah, and Jeremiah prophesied to them that there +should never fail them a priestly head of the family of their +founder (xxxv. 19). +************************************************** + +Naturally the monarchy itself benefited most by this stability. +The king's cultus, which in the kingdom of Samaria was in no +position to supersede the popular and independent worship, +easily obtained a perceptible preponderance in the smaller Judah; +the king's priesthood, which in the former was incidentally involved +in disaster by the overthrow of the dynasty, in the latter gained +in strength side by side with the house of David--even Aaron +and Amminadab were according to the Priestly Code related to the +royal family, as Jehoiada and Ahaziah were in actual fact. +Thus at an early period was the way paved for the Act of Uniformity +by which Josiah made the king's cultus the official and the only one. +One effect which accompanied the measures he took was naturally the +exclusive legitimation of the king's priesthood at Jerusalem. But +the principle of heredity had already pervaded the other priestly +families so thoroughly that to enter any secular calling was +nowhere expected of them. The Deuteronomic legislator had +conferred upon them the right of carrying on their office at +Jerusalem, and of executing it there on behalf of any one who +requested their services; but this regulation, from the opposition +of the B'ne Zadok, was found on the whole impracticable (2Kings +xxiii. 9), although doubtless some extraneous elements may at +that time have succeeded in making their way into the temple +nobility. The bulk of the priests of the high places who had been +superseded had to content themselves (since they could not now +get rid of their spiritual character) with being degraded among +their brethren at Jerusalem, and with admission to a subordinate +share in the service of the sanctuary (comp. 1Samuel ii. 36). +It was thus, at the close of the pre-exilic history, that the +distinction between priests and Levites arose to which Ezekiel +is at pains to give the sanction of law. + + + +IV.III. + +IV.III.1. On the whole it is easy here to bring the successive strata +of the Pentateuch into co-ordination with the recognisable steps +of the historical development. In the Jehovistic legislation +there is no word of priests (Exodus xx.-xxiii., xxxiv.), and even +such precepts as "Thou shalt not go up by steps unto mine altar, +that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon " (Exodus xx. 26) +are directed to the general "thou," that is, to the people. With +this corresponds the fact that in the solemn ratification of the +covenant of Sinai (Exodus xxiv. 3-8), it is young men of the +children of Israel who officiate as sacrificers. Elsewhere in the +Jehovist Aaron (Exodus iv. 14, xxxii. 1 seq.) and Moses (xxxiii. +7-lI; Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8) figure as the founders of the clerical +order. Twice (in Exodus xix. 22 and xxxii 29) mention is made of +other priests besides; but Exodus xxxii. 29 rests upon +Deuteronomy, and even Exodus xix. 22 can hardly have been an +original constituent of one of the Jehovistic sources. + +IV.III.2. In Deuteronomy the priests, as compared with the judges and +the prophets, take a very prominent position (xvi. 18-xviii. 22) +and constitute a clerical order, hereditary in numerous families, +whose privilege is uncontested and therefore also does not require +protection. Here now for the first time begins the regular use of +the name of Levites for the priests,--a name of which the +consideration has been postponed until now. + +In the pre-exilic literature apart from the Pentateuch it occurs +very seldom. First in the prophets, once in the Book of Jeremiah +(xxxiii. 17-22), in a passage which in any case is later than +the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans, and certainly was +not written by Jeremiah. /1/ The use of the name is an + +********************************************** +1. In the LXX, chap. xxxiii. 14-26 is wanting. The parallelism +between vers. 17-22 and 23-26 is striking. It looks as if David +and Levi arose out of a misunderstanding of the families mentioned +in ver. 24, namely, Judah and Ephraim. In any case wdwd in ver. +26 is an interpolation. +************************************************ + +established thing in Ezekiel (573 B.C.), and henceforward occurs +without interruption in the writings of the later prophets, a sign +that its earlier absence is not to be explained as accidental, not +even in Jeremiah, who speaks so frequently of the priests. /2/ + +******************************************** +1. Ezekiel xl. 46, xliii. 19, xliv. 10, 15, xlv. 5, xlviii. +11-13, 22, 31; Isaiah lxvi. 21; Zechariah xii. 13; Malachi +ii. 4, 8, iii. 3. +******************************************* + +In the historical books the Levites (leaving out of account +1Samuel vi. 15, 2Samuel xv. 24, and 1Kings viii. 4, xii. 31) /1/ + +********************************************** +1. Upon 1Samuel vi. 15 all that is necessary has been said at IV.II.1; +on 1Kings viii. 4 see. I.III.1. That 1Kings xii. 31 +proceeds from the Deuteronomic redactor, the date of whose writing +is not earlier than the second half of the exile, needs no proof. +The hopeless corruptness of 2Samuel xv. 24 I have shown in Text. d. +BB. Sam. (Goettingen, 1871). +****************************************** + +occur only in the two appendices to the Book of Judges (chaps. +xvii., xviii., and xix., xx.), of which, however, the second is +unhistorical and late, and only the first is certainly +pre-exilic. But in this case it is not the Levites who are spoken +of, as elsewhere, but A LEVITE, who passes for a great rarity, +and who is forcibly carried off by the tribe of Dan, which has +none. + +Now this Jonathan, the ancestor of the priests of Dan, +notwithstanding that he belongs to the tribe of Judah, is +represented as a descendant of Gershom the son of Moses (Judges +xviii. 30). The other ancient priestly family that goes back +to the period of the Judges, the Ephraimitic, of Shiloh, appears +also to be brought into connection with Moses; at least in 1Samuel +ii. 27 (a passage, however, which is certainly post-Deuteronomic), +where Jehovah is spoken of as having made himself known to the +ancestors of Eli in Egypt, and as thereby having laid the foundation +for the bestowal of the priesthood, it is clearly Moses who is +thought of as the recipient of the revelation. Historical +probability admits of the family being traced back to Phinehas, +who during the early period of the judges was priest of the ark, +and from whom the inheritance on Mount Ephraim and also the second +son of Eli were named; it is not to be supposed that he is the +mere shadow of his younger namesake, as the latter predeceased his +father and was of quite secondary importance beside him. But +Phinehas is both in the Priestly Code and in Josh. xxiv. 33 (E) +the son of Eleazar, and Eleazar is, according to normal tradition, +indeed a son of Aaron, but according to the sound of his name +(Eliezer) a son of Moses along with Gershom. Between Aaron and +Moses in the Jehovistic portion of the Pentateuch no great +distinction is made; if Aaron, in contradistinction from his +brother, is characterised as THE LEVITE (Exodus iv. 14), Moses on +the other hand bears the priestly staff, is over the sanctuary, +and has Joshua to assist him as Eli had Samuel (Exodus xxxiii. +7-11). Plainly the older claims are his; in the main Jehovistic +source, in J, Aaron originally does not occur at all, /2/ neither + +************************************** +1. That Aaron was not originally present in J, but owed his +introduction to tile redactor who combined J nnd E together into +JE, can be shown best from Exod vii. x. For Jehovah's COMMAND +to appear before Pharaoh is in J given to Moses alone (vii. 14, 26 +[viii. 1], viii. 16 [20], ix. 1, 13, x. 1); it is only in the +sequel that Aaron appears along with him four times, always when +Pharaoh in distress summons Moses and Aaron in order to ask their +intercession. But strangely enough Aaron is afterwards completely +ignored again; Moses alone makes answer, speaking solely in his +own name and not in Aaron's also (viii. 5, 22, 25 [9, 26, 29]; +ix. 29), and although he has not come alone ; he goes so and makes +his prayer in the singular (viii. 8, 26 [12, 30], ix. 33, x. 18), +the change of the number in x. 17 is under these circumstances +suspicious enough. It appears as if the Jehovistic editor had held +Aaron's presence to be appropriate precisely at the intercession. +*********************************** + +is he mentioned in Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8. In the genealogies of +the Priestly Code one main branch of the tribe of Levi is still +called, like the eldest son of Moses, Gershom, and another important +member is actually called Mushi, 2:e., the Mosaite. + +It is not impossible that the holy office may have continued in +the family of Moses, and it is very likely that the two oldest +houses in which it was hereditary, those at Dan and at Shiloh, +may have claimed in all seriousness to have been descended from him. +Afterwards, as Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8 seq. informs us, all priests +honoured Moses as their father, not as being the head of their clan +but as being the founder of their order. The same took place in +Judah, but there the clerical guild ultimately acquired a hereditary +character, and the order became a sort of clan. _Levite_, +previously an official name, now became a patronymic at the same +time, and all the Levites together formed a blood-kinship, /1/ + +********************************************** +1. The instance of the Rechabites shows how easily the transition +could made. +********************************************** + +a race which had not received any land of its own indeed, but in +compensation had obtained the priesthood for its heritage. This +hereditary clergy was alleged to have existed from the very beginning +of the history of Israel, and even then as a numerous body, consisting +of many others besides Moses and Aaron. Such is the representation +made by Deuteronomist and subsequent writers, but in Deuteronomy +we read chiefly of the _Levites_ in the provincial towns of Judah +and of the _priests_, the _Levites_ in Jerusalem, seldom of Levi +as a whole (x. 8 seq., xviii. 1) /2/ + +************************************************ +2. On Deut xxvii. compare Kuenen, Theol. Tidjdschr., 1878, p. 297. +*********************************************** + +That the hereditary character of the priesthood is here antedated +and really first arose in the later period of the Kings, has +already been shown in the particular instance of the sons of Zadok +of Jerusalem, who were at first parvenus and afterwards became +the most legitimate of the legitimate. But it is very remarkable +how this artificial construction of a priestly family,--a +construction which has absolutely nothing perplexing in itself-- +was suggested and favoured by the circumstance that in remote +antiquity there once actually did exist a veritable tribe +of Levi which had already disappeared before the period of the +rise of the monarchy. This tribe belonged to the group of the +four oldest sons of Leah,--Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,--who are +always enumerated together in this order, and who settled on both +sides of the Dead Sea, towards the wilderness. Singularly no one +of them succeeded in holding its own except Judah; all the others +became absorbed among the inhabitants of the wilderness or in +other branches of their kindred. The earliest to find this +destiny were the two tribes of Simeon and Levi (in Genesis xlix. +regarded as one), in consequence of a catastrophe which must have +befallen them at some time during the period of the judges. +"Simeon and Levi are brethren, +their shepherds' staves are weapons of slaughter; +O my soul, come not thou into their assembly! +mine honour, be thou far from their band! +for they slew men in their anger, +and in their self-will they houghed oxen; +cursed be their anger--so fierce! +and their wrath--so cruel! +I will divide them in Jacob +and scatter them over Israel!" +(Genesis xlix.5-7). +The offence of Simeon and Levi here rebuked cannot have been +committed against Israelites, for in such a case the thought +could not have occurred, which is here emphatically repelled, +that Jacob, that is to say, Israel as a whole, could have made +common cause with them. What is here spoken of must be some crime +against the Canaanites, very probably the identical crime which +is charged upon the two brothers in Genesis xxxiv., and which there +also Jacob (ver. 30) repudiates,--the treacherous attack upon +Shechem and massacre of its inhabitants, in disregard of the +treaty which had been made. In Judges ix. it is related that +Shechem, until then a flourishing town of the Canaanites, with +whom moreover Israelite elements were already beginning to blend, +was conquered and destroyed by Abimelech, but it is quite +impossible to bring into any connection with this the violent deed +of Simeon and Levi, which must have taken place earlier, although +also within the period of the judges. The consequences of their +act, the vengeance of the Canaanites, the two tribes had to bear +alone; Israel, according to the indication given in Genesis xlix. +6, xxxiv. 30, did not feel any call to interfere on their behalf +or make common cause with them. Thus they fell to pieces and +passed out of sight,--in the opinion of their own nation a just +fate. In the historical books they are never again mentioned. + +It is quite impossible to regard this Levi of the Book of Genesis +as a mere shadow of the caste which towards the end of the monarchy +arose out of the separate priestly families of Judah. The utterance +given in Genesis xlix. 5-7 puts the brothers on an exact equality, +and assigns to them an extremely secular and blood-thirsty character. +There is not the faintest idea of Levi's sacred calling or of his +dispersion as being conditioned thereby; the dispersion is a curse +and no blessing, an annihilation and no establishment of his special +character. But it is equally an impossibility to derive the caste +from the tribe; there is no real connection between the two, all +the intermediate links are wanting; the tribe succumbed at an +early date, and the rise of the caste was very late, and demonstrably +from unconnected beginnings. But in these circumstances the +coincidence of name is also very puzzling: Levi the third son of +Jacob, perhaps a mere patronymic derived form his mother Leah, +and levi the official priest. If it were practicable to find +a convincing derivation of levi in its later use from the +appellative meaning of the root, then one might believe the +coincidence to be merley fortuitous, but it is impossible to do +so. the solution therefore has been suggested that the violent +dissolution of the tribe in the period of the judges led the +individual Levites, who now were landless, to seek their maintenance +by the exercise of sacrificial functions; this lay to their hand +and was successful because Moses them an of God had belonged +to their number and had transmitted to them by hereditary +succession a certain preferential claim to the sacred office. +But at that time priestly posts were not numerous, and such +an entrance of the levites _en masse_ into the service of Jehovah +in that early time is in view of the infrequency of the larger +sanctuaries a very difficult assumption. It is perhaps correct +to say that Moses actually was descended from Levi, and that the +later significance of the name Levite is to be explained by +reference to him. In point of fact, the name does appear to +have been given in the first instance only to the descendants of +Moses, and not to have been transferred until a later period +to those priests as a body, who were quite unconnected with him +by blood, but who all desired to stand related to him as their +head. Here it will never be possible to get beyond conjecture. + +IV.III.3 While the clerical _tribe of the Levites_ is still +brought forward only modestly in Deuteronomy (x. 8 seq. +xviii. 1; Joshua xiii. 14, 33), it is dealt with in very real +earnest in the Priestly Code. The _tribe of Levi_ (Numbers i. 47, +49, iii. 6, xvii. 3, xviii. 2) is given over by the remaining +tribes to the sanctuary, is catalogued according to the genealogical +system of its families, reckons 22,000 male members, and even +receives a sort of tribal territory, the forty-eight Levitical +cities (Josh. xxi.). At the beginning of this chapter we have +already spoken of a forward step made in the Priestly Code, +connected with this enlargement of the clergy, but of much greater +importance; hitherto the distinction has been between clergy +and laity, while here there is introduced the great division +of the order itself into sons of Aaron and Levites. +Not in Deuteronomy only, but everywhere in the Old Testament, +apart from Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles, Levite is the priest's +title of honour. /1/ Aaron himself is so styled in the + +************************************************ +1. Exodus iv. 14; Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8; Judges xvii. seq.; +Exodus xxxii. 26-28; Deuteronomy x. 8 seq., xii. 12, 18 seq. +xiv. 27, 29, xvi. 11, 14, xvii. 9, 18, xviii. 1-8, xxiv. 8, +xxvii. 9, 14, xxxi. 9, 25; Joshua iii. 3,xiii. 14, 33, xiv. 3 seq., +xviii. 7; Judges xix. seq., 1Samuel v1. 15; 1Kings xii. 31, +Jeremiah xxxiii 17-22; Ezekiel xliv. 8 seq.; Isaiah lxvi. 2, +Zechariah xii. 13, Malachi Ii. 4, 8, iii. 3. Only the glosses +2Samuel xv. 24, and 1Kings viii. 4 (compare, however, 2Chronicles +v. 5) can rest upon the Priestly Code. +******************************************** + +often-quoted passage, Exodus iv. 14, and that too to denote his +calling, not his family, for the latter he has in common with +Moses, from whom, nevertheless, it is intended to distinguish him +by the style, "thy brother the Levite." In Deuteronomy we are +struck by the deliberate emphasis laid on the equal right of all +the Levites to sacrificial service in Jerusalem-- +"The priests, the Levites, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have +no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the +offerings of Jehovah and his inheritance....And if a Levite come +from any of thy cities out of all Israel, where he sojourned, +and come to the place which Jehovah shall choose, then he shall +minister in the name of Jehovah his God as all his brethren the +Levites do who stand there before Jehovah" +(Deuteronomy xviii. 1, 6, 7). Here the legislator has in view +his main enactment, viz., the abolition of all places of worship +except the temple of Solomon; those who had hitherto been the +priests of these could not be allowed to starve. Therefore +it is that he impresses it so often and so earnestly on the people +of the provinces that in their sacrificial pilgrimages to Jerusalem +they ought not to forget the Levite of their native place, but +should carry him with them. For an understanding of the subsequent +development this is very important, in so far as it shows how the +position of the Levites outside of Jerusalem was threatened by +the centralisation of the worship. In point of fact, the good +intention of the Deuteronomist proved impossible of realisation; +with the high places fell also the priests of the high places. +In so far as they continued to have any part at all in the sacred +service, they had to accept a position of subordination under +the sons of Zadok (2Kings xxiii. 9). Perhaps Graf was correct +in referring to this the prophecy of 1Samuel ii. 36 according +to which the descendants of the fallen house of Eli are to come +to the firmly established regius priest, to beg for an alms, +or to say, "Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests' offices, +that I may eat a piece of bread:" that historically the deposed +Levites had no very intimate connection with those ancient +companions in misfortune is no serious objection to such an +interpretation in the case of a post-Deuteronomic writer. +In this way arose as an illegal consequence of Josiah's +reformation, the distinction between priests and Levites. +With Ezekiel this distinction is still an innovation requiring +justification and sanction; with the Priestly Code it is a +"statute for ever," although even yet not absolutely undisputed, +as appears from the Priestly version of the story of Korah's +company. /1/ For all Judaism subsequent to Ezra, and so for + +*********************************************** +1. Distorted references to the historical truth are round also in +Numbers xvii. 25 and xviii. 23, passages which are unintelligible +apart from Ezekiel xliv. Compare Kuenen, Theol. Tijdschr., 1878, +p. 138 seq. +********************************************* + +Christian tradition, the Priestly Code in this matter also has +been authoritative. Instead of the Deuteronomic formula "the +priests the Levites," we henceforward have "the priests and +the Levites," particularly in Chronicles, /2/ and in the + +*********************************************** +2. Except in 2 Chrom v. 5, xxx. 27. +********************************************* + +ancient versions the old _usus_ loquendi is frequently corrected. /3/ + +********************************************* +3. E.g., Josh. iii. 3 and Isaiah lxvi. 21 in the LXX, Deuteronomy +xviii. 1 and Judges xvii. 13 in "Jerome; and many passages in +the Syriac. On the carrying out of the new organisation of +the temple _personnel_ after the exile, see Vatke, p. 568, Graf (in +Merx's Archiv, i., p. 225 seq.), and Kuenen (Godsdienst, ii. p. 104 +seq ). With Zerubbabel and Joshua, four priestly families, +4289 persons in all, returned from Babylon in 538 (Ezra iv. 36-39); +with Ezra in 458 came two families in addition, but the number +of persons is not stated (viii. 2). Of Levites there came on the +first occasion 74 (ii. 40); on the second, of the 1500 men who +met at the rendezvous appointed by Ezra to make the journey +through the wilderness, not one was a Levite, and it was only +on the urgent representations of the scribe that some thirty +were at last induced to join the company (viii. 15-20). How can +we explain this preponderance of priests over Levites, which +is still surprising even if the individual figures are not +to be taken as exact? Certainly it cannot be accounted for +if the state of matters for a thousand years had been that +represented in the Priestly Code and in Chronicles. On the +other hand, all perplexity vanishes if the Levites were the +degraded priests of the high places of Judah. These were +certainly not on the whole more numerous than the Jerusalem +college, and the prospect of thenceforward not being permitted +to sacrifice in their native land, but of having slaughtering +and washing for sole duties, cannot have been in any way very +attractive to them; one can hardly blame them if they were +disinclined voluntarily to lower themselves to the position +of mere laborers under the sons of Zadok. Besides, it may be +taken for granted that many (and more particularly Levitical) +elements not originally belonging to it had managed to make way +into the ranks of the Solomonic priesthood; that all were not +successful (Ezra ii. 61) shows that many made the attempt, and +considering the ease with which genealogies hoary with age were +then manufactured and accepted, every such attempt cannot have +failed. + +How then came it to pass that afterwards, as one must conclude +from the statements in Chronicles, the Levites stood to the priests +in a proportion so much more nearly, if even then not quite fully +corresponding to the law? Simply by the "Levitising" of alien +families. At first in the community of the second temple the +Levites continued to be distinguished from the singers, porters, +and Nethinim (Ezra ii. 41-58), guilds which from the outset were +much more numerous and which rapidly grew (Nehemiah xi. 17, 19, 36, +xii. 28 seq.; 1Chronicles ix. 16, 22, 25). But the distinction +had in fact no longer any actual basis, once the Levites had been +degraded to the rank of temple-servitors and become Nethinim to the +priests (Numbers iii. 9). Hence, where the Chronicler, who is at +the same time the author of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, is not +reproducing old sources but is writing freely, he regards the +singers also and the porters as Levites. By artificial genealogies +of rather a rough and ready kind the three families of singers, +Heman, Asaph, and Ethan are traced up (1Chronicles v1.. 1 seq.) +to the old Levitical families of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari +(see Graf, as above, p. 231; and Ewald, iii. p. 380 seq.). +How far the distinction between the Nethinim and the Levites +was afterwards maintained (Josh. ix. 21 seq., I Esdras i. 3; +Ezra viii. 20) is not clear. It would not be amiss if Ezekiel's +intention of banishing foreigners from the temple found its +fulfilment only through these heathen hieroduli, the Mehunim, +the Nephisim, the sons of Shalmai, and the others whose +foreign-sounding names are given in Ezra ii. 43 seq., +obtaining admission into the tribe of Levi by artificial +genealogies. A peculiar side light is thrown upon the course +of development by the fact that the singers who in Ezra's time +were not yet even Levites, afterwards felt shame in being so, and +desired at least externally to be placed on all equality with +priests. They begged of King Agrippa II. to obtain for them the +permission of the synedrium to wear the white priestly dress. +*********************************************** + +The copestone of the sacred structure reared by the legislation of +the middle books of the Pentateuch is the high priest. As the +Aaronites are above the Levites so is Aaron himself above his +sons; in his person culminates thc development of the unity of +worship inaugurated by Deuteronomy and the agency of Josiah. +No figure of such incomparable importance occurs anywhere else in +the Old Testament; a high priest of pre-eminent sanctity is still +unknown to Ezekiel even. Even before the exile, it is true, the +temple worship at Jerusalem had become so magnificent and its +personnel so numerous as to render necessary an orderly division +of offices and a gradation of ranks. In Jeremiah's time +the priests constituted a guild divided into classes or families +with elders at their head; the principal priest had a potent +voice in the appointment of his inferior colleagues (1Samuel ii. +36); alongside of him stood the second priest, the keepers of the +threshold, the captain of the watch as holders of prominent +charges. /1/ But in the Law the position of Aaron is not merely + +*********************************************** +I The Kohen ha-rosh first occurs in 2Samuel xv. 27, but here HR)# +(so read, instead of HRW)H) comes from the interpolator of ver. 24. +So again 2Kings xii. 11, HKHN HGDWL, but 2Kings xii. is from the +same hand as 2Kings xvi. 10 seq. Elsewhere we have simply "the priest," +compare besides 2Kings xix. 2; Jeremiah xix. 1; 2Kings xxiii. 4; xxv. 18; +Jeremiah xx. 1; xxix. 25, 26; In 1Samuel ii. 36 SPXNY "incorporate +me" shows that KHNH must mean "priestly guild" or "order." In +connection with the name LWY it is noteworthy that SPX is parallel +with LWH in Isaiah xiv. 1. +********************************************** + +superior but unique, like that of the Pope in relation to the +episcopate; his sons act under his oversight (Numbers iii. 4); he +alone is the one fully qualified priest, the embodiment of all +that is holy in Israel He alone bears the Urim and Thummim and +the Ephod; the Priestly Code indeed no longer knows what those +articles are for, and it confounds the ephod of gold with the +ephod of linen, the plated image with the priestly robe; but the +dim recollections of these serve to enhance the magical charm of +Aaron's majestic adornment. He alone may enter into the holy of +holies and there offer incense; the way at other times +inaccessible (Nehemiah vi. 10, 11) is open to him on the great day +of atonement. Only in him, at a single point and in a single +moment, has Israel immediate contact with Jehovah. The apex of +the pyramid touches heaven. + +The high priest stands forth as absolutely sovereign in his own +domain. Down to the exile, as we have seen, the sanctuary was the +property of the king, and the priest was his servant; even in +Ezekiel who on the whole is labouring towards emancipation, the +prince has nevertheless a very great importance in the temple +still; to him the dues of the people are paid, and the +sacrificial expenses are in return defrayed by him. In the +Priestly Code, on the other hand, the dues are paid direct into +the sanctuary, the worship is perfectly autonomous, and has its +own head, holding not from man but from the grace of God. Nor is +it merely the autonomy of religion that is represented by the high +priest; he exhibits also its supremacy over Israel. He does not +carry sceptre and sword; nowhere, as Vatke (p. 539) well +remarks, is any attempt made to claim for him secular power. But +just in virtue of his spiritual dignity, as the head of the priesthood, +he is head of the theocracy, and so much so that there is no room +for any other alongside of him; a theocratic king beside him cannot +be thought of (Numbers xxvii. 21). He alone is the responsible +representative of the collective nation, the names of the twelve +tribes are written on his breast and shoulders; his transgression +involves the whole people in guilt, and is atoned for as that of +the whole people, while the princes, when their sin-offerings are +compared with his, appear as mere private persons (Leviticus iv. 3, +13, 22, ix. 7, xvi. 6). His death makes an epoch; it is when the +high priest--not the king--dies that the fugitive slayer obtains +his amnesty (Numbers xxxv. 28). At his investiture he receives +the chrism like a king, and is called accordingly the anointed +priest; he is adorned with the diadem and tiara (Ezekiel xxi. 31, +A.V. 26) like a king, and like a king too he wears the purple, +that most unpriestly of all raiment, of which he therefore must +divest himself when he goes into the holy of holies (Lev. xvi. 4). +What now can be the meaning of this fact,--that he who is at the +head of the worship, in this quality alone, and without any political +attributes besides, or any share in the government, is at the same +time at the head of the nation? What but that civil power has been +withdrawn from the nation and is in the hands of foreigners; that +Israel has now merely a spiritual and ecclesiastical existence? +In the eyes of the Priestly Code Israel in point of fact is not +a people, but a church; worldly affairs are far removed from it +and are never touched by its laws; its life is spent in religious +services. Here we are face to face with the church of the second +temple, the Jewish hierocracy, in a form possible only under +foreign domination. It is customary indeed to designate in the Law +by the ideal, or in other words blind, name of theocracy that +which in historical reality is usually called hierarchy; but +to imagine that with the two names one has gained a real +distinction is merely to deceive oneself. But, this self-deception +accomplished, it is easy further to carry back the hierocratic +churchly constitution to the time of Moses, because it excludes +the kingship, and then either to assert that it was kept secret +throughout the entire period of the judges and the monarchy, +or to use the fiction as a lever by which to dislocate the whole +of the traditional history. + +To any one who knows anything about history it is not necessary +to prove that the so-called Mosaic theocracy, which nowhere suits +the circumstances of the earlier periods, and of which the prophets, +even in their most ideal delineations of the Israelite state as it +ought to be, have not the faintest shadow of an idea, is, so to +speak, a perfect fit for post-exilian Judaism, and had its +actuality only there. Foreign rulers had then relieved the Jews +of all concern about secular affairs; they had it in their +power, and were indeed compelled to give themselves wholly up to +sacred things, in which they were left completely unhampered. +Thus the temple became the sole centre of life, and the prince of +the temple the head of the spiritual commonwealth, to which also +the control of political affairs, so far as these were still left +to the nation, naturally fell there being no other head! /1/ + +*********************************************** +1. Very interesting and instructive is Ewald's proof of the way in +which Zech. vi. 9-15 has been tampered with, so as to eliminate +Zerubbabel and leave the high priest alone. Just so in dealing +with Caliphs and Sultans, the Patriarchs were and are the natural +heads of the Greek and Oriental Christians even in secular matters. +*********************************************** + +The Chronicler gave a corresponding number of high priests to the +twice twelve generations of forty years each which were usually +assumed to have elapsed between the exodus and the building of +Solomon's temple, and again between that and the close of the +captivity; the official terms of office of these high priests, of +whom history knows nothing, have taken the place of the reigns of +judges and kings, according to which reckoning was previously +made (1Chronicles v. 29, seq.). One sees clearly from Sirach l., +and from more than one statement of Josephus (e.g., Ant., xviii. +4, 3, xx. 1, 11), how in the decorations of Aaron (where, however, +the Urim and Thummim were wanting; Nehemiah vii. 65) people +reverenced a transcendent majesty which had been left to the people +of God as in some sense a compensation for the earthly dignity +which had been lost. Under the rule of the Greeks the high priest +became ethnarch and president of the synedrium; only through the +pontificate was it possible for the Hasmonaeans to attain to power, +but when they conjoined it with full-blown secular sovereignty, +they created a dilemma to the consequences of which they succumbed. + + + +CHAPTER V. THE ENDOWMENT OF THE CLERGY. + + +The power and independence of the clergy run parallel with its +material endowment, which accordingly passes through the same +course of development. Its successive steps are reflected even in +the language that is employed, in the gradual loss of point +sustained by the phrase "to fill the hand," at all times used to +denote ordination. Originally it cannot have had any other +meaning than that of filling the hand with money or its +equivalent; we have seen that at one time the priest was +appointed by the owner of a sanctuary for a salary, and that, +without being thus dependent upon a particular employer, he could +not then live on the income derived from those who might employ +him sacrificially. But when the Levitical hereditary priesthood +arose in the later kingdom of Judah the hands of the priests were +no longer filled by another who had the right to appoint and to +dismiss, but they themselves at God's command "filled their own +hand," or rather they had done so in the days of Moses once for +all, as is said in Exodus xxxii. 26-29, an insertion +corresponding with the position of Deuteronomy. It is obvious +that such a statement, when carefully looked at, is absurd, but +is to be explained by the desire to protest against outside +interference. Even here the etymological sense is still +sufficiently felt to create an involuntary jar and leads to a +change of the construction; but finally all sense of it is lost, +and the expression becomes quite colourless: "to fill the hand " +means simply "to consecrate." In Ezekiel not only the priest but +also the altar has its "hand filled" (xliii. 26); in the +Priestly Code the abstract _milluim_ ["consecrations"] is chiefly +used, with subject and object left out, as the name of a mere +inaugural ceremony which lasts for several days (Leviticus viii. 33; +Exodus xxix. 34), essentially consists in the bringing of an +offering on the part of the person to be consecrated, and has no +longer even the remotest connection with actual filling of the +hand (2Chronicles xiii. 7; comp. xxix. 31). The verb, therefore, +now means simply the performance of this ceremony, and the subject +is quite indifferent (Leviticus xvi. 32, xxi. 10; Numbers iii. 3); +the installation does not depend upon the person who performs the +rite, but upon the rite itself, upon the unction, investiture, +and other formalities (Exodus xxix. 29). + +This variation in the _usus Ioquendi_ is the echo of real changes +in the outuard condition of the clergy, which we must now proceed +to consider more in detail. + +V.I. + + +V.I.1. Of the offerings, it was the custom in the earlier time to +dedicate a portion to the deity but to use the greater part in +sacred feasts, at which a priest, if present, was of course +allowed also in one way or another to participate. But he does +not appear to have had a legal claim to any definite dues of +flesh. +"Eli's sons were worthless persons, and cared not about +Jehovah, or about the priests' right and duty with the people. +When any man offered a sacrifice the servant of the priest came +(that is all we have here to represent the 22,000 Levites) while +the flesh was in seething, with a three-pronged flesh-hook in his +hand, and stuck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; +and all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took. So they +did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. Even +before the fat was burnt, the servant of the priest came and said +to the man that sacrificed: "Give flesh to roast for the priest; +he will not take sodden flesh of thee, but raw. And if the other +said to him: Let the fat first be burnt, and then take according +to thy soul's desire; then he would answer: Nay, but thou shalt +give it now; and if not, I will take it by force" (1Samuel ii. 12-16). +The tribute of raw portions of flesh before the burning +of the fat is here treated as a shameless demand which is fitted to +bring Jehovah's offering into contempt (ver. 17), and which has +the ruin of the sons of Eli as its merited reward. More tolerable +is it, though even that is an abuse, when the priests cause +boiled flesh to be brought them from the pot, though not seeking +out the best for themselves, but leaving the selection to chance; +they ought to wait and see what is given to them, or be contented +with an invitation to the banquet. On the other hand we have it +in Deuteronomy as "the priest's due from the people" (xviii. 3 += 1Samuel ii. 12) that he receives the shoulder and the two +cheeks and the maw of the slaughtered animal; and yet this is a +modest claim compared with what the sons of Aaron have in the +Priestly Code (Leviticus vii. 34),--the right leg and the breast. +The course of the development is plain; the Priestly Code became +law for Judaism. In sacrifice, ITS demands were those which were +regarded; but in order to fulfil all righteousness the precept of +Deuteronomy was also maintained, this being applied--against the +obvious meaning and certainly only as a result of later scrupulosity +of the scribes--not to sacrifices but to ordinary secular slaughterings, +from which also accordingly the priests received a portion, the +cheeks (according to Jerome on Malachi ii. 3), including the tongue, +the precept being thus harmonistically doubled. /1/ At an earlier + +******************************************** +1. Philo, De praem. sacerd., sec. 3. Josephus, Ant., iii. 9. 2; +iv. 4, 4. +******************************************** + +date the priests at Jerusalem received money from those who +employed them (Deuteronomy xviii. 8), but for this had the obligation +of maintaining the temple; from this one can discern that the +money was properly speaking paid to the sanctuary, and was only +conditionally delivered to its servitors. When they failed to +observe the condition, King Jehoash took the money also from them +(2Kings xii. 7 seq.). + +The meal-offerings are in the Priestly Code a subordinate matter, +and the share that falls to the priests is here trifling compared +with what they receive of the other sacrifices. The meal, of +which only a handful is sprinkled upon the altar, the baked +bread, and the minha altogether are theirs entirely, so also the +sin and trespass offerings so frequently demanded, of which God +receives only the blood and the fat and the offerer nothing at +all (Ezekiel xliv. 29); of the burnt-offering at least the skin +falls to their lot, These perquisites, however, none of them in +their definite form demonstrably old, and some of them +demonstrably the reverse, may be presumed to have had their +analogues in the earlier period, so that they cannot be regarded +absolutely as augmentation of the priestly income. In Josiah's +time the mac,c,oth were among the principal means of support of +the priests (2Kings xxiii. 9); doubtless they came for the +most part from the minha. Instead of sin and trespass offerings, +which are still unknown to Deuteronomy, there were formerly sin +and trespass dues in the form of money payments to the +priests,--payments which cannot, however, have been so regular +(2Kings xii. 17). It is as if money payments were in the eye of +the law too profane; for atonement there must be shedding of blood. +That the skin of the holocaust, which cannot well be consumed on +the altar, should fall to the priest is so natural an arrangement, +that one will hardly be disposed to regard it as new, although +Ezekiel is silent about a due which was not quite worthless +(xliv. 28-31). + +So far then as departures from earlier custom can be shown in the +sacrificial dues enjoined by the Priestly Code, they must not +indeed be treated as purely local differences, but neither are +they to be regarded as on the whole showing a serious raising of +the tariff. But in the Code the sacrificial dues are only a +subordinate part of the income of the priests. In Deuteronomy the +priests are entirely thrown upon the sacrifices; they live upon +them (xviii. 1) and upon invitations to the sacred banquets (xii. +I2, 18 seq.); if they are not exercising the priestly function +they must starve (1Samuel ii. 36). On the other hand, the +Aaronidae of the Priestly Code do not need to sacrifice at all, +and yet have means of support, for their chief revenue consists +of the rich dues which must be paid them from the products of +the soil. + +V.I.2. The dues falling to the priests according to the law were all +originally offerings--the regular offerings which had to be brought +on the festivals; and these all originally were for sacred +banquets, of which the priests received nothing more than the +share which was generally customary. This is true in the first +instance of the male firstlings of cattle. As we have seen in the +chapter on the sacred feasts, these are sacrifices and sacrificial +meals, alike in the Jehovistic legislation and in the Jehovistic +narrative of the exodus and of Abel, as were all the offerings +brought by private individuals in the olden time. When in Exodus +xxii. 29 it is said that they must be given to JEHOVAH, this does +not mean that they must be given to THE PRIESTS; no such thing +is anywhere said in thc Book of the Covenant. Matters still stand +on essentially the same footing in Deuteronomy also: "THOU +SHALT SANCTIFY THEM UNTO JEHOVAH; thou shalt not plough with the +firstling of the bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep; +THOU SHALT EAT IT BEFORE JEHOVAH year by year in the place which +He shall choose; and if there be any blemish therein, thou shalt +not OFFER IT TO JEHOVAH THY GOD" (Deuteronomy xv. 19, 20). To +sanctify to Jehovah, to eat before Jehovah, to offer to Jehovah, +are here three equivalent ideas. If now, in Numbers xviii. 15 +seq., every first birth is assigned without circumlocution to the +priest, and a special paschal offering is appointed in addition, +this can only be understood as the last phase in the development, +partly because the idea of dues altogether is secondary to that +of offerings, and partly because the immense augmentation in the +income of the priests points to an increase of the hierocratic +power. Ezekiel does not yet reckon the firstlings among the +revenues of the clergy (xliv. 28-3I); the praxis of Judaism, on +the other hand, since Nehemiah x. 37, is regulated, as usual, in +accordance with the norm of the Priestly Code. + +The tithe also is originally given to God, and treated just as the +other offerings are; that is to say, it is not appropriated by +the priests, but eaten by those who bring it in sacred banquets. +It does not occur in the Jehovistic legislation, but Jacob +dedicates it (Genesis xxviii. 22) to the God of Bethel, a place +where, although the whole story is a projection out of a later +time, it would hardly be in harmony with the conceptions of the +narrator to think of the presence of priests. The prophet Amos, +who probably represents much the same stage of the cultus as the +Jehovist does, says: "Come to Bethel to transgress, to Gilgal to +sin still more; and bring every morning your sacrifices, every +three days your tithes, and offer with bread pieces of flesh to the +flames, and proclaim free offerings aloud, for so ye like, ye +children of Israel" (Amos iv. 4 seq.). He ironically recommends +them to persevere in the efforts they have hitherto made in +honour of God, and to double them; to offer daily, instead of, as +was usual (1Samuel i.), yearly at the chief festival; to pay +tithes every three days, instead of, as was the custom, every +three years. It is clear that the tithe here holds rank with Zebah, +Toda, and Nedaba; it is a sacrifice of joy, and a splendid +element of the public cultus, no mere due to the priests. Now, +in this point also Deuteronomy has left the old custom, on the +whole, unchanged. According to xiv. 22 seq. the tithe of the +produce of the soil, or its equivalent in money, must be brought +year by year to the sanctuary, and there consumed before Jehovah +that is, as a sacrificial meal; only every third year it is not +to be offered in Jerusalem, but is to be given as alms to the +people of the locality who have no land, to which category the +Levites in particular belong. This last application is an +innovation, connected on the one hand with the abolition of the +sanctuaries, and on the other with the tendency of the +Deuteronomist to utilise festal mirth for humane ends. /1/ + +********************************************* +1. Connection is, however, possible with some older custom, such as +must certainly be assumed for Amos iv. 4. Comp. Deuteronomy xxvi. +12, "the year of tithing." +********************************************** + +But this is a mere trifle compared with what we find in the Priestly +Code, where the whole tithe has become a mere due to be collected +by the Levites (Nehemiah x. 38 [37]) on behalf of the clergy, +whose endowment thereby is again very largely increased. Ezekiel +is silent on this point also (xliv. 18-31), but as the tithe is +demanded in Numbers (xviii. 21 seq.), so was it paid from the days +of Nehemiah (x. 38 [37] seq.) by the church of the second temple. +Later there was added over and above, so as to meet the divergent +requirement of Deuteronomy, the so-called second tithe, which usually +was consumed at Jerusalem, but in every third year was given to the +poor (so Deuteronomy xxvi. 12, LXX), and in the end the tithe for +the poor was paid separately over and above the first and second +(Tobit i. 7, 8; Jos., Ant., iv. 8, 22). + +It is absolutely astounding that the tithe which in its proper +nature should apply only to products of definite measure, such +as corn and wine and oil (Deuteronomy xiv. 23), comes to be extended +in the Priestly Code to cattle also, so that besides the male +firstlings every tenth head of cattle and of sheep must also be +paid to the priests. This demand, however, is not yet met with in +Numbers xviii., nor even in Nehemiah x. 38, 39, but first occurs as a +novel in Lev. xxvii. 32 (1Samuel viii. 17). Whether it ever +came into the actual practice of Judaism seems doubtful; in +2Chronicles xxxi. 6 the tithe of cattle is indeed mentioned, +but on the other hand the firstlings are not; in the pre-rabbinical +literature no traces of it are discoverable,--especially not in +Philo, who knows only of the ordinary tithes due to the Levites, +and not of the tithes of cattle due to the priests (De praem. +sacerd. 6). + +With the tithe of the fruit of the soil the first fruits are at +bottom identical; the latter were reduced to definite measure +later and through the influence of the former. This is no doubt +the reason why in the Jehovistic legislation tithe and first +fruits are not both demanded, but only a gift of the first and +best of corn, wine, and oil, left to the free discretion of the +offerer, which is conjoined with the firstling of cattle and sheep +(Exodus xxii. 28 [29]. xxiii. 19, xxxiv. 26). In a precisely +similar way the TITHE of the field stands conjoined with the +firstlings of cattle in Deuteronomy (xiv. 22, 23, xv. 19 seq.). +But also the _reshith_, usually translated first-fruits, occurs in +Deuteronomy,--as a payment of corn, wine, oil, and wool to the +priests (xviii. 4); a small portion, a basketful, thereof is +brought before the altar and dedicated with a significant liturgy +(xxvi. 1 seq.). It appears that it is taken from the tithe, as +might be inferred from xxvi. 12 seq. taken as the continuation +of vers. 1-11; in one passage, xxvi. 2, the more general +_usus loquendi_ reappears, according to which the _reshith_ means +the entire consecrated fruit, which as a whole is consumed by the +offerers before Jehovah, and of which the priests receive only a +portion. But in the Priestly Code not only is the entire tithe +demanded as a due of the clergy, the _reshith_ also is demanded in +addition (Numbers xviii. 12), and it is further multiplied, +inasmuch as it is demanded from the kneading-trough as well as +from the threshing-floor: in every leavening the _halla_ belongs +to Jehovah (xv. 20). Nor is this all; to the _reshith_ (xviii. 12) +are added the _bikkurim_ also (xviii. 13), as something +distinct. The distinction does not occur elsewhere (Exodus xxxiv. +26); prepared fruits alone are invariably spoken of, the yield +of the threshing-floor and the wine-press, of which first +produce--"the fulness and the overflow "--was to be consecrated. +The FAT of oil, wine, and corn is the main thing in Numbers xviii. +also, and is called _reshith_ (ver 12) or _terumah_ (ver. 27); but +the _bikkurim_ (ver. 13) seem to be a separate thing, and, if +this be really the case, must mean those raw fruits which have +ripened earliest. Judaism, here once more moulding itself +essentially in accordance with the tenor of the Priestly Code, +actually drew this distinction; from the publication of the Law +through Ezra the community pledged itself to bring up yearly the +_bikkurim_ to the house of Jehovah, and to deliver the _reshith_ into +the temple cells (Nehemiah x. 36 [35]). The former was a religious +solemnity, associated with processions, and the use of the ritual +in Deuteronomy xxvi.; the latter was rather a simple tax paid from +natural products,--a distinction which perhaps is connected with +the different expressions _they shall bring_ (Numbers xviii. 13) and +_they shall give_ (xviii. 12). The LXX keeps )APARXH and +PRWTOGENNHMATA strictly apart, as also do Philo (De praem. sacerd. +1, 2) and Josephus (Ant., iv. 4, 8, 22). + +V.I.3. The amount which at last is required to be given is enormous. +What originally were alternatives are thrown together, what +originally was left free and undetermined becomes precisely +measured and prescribed. The priests receive all the sin and trespass +offerings, the greater share of the vegetable offerings, the hides +of the burnt offerings, the shoulder and breast of meat offerings. +Over and above are the firstlings, to which are added the tithes +and first-fruits in a duplicate form, in short, all _kodashim_, +which originally were demanded merely as ordinary meat offerings +(Deuteronomy xii. 26 = ver. 6, 7, and so on), and were +consumed at holy places and by consecrated guests indeed, but not +by the priest. And, notwithstanding all this, the clergy are not +even asked (as in Ezekiel is the prince, who there receives the +dues, xlv. 13 seq.) to defray the cost of public worship; for +this there is a poll-tax, which is not indeed enjoined in the body +of the Priestly Code, but which from the time of Nehemiah x. 33 +[32] was paid at the rate of a third of a shekel, till a novel of +the law (Exodus xxx. 15) raised it to half a shekel. + +V.II. + +V.II.1. To the endowment of the clergy in the Priestly Code belong +finally the forty-eight cities assigned by Joshua in accordance +with the appointment of Moses (Numbers xxxv.; Josh. xxi.). The +tribes gave them up freely; the smaller giving few and the larger +more (Numbers xxxv. 8). The Aaronidae and the three families of +the Levites cast lots about them in four divisions; the sons of +Aaron get thirteen cities in Judah, the Levites ten in +Ephraim-Manasseh, thirteen in Galilee, and twelve in the territory +eastward of Jordan. It is not merely the right to inhabit, but, +in spite of all apologetic rationalism, the right of absolute +possession that they receive (Josh. xxi. 12), inclusive of a portion +of land two thousand ells square (square in the strictly literal +sense; Numbers xxxv. 5), which serves as public common. + +The physical impracticability of such an arrangement has been +conclusively shown, after Gramberg, by Graf (Merx, Archiv, i. +p. 83). The 4 x 12 or the substituted 13+10+13+12 cities, +of which in spite of Numbers xxxv. 8 for the most part four belong +to each of the twelve tribes, are already sufficient to suggest a +suspicion of artificial construction; but the regulation that a +rectangular territory of two thousand ells square should be +measured off as pasture for the Levites around each city (which +at the same time is itself regarded only as a point; Numbers xxxv. +4) might, to speak with Graf, be very well carried out perhaps in +a South Russian steppe or in newly founded townships in the +western States of America, but not in a mountainous country like +Palestine, where territory that can be thus geometrically +portioned off does not exist, and where it is by no means left to +arbitrary legal enactments to determine what pieces of ground are +adapted for pasturage and what for tillage and gardening; there, +too, the cities were already in existence, the land was already +under cultivation, as the Israelites slowly conquered it in the +course of centuries. Besides, from the time of Joshua there is +not a historical trace of the existence of the Levitical cities. +Quite a number of them were in the days of the judges and down +to the early monarchy still in the hands of the Canaanites,-- +Gibeon, Shechem, Gezer, Taanach; some perhaps may even have so +continued permanently. Those on the other hand which passed +into the possession of the Israelites at no time belonged +to the Levites. Shechem, Hebron, Ramoth, were the capital cities +of Ephraim, Judah, and Gilead; and Gibeon, Gezer, Heshbon were in +like manner important but by no means ecclesiastical towns. In +the Deuteronomic period the Levites were scattered throughout +Judah in such a manner that each locality had its own Levites or +Levite; nowhere did they live separated from the rest of the +world in compact masses together, for they made their living by +sacrificing for others, and without a community they could not +exercise their calling. Some indeed possessed land and heritage; +such were at an earlier period the Silonic family at +Gibeath-Phineas, Amaziah at Bethel, and Abiathar at Anathoth, and +at a later period Jeremiah, also at Anathoth. But Anathoth (for +example) was not on that account a priestly city in the sense of +Joshua xxi.; Jeremiah had his holding there as a citizen and not +as a priest, and he shared not with the priests but with the +people (xxxvii. 12). As a tribe Levi was distinguished from the +other tribes precisely by holding no land, and its members +joined themselves to the settled citizens and peasants, for the +most part as dependent inmates (Deuteronomy x. 9, xviii. 1). + +Even after the exile, indeed, matters were not different in this +respect. "Ab excidio templi prioris sublatum est Levitis jus +suburbiorum," says R. Nachman (B. Sotah, 48b), and he is +borne out by the silence of Nehemiah x. The execution of the law +was probably postponed to the days of the Messiah; it was not in +truth within the power of man, and cannot be seriously demanded +in the Priestiy Code itself, which contemplates a purely ideal +Israel, with ideal boundaries, and leaves the sober reality so +far out of sight that on archaeological grounds it never once so +much as mentions Jerusalem, the historical capital of the priests. + +The circumstance that these towns lay _in partibus infiidelium_ +seems to make them unavailable as a means of fixing the antiquity +of the Priestly Code. It is possible with Bleek to explain the +transcendence of history as Mosaicity; such a view is not to be +argued against. But it is also possible with Noldeke to insist +that an invention so bold cannot possibly be imputed to the +spirit of the exilic and post-exilic time, which in everything +is only anxiously concerned to cleave to what is old and to +restore it; and such a contention deserves and admits of refutation. +It is not the case that the Jews had any profound respect for their +ancient history; rather they condemned the whole earlier +development, and allowed only the Mosaic time along with its +Davidic reflex to stand; in other words, not history but the +ideal. The theocratic ideal was from the exile onwards the centre +of all thought and effort, and it annihilated the sense for +objective truth, all regard and interest for the actual facts as +they had been handed down. It is well known that there never +have been more audacious history-makers than the Rabbins. But +Chronicles affords evidence sufficient that this evil propensity +goes back to a very early time, its root the dominating +influence of the Law, being the root of Judaism itself. Judaism +is just the right soil for such an artificial growth as the +forty-eight priestly and Levitical cities. It would hardly have +occurred to an author living in the monarchical period, when the +continuity of the older history was still unbroken, to look so +completely away from all the conditions of the then existing +reality; had he done so, he would have produced upon his +contemporaries the impression merely that he had scarcely all his +wits about him. But after the exile had annihilated the ancient +Israel, and violently and completely broken the old connection +with the ancient conditions, there was nothing to hinder from +planting and partitioning the _tabula rasa_ in thought at pleasure, +just as geographers are wont to do with their map as long as the +countries are unknown. + +But, of course, no fancy is pure fancy; every imagination has +underlying it some elements of reality by which it can be laid +hold of, even should these only be certain prevailing notions of +a particular period. It is clear, if a proper territory is +assigned to the clergy, that the notion of the clerical tribe which +already had begun to strike root in Deuteronomy has here grown +and gathered strength to such a degree that even the last and +differentiating distinction is abolished which separates the +actual tribes from the Levites, viz. communal independence and +the degree of concentration which expresses itself in separate +settlements. For when we read, notwithstanding, in the Priestly +Code that Aaron and Levi are to have no lot nor inheritance in +Israel (Numbers xviii. 20, 23), this is merely a form of speech +taken over from Deuteronomy and at the same time an involuntary +concession to fact; what would the forty-eight cities have been, +had they actually existed, if not a lot, a territorial possession, +and that too a comparatively large one? The general basis which +serves as starting-point for the historical fiction being thus far +recognisable, we are able also to gain a closer view of its +concrete material. The priestly and Levitical cities stand in +close connection with the so-called cities of refuge. These are +also appointed in Deuteronomy (xix.), although not enumerated by +name (for Deuteronomy iv. 41-43 cannot be regarded as genuine). +Originally the altars were asylums (Exodus xxi. 14; 1Kings ii. +28), some in a higher degree than others (Exodus xxi. 13). In +order not to abolish the asylums also along with the altars, the +Deuteronomic legislator desired that certain holy places should +continue as places of refuge, primarily three for Judah, to which, +when the territory of the kingdom extended, three others were to +be afterwards added. The Priestly Code adopts the arrangement, +and specifies three definite cities on this side and three on the +other side of Jordan (Numbers xxxv.; Joshua xx.), four of which +are demonstrably famous old seats of worship,--all the three western +ones, and Ramoth, that is, Mizpah, of the eastern ones (Genesis +xxxi.; Judges xi. 11). But as all these asylums are at the same +time priestly and Levitical cities, it is an obvious conjecture +that these also in like manner arose out of old sanctuaries. We +need not suppose that there is more in this than an echo of the +general recollection that there were once in Israel many holy +places and residences of priesthoods; it is by no means +necessary to assert that each of the towns enumerated in Joshua +xxi. had actually been an ancient sanctuary. In many cases, +however, this also admits of being shown, /1/ although some of the + +********************************************* +1. In the cases of Hebron, Gibeon, Shechem, Ramoth, Mahanaim and +Tabor (Host v. 1) by historical data; in those of Bethshemesh, +Ashtaroth, Kadesh,, perhaps also Rimmon, by the names. Not even +here can one venture to credit the Priestly Code with consistent +fidelity to history. As for Hosea v. 1, 2, the original +meaning seems to be: "A snare have ye become for Mizpah, and an +outspread net upon Tabor, and the pit-fall of Shittim (#XT +H#+YM) have they made deep." Shittim as a camping-place under +Moses and Joshua must certainly have been a sanctuary, just like +Kadesh, Gilgal, and Shiloh; the prophet names these seats at +which in his opinion the worship was especially seductive and +soul-destroying; his reproach is levelled at the priests +most famous (or according to the later view, infamous) high +places, such as Bethel, Dan, Gilgal, and Beersheba are omitted, +probably of set purpose. + +The immediate starting-point, however, for this territorial +donation to the Levites is perhaps to be sought in Ezekiel, +in the picture of the future Israel which he draws at the close +of his book. He concerns himself there in a thorough-going +manner about the demarcation of the national and tribal +boundaries, and in doing so sets quite freely to work, taking, +so to speak, the yard measure in his hand. Leaving the land +eastward of Jordan wholly to the Saracens, he divides the +western portion into thirteen parallel transverse sections; +in the middle of the thirteenth (the rest of which is assigned +to the prince), lying between Judah and Benjamin, the twelve +tribes give up a square with a base line of 25,000 ells as a +sacred offering to Jehovah. This square is divided into three +parallelograms, 25,000 ells long, running east and west; +the southernmost of these, 5000 ells broad, includes the capital +with its territory; the middle one, 10,000 ells broad, contains +the temple and the priestly territory; the northernmost, also +10,000 ells broad, has the inheritance and the cities of the Levites. /1/ + +********************************************** +1. For (S#RYM L#KT (xlv. 5), read, with the LXX, #(RYM L#BT +"to dwell within the gates." Compare a similar transposition of +letters in xiii. 3, LXX. The expression "gates" for "cities" +has its origin in Deuteronomy. +********************************************* + +Thus we have here also a surrender of land to the clergy on the +part of the tribes; the comparison with Josh. xxi. is not to be +put aside,--all the less, because nowhere else in the Old Testament +is anything similar met with. Now Ezekiel is quite transparent, +and requires no interpreter but himself. In order that the temple +may be protected in its sanctity in the best possible manner, +it is placed in the centre of the priestly territory, which in its +turn is covered by the city on the south, and by the Levites on the +north. At the same time the _personnel_ connected with the function +of worship is to dwell as much as possible apart on its own soil +and territory, which _shall serve them for separate houses to +sanctify them_, as is expressly remarked for the priests (xiv. 4), +and in an inferior degree holds good also, of course, for the Levites +beside them. Here everything starts from, and has its explanation in, +the temple. Its original is unmistakably the temple of Solomon; +its site is beside the capital, in the heart of the sacred centre +of the land between Judah and Benjamin; there the sons of Zadok +have their abode, and beside them are the Levites whom Josiah had +brought up from all the country to Jerusalem. Obviously the +motives are not here far to seek. In the Priestly Code, on the +other hand, which was not in a position to shape the future freely +out of the present, but was compelled to accept archaeological +restrictions, the motives are historically concealed and almost +paralysed. The result has remained, namely, the holding of +separate territory by the clergy, but the cause or the +purpose of it can no longer be recognised on account of the +sanctuary being now an abstract idea. Jerusalem and the temple, +which, properly speaking, occasioned the whole arrangement, are +buried in silence with a diligence which is in the highest degree +surprising; and on the other hand, in remembrance of the +priesthoods scattered everywhere among the high places of Israel +in earlier days, forty-eight fresh Levitical cities are created, +from which, however, their proper focus, a temple to wit, is +withheld only in the circumstance that precisely the thirteen +cities of Judah and Benjamin happen to fall to the lot of the sons +of Aaron, does the influence of Jerusalem unconsciously betray +itself. + +V.II.2. Apart from this historical fiction, the other claims that +are made for the endowment of the clergy are, however exorbitant, +nevertheless practicable and seriously meant. So far as the +circumstances of their origin are concerned, two possibilities +present themselves. Either the priests demanded what they could +hope to obtain, in which case they were actually supreme over the +nation, or they set up claims which at the time were neither +justified nor even possible; in which case they were not indeed +quite sober, yet at the same time so sane prophetically, that +centuries afterwards the revenues they dreamed of became in +actuality theirs. Is it to be supposed that it was (say) Moses, +who encouraged his people as they were struggling for bare life +in the wilderness to concern themselves about a superabundantly +rich endowment of their clergy? Or is it believed that it was +in the period of the judges, when the individual tribes and +families of Israel, after having forced their way among the +Canaanites, had a hard fight to maintain their position, get +somehow settled in their new dwelling-places and surroundings, +that the thought first arose of exacting such taxes from a people +that was only beginning to grow into a national unity, for an end +that was altogether remote from its interest? What power could +then have been able in those days, when every man did what was +right in his own eyes, to compel the individual to pay? But +even when actually, under the pressure of circumstances, a +political organisation had arisen which embraced all the tribes, +it could hardly have occurred to the priests to utilise the +secular arm as a means for giving to themselves a place of +sovereignty; and still less could they have succeeded WITHOUT +the king on whom they were so completely dependent. In short, +the claims they make in the Law would in the pre-exilic period +have been regarded as utopian in the strict sense of that word; +they allow of explanation only by the circumstances which from +the beginning of the Chaldaean rule, and still more that of the +Persians, lent themselves to the formation of a hierocracy, +to which, as to the truly national and moreover divine authority, +the people gave voluntary obedience, and to which the Persians +also conceded rights they could not have granted to the family +of David. At the very beginning of the exile, Ezekiel begins +to augment the revenues of the priests (xliv. 28-30), yet he +still confines himself on the whole to the lines of Deuteronomy, +and makes no mention of tithes and firstlings. Of the demands +of the Priestly Code in their full extent we hear historically +in Nehemiah x. for the first time; there it is stated +that they were carried through by men who had the authority of +Artaxerxes behind them. This was the most difficult and at the +same time the most important part of the work Ezra and Nehemiah +had to do in introducing the Pentateuch as the law of the Jewish +Church; and that is the reason why it is so specially and +minutely spoken of. Here plainly lies the material basis of the +hierocracy from which the royal throne was ultimately reached. + +For all these dues, apart from sacrificial perquisites, flowed into +a common coffer, and benefited those who had the control of this, +viz., the priestly aristocracy of Jerusalem, whom it helped to +rise to a truly princely position. The ordinary priests, +and especially the Levites, did not gain by all this wealth. +The latter indeed ought, according to law, to have had the tithes, +and to have handed over the tithes of these again to the sons +of Aaron, but as the general tendency of the time was to depress +the Levites, this legal revenue was also gradually withdrawn +from them and appropriated by the priests. Afterwards the chief +priests claimed the tithes for themselves alone, while their +inferior brethren had to suffer severe privation and even +hunger itself (Josephus, Ant., xx. 8, 8; 9, 2). + +Upon the difference just stated between the later practice and +the Law, one argument more has recently been founded against +assigning the latter to the Babylonio-Persian period. "Another +testimony borne by tradition completely excludes the idea of +the Elohistic torah (i.e., the Priestly Code) having been +composed by Ezra. As is well known, it is the Elohistic torah +that carefully regulates the mutual relations of priests and +Levites, while Deuteronomy groups the two together without +bringing forward the distinction. It is the former that assigns +the tithes to the Levites, while requiring these in their turn to +hand over the tithe of their tithes as a due to the priests. Such +was also the practice (Nehemiah x. 38 seq.) soon after the exile +[i.e., a hundred years later; Nehemiah vii. 5]. But subsequently +the payment of the tithes to the Levites fell entirely into +disuse; these were rendered immediately and exclusively to the +priests, so that Jose ben Hanina actually confesses: "We do +not pay the tithes according to the command of God" (Sota, 47b). +But everywhere the Talmud refers this practice back to Ezra. Ezra +it was who punished the Levites by withdrawal of the tithes, and +that because they had not come out from Babylon (Jebam. 386b; +Chullin 11b). The point to be noted is that Ezra, according to +the testimony of tradition, superseded a precept of the Elohistic +torah, supporting himself in this perhaps by reference to the +Deuteronomic torah." So Delitzsch in the Zeitschr. fuer luth. +Theol., 1877, p. 448 seq. That Ezra is not the author of the +Priestly Code may readily be granted--only not on such an +argument as this. If the genuine historical tradition expressly +names Ezra as the man who introduced the Levites' tithe just as +prescribed by law (Nehemiah x. 38 seq.), what conscientious man can +attach any weight to the opposite assertion of the Talmud ? + +But, even assuming that the divergence of practice from the legal +statute actually does go back to the time of Ezra, what would +follow from that against the post-exilic origin of the Priestly +Code? For this is what the question comes to, not to Ezra's +authorship, which is made the main point by a mere piece of +transparent controversial tactics. The demands of the Priestly +Code, which demonstrably were neither laid down, nor in any sense +acted on before the exile, attained the force of law one hundred +years after the return from Babylon (Nehemiah x.); the whole +taxation system of Judaism ever afterwards rested upon it;- - +shall this be held to have no meaning as against the trifling +circumstance that the tithe also was indeed paid to the clergy, +in full accordance with the Priestly Code, and inconsistently with +ancient custom, but paid to the higher, and not to the lower order? + +In point of fact any other difference whatever between Jewish +practice and the Law might better have been adduced against the +thesis of Graf,--for example, the absence of Urim and Thummim (Nehemiah +vii. 65), or of the forty-eight Levitical cities, the church of +the returned exiles instead of that of the twelve tribes of +Israel, the second temple instead of the tabernacle, Ezra instead +of Moses, the sons of Zadok instead of the sons of Aaron, +the absence of the other marks of Mosaicity. For the position +of the Levites is the Achilles heel of the Priestly Code. +If the Levites at a later date were still further lowered beneath +the priests, and put into a worse position in favour of these, +this nevertheless presupposes the distinction between the two; +let it first then be shown that the distinction is known to +the genuine Old Testament, and that, in particular, it is +introduced by Ezekiel not as a new thing, but as of immemorial +antiquity. Or is the primary fact that the separation between +priests and Levites was set up only in the Priestly Code and +in Judaism, and that its genesis can be traced with confidence +from the time of Josiah downwards, a fact of less importance +than the secondary one that the distinction extended itself +somewhat further still in the subsequent development of +Judaism ? + + + +B. HISTORY OF TRADITION. + _________________ + + +PLEON (HMISU PANTOS-- Hesiod <Op. 40> + + + + +CHAPTER VI. CHRONICLES + + +Under the influence of the spirit of each successive age, +traditions originally derived from one source were very +variously apprehended and shaped; one way in the ninth and +eighth centuries, another way in the seventh and sixth, and yet +another in the fifth and fourth. Now, the strata of the tradition +show the same arrangement as do those of the legislation. And +here it makes no difference whether the tradition be legendary or +historical, whether it relates to pre-historic or to historic +times; the change in the prevailing ideas shows itself equally in +either case. To show the truth of this in the case of the +Hexateuch is of course our primary object, but we make our +commencement rather with the properly historical books. For on +various grounds we are here able with greater certainty to +assert: Such was the aspect of history at this period and such +at that; such were the influences that had the ascendancy at +one time, and such those which prevailed at another. + +We begin the inquiry where the matter is clearest--namely, with +the Book of Chronicles. Chronicles, which properly speaking forms +but a single book along with Ezra and Nehemiah, is a second +history running parallel with the Books of Samuel and Kings, +and we are here in the favourable position of starting with the +objects of comparison distinctly defined, instead of having as +usual to begin by a critical separation of sources of various age +combined in one document. And, what is more, we can also date the +rival histories with tolerable certainty. The Books of Samuel and +of Kings were edited in the Babylonian exile; Chronicles, on the +other hand, was composed fully three hundred years later, after +the downfall of the Persian empire, out of the very midst of fully +developed Judaism. We shall now proceed to show that the mere +difference of date fully accounts for the varying ways in which +the two histories represent the same facts and events, and the +difference of spirit arises from the influence of the Priestly +Code which came into existence in the interval. De Wette's "Critical +Essay on the Credibility of the Books of Chronicles" (Beitraege, +i.; 1806), is throughout taken as the basis of the discussion: +that essay has not been improved on by Graf (Gesch. Bucher d. +A. T. p. 114 seq.), for here the difficulty, better grappled +with by the former, is not to collect the details of evidence, +but so to shape the superabundant material as to convey a right +total impression. + +VI.I. + +VI.I.1. After Jehovah had slain Saul (so begins the narrative of +Chronicles), He turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. +All Israel gathered themselves unto David to Hebron and anointed +him king over Israel, according to the word of Jehovah by Samuel +(I Chronicles x. 1.-xi. 3). How simply and smoothly and wholly +without human intervention according to this version did the thing +come to pass! Quite otherwise is it in the narrative of the Book +of Samuel. This also indeed has the statement of Chronicles word +for word, but it has something over and above which gives a quite +different aspect to the matter. Here David, on the lowest step to +the throne, is the guerilla leader in the wilderness of Judah who +finally is compelled by Saul's persecutions to pass over to +Philistine territory, there under the protection of the enemies +of his nation, carrying on his freebooter life. After the battle of +Gilboa he avails himself of the dissolution of the kingdom to set +up a separate principality in the south as a vassal of the +Philistines; he is not chosen, but comes with a following six +hundred strong, and offers himself to the elders of Judah, +whom he has already at an earlier period laid under obligations +to him by various favours and gifts. In the meantime Saul's cousin +Abner takes over what of the kingdom there is, not for himself +but for the legitimate heir Ishbaal; from Gilead, whither the +government had been transferred after the great catastrophe, +he gradually reconquers the territory west of Jordan, and is +scheming how to recover also the lost Judah. Thus it comes +to protracted struggles between Abner and David, in which fortune +is most on the side of the latter; yet he does not leave the +defensive or gain the sovereignty over Israel. That falls +into his hands rather by treachery. Abner himself, indignant +at the ingratitude of his royal nephew, offers the crown to +his rival, and enters into negotiations with him about it; +but as he immediately afterwards falls a victim to blood revenge, +nothing comes of the matter until Ishbaal is privily murdered +in his sleep by two of his captains; then at last the elders +of Israel come to Hebron, and David becomes king in succession +to Saul. What a length of time these affairs demand, how natural +is their development, how many human elements mingle in their +course,--cunning, and treachery, and battle, and murder! +Chronicles indeed knows them all well enough, as is clear from +incidental expressions in chaps. xi. and xii., but they are +passed over in silence. Immediately after his predecessor's death +the son of Jesse is freely chosen by all Israel to be king, +according to the word of Jehovah by Samuel. The sequence of x. +13, 14, xi. 1 does not admit of being understood in any other +way, nor is it in point of fact otherwise understood, for it has +actually been successful, at least to this extent, that the +kingship of Ishbaal has virtually dropped out of traditional Bible +history; after Saul came David is what is said. We have before +us a deliberate and in its motives a very transparent mutilation +of the original narrative as preserved for us in the Book of +Samuel. + +As all Israel has made David the successor of Saul, and all Israel +gone out with him to the conquest of Jerusalem (xi. 4),--in 2Samuel +v. 6 we hear only of David's following,--so now immediately +afterwards, the noblest representatives of all the tribes of +Israel, who even before he had attained the throne were in +sympathy and indeed already on his side, are enumerated by name +and numbers in three lists (xi. 10-xii. 40), which are introduced +between what is said in 2Samuel v. 1-1110 and in 2Samuel v. 11 +seq. The first (xi. 10-47: "these are the mighty men who took +part with him with all Israel to make him king") is the list of +2Samuel xxiii., which the Chronicler, as he betrays in chaps. xx., +xxi., was acquainted with as it stood in that place, and here +gives much too early, for it is for the most part warriors of +David's later campaigns who are enumerated. /1/ The second list (xii. + +************************************** +1. The division into a group of three and another of thirty heroes, +obscured in 2Samuel xxiii. by corruption of the text (Text der +BB. Sam. p. 213-216), has not been understood by the +Chronicler, and thus been made quite unrecognisable. In this way +he has been able to bring in at the end (xi. 42-47) a string of +additional names exceeding the number of thirty. In ver. 42 his +style unmistakably betrays itself, wherever it may be that he +met with the elements. +**************************************** + +1-22: "these are they that came to David to Ziklag, while he yet +kept himself close because of Saul") is not taken from the Book of +Samuel, but one also observes this difference: along with old +and genuine there are extremely common names, and hardly one +that occurs here only; the notes of ancestry carefully given +in chap. xi. are almost always wanting; and instead of performing +before our eyes such deeds as the rescue of a field of barley +from the enemy, the purchase of a draught of water with blood, +the slaying of a lion in a pit, the heroes receive all sorts +of _epitheta ornantia_ (xii. 1-3) and titles of honour (xii. 14, +20), and ordinarily talk a highly spiritual language (xii. 17, 18). +And as for the historical situation, how impossible that a great +Israelite army should have been gathered around David as the +feudatory of the Philistines in Ziklag (xii. 2 2), with a crowd +of captains of hundreds and thousands! Plainly the banished +fugitive is according to this representation the splendid king +and illustrious ancestor of the established dynasty; hence also +the naive remark of ver. 29. No better is it with the third +list (xii. 23-40: "these are the numbers of the bands, ready +armed for the war, who came to David to Hebron"). Observe the +regular enumeration of the twelve tribes, which nowhere occurs +in the older historical books, and is quite artificial; then +the vast numbers, which are not matters of indifference here, +but the principal thing and make up the entire contents; finally, +the 4600 Levites and 3700 priests, who also take their place in +the martial train, and constitute the proper guard of the king; +to Chronicles the distinction between secular and spiritual soldiers +is not altogether clear. There are but a few details of a special +kind; the remark in xii. 32 is perhaps connected with 2Samuel +xx. 18; Jehoiada the prince of the house of Aaron, i.e., the high +priest, alongside of the historically certain series,--Eli, Phinehas, +Ahitub, Ahiah (Ahimelech ), Abiathar,--an utterly impossible +person, is a reflection of the Jehoiada of 2Kings xi., xii., and +the allegation that Zadok at that time joined David at the head of +twenty-two chief priests is a hardly credible substitute for what +is stated in Samuel, according to which Abiathar, whose older +claims were disagreeable to the B'ne Zadok and those who came +later, was the priest who from the beginning held with David; the +twenty-two chief priests appear to correspond to the heads of the +twenty-two post-exilian priestly families (Nehemiah xii. 1-7, +12-21, x. 3-9; 1Chronicles xxiv. 7-18). Yet it is hardly necessary +to go so minutely into the contents of the above lists, for the +purpose with which they are given is stated without +circumlocution at the close (2Chronicles xii. 38, 39): "All these +men of war, in order of battle, came with a perfect heart to Hebron +to make David king over all Israel, and all the rest of Israel also +were of one heart to make David king. And they were there with David +three days, eating and drinking, for there was joy in Israel." + +After the explication of the idea "all Israel" thus inappropriately +interpolated, the narrative proceeds to reproduce the contents of 2 +Samuel v.-vii. David's first deed, after the conquest of the +stronghold of Jebus, is in Chronicles to make it the holy city +by transferring the ark of Jehovah thither (xiii. 1 seq.). It +seems as if the building of a palace and the Philistine war +(2Samuel v. 11-25) were to be omitted; but after the narrative in +2Samuel vi. 1 seq. has been given down to the place "and the ark +of Jehovah abode in the house of Obed-edom three months " (1Chronicles +xiii. 14 = 2Samuel vi. 11), the pause of a quarter of a +year is utilised for the purpose of overtaking what had been left +out (xiv. 1-17 = 2Samuel v. 11-25), and then the history of +the ark is completed. This indeed is to separate things mutually +connected, but at the same time the secular business which, +according to the older narrative, is the nearest and most +pressing, is reduced to the level of a mere episode in the midst of +the sacred. That there is no room for the building of a house and +a Philistine war within the three months which offer themselves so +conveniently for the interpolation is a subordinate affair. + +As regards the sacred business, the transference of the ark to +Zion, almost everything that is said in 2Samuel vi. is repeated +word for word in Chronicles also (xiii., xv., xvi., xvii. 1). +Two traits only are absent in Chronicles, and in neither case is +the omission helpful to the connection David's wife Michal, it is +said in 2Samuel vi. 16, 20-23, when she saw the king dancing and +leaping in the procession, despised him in her heart; afterwards +when he came home she told him what she thought of his unworthy +conduct. The first of these two statements is found in Chronicles +also (xv. 29), but the second is (all but the introductory +notice, xvi. 43 = 2Samuel vi. 20, here torn from its connection) +omitted, although it contains the principal fact, for the +historical event was the expression of her contempt, not its +psychological origin; a woman--such is the idea--must not say a +thing like that to David. The other case is quite similar. On +account of the calamity by which those who were bringing up the +ark were overtaken, David does not at first venture to receive it +into his citadel, but deposits it in the house of Obed-edom, one +of his captains; but when Jehovah blesses the house of Obed-edom, +he takes courage to bring the ark to his own home (2Samuel vi. 10-12). +Chronicles also tells that Jehovah blessed the house of Obed-edom +(xiii. 14), but mentions no consequent result; again the cause is +given without the effect. Another explanation is substituted; +David perceived that the disaster connected with the removal of +the ark was due to the fact of its not having been carried by the +Levites in accordance with the Law; the Levites accordingly were +made to bear it and no harm ensued (xv. 2, 13-15). This is in complete +and manifest contradiction to the older narrative, and as Chronicles +(chapter xiii.) copies that narrative, it also contradicts itself +(xiii. 10), and that all the more strikingly as by the addition +in xiii. 2 it represents the accompanying clergy as tacitly +approving the carrying of the ark on the ox-cart. Then due +participation in the sacred procession having been thus once +secured them, 1Chronicles xv. positively revels in priests +and Levites, of whom not a sing]e word is to be found in 2 Samuel +vi., and moreover a sort of musical service is instituted by +David himself before the ark, and a festal cantata made up by him +out of post-exilian psalms is quoted (chapter xvi.). In this way, +out of the original narrative, the scattered fragments of which +now show themselves very strangely in the new connection, +something quite different has grown. "In the former everything is +free, simply the affair of king and people, here all is priestly +ceremonial; there the people with their king shout and dance with +joy before the ark,, here the levites are the musicians and +singers in formal order. To seek to combine the two versions is +wholly against the laws of historical interpretation. If the +first were curt and condensed the unification of the two might +perhaps be possible, but no story could be more particular or +graphic, and could it have been that the Levites alone should be +passed over in silence if they had played so very important a +part? The author of Chronicles was able to introduce them only +by distorting and mutilating his original and landing himself in +contradiction after all. He cannot allow anything to happen +without Levites; and was the ark of the covenant to be fetched to +Jerusalem without them? was the Law to be even a second time +broken under the pious king David? This seemed to him impossible. +That Uzzah perished in the first attempt to fetch the ark, and +that on the second occasion--when only a quite short journey is +spoken of--the ark was carried, ~2Samuel vi. 13, may have been +the suggestions by which he was led. Fertile in combinations, +he profited by the hint." So, justly, De Wette (Beitraege, i. +88-91). + +The narrative of 2Samuel vi. having been broken off at the first +half of ver. 19 (1Chronicles xvi. 3), the second half of the verse +and the beginning of the next are reproduced (xvi. 43) after the +interpolation of xvi. 4-42, and then 2Samuel vii. is appended +word for word (1Chronicles xvii.),--the resolution of David to build +a house for the ark, and what Jehovah said to him about the +subject through Nathan. The point of the prophet's address turns +on the antithesis (2Samuel vii.). "Thou wilt build a house FOR +ME? rather will I build a house FOR THEE;" the house of David +is of course the Davidic dynasty. But an interpolation has +already crept into the text of Samuel (vii. 13), which +apprehends the antithesis thus: "THOU wilt build a house for me? +Nay, THY SON shall build a house for me." Now Chronicles, for which +David comes into consideration merely as the proper founder of the +Solomonic temple, takes up the narrative of 2 Samuel vii. precisely +on account of this interpolation, as is clear from xxii. 9, 10-- +increases the misunderstanding by going back to it in an addition +(xvii. 14)--and at the outset destroys the original antithesis +by the innocent alteration, "Thou shalt not build THE HOUSE for me" +instead of "Wilt thou build A house for me? "The house can here +mean only that imperatively needed one, long kept in view alike +by God and men, which must by all means he built, only not by David +but by Solomon; it is without any ambiguity the temple, and does not, +like a house, contain that possibility of a double meaning on +which the original point depends. It is interesting also to compare +2Samuel vii. 14 with 1Chronicles xvii. 13: "I will be to thy seed +a father, and he shall be to me a son. _If he commit iniquity, +then I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes +of the sons of men; but_ my mercy shall not depart from him." +The words in italics are wanting in Chronicles; the meaning, that +Jehovah will not withdraw His grace from the dynasty of Judah +altogether, even though some of its members should deserve +punishment, is thereby destroyed and volatilised into an abstract +idealism, which shows that to the writer the Davidic kingly +family is known only as a dissolving view, and not by historical +experience as it is to the author of 2Samuel vii. + +In chaps xviii.-xx., Chronicles seems to refresh itself with a +little variety, relating as it does the foreign wars of David +after the order of 2Samuel, viii., x., xi. 1, xii. 30, 30, xxi. +18-22. But in this it still keeps in view its purpose, which is +directed towards David as founder of the Jerusalem worship; +those wars brought him the wealth that was required for the +building of the temple. On the other hand, everything so +fully and beautifully told in the Book of Samuel about the +home occurrences of that period is omitted, for after all +it does not contribute much to the glorification of the king. +So the story of Meribaal and Ziba (chap. ix.), of Bathsheba and +Uriah (xi., xii.), of Tamar and Amnon (xiii., xiv.), of Absalom's +rebellion (xv.-xx.), and of the delivering-up of the sons of Saul +(xxi. 1-14). The rude and mechanical manner in which statements +about foreign wars are torn from the connection with domestic +events in which they stand in the older narrative is shown in +1Chronicles xx. 1, 2, as compared with 2Samuel xi. 1, xii. 30. +In 2Samuel xi. the mention of the fact that David remained +in Jerusalem when the army set out against Rabbah, prepares for +the story of his adultery with the wife of a captain engaged +in active service in the field; but 1Chronicles xx. 1 is +meaningless, and involves a contradiction with ver. 2. according +to which David appears after all in the camp at Rabbah, although +the connection,--namely, that he followed the army--and all +the intermediate occurrences relating to Bathsheba and Uriah, are +left out (De Wette, pp. 19, 20, 60). To what extent the veil is +drawn over the scandalous falls of saints may be judged also from +the fact that from the list of David's foreign encounters also, +which are otherwise fully given, a single one is omitted which he +is supposed not to have come through with absolute honour, that +with the giant Ishbi-benob (2Samuel xxi. 15-17). Lastly, the +alteration made in 1Chronicles xx. 5 is remarkable. Elhanan the +son of Jair of Bethlehem, we read in 2Samuel xxi. 19, was he who +slew Goliath of Gath, the shaft of whose spear was as thick as a +weaver's beam. But on the other hand, had not David of Bethlehem +according to 1Samuel xvii. vanquished Goliath the giant, the +shaft of whose spear was as thick as a weaver's beam? In +Chronicles accordingly Elhanan smites the brother of the +veritable Goliath. + +2. The closing chapters of 2Samuel (xxi.-xxiv.) are, admittedly, +an appendix of very peculiar structure. The thread of xxi. 1-14 +is continued in xxiv. 1-25, but in the interval between the two +passages occurs xxi. 15-xxiii. 39, in a very irrational manner, +perhaps wholly due to chance. In this interposed passage itself, +again, the quite similar lists xxi. 15-22 and xxiii. 8-39 are +very closely connected; and the two songs, xxii. 1-51, xxiii. +1-7, are thus an interpolation within an interpolation. This +want of order is imitated by the author of Chronicles also, +who takes 2Samuel xxiii. 8-39 as separated from xxi. 15-22, +and gives 2Samuel xxiv. last, a position which does not belong +to it from any material considerations, but merely because it +had originally been tagged on as an appendix, and besides had +been separated from its connection with xxi. 1-14 by a +large interpolation. + +1Chronicles xxi. (the pestilence as punishment of David's sin +in numbering the people, and the theophany as occasioning the +building of an altar on the threshing-floor of Araunah) is on the +whole a copy of 2Samuel xxiv., but with omission of the precise +and interesting geographical details of ver. 5 seq, and with +introduction of a variety of improving touches. Thus (xxi. 1): +"And Satan stood up against Israel and moved David;" instead +of: "And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he +moved David." Similarly (xxi. 6): "Levi and Benjamin Joab +counted not among them; for the king's word was abominable to him,"-- +an addition which finds its explanation on the one hand in Numbers +i. 49, and on the other in the circumstance that the holy city lay +within the territory of Benjamin. Again (xxi. 16, 27): "David +saw the angel of Jehovah standing between heaven and earth, and +his sword drawn in his hand and stretched out towards Jerusalem;" +compare this with Sam xxiv. 16 (1Chronicles xxi. t5): "The angel +stretched out his hand to Jerusalem to destroy it, and he was +by the threshing floor of Araunah;" according to the older view, +angels have no wings (Genesis xxviii.). Further (xxi. 25): +"David gave to Araunah for his threshing-floor 600 shekels of +gold ;" compare with 2Samuel xxiv. 24, 50 shekels of silver; +to make the king pay right royally costs the Chronicler nothing. +But lastly, his most significant addition is the fire from +heaven which consumes the burnt-offering (xxi. 26); by this means +the altar on the threshing-floor of Araunah, in other words, +that of the sanctuary of Jerusalem, is intended to be put on +a level with that of the tabernacle, its predecessor, the fire +on which was also kindled from heaven (Leviticus ix. 24). +Whoever has understood the narratives of altar-buildings by +the Patriarchs, by Joshua, Gideon, and Manoah, will grant that +the author of Chronicles has quite correctly understood the +intention of 2Samuel xxiv., in accordance with which he here +proposes to relate the divine inauguration of the place of worship +at Jerusalem; but what in that passage, as in similar older +legends about the indication of consecrated places by means of a +theophany, is only hinted at for contemporaries who understood +the idea conveyed, he requires to retouch strongly in order that +a later generation may notice it; and yet he has half spoiled +the point by making the angel not stand by the threshing-floor of +Araunah on the sacred spot, but hover aloft in the air. + +2Samuel xxiv. = 1Chronicles xxi. serves further as a starting point +for the free construction of 1Chronicles xxii.-xxix. The +circumstance that in the last chapter of the Book of Samuel David +builds the altar at Jerusalem is expanded into the statement that +in the last year of his reign he prepared beforehand the building +of the temple of Solomon in all its parts down to the minutest +detail. Unhampered by historical tradition, the author here +expatiates with absolute freedom in his proper element. All that +has hitherto been said about the king on the basis of the older +source is by means of additions and omissions fashioned into what +shall serve as a mere prologue to the proper work of his life, +which is now described thoroughly _con amore_. He himself +unfortunately has not been allowed to build the house, having +shed much blood and carried on great wars (xxii. 8, xxviii. 3), +but he yet in the last year of his reign forestalls from his +successor the whole merit of the business (xxiii. 1, xxviii. 1). +My son Solomon, he says, is young and tender, but the house to be +built for Jehovah must be great and glorious; I will therefore +prepare it for him (xxii. 5). Accordingly he gets ready +beforehand the workmen and artificers, in particular bringing into +requisition the non-Israelitic population; he provides the +material, stone and wood and brass and iron, and gold and silver +and jewels without number; he also gives the plan or rather +receives it direct from Jehovah, and that in black and white +(xxviii. 19), while Moses built the tabernacle only according to +his recollection of the heavenly pattern which had been shown to +him on Sinai. But before all he appoints the _personnel_ for the +temple service,--priests, Levites, porters, singers,-divides their +thousands into classes, and assigns to them their functions by +lot. In doing so he interests himself, naturally, with special +preference, in the music, being the designer of the instruments +(xxiii. 5), and himself acting as principal conductor (xxv. 2, +6). And as he is still king after all, he at the close takes an +inventory also of his secular state, after having duly ordered +the spiritual. All this he does for the future, for his son and +successor; not in reality, but only in plan, are the door-keepers, +for example, assigned to their posts (xxvi. 12 seq.), but none +the less with strictest specification and designation of the +localities of the temple,--and that too the second temple! His +preparations concluded, David calls a great assembly of prelates +and notables (xxiii. 1, xxviii. 1), has Solomon anointed as king, +and Zadok as priest (xxix. 22), and in a long discourse hands over +to the former along with the kingdom the task of his reign, +namely, the execution of what he himself has prepared and +appointed; on this occasion yet more precious stones and noble +metals--among them gold of Ophir and Persian darics--are presented +by David and the princes for the sacred building. The whole +section 1Chronicles xxii.-xxix. is a startling instance of that +statistical phantasy of the Jews which revels in vast sums of +money on paper (xxii. 14), in artificial marshallings of names +and numbers (xxiii.-xxvii.), in the enumeration of mere subjects +without predicates, which simply stand on parade and neither +signify nor do anything. The monotony is occasionally broken +only by unctuous phrases, but without refreshing the reader. +Let the experiment of reading the chapters through be tried. + +According to 1Kings i., ii., King David in his closing days was +sick and feeble in body and mind, and very far from being in a +condition thus to make preparations on behalf of his successor +shortly before his own death, or to prepare his bread for him so +far that nothing remained but to put it into the oven. His +purpose of building a house to Jehovah is indeed spoken of in +2 Samuel vii. in connection with vi. 17, but it is definitively +abandoned in consequence of Jehovah's refusal, on the ground that +it is not man's part to build a house for God, but God's to build +a house for man. In strange contrast with this explanation is +that of Chronicles that David is a man of war and has shed much +blood, and therefore dare not set up the temple; that he had waged +the wars of Jehovah, that Jehovah had given victory by his hand, +would in the older warlike time have seemed no reason against but +rather an argument establishing his fitness for such a work. But +the worst discrepancy is that between the solemn installation of +Solomon as king and of Zadok as priest with all the forms of law +and publicity as related in 1Chronicles xxviii., xxix. (comp. +xxii., xxiii. 1) and the older narrative of 1Kings i., ii. +According to the latter it was much more an ordinary palace +intrigue, by means of which one party at court succeeded in +obtaining from the old king, enfeebled with age, his sanction for +Solomon's succession. Until then Adonijah had been regarded as +heir-apparent to the throne, by David himself, by all Israel, +and the great officers of the kingdom, Joab and Abiathar; what +above all things turned the scale in favour of Solomon was the +weight of Benaiah's six hundred praetorians, a formidable force +in the circumstances of the period. The author of Chronicles +naively supposes he has successfully evaded all difficulties +by giving out the coronation of Solomon related by himself +to be the second (xxix. 22),--an advertence to 1Kings i., ii. +which does not remove but only betrays the contradiction. + +Yet this is as nothing over against the disharmony of the total +impression. See what Chronicles has made out of David! The +founder of the kingdom has become the founder of the temple and +the public worship, the king and hero at the head of his +companions in arms has become the singer and master of ceremonies +at the head of a swarm of priests and Levites; his clearly cut +figure has become a feeble holy picture, seen through a cloud of +incense. It is obviously vain to try to combine the +fundamentally different portraits into one stereoscopic image; +it is only the tradition of the older source that possesses +historical value. In Chronicles this is clericalised in the taste +of the post-exilian time, which had no feeling longer for anything +but cultus and torah, which accordingly treated as alien the old +history (which, nevertheless, was bound to be a sacred history), +if it did not conform with its ideas and metamorphose itself into +church history. Just as the law framed by Ezra as the foundation +of Judaism was regarded as having been the work of Moses, so what +upon this basis had been developed after Moses--particularly the +music of the sanctuary and the ordering of the temple +_personnel_---was carried back to King David, the sweet singer of +Israel, who had now to place his music at the service of the +cultus, and write psalms along with Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, +the Levitical singing families. + +VI.I.3. With regard to Solomon, Chronicles (2Chronicles i.-ix.) +nowhere departs very far from the lines of the Book of Kings. +As the story of 1Kings i., ii., which is not an edifying one, and +mercilessly assails that of 1Chronicles xxii.-xxix., required to +be omitted, the narrative accordingly begins with 1Kings iii., with +Solomon's accession, sacrifices on the great altar at Gibeon, and +the revelation of Jehovah, which was thereupon communicated to him +in a dream. This last is transcribed with slight alterations, +but at the outset a characteristic divergence is found. "Solomon +loved Jehovah, walking in the statutes of David his father, only +he sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places (because +there was no house built unto the name of Jehovah until those +days). And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that +was the great high place; a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon +offer upon that altar, and Jehovah appeared unto him in a dream: +Ask what I shall give thee." So 1Kings iii. 2 seq. Chronicles, +after its manner, first surrounds the king with a great assemblage +of captains of hundreds and thousands, of judges and princes +and heads of houses, and purely Pentateuchal dignities, and then +proceeds: +"And Solomon and all the congregation with him went to +the high place in Gibeon, for there was God's tent of meeting, +which Moses, the servant of God, had made in the wilderness. +But the ark of God had David brought up from Kirjath-jearim, +where he had prepared for it; for he had pitched a tent for it +at Jerusalem. But the brazen altar that Bezaleel, the son of Uri, +the son of Hur, had made, stood there, before the tabernacle of +Jehovah, and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it. And +Solomon offered there, upon the brazen altar, before Jehovah, +by the tent of meeting, he offered a thousand burnt-offerings, +and God appeared to him in a dream, saying, Ask what I shall +give thee" (2Chronicles i. 3 seq.). +In the older narrative there is nothing about the tabernacle, +it being assumed that no apology would be either necessary or +possible for Solomon having sacrificed on a high place. Chronicles, +dominated in its views of antiquity by the Priestly Code, has +missed the presence of the tabernacle and supplied the want in +accordance with that norm; the young and pious king could not +possibly have made his solemn inaugural sacrifice, for which +he had expressly left Jerusalem, anywhere else than at the +legally prescribed place; and still less could Jehovah otherwise +have bestowed on him His blessing. It betokens the narrowness, +and at the same time the boldness of the author, that he retains +the expression _high place_ used in 1Kings iii. 3, and co-ordinates +it with _tabernacle_, although the one means precisely the opposite +of the other. But it is instructive to notice how, on other +occasions, he is hampered by his Mosaic central sanctuary, which +he has introduced _ad hoc_ into the history. According to 1Chronicles +xvi. David is in the best position to institute also a sacrificial +service beside the ark of Jehovah, which he has transferred to +Zion; but he dare not, for the Mosaic altar stands at Gibeon, and +he must content himself with a musical surrogate (vers. 37-42). +The narrative of 1Chronicles xxi., that David was led by the +theophany at the threshing-floor of Araunah to build an altar +there, and present upon it an offering that was accepted by +heaven, is at its close maimed and spoiled in a similar way by +the remark, with anticipatory reference to 2Chronicles i., that the +Mosaic tabernacle and altar of burnt offering were indeed at that +time in the high place at Gibeon, but that the king had not the +strength to go before it to inquire of Jehovah, being so smitten +with fear of the angel with the drawn sword. So also must the +sacrifice which Solomon should have offered on his return from +Gibeon before the ark at Jerusalem be similarly ignored (2Chronicles +i. 13), because it uould destroy the force of the previous +explanation of the high place at Gibeon. Thus the shadow takes +the air from the body. In other places the tabernacle is +significantly confounded with the temple of Jerusalem (Graf, p. 56), +but on the whole it remains a tolerably inert conception, only made + use of in the passage before us (2Chronicles i.) in an _ex machina_ +manner in order to clear Solomon of a heavy reproach. + +Upon the last solemn act of worship at the Mosaic sanctuary +immediately follows the building of the temple (i. 18 [ii.1]-vii. 11), +1Kings iii. 10-v. 14 [AV. 34] being passed over. A few little +touches are however brought in to show the wealth of Solomon +(i. 14-17); they do not occur in Kings until chap. x. (vers. 26-29), +and are also repeated in Chronicles (ix. 25 seq.) in this much +more appropriate connection (comp. 1Kings iii., LXX). Strictly +speaking indeed, David has taken the preparations for the sacred +building out of the hands of his successor, but the latter +appears not to be satisfied with these (ii. 16 [17]) and looks +after them once more (i. 18-ii. 17 [ii. 1-18]). A comparison +with Ezra iii. (preparation of the second temple) shows that +the story is an elaboration of the author, although suggested +by 1Kings v. 16 [2] seq., and with preservation of many verbal +reminiscences. While Hiram and Solomon according to the older +record are on a footing of equality and make a contract based +on reciprocity of service, the Tyrian king is here the vassal +of the Israelite, and renders to him what he requires as tribute; +instead of as there explaining himself by word of mouth, he here +writes a letter in which he not only openly avows his faith in +Jehovah the God of Israel, the maker of heaven and earth, but +also betrays an extraordinary acquaintance with the Pentateuchal +Priestly Code. The brassfounder whom Solomon brings from Tyre +(1Kings vii. 13, 14) is (ii. 13) described as a very Daedalus +and prodigy of artistic skill, like Bezaleel (Exodus xxxi. 2 seq.); +his being made the son of a woman of Dan and not of a widow of +Naphtali supplies interpreters with the materials for the +construction of a little family romance, /1/ + +****************************************** +1. She was by birth a woman of Dan, married into the tribe of +Napthali, lost her husband, and as widow out of the tribe of +Naphtali became the wife of the Tyrian. So Bertheau _in loc_. +*************************************** + +but has no more real value than the idea that sandalwood is +obtained from Lebanon. The statement of 1Kings v. 27 [13] +(xi. 28, xii. 4) that Israel was requisitioned in large numbers +to render forced service to the king has substituted for it by +the Chronicler that which occurs in another place (1Kings ix. 2I), +that only the Canaanite serfs were employed for this purpose; at +the same time, he reckons their number from the figures supplied +in 1Kings v. 29 [15] seq. Lastly, the manner in which Solomon +(ii. 2 [3] ) assures Hiram that he will arrange the divine +service in the new house in a thoroughly correct manner according +to the ordinance of the Priestly Code, is also characteristic; +similar remarks, from which the uninterrupted practice of the +Mosaic cultus according to the rules of the Law is made to appear, +are afterwards repeated from time to time (viii. 12-16, xiii. 11). + +In chaps. iii., iv. the author repeats the description of the +temple in 1Kings vi., vii., with the omission of what relates to +profane buildings. Perhaps in one passage (1Kings vii. 23) he +found the now very corrupt text in a better state; otherwise he +has excerpted from it in a wretchedly careless style or word for +word transcribed it, adding merely a few extravagances or +appointments of later date (e.g., the specification of the gold +in iii. 4 seq. 8, 9, of the ten golden tables and hundred golden +basins in iv. 8, of the brass-covered doors of the outer gateway +in iv. 9, of the court of the priests in iv. 9, of the curtain +between the holy place and the holy of holies in iii. 14; +compare Vatke, pp. 332, 333, 340, 341). To deny that the +original (to which reference must in many places be made in order +that the meaning may be understood) exists in 1Kings vi., vii., +requires an exercise of courage which might be much better +employed, all the more because in 2Chronicles iv. 11-v. 1, the +summary list follows the description of details precisely as in +1Kings vii. 40 - 51. + +While the concrete and material details of 1Kings vi., vii. are +reproduced only in an imperfect and cursory manner, the act of +consecration on the other hand, and the discourse delivered by +Solomon on the occasion, is accurately and fully given (v. 2-vii. +10) in accordance with 1Kings viii.; such additions and +omissions as occur are all deliberate. In 1Kings viii. the +priests and Levites on an occasion which so closely concerned +their interests do not play any adequate part, and in particular +give none of the music which nevertheless is quite indispensable +at any such solemnity. Accordingly, the Chronicler at the word +"priests" inserts between the violently separated clauses of 1Kings +viii. 10, 11, the following: +"For all the priests present had sanctified themselves without +distinction of classes, and the Levites, the singers, all stood in +white linen with cymbals and psalteries and harps at the east end +of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding +with trumpets. And it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers +were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking +the Lord, and when the music began with trumpets, and cymbals, and +instruments, and the song of praise, +Praise ye Jehovah, +for He is good; +for His mercy endureth for ever, +then the house was filled with a cloud" (v. 11-13). +Proceeding, the narrative of 1Kings viii. 22 that Solomon came +in front of the altar and there prayed is indeed in the first +instance copied (vi. 12), but forthwith authoritatively interpreted +in the sense that the king did not really and actually stand before +the altar (which was lawful for the priests alone), but upon an +improvised pulpit in the inner court upon a propped-up caldron of +brass (vi. 13), an excellent idea, which has met with the due +commendation of expositors. The close of Solomon's prayer (1Kings +viii. 49-53) is abridged (vi. 39, 40)--perhaps in order to get rid +of viii. 50--and there is substituted for it an original epilogue +(vi. 41, 42) recalling post-exilian psalms. Then comes a larger +omission, that of 1Kings viii. 54-61, explained by the difficulty +involved in the king's here kneeling, not upon the caldron, +but before the altar, then standing up and blessing like a priest; +in place of this it is told (vii. 1-3) how the altar was consecrated +by fire from heaven, which indeed had already descended upon it +(1Chronicles xxi.26), but as it appears had unaccountably gone out. +In vii. 4 the author again returns to his original at 1Kings +viii. 62 seq., but tricks it out, wherever it appears to him too +bare, with trumpeting priests and singing Levites (vii. 6), +and finally dismisses the people, not on the eighth day of +the feast of tabernacles (1Kings viii. 66), but on the ninth +(vii. to), in accordance with the enactment in Numbers xxix. 35. + +The rest of Solomon's history (vii. 11-ix. 28) is taken over from +1Kings ix., x. In doing so what is said in 1Kings ix. 10-IO, +to the effect that Solomon handed over to Hiram twenty Galilaean +cities, is changed into the opposite--that Hiram ceded the cities +to Solomon, who settled them with Israelites (viii. 1, 2); and +similarly the already observed statement of 1Kings ix. 24 +about the removal of Solomon's Egyptian wife out of the city of +David into his new palace /1/ is altered and put in quite a + +**************************************** +1. Even in the text of Kings this statement has been obscured; +Comp. 1Kings iii. 1. In ix. 24 we must at least say _betho +asher bana lo_, but this perhaps is not enough. +**************************************** + +false light: +"Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the +city of David unto the house that he had built for her; for he +said, No woman shall dwell in the house of David, for the place +is holy whereunto the ark of Jehovah hath come" (viii. 11). +There is no further need to speak of viii. 12-16 (1Kings ix. 25); +more indifferent in their character are the addition in vii. +12-15, a mere compilation of reminiscences, the embellishment in +viii. 3-6, derived from 1Kings ix. 17-19, and the variations in +viii. 17 seq., ix. 2I, misunderstood from 1Kings ix. 26 seq., +x. 22. The concluding chapter on Solomon's reign (1Kings xi.), +in which the king does not appear in his most glorious aspect, is +passed over in silence, for the same motives as those which +dictated the omission of the two chapters at the beginning. + +The history of the son is treated after the same plan and by the +same means as that of the father, only the subject accommodates +itself more readily to the purpose of the change. The old +picture is retouched in such wise that all dark and repulsive +features are removed, and their place taken by new and brilliant +bits of colour not in the style of the original but in the taste of +the author's period,--priests and Levites and fire from heaven, and +the fulfilment of all righteousness of the law, and much music, +and all sorts of harmless legendary anachronisms and +exaggerations besides. The material of tradition seems broken up +in an extraneous medium, the spirit of post-exilian Judaism. + + +VI.II. + +VI.II.1. After Solomon's death the history of Israel in Chronicles +is traced only through Jehovah's kingdom in the hand of the sons +of David, and all that relates to the ten tribes is put aside. +For according to the notions of the Judaistic period Israel is the +congregation of true worship, and this last is connected with the +temple at Jerusalem, in which of course the Samaritans have no +part. Abijah of Judah makes this point of view clear to Jeroboam +I. and his army in a speech delivered from Mount Zemaraim before +the battle. +"Think ye to withstand the kingdom of Jehovah in the +hand of the sons of David, because ye are a great multitude, and +with you are the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods ? +Have ye not cast out the priests of Jehovah, the sons of Aaron and +the Levites, and made for yourselves priests after the manner of +the Gentiles? so that whosoever cometh to fill his hands with a +young bullock and seven rams, even he may become a priest for the +false gods? But as for us, we have not forsaken Jehovah our God, +and our priests minister to Jehovah, the sons of Aaron and the +Levites in the service; and they burn unto Jehovah every morning +and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense; the shewbread +also is upon the pure table; for we have maintained the service of +Jehovah our God, but ye have forsaken Him. And behold, God Himself +is with us at our head, and His priests, and the loud-sounding +trumpets to cry an alarm against you. O children of Israel, +fight ye not against Jehovah the God of your fathers, for ye shall +not prosper" (2Chronicles xiii. 8-12; comp. xi. 13-17). + +The kingdom which bore the name of Israel was actually in point of +fact in the olden time the proper Israel, and Judah was merely a +kind of appendage to it. When Amaziah of Judah after the +conquest of the Edomites challenged to battle King Jehoash of +Samaria, whose territory had at that time suffered to the utmost +under the continual wars with the Syrians, the latter bid say to +him: +"The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was +in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife;--then +passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trode down the +thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thy heart hath +lifted thee up. Enjoy thy glory, but tarry at home." +(2Kings xiv. 9, 10). And as the other would not listen, he +punished him as if he had been a naughty boy and then let him go. +Religiously the relative importance of the two corresponded +pretty nearly to what it was politically and historically. +Israel was the cradle of prophecy; Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha +exercised their activity there; what contemporary figure from +Judah is there to place alongside of these? Assuredly the author +of the Book of Kings would not have forgotten them had any such +there been, for he is a Judaean with all his heart, yet is compelled +purely by the nature of the case to interest himself chiefly about +the northern kingdom. And yet again at the very close it was the +impending fall of Samaria that called into life a new phase of +prophecy; he who inaugurated it, the Judaean Amos of Tekoah, was +sent not to Judah but to Israel, the history of which had the +first and fullest sympathy of his inmost soul as that of the people +of Jehovah. Isaiah was the first who placed Jerusalem in the centre +of his field of vision and turned away from Israel; for at the time +of his first public appearance war was raging between the sister +nations, and when his activity was at its acme all was over with +the northern kingdom and all hope had to cling to the remnant,-- +the fallen tabernacle of David. As regards the cultus, certainly, +matters may have been somewhat less satisfactory in Israel than +in Judah, at least in the last century before the Assyrian captivity, +but at the outset there was no essential difference. On all hands +Jehovah was worshipped as the peculiar divinity of the nation at +numerous fanes, in the service at the high places there were wanting +neither in the one nor in the other sacred trees, posts, and +stones, images of silver and gold (Isaiah ii. 8 seq., xvii. 8, +xxxi. 22; Micah v. 12). It is a question whether in the time +before Hezekiah the cultus of the kingdom at Jerusalem had so much +to distinguish it above that at Bethel or at Dan; against +Jeroboam's golden calves must be set the brazen serpent of Moses, +and the ark of Jehovah itself--which in ancient times was an idol +(1Samuel iv.-vi.) and did not become idealised into an ark of the +covenant, ie., of the law, until probably it had actually +disappeared. As for the prophetic reaction against the popular +cultus, the instance of Hosea shows that it came into activity as +early and as powerfully in Israel as in Judah. Even after +Josiah's reformation Jeremiah complains that the sister who +hitherto had been spared is in no respect better than the other +who a hundred years before had fallen a victim to the Assyrians +(iii. 6-1O); and though in principle the author of the Book of +Kings, taking his stand upon Deuteronomy, prefers Judah and +Jerusalem, yet he does not out of deference to this judgment alter +the facts which show that old Israel was not further than old +Judah from compliance with the Deuteronomic precepts. Chronicles, +on the other hand, not only takes the Law--the Penta<teu>chal Law +as a whole, but more particularly the Priestly Code therein +preponderating--as its rule of judgment on the past; but also +idealises the facts in accordance with that norm, and figures to +itself the old Hebrew people as in exact conformity with the +pattern of the later Jewish community,--as a monarchically graded +hierocracy with a strictly centralised cultus of rigidly +prescribed form at the holy place of Jerusalem. When, +accordingly, the ten tribes fail to exhibit all the marks of the +kingdom of God, this is taken to mean their falling away from the +true Israel; they have made goats and calves their gods, driven +away the priests and Levites, and in a word broken quite away +from the institutions which shaped themselves in Judah during the +period subsequent to Josiah and received their finishing-touches +from Ezra. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. The Chronicler indeed is unable, even in the case of these +schismatics, to divest himself of his legal notions, as appears +almost comically in the circumstance that the priests of Jeroboam +set about their heretical practices quite in accordance with the +prescriptions of the Priestly Code, and procure their +consecration by means of a great sacrifice (2 Chron xiii. 9). +**************************************** + +Like other heathen, therefore, they are taken account of by the +sacred history only in so far as they stood in relations of +friendship or hostility with the people of Jehovah properly so +called, the Israel in the land of Judah (2Chronicles xxiii. 2), +and in all references to them the most sedulous and undisguised +partisanship on behalf of Judah is manifested, even by the +inhabitants of the northern kingdom itself. /2/ If one seriously + +*********************************** +2. Compare xi. 16, xv. 9, xix. 2, xx. 35 seq.. xxv 7, xxviii. +9 seq., xxx. 6. +*********************************** + +takes the Pentateuch as Mosaic law, this exclusion of the ten +tribes is, in point of fact, an inevitable consequence, for the +mere fact of their belonging to the people of Jehovah destroys the +fundamental pre-supposition of that document, the unity and +legitimacy of the worship as basis of the theocracy, the priests +and Levites as its most important organs, "the sinews and muscles +of the body politic, which keep the organism together as a living +and moving whole." + +VI.II.2. The reverse side is, of course, the idealisation of Judah +from the point of view of the legitimate worship,--a process which +the reader can imagine from the specimens already given with +reference to David and Solomon. The priests and Levites who +migrated from Israel are represented as having strengthened the +southern kingdom (xi. 17), and here constitute the truly +dominant element in the history. It is for their sake that kings +exist as protectors and guardians of the cultus, with the internal +arrangements of which, however, they dare not intermeddle (xxvi. +16 seq.); to deliver discourses and ordain spiritual solemnities +(which figure as the culminating points in the narrative) are +among the leading duties of their reign. /1/ + +************************************** +1. xiii. 7 seq., xv. 10 seq., xx. 6 seq., xxix. 5 seq., xxx. 1 seq., +xxxv. 1 seq. +************************************** + +Those among them who are good apprehend their task and are +inseparable from the holy servants of Jehovah,--so, in particular, +Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Of the first mentioned we are +told that in the third year of his reign he appointed a royal +commission of notables, priests, and Levites, to go about with the +Book of the Law, and teach in the cities of Judah (xvii. 7-9); in +the larger places, in the strongholds, he further instituted +colleges of justice, and over them a supreme tribunal at +Jerusalem, also consisting of priests, Levites, and notables, +under the presidency of the high priest for spiritual, and of the +Prince of the house of Judah for secular affairs (xix. 5-11). +There is nothing about this in the Book of Kings, although what is +of less importance is noticed (1Kings xxii. 47); the Chronicler +makes the statement in his own language, which is unmistakable, +especially in the pious speeches. Probably it is the +organisation of justice as existing in his own day that he here +carries back to Jehoshaphat, so that here most likely we have the +oldest testimony to the synedrium of Jerusalem as a court of +highest instance over the provincial synedria, as also to its +composition and presidency. The impossibility of such a judiciary +system in antiquity is clear from its presupposing the Book of +the Law as its basis, from its co-ordination of priests and +Levites, and also from its actual inconsistency with incidental +notices, particularly in Isaiah and the older prophets (down to +Jeremiah xxvi.), in which it everywhere is taken for granted as a +thing of course that the rulers are also at the same time the +natural judges. Moreover, Chronicles already tells us about +David something similar to what it says about Jehoshaphat +(1Chronicles xxiii. 4, xxvi. 29-32); the reason why the latter +is selected by preference for this work lies simply in his name +" Jehovah is Judge," as he himself is made to indicate in various +ways (xix. 5-11; compare Joel iv. 12). But the king of Judah +is strengthened by the priests and Levites, not only in these +domestic affairs, but also for war. As the trumpets of the priests +give to Abijah courage and the victory against Jeroboam of +Israel, so do the Levites also to Jehoshaphat against Moab and +Ammon. Having fasted, and received, while praying, the +comfortable assurance of the singer Jahaziel ("See God"), he +advances next morning, with his army, against the enemy, having +in the van the Levites, who march in sacred attire in front of +the armed men and sing: +"Praise ye the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever." +He then finds that the fighting has already been done by the enemy +themselves, who, at the sound of that song of praise, have fallen +upon and annihilated one another. Three days are spent in +dividing the spoil, and then he returns as he came, the Levitical +music leading the van, with psalteries, and harps, and trumpets to +the house of Jehovah (2Chronicles xx. 1-28). Hezekiah is +glorified in a similar manner. Of the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem +and the memorable relief, comparatively little is made (xxxii. 1 +seq.; comp. De Wette, i. 75); according to Chronicles, his +master-work is that, as soon as he has mounted the throne, in the +first month of the year, and of his reign (Exodus xl. 2; Leviticus +ix. 1). he institutes by means of the priests and Levites, whom +he addresses quite paternally as his children (xxix. 11), a +great feast of consecration of the temple, alleged to have been +closed and wasted by Ahaz; thereupon in the second month to +celebrate the passover in the most sumptuous manner; and finally, +from the third to the seventh month to concern himself about the +accurate rendering of their dues to the clergy. All is described +in the accustomed style, in the course of three long chapters, +which tell us nothing indeed about the time of Hezekiah, but are +full of information for the period in which the writer lived, +particularly with reference to the method then followed in +offering the sacred dues (xxix. 1-xxxi. 21). In the case of +Josiah also the account of his epoch-making reformation of the +worship is, on the whole, reproduced in Chronicles only in a +mutilated manner, but the short notice of 2Kings xxiii. 21-23 +is amplified into a very minute description of a splendid +passover feast, in which, as always, the priests and above all +the Levites figure as the leading personalities. In this last +connection one little trait worth noticing remains, namely, that +the great assembly in which the king causes the Book of the Law +to be sworn to, is, in every other respect, made up in 2Chronicles +xxxiv. 29 seq. exactly as it is in 2Kings xxiii. 1, , except +that instead of "the priests and _prophets_" we find "the priests +and _Levites_." The significance of this is best seen from the +Targum, where "the priests and prophets" are translated into "the +priests and scribes." + +By this projection of the legitimate cultus prescribed in the Law +and realised in Judaism, the Chronicler is brought however into a +peculiar conflict with the statements of his authority, which show +that the said cultus was not a mature thing which preceded all +history, but came gradually into being in the course of history; +he makes his escape as well as he can, but yet not without a +strange vacillation between the timeless manner of looking at +things which is natural to him, and the historical tradition +which he uses and appropriates. The verses in 1Kings (xiv. 22, 23): +Judah (not Rehoboam merely) did that which was evil in the sight +of Jehovah and provoked Him to jealousy by their sins which +they sinned, above all that their fathers had done; and they +set up for themselves high places, macceboth and asherim, &c., +which in the passage where they occur are, like the parallel +statement regarding Israel (xii. 25 seq.), of primary importance, +and cancel by one bold stroke the alleged difference of worship +between the Levitical and non-Levitical kingdom, are omitted as +quite too impossible, although the whole remaining context is +preserved (2Chronicles xii. 1-16). In the same way the +unfavourable judgment upon Rehoboam's successor Abijah (1Kings xv. +3-5) is dropped, because the first kings of Judah, inasmuch as +they maintain the true religion against those of Israel who have +fallen away from it, must of necessity have been good. But +though the Chronicler is silent about what is bad, for the sake of +Judah's honour, he cannot venture to pass over the improvement +which, according to 1Kings xv. 12 seq., was introduced in Asa's +day, although one does not in the least know what need there was +for it, everything already having been in the best possible +state. Nay, he even exaggerates this improvement, and makes of +Asa another Josiah (2Chronicles xv. 1-15), represents him also +(xiv. 3) as abolishing the high places, and yet after all (xv. 1 +7) repeats the statement of 1Kings xv. 14 that the high places +were not removed. So also of Jehoshaphat, we are told in the +first place that he walked in the first ways of his father Asa +and abolished the high places in Judah (2Chronicles xvii. 3, 6, +xix. 3), a false generalisation from 1Kings (xxii. 43, 47); +and then afterwards we learn (xx. 32, 33) that the high places +still remained, word for word according to 1Kings xxii. 43, 44. +To thc author it seems on the one hand an impossibility that +the worship of the high places, which in spite of xxxiii.17 is +to him fundamentally idolatry, should not have been repressed +even by pious, i.e., law-observing kings, and yet on the other +hand he mechanically transcribes his copy. + +In the case of the notoriously wicked rulers his resort is to make +them simply heathen and persecutors of the covenant religion, +for to him they are inconceivable within the limits of Jehovism, +which always in his view has had the Law for its norm, and is one +and the same with the exclusive Mosaism cf Judaism. So first, in +the case of Joram: he makes high places on the hills of Judah and +seduces the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and +Judah to apostatise (xxi. 11), and moreover slays all his brethren +with the sword (ver. 4)--the one follows from the other. His widow +Athaliah breaks up the house of Jehovah by the hand of her sons +(who had been murdered, but for this purpose are revived), and +makes images of Baal out of the dedicated things (xxiv. 7); none +the less on that account does the public worship of Jehovah go on +uninterrupted under Jehoiada the priest. Most unsparing is the +treatment that Ahaz receives. According to 2Kings xvi. 10 seq., +be saw at Damascus an altar which took his fancy, and he caused a +similar one to be set up at Jerusalem after its pattern, while +Solomon's brazen altar was probably sent to the melting-pot; it +was Urijah the priest who carried out the orders of the king. One +observes no sign of autonomy, or of the inviolable divine right of +the sanctuary; the king commands and the priest obeys. To the +Chronicler the story so told is quite incomprehensible; what +does he make of it? Ahaz introduced the idolatrous worship of +Damascus, abolished the worship of Jehovah, and shut up the +temple (2Chronicles xxviii. 23 seq.). He regards not the person +of a man, the inflexible unity of the Mosaic cultus is everything +to the Chronicler, and its historical identity would be destroyed +if an orthodox priest, a friend of the prophet Isaiah, had lent a +helping hand to set up a foreign altar. To make idolaters pure +and simple of Manasseh and Amon any heightening of what is said +in 2Kings xxi. was hardly necessary; and besides, there were +here special reasons against drawing the picture in too dark +colours. It is wonderful also to see how the people, which is +always animated with alacrity and zeal for the Law, and rewards +its pious rulers for their fidelity to the covenant (xv. 15, +xvii. 5, xxiv. 10, xxxi. 10), marks its censure of these wicked +kings by withholding from them, or impairing, the honour of royal +burial (xxi. 19, 20, xxviii. 27, xxxiii. 10),--in spite of 2Kings +ix. 28, xvi. 20, xxi. 1 8. + +The periodically recurring invasions of heathenism help, at the +same time, to an understanding of the consequent reforms, which +otherwise surpass the comprehension of the Jewish scribe. +According to the Books of Kings, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah hit +upon praiseworthy innovations in the temple cultus, set aside +deeply rooted and immemorial customs, and reformed the public +worship of Jehovah. These advances WITHIN Jehovism, which, of +course, are quite incompatible with its Mosaic fixity, are made +by the Chronicler to be simple restorations of the pure religion +following upon its temporary violent suspension. It is in Hezekiah's +case that this is done in the most thoroughgoing manner. After +his predecessor has shut the doors of the house of Jehovah, put out +the lights, and brought the service to an end, he sets all in +operation again by means of the resuscitated priests and Levites; +the first and most important act of his reign is the consecration +of the temple (2Chronicles xxix.), with which is connected +(xxx., xxx).) the restoration of the passover and the restitution +of the temporalia to the clergy, who, as it seems, have hitherto +been deprived of them. That 2Kings xviii. 1-7, although very +different, has supplied the basis for all these extravagances, +is seen by comparing 2Chronicles xxix. 1, 2, xxxi. 1, 20, 21, +xxxii. 22 only, that the king destroyed the brazen serpent +Nehushtan (2Kings xviii. 4) is passed over in silence, as if +it were incredible that such an image should have been worshipped +down to that date in the belief that it had come down from the +time of Moses; the not less offensive statement, on the other +hand, that he took away _the Asherah_ (by which only that of +the temple altar can be understood; comp. Deuteronomy xvi. 21) +is got over by charging the singular into the plural; he took +away _the Asherahs_ (xxx). 1 ), which occurred here and there +throughout Judah, of course at heathen altars. + +In the cases of Joash and Josiah the free flight of the +Chronicler's law-crazed fancy is hampered by the copy to which +he is tied, and which gives not the results merely, but the +details of the proceedings themselves (2Chronicles xxii., xxiii.; +2Kings xi., xii.). It is precisely such histories as these, +almost the only circumstantially told ones relating to Judah +in the Book of Kings, which though in their nature most akin +to our author's preference for cultus, bring him into the greatest +embarrassment, by introducing details which to his notions are +wholly against the Law, and yet must not be represented otherwise +than in the most favourable light. + +It cannot be doubted that the sections about Joash in 2Kings +(xi. 1-xii. 17 [16]), having their scene end subject laid in the +temple, are at bottom identical with 2Chronicles xxii. 10-xxiv. +14. In the case of 2Kings xi., to begin with, the beginning and +the close, vers. 1-3, vers. 13-20, recur verbatim in 2Chronicles +xxii. 10-12, xxiii. 12-21, if trifling alterations be left +out of account. But in the central portion also there occur +passages which are taken over into 2Chronicles without any +change. Only here they are inappropriate, while in the original +connection they are intelligible. For the meaning and colour of +the whole is entirely altered in Chronicles, as the following +comparison in the main passage will show; to understand it one +must bear in mind that the regent Athaliah has put to death all +the members of the house of David who had escaped the massacre of +Jehu, with the exception of the child Joash, who, with the +knowledge of Jehoiada, the priest, has found hiding and protection +in the temple. + +2 KINGS xi 2CHRONICLES xxiii. + +4. In the seventh year Jehoiada 1. _In the seventh year Jehoiada_ +sent and took the captains of sent and took the captains of +the Carians and runners, strengthened himself and _took the + captains_, Azariah the son of Jeroham, + and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, + and Azariah the son of Obed, + and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, + and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, + into covenant with him. + + 2. And they went about in Judah + and gathered the Levites out of + all the cities in Judah, and the + chiefs of the fathers of Israel, + and they came to Jerusalem. + +and brought them to him into 3. And the whole congregation +the house of Jehovah, and made a made _a covenant in the house of +covenant with them, and took God_ with the king. And he said +an oath of them in the house of unto them, _Behold, the king's +Jehovah, and showed them the son_ shall reign, as Jehovah said +king's son; concerning the sons of David. + +5. And commanded them, saying, 4. _This is the thing that ye shall +This is the thing that ye shall do: the third part of you, which +do; the third part of you which enter on the Sabbath_, of the +enter on the Sabbath and keep the priests and of the Levites, +watch of the king's house, shall keep the doors. + +[6. And the third part in the 5. And the third part of you shall +gate of Jesod, and the third be _in the house of the king_, and +part in the gate behind the the third part in the gate Jesod; and +runners, and ye shall keep all the people shall be in the courts +the watch in the house...]: of the house of Jehovah. + +7. And the two other third +parts of you, those who go 6. And no one shall come into the +forth on the Sabbath and house of Jehovah save the priests +keep the watch in the house and they of the Levites that minister; +of Jehovah about the king. but all the people shall keep the + ordinance of Jehovah. + +8. Ye shall encompass the king 7. And the Levites shall _compass +round about, every man with the king round about, every man +his weapons in his hand, with his weapons in his hands, and +and whosoever cometh within whosoever cometh_ into the house, +the ranks, shall be put to _shall be put to death; and they shall +death, and ye shall be with be with the king whithersoever he +the king whithersoever he goeth. goeth._ + +9. And the captains did according 8. And the Levites and all Judah +to all that Jehoiada the priest _did according to all that Jehoiada +had commanded, and took each his the priest had commanded, and took +men, those that were to come in each his men, those that were to come +on the Sabbath with those that in on the Sabbath with those that +were to go out on the Sabbath, were to go out on the Sabbath_, for +and came to Jehoiada the priest. Jehoiada the priest dismissed not + the divisions. + +10. And to the captains the 9. And Jehoiada the priest delivered +priest gave King David's to the captains of hundreds the spears +spears and shields that were and the bucklers and the shields that +in the house of Jehovah. King David had, which were in the + house of God. + +11. And the runners stood, every 10. And he set all the people, _every +man with his weapons in his hand, man having his weapon in his hand, +from the south side of the house from the south side of the house to +to the north side, along by the north side, along by the altar +the altar and the house, and the house, round about the king_. +round about the king. + +12. And he brought forth the 11. _And they brought out the king's +king's son and put upon him son and put upon him the crown and +the crown and the bracelet, the bracelet and they made him king_, +and they made him king and and Jehoiada and his sons _anointed +anointed him, and they clapped him and said: +their hands and said: Long live the king_. +Long live the king. + + +Can the enthronement of Joash, as on a former occasion that of +Solomon, possibly have been accomplished by the agency of the +bodyguard of the kings of Judah? Is it possible that the high +priest should have made a covenant with the captains within the +house of Jehovah, and himself have held out the inducement to +those half-pagan mercenaries to penetrate into the temple +precincts? That were indeed an outrage upon the Law not lightly +to be imputed to so holy a man! Why then did not Jehoiada make +use of his own guard, the myriads of Levites who were at his +command? Such a course was the only right one, and therefore +that which was followed. "No one shall come into the house of +Jehovah save the priests and they of the Levites that minister:" +in accordance with this fundamental principle stated by himself +(xxiii. 6; comp ver. 7 INTO THE HOUSE instead of WITHIN THE RANKS), +our pious historian substitutes his priests and Levites for the +Carians and runners. Hereby also Jehoiada comes into the place +that belongs to him as sovereign of the sanctuary and of the +congregation. He therefore needs no longer to set on foot in +secret a conspiracy with the chiefs of the body-guard, but +through his own spiritual officers calls together the Levites and +heads of houses from all the cities of Judah into the temple, +and causes the whole assemblage there to enter into a covenant +with the young king. The glaring inconsistencies inevitably +produced by the new colouring thus given to individual parts of +the old picture must simply be taken as part of the bargain. +If Jehoiada has unrestricted sway over such a force and sets +about his revolution with the utmost publicity, then it is he +and not Athaliah who has the substance of power; why then all +this trouble about the deposition of the tyrant? Out of mere +delight in Levitical pomp and high solemnities? What moreover +is to be done with the captains who are retained in xxiii. 1, 9, +and in ver. 14 are even called officers of the host as in 2Kings +xi 15, after their soldiers have been taken from them or +metamorphosed? Had the Levites a military organisation, and, +divided into three companies, did they change places every +week in the temple service? The commentators are inclined to call +in to their aid such inventive assumptions, with which, however, +they may go on for ever without attaining their end, for the error +multiplies itself. As a specially striking instance of the manner +in which the procedure of Chronicles avenges itself may be mentioned +chapter xxiii. 8: "and they took each his men," &c. The words are +taken from 2Kings xi. 9, but there refer to the captains, while +here the antecedents are the Levites and all the men of Judah--as +if each one of these last had a company of his own which entered +upon service, or left it, every Sabbath day. + +The comparison of 2Chronicles xxiv. 4-14 with 2Kings xii. 5-17 +[4-16] is not much less instructive. According to 2Kings xii. +Joash enjoined that all the money dues payable to the temple +should in future fall to the priests, who in turn were to be under +obligation to maintain the building in good repair. But they took +the money and neglected the other side of the bargain, and when +they and Jehoiada in particular were blamed by the king on that +account, they gave up the dues so as not to be liable to the +burden. Thereupon the king set up a kind of sacred treasury, a +chest with a hole in the lid, near the altar, "on the right hand +as one goes into the temple," into which the priests were to cast +the money which came in, with the exception of the sin and +trespass moneys, which still belonged to them. And as often as +the chest became full, the king's scribes and the chief priest +removed the money, weighed it, and handed it over to the +contractors for payment of the workmen; that none of it was to be +employed for sacred vessels is expressly said (ver. 14). This +arrangement by King Joash was a lasting one, and still subsisted +in Josiah's time (2Kings . . xxii. 3 seq.). + +The arbitrary proceeding of Joash did not well suit the ideas of +an autonomous hierocracy. According to the Law the current money +dues fell to the priests; no king had the right to take them away +and dispose of them at his pleasure. How was it possible that +Jehoiada should waive his divine right and suffer such a +sacrilegious invasion of sacred privileges? how was it possible +that he should be blamed for his (at first) passive resistance of +the illegal invasion; how was it possible at all that the priest +in his own proper department should be called to account by the +king? Chronicles knows better than that. The wicked Athaliah had +wasted and plundered the temple; Joash determined to restore it, +and for this purpose to cause money to be collected throughout +all Israel by the agency of the Levites. But as these last were +in no hurry, he made a chest and set it outside in the doorway of +the sanctuary; there the people streamed past, and gentle and simple +with joyful heart cast in their gifts until the chest was full. +This being announced by the keepers of the door, the king's scribe +and the delegate of the high priest came to remove the money; +with it the king and the high priest paid the workmen, and what +remained over was made into costly vessels (2Chronicles xxiv. 5-14). +According to this account Joash makes no arrangement whatever +about the sacred dues, but sets on foot an extraordinary collection, +as had once been done by Moses for the building of the tabernacle +(xxiv. 6, 9); following upon this, everything else also which in +2Kings xii. is a permanent arrangement, here figures as an isolated +occurrence; instead of necessary repairs of the temple constantly +recurring, only one extraordinary restoration of it is mentioned, +and for this occasional purpose only is the treasure chest set up,-- +not, however, beside the altar, but only at the doorway (xxiv. 8; +comp. 2Kings xii. 10). The clergy, the Levites, are charged +only with making the collection, not with maintaining the building +out of the sacred revenues; consequently they are not +reproached with keeping the money to themselves, but only with +not being heartily enough disposed towards the collection. It +appears, however, that they were perfectly justified in this +backwardness, for the king has only to set up the "treasury of +God," when forthwith it overflows with the voluntary offerings of +the people who flock to it, so that out of the proceeds something +remains over (ver. 14) for certain other purposes--which according +to 2Kings xii. 14 [13] were expressly excluded. Joash imposes +no demands at all upon the priests, and Jehoiada in particular +stands over against him as invested with perfectly equal rights; +if the king sends his scribe, the high priest also does not appear +personally, but causes himself to be represented by a delegate +(xxiv. 11; comp. 2Kings xii. 11 [10]). Here also many a new piece +does not come well into the old garment, as De Wette (i. 10O) shows. +Chronicles itself tacitly gives the honour to the older narrative +by making Joash at last apostatise from Mosaism and refuse the +grateful deference which he owed to the high priest; this is the +consequence of the unpleasant impression, derived not from its +own story, but from that of the Book of Kings, with regard to the +undue interference of the otherwise pious king in the affairs of +the sanctuary and of the priests. + +Chronicles reaps the fruits of its perversion of 2Kings xii. in +its reproduction of the nearly related and closely connected +section 2Kings xxii. 3-IO. It is worth while once more to bring +the passages together. + +2Kings xxii. 2Chronicles xxxiv. + +3. And in the eighteenth year 8. And in the eighteenth year +of king Josiah the king sent of his reign, to cleanse the +Shaphan the son of Azaliah, land and the house, he sent +the son of Meshullam, the scribe, Shaphan the son of Azaliah, +to the house of Jehovah, saying, and Maaseiah the governor of + the city, and Joah the son of +4. Go up to Hilkiah the high Joahaz the recorder, to repair +priest, that he may empty the the house of Jehovah his God. +money which hath been brought +into the house of Jehovah 9. And they came to Hilkiah +which the keepers of the the high priest, and they +threshold have gathered of delivered the money that had +the people. been brought into the house + of God which the Levites that +5. And let them deliver it into kept the threshold had gathered +the hand of the doers of the from Ephraim and Manasseh and +work that have the oversight all the remnant of Israel and +of the house of Jehovah, and from all Judah and Benjamin, +let them give it to the doers and had returned therewith +of the work who are in the to Jerusalem. +house of Jehovah to repair +the breaches of the house. 10. And they gave it into the + hand of the workmen that had the +6. Unto carpenters, and builders, oversight of the house of Jehovah, +and masons, and to buy timber and of the workmen that wrought in +and hewn stones to repair the the house of Jehovah to repair +house. and amend the house. + +7. But let no reckoning be 11. They gave it to the artificers +made with them as to the money and to the builders to buy +that is delivered into their hewn stone and timber for roofs +hand, because they deal faithfully. and beams of the houses which + the kings of Judah had destroyed. + + 12. And the men did the work + faithfully. And the overseers of + them were Jahath and Obadiah, + the Levites, of the sons of + Merari; and Zechariah and + Meshullam, of the Kohathites, + to preside; and all the Levites + that had skill in instruments + of music + + 13. Were over the bearers of + burdens and overseers of all + that wrought the work in any + manner of service; and others + of the Levites were scribes + and officers and porters. + + 14. And when they brought out + the money that had been brought + into the house of Jehovah, + Hilkiah the priest found the book + of the law of Jehovah by the hand + of Moses. + +8. And Hilkiah the high priest 15. And Hilkiah answered and +said unto Shaphan the scribe: said to Shaphan the scribe: +I have found the book of the I have found the book of the law +law in the house of Jehovah. in the house of Jehovah. And +And Hilkiah gave the book to Hilkiah delivered the book +Shaphan, and he read it. to Shaphan. + +9. And Shaphan the scribe came 16. And Shaphan carried the book +to the king and brought the king to the king, and besides brought +word again, and said: Thy word back to the king, saying: +servants have emptied out the All that was committed to thy +money that was found in the servants they are doing. +house and have delivered it +into the hand of them that 17. And they have emptied out +do the work, that have the the money that was found in the +oversight of the house of house of Jehovah, and have +Jehovah. delivered it into the hand + of the overseers and into +10. And Shaphan the scribe the hand of the workmen. +told the king, saying: Hilkiah +the priest hath delivered 18. And Shaphan the scribe +to me a book. And Shaphan told the king, saying: Hilkiah +read it before the king. the priest hath given me a book. + And Shaphan read out of it + before the king. + + +The occasion on which the priest introduces the Book of the Law +to the notice of Shaphan has presuppositions in the arrangement +made by Joash which Chronicles has destroyed, substituting others +in its place,--that the temple had been destroyed under the +predecessors of Josiah, but that under the latter money was raised +by the agency of peripatetic Levites throughout all Israel for the +restoration, and in the first instance deposited in the treasure-chest. +At the emptying of this chest the priest is then alleged to have +found the book (ver. 14, after Deuteronomy xxxi. 26), notwithstanding +that on this occasion Shaphan also and the two accountants added +in ver. 8 were present, and ought therefore to have had a share +in the discovery which, however, is excluded by ver. 15 (= 2Kings +xxii. 8). There are other misunderstandings besides; in particular, +the superintendents of the works (_muphkadim_), to whom, according +to the original narrative, the money is handed over for payment, +are degraded to the rank of simple workmen, from whom, nevertheless, +they are again afterwards distinguished; and while in 2Kings xxii. +7 they are represented as dealing faithfully _in paying out the money_, +in 2Chronicles xxxiv. 12 they deal faithfully in their work. +Perhaps, however, this is no mere misunderstanding, but is +connected with the endeavour to keep profane hands as far off as +possible from that which is holy, and, in particular, to give the +management of the work to the Levites (vers. 12,13). To what +length the anxiety of later ages went in this matter is seen in +the statement of Josephus (Ant., xv. 11, 2), that Herod caused one +thousand priests to be trained as masons and carpenters for the +building of his temple. The two most interesting alterations in +Chronicles are easily overlooked. In ver. 1 8 the words: "He +read the book to the king," are changed into "He read out of the +book to the king;" and after "Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan" +(ver. 15) the words "and he read it" are omitted. In 2Kings the +book appears as of very moderate size, but the author of +Chronicles figures to himself the whole Pentateuch under that +name. + +In the sequel 2Kings xxii. 11-xxiii.3 is indeed repeated verbatim +in 2Chronicles xxxiv. 19-32, but the incomparably more important +section connected with it (xxiii. 4-10), giving a detailed +account of Josiah's vigorous reformation, is omitted, and its +place taken by the meagre remark that the king removed all +abominations out of Israel (xxxiv. 33); in compensation his +passover feast is described all the more fully (chap. xxxv.). +In recording also the finding and publication of the Law, +Chronicles fails to realise that this document begins now for the +first time to be historically operative, and acquires its great +importance quite suddenly. On the contrary, it had been from the +days of Moses the basis on which the community rested, and had +been in force and validity at all normal times; only +temporarily could this life-principle of the theocracy be +repressed by wicked kings, forthwith to become vigorous and +active again as soon as the pressure was removed. As soon as Ahaz +has closed his eyes, Hezekiah, in the first month of his first +year, again restores the Mosaic cultus; and as soon as Josiah +reaches years of discretion he makes good the sins of his fathers. +Being at his accession still too young, the eighth year of his +reign is, as a tribute to propriety, selected instead of the +eighth year of his life, and the great reformation assigned +to that period which in point of fact he undertook at a much +later date (xxxiv. 3-7 = 2Kings xxiii. 4-20> Thus the movement +happily becomes separated from its historical occasion, and +in character the innovation appears rather as a simple recovery +of the spring after the pressure on it has been removed. The mist +disappears before the sun of the Law, which appears in its old +strength; its light passes through no phases, but shines from +the beginning with uniform brightness. What Josiah did had also +been done before him already by Asa, then by Jehoshaphat, then +by Hezekiah; the reforms are not steps in a progressive development, +but have all the same unchanging contents. Such is the influence +upon historical vision of that transcendental Mosaism raised far +above all growth and process of becoming, which can be traced even +in the Book of Kings, but is so much more palpable in the Book +of Chronicles. + +VI.II.3. Apart from the fact that it represents the abiding tradition +of the legitimate cultus at Jerusalem, the history of Judah in the +Book of Chronicles has yet another instructive purpose. In the +kingdom of Judah it is not a natural and human, but a divine +pragmatism that is operative. To give expression to this is what +the prophets exist for in unbroken succession side by side with +high priests and kings; they connect the deeds of men with the +events of the course of the world, and utilise the sacred history +as a theme for their preaching, as a collection of examples +illustrative of the promptest operation of the righteousness of +Jehovah. In doing so they do not preach what is new or free, but +have at their command, like Jehovah Himself, only the Law of +Moses, setting before their hearers prosperity and adversity in +conformity with the stencil pattern, just as the law is +faithfully fulfilled or neglected. Of course their prophecies +always come exactly true, and in this way is seen an astonishing +harmony between inward worth and outward circumstance. Never +does sin miss its punishment, and never where misfortune occurs is +guilt wanting. + +In the fifth year of Rehoboam Judah and Jerusalem were ravaged by +Pharaoh Shishak (1Kings xiv. 25). The explanation is that three +years they walked in the ways of David and Solomon, because for +three years they were strengthened and reinforced by the priests +and Levites and other pious persons who had immigrated from the +northern kingdom (2Chronicles xi. 17); but thereafter in the fourth +year, after the kingdom of Rehoboam had been strengthened and +confirmed, he forsook the Law and all Israel with him (xii. 1)-- +and in the fifth year followed the invasion of Shishak. A prophet +announces this, and in consequence the king humbles himself +along with his people and escapes with comparatively trifling +punishment, being thought worthy to reign yet other twelve years. + +Asa in his old age was diseased in his feet (1Kings xv. 23). +According to 2Chronicles xvi. 12, he died of this illness, which is +described as extremely dangerous, in the forty-first year of his +reign, after having already been otherwise unfortunate in his +later years. And why? He had invoked foreign aid, instead of +the divine, against Baasha of Israel. Now, as Baasha survived only +to the twenty-sixth year of Asa, the wickedness must have been +perpetrated before that date. But in that case its connection +with the punishment which overtook the king only towards the +close of his life would not be clear. Baasha's expedition against +Jerusalem, accordingly, and the Syrian invasion of Israel +occasioned by Asa on that account are brought down in Chronicles +to the thirty-sixth year of the latter (xvi. 1). It has been +properly observed that Baasha was at that date long dead, and the +proposal has accordingly been made to change the number +thirty-six into sixteen,--without considering that the first half +of the reign of Asa is expressly characterised as having been +prosperous, that the thirty-fifth year is already reached in +chap. xv. 19, and that the correction destroys the connection of +the passage with what follows (xvi. 7 seq.). For it is in +connection with that flagitious appeal for aid to the Syrians that +the usual prophet makes his appearance (xvi. 7), and makes the +usual announcement of impending punishment. It is Hanani, a man +of Northern Israel (1Kings xvi. 7), but Asa treats him as if he +were one of his own subjects, handles him severely, and shuts him +in prison. By this he hastens and increases his punishment, +under which he falls in the forty-first year of his reign. + +Jehoshaphat, the pious king, according to 1Kings xxii., took part +in the expedition of the godless Ahab of Israel against the +Damascenes. Chronicles cannot allow this to pass unrebuked, +and accordingly when the king returns in peace, the same Hanani +announces his punishment, albeit a gracious one (2Chronicles xix. +I-3). And gracious indeed it is; the Moabites and Ammonites +invade the land, but Jehoshaphat without any effort on his part +wins a glorious victory, and inexhaustible plunder (xx. 1 seq.). +One cannot blame him, therefore, for once more entering into an +alliance with Ahab's successor for a naval expedition to be +undertaken in common, which is to sail from a port of the Red Sea, +probably round Africa, to Tarshish (Spain, 2Chronicles ix. 21). +But this time he is punished more seriously as Eliezer the son of +Dodavah had prophesied, the ships are wrecked. Compare on the +other hand 1Kings xxii. 48, 49: +"Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, +but they went not, for the ships were wrecked in the harbour +on the Red Sea. At that time Ahaziah the son of Ahab had said +to Jehoshaphat: Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships; +but Jehoshaphat would not." +So the original statement. But in Chronicles a moral ground must +be found for the misfortune, and Jehoshaphat therefore makes with +the king of Samaria a sinful alliance, which in point of fact he +had declined, not indeed from religious motives. + +Joram, the son of Jehoshaphat, conducted himself very ill, it is +said in 2Kings viii. 18; Chronicles enhances his offence, and +above all adds the merited reward (xxi. 4, seq.). Elijah, +although he had quitted this earth long before (2Kings iii. 11 +seq.), must write to the offender a letter, the threats of which +are duly put into execution by Jehovah. The Philistines and +Arabians having previously pressed him hard, he falls into an +incurable sickness of the bowels, which afflicts him for years, +and finally brings him to his end in a most frightful manner +(xxi. 12, seq.). In concurrence with the judgment of God, the +people withhold from the dead king the honours of royalty, and he +is not buried beside his fathers, notwithstanding 2Kings viii. 24. + +Joash, according to 2Kings xii., was a pious ruler, but met with +misfortune; he was compelled to buy off Hazael, who had laid +siege to Jerusalem, at a heavy price, and finally he died by +the assassin's hand. Chronicles is able to tell how he deserved +this fate. In the sentence: "He did what was right in the sight +of the Lord all his days, because Jehoiada the high priest had +instructed him " (2Kings xii. 3 [2]), it alters the last +expression into "all the days of Jehoiada the priest," (xxiv. 2). +After the death of his benefactor he fell away, and showed his +family the basest ingratitude; at the end of that very year the +Syrians invade him; after their departure his misfortunes are +increased by a dreadful illness, under which he is murdered +(xxiv. 17 seq.). + +Amaziah was defeated, made prisoner, and severely punished by +Jehoash, king of Samaria, whom he had audaciously challenged +(2Kings xiv. 8 seq.). Why? because he had set up in Jerusalem +idols which had been carried off from Edom, and served them +(2Chronicles xxv. 1 4). He prefers the plundered gods of a +vanquished people to Jehovah at the very moment when the latter +has proved victorious over them! From the time of this apostasy-- +a crime for which no punishment could be too great--his own servants +are also stated to have conspired against him and put him to death +(xxv. 27), and yet we are assured in ver. 25 (after 2Kings xiv. +I;) that Amaziah survived his adversary by fifteen years. + +Uzziah, one of the best kings of Judah, became a leper, and was +compelled to hand over the regency to his son Jotham (2Kings xv. +5); for, adds Chronicles, "when he had become strong, his heart +was lifted up, even to ruin, so that he transgressed against +Jehovah his God, and went into the temple of Jehovah, to burn +incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in +after him, and with him fourscore priests of Jehovah, and +withstood him and said: It is not for thee to burn incense, but +only for the sons of Aaron who are consecrated thereto. Then +Uzziah was wroth and laid not the censer aside, and the leprosy +rose up in his forehead, and the priests thrust him out from +thence" (xxvi. 16-20). The matter is now no longer a mystery. + +Ahaz was a king of little worth, and yet he got fairly well out +of the difficulty into which the invasion of the allied Syrians +and Israelites had brought him by making his kingdom tributary +to the Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser (2Kings xvi. 1 seq.). But +Chronicles could not possibly let him off so cheaply. By it he +is delivered into the hand of the enemy: the Israelites alone +slaughter 120,000 men of Judah, including the king's son and his +most prominent servants, and carry off to Samaria 200,000 women +and children, along with a large quantity of other booty. The +Edomites and Philistines also fall upon Ahaz, while the Assyrians +whom he has summoned to his aid misunderstand him, and come up +against Jerusalem with hostile intent; they do not, indeed, carry +the city, but yet become possessors, without trouble, of its +treasures, which the king himself hands over to them (xxviii. 1-21). + +The Book of Kings knows no worse ruler than Manasseh was; yet he +reigned undisturbed for fifty-five years--a longer period than was +enjoyed by any other king (2Kings xxi.1-18). This is a stone +of stumbling that Chronicles must remove. It tells that Manasseh +was carried in chains by the Assyrians to Babylon, but there prayed +to Jehovah, who restored him to his kingdom; he then abolished +idolatry in Judah (xxxiii. 11-20). Thus on the one hand he does +not escape punishment, while on the other hand the length of his +reign is nevertheless explained. Recently indeed it has been +sought to support the credibility of these statements by means of +an Assyrian inscription, from which it appears that Manasseh did +pay tribute to Esarhaddon. That is to say, he had been +overpowered by the Assyrians; that is again to say, that he had +been thrown into chains and carried off by them. Not so rapid, +but perhaps quite as accurate, would be the inference that as a +tributary prince he must have kept his seat on the throne of Judah, +and not have exchanged it for the prison of Babylon. In truth, +Manasseh's temporary deposition is entirely on the same plane +with Nebuchadnezzar's temporary grass-eating. The unhistorical +character of the intermezzo (the motives of which are perfectly +transparent) follows not only from the silence of the Book of +Kings (a circumstance of no small importance indeed), but also, +for example, from Jeremiah xv. 4; for when it is there said that +all Judah and Jerusalem are to be given up to destruction because +of Manasseh, it is not presupposed that his guilt has been already +borne and atoned for by himself. + +To justify the fact of Josiah's defeat and death at Megiddo, there +is attached to him the blame of not having given heed to the words +of Necho from the mouth of God warning him against the struggle +(xxxv. 21, 22). Contrariwise, the punishment of the godless +Jehoiakim is magnified; he is stated to have been put in irons by +the Chaldaeans and carried to Babylon (xxxvi. 6)--an impossibility +of course before the capture of Jerusalem, which did not take place +until the third month of his successor. The last prince of +David's house, Zedekiah, having suffered more severely than all +his predecessors, must therefore have been stiff-necked and +rebellious (xxxvi.12, 13),--characteristics to which, according to +the authentic evidence of the prophet Jeremiah, he had in reality +the least possible claim. + +It is thus apparent how inventions of the most circumstantial kind +have arisen out of this plan of writing history, as it is +euphemistically called. One is hardly warranted, therefore, in +taking the definiteness of statements vouched for by Chronicles +alone as proof of their accuracy. The story about Zerah the +Ethiopian (2Chronicles xiv. 9 seq.) is just as apocryphal as that +of Chushan-Rishathaim (Judges iii 10). Des Vignoles has indeed +identified the first-named with the Osorthon of Manetho, who again +occurs in the Egyptian monuments as Osorkon, son of Shishak, though +not as renewing the war against Palestine; but Osorkon was an Egyptian, +Zerah an Ethiopian, and the resemblance of the names is after all +not too obvious. But, even if Zerah were really a historical +personage, of what avail would this be for the unhistorical +connection? With a million of men the king of the Libyans and +Moors, stepping over Egypt, comes against Judah. Asa, ruler of a +land of about sixty German square miles, goes to meet the enemy +with 580,000, and defeats him on the plain to the north of Mareshah +so effectually that not a single soul survives. Shall it be said +that this story, on account of the accurate statement of locality +(although Mareshah instead of Gath is not after all suggestive of +an old source), is credible-at all events after deduction of the +incredibilities? If the incredibilities are deducted, nothing at +all is left. The invasion of Judah by Baasha of Israel, and Asa's +deportment towards him (1Kings xv. 17 seq.), are quite enough +fully to dispose of the great previous victory over the +Ethiopians claimed for Asa. The case is no better with the victory +of Jehoshaphat over the Ammonites and Moabites (2Chronicles xx.); +here we have probably an echo of 2Kings iii., where we read of +Jehoshaphat's taking part in a campaign against Moab, and where +also recurs that characteristic feature of the self-destruction of +the enemy, so that for the opposing force nothing remains but the +work of collecting the booty (iii. 23; compare 2Chronicles xx. +23). The Chronicler has enemies always at his command when +needed,--Arabians, Ethiopians (xvii. 11, xxi. 16, xxii. 1, xxvi. +7), Mehunims (xx. 1, xxvi. 1), Philistines (xvii. 11, xxi. 16, +xxvi. 6 seq., xxviii. 18), Ammonites (xx. 1, xxvi. 8, xxvii. 5), +whose very names in some cases put them out of the question +for the older time. Such statements as that the Ammonites became +subject to Kings Uzziah and Jotham, are, in the perfect silence of +the credible sources, condemned by their inherent impossibility; +for at that period the highway to Ammon was Moab, and this country +was by no means then in the possession of Judah, nor is it +anywhere said that it was. The Philistines as vindictive enemies +are rendered necessary by the plan of the history (xxi. 16, +xxviii. 18), and this of itself throws suspicion upon the previous +statements (xvii. 11, xxvi. 6 seq.) that they were laid under +tribute by Jehoshaphat, and subjugated by Uzziah; it is utterly +impossible to believe that the latter should have broken down +the walls of Ashdod (Amos i. 7), or have established fortresses +in Philistia. According to the Book of Kings, he did indeed conquer +Edom anew; Edom is according to this authority the one land to +which the descendants of David lay claim and against which they +wage war, while Moab and Philistia (the most important towns being +excepted, however, in the case of the latter) virtually belong to +the territory of Ephraim. + +The triumphs given by the Chronicler to his favourites have none +of them any historical effect, but merely serve to add a +momentary splendour to their reigns. Merit is always the obverse +of success. Joram, Joash, Ahaz, who are all depicted as +reprobates, build no fortresses, command no great armies, have no +wealth of wives and children; it is only in the case of the +pious kings (to the number of whom even Rehoboam and Abijah also +belong) that the blessing of God manifests itself by such tokens. +Power is the index of piety, with which accordingly It rises and +fall. Apart from this it is of no consequence if, for example, +Jehoshaphat possesses more than 1,100.000 soldiers (xvii, 14 +seq.), for they are not used for purposes of war; the victory +comes from God and from the music of the Levites (chap. xx.). +In the statements about fortress-building which regularly recur +in connection with the names of good rulers, /1/ + +**************************************** +1 viii. 3-6, xi. 5-12, xiii. 19, xiv. 5, 6 [6, 7], xvii. 12, +xix. 5, xxvi. 9, 10, xxvii. 4, xxxii. 5,, xxxiii. 14. +*************************************** + +general statements, such as those of Hosea viii. 14, 2Kings +xviii. 13, are illustrated by concrete examples, a few elements +of tradition being also employed (Lachish). It is not possible, +but, indeed, neither is it necessary, to demonstrate in every case +the imaginary character of the statements; according to xix. 5 +it would appear as if simply every city of any kind of +consequence was regarded as a fortress and in the list given in +chap. xi. 6 seq., we chiefly meet with names which were also +familiar in the post-exile period. That Abijah deprived Jeroboam +of Bethel amongst others, and that Jehoshaphat set governors over +the Ephraimite cities which had been taken by Asa his father +(xiii. 19, xvii. 2), would excite surprise if it stood anywhere +else than in Chronicles. In forming a judgment on its family +history of the descendants of David, the statement contained in +xiii. 21 is specially helpful both in manner and substance: "And +Abijah waxed mighty, and he married fourteen wives, and begat +twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters." This can only be +taken as referring to the reign of Abijah, and that too after the +alleged victory over Jeroboam; but he reigned altogether for only +three years, and is it to be supposed that within this interval +one of his sons should even have attained to man's estate? +In reality, however, Abijah had no son at all, but was succeeded +by his brother, for the definite and doubtless authentic +statement that Maachah, the wife of Rehoboam, was the mother +both of Abijah and of Asa, and that the latter removed her from +her position at court (1Kings xv. 2, 10, 13), must override +the allegation of ver. 8, that the successor of Abijah was his +son. After Jehoshaphat's death it is said in the first place +that Jehoram slew all his brethren (2 Chr. xxi. 4), and +afterwards that the Arabians slew all Jehoram's children +with the exception of one (xxii. 1); how many of the Davidic +house in that case survive for Jehu, who nevertheless slew +forty-two of them (2Kings x. 14)? In short, the family +history of the house of David is of equal historical value with +all the other matters on which the Chronicler is more widely and +better informed than all the older canonical books. The remark +applies to names and numbers as well; about such trifles, which +produce an appearance of accuracy, the author is never in any +embarrassment. + +VI.II.4. The Book of Kings then everywhere crops up as the real +foundation of the portion of Chronicles relating to Judah after +the period of Solomon. Where the narrative of the former is +detailed and minute, our author also has fuller and more +interesting material at his command; so, for example, in the +history relating to the temple and to the common and mutual +relations of Judah and Israel (2 Chr. x., xviii., xxiii., seq., +xxv. 17-24, xxxiii. seq.). Elsewhere he is restricted to the +epitome that constitutes the framework of the Book of Kings; by +it he is guided in his verdicts as to the general character of the +successive sovereigns as well as in his chronological statements, +although, in accordance with his plan, he as a rule omits the +synchronisms (xiii. 1, xxv. 25). The positive data also, given by +the epitome with reference to the legislation in matters of +worship by the various kings, are for the most part reproduced +word for word, and float in a fragmentary and readily +distinguishable way in the mixture of festivals, sermons, +choruses, law, and prophets. For this is an important +verification of all the results already obtained; all in +Chronicles that is not derived from Samuel and Kings, has a +uniform character not only in its substance, but also in its +awkward and frequently unintelligible language--plainly belonging +to a time in which Hebrew was approaching extinction--in its +artificiality of style, deriving its vitality exclusively +from Biblical reminiscences. This is not the place for the +proof of these points, but the reader may compare Staehelin's +Einleitung (1862), p. 139 seq.; Bertheau, p. xiv. seq., and +Graf, p. 116. + + +VI.III. + + +VI.III.1. When the narrative of Chronicles runs parallel with the +older historical books of the canon, it makes no real additions, but +the tradition is merely differently coloured, under the influence +of contemporary motives. In the picture it gives the writer's own +present is reflected, not antiquity. But neither is the case very +different with the genealogical lists prefixed by way of +introduction in 1Chronicles i.-ix.; they also are in the main valid +only for the period at which they were drawn up--whether for its +actual condition or for its conceptions of the past. + +The penchant for pedigrees and genealogical registers, made up from +a mixture of genealogico-historical and ethnologico-statistical +elements, is a characteristic feature of Judaism; along with the +thing the word YX# also first came into use during the later +times. Compendious histories are written in the form of TLDWT and +YWX#YN. The thread is thin and inconspicuous, and yet apparently +strong and coherent; one does not commit oneself to much, and yet +has opportunity to introduce all kinds of interesting matter. +Material comes to one's hand, given a beginning and an end, the +bridge is soon completed. Another expression of the same tendency +is the inclination to give a genealogical expression to all +connections and associations of human society whatsoever, to +create artificial families on all hands and bring them into blood +relationship, as if the whole of public life resolved itself into +a matter of cousinship,--an inclination indicative of the times of +political stagnation then prevalent. We hear of the families of +the scribes at Jabesh, of the potters and gardeners and +byssus-workers, of the sons of the goldsmiths, apothecaries, and +fullers, these corporations being placed on the same plane with +actual families. The division into classes of the persons engaged +in religious service is merely the most logical development of +this artificial system which is applied to all other social +relations as well. + +Proceeding now to a fuller examination of the contents of 1 Chron +i.-ix. and other texts connected with that, we have here, apart +from the first chapter, which does not demand further attention, +an ethno-genealogical survey of the twelve tribes of Israel, which +is based mostly on the data of the Priestly Code (Genesis xlvi.; +um. <?> xxvi.), expanded now more now less. But while the statements +of the Priestly Code have to hold good for the Mosaic period only, +those of Chronicles have also to apply to the succeeding +ages,--those, for example, of Saul and David, of Tiglath-Pileser and +Hezekiah. As early as the time of the judges, however, very +important changes had taken place in the conditions. While Dan +continued to subsist with difficulty, Simeon and Levi had been +completely broken up (Genesis xlix. 7); in the Blessing of Moses +the latter name denotes something quite different from a tribe, and +the former is not even so much as named, although the enumeration +is supposed to be complete; in David's time it had already been +absorbed by families of mingled Judaic and Edomitic descent in the +district where it had once had independent footing. Eastward of +Jordan Leah's first-born had a similar fate, although somewhat +later. After it has been deposed from its primacy in Genesis xlix. +and twitted in Judges v. with its brave words unaccompanied by +corresponding deeds, the faint and desponding wish is expressed in +Deuteronomy xxxiii. 6 that "Reuben may live and not die," and King +Mesha is unaware that any other than the Gadite had ever dwelt in +the land which, properly speaking, was the heritage of Reuben. +But in Chronicles these extinct tribes again come to life--and not +Levi alone, which is a special case, but also Simeon and Reuben, +with which alone we are here to deal--and they exist as +independent integral twelfths of Israel, precisely like Ephraim +and Manasseh, throughout the whole period of the monarchy down to +the destruction of the kingdom by the Assyrians. /1/ This is + +***************************************** +1. For Reuben see (in addition to 1Chronicles v. 1-10) v. 18, xi. +42, xii. 37. xxvi. 32, xxvii. 16, for Simeon, 1Chronicles iv. +24-43, with xii. 25, and 2Chronicles xv. 9, xxxiv. 6, observing +that in the last two passages Simeon is reckoned as belonging to +the northern kingdom, so as to complete the number of the ten +tribes. +**************************************** + +diametrically opposed to all authentic tradition; for to +maintain that nothing else is intended than a continued +subsistence of individual Simeonite and Reubenite families within +other tribes is merely a desperate resort of the harmonists, and +every attempt to tone down the fact that those extinct and +half-mythical tribes are in Chronicles placed side by side with +the rest without any distinction is equally illegitimate. The +historical value thus lost by the narrative as a whole cannot be +restored by the seeming truthfulness of certain details. Or is +more significance really to be attached to the wars of the Simeonites +and Reubenites against the Arabians than to the rest of the extemporised +wars of the kings of Judah against these children of the wilderness? +If only at least the names had not been "sons of Ham, and Mehunim +and Hagarenes " (iv. 40 seq. [Heb.], v. 10)! As for the +pedigrees and genealogical lists, are they to be accepted as +historical merely because their construction is not apparent to +us, and they evade our criticism? The language affords no room +for the conjecture that we here possess extracts from documents of +high antiquity (iv. 33, 38, 4I, v. 1 seq., 7, 9 seq.), and +proper names such as Elioenai and the like (iv. 35 seq.) are not +striking for their antique originality. + +Of the remaining tribes, so far as they belong to Israel and not +to Judah, the next in the series after Reuben are the +trans-Jordanic (v. 11-26). They are said to have been numbered +in the days of Jotham of Judah and Jeroboam of Israel, on which +occasion 44,760 warriors were returned; they took the field +against the Hagarenes, Ituraeans, Nephishites, and Nabataeans, +gaining the victory and carrying off much booty, "for they +cried to God in the battle, and He was entreated of them because +they put their trust in Him." But afterwards they fell away +from the God of their fathers, and as a punishment were carried off +by Pul and Tiglath-Pileser to Armenia by the Chaboras and the +river of Gozan. Apart from the language, which in its edifying +tone is that of late Judaism, and leaving out of account the +enumeration "the sons of Reuben and the Gadites and half of the +tribe of Manasseh," the astonishing and highly doubtful +combinations are eloquent: Pul and Tiglath-Pileser, the Chaboras +and the river of Gozan, are hardly distinguished from each other; +Jotham and Jeroboam, on the other hand, make so impossible a +synchronism that the partisans of Chronicles will have it that +none is intended,--forgetful, to be sure, of Hosea i. 2, and +omitting to say what in that case Jotham of Judah has to do here +at all in this connection. The Hagarenes and Ituraeans too, +instead of (say) the Moabites and Ammonites, furnish food for +reflection, as also do the geographical statements that Gad had +his seat in Bashan and Manasseh in and near Lebanon. As for the +proper names of families and their heads, they are certainly +beyond our means of judging; the phrases however of the scheme +they fill (anshe shemoth rashe l'beth abotham, migrash, jahes) +are peculiar to the Priestly Code and Chronicles, and alongside of +elements which are old and attested from other quarters, occur +others that look very recent, as for example (v. 24) Eliel, +Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, Jahdiel. + +In the introduction the Galilaean tribes have no prominent place, +but in the rest of the book they make a favourable appearance +(see especially 1Chronicles xii. 32-34, 40, and 2Chronicles xxx. +10, 11, 18); it readily occurs to one, especially in the +last-cited passage, to think of the later Judaising process in +Galilee. In Issachar there are stated to have been 87,000 +fighting men in David's time (misparam l'toledotham l'beth +abotham, vii. 1-5); out of Zebulun and Naphtali, again, exactly +87,000 men came to David at Hebron, to anoint him and be feasted +three days,--it is carefully mentioned, however (xii. 40), that +they took their provisions up with them. The proper kernel of +Israel, Ephraim and Manasseh, is, in comparison with Simeon, +Reuben, Gad, Issachar, treated with very scant kindness (vii. +14-29),--a suspicious sign. The list of the families of Manasseh +is an artificial _rechauffe_ of elements gleaned anywhere; Maachah +passes for the wife as well as the sister of Machir, but being a +Gileaditess (Beth-Maachah), ought not to have been mentioned at +all in this place where the cis-Jordanic Manasseh is being spoken +of; to fill up blanks every contribution is thankfully +received. /1/ In the case of Ephraim a long and meagre genealogy + +***************************************** +1 Kuenen, Th. Tijdschr., 1877, pp. 484, 488; Godsdienst v. +Isr., i. 165. +**************************************** + +only is given, which, begun in vers. 20, 21, and continued in +ver. 25, constantly repeats the same names (Tahath, Tahan, +1Samuel i. 1; Eladah, Laadan, Shuthelah, Telah), and finally +reaches its end and goal in Joshua, whose father Nun alone is +known to the older sources! Into the genealogy a wonderful +account of the slaying of the children of Ephraim by the men of +Gath (1Samuel iv.?) has found its way, and (like viii. 6, 7) +according to the prevailing view must be of venerable antiquity. +But in that case the statement of iv. 9 must also be very +ancient, which yet obviously is connected with the rise of the +schools of the scribes stated in ii. 55 to have existed in Jabez. + +Everywhere it is presupposed that Israel throughout the entire +period of the monarchy was organised on the basis of the twelve +tribes (ii.-ix.; xii.; xxvii.), but the assumption is certainly +utterly false, as can be seen for example from 1Kings iv. +Further, the _penchant_ of later Judaism for statistics is carried +back to the earlier time, to which surveys and censuses were +repugnant in the extreme. In spite of 2Samuel xxiv., we are told +that under David enumerations both of the spiritual and of the +secular tribes were made again and again; so also under his +successors, as may be inferred partly from express statements +and partly from the precise statistics given as to the number +of men capable of bearing arms: in these cases the most astounding +figures are set down,--always, however, as resting on original +documents and accurate enumeration. In the statistical +information of Chronicles, then, so far as it relates to +pre-exilic antiquity, we have to do with artificial compositions. +It is possible, and occasionally demonstrable, that in these +some elements derived from tradition have been used. But it +is certain that quite as many have been simply invented; and +the combination of the elements--the point of chief importance-- +dates, as both form and matter show, from the very latest period. +One might as well try to hear the grass growing as attempt to +derive from such a source as this a historical knowledge of +the conditions of ancient Israel. + +VI.III.2. As regards Judah and Benjamin, and to a certain extent +Levi also, the case of course is somewhat different from that +of the ten extinct tribes. It is conceivable that here a living +ethno-genealogical tradition may have kept the present connected +with the past. Nevertheless, on closer examination, it comes out +that most of what the Chronicler here relates has reference to the +post-exilic time, and that the few fragments which go up to a +higher antiquity are wrought into a connection which on the +whole is of a very recent date. Most obtrusively striking is it +that the list of the heads of the people dwelling in Jerusalem +given in ix. 4--17 is simply identical with Nehemiah xi. 3-19. In +this passage, introducing as it does the history of the kings (x. +seq.), one is by no means prepared to hear statements about the +community of the second temple; but our author is under the +impression that in going there he is letting us know about the old +Jerusalem; from David to Nehemiah is no leap for him, the times +are not distinct from one another to his mind. For chap. viii. +also, containing a full enumeration of the Benjamite families, +with special reference to those which had their seat in the +capital, Bertheau has proved the post-exilic reference; it is +interesting that in the later Jerusalem there existed a widespread +family which wished to deduce its origin from Saul and rested its +claims to this descent on a long genealogy (viii. 33-40). /1/ + +***************************************** +1. Equivalent to ix. 35-44, which perhaps proves the later +interpolation of ix. 1-34. +*************************************** + +It cannot be said that this produces a very favourable impression +for the high antiquity of the other list of the Benjamites in vii. +6-11; to see how little value is to be attached to the pretensions +of the latter to be derived from original documents of hoary +antiquity, it is only necessary to notice the genuinely Jewish +phraseology of vers. 7, 9, 11, such proper names as Elioenai, +and the numbers given (22,034 + 20,200 + 17,200, making in all +59,434 fighting men). + +The registers of greatest historical value are those relating +to the tribe of Judah (ii. 1-iV. 23). But in this statement +the genealogy of the descendants of David must be excepted +(chapter iii.), the interest of which begins only with Zerubbabel, +the rest being merely an exceedingly poor compilation of materials +still accessible to us in the older historical books of the canon, +and in Jeremiah. According to iii. 5, the first four of David's +sons, born in Jerusalem, were all children of Bathsheba; the +remaining seven are increased to nine by a textual error which +occurs also in the LXX version of 2Samuel v. 16. Among the sons +of Josiah (iii. 15 seq.), Johanan, i.e. Jehoahaz, is +distinguished from Shallum (Jeremiah xxii. 11), and because he +immediately succeeded his father, is represented as the +first-born, though in truth Jehoiakim was older (2Kings xxiii. +3I, 36); Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother, is given out to be the +son of Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, because he was the +successor of Jeconiah, who succeeded Jehoiakim. Similar things +occur also in the Book of Daniel, but are usually overlooked, with +a mistaken piety. Whoever has eyes to see cannot assign any high +value except to the two great Jewish genealogies in chaps. ii. +and iv. Yet even here the most heterogeneous elements are tossed +together, and chaff is found mingled with wheat. /1/ + +************************************** +1. For further details the reader is referred to the author's +dissertation De gentibus et familiis Judaeis, Gottingen, 1870. +************************************** + +Apart from the introduction, vers.1-8, chap. ii. is a genealogy +of the children of Hezron, a tribe which in David's time had not +yet been wholly amalgamated with Judah, but which even then +constituted the real strength of that tribe and afterwards became +completely one with it. The following scheme discloses itself +amid the accompanying matters: "The sons of Hezron are Jerahmeel +and Celubai" (Caleb) (ver. 9). "and the sons of Jerahmeel, the +first-born of Hezron, were..." (ver. 25). "These were the +sons of Jerahmeel. And the sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel +were..." (ver. 42). "These were the sons of Caleb " (ver. 50 a). +That which is thus formally defined and kept by itself apart +(compare in this connection "Jerahmeel the first-born of Hezron," +"Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel") is materially also distinguished +from all else. It is the kernel of the whole, and refers to the +pre-exilian time. Even the unusual _et fuerunt_ (vers. 25, 33, +50) points to this conclusion, as well as, in the case of Caleb, +the positive fact that the towns named in ver. 42-49 are all +situated near Hebron and in the Negeb of Judah, where after the +exile the Idumaeans were settled, and, in the case of Jerahmeel, +the negative circumstance that here no towns at all are mentioned +among the families, Molid, ver. 29, being perhaps a single +exception, and thus the extreme south is indicated. But this +kernel is amplified by a number of post-exilian additions. In +the first place, in connection with Jerahmeel, an appendix +(vers. 34-41) is given which is not ethnological but purely +genealogical, and brings a pedigree of fifteen members manifestly +down to near the age of the Chronicler, and which moreover is only +in apparent connection with what precedes it (comp. ver. 34 with +ver. 31), and invariably uses the hiphil form _holid_, a form +which occurs in vers. 25-33 never, and in vers. 42-50 only +sporadically in three places open to the suspicion of later +redaction (comp. especially ver. 47). Much more important, +however, are the additions under Caleb; of these the one is +prefixed (vers. 18-24), the other, more appropriately, brought in +at the close (vers. 50-55, beginning with "and the sons of Hur, +the firstborn of Ephrath," Caleb's second wife, ver. 19). Here +Caleb no longer presents himself in the extreme south of Judah and +the vicinity of Jerahmeel (1Samuel xxv. 3, xxvii. 10, xxx. 14, +29), where he had his settlement prior to the exile, but his +families, which are all of them descended from his son Hur, +inhabit Bethlehem, Kirjath-jearim, Zorah, Esthaol, and other towns +in the north, frequently mentioned in Ezra and Nehemiah. Thus +the Calebites in consequence of the exile have forsaken their old +seats and have taken up new ones on their return; this fact is +expressed in ver. 18 to the effect that Caleb's first wife Azubah +bath Jerioth (Deserta filia Nomadum) had died, and that he had then +married a second, Ephrath, by whom he became the father of Hur: +Ephrath is the name of the district in which Bethlehem and Kirjath- +jearim are situated, and properly speaking is merely another +form of Ephraim, as is shown by the word Ephrathite. In addition +to these appendices to Jerahmeel and Caleb, we have also the +genealogy of David (vers. 10-17). The Book of Samuel knows only +of his father Jesse; on the other hand, Saul's genealogy is +carried further back, and there was no reason for not doing so in +David's case also if the materials had existed. But here, as in +Ruth, the pedigree is traced backwards through Jesse, Obed, Boaz, +up to Salma. Salma is the father of Bethlehem (ii. 54), and hence +the father of David. But Salma is the father of Bethlehem and the +neighbouring towns or fractions of towns AFTER THE EXILE; he belongs +to Kaleb Abi Hur. /1/ + +***************************************** +I In the Targum, Caleb's kindred the Kenites are designated as +Salmaeans; the name also occurs in Canticles (i. 5, the tents of +Kedar, the curtains of Salmah), and also as the name of a +Nabataean tribe in Pliny. Among the families of the Nethinim +enumerated in Nehemiah vii. 46-60 the B'ne Salmah also occur, +along with several other names which enable us distinctly to +recognise (Ezekiel xliv.) the non-Israelite and foreign origin +of these temple slaves; see, for example, vers. 48, 52, 55, 57. +*************************************** + +But if anything at all is certain, it is this, that in ancient times +the Calebites lived in the south and not in the north of Judah, and +in particular that David by his nativity belonged not to them but +rather to the older portion of Judah which gravitated towards +Israel properly so called, and stood in most intimate relations +with Benjamin. Of the first three members of the genealogy, +Nahshon and Amminadab occur as princes of Judah in the Priestly +Code, and are fitly regarded as the ancestors of those who come +after them; Ram is the first-born of Hezron's first-born (ver. +25), and by the meaning of his name also (Ram = the high one), +is, like Abram, qualified to stand at the head of the princely +line. + +While in chap ii. we thus in point of fact fall in with an old +kernel, and one that necessarily goes back to sound tradition +(apparently preserved indeed, however, merely for the sake of +the later additions), the quite independent and parallel list, +on the other hand, contained in iv. 1-23 is shown by many +unmistakable indications to be a later composition having its +reference only to post-exilian conditions, perhaps incorporating +a few older elements, which, however, it is impossible with any +certainty to detect. /2/ + +***************************************** +I Pharez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, Shobal (iv. 1), is a genealogically +descending series; Chelubai must therefore of necessity be read +instead of Carmi, all the more because Chelub and not Carmi appears +in the third place in the subsequent expansion; for this, ascending +from below, begins with Shobal (ver. 2), then goes on to Hur +(vers. 5-10), who stands in the same relation to Ash-hur as Tob +to Ish-tob, and finally deals with Chelub or Caleb (vers. 11-15). +******************************************** + +Levi of course receives the fullest treatment (1Chronicles v. 27 +[vi. 1]-vi. 66 [81], ix. 10 seq., xv., xvi., xxiii.-xxvii., +&c.). We know that this clerical tribe is an artificial +production, and that its hierarchical subdivision, as worked out in +the Priestly Code, was the result of the centralisation of the +cultus in Jerusalem. Further, it has been already shown that in +the history as recorded in Chronicles the effort is most +conspicuous to represent the sons of Aaron and the Levites, in all +cases where they are absent from the older historical books of +the canon, as playing the part to which they are entitled according +to the Priestly Code. How immediate is the connection with the +last-named document, how in a certain sense that code is even +carried further by Chronicles, can be seen for example from this +circumstance, that in the former Moses in a novel reduces the +period of beginning public service in the case of a Levite from +thirty years of age to twenty-five (Numbers iv. 3 seq., viii. 23 +seq.), while in the latter David (1Chronicles xxiii. 3, 24 seq.) +brings it down still further to the age of twenty; matters are +still to some extent in a state of flux, and the ordering of the +temple worship is a continuation of the beginning made with the +tabernacle service by Moses. Now, in so far as the statistics of +the clergy have a real basis at all, that basis is post-exilian. +It has long ago been remarked how many of the individuals +figuring under David and his successors (e.g., Asaph, Heman, +Jeduthun) bear names identical with families or guilds of a later +time, how the two indeed are constantly becoming confluent, and +difficulty is felt in determining whether by the expression +"head" a person or a family ought to be understood. But, +inasmuch as the Chronicler nevertheless desires to depict the +older time and not his own, he by no means adheres closely to +contemporary statistics, but gives free play at the same time to +his idealising imagination; whence it comes that in spite of the +numerous and apparently precise data afforded, the reader still +finds himself unable to form any clear picture of the +organisation of the clergy,--the ordering of the families and +tribes, the distribution of the offices,--nay, rather, is +involved in a maze of contradictions. Obededom, Jeduthun, Shelomith, +Korah, occur in the most different connections, belong now to one, +now to another section of the Levites, and discharge at one time +this function, at another, that. Naturally the commentators are +prompt with their help by distinguishing names that are alike, +and identifying names that are different. + +Some characteristic details may still be mentioned here. The +names of the six Levitical classes according to 1Chronicles xxv. 4, +Giddalti, V'romamti-Ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, +Mahazioth, are simply the fragments of a consecutive sentence +which runs: I have magnified | and exalted the help | of him who +sat in need: | I have spoken | abundance of | prophecies. The +watchman or singer Obededom who is alleged to have discharged his +functions in the days of David and Amaziah, is no other than the +captain to whom David intrusted for three months the custody of +the ark, a Philistine of Gath. The composition of the singers' +pedigrees is very transparent, especially in the case of Heman +(1Chronicles vi. 7-l2 [22-27] = ver 18-23, [33-37]). Apart from +Exodus vi. 16-l9, use is chiefly made of what is said about the +family of Samuel (1Samuel i. 1, viii. 2), who must of course have +been of Levitical descent, because his mother consecrated him +to the service of the sanctuary. Heman is the son of Joel +b. Samuel b. Elkanah b. Jeroham b. Eliab b. Tahath b. Zuph, +only the line does not terminate with Ephraim as in 1Samuel +i. 1 (LXX) because it is Levi who is the goal; Zuph. <sic> however, +is an Ephraitic district, and Tahath (Tohu, Toah, Tahan, Nahath) +is an Ephraimite family (vii. 20). Further back the same elements +are individually repeated more than once, Elkanah four times +in all; he occurs once as early as in Exodus vi. 24, where also +he is doubtless borrowed from 1Samuel i. The best of it is that, +contrary to the scope of the genealogies recorded in1 Chronicles +vi., which is to provide a Levitical origin for the guilds of singers, +there is found in close contiguity the statement (ii. 6) that Heman +and Ethan were descendants of Zerah b. Pharez, b. JUDAH. The +commentators are indeed assisted in their efforts to differentiate +the homonyms by their ignorance of the fact that even as late as +Nehemiah's time the singers did not yet pass for Levites, but their +endeavours are wrecked by the circumstance that the names of +fathers as well as of sons are identical (Psalm lxxxviii. 1, +lxxxix. 1; Ewald, iii. 380 seq.). In point of history these +musicians of the second temple are descended of course neither +from Levi nor from the sons of Mahol (1Kings v. 11 [iv. 31), but +they have at least derived their names from the latter. On all +hands we meet with such artificial names in the case of Levites. +One is called Issachar; it would not be surprising to meet with a +Naphtali Cebi, or Judah b. Jacob. Jeduthun is, properly +speaking, the name of a tune or musical mode (Psalm xxxix. 1, +lxii. 1, [xxvii. 1), whence also of a choir trained in that. +Particularly interesting are a few pagan names, as for example +Henadad, Bakbuk, and some others, which, originally borne by the +temple servitors (Nehemiah vii. 46 seq.), were doubtless transferred +along with these to the Levites. + +With the priests, of whom so many are named at all periods of the +history of Israel, matters are no better than with the inferior +Levites, so far as the Books of Samuel and Kings are not drawn +upon. In particular, the twenty-four priestly courses or orders +are an institution, not of King David, but of the post-exilic period. +When Hitzig, annotating Ezekiel viii. 16, remarks that the +five-and-twenty men standing between the temple and the altar +worshipping the sun toward the east are the heads of the twenty-four +priestly courses with the high priest at their head (because no one +else had the right to stand in the inner court between temple and +altar), he reveals a trait that is characteristic, not only of +himself, but also of the entire so-called historico-critical school, +who exert their whole subtlety on case after case, but never give +themselves time to think matters over in their connection with each +other; nay, rather simply retain the traditional view as a whole, +only allowing themselves by way of gratification a number of +heresies. It is almost impossible to believe that Hitzig, when he +annotated Ezekiel viii., could have read those passages Ezekiel +xliii. 7 seq., xliv. 6 seq, from which it is most unambiguously +clear that the later exclusion of the laity from the sanctuary +was quite unknown in the pre-exilic period. The extent of the +Chronicler's knowledge about the pre-exilic priesthood is revealed +most clearly in the list of the twenty-two high priests in +1Chronicles v. 29-41 (vi. 3-15). From the ninth to the eighteenth +the series runs--Amariah, Ahitub, Zadok, Ahimaaz, Azariah, +Johanan, Azariah, Amariah, Ahitub, Zadok. As for the first five, +Azariah was not the son, but the brother of Ahimaaz, and the +latter apparently not a priest (1Kings iv. 2); but Ahitub, the +alleged father of Zadok, was, on the contrary, the grandfather of +Zadok's rival, Abiathar, of the family of Eli (1Samuel xiv. 3, +xxii. 20); the whole of the old and famous line--Eli, Phinehas, +Ahitub; Ahimelech, Abiathar--which held the priesthood of the ark +from thc time of the judges down into the days of David, is passed +over in absolute silence, and the line of Zadok, by which it was +not superseded until Solomon (1Kings ii. 35), is represented as +having held the leadership of the priesthood since Moses. As for +the last four in the above-cited list, they simply repeat the +earlier. In the Book of Kings, Azariah II., Amariah, Ahitub, +Zadok, do not occur, but, on the contrary, other contemporary high +priests, Jehoiada and Urijah, omitted from the enumeration in +Chronicles. At the same time this enumeration cannot be asserted +to be defective; for, according to Jewish chronology, the ancient +history is divided into two periods, each of 480 years, the one +extending from the exodus to the building of the temple, the other +from that epoch down to the establishment of the second theocracy. +Now, 480 years are twelve generations of forty years, and in +1Chronicles v. there are twelve high priests reckoned to the period +during which there was no temple (ver. 36b to come after ver. 35a), +and thence eleven down to the exile; that is to say, twelve generations, +when the exile is included. The historical value of the genealogy +in 1Chronicles v. 26-41 is thus inevitably condemned. But if +Chronicles knew nothing about the priestly princes of the olden +time, its statements about ordinary priests are obviously little +to be relied on. + +VI.III.3. To speak of a tradition handed down from pre-exilic times +as being found in Chronicles, either in 1Chronicles i.-ix. or in +1Chronicles x.-2Chronicles xxxvi., is thus manifestly out of the +question. As early as 1806 this had been conclusively shown by +the youthful De Wette (then twenty-six years of age). But since +that date many a theological Sisyphus has toiled to roll the +stone again wholly or half-way up the hill--Movers especially, in +genius it might seem the superior of the sober Protestant +critic--with peculiar results. This scholar mixed up the inquiry +into the historical value of those statements in Chronicles which +we are able to control, with the other question as to the probable +sources of its variations from the older historical books of the +canon. In vain had De Wette, at the outset, protested against +such a procedure, contending that it was not only possible, but +conceded that Chronicles, where at variance or in contradiction, +was following older authority, but that the problem still really +was, as before, how to explain the complete difference of general +conception and the multitude of discrepancies in details; that +the hypothesis of "sources," as held before Movers by Eichhorn, +was of no service in dealing with this question, and that in the +critical comparison of the two narratives, and in testing their +historical character, it was after all incumbent to stick to what +lay before one (Beitr., i. pp. 24, 29, 38). For so ingenious +an age such principles were too obvious; Movers produced a great +impression, especially as he was not so simple as to treat the +letters of Hiram and Elijah as authentic documents, but was by way +of being very critical. At present even Dillmann also +unfortunately perceives "that the Chronicler everywhere has +worked according to sources, and that in his case deliberate +invention or distortion of the history are not for a moment to be +spoken of" (Herzog, Realencyk., ii. p. 693, 1st edit.; iii. +223, 2d edit.). And from the lofty heights of science the author +of Part V. of the Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament +looks compassionately down upon K. H. Graf, "who has loitered +so far behind the march of Old Testament research, as to have +thought of resuscitating the views of De Wette;" in fact, +that Chronicles may be established on an independent footing and +placed on a level with the Books of Samuel and Kings, he utterly +denies any indebtedness at all, on its part, to these, and in +cases where the transcription is word for word, maintains that +separate independent sources were made use of,--a needless +exaggeration of the scientific spirit, for the author of the Book +of Kings himself wrote the prayer of Solomon and the epitome, at +least, without borrowing from another source; the Chronicler +therefore can have derived it, directly or indirectly, only from +him. + +In reply to all this, one can only repeat what has already been +said by De Wette. It may be that the Chronicler has produced +this picture of old Israel, so different in outline and colour +from the genuine tradition, not of his own suggestion and on his +own responsibility, but on the ground of documents that lay +before him. But the historical character of the work is not +hereby altered in the smallest degree, it is merely shared by +the so-called "sources." 2Maccabees and a multitude of other +compositions have also made use of "sources," but how does this +enhance the value of their statements? That value must in the +long run be estimated according to their contents, which, again, +must be judged, not by means of the primary sources which have +been lost, but by means of the secondary literary products +which have survived. The whole question ultimately resolves +itself into that of historical credibility; and to what +conclusions this ]eads we have already seen. The alterations and +additions of Chronicles are all traceable to the same +fountain-head--the Judaising of the past, in which otherwise the +people of that day would have been unable to recognise their +ideal. It was not because tradition gave the Law and the +hierocracy and the _Deus ex Machina_ as sole efficient factor in +the sacred narrative, but because these elements were felt to be +missing, that they were thus introduced. If we are to explain +the _omissions_ by reference to the "author's plan," why may we +not apply the same principle to the _additions_? The passion +displayed by Ewald ( Jahrbb. x. 261) when, in speaking of the +view that Manasseh's captivity has its basis in Jewish dogmatic, +he calls it "an absurdly infelicitous idea, and a gross injustice +besides to the Book of Chronicles," recalls B. Schaefer's +suggestive remark about the Preacher of Solomon, that God would +not use a liar to write a canonical book. What then does Ewald +say to the narratives of Daniel or Jonah? Why must the new turn +given to history in the case of Manasseh be judged by a different +standard than in the equally gross case of Ahaz, and in the numerous +analogous instances enumerated in preceding pages (p. 203 seq.). +With what show of justice can the Chronicler, after his statements +have over and over again been shown to be incredible, be held at +discretion to pass for an unimpeachable narrator? In those cases +at least where its connection with his "plan" is obvious, one ought +surely to exercise some scepticism in regard to his testimony; +but it ought at the same time to be considered that such +connections may occur much oftener than is discernible by us, +or at least by the less sharp-sighted of us. It is indeed possible +that occasionally a grain of good corn may occur among the chaff, +but to be conscientious one must neglect this possibility of +exceptions, and give due honour to the probability of the rule. +For it is only too easy to deceive oneself in thinking that one +has come upon some sound particular in a tainted whole. To what +is said in 2Samuel v. 9, "So David dwelt in the stronghold (Jebus), +and he called it the city of David, and he built round about from +the rampart and inward," there is added in 1Chronicles xi. 8, the +statement that "Joab restored the rest of the city (Jerusalem)." +This looks innocent enough, and is generally accepted as a fact. +But the word XYH for BNH shows the comparatively modern date of +the statement, and on closer consideration one remembers also that +the town of Jebus at the time of its conquest by David consisted +only of the citadel, and the new town did not come into existence +at all until later, and therefore could not have been repaired by +Joab; in what interest the statement was made can be gathered from +Nehemiah vii. 11. In many cases it is usual to regard such +additions as having had their origin in a better text of Samuel +and Kings which lay before the Chronicler; and this certainly +is the most likely way in which good additions could have got in. +But the textual critics of the _Exegetical Handbook_ are only too +like-minded with the Chronicler, and are always eagerly seizing +with both hands his paste pearls and the similar gifts of the +Septuagint. + +It must be allowed that Chronicles owes its origin, not to the +arbitrary caprice of an individual, but to a general tendency of +its period. It is the inevitable product of the conviction that +the Mosaic law is the starting-point of Israel's history, and +that in it these is operative a play of sacred forces such as +finds no other analogy; this conviction could not but lead to +a complete transformation of the ancient tradition. +Starting from a similar assumption, such an author as C. F. Keil +could even at the present day write a book of Chronicles, if this +were not already in existence. Now, in this aspect, for the +purpose of appraising Chronicles as the type of that conception of +history which the scribes cherished, the inquiry into its "sources" +is really important and interesting. References to other writings, +from which further particulars can be learned, are appended as a rule, +to the account of each sovereign's reign, the exceptions being in +the cases of Joram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Amon, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, +Zedekiah. The titles referred to in this way may be classed under +two groups: +(1.) The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, or of Judah and Israel +(in the cases of Asa, Amaziah, Jotham; Ahaz, Josiah, and Jehoiakim), +with which the Book of the Kings of Israel (in the cases of Jehoshaphat +and Manasseh; comp. 1Chronicles ix. 1) is identical, for the kingdom +of the ten tribes is not reckoned by the Chronicler. +(2.) The Words of Samuel the Seer, Nathan the Prophet, and Gad the Seer +(for David; 1Chronicles xxix. 29; comp. xxvii. 24; Ecclus. xlvi. 13, +xlvii. 1); the Words of Nathan the Prophet, the Prophecy of Ahijah +of Shiloh and the Vision of Iddo the Seer concerning Jeroboam +ben Nebat (for Solomon; 2Chronicles ix. 29); the Words of Shemaiah +the Prophet and Iddo the Seer (for Rehoboam; xii. 15); the words +of Jehu ben Hanani, which are taken over into the Book of the Kings +of Israel (Jehoshaphat; xx. 34); a writing of Isaiah the prophet +(Uzziah; xxvi. 22), more precisely cited as the Vision of Isaiah +the Prophet, the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah +and Israel (Hezekiah; xxxii. 32); the Words of the Seer in the Book +of the Kings of Israel (Manasseh; xxxiii. 18; comp. also ver. 19). +Following in the footsteps of Movers, Bertheau and others have shown +that under these different citations it is always one and the same +book that is intended, whether by its collective title, or by the +conventional sub-titles of its separate sections. /1/ Bertheau calls + +******************************************* +1. In Ezra and Nehemiah also the Chronicler has not used so many +sources as are usually supposed. There is no reason for refusing +to identify the "lamentations" of 2Chronicles xxxv. 25, with our +Lamentations of Jeremiah: at least the reference to the death of +Josiah (Jos., Ant. x. 5, 1), erroneously attributed to them, +ought not in candour to be regarded as such. +******************************************* + +attention to the fact that ordinarily it is either the one or the +other title that is given, and when, as is less usual, there are +two, then for the most part the prophetic writing is designated as +a portion of the Book of the Kings of Israel (xx. 34, xxxii. 32; +and, quite vaguely, xxxiii. 18). The peculiar mode of naming the +individual section-/1/-at a time when chapters and verses were + +****************************************** +1 Romans xi. 2: )EN (HLLLA| TI LEGEI )H GRAFH i.e., How stands it +written in the section relating to Elijah? +******************************************* + +unknown--has its origin in the idea that each period of the sacred +history has its leading prophet [)AXRIBHS TWN PROFHTWN DIADOXH; +Jos., c. Ap. i. 8), but also at the same time involves (according +to xxvi. 22, in spite of ix. 29, xii. 15, xiii. 22; 1Chronicles xxix. +29) the notion that each prophet has himself written the history +of his own period. Obviously, this is the explanation of the title +_prophetae priores_ borne by the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, +and Kings in the Jewish canon, and of the view which led to the +introduction of 2Kings xviii. 18 seq. into the Book of Isaiah. +The claims of history being slight, it was easy to find the needful +_propheta eponymus_ for each section. Jehu ben Hanani, a northern +Israelite of Baasha's time, has to do duty for Asa, and also for +Jehoshaphat as well. Iddo the seer, who prophesied against Jeroboam +ben Nebat, is the anonymous prophet of 1Kings xiii. (Jos., Ant. +viii. 8, 5; Jer. on Zechariah i. 1); by this time it was possible, +also, to give the names of the wives of Cain, and of the patriarchs. + +As regards a more definite determination of the date of the "Book +of Kings" which lies at the foundation of Chronicles, a +co-ordination of the two series of the Kings of Israel and Judah +can only have been made after both had been brought to a close; +in other words, not before the Babylonian exile. And in the +Babylonian exile it was that the canonical Book of Kings actually +came into existence, and the "Chronicles" of Israel and those of +Judah were for the first time worked together by its author; at +least he refers only to the separate works and knows of no +previous combination of them. It would seem, therefore, very +natural to identify the work alluded to in Chronicles with our +present canonical book, which is similar in title and has +corresponding contents. But this we cannot do, for in the former +there were matters of which there are in the latter no trace; for +example, according to 1Chronicles ix. 1, it contained family and +numerical statistics for the whole of Israel after the manner of +1Chronicles i.-ix. (chapters for the most part borrowed from it) +and according to 1Chronicles xxxiii 19, the Prayer of Manasseh. +From these two data, as well as from the character of the items +of information which may have been conjectured to have been derived +from this source, the conclusion is forced upon us that the Book +of Kings cited by the Chronicler is a late compilation far removed +from actual tradition, and in relation to the canonical Book of +Kings it can only be explained as an apocryphal amplification after +the manner in which the scribes treated the sacred history. This +conclusion, derived from the contents themselves, is supported by +an important positive datum, namely, the citation in 2Chronicles +xxiv. 27 of the Midrash [A.V. "Story"] of the Book of Kings, and +in xiii. 22 of the Midrash of the prophet Iddo. Ewald is undoubtedly +right when he recognises here the true title of the writing elsewhere +named simply the Book of Kings. Of course the commentators assert +that the word Midrash, which occurs in the Bible only in these two +passages, there means something quite different from what it means +everywhere else; but the natural sense suits admirably well and +in Chronicles we find ourselves fully within the period of the +scribes. Midrash is the consequence of the conservation of all +the relics of antiquity, a wholly peculiar artificial reawakening +of dry bones, especially by literary means, as is shown by +the preference for lists of names and numbers. Like ivy it +overspreads the dead trunk with extraneous life, blending old and +new in a strange combination. It is a high estimate of tradition +that leads to its being thus modernised; but in the process it is +twisted and perverted, and set off with foreign accretions in the +most arbitrary way. Jonah as well as Daniel and a multitude of +apocryphal writings (2Maccabees ii. 13) are connected with this +tendency to cast the reflection of the present back into the past; +the Prayer of Manasseh, which now survives only in Greek, +appears, as Ewald has conjectured, actually to have been taken +direct from the book quoted in 2Chronicles xxxiii. 19. Within this +sphere, wherein all Judaism moves, Chronicles also has had its +rise. Thus whether one says Chromcles or Midrash of the Book of +Kings is on the whole a matter of perfect indifference; they are +children of the same mother, and indistinguishable in spirit and +language, while on the other hand the portions which have been +retained verbatim from the canonical Book of Kings at once betray +themselves in both respects. + + + +CHAPTER VII. JUDGES, SAMUEL, AND KINGS. + + +In the history of Hebrew literature, so full as it is of +unfortunate accidents, one lucky circumstance at least requires +to be specially mentioned. Chronicles did not succeed in +superseding the historical books upon which it was founded; the +older and the newer version have been preserved together. But in +Judges, Samuel, and Kings even, we are not presented with +tradition purely in its original condition; already it is +overgrown with later accretions. Alongside of an older narrative +a new one has sprung up, formerly independent, and intelligible in +itself, though in many instances of course adapting itself to the +former. More frequently the new forces have not caused the old +root to send forth a new stock, or even so much as a complete +branch; they have only nourished parasitic growths; the +earlier narrative has become clothed with minor and dependent +additions. To vary the metaphor, the whole area of tradition has +finally been uniformly covered with an alluvial deposit by which +the configuration of the surface has been determined. It is with +this last that we have to deal in the first instance; to +ascertain its character, to find out what the active forces were +by which it was produced. Only afterwards are we in a position +to attempt to discern in the earlier underlying formation the +changing spirit of each successive period. + +VII.I. + +VII.I.1. The following prologue supplies us with the point of view +from which the period of the judges is estimated. +"After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel did evil in the +sight of the Lord and forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who +brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, +of the gods of the people that were round about them, the Baals +and Astartes. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, +and He delivered them into the hands of spoilers, that spoiled +them and sold them into the hand of their enemies round about; +whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was against +them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn +unto them; and they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless the +Lord raised up unto them judges, and was with the judge, and +delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days +of the judge, for it repented the Lord because of their +groanings, by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. +And it came to pass when the judge was dead that they returned +and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following +other gods to serve them; they ceased not from their own doings, +nor from their stubborn way. And the anger of the Lord was hot +against Israel," &c. &c. (Judges ii.). + +Such is the text, afterwards come the examples. +"And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, +and forget the Lord their God, and served the Baals and Astartes. +Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He +sold them into the hand of Chushan-Rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, +and they served him eight years. And when the children of Israel +cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up to them a helper, Othniel +b. Kenaz, and delivered the king of Mesopotamia into his hand, +and the land had rest forty years. And Othniel b. Kenaz died." +The same points of view and also for the most part the same +expressions as those which in the case of Othniel fill up the +entire cadre, recur in the cases of Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, +Jephthah, and Samson, but there form only at the beginning and at +the end of the narratives a frame which encloses more copious and +richer contents, occasionally they expand into more exhaustive +disquisitions, as in vi. 7, x. 6. It is in this way that Judges +ii.-xvi. has been constructed with the workman-like regularity it +displays. Only the six great judges, however are included within +the scheme; the six small ones stand in an external relation to it, +and have a special scheme to themselves, doubtless having been +first added by way of appendix to complete the number twelve. + +The features which characterise this method of historical work are +few and strongly distinctive. A continuous chronology connects +the times of rest and their separating intervals, and thereby the +continuity of the periods is secured. In order justly to +estimate this chronology, it is necessary to travel somewhat +beyond the limits of Judges. The key to it is to be found in +1Kings vi. 1. +"In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of +Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year +of the reign of Solomon, he began to build the house of the Lord." +As observed by Bertheau, and afterwards by Noldeke, who has still +farther pursued the subject, these 480 years correspond to 12 +generations of 40 years each. Analogously in 1Chronicles v. 29-34 +[vi. 2-8], 12 high priests from Aaron to Ahimaaz are assumed for +the same period of time, and the attempt was made to make their +successions determine those of the generations (Numbers xxxv. 28). +Now it is certainly by no means at once clear how this total is +to be brought into accord with the individual entries. Yet even +these make it abundantly plain that 40 is the fundamental number +of the reckoning. The wandering in the wilderness, during which +the generation born in Egypt dies out, lasts for 40 years; the +land has 40 years of rest under Othniel, Deborah, and again under +Gideon; it has 80 under Ehud; the domination of the Philistines +lasts for 40 years, the duration also of David's reign. On the +necessary assumption that the period of the Philistines +(Judges xiii. 1), which far exceeds the ordinary duration of the +foreign dominations, coincides with that of Eli (1Samuel iv. 18), +and at the same time includes the 20 years of Samson (Judges +xvi. 31), and the 20 of the interregnum before Samuel (1Samuel +vii. 2), we have already 8 x 40 accounted for, while 4 x 40 still +remain. For these we must take into account first the years of +the two generations for which no numbers are given, namely, +the generation of Joshua and his surviving contemporaries +(Judges ii. 7), and that of Samuel to Saul, each, it may be +conjectured, having the normal 40, and the two together +certainly reckoning 80 years. For the remaining 80 the most +disputable elements are the 71 years of interregna or of +foreign dominations, and the 70 of the minor judges. One +perceives that these two figures cannot both be counted in,--they +are mutually exclusive equivalents. For my own part, I prefer to +retain the interregna; they alone, so far as we can see at +present, being appropriate to the peculiar scheme of the Book of +Judges. The balance of 9 or IO years still remaining to be +applied are distributed between Jephthah (6 years), and Solomon +(down to the building of the temple), who claims 3 or 4 years, or, +if these are left out of account, 3 years may be given to +Abimelech. + +The main thing, however, is not the chronology, but the religious +connection of the events. The two are intimately associated, not +only formally, as can be gathered from the scheme, but also by a +real inner connection. For what is aimed at in both alike is a +connected view of large periods of time, a continuous survey +of the connection and succession of race after race, the detailed +particulars of the occurrences being disregarded; the historical +factors with which the religious pragmatism here has to do are so +uniform that the individual periods in reality need only to be +filled up with the numbers of the years. One is reminded of the +"Satz," `"Gegensatz," and "Vermittelung" of the Hegelian philosophy +when one's ear has once been caught by the monotonous beat with +which the history here advances, or rather moves in a circle. +Rebellion, affliction, conversion, peace; rebellion, affliction, +conversion, peace. The sole subjects of all that is said are +Jehovah and Israel; their mutual relation alone it is that keeps +the course of things in motion, and that too in opposite directions, +so that in the end matters always return to their original position. + +"They did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, they went +a-whoring after strange gods,"-such is the uninterrupted key-note. +Although Jehovistic monolatry is so potently recommended from +without, it yet takes no firm root, never becomes natural to the +people, always remains a precept above and beyond their powers. +For decennia on end indeed they hold fast to it, but soon their +idolatrous tendency, which has only been repressed by fear of the +judge during his lifetime, again finds expression; they must have +a change. Now this rebellion is indeed quite indispensable for +the pragmatism, because otherwise there would be nothing at all +to tell; it is on the unrest in the clock that the whole movement +depends. But at the same time this is of course no extenuation; +the conduct of the people is manifestly totally inexcusable, +the main actions, the deeds of the judges, are for this manner +of historical treatment always only proofs of Israel's sin and +of the unmerited grace of Jehovah that puts them to shame. + +That all this is no part of the original contents of the tradition, +but merely a uniform in which it is clothed, is admitted. _Numero +Deus impare gaudet_. It is usual to call this later revision +Deuteronomistic. The law which Jehovah has enjoined upon the +fathers, and the breach of which He has threatened severely to +punish (ii. 15, 21), is not indeed more definitely characterised, +but it is impossible to doubt that its quintessence is the +injunction to worship Jehovah alone and no other God. Now in this +connection it is impossible to think of the Priestly Code, for +in that document such a command is nowhere expressly enjoined, +but, on the contrary, is assumed as a matter of course. +Deuteronomy, on the other hand, has in fact no precept on which it +lays greater emphasis than the "Hear, O Israel-"-that Jehovah is +the only God, and the worship of strange gods the sin of sins. +This precept was apprehended much more clearly by contemporaries +than the moral demands in the interest of humanity and kindness +which are also insisted on in Deuteronomy, but are not new, being +derived from older collections; on this side alone, in so far as +it follows up the monotheism of the prophets into its practical +consequences within the sphere of worship, has Josiah's law-book +had historical importance, on this side alone has it continued to +act upon Ezekiel and those who came after him. If, then, the norm +of the theocratic relationship assumed in the redaction of the +Book of Judges is to be sought in a written Torah, this can +indubitably only be that of Deuteronomy. The decisive +settlement of the question depends in a comparison with the Book +of Kings, and must accordingly be postponed until then. + +VII.I.2. As for the relation between this superstructure and that +on which it rests, there is a striking difference between the two +styles. The revised form in which the Book of Judges found its +way into the canon is unquestionably of Judaean origin, but the +histories themselves are not such,--nay, in the song of Deborah, +Judah is not reckoned at all as belonging to Israel. The one judge +who belongs to the tribe of Judah is Othniel, who however is not a +person, but only a clan. What is said of him is quite void of +contents, and is made up merely of the schematic devices of the +redactor, who has set himself to work here, so as to make the +series open with a man of Judah; the selection of Othniel was +readily suggested by Judges i. 12-15. Here again we have an +exception which proves the rule. More important are the inner +differences which reveal themselves. To begin with the most +general,--the historical continuity on which so much stress is +laid by the scheme, is in no way shown in the individual +narratives of the Book of Judges. These stand beside one another +unconnectedly and without any regard to order or sequence, like +isolated points of light which emerge here and there out of the +darkness of forgetfulness. They make no presence of actually +filling up any considerable space of time; they afford no +points of attachment whereon to fasten a chronology. In truth, it +is hardly the dim semblance of a continuity that is imparted to +the tradition by the empty framework of the scheme. The +conception of a period of the judges between Joshua and Saul, +during which judges ruled over Israel and succeeded one another +almost as regularly as did the kings at a later period, is quite +foreign to that tradition. It is impossible to doubt that +Judges i., xvii., xviii. have the best right to be reckoned as +belonging to the original stock; but these portions are excluded +from reception within the scheme, because they have nothing to +say about any judges, and give a picture of the general state +of affairs which accords but ill with that plan. /1/ + +********************************************** +1. The redaction, as is well knows, extends only from ii. 6 xvi. 31, +thus excluding both i. 1-ii. 5, and xvii. 1-xxi. 24. But +it is easy to perceive how excellently the first portion fits +into its place as a general introduction to the period between +Moses and the monarchy, and how much more informing and +instructive it is in this respect than the section which follows. +There exists besides a formal connection between i. 16 and iv. 11. +As regards chaps. xvii., xviii., this story relating to the +migration of Dan northwards is plainly connected with that +immediately preceding where the tribe still finds itself "in the +camp of Dan," but is hard pressed and obtains no relief even with +the aid of Samson. In the case of chaps. xix.-xxi., indeed, it +admits of doubt whether they were excluded from the redaction, or +whether they were not extant as yet; but it is worth noticing +that here also chaps. xvii., xviii. are assumed as having gone +before. The Levite of Bethlehem-Judah testifies to this, and +especially the reminiscence contained in xix. 1, which, as we +shall see, has nothing to rest on in chaps. xix.-xxi. +Compare further xx. 19 with i. 1 seq. +******************************************** + +At the bottom of the spurious continuity lies an erroneous +widening of the areas in which the judges exerted their influence. +Out of local contiguity has arisen succession in time, what was +true of the part having been transferred to the whole; it is +always the children of Israel in a body who come upon the scene, +are oppressed by the enemy, and ruled by the judges. In reality +it is only the individual tribes that come into the action; the +judges are tribal heroes,--Ehud of Benjamin, Barak and Deborah of +Issachar, Gideon of Joseph, Jephthah of Gilead, Samson of Dan. It +was only for the struggle against Sisera that a number of tribes +were united, receiving on that account extraordinary praise in +the song of Deborah. It is nowhere said "at the time when the +judges ruled," but "at the time when there was yet no king over +Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes; " the +regular constitution of the period is the patriarchal anarchy of +the system of families and septs. And in chap. i, division and +isolation are made to appear not unclearly as the reason why the +Canaanites were so long of being driven out from the greater +cities; matters did not change until Israel became strong, that +is to say, until his forces were welded into one by means of the +monarchy. + +But the unity of Israel is the presupposition upon which rests the +theocratic relation, the reciprocal attitude between Israel and +Jehovah, whereby according to the scheme the course of the +history is solely conditioned. In the genuine tradition the +presupposition disappears, and in connection with this the whole +historical process assumes an essentially different, not to say a +more natural aspect. The people are no longer as a body driven +hither and thither by the same internal and external impulses, +and everything that happens is no longer made to depend on the +attraction and repulsion exercised by Jehovah. Instead of the +alternating see-saw of absolute peace and absolute affliction, +there prevails throughout the whole period a relative unrest; +here peace, there struggle and conflict. Failure and success +alternate, but not as the uniform consequences of loyalty or +disobedience to the covenant. When the anonymous prophet who, in +the insertion in the last redaction (chap. vi. 7-10), makes his +appearance as suddenly as his withdrawal is abrupt, improves the +visitation of the Midianites as the text for a penitential +discourse, the matter is nevertheless looked at immediately +thereafter with quite different eyes. For to the greeting of the +angel, "Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of velour," Gideon +answers, "If Jehovah be with us, why then is all this befallen +us? and where be all His miracles, of which our fathers told +us ? "He knows nothing about any guilt on the part of Israel. +Similarly the heroic figures of the judges refuse to fit in with +the story of sin and rebellion: they are the pride of their +countrymen, and not humiliating reminders that Jehovah had +undeservedly again and again made good that which men had +destroyed. Finally, with what artificiality the sins which +appear to be called for are produced, is incidentally made very +clear. After the death of Gideon we read in chap. viii. 33, +"the children of Israel went a-whoring after the Baals, and made +Baal Berith their god." But from the following chapter it appears +that Baal or El Berith was only the patron god of Shechem and some +other cities belonging to the Canaanites; the redactor transforms +the local worship of the Canaanites into an idolatrous worship on +the part of all Israel. In other cases his procedure is still +more simple,--for example, in x. 6 seq., where the number seven +in the case of the deities corresponds with the number seven of +the nations mentioned in that connection. Ordinarily he is +content with "Baals " or "Astartes " or "Asheras," where the +plural number is enough to show how little of what is individual +or positive underlies the idea, not to mention that Asheras are +no divinities at all, but only sacred trees or poles. + +In short, what is usually given out as the peculiar theocratic +element in the history of Israel is the element which has been +introduced by the redaction. There sin and grace are introduced +as forces into the order of events in the most mechanical way, the +course of events is systematically withdrawn from all analogy, +miracles are nothing extraordinary, but are the regular form in +which things occur, are matters of course, and produce absolutely +no impression. This pedantic supra-naturalism, "sacred history" +according to the approved recipe, is not to be found in the +original accounts. In these Israel is a people just like other +people, nor is even his relationship to Jehovah otherwise conceived +of than is for example that of Moab to Chemosh (chap. xi. 24). +Of theophanies and manifestations of the Godhead there is no lack, +but the wonders are such as to make one really wonder. Once and +again they interrupt the earthly nexus, but at the same time +they form no connected system; they are poetry, not prose and +dogma. But on the whole the process of history, although to +appearance rougher and more perplexed, is nevertheless in reality +much more intelligible, and though seemingly more broken up, +actually advances more continuously. There is an ascent upward +to the monarchy, not a descent from the splendid times of Moses +and Joshua (Judges i. 28-35, xiii. 5, xviii. 1). + +One narrative, it is true, apart from that relating to Othniel, +which is not to be reckoned here, is exactly what sacred history +ought to be in order to fit into the theoretical scheme,--I mean +Judges xix.-xxi. To appreciate it rightly it will be well first +of all to cast a glance upon the preceding narrative relating to +the migration of the tribe of Dan to the north. The Danites, 600 +strong, fall upon the Canaanite town of Laish not because it lies +within the limits assigned to the people of God, and because its +conquest is a duty--though they inquire of the oracle, they are +nevertheless far from relying on the divine right so plainly made +known in the Book of Joshua--but because it is inhabited by a +peaceable and unsuspecting people, which is quite defenceless +against such a band of desperadoes; and they have as little +scruple in practicing the same treachery to Israelites such as +Micah. They take it that might is right, and recognise no +restraining consideration; their conduct is natural to the verge +of absolute shamelessness. And yet they are pious in their way; +how highly they value Jehovah they show by this, that they steal +His image out of the house of God, and the priest who keeps it +into the bargain. As for the religious usages mentioned in the +two chapters, hardly an abomination forbidden by the Law is wanting: +the private sanctuary in the possession of the Ephraimite Micah, +the grandson of Moses as priest in his service and pay, ephod +and teraphim as the requisite necessaries in the worship of Jehovah; +and yet all this is so recounted by the narrator as if it were all +quite regular and void of offence, although his purpose in doing so +is not to narrate temporary departures from rule, but the origin of +permanent institutions at a chief sanctuary of ancient Israel. +One is translated into another world on passing from this to the +narrative immediately following, about the shameful deed of the +Benjamites and their exemplary punishment; a greater or more +instructive contrast as regards religious history is hardly to be +found in all the Old Testament. In Judges xx.-xxi. it is not as +invariably elsewhere the individual tribes which act, not even +the people Israel, but the congregation of the covenant, which has +its basis in the unity of worship. The occasion of their action +is a sin committed in their midst which must be done away; it is +the sanctity of the theocracy which brings these 400,000 men to +arms and fills them at once with unction and with sanguinary +zeal. The clerical instincts have entirely taken possession of +this uniform mass, have passed into their flesh and blood, and +moulded them into a single automaton, so that all that takes place +is invariably done by all at once. No individuals come to the +front, not even by name, still less by deeds of velour; the +moral tone is anything but heroic. When the godless reprobates of +Gibeah seek to assail the person of the Levite who is passing the +night there, he hands over to them his wife in order to save +himself, and all Israel finds nothing objectionable in this +revolting act of cowardice, the opinion probably being that by +his conduct the holy man had kept the sinners from still graver +guilt. +"Of the Mosaic law not a word is said in these chapters, +but who could fail to perceive that the spirit which finds its +expression in the law pervaded the community which acted thus? +Had we more narratives of similar contents we should be able to +solve many a riddle of the Pentateuch. Where under the monarchy +could we find an Israel so united, vigorous, earnest, so willing +to enter upon the severest conflict for the sake of the highest +ends? "Thus Bertheau, rightly feeling that this story has a +quite exceptional position, and contradicts all that we learn from +other quarters of the period of the judges or even the kings. +Only we cannot reckon it a proof of the historic value of the story, +that it gives the lie to the rest of the tradition in the Books of +Judges, Samuel, and Kings, and is homogeneous not with these books +but with the Law. On the other hand, the writer betrays himself +with a self-contradiction, when, unconsciously remembering the +preceding chapters, he laments the disorganisation of the time he +is dealing with (xix. 1, xxi. 25), and yet describes Israel to +us as existing in a religious centralisation, such as demonstrably +was never attained in the earlier life of the nation, but only +came about as a consequence of the exile, and is the distinctive +mark of Judaism. + +As this narrative is not one of those included in the +Deuteronomistic scheme of the Book of Judges, there may be a +question whether it presupposes the Deuteronomic law only, or the +priestly law as well. Its language has most points of contact +with Deuteronomy; but one extremely important expression and +notion, that of "the congregation of the children of Israel," +points rather to the Priestly Code. The same may be said of +Phinehas ben Eleazar ben Aaron (xx. 28). The latter, however, +occurs but once, and that in a gloss which forms a very awkward +interruption between "and the children of Israel inquired of +Jehovah," and the word "saying" which belongs to that phrase. +We have also to remark that there is no mention of the tabernacle, +for which there is no room in addition to Mizpeh (p. 256), +so that the principal mark of the Priestly Code is wanting. +It is only in preparation, it has not yet appeared: we are still +standing on the ground of Deuteronomy, but the way is being +prepared for the transition. + +VII.I.3. Going a step further back from the last revision we meet +with an earlier effort in the same direction, which, however, is +less systematically worked out, in certain supplements and emendations, +which have here and there been patched on to the original narratives. +These may be due in part to the mere love of amplification or of +talking for talking's sake, and in so far we have no further +business with them here. But they originated partly in the +difficulty felt by a later age in sympathising with the religious +usages and ideas of older times. Two instances of this kind occur +in the history of Gideon. We read (vi. 25-32), that in the night +after his call Gideon destroyed, at the commandment of Jehovah, +the altar of Baal in Ophra, his native town, as well as the +Ashera which stood beside it; and that in place of it he built an +altar to Jehovah, and burned on it a yearling bullock, with the +wood of the Ashera for fuel. The next morning the people of Ophra +were full of indignation, and demanded that the author of the +outrage should be given up to them to be put to death; his +father, however, withstood them, saying, "Will ye contend for Baal? +Will ye save him? If he be a god, let Baal contend (Heb. Jareb +Baal) for himself." In consequence of this speech Gideon received +his second name of Jerubbaal. This conflicts with what is said in +an earlier part of the chapter. There Gideon has already made an +altar of the great stone under the oak of Ophra, where he saw +Jehovah sitting, and has offered upon it the first sacrifice, which +was devoured by flames breaking out of themselves, the Deity +Himself ascending in the flames to heaven. Why the two altars +and the two stories of their inauguration, both tracing their +origin to the patron of Ophra? They do not agree together, and +the reason is plain why the second was added. The altar of a +single stone, the flames bursting out of it, the evergreen tree, +the very name of which, Ela, seems to indicate a natural +connection with El, /1/--all this was in the eyes of a later + +*************************************** +1. )LH, )LWN, in Aramaic simply tree, in Hebrew the evergreen, +and in general the holy tree (Isaiah i. 29 seq.) mostly without +distinguishing the species. Not only are oaks and terebinths +included, but also palms. For the )LWN DBWRH at Bethel is +elsewhere called TMR; Elim derives its names from the 70 palms, +and the same may be the case with Elath on the Red sea. +*************************************** + +generation far from correct, indeed it was Baal-work. A desire +that the piety of Gideon should be above suspicion gave rise to +the second story, in which he erects an altar of Jehovah in place +of the former altar of Baal. How far this desire attained its end +we may best judge from the kindred effort to remove another +ground of offence, which lies in the name Jerubbaal. In accordance +with the occasion out of which the name is said to have arisen it +is said to mean, "Let Baal contend." Etymologically this +derivation is extremely far-fetched, and from every point of +view impossible: the name of a god is only assumed by those who +are his worshippers. In Hebrew antiquity Baal and El are +interchangeable and used indifferently; Jehovah Himself is spoken +of up to the times of the prophet Hosea as the Baal, i.e., the +lord. This is distinctly proved by a series of proper names in +the families of Saul and David, Ishbaal, Meribaal, Baaljada, to +which we may now add the name Jerubbaal given to the conqueror of +Midian. If then even in the time of the kings Baal was by no means +simply the antipode of Jehovah, whence the hostile relation of the +two deities, which Jerubbaal displays by the acts he does, although +he praises the great Baal by wearing his name? The view, also, +that the Ashera was incompatible with the worship of Jehovah, +does not agree with the belief of the earlier age; according to +Deuteronomy xvi. 21, these artificial trees must have stood often +enough beside the altars of Jehovah. The inserted passage itself +betrays in a remarkable manner that its writer felt this sort of +zeal for the legitimate worship to be above the level of the age +in question. We receive the impression that the inhabitants of +Ophra do not know their worship of Baal to be illegitimate, that +Gideon also had taken part in it in good faith, and that there had +never been an altar of Jehovah in the place before. + +Of a somewhat different form is a correction which is to be found +at the close of the history of Gideon (viii. 22 seq.). After +the victory over the Midianites the Israelites are said to have +asked Gideon to be king over them. This he declined out of regard +to Jehovah the sole ruler of Israel, but he asked for the gold +nose-rings which had been taken from the enemy, and made of them +an image of Jehovah, an ephod, which he set up in Ophra to be +worshipped. "And all Israel went thither a-whoring after it, and +it became a snare to Gideon and to his house." Now the way in +which such a man acts in such a moment is good authority for the +state of the worship of Israel at the time, and not only so, but +we cannot impute it to the original narrator that he chose to +represent his hero as showing his thankfulness to the Deity by +the most gratuitous declension from His worship, as in fact crowning +His victory with an act of idolatry. This is seen to be the more +impossible when we consider that according to the testimony of +Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah, such images were even in the Assyrian +period a regular part of the belongings of the "houses of God" +not only in Samaria but in Judah as well. We have also to +remember that the contradiction between a human kingship and the +kingship of Jehovah, such as is spoken of in these verses, rests +upon theories which arose later, and of which we shall have more +to say. /1/ Studer will thus be correct in his assertion that the + +****************************************** +1. "The words of Gideon are only intelligible on the presupposition +that the rule of Jehovah had a visible representative prophet or +priest. But this was not the case in the period of the judges, +as Gideon's own history shows us." Vatke, p. 263. We see besides +from ix. 1 seq. that Gideon really was the ruler of Ephraim and +Manasseh. +***************************************** + +old tradition could not see anything in Gideon's refusing the gold +for himself and dedicating it to God but a fine proof of his +unselfishness and piety, and that in viii. 22-27 we have a +secondary product, in which the original features of the story +are distorted so as to make them suit later tastes. The second +hand has unfortunately supplanted in this instance the work of +the first. The older narrative breaks off (viii. 21) with the +words: "Gideon took away the ornaments that were on the necks of +the camels of the kings." What he did with them we do not learn, +but naturally we must suppose that it was of them that he made +the ephod. According to the secondary passage, which begins +immediately after viii. 21, he used for this purpose the +nose-rings which the whole of Israel had taken from all the +Midianites, amounting in weight to 1700 shekels, besides the +ornaments of the kings and of their camels. The proportion is +similar to that between the 600 Danites in chap. xviii. and the +25,700 Benjamites in chap. xx., or between the 40,000 men of +Israel in v. 8, and the 400,000 in xx. 2. + +VII.I.4. In the last place it is possible to trace even in the +original narratives themselves certain differences of religious +attitude which indicate to us unobtrusively and yet clearly that +tendency in the development of the tradition which reached its +end in the revision and ornamentation of which we have hitherto +been speaking. This is especially the case with regard to those +narratives which are preserved to us in a double form. These are +not frequent in Judges, but they do occur. A very simple case +of the kind is seen on comparing chap. iv. with chap. v. + +The Canaanites again lift their heads under their great king +Sisera, and from their towns in the plains harass the hill +villages of the new settlers. Deborah unites the Hebrew tribes +for the contest. From the North and from the South the hosts of +Jehovah descend before our eyes towards Jezreel, the prophetess +Deborah at their head, the warrior Barak at her side. The conflict +takes place at the brook Kishon, and ends with the defeat of the +kings of Canaan. Sisera himself is killed in the flight by Jael, +the wife of a nomad Kenite. Such are the contents of the song in +chap. v. In the preceding narrative (chap. iv.) we should +expect to find a historical commentary on the song, but we find a +mere reproduction in which the special features of the story are +blurred and falsified. Instead of the kings of Canaan we have the +king of Canaan, as if Canaan had been a kingdom. Sisera, the head +of the Canaanite kings, is transformed into a mere general; the +oppression of the Hebrews is made general and indefinite. Jael +murders Sisera when he is Iying in a deep sleep by driving a +tent-peg into the ground through his temples. There is nothing +of this in the song: there he is drinking when she strikes the +blow, and is conceived as standing at the time, else he could +not bow down at her feet and fall, and lie struck dead where +he fell (ver. 27). + +In the song the campaign is prepared with human means. +Negotiations are carried on among the tribes, and in the course of +these differences crop up. The lukewarmness or the swelling words +of some tribes are reproved, the energetic public spirit and +warlike courage of others praised. In the narrative, on the +contrary, the deliverance is the work of Jehovah alone; the men of +Israel are mere dummies, who show no merit and deserve no praise. +To make up for this, interest is concentrated on the act of Jael, +which instead of being an episode becomes the central point of the +whole narrative. Indeed it is announced as being so, for Deborah +prophesies to Barak that the glory of the conflict will not be his +but a woman's, into whose hand the enemy is to be sold; it is not +the hero, not human strength, that accomplishes what is done: +Jehovah shows His strength in man's weakness. And Barak's part in +the work is depreciated in yet another way. Deborah summons him +to go not to the battle, but to the holy hill of Tabor, where +Jehovah will bring about what is further to happen; he, however, +objects to this, and insists that the prophetess herself shall go +with him. This is regarded as a caprice of unbelief, because the +prophetess is thought to have exhausted her mission when she +transmitted the command of the Deity to His instrument: she has +appeared for no end but to make it known through her prophecy that +Jehovah alone brings everything to pass. In the song this is +different. There Barak is not summoned against his will; on the +contrary, he has a personal motive for taking up arms: "Arise, +Barak; take captive thy captors, thou son of Ahinoam." And the +prophetess has not only to prophesy; she works in a more +psychological manner; she is part of the battle, and inflames with +her song the courage of the fighting battalions: "Awake, +Deborah, awake, sing the song!" /1/ Throughout these variations of + +********************************************** +1. Ver. 12 is a summons to begin the battle, and Deborah cannot +here be singing the song of triumph which celebrates its happy +issue. For a similar reason the translation given above, "take +captive thy captors," is the more natural and correct. +************************************************ + +the prose reproduction we feel that the rich colour of the events +as they occurred is bleached out of them by the one universal first +cause, Jehovah. The presence and energy of Jehovah are not wanting +in the song; they are felt in the enthusiasm which fills the Hebrew +warriors, and in the terror and panic which confound the prancing +vigour of the foe. But in the prose narrative, the Divine action +is stripped of all mystery, and mechanic prophecy finds no +difficulty in showing distinctly and with sober accuracy what the +part of the Deity in the history has been. But the more special +the intervention of Deity, the further is it from us; the more +precise the statements about it, the less do we feel it to be there. + +There is another instance in the Book of Judges of the occurrence +of the same historical material in two different forms; it is the +story of Gideon of the Manassite house of Abiezer. Studer saw +that there is a break between viii. 3 and viii. 4, and that the +two stories, from the one of which we pass to the other at that +point, have to be understood separately; viii. 1-3 is the +conclusion of the first story. We have been told how, after the +success of the first attack on the Midianites, Gideon raised the +levy of all Israel for the pursuit, and how then the Ephraimites +seized the fords of the Jordan before the arrival of the flying +nomads and got the two leaders of the Midianites into their hands. +Now we hear in conclusion that the Ephraimites, elated by their +success began to find fault with Gideon, but that he pacified +their wrath by saying, "What have I done now in comparison of +you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the +vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hand the princes +of Midian, and what was I able to do in comparison of you?" +A domestic contention like this about the respective shares in +the victory could only arise when the victory had been gained, +when the strife with the enemy was fought out; the metaphor of +harvest and gleaning shows that the victory was complete and +all the fruits of it gathered in. Chapter viii. 1-3 concludes +the business, and the following narrative is not a continuation +of what has gone before, but a second version of the story in +which many of the circumstances are quite different. According +to vii. 23 seq. there was a great army on foot, but in viii. 4 +seq. Gideon has only his own three hundred men with him. In +viii. 1-3 the vintage and the gleaning are over and the object +of the fighting is attained; but in viii. 4 seq. Gideon pursues +the enemy without any interruption, and when he asks the men of +Succoth and Penuel for bread for his wearied and hungry troops, +they inquire sarcastically whether he is already certain of +success, so that it should be necessary for them to espouse his +cause. The two chiefs who in the former account are called the +princes Oreb and Zeeb, and are already taken, are here called +the kings Zebah and Zalmunna, and are not taken yet. Unfortunately +the beginning of viii. 4 seq. is not preserved, and we cannot make +out whether the pursuit in which we find Gideon here engaged was +preceded by an action. Such a supposition is not exactly impossible, +yet the distance to which the nomads had carried their booty, and +their carelessness in camp, make it more likely that the occurrence +was like that in 1Samuel xxx. This, however, makes no difference as +to the particulars with regard to which the two narratives conflict +with each other. + +But how did the difference arise? This we shall best learn by +comparing the beginnings of the two stories. We remarked that the +second, as it stands, wanted a beginning, but what is wanting may +be to some extent supplied from what follows. According to viii. +4 seq., Gideon's aim is to get hold of the two kings of the +Midianites: these appear all through as the particular enemies +whom he is pursuing: as to the rest of the Midianites he is more +or less indifferent. And the reason, as we learn from viii. 18 +seq., is that the two kings had slain his brothers at Tabor; it +is to take vengeance for them that he sets out to pursue the +slayers, and does not rest till they are in his hand. It is the +duty of blood-revenge which causes him to take the war-path with +his household, unconcerned by the disproportion in numbers +between his followers and theirs: it is the powerful sentiment of +family which sets him in motion and causes him to become, as it +were incidentally, the liberator of Israel from the spoilers. In +the first account (vi. 11-viii. 3) these natural motives have +completely disappeared, and others have taken their place which +are almost of an opposite character. Before anything has +happened, before the Midianites have made their yearly incursion, +Gideon, who expects nothing of the kind, is summoned by a +theophany to battle against them. When they arrive he is seized +by the Spirit and sets out against them. What is human in him +has no part in the act he is called to do; flesh and blood set +themselves against it. He is impelled by the direct impulse of +Jehovah, and here, of course, he goes forth in behalf of the +public interests of Israel, against the Midianites, not against +their princes personally. And accordingly everything possible is +done to cast the man into the shade behind the Deity. Gideon, +according to the second account a distinguished and royal man, +is in the first of a poor house and family; in the second story +he is remarkable for irrepressible energy, but here he is timid +and shrinking up to the last moment, and new miracles have +constantly to be wrought to encourage and strengthen him. +The 32,000 men with whom he takes the field he is ordered by +Jehovah to send away all but l,000 and again all but 300, "lest +Israel vaunt themselves against Me, and say, Mine own hand hath +saved me." The weapons with which the nocturnal attack of the 300 +is made are torches, pitchers, and trumpets; the men have not a +hand left to hold swords (vii. 20); and the hostile army has +accordingly to do itself the work of its own destruction (vii. +22). + +Few of the deviations of the religious version from the natural one +are not transparent; one of these few is the removal of the scene +to this side of the Jordan. Most of them are at once recognisable +as due to the process of glorification, illumination, and +religious inflation, by which the body of the tradition is +etherealised and the story lifted up into the region of the air. +For example, the company of Gideon at the main action, the attack +on the hostile camp, consists of 300 men in chap. vii. as well +as in chap viii.; but in chap. vii., to draw out the +significance of the small number, they are treated as the last +residuum of what was at first quite a considerable army; and this +gives rise to a long story. We may also remark that chap. vi. +begins with the relation in which the judge stood to the sanctuary +of his native town, while chap. viii. closes with this. In the +one case he discovers by a theophany, like the patriarchs in +Genesis, the sacredness of the altar-stone under the oak; in the +other he sets up, in far more realistic fashion, the plated image +(ephod) he has made of the golden ornaments of the Midianite +kings. History has to take account principally, if not +exclusively, of the natural version, which is dry in tone and lets +things speak for themselves, not overlaying the simple story with +the significance of its consequences. The relation, however, is +somewhat different from that which we found existing between +Judges iv. and v. Chapter vi. seq. is not based directly on +chap. viii., but was probably formed from independent oral +material Though the local colour is lively, the historical +reminiscences are extremely vague, and there has been a much +freer growth of legend than in Jud. iv., producing pictures of +greater art and more naivete. But in the field of miracle poetry +is manifestly earlier than prose. + +In the case of those narratives which have come down to us in +double form, the difference of standpoint is unmistakable; but it +may also be perceived in cases where we have no direct parallels +to compare. How noticeably does the story of Abimelech differ, +say from that of Jephthah which follows it, in the rich detail of +its facts, and in the spontaneous interest it shows in the +secondary and subordinate links in the chain of events! There is +no gilding with a supernatural nimbus; facts are simply and +plainly set down such as they are; the moral is left to speak +for itself as the story goes on. In the Samson legends again we +find two souls united, as it were, in one body. Traits belonging +to the rough life and spirit of the people are wrought, especially +at the beginning and end of the narrative, into a religious +national form; yet the two stand in an inner contrast to each other, +and it is scarcely probable that the exploits of this grotesque +religious hero were at first conceived in the Spirit of Jehovah, +of which, in the story as we have it, they are the product. More +probably the religious way of telling the story was preceded +by a way considerably more profane; but we cannot now separate +the older stage from that which is more recent. We may also +remark that the contrast of historical and unhistorical is +obviously inapplicable to this case, and, moreover, is +unessential for the end we have in view. Only it may stand +as a general principle, that the nearer history is to its +origin the more profane it is. In the pre-Deuteronomic narratives, +the difference is to be recognised less in the _kind_ of piety than +in the _degree_ of it. + + +VII.II. + +VII.II.1. The comprehensive revision which we noticed in the Book +of Judges has left its mark on the Books of Samuel too. As, however, +in this case the period is short, and extremely rich in incident, +and really forms a connected whole, the artificial frame- and +net-work does not make itself so much felt. Yet it is by no +means wanting, as the dates of themselves indicate, whose place in +the chronological system was shown above. It is worthy of notice +how very loosely these are fitted into their context. In 1Samuel +iv. 18 seq. we read: +"And when the messenger made mention of the ark of God, Eli fell +backwards off his seat, and his neck brake, and he died, for he +was an old man and heavy, and _he judged Israel forty years_; +and when his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, who was with +child, heard the tidings," etc. +The statement of the date is not altogether inappropriately +dragged in, indeed, yet it is easy to see that it is dragged in. +In 2Samuel ii. 8-13 we read: +"Abner, the captain of Saul's host, took Ishbaal the son of Saul, +and brought him over the Jordan to Mahanaim, and made him king +over Gilead and Geshur, and Jezreel, and Ephraim, and Benjamin, +and all Israel. _Ishbaal was forty years old when he began to +reign over lsrael, and he reigned two years_. But the house of +Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in +Hebron was seven years and six months. And Abner and the servants +of Ishbaal went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon, and Joab with the +servants of David went out to meet him." +The words in italics <_..._> manifestly interrupt the connection; +and with regard to Ishbaal's dates we have also to remark that from +what we learn of him elsewhere he was, in the first place, still +in the years of pupilage, and in the next must have reigned as long +in Mahanaim as Oavid in Hebron. The number two connected with his +reign is to be explained as in the case of Saul (1Samuel xiii. 1): +_Saul was...years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two +years over Israel_. In this verse, which is not found in the LXX, +the number for the years of his life is wanting; and originally +the number for the years of his reign was left out too: the _two_ +is quite absurd, and has grown out of the following word for year, +which in Hebrew has a somewhat similar appearance. + +In company with the chronological formulas, we find also the +religious (1Samuel vii. 2-4). +"While the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, it was twenty years; +and all the house of Israel came together after Jehovah. And +Samuel spake unto the whole house of Israel, saying: 'If ye do +return to Jehovah with all your hearts, then put away the strange +gods and the Astartes from among you, and prepare your hearts unto +Jehovah, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you out of the +hand of the Philistines.' And the children of Israel did put away +the Baals and Astartes, and served Jehovah only." +We are not told, in what precedes this passage, of any act of +declension from Jehovah, and according to chap. iv. the Israelites +showed no want of faith in Jehovah in the unfortunate battle with +the Philistines. This taking for granted that the yoke of a +foreign rule was laid on them as a punishment for their sins is +characteristic. A further example occurs in the speech of Samuel +(1Samuel. xii.), which, as the introduction to the time of the +kings, may be compared with Judges ii., the introduction to the +time of the judges. "Stand still that I may reason with you before +Jehovah of all the righteous acts of Jehovah with which He did +right to you and to your fathers! When Jacob was come into +Egypt, your fathers cried to Jehovah, and He sent Moses and Aaron +and brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this +land. And when they forget Jehovah their God, He sold them into +the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the +hand of the Philistines, and the Moabites, and they fought +against them. And they cried unto Jehovah, and said, We have +sinned, because we have forsaken Jehovah and have served Baal and +Astarte, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies and we +will serve Thee. And Jehovah sent Jerubbaal, and Barak, and +Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your +enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe. And when ye saw that +Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said +unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when Jehovah your God +is your king. Now therefore behold the king whom ye have desired; +behold, Jehovah has set a king over you. If ye will hear Jehovah +and serve Him and obey His voice, and not rebel +against the commandment of Jehovah, good: but if ye rebel against +the commandment of Jehovah, then shall the hand of Jehovah be +against you as it was against your fathers." +It is the familiar strain: rebellion, affliction, conversion, +peace, Jehovah the keynote, and the first word and the last. +The eye does not dwell on the details of the story; the gaps in +the tradition are turned to account as well as its contents, which +are concentrated at so few points. Details are regarded only as +they bear on the whole; the periods are passed in review in a broad +and general style, and the law enunciated which connects them with +one another. In doing this Samuel seems to presuppose in his +hearers a knowledge of the biblical history in a distinct form; +and he even speaks without hesitation of his own historical +significance. The hearers are bidden to look back upon a period +in the living movement of which they themselves are standing, as +if it were a dead past. As they are thus lifted up to the height +of an objective contemplation of themselves and their fathers, +in the end the result which was to be expected takes place: +they become conscious of their grievous sin. Confronted with +the Deity they have always an uneasy feeling that they deserve +to be punished. + +VII.II.2. The Deuteronomist revision asserts itself, it is true, +only in these two places, or rather this one place; but this +is the principal epoch in the book--the transition to the monarchy +which is associated with the name of Samuel. And on this account +the revision here acts the more trenchantly; it is not only an +addition to give a new flavour to the older tradition; it changes +the nature of the tradition entirely. For the passages we have +just quoted from it are merely fragments of a considerable +connected historical scheme. The first piece of this scheme, vii. +2-17, first claims our attention. After summoning the children of +Israel to repentance (vii. 2-4), Samuel convokes an assembly of +them at Mizpeh, near Jerusalem, in order to entreat for them that +the Philistine affliction may be turned away. This measure is of +course closely connected with the previously-mentioned abolition +of idolatry: for, after the guilt has ceased, the punishment also +must be removed. They assemble, draw water to pour it out before +Jehovah, fast, and confess their sins, at Mizpeh. When the +Philistines hear this, they are on the spot the very same day +and fall upon the assembly at its prayers. Samuel, however, +sacrifices a sucking lamb and cries for help to Jehovah, and the +engagement takes place while he is so occupied. Jehovah thunders +terribly against the Philistines and throws them into disorder, so +that they are forced to yield, and are pursued to a great +distance. And the Philistines, this is the end of the narrative, +were humbled and came no more into the coasts of Israel; and the +hand of Jehovah was against the Philistines all the days of +Samuel, and the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel +were recovered; Ekron and Gath and their coasts did Israel take +from the Philistines, and there was peace between Israel and the +Amorites. + +The mere recapitulation of the contents of this narrative makes us +feel at once what a pious make-up it is and how full of inherent +impossibilities: to think of all that is compressed into the +space of this one day! But we have also to remark the utter +contradiction of the whole of the rest of the tradition. In the +history which follows we find the domination of the Philistines +by no means at an end; not only do they invade the Israelite +territory several times in Samuel's lifetime, they are in +possession of the land of lsrael, and one of their governors lives +at Gibeah in the midst of Benjamin. The struggle with them is the +true and real origin and task of the monarchy. The writer had no +idea that Samuel had discharged this labour and won this victory +already, and had even "restored " Ekron and Gath. On the contrary, +the yoke of the Philistines lay most heavily on Israel just in +his days. There cannot be a word of truth in the whole narrative. +Its motives, however, are easily seen. Samuel is a saint of the +first degree (Jeremiah xv. 1), and in the theocracy, i.e., in the +religious community such as ancient Israel is represented to have +been, cut to the pattern of Judaism, such a man must take his +place at the head of the whole. His influence must have prevailed +to exclude idolatry and unfaithfulness to Jehovah on the part of +the people; and the general character of the time must on the +whole have answered to the type he set before it. But here a very +unpleasant difficulty suggests itself. If the fact of Samuel being +at the head is sufficient guarantee that all was as it should be +within the state, how can there have been such great pressure +externally, so as to endanger the very existence of the people? +If men do their part, how can Jehovah fail to do His? On the +contrary, it must be believed that the righteousness which +prevailed within had its counterpart in the external vindication +of His people by Jehovah. Even under Samuel the Philistines were +with God's help driven across the border, and as long as he lived +they were not seen within it again. The piety of a praying +assembly was suitably acknowledged by Jehovah, who dropped into +its lap a success such as in after times the sword of warlike +kings sought long and in vain to achieve. + +But this example of history corrected does not stand alone, and +becomes completely intelligible only when taken in connection +with the similar pieces which belong to it. 1Samuel vii. is +continued in chap. viii., and chap. viii. again in x. 17-xii. +25. Samuel, after setting the land free from foreign tyranny, +conducts a quiet and successful reign till old age comes upon him. +His sons, however, whom he has made his assessors, do not walk in +his steps; and the elders of Israel make this the occasion to ask +him to give them a king. But this is a mere pretext for their +sinful desire to shake off the divine rule and to be like the +heathen round about them. Samuel is extremely indignant at their +ingratitude, but is directed by Jehovah to comply with their +request. +"They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected +Me, that I should not reign over them; according to all the works +that they have done since the day that I brought them up out of +Egypt, wherewith they have forsaken Me and served other gods. so +do they also unto thee." +It is in vain that Samuel exhibits to them an alarming catalogue +of the rights of the king: they are not to be moved from their +determination, and he accordingly summons a general convention of +the people at Mizpeh (viii. 22, x. 17). There, after the +opening lecture, lots are drawn for the king, and Saul is chosen, +whereupon Samuel has still to write down the law of the kingdom and +lay it up before Jehovah. The people are then dismissed; "and +Saul also went home to Gibeah, and with him the warriors whose +heart God had touched, but the children of Belial despised him, +and said 'How shall this man save us!'" + +But Saul is at this point only king _de jure_; he does not become +king _de facto_ until after he has proved himself, chap. xi. After +an interval of a month (x. 27 LXX) the men of Jabesh, besieged by +the Ammonites and in great straits, send messengers throughout +Israel to implore speedy assistance, since in seven days they +have to surrender to their enemies and each of them to lose his +right eye. The messengers come to the town of Saul, Gibeah in +Benjamin, and tell their message before the people; the people +lift up their voices and weep. Saul meanwhile comes from the +field with a yoke of oxen, and, observing the general weeping, +asks what has happened. The story is told him, and at once the +Spirit of God comes upon him and his anger is kindled greatly; +he hews in pieces his oxen and sends the pieces throughout Israel +with the summons: Whoever does not come forth to the battle, so +shall it be done to his oxen! And the fear of Jehovah falls on +the people, and they go out as one man and relieve the besieged +town. Hereupon "the kingdom is renewed" for Saul at Gilgal, and +only now does Samuel abdicate his government, in the long speech +(chap. xii.) a considerable portion of which was given above. + +That chap. xi. is now an integral part of this version of the +history is clear from xii. 12, and also from xi. 12-14. But it +was not originally designed for this connection. For we hear +nothing of the warriors who according to x. 26 were in company +with Saul; it is not on his account that the messengers of Jabesh +came to Gibeah. When the supposed king comes home from ploughing, +nothing is done to indicate that the news concerns him specially: +no one tells him what has happened, he has to ask the reason of +the general weeping. He summons the levy of Israel not in virtue +of his office as king, but in the authority of the Spirit, and it +is owing to the Spirit acting on the people that he is obeyed. +Only after he has showed his power and defeated the Ammonites do +the people make him king (xi. 15); the "renewal" of the kingdom +(xi. 14), after a month's interval, is a transparent artifice of +the author of viii. 10, 1) seq. to incorporate in his own narrative +the piece which he had borrowed from some other quarter: the verses +xi. 12-14 are due to him. + +Chapter xi. stood originally in connection with the other +narrative of the elevation of Saul (ix. 1-X. 16). Hero Saul +first appears engaged in searching for strayed she-asses. After +a vain search of several days he arrives in the neighbourhood +of Ramah, and at the suggestion of his servant applies for +information as to the asses to a seer there, to Samuel. His +approach has been announced to the seer by Jehovah the day +before: "To-morrow I will send to thee a man out of the land of +Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be ruler over My people +Israel; he shall save them from the Philistines." He was +accordingly expecting him, and had instituted a sacrificial feast +on the bamah for him even before he arrived. At this moment +Samuel has gone down to the town between the sacrificial act and +the meal which followed it, and just as he is going back to his +guests he meets in the gate Saul, who is asking for him, and at a +whisper from Jehovah he recognises in him his man. He takes him up +with him to the bamah, reassures him about the asses, and then at +once tells him to what high things he is called, and gives him +convincing proofs that he had reckoned on his presence at the feast +as the guest of the occasion. He then gives him lodgings for the +night, and accompanies him on his way next morning. The servant is +sent on a little way before, Samuel stands still and anoints Saul, +for a sign that he is chosen by Jehovah to be the king and deliverer +of Israel, and in conclusion instructs him that, when the opportunity +for action comes, he is to use it, in the consciousness that God +is with him. On his way home three signs come to pass which the +seer had announced to him. He is thus assured that all that was +said to him was true; his heart is changed by degrees till he +cannot contain himself; on his arrival at Gibeah his acquaintances +are struck with his strange demeanour, but he does not disclose +even to his most intimate friend at home what Samuel had said to +him, but waits for the things that shall come to pass. + +This is the point arrived at in x. 16. It is clear that thus far +no conclusion has yet been reached: the seed that is sown must +spring up, the changed spirit must produce its effects. And this +requirement is abundantly satisfied if chap. xi. is regarded as +immediately continuing the story from x. 16. After about a +month, the opportunity presents itself for Saul to act, which +Samuel had bidden him to look for. While others are weeping at +the disgrace which threatens an Israelite town at the hands of +the Ammonites, he is filled with the Spirit and with rage, +the arrow is still in his heart from that conversation, and he +now does "what his hand finds to do." The result is a great +success; the word of the seer finds its fulfilment in the most +natural way in the world. + +If chap. xi. belongs originally to the narrative of ix. 1.-x. 16, +it follows at once that the other sections are dependent and +later. But what is the inner relation of the one version to the +other? They coincide in their ideas here and there. In the one +story Saul seeks the asses and finds the crown, in the other he +hides himself among the stuff and is drawn forth king. In the one +he is called by the seer, in the other he is chosen by lot--the +divine causality operative in both cases. But how the idea is +exaggerated at the later stage, and how nakedly it is put forward! +And if there is this similarity of view, yet the deviation of the +secondary version from the original is much more striking than +the resemblance. For its tendency we are prepared by chapter +vii. Samuel has set his countrymen free from their enemies, and +ruled over them afterwards in righteousness and prosperity; why +then should they desire a change in the form of government? They +have just as much and as little reason for desiring this as for +the falling away from Jehovah, which also is a periodical +craving on their part, whenever they have had some years' rest: +it is the expression of the deep-seated heathenism of their nature. +That is the account of chapter viii. with what belongs to it. +Chapter ix. seq., however, gives quite a different account. Here, +at the end of the period of the judges, Israel is not at the +summit of power and prosperity, but in a state of the deepest +humiliation and the means of saving the people from this state is +seen in the monarchy alone. And this difference is closely +connected with another as to the view taken of the authority of +Samuel. In chap. viii. as in chap. vii. he is the vicegerent +of Jehovah, with unlimited authority. He feels the institution of +the monarchy to be his own deposition, yet the children of Israel +by no means rebel against him; they come to him to ask him for +a king. He might have refused the request; he might also have +given them a ruler according to his own good pleasure, but as a +correct theocrat he leaves the decision to Jehovah. At the end he +solemnly lays down the government he has hitherto carried on, and +hands it over to his successor. The latter is superior to him in +point of title, but not in point of power: indeed in the latter +respect he is rather inferior to Samuel, being a mere earthly +prince (xii. 23 seq.). But how do matters stand in chap. ix. seq.? +Here Samuel is quite a stranger to Saul, who knows neither his +name nor his residence. Only his servant has heard of Samuel, +who enjoys a high reputation as a seer in his own neighbourhood. +What we are to think of when we read of a seer of that period, +we are clearly and circumstantially informed: for Samuel is +consulted as to the whereabouts of strayed she-asses, and a fee +of a quarter of a silver shekel is tendered to him for his advice. +This seer stands, it is clear, above the average of those who +practiced the same calling; yet his action on the history is quite +within the limits of what was possible, say to Calchas: it +exhibits not a trace of the legislative and executive power of +a regent of the theocracy. He does not bring help; he only +descries help and the helper. The very event which, according +to chap. viii. seq., involved the removal of Samuel from his +place and his withdrawal to the background of the history, is +here the sole basis of his reputation: the monarchy of Saul, +if not his work, is his idea. He announces to the Benjamite his +high calling, interpreting in this the thoughts of the man's own +heart (ix. 19). With this his work is done; he has no commission +and no power to nominate his successor in the government. +Everything else he leaves to the course of events and to the +Spirit of Jehovah which will place Saul on his own feet. + +In the great difference which separates these two narratives we +recognise the mental interval between two different ages. In the +eyes of Israel before the exile the monarchy is the culminating +point of the history, and the greatest blessing of Jehovah. It +was preceded by a period of unrest and affliction, when every man +did what was right in his own eyes, and the enemies of Israel +accordingly got everything their own way. Under it the people +dwell securely and respected by those round about; guarded by +the shelter of civil order, the citizen can sit under his own +vine and his own fig-tree. That is the work of the first two +kings, who saved Israel from his spoilers, and gave him power +and rest. No difference is made between them in this respect: +the one commenced the work which the other completed (1Samuel +ix. 16, xiv. 48; 2Samuel iii. 18, xix. 9). Before them there was +no breathing space left in the hard work of fighting, but now +there is time to think of other things. Even Deuteronomy, +which was written not long before the exile, regards the period +before the monarchy as a time of preparation and transition, +not to be counted complete in itself: Israel must first acquire +fixed seats and a settled way of living, and then Jehovah also +will choose a seat for Himself and make known His desires with +regard to the cultus. David brought things so far that the +people had room and struck firm roots into the ground, and +ceased to tremble before their enemies, who had kept them on the +strain from the beginning, and all the days of the judges; and +under his successor the time came when the temple could be built +and higher interests receive attention. That Hebrew antiquity +knew nothing of any hostility or incompatibility between the +heavenly and the earthly ruler is plain from the title Anointed +of Jehovah, and from the hope of the prophets, whose ideal future +would be incomplete without a human king. The ancient Israelites +were as fully conscious as any other people of the gratitude +they owed to the men and to the institutions by whose aid they +had been lifted out of anarchy and oppression, and formed into an +orderly community, capable of self-defence. Of this the Books of +Samuel afford the most eloquent testimony. /1/ + +***************************************** +l In Balaam's view of the happy future of Israel (Numbers xxiii. +seq.), the monarchy is spoken of as one of Israel's chief +blessings. Generally (xxiii. 21): "Jehovah his God is with +him, and the shout of a king is among them." With reference to +Saul (xxiv. 7): "And his king triumphs over Agag. and his +kingdom shall be exalted." To David (xxiv. 17): "I see him, +though not now; I behold him, though not nigh: there rises (ZRX) +a star out of Jacob and a rod out of Israel, and smites in pieces +the temples of Moab and the skull of all the sons of Seth: and Edom +also becomes a conquest." According to Deuteronomy xxxiii. 4, 5, +the monarchy and the Torah are the two great gifts of God's grace +to Israel. +****************************************** + +The position taken up in the version of 1 Samuel vii. viii. x. 17 +seq. xii., presents the greatest possible contrast to this way +of thinking. There, the erection of the monarchy only forms a +worse stage of backsliding from Jehovah. There can be no progress +beyond the Mosaic ideal; the greater the departure from it the +greater the declension. The capital sin of placing a human ruler +on the throne of Jehovah makes even the period of the judges +appear not quite black. Dark as the colours are with which that +period is generally painted, it held fast to the original form of +the theocracy, and so appears somewhat brighter: at last indeed, +to heighten the contrast, it is represented as a splendid age. +Under the rule of Samuel, everything was as it should be. Should +we ask, _how_ were things then? what was exactly the nature of +the theocratic constitution? we receive, it is true, no +satisfactory answer to the question. We might draw conclusions +with regard to the body from the head: but what sort of an idea +can we form of the position of Samuel? As he appears in these +chapters, we entirely fail to dispose of him in any of the +categories applicable to the subject; he is not a judge, not +a priest, not a prophet,--if at least we use these words with +their true historical meaning. He is a second Moses? Yes, but +that does not tell us much. So much only is clear, that the +theocracy is arranged on quite a different footing from the +kingdoms of this world, and that it amounts to a falling away +into heathenism when the Israelites place a king at their head +like other nations, and he keeps courtiers and ministers, officers +and soldiers, horses and chariots. It is accordingly a spiritual +community: the spiritual character of the regent places this +beyond doubt. Samuel admonishes the people to give up idolatry; +he presides at the great day of repentance at Mizpeh, which forms +an epoch in the sacred history; and Jehovah can refuse nothing to +his prayers and cries (xii. 1 7). "God forbid," he says in +taking leave of them (xii. 23), "that I should cease to pray for +you and teach you the good way." Such is his position: and the +citizens of the theocracy have the corresponding duty of +cultivating the worship of Jehovah, and not withdrawing themselves +from the guidance of the representative of Deity. They do not +need to trouble themselves about means for warding off the attacks +of their enemies; if they fast and pray, and give up their sins, +Jehovah hurls back the foe with His thunder and lightning, and so +long as they are pious He will not allow their land to be +invaded. All the expenses are then naturally superfluous by +which a people usually safeguards it own existence. That this +view is unhistorical is self-evident; and that it contradicts the +genuine tradition we have seen. The ancient Israelites did not +build a church first of all: what they built first was a house +to live in, and they rejoiced not a little when they got it +happily roofed over (xi. 15). But we have still to add, in +conclusion, that the idea here before us can only have arisen in +an age which had no knowledge of Israel as a people and a state, +and which had no experience of the real conditions of existence in +these forms; in other words. It is the offspring of exilic or +post-exilic Judaism. At that time the nation was transformed into +a religious community, whose members were at liberty to +concentrate themselves on what they held to be the great business +of life, worship and religiousness, because the Chaldeans or the +Persians had relieved them of all care for worldly concerns. At +that time, accordingly, the theocracy _existed_, and it is from +that time that it is transported in an idealised form to early +times. The material basis on which the theocracy rested in fact, +namely, the foreign domination, is put out of sight, and it is +counted heathenism in the old Israelites that they cared for the +external conditions of their national existence, that they are a +people in the full sense of the word, and seek to maintain +themselves as such with the weapons which are found necessary in +the work-a-day world. It naturally never came into the heads of +these epigoni to conceive that the political organisation and +centralisation which the monarchy called into being provided the +basis for the organisation and centralisation of the worship, and +that their church was merely a spiritualised survival of the +nation. What is added to Moses is taken away from the monarchy. + +One more point has to be noticed. The chapters vii. viii. x. 17 +seq. xii. betray a close relationship with Judges xix.-xxi., +not only by their general tendency, but by a geographical +detail in which the two passages agree. It is only here that +Mizpeh, near Jerusalem, occurs as the place of meeting of all +Israel; we find no further mention of the place in the whole +period of the judges and the kings. Only after the destruction +of Jerusalem is it mentioned, and there as the centre of the new +Jewish community instituted by the Chaldeans (Jeremiah xl. seq.) as +the substitute of the old capital. It appears once more, and in a +similar character, in I Maccabees iii. 46 seq. at a time when the +temple of Jerusalem was in the hands of the Syrians, and the Jews +could not get to it. The Mizpeh of Judges xx., 1Samuel vii. 10, +is probably the same as that of Jeremiah xl. seq., and intended to +be, like these, in place of Jerusalem, the only legitimate +sanctuary, which, however, did not exist at that early time. +This is a further proof of the post-Deuteronomic and Jewish origin +of these narratives, but at the same time an indication that, with +every inclination to the views of the Priestly Code, the writer +yet had not that code before him. For in that work the projection +of Jerusalem into the period before Solomon is carried out in +quite a different way: the tabernacle renders Mizpeh superfluous. +It has also to be remarked that the rite of pouring out water +(1Samuel vii.) is foreign to the Priestly Code. + +VII.II.3. The relation of Saul to Samuel is a subject which lends +itself readily to general views, and the development of the +tradition is visible in it in other particulars besides those we +have mentioned. Taking the view of 1Samuel vii. viii. xii. as +the lower limit, the narrative nearest in character is the story +about Samuel contained in an insertion in chap. xiii. After Saul +is made king at Gilgal by the levy with which he relieved Jabesh, +he selects from it a body of men who camp with him and Jonathan +at Gibeah and the neighbouring Michmash: and Jonathan, by killing +the officer at Gibeah, gives the signal for battle with the old +enemy of his race. The Philistines advance, and take up a position +to the north of Gibeah, with only a deep valley between them and +the Israelites. But Saul, we hear all at once, xiii. 7 (cf. ver. 4) +was yet in Gilgal, and waited seven days for Samuel, according +to the set time the latter had appointed; but Samuel did not come, +and the warriors began to scatter. As he was himself offering the +sacrifice without which no campaign could be commenced, Samuel +arrived, and at once opened upon him. Saul defended his act +with great force: the people were scattering, and Samuel had not +come at the appointed time, and as the Philistines had advanced +close up to Gibeah, he had found it impossible to delay longer, +and had offered the sacrifice in order to advance against them. +To all this Samuel's only answer was: +"Thou hast done foolishly; if thou hadst kept the commandment of +Jehovah, He would have established thy kingdom for ever, but +now thy kingdom shall not continue; Jehovah has sought Him a man +after His own heart, and appointed him to be ruler over His people, +because thou hast not kept that which Jehovah commanded thee." +So he said, and walked off; but Saul went with the army from Gilgal +to Gibeah. At Gibeah, the following verse (xiii. 16) goes on, +abode Saul and Jonathan, and their men, when the Philistines +encamped in Michmash. + +The change of place distinctly shows the whole passage about the +meeting of the king with the prophet at Gilgal (xiii. 7-15) to be +an insertion by a later hand. At the beginning of the narrative +Saul is at Gibeah (ver. 2, 3), and the Philistines seek him +there, and halt before the place because they meet with +resistance. All at once, at ver. 7, it is assumed without being +stated, that Saul had stayed at Gilgal since he was chosen king +till now, and had only now advanced from there against the +Philistines who were waiting for him before Gibeah. Verse 16, +however, gives us the impression that Saul had been posted at +Gibeah with his men for some time, when the Philistines took up +their camp over against them. Only in this way is justice done +to the contrasted participle of state (_sedentes_) and inchoative +perfect (_castrametati sunt_). And in the sequel the triumphant +continuation of the story, especially in chap. xiv., shows no +indication that the ominous scene in Gilgal weighed on the mind of +Saul, or of the people, or of the historian. + +According to xiii. 7-15, Saul is to wait seven days for Samuel at +Gilgal. Here there is a reference to x. 8, where the seer says +to the future king, "Thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and +I will come after thee there to offer sacrifices; seven days +shalt thou tarry till I come and show thee what thou shalt do." +This verse is condemned by other arguments than its connection +with xii. 7-15. Samuel's object at this point, according to x. +I-7, is to overcome the reluctance of the Benjamite who had gone +forth to seek his asses, to undertake the high calling announced +to him, and to inspire him with faith and confidence,--not to give +him unintelligible directions as to what he is to do first when he +has actually become king, and how long he has to wait for the +seer at Gilgal. The schoolmaster tone of x. 8 is particularly +out of place after the preceding words of ver. 7, that, when the +three signs have come to pass, Saul is to do what his hand finds, +because God is with him. This is surely giving him perfect +freedom of action, and for the reason that God's Spirit is working +in him, which "bloweth where it listeth," and suffers no +interference from any authority. /1/ +************************************* +1. It is also clear that the writer of x. 8, xiii. 7-15 cannot +possibly have found Samuel in Gilgal in chap. xi. before making +him go there in chap. xiii. We have already seen xi. 12-14 to +be a later addition; the name of Samuel must be interpolated +in xi.7, too. In fact in xi. 15 the people, i.e., the army, +acts quite of itself even in our present text. Hence it follows +also, that x. 8, xiii. 7-15 are older than vii. viii. x. 17 seq. +xii. +*************************************** + +This insertion is based on an older account of the breach between +Samuel and Saul in 1Samuel xv. Here also the matter of dispute is +a sacrifice, and Gilgal is the scene; and this alone serves to +explain how Gilgal is adhered to in xiii. 7-15 in spite of all +impossibility, as being the right and necessary place for the +occurrence. Jehovah, by the mouth of Samuel, commands the king +to devote the Amalekites to destruction because of an act of +treachery they had committed against Israel in ancient times, +and to spare no living thing. Saul accordingly makes war on the +Amalekites and defeats them; but he does not carry out the +proscription entirely, as he spares the best of their cattle and +their king Agag, whom he takes prisoner. At Gilgal, where the +victory is celebrated before Jehovah, he is called to account for +this by Samuel, and states that he intended the booty for a +sacrifice to Jehovah. His statement, however, makes no +impression. "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to +hearken than the fat of rams: behold, rebellion is as the sin +of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. +Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, He also hath +rejected thee." +The king acknowledges his guilt, and tries to pacify Samuel; +but the latter turns from him in anger, and when Saul lays +hold of him, his mantle tears. +"Jehovah hath torn the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, +and given it to one better than thee; and the Truthful One of +Israel will not lie nor repent; for He is not a man, that He +should repent." +Yet at Saul's entreaty that he would at least not refuse +to honour him before the people, Samuel takes part in the +sacrifice, and even begins it by hewing Agag in pieces before +Jehovah. Then they part, never to see each other again; but +Samuel mourns for Saul, that Jehovah had repented of having made +him king over Israel. There is another narrative intimately +connected with this one in subject and treatment, thought and +expression, namely, that of the witch of Endor. When Saul, shortly +before the battle in which he fell, surveyed the hostile army, he +was seized with anxiety and terror. He inquired of Jehovah, but +received no answer, neither by dreams, nor by the ephod, nor by +prophets. In his extremity he was driven into the arms of a +black art which he had formerly persecuted and sought to +extirpate. By night and in disguise, with two companions, he +sought out a woman at Endor who practiced the raising of the dead, +and after reassuring her with regard to the mortal danger +connected with the practice of her art, he bade her call up +Samuel. She, on seeing the spirit ascending, at once perceives +that the man he had come up to converse with is the king himself; +she cries out loud, but allows herself to be reassured, and +describes the appearance of the dead person. Saul does not see +him, only hears him speak. +"Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? Jehovah doeth to +thee as He spake by me: He rends the kingdom out of thy hand, +and gives it to another, because thou obeyedst not the voice of +Jehovah, nor executedst His fierce wrath upon Amalek; to-morrow +shalt thou and thy sons be with me, and Jehovah also shall deliver +the host of Israel into the hands of the Philistines." +At these words Saul falls all his length on the ground. He had +eaten nothing all the day before and all night; he is with +difficulty induced to take some food: then he rises up with his +men to go and meet his fate (1 Samuel xxviii. 3-25). + +Comparing with this original the copy in xiii. 7-15, we are +struck, in the first place, with the placing of the rupture so +much earlier. Scarcely is Saul made king when he is deposed, on +the spot, at Gilgal. And for what reason? Samuel has fixed, in +a purely arbitrary fashion, the time he is to wait, and Saul waits, +and makes arrangements for departure only when the time has run out, +although the need is pressing; and for this he is rejected! It is +clear that Samuel has from the first felt towards him as a +legitimate prince feels to a usurper; he has arranged so as to +find an occasion to show unmistakably where they both stand. +Strictly speaking he did not find the occasion, Saul having +observed the appointed time; but the opinion is present, though +unexpressed, that the king was not entitled to sacrifice, either +before the expiry of the seven days or at any time: his sacrificing +is regarded as sacrilege. And thus the autonomous theocracy stands +all at once before our eyes, which no one thought of before Ezekiel. +We are reminded of the stories of Joash and Uzziah in the Chronicles. +The incidents in 1Samuel xv. xxviii. are similar, but the spirit +of the narrative is different and more antique. The rejection does +not come here with such mad haste, and we do not get the impression +that Samuel is glad of the opportunity to wash his hands of the +king. On the contrary, he honours him before the people, he +mourns that Jehovah has rejected him; and Saul, who never again +sees him alive, turns to him dead in the hour of his extremity, +and does not regard him as his implacable enemy. Again, in the +former case the king's offence is that he has too low an estimate +of the sacredness of sacrifice, and fails to regard the altar as +unapproachable to the laity: while in the latter case he is +reproached with attaching. to sacrifice far too high a value. In +the former case, in fine, the Deity and the representative of the +Deity act with absolute caprice, confront men stiffly with +commands of incredible smallness, and challenge them to opposition; +in the latter, the conduct of Samuel is not (supposing it to have +been the custom to devote enemies to destruction) unintelligible, +nor his demeanour devoid of natural spirit; he appeals not to an +irresponsible position, but to the manifest truth that obedience +is better than the fat of rams. + +Not that chapters xv. and xxviii. belong to the original growth of +the tradition. In the case of xxviii. 3-25 it is easy to show +the insertion: the thread of xxviii. 1, 2, coming from chapter +xxvii. is continued at xxix. 1. According to xxviii. 4 the +Philistines have advanced as far as Shunem in Jezreel; in xxix. 1 +they are only at Aphek in Sharon, and they do not go on to +Jezreel till xxix. 11. To prove an insertion in the case of +chap. xv. we might point to the fact that there is a direct +connection between xiv. 52 and xvi. 14; but this must be proved +somewhat circumstantially. Let it suffice, then, to say that in +the preceding narrative of Saul's history, the war with the +Amalekites appears in quite a different light (ix. 1-X. 16, xi. xiii. +xiv.; cf. also Numbers xxiv. 7). The occasion of it, according to +xiv. 48, lay in the needs of the time, and the object was the +very practical one of "saving Israel out of the hands of them +that spoiled them." There is nothing here to suggest that the +campaign was undertaken in consequence of a religious command, +to punish the Amalekites for an offence over which long ages had +passed, and information about which could only be gathered from +historical books dealing with the age of Moses. Both the +narratives, chap. xv. as well as chap. xxviii, are preludes of +events afterwards to happen. At chap. xvi. David appears upon +the scene; he is thenceforth the principal person of the story, +and thrusts Saul on one side. Chapter xv. is the prophetic +introduction to this change. The fact had been handed down that +Saul was chosen by Jehovah to be king. How was it possible that in +spite of this his rule had no continuance? Jehovah, who as a rule +does not change His mind, was mistaken in him; and Samuel, who +called the king, had now to his great sorrow to pronounce the +sentence of rejection against him. The occasion on which he does +this is evidently historical, namely, the festival of victory +at Gilgal, at which the captured leader of the Amalekites was +offered up as the principal victim. The sacrifice of Agag being +quite repugnant to later custom, it was sought to account for it +by saying that Saul spared the king, but Jehovah required his +death, and caused him to be hewn in pieces at the altar by +Samuel. The rest could easily be spun out of this; it is +superfluous to discuss how. Chapter xxviii., again, is related to +chap. xv. as the second step to the first. No proof is wanted to +show that this is the prophetic shadow cast before the fall of +Saul in his last fight with the Philistines. His turning to the +witch to call up to him the departed Samuel suggests in the most +powerful way his condition of God-forsakenness since Samuel +turned away from him. And, to conclude-the general colouring of +the hostile relation between Saul and Samuel is borrowed from the +actual relations which must have come to subsist between the +prophets and the kings, particularly in the kingdom of Samaria (I +Kings xiv. 7). In their treatment of this relation our +narratives manifestly take up the prophetic position; and the +doctrinal ideas of which they are made the vehicles clearly +show them to be prophetic conceptions. + +VII.II.4. David is the first hero of Judah whom we meet with; +and he at once throws all others into the shade. His acts are +narrated to us in two detailed and connected works which are +mutually complementary. The first of these is contained in 1Samuel +xiv. 52-2 Sam viii 18, and in it we are circumstantially informed +how David rose to the throne. There follows his principal achievement +as king, the humiliation of the Philistines and the foundation of +Jerusalem, the work concluding with a short notice of other +remarkable circumstances. This narrative is preserved to us +complete, only not in the earliest form, but with many +interruptions and alterations. The second work, 2Samuel ix.-2Kings +ii. is mutilated at its commencement, but otherwise almost +completely intact, if 2Samuel xxi.-xxiv. be removed. It tells +chiefly of the occurrences at the court of Jerusalem in the later +years of the king, and carefully traces the steps by which +Solomon, whose birth, with its attendant circumstances, is +narrated at the outset, reached the throne over the heads of his +brothers Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah, who stood before him. Both +works are marked by an essentially historical character. The +treatment is much more detailed, while not nearly so poetical as +in the history of Saul (1Samuel ix. seq.). There are no +exaggerations, such as xiv. 46 seq. The second is the better +work of the two, and frequently affords us a glance into the very +heart of events, showing us the natural occasions and human motives +which gave rise to the different actions. The point of view is, +however, the narrow one of Jerusalem; for example, the real +reasons of the revolt of the men of Judah under Absalom are +scarcely even hinted at. The leading sentiment of the writer, +there can be no doubt, is enthusiasm for David, but his weaknesses +are not concealed; the relations prevailing at his court, far from +edifying as they are, are faithfully reported, and the palace +intrigue which placed Solomon upon the throne is narrated with a +naivete which is almost malicious. The first work (1Samuel xvi.- +2Samuel viii.) gives a less circumstantial narrative, but follows +the thread of events not less conscientiously, and is based on +information little inferior to that of the second. The author's +partisanship is more noticeable, as he follows the style of a +biographer, and makes David the hero of the history from his very +first appearance, although king Saul is the ruling and motive power +in it. But Judaistic leanings were unavoidable, and they have +not gone so far as to transform the facts, nor indeed operated +in a different way or to a greater degree here than local +interest in the tribal hero, which is always the earliest motive +for narration, has done in other cases. This praise applies to +1Samuel xvi. seq., however, only so far as its original form goes. +It is different with the insertions, here very numerous, which +have crept into the older connection, or replaced a genuine piece +of the old story with a newer edition of it. In these the +tendency to idealise the founder of the dynasty of Judah has +worked creatively, and here we find rich materials for the history +of the tradition, in the rude style in which alone it is possible +as yet to construct that history. The beginning of the first work +especially is overgrown with later legendary formations. + +David, known as a man of courage and prudence, and of a skilful +tongue, and recommended, moreover, by his skill on the harp, came +to the king's court and became his armour-bearer (xvi. 14-23). +He so approved himself in the war with the Philistines that Saul +advanced him step after step, and gave him his daughter in +marriage (xviii. 6 seq.). But the success and fame of the man of +Judah filled Saul with jealousy, and in one of his fits of frenzy +(to which x. 10 also shows him to have been subject) he threw his +javelin at David, who was seeking to drive away the evil spirit +by his playing (xix. 8-10). David agreed with Jonathan that it +was advisable for him to absent himself, but this only confirmed +the king's suspicions, which prompted him to destroy the priests +of Nob, because their head had provided David with food and +consulted the oracle for him (xxi 2-7, xxii. 6-23). The fugitive +himself Saul failed to lay hands on; he gathered round him his +own family and other desperate men, and became their leader in +the wilderness of Judah (xxii. 1-5, xxiii. 1-13, xxv. 2 seq.). +To escape the repeated persecutions of Saul, he at length passed +over to the country of the Philistines, and received the town of +Ziklag in Judah as a fief from the hands of the prince Achish +(xxvii. 1 seq.). + +Such is the beginning of the history of David according to the +simple thread of the old narrative. The first accretion we +notice is the legend of the encounter of the shepherd boy with +Goliath (xvii. 1-xviii. 5), which is involved in contradiction +both with what goes before and with what follows it. According to +xvi. 14-23, David, when he first came in contact with Saul, was no +raw lad, ignorant of the arts of war, but "a mighty valiant man, +skilful in speech, and of a goodly presence;" and according to +xviii. 6 the women sang at the victorious return of the army, +"Saul has slain his thousands of the Philistines, and David his +tens of thousands," so that the latter was the leader of Israel +beside the king, and a proved and well-known man. Evidently +something of a different nature must originally have stood +between xvi. 23 and xviii. 6. Now the fate of the story of +Goliath (xvii. 1-xviii. 5) involves that of the story of the +anointing of David (xvi. 1-13), which is dependent on it +(xvi. 12, xvii. 42); and, as we have already decided that chapter +xv. is a secondary production, xiv. 52 joins on at once to xvi. 14. +In xviii. 6 seq., where we are told of the origin of Saul's +jealousy, several of the worst additions and interruptions are +wanting in the LXX, especially the first throwing of the javelin +(xviii. 9-11) and the betrothal to Merab (xviii. 17-19). +The insertions are most varied and confusing in the account of +the outbreak of the hostility of Saul and of David's flight +(chapters xix. xx). Chapter xix. 1-7, a pointless and artificial +passage, betrays its later origin by its acquaintance with chapter +xvii.; xviii. 29a (LXX) is continued at xix. 8. After Saul's +spear-cast David takes flight for the first time, but at verse 11 +he is still at home, and makes his escape the second time with the +aid of feminine artifice, going to Samuel at Ramah, but to appear +in chap. xx. at Gibeah as before. The king remarks his absence +from table; Jonathan assures him of his father's favour, which, +however, David doubts, though he has no distinct evidence to the +contrary. When quite certain of the deadly hatred of the king, +David takes flight in earnest; in chapter xxi. seq. we find him +at Nob on his way to Judah, but at xxi. 10 he goes away afresh +from the face of Saul. It is evident that in reality and in the +original narrative the flight took place only once, and that it +must from the first have been directed to the place of refuge, +i.e., to Judah. This is enough to dispose of xix. 11-24: the +twentieth chapter is impossible in the connection, at least in +its present form, and in chapter xxi. verses 8-10 and 11-16 must +be left out. In the section which deals with the freebooter life +of David, chaps. xxiii-xxvii., considerable pieces have been added; +xxvii. 7-12 of course is one; but also the encounters of David with +his pursuers. There are two versions: the one, xxvi. 1-25, is +placed before chapter xxvii. on account of verse 19; the other, +xxiii. 14-xxiv. 22, is placed before chapter xxv. to avoid too near +a contact. There is a good deal of verbal coincidence between the +two, and we are entitled to regard the shorter and more pointed +version (chapter xxvi.) as the basis. But the sequence (xxvi. 25, +xxvii. 1) shows beyond a doubt that chapter xxvi. does not belong +to the original tradition. The process of inserting the additions +naturally was not completed without all sorts of editorial changes +in the older materials, e.g., xvi. 14. + +Though proceeding from the same root, these offshoots are by no +means of the same nature, nor do they all belong to the same +stage of the process. Some of them are popular legends and +unconscious fictions. Of this nature is the story of Michal, who +takes the part of her husband against her father, lets him down in +the evening with a rope through the window, detains the spies for a +time by saying that David is sick, and then shows them the +household god which she has arranged on the bed and covered with +the counterpane (xix. 11-17). The scenes in which Saul and David +meet are of a somewhat different colour, yet we notice that the +conviction that the latter is the king of the future does not +interfere with the recognition of the former as the king _de facto_ +and the anointed of Jehovah; Saul too appears not wicked, but +blinded. The secondary version (xxiii. 14 seq.) contains (not +to speak of the distinctly later insertion between verse 15 and +19), in addition to the touching features of the story, a +good-natured jest, telling how the two played hide-and-seek round a +hill, which took its name from the circumstance. These stories +present certain marks which serve to fix their date in the history +of the religion: one is, that the image in David's house is +spoken of quite simply; another, the expression in xxvi. 19, +"If Jehovah have stirred thee up against me, let Him accept an +offering, but if it be men, cursed be they before Jehovah, +because they have driven me out this day from the fellowship in +the land of Jehovah, and obliged me to serve other gods." +It is perhaps not by mere chance that this speech is wanting in +the parallel version, and that there is added in place of it a +formal act of recognition which Saul pays at the end to his +destined successor. As for the story of Goliath, it is also quite +artless, but its religious colouring is much more marked. The +speech with which David goes to meet the giant is characteristic on +this side (xvii. 4 seq.): +"Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear, but I come unto thee +in the name of Jehovah of hosts, whom thou hast defied. This day will +He deliver thee into mine hand, that all the earth may know that there +is a God in Israel, and that this assembly (hqhl = Israel) may know that +Jehovah saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is His." +This approaches to the religious language of the post-Deuteronomic +time. According to 2Samuel xxi. 19, Goliath of Gath, whose +spear-shaft was as thick as a weaver's beam, /1/ fought in the + +******************************************** +1. This expression occurs in I Samuel xvii., and shows this legend +to be dependent on 2Samuel xxi. xxiii., a collection of anecdotes +about heroes from the Philistine wars of David in the genuine short +popular style. Cf., on 1Chronicles xii., supra, p. 173. +******************************************** + +wars, not in Saul's time, but in that of his successor, and was +killed, not by a shepherd boy but by a warrior of Bethlehem +named Elhanan. + +The theme of David and Jonathan has no doubt a historical basis, +but for us it is found only in second-hand versions. The story +of the farewell (chapter xx.) must be placed in this category. +Yet it appears to point back to an earlier basis, and the earlier +story may very possibly have belonged to the connection of the +original work. For the shooting of the arrow could only have a +meaning if it was impossible for the two friends to have an +interview. But as the story goes, they come together and speak +out freely what they have in their hearts, and so the dumb +signal is not only superfluous, but unintelligible and +meaningless. But if the most characteristic trait of the whole +story does not fit into it as it now stands, that is just saying +that the story has not come down to us in its true form. +Originally Jonathan only discharged the arrow, and called to his +boy where it lay; and David, hid in the neighbourhood of the +shooting range, heard in the call to the boy the preconcerted +signal. In calling that the arrow was nearer him or beyond him, +Jonathan was apparently telling the boy, but in reality telling +his friend, to come towards him or go farther away from him. The +latter was the case, and if so, the friends could not enter into +conversation; the tearful farewell then disappears, and the +sentimental speeches spoken before it in the same style, in which +Jonathan virtually admits that his father is right, and yet +decidedly espouses David's cause, disregarding the fact that David +will deprive him of his inheritance. /2/ + +********************************************* +2. Only in one direction does he set limits to his self-denial: +he makes the future king solemnly promise to spare his family. +Here manifests itself an interest belonging to the time of the +narrator. The oriental custom according to which the new ruler +extirpates the preceding dynasty, was not systematically carried +out by David, and a special exception was made in favour of a son +left by Jonathan. "All my father's house," says Meribaal (2Samuel +xix. 28), "were dead men before my lord the king yet thou didst set +me at thy table: what right have I therefore yet to complain unto +the king (even about injustice)?" Now this son of Jonathan was the +ancestor of a Jerusalem family which flourished till after the exile. +Older traits in 1Samuel xx. are the importance attached to the new +moon, the family sacrifice at Bethlehem, perhaps the stone )BN )CL +which appears to have implied something inconsistent with later +orthodoxy, the name being in two passages so singularly corrupted. +************************************************* + +Chapter xviii. 6 seq. manifests tendency in a bad sense, even +apart from the additions of the Masoretic text. Here Saul's +enmity against David is carried back to the very beginning of +their relations together, and even his friendship is represented +as dissembled hatred. All the honours with which the king covers +his armour-bearer are interpreted as practices to get rid of him. +He makes him his son-in-law in order to expose him to deadly +danger in his efforts to procure the hundred foreskins of the +Philistines which were the price of the daughter. The connection +cannot dispense with xviii. 6 seq, but at the same time it is +beyond doubt that the venomous way of interpreting the facts is a +mark of later revision. For Saul here practices his perfidies +with the cognisance of his servants, who must therefore have been +well aware of his disposition towards David; but the old narrator +proceeds on the opposite assumption, that his hatred appeared all +at once, and that David had been held by all up to that time to +be one of the king's favourite servants: cf. xxi. 2-xxii. 14 +seq., not to speak of chapter xx. And this alone agrees with the +nature of Saul as it is everywhere described to us. + +It is a characteristic circumstance that the corruption of the +tradition is greatest in those narratives in which Samuel enters +into the history of David. There are two insertions of this +kind. According to xix. 18-24 David flees to the old man at +Ramah, where the school of the prophets is; Saul sends messengers +to take him, but these, when they come near Samuel and see him in +command of a troop of ecstatic enthusiasts, are seized by the +frenzy like the rest. The second set of messengers whom Saul +sends, and the third, fare no better; and Saul has at last to +come himself. But he also is drawn into the vortex, tears off his +clothes and dances before Samuel and David, the only +self-possessed spectators of the bacchantic company, till he falls +down; and he lies naked as he is a whole day and a whole night +upon the ground--whence the proverb, "Is Saul also among the +prophets?" But that David when he fled, fled in earnest and went +in the direction of Judah, instead of amusing himself by going +first towards the north, is perfectly evident, as much so as that +it is a serious abuse of the spirit of prophecy to make it serve +ends which are foreign to its nature, and turn it into a mere +instrument for the personal safety of David, who had no need +whatever to wait for Saul at Ramah to play him a trick +there. The narrative, which is unknown to the author of xv. 35, +arose out of the proverb which is quoted in it, but this receives +elsewhere (x. 12) a much more worthy interpretation. We can +scarcely avoid the suspicion that what we have before us here is +a pious caricature; the point can be nothing but Samuel's and +David's enjoyment of the disgrace of the naked king. For the +general history of the tradition the most interesting +circumstance is that Samuel has here become the head of a school +of prophets and the leader of their exercises. In the original +view of the matter (chaps. ix. x.) he appears alone and +independent, and has nothing to do with the companies of the +ecstatics, the Nebiim. He is a _Roeh_ or seer, not a _Nabi_ or +prophet. True, it is asserted in the gloss, ix. 9, that the two +words mean the same thing, that what is now called _Nabi_ was +formerly called _Roeh_. But that is scarcely quite correct. The +author of ix. x. knows the name _Nabi_ very well too, but he +never applies it to Samuel; he only uses it, in the plural, of +the troops of Jehovah--intoxicated dervishes. He gives it quite +a different meaning from _Roeh_, and also quite a different meaning +from that in which Isaiah and Jeremiah use the word _Nabi_. /1/ + +***************************************** +1 As the words are used in 1Samuel i.Y., Isaiah and Jeremiah would +rather be called Roeh; and this is the justification of the +gloss, ix. 9. +*************************************** +We cannot doubt that these distinctions rest on a historical basis, +and only gradually melted away in later times: so that Samuel +the seer need not be degraded into one of the flagellants. + +David's flight to Samuel presupposes some previous relation to +him, and xix. 18 seq. seems to point back to xvi. 1-13. In +this piece David's career begins with his being anointed king in +Saul's place at Jehovah's command, when a mere shepherd boy, who +was not even counted in the family he belonged to. But in the +sequel no one knows anything about this. Even in the story of +Goliath (which in other respects harmonizes better with xvi. 1-13 +than any other piece) the older brothers, here three, not seven, +know nothing of the anointing of the youngest, although they were +present and heard their own claims discussed (xvii. 28). In the +stories of David's persecution also, chapter xxiv. xxvi., Saul +alone is the sacred person, the anointed of Jehovah, not David. +A belief that David is chosen for high things by God is quite a +different matter from an anointing which has already taken place +in fact. And if consequent and antecedent be inseparable, +we must remember how, according to xv. 35, Samuel not only +withdraws himself from Saul till his death, but also feels grieved +for him till his death. It is a harsh transition from xv. 35: +"Samuel came no more to see Saul till the day of his death, +because he mourned over him," to xvi. 1: +"and Jehovah spake to him, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, +seeing I have rejected him?" +But it appears clearly that the appointment of the successor +was connected with, and a consequence of, the deposition of the +predecessor. + +The anointing of David by Samuel is at the same time the set-off +to the anointing of Saul by Samuel. This is clearly seen on +comparing x. 6, xi. 6, "and the Spirit of God leapt upon Saul," +with xvi. 13, 14, "and the Spirit of Jehovah leapt upon David, +and it departed from Saul." In the former case the inspiration is +a momentary foaming over, in the latter (the leaping +notwithstanding) it is a permanent property; and this difference +alone leaves no doubt as to where the original is to be looked +for, and where the imitation. Saul alone, according to the old +tradition, was made king in a divine, i.e. an overpowering and +ideal manner: David was made king in a tedious human way, and +after many intermediate stages. Of Saul alone was it originally +told that the sudden outbreak of the spirit with which he, +unelected as he was, summoned the levy of Israel, placed himself +at its head, defeated the Ammonites, and became king, was quietly +prepared by an old seer, who pointed out to him his great +calling, and filled him with confidence in himself by secretly +anointing him in the name of Jehovah. All that was known of David +was how by his own energy he raised himself from a soldier to be +the leader of a band, from that to be the vassal prince, under the +Philistines, of Ziklag and Judah, and from a vassal prince to be +the independent and powerful king of Israel. He also was anointed, +not, however, beforehand by God, but after his elevation, by the +elders of Judah and Israel. But this human origin and this +inferiority in point of divine consecration to a predecessor +whose kingdom, as it turned out, Jehovah had not made to stand, +was found by a later age to be unworthy of him: he must at least +have received his anointing from Samuel as well as Saul. And this +was accordingly made good by the legend (xvi. 1-13). It is a +step further on this downward path that in the Judaistic version +(x. 17 seq.) all mention is omitted of the anointing of Saul. + +We return to Samuel. The Books of Samuel take their name from +him, and he is a figure of great importance, if not for the history +itself, yet for the history of the tradition, the progress of +which may be measured by the change of view about his person. +In the views taken about him we may distinguish four stages. +Originally (ix. 1-x. 16) he is simply a seer, but at the same +time a patriotic Israelite, who feels deeply the need of his +country, and uses his authority as seer to suggest to the ear and +to the mind of one whom he recognises as fit for the purpose, his +destination to be Israel's deliverer and leader. This relation +between seer and warrior must be held fast and regarded as +historical if Samuel is to mean anything at all. Similar instances +are those of Deborah and Barak in earlier times, and later, that +of Elisha and Hazael, and still more, that of Elisha and Jehu. +Samuel's greatness consists in this, that he rouses to activity +the man who comes after him, and is greater than he: after +kindling the light which now burns in its full brightness, he +himself disappears. But his meteoric appearance and disappearance +excited wonder, and this in early times produced a story of his +youth, in which, while still a boy, he predicts the ruin of +pre-monarchical Israel (1Samuel i.-iii.). After he has done this, +darkness closes completely around him. Even in chapter iv. he +has completely disappeared, and when we meet him again he is an +old man. On the other side the circumstance that we hear nothing +more of the seer after his meeting with Saul, caused it to be +believed that a rupture very soon took place between the two. + +This belief we meet with at the second stage of the tradition which +is represented by the prophetical narratives recorded in chaps. +xvi. and xxviii. It arose out of the inconsistency involved in +the fact that Jehovah did not afterwards confirm in his reign the +man whom He had chosen to be king, but overthrew his dynasty. +Thus it becomes necessary that Samuel, who anointed Saul, should +afterwards sorrowfully reject him. Even here he appears no longer +as the simple seer, but as a prophet in the style of Elijah and +Elisha who regards the Lord's anointed as his own handiwork, and +lays on him despotic commands (xv. 1), though according to x. 7 +he had expressly left him to be guided by his own inspiration. + +The transition from the second to the third stage is easy. Here +Samuel, after withdrawing the unction from Saul, at once transfers +it to David, and sets him up against his rejected predecessor as +being now de jure king by the grace of God. The respect with +v.hich he is regarded has meanwhile increased still further; +when he comes to Bethlehem the elders tremble at his approach +(xvi. 4 seq.); and in xix. 18 seq. he has a magical power over men. +Up to this stage, however, he has always been regarded as +intellectually the author of the monarchy. It is reserved for the +last (exilian or post-exilian) stage of the development of the +tradition to place him in the opposite position of one who resists +to the uttermost the desire of the people to have a king. Here +pre-monarchical Israel is advanced to a theocracy, and Samuel is +the head of the theocracy, which accounts for the feelings aroused +in him by their demand. + +The modern judgment has been prejudiced in Saul's favour by +Samuel's curse, and to David's disadvantage by Samuel's blessing; +the picture of the one has not suffered from the blackening so +much as that of the other from the glorification. /1/ + +************************************* +1. The efforts of later writers to glorify David are at their worst +in their account of his last testament (1Kings ii. 1-12). Even +the language betrays this piece as a post-Deuteronomic insertion +(v. 2-4); the contents are borrowed from the succeeding narrative. +But in the narrative Solomon's conduct towards Adonijah, Abiathar, +Joab, and Shimei is not dictated by any means by the testament, +but by other considerations; and it is the declared object of the +narrator to show how Solomon's throne was established by the +removal of the elements of danger. Nor do the acute calculations +of the weak old king agree very well with the general impression +given of him at this time by 1Kings i. ii. +**************************************** + +Some critics, who are unencumbered either by prejudice or by +knowledge of the subject, regard Saul as the antagonist and David +as the creature of the clerical lust of rule, of which they see +the embodiment in Samuel. But this view gives Samuel a powerful +position over against the king such as he cannot have possessed +unless he had broad ground under his feet and an influence well and +extensively organised. Did he find support in the Nebiim? These +were only then rising into view out of an irregular enthusiasm +which was not yet confined to any definite circle or school; and +besides, the old tradition speaks of a close connection between +them and the king, but not between them and the seer. The belief +that the latter was the founder and president of their guild is +based on the worthless anachronistic anecdote, 1Samuel xix. 18 +seq. Or was Samuel in conspiracy with the priests against Saul? +This is inferred from 1Samuel xxi.-xxii. where Abimelech of Nob +provides David with bread on his wanderings, and expiates this +offence with his own death and that of the whole race of Eli. But +in the first place these priests have no connection with Samuel. +In the second place there is nothing to make it probable that they +had an understanding with David, or were acquainted with his +ambitious plans if he had then begun to cherish them. In the third +place, it is positively certain that they represented no distinct +power in the state as against the king, but on the contrary were +entirely the creatures of his smile or frown; on the occurrence +of a faint suspicion they were put to death to a man without a dog +barking to remonstrate. The liberal view we are discussing of +Samuel's relation to Saul and David is based on the erroneous +assumption that Samuel had the hierocracy to rest on in his acts +of opposition to the monarchy. But the student who carries back the +hierocracy to these early times has still to learn the very +elements of what is necessary to a true historical appreciation of +Hebrew antiquity. + +VI.III. + +It is in the Book of Kings that the last revision works most +unrestrictedly. Here also chronological and religious elements +combine to the building up of the framework, and we begin with +examining the chronological system. + +From the exodus from Egypt to the beginning of the building of +the temple was a period of 430 years; and from the latter to the +destruction of Jerusalem, a period, according to the numbers of +the kings of Judah, of 430 years, or reckoning the exile, of 480 +years, as before. In Chronicles, the succession from Azariah ben +Ahimaaz, who was, according to the correct reading, the first to +officiate in the temple of Solomon, to Jozadak, who was carried +away in the captivity, consists of eleven high priests; thus, +reckoning the exile, we have again twelve generations of 40 years +each. The detailed figures which compose the total are here more +complicated, which is no doubt partly due to the fact that some +of them are dates which the reviser found given. Yet in this +instance also the number 40 is the basis of calculation, as we see +in the reigns of the kings of Judah. From the division of the +kingdom to the destruction of Samaria in the 6th year of Hezekiah, +the numbers are as follows: Rehoboam and Abijam, 20; Asa, 41; +Jehoshaphat, Joram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, 40; Joash, 40; Amaziah and +Uzziah, 81; Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, 38. From the destruction of +Samaria to the last date in Kings (2Kings xxv. 27), Hezekiah, +Manasseh, Amon, have 80; Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, +79 1/4. Let him believe who can that it is a mere chance that the +figures 41 + 81 + 38 make up exactly 40 + 80 + 40. + +The series of the kings of Israel is in point of chronology +dependent on the series of Judah. According to the numbers of the +latter, 393 years elapsed from the division of the kingdom to the +Babylonian captivity; and if we assume with Ezekiel (iv. 4) that +Samaria fell 150 years earlier than Judah, 243 years remain for +the duration of the northern kingdom. The figures given amount in +fact to 242 years. These 150 Israelite years, from the +destruction of Samaria to the destruction of Jerusalem, exceed, it +is true, by 17 the sum of the parallel years of Judah; and the +Israelite years from 1 Jeroboam to 9 Hosea fall short of the years +in Judah from 1 Rehoboam to 6 Hezekiah by about the same number. +This shows that no effort was made at first to synchronise the +individual reigns in the two series. The 242 years of the +northern kingdom are divided, by the epoch of 1 Jehu, into 98 and +144. If we take them at 240, the half of 480, the 98 must be +changed into 96, which then agree with the contemporary 96 Jewish +years. The deduction must be made at the reign of Baasha. Then +we get the following play of figures: Jeroboam 22, Nadab 2, +Baasha 22, Elah 2, Omri 12, Ahab 22, Ahaziah 2, Joram 12. That is +to say, the eight kings have together 96 years, the first four and +the last four 48 each. Two have the average number 12; the other +6 consists of three pairs of father and son; and the twice 12 +years belonging to each pair are divided so that the father gets +12 + 10, and the son 12 - 10, obviously because the father was +considered much more important than the son. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. Numbers of the kings of Judah from Solomon : 37+ 17+ 3 + 41 + 25 ++ 8 + 1 + 6 + 40 + 29 + 52 + 16 + 29 + 55 + 2 + 31 + 11 + 11=430 years. +Jehoahaz and Jechoiachin are not counted; if they are included and a +year allowed for them, we must say 36 for Solomon. Numbers of the +kings of Israel from 1 Jeroboam: 22 + 2 + 24 +2+ 12 + 22 + 2+ 12 + 28 + +17 + 16 + 41 + 1 + 10 + 2 + 20 + 9. The artificial relations of the +numbers, as explained above, were communicated to me by Ernst Krey. +On the point that the synchronisms do not belong to the original +arrangement, see Jahrb. fur Deutsche Theol., 1875, p. 607 seq. +The correct view of Ezekiel iv. was first published by Bernhard Duhm +(Theol. dir Proph., p. 253). The number 390, given in the Massoretic +text in verse 5 for the duration of the captivity of the northern +Israelites, is impossible. For Ezekiel cannot mean that they have +been 350 years in exile already, and on the other hand he cannot +reckon the remaining period of their punishment at more than 40 years, +because 40 years is his calculation of the period of exile of +Judah, and the restitution of Israel and that of Judah are in his +view to take place at the same time; and indeed that of Egypt as well, +obviously because brought about by the same cause (xxix. 1 1-16), +the fall of the Chaldeans, which may be expected to take place in +40 years. The number 390 has got into verse 5 by mistake from verse 9, +where it is used of a quite different subject, not the years of the +exile, but the days of the last siege of Jerusalem. The gloss verse +13 rests on a similar confusion. The Septuagint correctly gives +for the Israelite exile the number of 150 years, or 190, according +as the last 40 years in which their punishment continued, along +with that of Judah, were included or omitted. It may be remarked +that 390 = 240 + 150. Compare further Robertson Smith, in the +Journal of Philologie, vol x., p. 209-213. +********************************************** + +The great period thus marked off and artificially divided into +subperiods, is surveyed and appraised at every important epoch in +sermon-like discourses. These are much more frequent in Kings +than in Judges and Samuel. It makes no difference whether the +writer speaks in his own person, or by the mouth of another; in +reviews of the past he speaks himself, 2Kings xvii.; in +anticipations of the future he makes another speak (1Kings viii. +ix.). A few examples must be cited to show what we mean. + +The great epoch of the work is the building of the temple. On this +occasion Solomon makes a great dedicatory oration, in which he +entreats Jehovah to hear from heaven the prayer of those who shall +seek Him in this place. He concludes as follows: +"If they sin against Thee (for there is no man that sinneth not) +and Thou be angry with them and deliver them to be carried away +captive into the land of the enemy, far or near, if they then +bethink themselves and make supplication to Thee, saying, We have +sinned and have done perversely and are guilty, and so return unto +Thee with all their heart and all their soul in the land of the +enemies which led them away captive, and pray unto Thee toward +their land which Thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which +Thou hast chosen, and the house which Thou hast built for Thy name, +then hear Thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and +maintain their cause, and forgive thy people their +unfaithfulness, and give them compassion before them that carried +them away captive, that they may have compassion upon them. For +they be Thy people and Thine inheritance, which Thou broughtest +forth out of Egypt from the midst of the furnace of iron, and +didst separate them to Thyself from among all the people of the +earth, as Thou spakest by Moses thy servant." +What Jehovah answered to this we learn in chapter ix. +"I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication which thou hast made +before me; I have hallowed this house, to put my name there for ever, +and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. If thou wilt +walk before me, as did David thy father, in integrity of heart +and in uprightness, to do all that I have commanded thee, and wilt +keep my statutes and my judgments, I will establish the throne of +thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, +saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. +But if YE or YOUR CHILDREN turn away from me, and will not keep +my statutes and my judgments which I have set before you, but +worship other gods, then will I cut off Israel out of the land +which I have given them, and this house which I have hallowed for +my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel shall be a +proverb and a byword among all people, and this house a ruin. +And when they ask: Why hath Jehovah done thus to this land and +to this house? the answer shall be: Because they forsook Jehovah +their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of +Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped +them and served them." + +The division of the kingdom is also a very marked era in the +history. It is introduced by a prophecy of Abijah to the first +Jeroboam. +"Behold, I rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will +give ten tribes to thee; but he shall have one tribe for my servant +David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen; +because he has forsaken me, and worshipped Astarte of Sidon, and +Chemosh of Moab, and Milcom of Ammon, and has not walked in my ways +to do that which is right in my eyes, my statutes, and my judgments, +like David his father. And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto +all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do what is +right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments as David +my servant did, that I will be with thee and build thee a sure house +as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee. And I will +for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever." + +We pass over a series of prophecies in a similar strain which occur +regularly at the changes of dynasty in the northern kingdom, and +cite only the concluding words which accompany the fall of the +kingdom of the ten tribes (2Kings xvii.). This fall came about +"because the children of Israel sinned against Jehovah their God, +which brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and feared other +gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen whom they had +driven out, and in the innovations of the kings of Israel; and +because the children of Israel imputed to Jehovah their God things +which are not so, and built them high places in all their cities, +from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city; and they set up +pillars and Asheras on every high hill and under every green tree, +and there they sacrificed in all the high places, as did the people +whom Jehovah had driven out before them: and wrought wicked things +to provoke Jehovah to anger, and served the abominations which +Jehovah had forbidden. Yet Jehovah testified to them by all the +prophets and seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep +my commandments and my statutes according to all the torah which +I commanded your fathers, and which I sent unto you by my servants +the prophets; but they would not hear, but hardened their necks +like their fathers, that they did not believe in Jehovah their +God; and they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He +made with their fathers, and His testimonies with which He warned +them, and they followed vanity and became vain, and went after +the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom Jehovah +had charged them that they should not do like them. And they +left all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them +molten images and an Asherah, and worshipped the whole host of +heaven, and served Baal; and they caused their children to pass +through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold +themselves to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke Him to +anger. And Jehovah was very wroth with Israel, and removed them +out of His sight; there was none left but the men of Judah only. +But they of Judah also kept not the commandment of their God, but +walked in the manner of Israel: and Jehovah rejected the whole +race of Israel, and humbled them, and delivered them unto the hand +of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight." +No special concluding discourse is given for Judah, but that for +Israel applies to Judah as well. This we see both directly from +the last words of the passage cited, and from the circumstance +that two very characteristic abominations in the foregoing catalogue, +the worship of the host of heaven and the sacrifice of children, +were introduced, according to the testimony of the prophets, which +alone can determine the point, not in the eighth but only in the +seventh century, under Manasseh, and accordingly are not +chargeable on Israel, but only on Judah. + +The water accumulates, so to speak, at these gathering places of +the more important historical epochs: but from these reservoirs +it finds its way in smaller channels on all sides. /1/ The first + +************************************ +1. Such additions as MCWT YHWH, 1Kings xviii. 18 [LXX has +correctly YHWH, without MCWT] (ZBW BRYTK [LXX correctly (ZBW +without BRYTK] and more extensive ones, as 1Kings xviii. 31, 32a; +2Samuel vii. 2b [)#R NQR) WGW''] <error! read vi. 2b> ) I do not +reckon because they proceed from various periods, and are mostly +younger than the Deuteronomic revision, and belong rather to textual +than to literary criticism. It is certainly in itself very important +to detect and remove these re-touchings. The whole old tradition +is covered with them. +***************************************** + +question asked with regard to each ruler is, what position he took +up to the pure religion--whether he did what was right or what was +evil in the sight of Jehovah. Even in the case of those who only +reigned a week, this question receives an answer. In general it +has to be stated that they did evil. All except David and Hezekiah +and Josiah, were defective, says Jesus Sirach (xlix. 4),--not quite +accurately perhaps, but yet truly in so far as there is always some +objection even to the good kings. But the sin here reproved is no +longer, at least not principally, the worship of strange gods; it +is the perverted worship of Jehovah. A more special standard, and +therefore a stricter one, is now employed, and we know the reason +of this: the temple having once been built in the place which Jehovah +has chosen for Himself, the kindly naturalness hitherto belonging to +His worship comes to an end (Deuteronomy xii. 8): and in particular +the prohibition of the bamoth comes into force (1Kings iii. 2). +That these continued to exist is the special sin of the period, +a sin widespread and persistent. It is aggravated by the fact, +that with the bamoth all kinds of unlawful abuses crept into the +worship of Jehovah, Maccebas and Asheras, evergreen trees, and +prostitutes of both sexes. Israel, continually compared with Judah +in the matter, is further charged with a second great sin, the sin +of Jeroboam, i.e., the golden calves at Bethel and at Dan. The +religious estimate combines with the chronological facts to form +that scheme in which every single reign of the kings of Israel +and Judah is uniformly framed. Sometimes the frame is well filled +in with interesting matter, but in not a few cases historical matter +is almost entirely absent. The scheme appears most nakedly in such +chapters as 1Kings xv. xvi., 2Kings xiii. xiv. xv. + +That this redaction of our book is essentially uniform with that +of the two historical books which precede it, requires no proof. +Only it has here a warmer and more lively tone, and a much +closer relation to the facts. In consequence of this we find it +much easier to determine the point of view from which it proceeds. +The mere fact that the narrative extends to the destruction of +Jerusalem, nay, to the death of the captive king Jehoiachin, shows +that we must place the date of the work not earlier than the +Babylonian exile, and, indeed, the second part of the exile. +The chronology reckons the exile in the period of 480 years, giving +50 years to it; and this would bring us still lower down; but it +is open to us to assume that this is a later modification, which +has not further affected the general character of the work. /1/ + +************************************** +1. Krey surmises that the last date mentioned, the liberation from +prison of, Jehoiachin in the 37th year after his accession to the +throne, was originally intended to form the lower limit of the +chronology, especially as the periods of 40 years under which, as +we have seen, the Jewish figures naturally fall, come exactly to +this date. But if this be the case, we cannot regard the 4th or +5th year of Solomon as the era started from, for then there is no +room for the 36 or 37 remaining years of Solomon's reign. But such +a starting-point is entirely unnatural; Solomon's 40 years +cannot be torn up in this way: if we are to make a division at +all in that period, it must be at the disruption of the monarchy, +the natural point of departure for the series of kings of Israel +and of Judah. It deserves remark, that the 37 years of Jehoiachin, +at the close of the older mode of calculation, which perhaps only +tried to bring out generations of 40 years, but also perhaps a +period of 500 years from David (40+40+20+ 41+40+40+81 + 38+ 80 + 79 +1/4), answer to the 37 years of Solomon at the beginning of the +method now carried through. That a process of alteration and +improvement of the chronology was busily carried on in later +times, we see from the added svnchronisms of the kings of Israel +and Judah, from the uncertain statements in the Book of Judges, +some of them parallel with each other (e.g., the interregna and +minor judges, and the threefold counting of the time of the +Philistines) and even from the variants of the LXX. +*************************************************** + +The writer looks back on the time of the kings as a period past +and closed, on which judgment has already been declared. Even at +the consecration of the temple the thought of its destruction is +not to be restrained; and throughout the book the ruin of the nation +and its two kingdoms is present to the writer's mind. This is the +light in which the work is to be read; it shows why the catastrophe +was unavoidable. It was so because of unfaithfulness to Jehovah, +because of the utterly perverted tendency obstinately followed +by the people in spite of the Torah of Jehovah and His prophets. +The narrative becomes, as it were, a great confession--of sins of +the exiled nation looking back on its history. Not only the +existing generation, but the whole previous historical development +is condemned--a fashion which we meet with first in Jeremiah (ii. +1 seq., iv. 3), who was actually confronted with the question as +to the cause of the calamity. /2/ + +************************************** +1. The fall of Samaria suggested similar reflections to the earlier +prophets with reference to the northern kingdom, but their views +are, as a rule (Amos v., Isaiah ix.), not nearly so radical nor so +far-fetched. Hosea does certainly trace the guilt of the present +up to the commencement, but he exemplifies the principle (like Micah, +chapter vi.) chiefly from the early history of Jacob and Moses: as for +the really historical period he belongs to it too much himself to survey +it from so high a point of view. In this also he is a precursor of +later writers, that he regards the human monarchy as one of the +great evils of Israel: he certainly had very great occasion for +this in the circumstances of the time he lived in. +******************************************* + +Ezekiel carried out this negative criticism of the past to greater +lengths, with particular reference to the abominations of the older +worship (chapter xvi., xx., xxiii.); and it is also to be found in +Isaiah xl.-xlvi. (xlii. 24, xliii. 27), though here it is +supplemented by a positive and greatly more suggestive view; +we find it also in Deuteronomy xxviii.-xxx., and in Leviticus xxvi. +The whole of the past is regarded as one enormous sin, which is to +be expiated in the exile (Jeremiah xxxii. 30; Ezekiel xviii. 2, +xxxiii. 10; Isaiah xl. 1); the duration of the punishment is even +calculated from that of the sin (Leviticus xxvi. 34). The same +attitude towards old times is continued after the return +(Zechariah viii. 13 seq., ix. 7 seq.; Nehemiah ix. 7 seq.). + +The treatment is naturally from a Judaean point of view. Outside +of Jerusalem the worship of Jehovah is heretical, so that the +political revolt of the Northern Israelites was at the same time +an ecclesiastical schism. Yet they are not excluded in +consequence from community with the people of God, as in the +Chronicles: the old traditions are not thrown so completely +overboard as yet: only after the destruction of Samaria by the +Assyrians does Judah continue the history alone. Almost the same +reverence is paid to David and his house as to the city and the +temple. His house has the promise of eternal continuance, with +regard to which the writer likes to make use of the words of +Jeremiah xxxiii. 17. The book closes, doubtless not by chance, +with the liberation from prison of the Davidide Jehoiachin; this +is the earnest of greater things yet in store. In the words of +Abijah to Jeroboam, also, when he says that the humiliation of +the house of David and the revolt from it of the ten tribes will +not last for ever, we see the Messianic hope appear, which, as we +learn from Haggai and Zechariah, largely occupied the minds of +the Jews at the time of the exile and after it. + +In the case of the books of Judges and Samuel it is not perhaps +possible to decide with perfect certainty what was the norm +applied by the last reviser in forming his estimates of the past. +In the Books of Kings there can be no doubt on this point. The +writer deals not only in indefinite references to the will of +Jehovah, which Israel ought to obey, but resists; he speaks now +and again (1Kings ii. 3, 2Kings xiv. 6, xvii. 37) of the written +Torah in which the judgments and statutes of Jehovah are contained, +a difference which indicates, one must allow, a historical feeling. +Now the code which is implicitly regarded as the standard is that +the discovery of which under Josiah is circumstantially narrated +in 2Kings xxii. xxiii., viz., Deuteronomy. We are led to this +conclusion, it is allowed on all hands, both by the phraseology +of the reviser and by the spirit of his judgments. He condemns +those sins specially against which Deuteronomy and the reformation +of King Josiah were directed. And the one verbal quotation made +from the book of the Torah is from Deuteronomy (2Kings xiv. 6; +Deuteronomy xxiv. 16). On the other hand, there are clear signs +that the author of the revision was not acquainted with the +Priestly Code. Nowhere is any distinction drawn between priests +and Levites; the sons of Aaron are never mentioned. The idea of +a central sanctuary before Solomon is contradicted by 1Kings iii. +2. In one section only, a section which has been greatly exposed +to corrections and interpolations of all kinds, namely, the +description of the temple and its consecration, 1Kings vi.-viii., +do we meet with signs of the influence of the Priestly Code, +especially in the Massoretic text; in the Septuagint this is not +so much the case. The most important example of this has already +been investigated, p. 43, 44. + +If, accordingly, we are fully justified in calling the revision +Deuteronomistic, this means no more than that it came into +existence under the influence of Deuteronomy, which pervaded the +whole century of the exile. The difference between +Deuteronomistic and Deuteronomic is one not of time only but of +matter as well: /1/ Deuteronomy itself has not yet come to regard + +****************************************** +1. Post-deuteronomic, but still from the time of the kings, are +1Samuel ii. 27 seq.; 2Samuel vii, 1 seq.; 2Kings xviii. 13, 17 +seq., xix. 1 seq.; chaps. xi. xii. xxi. xxiii. +******************************************* + +the cultus in this way as the chief end of Israel, and is much +closer to the realism of the actual life of the people. A +difference in detail which allows of easy demonstration is +connected with the mode of dating. The last reviser distinguishes +the months not by their old Hebrew names, Zif, Bul, Ethanim, but +by numbers, commencing with spring as the beginning of the year. +In this he differs not only from his older sources (1Kings vi. +37, 38, viii. 2), but also from Deuteronomy. + +VII.III.2. This revision is, as we expect to find, alien to the +materials it found to work on, so that it does violence to them. +They have been altered in particular by a very one-sided selection, +which is determined by certain religious views. In these views an +interest in the prophets mingles with the interest in worship. It +is not meant that the selection is due entirely to the last +reviser, though it is thoroughly according to his taste; others +had probably worked before him in this direction. But for us it +is neither possible nor important to distinguish the different +steps in the process of sifting through which the traditions of +the time of the kings had to pass. + +The culminating point of the whole book is the building of the +temple; almost all that is told about Solomon has reference to +it. This at once indicates to us the point of view; it is one +which dominates all Judaistic history: the history is that of +the temple rather than of the kingdom. The fortunes of the +sanctuary and its treasures, the institution and arrangements of +the kings with reference to worship--we are kept _au courant_ about +these, but about hardly anything else. The few detailed +narratives given (2Kings xi seq. xvi. xxii. seq.) have the +temple for their scene, and turn on the temple. Only in +<2Kings?> xviii. seq. does the prophetical interest +predominate. + +As for the kingdom of Israel, the statements about the cultus of +that state are very scanty and for the most part rather vague. +Here the prophetical narratives come to the front, generally such +as are told from the prophetic point of view, or at least tell of +the public appearances and acts of the prophets. Here and there +we are told of occasions on which the Northern kingdom came in +contact with Judah; here the Jewish feeling appears which dictated +the selection. What is merely historical, purely secular, is +communicated only in the scantiest measure: often there is +nothing but the names and succession of the kings. We learn +hardly anything about King Omri, the founder of the town of +Samaria and re-founder of the kingdom, who seems to have reduced +Judah also to the position of a dependent ally, nor do we learn +more about Jeroboam II., the last great ruler of Israel; while +the conflict with the Assyrians and the fall of Samaria are +despatched in a couple of verses which tell us scarcely anything +at all. Sometimes a brilliant breaks in on the surrounding night +(2Kings ix. x.), but after it we grope in the dark again. Only +so much of the old tradition has been preserved as those of a +later age held to be of religious value: it has lost its original +centre of gravity, and assumed an attitude which it certainly had +not at first. It may have been the case in Judah that the temple +was of more importance than the kingdom, but there can be no +doubt that the history of Israel was not entirely, not even +principally, the history of prophecy. The losses we have to +deplore must have affected the Israelitish tradition most +seriously. + +The damage done by the revision by its _positive_ meddling with +the materials as found in the sources, is not so irreparable; yet +it is considerable enough. The change of colour which was effected +may be best seen and characterised in the far-reaching +observations which introduce the Israelite series of kings; +"Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the +house of David; if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house +of Jehovah at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn +again to their rightful lord, and they will kill me, and become +subject again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took +counsel and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, Cease to +go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought +thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel +and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; for the +people went as one man, even unto Dan. And he made temples of +high places, and took priests from the midst of the people which +were not of the house of Levi; whomsoever he would he installed +as priest of the high places " (1Kings xii. 26-30, xiii. 33). +The perversion is scarcely so great as in Chronicles, but the +anachronism is sufficiently glaring in the mode of view +discernible in these reflections of Jeroboam, who appears to feel +that the Ephraimite kingdom was illegitimate in its origin and +could only be kept separate from the south by artificial means. +The blessing of Jacob and the blessing of Moses show us what the +sentiment of Northern Israel actually was. In the former Joseph +is called the crowned of his brethren, in the second we read +"His first-born bullock, full of majesty (the king), has the horns +of a buffalo, with which he thrusts down the peoples; these are the +ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh." +Whence came the charm of the name of Ephraim but from its being the +royal tribe, and the most distinguished representative of the proud +name of Israel? Of Judah we read in the same chapter, "Hear, +Jehovah, the voice of Judah, and bring him back to his people." +There can be no doubt what the people is to which Judah belongs: +we cannot but agree with Graf, that this tribe is here regarded as +the alienated member, and its reunion with the greater kingdom +spoken of as the desire of Judah itself, and this is not so +remarkable when we reflect that the part belongs to the whole +and not the whole to the part. Only by long experience did Judah +learn the blessing of a settled dynasty, and Ephraim the curse of +perpetual changes on the throne. + +Judah's power of attraction for the inhabitants of the Northern +Kingdom is thought to lie in the cultus of the Solomonic temple; +and Jeroboam is said to have tried to meet this by creating new +sanctuaries, a new form of the worship of Jehovah, and a new order +of priesthood. The features in which the Samaritan worship +differed from the Jewish pattern are represented as intentional +innovations of the first king, in whose sin posterity persisted. +But in making Bethel and Dan temples of the kingdom--that he set up +high places, is a statement which need not be considered--Jeroboam +did nothing more than Solomon had done before him; only he had +firmer ground under his feet than Solomon, Bethel and Dan being +old sanctuaries, which Jerusalem was not. The golden calves, +again, which he set up, differed in their gold but not in their +object from the ephods and idols of other kinds which were +everywhere to be found in the older "houses of God"; e.g. from +the brazen serpent at Jerusalem. /l/ + +***************************************** +1. "Although Jeroboam had lived in Egypt, it would he wrong to say +that he brought animal worship with him from that country, as +wrong as to regard Aaron's golden calf as a copy of Apis. The +peculiarity of the animal-worship of Egypt, and of its +bull-worship in particular, was that sanctity was attributed to +_living_ animals." Vatke, p. 398. Egyptian gods cannot help +against Egypt, Exodus xxxii. 4; 1Kings xii. 28. +**************************************** + +Even Eichhorn remarked with force and point, that though Elijah +and Elisha protested against the imported worship of Baal of Tyre, +they were the actual champions of the Jehovah of Bethel and Dan, +and did not think of protesting against His pictorial +representation; even Amos makes no such protest, Hosea is the +first who does so. As for the non-Levitical priests whom the king +is said to have installed, all that is necessary has been said on +this subject above (p. 138 seq.). + +A remarkable criticism on this estimate of the Samaritan worship +follows immediately afterwards in the avowal that that of Judah +was not different at the time, at any rate not better. In the +report of Rehoboam's reign we read (1Kings xiv. 22 seq.): +"They of Judah also set up high places and pillars on every high +hill, and under every green tree, and whoredom at sacred places +was practiced in the land." +This state of things continued to exist, with some fluctuations, +till near the time of the exile. If then the standard according +to which Samaria is judged never attained to reality in Judah +either, it never existed in ancient Israel at all. We know the +standard is the book of the law of Josiah: but we see how the +facts were not merely judged, but also framed, in accordance +with it. + +One more instance is worthy of mention in this connection. King +Solomon, we are told, had, besides the daughter of Pharaoh, many +foreign wives, from Moab, Ammon, and other peoples, intermarriage +with whom Jehovah had forbidden (Deuteronomy xvii 17). And when he was +old, they seduced him to the worship of their gods, and he +erected on the Mount of Olives at Jerusalem high places for +Chemosh of Moab, and for Milcom of Ammon, and for the gods of his +other wives. As a punishment for this Jehovah announced to him +that his kingdom should be torn from him after his death and given +to his servant, and also raised up adversaries to him, in Hadad +the Edomite, who freed Edom, and in the Syrian Rezon teen Eliadah, +who made Damascus independent. And by the prophet Abijah of +Shiloh, he caused the Ephraimite Jeroboam, who then had the +supervision of the forced labour of the house of Joseph in the +fortification of the city of David, to be nominated as the future +king of the ten tribes. So we read in 1Kings xi. But Edom, and, +as it appears, Damascus as well, broke away from the kingdom of +David immediately after his death (xi. 2I seq., 25); and the +fortification of the citadel, in which Jeroboam was employed when +incited to revolt by Abijah, though it falls somewhat later, yet +belongs to the first half of Solomon's reign, since it is +connected with the rest of his buildings (ix. 15, 24). Now +Solomon cannot have been punished by anticipation, in his youth, +for an offence which he only committed in his old age, and the +moral connected with these events is contradicted by chronology +and cannot possibly be ascribed to the original narrator. The +Deuteronomistic revision betrays itself, in fact, in every word +of xi. 1-13. To the original tradition belongs only the mention +of the many wives--without the reprobation attached to it,--and +the statement about the building of the altars of Chemosh and +Milcom and perhaps Astarte, on the Mount of Olives, where they +stood till the time of Josiah (2Kings xxiii. 13). The connection +of the two events, in the relation of cause and effect, belongs to +the last editor, as well as the general statement that the king +erected altars of the gods of all the nationalities represented by +his wives. + +In the Books of Kings, it is true, the tradition is not +systematically translated into the mode of view of the Law, as +is the case in Chronicles. What reminds us most strongly of +Chronicles is the introduction from time to time of a prophet who +expresses himself in the spirit of Deuteronomy and in the +language of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and then disappears. /l/ + +****************************************** +1. Cf. Kuenen, Profeten onder Israel (1875), ii. p. 143; English +translation (1877), p 398. One of these Deuteronomistic prophecies +is cited above, p. 275. They are in part anonymous, e.g, 2Kings +x. 30, xxi. 10 seq, in part connected with old names, e.g 1Kings +xvi. 1 seq. In many instances no doubt the reviser found +flints in his sources and worked them out in his own style; thus, +1Kings xiv. 7 seq., xxi 21 seq. 2Kings ix. 7 seq. In these +passages the Deuteronomistic ideas and the phraseology of +Jeremiah and Ezekiel are distinctly present [ HNNY MBY) R(h ], but +detached expressions of an original type also occur,--which, it is +true, are then constantly repeated, e.g. (CWN W(ZWB. Names, +too, like Jehu ben Hanani, are certainly not fictitious: we are +not so far advanced as in Chronicles. Cf. 1Samuel ii. 27 seq.; +2Samuel vii. 1 seq. +**************************************** + +In this way the Law is introduced into the history in a living +way; the prophets keep it effective and see it applied, according +to the principle stated, 2Kings xvii. 13, which is founded on +Jeremiah vii. 25; Deuteronomy xviii. 18: +"Jehovah testified to them by all the prophets and seers saying, +Turn ye from your evil ways and keep my commandments and statutes, +according to all the Torah which I commanded your fathers and which +I sent unto you by my servants the prophets." +The most unblushing example of this kind, a piece which, for historical +worthlessness may compare with Judges xix.-xxi. or 1Samuel vii. seq., +or even stands a step lower, is 1Kings xiii. A man of God from Judah +here denounces the altar of Bethel, at which King Jeroboam is in the +act of offering sacrifice, in these terms: +"O altar, altar, behold a son shall be born to the house of David, +Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the +high places, that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be +burned upon thee." +And to guarantee the truth of this prophecy, to be fulfilled three +hundred years afterwards, he gives the sign that the altar shall +burst asunder, and the ashes of the sacrifice upon it be poured +out--which at once takes place. This legend, however, does not +really belong to the Deuteronomist, but is a still later +addition, as is easily to be seen from the fact that the sentence +xii. 31 is only completed at xiii. 34. It deserves remark that +in the two verses which introduce the thirteenth chapter, xii. 32 +seq., the feast of tabernacles is fixed, in accordance with the +Priestly Code, as the 15th of the 7th month. + +VII.III.3. In this case also we are able to discern considerable +shades and gradations in the sources the reviser had at command. +In the Books of Kings for the first time we meet with a series of +short notices which arrest attention, in the surroundings they are +in, by their brevity and directness of statement and the terseness +of their form, and have the semblance of contemporary records. In +spite of their looseness of arrangement these form the real basis +of our connected knowledge of the period; and the religious +chronological framework is regularly filled in with them (e.g. +1Kings xiv.-xvi.); their loose connection and neutral tone made +it specially easy for later editors to interweave with them +additions of their own, as has actually been done to no small +extent. /1/ + +***************************************** +1. The passage discussed above, 1Kings xi. 1 seq., gives a good +example of this; we at once pick out the terse )z ybnh wgw'' from +the barren diffuseness surrounding it. +**************************************** + +These valuable notes commence even with Solomon, though here they +are largely mixed with anecdotic chaff. They are afterwards found +principally, almost exclusively, in the series of Judah. Several +precise dates point to something of the nature of annals, /2/ + +**************************************** +2. 5th of Rehoboam (1Kings xiv. 25); 23rd of Jehoash (2Kings xii, +6); 14th of Hezekiah (2Kings xviii. 13); 18th of Josiah (2Kings +xxii. 3); 4th and 5th of Solomon (1Kings vi. 37, 38). These +dates occur, it is true, partly in circumstantial Jewish +narratives, but these are intimately related to the brief notices +spoken of above, and appear to be based on them. It may be +surmised that such definite numbers, existing at one time in much +greater abundance, afforded the data for an approximate +calculation of the figures on which the systematic chronology is +built up. These single dates at any rate are not themselves +parts of the system. The same is true of the statements of the +age of the Jewish kings when they ascended the throne. These +also perhaps go back to the "Annals." The )Z is found 1Kings iii. +16, viii. 1, 12, ix. 11, xi. 7, xvi. 21, xxii. 50; 2Kings +viii. 22, xii. 18, xiv. 8, xv. 16, xvi. 5. +***************************************** + + and with these the characteristic then might be thought to be +connected, which frequently introduces the short sentences, and +as it now stands is generally meaningless. In what circles these +records were made, we can scarcely even surmise. Could we be +certain that the reference to the royal temple of Judah, which is +a prevailing feature of them, is due not to selection at a later +time but to the interest of the first hands, we should be led to +think of the priesthood at Jerusalem. The loyalist, perfectly +official tone would agree very well with this theory, for the +sons of Zadok were, down to Josiah's time, nothing else than the +obedient servants of the successors of David, and regarded the +unconditional authority claimed by these kings over their +sanctuary as a matter of course (2Kings xvi. TO seq., xii. 18). +These notices, however, as we have them, are not drawn from the +documents themselves, but from a secondary compilation, perhaps +from the two sets of chronicles cited at the end of each reign of the +kings of Israel and those of Judah, from which at all events the +succession of the rulers appears to the drawn. These chronicles +are not to be identified, it is clear, with the original annals. +The _book_ of the annals must be distinguished from the Dibre-hajamim +themselves. Whether the chronicle of Israel_-hardly anything out +of which is communicated to us--was composed much earlier than the +chronicle of Judah (which seems to close with Jehoiachim), and +whether it and the chronicle of Solomon (1Kings xi. 41) are a +quite independent work, I am inclined to consider doubtful. + +The excerpts from the annals are interrupted by more extensive +episodes which are interwoven with them, and are also embraced in +the Deuteronomistic scheme. Of these the Jewish ones are the +minority, the greater part are Samaritan, but they all belong to +a very limited period of time. I select the miraculous history +of Elijah as an example of these, to show the sentiment and the +change of sentiment in this instance also. + +The prophet Elijah, from Tishbeh in Gilead, appears before King +Ahab of Samaria, and says, +"By the life of Jehovah the God of Israel, whom I serve, there +shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word." +The story begins abruptly; we require to know that Ahab, stirred +up by Jezebel, has been propagating in Israel the worship of the +Tyrian Baal, and has killed the prophets of Jehovah by hundreds: +this is the reason of the punishment which comes on him and his +land (xviii. 13, 22). Elijah vanishes as suddenly as he appeared. +We find him again at the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan; +then in the land of Baal with a widow at Zarepta; while following +his fortunes we are made to feel in a simple and beautiful way +the severity of the famine. Ahab in the meantime had sent out +messengers to take him, and had required of every state to which +the vain search had extended, an oath that he was not to be found +there. Now, however, necessity obliged him to think of other +things; he had to go out himself with his minister Obadiah to +seek fodder for the still remaining war-horses (Amos vii. 1). In +this humiliating situation he all at once met the banished man. +He did not believe his eyes. "Is it thou, O troubler of Israel?" +"I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house!" +After this greeting Elijah challenged the king to institute a +contest between the 450 prophets of Baal, and him, the only +prophet of Jehovah left remaining. A trial by sacrifice took +place on Mount Carmel before the whole people. Each party was to +prepare a bullock and lay it on the altar without setting fire to +the wood; and the divinity who should answer by fire was the +true God. The prophets of Baal came first and sought after their +own manner to influence their deity. They shouted and leapt +wildly, wounded themselves with swords and lances till they were +covered with blood, and kept up their raving ecstasy from morning +till mid-day, and from mid-day till evening. During this time +Elijah looked at them and mocked them, saying, "Cry louder, for he +is a god; either he is talking, or he is somehow engaged, or he +is asleep and must be awaked." At last his turn came; he repaired +the altar of Jehovah, which was broken down, spread the pieces of +the sacrifice upon it, and, to make the miracle still more +miraculous, caused them to be flooded two or three times with +water. Then he prayed to Jehovah, and fire fell from heaven, and +consumed the sacrifice. The people, up to this point divided in +their mind, now took the side of the zealot for Jehovah, laid hold +of the prophets of Baal, and slaughtered them down below at the +brook. A great storm of rain at once came to refresh the land. + +This triumph of Elijah was only a prelude. When Jezebel heard +what had happened she swore vengeance against him, and he fled for +his life to Beersheba in Judah, the sanctuary of Isaac. Wearied +to death he lay down under a juniper-bush in the wilderness, and +with the prayer, It is enough: now, O Jehovah, take away my +life, he fell asleep. Then he was strengthened with miraculous +food by a heavenly messenger, and bidden to go to Horeb, the +mount of God. He arrived there after a long journey, and withdrew +into a cave; a rushing wind sweeps past; the wind and the +earthquake and the lightning are the forerunners of Jehovah; and +after them He comes Himself in the low whispering that follows the +storm. His head covered, Elijah steps out of the cave and hears a +voice ask what ails him. Having poured out his heart, he receives +the divine consolation that his cause is by no means lost; that +the direst vengeance, the instruments of which he is himself to +summon to their task, is to go forth on all the worshippers of +Baal, and that those 7000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal +shall gain the day--"Thou shalt anoint Hazael to be King over +Damascus, and Jehu ben Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be +iiing over Israel, and Elisha ben Shaphat to be prophet in thy +room; and him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, +and him that escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay." +The account of the execution of these commands by Elijah is at +present wanting; we shall soon see why it was omitted. The +conclusion of chapter xix. only tells us that he called Elisha +from the plough to follow him. Of the account of the judgment +which overtook the worshippers of Baal, this group of +narratives contains only the beginning, in chapter xxi. Ahab +wanted to have a vineyard which was situated beside his palace in +Jezreel, his favourite residence: but Naboth, the owner, was +unwilling to enter on a sale or an exchange. The king was angry, +yet thought he could do no more in the matter; but Jezebel of +Tyre had other notions of might and right and said to him, +"Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? be of good courage; +I will get thee the vineyard." +She wrote a letter to the authorities of the town, and got Naboth +put out of the way by means of corrupt judges. As Ahab was just +going to take possession of the vineyard which had fallen into his +hands, his enemy came upon him. The prophet Elijah, always on the +spot at the right moment, hurled the word at him, +"Hast thou killed and also taken possession? Behold, in the place +where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood also." +Here this story breaks off. What follows is not the true continuation. + +The thread of the narrative xvii.-xix. xxi. is also broken off +here, without reaching its proper conclusion. The victory of +Jehovah over Baal, of the prophet over the king, is wanting; the +story of Naboth is, as we said, only the introduction to it. We +are sufficiently informed about the facts, but in form the +narratives do not answer to the announcement in chapter xix. and +xxi.; they are drawn from other sources. According to xix. 1 7 +the Syrian wars ought to result in vengeance on the worshippers of +Baal, and specially on the idolatrous royal house; but in the +narrative of the wars (1Kings xx. xxii. 2Kings vii. ix. ) +this point of view does not prevail. On the contrary, Ahab and +Joram there maintain themselves in a manly and honourable way +against the superior power of Damascus it is ONLY AFTER the +extirpation of Baal worship under Jehu that affairs took an +unfortunate turn, and Hazael, who brought about this change, was +not anointed by Elijah but by Elisha (2Kings viii. 7 seq.) /.l/ + +************************************* +1. The same applies to Jehu (2Kings ix. 1 seq.). This is the +reason of the above remarked omission after 1Kings xix. 21: cf. +Thenius's commentary. +************************************* + +The massacre at Jezreel, too, which is predicted in the threat of +1Kings xxi. 19, would need to be told otherwise than in 2Kings ix. +x., to form a proper literary sequel to the story of Naboth. +According to 1Kings xxi. 19 the blood of Ahab is to be shed at +Jezreel; according to 2Kings ix. 25 his son's blood was shed there, +to avenge Naboth. It is true, the explanation is appended in xxi. +27-29, that, as the king took to heart the threats of Elijah, +Jehovah made a supplementary communication to the prophet that +the threat against Ahab's house would only be fulfilled in the +days of his son; but who does not see in this an attempt to +harmonise conflicting narratives? /2/ A whole series of + +*************************************** +2 In spite of xxi. 27-29, an attempt is made at xxii. 38 to show +that the threat was fulfilled in Ahab himself. We are told that +Ahab was shot in his chariot and that his servants brought his +body from Ramoth-Gilead to bury it there. Then we read xxii. 38 +"and they washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs +licked up his blood, and the harlots bathed in it, according to +the word of Jehovah." +Thus it is explained how the dogs were able to lick his blood in +Samaria, though it had had plenty of time to dry up after the +battle! The fact was unfortunately over-looked that according +to xxi. 19 the dogs were to lick the blood of Ahab not at Samaria +but at Jezreel, the place of Naboth. The verse xxii. 38 is an +interpolation which does credit to Jewish acuteness. +*************************************** + +subordinate discrepancies might be mentioned, which prove that +2Kings ix. x. does not look back to the story of the murder of +Naboth as told in 1Kings xxi. According to ix. 25, 26, the dispute +was not about the vineyard, but about the field of Naboth, which +lay some distance from the town. His family was put to death +along with him, and on the following day, when Ahab rode out IN +COMPANY WITH JEHU and Ben Deker to take possession of the field, +the word of the prophet (not framed so specially against him +personally) met him: "Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of +Naboth and of his sons, and I will requite it in this plat." + +With the help of these other accounts, among which there is a +considerable group of uniform character (1Kings xx. xxii. 2Kings +iii. vi. 24-xii. 20. ix. 1-x. 27) favourably distinguished +from the rest, we are placed in a position to criticise the history +of Elijah, and to reach a result which is very instructive for +the history of the tradition, namely that the influence of the +mighty prophet on his age has after all been appraised much too +highly. His reputation could not be what it is but for the wide +diffusion of Baal worship in Israel: and this is not a little +exaggerated. Anything like a suppression of the national religion +at the time of Elijah is quite out of the question, and there is +no truth in the statement that the prophets of Jehovah were entirely +extirpated at the time and Elijah alone left surviving. The +prophetic guilds at Bethel, Jericho, and Gilgal continued without +any interruption. In the Syrian wars prophets of Jehovah stand by +the side of Ahab; before his last campaign there are four hundred +of them collected in his capital, one of them at least long known +to the king as a prophet of evil, but left alive before and left +alive now, though he persisted in his disagreeable practices. Of +the sons whom Jezebel bore him, Ahab called one Ahaziah, i.e. +Jehovah holds, and another Jehoram, i.e. Jehovah is exalted: he +adhered to Jehovah as the god of Israel, though to please his wife +he founded at Samaria a temple and a cultus of the Syrian goddess. +This being so, Elijah's contest with Baal cannot have possessed +the importance attributed to it from the point of view of a later time. +In the group of popular narratives above referred to, there is no +trace of a religious commotion that tore Israel asunder: the whole +strength of the people is absorbed in the Syrian wars. The kings +are the prominent figures, and do well and according to their office +in battle: Elijah stands in the background. From several indications, +though from no direct statements, we learn of the high esteem which +Ahab enjoyed from friend and foe alike (xx. 3I, xxii. 32-34 seq.). +Joram also, and even Jezebel, are drawn not without sympathy (2Kings +vi. 30, ix. 31). We can scarcely say the same of Jehu, the murderer, +instigated by the prophets, of the house of Ahab (2Kings ix. 10). + +It is the fact, certainly, that the prophets' hatred of Baal +succeeded at last in overturning the dynasty of Omri. But in +what manner was this done? At a time when King Joram was +prevented by a wound he had received from being with his army in +the field, a messenger of Elisha went to the camp, called the +captain apart from a banquet at which he found him, to a secret +interview, and anointed him king. When Jehu returned to his +comrades at their wine, they asked him what that mad fellow had +wanted, and, his evasive answers failing to satisfy them, he told +them the truth. They at once raised him on an improvised throne, +and caused the trumpets to proclaim him king: they were quite +ready for such an exploit, not that they cared in the least for +"that mad fellow." Jehu justified their confidence by his +astounding mastery in treachery and bloodshed, but he placed his +reliance entirely on the resources of his own talent for murder. +He was not borne along by any general movement against the dynasty; +the people, which he despised (x. 9), stood motionless and horrified +at the sight of the crimes which came so quickly one after another; +even a hundred years afterwards the horror at the massacre of Jezreel +still lived (Hosea i. 4). The crown once gained, the reckless +player showed his gratitude to the fanatics, and sent the priests +and worshippers of Baal after the priests of Jehovah whom he had +slaughtered along with all belonging to the royal house (x. 11). +The manner in which he led them into the snare (x. 18 seq.) shows +that no one had thought before this of regarding him as the +champion of Jehovah; and even at this time his zeal was manifestly +only ostensible: he was not fighting for an idea (x. 15. +seq.). Thus we see that Baal did not bring about the fall of +the house of Ahab, but common treason; the zealots employed for +their purposes a most unholy instrument, which employed them in +turn as a holy instrument for its purposes; they did not +succeed in rousing the people to a storm against Baal, far from it. +The execution of Naboth seems to have excited greater indignation: +it was a crime against morals, not against religion. Even in the +history of Elijah the admission is made that this struggle +against Baal, in spite of his sacrificial victory on Carmel, was +in the end without result, and that only the judicial murder of +Naboth brought about a change in the popular sentiment. But +according to 2Kings ix. 25, this murder proved a momentous event, +not because it led, as we should expect, to a popular agitation, +but from the fortuitous circumstance that Jehu was a witness of the +never-to-be-forgotten scene between Ahab and Elijah, and seemed +therefore to the prophets to be a fit person to carry out his +threatenings. + +It is certainly the case that the grand figure of Elijah could not +have been drawn as we have it except from the impression produced +by a real character. /1/ But it is too much torn away from the + +************************************* +1. The distance of the narrator is not so very great in point of +time from the events he deals with. He is a North-Israelite, as +the )#R LYHWDH of xix. 3 shows: this may also be gathered from +xix. 8 compared with Deuteronomy i. 2. A man of Judah could not +easily make so considerable a mistake about the distance, though +we have to remember that with this narrator the situation of +Horeb can scarcely have been that which we have long been +accustomed to assume. Another sign of antiquity is the way in +which Elijah is represented as combating Baal in Israel, and in +the land of Sidon associating with the worshippers of Baal on the +most friendly terms (Luke iv. 25 seq.). +********************************************* + +historical position it belongs to, and is thereby magnified to +colossal proportions. It may be said of this class of narratives +generally, that the prophets are brought too much into the foreground +in them, as if they had been even in their lifetime the principal +force of Israelite history, and as if the influence which moved +them had ruled and pervaded their age as well. That was not the case; +in the eyes of their contemporaries they were completely overshadowed +by the kings; only to later generations did they become the principal +personages. They were important ideally, and influenced the future +rather than the present; but this was not enough, a real tangible +importance is attributed to them. In the time of Ahab and Jehu the +Nebiim were a widespread body, and organised in orders of their own, +but were not highly respected; the average of them were miserable +fellows, who ate out of the king's hand and were treated with disdain +by members of the leading classes. Amos of Tekoa, who, it is true, +belonged to a younger generation, felt it an insult to be counted +one of them. Elijah and Elisha rose certainly above the level of +their order; but the first, whose hands remained pure, while he no +doubt produced a great impression at the time by his fearless words, +effected nothing against the king, and quite failed to draw the +people over to his side: while Elisha, who did effect something, +made use of means which could not bear the light, and which attest +rather the weakness than the strength of prophecy in Israel. + +VII.III.4. Let us conclude by summing up the results to which we +have been led by our eclectic pilgrimage through the historical +books. What in the common view appears to be the specific character +of Israelite history, and has chiefly led to its being called sacred +history, rests for the most part on a later re-painting of the +original picture. The discolouring influences begin early. I do +not reckon among these the entrance of mythical elements, such as +are not wanting even in the first beginnings to which we can trace +the course of the tradition, nor the inevitable local colour, +which is quite a different thing from tendency. I think only of +that uniform stamp impressed on the tradition by men who regarded +history exclusively from the point of view of their own +principles. Here we observe first a religious influence, which in +the Books of Samuel and Kings turns out to be the prophetical +one. The view appears to me erroneous that it is to the prophets +that the Hebrew people owe their history as a whole. The song, +Judges v., though perhaps the oldest historical monument in the Old +Testament, cannot be cited in support of that view, for even if it +were actually composed by Deborah, the seer stands in no connection +with the prophets. Least of all can the colleges of the B'ne Nebiim +at Gilgal and other places be regarded as nurseries of historic +tradition: the products which are to be traced to these circles +betray a somewhat narrow field of vision (2Kings ii., iv. 1-6, 23). +The prophets did not form the tradition at first, but came after, +shedding upon it their peculiar light. Their interest in history +was not so great that they felt it necessary to write it down; +they only infused their own spirit into it subsequently. + +But the systematic recoining of the tradition was only effected +when a firmer stamp had become available than the free ideas of +the prophets, the will of God having been formulated in writing. +When this point was reached, no one could fail to see the +discrepancy between the ideal commencement, which was now sought +to be restored as it stood in the book, and the succeeding +development. The old books of the people, which spoke in the most +innocent way of the most objectionable practices and +institutions, had to be thoroughly remodelled according to the +Mosaic form, in order to make them valuable, digestible, and +edifying, for the new generation. A continuous revision of them +was made, not only in the Chronicles, at the beginning of the +Greek domination, but, as we have seen in this chapter, even in +the Babylonian exile. The style of the latter revision differed +from that of the former. In Chronicles the past is remodelled on +the basis of the law: transgressions take place now and then, but +as exceptions from the rule. In the Books of Judges, Samuel, and +Kings, the fact of the radical difference of the old practice from +the law is not disputed. In these works also the past is in some +cases remodelled on the basis of the ideal, but as a rule it is +simply condemned. That is one difference; another has to be +added which is of far greater importance. In the Chronicles the +pattern according to which the history of ancient Israel is +represented is the Pentateuch, i.e. the Priestly Code. In the +source of Chronicles, in the older historical books, the revision +does not proceed upon the basis of the Priestly Code, which indeed +is completely unknown to them, but on the basis of Deuteronomy. +Thus in the question of the order of sequence of the two great +bodies of laws, the history of the tradition leads us to the same +conclusion as the history of the cultus. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE NARRATIVE OF THE HEXATEUCH. + + +In the historical books the tradition is developed by means of +supplement and revision; double narratives occur here and there, +but not great parallel pieces of connected matter side by side. +In the Hexateuch additions and supplements have certainly taken +place on the most extensive scale, but the significant feature +is here that continuous narratives which can and must be understood +each by itself are woven together in a double or threefold cord. +Critics have shown a disposition, if not in principle yet in fact, +to take the independence of these so-called sources of the Hexateuch +as if it implied that in point of matter also each is a distinct +and independent source. But this is, even _a priori_, very +improbable. Even in the case of the prophets who received their +word from the Lord the later writer knows and founds upon the earlier +one. How much more must this be the case with narrators whose +express business is with the tradition? Criticism has not done +its work when it has completed the mechanical distribution; it +must aim further at bringing the different writings when thus +arranged into relation with each other, must seek to render them +intelligible as phases of a living process, and thus to make it +possible to trace a graduated development of the tradition. + +The striking agreement of the different works, not only in +matter, but in their arrangement of the narratives, makes the +office of criticism as now described not less but more necessary. +There is no primitive legend, it is well known, so well knit as the +biblical one, and thus it is no wonder that it became the frame +for many others and infused into them some of its own colour. +This connection is common in its main features to all the sources +alike. The Priestly Code runs, as to its historical thread, +quite parallel to the Jehovist history. This alone made it +possible to interfuse the two writings as we now have them in the +Pentateuch. That this was not done altogether without violence +is less to be wondered at than that the violence which was done +is so small, and particularly that the structure of each writing +is left almost unimpaired. This can only be explained from the +intimate agreement of the two works in point of plan. When the +subject treated is not history but legends about pre-historic +times, the arrangement of the materials does not come with the +materials themselves, but must arise out of the plan of a +narrator: even the architecture of the generations, which forms +the scaffolding of Genesis, is not inseparably bound up with the +matters to be disposed of in it. From the mouth of the people +there comes nothing but the detached narratives, which may or may +not happen to have some bearing on each other: to weave them +together in a connected whole is the work of the poetical or +literary artist. Thus the agreement of the sources in the plan +of the narrative is not a matter of course, but a matter requiring +explanation, and only to be explained on the ground of the +literary dependence of one source on the other. The question how +this relation of dependence is to be defined is thus a much more +pressing one than is commonly assumed. /1/ + +***************************************** +1. The agreement extends not only to the thread of the narrative, +but also to particulars, and even to expressions. I do not speak +of _mabbul_ (flood), or _tebah_ (ark), but the following examples +have struck me:-In Q Genesis vi. 9, Noah is said to be _righteous +in his generations_, in J E vii. 1 he is _righteous in his generation_-- +an unusual form of speech, which gave a vast amount of trouble to +the Rabbins and to Jerome. Similarly Q Genesis xvii. 21, _the son +whom Sarah shall bear at this set time next year_, and JE xviii. 14: +_at the same time I will come to thee again next year, and then +Sarah shall have a son_. In the same way Q Exodus vi. 12 vii. 1. +(Moses) _I am of uncircumcised lips_. (Jehovah) _See, I make thee +a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet_; +compared with JE iv. 10, 16. (Moses) _I am slow of speech, and of +a slow tongue_; (Jehovah) _Aaron shall be to thee instead of a mouth, +and thou shalt be to him instead of God_. Comp. Genesis xxvii. 46, +with xxv: 22. +************************************* + +This, however, is not the place to attempt a history of the +development of the Israelite legend. We are only to lay the +foundation for such a work, by comparing the narrative of the +Priestly Code with the Jehovistic one. In doing so we shall see +that Buttmann (Mythologus, i. p. 122 seq.) is right in asserting +against de Wette (Beitraege, ii.), that, the Jehovistic form of the +legend is the earlier of the two . /2/ + +**************************************** +2. The line indicated by Buttmann was first taken up again by +Th. Noldeke in his Essay on the main-stock of the Pentateuch, +which opened the way to a proper estimate of the narrative part +of the work. +**************************************** + +VIII.I. + +VIII.I.1 The Bible begins with the account of the Priestly Code of the +creation of the world. In the beginning is chaos; darkness, +water, brooding spirit, which engenders life, and fertilises the +dead mass. The primal stuff contains in itself all beings, as yet +undistinguished: from it proceeds step by step the ordered +world; by a process of unmixing, first of all by separating out +the great elements. The chaotic primal gloom yields to the +contrast of light and darkness; the primal water is separated by +the vault of heaven into the heavenly water, out of which there +grows the world above the firmament which is withdrawn from our +gaze, and the water of the earth: the latter, a slimy mixture, is +divided into land and sea, whereupon the land at once puts on its +green attire. The elements thus brought into existence, light, +heaven, water, land, are then enlivened, pretty much in the order +in which they were created, with individual beings; to the light +correspond the lamps of the stars, fishes to the water, to the +heaven the birds of heaven, and the other creatures to the land. +The last act of creation is markedly emphasised. "And God said: +Let us make man after our likeness; and let them have dominion +over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over +the cattle, and over all the living creatures of the earth, and +over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God +created man after His own image, in the image of God created He +him, and He created them male and female. And God blessed them, +and said: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and +subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over +the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon +the face of the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given unto +you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the +earth, and every tree with seed-fruits: to you it shall be for +food: and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the +air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there +is life, I have given the green herb for meat. Thus the heavens +and the earth were made and all the host of them, and on the +seventh day God ended His work, and blessed the seventh day, and +hallowed it." (Genesis i. 1-ii. 4a). + +It is commonly said that the aim of this narrative is a purely +religious one. The Israelite certainly does not deny himself in +it: the religious spirit with which it is penetrated even comes +at some points into conflict with the nature of its materials. +The notion of chaos is that of uncreated matter; here we find +the remarkable idea that it is created in the beginning by God. +Brooded over by the Spirit, it is further of a nature for development +to take place out of it, and the trait that the creation is +represented throughout as a separation of elements which in chaos +were mixed together, betrays even now the original design: but +in the Hebrew narrative the immanent Spirit has yielded to the +transcendent God, and the principle of evolution is put aside in +favour of the fiat of creation. Yet for all this the aim of the +narrator is not mainly a religious one. Had he only meant to say +that God made the world out of nothing, and made it good, he could +have said so in simpler words, and at the same time more distinctly. +There is no doubt that he means to describe the actual course of +the genesis of the world, and to be true to nature in doing so; +he means to give a cosmogonic theory. Whoever denies this confounds +two different things--the value of history for us, and the aim of the +writer. While our religious views are or seem to be in conformity +with his, we have other ideas about the beginning of the world, +because we have other ideas about the world itself, and see in the +heavens no vault, in the stars no lamps, nor in the earth the +foundation of the universe. But this must not prevent us from +recognising what the theoretical aim of the writer of Genesis i. +really was. He seeks to deduce things as they are from each +other: he asks how they are likely to have issued at first from +the primal matter, and the world he has before his eyes in doing +this is not a mythical world but the present and ordinary one. + +The pale colour which generally marks the productions of the +earliest reflection about nature, when they are not mythical +theories, is characteristic of Genesis i. also. We are indeed +accustomed to regard this first leaf of the Bible as surrounded +with all the charm that can be derived from the combination of high +antiquity and childlike form. lt would be vain to deny the +exalted ease and the uniform greatness that give the narrative its +character. The beginning especially is incomparable: "The +earth was without form and void, and darkness lay upon the deep, +and the Spirit of God moved upon the water. Then God said: Let +there be light, and there was light." But chaos being given, all +the rest is spun out of it: all that follows is reflection, +systematic construction; we can easily follow the calculation +from point to point. The considerations are very simple which +lead the writer to make first what is great appear, and then what +is small; first the foundation and then that which exists upon it, +the water before the fishes, heaven before the birds of heaven, +land and plants before the animals. The arrangement of the things +to be explained stands here for the explanation; there is nothing +more than a succession which proceeds from the simple to the +complicated; there is no effort of fancy to describe the process +more closely; everywhere cautious consideration which shrinks +from going beyond generalities. Only the framework of creation, +in fact, is given; it is not filled up. Hence also the form of +the whole, the effect of which cannot be reproduced in an epitome; +the formula gets the better of the contents, and instead of +descriptions our ears are filled with logical definitions. The +graduated arrangement in separating particular things out of chaos +indicates the awakening of a "natural" way of looking at nature, +and of a reasoned reflection about natural objects, just as this +is manifest in the attempts of Thales and his successors, which +are also remarkable as beginnings of the theory of nature and of +an objective interest in the things of the outer world, but further +than this do not exactly rouse us to enthusiasm. /1/ + +*********************************************** +1. "There is nothing whatever in the piece that merits the name of +invention but the chronological order of the various creations." +Buttmann, p. 133. +********************************************** + +The first sentence of the Jehovistic account of the beginning of +the world's history has been cut off by the reviser. [It was +all a dry waste] when Jehovah formed the earth, and nowhere did +the green herb spring up, for Jehovah had not yet caused it to +rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. +But a mist (?) went up out of the earth, and watered the face of +the ground. And Jehovah formed man of the dust of the ground, and +breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Then he planted a +garden far to the eastward in Eden, in the place where the four +chief rivers of the earth part asunder from their common source; +there grow among other fine trees the tree of life and the tree of +knowledge. In this garden Jehovah placed the man, to dress it and +keep it and to eat of all the trees, forbidding him to eat of the +fruit of the tree of knowledge only. But the man is utterly +alone in his garden: he must have company that is suitable for +him. So Jehovah first forms the beasts, if perchance the man will +associate with them and make friends with them. He brings them to +him one after another to see what impression they make on him, +and what the man will call them. He calls them by their right +names, ox, ass, bear, thus expressing his feeling that he finds +in them nothing relate to himself, and Jehovah has to seek other +counsel. Then he forms the woman out of a rib of the sleeping man, +and causes him to awake. Wearied as it were by all the fruitless +experiments with the beasts, the man cries out delighted when he +looks at the woman: This surely is flesh of my flesh and bone of +my bone; she may be called wo-man. + +Thus the scene is drawn, the persons introduced, and an action +secretly prepared: now the tragedy begins, which ends with the +expulsion of man from the garden. Seduced by the serpent, man +stretches out his hand after the food which is forbidden him, in +order to become like God, and eats of the tree of knowledge. The +first consequence of this is the beginning of dress, the first step +in civilisation; other and sadder consequences soon follow. In +the evening the man and his wife hear Jehovah walking in the +garden; they hide before Him, and by doing so betray +themselves. It is useless to think of denying what has taken +place, and as each of them puts the blame on the other, they show +themselves one after the other to be guilty. The sentence of the +judge concludes the investigation. The serpent is to creep on its +belly, to eat dust, and to perish in the unequal contest with man. +The woman is to bear many children with sorrow, and to long for +the man, who yet will be her tyrant. The principal curse is +directed against the man. "Cursed be the ground for thy sake: in +sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns +also and thistles shall it bring forth to, thee, and thou shalt +eat the herb of the field, till thou return unto the ground, for +out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt +thou return." Sentence being thus spoken, Jehovah prepares the man +and woman for their future life by making coats of skins to dress +them with. Then turning to His celestial company, "Behold," He +says, "the man is become like one of us to know good and evil; +and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of +life, and eat, and live for ever." With these words he drives man +out of Paradise, and places before it the cherubs, and the flaming +sword, which turns every way, to keep the way of the tree of +Life (Genesis i. 4b-iii. 24). + +The gloomiest view of life as it now is, lies at the root of this +story. Man's days are mere hardship and labour and task-work, a +task-work with no prospect of relief, for the only reward of it +is that he returns to the earth from which he was taken. No +thought appears of any life AFTER death, and life WITHOUT death +might have been, but has been forfeited, now the cherub guards +the approach to the tree of life, of which man might have eaten +when in Paradise but did not. This actual, cheerless lot of man +upon the earth is the real problem of the story. It is felt to be +the very opposite of our true destiny; at first, things must have +been otherwise. Man's lot now is a perversion of what it was at +first, it is the punishment of primeval guilt now resting on us all. +At first man lived in Paradise; he had a happy existence, and one +worthy of his nature, and held familiar intercourse with Jehovah; +it was his forbidden striving after the knowledge of good and evil +that drove him out of Paradise and brought all his miseries upon him. + +What is the knowledge of good and evil? The commentators say it +is the faculty of moral distinction,--conscience, in fact. They +assume accordingly that man was in Paradise morally indifferent, +in a state which allowed of no self-conscious action and could not +be called either good or evil. A state like this not being an +ideal one, some of them consider that man gained more than he lost +by the fall, while others admit that it could not be the divine +intention to keep him always at this stage of childish +irresponsibility, and that this cannot be the view of the narrator +either. + +But it is plain that the narrator is not speaking of a relative +prohibition of knowledge, but an absolute one: he means that it +is only for God, and that when man stretches out his hand towards +it he is transcending his limits and seeking to be as God. On the +other side he cannot of course mean to say that conscience is a +doubtful blessing, and its possession to be deplored, or that it is +a thing that God in fact refuses to men and reserves to Himself +alone. The knowledge spoken of cannot be moral knowledge. What +could the assertion mean that God would have no one but Himself +know the difference between good and evil, and would deny to man +this knowledge? One would think that conscience is a thing +belonging specifically to man and not to God. + +And what could be the sense of representing Adam and Eve as so +intent to know what was sin and what was virtue? No one is +curious about that, and sin never came into existence in the way +of ethical experiment, by men's desiring to know what it is. And +it is manifestly assumed that men knew in paradise that obedience +to Jehovah was good and disobedience evil. And finally, it +conflicts with the common tradition of all peoples to represent the +first man as a sort of beast; he is regarded as undeveloped only in +point of outward culture. The knowledge which is here forbidden is +rather knowledge as such, general knowledge, or getting the eyes +opened, as it is afterwards called. This is what transcends, in +the writer's view, the limits of our nature; prying out the secret +of things, the secret of the world, and overlooking, as it were, +God's hand to see how He goes to work in His living activity, so as, +perhaps, to learn His secret and imitate Him. For knowledge is to +the ancient world also power, and no mere metaphysic. This knowing +in the highest sense is the attribute of God alone, who stands in +the creative centre of things and penetrates and surveys the whole; +it is sealed to man, who has to labour and weary himself at little +things. And yet the forbidden good has the most powerful +attraction for him; he burns to possess it, and instead of +resigning himself in trust and reverence he seeks to steal the +jewel which is jealously guarded from him, and so to become like +God--to his own sorrow. + +This explanation is not new; it is the old and popular one, for +which reason also Goethe adopted it in Faust. One objection +certainly may be taken to it; the words are not merely +_knowledge_, but _knowledge of good and evil_. But good and evil +in Hebrew mean primarily nothing more than salutary and hurtful; +the application of the words to virtue and sin is a secondary +one, these being regarded as serviceable or hurtful in their +effects. Good and evil as spoken of in Genesis ii. iii. point +to no contrast of some actions with others according to their +moral distinctions: the phrase is only a comprehensive one for +things generally, according to the contradictory attributes which +constitute their interest to man, as they help or injure him: +for, as said, he desires to know not what things are +metaphysically, but what is the use of them. /1/ Besides the + +*************************************** +I Sur. 20, 91. Hudh. 22, 10 (Agh. xv. 105, 12). Hamasa, 292, +8 seq. Tabari i. 847, 18 +*************************************** + +lengthier expression we have the shorter one, knowledge, simply +(iii. 6); and it must also be remarked that the phrase is not: +know the good and the evil, but know good and evil. + +But more, we must regard this knowledge not as it affects the +individual, but in the light of history; what is meant is what we +call civilisation. As the human race goes forward in +civilisation, it goes backward in the fear of God. The first step +in civilisation is clothing; and here this is the first result of +the fall. The story is continued in chapter iv. Adam's sons +begin to found cities, Jubal is the first musician, Cain discovers +the oldest and the most important of the arts, that of the smith-- +hence the sword and bloody vengeance. Of the same tendency is the +connected story of the city and the tower of Babel, in which is +represented the foundation of the great empires and cities of the +world, which concentrate human strength and seek to use it to press +into heaven itself. In all this we have the steps of man's +emancipation; with his growing civilisation grows also his alienation +from the highest good; and--this is evidently the idea, though it +is not stated--the restless advance never reaches its goal after all; +it is a Sisyphus-labour; the tower of Babel, which is incomplete +to all eternity, is the proper symbol for it. The strain is that +strain of unsatisfied longing which is to be heard among all +peoples. On attaining to civilisation they become aware of the +value of those blessings which they have sacrificed for it. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. Dillmann thinks this idea insipid: Genesis (1882), p. 44 +************************************** + +It was necessary to discuss the notion of knowledge at some +length, because the misunderstanding of this point on the part of +philosophers and theologians has cast over our story an +appearance of modernness, which has, in its turn, done something +to influence general opinion as to the age of this story compared +with the other. Having got rid of this impression we turn to +those features of Genesis ii. iii. which help to determine +positively its relation to chapter i. + +What has been untruly asserted of Genesis i. is true of Genesis ii. +iii. The Jehovist narrative does shine by the absence of all +efforts after rationalistic explanation, by its contempt for +every kind of cosmological speculation. The earth is regarded as +being at first not moist and plastic but (as in Job xxxviii. 38) +hard and dry: it must rain first in order that the desert may be +turned into a green meadow, as is the case still every year when +the showers of spring come. The ground further requires +cultivation by man that the seed may spring forth. No regard is +paid to any natural sequence of the acts of creation: man, the +most helpless of all beings, appears first, and finds himself +placed on a world entirely bare, without tree or bush, without +the animals, without woman. Man is confessedly the exclusive +object of interest, the other creatures are accounted for by +their importance to him, as if this only conferred on them a +right to exist. The idea explains matter: mechanical possibility +is never consulted, and we do not think of asking about it. Want +of taste could find no lower deeps than when this or that scholar +goes from Genesis ii. 21 to count his ribs, or comes to +the conclusion that the first man was hermaphrodite. + +In the first account we stand before the first beginnings of sober +reflection about nature, in the second we are on the ground of +marvel and myth. Where reflection found its materials we do not +think of asking; ordinary contemplation of things could furnish +it. But the materials for myth could not be derived from +contemplation, at least so far as regards the view of nature which +is chiefly before us here; they came from the many-coloured +traditions of the old world of Western Asia. Here we are in the +enchanted garden of the ideas of genuine antiquity; the fresh +early smell of earth meets us on the breeze. The Hebrews breathed +the air which surrounded them; the stories they told on +the Jordan, of the land of Eden and the fall, were told in the same +way on the Euphrates and the Tigris, on the Oxus and the Arius. +The true land of the world, where dwells the Deity, is Eden. It +was not removed from the earth after the fall; it is there still, +else whence the need of cherubs to guard the access to it? The +rivers that proceed from it are real rivers, all well known to the +narrator, they and the countries they flow through and the +products that come from these countries. Three of them, the Nile, +the Euphrates, and the Tigris, are well known to us also; and if +we only knew how the narrator conceived their courses to lie, it +would be easy to determine the position of their common source and +the situation of Paradise. Other peoples of antiquity define the +situation of their holy land in a similar manner; the streams +have different names, but the thing is the same. The wonderful +trees also in the garden of Eden have many analogies even in the +Germanic mythology. The belief in the cherubs which guard +Paradise is also widely diffused. _Krub_ is perhaps the same name, +and certainly represents the same idea, as _Gryp_ in Greek, and +_Grei_f in German. We find everywhere these beings wonderfully +compounded out of lion, eagle, and man. They are everywhere +guardians of the divine and sacred, and then also of gold and of +treasures. The ingredients of the story seem certainly to have +parted with some of their original colour under the influence of +monotheism. The Hebrew people no doubt had something more to tell +about the tree of life than now appears. It is said to have been +in the midst of the garden, and so it seems to have stood at the +point whence the four streams issued, at the fountain of life, +which was so important to the faith of the East, and which +Alexander marched out to discover. Paradise, moreover, was +certainly not planted originally for man, it was the dwelling of +the Deity Himself. Traces of this may still be recognised. +Jehovah does not descend to it from heaven, but goes out walking +in the garden in the evening as if He were at home. The garden of +Deity is, however, on the whole somewhat naturalised. A similar +weakening down of the mythic element is apparent in the matter of +the serpent; it is not seen at once that the serpent is a demon. +Yet parting with these foreign elements has made the story no +poorer, and it has gained in noble simplicity. The mythic +background gives it a tremulous brightness: we feel that we are +in the golden age when heaven was still on earth; and yet +unintelligible enchantment is avoided, and the limit of a sober +chiaroscuro is not transgressed. + +The story of the creation in six days played, we know, a great +part in the earlier stages of cosmological and geological science. +It is not by chance that natural science has kept off Genesis ii. +iii. There is scarcely any nature there. But poetry has at +all times inclined to the story of Paradise. Now we do not +require to ask at this time of day, nor to argue the question, +whether mythic poetry or sober prose is the earlier stage in the +contemplation of the world. + +Intimately connected with the advanced views of nature, which we +find in Genesis i., is the "purified" notion of God found there. +The most important point is that a special word is employed, which +stands for nothing else than the creative agency of God, and so +dissociates it from all analogy with human making and shaping-- +a word of such exclusive significance that it cannot be reproduced +either in Latin, or in Greek, or in German. In a youthful people +such a theological abstraction is unheard of; and so with the +Hebrews we find both the word and the notion only coming into use +after the Babylonian exile; they appear along with the emphatic +statement of the creative omnipotence of Jehovah with reference to +nature, which makes its appearance, we may say suddenly, in the +literature of the exile, plays a great part in the Book of Job, +and frequently presents itself in Isaiah xl.-lxvi. In Genesis ii. +iii., not nature but man is the beginning of the world and of +history; whether a creation out of nothing is assumed there at +all, is a question which only the mutilation of the commencement +(before ii. 4b) makes it not quite impossible to answer in the +affirmative. At any rate it is not the case here that the command +of the Creator sets things in motion at the first so that they +develop themselves to separate species out of the universal chaos; +Jehovah Himself puts His hand to the work, and this supposes that +the world in its main features was already in existence. He plants +and waters the garden, He forms man and breathes life into his +nostrils, He builds the woman out of the man's rib, having made +a previous attempt, which was unsuccessful, to provide him with +company; the beasts are living witnesses of the failure of His +experiments. In other respects, too, He proceeds like a man. +In the evening when it grows cool He goes to walk in the garden, +and when there discovers by chance the transgression which has +taken place, and holds an investigation in which He makes not +the least use of His omniscience. And when He says: +"Behold, the man is become like one of us to know good and evil: +and now lest he stretch forth his hand, and take of the tree of +life, and eat and live for ever," +that is not said in irony, any more than when He expresses +Himself on the occasion of the building of Babel; +"Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, +and this is only the beginning of their doings, and now nothing +will be too difficult for them that they have imagined to do; +go to, let us go down and confound their language." +That at the same time the majesty of Jehovah is in no way compromised +is the mystery of poetic genius. How would the colourless God of +abstraction fare in such a situation ? + +The treatment, finally, of the microcosm in the two accounts, +reflects the difference between them. In chapter i. man is +directed at the very outset to the ground on which he moves to +this day: "Replenish the earth, and subdue it," he is told; a +perfectly natural task. In chaps. ii. iii. he is placed in +Paradise, and his sphere of activity there, nestled, as he may +be said still to be, in the lap of the Deity, is very limited. +The circumstances of his life as it now is, the man's toil in the +fields, the woman's toil in bearing children, do not answer to his +original destiny; they are not a blessing, but a curse. In the +Jehovistic narrative man is as wonderful to himself as the +external world; in the other he is as much a matter of course as +it is. In the one he sees astonishing mysteries in the difference +of the sexes, in marriage, in child-birth (iv. 1); in the other +these are physiological facts which raise no questions or +reflections: "He made them male and female, and said, Be +fruitful and multiply." There his attitude towards the beasts +is one of mixed familiarity and bewilderment; he does not know +exactly what to make of them; they are allied to him and yet +not quite suitable society for him; here they are beings not +related to him, over which he rules. + +The chief point in which the difference between the two accounts +comes to a head is this. In Genesis ii. iii., man is virtually +forbidden to lift the veil of things, and to know the world, +represented in the tree of knowledge. In Genesis i. this is the +task set him from the beginning; he is to rule over the whole +earth, and rule and knowledge come to the same thing--they mean +civilisation. There nature is to him a sacred mystery: here it +is a mere fact, an object; he is no longer bewildered over +against nature, but free and superior. There it is a robbery for +man to seek to be equal with God: here God makes him at first in +His own image and after His own likeness, and appoints him His +representative in the realm of nature. We cannot regard it as +fortuitous that in this point Genesis i. asserts the opposite of +Genesis ii. iii.; the words spoken with such emphasis, and +repeated i. 27, v. 1, ix. 6, sound exactly like a protest +against the view underlying Genesis ii. iii., a protest to be +explained partly by the growth of moral and religious +cultivation, but partly also no doubt due to the convulsive +efforts of later Judaism to deny that most firmly established of +all the lessons of history, that the sons suffer for the sins of +the fathers. /1/ + +***************************************** +1. A coarser counterpart to Genesis ii. iii, is Genesis vi. 1-4. +Here also there is a kind of fall of man in an attempt to overpass +the boundary between the human race and the divine. In the priestly +narrative (Q) the gulf between spirit, which is divine substance, +and flesh, which is human substance, is bridged over by the doctrine +of man's creation in the image of God. +***************************************** + +What are generally cited as points of superiority in Genesis i. +over Genesis ii. iii. are beyond doubt signs of progress in outward +culture. The mental individuality of the two writers, the systematiser +and the genius, cannot be compared, and the difference in this +respect tells nothing of their respective dates; but in its general +views of God, nature, and man, Genesis i. stands on a higher, +certainly on a later, level. To our way of thinking its views are +more intelligible, simpler, more natural, and on this account they +have been held to be also older. But this is on the one hand to +identify naturalness with originality, two things which every one +knows not to be the same, and on the other hand it is applying +a standard to prehistoric tradition which applies to historical +tradition only: freedom from miracle and myth count in favour +of the latter, but not of the former. But the secret root of the +manifest preference long shown by historic-critical theology for +Genesis i. appears to lie in this, that scholars felt themselves +responsible for what the Bible says, and therefore liked it to +come as little as possible in conflict with general culture. /1/ + +******************************************** +1. I merely assert that Genesis ii. iii. is prior to Genesis i.; +I do not believe the story of Paradise and of the Fall to be very +old with the Israelites. We are led to think so by the fact that +the man and the woman stand at the head of the genealogy of the +human race; a place we should rather expect to be assigned to the +serpent (according to primitive Semitic belief the serpent was by +no means opposed to God). This is the case in the Chronicon +Edessenum and in Abyssinian legend, and a trace of this is perhaps +preserved in the name of Eve, as Noldeke thinks. The name +certainly receives this interpretation in Philo (de agric. Noe, +# 21) and in the Midrash Rabba on Genesis iii. 20 (D. M. Z. 1877, +p. 239, 326). Moreover, the true seat of God to the Hebrews was +Mount Sinai, and the original Hebrew life was the nomadic life of +the patriarchs, not gardening or agriculture. And finally we +cannot believe barbarians to have indulged in reflections on the +advantages and disadvantages of civilisation. The materials of +Genesis ii. iii. can hardly have been imported before the time +of Solomon. Where they came from we can scarcely guess; it +would be most natural to think of the Phoenicians or the +Canaanites generally, and this theory is favoured by Genesis iv. +But in JE Babel is regarded as the last home of the primitive +human race, Eden and Nod having preceded it; and the Hebrews +probably derived the legend in the last instance from Babylon. +But this does not prove that this or that parallel brought forward +by Assyriologists is necessarily of value. +********************************************** + +VIII.I.2. After the beginning of the world we have in Genesis i.-xi., +both in the Priestly Code and in the Jehovist, the transition from +Adam to Noah (chapters iv. v.), then the flood (vi.-ix.), then the +transition from Noah to Abraham (chapters x. xi.). + +In the dry names, which are enumerated in Genesis v. and Genesis iv. +Buttmann recognised the remains of an historical connection once +woven together out of primitive stories. These narratives were +evidently mythological: their original contents are destroyed +both in Genesis v. (Q) and in Genesis iv. (JE), but only the list +of the Jehovist now bears the appearance of a ruin. In the other +the fragments have been used for a careful new building in which +they no longer look like fragments. Here they are made to serve +as the pillars of a chronology which descends from Adam to Moses, +computing the period from the one to the other as 2666 years. +These 2666 years represent 26 2/3 generations of a hundred years +each: namely, 1-20 Adam to Abraham, 21 Isaac, 22 Jacob, 23 Levi, +24 Kohath, 25 Amram, 26 Aaron; the last 2/3 of a generation is +Eleazar, who was a man of mature years at the time of the Exodus. +/2/ + +************************************** +2. So Noldeke in the Jahrbb. fuer protest. Theol., 1875, p. 344. +Genesis xv. 13-16 expressly states that the generation is reckoned +as 100 years in this period. +************************************** + +Such a chronology is totally at variance with the simplicity of the +legend. /1/ It is also evident, that if even in the case of the + +************************************* +1. "Exact chronological dates are a sure sign of later working up +of old poetical legends." Buttmann, I. p. 181. +************************************* + +historical books the systematic chronology is no older than the +period of the exile, that of the Pentateuch must be of still later +origin. For the historical period there were certain fixed points +for chronology to lay hold of; it cannot have begun with the +patriarchs and gone on to the kings, it must have begun with the +kings and then gone higher up to the patriarchs; it must have +begun at the lower end, where alone it had any firm ground to stand +on. The belief that the men of the early world lived to a great +age is no doubt old, but the settled chronology, based on the years +in which each patriarch begat his son, is an artifice in which we +manifestly see the doctrinaire treatment of history which was coming +into vogue for later periods, attempting to lay hold of the earliest +legends as well. Only when the living contents of the legend had +completely disappeared could its skeleton be used as a framework +of chronology. + +Buttmann has also shown that the elements of the ten-membered +genealogy of Q (Genesis v.) and of the seven-membered of JE (Genesis +iv.) are identical. In Q, Noah comes after Lamech at the end, and +at the beginning Adam Cain is doubled and becomes Adam Seth Enos +Cainan. Adam and Enos being synonymous, this amounts to Adam Seth +Adam Cainan: that is to say Adam Seth are prefixed, and the +series begins anew with Enos Cainan, just as in JE. The Priestly +Code itself offers a remarkable testimony to the superior +originality of the Jehovist genealogy, by ascribing to Lamech, +here the ninth in order, the age of 777 years. This can only be +explained from JE, where Lamech is seventh in order, and moreover +specially connects himself with the number seven by his speech. +Cain is avenged seven times, and Lamech seventy times seven. +Another circumstance shows Q to be posterior to E. The first man +is called here not Ha Adam as in JE, but always Adam, without the +article (v. 1-5), a difference which Kuenen pertinently compares +with that between ho Xristos and Xristos. But in Q itself (Genesis +i.) the first man is only the generic man; if in spite of this +he is called simply Adam (Genesis v.), as if that were his proper +name, the only way to account for this is to suppose a +reminiscence of Genesis ii. iii., though here the personification +does not as yet extend to the name. + +We come to the story of the flood, Genesis vi.-ix. In JE the flood +is well led up to: in Q we should be inclined to ask in surprise +how the earth has come all at once to be so corrupted, after being +so far in the best of order, did we not know from JE. In omitting +the fall, the fratricide of Cain, the sword-song of Lamech, the +intercourse of the sons of God with the daughters of men, and +parting with the distinctive gloomy colouring which is +unmistakably spread over the whole early history of man in JE, +the Priestly Code has entirely lost the preparation for the +flood, which now appears in the most abrupt and unaccountable way. +As to the contents of the story, the priestly version here agrees +to an unusual extent with the Jehovistic one; differing from it +chiefly in the artificial, mathematical marking out of the +framework. The flood lasts twelve months and ten days, i.e., +exactly a solar year. It begins in the six hundredth year of +Noah, on the seventeenth of the second month, rises for one +hundred and fifty days, and begins to fall on the seventeenth of +the seventh month. On the first month the tops of the mountains +become visible; in the six hundred and first year, on the first +of the first month, the water has abated; on the twenty-seventh of +the second month the earth is dry. God Himself gives instructions +and measurements for the building of the ark, as for the +tabernacle: it is to be three stories high, and divided +throughout into small compartments; three hundred cubits long, +fifty cubits broad, thirty cubits high; and Noah is to make it +accurately according to the cubit. When the water is at its +height, on the seventeenth of the second month, the flood is +fifteen cubits above the highest mountains--Noah having apparently +not forgotten, in spite of his anxiety, to heave the lead and to +mark the date in his log-book. This prematurely modern measuring +and counting cannot be thought by any one to make the narrative +more lifelike; it simply destroys the illusion. All that is +idyllic and naive is consistently stripped off the legend as far +as possible. As the duration of the flood is advanced from forty +days (JE) to a whole year, its area also is immeasurably +increased. The Priestly Code states with particular emphasis that +it was quite universal, and went over the tops of the highest +mountains; indeed it is compelled to take this view by its +assumption that the human race was diffused from the first over +the whole earth. Such traits as the missions of the birds and the +broken-off olive-leaf are passed over: poetic legend is smoothed +down into historic prose. But the value and the charm of the story +depend on such little traits as these; they are not mere +incidents, to poetry they are the most important thing of all. +These are the features which are found just in the same way +in the Babylonian story of the flood; and if the Jehovist has a +much greater affinity with the Babylonian story than the Priestly +Code, that shows it to have preserved more faithfully the international +character of those early legends. This appears most plainly in +his accounting for the flood by the confounding of the boundaries +between spirit and flesh, and the intercourse of the sons of God +and the daughters of men: the Jehovist here gives us a piece, but +little adulterated, of mythical heathenism--a thing quite +inconceivable in Q. + +The Priestly Code has the rainbow, which the Jehovist, as we now +have him, wants. But we have to remember that in Genesis vi.-ix. +the Jehovist account is mutilated, but the priestly one preserved +entire. If the rainbow occurred both in JE and in Q, one of the +accounts of it had to be omitted, and according to the editor's +usual procedure the omission had to be from JE. It is accordingly +very possible that it was not at first wanting in JE; it agrees +better, indeed, with the simple rain, which here brings about the +flood, than with the opening of the sluices of heaven and the +fountains of the deep, which produce it in Q, and it would stand +much better after viii. 21, 22 than after ix. 1-7. In the +Priestly Code, moreover, the meaning of the rainbow is half +obliterated. On the one hand, the story is clumsily turned into +history, and we receive the impression either that the rainbow +only appeared in the heavens at this one time after the flood, or +that it had been there ever since; on the other hand, it is made +the token of the covenant between Elohim and Noah, and the use of +language in other passages, with the analogy of Genesis xvii., +would point to the covenant described in ix. 1-7: the rainbow +would then be the counterpart of circumcision. /1/ The covenant, + +************************************* +1. The celestial bow is originally the instrument of the +arrow-darting God, and therefore a symbol of His hostility; but +He lays it out of His hand to signify that He has laid aside His +wrath, and it is a token of His reconciliation and favour. When +there has been such a storm that one might dread a repetition of +the flood, the rainbow appears in heaven, the sun, and grace, +breaking forth again. In the 0. T. Q#T has not the meaning of +a mere arc, it always means the war-bow. And what is most +important of all, the Arabs also always take the iris to be the +war-bow of God; Kuzah shoots arrows from his bow, and then hangs +it up in the clouds (D. M. Z. 1849, p. 200 seq.). With the Jews +and their kin, the rainbow has retained far into Christian times a +remarkably near relation to the Deity. It is singular that the +Edomites have a God named Kaus, as well as Kuzah. +************************************* + +i.e., the law of ch. ix. 1-7, a modification of the first ordinance +given to Adam (i.229, 30) for the world after the flood which still +subsists, is for the Priestly Code the crown, the end, the substance, +of the whole narrative. Its interest in the law always completely +absorbs the simple interest of its story. + +We have also to remark that in this source vengeance for the +spilling of blood is not the affair of the relatives but the +affair of God; and that it is demanded for man as man, whether +master or slave, and no money compensation allowed. The words +sound simple and solemn: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man +shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man." +Yet the religious notion of HUMANITY underlying this sentence +is not ancient with the Hebrews any more than with other nations; +cf. Genesis iv. 15, 24, and Exodus xxi. 20 seq. /1/ + +******************************************* +1. De Wette, Beitrage, p. 57. The religious notion of the people +is old. +******************************************** + +The ark lands, according to Q, on Mount Ararat. In JE, as we have +it, no landing-place is named. But this is not original, as +mythic geography belongs to the Jehovist in all other passages +where it occurs. In Q the primitive history is never localised, +the whole earth is given to man for a dwelling from the first. In +JE, on the contrary, they live first in the land of Eden far to +the East, and presumably high up in the North; expelled from +Eden they come to the land of Nod, where Cain builds the town of +Enoch, and departing from this district, which is still far to the +East, they settle in the land of Shinar, at the mouths of the +Euphrates and Tigris, where they build the town of Babel. Shinar +is the point of departure of that history of the world which is +no longer merely mythical, it is the home of the present human +race. In this point the contrast is very noticeable between the +local definiteness of the Jehovist legend, which lends it the +character of the idyllic, and the vague generalness of the other. +In Shinar, according to JE, Genesis xi. 1-9, men are still all +together, and they desire to remain together there. Not to be +scattered, they build a great city, which is to hold them all; +and to make themselves a name, they add to it a high tower which +is to reach heaven. Jehovah, perceiving in these attempts the +danger of further progress in the same direction, comes down to +confound their language, and by such violent means brings about +the dispersion of the human race by the unity of which He feels +himself threatened. In Q it is understood that men are scattered +over the whole earth; they are never represented as all living at +one point, and pains are accordingly taken to describe the flood +as quite universal. The division of the people comes about quite +simply in the way of genealogy, and the division of the languages +is not the cause but the result of it. Accompanying this we find +once more a notable difference in point of mental attitude; what +JE regards as unnatural, and only to be understood as a violent +perversion of the original order, is in Q the most natural thing +in the world. + +The period between the flood and Abraham is filled up in Q by +another ten-membered genealogy, which, to judge from the analogy +of Genesis iv., had probably only seven members in JE. It cannot +have been wanting there, and may have passed straight from Shem +to Heber, and left out the grandfather Nahor (x. 21, 24, xxiv. +15, xxix. 5), who is even less to be distinguished from his +grandson of the same name than Adam from Enos. The original +dwelling-place of the Terahites is, according to Q, not the +Mesopotamian Haran (Carrhae), as in JE (xii. 1, xxiv. 4), but Ur +Casdim, which can only mean Ur of the Chaldees. From there +Terah, the father of Abraham, Nahor, and Haran, is said to have +emigrated with Abraham and Lot, the son of Haran, who was already +dead. If this was so, Nahor must have stayed at Ur Casdim, and +Haran must have died there. But neither of these assumptions is +consistent with the indications of the narrative. The different +aspirates notwithstanding, it is scarcely allowable to separate +the man Haran from the town Haran and to make him die elsewhere. +It is equally impossible to regard Ur in Chaldaea as the +residence of Nahor, whether the grandfather or the grandson of the +same name matters nothing; for it is obviously not without +relation to real facts that the place, which in any case must be +in Syria, where the Nahorides Laban and Rebecca dwell, is called +in J the town of Nahor, and in E Haran. Even in Q though Nahor +stays in Ur, Laban and Rebecca do not live in Chaldaea, but in +Padan Aram, ie., in Mesopotamian Syria. What helps to show that +Ur Casdim does not belong to the original form of the tradition, +is that even in Serug the father of Nahor, we are far away from +Babylon towards the West. Serug is the name of a district which +borders Haran on the North; how can the son of Serug all at once +leap back to Ur Casdim? What the reasons were for making Babylon +Abraham's point of departure, we need not now consider; but after +having left Ur Casdim with Terah, it is curious how he only gets +as far as Haran, and stays there till his father's death. In Q +also it is from Haran that he enters Palestine. Here, if anywhere, +we have in the doubling of the point of departure an attempt to +harmonise and to gain a connection with JE. + + +VII.I.3. The view is happily gaining ground that, in the mythical +universal history of mankind in Genesis i.-xi., the Jehovist +version is more primitive than the priestly one. And we are, in +fact, compelled to adopt this view when we observe that the +materials of the narratives in question have not an Israelite, but +a universal ethnic origin. The traces of this origin are much +more distinctly preserved in the Jehovist, whence it comes that +comparative mythology occupies itself chiefly with his +narratives, though without knowing that it is doing so. The +primitive legend has certainly undergone alterations in his hands +too; its mythic character is much obliterated, and all sorts of +Israelite elements have crept in. Even the fratricide of Cain, +with the contrast in the background between the peaceful life of +the Hebrews in the land of Canaan and the restless wanderings of +the Cainites (Kenites) in the neighbouring desert, quite falls out +of the universal historical and geographical framework. Still +more does the curse of Canaan do so; here the trait is evidently +old, that Noah was the first to make wine, but this has been made +a merely subordinate feature of a pronouncedly national +Israelite narrative. But in the Jehovist the process of emptying +the primitive legend of its true meaning and contents has not gone +nearly so far as in the Priestly Code, where it actually creates +surprise when some mythic element shines through, as in the cases +of Enoch, and of the rainbow. + +The mythic materials of the primitive world-history are suffused +in the Jehovist with a peculiar sombre earnestness, a kind of +antique philosophy of history, almost bordering on pessimism: as +if mankind were groaning under some dreadful weight, the pressure +not so much of sin as of creaturehood (vi. 1-4). We notice a shy, +timid spirit, which belongs more to heathenism. The rattling of +the chains at intervals only aggravates the feeling of confinement +that belongs to human nature; the gulf of alienation between man +and God is not to be bridged over. Jehovah does not stand high +enough, does not feel Himself secure enough, to allow the +earth-dwellers to come very near Him; there is almost a suggestion +of the notion of the jealousy of the gods. This mood, though in +many ways softened, is yet recognisable enough in Genesis ii. iii., +in vi. 1-4, and xi. 1-9. In the Priestly Code it has entirely +disappeared; here man no longer feels himself under a secret curse, +but allied to God and free, as lord of nature. True, the Priestly +Code also recognises in its own fashion the power of sin--this we +saw in the chapter on sacrifice; but sin as the root of ruin, +explaining it and capable of being got rid of, is the very opposite +of blind, not-to-be-averted fate. The slavery of sin and the +freedom of the children of God are in the Gospel correlated. The +mythical mode of view is destroyed by the autonomy of morality; +and closely connected with this is the rational way of looking at +nature, of which we find the beginnings in the Priestly Code. This +view of nature presupposes that man places himself as a person over +and outside of nature, which he regards as simply a thing. We may +perhaps assert that were it not for this dualism of Judaism, mechanical +natural science would not exist. + +The removal of colour from the myths is the same thing as the +process of Hebraising them. The Priestly Code appears to +Hebraise less than the Jehovist; it refrains on principle from +confounding different times and customs. But in fact it Hebraises +much more: it cuts and shapes the whole of the materials so that +they may serve as an introduction to the Mosaic legislation. It +is true that the Jehovist also placed these ethnic legends at the +entrance to his sacred legend, and perhaps selected them with a +view to their forming an introduction to it; for they are all +ethical and historical in their nature, and bear on the problems +of the world of man, and not the world of nature. /1/ + +************************************* +1 Yet it is possible the selection presented him with no difficulty, +since cosmological myths were not popular tales, but priestly +speculations, with which he was quite unacquainted. +*************************************** + +But with the Jehovist justice was yet done to some extent to the +individuality of the different narratives: in the Priestly Code +their individuality is not only modified to suit the purpose of +the whole, but completely destroyed. The connection leading up +to the Torah of Moses is everything, the individual pieces have +no significance but this. It follows of course from this mode of +treatment that the connection itself loses all living reality; it +consists, apart from the successive covenants, in mere genealogy +and chronology. De Wette thinks all this beautiful because it is +symmetrical and intelligible, and leads well up to a conclusion. +But this will not be every one's taste; there is such a thing as +poetical material without manufacture. + +How loosely the narratives of the primitive history are connected +with each other in the Jehovist we see very clearly in the +section dealing with the flood. It disagrees both with what goes +before and with what follows it. The genealogy Genesis iv. 16-24 +issues not in Noah but in Lamech; instead of Shem, Ham, and +Japhet, the sons of Noah, we have Jabal, Jubal, Tubal, the sons of +Lamech, as the inaugurators of the second period. We have also the +characteristic difference, that Shem, Ham, and Japhet give us a +division of mankind according to nations, while Jabal, Jubal, Tubal +give a division according to guilds, which are necessarily those +of the same people, as no people consists entirely of musicians +or entirely of smiths. And it is undoubtedly the aim of chapter +iv. 16 seq. to describe the origin of the present civilisation, +not of that which is extinct, having been destroyed by the flood. +Tubal-Cain is the father of the smiths of the present, not of +those before the flood; Jubal the father of the musicians, Jabal +of the shepherds of the narrator's own period; hence they stand +at the end of the genealogy and open the second period. But as +Genesis iv. 16-24 does not look forward to the flood, so neither +does Genesis xi. 1-9 (the building of the tower of Babel) look back +to it. This piece is obviously not the continuation of chapter x. +That chapter brought us to a point at which the earth was occupied +by different peoples and different tongues; and here (xi. 1) we +are suddenly carried back to a time when the whole earth was of +one language and one speech. Can this have been the time when +Noah's family made up the whole population of the earth? or in +other words, does xi. 1-9 go back before chap x. and join on to +vi.-ix.? Manifestly not: "the whole earth" (xi. 1) is not +merely Shem and Ham and Japhet; the multitude of men who seek by +artificial means to concentrate themselves, and are then split up +into different peoples, cannot consist of only one family. The +point of view is quite different from what it would be if chaps. +vi.-ix. were taken into account; the narrator knows nothing of +the flood, which left Noah's family alone surviving out of the +whole world. Nor would it avail to place xi. 1 at a period so +long subsequent to the flood that the family might have increased +again to a great people; even this would not give the requisite +connection with the idea of Noah and his three sons. If the latter +united themselves afterwards in one family, and one coherent +people thus grew out of them, which was then split up by a higher +power into different languages, then Shem, Ham, and Japhet +entirely lose their significance as the great heads of the +nations. + +The fact is simply this, that the whole section of the flood +(Genesis vi.-ix.) is an isolated piece without any connection +with the rest of the narrative of the Jehovist. Another strange +erratic boulder is the intercourse of the sons of God with the +daughters of men (Genesis vi. 1-4). /l/ The connection between + +************************************* +1 See p. 307, note. +************************************* + +this piece and the story of the flood which follows it, is of the +loosest; and it is in entire disagreement with the preceding part +of the Jehovist narrative, as it tells of a second fall of man, +with a point of view morally and mentally so different from that +of the first, that this story can in no wise be regarded as +supplementing or continuing that one. In Genesis vi. 1-4 morality +has nothing to do with the guilt that is incurred. We have further +examples which illustrate the fragmentary character of the Jehovist +primitive history as we have it, in the story of the fratricide +of Cain, and the curse of Canaan, which indeed ought not to be +here at all, but belong by rights to the history of the +patriarchs. + +We may close this section by reproducing the words in which +Buttmann (i. 208 seq.) indicates his disagreement with De Wette +in regard to the treatment of the early legends of the Bible: +they are well worth noting. "Thoroughly familiar with the +antiquities of the race in whose sacred writings these monuments +have been preserved to us, De Wette recognises and follows the +national spirit of that race in their most ancient records. In +this way he discovers amidst these ruins the thread of an old +connection, a kind of epos, the theme of which was the +glorification of the people of Israel, a theme which finds a +prelude even in the primitive history of the human race. This +view is of the first importance for the object he has before him, +which is the true criticism of these books; and for the moment +other considerations must necessarily yield to it. My object in +this whole investigation is only to find the universal element in +the legends of different nations, and especially to discover what +is common property in the myths of the different branches of the +great family of nations to which the Hebrews and the Greeks and we +ourselves alike belong. Thus each myth reveals itself +to me as existing for itself, having a basis and completeness of +its own, and even when I find it in other nations I at once assert +for it its character as already known to me. Thus De Wette and I +come to differ in the view we take of individual myths. To him they +commonly appear as spontaneous free inventions of individual men +for their own purposes; not in the ignoble sense in which the vulgar +view speaks of the religious narratives of ancient peoples, but free +inventions in which there is no intention to deceive. I, on the +contrary, can allow no invention in these oldest portions of +mythology. A true myth is never invented; it is handed down. +It is not true, but it is honest. From small elements which fancy +offered as true, these myths arose and grew, without any contributor +to their growth feeling that he had of himself added to them. Those +only had any conscious intention in the matter, who touched up the +oldest pure myths, and drew them into the great circle of their +national history; and their intention, though conscious, was quite +innocent and harmless, as De Wette describes it. Now De Wette +sees the chief traces of that unity, or of that national epos +which winds its way through the Mosaic history, in the Elohim +document. For his critical purpose, therefore, this document is +the most important, and it he for the most part follows. My aim +forbids me to attend to anything but the inner completeness of the +stories taken one by one, and this I see most clearly in the +Jehovah fragments; whence I have had to yield the preference to +them in the foregoing discussions. Should each of us attain his +end, our views will excellently supplement each other." + +We may add that just that linked unity of its narrative, which +has procured for the Priestly Code the title of the "mainstock," +shows that it presents us with a more developed form of the myths; +while the Jehovist, just because of the defective connection +(in form) of his "fragments," which long caused him to be regarded +as a mere filler-up of the fundamental work, must be judged to stand +nearer to the fountain. + +VIII.II. + +VIII.II.1. In the history of the patriarchs also, the outlines of +the narrative are the same in Q and in JE. We find in both Abraham's +immigration into Canaan with Sarah and Lot, his separation from +Lot, the birth of Ishmael by Hagar, the appearance of God for the +promise of Isaac, Isaac's birth, the death of Sarah and Abraham, +Ishmael, Isaac's marriage with Rebecca, Jacob and Esau, Jacob's +journey to Mesopotamia and the foundation of his family there, his +return, Esau, Joseph in Egypt, Jacob in Egypt, Jacob's blessing on +Joseph and his other sons, his death and burial. The materials here +are not mythical but national, and therefore more transparent, and in +a certain sense more historical. It is true, we attain to no +historical knowledge of the patriarchs, but only of the time when the +stories about them arose in the Israelite people; this later age is +here unconsciously projected, in its inner and its outward features, +into hoar antiquity, and is reflected there like a glorified mirage. +The skeleton of the patriarchal history consists, it is well known, +of ethnographic genealogy. The Leah-tribes are connected with the +Rachel-tribes under the common father Jacob-Israel: then entire +Israel is connected with the people of Edom under the old name of +Isaac (Amos vii 9, 16). Isaac again is connected under Abraham +with Lot, the father of Moab and Ammon. All these nearly related +and once closely allied Hebrew tribes are shown to be intimately +connected with the inhabitants of the Mesopotamian desert, and +sharply marked off from the Canaanites, in whose land they +dwelt. The narrative speaks of its characters as succeeding each +other in time or contemporary; in this form it indicates logical +or statistical subordination and co-ordination. As a fact the +elements are generally older than the groups and the smaller +groups than the greater. The migrations which are mentioned of +peoples and tribes are necessary consequences of the assumed +relationship. It would be quite possible to present the +composition and relative position of any given people at a given +time in a similar way in the form of a genealogical early +history. True genealogy can scarcely represent precisely the +existing relations. It cannot always be determined as a matter +of fact whether a tribe is the cousin or the brother or the +twin-brother of another tribe, or whether there is any affinity +at all between the two; the affinity can be understood and +interpreted in different ways, the grouping always depends to some +extent on the point of view of the genealogist, or even on his +likings and antipathies. The reason why the Arameans are made so +nearly related to the Israelites is probably that the +patriarchal legend arose in Middle and North Israel; as indeed +the pronounced preference shown for Rachel and Joseph clearly +proves to have been the case. Did the legend belong originally +to Judah, it is likely that more prominence would be given to the +Cainite (Kenite) tribes of the peninsula of Sinai, which, as it +is, are too much thrust into the background; for there can be no +doubt that in the earliest history of Israel these tribes were of +no small importance. Nor are apparent contradictions wanting in +the ethnographic genealogy. Ishmael, Edom, and the Cainite tribes +first mentioned, come into mutual contact in different ways, which +may be quite naturally explained from different views and arrangements +of their mutual relationships. And lastly we may add that the +genealogical form lends itself to the reception of every sort of +materials. In the patriarchal legend, however, the ethnographic +element is always predominant. Abraham alone is certainly not +the name of a people like Isaac and Lot: he is somewhat difficult +to interpret. That is not to say that in such a connection as this +we may regard him as a historical person; he might with more +likelihood be regarded as a free creation of unconscious art. He is +perhaps the youngest figure in the company, and it was probably at +a comparatively late period that he was put before his son Isaac. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. The stories about Abraham and those about Isaac are so similar, +that they cannot possibly be held to be independent of each +other. The stories about Isaac, however, are more original, as +may be seen in a striking way on comparing Genesis xx. 2-16 with +xxvi 6-12. The short nnd profane version, of which Isaac is the +hero, is more lively and pointed; the long and edifying version +in which Abraham replaces Isaac, makes the danger not possible but +actual, thus necessitating the intervention of the Deity and so +bringing about a glorification of the patriarch, which he little +deserved. All the commentators on Genesis indeed, regard chapter +xx. as the original of xxvi.; they do not base their judgment, +however, on a comparison of the parallel passages, but merely +consider that as the father is older than the son, the story +about the father is older than the corresponding story about the +son; and they regard Isaac generally as a mere echo of Abraham. +The obviousness of this principle is too great, and against it we +have to consider that the later development of the legend shows a +manifest tendency to make Abraham the patriarch par excellence and +cast the others into the shade. In the earlier literature, on the +other hand, Isaac is mentioned even by Amos, Abraham first appears +in Isaiah xl.-lxvii. Micah vii 20 belongs to the exile, and the +words "who redeemed Abraham" in Isaiah xxix. 22 are not genuine; +they have no possible position in the sentence, and the idea of +the salvation of Abraham (from the fire of the Chaldaeans) is of +late occurrence. I certainly do not mean to maintain that +Abraham was not yet known when Amos wrote; but he scarcely stood +by this time at the same stage as Isaac and Jacob. As a saint of +Hebron he might he of Calibite ordain, and have something to do +with Ram (1Chronicles ii.). Abram may stand for Abiram, as Abner +for Abiner and Ahab for Ahiab. The name Abu Ruham occurs in the +Hadith as _nomen proprium viri_. +************************************* + +In the Jehovist this skeleton of ethnographic genealogy is found +covered throughout with flesh and blood. The patriarchs, Abraham, +Isaac, and Jacob, are not mere names, but living forms, ideal +prototypes of the true Israelite. They are all peace-loving +shepherds, inclined to live quietly beside their tents, anxious +to steer clear of strife and clamour, in no circumstances prepared +to meet force with force and oppose injustice with the sword. +Brave and manly they are not, but they are good fathers of +families, a little under the dominion of their wives, who are +endowed with more temper. They serve Jehovah in essentially the +same way as their descendants in historical times; religion with +them does not consist of sacrifice alone, but also of an upright +conversation and trustful resignation to God's providence. Jacob +is sketched with a more realistic touch than the other two; he has +a strong dash of artifice and desire of gain, qualities which do +not fail to secure the ends he aims at. He escapes from every +difficulty and danger, not only safely but with profit: Jehovah +helps him, but above all he helps himself, without showing, as +we should judge, any great scruple in his choice of means. The +stories about him do not pretend to be moral, the feeling they +betray is in fact that of undissembled joy in all the successful +artifices and tricks of the patriarchal rogue. Of the subordinate +figures Esau is drawn with some liking for him, then Laban, and +the weak-kneed saint, Lot. Ishmael is drawn as the prototype of +the Bedouin, as a wild ass of a man, whose hand is against every +man, and every man's hand against him. + +It is remarkable that the heroes of Israelite legend show so little +taste for war, and in this point they seem to be scarcely a true +reflection of the character of the Israelites as known from their +history. Yet it is not difficult to understand that a people +which found itself incessantly driven into war, not only dreamed +of an eternal peace in the future, but also embodied the wishes of +its heart in these peaceful forms of the golden age in the past. +We have also to consider that the peaceful shepherd life of the +patriarchs is necessary to the idyllic form in which the early +history of the people is cast; only peoples or tribes can make +war, not single men. /1/ This also must serve to explain why + +******************************************* +1. This consideration is certainly less decisive than the +foregoing one. Jacob is a peaceful shepherd, not only because +of the idyllic form of the narrative, but in his own being and +character. He forms the strongest contrast to his brother Esau, +who in spite of the idyllic form is a man of war. +Such exceptions as Genesis xiv. and xlviii.'22 (chapter xxxiv.) +only prove the rule. +******************************************* + +the historical self-consciousness of the nation finds so little +expression in the personal character of the patriarchs. It makes +vent for itself only in the inserted prophecies of the future; +in these we trace that national pride which was the fruit of the +exploits of David, yet always in a glorified form, rising to +religious exaltation. + +In the traits of personal character ascribed to the patriarchs they +represent substantially the nature and the aspirations of the +individual Israelite. The historic-political relations of Israel +are reflected with more life in the relations borne by the patriarchs +to their brothers; cousins, and other relatives. The background is +never long concealed here, the temper of the period of the kings +is everywhere discernible. This is the case most clearly perhaps +in the story about Jacob and Esau. The twins are at variance, even +in the womb; even in the matter of his birth the younger refuses +precedence to the elder, and tries to hold him back by the heel. +This is interpreted to the anxious mother by the oracle at +Beersheba as follows: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two +peoples are separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall +be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the +younger." The boys grow up very different. Esau is a rough and +sunburnt hunter, ranges about in the desert, and lives from day to +day without care: Jacob, a pious, smooth man, stays at home +beside the tents, and understands the value of things which his +unsophisticated brother disregards. The former is the favourite +of his father, the autochthonous Isaac, the latter is preferred by +the mother, the Aramaean Rebecca; the former stays in his own +land and takes his wives from the original population of south +Canaan and the Sinaitic peninsula, the latter emigrates, and +brings his wives from Mesopotamia. Thus the contrast is distinctly +prefigured, which at a later time appeared, between the rough Edom, +sprung from the soil and having his roots in it, and smoother, +more civilised Israel, which had more affinity with the great +powers of the world. By means of deceit and trickery the +younger brother succeeds in depriving the elder of the paternal +blessing and of the right of the first-born; the elder, in +consequence of this, determines to kill him, and the situation +becomes strained. Edom was a people and a kingdom before Israel, +but was then overshadowed by Israel, and even subjugated at last +by David: hence the fierce hatred between the brother nations, of +which Amos speaks. The words of the blessing of Jacob show this +quite distinctly to be the historical basis of the legend, a +basis of which the Jews were perfectly conscious: we hear in the +blessing of repeated attempts of the Edomites to cast off the yoke +of Israel, and it is predicted that these efforts will be at last +successful. Thus the stories about Jacob and Esau cannot have +taken form even in outline, before the time of David; in their +present form (Genesis xxvii. 40) their outlook extends to times +still later. The roots of the legend being thus traceable in +later history, a circumstance which the Jehovist does not attempt +to conceal, it is no more than an apparent anachronism when he +takes occasion to give a complete list of the Edomite kings +down to David, interspersing it with historical notes, as, for +example, that Hadad ben Bedad (possibly a contemporary of +Gideon) defeated the Midianites on the plains of Moab. In the +story of Jacob and Laban, again, the contemporary background +shines through the patriarchal history very distinctly. The +Hebrew, on his half-migration, half-flight from Mesopotamia to the +land of Jordan, is hotly pursued by his Aramean father-in-law, +who overtakes him at Gilead. There they treat with each other +and pile up a heap of stones, which is to be the boundary between +them, and which they mutually pledge themselves not to overstep +with hostile intentions. This answers to the actual state of the +facts. The Hebrew migration into Canaan was followed by the +Aramaean, which threatened to overwhelm it. Gilead was the +boundary between the two peoples, and the arena, during a long +period, of fierce conflicts which they waged with each other. +The blessing of Jacob, in the oracle on Joseph, also mentions the +Syrian wars: the archers who press Joseph hard, but are not able +to overcome him, can be no other than the Arameans of Damascus, to +whose attacks he was exposed for a whole century. Joseph here +appears always as the pillar of the North-Israelite monarchy, the +wearer of the crown among his brethren, a position for which he +was marked out by his early dreams. The story of Joseph, +however, in so far as historical elements can be traced in it at +all, and not merely the free work of poetry, is based on much +earlier events, from a time when the union was just being +accomplished of the two sections which together became the people +of Israel. The trait of his brother's jealousy of him points +perhaps to later events. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. It deserves to be considered that at first Joseph is in Egypt +alone, and that his brothers came after, at his request. When the +notion of united Israel was transferred to the distant past, one +consequence was that the fortunes of the part could not be +separated from those of the whole. In the same way, Rachel being +an Aramaean, Leah must be one too. Perhaps the combination of +Rachel and Leah in a national unity was only accomplished by +Moses. Moses came from the peninsula of Sinai (Leah) to lead the +Israelites there from Goshen (Joseph). The designation of Levite +he could not receive in Joseph, only in Leah. +******************************************* + + +The historical associations which form the groundwork of the +stories of the other sons of Jacob are also comparatively old. +They afford us almost the only information we possess about the +great change which must have taken place in the league of the +tribes soon after Moses. This change principally affected the +group of the four old Leah tribes which were closely connected +with each other. Reuben assumes the rights of his father +prematurely and loses the leadership. Simeon and Levi make, +apart from the others, a faithless attack on the Canaanites, +and collective Israel lets them suffer the consequences alone, +so that they succumb to the vengeance of their enemies and cease +to be tribes. Hence the primogeniture is transferred to Judah. +Judah also suffers great losses, no doubt in the conflict which +accompanied the settlement in the land of Canaan, and is reduced +to a fraction of his former importance. But this breach is made +good by fresh accessions from the mother-stock of the Leah tribes, +by the union of Pharez and Zarah, i.e. of Caleb, Kenaz, Cain (Ken), +Jerahmeel, with the remnant of ancient Judah. The Jehovist +narratives about Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, are undoubtedly +based on occurrences connected with the period of the conquest of +the holy land; but this is not the place to trace the historical +interpretation of the stories further. /1/ + +**************************************** +1. See "Israel," sec. 2, infra. Genesis iv. 1-15 is a similar +tribal history. The old tribe of Cain, the name of which is +indicative of settlement and culture, appears to have been broken +up and scattered to the four winds in very early times (Judges v. +24) in the same way as Levi, with which it appears to have +divided the priesthood. We have already said that Genesis iv. 1-l5 +can only have found its way into the primitive legend by +interpolation. +**************************************** + +It may, however, be remarked, and it is important to +do so, that even where true historic motives are indisputably +present in the patriarchal legend, it is not exactly a +reproduction of the facts as they occurred. In reality Edom +always kept up his hatred against Israel and suppressed his feeling +of relationship (Amos i. 11); in Genesis he meets his brother +returning from Mesopotamia, and trembling with anxiety at the +encounter, in a conciliatory temper which is quite affecting. +The touch is one to reflect no small honour on the ancient +Israelite. To set against this we have the touch, manifestly +inspired by hatred, of Genesis xix. 30-38. No one can fail to +wonder why the daughters of Lot are nameless, but this shows that +they are inserted between Lot and his sons Moab and Ammon purely +for the sake of the incest. Sympathies and antipathies are +everywhere at work, and the standpoint is throughout that of +Northern Israel, as appears most evidently from the circumstance +that Rachel is the fair and the beloved wife of Jacob, whom alone +in fact he wished to marry, and Leah the ugly and despised one who +was imposed on him by a trick. /2. On the whole, the rivalries + +*************************************** +2 This, however, only warrants us to conclude that these legends +first arose in Ephraim, not that they were written down there in +the form in which we have them. +*************************************** + +which really existed are rather softened than exaggerated in this +poetical illustration of them; what tends to unity is more prominent +and is more carefully treated than what tends to separation. There +is no trace of any side glances at persons and events of the day, as, +e.g., at the unseemly occurrences at the court of David, and as +little of any twisting or otherwise doctoring the materials to +make them advance this or that tendency. + +But these stories would be without point were it not for other +elements which enter into them and attach them to this and that +particular locality. In this aspect we have first of all to +consider that the patriarchs are regarded as the founders of the +popular worship at Shechem, Bethel, Beersheba, and Hebron, as we +saw above, <I.II.1. "In perfect correspondence...">. A whole series +of stories about them are cultus-myths; in these they discover +by means of a theophany that a certain spot of earth is holy ground; +there they erect an altar, and give it the name of the place. +They dwell exclusively at places which were afterwards regarded as +primeval sanctuaries and inaugurate the sacrifices which are offered +there. The significance of these stories is entirely bound up with +the locality; they possess an interest only for those who still +sacrifice to Jehovah on the same altar as Abraham once did, under +the same sacred oak of Moreh or Mamre. In the same way the +patriarchs discover or excavate the caves, or springs, or wells, +and plant the trees, which their posterity still count sacred or +at least honourable, after the lapse of thousands of years. In +some cases also striking or significant formations of the earth's +surface receive a legendary explanation from the patriarchal age. +Were the Dead Sea not there, Sodom and Gomorrha would not have +perished; were there not a small flat tongue of land projecting +into the marsh from the south-east, Lot would have directed his +flight straight to the mountains of his sons Moab and Ammon, and +would not have made the detour by Zoar, which only serves to +explain why this corner was not included in the ruin to the area +of which it properly belongs. The pillar of salt into which Lot's +wife was turned was still pointed out in the days of Josephus; +perhaps the smoke of the furnace which Abraham saw from the +Jewish shore the morning after the catastrophe has some connection +with the town of the same name which was situated there. /1/ + +****************************************** +1 Joshua HNB#N xv. 62 is no doubt more correctly HKB#N: the +name, having the article prefixed to it, must be susceptible of a +clear meaning. +***************************************** + +The origin of Mount Gilead is explained from its historical +significance: it is an immense mound which was once heaped up by +Laban and Jacob in order to serve as a boundary between Aram and +Israel. In many instances the names of places gave rise to a +legend which does not always hit upon the true reason of the name. +The spring of Lahai Roi, for example, is an instance of this. The +discovery of this spring saved Hagar and Ishmael from dying of +thirst. Hagar called the name of Jehovah who spoke with her, El +Roi (God of Seeing), for she said, "Have I seen God, and am I +kept in life after my seeing?" Wherefore the well is called +Beer Lahai Roi (he lives who sees me); it is between Kadesh and +Berdan. According to Judges xv. 18-20, 2Samuel xxiii. 11, a +more correct interpretation of Lahai Roi would be " jawbone of the +antelope "--this being the appearance presented by a series of +rocky teeth standing close together there. /1/ + +************************************ +1 Compare Onugnathos and the camel's jawbone in Vakidi, op. cit. +p. 298, note 2: Jakut iv. 353, 9 seq. R)Y is an obsolete name +of an animal. For HLM, Genesis xvi. 15, we should read )LHYM (cf. +1Samuel iii. 13), and before )XRY we should probably insert +W)XY. +************************************ + +The original motive of the legend, however, as we have now +indicated it, appears in the Jehovist always and everywhere +covered over with the many-coloured robe of fancy. The longer a +story was spread by oral tradition among the people, the more +was its root concealed by the shoots springing from it. For +example, we may assume with regard to the story of Joseph that, +just because it has almost grown into a romance, its origin +stretches back to a remote antiquity. The popular fancy plays as +it will; yet it does not make such leaps as to make it impossible +to trace its course. Miracles, angels, theophanies, dreams, are +never absent from the palette. When Rachel eats the mandrakes +which Reuben had found, and which Leah had given up to her, and +they remove her barrenness so that she becomes the mother of +Joseph, we have a story based on a vulgar superstition. Purely +mythical elements are found isolated in the story of Jacob's +wrestling with the Deity at the ford of the Jabbok. Etymology +and proverbs are a favourite motive, and often give rise to lively +and diversified tales. Even in pieces which we should be inclined +to attribute to the art of individuals, old and characteristic +themes may be involved. The story of Jacob and Laban, for +example, is entirely composed of such materials. The courtship at +the well is twice repeated with no great variation. The trait of +the father-in-law's wish to get his oldest daughter first off his +hands and craftily bringing her to the son-in-law after the +wedding-feast, is scarcely due to the invention of an individual. +The shepherd's tricks, by which Jacob colours the sheep as he likes, +have quite the flavour of a popular jest. The observance of +hospitality or transgressions against it, occupy a prominent place +in the Genesis of the Jehovist; Lot's entertainment, and the +Sodomites' insulting maltreatment, of the Deity who comes among +them in disguise, is an incident that appears in the legends of +many races. There is little psychological embellishment, little +actual making-up; for the most part we have the product of a +countless number of narrators, unconsciously modifying each +other's work. How plastic and living the materials must have +been even in the ninth and eighth century, we see from the +manifold variants and repetitions of the same stories, which, +however, scarcely change the essential character of the themes. + +One more trait must be added to the character of the Jehovist. +Each of his narratives may be understood by itself apart from +the rest; the genealogy serves merely to string them together; +their interest and significance is not derived from the connection +in which they stand. Many of them have a local colour which +bespeaks a local origin; and how many of them are in substance +inconsistent with each other, and stand side by side only by +compulsion! The whole literary character and loose connection of +the Jehovist story of the patriarchs reveals how gradually its +different elements were brought together, and how little they +have coalesced to a unity. In this point the patriarchal history +of the Jehovist, stands quite on the same footing with his legend +of the origins of the human race, the nature of which we have +already demonstrated. + +VIII.II.2. It is from the Jehovistic form of the legends that we +derive our picture of the patriarchs, that picture which children +learn at school and which they find it easy to retain. To compare +the parallel of the Priestly Code it is necessary to restore it as +a whole, for few are aware of the impression it produces. + +"And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of +Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, +and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls +that they had gotten in Haran, and they went forth to go into +the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came (xii. +4b, 5). And the land was not able to bear them that they might +dwell together, for their substance was great so that they could +not dwell together. And they separated themselves the one from +the other; Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled +in the cities of the Kikkar. /1/ + +******************************************* +1. Where the Dead Sea was afterwards. +****************************************** + +And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the +Kikkar, that God remembered Abram, and sent Lot out of the midst +of the overthrow-, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt... +(xiii. 6, 11b, 12ab, xix. 29). And Sarai was barren: she had +no child. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her +maid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and +gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And Hagar bare Abram +a son; and Abram called his son's name which Hagar bare, Ishmael. +And Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to +Abram" (xi. 30, xvi. 3, 15, 16) +Then follows the covenant of God with Abram, whose name he now +changes to Abraham, and the institution of circumcision as the +mark of those who belong to the covenant; then the announcement +of the birth of Isaac by Sarai, now ninety years old, who is +henceforth to be called Sarah, and Isaac's nomination as heir +of the covenant in place of Ishmael (chapter xvii.). +"And Sarah bore Abraham a son at the set time of which God had +spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was +born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham +circumcised his son Isaac, after eight days, as God had commanded +him. And Abraham was an hundred years old when Isaac his +son was born unto him (xxi. 2-5). And the life of Sarah was an +hundred and twenty seven years; these were the years of the life +of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-Arba, the same is Hebron in +the land of Canaan" (xxiii. 1, 2). +Then comes the treaty of Abraham, reported with all due legal +accuracy, with Ephron the Hittite, from whom he purchases the +cave of Machpelah, which is over against Mamre, for a family +burying-place (xxiii.). +"And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he +lived, a hundred and seventy five years. And Abraham gave up the +ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years; +and was gathered to his fellow tribesmen. And his sons Isaac and +Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron +ben Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; the field which Abraham +purchased of the sons of Heth; there was Abraham buried and Sarah +his wife. And after Abraham was dead, God blessed his son Isaac" +(xxv. 7-11a). +Next come the Toledoth (generations) of Ishmael according to the +regular practice of first exhausting the collaterals (xxv. 12-17). +"These are the Toledoth of Isaac the son of Abraham. Abraham begat +Isaac...and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca to wife, the +daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister to Laban +the Syrian....And Isaac was 60 years old when Esau and Jacob +were born (xxv. 19, 20, 26c). And Esau was 40 years old when he +took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and +Bashemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they were a +grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. And Rebekah said to +Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; +if Jacob also take such wives of the daughters of Heth, of the +daughters of the land, what good shall my life do to me? Then +Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, saying, Thou +shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; arise, go to +Padan-Aram to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father, and take +thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's +brother. And El Shaddai will bless thee, and make thee fruitful +and multiply thee, and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee +and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land +wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. And +Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Padan-Aram unto Laban ben +Bethuel, the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, Jacob and Esau's +mother. And Esau saw that Isaac blessed Jacob, and sent him to +Padan-Aram to take him a wife from thence, and that as he blessed +him, he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of +the daughters of Canaan. Now Jacob hearkened to his father, and +went to Padan-Aram. But Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan +pleased not Isaac his father; then went Esau unto Ishmael, and +took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the sister of Nebaioth +to be his wife (xxvi. 34 seq., xxvii. 46, xxviii. 1-9). And +Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for her +handmaid. And he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife. And Laban +gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid +(xxix.24, 28b, 29). And the sons of Jacob were twelve. The sons +of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, +Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of +Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid: Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah, +Leah's handmaid: Gad and Asher; these are the sons of Jacob, +which were born to him in Padan-Aram (xxxv. 23-26)....[and Jacob +took] all his goods which he had gotten, the gear of his property +which he had gotten in Padan-Aram, to go home to Isaac his father +in the land of Canaan (xxx). 18). And God appeared unto Jacob +when he was coming home from Padan-Aram, and blessed him; and God +said unto him, Thy name is Jacob; thy name shall not be called any +more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And God said unto him; +I am El Shaddai; be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company +of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; +and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, +and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up +from him in the place where He talked with him. And Jacob called +the name of the place where God spake with him Bethel (xxxv. 9-13, +15). And they departed from Bethel; and when there was but a little +way to come unto Ephrath, Rachel died, and was buried there in the +way to Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem (xxxv. 16a, 19, cf. xlviii. +7, xlix. 3I). And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, +unto Kirjath-Arba, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac dwelt +as strangers. And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty +years. And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered +unto his people, being old and full of days; and his sons Esau +and Jacob buried him" (xxxv. 27-29.) Then follow the generations +of Esau in chapter xxxvi. /1/ + +*********************************** +1. Only part of this chapter, however, belongs to the Priestly +Code. +*********************************** + +"And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all +the souls of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all +his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan, and went +into the land of Seir from the face of his brother Jacob. For their +riches were more than that they might dwell together, and the land +of their sojourn could not bear them because of their cattle. And +Esau dwelt in Mount Seir; Esau is Edom. And Jacob dwelt in the land +of the sojourn of his father, in the land of Canaan (xxxvi. 6-8, +xxxvii. 1). +These are the Toledoth of Jacob...(xxxxvii. 2). And they took their +cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, +and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him, his sons, +and his sons' sons, and all his seed, brought he with him +into Egypt" (xlvi. 6, 7). +Then follows the enumeration of the seventy souls of which his seed +was then composed. +"And Jacob and his sons came to Egypt to Joseph; and Pharaoh the king +of Egypt heard it. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days +of the years of thy life? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days +of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years; few and +evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained +unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of +their sojourning. And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, +and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best part of +the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded (xlvii. +5b, 6, LXX, xlvii. 7-11). And they settled there, and grew and +multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt +seventeen years, and the whole age of Jacob was 7 years and 140 +years (xlvii. 27b, 28)....And Jacob said unto Joseph, El Shaddai +appeared unto me at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, +and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply +thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of peoples; and will give +this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. +And now thy two sons which were born unto thee in Egypt, before I +came unto thee in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be +mine, as Reuben and Simeon. And the issue which thou begettest +after them shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of +their brethren in their inheritance. And when I came from Padan, +Rachel died to me in the land of Canaan, in the way, when there +was but a little way to come into Ephrath, and I buried her +there, in the way to Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem (xlviii. +3-7, and v. 7, cf. xlix. 31)...[and his other sons also] he +blessed; and he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be +gathered unto my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave of +the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of +Canaan, which field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite, for a +hereditary burying-place-there they buried Abraham and Sarah his +wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I +buried Leah--the possession of the field and of the cave that is +therein from the children of Heth. And Jacob made an end of +commanding his sons, and he gathered up his feet into the bed, +and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his fellow-tribesmen +(xlix. 28b-33). And his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, +and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham +had bought for a hereditary burying-place from Ephron the Hittite, +over against Mamre (l. 12, 13). And these are the names of the +children of Israel which came into Egypt, with Jacob they came, +every one with his house; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, +Zebulon, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher. And all the souls +that came out of Jacob's loins were seventy souls; and Joseph was +in Egypt. And the children of Israel were fruitful and increased +abundantly, and the land was filled with them, and the Egyptians +made the children of Israel their servants with rigour, in all +their work which they wrought by them with rigour, and they +made their lives bitter with hard bondage (Exodus i. 1-7, 13, +14). And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage; +and they cried, and their cry because of the bondage came up +unto God, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered His +covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and God took +notice (ii. 23-25). And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, +I am Jehovah. I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob +by the name of El Shaddai; but by my name Jehovah was I not +known unto them; and I made a covenant with them to give them the +land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were +strangers. And I have heard the groaning of the children of +Israel, that the Egyptians keep them in bondage, and I have +remembered my covenant" (vi. 2 seq.). + +That is the whole of it. As a rule nothing more is aimed at than +to give the mere links and articulations of the narrative. It is +as if Q were the scarlet thread on which the pearls of JE are +hung. In place of the somewhat loose connections of the Jehovist, +the narrative of the Priestly Code shows a firmly jointed +literary form; one remarkable feature of which is to be seen in +the regular titles which stand at the head of the various +sections. Each section begins with the words )LH TWLDWT (_hae sunt +generationes_), from which Genesis derives its name. /l/ + +**************************************** +1 *)AUTH (H BIBLOS GENESEWS ii. 4 LXX. Hence Ewald's name for the +Priestly Code, which is very appropriate for Genesis, or perhaps +generally for the book of the four covenants--the Book of Origins. +***************************************** + +In the rest of the historical literature of the Old Testament nothing +like this as yet appears. It is also characteristic that whenever +the title occurs, introducing a new, section, the contents of the +preceding section are first of all briefly recapitulated so as to +show the place of the link upon the chain. + +The Priestly Code enters as little as possible on the contents of +the various narratives. The predicates are stripped off, so far +as they admit of such treatment, and the subjects duly entered +in a catalogue with connecting text. In this way the history +almost shrinks to the compass of a genealogy with explanations-- +the genealogy at least forms the principal contents of the history, +and here appears in such proportions and such systematic fashion +as nowhere else. This has been regarded as a proof that Q belongs +to an older stage of development of Hebrew historiography than JE. +There can be no doubt, it is said, /1/ that the oldest Hebrew, + +*************************************** +I Riehm, "die s.g. Grundschrift des Pentateuchs" in Studien und +Kritiken, 1872, p. 296. +*************************************** + +or indeed Oriental, history began with the historical notices +and traditions inserted in the tribal or family catalogues. +Yet we know positively that in the Books of Judges, Samuel, +and Kings, there are no genealogical statistics at all, while +Chronicles, and what belongs to Chronicles, is full of them. +We know also that songs such as those in Josh. x. 12, 13; Jud. v.; +2Samuel i. 19 seq., iii. 33 seq. are the oldest historical +monuments, and that a number of them are found in JE and not +a single one in Q. Herder's theory of the development of history +out of genealogy will not apply here, /2/ but indeed what we have + +*********************************** +2 Nor in the case of the Arabs, as has been well shown by Sprenger +against Caussin de Perceval (Essai, preface, p. ix.). +*********************************** + +to do with here is not history proper at all, but folklore. + +It is true that with the Jehovist also the genealogy underlies +the narrative as its skeleton. It is the natural chain to link +the different stories together, and even at a time when the +latter were still separate and only circulated orally, the +genealogy was not unknown to the people. When stories were told +of Isaac and Ishmael, and Lot and Esau, every one knew at once +who these personages were, and how they were related to Israel +and to one another. But this was merely the presupposition of +the narratives, known as a matter of course to the hearers; +the interesting element in them consisted in those traits +which the Priestly Code omits. Stories of this kind compel +attention because they set forth the peculiarities of different +peoples as historically and really related to each other, not +according to an empty embryological relation. It is the temper +displayed by different races, not the stem of their relationship, +that makes the point of the stories; their charm and their very +life depend on their being transparent and reflecting the historic +attitude of the time which gave them birth. The clearer the traces +they display of love and hatred, jealousy of rivals and joy in +their fall, the nearer are we to the forces which originated the +tradition about early times. In the Priestly Code all those +stories are absent in which there is anything morally objectionable,-- +those for example in which the cowardice of the patriarchs +endangers the honour of their wives, those of Sarah's cruel +jealousy of Hagar, and of the unlovely contention of Leah and +Rachel for husband and children, of the incest of Lot's +daughters, of the violation of Dinah. All hatred, and strife, +and deceit in the patriarchal family disappear: Lot and Abraham, +Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, agree to separate: of the +tricks of Laban and Jacob to each other, of the treachery of +Simeon and Levi to Shechem, of the enmity Joseph's brethren bore +to him, there is not a word in the Priestly Code. It is not +merely that "psychological decorations," as they have been +called, are left out; the very heart of the business has been +cut out. That Moab and Ammon, Ishmael and Edom, were Hebrew +peoples, all more nearly or more distantly related to the +Israelites, that the Aramaeans too were closely connected with +the Hebrews by blood and by marriage, that this tribe lives in +one district contiguous to Palestine, that in another--this is what +the Priestly Code has to tell. Dry ethnographical and +geographical facts like these are presented in a genealogical +form; all we learn of the patriarchs is their marriages and +births and how they separated to the various dwelling-places of +their descendants. And folklore could not possibly be directed +to such facts as these at a period when these relations were all +matters of fact and familiar to every child. The Priestly Code, +moreover, strips the legends of the patriarchs of their local as +well as their historical colour; they are kept at a distance from +all the places of the sacredness of which the Jehovist makes them +the founders. /1/ + +********************************************** +1. Hupteld gives a curious turn to this, saying that in the +Priestly Code Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have much more permanent +settlements. But it is this work that insists so often on the +fact that the patriarchs were pilgrims and had nowhere a fixed +residence: it only says that Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, +and names no particular place even as the scene of the theophany +in chapter xvii. It is only when the question of burying Sarah +and Abraham arises that there is a change. Something must be +done, and the field of Machpelah near Hebron is acquired (no doubt +JE reported this, but the account of it in that source is lost) as +a possession of the patriarchal family, where it now settles more +permanently. That Isaac and Jacob continue to dwell at the grave +of Abraham is a statement of which the significance is negative +rather than positive, and on the other hand the patriarchal +journeys up and down in JE are not designed to represent them as +wandering nomads, but serve to bring them in contact with all the +sacred places with which they had special associations, +*********************************************** + +No historical geography is needed in order to understand the +narrative of the Priestly Code in Genesis: but that is only to +say that it stands quite away from the soil out of which oral +tradition arises. It deals in no etymology, no proverbs nor +songs, no miracles, theophanies nor dreams, and is destitute of +all that many-coloured poetic charm which adorns the Jehovistic +narratives. But this proves not its original simplicity but its +neglect of the springs from which legend arises, and of its most +essential elements. /1/ What remains is anything but historical +objectivity: it is the formula and nothing more. + +******************************************** +1. Riehm (op. cit. p. 302 seq.) thinks it is made out that the +religious tradition of remote antiquity is distinguished by its +"modest simplicity", and by a "style suited to its exalted +subject." Only in the course of time was it adorned with all sorts +of miraculous and mysterious elements, and that by the "fancy of +the people," which, however, does not so easily gain entrance +into serious literature(!) He appeals to the fact that the +conception of angels, though certainly long developed with the +people, occurs in the earlier prophets only in isolated instances, +and in the later prophets, as Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, more +frequently. It is difficult to sift out what is true and what is +false in this confused argument. In the Priestly Code there are, +it is true, no angels, but on the other hand we have Azazel and +Seirim (2Chronicles xi. 15; Isaiah xiii. 21, xxxiv. 14, comp. +supra), for where the gods are not, the ghosts have sway. +In one of the two main sources of the Jehovist (J), we find +chiefly the Mal'ak Jahve (message of Jehovah); that is Jehovah +Himself in so far as He appears and manifests Himself, whether in +a natural phenomenon or in human form. Different are the B'ne +Elohim, beings of divine substance: they perhaps are indicated +in the 1st plural in the mouth of Jehovah (Genesis iii. 22, xi. 7). +Both of these are doubtless very old. In the other principal +source (E) a mixture appears to have taken place: the heavenly +hosts are not only the children and companions of Deity, but also +its messengers, conductors of the communication between heaven and +earth (:xviii. 12); here we have the Mal'akim beside God and in +the plural. This view also is not exactly a late one, as we see +from the vision of Micaiah (t Kings xxii. 19). What does Riehm +mean by high antiquity? A period from which no monuments are +preserved to us? Why does he limit his attention to the +prophetic literature? He concedes that the idea of angels was +early present "in the fancy of the people," and he should have +been equal to the further concession that those who wrote down the +FOLKLORE occupied a somewhat different position to POPULAR BELIEF +from that of the prophetic preachers of repentance. Not even the +historical books admit of being measured by the same standard in +this matter as the pre-historic tradition. And which is the more +original--that the angels use a ladder as in Genesis, or that they +have wings as in Isaiah? And finally as for the reference to +Ezekiel (?), Zechariah, and Daniel, the difference appears to me to +be tolerably plain between a systematic angelology which +operates always with numbers and names and the childlike belief in +angels. The former removes God to a distance, the latter brings Him +near. +************************************************* + +As with the legend of the beginnings of things, so with the legend +of the patriarchs: what is essential and original is the individual +element in the several stories; the connection is a secondary matter, +and only introduced on the stories being collected and reduced to +writing. But in the Priestly Code the individuality of the several +stories is simply destroyed: to such an extent is the connection +dwelt on. What meaning is there in the statement that Jacob was all +at once called Israel, i.e., Fight-God (xxxv. 10), if no mention is +made of his wrestling with El, which was the occasion of his change +of name? Have we anything like the true history of Joseph in the +Priestly Code? Can we regard it as the original history, when +the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is dismissed in a +subordinate clause, as is done in xix. 29 ? The remarkable +admission has been made, /1/ that it is plain from the summary + +***************************************** +1. Riehm, op.. cit. p. 292. +**************************************** + +manner of reporting of the Priestly Code, that the author could +have told his story at much greater length, had it been +consistent with the plan of his work to do so, and that this +certainly points to sources where greater detail was used. The +more detailed source, however, which is thus taken for granted, +need by no means, it is said, have been a written one, and least +of all the Jehovistic narrative before us; on the contrary, we +are told, the state of the case is best satisfied by the +assumption that the author held a more detailed narrative to be +unnecessary, because the oral tradition, living in the mouth of +the people, was quite able to fill in the colours in his outlines +and to convert his chronistic notices into living pictures. But +this is merely an attempt to elude the necessity for exactly +comparing the Priestly Code and the Jehovist. The question is, +which of the two writings stands nearest to the starting-point? +Is it the one which attaches most importance to elements which are +foreign to the nature of oral tradition altogether and only added +in literary composition? It would be a curious thing if the +writing down of the tradition began with writing down what the +legend did not contain. What is set before us in the Priestly +Code is the quintessence not of the oral tradition, but of the +tradition when already written down. And the written account of +the primitive history which it employs is the Jehovistic +narrative. The order in which the popular legends are there placed +here becomes the very kernel of the narrative. There the plan +was hidden behind the execution, but here it comes forward not +indeed essentially changed, but sharp and accentuated, as the +principal feature of the whole. + + +VIII.II.3. The Jehovist still lives in the spirit of the legend, +but the Priestly Code is strange to that spirit, and does violence +to the legend, by treating it from its own point of view, which is +quite different from the old one. Moral and religious culture is +further advanced; and hence the removal of real or apparent offences +against morality and of notions which are too childish, or superstitious, +or even mythical. If the Godhead appears, it must not be patent +to the senses, at least it must not be seen in visible form. +Jehovah speaks with Jacob, but not in a dream from the heavenly +ladder; He reveals Himself to Moses, but not in the burning bush; +the notion of revelation is retained, but the subsidiary +incidents which must be added to make a concrete of the abstract, +are stripped off. It is a matter of indifference under what forms +or through what media a man receives revelation, if only the fact +stands sure; in other words, revelation is no longer a living +reality of the present, but a dead dogma for the past. The +progress of culture in the Priestly Code is most of all evident +in the learned historical treatment with which the legend is +overlaid. First of all there is the chronology, which we +encountered even in the legend of the origins of mankind, and +which is naturally continued in the patriarchal legend. Here +indeed we see with special plainness how foreign learned +calculation is to the poetical materials; in some instances the +facts lead to quite a different view from that of the numbers. +Following the numbers of the Priestly Code we may, with the +Rabbis, regard Shem and Eber as the venerable heads of the Jewish +school in which the child Jacob learned his letters and the Torah. +Then Jacob's sojourn in Mesopotamia lasts about eighty years, and +all this time Isaac is Iying on his death-bed; after being long +dead for us, he suddenly appears again, but only to die. And +hand in hand with the chronology there goes the general +predilection of the Priestly Code for numbers and names, which +displays itself even in Genesis, though not nearly so marked +there as in the later books of the Pentateuch. Oral folklore can +very well contain round numbers, such as the twelve sons and the +seventy souls of the family of Jacob, the twelve wells and the +seventy palm trees at Elim, the seventy elders and the twelve +spies; but a chronological system, whole lists of exact and +considerable numbers, bare catalogues of personal names, none of +them having any significance, dates and measurements such as +those in the account of the flood in the Priestly Code, require +writing even to originate, not to speak of transmitting them. +These art-products of pedantry toke the place of the living +poetic detail of the Jehovist narrative; the element of episode +has to give way to the seriousness of dry history. + +It is also a mark of historical pedantry that the mixing up of +the period of the patriarchs with a later period is avoided as +anachronistic. In the Jehovist the present everywhere shines +through, he in no way conceals his own age; we are told that +Babylon is the great world-city, that the Assyrian Empire is in +existence, with the cities of Niniveh and Calah and Resen; that +the Canaanites had once dwelt in Palestine, but had long been +absorbed in the Israelites. The writer of the Priestly Code is +very careful not to do anything like this. /1/ He brushes up the + +**************************************** +1. Hence also archaisms such as Kirjath-Arba, Luz, Ephrath. +Compare the antiquarian lore in Deuteronomy i.-iv. and in +Genesis xiv. +****************************************** + +legend and makes history of it according to the rules of art; he +kills it as legend, and deprives it of all real value, such as it +possesses, not indeed for the history of primitive times, but for +that of the age of the kings. + +The history of the first men and of the patriarchs is divided by +the Priestly Code into three periods, each of them opened by a +covenant. The covenant with Adam (Genesis i. 28-ii. 4) is the +simplest; it is not called a covenant, but it is the basis of the +second covenant with Noah (ix. 1-17), which modifies it in +important particulars, and brings it nearer to the present age. +The covenant with Abraham (Genesis xvii.), which alone is ratified +with the succeeding patriarchs, does not apply to the whole of +mankind, but only to Abraham's seed, and especially to Israel. +The first sign of the covenant is the Sabbath (Genesis ii. 3; +comp. Exodus xxxi. 12 seq.; Ezekiel xx. 12, 20), the second +the rainbow (Genesis ix. 12), the third circumcision (xvii. 10). +The first parent of mankind is enjoined to use a purely vegetable +diet, the father of mankind after the, flood receives permission +to slaughter animals; but he is expressly ordered not to eat +flesh in the blood, and besides, to shed the blood of no man. +What is said to Noah remains good for Abraham; but to the latter +God promises that his posterity by Sarah shall possess the land +of Canaan, and this is further assured by the purchase of the +cave of Machpelah for a family burying-place, the purchase being +executed according to all the forms of law, with prolonged +negotiations. Further, God reveals Himself to Abraham as El +Shaddai, and under this name He also manifests Himself to Isaac +(xxviii. 3) and Jacob (xxxv. 11), repeating to them the promise +of the possession of the land. It is pointed out with emphasis +that God was not known to the pre-Mosaic time under His Israelite +name, that He revealed Himself to the patriarchs only as El +Shaddai, and as Jehovah first to Moses (Exod. vi. 2, 3). With +a similar intention, which is not far to seek, the time of the +patriarchs is kept free of the other Mosaic forms of worship; +hence we have here no sacrifices nor altars, no distinction of +clean and unclean beasts, nor anything of the kind. Now till +within a short time ago, there was a great inclination (no one +will be found at this date to acknowledge that he felt it) to +admire the sobriety and faithfulness of the Priestly Code, as +shown in this observance of the different religious stages. +But in fact we can only admire these advantages in it, if we +believe that the religion was at first naturalistic, that then +all at once it became a good deal more positive, and then quite +positive in the year 1500 B.C. How can we regard it as showing +historical faithfulness, that the patriarchs were allowed to +slaughter, but not to sacrifice, and that first the Sabbath was +introduced, then the rainbow, then circumcision, and at last +sacrifice, under Moses? It is natural that Jacob at Bethel should +give tithes of all that he possesses, unnatural that the eponymous +hero should not in worship above all things have left a good example +to his posterity. What is it but a theory, that the name Jehovah +was first revealed to Moses, and through him to the Israelites, +and that it was quite unknown before?--a theory which certainly +cannot be upheld, for Moses could have done nothing more irrational +than to introduce a new name for the God of their fathers, to whom +he directed his people,--and yet a theory which, from the correlation +between Jehovah the God of Israel and Israel the people of Jehovah, +readily suggests itself, and is not altogether peculiar to the +author of the Priestly Code. /1/. He had a pattern which suggested + +**************************************** +1. Exodus vi. 2, 3 (Q) = iii. 13, 14 (JE). The burning bush shows +the theophany in the Jehovist to be the earlier. In the Priestly +Code it almost loses the character of a theophany entirely. But +this is also quite clear on a comparison of Exodus vii. 1 (Q) and +iv. 16 (JE). The phrase vii. 1, " Behold, I make thee a god to +Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet," is a +degradation of the corresponding passage, iv. 16 "Aaron shall be +to thee for a mouth, and thou shalt be to him for a god." For if +Aaron is the prophet or the mouth of Moses, then in the original +and only appropriate way of thinking of the matter, Moses is a +god for Aaron, not for Pharaoh. By the way is there anything in +the similarity between Sene and Sinai? +****************************************** + +certain lines, and these he traces strongly and with a system; +and he even goes so far as to avoid the name of Jehovah even in +his own narrative of the pre-Mosaic period. Even when speaking +in his own person, he says Elohim, not Jehovah, down to Exodus vi. + +The three periods and the three corresponding covenants of the +early age are preliminaries to the fourth period and the fourth +covenant. The narrator everywhere has an eye to the Mosaic law, +and the thought of it determined the plan which comes so prominently +into view in his representation of the origins of human history. +The great features of this plan are the great official transactions +of Jehovah with the patriarchs. In these we have not a narrative +but only speeches and negotiations; the preliminary laws are given +in them, which, as they advance step by step, prepare the way +for the great Law, namely, the Mosaic. The law of worship has +taken the place of the legend of worship. In the legend the +sacred usages and customs arise, as it were, spontaneously, in +connection with any occasion, placed in the early sacred time, +which may serve to account for them. Jehovah does not make it +statutory that the sinew of the thigh may not be eaten; but He +wrestles with Israel, and injures the sinew of his thigh during +the wrestling, and for this reason the children of Israel do not +eat thereof. In the following story it is explained how it came +about that the Israelites circumcise young boys (Exodus iv. 25 +seq.). As Moses was returning from Midian to Goshen, he spent a +night on the road, and Jehovah fell upon him with the intention of +killing him. His wife, Zipporah, however, took a flint and cut +off the foreskin of her son, and touched Moses L:RAGLFYW with it, +saying, Thou art a blood-bridegroom to me. Then Jehovah let him +go. Thus Zipporah circumcises her son instead of her husband, +makes the latter symbolically a blood-bridegroom, and thereby +delivers him from the wrath of Jehovah to which he is exposed, +because he is not a blood-bridegroom, ie., because he has not +submitted to circumcision before his marriage. In other words, +the circumcision of male infants is here explained as a milder +substitute for the original circumcision of young men before +marriage. /1/ Compare with this the style in which in Genesis xvii + +************************************************ +1. That this is in fact the original custom is clear from the word +XTN, which signifies both circumcision and bridegroom (or in +Arabic, son-in-law). This explains the meaning of XTN DMYM in +Exodus iv. 25. The original usage is still in force with some +Arab tribes. In Genesis xxxiv. Shechem has to submit to +circumcision before marriage. +*************************************************** + +the Priestly Code institutes the circumcision of male children on +the eighth day after birth. This institution completely throws +into the shade and spoils the story out of which it arose, namely, +the promise of the birth of Isaac as a reward to Abraham of the +hospitality he showed Jehovah at Hebron. But there is more than +a difference in form, there is a material contradiction between +the Jehovistic legend and the priestly law. The law purifies the +legend, that is to say, denies all its main features and motives. +As we saw in the first chapter there is a conscious polemic at work +in the representation in the Priestly Code that Abraham, Isaac, +and Jacob erect no altars, and practice no religious rites, and +that they have no connection with the sacred places with which +in JE they are inseparably associated. The popular religious +book preserved to us in the Jehovistic Genesis, not corrected +to any great extent, though certainly to some extent, tells how +the ancestors and representatives of Israel founded the old popular +worship at the principal sites at which it was kept up. The law +of the legitimate cultus of Jerusalem, as it lies before us in the +Priestly Code, reforms and destroys the old popular worship on +the basis of Mosaic, i.e., prophetical ideas. The tabernacle +does not harmonize with the sanctuaries of Hebron, Beersheba, +Shechem, Kadesh, Mahanaim, Lahai-Roi, Bethel; the patriarchs live +at Hebron only because they are to be buried there, not to +entertain the Deity under the oak of Mamre and to build an altar +there. The heretical mac,c,ebas, trees and wells, disappear, and +with them the objectionable customs: that God should have +summoned Abraham to offer up to Him his only son is an idea the +Priestly Code could not possibly entertain. The whole material +of the legend is subordinated to legislative designs: the +modifying influence of the law on the narrative is everywhere +apparent. + +The attitude of Judaism to the old legend is on the whole negative, +but it added some new elements. While the patriarchs are not +allowed to sacrifice, only to slaughter, they have, on the other +hand, the Sabbath /1/ and circumcision. In this they are like + +**************************************** +I The Sabbath is not a Mosaic institution according to the Priestly +Code. But it is presupposed in Exodus xvi., and according to Genesis +ii. 3, it was in force from the beginning of the world. With the +old Israelites the Sabbath was much less important in relation to +worship than the festivals: in Judaism the opposite was the case. +***************************************** + +the Jews in Babylon, who were deprived of the national cultus, and +replaced it with these two symbols of religious membership and +union, which were independent of the temple of Jerusalem. In the +exile, after the cessation of the service of the altar, the Sabbath +and circumcision attained that significance as symbols--in the +genuine old meaning of the Greek word--as practical symbols of +Judaism, which they retain to the present day. The emphasis is +noteworthy with which the Priestly Code always insists on the +fact that the patriarchs sojourned in a strange land, that they +were _Gerim_. If we also consider that Abraham is said to have +migrated into Palestine from Ur, from Chaldaea, it is hardly possible +to reject the idea that the circumstances of the exile had some +influence in moulding the priestly form of the patriarchal +legend. In spite of all the efforts of the historian, and all the +archaic appearance of his work, it may in that case still be the +fact that the surroundings of the narrator found positive +expression in his description of the patriarchal times. + + + +VIII.III. + +<VIII.III.1.> In the Jehovistic history-book Genesis is a most +important part, and occupies at least a half of the whole work: +in the Priestly Code, Genesis quite disappears in comparison with +the later books. Only with the Mosaic legislation does this work +arrive at its own ground, and it at once stifles the narrative +under a mass of legislative matter. Here also there is a thin +historical thread running parallel to the Jehovist, but we constantly +lose sight of it from the repeated interruptions made by extensive +ritual laws and statistical statements. + +"These last four books of Moses have been made quite unreadable by +a most melancholy, most incomprehensible, revision. The course of +the history is everywhere interrupted by the insertion of +innumerable laws, with regard to the greater part of which it is +impossible to see any reason for their being inserted where they +are." The dislocation of the narrative by these monstrous growths +of legislative matter is not, as Goethe thinks, to be imputed to +the editor; it is the work of the unedited Priestly Code itself, +and is certainly intolerable; nor can it be original; the +literary form of the work at once shows this. It is still +possible to trace how the legal matter forces its way into the +narrative, and once there spreads itself and takes up more and +more room. In the Jehovist, one form of the tradition may still +be discerned, according to which the Israelites on crossing the +Red Sea at once proceeded towards Kadesh, without making the detour +to Sinai. We only get to Sinai in Exodus xix., but in Exodus +xvii. we are already at Massah and Meribah, ie., on the ground +of Kadesh. That is the scene of the story of Moses striking water +out of the rock with his staff: there the fight with the Amalekites +took place--they lived there and not at Sinai--there also the visit +of Jethro, which requires a locality at some distance from his home +(at Sinai), a place where the people had not merely a temporary +encampment, but their permanent seat of justice. /1/ + +******************************************* +1. Kadesh is also called Meribah, the seat of justice, or Meribath +Kadesh, the seat of justice at the holy spring. Meribah is in +its meaning the same as Midian. +********************************************* + +Hence the narratives which are told before the arrival at Sinai are +repeated after the departure from it, because the locality is the +same before and after, namely, the wilderness of Kadesh, the true +scene of the Mosaic history. The institution of judges and elders +concludes the narrative before the great Sinai section, and begins +the narrative after it (Ex. xviii., Numbers xi ). The story of +the manna and the quails occurs not only in Exodus xvi., but also +in Numbers xi; and the rocky spring called forth by Moses at +Massah and Meribah is both in Exodus xvii. and Numbers xx. In +other words, the Israelites arrived at Kadesh, the original object +of their wanderings, not after the digression to Sinai but +immediately after the Exodus, and they spent there the forty +years of their residence in the wilderness. Kadesh is also the +original scene of the legislation. "There He made them statute and +judgment, and there He proved them," we read in a poetical +fragment, before the Sinai section (Exodus xv. 25), which is now +placed in the narrative of the healing of the waters at Marah, but +stands there quite isolated and without bearing on its context. +The curious conjunction of judgment and trial points unmistakably +to Massah and Meribah (ie., judgment and trial-place), that is, to +Kadesh, as the place spoken of. But the legislation at the seat of +judgment at Kadesh is not represented as a single act in which +Moses promulgates to the Israelites once for all a complete and +comprehensive body of laws; it goes on for forty years, and +consists in the dispensation of justice at the sanctuary, which he +begins and the priests and judges carry on after him according to +the pattern he set. This is the idea in the extremely +instructive narrative in Exodus xviii., of which Kadesh is the +scene. And in this way the Torah has its place in the historical +narrative, not in virtue of its matter as the contents of a code, +but from its form as constituting the professional activity of +Moses. It is in the history not as a result, as the sum of the +laws and usages binding on Israel, but as a process; it is shown +how it originated, how the foundation was laid for the living +institution of that Torah which still exists and is in force in +Israel. + +The true and original significance of Sinai is quite independent +of the legislation. It was the seat of the Deity, the sacred +mountain, doubtless not only for the Israelites, but generally +for all the Hebrew and Cainite (Kenite) tribes of the surrounding +region. The priesthood of Moses and his successors was derived +from the priesthood there: there Jehovah appeared to him in the +burning bush when he was keeping the sheep of the priest of Midian, +from there He sent him to Egypt. There, to the Israelites, Jehovah +still dwelt long after they had settled in Palestine; in the song +of Deborah He is summoned to come from Sinai to succour His +oppressed people and to place Himself at the head of His +warriors. According to the view of the poet of Deuteronomy xxxiii. +the Israelites did not go to Jehovah to Sinai, but the converse; +He came to them from Sinai to Kadesh: "Jehovah came from Sinai +and shone from Seir unto them; He lightened from Mount Paran and +came to Meribath Kadesh." /1/ + +************************************** +1. We do not know where Sinai was situated, and the Bible is +scarcely at one on the subject. Only dilettanti care much for +controversy on the matter. The Midian of Exodus ii. tells us +most: it is probably Madian on the Arabic shore of the Ked sea. +In our passage Sinai seems to be S.E. of Edom; the way from +Sinai to Kadesh is by Seir and Paran. +****************************************** + +But it is not difficult to see how it came to be thought more seemly +that the Israelites should undertake the journey to Jehovah. This +was at first put in the form that they appeared there before the +face of Jehovah to worship Him and offer Him a sacrifice (Exodus +iii. 12), and at their departure they received the ark instead +of Jehovah Himself, who continued to dwell on Sinai (Exodus +xxxiii.); for the ark represents Jehovah, that constitutes its +significance, and not the tables of the law, which were not in it +at first. It was a further step to make Sinai the scene of the +solemn inauguration of the historical relation between Jehovah and +Israel. This was done under the poetic impulse to represent the +constituting of the people of Jehovah as a dramatic act on an +exalted stage. What in the older tradition was a process which +went on quietly and slowly, occupied completely the whole period +of Moses, and was at the beginning just such as it still continued +to be, was now, for the sake of solemnity and vividness, +compressed into a striking scene of inauguration. If this were +done, the covenant between Jehovah and Israel must receive a +positive (as well as a negative) character, that is to say, +Jehovah Himself must announce to the people the basis and the +conditions of it. Thus the necessity arose to communicate in +this place the contents of the fundamental laws, and so the matter +of the legislation made its way into the historical narrative. +But that it did not belong originally to this place we see from +the confusion which obtains even in the Jehovistic Sinai section +(Exodus xix.-xxiv., xxxii.-xxxiv.). The small bodies of laws +which are here communicated may in themselves be old enough, +but they are forced into the narrative. It is only of what is +relatively the most recent corpus, the Decalogue (in E), that +this cannot be asserted. + +As the Jehovistic work was originally a pure history-book, so +Deuteronomy, when it was first discovered, was a pure law-book. +/1/ + +**************************************************** +1. Chapters xii.-xxvii. The two historical introductions, chapter +i.-iv. and chapter v.-xi. were added later, as well as the +appendices, chapter xxviii. seq. +**************************************************** + +These two works, the historical and legal, were at first quite +independent of each other; only afterwards were they conjoined, +perhaps that the new law might share in the popularity of the old +people's book, and at the same time infuse into it its own spirit. +It made it the easier to do this, that, as we have just seen, a +piece of law had already been taken up into the Jehovistic +history-book. To the Decalogue, at the beginning of the period of +the forty years, was now added Deuteronomy at the close of that +period. The situation--of which the law itself knows nothing--is +very well chosen, not only because Moses is entitled when making +his testament to anticipate the future and make a law for the time +to come, but also because, the law being placed at the close of +his life, the thread of the narrative is not further interrupted, +the law being simply inserted between the Pentateuch and the Book +of Joshua. This combination of Deuteronomy with the Jehovist was +the beginning of the combination of narrative and law; and the +fact that this precedent was before the author of the Priestly +Code explains how, though his concern was with the Torah alone, +he yet went to work from the very outset and comprised in his work +the history of the creation, as if it also belonged to the Torah. +This manner of setting forth the Torah in the form of a history +book is not in the least involved in the nature of the case; on +the contrary, it introduces the greatest amount of awkwardness. +How it came about can only be explained in the way above +described; an antecedent process of the same nature in literary +history led the way and made the suggestion. /2/ + +******************************************* +2. That the author of the Priestly Code had before him the +combination of the Sinai legislation of the Jehovist and +Deuteronomy is shown further by the circumstance that he has both +a legislation at Mount Sinai and a legislation in the Arboth Moah, +and in addition to these one in the wilderness of Sinai. +******************************************** + +As from the literary point of view, so also from the historical, +the Moses of the Jehovist appears more original than the Moses of +the Priestly Code. To prove this is, it is true, the aim of the +entire present work: yet it will not on that account be thought +out of place if we take advantage of this convenient opportunity +for a brief sketch and criticism of the conflicting historical views +of Moses and his work in the two main sources of the Pentateuch. +According to the Priestly Code Moses is a religious founder and +legislator, as we are accustomed to think of him. He receives and +promulgates the Torah, /1/ perhaps not as a book--though, when we + +************************************** +1. The law might accordingly be called Moses, as with the Ethiopians +the Psalter is called David, +************************************** + +come to think of it, we can hardly represent the transaction to +ourselves in any other way--but certainly fixed and finished as +an elaborate and minutely organised system, which comprises the +sacred constitution of the congregation for all time to come. +The whole significance of Moses consists in the office of messenger +which he holds as mediator of the law; what else he does is of no +importance. That the law is given once for all is the great event +of the time, not that the people of Israel begins to appear on the +stage of the world. The people is there for the sake of the law, +not the law for the sake of the people. With the Jehovist, on the +contrary, Moses' work consists in this, that he delivers his +people from the Egyptians and cares for it in every way in the +wilderness. In the prelude scene from his youth, when he smites +the Egyptian and seeks to adjust the dispute of his brethren +(Exodus ii. 11 seq.), his whole history is prefigured. His care +for the Israelites embraces both catering for their sustenance, +and making and preserving peace and order among them (Numbers xi.). +The Torah is but a part of his activity, and proceeds from his +more general office as the guardian of the young people, who has, +as it were, to teach the fledgling to fly (Numbers xi. xii.). +According to Exodus xviii. his Torah is nothing but a giving of +counsel, a finding the way out of complications and difficulties +which had actually arisen. Individuals bring their different +cases before him; he pronounces judgment or gives advice, and in +so doing teaches the people the way they should go. Thus he is +the beginner of the teaching of Jehovah which lives on after him +in priest and prophet. Here all is life and movement: as Jehovah +Himself, so the man of God, is working in a medium which is alive; +is working practically, by no means theoretically, in history, +not in literature. His work and activity may be told in a +narrative, but the contents of it are more than a system, and are +not to be reduced to a compendium; it is not done and finished off, +it is the beginning of a series of infinite activities. In the +Priestly Code the work of Moses lies before us clearly defined +and rounded off; one living a thousand years after knows it as +well as one who saw it with his eyes. It is detached from its +originator and from his age: lifeless itself, it has driven the +life out of Moses and out of the people, nay, out of the very +Deity. This precipitate of history, appearing as law at the +beginning of the history, stifles and kills the history itself. +Which of the two views is the more historical, we can accordingly +be at no loss to decide. It may be added that in the older Hebrew +literature the founding of the nation and not the giving of the +law is regarded as the theocratic creative act of Jehovah. The +very notion of the law is absent: only covenants are spoken of, +in which the representatives of the people undertake solemn +obligations to do or leave undone something which is described +in general terms. + +Another point of difference must be mentioned here, though indeed +it is a matter which has been before us more than once already. +That which is in the Priestly Code the subject-matter of the +Torah of Moses, namely, the institution of the cultus, the +Jehovist traces to the practice of the patriarchs--one more result +of the difference between law and legend. The Moses of the +Priestly Code conflicts not only with the future, but with the +past; he comes into collision with history on every side. That +view is manifestly the only natural one according to which the +worship is not specifically Israelite, not a thing instituted by +Moses in obedience to a sudden command of the Deity, but an +ancestral tradition. But at the time when the Priestly Code was +drawn up the worship was certainly the one thing that made Israel +Israel. In it the church, the one congregation of worship, takes +the place of the people even in the Mosaic age--sorely against +history, but characteristically for the author's point of view. + +Now even such authorities as Bleek, Hupfeld, and Knobel have been +misled by the appearance of historical reality which the Priestly +Code creates by its learned art here as well as in the history +of the patriarchs. They have regarded the multiplicity of +numbers and names, the minute technical descriptions, the strict +keeping up of the scenery of camp-life, as so many signs of +authentic objectivity. Noldeke made an end of this critical +position once for all, but Colenso is properly entitled to the +credit of having first torn the web asunder. /1/ + +***************************************** +1. See Kuenen in the Theol. Tijdschrift, 1870, p. 393-401. +****************************************** + +The boldness with which numbers and names are stated, and the +preciseness of the details about indifferent matters of furniture, +do not prove them to be reliable: they are not drawn from +contemporary records, but are the fruit solely of late Jewish +fancy, a fancy which, it is well known, does not design nor +sketch, but counts and constructs, and produces nothing more than +barren plans. Without repeating the description of the tabernacle +in Exodus xxv. word for word, it is difficult to give an idea how +circumstantial it is; we must go to the source to satisfy +ourselves what the narrator can do in this line. One would imagine +that he was giving specifications to measurers for estimates, or +that he was writing for carpet-makers and upholsterers; but they +could not proceed upon his information, for the incredibly matter- +of-fact statements are fancy all the same, as was shown in chapter +i. The description of the tabernacle is supplemented in the Book +of Numbers by that of the camp; the former being the centre, this +is the circle drawn about it, and consists of an outer ring, the +twelve secular tribes, a middle ring, the Levites, and an innermost +one, the sons of Aaron: a mathematical demonstration of the +theocracy in the wilderness. The two first chapters contain the +census of the twelve tribes, and their allocation in four quarters, +nothing but names and numbers. To this first census chapter xxxiv. +adds another at the close of the forty years, in which the various +detailed figures are different, but the total is about the same. +This total, 600,000 warriors, comes from the older tradition, but +is proved to be quite worthless by the fact that in a really +authentic document the levy of Israel in the time of Deborah is +stated to be 40,000 strong. Still, the Priestly Code is entitled +to the credit of having made the total a little less round, and of +having broken it up into artificial component parts. The muster of +the people is followed in Numbers iii. iv. by the dedication of +the tribe of Levi to the sanctuary, in compensation for the +firstborn males of the Israelites who up to that time had not been +sacrificed nor yet redeemed. There are 22,273 firstborn males to +be provided for, and there are 22,000 male Levites above a month +old. The 273 extra firstborn males are specially redeemed at five +shekels a head. What accuracy! But what of the fact that a people +of at least two millions has only 22,273 firstborn males, or say +50,000 firstborn of both sexes? This gives an average of forty +children to every woman, for the firstborn in the sense of the law +is that which first opens the womb. The continuation of Numbers iii. +iv. is in chapter viii. As the Levites are an offering of firstlings +to the sanctuary on the part of the people, which, however, is not +to be sacrificed but made over to the priests, the characteristic +rite of this sort of sacred due has to be gone through with them, +namely, an act imitating that of throwing into the flame of the altar +(Aristeas 31,1. 5). To think of Moses and Aaron heaving the 22,000 +men! Not less striking as an example of this kind of fiction is the +story of Numbers xxxi. Twelve thousand Israelites, a thousand from +each tribe, take the field against Midian, extirpate without any +fighting--at least nothing is anywhere said of this important +point--the whole people, slay all the men and a part of the women, +take captive the unmarried girls, and suffer themselves no loss +whatever. The latter point is asserted very definitely. +"The captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds came to +Moses, and said to him, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men +of war which are under our charge, and there lacketh not one of us." +Of the immeasurable booty of men and cattle Jehovah assigns half +to those who took the field and took part in the battle, the other +half to the congregation; and the former are to give the 500th +part to the priests, the latter the 50th part to the Levites. The +execution of this order is especially reported as follows: +"The booty which the men of war had taken was 675,000 sheep, 72,000 +beeves, 61,000 asses, and 32,000 women that had not lain by man. +And the half which was the portion of them that went out to war +was 337,500 sheep, and Jehovah's tribute of the sheep was 675; +36,000 beeves, tribute to Jehovah 72; 30,500 asses, tribute to +Jehovah 61; 16,000 persons, tribute to Jehovah 32. And Moses +gave the tribute to Jehovah to Eleazar the priest. But the other +half, which Moses divided to the children of Israel, the half due +to the congregation, was 337,500 sheep, 36,000 beeves, 30,500 asses, +16,000 persons, and of the children of Israel's half Moses took one +of fifty and gave them to the Levites." +The calculation of the contribution to Jehovah was quite +easy for Moses, as the 500th part of the half is equivalent to +the 1000th part of the whole; he had only to leave off the +thousands from the first totals. In conclusion, the captains +brought offerings to Jehovah of golden dishes, chains, bracelets, +rings, and earrings, altogether 16,750 shekels weight, as +atonement for their souls +"But that was only the gold which the captains had taken as booty, +for the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself." +We may perhaps be allowed to speculate as to the relation between +these 16,750 shekels which in this passage the captains alone offer +to the tabernacle OF THE GOLD ORNAMENTS OF THE MIDIANITES, and the +1700 shekels which in Judges viii. the whole people dedicate OF THE +GOLD ORNAMENTS OF THE MIDIANITES to set up an image in Ophra. + +It is less easy to account on the theory of pure fiction for the +numerous names sometimes arranged together like a catalogue than +for reported circumstances and numbers. There can certainly be +no doubt that the forty places which are mentioned in the list of +encampments in the wanderings, really existed in the region the +Israelites are reported to have traversed. But he who is +satisfied with this as evidence that we have before us here a +historical document of primitive antiquity, will never be +disturbed by criticism. Was it such a difficult matter to find +out forty definite stations in the wilderness for the forty +years of the wanderings? Even if the elements of the composition +are not fictitious, that is far from proving the composition +itself to be authentic. And in the case of lists of the names of +persons, the elements are often of an extremely doubtful nature; +and here it is well to keep in view the principle of Vatke (op. +cit. p. 675) that no confidence is to be placed in subjects devoid +of predicates, and that persons are not to be taken for real who +have nothing to do. The dozens of names in Numbers i. vii. x. +are almost all made to the same pattern, and have no similarity +whatever to the names genuinely old. The fact that the name of +Jehovah does not enter into their composition only shows that the +composer was not forgetful of his religio-historical theory. + +By its taste for barren names and numbers and technical +descriptions, the Priestly Code comes to stand on the same line +with the Chronicles and the other literature of Judaism which +labours at an artificial revival of the old tradition [VI.I.2 +VI.III.2., VI.III.3. ad fin.]. Of a piece with this tendency is +an indescribable pedantry, belonging to the very being of the +author of the Priestly Code. He has a very passion for classifying +and drawing plans; if he has once dissected a genus into different +species, we get all the species named to us one by one every +time he has occasion to mention the genus. The subsuming use of +the prepositions Lamed and Beth is characteristic of him. He +selects a long-drawn expression wherever he can; he does not weary +of repeating for the hundredth time what is a matter of course +(Numbers viii.), he hates pronouns and all abbreviating substitutes. +What is interesting is passed over, what is of no importance is +described with minuteness, his exhaustive clearness is such as +with its numerous details to confuse our apprehension of what is +in itself perfectly clear. This is what used to be described +in the phraseology of historical criticism as epic breadth. /1/ + +************************************** +1. Riehm, p. 292. "The style is quiet, simple, free from all +rhetorical and poetical ornament, and the expression in speaking +of similar objects has an epic uniformity. Impressive as many +pieces are, just from their unassuming simplicity and +objectivity, there is nowhere any apparent effort to produce +effect or to raise the interest of the reader by the resources of +literary art." For an opposite opinion compare Lichtenberg, +Werke, ii. 162. +*************************************** + +VIII.III.2. Having thus attempted to describe the general contrast +of the Priestly Code and the Jehovist in the Mosaic period, it +remains for us to compare the several stories in the two works. +The Exodus from Egypt is everywhere regarded as the commencement +of Israelite history. In the Priestly Code it is made the epoch +of an era (Exodus xii. 2), which is afterwards dated from, not only +in years but even in months and days. It is unquestionable that +this precise style of dating only came into use among the Hebrews +at a very late period. *We find in the historical books only one +statement of the month in which an event took place (1Kings vi. +38), and in that case the day is not given. To the prophetic +writers dates were of some importance, and the growth of the +practice may to some extent be traced with them. Amos first came +forward "two years before the earthquake." /2/ + +***************************************** +2. Agh. xv. 11, 17: when al-Walid b. al-Mughira was dead, the +Arabs dated after his death to the year of the elephant, which +thereafter was made an epoch. According to others they reckoned +nine years after the death of Hisham b. al-Mughira, to the time +when they built the Caaba, and then they dated from the building +of the Caaba. Comp. the 'Am al Ramada and the 'Am al Ru'af. +****************************************** + +The most precise date in Isaiah is "the year in which king Uzziah +died." Numbers of years are first found in Jeremiah, "the thirteenth +year of king Josiah," and a few more instances. All at once there was +a change: Haggai and Zechariah, prophets who grew up in the Babylonian +exile, always give dates, not only the year and month, but the day of +the month as well. In the Priestly Code this precise reckoning, +which the Jews obviously learned from the Chaldeans, is in use +from the age of Moses onwards. + +In the Jehovist the ostensible occasion of the Exodus is a festival +which the children of Israel desire to hold in honour of their God +in the wilderness. In the Priestly Code this occasion +disappears; there can be no pre-Mosaic festivals. But with this +the reason falls away for which Jehovah kills the firstborn of the +Egyptians, He does it because the king of Egypt is keeping from Him +the firstborn of the Israelites, which ought to be offered to Him +at the festival; for the celebration in question is the sacrificial +festival of the first-fruits of cattle in spring. In the older +tradition the festival is the first thing; it explains the circumstances +of the Exodus and the time of year at which it took place: in the +later one the relation is reversed--the killing of the firstborn of +the Egyptians leads to the sacrifice of the firstborn of Israel, +the Exodus in spring is followed by the festival in spring as its +consequence. The Priestly Code follows this younger tradition, +and deviates from the original account still more widely in the +view it gives of the passover. It obliterates completely the +connection between the passover and the sacrifice of the +firstborn, and represents it not as a giving of thanks to Jehovah +for having slain the firstborn of Egypt, but as instituted at the +moment of the Exodus to induce Jehovah to spare the firstborn of +Israel. How all this is to be understood and judged of we have +discussed more at large in the chapter on the festivals (III.I.1., +III.III.1.). + +As to the accounts given in the two sources of the crossing of the +Red Sea, all we can say is that that of the Jehovist (J) is the +more complicated. According to him the sea is dried up by a +strong wind, and the Egyptians succeed at first in crossing it, +and encounter the Hebrews on the eastern shore during he night. +"But in the morning watch Jehovah turned, in the pillar of fire +and of the cloud, against the host of the Egyptian, and overthrew +the host of the Egyptian, and hindered the wheels of his chariot +and caused him to drive heavily. Then the Egyptian said: I will +flee before Israel, for Jehovah fighteth for them against Egypt. +But the sea turned back towards morning to its ordinary level, +and the Egyptians fled against it, and Jehovah shook them into +the midst of the sea" (Exodus xiv. 24, 25, 27). +According to the Priestly Code /1/ the waves meet over the pursuers, + +************************************** +1. And the younger tradition generally: also according to the +song Exodus xv., which apart from the beginning, which is old, +is a psalm in the manner of the Psalms and has no similarity +with the historical songs, Judges v., 2Samuel i., Numbers xxi. +************************************* + +before they reach the further shore; the idea is much simpler, +but poorer in incidental features. + +The miracle of the manna (Exodus xvi.) is taken advantage of +in the Priestly Code as a very suitable occasion for urging on +the people a strict sanctification of the Sabbath: none falls +on the seventh day, but what is gathered on the sixth keeps two +days, while at other times it requires to be eaten quite fresh. +This pursuit of a legal object destroys the story and obscures +its original meaning, as no one can help seeing. Nor is it any +sign of originality, rather of senility, that in the Priestly Code +the manna is not eaten raw, but boiled and baked. + +At Mount Sinai Moses receives, according to the Priestly Code, +the revelation of--the model of the tabernacle, and he follows +the pattern thus presented to him in the construction, down below, +of the real tabernacle. All further revelation takes place, even +in Moses' time, as far as possible in the tabernacle (Exodus xxv. +22). Even Sinai must not stand any longer than necessary by the +side of the one legitimate seat of Deity. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. Compare, however, Jahrbb.fur Deutsche Theologie, 1877, p. 453, +note 1. +******************************************* + +The tables of the law, it appears, are silently presupposed +without being mentioned beforehand, it being of course assumed +that the readers would know all about them from the old tradition. +The outside of the ark, however, is furnished in the most extravagant +style, and with a splendour which other descriptions of the chest +of acacia-wood are far from suggesting. The ark in the Priestly Code +differs indeed in every way from the appearance of it in 1Kings +vii. 23 seq. We are reminded of the Haggada by the covering which +Moses has to put before his face, which is shining with the reflection +of the glory of Jehovah (Exodus xxxiv. 29-35), and by the making of +the brazen laver of the looking-glasses of the women who serve the +temple (Exodus xxxviii. 8, cf. Numbers xvii. 1, 9); these traits +do not, it is true, belong to the original contents of the Priestly +Code, but they belong to its circle. + +From Sinai the old tradition takes us by this and that station, +mentioned by name, without delay to Kadesh. Here the chief part +of the forty years' sojourn in the wilderness is spent; this, +as we said before, is the true scene of all the stories that are +told about Moses. The Priestly Code takes us in this period, as +in the legend of the patriarchs, not to definite places, but up and +down in the wilderness of Sinai, in the wilderness of Paran, in +the wilderness of Sin. Kadesh is with evident intention thrust as +far as possible into the background--no doubt on account of the +high sanctity the place originally had as the encampment for +many years of the Israelites under Moses. + +The spies are sent out according to the Jehovist from Kadesh, +according to the Priestly Code from the wilderness of Paran. +In the former authority they penetrate to Hebron, whence they +bring back with them fine grapes, but they find that the land +where these grow is not to be conquered. In the latter they +proceed without any difficulty throughout the whole of Palestine +to Lebanon, but have nothing to bring back with them, and advise +against attacking the land because they have not found it +particularly desirable, as if its advantages had been accessible +to faith alone and not to be discovered by unbelieving eyes, as +was actually the case in the time of Haggai and Zechariah, and at +the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. To the genuine Israelite of old, +however, the goodness of his beloved land was not a mere point of +faith which he could ever have doubted. In the former source, as +we judge from Deuteronomy i. 23, only the number of the spies was +given; in the latter all the twelve are named. In the former +Caleb is the only good spy, in the latter Caleb and Joshua. At +first probably neither the one nor the other belonged to this +story; but Caleb easily came to be named as an exception, +because he actually conquered the district from Kadesh to Hebron, +which the spies had declared it impossible to take, and which the +Israelites, alarmed by their account, had not ventured to attack. +Joshua, again, was added from the consideration that, according to +the principle enunciated by the Jehovist in Numbers xiv. 23, 24, +he must have shared the merit of Caleb, because he partook of the +same exceptional reward with him. + +In the Jehovist Moses alone instructs the spies and receives their +report on their return; in the Priestly Code Moses and Aaron do +so. In the oldest source of the Jehovist (J) Aaron has not yet +made his appearance; in the Priestly Code Moses must not do any +public act without him. /1/ + +******************************************* +1. In the same way, in the former source Joshua always acts alone; +in the latter, he always has the priest Eleazar at his side. +Compare notes [in IV.III.2.] +******************************************* + +Moses is still the moving spirit here as well as there, but Aaron +is the representative of the theocracy, and pains are taken to +secure that he shall never be absent where the representatives of +the theocracy are brought face to face with the community. The +desire to introduce the leader of the hierocracy, and with its +leader the hierocracy itself, into the Mosaic history, has borne +the most remarkable fruits in the so-called story of the rebellion +of the company of Korah. According to the Jehovistic tradition +the rebellion proceeds from the Reubenites, Dathan, and Abiram, +prominent members of the firstborn tribe of Israel, and is directed +against MOSES AS LEADER AND JUDGE OF THE PEOPLE. According to the +version of the main-stock of the Priestly Code (Q), the author of +the agitation is Korah, a prince of the tribe of Judah, and he rebels +not only against Moses, but against MOSES AND AARON AS REPRESENTING +THE PRIESTHOOD. In a later addition, which, to judge from its style, +belongs likewise to the Priestly Code, but not to its original +contents, the Levite Korah appears at the head of a revolt of the +Levites against AARON AS HIGH PRIEST, and demands the equalisation +of the lower with the higher clergy. Starting from the Jehovistic +version, the historical basis of which is dimly discerned to be the +fall of Reuben from its old place at the head of the brother-tribes, +we have no difficulty in seeing how the second version arose out of +it. The people of the congregation, i.e., of the church, having once +come on the scene, the spiritual heads, Moses and Aaron, take the +place of the popular leader Moses, and the jealousy of the secular +grandees is now directed against the class of hereditary priests, +instead of against the extraordinary influence on the community of +a heaven-sent hero. All these changes are the natural outcome of +the importation of the hierocracy into Mosaic times. From the +second version we can go further and understand the origin of the +third. In the earlier version the princes of the tribe of Reuben +were forced to give way to a prince of the tribe of Judah. In +the progress of time Korah the prince of the tribe of Judah is +replaced by the eponymous head of a post-exilic Levitical family, +of the same name. The contest between clergy and aristocracy is +here transformed into a domestic strife between the higher and the +inferior clergy, which was no doubt raging in the time of the +narrator. Thus the three versions are developed, the origin and +collocation of which appears from every other point of view to be +an insoluble enigma. The one arises out of the other in the +direct line of descent: the metamorphoses took place under the +influence of great historical changes which are well known to us; +and in the light of Jewish history from Josiah downwards they +are by no means unintelligible. /1/ + +******************************************** +1 The details of the demonstration will be found in the Jahrbb. +fuer Deutsche Theologie, 1776, p. 572 seq., 1877, p. 454, note, +and in the Leyden Theol. Tijdschrift, 1878, p. 139 seq. +******************************************** + +We come to the migration of the Israelites to the land east of the +Jordan. According to the Jehovist the neighbouring tribes place +obstacles in their way, and the land in which they desire to +settle has to be conquered with the sword. The Priestly Code tells +us as little of all this as in an earlier instance of the war with +Amalek; from all it says we should imagine that the Israelites went +straight to their mark and met with no difficulty in the region +in question; the land is ownerless, and the possession of it is +granted by Moses and Eleazar to the two tribes Reuben and Gad +(Numbers xxxii.). But that war may not be completely wanting +under Moses, we have afterwards the war with the Midianites, on +which we have already commented (Numbers xxxi.). There is not much +story about it, only numbers and directions; and in verse 27 +there is a suspicion of 1Samuel xxx. 24, as if that passage were +the groundwork of the whole. The passage is extremely +interesting as showing us the views taken of war by the Jews of +the later time who had grown quite unaccustomed to it. The +occasion of the war also is noticeable; it is undertaken not for +the acquisition of territory, nor with any other practical +object, but only to take vengeance on the Midianites for having +seduced some of the Israelites to uncleanness. + +The elders of Midian, so the story goes, went to the soothsayer +Balaam to ask his advice as to what should be done against the +Israelite invaders. He suggested a means by which the edge of +the invasion might be broken; the Midianites should give their +daughters to the Israelites for wives, and so deprive the holy +people of their strength, the secret of which lay in their +isolation from other peoples. The Midianites took Balaam's advice +and succeeded in entangling many of the Israelites with the +charms of their women; in consequence of which Jehovah visited +the faithless people with a severe plague. The narrative of the +Priestly Code up to this point has to be pieced together from Numbers +xxxi. 8, 16 and Joshua xiii. 22, and from what is implied in the +sequel of it; at this point the portion of it begins which is +preserved to us (Numbers xxv. 6 seq.), and we are told how the +plague was ultimately stayed. A certain man coolly brings a +Midianitish woman into the camp before the very eyes of Moses and +the weeping children of Israel: then the young hereditary priest +Phinehas takes a spear, transfixes the godless pair, and by this +zeal averts the anger of Jehovah. This narrative is based on the +Jehovistic one, which is also preserved to us only in part (Numbers +xxv. 1-5), about the backsliding of Israel in the camp of Shittim +to the service of Baal-Peor, to which they were seduced by the +daughters of Moab. In the Priestly Code the idolatry has quite +disappeared, all but some unconscious reminiscences, and no +sin is alleged but that of whoredom, which in the original story +merely led up to the main offence. This is done manifestly with +the idea that marriage with foreign women is in itself a falling +away from Jehovah, a breach of the covenant. This change was +extremely suitable to the circumstances of exilic and post-exilic +Judaism, for in these later days there was no immediate danger of +gross idolatry, but it took a good deal of trouble to prevent +heathenism from making its way into the midst of the people under +the friendly form of mixed marriages. The version of the +Priestly Code, however, mixes up with the Baal-Peor story of the +Jehovist the figure of Balaam, which is also borrowed from the +Jehovist but entirely transformed in the process. In the form +under which he appears in the early history he transgresses all +the ideas of the Priestly Code. An Aramaean seer, who is hired +for money and makes all sorts of heathen preparations to +prophesy, but who yet is not an impostor, but a true prophet as +much as any in Israel, who even stands in the most intimate +relations with Jehovah, though cherishing the intention of cursing +Jehovah's people--that is too much for exclusive Judaism. The +correction is effected by the simple device of connecting Balaam +with the following section, and making him the intellectual +instigator of the devilry of the Midianitish women; and in this +new form which he assumes in the Priestly Code he lives on in the +Haggada. The reason for changing the Moabites into Midianites +is not made clear; but the fact is undoubted that the Midianites +never lived in that part of the world. + +In the Book of Numbers the narrative sections, which are in the +style and colour of the Priestly Code, have more and more the +character of mere additions and editorial supplements to a +connection which was already there and had a different origin. +The independent main stock of the Priestly Code, the Book of the +Four Covenants, or the Book of Origins (Q), more and more gives way +to later additions, and ceases altogether, it appears, at the +death of Moses. It is at least nowhere to be traced in the first +half of the Book of Joshua, and so we cannot reckon as part of it +those extensive sections of the second half, belonging to the +Priestly Code, which treat of the division of the land. Without a +preceding history of the conquest these sections are quite in the +air; they cannot be taken as telling a continuous story of +their own, but presuppose the Jehovistic-Deuteronomic work. In +spite of distaste to war and to records of war (1Chronicles xxii. +8, xxviii. 3), an independent work like the Book of the Four Covenants +could not possibly have passed over the wars of Joshua in silence. + +A comparison of the different accounts of the entry of the +Israelite tribes into the occupation of the conquered land may +close this discussion. The Priestly Code, agreeing in this with +the Deuteronomistic revision, represents the whole of Canaan as +having been made a _tabula rasa_, and then, masterless and denuded +of population, submitted to the lot. First the tribe of Judah +receives its lot, then Manasseh and Ephraim, then the two tribes +which attached themselves to Ephraim and Judah, Benjamin and +Simeon, and lastly the five northern tribes, Zebulon, Issachar, +Asher, Naphtali, Dan. +"These are the inheritances which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua +ben Nun, and the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel +divided for an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Jehovah at +the door of the tabernacle." + +According to the Jehovist, Judah and Joseph appear to have had +their territory allocated to them at Gilgal (xiv. 6), and not by +lot, and to have entered into occupation of it from there. A good +while afterwards the land remaining over is divided by lot among +the seven small tribes still unprovided for, from Shiloh, or +perhaps originally from Shechem (xviii. 2-10). Joshua alone +casts the lot and gives instructions; Eleazar the priest does not +act with him. Even here the general principle of the Priestly +Code, which knows no differences among the tribes, is somewhat +limited; but it is much more decidedly contradicted by +the important chapter, Judges i. + +The chapter is, in fact, not a continuation of the Book of Joshua +at all, but a parallel to it, which, while it presupposes the +conquest of the east-Jordan lands, does not speak of the +west-Jordan lands as conquered, but tells the story of the +conquest, and that in a manner somewhat differing from the other +source. From Gilgal, where the "Angel of Jehovah" first set up +his tent, the tribes march out one by one to conquer their "lot" +by fighting; first Judah, then Joseph. We hear only of these two, +and with regard to Joseph we only hear of the very beginning of +the conquest of his land. There is no mention of Joshua; nor +would his figure as commander-general of Israel suit the view here +given of the situation; though it would very well admit of him as +leader of his tribe. The incompleteness of the conquest is +acknowledged unreservedly; the Canaanites lived on quietly in the +cities of the plain, and not till the period of the monarchy, +when Israel had grown strong, were they subdued and made tributary. +This chapter, as well as the main stem of the Book of Judges, +corresponds to the Jehovistic stratum of the tradition, to which +also passages in Joshua, of an identical or similar import, may +be added without hesitation. The Angel of Jehovah is enough to tell +us this. The difference which exists between it and the +Jehovistic main version in the Book of Joshua is to be explained +for the most part by the fact that the latter is of Ephraimite origin, +and in consequence ascribes the conquest of the whole land to the +hero of Ephraim or of Joseph, while Judges i. leans more to the tribe +of Judah. Moreover, we find in the Book of Joshua itself the remnant +of a version (ix. 4-7, 12-14) in which, just as in Judges i., the +actors are the "men of Israel," who "ask counsel of the mouth of +Jehovah," while elsewhere Joshua alone has anything to say, being +the successor of Moses, and drawing his decisions from no source +but the authority of his own spirit. And finally, we have to consider +Exodus xxiii., 20 seq., where also there is a correspondence with +Judges i., in the fact that not Joshua but the Angel of Jehovah +(Judges v. 23) is the leader of Israel, and that the promised land +is not conquered all at once but gradually, in the process of time. + +Judges i. presents certain anachronisms, and is partly made up of +anecdotes, but these should not prevent us from acknowledging that +the general view given in this chapter of the process of the +conquest, is, when judged by what we know of the subsequent +period of Israel, incomparably more historical than that in the +Book of Joshua, where the whole thing is done at once with +systematic thoroughness, the whole land being first denuded of its +inhabitants, and then divided by lot among the different tribes. +The latter view may have come about partly from a literal +interpretation of "lot" (Judges xviii. 1), an expression which +properly applies to the farm of a family but is here used for the +territory of a tribe. It was also favoured no doubt by the +tendency to compress a long development into its first great act; +and as this tendency is carried out with the greatest +thoroughness in the Priestly Code, that document stands furthest +from the origin of the tradition. /1/ The same conclusion is led up + +****************************************** +1. In the Deuteronomistic revision (Joshua xxi, 43-45) there is +still a trace of hesitation, a certain difficulty in parting with +the old view altogether (Deuteronomy vii. 22; Judg. iii. 1, 2); +and besides the motives for the change are much plainer here: +the Canaanites are extirpated to guard against the infection of the +new settlers with their idolatary. +***************************************** + +to by the circumstance that the tribe of Joseph is never mentioned, +one of the two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, being always spoken of +instead, and that these two tribes are almost put out of sight by +Judah. And yet Joshua, the leader of Ephraim, is leader here also +of all Israel, having been preserved from the old original tradition, +which was Ephraimitic. + +It involves no contradiction that, in comparing the versions of the +tradition, we should decline the historical standard in the case +of the legend of the origins of mankind and of the legend of the +patriarchs, while we employ it to a certain extent for the epic +period of Moses and Joshua. The epic tradition certainly +contains elements which cannot be explained on any other +hypothesis than that there are historical facts underlying them; +its source is in the period it deals with, while the patriarchal +legend has no connection whatever with the times of the +patriarchs. /1/ This justifies the difference of treatment. + +********************************************* +1. Some isolated statements there are here also to which the +historical standard may be applied. We may call it a more +accurate representation that Hebron was inhabited in the time of +Abraham by the, Canaanites and Perizzites, than that the Hittites +dwelt there at that time. The latter, according to 2Samuel +xxiv. 6 (Bleek, Einleitung, 4th edition, pp. 228, 597), dwelt in +Coele-Syria, and according to 2Kings vii. 6, in the neihbourhood +of the Aramaeans of Damascus. The statement that the Israelites +received from Pharaoh because they were shepherds the pasture-land +of Goshen on the north-east frontier of Egypt and there dwelt by +themselves, is to be preferred to the statement that they were +settled among the Egyptians in the best part of the land, +********************************************** + +Our last result is still the same: whether tried by the standard of +poetry or by that of history, the Priestly Code stands both in +value and in time far below the Jehovist. + + +VIII.III.3. In rough strokes I have sought to place before the +reader's view the contrast between the beginning and the end of +the tradition of the Hexateuch. It would not be impossible to trace +the inner development of the tradition in the intermediate stages +between the two extremities. To do this we should have to make +use of the more delicate results of the process of source-sifting, +and to call to our aid the hints, not numerous indeed, but +important, which are to be found in Deuteronomy and in the +historical and prophetical books, especially Hosea. It would +appear that legend from its very nature causes those who deal with +it to strike out variations, that it cannot be represented +objectively at all. Even at the first act of reducing it to +writing the discolouring influences are at work, without any +violence being done to the meaning which dwells in the matter. +We can trace first of all the influence on the tradition of that +specific prophetism which we are able to follow from Amos onwards. +This is least traceable in the old main source of the Jehovist, +in J; and yet it is remarkable that the Asheras never occur in +the worship of the patriarchs. The second Jehovistic source, E, +breathes the air of the prophets much more markedly, and shows a +more advanced and thorough-going religiosity. Significant in this +view are the introduction of Abraham as a Nabi, Jacob's burying the +teraphim, the view taken of the macceba at Shechem (Jos. xxiv. +27), and above all the story of the golden calf. The Deity +appears less primitive than in J, and does not approach men in +bodily form, but calls to them from heaven, or appears to them in +dreams. The religious element has become more refined, but at the +same time more energetic, and has laid hold even of elements +heterogeneous to itself, producing on occasion such strange +mixtures as that in Genesis xxxi. 10-13. Then the law comes in +and leavens the Jehovistic narrative, first the Deuteronomic (in +Genesis even, and then quite strongly in Exodus and Joshua), while +last of all, in the Priestly Code, under the influence of the +legislation of the post-exile restoration, there is brought about +a complete metamorphosis of the old tradition. The law is the key +to the understanding even of the narrative of the Priestly Code. +All the distinctive peculiarities of the work are connected with +the influence of the law: everywhere we hear the voice of theory, +rule, judgment. What was said above of the cultus may be +repeated word for word of the legend: in the early time it may +be likened to the green tree which grows out of the ground as it +will and can; at a later time it is dry wood that is cut and made +to a pattern with compass and square. It is an extraordinary +objection to this when it is said that the post-exile period had +no genius for productions such as the tabernacle or the chronology. +It certainly was not an original age, but the matter was all there +in writing, and did not require to be invented. What great genius +was needed to transform the temple into a portable tent? What sort +of creative power is that which brings forth nothing but numbers +and names? In connection with such an age there can be no question +at least of youthful freshness. With infinitely greater justice +may it be maintained that such theoretical modelling and adaptation +of the legend as is practiced in the Priestly Code, could only gain +an entrance when the legend had died away from the memory and +the heart of the people, and was dead at the root. + +The history of the pre-historic and the epic tradition thus passed +through the same stages as that of the historic; and in this +parallel the Priestly Code answers both as a whole, and in every +detail, to the Chronicles. The connecting link between old and +new, between Israel and Judaism, is everywhere Deuteronomy. + +The Antar-romance says of itself, that it had attained an age of +670 years, 400 years of which it had spent in the age of ignorance +(i.e. old Arabic heathenism), and the other 270 in Islam. The +historical books of the Bible might say something similar, if +they were personified, and their life considered to begin with +the reduction to writing of the oldest kernel of the tradition and +to close with the last great revision. The time of ignorance +would extend to the appearance of "the book," which, it is true, +did not in the Old Testament come down from heaven all at once +like the Koran, but came into existence during a longer period, +and passed through various phases. + + + + + +C. ISRAEL AND JUDAISM. + +"The Law came in between."--VATKE, p. 183. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. CONCLUSION OF THE CRITICISM OF THE LAW. + + +Objections have been made to the general style of the proof on +which Graf's hypothesis is based. It is said to be an illicit +argument _ex silentio_ to conclude from the fact that the priestly +legislation is latent in Ezekiel, where it should be in operation, +unknown where it should be known, that in his time it had not yet +come into existence. But what would the objectors have? Do they +expect to find positive statements of the non-existence of what +had not yet come into being? Is it more rational, to deduce _ex +silentio_, as they do, a positive proof that it did exist?-_to say, +that as there are no traces of the hierocracy in the times of the +judges and the kings it must have originated in the most remote +antiquity, with Moses? The problem would in this case still be +the same, namely, to explain how it is that with and after the +exile the hierocracy begins to come into practical activity. +What the opponents of Graf's hypothesis call its argument _ex +silentio_, is nothing more or less than the universally valid +method of historical investigation. + +The protest against the argument _ex silentio_ takes another form. +It is pointed out that laws are in many cases theories, and that +it is no disproof of the existence of a theory that it has not +got itself carried out into practice. Deuteronomy was really +nothing more than a theory during the pre-exile period, but who +would argue from this that it was not there at all? Though laws +are not kept, this does not prove they are not there,--provided, +that is to say, that there is sufficient proof of their existence +on other grounds. But these other proofs of the existence of the +Priestly Code are not to be found--not a trace of them. It is, +moreover, rarely the case with laws that they are theory and +nothing more: the possibility that a thing may be mere theory +is not to be asserted generally, but only in particular cases. +And even where law is undoubtedly theory, the fact does not +prevent us from fixing its position in history. Even legislative +fancy always proceeds upon some definite presupposition or other; +and these presuppositions, rather than the laws themselves, must +guide the steps of historical criticism. /1/ + +******************************************* +1. Cf. <I.III.2. ad fin., IV.III.3., V.II.1., VII.II.2.>. This is +the reason why the strata of the tradition require to be compared as +carefully as those of the law. +****************************************** + +An argument which is the very opposite of this is also urged. +The fact is insisted on that the laws of the Priestly Code are +actually attested everywhere in the practice of the historical +period; that there were always sacrifices and festivals, priests +and purifications, and everything of the kind in early Israel. +These statements must, though this seems scarcely possible, +proceed on the assumption that on Graf's hypothesis the whole +cultus was invented all at once by the Priestly Code, and only +introduced after the exile. But the defenders of Graf's +hypothesis do not go so far as to believe that the Israelite cultus +entered the world of a sudden,--as little by Ezekiel or by Ezra +as by Moses,--else why should they be accused of Darwinism by +Zoeckler and Delitzsch? They merely consider that the works of +the law were done before the law, that there is a difference +between traditional usage and formulated law, and that even where +this difference appears to be only in form it yet has a material +basis, being connected with the centralisation of the worship and +the hierocracy which that centralisation called into existence. +Here also the important point is not the matter, but the spirit +which is behind it, and may everywhere be recognised as the +spirit of the age at one period or another. /2/ + +****************************************** +2. Comp. <II.III., III.III.1.> +****************************************** + +All these objections, meanwhile, labour under the same defect, +namely, that they leave out of view that which is the real point +at issue. The point is not to prove that the Mosaic law was not +in force in the period before the exile. There are in the +Pentateuch three strata of law and three strata of tradition, and +the problem is to place them in their true historical order. So +far as the Jehovist and Deuteronomy are concerned, the problem +has found a solution which may be said to be accepted +universally, and all that remains is to apply to the Priestly Code +also the procedure by which the succession and the date of these +two works has been determined--that procedure consisting in the +comparison of them with the ascertained facts of Israelite +history. /3/ + +************************************** +3. The method is stated in the introduction: and special pains are +taken to bring it out distinctly in the first chapter, that about +the place of worship. +***************************************** + +One would imagine that this could not be objected to. But +objections have been raised; the procedure which, when applied to +Deuteronomy, is called historico-critical method, is called, when +applied to the Priestly Code, construction of history. But +history, it is well known, has always to be constructed: the +order, Priestly Code, Jehovist, Deuteronomy, is not a thing +handed down by tradition or prescribed by the nature of the case, +but a hypothesis as yet only a score of years old or thereby, the +reasons for which were somewhat incomprehensible, so that people +have forgotten them and begun to regard the hypothesis as +something objective, partaking of the character of dogma. The +question is whether one constructs well or ill. Count Baudissin +thinks a grave warning necessary of a certain danger, that, +namely, of an exaggerated application of logic: that the laws +follow each other in a certain order logically, he says, does not +prove that they appeared in the same order in history. But it is +not for the sake of logical sequence that we consider the +development which began with the prophets to have issued finally +in the laws of cultus; and those who set out from "sound human +reason" have generally forced the reverse process of this on the +history, in spite of the traces which have come down to us, and +which point the other way. /1/ + +************************************** +1. And it would not be surprising when we consider the whole +character of the polemic against Graf's hypothesis, if the next +objection should be the very opposite of the above, viz. that it +is not able to construct the history. +************************************* + +After laboriously collecting the data offered by the historical +and prophetical books, we constructed a sketch of the Israelite +history of worship; we then compared the Pentateuch with this +sketch, and recognised that one element of the Pentateuch bore +a definite relation to this phase of the history of worship, and +another element of the Pentateuch to that phase of it. This is not +putting logic in the place of historical investigation. The new +doctrine of the irrationality of what exists is surely not to be +pushed so far, as that we should regard the correspondence between +an element of the law and a particular phase of the history as a +reason for placing the two as far as possible asunder. At least +this principle would have to be applied to the Jehovist and +Deuteronomy too, and not to the Priestly Code only. What is +right in the one case is fair in the other too; a little logic +unfortunately is almost unavoidable. + +Not everything that I have brought forward in the history of the +cultus and the tradition, is a proof of the hypothesis; there is +much that serves merely to explain phenomena at the basis of the +hypothesis, and cannot be used as proving it. This is a matter +of course. My procedure has intentionally differed from that of +Graf in this respect. He brought forward his arguments somewhat +unconnectedly, not seeking to change the general view which prevailed +of the history of Israel. For this reason he made no impression +on the majority of those who study these subjects; they did not see +into the root of the matter, they could still regard the system +as unshaken, and the numerous attacks on details of it as +unimportant. I differ from Graf chiefly in this, that I always +go back to the centralisation of the cultus, and deduce from it the +particular divergences. My whole position is contained in my +first chapter: there I have placed in a clear light that which is +of such importance for Israelite history, namely, the part taken +by the prophetical party in the great metamorphosis of the +worship, which by no means came about of itself. Again I attach +much more weight than Graf did to the change of ruling ideas which +runs parallel with the change in the institutions and usages of +worship; this has been shown mostly in the second part of the +present work. Almost more important to me than the phenomena +themselves, are the presuppositions which lie behind them. + +Not everything that we have hitherto discussed proves, or is meant +to prove, Graf's hypothesis. On the other hand, however, there is +abundance of evidence, which has not yet been noticed. To discuss +it all in detail, would take another book: in this work only a +selection can be with all brevity indicated, if the limits are +not to be transgressed which are imposed by the essentially +historical character of these prolegomena. In these discussions +the Pro will as a rule naturally suggest itself in the refutation +of the Contra. + +IX.I. + +IX.I.1. Eberhard Schrader mentions, in his Introduction to the Old +Testament, that Graf assigns the legislation of the middle books +of the Pentateuch to the period after the exile; but he does not +give the least idea of the arguments on which that position is +built up, simply dismissing it with the remark, that "even +critical analysis enters its veto" against it. Even critical +analysis? How does it manage that? How can it prove that the +one and sole cultus, worked out on every side to a great system, +the denaturalising of the sacrifices and festivals, the distinction +between the priests and Levites, and the autonomous hierarchy, are +older than the Deuteronomic reform? Schrader's meaning is +perhaps, that while the signs collected by a comparison of the +sources as bearing on the history of worship show the order of +succession to be Jehovist, Deuteronomy, Priestly Code, other +signs of a more formal and literary nature would show the Priestly +Code to be entitled to the first place, or at any rate not the +last, and that the latter kind of evidence is of as much force as +the former. Were this so, the scales would be equally balanced, +and the question would not admit of a decision. But this awkward +situation would only occur if the arguments of a literary nature +to be urged on that side really balanced those belonging to the +substance of the case which plead for Graf's hypothesis. In +discussing the composition of the Hexateuch, /1/ + +******************************************** +1. Jahrb. Deutsche Theol., 1876, p. 392 seq, 531 seq; 1877, +p. 407 seq. +********************************************* + +I have shown, following in the steps of other scholars, that this +is by no means the case; and for the sake of completeness I will +here repeat the principal points of that discussion. + +IX.I.2. It is asserted that the historical situation of Deuteronomy +is based not only on the Jehovistic, but also on the Priestly +narrative. Deuteronomy proper (chaps. xii.-xxvi.) contains +scarcely any historical matter, but before Moses comes to the +business in hand, we have two introductions, chapter v.-xi. and +chapter i.-iv., to explain the situation in which he promulgates +"this Torah" shortly before his death. We are in the Amorite +kingdom, east of the Jordan, which has already been conquered. +The forty years' wanderings are about to close: the passage to +the land of Canaan, for which this legislation is intended, is +just approaching. Till this time, we hear in chapter v. 9, 10, +the only law was that which is binding in all circumstances, and +was therefore promulgated by God Himself from Horeb, the Law of +the Ten Words on that occasion. The people deprecated any +further direct revelation by Jehovah, and commissioned Moses to +be their representative; and he accordingly betook himself to the +sacred mount, stayed there forty days and forty nights, and +received the two tables of the decalogue, and besides them the +statutes and laws which now, forty years after, he is on the +point of publishing, as they will come into force at the +settlement. In the meantime the golden calf had been made down +below; and when Moses descended from the mount, in his anger he +broke the tables and destroyed the idol. Then he betook himself +for a second period of forty days and nights to the mount, pleaded +for mercy for the people and for Aaron; and after he had made, +according to divine command, two new tables and a wooden chest +for them, Jehovah once more wrote down exactly what stood on the +tables which were broken. On this occasion, it is remarked in x. +8 seq., the Levites received their appointment as priests. + +This is evidently a reproduction of the Jehovistic narrative, +Exodus xix. xx. xxiv. xxxii-xxxiv. The Priestly Code, on the +contrary, is entirely ignored. Deuteronomy knows only two +laws, the decalogue, which the people received, and the statutes +and judgments which Moses received, at Mount Horeb. They were +both given at the same time, one directly after the other: but +only the decalogue had till now been made public. Where is the +whole wilderness-legislation as given from the tabernacle? Is +it not denying the very notion of its existence, that Moses only +publishes the Torah at the passage into the Holy Land, because it +has application and force for that land, and not for the +wilderness? Apart from the fact that the Deuteronomist, +according to chapter xii., knew nothing of a Mosaic central +sanctuary, can he have read what we now read between Exodus xxiv. +and xxxii.? He passes over all that is there inserted from the +Priestly Code. Noldeke finds, it is true, /1 / + +********************************************* +1. Jahrbb. fuer prot. Theologie, 1875, p. 350. +********************************************** + +a reminiscence of that code in the ark of acacia wood, Deuteronomy +x. 1. But the ark is here spoken of in a connection which answers +exactly to that of the Jehovist (Exod xxxii. xxxiii.), and is +quite inconsistent with that, of the Priestly Code (Exodus xxv. +seq.). It is only instituted after the erection of the golden +calf, not at the very beginning of the divine revelation, as the +foundation-stone of the theocracy. True, the ark is not mentioned +in JE, Exodus xxxiii., as we now have it, but in the next +Jehovistic piece (Numbers x. 33) it suddenly appears, and there +must have been some statement in the work as to how it came there. +The tabernacle also appears ready set up in xxxiii. 7, without +any foregoing account of its erection. The institution of the +ark as well as the erection of the tabernacle must have been +narrated between xxxiii. 6 and 7, and then omitted by the present +editor of the Pentateuch from the necessity of paying some regard +to Q, Exodus xxv.; that this is the case many other +considerations also tend to prove. /2/ + +***************************************************** +2. Without the ark there is no use of the tabernacle, and the +distinction in Exodus xxxiii. which is treated as one of +importance, between the representation (Mal'ak) of Jehovah and +Jehovah Himself, has no meaning. By making an image the Israelites +showed that they could not do without a sensible representation of +the Deity, and Jehovah therefore gave them the ark instead of the calf. +***************************************************** + +That the Deuteronomist found JE in a more complete form, before +it was worked up with Q, than that in which we have it after the +working up, is not such a difficult assumption that one should be +driven into utter impossibilities in order to avoid it. For +according to Noldeke either the author of Deuteronomy v.-xi. had +before him the Pentateuch as it now is, and was enabled, very +curiously, to sift out JE from it, or he used JE as an independent +work, but read Q as well, only in such a way that his general view +was in no way influenced by that of the priestly work, but on the +contrary contradicts it entirely and yet unconsciously--since his +work leaves no opening for a ritual legislation given side by side +with the Decalogue, and that ritual legislation is the whole sum +and substance of the Priestly Code. To such a dilemma are we to +make up our minds, because one trait or another of the Deuteronomic +narrative cannot be traced in JE as we now have it, and is preserved +in Q? Does this amount, in the circumstances, to a proof that such +traits were derived from that source? Must not some regard in fairness +be paid to the ensemble of the question ? + +We may, further, remember in this connection Vatke's remark, that +the wooden ark in Deuteronomy x. 1, is by no means very similar to +that of Exodus xxv., which, to judge by the analogy of the +golden table and altar, must rather have been called a golden ark. +It takes even more good will to regard the statement about Aaron's +death and burial in Mosera and the induction of Eleazar in his +place (Deuteronomy x. 6, 7) as a reminiscence of Q (Numbers xx. 22 +seq.), where Aaron dies and is buried on Mount Hor. In JE also +the priests Aaron and Eleazar stand by the side of Moses and +Joshua (cf. Joshua xxiv. 33). The death and burial of Aaron are +certainly no longer preserved in JE; but we cannot require of the +editor of the Pentateuch that he should make a man die twice, once +according to Q and once according to JE. And it must further be +said that Deuteronomy x. 6, 7 is an interpolation; for the following +verses x. 8 seq., in which not only Aaron and Eleazar, but all +the Levites are in possession of the priesthood, are the +continuation of x. 5, and rest on Exodus xxxii. Here we are still +in Horeb, not in Mosera. + +The historical thread which runs through Deuteronomy v. ix. x. may +be traced further in chaps. i.-iv. After their departure from +Horeb the Israelites come straight to Kadesh Barnea, and from this +point, being commanded to invade the hill-land of Judaea, they first +send twelve spies to reconnoitre the country, guided thereto by +their own prudence, but also with the approval of Moses. Caleb is +one of the spies, but not Joshua. After penetrating as far as the +brook Eshcol they return; and though they praise the goodness of +the land, yet the people are so discouraged by their report, that +they murmur and do not venture to advance. Jehovah is angry at +this, and orders them to turn back to the wilderness, where they +are to wander up and down till the old generation is extinct and +a new one grown up. Seized with shame they advance after all, +but are beaten and driven back. Now they retreat to the wilderness, +where for many years they march up and down in the neighbourhood +of Mount Seir, till at length, 38 years after the departure from +Kadesh, they are commanded to advance towards the north, but to +spare the brother-peoples of Moab and Ammon. They conquer the +territory of the Amorite kings, Sihon of Heshbon and Og of +Bashan. Moses assigns it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the +half-tribe of Manasseh, on condition that their army is to yield +assistance in the remaining war. The continuous report comes to an +end with the nomination of Joshua as future leader of the people. + +This same narrative, with the addition of some scattered +particulars in the Book of Deuteronomy, /1/ will serve perfectly + +************************************** +1. Appointment of judges and wardens (#W+RYM = peace-officials, +who, according to xx. 9, are in war replaced by the captains), +i. 9-18, Taberah, Massah, Kibroth Taavah (ix. 22), Dathan and Abiram +(xi. 6), Balaam (xxiii. 5), Baal-peor (iv. 3). Only the +Jehovist narrative of Numbers xii. seems to be nowhere referred to. +In Deuteronomy i. 9-18 the scene is still at Horeb, but this passage +shows acquaintance with Numbers xi. and uses both versions for a +new and somewhat different one. +*************************************** + +well as a thread to understand JE. What, on the contrary, is +peculiar to the Priestly Code is passed over in deep silence, +and from Exodus xxxiv. Deuteronomy takes us at once to Numbers x. +While not a few of the narratives which Deuteronomy repeats or +alludes to, occur only in JE and not in Q, the converse does not +occur at all. And in those narratives which are found both in JE +and in Q, Deuteronomy follows, in every case in which there is a +distinct divergence, the version of JE. The spies are sent out +from Kadesh, not from the wilderness of Paran; they only reach +Hebron, not the neighbourhood of Hamath; Caleb is one of them, and +not Joshua. The rebels of Numbers xvi. are the Reubenites Dathan +and Abiram, not Korah and the Levites. After the settlement in +the land east of Jordan the people have to do with Moab and Ammon, +not with Midian: Balaam is connected with the former, not with the +latter. The same of Baal-peor: Deuteronomy iv. 3 agrees with JE +(Numbers xxv. 1-5), not with Q (Numbers xxv. 6 seq.). Things being +so, we cannot, with Noldeke, see in the number of the spies (Deuteronomy +i. 23) an unmistakable sign of the influence of Q (Numbers xiii. +2). Had the author read the narrative as it is now before us in +Numbers xiii. xiv., it would be impossible to understand how, as we +have seen, the Jehovist version alone made any impression on him. +He must, accordingly, have known Q as a separate work, but it is a +bold step to argue from such a small particular to the use of a +source which everywhere else is entirely without influence and +unknown, especially as the priority of this source is by no +means established on independent grounds, but is to be proved by +this alleged use of it. lf there were a palpable difference +between JE and Q in this point, if we could say that in Q there +were twelve spies sent out, and in JE; three, the case would be +different; but in Numbers xiii. the beginning of the narrative of +JE has been removed and that of Q put in place of it, so that we +do not know how the narrative of JE began, and what number, if +any, was given in it. In such a state of matters the only +reasonable course is to supply what is lacking in JE from +Deuteronomy, which generally follows the Jehovist alone, and to +conclude that the spies were twelve in number in this source also. + +The instance in which the proof would be strongest that Deuteronomy +was acquainted with the narrative of the Priestly Code, is x. 22. +For the seventy souls which make up the whole of Israel at the +immigration into Egypt, are not mentioned in JE, and there is no +gap that we are aware of in the Jehovist tradition at this point. +But they are by no means in conflict with that tradition, and +even should we not take Deuteronomy x. 22 for a proof that the +seventy souls found a place in it also, yet it must at least be +acknowledged, that that passage is by no means sufficient to +break down the evidence that the priestly legislation has the +legislation of Deuteronomy for its starting-point. /1/ + +******************************************** +1. Noldeke frequently argues from such numbers as 12 and 70, as +if they only occurred in Q. But that is not the case. As Q in +the beginning of Genesis has groups of 10, JE has groups of 7; +12 and 40 occur in JE as frequently as in Q, and 70 not less +frequently. It is therefore surprising to find the story of the +12 springs of water and the 70 palm-trees of Elim ascribed to Q +for no other reason than because of the 12 and the 70. Not even +the statements of the age of the patriarchs--except so far as they +serve the chronological system--are a certain mark of Q: compare +Genesis xxxi. 18, xxxvii. 2, xli. 26, l. 26; Deuteronomy xxxiv. +7; Joshua xxiv. 29. Only the names of the 12 spies and the 70 +souls are incontestably the property of the Priestly Code, but +it is by no means diflicult to show (especially in Genesis xlvi. +8-27) that they are far less original than the figures. The +numbers are round numbers, and in fact do not admit of such a +recital of the items of which they are made up. +*********************************************** + + +VIII.I.3. As a further objection to Graf's hypothesis, the +Deuteronomistic revision of the Hexateuch is brought into the +field. That revision appears most clearly, it is said, in those +parts which follow the Deuteronomic Torah and point back to it. +It used to be taken for granted that it extends over the Priestly +portions as well as the Jehovistic; but since the occasion arose +to look into this point, it is found that it is not so. The +traces which Noldeke brings together on the point are trifling, +and besides this do not stand the test. He says that the +Deuteronomistic account of the death of Moses (Deuteronomy xxxii. 48 +seq., xxxiv. 1 seq.) cannot be regarded as anything else than an +amplification of the account of the main stem (Q), which is +preserved almost in the same words. But Deuteronomy xxxiv. 1b-7 +contains nothing of Q and xxxii. 48-52 has not undergone +Deuteronomistic revision. He also refers to Josh. ix. 27: +"Joshua made the Gibeonites at that day hewers of wood and drawers +of water for the congregation and for the altar of Jehovah even +unto this day, in the place which He should choose." +The second part of this sentence, he says, is a Deuteronomistic +addition to the first, which belongs to the Priestly narrative. +But Noldeke himself acknowledges that the Deuteronomistically-revised +verses ix. 22 seq. are not the continuation of the priestly version +15c, 17-21, but of the Jehovistic version 15ab, 16; and between +verse 16 and verse 22 there is nothing wanting but the +circumstance referred to in verse 26. The phrase _hewer of wood +and drawer of water_ is not enough to warrant us to separate verse +27 from 22-26; the phrase occurs not only in verse 21 but also +in JE verse 23. The words FOR THE CONGREGATION do certainly +point to the Priestly Code, but are balanced by the words which +follow, FOR THE ALTAR OF JEHOVAH, which is according to the +Jehovistic view. The original statement is undoubtedly that the +Gibeonites are assigned to the altar or the house of Jehovah. But +according to Ezekiel xliv. the hierodulic services in the temple +were not to be undertaken by foreigners, but by Levites; hence +in the Priestly Code the servants of the altar appear as servants +of the congregation. From this it results that LMZBX is to be +preferred in verse 27 to L(DH W, the latter being a later +correction. As such it affords a proof that the last revision of +the Hexateuch proceeded from the Priestly Code, and not from Deuteronomy. +As for Joshua xviii. 3-10, where Noldeke sees in the account of the +division of the land another instance of Deuteronomistic addition, +I have already indicated my opinion, <VIII.III.2.>. The piece is +Jehovistic, and if the view were to be found in the Priestly Code +at all, that Joshua first allotted their territory to Judah and Ephraim, +and then, a good while after, to the other seven tribes, that source +must have derived such a view from JE, where alone it has its roots. /1/ + +******************************************** +1. Jahrbb. fur Deutsche Theol., 1876, p. 596 seq. +******************************************** + +And lastly, Noldeke considers Josh. xxii. to speak quite decidedly +for his view; but in the narrative of the Priestly Code, xxii. 9-34, +to which the verses l-8 do not belong, there is no sign of +Deuteronomistic revision to be found. /2/ + +********************************************** +2. Joh. Hollenberg in Stud. und Krit., 1874, p. 462 seq. +********************************************** + +There is a more serious difficulty only in the case of the short +chapter, Josh. xx., of which the kernel belongs to the Priestly +Code, though it contains all sorts of additions which savour +strongly of the Deuteronomistic revision. Kayser declares these +awkward accretions to be glosses of quite a late period. This may +seem to be pure tendency-criticism; but it is reinforced by the +confirmation of the Septuagint, which did not find any of those +alleged Deuteronomistic additions where they now are. /3/ + +************************************************ +3. Aug. Kayser, Das vorexilische Buch der Urgeschichtc Israels +(Strassburg, 1874), p. 147, seq.; Joh. Hollenberg, der +Charactcr der Alex. Uebersetzung des B. Josua (Programm des +Gymn. zu Moers, 1876), p. 15. +************************************************** + +But were it the case that some probable traces of Deuteronomistic +revision were actually to be found in the Priestly Code, we must +still ask for an explanation of the disproportionately greater +frequency of such traces in JE. Why, for example, are there none +of them in the mass of laws of the middle books of the Hexateuch? +This is undoubtedly and everywhere the fact, and this must +dispose us a priori to attach less weight to isolated instances to +the contrary: the more so, as Joshua xx. shows that the later +retouchings of the canonical text often imitate the tone of the +Deuteronomist. + + +IX.II. + + + +IX.II.1. I have said that in the L)DH W of Josh. ix. 27, we have +the addition of a final priestly revision. Such a revision must be +assumed to have taken place, if the Priestly Code is younger than +Deuteronomy. But the assumption of its existence does not depend +on deduction merely: Kuenen argued for it inductively, even +before he became a supporter of Graf's hypothesis. /1/ + +********************************************** +1. Historisch-Kritisch Onderzoek I. (Leyden, 1861), p. 165; the +reviser of the Pentateuch must be sought in the same circles in +which the Book of Origins (Q) arose and was gradually extended +and modified, i.e., among the priests of Jerusalem, p. 194; it is +generally thought that the Deuteronomist is the reviser of the +whole Book of Joshua, but his hand is not to be traced +everywhere,--not, for example, in the priestly sections; the last +reviser is to be distinguished from the Deuteronomist. In +certain narratives of Numbers and Joshua, Kuenen detected very +considerable additions by the last reviser, and the results of +his investigation have now been published in the first part of the +second edition of his great isagogic work (Leyden, 1885). +*********************************************** + +This may be best demonstrated by examining the chapters Leviticus +xvii.-xxvi. At present they are incorporated in the Priestly +Code, having undergone a revision with that view, which in some +places adds little, in others a good deal. Viewed, however, as +they originally were, they form a work of a peculiar character +by themselves, a work pervaded by a somewhat affected religious +hortatory tone, which harmonises but little with the Priestly +Code. The author worked largely from earlier authorities, which +explains, for example, how chapter xviii. and chapter xx. both +find a place in his production. Leviticus xvii.-xxvi is incomparably +instructive for the knowledge it affords of literary relationships: +it is a perfect compendium of the literary history of the Pentateuch. /2/ + +********************************************* +2. Compare Jahrbb. fur Deutsche Theol., 1877, p. 422-444, +especially on the elimination of the additions of the reviser. +In the present discussion I shall not take these into account. +In chapter xxiii., for example, I only take account of verses +9-22, 39-44, in chapter xxiv. only of vers. 15-22 +*********************************************** + +As with Deuteronomy, so with this legislation; it is clear that +it goes back to the Jehovistic legislation of Sinai (Exodus +xx.-xxiii.) as its source. It also bears to have been given on +Mount Sinai (xxv. 1, xxvi. 46). It is addressed to the people, +and is popular in its contents, which are chiefly of a civic and +moral character. It is meant only for the promised land and for +settled life, not for the wilderness as well. The festivals are +three in number, and have not quite parted with their character +as feasts of harvest. Among the sacrifices the sin-offering and +the trespass-offering are wanting. The legislation does deal with +the cultus to a disproportionate extent, but the directions about +it do not go into technical details, and are always addressed to +the people. Even in those directions which concern the priests +the people are addressed, and the priests are spoken of in the +third person. Nor are palpable points of contact wanting. Leviticus +xix. 2-8, 9-18, may be regarded as counterparts of the first and +second tables of the decalogue. The precept, "Thou shalt not +respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty," +xix. 15, is a development of that in Exodus xxiii. 3, and a number +of other precepts in Leviticus xix. could stand with equal +appropriateness in Exodus xxii. 17 seq. The directions in Leviticus +xxii. 27-29 are similar to those of Exodus xxii. 29, xxiii. 18, 19. +In the same way those of Leviticus xxiv. 15-22 are based both in +contents and form on Exodus xxi. 12. /1/ + +******************************************** +1. Compare xxiv. 15 seq. with Exodus xxii. 27 (xxi. 17); xxiv. +18 with Exodus xxi. 28 seq.; xxiv. 19, 20 with Exodus xxi. 33, +34; xxiv. 21 with Exodus xxi. 28 seq. +********************************************* + +In xxiv. 22 we notice a polemical reference to Exodus xxi. 20 +seq., 26 seq. In xxv. 1-7 the whole of the expressions of Exodus +xxiii. 10, 11 are repeated. In xx. 24, we have the Jehovistic +phrase, "a land flowing with milk and honey." + +Yet Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. only takes its starting-point from the +Jehovistic legislation, and modifies it very considerably, +somewhat in the manner of Deuteronomy. There is a demonstrable +affinity with Deuteronomy both in the ideas and in the +expressions. Common to both is the care for the poor and the +undefended: to both humanity is a main object of legislation. +"If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex +him; he shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt +love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" +(xix. 34). + +Leviticus xvii. seq. attaches great importance to unity of worship. +It is still a demand, not a presupposition (xvii. 8 seq., xix. 30, +xxvi. 2); the motive of it is to guard against heathen influences +and to secure the establishment of a monotheism without images. /2/ + +****************************************** +2. xvii. 7 (cf. 2Chronicles xi. 15), xviii. 21, xix. 4, 19, 26, +29, 31, xx. 2 seq. 6, xxvi. 1, 30. With regard to the date we +have to note the stern prohibition of the service of Moloch. On +Lev, xvii. see above, p. 376. +****************************************** + +This is quite recognisable, and forms an important point of +contact with Deuteronomy. The same contact may be observed in +the prohibition of certain observances of mourning (xix. 27 seq.), +the calculation of Pentecost from the beginning of barley harvest +(xxiii. 15), the seven days' duration of the feast of tabernacles, +and the cheerful sacrificial feasts which are to accompany its +observance. Add to this a similarity by no means slight in the +colour of the language, e.g., in xviii. 1-5, 24-30, xix. 33-37, +xx. 22 seq., xxv. 35 seq. Some of the phrases may be mentioned. +"When ye are come into the land that I shall give you." "Ye shall +rejoice before Jehovah." "I am Jehovah that brought you up out +of the land of Egypt." "Ye shall keep my commandments and statutes +and laws, to do them." + +But the legislation we have here is further advanced than +Deuteronomy. In the festivals the joint sacrifice of the +congregation is already prominent (xxiii. 9-22). The priests +are not the Levites, but the sons and brothers of Aaron, their +income has grown materially, their separate holiness has reached a +higher point. Stricter demands are also made on the laity for +personal holiness, especially as regards continence from the sins +of the flesh, and the marriage of relatives (Leviticus xviii. xx.). +Marriage with an uncle's wife is forbidden (xviii. 14, xx. 20), +whereas in Deuteronomy it is still legal. The work dates from a +time when exile was a familiar idea: xviii. 26 seq.: +"Ye shall keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit +any of those abominations; for the men that were in the land before +you did these things, and the land vomited them out. Take care +that the land spue not you out also as it spued out the nations +that were before you." +Similarly xx. 23 seq.: and in a legislative work such utterances +prove more than they would in a prophecy. Now as our section +departs from Deuteronomy, it approaches to Ezekiel. This is its +closest relationship, and that to which attention has been most +drawn. It appears in the peculiar fusion of cultus and morality, +in the notion of holiness, in a somewhat materialistic sense, as +the great requirement of religion, and in the fact that the demand +of holiness is made to rest on the residence of the people near +the sanctuary and in the holy land. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. On Leviticus xxii. 24, 25, compare Kuenen's Hibbert Lectures. +****************************************** + + But the affinity is still more striking in the language: many +unusual phrases, and even whole sentences, from Ezekiel, are +repeated in Leviticus xvii. seq. /2/ + +******************************************* +2. Compare Colenso, Pentateuch and Joshua, vi. p. 3-23. Kayser, +op. cit. p. 177- 179. Smend on Ezekiel, p. xxv. +******************************************** + +The 10th of the 7th month is in Leviticus xxv. 9 as in Ezekiel, +new-year's day, not, as in the Priestly Code, the great day of +atonement. This led Graf to regard Ezekiel himself as the author +of this collection of laws in Leviticus; and Colenso and Kayser +followed him. But this is out of the question; notwithstanding +the numerous points of contact both in linguistic and material +respects, the agreement is by no means complete. Ezekiel knows +no seed of Aaron, and no wine at the sacrifices (Leviticus xxiii. +13); his festival legislation shows considerable differences, +and in spirit is more akin to the Priestly Code. And if he were +the author he would have said something about the proper place +in the cultus of the Levites and of the prince. + +The corpus in question, which Klostermann called, not +inappropriately, the Law of Holiness, inclines from Ezekiel +towards the Priestly Code: in such pieces as xvii. xxi. xxii. +it takes some closeness of attention to see the differences from +the latter, though in fact they are not inconsiderable. It stands +between the two, somewhat nearer, no doubt, to Ezekiel. How are +we to regard this fact? Jehovist, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, are a +historical series; Ezekiel, Law of Holiness, Priestly Code, must +also be taken as historical steps, and this in such a way as to +explain at the same time the dependence of the Law of Holiness on +the Jehovist and on Deuteronomy. To assume that Ezekiel, having +the Pentateuch in all other respects as we have it, had a great +liking for this piece of it, and made it his model in the +foundation of his style of thought and expression--such an +assumption does not free us from the necessity of seeking the +historical order, and of assigning his natural place in that order +to Ezekiel; we cannot argue on such a mere chance. Now the +question is not a complicated one, whether in the Law of Holiness +we are passing from the Priestly Code to Ezekiel or from Ezekiel +to the Priestly Code. The Law of Holiness underwent a last +revision, which represents, not the views of Ezekiel, but those of +the Priestly Code, and by means of which it is incorporated in +that code. This revision has not been equally incisive in all +parts. Some of its corrections and supplements are very +considerable, e.g., xxiii. 1-8, 23-38; xxiv. 1-14, 23. Some +of them are quite unimportant, e.g., the importation of the Ohel +Moed (instead of the Mikdash or the Mishkan), xvii. 4, 6, 9, xix. +21 seq.; the trespass-offering, xix. 21 seq.; the Kodesh +Kodashim, xxi. 22. Only in xxv. 8 seq. is the elimination of +the additions difficult. But the fact that the last edition of +the Law of Holiness proceeds from the Priestly Code, is +universally acknowledged. Its importance for the literary history +of Israel cannot be over-estimated. /1/ + +************************************************* +1. L. Horst, in his discussion on Leviticus XVii,-XXYi, and Ezekiel +(Colmar, 1881), has strikingly shown that the mechanical style of +criticism in which Dillmann even surpasses his predecessor Knobel, +is not equal to the problem presented by the Law of Holiness. He +goes on, however, to an attempt to save, by modifying it, the old +Strassburg view of Ezekiel's authorship; and as Kuenen justly +remarks, he makes ship-wreck on Leviticus xxvi. (Theol. Tijdschr. +1882, p. 646). Cf. <next note, beginning "Horst...">. +************************************************** + + +IX.II.2. The concluding oration, Leviticus xxvi. 3-46, calls for +special consideration. Earlier scholars silently assumed that this +piece belonged to Leviticus xvii. 1-XXVI. 2; but many critics, +Noldeke for example, now regard it as an interpolation in Leviticus +of a piece which from its character should be elsewhere. At any rate +the oration is composed with special reference to what precedes it. +If it is not taken as a peroration, such as Exodus xxiii. 30-33, +Deuteronomy xxviii., its position in such a part of the Priestly Code +is quite incomprehensible. It has, moreover, a palpable +connection with the laws in xvii.-xxv. The _land_, and _agriculture_, +have here the same significance for religion as in chaps. xix. +xxiii. xxv.; the threat of vomiting out (xviii. 25 seq., xx. +22) is repeated here more circumstantially; the only statute +actually named is that of the fallow of the seventh year (xxvi. +34, xxv. 1-7). The piece begins with the expression, which is so +characteristic of the author of chapter xvii. seq. "If ye walk +in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them," and the +same phrase recurs, with slight alteration, in vers. 15 and 43. +The conclusion, verse 46, is, "These are the statutes and +judgments and laws which Jehovah gave, to regulate the relation +between Him and Israel on Mount Sinai, by Moses." This is +obviously the subscription of a preceding corpus of statutes and +judgments, such as we have in, xvii. 1-xxvi. 2. Mount Sinai is +mentioned also in xxv. 1 as the place of revelation. + +If Leviticus xxvi. is incontestably intended to form the conclusion +of chaps. xvii.-xxv., it would be natural to suppose that the +author of that collection was also the author of the oration. +Noldeke thinks, however, that the language differs too much from +that of xvii.-xxv. Yet he is obliged to acknowledge several +resemblances, and these not unimportant; while some of the +differences which he adduces (Bamoth, Gillulim, Hammanim, xxvi. +30) are really examples of similarity. Rare and original words +may be found in the preceding chapters also. It may be that in +chapter xxvi they are more frequent in proportion: yet this does +not entitle us to say that the language generally is very original. +On the contrary, it is everywhere characterised by borrowed +expressions. So much of linguistic difference as actually remains +is sufficiently accounted for by the difference of subject: first +come laws in a dry matter-of-fact style, then prophecy in a +poetical pathetic style. The idiosyncrasy of the writer has no +scope in the former case, from the nature of the materials, some +of which had already assumed their form before he made use of them. +In the latter case he can express himself freely; and it is fair +that this should not be overlooked. + +The arguments brought forward by Noldeke against the probability +that Leviticus xxvi. belongs to chaps. xvii.-xxv. and is not merely +tacked on to them, disappear completely on a closer comparison of +the literary character of the two pieces. Chapter xxvi. reminds +us most strongly of Ezekiel's style, both in thought and +language. The most significant passage is Leviticus xxvi. 39. +The threat has been uttered that Israel is to be destroyed as a +people, and that the remnant which escapes the destroying sword +of the enemy is to be carried into exile, to sink under the weight +of past calamity and present affliction. Then the speech goes +on: "And they that are left of you shall _pine away_ in their +iniquity in your enemies' land; and also in the iniquities of +their fathers shall they _pine away_. Then they will confess +their own sin and the sin of their fathers." In Ezekiel, this +confession actually occurs in the mouth of one of his +fellow-exiles: they say (xxxiii. 10), "Our transgressions +and our sins are heavy upon us, and we _pine away_ in them, and +cannot live." In the same strain the prophet says (xxiv. 23) +that in his dull sorrow for the death of his wife he will be an +emblem of the people: "ye shall not mourn nor weep, but ye shall +_pine away_ in your iniquities." + +Nor are the other traits wanting in the oration which, as we say, +accompanied the Ezekielic colouring of the preceding chapters. +We do not expect to find traces of the influence of the Jehovist +legislation (further than that Exodus xxiii. 20 seq. formed the +model both for Deuteronomy xxviii. and Leviticus xxvi.); but to +make up for this we find very distinct marks of the influence of +the prophets, the older prophets too, as Amos (verse 31). We can +as little conceive the existence of the Book of Ezekiel as of this +chapter without the prophetic literature having preceded it and +laid the foundation for it. + +As for the relation to Deuteronomy, the resemblance of Leviticus xxvi. +to Deuteronomy xxviii. is very great, in the arrangement as well as in +the ideas. True, there are not many verbal coincidences, but the +few which do occur are important. The expressions of xxvi. 16 +occur nowhere in the Old Testament but in Deuteronomy xxviii. 22, 65: +similarly R)#YM with the meaning it has in verse 45 only occurs +in Deuteronomy xix. 14 and in the later literature (Isaiah lxi. 6). +The metaphor of the uncircumcised heart (verse 41) only occurs in +one other passage in the law, in Deuteronomy; the other instances +of it are in prophecy, of contemporary or later date (Jeremiah iv. +4, ix. 24, 25, Ezekiel xliv. 7, 9). There are several more +reminiscences of Jeremiah, most of them, however, not very +distinct. We may remark on the relation between Jeremiah xvi. 18 +in one respect to verse 30, and in another to verse 18 of our +chapter. Here the sin is punished sevenfold, in Jeremiah double. +The same is said in Isaiah xl. 2, lx. 7; and our chapter has +also in common with this prophet the remarkable use of rtc,h (with +sin or trespass as object). Did not the chapter stand in +Leviticus, it would, doubtless, be held to be a reproduction, some +small part of it of the older prophecies, the most of it of those +of Jeremiah and Ezekiel: Leviticus xxvi. 34 is actually quoted in +2Chronicles xxxvi 22 as a word of the prophet Jeremiah. + +Leviticus xxvi. has points of contact, finally, with the Priestly +Code, in PRH WRBH, HQYM BRYT, HTWDH, )NY, (never )NKY), in the +excessive use of the accusative participle and avoidance of verbal +suffixes, and in its preferring the colourless NTN to verbs of +more special meaning. + +The only reason for the attempt to separate Leviticus xxvi. from +xvii.-xxv. lies in the fact, that the exilic or post-exilic origin +of this hortatory and denunciatory oration is too plain to be +mistaken. To us, this circumstance can only prove that it belongs +to xvii.-xxv., providing a weighty confirmation of the opinion we +have already formed on other grounds as to the period which produced +these laws. +"If ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary to me, +then I will also walk contrary to you in fury; and I will chastise you +seven times for your sins. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons +and daughters, and I will destroy your high places, and cast down +your sun-pillars' and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of +your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your +cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries into desolation, and I +will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring +the land into desolation, and your enemies who settle therein +shall be astonished at it; and I will scatter you among the peoples, +and will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be +desolate and your cities ruins. Then shall the land pay her +sabbaths all the years of the desolation when you are in your +enemies' land: even then shall the land rest and pay her +sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall make up the +celebration of the sabbaths which it did not celebrate as long as +you dwelt in it. And upon them that are left alive of you I will +send a faintness into their hearts in the land of their enemies, +and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them, and they shall +flee as fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when none +pursueth. And they shall fall one upon another as it were before +a sword when none pursueth, and there shall be no stopping in the +flight before your enemies. And ye shall lose yourselves among +the peoples, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And +they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in +your enemies' lands, and also in the iniquities of their fathers +shall they pine away. And they shall confess their iniquity +and the iniquity of their fathers in regard to their +unfaithfulness which they committed against me, and that because +they have walked contrary to me, I also walk contrary to them, +and bring them into the land of their enemies. Then their +uncircumcised heart is humbled, and then they pay their penalty, +and I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with +Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham, and I remember the land. +The land also, left by them, pays its sabbaths, while she lieth +without inhabitant and waste, and they themselves pay the penalty +of their iniquity because, even because, they despised my judgments, +and their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when +they be in the land of their enemies, I have not rejected them, +neither have I abhorred them to destroy them utterly, and to break +my covenant with them: for I am Jehovah their God. And I will for +their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought +forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the peoples, that +I might be their God: I am Jehovah" (xxvi. 27-45). + +These words undoubtedly cannot have been written before the +Babylonian exile. It is said that the Assyrian exile will explain +the passage: but where is there any similarity between the +oration before us and the old genuine Isaiah? In Ezekiel's day +such thoughts, feelings, and expressions as we have here can be +shown to have prevailed: but it would be difficult to show that +the fall of Samaria gave rise to such depression at Jerusalem: +and Leviticus xxvi. was not written outside Jerusalem, for it +presupposes unity of worship. The _Jews_ are addressed here, as +in Deuteronomy xxix., xxx., and they had no such lively feeling +of solidarity with the deported Israelites as to think of them +in connection with such threats. I even think it certain that +the writer lived either towards the end of the Babylonian exile +or after it, since at the close of the oration he turns his eyes +to the restoration. In such prophets as Jeremiah and Ezekiel +there is a meaning in such forecasting of the joyful future but +here it contradicts both the historical position and the object +of the threats, and appears to be explained most naturally as +the result of an accident, i.e., of actuality. That in a +comparison of Leviticus xxvi. with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the +former cannot claim priority, appears distinctly from the +comparative use of the phrase _uncircumised heart_. That phrase +originates in Jeremiah (iv. 4, ix. 24 seq.), but in Leviticus +xxvi. it is used as a well-known set term. In the same way the +phrase _pine away in their iniquity_ is repeated by Ezekiel as he +heard it in the mouth of the people. He is its originator in +literature; in Leviticus xxvi. it is borrowed. /1/ + +*********************************************** +1. Horst tries to find a place for Leviticus xxvi. in the last +years of king Zedekiah (op. cit. p. 65, 66), but in this he is +merely working out his theory that the author was the youthful +Ezekiel; and the theory is sufficiently condemned if it leads +to this consequence. Delitzsch (Zeitschr. fur Kirchl. Wissench. +1880, p. 619) thinks it a piece of impertinence in me to read out +of Ezekiel xxxiii. what that passage says. On Deuteronomy x. 16, +xxx. 6, and generally on the color Hieremianus in Deuteronomy, see +Jahrb. fur D. Thhcol., 1877, p. 464. +********************************************** + +The criticism of Leviticus xvii. seq. Ieads us to the result, that +a collection of laws which took form during the period of the exile +was received into the Priestly Code, and there clothed with fresh +life. We need not then tremble at Schrader's threatening us with +"critical analysis," and Graf's hypothesis will not be thereby +overturned. + + +IX.II.3. Two or three further important traces of the final priestly +revision of the Hexateuch may here find mention. In the story +of the flood the verses vii. 6-9 are an editorial addition, with +the object of removing a contradiction between JE and Q; it +shares the ideas and speaks the language of the Priestly Code. +In the title of Deuteronomy the verse, "It came to pass in the +fortieth year, in the eleventh [(#TY] month, on the first day of +the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel according +to all that Jehovah had given him in commandment unto them" (i. 3) +is shown by the most undoubted signs to belong to the Priestly Code, +and is intended to incorporate Deuteronomy in that work. We have +already shown that the Priestly Code in the Book of Joshua is simply +a filling-up of the Jehovistic-Deuteronomistic narrative. + +That the Priestly Code consists of elements of two kinds, first of +an independent stem, the Book of the Four Covenants (Q), and +second, of innumerable additions and supplements which attach +themselves principally to the Book of the Four Covenants, but not +to it alone, and indeed to the whole of the Hexateuch--this +assertion has not, strange to say, met with the opposition which +might have been expected. Ryssel has even seen in the twofold +nature of the Priestly Code a means to maintain the position of +the Book of the Four Covenants before the exile: he sacrifices +the additions, and places the necessary interval between them and +the main body of the work. He thinks the close affinity between +the two parts is sufficiently explained by the supposition that +they both issued from the same circle, that of the priesthood of +Jerusalem. Were it the case that the temple of Jerusalem was as +autonomous and as solely legitimate in the days of Solomon as in +those of the foreign domination, that the priests had as much to +say under Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Josiah as after the exile, if it +were allowable to represent them according as it suits one's views, +and not according to the historical evidence, if, in short, there +were no Israelite history at all, such an explanation might be +allowed to stand. The secondary part of the Priestly Code of +necessity draws the primary part with it. The similarity in +matter and in form, the perfect agreement in tendencies and ideas, +in expressions and ways of putting things, all compel us to think +that the whole, if not a literary, is yet a historical, unity. + + + +IX.III. + +<IX.III.1.> It has lately been the fashion to regard the language of +the Priestly Code as an insuperable barrier to the destructive +efforts of tendency criticism. But it is unfortunate that this veto +of language is left as destitute of detailed proof, by Delitzsch, +Riehm, and Dillmann, as the veto of critical analysis by Schrader; +and we cannot be called upon to show proof against a contention +which is unsupported by evidence. But I take advantage of the +opportunity to communicate some detached observations, which I +may perhaps remark did not occur to me in connection with the +investigation of the Pentateuch, but on a quite different occasion. +In the passage 2Samuel vi. 12 I was exceedingly struck with L(MT, +and not less with BR) in the two passages Isaiah iv. 5, Amos iv. 13, +and while following out the distribution of these two words I came +on the traces of similar phenomena. + +The language of the pre-exilic historical books is in general much +akin to that of the Jehovistic work; that of the Priestly Code, +on the contrary, is quite different. It is common enough to +interpret this fact, as if the latter belonged to an earlier +period. But not to mention that in that case the Code must have +been entirely without influence on the history of the language, +it agrees ill with this view, that on going back to the oldest +documents preserved to us of the historical literature of the +Hebrews we find the difference increasing rather than diminishing. +Take Judges v. and 2Samuel i.; the poetical pieces in JE may be +compared with them, but in Q there is nothing like them. And on +the other hand, it is in the narratives which were introduced very +late into the history, such as Judges xix.-xxi.; 1Samuel vii. +viii. x. 17 seq. xii.; 1Kings xiii., and the apocryphal +additions in 1Kings vi.-viii. that we recognise most readily +some linguistic approximation to the Priestly Code. And as in the +historical so also in the prophetical literature. The speech of +Amos, Isaiah, Micah, answers on the whole to that of the Jehovist, +not to that of the priestly author. + +Deuteronomy and the Book of Jeremiah first agree with the Priestly +Code in certain important expressions. In Ezekiel such expressions +are much more numerous, and the agreement is by no means with +Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. alone. /1/ + +****************************************** +I Especially noticeable is P)T NGB TYMNH in Ezekiel and the +Priestly Code. In the latter Negeb, even when it refers to the +actual Negeb, yet is used as denoting south (Numbers xxxiv. 3, +xxv. 2-4), i.e., it has completely lost its original meaning. +****************************************** + +In the subsequent post-exilic prophets down to Malachi the points +of contact are limited to details, but do not cease to occur; they +occur also in the Psalms and in Ecclesiastes. Reminiscences of the +Priestly Code are found nowhere but in the Chronicles and some of +the Psalms. For that Amos iv. 11 is borrowed from Genesis xix. 29 +is not a whit more clear than that the original of Amos i. 2 must +be sought in Joel iv. 19 [iii. 16]. + +The Priestly Code maintains its isolated literary character as +against the later literature also. This is the result partly of +the use of a number of technical terms, partly of the incessant +repetition of the same formulae, and of its great poverty of +language. But if we neglect what is due to the stiff and hard +idiosyncrasy of the author, it is undoubtedly the case that he +makes use of a whole series of characteristic expressions which +are not found before the exile, but gradually emerge and come +into use after it. The fact is not even denied, it is merely +put aside. To show what weight is due to it we may find room +here for a short statement of the interesting points for the +history of language to be found in Genesis i. + +Genesis i. 1, R)#YT means in the older Hebrew, not the COMMENCEMENT +of a process which goes forward in time, but the FIRST +(and generally the BEST) part of a thing. In the sense of a +beginning in time, as the contrary to )XRYT, it is first found in +a passage of Deuteronomy, xi. 12; then in the titles in the Book +of Jeremiah, xxvi. 1, xxvii. 1, xxviii. 1, xlix. 34, and in Isaiah +xlvi. 10, and lastly in the Hagiographa, Job viii. 7, xili. 12; +Proverbs xvii. 14; Ecclesiastes vii. 8. In Genesis x. 10 +R)#YT MMLKTW has a different meaning from that in Jeremiah xxvi. 1 +in the one it is the principal part of the kingdom; in the other +it is the beginning of the reign. _In the beginning_ was in the +early time, if absolute, BFR)#NH, BATTXLH; if relative, BTXLT +TXLT. /1/ + +******************************************* +1 The vocalisation B:R#YT is very curious: we should expect +BFRA$YT. It has been attempted to do justice to it by translating: +"In the beginning, when God created heaven and earth--but the earth +was without form and void, and darkness lay upon the deep, and the +spirit of God brooded over the water--then God spake: Let there be +light." +But this translation is desperate, and certainly not that followed +by the punctuators, for the Jewish tradition (Septuagint, Aquila, +Onkelos) is unanimous in translating: +"In the beginning God created heaven and earth." +In Aramaic, on the contrary, such adverbs take, as is well known, +the form of the _status constructus_. Cf. RBT Psalm lxvv. 10, cxx. 6. +******************************************** + +We have already spoken <VIII.I.1. "a special word"> of the word +BR), a word remarkable for its specific theological import. Apart +from Amos iv. 13 and Isaiah iv. 5 it is first found outside the +Priestly Code in the Deuteronomist in Exodus xxxiv. 10, Numbers xvi. +30 (?), Deuteronomy iv. 32, and in the Book of Jeremiah, xxxi. 22: +then in Ezekiel xxi. 35, xxviii. 13, 15; Malachi ii. 10; in Psalms +li. 12, lxxxix. 13, 48, cii. 19, civ. 30, cxlviii. 5; Ecclesiastes +xii. 1. It occurs, however, most frequently, 20 times in fact, +in Isaiah xl.-lxvi.; and curiously enough, never in Job, where we +should expect to find it. It has nothing to do with B"R") (cut down +wood) and BRY) (fat). /2/ + +********************************************* +2. I do not speak of the use of _Elohim_ and the application of +the names of God in the Priestly Code: the matter is not yet clear +to me. Very curious is H#M, Leviticus xxiv. 11. +******************************************** + +Genesis i. 2, THW WBHW occurs also in Jeremiah iv. 23; Isaiah xxxiv. +11. THW alone is not so rare, but it also occurs, Isaiah xxix. 21 +excepted, only in the later literature Deuteronomy xxxii. 10; 1Samuel +xii. 21; Isaiah xxiv. 10, xl. 17, 23, xli. 29, xliv. 9, xlv. +18 seq., xlix. 4, lix. 4; Job vi. 18, xii.24, xxvi. 7; Psalm +cvii. 40. The verb RXP (brood), which is common in Aramaic, only +recurs in a single passage in the Old Testament, and that a late +one, Deuteronomy xxxii. 11. Yet the possibility must be conceded +that there was no occasion for its more frequent employment. + +Genesis i. 4, HBDYL and NBDL (divide and divide one's self), common +in the Priestly Code, is first used by Deuteronomy and the +Deuteronomist (Deuteronomy iv. 41, x.8, xix. 7, xxix. 10; 1Kings +viii. 53), then by Ezekiel (xxii. 26, xxxix. 14, xlii. 10) and +the author of Isaiah xl. seq. (lvi. 3, lix. 2). It is most used by +the writer of Chronicles, (1Chronicles xii. 8, xxiii. 13, xxv. 1; +2Chronicles xxv. 10; Ezra vi. 21, viii.24, ix. 1, x. 8, 11, 16 ; +Nehemiah x. 2, 29, xiii. 3). On YWM )XD Genesis i. 5 compare +Josephus, Antiquities I. i. 1: "That now would be the FIRST day, +but Moses says ONE day; I could give the reason of this here, but +as I have promised (in the Introduction) to give such reasons for +everything in a separate work, I shall defer the exposition till +then." The Rabbis also, in Genesis Rabba, feel the difficulty of +the expression, which, however, has its parallel in the )XD LXD#, +which belongs to the later way of speaking. In Syriac the +ordinary expression is XD B#B); hence in the New Testament MIA +SABBATWN for the first day of the week. + +Genesis i. 6, RQY( (firmament) is found, outside the Priestly +Code, only in Ezekiel (i. 22-26, x. 1), and in still later +writers ; Psalms xix. 2, cl. 1 ; Daniel xii. 3; cf. Job +xxxviii. 18. /1/ + +********************************************* +1. It does not mean, as is generally assumed, that which is +beaten out thin, is stretched out. For, firstly, the heaven is +never considered to be made of sheet-metal; secondly, the meaning +in question only belongs to the Piel, and the substantive derived +from it is RIQQUA(. The Kal, with which RQY( must be connected, +is found in Isaiah xiii. 5, xliv. 24; Psalms cxxxvi. 6. It is +generally translated _spread out_, but quite unwarrantably. +Parallel with it are YSD and KWNN (compare Psalms xxiv. 2 with cxxxvi. +6); the Septuagint translates in all three passages with stereoun, +and accordingly renders RQY( with STEREWMA (firmamentum). This +rendering, which alone is supported by tradition, and which is very +satisfactory, is confirmed by the Syriac, where the verb RQ( is +frequent in the sense of _fortify_. +********************************************* + +Genesis i. 10 YMYM (the sea, singular, see i. 22; Leviticus xi. 9, +10), is rare in older times, and belongs to lofty poetical +language; it is, on the contrary, frequent in Ezekiel (ten +times), and in the Psalms (seven times); and occurs besides in Job +vi. 3; Nehemiah ix. 6 ; Jonah ii. 4 ; Daniel xi. 45. Genesis i. 11 +MYN (kind), a very peculiar word, especially in the form _Jeminehu_, +is found outside of this chapter and Leviticus xiv., Genesis vi. 20, +vii. 14, only in Deuteronomy xiv. and Ezekiel xlvii. 10. + +Genesis i. 26, DMWT (likeness, verses 1, 3) does not occur in the +earlier literature. It first appears in 2Kings xvi. 10, in a +post-Deuteronomic passage, for the writer is that of chapter xi. +seq., xxi. seq. Then in Ezekiel (15 times), Isaiah xiii. 4, xl. +18; 2Chronicles iv. 3; Psalms lxviii. 5. It is a borrowed word +from Aramaic; and the corresponding verb only came into use in +the period when Aramaic began to find its way in. + +Genesis i. 27 ZFKFR (male) is in earlier times ZFKW.R; for +this is the vocalization in Exodus xxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23; Deuteronomy +xvi. 16, xx. 13; and if it is right in these passages, as we cannot +doubt it is, it must be introduced in Exodus xxxiv. 19; Deuteronomy +xv. 19; 1Kings xi. 15 seq. as well. In the Priestly Code ZFKFR +occurs with great frequency, and elsewhere only in the later +literature, Deuteronomy iv. 16; Jeremiah xx. 15, xxx. 6; Ezekiel xvi. +17; Isaiah lxvi. 7; Malachi i. 14; Judges xxi. 11, 12; 2Chronicles +xxxi. 16; Ezra viii. As for NQBH (female), matters are even worse. +Outside the Priestly Code it is only found in Jeremiah (xxxi. 22) +and the Deuteronomist (iv. 16). The Jehovist, it is well known, +always says )Y#, W)Y#H even of the lower animals: the editor of +the Hexateuch, on the contrary, always follows the usage of the +Priestly Code. + +Genesis i. 28 XYH HRM#T attracts attention by the omission of the +article with the substantive and its being merely prefixed to the +following adjective; as if one should say in Greek, )ANHR (O +)AGATHOS instead of (O )ANER (O )AGATHOS. In the same way i. 21 +YWM H##Y, and ii. 3 YWM H#BY(Y. In Arabic there are some +analogies for this, but on seeking one in Hebrew we have to come +down to the period when it was usual to say KNST HGDWLH. KB# +and RDH are Aramaisms. In KBSHWH we find the only verbal suffix +in Genesis i. Instead we have always the forms )TM )TW; this is +so in the Priestly Code generally. In the Jehovistic main work, +in J, these substitutes with )T are only used sometimes and for +special reasons: it may be generally asserted that they are +more used the later we come down. Parallel with this is the use +of )nky in J and )ny in the Priestly Code; the latter form +grows always more frequent in later times. + +These remarks carry us beyond Genesis i.; for the Priestly Code +generally I am now able to refer to F. Giesebrecht's essay on +the criticism of the Hexateuch. Such words as QRBN, (CM, L(MT, +(#TY are each, by itself, strong arguments for assuming a late +date for the production of the Priestly Code. We cannot believe +that such everyday words should never have come into use in the +other literature before the exile, if they were in existence. +They cannot be counted technical terms: QRBN used in Hebrew for +sacrifice and offering is simply as if an English writer should +say priere instead of worship. In such comparisons of the +vocabulary we have, however, to consider first the working up +and revision which has been at work in every part of the books +of the Bible, and secondly the caprice of the writers in apparent +trifles, such as )NKY and )NY, especially outside the Pentateuch. +These two agencies have so dislocated the original facts in this +matter, that in general we can only deal in proportions, and must +be content with showing that a word occurs say 3 times in the +other literature and 27 times in an equal extent of the later. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. Too much importance must not be attached to Aramaisms: even when +they admit of clear demonstration they prove little while +occurring merely in single instances. We early find remarkable +phenomena, such as NDR for NZR (hence NZYR = vovens), N+R for NCR +(Amos i. 11 , Y+R for Y+RP?), comp. Arabic _lata_ for _laisa_, Sur. +38, 2. Hudh. 84, 1. And yet such an Aramaism as BT #NTH in Numbers +xv. 27, or even QRBN, is very remarkable. +*************************************** + + +IX.III.2. The study of the history of language is still at a very +elementary stage in Hebrew. In that which pertains to the +lexicographer it would do well to include in its scope the proper +names of the Old Testament; when it would probably appear that +not only Parnach (Numbers xxxiv. 25) but also composite names such +as Peda-zur, Peda-el, Nathana-el, Pazi-el, Eli-asaph, point less to +the Mosaic than to the Persian period, and have their analogies in +the Chronicles. On the other hand, the prepositions and particles +would have to be examined the use of the prepositions Beth and +Lamed in the Priestly Code is very peculiar. That would lead +further, to syntax; or better still, to rhetoric and style--a +diffcult and little cultivated field of study, but one of great +importance and lending itself readily to comparative treatment. +This treatment yields the most far-reaching results in the case +of those parallels which have an undoubted and direct relation +to each other. The dependence of the Priestly Code on the Jehovist +cannot be more strikingly demonstrated than by comparing its CDYQ, +Genesis vi. 9, with the CDYQ BDWR HZH, of Genesis vii. 1 (JE.). +The plural DRWT is quite on a line with the MYNYM, and the (MY +H)RC, of the Rabbis, and the SPERMATA of Galatians iii. 15; it +does not denote the successive generations, but contemporaries, +the contemporaneous individuals of one and the same generation. + +From words we are brought back to things again by noting that the +age of the word depends in many cases on the introduction of the +thing. The name BTR in the Song of Songs, for example, +presupposes the cultivation of the malobathron in Syria and +Palestine. The Priestly Code enumerates colours, stuffs, +goldsmiths' work and jewels, which nowhere occur in the older +literature: along with the Book of Ezekiel it is the principal +quarry in the Old Testament for the history of art; and this is +the less likely to be due to chance, as the geographical horizon +of the two works is also the same. There is also some contact in +this respect, though to a less degree, between the Priestly Code +and Isaiah xl.-lxvi., and this must doubtless receive a historical +explanation in the circumstances of the Babylonian age. /l/ + +********************************************* +1. On Canticles cf. Schuerer's Theol. Lit. Z., 1879, p. 31. It +also, by the names of plants and similar details mentioned in it, +is an important source for the history of external civilisation. +In Isaiah liv. 11, read with the Septuagint NPK: instead of the +meaningless PWK:, and )DNYK instead of )BNYK. +******************************************** + + + +CHAPTER X. THE ORAL AND THE WRITTEN TORAH. + + +What importance the written letter, the book of the law, possessed +for the Jews, we all know from the New Testament. Of ancient +Israel, again, it is said in the introductory poem of Goethe's +West-Oestlicher Divan, that the word was so important there, +because it was a spoken word. The contrast which Goethe evidently +perceived is really characteristic, and deserves some further +attention. + + +X.I. + + +X.I.1. Even if it be the case that Deuteronomy and the Priestly +Code were only reduced to writing at a late period, still there +remains the Jehovistic legislation (Exodus xx.-xxiii. xxxiv.) +which might be regarded as the document which formed the +starting-point of the religious history of Israel. And this +position is in fact generally claimed for it; yet not for the +whole of it, since it is commonly recognised that the Sinaitic +Book of the Covenant (Exodus xx.-xxiii. 19) was given to a +people who were settled and thoroughly accustomed to agriculture, +and who, moreover, had passed somewhat beyond the earliest stage +in the use of money. /1/ + +**************************************** +1. Exodus xxi. 35: compare xxi. 33 with Judges ix. 4 +**************************************** + +The Decalogue alone is commonly maintained to be in the strictest +sense Mosaic. This is principally on account of the statement +that it was written down on the two stone tables of the sacred +ark. Yet of Deuteronomy also we read, both that it was written +on twelve stones and that it was deposited in the sacred ark +(Deuteronomy xxxi. 26). We cannot therefore place implicit reliance +on such statements. What is attested in this way of the Decalogue +seems to find confirmation in 1Kings viii. 9. But the authority +of this statement is greatly weakened by the fact that it occurs +in a passage which has undergone the Deuteronomistic revision, and +has been, in addition to this, subjected to interpolation. The more +weight must we therefore allow to the circumstance, which makes for +a different conclusion, that the name "The Ark of the Covenant" +(i.e., the box of the law) /1/ is peculiar to the later writers, + +***************************************** +1. Compare 1Kings viii. 21, "the ark wherein is the covenant of +Jehovah," and viii 9, "there was nothing in the ark save the two +tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, the tables of the +covenant which Jehovah had made with the children of Israel." The +Deuteronomistic expression "tables of the covenant", alternates +in the Priestly Code with that of "tables of testimony"; i e., +likewise of the law. For H(DWT, "the testimony," 2Kings xi. 12, +read HC(DWT, "the bracelets," according to 2Samuel i. 10. +******************************************* + +and, when it occurs in older narratives, is proved by its sporadic +appearance, as well as by a comparison of the Septuagint with +the Massoretic text, to be a correction. In early times the ark +was not a mere casket for the law; the "the ark of Jehovah" was of +itself important, as we see clearly enough from 1Samuel iv.-vi. +Like the twelve maccebas which surrounded the altar on the holy hill +of Shechem, and which only later assumed the character of monuments +of the law, so the ark of the covenant no doubt arose by a change +of meaning out of the old idol. If there were stones in it at all, +they probably served some other purpose than that of writing materials, +otherwise they would not have been hidden as a mystery in the +darkness of the sanctuary; they must have been exposed to public +view. Add to this that the tradition is not agreed as to the +tenor of the ten words said to have been inserted on the two +tables; two decalogues being preserved to us, Exodus xx. and +Exodus xxxiv., which are quite different from each other. It +results from this that there was no real or certain knowledge as +to what stood on the tables, and further that if there were such +stones in the ark--and probably there were--there was nothing +written on them. This is not the place to decide which of the two +versions is prior to the other; the negative result we have +obtained is sufficient for our present purpose. + +X.I.2. Ancient Israel was certainly not without God-given bases +for the ordering of human life; only they were not fixed in +writing. Usage and tradition were looked on to a large extent as +the institution of the Deity. Thus, for example, the ways and +rules of agriculture. Jehovah had instructed the husbandman and +taught him the right way. He it was whose authority gave to +the unwritten laws of custom their binding power. "It is never so +done in Israel," "that is folly in Israel," and similar +expressions of insulted public conscience are of frequent occurrence, +and show the power of custom: the fear of God acts as a +motive for respecting it. "Surely there is no fear of God in +this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake," so +Abraham says to himself in Gerar. "How shall I do such great +wrong and sin against God?" says Joseph to the woman in Egypt. +"The people of Sodom were wicked and sinned grievously against +Jehovah," we read in Genesis xiii. 13. Similarly Deuteronomy +xxv. 18: "The Amalekites attacked Israel on the march, and killed +the stragglers, all that were feeble and fell behind, and feared +not God." We see that the requirements of the Deity are known and +of force, not to the Israelites only, but to all the world; and +accordingly they are not to be identified with any positive +commands. The patriarchs observed them long before Moses. "I +know Abraham," Jehovah says, xviii. 19, "that he will command his +children to keep the way of Jehovah, to do justice and judgment." + +Much greater importance is attached to the special Torah of +Jehovah, which not only sets up laws of action of universal +validity, but shows man the way in special cases of difficulty, +where he is at a loss. This Torah is one of the special gifts +with which Israel is endowed (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 4); and it is +intrusted to the priests, whose influence, during the period of +the Hebrew kings, of which we are now speaking, rested much more +on this possession than on the privilege of sacrifice. The verb +from which Torah is derived signifies in its earliest usage to +give direction, decision. The participle signifies _giver of +oracles_ in the two, examples _gibeath moreh_ and _allon moreh_. +The latter expression is explained by another which alternates +with it, "oak of the soothsayers." Now we know that the priests +in the days of Saul and David gave divine oracles by the ephod +and the lots connected with it, which answered one way or the other +to a question put in an alternative form. Their Torah grew no doubt +out of this practice. /1/ The Urim and Thummim are regarded, + +************************************* +1. 1Sam xiv. xxiii. xxx. In connection with 1Samuel xxxi. 3 +I have conjectured that the verb of which Torah is the abstract +means originally to throw the lot-arrows. The Thummim have been +compared in the most felicitous way by Freytag, and by Lagarde +independently of him (Proph. Chald. p. xlvii.) with the +Arabian Tamaim, which not only signifies children's amulets but +any means of "averruncatio". Urim is probably connected with +)RR "to curse" (cf. Iliad i. 11 and Numbers xxiii. 23): the two +words of the formula seem mutually to supplement each other. +************************************ + +according to Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8, as the true and universal insignia +of the priesthood; the ephod is last mentioned in the historical +books in 1Kings ii. 26, /1/ + +************************************** +1 Bleek, Einleiung in das A. T., 1878, p. 642. +************************************** + +but appears to have remained in use down to the time of Isaiah +(Hosea iii. 4; Isaiah xxx. 22). The Torah freed itself in the +process of time, following the general mental movement, from such +heathenish media and vehicles (Hab. ii. 19). But it continued +to be an oral decision and direction. As a whole it is only a +power and activity of God, or of the priests. Of this subject +there can be no abstract; the TEACHING; is only thought of as +the action of the TEACHER. There is no torah as a ready-made +product, as a system existing independently of its originator and +accessible to every one: it becomes actual only in the various +utterances, which naturally form by degrees the basis of a fixed +tradition. "They preserve Thy word, and keep Thy law; they teach +Jacob Thy judgments and Israel Thy statutes " (Deuteronomy xxxiii. +9, 10). + +The Torah of the priests appears to have had primarily a legal +character. In cases which there was no regular authority to +decide, or which were too difficult for human decision, the latter +was brought in the last instance before God, i.e., before the +sanctuary or the priests (Exodus xviii. 25 seq.). The priests +thus formed a kind of supreme court, which, however, rested on a +voluntary recognition of its moral authority, and could not +support its decisions by force. "If a man sin against another, +God shall judge him," 1Samuel ii. 25 says, very indefinitely. +Certain legal transactions of special solemnity are executed +before God (Exodus xxi. 6). Now in proportion as the executive +gained strength under the monarchy, _jus_--civil justice--necessarily +grew up into a separate existence from the older sacred _fas_. The +knowledge of God, which Hosea (chapter iv.) regards as the contents +of the torah, has as yet a closer connection with jurisprudence +than with theology; but as its practical issue is that God +requires of man righteousness, and faithfulness, and good-will, +it is fundamentally and essentially morality, though morality +at that time addressed its demands less to the conscience than +to society. A ritual tradition naturally developed itself even +before the exile (2Kings xvii. 27, 28). But only those rites +were included in the Torah which the priests had to teach others, +not those which they discharged themselves; even in Leviticus +this distinction may be traced; the instructions characterised +as toroth being chiefly those as to animals which might or might +not be eaten, as to clean and unclean states, as to leprosy and +its marks (cf. Deuteronomy xxiv. 8). + +So it was in Israel, to which the testimony applies which we have +cited: and so it was in Judah also. There was a common proverb in +the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, "The Torah shall not perish +from the priest, nor counsel from the ancient, nor the word from +the prophet:" but no doubt the saying was not new in their time, +and at any rate it will apply to the earlier time as well. Not +because they sacrifice but because they teach, do the priests +here appear as pillars of the religious order of things; and +their Torah is a living power, equal to the occasion and +never-failing. Micah reproaches them with judging for reward +(iii. 11), and this shows their wisdom to have been based on a +tradition accessible to them alone; this is also shown by some +expressions of Deuteronomy (xvii. 10 seq., xxiv. 8). We have +the counterpart to the proverb above cited (Jeremiah xviii. 18; +Ezekiel vii. 26) in the complaint in Lamentations (ii. 9): +"Jerusalem is destroyed; her king and her princes are among the +Gentiles: the Torah is no more; the prophets obtain no vision +from Jehovah;" after the ruin of the sanctuary and the priests +there is no longer any Torah; and if that be so, the axe is laid +to the root of the life of the people. In the post-exile prophets +the torah, which even in Deuteronomy (xvii. 11) was mainly +legal in its nature, acquires a strong savour of ritual which one +did not notice before; yet even here it is still an oral teaching +of the priests (Haggai ii. 11). + +The priests derived their Torah from Moses: they claimed only +to preserve and guard what Moses had left (Deuteronomy xxxiii 4, +9 seq.). He counted as their ancestor (xxxiii. 8; Judges xviii. +30); his father in-law is the PRIEST of Midian at Mount Sinai, +as Jehovah also is derived in a certain sense from the older deity +of Sinai. But at the same time Moses was reputed to be the +incomparable originator and practicer of PROPHECY (Numbers xii. 6 +seq.; Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10; Hos. xii. 14), as his brother Aaron +also is not only a Levite (Exodus iv. 14), but also a prophet +(iv. 15; Numbers xii. 2). There is thus a close relation between +priests and prophets, i.e., seers; as with other peoples (1Samuel +vi.,; 1Kings xviii. 19, compare with 2Kings x. 19), so also +with the Hebrews. In the earliest time it was not knowing the +technique of worship, which was still very simple and +undeveloped, but being a man of God, standing on an intimate +footing with God, that made a man a priest, that is one who keeps +up the communication with heaven for others; and the seer is +better qualified than others for the office (1Kings xviii. 30 +seq.). There is no fixed distinction in early times between the +two offices; Samuel is in 1Samuel i.-iii. an aspirant to the +priesthood; in ix. x. he is regarded as a seer. + +In later times also, when priests and prophets drew off and +separated from each other, they yet remained connected, both in +the kingdom of Israel (Host iv. 5) and in Judah. In the latter +this was very markedly the case (2Kings xxiii. 2; Jeremiah xxvi. +7 seq., v. 31; Deuteronomy xviii. 1-8, 9-22; Zechariah vii. 3). +What connected them with each other was the revelation of Jehovah +which went on and was kept alive in both of them. It is Jehovah +from whom the torah of the priest and the word of the prophet +proceeds: He is the true DIRECTOR, as Isaiah calls Him in the +passage xxx. 20 seq., where, speaking of the Messianic time, +he says to the people, "Then thy director (MWRYK) is no more +concealed, but thine eyes see thy director, and thine ears hear +the words of One calling behind thee; this is the way, walk ye +in it; when ye are turning to the right hand or to the left." +TORAH and WORD are cognate notions, and capable of being +interchanged (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9; Isaiah i. 10, ii. 3, v. 24, +viii. 16, 20). This explains how both priests and prophets +claimed Moses for their order: he was not regarded as the founder +of the cultus. + +The difference, in the period when it had fully developed itself, +may be said to be this: the Torah of the priests was like a +spring which runs always, that of the prophets like a spring which +is intermittent, but when it does break forth, flows with all the +greater force. The priests take precedence of the prophets when +both are named together; they obviously consolidated themselves +earlier and more strongly. The order, and the tradition which +propagates itself within the order, are essential to them: +they observe and keep the torah (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9). +For this reason, that they take their stand so entirely on the +tradition, and depend on it, their claim to have Moses for +their father, the beginner and founder of their tradition, +is in itself the better founded of the two. /l/ + +*********************************** +1 It is also more firmly rooted in history; for if Moses did +anything at all, he certainly founded the sanctuary at Kadesh +and the torah there, which the priests of the ark carried on after +him, thus continuing the thread of the history of Israel, which +was taken up again in power by the monarchy. The prophets only +appeared among the Hebrews from the time of Samuel onwards, but +the seers were older than Moses, and can scarcely have had such +a close connection with his tradition as the priests at the +sanctuary of the ark of Jehovah. +********************************** + +In the ordinary parlance of the Hebrews torah always meant first, +and chiefly the Priestly Torah. The prophets have notoriously no +father (1Samuel x. 12), their importance rests on the +individuals; it is characteristic that only names and sketches +of their lives have reached us. They do indeed, following the +tendency of the times, draw together in corporations; but in +doing so they really renounce their own distinctive +characteristics: the representative men are always single, +resting on nothing outside themselves. We have thus on the one +side the tradition of a class, which suffices for the occasions of +ordinary life, and on the other the inspiration of awakened +individuals, stirred up by occasions which are more than ordinary. +After the spirit of the oldest men of God, Moses at the head of +them, had been in a fashion laid to sleep in institutions, +it sought and found in the prophets a new opening; the old fire +burst out like a volcano through the strata which once, too, rose +fluid from the deep, but now were fixed and dead. + +The element in which the prophets live is the storm of the world's +history, which sweeps away human institutions; in which the +rubbish of past generations with the houses built on it begins to +shake, and that foundation alone remains firm, which needs no +support but itself. When the earth trembles and seems to be passing +away, then they triumph because Jehovah alone is exalted. They +do not preach on set texts; they speak out of the spirit which +judges all things and itself is judged of no man. Where do they +ever lean on any other authority than the truth of what they +say; where do they rest on any other foundation than their own +certainty? It belongs to the notion of prophecy of true +revelation, that Jehovah, overlooking all the media of ordinances +and institutions, communicates Himself to the INDIVIDUAL, the +called one, in whom that mysterious and irreducible rapport in +which the deity stands with man clothes itself with energy. +Apart from the prophet, _in abstracto_, there is no revelation; +it lives in his divine-human ego. This gives rise to a synthesis +of apparent contradictions: the subjective in the highest sense, +which is exalted above all ordinances, is the truly objective, +the divine. This it proves itself to be by the consent of the +conscience of all, on which the prophets count, just as Jesus +does in the Gospel of John, in spite of all their polemic +against the traditional religion. They are not saying anything +new: they are only proclaiming old truth. While acting in the +most creative way they feel entirely passive: the _homo tantum +et audacia_ which may with perfect justice be applied to such men +as Elijah, Amos, and Isaiah, is with them equivalent to _deus +tantum et servitus_. But their creed is not to be found in +any book. It is barbarism, in dealing with such a phenomenon, to +distort its physiognomy by introducing the law. + +X.I.3. It is a vain imagination to suppose that the prophets +expounded and applied the law. Malachi (circa 450 B.C.) says, +it is true, iv. 4, "Remember ye the torah of Moses my servant;" +but where shall we look for any second expression of this nature? +Much more correctly than modern scholars did these men judge, who +at the close of the preexilic history looked back on the forces +which had moulded it, both the divine and those opposed to God. +In their eyes the prophets are not the expounders of Moses, but +his continuators and equals; the word of God in their mouth is +not less weighty than in the mouth of Moses; they, as well as he, +are organs of the spirit of Jehovah by which He is present in +Israel. The immediate revelation to the people, we read in Deuteronomy +xviii., ceased with the ten commandments: from that point onwards +Jehovah uses the prophets as His mouth: "A prophet like unto +thee," He says to Moses, "will I raise up to them from among their +brethren, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak +unto them all that I shall command him; and whosoever shall not +hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will +require it of him." +We find it the same in Jeremiah; the voice of the prophets, always +sounding when there is need for it, occupies the place which, +according to the prevailing view, should have been filled by the +law: this living command of Jehovah is all he knows of, and not +any testament given once for all. +"This only I commanded your fathers when I brought them up out +of Egypt: Obey my voice, and walk ye in all the ways that I will +command you. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of Egypt, +I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up +early and sending them; but ye would not hear." +And even after the exile we meet in Zechariah (520 B.C.) the +following view of the significance of the prophets: "Thus spake +Jehovah of hosts [to the fathers before the exile], Speak true +judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother, +and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the stranger nor the +poor: and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in his +heart. But they refused to hearken, and shrugged the shoulder, +and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made +their hearts as a flint, lest they should hear the Torah and the +words which Jehovah Sebaoth hath sent by His Spirit through the +old prophets: therefore came a great wrath from Jehovah Sebaoth. +And as He cried and they would not hear, so now shall they cry +and I will not hear, and I will blow them away among the +peoples.... Thus saith Jehovah Sebaoth [after the exile to the +present generation], As I thought to punish you without pity +because your fathers provoked me to anger, so again have I +thought in these days to do well to the house of Judah: fear +ye not. These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every +man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth +and peace in your gates; and let none of you imagine evil in +your hearts against his neighbour, and love no false oath, +for all these are things which I hate, saith Jehovah" +(Zechariah vii. 9-11, viii. 14-16). +The contents of the Torah, on obedience to which the theocracy is +here based, are very suggestive, as also its derivation from the +"old" prophets. Even Ezra can say (ix. 10, 11): +"We have forsaken Thy commandments which Thou hast commanded by the +servants the prophets, saying, The land unto which ye go to +possess it is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of +the land, which have filled it from one end to another with their +uncleanness." +He is thinking of Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, and Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. + +Of those who at the end reflected on the meaning of the +development which had run its course, the writer of Isaiah +xl.-lxvi. occupies the first place. The Torah, which he also +calls _mishpat_, right (i.e., truth), appears to him to be the +divine and imperishable element in Israel. With him, however, +it is inseparable from its mouthpiece, the servant of Jehovah, +xlii. 1-4, xlix. 1-6, l. 4-9, lii. 13-liii. 12. The name would +denote the prophet, but here it stands for the people, a prophet +on a large scale. Israel's calling is not that of the +world-monarchies, to make sensation and noise in the streets +(xiii. 1-4), but the greater one of promulgating the Torah and +getting it received. This is to be done both in Israel and among +the heathen. What makes Israel a prophet is not his own inner +qualities, but his relation to Jehovah, his calling as the +depository of divine truth: hence it involves no contradiction +that the servant should begin his work in Israel itself. /1/ + +************************************* +1. This is as if one were to say that there is much to be done +before we Evangelicals are truly evangelical. Yet the +distinction as worked out in Isaiah xl. seq. is certainly very +remarkable, and speaks for a surprising degree of profound +meditation. +************************************ + +Till now he has spent his strength only in the bosom of his own +people, which is always inclined to fall away from Jehovah and +from itself: heedless of reproach and suffering he has laboured +unweariedly in carrying out the behests of his Master and has +declared His word. All in vain. He has not been able to avert +the victory of heathenism in Israel, now followed by its victory +over Israel. Now in the exile Jehovah has severed His relation +with His people; the individual Hebrews survive, but the servant, +the people of Jehovah, is dead. Then is the Torah to die with +him, and truth itself to succumb to falsehood, to heathenism? +That cannot be; truth must prevail, must come to the light. +As to the Apostle Paul the Spirit is the earnest of the +resurrection of those who are born again, so to our author the +Torah is the pledge of the resurrection of Israel, the +justification of the servant of Jehovah. The final triumph of +the cause, which is God's, will surpass all expectations. Not +only in Israel itself will the Torah, will the servant of Jehovah +prevail and bring about a regeneration of the people: the truth +will in the future shine forth from Israel into the whole world, +and obtain the victory among all the Gentiles (xlix. 6). Then it +will appear that the work of the servant, resultless as it seemed +to be up to the exile, has yet not been in vain. + +It is surely unnecessary for me to demonstrate how uncommonly +vivid, I might say how uncommonly historical, the notion of the +Torah is as here set forth, and how entirely incompatible that +notion is with "the Torah of Moses." It might most fitly be +compared with the Logos of the prologue of John, if the latter +is understood in accordance with John x. 35, an utterance +certainly authentic, and not according to Philo. As Jesus is +the revelation of God made man, so the servant of Jehovah is +the revelation of God made a people. The similarity of their +nature and their significance involves the similarity of their +work and of their sufferings, so that the Messianic interpretation +of Isaiah lii. 13-liii. 12 is in fact one which could not fail to +suggest itself. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. The personification is carried further in this passage than +anywhere else, and it is possible that the colours of the sketch +are borrowed from some actual instance of a prophet-martyr: yet +the Ebed Jahve cannot have a different meaning here from that +which it has everywhere else. It is to be noted that the +sufferings and death of the servant are in the past, and his +glorification in the future, a long pause lying between them in +the present. A resurrection of the individual could not be in +the mind of the writer of Isaiah xl seq., nor do the details of +the description, lii. 12 seq., at all agree with such an idea. +Moreover, it is clear that liv. 1-lvi. 8 is a kind of sermon on +the text lii. 13-liii. 12; and there the prophecy of the +glorification of the servant has reference to Zion. See Vatke, +p. 528 seq. +******************************************* + + +X.II. + + + +X.II.1. In the 18th year of King Josiah (621 B.C) Deuteronomy was +found and published. In the account of the discovery, 2Kings +xxii. xxiii., it is always called simply _the book of the Torah_; +it was accordingly the first, and in its time the only book of +the kind. It is certainly the case that the prophets had written +down some of their speeches before this, and the priests also may +before this time have written down many of their precepts: it +appears in fact, as Vatke surmises, that we have a monument of +their spirit, e.g., in the Sinaitic Book of the Covenant. +Deuteronomy presupposes earlier attempts of this kind, and +borrows its materials largely from them; but on the other hand it +is distinguished from them not only by its greater compass but +also by its much higher claims. It is written with the distinct +intention not to remain a private memorandum, but to obtain public +authority as a book. The idea of making a definite formulated +written Torah the law of the land, is the important point /1/ + +************************************** +1. Duhm, ap. Cil. p. 201. +************************************** + +it was a first attempt and succeeded at the outset beyond +expectation. A reaction set in afterwards, it is true; but the +Babylonian exile completed the triumph of the law. Extraordinary +excitement was at that time followed by the deepest depression +(Amos viii. 11 seq.). At such a time those who did not despair +of the future clung anxiously to the religious acquisitions of the +past. These had been put in a book just in time in Deuteronomy, +with a view to practical use in the civil and religious life of +the people . The book of the Torah did not perish in the general +ruin, but remained in existence, and was the compass of those who +were shaping their course for a new Israel. How thoroughly +determined they were to use it as their rule we see from the +revision of the Hexateuch and of the historical books which was taken +in hand during the exile. + +With the appearance of the law came to an end the old freedom, +not only in the sphere of worship, now restricted to Jerusalem, +but in the sphere of the religious spirit as well. There was now +in existence an authority as objective as could be; and this was +the death of prophecy. + +For it was a necessary condition of prophecy that the tares +should be at liberty to grow up beside the wheat. The signs given +in Deuteronomy to distinguish the true from the false prophet, +are no doubt vague and unpractical: still they show the tendency +towards control and the introduction of uniformity; that is the +great step which is new. /1/ + +**************************************** +1. The difference between Deuteronomy xviii. 22 and 1Kings xxii. +19-23 may be thought to throw light on the two positions. In the +former passage we read that if a prophet says something in the +name of Jehovah which does not come to pass, it is a word which +Jehovah has not spoken. Here, on the contrary, Micaiah ben Imlah, +when the prophets of Jehovah promise the king of Israel a happy +issue of the campaign against the Syrians, regards the prediction +as contrary to the truth, but as none the less on that account +inspired by the spirit of prophecy; Jehovah, he said, had made +his spirit a Iying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. It +may be that this difference reflects to us the interval between +two different ages: but on the whole Micaiah's view appears to be +rather a piece of ingenuity which might have been resorted to in +later times as well. In the seventh century the command, "every +firstborn is mine," was held to apply to the human firstborn as +well, the sacrifice of which Jehovah was thought to require: this +appears from Jeremiah's protest, "I commanded them not, neither +came it into my mind," vii. 31, xix. 5. With reference to this +Ezekiel says that because the Israelites despised the wholesome +commandments of Jehovah, He gave them laws which were not good and +statutes by which they could not live. That is a similar +ingenious escape from a difficulty, without deeper meaning. See +the converse, Koran, Sura ii. 174. +********************************************* + +It certainly was not the intention of the legislator to encroach +upon the spoken Torah or the free word. But the consequence, +favoured by outward circumstances, was not to be avoided: the +feeling that the prophets had come to an end did not arise in the +Maccabean wars only. In the exile we hear the complaint that the +instruction of the priests and the word of the prophets are silent +(Lamentations ii. 9); it is asked, where he is who in former times +put his spirit in Israel (Isa lxiii. 11); in Nehemiah's time a +doubtful question is left unsettled, at least theoretically, till +the priest with Urim and Thummim, i.e., with a trustworthy +prophecy, shall appear (Nehemiah vii. 69). We may call Jeremiah the +last of the prophets: /2/ + +********************************* +2. In his early years Jeremiah had a share in the introduction of +the law: but in later times he shows himself little edified by +the effects it produced: the Iying pen of the scribes, he says, +has written for a lie. People despised the prophetic word because +they had the Torah in black and white (viii. 7-9). +********************************** + +those who came after him were prophets only in name. Ezekiel had +swallowed a book (iii. 1-3), and gave it out again. He also, +like Zechariah, calls the pre-exilic prophets the old prophets, +conscious that he himself belongs to the epigoni: he meditates on +their words like Daniel and comments on them in his own prophecy +(xxxviii. 17, xxxix. 8). The writer of Isaiah xl. seq. might with +much more reason be called a prophet, but he does not claim to be +one; his anonymity, which is evidently intentional, leaves no doubt +as to this. He is, in fact, more of a theologian: he is principally +occupied in reflecting on the results of the foregoing development, +of which prophecy had been the leaven; these are fixed possessions +now secured; he is gathering in the harvest. As for the prophets +after the exile, we have already seen how Zechariah speaks of the +old prophets as a series which is closed, in which he and those +like him are not to be reckoned. In the writing of an anonymous +contemporary which is appended to his book we find the following +notable expression: +"In that (hoped-for) day, saith Jehovah, I will cut off the names +of the idols out of the land, that they be no more remembered, +and also I will cause to cease the prophets and the unclean +spirit; and if a man will yet prophesy, his parents shall say +unto him, Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest lies in the name +of Jehovah, and his parents shall thrust him through when he +prophesieth" (xiii. 2-3). + +X.II.2. Deuteronomy was the programme of a reform, not of a +restoration. It took for granted the existence of the cultus, +and only corrected it in certain general respects. But the temple +was now destroyed and the worship interrupted, and the practice of +past times had to be written down if it was not to be lost. Thus +it came about that in the exile the conduct of worship became the +subject of the Torah, and in this process reformation was naturally +aimed at as well as restoration. We have seen <II.II.1.>) that +Ezekiel was the first to take this step which the circumstances of +the time indicated. In the last part of his work he made the +first attempt to record the ritual which had been customary in +the temple of Jerusalem. Other priests attached themselves to him +(Leviticus xvii.-xxvi.), and thus there grew up in the exile from +among the members of this profession a kind of school of people +who reduced to writing and to a system what they had formerly +practiced in the way of their calling. After the temple was +restored this theoretical zeal still continued to work, and the +ritual when renewed was still further developed by the action and +reaction on each other of theory and practice: the priests who +had stayed in Babylon took as great a part, from a distance, in +the sacred services, as their brothers at Jerusalem who had +actually to conduct them. The latter indeed lived in adverse +circumstances and do not appear to have conformed with great +strictness or accuracy to the observances which had been agreed +upon. The last result of this labour of many years is the +Priestly Code. It has indeed been said that we cannot ascribe +the creation of such a work to an age which was bent on nothing +but repristination. Granted that this is a correct description of +it, such an age is peculiarly fitted for an artificial +systematising of given materials, and this is what the originality +of the Priestly Code in substance amounts to. /1/ + +******************************************** +1. Dillmann arrives at the conclusion that the assumption is the +most natural one in the world, and still capable of proof from ACD +(!) that the priesthood of the central sanctuary wrote down their +toroth even in early times; and that it is absurd to suppose +that the priestly and ceremonial laws were first written down, +or even made, in the exile and in Babylon, where there was no +worship. We will let it be absurd, if it is true. It is not +progress, though it is a fact, that the kings were succeeded by +the high-priests, and the prophets by the Rabbis. Yet it is a +thing which is likely to occur, that a body of traditional +practice should only be written down when it is threatening to +die out, and that a book should be, as it were, the ghost of a +life which is closed. +******************************************** + +The Priestly Code, worked into the Pentateuch as the standard +legislative element in it, became the definite "Mosaic law." +As such it was published and introduced in the year 444 B.C., +a century after the exile . In the interval, the duration of which +is frequently under-estimated, Deuteronomy alone had been known +and recognised as the written Torah, though as a fact the essays of +Ezekiel and his successors may have had no inconsiderable +influence in leading circles. The man who made the Pentateuch the +constitution of Judaism was the Babylonian priest and scribe, +Ezra. He had come from Babylon to Jerusalem as early as the year +458 B.C., the seventh of Artaxerxes Longimanus, at the head of a +considerable company of zealous Jews, provided it is said with a +mandate from the Persian king, empowering him to reform according +to the law the congregation of the temple, which had not yet been +able to consolidate itself inwardly nor to shut itself off +sufficiently from those without. + +"Thou art sent of the king and of his seven counsellors to hold an +inquiry concerning Judah and Jerusalem _according to the law of thy +God which is in thine hand_....And thou Ezra, according to _the +wisdom of thy God which is in thine hand_, set magistrates and +judges which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, +all such as acknowledge the laws of thy God, and teach ye them +that know them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God +and the law of the king, let him be prosecuted." +So we read in the commission of the Persian king to Ezra, vii. +12-26; which, even should it be spurious, must yet reflect the +views of his contemporaries. The expression taken from Ezra's +own memoirs, vii. 27, leaves no doubt that he was assisted by +Artaxerxes in the objects he had in view. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. With regard to his relation to the law, we have to consider the +following points: he was a scribe (SWPR = literatus), at home in +the Torah of Moses, vii. 6. He had directed his mind to study +the Torah of Jehovah, and to do and to teach in Israel judgment +and statute, vii. 10. "The priest Ezra, the master of the law +of the God of heaven," vii. 21. The most important expression, +however, is that which states that the law (the wisdom) of his God +was in his hand: thus it was his private property, though it +claimed authority for all Israel. With this agree the statements +as to the object of the learned priest's mission. +************************************** + +But Ezra did not, as we should expect, at once introduce the law +on his arrival in Judah. In concert with the heads of the people, +and proceeding on the existing Torah, that, namely, of +Deuteronony, he ordained and relentlessly carried out a strict +separation of the returned exiles from the heathen and +half-heathen inhabitants of the land. This was done a few months +after his arrival in Jerusalem. But a long time, at least +fourteen years, elapsed before he produced the law which he had +brought with him. Why he delayed so long we can at the best only +surmise, as no accounts have reached us of what he did in the +interval; there is a great gap in the narrative of the Books of +Ezra and Nehemiah between the 7th and the 20th year of Artaxerxes. +Perhaps the outward circumstances of the young community, which, +probably in consequence of the repellent attitude taken up to the +surrounding peoples, were not of the happiest, made it unadvisable +at once to introduce a legislative innovation; perhaps, too, Ezra +desired to wait to see the correcting influence of the practice of +Jerusalem on the product of Babylonian scholarship, and moreover +to train up assistants for the work. The principal reason, +however, appears to have been, that in spite of the good-will of +the king he did not enjoy the energetic support of the Persian +authorities on the spot, and could not without it get the +authority of the new law recognised. + +But in the year 445 it came about that a Jew and a sympathiser of +Ezra, Nehemiah ben Hakkelejah, cup-bearer and favourite of +Artaxerxes, appeared in Judea as Persian governor. With +straightforward earnestness he first addressed himself to the task +of liberating the Jewish community from outward pressure and +lifting them up from their depressed condition; and, this being +accomplished, the time had come to go forward with the introduction +of the Pentateuch. Ezra and Nehemiah were manifestly in concert +as to this. On the 1st day of the 7th month--we do not know the +year, but it cannot have been earlier than 444 B.C.--the whole +people came together as one man before the water-gate, and Ezra +was called on to produce the book of the law of Moses, which +Jehovah had commanded Israel. The scribe mounted a wooden pulpit; +seven priests stood beside him on the right hand, and seven on the +left. When he opened the book all present stood up, both men and +women; with loud Amen they joined in the opening blessing, lifted +up their heads, and cast themselves on the ground. Then he read +the book, from early morning till mid-day, in small sections, +which were repeated and expounded by a number of Levites dispersed +throughout the crowd. The effect was that a general weeping arose, +the people being aware that they had not till then followed the +commandments of God. Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites had to +allay the excitement, and said: "This day is holy unto Jehovah +your God; mourn not nor weep. Go your way, eat the fat and drink +the sweet, and give unto them that have brought nothing with them." +The assembled people then dispersed and set on foot a "great mirth," +because they had understood the words which had been communicated +to them. The reading was continued the next day, but before the +heads of families only, and a very appropriate section was read, +viz., the ordinances as to festivals, and particularly that about +the feast of tabernacles, which was to be kept under branches of +trees on the 15th day of the 7th month, the month then just +beginning. The matter was taken up with the greatest zeal, and +the festival, which had not been kept RITE <sic!> since the days +of Joshua ben Nun, was now instituted in accordance with the +precepts of Leviticus xxiii. and celebrated with general enthusiasm +from the 15th to the 22nd of the month. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. For eight days, according to Leviticus xxiii. 39: as against +Deuteronomy xvi. 13-15. +*************************************** + +On the 24th, however, a great day of humiliation was held, with +sackcloth and ashes. On this occasion also the proceedings began +with reading the law, and then followed a confession of sins +spoken by the Levites in the name of the people, and concluding +with a prayer for mercy and compassion. This was preparatory to +the principal and concluding act, in which the secular and +spiritual officials and elders, 85 in number, bound themselves +in writing to the Book of the Law, published by Ezra, and all +the rest undertook an obligation, with oath and curse, to walk +in the Torah of God, given by His servant Moses, and to keep +all the commandments of Jehovah and His statutes and laws. +Special attention was directed to such provisions of the Pentateuch +as were of immediate importance for the people in the circumstances +of the day--the greater part of the whole work is about the ritual +of the priests--and those were in particular insisted on which +refer to the contributions of the laity to the priesthood, on +which the very existence of the hierocracy depended. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. Nehemiah viii. 1-x. 40. The credibility of the narrative +appears on the face of it. The writer of Chronicles did not write +it himself, but took it from his main source, from which also he +drew the fragments he gives us of the memoirs of Ezra and +Nehemiah. This we see from the fact that while copying Nehemiah vii. +in Ezra ii. he unconsciously goes on with the beginning of Nehemiah +viii. (= Ezra iii. 1). That shows that he found Nehemiah vii. and +viii. in their present connection, and did not write viii. seq. +himself, as we might suppose. +************************************** + +Lagarde expresses great surprise--and the surprise is reasonable-- +that so little importance is attributed to this narrative by Old +Testament critics; only Kuenen had rightly appreciated its +significance. /2/ + +****************************************** +2 Goettinger Gel. Anzeigen, 1870, p. 1557 seq. Kuenen, Religion +of Israel, vol. ii. chapter viii. +****************************************** + +It is obvious that Nehemiah viii.-x. is a close parallel to 2Kings +xxii. xxiii., especially to xxiii. 1-3. There we read that +Josiah caused all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to come +together, and went up with the men of Judah and the inhabitants of +Jerusalem, with the priests and the prophets and all the people, +high and low, to the house of Jehovah; where he read to the +assemblage all the words of the Book of the Law, and bound himself +with all the people before Jehovah to keep all the words of the +book. Just as it is in evidence that Deuteronomy became known in +the year 621, and that it was unknown up to that date, so it is in +evidence that the remaining Torah of the Pentateuch--for there is +no doubt that the law of Ezra was the whole Pentateuch--became +known in the year 444 and was unknown till then. This shows in the +first place, and puts it beyond question, that Deuteronomy is the +first, and the priestly Torah the second, stage of the +legislation. But in the second place, as we are accustomed to +infer the date of the composition of Deuteronomy from its +publication and introduction by Josiah, so we must infer the date +of the composition of the Priestly Code from its publication and +introduction by Ezra and Nehemiah. It would require very strong +internal evidence to destroy the probability, thus based on a +most positive statement of facts, that the codification of the +ritual only took place in the post-exile period. We have already +seen of what nature the internal evidence is which is brought +forward with this view. /1/ + +******************************************** +1. It is not, however, necessary, and it can scarcely be correct, +to make Ezra more than the editor, the real and principal editor, +of the Hexateuch: and in particular he is not likely to have +been the author of Q. Nor on the other hand is it meant to deny +that many new features may have been added and alterations made +after Ezra. A body of customs is a subject which can scarcely +be treated quite exhaustively. There are no directions about the +_nervus ischiadicus_ <**sciatic nerve??**>, about the priests +having their feet bare, about shutting up before Jehovah +(1Samuel xxi cf. Jeremiah xxxvi. 5), or about the stoning of adulterers. +******************************************* + +X.II.3. Ezra and Nehemiah, and the eighty-five men of the great +assembly (Nehemiah viii. seq.), who are named as signatories of +the covenant, are regarded by later tradition as the founders of +the canon. And not without reason: only King Josiah has a still +stronger claim to this place of honour. The introduction of the +law, first Deuteronomy, and then the whole Pentateuch, was in fact +the decisive step, by which the written took the place of the +spoken word, and the people of the word became a "people of the +book." To THE BOOK were added in course of time THE BOOKS; the +former was formally and solemnly introduced in two successive +acts, the latter acquired imperceptibly a similar public authority +for the Jewish church. The notion of the canon proceeds entirely +from that of the written Torah; the prophets and the hagiographa +are also called Torah by the Jews, though not Torah of Moses. + +The origin of the canon thus lies, thanks to the two narratives +2Kings xxii. xxiii., Nehemiah viii.-x. in the full light of +history; but the traditional science of Biblical introduction has +no clear or satisfactory account to give of it. Josiah, the +ordinary notion is, introduced the law, but not the canon; Ezra, +on the other hand, the canon and not the law. An analogy drawn +from the secondary part of the canon, the prophets and +hagiographa, is applied without consideration to the primary +part, the Torah of Moses. The historical and prophetical books +were, in part at least, a long time in existence before they +became canonical, and the same, it is thought, might be the case +with the law. But the case of the law is essentially different. +The law claims to have public authority, to be a book of the +community; the difference between law and canon, does not exist. +Hence it is easy to understand that the Torah, though as a +literary product later than the historical and prophetical books, +is yet as law older than these writings, which have originally +and in their nature no legal character, but only acquired such +a character in a sort of metaphorical way, through their association +with the law itself. + +When it is recognised that THE CANON is what distinguishes Judaism +from ancient Israel, it is recognised at the same time that what +distinguishes Judaism from ancient Israel is THE WRITTEN TORAH. +The water which in old times rose from a spring, the Epigoni +stored up in cisterns. + + + +CHAPTER XI. THE THEOCRACY AS IDEA AND AS INSTITUTION. + + +Writers of the present day play with the expressions "theocracy," +and "theocratic" without making it clear to themselves +what these words mean and how far they are entitled to use them. +But we know that the word theokratia was only coined by +Josephus; /1/ + +*************************************** +1. )OUKOUN )APEIROI MEN (AI KATA MEROS TWN )ETHWN KAI TWN NOMWN PARA +TOIS )APASIN )ANTHRWPOS DIAFORAI. )OI MEN GAR MONARXIAIS, (OI DE +TAIS )OLIGWN DUNASTEIAIS, )ALLOI DE TOIS PLHTHESIN )EPETREPYAN THN +'ECOUSIAN TWN POLITEUMATWN. (O D' (HMETEROS NOMOQETHS )EIS MEN +TOUTWN OUD' (OTIOUN )APEIDEN, (WS D' )AN TIS )EIPOI BIASAMENOS TON +LOGON QEOKRATIAN )APEDEICE TO POLITEUMA, QEW| THN )ARXHN KAI TO +KRATOS )ANAQEIS (contra Apion ii. 17). (" There are innumerable +differences in the particular customs and laws that are among +mankind; some have intrusted the power of their states to +monarchies, some to oligarchies, and some to democracies: but our +legislator had no regard to any of these forms, _but he ordered +our governmernt to be what I may call by a strained expression a +theocracy_, attributing the power and the authority to God." +Compare also, on this whole chapter, Die Pharisaer und die +Sadducaer, Greifswald, 1874. +***************************************** + +and when this writer speaks of the Mosaic constitution, he has +before his eyes, it is well known, the sacred community of his +own day as it existed down to the year 70 A.D. In ancient Israel +the theocracy never existed in fact as a form of constitution. +The rule of Jehovah is here an ideal representation; only after +the exile was it attempted to realise it in the shape of a Rule of +the Holy with outward means. It is perhaps the principal merit +of Vatke's Biblical Theology to have traced through the centuries +the rise of the theocracy and the metamorphosis of the idea to an +institution. + +XI.I. + +XI.I.1. The upholders of the prevailing view do not assert that +Moses wrote the Pentateuch, but they maintain all the more firmly +that he organised the congregation of the tabernacle in the +wilderness after the fashion described in the Priestly Code. They +seem to think that Moses had no importance further than this; as +if it were an act of no moment to cast into the field of time a +seed which the action and reaction thence arising bring an +immeasurable time after to maturity (Mark iv. 26 seq.). In fact +Moses is the originator of the Mosaic constitution in about the +same way as Peter is the founder of the Roman hierarchy. Of the +sacred organisation supposed to have existed from the earliest +times, there is no trace in the time of the judges and the kings. +It is thought to have been a sort of pedagogic strait-waistcoat, +to subdue the ungovernable obstinacy of the Hebrews and to guard +them from evil influences from without. But even should it be +conceded that a constitution could come into existence in ancient +times which was so utterly out of relation to the peculiar life +and temper of the people, the history of the ancient Israelites +shows us nothing so distinctly as the uncommon freshness and +naturalness of their impulses. The persons who appear always +act from the constraining impulse of their nature, the men of +God not less than the murderers and adulterers: they are such +figures as could only grow up in the open air. Judaism, which +realised the Mosaic constitution and carried it out logically, +left no free scope for the individual; but in ancient Israel +the divine right did not attach to the institution but was in +the Creator Spirit, in individuals. Not only did they speak +like the prophets, they also acted like the judges and kings, +from their own free impulse, not in accordance with an outward +norm, and yet, or just because of this, in the Spirit of Jehovah. +The different view of different times is seen very characteristically +in the views taken of Saul by the two versions above sifted and +compared <VII.II.2 >. + +XI.I.2. It is a simple and yet a very important remark of Vatke, +that the sacred constitution of the congregation, so circumstantially +described to us in the Priestly Code, is after all very +defective, and presupposes the existence of that which it was the +chief task of the age of Moses to bring about, namely the state, +in the absence of which the church cannot have any subsistence +either. To maintain an elaborate and expensive worship, and an +immense swarm of clergy, must have required considerable rates and +taxes: and to raise these, as well as to uphold the authority of +the sacred persons and institutions, and most of all to enforce +the strict centralization and uniformity of the legitimate +worship, all this among a people not yet very civilised, must have +required an executive power which embraced and was able to +control, the whole people. But where is this central authority +in the period of the judges? Judicial competence resided at that +time chiefly in the smallest circles, the families and houses. +These were but little controlled, as it appears, by the superior +power of the tribe, and the very notion of the state or of the +kingdom did not as yet exist. Houses related to each other +sometimes united for common undertakings, as no doubt also did +neighbouring tribes; but this was not on the basis of any +constitutional order, but from necessity, when it happened that +a well-known man came forward to take the command and his summons +to the levy was obeyed. These transient combinations under generals +were the forerunners of a permanent union under a king: and even +at the time of the Midianite war an attempt seems to have been +made in this direction, which, however, was not quite successful. +In the severe and protracted struggle with the Philistines the +necessity for a solid union of the tribes was cryingly manifest, +and the man came forward to meet the hour. Saul, a distinguished +Benjamite of Gibeah, was overcome by anger at the scornful +challenge which even the Ammonites ventured at such a time to cast +in the teeth of his people: he called his fellow-countrymen to battle, +not in virtue of any office he held, but on the strength of his +own impulses; his enthusiasm proved contagious, none dared to say +him nay. He began his career just like one of the earlier judges, +but after he had led his people to victory they did not let him +retire again. The person sought for, the king, was found. + +Out of such natural beginnings did the state at that time arise: +it owed nothing to the pattern of the "Mosaic theocracy," but +bears all the marks of a new creation. Saul and David first made +out of the Hebrew tribes a real people in the political sense +(Deuteronomy xxxiii. 5). David was in the eyes of later generations +inseparable from the idea of Israel: he was the king par +excellence: Saul was thrown into the shade, but both together are +the founders of the kingdom, and have thus a much wider importance +than any of their successors. It was they who drew the life of +the people together at a centre, and gave it an aim; to them the +nation is indebted for its historical self-consciousness. All the +order of aftertimes is built up on the monarchy; it is the soil +out of which all the other institutions of Israel grow up. In the +time of the judges, we read, every man did that which was right +in his own eyes, not because the Mosaic constitution was not in +force, but because there was no king in those days. The +consequences were very important in the sphere of religion as well: +since the political advance of the people brought the historic +and national character of Jehovah to the front again. During the +time of the judges the Canaanite festival cultus had gradually +been coming to be embodied in the worship of Jehovah, a process +which was certainly necessary; but in this process there was for +some time a danger that Jehovah would become a God of husbandry +and of cattle, like Baal-Dionysus. The festivals long continued +to be a source of heathenism, but now they were gradually divested +of their character as nature-festivals, and forced at length to +have reference to the nation and to its history, if they were not +to disappear completely. The relation of Jehovah to people and +kingdom remained firm as a rock: even to the worst idolaters He was +the God of Israel; in war no one thought of looking for victory +and success to any other God. This was the result of Israel's +becoming a kingdom: the kingship of Jehovah, in that precise +sense which we associate with it, is the religious expression of +the fact of the foundation of the kingdom by Saul and David. The +theocracy was the state of itself; the ancient Israelites +regarded the civil state as a miracle, or, in their own words, +a help of God. When the later Jews thought or spoke of the +theocracy, they took the state for granted as already there, and +so they could build the theocracy on the top of it as a +specially spiritual feature: just as we moderns sometimes see the +divine element in settled ordinances, such as marriage, not in +their own nature, but in the consecration added to them by the church. + +XI.I.3. The kingdom of Saul and David did not long remain at its +height. Decay set in even at the separation, and when once the +Assyrians were heard at the door, it advanced with steps not to be +arrested. But the memory of the period of glory and power was +all the greener, and the hope arose of its return. From the +contrast between the sorrowful present and the brilliant past there +arose the picture of the state as it should be; when ruin was +seen without and anarchy within, the prophets set against this +the pattern of the theocracy. The theocracy as the prophets +represent it to themselves is not a thing essentially different +from the political community, as a spiritual differs from a secular +power; rather, it rests on the same foundations and is in fact +the ideal of the state. Isaiah gave this ideal its classical form +in those pictures of the future which we are accustomed to call +Messianic prophecies. These passages are not predictions of this +or that occurrence, but announcements of the aims which, it is true, +the prophet only expects the future to realise, but which are of +force or ought to be of force in the present, and towards which the +community, if true to its own nature, must strive. + +The first feature of these Messianic descriptions is the expulsion +of the Assyrians; but most emphasis is laid on the restoration of +the inner bases of the state, the rottenness of which has brought +about and rendered inevitable the present crisis. The collapse of +the government, the paralysis fallen on the law, the spoliation of +the weak by the strong, these are the evils that call for redress. +"How is the honourable city become a harlot; it was full of +judgment, righteousness lodged in it--but now murderers! Thy +princes are rascals and companions of thieves, every one loveth +gifts and followeth after bribes; they judge not the fatherless, +neither cloth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore +saith the Lord: Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge +me of mine enemies! And I will turn my hand against thee, Zion, +and as with Iye I will purge away thy dross, and I will restore +thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the +beginning; afterwards thou shalt be called a righteous and +honourable city. Zion shall be redeemed by judgment and her +inhabitants by righteousness" (Isaiah i. 21-27). +The state the prophet has before his eye is always the natural +state as it exists, never a community distinguished by a peculiar +holiness in its organisation. The kingdom of Jehovah is with him +entirely identical with the kingdom of David; the tasks he sets +before it are political in their nature, similar, we might say, +to the demands one would address to the Turkish Empire in our own +days. He is unconscious of any difference between human and divine +law: law in itself, jurist's law in the proper juristic sense of +the word, is divine, and has behind it the authority of the Holy +One of Israel. + In that day shall Jehovah of hosts be for a crown of glory and a +diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people, and for a spirit +of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and a spirit of strength +to them that drive back the battle from the borders " (xxviii. 5, 6). +Jehovah is a true and perfect King, hence justice is His principal +attribute and His chief demand. And this justice is a purely forensic +or social notion: the righteousness of the Sermon on the Mount can +only come into consideration when civil justice and order have come +to be a matter of course--which at that time they had not yet done. + +The representative of Jehovah is the human king. The earthly +ruler is not in the way of the heavenly: even the glorious +kingdom of the future cannot dispense with him. +"Then a king shall reign in righteousness and princes shall rule +in judgment; each of them shall be as an hiding-place from the wind +and as a covert from the tempest; as rivers of waters in a dry place, +as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land" (xxxii. 1, 2). +As the reigning king is in general unsatisfactory, Isaiah hopes for +a new one who will answer the pattern of David of old, the Messiah. +"There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a +branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of Jehovah +shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the +spirit of counsel and of warlike might, the spirit of knowledge +and of the fear of the Lord; and His breath shall be drawn in the +fear of Jehovah. And He shall not judge after the sight of His +eyes, nor decide by hearsay: but with righteousness shall He +judge the poor, and give sentence with equity for the meek of the +earth; but He shall smite the scorners with the rod of His mouth, +and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked, so that +righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness +the girdle of His reins. Then the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, +and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the +young lion together, and a little child shall lead them. And the +cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down +together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox: and the +sucking child shall stroke the head of the adder, and the weaned +child shall put his hand on the eye-ball of the basilisk. They +shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain" (xi. 1-9) +This is generally considered to be a prediction of a universal +golden age on earth; but Isaiah only speaks of the holy +mountain as the scene, meaning by this the whole city of David +as the centre of his kingdom. The just and strict government of +the descendant of David is to bring it about that righteousness +and truth kiss each other, and that the strong do not dare to +injure the weak. Fear of the severity of the law engenders +general confidence; the lamb is no longer afraid of the wolf. The +opposite of this ideal is lawlessness and anarchy within, not war +without; the hope is not that of international peace, as we see +both from verse 1-5 and from verse 9. The Messiah is adorned just +with the virtues which befit a ruler; and this shows sufficiently +what is the nature of the kingdom of which he is to be the head, +i.e., what is the notion of the theocracy. + +The other prophets of this period agree with Isaiah (Lamentations iv. +20), only Hosea is peculiar in this as in other points. He +appears to have regarded the kingdom as such as an evil; in more +than one expression he makes it the antithesis of the rule of +Jehovah. But we have to remember that this judgment of his is +based entirely on his historical experience. In the kingdom of +the ten tribes the supreme power was constantly being seized by +usurpers, so that instead of being the pillar of order and law it +was the plaything of parties and the occasion of incessant +disturbances. It is this North-Israelite kingdom that Hosea has +in view; and he reprobates it for no other reason than that, in +the three hundred years of its existence, it has not approved +itself, and does not approve itself in the present time of need. +He does not proceed as on _a priori_ theory, he does not apply as +his rule a pattern of the theocratic constitution given +antecedently to any historical development. There can be no +doubt that it never entered his head that the form God desired the +community to take was not a thing to be determined by circumstances, +but had been revealed at Mount Sinai. /1/ + +***************************************** +1. He even speaks with favour of David and the kingdom of Judah, +but I consider all such references in Hosea (as well as in Amos) +to, be interpolations. In i. 7 there is a reference to the +deliverance of Jerusalem under Hezekiah. +***************************************** + +XI.I.4. Nor did the theocracy exist from the time of Moses in the +form of the covenant, though that was afterwards a favourite mode +of regarding it. The relation of Jehovah to Israel was in its nature +and origin a natural one; there was no interval between Him and +His people to call for thought or question. Only when the +existence of Israel had come to be threatened by the Syrians and +Assyrians, did such prophets as Elijah and Amos raise the Deity +high above the people, sever the natural bond between them, and +put in its place a relation depending on conditions, conditions of +a moral character. To them Jehovah was the God of righteousness +in the first place, and the God of Israel in the second place, and +even that only so far as Israel came up to the righteous demands +which in His grace He had revealed to him. They inverted the +order of these two fundamental articles of faith. "If your sins +are as scarlet, how should they be reckoned white as snow? If +they are red like crimson, how should they be as wool? If ye +be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land, +but if ye refuse and rebel, ye must eat the sword, for the mouth +of Jehovah hath spoken it." +Thus the nature of the conditions which Jehovah required of His +people came to the very front in considering His relations with +them: the Torah of Jehovah, which originally, like all His dealings, +fell under the category of divine aid, especially in the doing of +justice, of divine guidance in the solution of difficult questions, +was now conceived of as incorporating the demands on the fulfilment +of which His attitude towards Israel entirely depended. In this way +arose, from ideas which easily suggested it, but yet as an entirely +new thing, the substance of the notion of covenant or treaty. The +name Berith, however, does not occur in the old prophets, not even +in Hosea, who certainly presents us as clearly as possible with +the thing, in his figure of the marriage of Jehovah and Israel +(Isaiah i. 21). That he was unacquainted with the technical usage +of Berith is strikingly proved by ii. 20 and vi. 7; and these +passages must decide the view we take of viii. 1, a passage which +is probably interpolated. + +The NAME Berith comes, it is likely, from quite a different +quarter. The ancient Hebrews had no other conception of law nor +any other designation for it than that of a treaty. A law only +obtained force by the fact of those to whom it was given binding +themselves to keep it. So it is in Exodus xxiv. 3-8, and in +2Kings xxiii. 1-3; so also in Jeremiah xxxiv. 8 seq.--curiously +enough just as with the people of Mecca at the time of Mohammed +(lbn Hisham, p. 230 seq.). Hence also the term Sepher Berith for +the Deuteronomic as well as the Jehovistic Book of the Law. + +This use of the phrase Berith (ie., treaty) for law, fitted very +well with the great idea of the prophets, and received from it in +turn an interpretation, according to which the relation of Jehovah +to Israel was conditioned by the demands of His righteousness, as +set forth in His word and instruction. In this view of the matter +Jehovah and Israel came to be regarded as the contracting parties +of the covenant by which the various representatives of the people +had originally pledged each other to keep, say, the Deuteronomic +law. /1/ + +***************************************** +I This variation gained entrance the more easily as Berith is used +in various applications, e.g:, of the capitulation, the terms of +which are imposed by the stronger on the weaker party: that the +contracting parties had equal rights was by no means involved in +the notion of the Berith. See the wavering of the notion in +Jeremiah xxxiv. 13-18. +******************************************* + +After the solemn and far-reaching act by which Josiah introduced +this law, the notion of covenant-making between Jehovah and Israel +appears to have occupied the central position in religious thought: +it prevails in Deuteronomy, in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, in Isaiah xl.-lxvi., +Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., and most of all in the Book of the Four +Covenants. The Babylonian exile no doubt helped, as the Assyrian +exile had previously done, to familiarise the Jewish mind with the +idea that the covenant depended on conditions, and might possibly be +dissolved. + + + +XI.II. + + +XI.II.1. The tabernacle of David fell at last, and no king was born +to set it up again. The state suffered not a crisis, but +destruction. And the result was that such of the religious hopes +of the people as they still held fast, were no longer limited to +existing political conditions, but now took a freer flight, became +tinged with enthusiasm, and cast off all restrictions. In former +times there was always an enemy threatening in the background, a +danger really approaching, to give rise to the expectation of a +great conflagration, the materials for which had long been +collected in the nation itself: but after the exile fancy dealt +in general coalitions of God knows what peoples against the New +Jerusalem, vaticinations for which there was no ground whatever +in reality. /1/ + +****************************************** +1 Ezekiel xxxviii. xxxix.; Isaiah lxvi. 18-24; Joel iv.; +Zechariah xii. xiv. In Isaiah v. 26, on the other hand, we must, +of course, read GWY, for GWYM, the singular instead of the plural. +***************************************** + +In earlier times the national state as it had existed under David +was the goal of all wishes. Now a universal world empire was +erected in imagination, which was to lift up its head at Jerusalem +over the ruins of the heathen powers. Prophecy was no longer +tied to history, nor supported by it. + +But the extravagant hopes now built on Jehovah were balanced on +the other side by sober and realisable aims which the course of +history presented. Those who waited for the consolation of +Israel were then confronted from the nature of their situation +with practical tasks. The old prophets were satisfied with +expressing their ideas, with criticising existing evils; as to +practical points they had nothing to say, the leadership of the +people was in other hands. But the old community being now gone +and its heads having fallen with it, the godly both had the power +and felt the obligation to place themselves at the head of the +Israel now to be anew created, after which they had long been +striving, and their faith in which was still unshaken. In former +times the nation had not been so seriously threatened as that its +continued existence, notwithstanding the dangerous crises it might +have to pass through, should ever cease to be regarded as natural, +as a thing of course. But now this was by no means a thing of +course, the danger was a pressing one that the Jewish exiles, +like the Samaritan exiles before them, would be absorbed by the +heathens among whom they dwelt. In that case the Messianic hopes +also would have lost their point of application, for, however true +it was that the realising of them was Jehovah's concern, the men must +still be there to whom they were to be fulfilled. Thus everything +depended on getting the sacred remnant safe across this danger, and +giving it so solid an organisation that it might survive the +storms and keep alive the expectation of the promise. + +But in the eyes of those whose words had weight in the restoration +the old community, as it had existed formerly, was not in good +repute. They could not but allow Jehovah's sentence of +condemnation to be just which He had spoken by the mouth of His +servants and through the voice of history. The utterances of the +prophets, that fortresses and horses and men of war, that kings and +princes, cannot help, were called to mind and turned into practical +principles: the sole rule of Jehovah was to be carried out in earnest. +Circumstances favoured the design, and this was the great point. +As matters then were, the reconstitution of an actual state was +not to be thought of, the foreign rule would not admit of it (Ezra +iv. 19 seq.). What plan was to be taken, what materials to be +used for such a building as the times allowed? The prophetic +ideas would not serve as building stones; they were not +sufficiently practical. Then appeared the importance of +institutions, of traditional forms, for the conservation even of +the spiritual side of the religion. + +The Jewish royal temple had early overshadowed the other +sanctuaries, and in the course of the seventh century they were +extinct or verging on extinction. Under the shelter of the +monarchy the priests of Jerusalem had grown great and had at last +attained, as against their professional brethren elsewhere, a +position of exclusive legitimacy. The weaker the state grew, the +deeper it sank from the fall of Josiah onwards, the higher became +the prestige of the temple in the eyes of the people, and the +greater and the more independent grew the power of its numerous +priesthood; how much more do we feel it in Jeremiah's time than in +that of Isaiah! This advance of the priesthood indicates unmistakably +the rise into prominence of the cultus in the seventh century, +a rise rather helped than hindered by the long reign of Manasseh, +evil as is the reputation of that reign. It shows itself not only +in the introduction of more luxurious materials, incense, for example, +but even more in the importance given to great and striking services, +e.g., the sacrifice of children, and the expiatory offering. Even +after the abolition of the horrid atrocities of Manasseh's time, +the bloody earnestness remained behind with which the performance +of divine service was gone about. + +So closely was the cultus of Jerusalem interwoven with the +consciousness of the Jewish people, and so strongly had the +priesthood established their order, that after the collapse of the +kingdom the elements still survived here for the new formation of +a "congregation" answering to the circumstances and needs of the +time. Around the ruined sanctuary the community once more lifted +up its head (1Kings viii.; Haggai i. seq.; Zechariah i. seq.). +The usages and ordinances were, though everywhere changes in +detail, yet not created afresh. Whatever creating there was lay +in this, that these usages were bound together in a system and +made the instruments of restoring an organisation of "the remnant." + +Ezekiel first pointed out the way which was suited for the time. +He is the connecting link between the prophets and the law. He +claims to be a prophet, and starts from prophetic ideas: but they +are not his own ideas, they are those of his predecessors which +he turns into dogmas. He is by nature a priest, and his peculiar +merit is that he enclosed the soul of prophecy in the body of a +community which was not political, but founded on the temple and +the cultus. The chapters xl.-xlviii. are the most important in +his book, and have been called by J. Orth, not incorrectly, the +key of the Old Testament. + +Thus arose that artificial product, the sacred constitution of +Judaism. In the Priestly Code we have the picture of it in +detail. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. It is not the case that the hierocracy is based on the +Priestly Code: that code was only introduced after the +hierocracy was already in existence, but helped, no doubt, to +consolidate and legalise it. The written law afterwards +undermined the rule of the priests; and the scriptures played +into the hands of the scribes and Pharisees. (Compare the case +of the Parsees and Sabians, and <the reference given here,.. +namely "p.157, note" is in error. There is no note on p. 157 +and I do not know what is being referred to ..>.) +****************************************** + +The distinction, drawn with such pains between the Mosaic +theocracy and the post-exilic hierocracy, is too fine. Theocracy +as a constitution is hierocracy. If Moses founded such a +constitution, he did it prophetically, with a view to circumstances +which only arose a thousand years after his day, <V.II.1.; VII.II.4.>. +Old Israel had not shrunk to a religious congregation, public life +was not quite absorbed in the service of the sanctuary; the high +priest and the dwelling of Jehovah were not the centre round which +all revolved <p.170 is not correct; >. These great changes were +wrought by the destruction of the political existence first of +Samaria, then of Judah. In this way the people became "a kingdom +of priests and a holy nation," as we read in a Deuteronomistic +passage, Exodus xix. 6. If the divine rule was formerly a belief +supporting the natural ordinances of human society, it was now set +forth in visible form as a divine state, in an artificial sphere +peculiar to itself and transcending the ordinary life of the people. +The idea had formerly informed and possessed the natural body, but +now, in order that it might be thoroughly realised, it was to have +spiritual body of its own. There arose a material, external antithesis +of a sacred and profane; men's minds came to be full of this, and +it was their great endeavour to draw the line as sharply as possible +and to repress the natural sphere more and more. Holiness is the +ruling idea in Ezekiel, in Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., and in the Priestly +Code. The notion is a somewhat empty one, expressing rather what +a thing is not than what it is; at first it meant the same as divine, +but now it is used mainly in the sense of spiritual, priestly, as if +the divine could be distinguished from the worldly, the natural, by +outward visible marks of that kind. + +The Mosaic theocracy, the residuum of a ruined state, is itself not +a state at all, but an unpolitical artificial product created in +spite of unfavourable circumstances by the impulse of an +ever-memorable energy: and foreign rule is its necessary +counterpart. In its nature it is intimately allied to the old +Catholic church, which was in fact its child. As a matter of taste +it may be objectionable to speak of the Jewish church, but as a +matter of history it is not inaccurate, and the name is perhaps +preferable to that of theocracy, which shelters such confusion of +ideas. + +XI.II.2. The Mosaic theocracy appears to show an immense +retrogression. The law of Jehovah should denote what is +characteristic of His people over against the heathen. But +this certainly did not consist in the cultus of Israel: it would +be vain labour to seek in this and that slight variation between +the Hebrew and the Greek ritual a difference of principle between +them. The cultus is the heathen element in the Israelite religion-- +the word heathen not being understood, of course, in an ignoble or +unworthy sense. If the Priestly Code makes the cultus the principal +thing, that appears to amount to a systematic decline into the +heathenism which the prophets incessantly combated and yet were +unable to eradicate. It will be readily acknowledged that at the +constitution of the new Jerusalem the prophetic impulses were +deflected by a previously existing natural tendency of the mass on +which they had to operate. Yet in every part of the legal worship +we see the most decided traces of their influence. We have seen to +what a large extent that worship is everywhere marked by a +centralising tendency. This tendency is not connected in the Priestly +Code with opposition to improper or foreign worship; yet it must be +interpreted as a polemical measure; and if it be regarded as an +axiom necessary in the Priestly Code from the nature of the case, +that is only saving that the demands of the prophets had prevailed +most completely in a field where they had the greatest obstacles to +contend with. Exclusive monolatry is by no means innate in the +cultus; it can only be deduced from considerations which are +foreign to the nature of the cultus: it is the antitype of strict +monotheism. The prohibition of images, too, in the worship of the +Deity, is not expressly insisted on, as in Deuteronomy, but is a +provision which is taken for granted; so little is this position +in danger of question that even doubtful and repugnant elements are +embodied in the worship and assimilated by it without hesitation. +The golden ephod, denounced by Isaiah, has become an insignificant +decoration of the high-priest: talismans, forbidden even by +Ezekiel, are allowed (Numbers xv. 37-41), but the object of them is +"that ye may look upon them and remember all the commandments of +Jehovah, and do them, and that ye follow not after your own heart +and your own eyes, after which ye used to go a whoring." The gross +idolatry, with which the expression znh is always connected in +other passages, is by this time out of the question: the heart +itself with its lawless motions is the strange God, whose service +is forbidden. + +We may go further and say that by the cultus-legislation the +cultus is estranged from its own nature, and overthrown in its own +sphere. That is most unmistakably the case with regard to the +festivals. They have lost their reference to harvest and cattle, +and have become historical commemorations: they deny their +birth from nature, and celebrate the institution of supernatural +religion and the gracious acts of Jehovah therewith connected. +The broadly human, the indigenous element falls away, they receive +a statutory character and a significance limited to Israel. +They no longer draw down the Deity into human life on all important +occasions, to take part in its joys and its necessities: they are +not HUMAN ATTEMPTS with such naive means as are at command to please +the Deity and render Him favourable. They are removed from the +natural sphere, and made DIVINE MEANS OF GRACE, which Jehovah has +instituted in Israel as sacraments of the theocracy. The worshipper +no longer thinks that in his gift he is doing God a pleasure, +providing Him with an enjoyment: what pleases Him and is effectual +is only the strict observance of the rite. The sacrifices must be +offered exactly according to prescription: at the right place, at +the right time, by the right individuals, in the right way. They are +not based on the inner value of what is done, on the impulse arising +out of fresh occasions, but on the positive command of a will outside +the worshipper, which is not explained, and which prescribes every +particular. The bond between cultus and sensuality is severed: +no danger can arise of an admixture of impure immoral elements, +a danger which was always present in Hebrew antiquity. Worship no +longer springs from an inner impulse, it has come to be an +exercise of religiosity. It has no natural significance; its +significance is transcendental, incomparable, not to be defined; +the chief effect of it, which is always produced with certainty, +is atonement. For after the exile the consciousness of sin, called +forth by the rejection of the people from the face of Jehovah, +was to a certain extent permanent: even when the hard service of +Israel was accomplished and the wrath really blown over, it would +not disappear. + +If then the value of the sacred offerings lay not in themselves +but in obedience to the commandments of God, the centre of gravity +of the cultus was removed from that exercise itself and +transferred to another field, that of morality. The consequence +was that sacrifices and gifts gave way to ascetic exerctses, +which were more strictly and more simply connected with morality. +Precepts given originally in reference to the consecration of the +priests for their religious functions were extended to the laity: +the observance of these laws of physical cleanliness was of much +more radical importance in Judaism than the great public cultus, +and led by the straightest road towards the theocratic ideal of +holiness and of universal priesthood. The whole of life was +compressed into a certain holy path; there was always a divine +command to be fulfilled, and by thinking of it a man kept himself +from following after the desires and lusts of his own heart. +On the other hand this private cultus, which constantly required +attention, kept alive and active the individual sense of sin. + +The great pathologist of Judaism is quite right: in the Mosaic +theocracy the cultus became a pedagogic instrument of discipline. +It is estranged from the heart; its revival was due to old +custom, it would never have blossomed again of itself. It no +longer has its roots in childlike impulse, it is a dead work, in +spite of all the importance attached to it, nay, just because of +the anxious conscientiousness with which it was gone about. At +the restoration of Judaism the old usages were patched together in +a new system, which, however, only served as the form to preserve +something that was nobler in its nature, but could not have been +saved otherwise than in a narrow shell that stoutly resisted all +foreign influences. That heathenism in Israel against which the +prophets vainly protested was inwardly overcome by the law on +its own ground; and the cultus, after nature had been killed in +it, became the shield of supernaturalistic monotheism. + + + +The end of the Prolegomena + + + + + + + + + +ISRAEL + + + +Reprinted from the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" + + + +I S R A E L. + +1. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. + +According to the Book of Genesis, Israel was the brother of Edom, +and the cousin of Moab and Ammon. These four petty peoples, +which may be classed together as the Hebrew group, must at one +time have formed some sort of a unity and have passed through a +common history which resulted in their settlement in +south-eastern Palestine. The Israelites, or rather that section of +the Hebrew group which afterwards developed into Israel, appear at +first to have been the immediate neighbours of Edom, and to have +extended westwards towards the border of Egypt. As regards the +ethnological position of the Hebrews as a whole, tradition has it +that they had connexions not only with the Aramaeans of Osrhoene +(Nahor), but also with certain of the old half-Arab inhabitants of +the Sinaitic peninsula (Kenites, Amalek, Midian). To the Canaanites, +whose language they had adopted, their relation was that of foreign +conquerors and lords to a subject race (Gen. ix, 26). + +Some fifteen centuries before our era a section of the Hebrew group +left its ancient seat in the extreme south of Palestine to occupy +the not distant pasture lands of Egypt (Goshen), where they +carried on their old calling, that of shepherds and goatherds. +Although settled within the territory of the Pharaohs, +and recognising their authority, they continued to retain all +their old characteristics,--their language, their patriarchal +institutions, their nomad habits of life. + +But in course of time these foreign guests were subjected to +changed treatment. Forced labour was exacted of them for the +construction of new public works in Goshen, an exaction which was +felt to be an assault upon their freedom and honour, and which in +point of fact was fitted to take away all that was distinctive of +their nationality. But they had no remedy at hand, and had +submitted in despair, until Moses at last saw a favourable +opportunity of deliverance. Reminding his oppressed brethren +of the God of their fathers, and urging that their cause was His, +he taught them to regard self-assertion against the Egyptians as +an article of religion; and they became once more a united people +in a determination to seek refuge from oppression in the wilderness +which was the dwelling-place of their kindred and the seat of their +God. At a time when Egypt was scourged by a grievous plague, the +Hebrews broke up their settlement in Goshen one night in spring, +and directed their steps towards their old home again. According +to the accounts, the king had consented to the exodus, and latterly +had even forced it on, but it was none the less a secret flight. + +To a not very numerous pastoral people such an undertaking +presented no great difficulty. Nevertheless its execution was not +to be carried out unimpeded. The Hebrews, compelled to abandon +the direct eastward road (Exod. xiii. 17, 18), turned towards +the south-west and encamped at last on the Egyptian shore of the +northern arm of the Red Sea, where they were overtaken by +Pharaoh's army. The situation was a critical one; but a high +wind during the night left the shallow sea so low that it became +possible to ford it. Moses eagerly accepted the suggestion, and +made the venture with success. The Egyptians, rushing after, came +up with them on the further shore, and a struggle ensued. But the +assailants fought at a disadvantage, the ground being ill suited +for their chariots and horsemen; they fell into confusion and +attempted a retreat. Meanwhile the wind had changed; the waters +returned, apd the pursuers were annihilated./1/ + +************************************ +1. Exod. xvi. 21, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31. According to the Old +Testament the exodus took place 480 years before the building of +Solomon's temple, and 960 years before the end of the Babylonian +captivity. These figures are "systematic" or at least +systematised, but even so they are certainly more trustworthy +than the combinations of the Egyptologists. +************************************ + +After turning aside to visit Sinai as related in Exodus, the +emigrants settled at Kadesh, eastwards from Goshen, on the +southern borders of Palestine, /2/ + +*********************************** +2. The site of Sinai (= Horeb?) hardly admits of ascertainment. +The best datum would be the sanctuary of Jethro, if we could +identify it with Midian (Jakut, iv. 451), which lies +on the Arabian coast of the Red Sea obliquely facing the +traditional Sinai. With regard to Qadesh, see Quarterly +Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1871), pp. 20, 21. +************************************* + +where they remained for many years, having at the well of Kadesh +their sanctuary and judgment-seat only, while with their flocks +they ranged over an extensive tract. In all probability their +stay at Kadesh was no involuntary detention; rather was it this +locality they had more immediately had in view in setting out. +For a civilised community of from two to three millions such a +settlement would, of course, have been impossible; but it was +quite sufficient for the immediate requirements of the Goshen +shepherds, few in number as they were and inured to the life of +the desert. That attempts may have been made by them to obtain +possession of the more fertile country to the north is very likely; +but that from the outset they contemplated the conquest of the +whole of Palestine proper, and that it was only in expiation of +a fault that they were held back at the gate of the promised land +until the whole generation of the disobedient had died out, is not +historically probable. + +We can assign a definite reason for their final departure from +Kadesh. In the district to the east of Jordan the (Canaanite) +Amorites had, sometime previously, driven the Ammonites from the +lower Jabbok and deprived the Moabites of all their territory to +the north of the Arnon; on the plateau opposite Jericho Heshbon +had become the capital of Sihon, the Amorite king. This sovereign +now set himself to subdue southern Moab also, and not without +success. +"Fire went out from Heshbon, flame from the stronghold of Sihon, +devoured the cities of Moab upon the heights of Arnon. +Woe to thee, O Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh!" +From these straits the Moabites were rescued by their cousins, +the nomads of the wilderness of Kadesh. The Israelites came +forward on behalf of what was at once the common Hebrew cause +and their own particular interest; they took the field against +the Amorites, vanquished them in battle, and broke up the kingdom +of Sihon. The consequence was that the land to the south of the +Arnon remained in the undisputed possession of Moab, while the +victors themselves became masters of the territory immediately +to the north. Settled thus between Moab and Ammon their kinsmen, +the Israelites supplied the link that was wanting in the chain of +petty Hebrew nationalities established in the south of eastern +Palestine. + +The army that went out against the Amorites from Kadesh was +certainly not exclusively composed of men who, or whose fathers, +had accomplished the passage of the Red Sea Israel was not a +formed nation when it left Egypt; and throughout the whole period +of its sojourn in the wilderness it continued to be in process of +growth. Instead of excluding the kindred elements which offered +themselves to it on its new soil, it received and assimilated them. +The life they had lived together under Moses had been the first +thing to awaken a feeling of solidarity among the tribes which +afterwards constituted the nation; whether they had previously +been a unity in any sense of the word is doubtful. On the other +hand, the basis of the unification of the tribes must certainly +have been laid before the conquest of Palestine proper; for with +that it broke up, though the memory of it continued. At the same +time it must not be supposed that all the twelve tribes already +existed side be side in Kadesh. The sons of the concubines of +Jacob--Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher--manifestly do not pertain +to Israel in the same sense as do those of Leah and Rachel; +probably they were late arrivals and of very mixed origin. +We know, besides, that Benjamin was not born until afterwards, +in Palestine. If this view be correct, Israel at first consisted +of seven tribes, of which one only, that of Joseph, traced its +descent to Rachel, though in point of numbers and physical strength +it was the equal of all the others together, while in intellectual +force it surpassed them. The remaining six were the sons of +Leah:--Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah; Issachar, Zebulon. They are +always enumerated in this order; the fact that the last two are +also invariably mentioned apart from the rest and after Joseph +has its explanation in geographical considerations. + +The time of Moses is invariably regarded as the properly creative +period in Israel's history, and on that account also as giving +the pattern and norm for the ages which followed. In point of +fact the history of Israel must be held to have begun then, and +the foundations of a new epoch to have been laid. The prophets +who came after gave, it is true, greater distinctness to the peculiar +character of the nation, but they did not make it; on the contrary, +it made them. Again, it is true that the movement which +resulted in the establishment of the monarchy brought together +for the first time into organic unity the elements which +previously had existed only in an isolated condition; but +Israel's sense of national personality was a thing of much earlier +origin, which even in the time of the judges bound the +various tribes and families together, and must have had a great +hold on the mind of the nation, although there was no formal and +binding constitution to give it support. When the Israelites +settled in Palestine they found it inhabited by a population +superior to themselves both in numbers and in civilisation, which +they did not extirpate, but on the contrary gradually subdued +and absorbed. The process was favoured by affinity of race +and similarity of speech; but, however far it went, it never had +the effect of making Israelites Canaanites; on the contrary, it +made Canaanites Israelites. Notwithstanding their inferiority, +numerical and otherwise, they maintained their individuality, +and that without the support of any external organisation. +Thus a certain inner unity actually subsisted long before it +had found any outward political expression; it goes back to +the time of Moses, who is to be regarded as its author. + +The foundation upon which, at all periods, Israel's sense of its +national unity rested was religious in its character. It was the +faith which may be summed up in the formula, Jehovah is the God +of Israel, and Israel is the people of Jehovah. Moses was not the +first discoverer of this faith, but it was through him that it +came to be the fundamental basis of the national existence and +history. /1/ + +***************************************** +1. Jehovah is to be regarded as having originally been a family +or tribal god, either of the family to which Moses belonged or of +the tribe of Joseph, in the possession of which we find the ark of +Jehovah, and within which occurs the earliest certain instance of +a composite proper name with the word Jehovah for one of its +elements (Jeho-shua, Joshua). No essential distinction was felt to +exist between Jehovah and El, any more than between Asshur and +El; Jehovah was only a special name of El which had become +current within a powerful circle, and which on that account was +all the more fitted to become the designation of a national god. +**************************************** + + +The exigencies of their position severe a number of kindred clans +from their customary surroundings, and drove them into his arms. +He undertook the responsibilities of their leader, and the +confidence of success which he manifested was justified by the +result. But it was not through any merit of his that the +undertaking (of which he was the soul) prospered as it did; his +design was aided in a wholly unlooked-for way, by a marvellous +occurrence quite beyond his control, and which no sagacity could +possibly have foreseen. One whom the wind and sea obeyed had +given him His aid. Behind him stood One higher than he, whose +spirit wrought in him and whose arm wrought for him,--not for his +personal aggrandisement indeed, but for the weal of the nation. +It was Jehovah. Alike what was done by the deliberate purpose of +Moses and what was done without any human contrivance by nature +and by accident came to be regarded in one great totality as the +doing of Jehovah for Israel. Jehovah it was who had directed each +step in that process through which these so diverse elements, +brought together by the pressure of necessity, had been caused to +pass, and in the course of which the first beginnings of a feeling +of national unity had been made to grow. + +This feeling Moses was the first to elicit; he it was also who +maintained it in life and cherished its growth. The extraordinary +set of circumstances which had first occasioned the new national +movement continued to subsist, though in a less degree, throughout +the sojourn of the people in the wilderness, and it was under +their pressure that Israel continued to be moulded. To Moses, who +had been the means of so brilliantly helping out of their first +straits the Hebrews who had accompanied him out of Egypt, they +naturally turned in all subsequent difficulties; before him they +brought all affairs with which they were not themselves able to +cope. The authority which his antecedents had secured for him +made him as matter of course the great national "Kadhi" in the +wilderness. Equally as matter of course did he exercise his +judicial functions, neither in his own interest nor in his own +name, but in the interest of the whole community and in the name +of Jehovah. By connecting them with the sanctuary of Jehovah, +which stood at the well of Kadesh, he made these functions +independent of his person, and thus he laid a firm basis for a +consuetudinary law and became the originator of the Torah in +Israel. In doing this he succeeded in inspiring the national +being with that which was the very life of his own soul; through +the Torah he gave a definite positive expression to their sense +of nationality and their idea of God. Jehovah was not merely +the God of Israel; as such he was the God at once of law and +of justice, the basis, the informing principle, and the implied +postulate of their national consciousness. + +The relationship was carried on in precisely the same manner as +that in which it had been begun. It was most especially in the +graver moments of its history that Israel awoke to full +consciousness of itself and of Jehovah. Now, at that time and +for centuries afterwards, the highwater marks of history were +indicated by the wars it recorded. The name "Israel" means +"El does battle," and Jehovah was the warrior El, after whom the +nation styled itself. The camp was, so to speak, at once the +cradle in which the nation was nursed and the smithy in which it +was welded into unity; it was also the primitive sanctuary. +There Israel was, and there was Jehovah. If in times of peace the +relations between the two had become dormant, they were at once +called forth into fullest activity when the alarm of danger was +raised; Israel's awakening was always preceded by the awakening +of Jehovah. Jehovah awakened men who under the guidance of His +spirit placed themselves at the nation's head; in them His proper +leadership was visibly expressed. Jehovah went forth with the +host to battle, and in its enthusiasm His presence was seen +(Judges. v. 13, 23). With signs and wonders from heaven Jehovah +decided the struggle carried on upon earth. In it He was always +upon Israel's side; on Israel was His whole interest concentrated, +although His power (for He was God) reached far beyond their local +limits. + +Thus Jehovah was in a very real sense a living God; but the +manifestations of His life in the great crises of His people's +history were of necessity separated by considerable intervals +of time. His activity had something abrupt and tumultuary about +it, better suited for extraordinary occasions than for ordinary +daily life. Traces of this feeling appear very prominently in +the later stages of the development. But although the relations +between Israel and Israel's God came most strongly into +prominence in times of excitement, yet it did not altogether die +out in the periods of comparative repose. It was in the case of +Jehovah just as in the case of the human leaders of the people, who +did not in times of peace wholly lose the influence they had +gained in war. Jehovah had His permanent court at the places of +worship where in times of quietude men clung to Him that they +might not lose Him in times of trouble. His chief, perhaps in the +time of Moses His only, sanctuary was with the so-called ark of +the covenant. It was a standard, adapted primarily to the +requirements of a wandering and warlike life; brought back from +the field, it became, as symbol of Jehovah's presence, the central +seat of His worship. The cultus itself was more than a mere +paying of court to Jehovah, more than a mere expedient for +retaining His sympathies against times of necessity; the Torah of +Jehovah, the holy administration of law, was conjoined with it. +This had first of all been exercised, at the instance of the +priest of Midian, by Moses at the well of Kadesh; it was +continued after him, at the sanctuary, within the circle of those +who had attached themselves to him and were spiritually his heirs. +In cases where the wisdom or the competency of the ordinary +judges failed, men turned direct to the Godhead, i.e., to the +sanctuary and those who served it. Their decisions, whether +given according to their own lights or by lot (according to the +character of the question), were not derived from any law, +but were received direct from Jehovah. /1/ + +***************************************** +1 They were consulted chiefly on points of law, but also on all +sorts of difficulties as to what was right and to be done, or +wrong and to be avoided. +**************************************** + +The execution of their decisions did not lie with them; they +could only advise and teach. Their authority was divine, or, +as we should say, moral, in its character; it rested upon that +spontaneous recognition of the idea of right which, though +unexpressed, was alive and working among the tribes--upon Jehovah +Himself, who was the author of this generally diffused sense of +right, but revealed the proper determinations on points of detail +only to certain individuals. The priestly Torah was an entirely +unpolitical or rather prepolitical institution; it had an +existence before the state had, and it was one of the invisible +foundation pillars on which the state rested. + +War and the administration of justice were regarded as matters +of religion before they became matters of obligation and civil +order; this is all that is really meant when a theocracy is +spoken of. Moses certainly organised no formal state, endowed +with specific holiness, upon the basis of the proposition "Jehovah +is the God of Israel;" or, at all events, if he did so, the fact +had not in the slightest degree any practical consequence or +historical significance. The old patriarchal system of families +and clans continued as before to be the ordinary constitution, if +one can apply such a word as constitution at all to an unorganised +conglomeration of homogeneous elements. What there was +of permanent official authority lay in the hands of the elders +and heads of houses; in time of war they commanded each his own +household force, and in peace they dispensed justice each within +his own circle. But this obviously imperfect and inefficient +form of government showed a growing tendency to break down just +in proportion to the magnitude of the tasks which the nation in +the course of its history was called upon to undertake. Appeal +to Jehovah was always in these circumstances resorted to; His +court was properly that of last resort, but the ordinary authorities +were so inadequate that it had often enough to be applied to. +Theocracy, if one may so say, arose as the complement of anarchy. +Actual and legal existence (in the modern sense) was predicable +only of each of the many clans; the unity of the nation was +realised in the first instance only through its religion. It was +out of the religion of Israel that the commonwealth of Israel +unfolded itself,--not a HOLY state, but THE state. And the state +continued to be, consciously, rooted in religion, which prevented +it from quitting or losing its rapport with the soil from which +it had originally sprung. With the intermediate and higher stages +of political organisation, with the building of the upper structure, +however, religion had no concern; they were too far removed from +the foundation. The derivative, which did not carry immediately +in itself its own title to exist, was a matter of indifference +to it; what had come into being it suffered to go its own way +as soon as it was capable of asserting its independence. For +this reason it always turned by preference to the future, not +in a utopian but in a thoroughly practical way; by a single +step only did it keep ahead of the present. It prepared the +way for such developments as are not derived from existing +institutions, but spring immediately from the depths in +which human society has its secret and mysterious roots. + +The expression "Jehovah is the God of Israel," accordingly, meant +that every tosk of the nation, internal as well as external, was +conceived as holy. It certainly did not mean that the almighty +Creator of heaven and earth was conceived of as having first made +a covenant with this one people that by them He might be truly +known and worshipped. It was not as if Jehovah had originally +been regarded as the God of the universe who subsequently became +the God of Israel; on the contrary, He was primarily Israel's +God, and only afterwards (very long afterwards) did He come to +be regarded as the God of the universe. For Moses to have given +to the Israelites an "enlightened conception of God" would have +been to have given them a stone instead of bread; it is in the +highest degree probable that, with regard to the essential nature +of Jehovah, as distinct from His relation to men, he allowed them +to continue in the same way of thinking with their fathers. With +theoretical truths, which were not at all in demand, He did not +occupy himself, but purely with practical questions which were +put and urged by the pressure of the times. The religious +starting-point of the history of Israel was remarkable, not for +its novelty, but for its normal character. In all ancient +primitive peoples the relation in which God is conceived to stand +to the circumstances of the nation--in other words, +religion--furnishes a motive for law and morals; in the case of +none did it become so with such purity and power as in that of +the Israelites. Whatever Jehovah may have been conceived to be +in His essential nature-God of the thunderstorm or the like--this +fell more and more into the background as mysterious and +transcendental; the subject was not one for inquiry. All stress +was laid upon His activity within the world of mankind, whose ends +He made one with His own. Religion thus did not make men partakers +in a divine life, but contrariwise it made God a partaker in the +life of men; life in this way was not straitened by it, but enlarged. +The so-called "particularism" of Israel's idea of God was in fact +the real strength of Israel's religion; it thus escaped from barren +mythologisings, and became free to apply itself to the moral +tasks which are always given, and admit of being discharged, only +in definite spheres. As God of the nation, Jehovah became the God +of justice and of right; as God of justice and right, He came to +be thought of as the highest, and at last as the only, power in +heaven and earth. + +***** +In the preceding sketch the attempt has been made to exhibit +Mosaism as it must be supposed to have existed on the assumption +that the history of Israel commenced with it, and that for +centuries it continued to be the ideal root out of which that +history continued to grow. This being assumed, we cannot treat +the legislative portion of the Pentateuch as a source from which +our knowledge of what Mosaism really was can be derived; for it +cannot in any sense be regarded as the starting-point of the +subsequent development. If it was the work of Moses, then we +must suppose it to have remained a dead letter for centuries, +and only through King Josiah and Ezra the scribe to have become +operative in the national history (compare sections 8 and 10). +The historical tradition which has reached us relating to the +period of the judges and of the kings of Israel is the main +source, though only of course in an indirect way, of our knowledge +of Mosaism. But within the Pentateuch itself also the historical +tradition about Moses (which admits of being distinguished, and +must carefully be separated, from the legislative, although the +latter often clothes itself in narrative form) is in its main +features manifestly trustworthy, and can only be explained as +resting on actual facts. + +From the historical tradition, then, it is certain that Moses was +the founder of the Torah. But the legislative tradition cannot +tell us what were the positive contents of his Torah. In fact it +can be shown that throughout the whole of the older period the +Torah was no finished legislative code, but consisted entirely +of the oral decisions and instructions of the priests, as a whole +it was potential only; what actually existed were the individual +sentences given by the priesthood as they were asked for. Thus +Moses was not regarded as the promulgator once for all of a +national constitution, but rather as the first to call into +activity the actual sense for law and justice, and to begin the +series of oral decisions which were continued after him by the +priests. He was the founder of the nation out of which the Torah +and prophecy came as later growths. He laid the basis of +Israel's subsequent peculiar individuality, not by any one formal +act, but in virtue of his having throughout the whole of his long +life been the people's leader, judge, and centre of union. + +A correct conception of the manner in which the Torah was made by +him can be derived from the narrative contained in Exod. xviii., +but not from the long section which follows, relating to the +Sinaitic covenant (chap. xix. seq.). The giving of the law at +Sinai has only a formal, not to say dramatic, significance. It +is the product of the poetic necessity for such a representation +of the manner in which the people was constituted Jehovah's people +as should appeal directly and graphically to the imagination. +Only so can we justly interpret those expressions according to +which Jehovah with His own mouth thundered the ten commandments +down from the mountain to the people below, and afterwards for +forty days held a confidential conference with Moses alone on the +summit. For the sake of producing a solemn and vivid impression, +that is represented as having taken place in a single thrilling +moment which in reality occurred slowly and almost unobserved. +Why Sinai should have been chosen as the scene admits of ready +explanation. It was the Olympus of the Hebrew peoples, the earthly +seat of the Godhead, and as such it continued to be regarded by +the Israelites even after their settlement in Palestine (Judges +v. 4, 5). This immemorial sanctity of Sinai it was that led to +its being selected as the ideal scene of the giving of the law, +not conversely. If we eliminate from the historical narrative +the long Sinaitic section which has but a loose connection with it, +the wilderness of Kadesh becomes the locality of the preceding +and subsequent events. It was during the sojourn of many years +here that the organisation of the nation, in any historical sense, +took place. "There He made for them statute and ordinance, and +there He proved them," as we read in Exod. xv. 26 in a dislocated +poetical fragment. "Judgment and trial," "Massa and Meribah," +point to Kadesh as the place referred to; there at all events is +the scene of the narrative immediately following (Exod. xvii. = +Num. xx.), and doubtless also of Exod. xviii. + +If the legislation of the Pentateuch cease as a whole to be +regarded as an authentic source for our knowledge of what Mosaism +was, it becomes a somewhat precarious matter to make any +exception in favour of the Decalogue. In particular, the +following arguments against its authenticity must be taken into +account. +(1) According to Exod. xxxiv. the commandments which stood upon +the two tables were quite different. +(2) The prohibition of images was during the older period quite +unknown; Moses himself is said to have made a brazen serpent which +down to Hezekiah's time continued to be worshipped at Jerusalem as +an image of Jehovah. +(3) The essentially and necessarily national character of the older +phases of the religion of Jehovah completely disappears in the quite +universal code of morals which is given in the Decalogue as the +fundamental law of Israel; but the entire series of religious +personalities throughout the period of the judges and the kings-- +from Deborah, who praised Jael's treacherous act of murder, to David, +who treated his prisoners of war with the utmost cruelty--make it +very difficult to believe that the religion of Israel was from +the outset one of a specifically moral character. The true spirit +of the old religion may be gathered much more truly from Judges v. +than from Exod. xx. +(4) It is extremely doubtful whether the actual monotheism which +is undoubtedly pre-supposed in the universal moral precepts of +the Decalogue could have formed the foundation of a national +religion. It was first developed out of the national religion at +the downfall of the nation, and thereupon kept its hold upon the +people in an artificial manner by means of the idea of a covenant +formed by the God of the universe with, in the first instance, +Israel alone (compare sections 6-10). + +As for the question regarding the historical presuppositions of +Mosaism, there generally underlies it a misunderstanding arising +out of theological intellectualism-an attribute found with +special frequency among nontheologians. Moses gave no new idea +of God to his people. The question whence he could have derived +it therefore need not be raised. It could not possibly be worse +answered, however, than by a reference to his relations witb the +priestly caste of Egypt and their wisdom. It is not to be +believed that an Egyptian deity could inspire the Hebrews of +Goshen with courage for the struggle against the Egyptians, or +that an abstraction of esoteric speculation could become the +national deity of Israel. It is not inconceivable indeed, +although at the same time quite incapable of proof, that Moses +was indebted to the Egyptian priests for certain advantages of +personal culture, or that he borrowed from them on all hands in +external details of organisation or in matters of ritual. But +the origin of the germ which developed into Israel is not to be +sought for in Egypt, and Jehovah has nothing in common with the +colourless divinity of Penta-ur or with the God-forsaken dreariness +of certain modern Egyptologists. That monotheism must have been +a foreign importation, because it is contrary to that sexual +dualism of Godhead which is the fundamental characteristic of +Semitic religion, is an untenable exaggeration which has recently +become popular out of opposition to the familiar thesis about the +monotheistic instinct of the Semites (Noldeke, Literar. +Centralbl., 1877, p. 365). Moab, Ammon, and Edom, Israel's +nearest kinsfolk and neighbours, were monotheists in precisely +the same sense in which Israel itself was; but it would be foolish +surely in their case to think of foreign importation. + +Manetho's statements about the Israelites are for the most part +to be regarded as malicious inventions: whether any genuine +tradition underlies them at all is a point much needing to be +investigated. The story of Exod. ii. 1 seq. is a mythus of +frequent recurrence elsewhere, to which no further significance is +attached, for that Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the +Egyptians is vouched for by no earlier authorities than Philo and +the New Testament. According to the Old Testament tradition his +connexion is with Jethro's priesthood or with that of the Kenites. +This historical presupposition of Mosaism has external evidence in +its favour, and is inherently quite probable. +******* + + +2. THE SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE. + + +The kingdom of Sihon did not permanently suffice the Israelites, +and the disintegration of the Canaanites to the west of Jordan in +an endless number of kingdoms and cities invited attack. The +first essay was made by Judah in conjunction with Simeon and +Levi, but was far from prosperous. Simeon and Levi were +annihilated; Judah also, though successful in mastering the +mountain land to the west of the Dead Sea, was so only at the cost +of severe losses which were not again made up until the accession +of the Kenite families of the south (Caleb). As a consequence of +the secession of these tribes, a new division of the nation into +Israel and Judah took the place of that which had previously +subsisted between the families of Leah and Rachel; under Israel +were included all the tribes except Simeon, Levi, and Judah, +which three are no longer mentioned in Judges v., where all +the others are carefully and exhaustively enumerated. This +half-abortive first invasion of the west was followed by a second, +which was stronger and attended with much better results. It was +led by the tribe of Joseph, to which the others attached themselves, +Reuben and Gad only remaining behind in the old settlements. +The district to the north of Judah, inhabited afterwards by +Benjamin, was the first to be attacked. It was not until after +several towns of this district had one by one fallen into the +hands of the conquerors that the Canaanites set about a united +resistance. They were, however, decisively repulsed by Joshua +in the neighbourhood of Gibeon; and by this victory the Israelites +became masters of the whole central plateau of Palestine. +The first camp, at Gilgal, near the ford of Jordan, which had +been maintained until then, was now removed, and the ark of Jehovah +brought further inland (perhaps by way of Bethel) to Shiloh, where +henceforward the headquarters were fixed, in a position which +seemed as if it had been expressly made to favour attacks upon +the fertile tract Iying beneath it on the north. The Bne Rachel +now occupied the new territory which up to that time had been +acquired,--Benjamin, in immediate contiguity with the frontier +of Judah, then Ephraim, stretching to beyond Shiloh, and lastly +Manasseh, furthest to the north, as far as to the plain of Jezreel. +The centre of gravity, so to speak, already lay in Ephraim, +to which belonged Joshua and that is mentioned as the last +achievement of Joshua that at the waters of Merom he defeated +Jabin, king of Hazor, and the allied princes of Galilee, thereby +opening up the north for Israelitish settlers. It is quite what +we should expect that a great and united blow had to be struck +at the Canaanites of the north before the new comers could occupy +it in peace; and King Jabin, who reappears at a later date, +certainly does not suit the situation described in Judges iv. v. + +******* +The Book of Joshua represents the conquest of western Palestine as +having been the common undertaking of all the tribes together, +which, after the original inhabitants have been extirpated, are +exhibited as laying the ownerless country at Joshua's feet in +order that he may divide it by lot amongst them. But this is a +"systematic" generalisation, contradicted by the facts which we +otherwise know. For we possess another account of the conquest of +Palestine, that of Judges i., which runs parallel with the Book of +Joshua. It is shorter indeed and more superficial, yet in its +entire mode of presenting the subject more historical. According +to its narrative, it appears that Joshua was the leader of Joseph +and Benjamin only, with whom indeed Issachar, Zebulon, Dan, +Naphtali, and Asher made common cause. But before his time the +tribe of Judah had already crossed the Jordan and effected a +lodgment in the territory which lay between the earlier seat of +the nation in the wilderness of Kadesh and its then settlement on +the plateau of Moab, forming in some degree a link of connection +between the two. It might be supposed that the tribe of Judah had +not taken the longer route to the eastward of the Dead Sea at +all, but had already at Kadesh broken off from the main body and +thence turned its steps directly northward. But the representation +actually given in Judges i., to the effect that it was from the +direction of the Jordan and not from that of the Negeb that they +came to take possession of their land, finds its confirmation +in the fact that the southern portion of their territory was +the last to come into their possession. The tradition is +unwavering that Hebron was taken not by Judah but by Caleb, +a family which stood in friendly relations with Israel, but had +no connexion with it by blood. It was only through the policy +of David that Caleb, Othniel, Jerachmeel, and the rest of the +Kenites who had their homes in the Negeb became completely +incorporated with Judah, so that Hebron became at last the capital +of that tribe. Its oldest seats, however, lay further to the +north, in the region of Tekoa, Bethlehem, Baal Judah. + +It harmonises well with this view to suppose that Simeon +and Levi must have made at the same time their attempt to +effect a settlement in the hill country of Ephraim. One +of their families, Dinah bath Leah, met with a favourable +reception in the town of Shechem, and began to mix freely with +its population, and thus the way was paved for the establishment +of peaceable relations between the old inhabitants of the land +and the new importations. But these relations were brought to +an end by the two brothers who, in concert it must be supposed +with their sister, fell upon the Shechemites and massacred +them. The final result proved disastrous. The Canaanites +of the surrounding country united against them and completely +destroyed them. There can be no doubt as to the trustworthiness +of the somewhat enigmatical records of those events which are +given in Gen. xlix. and xxxiv.; in no other way is it possible +to explain why Simeon and Levi, which originally came upon the +stage of history on an equal footing with Reuben and Judah, should +have already disappeared as independent tribes at the very +beginning of the period of the judges. Now, that the destruction +of Shechem by the Manassite Abimelech is quite distinct from the +attack made by Simeon and Levi need hardly be said. On the +other hand, the occurrence cannot be regarded as pre-Mosaic, but +must be assigned to a time previous to the conquest of the hill +country of Ephraim by Joseph; for after Joseph's settlement +there the two sons of Leah had manifestly nothing more to hope +for in that locality. We are shut up, therefore, to the +conclusion that they crossed the Jordan at the same time as Judah +separated himself from the main body in search of a suitable +territory. That Simeon accompanied Judah in the first westward +attempt is expressly stated in Judges i. The fate of Levi, +again, cannot be separated from that of Simeon (Gen. xlix. 5-7); +that he is not expressly mentioned in Judges i. ought not to +cause surprise, when it is considered that later generations which +regarded Levi as neither more nor less than a priest would have +some difficulty in representing him as a thoroughly secular +tribe. Such nevertheless he must have been, for the poet in Genesis +xlix. 5-7 puts him on a footing of perfect equality with Simeon, +and attributes to both brothers a very secular and bloodthirsty +character; he has no conception that Levi has a sacred vocation +which is the reason of the dispersion of the tribe; the +dispersion, on the contrary, is regarded as a curse and no +blessing, an annihilation and not the means of giving permanence +to its tribal individuality. The shattered remains of Simeon, +and doubtless those of Levi also, became incorporated with Judah, +which thenceforward was the sole representative of the three sons +of Leah, who according to the genealogy had been born immediately +after Reuben the first-born. Judah itself seems at the same time +to have suffered severely. Of its three older branches, Er, Onan, +and Shelah, one only survived, and only by the accession of +foreign elements did the tribe regain its vigour,--by the fresh +blood which the Kenites of the Negeb brought. For Zarah and +Pharez, which took the place of Er and Onan after these had +disappeared, belonged originally, not to Israel, but to Hezron or +the Kenites; under this designation are included families like +those of Othniel, Jerachmeel, and Caleb, and, as has been already +remarked, even in David's time these were not reckoned as strictly +belonging to Judah. Thus the depletion which the tribe had to +suffer in the struggle with the Canaanites at the beginning of the +period of the judges was the remote cause of the prominence which, +according to 1Chronicles ii., the Bne Hezron afterwards attained in +Judah. The survivors of Simeon also appear to have been forced +back upon these Hezronites in the Negeb; the cities assigned to +them in the Book of Joshua all belong to that region. +******* + +Even after the united resistance of the Canaanites had been broken, +each individual community had still enough to do before it could +take firm hold of the spot which it had searched out for itself or +to which it had been assigned. The business of effecting permanent +settlement was just a continuation of the former struggle, only +on a diminished scale; every tribe and every family now fought +for its own land after the preliminary work had been accomplished +by a united effort. Naturally, therefore, the conquest was at first +but an incomplete one. The plain which fringed the coast was +hardly touched; so also the valley of Jezreel with its girdle +of fortified cities stretching from Acco to Bethshean. All that +was subdued in the strict sense of that word was the mountainous +land, particularly the southern hill country of "Mount Ephraim;" +yet, even here the Canaanites retained possession of not a few +cities, such as Jebus, Shechem, Thebez. It was only after the +lapse of centuries that all the lacunae were filled up, and the +Canaanite enclaves made tributary. + +The Israelites had the extraordinarily disintegrated state of +the enemy to thank for the ease with which they had achieved +success. The first storm subsided comparatively soon, and +conquerors and conquered alike learned to accommodate themselves +to the new circumstances. Then the Canaanites once more collected +all their energies to strike a blow for freedom. Under the +hegemony of Sisera a great league was formed, and the plain of +Jezreel became the centre of the reorganised power which made +itself felt by its attacks both northwards and southwards. The +Israelites were strangely helpless; it was as if neither shield +nor spear could be found among their 40,000 fighting men. But at +last there came an impulse from above, and brought life and soul to +the unorganised mass; Deborah sent out the summons to the tribes, +Barak came forward as their leader against the kings of Canaan who +had assembled under Sisera's command by the brook of Kishon. The +cavalry of the enemy was unable to withstand the impetuous rush +of the army of Jehovah, and Sisera himself perished in the +flight. From that day the Canaanites, although many strong +towns continued to be held by them, never again raised their +heads. + +After these occurrences some further changes of a fundamental +character took place in the relations of the tribes. The Danites +proved unable to hold against the forward pressure of the +Philistines their territory on the coast to the west of Benjamin +and Ephraim; they accordingly sought a new settlement, which was +found in the north at the foot of Hermon. In this way all the +secondary tribes westward of Jordan (Asher, Naphtali, Dan) came +to have their seats beside each other in the northern division +of the land. Eastward of Jordan, Reuben rapidly fell from his +old prominence, sharing the fate of his next eldest brethren +Simeon and Levi. When Eglon of Moab took Jericho, and laid +Benjamin under tribute, it is obvious that he must previously +have made himself master of Reuben's territory. This territory +became thenceforward a subject of constant dispute between Moab +and Israel; the efforts to recover it, however, did not proceed +from Reuben himself, but from Gad, a tribe which knew how to +assert itself with vigour against the enemies by which it was +surrounded. But if the Hebrews lost ground in the south, they +materially enlarged their borders in the north of the land +eastward of Jordan. Various Manassite families, finding their +holdings at home too small, crossed the Jordan and founded +colonies at Bashan and northern Gilead. Although this +colonisation, on account of the rivalry of the Aramaeans, who +were also pressing forward in this direction, was but +imperfectly successful, it nevertheless was of very great +importance, inasmuch as it seemed to give new strength to the bonds +that united the eastern with the western tribes. Not only was +Gilead not lost; it even became a very vigorous member of the +body politic. /1/ + +***************************** +1. It is probable that Manasseh's migration to the territory +eastward of Jordan took place from the west, and later than the +time of Moses. The older portions of the Hexateuch speak not of +two and a half but only of two trans-Jordanic tribes, and exclude +Manasseh; according to them the kingdom of Sihon alone was subdued +by Moses, not that of Og also, the latter, indeed, being a wholly +legendary personage. In the song of Deborah, Machir is reckoned +among the western tribes, and it was not until much later that +this became the designation of the Manassites eastward of Jordan. +It is also worth noticing that Jair's colonisation of northern +Gilead did not take place until the time of the judges (Judges x. +3 seq.), but is related also in Num. xxxii. 39-42. +***************************** + +The times of agitation and insecurity which followed upon the +conquest of Palestine invited attacks by the eastern nomads, and +once more the Israelite peasantry showed all its old helplessness, +until at last the indignation of a Manassite of good family, +Gideon or Jerubbaal, was roused by the Midianites, who had +captured some of his brothers and put them to death. With his +family, that of Abiezer, he gave pursuit, and, overtaking the enemy +on the borders of the wilderness, inflicted on them such +chastisement as put an end to these incursions. His heroism +had consequences which reached far beyond the scope of his original +purpose. He became the champion of the peasantry against the +freebooters, of the cultivated land against the waste; social +respect and predominance were his rewards. In his native town +of Ophrah he kept up a great establishment, where also he built +a temple with an image of Jehovah overlaid with the gold which +he had taken from the Midianites. He transmitted to his sons +an authority, which was not limited to Abiezer and Manasseh +alone, but, however slightly and indirectly, extended over +Ephraim as well. + +On the foundations laid by Gideon Abimelech his son sought to +establish a kingship over Israel, that is, over Ephraim and +Manasseh. The predominance, however, which had been naturally +accorded to his father in virtue of his personal merits, Abimelech +looked upon as a thing seized by force and to be maintained with +injustice; and in this way he soon destroyed those fair +beginnings out of which even at that time a kingdom might have +arisen within the house of Joseph. The one permanent fruit of his +activity was that Shechem was destroyed as a Canaanite city and +rebuilt for Israel. /1/ + +************************************ +1. On the narratives contained in the Book of Judges see Bleek, +Einl. ins Alte Testament (4th ed.), 88-98, and especially the +sections on Barak and Sisera, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, the Danite +migration, and the Benjamites of Gibeah (93-98). +*********************************** + +The most important change of the period of the judges went on +gradually and in silence. The old population of the country, +which, according to Deuteronomy, was to have been exterminated, +slowly became amalgamated with the new. In this way the +Israelites received a very important accession to their numbers. +In Deborah's time the fighting men of Israel numbered 40,000; +the tribe of Dan when it migrated to Laish, counted 600 warriors; +Gideon pursued the Midianites with 300. But in the reigns of Saul +and David we find a population reckoned by millions. The rapid +increase is to be accounted for by the incorporation of the +Canaanites. + +At the same time the Hebrews learned to participate in the culture +of the Canaanites, and quietly entered into the enjoyment of the +labours of their predecessors. From the pastoral they advanced +to the agricultural stage; corn and wine, the olive and the fig, +with them are habitually spoken of as the necessaries of life. +It was not strange that this change in the manner of their +everyday life should be attended with certain consequences in +the sphere of religion also. It is inconceivable that the +Israelites should have brought with them out of the desert the +cultus they observed in the time of the kings (Exod. xxii. xxiii. +xxiv.), which throughout presupposed the fields and gardens of +Palestine; they borrowed it from the Canaanites. /1/ + +****************************** +1. In the earliest case where the feast of the ingathering, +afterwards the chief feast of the Israelites, is mentioned, it is +celebrated by Canaanites of Shechem in honour of Baal (Judges ix. +27). +***************************** + +This is confirmed by the fact that they took over from these the +"Bamoth" or "high places" also, notwithstanding the prohibition +in Deuteronomy xii. + +It was natural enough that the Hebrews should also appropriate +the divinity worshipped by the Canaanite peasants as the giver +of their corn, wine, and oil, the Baal whom the Greeks identified +with Dionysus. The apostasy to Baal, on the part of the first +generation which had quitted the wilderness and adopted a settled +agricultural life, is attested alike by historical and prophetical +tradition. Doubtless Baal, as the god of the land of Canaan, and +Jehovah, as the God of the nation of Israel, were in the first +instance co-ordinated. /2/ + +***************************** +2. In Judges v. Jehovah retains his original abode in the +wilderness of Sinai, and only on occasions of necessity quits it +to come to Palestine. +**************************** + +But it was not to be expected that the divinity of the land +should permanently be different from the God of the dominant +people. In proportion as Israel identified itself with the +conquered territory, the divinities also were identified. Hence +arose a certain syncretism between Baal and Jehovah, which had not +been got over even in the time of the prophet Hosea. At the same +time the functions of Baal were more frequently transferred to +Jehovah than conversely. Canaan and Baal represented the female, +Israel and Jehovah the male, principle in this union. + +Had the Israelites remained in the wilderness and in barbarism, +the historical development they subsequently reached would hardly +have been possible; their career would have been like that of +Amalek, or, at best, like those of Edom, Moab, and Ammon. Their +acceptance of civilisation was undoubtedly a step in the forward +direction; but as certainly did it also involve a peril. It +involved an overloading, as it were, of the system with materials +which it was incapable of assimilating at once. The material +tasks imposed threatened to destroy the religious basis of the +old national life. The offensive and defensive alliances +among the tribes gradually dissolved under the continuance of +peace; the subsequent occupation of the country dispersed those +whom the camp had united. The enthusiastic _elan_ with which the +conquest had been achieved gave way to the petty drudgery by which +the individual families, each in its own circle, had to accommodate +themselves to their new surroundings. Yet under the ashes the +embers were still aglow; and the course of history ever fanned +them anew into flame, bringing home to Israel the truths that man +does not live by bread alone, and that there are other things of +worth than those which Baal can bestow; it brought ever again +into the foreground the divineness of heroical self sacrifice of +the individual for the good of the nation. + + +3. THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM, AND THE FIRST THREE KINGS. + + + +The Philistines were the means of arousing from their slumber +Israel and Jehovah. From their settlements by the sea on the +low-lying plain which skirts the mountains of Judah on the west, +they pressed northwards into the plain of Sharon, and thence into +the plain of Jezreel beyond, which is connected with that of +Sharon by the upland valley of Dothan. Here, having driven out +the Danites, they came into direct contact with the tribe of +Joseph, the chief bulwark of Israel, and a great battle took +place at Aphek, where the plain of Sharon merges into the valley +of Dothan. The Philistines were victorious and carried off as a +trophy the Israelite standard, the ark of Jehovah. Their further +conquests included, not only the plain of Jezreel and the hill +country bordering it on the south, but also the proper citadel +of the country, "Mount Ephraim." The old sanctuary at Shiloh +was destroyed by them; its temple of Jehovah thenceforward lay +in ruins. Their supremacy extended as far as to Benjamin; the +Philistines had a nec,ib in Gibeah. /1/ + +************************** +1. _nec,ib_ is an Aramaic word of uncertain meaning. In the name of +the town _Nec,ibin_ (Nisibis) it certainly seems to mean "pillars;" +according to 1Kings iv. 5 and xxii. 48 (where it is pointed +niccab), "governor", seems the best translation, and this is the +only rendering consistent with the expression in 1Samuel xiii. 3 +("Jonathan slew the _necib_," &c.). +*************************** + +But the assertion that they had confiscated all weapons and +removed all smiths must be regarded as an unhistorical +exaggeration; under their regime at all events it was possible +for the messengers of a beleaguered city on the east of Jordan +to summon their countrymen in the west to their relief. + +The shame of the Israelites under the reproach of Philistine +oppression led, in the first instance, to a widespread exaltation +of religious feeling. Troops of ecstatic enthusiasts showed +themselves here and there, and went about with musical +accompaniments in processions which often took the shape of wild +dances; even men of the most sedate temperament were sometimes +smitten with the contagion, and drawn into the charmed circle. +In such a phenomenon, occurring in the East, there was nothing +intrinsically strange; among the Canaanites, such "Nebiim"--for +so they were styled--had long been familiar, and they continued +to exist in the country after the old fashion, long after their +original character, so far as Israel was concerned, had been wholly +lost. The new thing at this juncture was that this spirit passed +over upon Israel, and that the best members of the community were +seized by it. It afforded an outlet for the suppressed excitement +of the nation. + +The new-kindled zeal had for its object, not the abolition of Baal +worship, but resistance to the enemies of Israel. Religion and +patriotism were then identical. This spirit of the times was +understood by an old man, Samuel ben Elkanah, who lived at Ramah +in south-western Ephraim. He was not himself one of the Nebiim; +on the contrary, he was a seer of that old type which had for a +long time existed amongst the Hebrews much as we find it amongst +the Greeks or Arabs. Raised by his foreseeing talent to a +position of great prominence, he found opportunity to occupy +himself with other questions besides those which he was +professionally called on to answer. The national distress +weighed upon his heart; the neighbouring peoples had taught him to +recognise the advantages which are secured by the consolidation of +families and tribes into a kingdom. But Samuel's peculiar merit +lay, not in discovering what it was that the nation needed, but in +finding out the man who was capable of supplying that need. +Having come to know Saul ben Kish, a Benjamite of the town of +Gibeah, a man of gigantic form, and swift, enthusiastic nature, he +declared to him his destiny to become king over Israel. + +Saul very soon had an opportunity for showing whether Samuel +had been a true seer or no. The city of Jabesh in Gilead was +besieged by the Ammonites, and the inhabitants declared +themselves ready to surrender should they fail in obtaining +speedy succour from their countrymen. Their messengers had +passed through all Israel without meeting with anything more +helpful than pity, until at last tidings of their case reached +Saul as he was returning with a yoke of oxen from the field. +Hewing his cattle in pieces, he caused the portions to be sent +in all directions, with the threat that so should it be done +with the oxen of every one who should refuse to help in relieving +Jabesh. The people obeyed the summons, fell suddenly one morning +upon the Ammonites, and delivered the beleaguered city. + +Having thus found Saul the man for their need, they refused to +let him go. In Gilgal, Joshua's old camp, they anointed him king. +The act was equivalent to imposing upon him the conduct of the +struggle against the Philistines, and so he understood it. The +first signal for the attack was given by his son Jonathan, when +he slew the _necib_ of the Philistines at Gibeah. These in +consequence advanced in force towards the focus of the revolt, +and took up a position opposite Gibeah on the north, being divided +from it only by the gorge of Michmash. Only a few hundred +Benjamites ventured to remain with Saul. The struggle opened +with a piece of genuine old heroic daring. While the Philistines +were dispersed over the country in foraging expeditions, Jonathan, +accompanied by his armour-bearer only, and without the knowledge +of Saul, made an attack upon the weak post which they had left +behind at the pass of Michmash. After the first had been +surprised and overmastered, the others took to flight, no doubt +in the belief that the two assailants were supported. They +carried their panic with them into the half-deserted camp, whence +it spread among the various foraging bands. The commotion was +observed from Gibeah opposite, and, without pausing to consult the +priestly oracle, King Saul determined to attack the camp. The +attempt was completely successful, but involved no more than the +camp and its stores; the Philistines themselves effected an +unmolested retreat by the difficult road of Bethhoron. + +Saul was no mere raw stripling when he ascended the throne; +he already had a grown-up son at his side. Nor was he of +insignificant descent, the family to which he belonged being a +widespread one, and his heritage considerable. His establishment +at Gibeah was throughout his entire reign the nucleus of his +kingdom. The men on whom he could always reckon were his Benjamite +kinsmen. He recognised as belonging to him no other public +function besides that of war; the internal affairs of the country +he permitted to remain as they had been before his accession. +War was at once the business and the resource of the new kingdom. +It was carried on against the Philistines without interruption, +though for the most part not in the grand style but rather in a +series of border skirmishes. /1/ + +********************************* +1 As regards the position of Samuel in the theocracy and the +relation in which the stood to Saul, the several narratives in the +Book of Samuel differ widely. The preceding account, so far as it +relates to Samuel, is based upon 1Samuel ix., x. 1-15, xi., where +he appears simply as a Roeh at Ramah, and has nothing to do +either with the administration of the theocracy or with the +Nebiim. Compare Prolegomena above, chap. VII. +********************************* + +It is not without significance that the warlike revival of the +nation proceeded from Benjamin. By the battle of Aphek Ephraim +had lost at once the hegemony and its symbols (the camp-sanctuary +at Shiloh, the ark of the covenant). The centre of Israel +gravitated southward, and Benjamin became the connecting link +between Ephraim and Judah. It would appear that there the tyranny +of the Philistines was not so much felt. Their attacks never were +made through Judah, but always came from the north; on the other +hand, people fled from them southwards, as is instanced by the +priests of Shiloh, who settled in Nob near Jerusalem. Through +Saul Judah entered definitely into the history of Israel; it +belonged to his kingdom, and it more than most others supplied him +with energetic and faithful supporters. His famous expedition +against the Amalekites had been undertaken purely in the +interests of Judah, for it only could possibly suffer from their +marauding hordes. + +Among the men of Judah whom the war brought to Gibeah, David ben +Jesse of Bethlehem took a conspicuous place; his skill on the harp +brought him into close relations with the king. He became Saul's +armour-bearer, afterwards the most intimate friend of his son, +finally the husband of his daughter. While he was thus winning +the affections of the court, he at the same time became the +declared favourite of the people, the more so because unexampled +good fortune attended him in all he undertook. This excited the +jealousy of Saul, naturally enough in an age in which the king +always required to be the best man. Its first outburst admitted +of explanation as occasioned by an attack of illness; but soon +it became obtrusively clear that the king's love for his +son-in-law had changed into bitter hatred. Jonathan warned his +friend and facilitated his flight, the priests of Nob at the same +time providing him with arms and food. He went into the +wilderness of Judah, and became the leader of a miscellaneous band +of outlaws who had been attracted by his name to lead a roving life +under his leadership. His kinsmen from Bethlehem were of their +number, but also Philistines and Hittites. Out of this band David's +bodyguard subsequently grew, the nucleus of his army. They reckoned +also a priest among them, Abiathar ben Ahimelech ben Ahitub ben +Phinehas ben Eli, the solitary survivor of the massacre of the +sons of Eli at Nob which Saul had ordered on account of suspected +conspiracy with David. Through him David was able to have +recourse to the sacred lot before the ephod. In the end he found +it impossible to hold his own in Judah against Saul's +persecutions, especially as his countrymen for the most part +withheld their assistance. He therefore took the desperate step +of placing his services at the disposal of Achish the Philistine +king of Gath, by whom he was received with open arms, the town of +Ziklag being assigned him as a residence. Here with his band he +continued to follow his old manner of life as an independent +prince, subject only to an obligation to render military service +to Achish. + +Meanwhile the Philistines had once more mustered their forces and +marched by the usual route against Israel. Saul did not allow +them to advance upon Gibeah, but awaited their attack in the plain +of Jezreel. A disastrous battle on Mount Gilboa ensued; after +seeing his three eldest sons fall one after another at his side, +Saul threw himself upon his sword, and was followed by his +armour-bearer. The defeat seemed to have undone the work of his +life. The immediate consequence at least was that the Philistines +regained their lost ascendancy over the country to the west of +Jordan. Beyond Jordan, however, Abner, the cousin and +generalissimo of Saul, made his son Ishbaal, still a minor, king +in Mahanaim, and he was successful in again establishing the +dominion of the house over Jezreel, Ephraim, and Benjamin, +of course in uninterrupted struggle with the Philistines. + +But he did not regain hold of Judah. David seized the opportunity +to set up for himself, with the sanction of the Philistines, and, +it may safely be presumed, as their vassal, a separate +principality which had its centre of gravity in the south, which +was inhabited, not by the tribe of Judah properly so called, but +by the Calebites and Jerachmeelites. This territory Abner +disputed with him in vain. In the protracted feud between the +houses of Saul and David, the fortunes of war declared themselves +ever increasingly for the latter. Personal causes at last +brought matters to a crisis. Abner, by taking to himself a +concubine of Saul's called Rizpah, had roused Ishbaal's suspicions +that he was aiming at the inheritance, and was challenged on the +point. This proved too much for his patience, and forthwith he +abandoned the cause of his ward (the hopelessness of which had +already perhaps become apparent), and entered into negotiations +with David at Hebron. When about to set out on his return he fell +by the hand of Joab in the gate of Hebron, a victim of jealousy +and blood-feud. His plans nevertheless were realised. His death +left Israel leaderless and in great confusion; Ishbaal was personally +insignificant, and the people's homage continued to be rendered to +him only out of grateful fidelity to his father's memory. At +this juncture he also fell by assassins' hands. As he was +taking his midday rest, and even the portress had gone to sleep +over her task of cleaning wheat, two Benjamite captains introduced +themselves into his palace at Mahanaim and murdered him in the +vain hope of earning David's thanks. The elders of Israel no +longer hesitated about offering David the crown, which he accepted. + +His residence was immediately transferred from Hebron to Jebus, +which until then had remained in possession of the Canaanites, +and first derives historical importance from him. It lay on the +border between Israel and Judah,--still within the territory of +Benjamin, but not far from Bethlehem; near also to Nob, the old +priestly city. David made it not only the political but also +the religious metropolis by transferring thither from +Kirjathjearim the ark of the covenant, which he placed within +his citadel on what afterwards became the temple hill. + +Still the crown was far from being a merely honorary possession; +it involved heavy responsibilities, and doubtless what +contributed more than anything else to David's elevation to the +throne was the general recognition of the fact that he was the man +best fitted on the whole to overtake the labour it brought with +it, viz., the prosecution of the war with the Philistines, a war +which was as it were the forge in which the kingdom of Israel was +welded into one. The struggle began with the transference of the +seat of royalty to Jerusalem; unfortunately we possess only +scanty details as to its progress, hardly anything more indeed +than a few anecdotes about deeds of prowess by individual heroes. +The result was in the end that David completed what Saul had +begun, and broke for ever the Philistine yoke. This was +undoubtedly the greatest achievement of his reign. + +From the defensive against the Philistines David proceeded to +aggressive war, in which he subjugated the three kinsfolk of +Israel,--Moab, Ammon, and Edom. He appears to have come into +conflict first with the Moabites, whom he vanquished and treated +with savage atrocity. Not long afterwards the king of Ammon died, +and David sent an embassy of condolence to Hanun his successor. +Hanun suspected in this a sinister design,--a suspicion we can +readily understand if David had already, as is probable, +subjugated Moab,--and with the utmost contumely sent back the +messengers to their master forthwith, at the same time making +preparations for war by entering into alliance with various +Syrian kings, and particularly with the powerful king of Soba /1/ + +************************************** +1. Soba appears to have been situated somewhat to the north of +Damascus, and to have bordered on the west with Hamath. The +Aramaeans were beginning even at that period to press westwards; +the Hittites, Phoenicians, and Israelites had common interests +against them. To the kingdom of Soba succeeded afterwards that +of Damascus. +********************************* + +David took the initiative, and sent his army under command of Joab +against Rabbath-Ammon. The Syrians advanced to the relief of the +besieged city; but Joab divided his forces, and, leaving his +brother Abishai to hold the Ammonites in the town in check, +proceeded himself against the Syrians and repulsed them. On their +afterwards threatening to renew the attack in increased force, +David went against them in strength and defeated them at Helam +"on the river." It seems that as a result of this the kingdom of +Soba was broken up and made tributary to Damascus. Rabbath-Ammon +could not now hold out any longer, and the Ammonites shared the +fate of their Moabite brethren. Finally, Edom was about the same +time coerced and depopulated; and thus was fulfilled the vision of +Balaam,--the youngest of the four Hebrew nationalities trod the +three elder under his feet. + +So far as external foes were concerned, David henceforward had +peace; but new dangers arose at home within his own family. +At once by ill-judged leniency and equally ill-timed severity +he had completely alienated his son Absalom, who, after Amnon's +death, was heir-apparent to the throne. Absalom organised a +revolt against his father, and to foster it availed himself of a +misunderstanding which had arisen between David and the men of +Judah, probably because they thought they were not treated with +sufficient favour. The revolt had its focus in Hebron; +Ahithophel, a man of Judah, was its soul; Amasa, also of Judah, +its arm; but the rest of Israel was also drawn into the +rebellion, and only the territory to the east of Jordan remained +faithful. Thither David betook himself with precipitancy, for +the outbreak had taken him completely by surprise. At Mahanaim, +which had once before been the centre from which the kingdom was +regained, he collected his faithful followers around him with his +600 Cherethites and Pelethites for a nucleus, Absalom against +Ahithophel's advice allowing him time for this. In the +neighbourbood of Mahanaim, in the wood of Ephraim, the decisive +blow was struck. Absalom fell, and with his death the rebellion +was at an end. It was Joseph that, in the first instance, +penitently sent a deputation to the king to bring him back. Judah, +on the other hand, continued to hold aloof. Ultimately a piece +of finesse on the king's part had the effect of bringing Judah +also to its allegiance, though at the cost of kindling such +jealousy between Israel and Judah that Sheba the Benjamite raised +a new revolt, this time of Israelites, which was soon, however, +repressed by Joab. + +David seems to have died soon afterwards. His historical +importance is very great. Judah and Jerusalem were wholly his +creation, and, though the united kingdom of Israel founded by him +and Saul together soon fell to pieces, the recollection of it +nevertheless continued in all time to be proudly cherished by +the whole body of the people. His personal character has been +often treated with undue disparagement. For this we must chiefly +blame his canonisation by the later Jewish tradition which made a +Levitical saint of him and a pious hymn-writer. It then becomes a +strange inconsistency that he caused military prisoners to be +treated with barbarity, and the bastard sons of Saul to be hanged +up before the Lord in Gibeon. But if we take him as we find him, +an antique king in a barbarous age, our judgment of him will be +much more favourable. The most daring courage was combined in him +with tender susceptibility; even after he had ascended the throne +be continued to retain the charm of a pre-eminent and at the same +time child-like personality. Even his conduct in the affair of +Uriah is not by any means wholly to his discredit; not many +kings can be mentioned who would have shown repentance public and +deep such as he manifested at Nathan's rebuke. Least to his +credit was his weakness in relation to his sons and to Joab. +On the other hand, the testament attributed to him in 1Kings ii. +cannot be justly laid to his charge; it is the libel of a later +hand seeking to invest him with a fictitious glory. In like +manner it is unjust to hold him responsible for the deaths of +Abner and Amasa, or to attribute to him any conspiracy with +the hierocracy for the destruction of Saul, and thus to deprive +him of the authorship of the elegy in 2Samuel i, which certainly +was not the work of a hypocrite. + +Solomon had already reached the throne, some time before his +father's death, not in virtue of hereditary right, but by palace +intrigue which had the support of the bodyguard of the Six +Hundred. His glory was not purchased on the battlefield. So far +was he from showing military capacity that he allowed a new +Syrian kingdom to arise at Damascus, a far more dangerous thing for +Israel than that of Soba which had been destroyed, and which it +succeeded. During this reign Edom also regained its independence, +nothing but the port of Elath remaining in Solomon's hands. As +regards Moab and Ammon we have no information; it is not +improbable that they also revolted. But if war was not Solomon's +forte, he certainly took much greater pains than either of his +predecessors in matters of internal administration; according to +tradition, the wisdom of the ruler and the judge was his special +"gift." Disregarding the tribal system, he divided his kingdom +into twelve provinces, over each of which he placed a royal +governor, thus making a beginning of vigorous and orderly +administration. /1/ + +********************************** +1. Very possibly the Canaanites, whose complete absorption falls +within this period, were an element that helped to loosen the +bonds of tribal unity, and consolidate a state in its place. +********************************* + +Judah alone he exempted from this arrangement, as if to show +special favour. For his aim was less the advantage of his +subjects than the benefit of his exchequer, and the same object +appears in his horse traffic (1Kings ix. 19), his Ophir trade +(1Kings x. 11), and his cession of territory to Hiram (1Kings ix. +11). His passions were architecture, a gorgeous court, and the +harem, in which he sought to rival other Oriental kings, as for +example his Egyptian father-in-law. For this he required copious +means-forced labour, tribute in kind, and money. He had +especially at heart the extension and improvement of Jerusalem as +a strong and splendid capital; the temple which he built was only +a portion of his vast citadel, which included within its precincts +a number of private and public buildings designed for various +uses. + +It is plain that new currents were introduced into the stream of +the nation's development by such a king as this. As formerly, +after the occupation, Canaanite culture had come in, so now, after +the establishment of the kingdom, the floodgate was open for the +admission of Oriental civilisation in a deeper and wider sense. +Whatever the personal motives which led to it may have been, +the results were very importent, and by no means disadvantageous +on the whole. On the basis of the firmer administration now +introduced, stability and order could rest; Judah had no cause +to regret its acceptance of this yoke. Closer intercourse with +foreign lands widened the intellectual horizon of the people, +and at the same time awakened it to a deeper sense of its own +peculiar individuality. If Solomon imported Phoenician and +Egyptian elements into the worship of Jehovah at his court +temple, the rigid old Israelite indeed might naturally +enough take offence (Exodus xx. 24-26), but the temple itself +nevertheless ultimately acquired a great and positive +importance for religion. It need not be denied that mischievous +consequences of various kinds slipped in along with the good. +The king, moreover, can hardly be blamed for his conduct in +erecting in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem altars to deities of +Ammon and Egypt. For those altars remained undisturbed until +the time of Josiah, although between Solomon and him there +reigned more than one pious king who would certainly have +destroyed them had he found them as offensive as did the author +of Deuteronomy. + + +4. FROM JEROBOAM I. TO JEROBOAM II. + + +After the death of Solomon the discontent which had been aroused by +his innovations, and especially by the rigour of his government, +openly showed itself against his successor; and when Rehoboam +curtly refused the demands which had been laid before him by an +assembly of the elders at Shechem, they withdrew from their +allegiance and summoned to be their king the Ephraimite Jeroboam +ben Nebat, who already had made an abortive attempt at revolt +from Solomon, and afterwards had taken refuge in Egypt. Only +Judah and Jerusalem remained faithful to the house of David. +Among the causes of the revolt of the ten tribes, jealousy of +Judah must certainly be reckoned as one. The power of Joseph had +been weakened by the Philistines, and by the establishment of the +monarchy the centre of gravity had been shifted from the north +where it naturally lay. But now it was restored to its old seat; +for once more it was situated, not in Judah, but in Joseph. +Monarchy itself, however, was not abolished by the revolting +tribes, conclusively showing how unavoidable and how advantageous +that institution was now felt to be; but at the same time they did +not refrain from attempts to combine its advantages with those +of anarchy, a folly which was ultimately the cause of their ruin. +As for their departure from the Mosaic cultus observed at +Jerusalem on the other hand, it was first alleged against them as +a sin only by the later Jews. At the time religion put no +obstacle in the way of their separation; on the contrary, it +actually suggested and promoted it (Ahijah of Shiloh). The +Jerusalem cultus had not yet come to be regarded as the alone +legitimate; that instituted by Jeroboam at Bethel and at Dan was +recognised as equally right; images of the Deity were exhibited +in all three places, and indeed in every place where a house of +God was found. So far as the religious and intellectual life of +the nation was concerned, there was no substantial difference +between the two kingdoms, except indeed in so far as new displays +of vigorous initiative generally proceeded from Israel. /1/ + +************************************* +1. Even in the Deuteronomic redaction of the Book of Kings indeed, +and still more by the Chronicler, the political rebellion of +Israel is regarded as having been ecclesiastical and religious in +its character. The Book of Chronicles regards Samaria as a +heathen kingdom, and recognises Judah alone as Israel. But in +point of fact Judah takes up the history of Israel only after +the fall of Samaria; see ## 6, 7. +************************************ + + +Rehoboam did not readily accept the situation; he sought to +reduce the revolt by force of arms, with what degree of success +is shown by the fact that his rival found himself constrained to +take up his residence at Peniel (near Mahanaim) on the other side +of Jordan. The invasion of Shishak, however, who took Jerusalem +and burnt it, gave Jeroboam at last a breathing space. The feud +continued indeed, but Rehoboam could no longer dream of bringing +back the ten tribes. The scale by and by turned in Israel's +favour. King Baasha, who had seated himself on the throne in +place of Nadab, Jeroboam's son, took the offensive, and Asa ben +Rehoboam had no help for it but to call in Benhadad of Damascus +against his adversary. In this way he gained his immediate +purpose, it is true, but by the most dangerous of expedients. + +Baasha's son Elah was supplanted by his vizier Zimri, who, +however, was in his turn unable to hold his own against Omri, who +had supreme command of the army. Against Omri there arose in +another part of the country a rival, Tibni ben Ginath, who +succeeded in maintaining some footing until his death, when Omri +became supreme. Omri must be regarded as the founder of the first +dynasty, in the proper sense of that word, in Israel, and as the +second founder of the kingdom itself, to which he gave a permanent +capital in Samaria. The Bible has hardly anything to tell us about +him, but his importance is evident from the fact that among the +Assyrians "the kingdom of Omri" / 1/ + +********************************** +1. Bit Humri, like )OIKOS *LUSANIOU, and similar territorial names +in Syriac. +********************************* + +was the ordinary name of Israel. According to the inscription of +Mesha, it was he who again subjugated Moab, which had become +independent at the death of David or of Solomon. He was not so +successful against the Damascenes, to whom he had to concede +certain privileges in his own capital (1Kings xx. 34) /2/ + +********************************** +2. Omri's accession is to be placed somewhere about 900 B.C It is +a date, and the first, that can be determined with some precision, +if we place the battle of Karkar (854) near the end of Ahab's +reign, and take the servitude of Moab, which lasted forty years +and ended with Ahab's deatb, to begin in Omri's first decade. +********************************** + +Ahab, who succeeded Omri his father, seems during the greater part +of his reign to have in some sort acknowledged Syrian suzerainty. +In no other way can we account for the fact that in the battle of +Karkar against the Assyrians (854 B.C.) a contingent was +contributed by him. But this very battle made the political +situation so clear that he was led to break off his relations with +Damascus. With this began a series of ferocious attacks on Israel +by Benhadad and Hazael. They were met by Ahab with courage +and success, but in the third year of that fifty years' war he +fell in the battle at Ramoth Gilead (c. 851). + + +***** +After the events recorded in 1Kings xx., a forced alliance with +Damascus on the part of Samaria is incredible; but the idea of +spontaneous friendly relations is also inadmissible. Schrader +indeed finds support for the latter theory in 1Kings xx. 34; +but in that passage there is no word of any offensive or defensive +alliance between the rival kings; all that is stated is that Ahab +releases the captive Benhadad on condition (BBRYT) that the latter +undertakes certain obligations, particularly those of keeping the +peace and restoring the cities which had been taken. By this +arrangement no change was made in the previously strained +relations of the two kingdoms; and, moreover, the BRYT was not +kept (xxii. 1 seq.). Not much nearer the truth than the +preceding is the view that the danger threatened by Assyria drove +the kings of Syria and Palestine into one another's arms, and so +occasioned an alliance between Ahab and Benhadad also. For if +feelings of hostility existed at all between the two last named, +then Ahab could not do otherwise than congratulate himself that +in the person of Shalmaneser II. there had arisen against +Benhadad an enemy who would be able to keep him effectually in +check. That Shalmaneser might prove dangerous to himself probably +did not at that time occur to him; but if it had he would still +have chosen the remote in preference to the immediately +threatening evil. For it was the political existence of Israel +that was at stake in the struggle with Damascus; in such +circumstances every ally would of course be welcome, every enemy +of the enemy would be hailed as a friend, and the political +wisdom which Max Duncker attributes to Ahab would have been +nothing less than unpardonable folly. The state of matters was at +the outset in this respect just what it continued to be throughout +the subsequent course of events; the Assyrian danger grew in +subsequent years, and with it grew the hostility between Damascus +and Samaria. This fact admits only of one explanation,--that the +Israelites utilised to the utmost of their power for their own +protection against the Syrians the difficulties into which the +latter were thrown by Shalmaneser II., and that these in their +turn, when the Assyrians gave them respite, were all the fiercer +in their revenge. On the evidence of the monuments and the Bible +we may even venture to assert that it was the Assyrian attacks upon +Damascus which at that time preserved Israel from becoming +Aramaic,--of course only because Israel made the most of them for +her political advantage. + +Assuming that Ahab the Israelite (Ahabu Sirlaai) fought in the +battle of Karkar (854) on the side of the king of Damascus, it +was only because he could not help himself; but if it is actually +the case that he did so, the battle of Karkar must have taken +place BEFORE the events recorded in 1Kings xx. +**** + +The Moabites took advantage of an accession under such critical +circumstances to shake off the yoke imposed by Omri forty years +before; an accurate account of their success, obviously written +while the impression of it was still fresh, /1/ has come down to + +******************************* +1. It is obvious that Mesha's narrative is to be taken with +2Kings i. 1, and not with 2Kings iii. +****************************** + +us in the famous inscription of King Mesha. Ahaziah, Ahab's +immediate successor, was obliged to accept the situation; after +his early death a futile attempt again to subjugate them was made +by his brother Joram. Such a campaign was possible to him only +in the event of the Syrians keeping quiet, and in point of fact +it would appear that they were not in a position to follow up the +advantage they had gained at Ramoth; doubtless they were +hampered by the inroads of the Assyrians in 850 and 849. As soon +as they got a little respite, however, they lost no time in +attacking Joram, driving him into his capital, where they +besieged him. Samaria had already been brought to the utmost +extremities of famine, when suddenly the enemy raised the siege +on account of a report of an invasion of their own land by the +"Egyptians and Hittites." Possibly we ought to understand by these +the Assyrians rather, who in 846 renewed their attacks upon Syria; +to ordinary people in Israel the Assyrians were an unknown quantity, +for which it would be natural in popular story to substitute something +more familiar. This turn of affairs relieved Joram from his straits; +it would even seem that, favoured by a change of dynasty at +Damascus, he had succeeded in taking from the Syrians the fortress +of Ramoth in Gilead, which had been the object of Ahab's +unsuccessful endeavours, when suddenly there burst upon the house +of Omri the overwhelming catastrophe for which the prophets had +long been preparing. + +When the prophets first made their appearance, some time before the +beginning of the Philistine war, they were a novel phenomenon in +Israel; but in the interval they had become so naturalised that +they now had a recognised and essential place in connection with +the religion of Jehovah. They had in the process divested +themselves of much that had originally characterised them, but +they still retained their habit of appearing in companies and +living together in societies, and also that of wearing a peculiar +distinctive dress. These societies of theirs had no ulterior +aims; the rabbinical notion that they were schools and academies +in which the study of the Torah and of sacred history was pursued +imports later ideas into an earlier time. First-rate importance +on the whole cannot be claimed for the Nebiim, but occasionally +there arose amongst them a man in whom the spirit which was +cultivated within their circles may be said to have risen to the +explosive pitch. Historical influence was exercised at no time +save by these individuals, who rose above their order and even +placed themselves in opposition to it, but always at the same time +had their base of operations within it. The prototype of this +class of exceptional prophets, whom we not unjustly have been +accustomed to regard as the true, is Elijah of Thisbe, the +contemporary of Ahab. + +ln compliment to Jezebel his wife, Ahab had set up in Samaria a +temple with richly endowed religious services in honour of the +Syrian Baal. In doing so he had no intention of renouncing +Jehovah; Jehovah continued to be the national God after whom he +named his sons Ahaziah and Jehoram. The destruction of Jehovah's +altars or the persecution of His prophets was not at all proposed, +or even the introduction of a foreign cultus elsewhere than in +Samaria. Jehovah's sovereignty over Israel being thus only +remotely if at all imperilled, the popular faith found nothing +specially offensive in a course of action which had been followed +a hundred years before by Solomon also. Elijah alone was strenuous +in his opposition; the masses did not understand him, and were far +from taking his side. To him only, but not to the nation, did it +seem like a halting between two opinions, an irreconcilable +inconsistency, that Jehovah should be worshipped as Israel's God +and a chapel to Baal should at the same time be erected in Israel. + +In solitary grandeur did this prophet tower conspicuously over +his time; legend, and not history, could alone preserve the +memory of his figure. There remains a vague impression that with +him the development of Israel's conception of Jehovah entered upon +a new stadium, rather than any data from which it can be +ascertained wherein the contrast of the new with the old lay. +After Jehovah, acting more immediately within the political +sphere, had established the nation and kingdom, he now began in +the spiritual sphere to operate against the foreign elements, the +infusion of which previously had been permitted to go on almost +unchecked. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. It is worth noticing how much more frequent from this period +onwards proper names compounded with the word Jehovah become. +Among the names of the judges and of the kings before Ahab in +Israel and Asa in Judah, not a single instance occurs; +thenceforward they become the rule. +****************************************** + +The Rechabites, who arose at that time, protested in their zeal +for Jehovah altogether against all civilisation which presupposes +agriculture, and in their fundamental principles aimed at a +recurrence to the primitive nomadic life of Israel in the +wilderness; the Nazarites abstained at least from wine, the chief +symbol of Dionysiac civilisation. In this indeed Elijah was not +with them; had he been so, he would doubtless have been +intelligible to the masses. But, comprehending as he did the +spirit from which these demonstrations proceeded, he thought of +Jehovah as a great principle which cannot coexist in the same +heart with Baal. To him first was it revealed that we have not +in the various departments of nature a variety of forces worthy +of our worship, but that there exists over all but one Holy One +and one Mighty One, who reveals Himself not in nature but in law +and righteousness in the world of man. The indignation he displayed +against the judicial murder at Jezreel was as genuine and strong +as that which he manifested against the worship of Baal in +Samaria; the one was as much a crime against Jehovah as the +other. + +Elijah ascended to heaven before he had actually achieved much +in the world. The idea which his successors took from him was that +it was necessary to make a thorough clearance from Samaria of the +Baal worship and of the house of Ahab as well. For this practical +end Elisha made use of practical means. When Elijah, after the +murder of Naboth, had suddenly appeared before Ahab and +threatened him with a violent end, an officer of high command had +been present, Jehu ben Nimshi, and he had never forgotten the +incident. He now found himself at the head of the troops at +Ramoth Gilead after the withdrawal to Jezreel of Joram ben Ahab +from the field to be healed of his wound. To Elisha the moment +seemed a suitable one for giving to Jehu in Jehovah's name the +command now to carry out Elijah's threat against the house of +Ahab. Jehu gained over the captains of the army, and carried out +so well the task with which the prophet had commissioned him that +not a single survivor of Ahab's dynasty or of his court was left. +He next extirpated Baal and his worshippers in Samaria. From that +date no worship of foreign gods seems ever to have recurred in +Israel. Idolatry indeed continued to subsist, but the images, +stones, and trees, even the seraphim apparently, belonged to the +cultus of Jehovah, or were at least brought into relation with it. + +Jehu founded the second and last dynasty of the kingdom of Samaria +His inheritance from the house of Omri included the task of +defending himself against the Syrians. The forces at his disposal +being insufficient for this, he resorted to the expedient of +seeking to urge the Assyrians to renew their hostilities against +the Arameeans. For this end his ambassadors carried presents to +Shalmaneser II.; these were not of a regular but only of an +occasional character, but the vanity of the great king represents +them as the tribute of a vassal. In the years 842 and 839 Assyrian +campaigns against Hazael of Damascus actually took place; then +they were intermitted for a long time, and the kings of Samaria, +Jehu and his two successors, were left to their own resources. +These were evil times for Israel. With a barbarity never +intermitted the frontier war went on in Gilead, where Ammon and +Moab showed themselves friendly to the Syrian cause (Amos i.); +occasionally great expeditions took place, one of which brought +King Hazael to the very walls of Jerusalem. It was only with +the greatest difficulty that Israel's independence was maintained. +Once more religion went hand in hand with the national cause; +the prophet Elisha was the main stay of the kings in the struggle +with the Syrians, "the chariot and horsemen of Israel." Joash ben +Joahaz ben Jehu at last succeeded in inflicting upon Syria several +blows which proved decisive. Thenceforward Israel had nothing to +fear from that quarter. Under Joash's son, Jeroboam II., the +kingdom even reached a height of external power which recalled the +times of David. Moab was again subdued; southwards the frontier +extended to the brook of the wilderness (Amos vi. 14), and northward +to Hamath. + + + +5. GOD, THE WORLD, AND THE LIFE OF MEN IN OLD ISRAEL. + + +Before proceeding to consider the rise of those prophets who were +the makers of the new Israel, it will not be out of place here to +cast a glance backwards upon the old order of things which +perished with the kingdom of Samaria. With reference to any +period earlier than the century 850-750 B.C., we can hardly be +said to possess any statistics. For, while the facts of history +admit of being handed down with tolerable accuracy through a +considerable time, a contemporary literature is indispensable for +the description of standing conditions. But it was within this +period that Hebrew literature first flourished--after the Syrians +had been finally repulsed, it would seem. Writing of course had +been practiced from a much earlier period, but only in formal +instruments, mainly upon stone. At an early period also the +historical sense of the people developed itself in connection +with their religion; but it found its expression in songs, which +in the first instance were handed down by word of mouth only. +Literature began with the collection and writing out of those +songs; _the Book of the Wars of the Lord_ and _the Book of Jashar_ +were the oldest historical books. The transition was next made to +the writing of prose history with the aid of legal documents and +family reminiscences; a large portion of this early +historiography has been preserved to us in the Books of Judges, +Samuel, and Kings. Contemporaneously also certain collections of +laws and decisions of the priests, of which we have an example in +Exodus xxi. xxii., were committed to writing. Somewhat later, +perhaps, the legends about the patriarchs and primitive times, +the origin of which cannot be assigned to a very early date, /1/ + +***************************************** +1. Even the Jehovistic narratives about the patriarchs belong +to the time when Israel had already become a powerful kingdom; +Moab, Ammon,, and Edom had been subjugated (Genesis xxvii. 29), +and vigorous frontier wars were being carried on with the Syrians +about Gilead (Genesis xxxi. 52). In Genesis xxvii. 40 +allusion is made to the constantly repeated subjugations of Edom +by Judah, alternating with successful revolts on the part of the +former; see Delitzsch on K)$R;. +************************************* + +received literary shape. Specially remarkable is the rise of +a written prophecy. The question why it was that Elijah and +Elisha committed nothing to writing, while Amos a hundred years +later is an author, hardly admits of any other answer than that +in the interval a non-literary had developed into a literary age. +How rapid the process was may be gathered from a comparison between +the singularly broken utterances of the earlier oracle contained +in Isaiah xv. xvi. with the orations of Isaiah himself. + +We begin our survey with that of the family relations. Polygamy +was rare, monogamy the rule; but the right of concubinage was +unlimited. While a high position was accorded both by affection +and custom to the married wife, traces still existed of a state of +society in which she was regarded as property that went with the +inheritance. The marriage of relations was by no means +prohibited; no offence was taken at the circumstance that Abraham +was the husband of his sister (by a different mother). Parents +had full power over their children; they had the right to sell +and even to sacrifice them. In this respect, however, the +prevailing usage was mild, as also in regard to slaves, who +socially held a position of comparative equality with their +masters, and even enjoyed some measure of legal protection. +Slavery, it is plain, had not thc same political importance as +with the Greeks and Romans; it could have been abolished without +any shock to the foundations of the state. + +Throughout this period agriculture and gardening continued to be +regarded as man's normal calling (Genesis iii. iv.); the laws +contained in Exod. xxi.-xxiii. rest entirely upon this +assumption. To dwell in peace under his vine and under his +fig-tree was the ideal of every genuine lsraelite. Only in a few +isolated districts, as in the country to the east of Jordan and +in portions of Judah, did the pastoral life predominate. Art and +industry were undeveloped, and were confined to the production of +simple domestic necessaries. + +Commerce was in old time followed exclusively by the Canaanite +towns, so that the word "Canaanite" was used in the general sense +of "trader." But by and by Israel began to tread in Canaan's +footsteps (Hosea xii. 8, 9), /1/ + +**************************** +1. "Canaan (i.e., Ephraim Canaanised) has deceitful balances in his +hand, and loves to overreach. Ephraim indeed saith, I am become +rich, I have gained weealth; but all his profits will not suffice +for (expiation of) the guilt which he has incurred." +**************************** + +The towns grew more influential than the country; money notably +increased; and the zeal of piety was quite unable to arrest the +progress of the change which set in. The kings themselves, from +Solomon onwards, were the first to set the bad example; they eagerly +sought to acquire suitable harbours, and in company or in competition +with the Syrians entered upon large commercial transactions. +The extortions of the corn-market, the formation of large estates, +the frequency of mortgages, all show that the small peasant +proprietorship was unable to hold its own against the accumulations +of wealth. The wage-receiving class increased, and cases in which +free Hebrews sold themselves into slavery were not rare. + +On all hands the material progress of the commonwealth made itself +felt, the old simplicity of manners disappeared, and luxury +increased. Buildings of hewn stone began to be used even by +private individuals. The towns, especially the chief ones, were +fortified; and in time of war refuge was sought in them, and not +as formerly in woods and caves. Even in the time of David the +Israelites always fought on foot; but now horses and chariots were +regarded as indispensable. The bow came to be the principal weapon +of offence, and a military class appears to have sprung up. + +The monarchy retained in the kingdom of the ten tribes its +military character; the commander-in-chief was the first person +in the kingdom. In internal affairs its interference was slight; +with systematic despotism it had little in common, although of +course within its narrow sphere it united executive and +legislative functions. It was little more than the greatest house +in Israel. The highest official was called "master of the +household." The court ultimately grew into a capital, the +municipal offices of which were held by royal officials. The +provinces had governors who, however, in time of war withdrew to +the capital (1Kings xx.); the presumption is that their sole +charge was collection of the revenue. + +The state was not charged with affairs of internal administration; +all parties were left free to maintain their own interests. Only +in cases in which conflicts had emerged in consequence could the +king be approached. Ruling and judging were regarded as one and +the same; there was but one word for both (2Kings xv. 5). +Still, the king was not altogether the only judge; there were, in +fact, a number of independent jurisdictions. Wherever within a +particular circle the power lay, there the right of judging was +also found, whether exercised by heads of families and communities +or by warriors and powerful lords. It was only because the king +was the most powerful that he was regarded as the judge of last +resort; but it was equally permitted to apply to him from the first. +Of method and rule in these things there was but little; a man was +glad to find any court to receive his complaint. Of course without +complaint one got no justice. The administration of justice was at +best but a scanty supplement to the practice of self-help. The heir +of the murdered man would not forego the right of blood revenge; but +his family or the commune gave him aid, and in case of need took +his place, for bloodshed had at all hazards to be atoned for. + +The firm establishment of civil order was rendered all the more +difficult by the continual wars and violent changes of dynasty +which ever and anon made its very existence problematical. +Power, which is more important than righteousness to a judicatory, +was what the government was wanting in In the simpler social +conditions of the earlier time a state which was adapted merely +for purposes of war might easily be found to work satisfactorily +enough, but a more complex order of things had now arisen. Social +problems had begun to crop up; for the poor and the proletariat +the protection of a thoughtful government had come to be required, +but was not forthcoming. + +But these defects did not check all progress. The weakness of the +government, the want of political consolidation, were insufficient +to arrest intellectual advance or to corrupt the prevailing moral +tone and feeling for justice; in fact it was precisely in this +period (the period in which the main part of the Jehovistic +history must have been written) that the intellectual and moral +culture of the people stood at its highest. Even when the +machinery of the monarchy had got out of order, the organisation +of the families and communes continued to subsist; the smaller +circles of social life remained comparatively untouched by the +catastrophes that shook the greater. Above all, the national +religion supplied the spiritual life with an immovable basis. + +The favourite illustrations of the power of religion in the Israel +of that period are drawn from the instances of great prophets who +raised kings out of the dust and smote them to it again. But the +influence and importance of these is generally exaggerated in the +accounts we have. That among them there occasionally occurred +manifestations of such power as to give a new turn in history is +indeed true; a figure like that of Elijah is no mere invention. +But such a man as he was a prophecy of the future rather than an +actual agent in shaping the present. On the whole, religion was +a peaceful influence, conserving rather than assailing the existing +order of things. The majority of the prophets were no revolutionists; +rather in fact were they always too much inclined to prophesy in +accordance with the wishes of the party in power. Besides, in +ordinary circumstances their influence was inferior to that of +the priests, who were servants of royalty at the chief +sanctuaries, but everywhere attached to the established order. + +The Torah of Jehovah still continued to be their special charge. +It was not even now a code or law in our sense of the word; +Jehovah had not yet made His Testament; He was still living and +active in Israel. But the Torah appears during this period to +have withdrawn itself somewhat from the business of merely +pronouncing legal decisions and to have begun to move in a freer +field. It now consisted in teaching the knowledge of God, in +showing the right God-given way where men were not sure of +themselves. Many of the counsels of the priests had become a +common stock of moral convictions, which, indeed, were all of them +referred to Jehovah as their author, yet had ceased to be matters +of direct revelation. Nevertheless the Torah had still occupation +enough, the progressive life of the nation ever affording matter +for new questions. + +Although in truth the Torah and the moral influence of Jehovah +upon the national life were things much weightier and much more +genuinely Israelitic than the cultus, yet this latter held on the +whole a higher place in public opinion. To the ordinary man it +was not moral but liturgical acts that seemed to be truly +religious. Altars of Jehovah occurred everywhere, with sacred +stones and trees--the latter either artificial (Asheras) or +natural--beside them; it was considered desirable also to have +water in the neighbourhood (brazen sea). In cases where a temple +stood before the altar it contained an ephod and teraphim, a kind +of images before which the lot was cast by the priest. Of the +old simplicity the cultus retained nothing; at the great +sanctuaries especially (Bethel, Gilgal, Beersheba) it had become +very elaborate. Its chief seasons were the agricultural +festivals--the passover, the feast of weeks, and most especially +the feast of the ingathering at the close of the year. These were +the only occasions of public worship properly so called, at which +every one was expected to attend; in other cases each worshipper +sought the presence of God only in special circumstances, as for +example at the beginning and at the end of particular undertakings. +The cultus, as to place, time, matter, and form, belonged almost +entirely to the inheritance which Israel had received from Canaan; +to distinguish what belonged to the worship of Jehovah from that +which belonged to Baal was no easy matter. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. The description of the cultus by the Prophet Hosea shows this +very clearly. It is obvious enough, however, that the object +was to serve JEHOVAH, and not any foreign deity, by this worship. +***************************************** + + +It was the channel through which also paganism could and did ever +anew gain admittance into the worship of Jehovah. Yet that +publicity of the cultus which arose out of the very nature of Jehovah, +and in consequence of which the teraphim even were removed from the +houses to the temples, cannot but have acted as a corrective against +the most fatal excesses. + +As for the substance of the national faith, it was summed up +principally in the proposition that Jehovah is the God of Israel. +But "God" was equivalent to "helper;" that was the meaning of +the word. "Help," assistance in all occasions of life,--that was +what Israel looked for from Jehovah, not "salvation" in the +theological sense. The forgiveness of sins was a matter of +subordinate importance; it was involved in the "help," and was a +matter not of faith but of experience. The relation between the +people and God was a natural one as that of son to father; it did +not rest upon observance of the conditions of a pact. But it was +not on that account always equally lively and hearty; Jehovah +was regarded as having varieties of mood. To secure and retain +His favour sacrifices were useful; by them prayer and +thanksgiving were seconded. + +Another main article of faith was that Jehovah judges and +recompenses, not after death (then all men were thought to be +alike), but upon the earth. Here, however, but little account +was taken of the individual; over him the wheel of destiny +remorselessly rolled; his part was resignation and not hope. +Not in the career of the individual but in the fate of families +and nations did the righteousness of Jehovah find scope for its +manifestation; and this is the only reason why the religion +could dispense with the conceptions of heaven and hell. For the +rest, it was not always easy to bring the second article into +correlation with the first; in practice the latter received the +superior place. + +It need hardly be said that superstition of every kind also +abounded. But the superstition of the Israelites had as little +real religious significance as had that poetical view of nature +which the Hebrews doubtless shared in greater or less degree with +all the other nations of antiquity. + + + +6. THE FALL OF SAMARIA. + + +Under King Jeroboam II., two years before a great earthquake that +served ever after for a date to all who had experienced it, there +occurred at Bethel, the greatest and most conspicuous sanctuary +of Jehovah in Israel, a scene full of significance. The multitude +were assembled there with gifts and offerings for the observance +of a festival, when there stepped forward a man whose grim +seriousness interrupted the joy of the feast. It was a Judaean, +Amos of Tekoa, a shepherd from the wilderness bordering on the +Dead Sea. Into the midst of the joyful tones of the songs which +with harp and tabor were being sung at the sacred banquet he +brought the discordant note of the mourner's wail. For over all +the joyous stir of busy life his ear caught the sounds of death: +"the virgin of Israel is fallen, never more to rise; +lies prostrate in her own land with no one to lift her up." +He prophesied as close at hand the downfall of the kingdom which +just at that moment was rejoicing most in the consciousness of +power, and the deportation of the people to a far-off northern land. + +There was something rotten in the state of Israel in spite of +the halcyon days it enjoyed under Jeroboam II. From the indirect +results of war, from changes in the tenure and in the culture of +the soil, from defective administration of justice, the humbler +classes had much to suffer; they found that the times were evil. +But it was not this that caused Amos to foresee the end of Israel, +not a mere vague foreboding of evil that forced him to leave his +flocks; the dark cloud that threatened on the horizon was plain +enough--the Assyrians. Once already at an earlier date they had +directed their course south-westwards, without, however, on that +occasion becoming a source of danger to the Israelites. But now +that the bulwark against the Assyrians, Aram of Damascus, was +falling into ruins, a movement of these against Lebanon in the time +of Jeroboam II. opened to Israel the alarming prospect that +sooner or later they would have to meet the full force of the +irresistible avalanche. + +What then? The common man was in no position truly to estimate +the danger; and, so far as he apprehended it, he lived in the +firm faith that Jehovah would not abandon His people in their +straits. The governing classes prided themselves on the military +resources of Israel, or otherwise tried to dismiss from their +minds all thought of the gravity of the situation. But Amos heard +the question distinctly enough, and did not hesitate to answer +it: the downfall of Israel is imminent. It was nothing short of +blasphemy to utter anything of this kind, for everything, Jehovah +Himself included, depended on the existence of the nation. But +the most astounding thing has yet to come; not Asshur, but Jehovah +Himself, is bringing about the overthrow of Israel; through Asshur +it is Jehovah that is triumphing over Israel. A paradoxical +thought--as if the national God were to cut the ground from under +His own feet! For the faith in Jehovah as the God of Israel was +a faith that He intervenes on behalf of His people against all +enemies, against the whole World; precisely in times of danger +was religion shown by staying oneself upon this faith. Jehovah +might indeed, of course, hide His face for a time, but not +definitively; in the end He ever arose at last against all +opposing powers. "The day of the Lord" was an object of hope +in all times of difficulty and oppression; it was understood +as self-evident that the crisis would certainly end in favour of +Israel. Amos took up the popular conception of that day; but how +thoroughly did he change its meaning! "Woe to them who long +for the day of the Lord!--What to you is the day of the Lord,? +It is darkness, not light." His own opposition to the popular +conception is formulated in a paradox which he prefixes as theme +to the principal section of his book:--"Us alone does Jehovah +know," say the Israelites, drawing from this the inference that +He is on their side, and of course must take their part. "You +only do I know," Amos represents Jehovah as saying, "therefore do +I visit upon you all your sins." + +If the question, Whereon did Jehovah's relation to Israel +ultimately rest? be asked, the answer, according to the popular +faith, must substantially be that it rested on the fact that +Jehovah was worshipped in Israel and not among the heathen, that +in Israel were His altars and His dwelling. His cultus was the +bond between Him and the nation; when therefore it was desired +to draw the bond still closer, the solemn services of religion +were redoubled. But to the conception of Amos Jehovah is no +judge capable of accepting a bribe; with the utmost indignation +he repudiates the notion that it is possible to influence +Him by gifts and offerings. Though Israel alone has served Him +he does not on that account apply any other standard to it than +to other nations (chaps. i. ii.). If Israel is better known to +Him, it does not follow that on that account He shuts His eyes and +blindly takes a side. Neither Jehovah nor His prophet recognises +two moral standards; right is everywhere right, wrong always +wrong, even though committed against Israel's worst enemies (ii. 1). +What Jehovah demands is righteousness,--nothing more and +nothing less; what He hates is injustice. Sin or offence to the +Deity is a thing of purely moral character; with such emphasis +this doctrine had never before been heard. Morality is that for +the sake of which all other things exist; it is the alone +essential thing in the world. It is no postulate, no idea, but at +once a necessity and a fact, the most intensely living of +personal powers-Jehovah the God of Hosts. In wrath, in ruin, this +holy reality makes its existence known; it annihilates all that +is hollow and false. + +Amos calls Jehovah the God of Hosts, never the God of Israel. +The nation as such is no religious conception to him; from its mere +existence he cannot formulate any article of faith. Sometimes it +seems as if he were denying Israel's prerogative altogether. He +does not really do so, but at least the prerogative is +conditional and involves a heavy responsibility. The saying in +iii. 2 recalls Luke xii. 47. The proposition "Jehovah knows +Israel" is in the mouth of Amos almost the same thing as "Israel +knows Jehovah; " save only that this is not to be regarded as +any merit on Israel's part, but as a manifestation of the grace of +Jehovah, who has led His people by great deeds and holy men, and +so made Himself known. Amos knows no other truth than that +practical one which he has found among his own people and nowhere +else, Iying at the foundation of life and morality, and which he +regards as the product of a divine providential ordering of +history. From this point of view, so thoroughly Israelitish, he +pronounces Israel's condemnation. He starts from premisses +generally conceded, but he accentuates them differently and +draws from them divergent conclusions. + +Amos was the founder, and the purest type, of a new phase of +prophecy. The impending conflict of Asshur with Jehovah and +Israel, the ultimate downfall of Israel, is its theme. Until that +date there had subsisted in Palestine and Syria a number of petty +kingdoms and nationalities, which had their friendships and +enmities with one another, but paid no heed to anything outside +their own immediate environment, and revolved, each on its own axis, +careless of the outside world, until suddenly the Assyrians burst +in upon them. These commenced the work which was carried on by +the Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks, and completed by the Romans. +They introduced a new factor, the conception of the world,--the world +of course in the historical sense of that expression. In presence +of that conception the petty nationalities lost their centre of +gravity, brute fact dispelled their illusions, they flung their +gods to the moles and to the bats (Isaiah ii.). The prophets of +Israel alone did not allow themselves to be taken by surprise by +what had occurred, or to be plunged in despair; they solved by +anticipation the grim problem which history set before them. +They absorbed into their religion that conception of the world +which was destroying the religions of the nations, even before it +had been fully grasped by the secular consciousness. Where +others saw only the ruin of everything that is holiest, they saw +the triumph of Jehovah over delusion and error. Whatever else +might be overthrown, the really worthy remained unshaken. They +recognised ideal powers only, right and wrong truth and falsehood; +second causes were matters of indifference to them, they were no +practical politicians. But they watched the course of events +attentively, nay, with passionate interest. The present, which +was passing before them, became to them as it were the plot of a +divine drama which they watched with an intelligence that +anticipated the _denouement_. Everywhere the same goal of the +development, everywhere the same laws. The nations are the +_dramatis personae_, Israel the hero, Jehovah the poet of the +tragedy. /1/ + +***************************** +1. In very much the same way the threatened and actual political +annihilation of Ionia led to the rise of Greek philosophy +(Xenophanes, Heraclitus). +***************************** + +The canonical prophets, the series of whom begins with Amos, were +separated by an essential distinction from the class which had +preceded them and which still continued to be the type of the +common prophet. They did not seek to kindle either the +enthusiasm or the fanaticism of the multitude; they swam not +with but against the stream. They were not patriotic, at least +in the ordinary acceptation of that word; they prophesied not good +but evil for their people (Jer. xxviii. 8). Until their time +the nation had sprung up out of the conception of Jehovah; now +the conception of Jehovah was casting the nation into the shade. +The natural bond between the two was severed, and the relation +was henceforward viewed as conditional. As God of the +righteousness which is the law of the whole universe, Jehovah +could be Israel's God only in so far as in Israel the right was +recognised and followed. The ethical element destroyed the +national character of the old religion. It still addressed itself, +to be sure, more to the nation and to society at large than to +the individual; it insisted less upon a pure heart than upon +righteous institutions; but nevertheless the first step towards +universalism had been accomplished, towards at once the general +diffusion and the individualisation of religion. Thus, although +the prophets were far from originating a new conception of God, +they none the less were the founders of what has been called +"ethical monotheism." But with them this ethical monotheism was no +product of the "self-evolution of dogma," but a progressive step +which had been called forth simply by the course of events. The +providence of God brought it about that this call came at an +opportune period, and not too suddenly. The downfall of the nation +did not take place until the truths and precepts of religion were +already strong enough to be able to live on alone; to the +prophets belongs the merit of having recognised the independence +of these, and of having secured perpetuity to Israel by refusing +to allow the conception of Jehovah to be involved in the ruin of +the kingdom. They saved faith by destroying illusion. + +The event which Amos had foreseen was not long in coming. The +Israelites flew spontaneously, like "silly doves," into the net +of the Assyrians. Zechariah ben Jeroboam was overthrown after a +short reign, Shallum his murderer and successor was also unable to +hold his own, and was followed after the horrors of a civil war by +Menahem ben Gadi (745 B.C). But Menahem, in the presence of +domestic (and perhaps also foreign) assailants, /1/ had no other + +********************************** +1. It is not inconceivable that the wars carried on by +Tiglath-pileser II. against Hamath had some connection with his +interventions in favour of Menahem. The kingdom of Hamath, which +may have been threatened by Jeroboam II., may have availed +itself of the state of matters which followed his death to secure +its own aggrandisement at Israel's expense; in correspondence +with this attack from the northern side another by Judah in +concert with Hamath may well have been made from the south. In +this way, though not without the aid of pure hypothesis, it might +be possible to fit into the general historical connection the +fragmentary Assyrian notices about Azariah of Judah and his +relations to Hamath; the explanations suggested by the +Assyriologists have hitherto been total failures. But in that +case it would certainly be necessary to assume that the Assyrians +were badly informed as to the nature of the relations between +Hamath and Judah, and also as to the individual who at that time +held the throne of Judah. Uzziah (= Azariah), who in his old age +had become a leper, could only nominally at best have been king +of Judah then. +************************************* + +resort than to purchase by payment of a great tribute the assistance +of King Tiglath-pileser II., who at that time was giving new force +to the Assyrian predominance in these regions. By such means he +succeeded in attaining his immediate end, but the further +consequence was that the rival party in the state turned for +support to Egypt, and Palestine now became the arena of conflict +between the two great world-powers. + +Menahem transmitted his kingdom to Pekahiah; Pekahiah was murdered +about 735 B.C. by Pekah, and Pekah himself shortly afterwards +was overthrown. All this happened within a few years. It would +have been possible to conjecture the state of the country in +these circumstances, even if we had not been informed of it by +means of the prophetical book of Hosea, which dates from the time +when the Assyrians had begun indeed to tamper with the country, +but had not yet shown their full design. After the death of +Jeroboam II. there had been wild outbursts of partisan war; none +of the kings who in quick succession appeared and disappeared had +real power, none established order. It was as if the danger from +without, which was only too obviously threatening the existence +of the kingdom, had already dissolved all internal bonds; every +one was at war with his neighbour. Assyrians and Egyptians were +called in to support this or that government; by such expedients +the external confusion was, naturally, only increased. Was there +any other quarter in which help could yet be sought? The +people, led by the priests, turned to the altars of Jehovah, and +outdid itself in pious works, as if by any such illusory means, +out of all relation to the practical problem in hand, the gangrene +of anarchy could possibly be healed. Still more zealous than +Amos against the cultus was Hosea, not merely on the ground that +it had the absurd motive of forcing Jehovah's favour, but also +because it was of heathenish character, nature-worship and +idolatry. That Jehovah is the true and only helper is certainly +not denied by Hosea. But His help is coupled with the condition +that Israel shall undergo a complete change, and of such a change +he sees no prospect. On this account the downfall of the state is +in Hosea's view inevitable, but not final ruin, only such an +overthrow as is necessary for the transition to a new and fair +recommencement. In Hosea's prophecies the relation between Jehovah +and Israel is conceived of as dissoluble, and as actually on the point +of being dissolved, but it has struck its roots so deep that it +must inevitably at last establish itself again. + +The first actual collision between Israel and Assyria occurred in +734. Resin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Samaria, had +united in an expedition against Judah, where at that time Ahaz ben +Jotham occupied the throne. But Ahaz parried the blow by placing +himself under the protection of the Assyrians, who perhaps would +in any case have struck in against the alliance between Aram and +Israel. Tiglath-pileser made his first appearance in 734, first on +the sea-coast of Palestine, and subsequently either in this or in +the following year took up his quarters in the kingdom of the ten +tribes. After he had ravaged Galilee and Gilead, he finally +concluded a peace with Samaria conditionally on his receiving the +head of King Pekah and a considerable yearly tribute. Hosea ben +Elah was raised to the throne in Pekah's place and acknowledged by +the Assyrian as a vassal For some ten years he held his position +quietly, regularly paying his dues. But when at the death of +Tiglath-pileser the Syro-Palestinian kingdoms rebelled _en masse_, +Samaria also was seized with the delirium of patriotic fanaticism +(Isaiah xxviii.). Relying upon the help of Seve, king of Ethiopia +and Egypt, Hosea ventured on a revolt from Assyria. But the +Egyptians left him in the lurch as soon as Shalmaneser IV., +Tiglath-pileser's successor, invaded his territory. Before his +capital had fallen, Hosea himself fell into the hands of the +Assyrians. Samaria offered a desperate resistance, and succumbed +only to Sargon, Shalmaneser's successor (72I). Energetic +measures were adopted by the victor for the pacification of the +country; he carried all the inhabitants of mark into captivity +to Calachene, Gozanitis, and Armenia. Much light is thrown upon +the conditions of the national religion then and upon its +subsequent development by the single fact that the exiled +Israelites were absorbed by the surrounding heathenism without +leaving a trace behind them, while the population of Judah, who +had the benefit of a hundred years respite, held their faith fast +throughout the period of the Babylonian exile, and by means of it +were able to maintain their own individuality afterwards in all +the circumstances that arose. The fact that the fall of Samaria +did not hinder but helped the religion of Jehovah is entirely due +to the prophets. That they had foreseen the downfall of the +state, and declared in the name of religion that it was +inevitable, was a matter of much greater historical importance +than the actual downfall itself. + + + +7. THE DELIVERANCE OF JUDAH. + + +Hitherto the small kingdom of Judah had stood in the background. +Its political history had been determined almost exclusively by +its relation to Israel. Under the dynasty of Omri the original +enmity had been changed into a close but perhaps not quite +voluntary friendship. Judah found itself drawn completely into +the train of the more powerful neighbouring state, and seems even +to have rendered it military service. The fall of the house of +Omri was an ominous event for Judah as well as Israel; Jehu, as +he passed to the throne, put to death not only Ahaziah the king +but also two and forty other members of the royal house of David +who had fallen into his hands; and those who still survived, +children for the most part, were murdered wholesale by the regent +Athaliah for reasons that are unknown. Only one little boy, +Joash, was concealed from her fury, and by a successful +conspiracy six years afterwards was placed upon the throne of his +ancestors. At that time the Syrians were extending their +incursions to Judah and Philistia, and Joash bought them off from +Jerusalem with the temple treasures. Perhaps it was this disgrace +that he expiated with his death; in like manner perhaps the +assassination of his successor Amaziah is to be accounted for by +the discredit he had incurred by a reckless and unsuccessful war +against Israel. Just as Israel was beginning to recover itself +after the happy termination of the Syrian wars, Judah also +experienced its period of highest prosperity. What Jeroboam II. +was to the northern kingdom, Uzziah was to that of the south. He +appears to have obtained possession of Edom, and for a +considerable time to have held that one province of David's +conquests which fell to Judah; and at the trading port of Elath +he revived the commerce which Solomon had created. The prosperity +of his long reign was uninterrupted till in his later years he was +smitten with leprosy, and found it necessary to hand over the +affairs of the kingdom to his son Jotham. But Jotham appears to +have died about the same time as his father,--his successor, still +in very early youth (Isaiah iii. 12), being Ahaz ben Jotham +ben Uzziah. + +If Judah could not compare with Israel in political and general +historical importance, it nevertheless enjoyed more than one +considerable advantage over the larger kingdom. It was much safer +from foreign foes; for the Egyptians, as a rule, were not +dangerous neighbours. But its chief advantage consisted in the +stability of its dynasty. It was David who had elevated Judah +and Jerusalem to a position of historical significance, and the +prosperity of his house was most intimately connected with that +of the town and territory, and even with that of religion. On two +separate occasions it occurred that a king of Judah was murdered +by subjects, but in both cases the "people of the land" rose up +against the assassins and once more placed a member of the Davidic +family upon the throne. The one actual recorded revolution was +that against Athaliah, which had for its object the restoration of +the throne to the legitimate heir. Under shelter of the monarchy +the other institutions of the state also acquired a measure of +permanency such as was not found at all in Israel, where +everything depended on the character of individuals, and the +existing order of things was ever liable to be subjected to fresh +dispute. Life in Judah was a much more stable affair, though not +so exciting or dramatic. Possibly the greater isolation of the +little kingdom, its more intimate relations with the neighbouring +wilderness, and the more primitive modes of life which resulted, +were also factors which contributed to this general result. + +In the capital of course the life was not primitive, and its +influence was undoubtedly greater than that of the country. +Successive kings exerted themselves for its external improvement, +and in this respect Hezekiah ben Ahaz was specially +distinguished. Above all they manifested sincere interest in the +temple, which from an early period exerted a powerful force of +attraction over the entire mass of the population. They +regulated the cultus according to their individual tastes, added +to it or curtailed it at their pleasure, and dealt with the sacred +treasures as they chose. Although the priests had in a certain +sense great power--the conspiracy against Athaliah was led not by +a prophet but by a priest,--they were nevertheless subjects of +the king, and had to act according to his orders. That the cultus +of Jehovah at Jerusalem was purer than that at Bethel or at +Samaria is an assertion which is contradicted by more than one +well-attested fact. In this respect there was no essential +difference between Israel and Judah. It was in Israel that the +reaction against Baal-worship originated which afterwards passed +over into Judah; the initiative in all such matters was Israel's. +There the experiments were made from which Jerusalem learned the +lesson. How deep was the interest felt in the affairs of the larger +kingdom by the inhabitants even of one of the smaller provincial +towns of Judah is shown in the instance of Amos of Tekoah. + +Step by step with the decline of Israel after the death of +Jeroboam II. did Judah rise in importance; it was already +preparing to take the inheritance. The man through whom the +transition of the history from Israel to Judah was effected, and +who was the means of securing for the latter kingdom a period of +respite which was fruitful of the best results for the +consolidation of true religion, was the Prophet Isaiah. The +history of his activity is at the same time the history of +Judah during that period. + +Isaiah became conscious of his vocation in the year of King +Uzziah's death; his earliest discourses date from the beginning +of the reign of Ahaz. In them he contemplates the imminent +downfall of Samaria, and threatens Judah also with the +chastisement its political and social sins deserve. In chapter ix., +and also in chapters ii.-v., he still confines himself on the whole +to generalities quite after the manner of Amos. But on the +occasion of the expedition of the allied Syrians and Ephraimites +against Jerusalem he interposed with bold decision in the sphere of +practical politics. To the very last he endeavoured to restrain +Ahaz from his purpose of summoning the Assyrians to his help; he +assured him of Jehovah's countenance, and offered him a token in +pledge. When the king refused this, the prophet recognised that +matters had gone too far, and that the coming of the Assyrians +could not be averted. He then declared that the dreaded danger +would indeed be obviated by that course, but that another far +more serious would be incurred. For the Egyptians would resist +the westward movement of Assyria, and Judah as the field of war +would be utterly laid waste; only a remnant would remain as the +basis of a better future. + +The actual issue, however, was not yet quite so disastrous. The +Egyptians did not interfere with the Assyrians, and left Samaria +and Damascus to their fate. Judah became indeed tributary to +Assyria, but at the same time enjoyed considerable prosperity. +Henceforward the prophet's most zealous efforts were directed to +the object of securing the maintenance, at any price, of this +condition of affairs. He sought by every means at his command to +keep Judah from any sort of intervention in the politics of the +great powers, in order that it might devote itself with undivided +energies to the necessities of internal affairs. He actually +succeeded in maintaining the peace for many years, even at times +when in the petty kingdoms around the spirit of revolt was abroad. +The ill success of all attempts elsewhere to shake off the yoke +confirmed him in the conviction that Assyria was the rod of +chastisement wielded by Jehovah over the nations, who had no +alternative but to yield to its iron sway. + +While thirty years passed thus peacefully away so far as foreign +relations were concerned, internal changes of all the greater +importance were taking place. Hezekiah ben Ahaz undertook for +the first time a thoroughgoing reformation in the cultus of +Jehovah. "He removed the high places, and brake the pillars, +and cut down the Ashera, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent +that Moses had made;" so we are told in 2Kings xviii. 4, with +a mixture of the general and the special that does not inspire +much confidence. For, e.g., the "high places" which Solomon +had raised on the Mount of Olives were not removed by Hezekiah, +although they stood quite close to Jerusalem, and moreover were +consecrated to foreign deities. But in every respect there must +have been a wide difference between the objects and results of +the reformations of Hezekiah and Josiah. Undoubtedly Hezekiah +undertook his reforms in worship under the influence of Isaiah. +Following in the footsteps of Hosea, who had been the first to +take and to express offence at the use of images in the worship +of Jehovah, this prophet, utilising the impression which the +destruction of Samaria had produced in Jerusalem (Isaiah +xvii., cf. Jeremiah iii.), strove to the utmost against the +adoration of the work of men's hands in the holy places, against +the Asheras and pillars (sun-pillars), and above all against the +ephods, i.e., the idols of silver and gold, of which the land was +full. But against the high places in and by themselves, against +the multiplicity of the altars of Jehovah, he made no protest. +"( In the Messianic time) ye shall loathe and cast away as an +unclean thing your graven images with silver coverings and your +molten images overlaid with gold," he says (xxx. 22); and the +inference is that he contemplated the purification of the high +places from superstitious excesses, but by no means their abolition. +To this one object /1/ + +******************************** +1. That is, to the abolition of the images. Jeremiah's polemic +is directed no longer against the images, but against wood +and stone, i.e, Asheras and pillars. The date of the reformation +under Hezekiah is uncertain; perhaps it ought to be placed after +Sennacherib's withdrawal from Jerusalem. +******************************** + +Hezekiah's reformation seems to have confined itself,--an object +of much greater primary importance than the destruction of the +altars themselves. Their destruction was a measure which arose +simply out of despair of the possibility of cleansing them. + +Sargon, king of Assyria, was succeeded in 705 by Sennacherib. +The opportunity was seized by Merodach Baladan of Babylon to secure +his independence; and by means of an embassy he urged Hezekiah +also to throw off the yoke. The proposal was adopted, and the +king of Judah was joined by other petty kingdoms, especially +some of the Philistine towns. Relations with Egypt were +established to secure its support in case of need. Sennacherib's +more immediate and pressing business in Babylon enabled Palestine +to gain some time; but the issue of that revolt made +self-deception impossible as to the probable result of the other +movement. + +This was the period at which Isaiah, already far advanced in life, +wielded his greatest influence. The preparations for revolt, the +negotiations with Egypt, were concealed from him,-a proof how +greatly he was feared at court. When he came to know of them, it +was already too late to undo what had been done. But he could at +least give vent to his anger. With Jerusalem, it seemed to him, +the story of Samaria was repeating itself; uninstructed by that +sad lesson, the capital was giving itself up to the mad +intoxication of leaders who would inevitably bring her to ruin. +"Quietness and rest" had been the motto given by Jehovah to +Judah, powerless as it was and much in need of a period of peace; +instead of this, defiance based on ignorance and falsehood +expressed the prevailing temper. But those who refused to listen +to the intelligible language of Jehovah would be compelled to hear +Him speak in Assyrian speech in a way that would deafen and blind +them. Isaiah shows himself no less indignant against the crowd +that stupidly stared at his excitement than against the +God-forsaken folly of the king, with his counsellors, his priests, +and his prophets. They do not suffer themselves to be shaken out +of their ordinary routine by the gravity of such a crisis as +this; the living work of Jehovah is to them a sealed book; their +piety does not extend beyond the respect they show for certain +human precepts learnt by rote. + +Meanwhile Sennacherib, at the head of a great army, was advancing +against Philistia and Judah along the Phoenician coast (701). +Having captured Ascalon, he next laid siege to Ekron, which, +after the combined Egyptian and Ethiopian army sent to its relief +had been defeated at Eltheke, fell into the enemy's hand, and was +severely dealt with. Simultaneously various fortresses of Judah +were occupied, and the level country was devastated (Isaiah i.). +The consequence was that Hezekiah, in a state of panic, offered +to the Assyrians his sub-mission, which was accepted on payment of +a heavy penalty, he being permitted, however, to retain possession +of Jerusalem. He seemed to have got cheaply off from the unequal +contest. + +The way being thus cleared, Sennacherib pressed on southwards, for +the Egyptians were collecting their forces against him. The nearer +he came to the enemy the more undesirable did he find it that he +should leave in his rear so important a fortress as Jerusalem in +the hands of a doubtful vassal. Notwithstanding the recently +ratified treaty, therefore, he demanded the surrender of the +city, believing that a policy of intimidation would be enough to +secure it from Hezekiah. But there was another personality in +Jerusalem of whom his plans had taken no account. Isaiah had +indeed regarded the revolt from Assyria as a rebellion against +Jehovah Himself, and therefore as a perfectly hopeless undertaking +which could only result in the utmost humiliation and sternest +chastisement for Judah. But still more distinctly than those who +had gone before him did he hold firm as an article of faith the +conviction that the kingdom would not be utterly annihilated; all +his speeches of solemn warning closed with the announcement that +a remnant should return and form the kernel of a new commonwealth +to be fashioned after Jehovah's own heart. For him, in contrast to +Amos, the great crisis had a positive character; in contrast to +Hosea, he did not expect a temporary suspension of the theocracy, +to be followed by its complete reconstruction, but in the pious +and God-fearing individuals who were still to be met with in this +Sodom of iniquity, he saw the threads, thin indeed yet sufficient, +which formed the links between the Israel of the present and its +better future. Over against the vain confidence of the multitude +Isaiah had hitherto brought into prominence the darker obverse of +his religious belief, but now he confronted their present +depression with its bright reverse; faint-heartedness was still +more alien to his nature than temerity. In the name of Jehovah he +bade King Hezekiah be of good courage, and urged that he should by +no means surrender. The Assyrians would not be able to take the +city, not even to shoot an arrow into it nor to bring up their +siege train against it. "I know thy sitting, thy going, and thy +standing," is Jehovah's language to the Assyrian, "and also thy +rage against me. And I will put my ring in thy nose, and my +bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by +which thou camest." And thus it proved in the issue. By a still +unexplained catastrophe, the main army of Sennacherib was +annihilated on the frontier between Egypt and Palestine, and +Jerusalem thereby freed from all danger. The Assyrian king had to +save himself by a hurried retreat to Nineveh; Isaiah was +triumphant. A more magnificent close of a period of influential +public life can hardly be imagined. + +***** +What Sennacherib himself relates of his expedition against his +rebellious vassals in Palestine (George Smith, Assyrian Eponym +Canon, p. 67, 68, 131-136) runs parallel with 2 Kings xviii. 14-16, +but not with the rest of the Bible narrative. These three verses +are peculiar, and their source is different from that of the context. +After having captured various Phoenician cities, and received tribute +from a number of kings, his first measure is forcibly to restore the +Assyrian governor who had been expelled from Ascalon, and next he +turns his arms against Ekron. This city had put in irons its own +king, Padi (who remained loyal to the suzerain), and handed him over +to Hezekiah, who appears as the soul of the rebellion in these +quarters. The Egyptians, who as usual have a hand in the matter, +advance with an army for the relief of the beleaguered city, but +are defeated near Eltheke in the immediate neighbourhood; Ekron is +taken, remorselessly chastised, and forced to take Padi back again +as its king. For Hezekiah in the meantime has delivered up his +prisoner, and, terrified by the fall of his fortresses and the +devastation of his territory, has accepted the position of a vassal +once more, paying at the same time a heavy fine, inclusive of +30 talents of gold and 800 of silver. Such is the Assyrian account. +If we treat the 300 talents mentioned in 2Kings xviii. 14 as +Syrian (=800 Babylonian), it completely fills in the vague outlines +given in 2Kings xviii. 14-16, and, while confirming in their place +immediately after ver. 13 these verses, unrelated as they are to +the main connection of the Biblical narrative, corrects them only +in one point, by making it probable that the subjection of +Hezekiah (which is not equivalent to the surrender of his city) +took place while Sennacherib was still before Ekron, and not at +later date when he had gone further south towards Libnah. As +regards his further advance towards Egypt, and the reasons of his +sudden withdrawal (related by Herodotus also from Egyptian tradition), +the great king is silent, having nothing to boast of in it. +The battle of Eltheke, which is to be regarded only as an episode +in the siege of Ekron, being merely the repulse of the Egyptian +relieving army, was not an event of great historical importance, +and ought not to be brought into any connection either with 2Kings +xix. 7 or with xix. 35; Sennacherib's inscription speaks only of +the first and prosperous stage of the expedition, not of the decisive +one which resulted so disastrously for him, as must be clear from +the words themselves to every unprejudiced reader. + + + +8. THE PROPHETIC REFORMATION. + + +Isaiah was so completely a prophet that even his wife was called +the prophetess after him. No such title could have been bestowed +on the wife of either Amos or Hosea. But what distinguished him +more than anything else from those predecessors was that his +position was not, like theirs, apart from the government; he sat +close to the helm, and took a very real part in directing the +course of the vessel. He was more positive and practical than +they; he wished to make his influence felt, and when for the +moment he was unsuccessful in this so far as the great whole of the +state was concerned, he busied himself in gathering round him a +small circle of like-minded persons on whom his hope for the future +rested. Now that Israel had been destroyed, he wished at all +events to save Judah. The lofty ideality of his faith (ii. 1 seq.) +did not hinder him from calling in the aid of practical means +for this end. But the current of his activities was by the +circumstances of the case directed into a channel in which after +his death they continued to flow towards a goal which had hardly +been contemplated by himself. + +The political importance of the people of Jehovah was reduced to a +minimum when Judah only was left. Already at an earlier period +in that kingdom the sacred had come to be of more importance than +the secular; much more was this the case under the suzerainty of +Assyria. The circumstances of the time themselves urged that the +religion of Israel should divest itself of all politico-national +character; but Isaiah also did his best to further this end. It +was his most zealous endeavour to hold king and people aloof from +every patriotic movement; to him the true religious attitude was +one of quietness and sitting still, non-intervention in political +affairs, concentration on the problems of internal government. But +he was compelled to leave over for the coming Messiah (xi. 1 seq.) +that reformation in legal and social matters which seemed to him so +necessary; all that he could bring the secular rulers of his +country to undertake was a reform in worship. This was the most +easily solved of the problems alluded to above, and it was also +that which most closely corresponded to the character of the +kingdom of Judah. Thus it came about that the reform of the +theocracy which had been contemplated by Isaiah led to its +transformation into an ecclesiastical state. No less influential +in effecting a radical change in the old popular religion was +Isaiah's doctrine which identified the true Israel with the +holy remnant which alone should emerge from the crisis unconsumed. +For that remnant was more than a mere object of hope; it actually +stood before him in the persons of that little group of pious +individuals gathered around him. Isaiah founded no "ecclesiola +in ecclesia" indeed, but certainly an "ecclesia in civitate Dei." +Now began that distinction between the true Israel and the Israel +according to the flesh, that bipartite division of the nation +which became so important in later times. As head and founder +of the prophetic party in Judah, Isaiah was, involuntarily, +the man who took the first steps towards the institution of +the church. + +The catastrophe which befell the army of Sennacherib had no very +great effect upon the external affairs of Judah. Sennacherib +indeed, being busy in the east, was unable to retrieve the loss he +had sustained, but his son Esarhaddon, who succeeded him in 681, +resumed the Egyptian war with better success. He made himself +master of the Nile valley, and brought the Ethiopians into +submission. That the petty kingdoms of Palestine returned to the +old relations of dependence is to be taken as a matter of course. +Judah appears to have resumed the yoke voluntarily, but the +Samaritans only after force had been applied; they were +afterwards deported, whereupon the deserted country was occupied +by foreign colonists, who, however, accepted the cultus of the god +of the land. + +That Manasseh ben Hezekiah should have again come under Assyrian +suzerainty appears at that time to have made but little impression; +since the time of Ahaz Judah had been accustomed to this +relation. The Book of Kings speaks only of internal affairs under the +reign of Manasseh. According to it, he was a bad ruler, who +permitted, and even caused, innocent blood to flow like water. +But what was of greater consequence for the future, he took up an +attitude of hostility towards the prophetic party of reform, and +put himself on the side of the reaction which would fain bring back +to the place of honour the old popular half-pagan conception of +Jehovah, as against the pure and holy God whom the prophets +worshipped. The revulsion manifested itself as the reform had +done, chiefly in matters of worship. The old idolatrous +furniture of the sanctuaries was reinstated in its place, and new +frippery was imported from all quarters, especially from Assyria +and Babylon, to renovate the old religion; with Jehovah was now +associated a "queen of heaven." Yet, as usual, the restoration did +more than merely bring back the old order of things. What at an +earlier period had been mere naivete now became superstition, and +could hold its ground only by having imparted to it artificially +a deeper meaning which was itself borrowed from the prophetical +circle of ideas. Again, earnestness superseded the old joyousness +of the cultus; this now had reference principally to sin and its +atonement. Value was attached to services rendered to the Deity, +just in proportion to their hardness and unnaturalness; at this +period it was that the old precept to sacrifice to Jehovah the male +that opens the matrix was extended to children. The counter- +reformation was far from being unaffected by the preceding +reformation, although it understood religious earnestness in +quite another sense, and sought, not to eliminate heathenism from +the cultus, but to animate it with new life. On the other hand, +the reaction was, in the end, found to have left distinct traces of +its influence in the ultimate issue of the reformation. + +We possess one document dating from Manasseh's time in Micah vi. 1- +vii. 6. Here, where the lawlessness and utter disregard of +every moral restraint in Judah are set in a hideous light, the +prophetic point of view, as contrasted with the new refinements in +worship, attains also its simplest and purest expression. Perhaps +to this period the Decalogue also, which is so eloquently +silent in regard to cultus, is to be assigned. Jehovah demands +nothing for Himself, all that He asks is only for men; this is +here the fundamental law of the theocracy. + +Manasseh's life was a long one, and his son Amon walked in his +ways. The latter died after a brief reign, and with his death a +new era for Judah began. It was introduced by the great +catastrophe in which the Assyrian empire came to an end. The +sovereignty of the world was beginning to pass out of the hands of +the Semites into those of the Aryans. Phraortes of Media indeed +was unsuccessful in his attempt against the Assyrians, but Cyaxares +beat them and proceeded to besiege their capital. The Scythian +invasion of Media and Western Asia (c. 630) at this juncture gave +them another respite of more than twenty years; but even it +tended to break in pieces the great, loosely-compacted monarchy. +The provinces became gradually disintegrated, and the kingdom +shrivelled up till it covered no more than the land of Asshur. /1/ + +**************************************** +1. Our knowledge of the events of the second half of the 7th century +has remained singularly imperfect hitherto, notwithstanding the +importance of the changes they wrought on the face of the ancient +world. The account given above is that of Herodotus (i. 103-106), +and there the matter must rest until really authentic sources shall +have been brought to light. With regard to the final +siege of Nineveh, our chief informant is Ctesias as quoted by +Diodorus (ii. 26, 27). Whether the prophecy of Nabum relates to +the LAST siege is doubtful (in spite of ii. 7, and the oracle +given in Diodorus, (OTI THN *NINON )OUDEIS (ELEI KATA KRATOS )EAN +MH PROTERON (O POTAMOS TH| POLEI GENHTAI POLEMOS), inasmuch as Nahum +(i. 9) expressly speaks of the siege alluded to by him as the +first, saying, "the trouble shall not rise up the second time." +****************************************** + +The inroad of the Scythians aroused to energy again the voice of +prophecy which had been dumb during the very sinful but not very +animated period of Manasseh's reign. Zephaniah and Jeremiah +threatened with the mysterious northern foe, just as Amos and Hosea +had formerly done with the Assyrians. The Scythians actually did +invade Palestine in 626 (the 13th year of Josiah), and penetrated +as far as to Egypt; but their course lay along the shore line, +and they left Judah untouched. This danger that had come so near +and yet passed them by, this instance of a prophetic threatening +that had come to pass and yet been mercifully averted, made a +powerful impression upon the people of Judah; public opinion went +through a revolution in favour of the reforming party which was +able to gain for itself the support also of the young king Josiah +ben Amon. The circumstances were favourable for coming forward +with a comprehensive programme for a reconstruction of the +theocracy. In the year 621 (the eighteenth of Josiah) Deuteronomy +was discovered, accepted, and carried into effect. + +The Deuteronomic legislation is designed for the reformation, by +no means of the cultus alone, but at least quite as much of the +civil relations of life. The social interest is placed above the +cultus, inasmuch as everywhere humane ends are assigned for the +rites and offerings. In this it is plainly seen that +Deuteronomy is the progeny of the prophetic spirit. Still more +plainly does this appear in the _motifs_ of the legislation; +according to these, Jehovah is the only God, whose service demands +the whole heart and every energy; He has entered into a covenant +with Israel, but upon fundamental conditions that, as contained +in the Decalogue, are purely moral and of absolute universality. +Nowhere does the fundamental religious thought of prophecy find +clearer expression than in Deuteronomy,--the thought that Jehovah +asks nothing for Himself, but asks it as a religious duty that man +should render to man what is right, that His will lies not in any +unknown height, but in the moral sphere which is known and +understood by all. /1/ + +************************************** +1. The commandments which I command thee are not unattainable for +thee, neither are they far off; not in heaven so that one might +say, Who can climb up into heaven and bring them down, and tell us +them that we might do them! not beyond the sea so that one might +say, Who shall go over the sea, and fetch them, and tell us them +that we might do them!--but the matter lies very near thee, in thy +mouth and in thy heart, so that thou canst do it (Deut. xxx. 11-14). +**************************************** + +But the result of the innovation did not correspond exactly to its +prophetic origin. Prophecy died when its precepts attained to the +force of laws; the prophetic ideas lost their purity when they +became practical. Whatever may have been contemplated, only +provisional regulations actually admitted of being carried, and +even these only in co-operation with the king and the priests, and +with due regard to the capacity of the masses. The final outcome +of the Deuteronomic reformation was principally that the cultus +of Jehovah was limited to Jerusalem and abolished everywhere +else,--such was the popular and practical form of prophetic +monotheism. The importance of the Salomonic temple was thereby +increased in the highest degree, and so also the influence of the +priests of Jerusalem, the sons of Zadok, who now in point of fact +got rid entirely of their rivals, the priests of the country +districts. + + + +9. JEREMIAH AND THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. + + +Josiah lived for thirteen years after the accomplishment of his +great work. It was a happy period of external and internal +prosperity. The nation possessed the covenant, and kept it. It +seemed as if the conditions had been attained on which, according +to the prophets, the continuance of the theocracy depended; if +their threatenings against Israel had been fulfilled, so now was +Judah proving itself the heir of their promises. Already in +Deuteronomy is the "extension of the frontier" taken into +consideration, and Josiah actually put his hand to the task of +seeking the attainment of this end. + +Jehovah and Israel, religion and patriotism, once more went hand in +hand. Jeremiah alone did not suffer himself to be misled by the +general feeling. He was a second Amos, upon a higher platform-- +but, unlike his predecessor, a prophet by profession; his +history, like Isaiah's, is practically the history of his time. +In the work of introducing Deuteronomy he had taken an active part, +and throughout his life he showed his zeal against unlawful altars +and against the adoration of wood and stone (Asheras and pillars). +But he was by no means satisfied with the efforts of the reformation +that had been effected; nothing appeared to him more sinful or +more silly than the false confidence produced by it in Jehovah +and in the inviolability of His one true temple. This confidence +he maintained to be delusive; Judah was not a whit better than +Israel had been, Jerusalem would be destroyed one day like the +temple of Shiloh. The external improvements on which the people +of Judah prided themselves he held to leave this severe judgment +unaffected; what was needed was a quite different sort of change, +a change of heart, not very easy positively to define. + +An opportunity for showing his opposition presented itself to the +prophet at the juncture when King Josiah had fallen at Megiddo in +the battle with Pharaoh Necho (608), and when the people were +seeking safety and protection by cleaving to Jehovah and His holy +temple. At the instance of the priests and the prophets he had +almost expiated with his blood the blasphemies he had uttered +against the popular belief; but he did not suffer himself to be +driven from his course. Even when the times had grown quiet again, +he persisted, at the risk of his life and under universal reproach +and ridicule, in his work as a prophet of evil. Moments of despair +sometimes came to him; but that he had correctly estimated the +true value of the great conversion of the nation was speedily +proved by the facts. Although Deuteronomy was not formally +abolished under Jehoiakim, who as the vassal of Egypt ascended the +throne of his father Josiah, nevertheless it ceased to have +practical weight, the battle of Megiddo having shown that in spite +of the covenant with Jehovah the possibilities of non-success in +war remained the same as before. Jehoiakim tended to return to the +ways of Manasseh, not only as regarded idolatry, but also in his +contempt for law and the private rights of his subjects;--the two +things seem to stand in connection. + +The course of events at last brought upon the theocracy the +visible ruin which Jeremiah had been so long expecting. After the +Egyptians had, with comparative ease, subjugated Syria at the time +when the Medes and Chaldaeans were busied with the siege of +Nineveh, Nebuchadnezzar, that task accomplished, came upon them +from Babylon and routed them on the Euphrates near Carchemish (605-4). +The people of Judah rejoiced at the fall of Nineveh, and also at +the result of Carchemish; but they were soon undeceived when the +prospect began to open on them of simply exchanging the Egyptian +for the Chaldaean yoke. The power of the Chaldaeans had been quite +unsuspected, and now it was found that in them the Assyrians had +suddenly returned to life. Jeremiah was the only man who gained +any credit by these events. His much ridiculed "enemy out of +the north," of whom he had of old been wont to speak so much, now +began to be talked of with respect, although his name was no longer +"the Scythian" but "the Babylonian." It was an epoch,--the close +of an account which balanced in his favour. Therefore it was that +precisely at this moment he received the Divine command to commit +to writing that which for twenty-three years he had been preaching, +and which, ever pronounced impossible, had now showed itself so +close at hand. + +After the victory of Carchemish the Chaldaeans drove Pharaoh out +of Syria, and also compelled the submission of Jehoiakim (c. 602). +For three years he continued to pay his tribute, and then he +withheld it; a mad passion for liberty, kindled by religious +fanaticism, had begun to rage with portentous power amongst the +influential classes, the grandees, the priests, and the prophets. +Nebuchadnezzar satisfied himself in the first instance with raising +against Judah several of the smaller nationalities around, +especially the Edomites; not till 597 did he appear in person +before Jerusalem. The town was compelled to yield; the more +important citizens were carried into exile, amongst them the young +king Jechoniah, son of Jehoiakim, who had died in the interval; +Zedekiah ben Josiah was made king in his stead over the remnant +left behind. The patriotic fanaticism that had led to the revolt +was not broken even by this blow. Within four years afterwards +new plans of liberation began to be again set on foot; but on this +occasion the influence of Jeremiah proved strong enough to avert +the danger. But when a definite prospect of help from Pharaoh +Hophra (Apries) presented itself in 589, the craving for +independence proved quite irrepressible. Revolt was declared; and +in a very short time the Chaldaean army, with Nebuchadnezzar at +its head, lay before Jerusalem. For a while everything seemed to +move prosperously; the Egyptians came to the rescue, and the +Chaleaeans were compelled to raise the siege in order to cope +with them. At this there was great joy in Jerusalem; but Jeremiah +continued to express his gloomy views. The event proved that he +was right; the Egyptians were repulsed and the siege resumed. +The city was bent on obstinate resistance; in vain did Jeremiah, +at continual risk of his life, endeavour to bring it to reason. +The king, who agreed with the prophet, did not venture to assert +his opinion against the dominant terrorism. The town in these +circumstances was at last taken by storm, and along with the temple, +reduced to ruins. Cruel vengeance was taken on the king and grandees, +and the pacification of the country was ensured by another and +larger deportation of the inhabitants to Babylon. Thus terminated +in 586 the kingdom of Judah. + +The prophets had been the spiritual destroyers of the old Israel. +In old times the nation had been the ideal of religion in actual +realisation; the prophets confronted the nation with an ideal to +which it did not correspond. Then to bridge over this interval the +abstract ideal was framed into a law, and to this law the nation +was to be conformed. The attempt had very important consequences, +inasmuch as Jehovah continued to be a living power in the law, +when He was no longer realised as present in the nation; but that +was not what the prophets had meant to effect. What they were +unconsciously labouring towards was that religious individualism +which had its historical source in the national downfall, and +manifested itself not exclusively within the prophetical sphere. +With such men as Amos and Hosea the moral personality based upon +an inner conviction burst through the limits of mere nationality; +their mistake was in supposing that they could make their way of +thinking the basis of a national life. Jeremiah saw through the +mistake; the true Israel was narrowed to himself. Of the truth of +his conviction he never had a moment's doubt; he knew that Jehovah +was on his side, that on Him depended the eternal future. But, +instead of the nation, the heart and the individual conviction were +to him the subject of religion. On the ruins of Jerusalem he gazed +into the future filled with joyful hope, sure of this that Jehovah +would one day pardon past sin and renew the relation which had +been broken off-though on the basis of another covenant than that +laid down in Deuteronomy. "I will put my law upon their heart, +and write it on their mind; none shall say to his neighbour, Know +the Lord, for all shall have that knowledge within them." + + + +10. THE CAPTIVITY AND THE RESTORATION + + +The exiled Jews were not scattered all over Chaldaea, but were +allowed to remain together in families and clans. Many of them, +notwithstanding this circumstance, must have lapsed and become +merged in the surrounding heathenism; but many also continued +faithful to Jehovah and to Israel. They laboured under much +depression and sadness, groaning under the wrath of Jehovah, who +had rejected His people and cancelled His covenant. They were +lying under a sort of vast interdict; they could not celebrate +any sacrifice or keep any feast; they could only observe days of +fasting and humiliation, and such rites as had no inseparable +connection with the holy land. The observance of the Sabbath, +and the practice of the rite of circumcision, acquired much +greater importance than they formerly possessed as signs of a +common religion. The meetings on the Sabbath day out of which +the synagogues were afterwards developed appear to have first +come into use during this period; perhaps also even then it had +become customary to read aloud from the prophetic writings which +set forth that all had happened in the providence of God, and +moreover that the days of adversity were not to last for ever. + +Matters improved somewhat as Cyrus entered upon his victorious +career. Was he the man in whom the Messianic prophecies had found +their fulfilment? The majority were unwilling to think so. For it +was out of Israel (they argued) that the Messiah was to proceed who +should establish the kingdom of God upon the ruins of the kingdoms +of the world; the restitution effected by means of a Persian could +only be regarded as a passing incident in the course of an historical +process that had its goal entirely elsewhere. This doubt was met by +more than one prophetical writer, and especially by the great +anonymous author to whom we are indebted for Isaiah xl.-lxvi. +"Away with sorrow; deliverance is at the door! Is it a humiliating +thing that Israel should owe its freedom to a Persian? Nay, is it +not rather a proof of the world-wide sway of the God of Jacob that He +should thus summon His instruments from the ends of the earth? Who +else than Jehovah could have thus sent Cyrus? Surely not the false +gods which he has destroyed? Jehovah alone it was who foretold and +foreknew the things which are now coming to pass,--because long ago +He had prearranged and predetermined them, and they are now being +executed in accordance with his plan. Rejoice therefore in the +prospect of your near deliverance; prepare yourselves for the new era; +gird yourselves for the return to your homes." +It is to be observed, as characteristic in this prophecy, how the +idea of Jehovah as God alone and God over all--in constantly recurring +lyrical parenthesis he is praised as the author of the world and of +all nature--is yet placed in positive relation to Israel alone, and +that upon the principle that Israel is in exclusive possession of the +universal truth, which cannot perish with Israel, but must through +the instrumentality of Israel, become the common possession of the +whole world. "There is no God but Jehovah, and Israel is his prophet." + +For many years the Persian monarch put the patience of the Jews to +the proof; Jehovah's judgment upon the Chaldaeans, instead of +advancing, seemed to recede. At length, however, their hopes were +realised; in the year 538 Cyrus brought the empire of Babylon to +an end, and gave the exiles leave to seek their fatherland once more. +This permission was not made use of by all, or even by a majority. +The number of those who returned is stated at 42,360; whether women +and children are included in this figure is uncertain. On arriving +at their destination, after the difficult march through the desert, +they did not spread themselves over the whole of Judah, but settled +chiefly in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. The Calebites, for example, +who previously had had their settlements in and around Hebron, now +settled in Bethlehem and in the district of Ephrath. They found +it necessary to concentrate themselves in face of a threatened +admixture of doubtful elements. From all sides people belonging +to the surrounding nations had pressed into the depopulated territory +of Judah. Not only had they annexed the border territories--where, +for example, the Edomites or Idumaeans held the whole of the Negeb +as far as to Hebron; they had effected lodgments everywhere, and-- +as the Ammonites, Ashdodites, and especially the Samaritans--had +amalgamated with the older Jewish population, a residue of which +had remained in the country in spite of all that had happened. +These half-breed "pagani" (Amme haarec 'oxloi) gave a friendly +reception to the returning exiles (Bne haggola); particularly +did the Samaritans show themselves anxious to make common cause +with them. But they were met with no reciprocal cordiality. +The lesson of religious isolation which the children of the +captivity had learned in Babylon, they did not forget on their +return to their home. Here also they lived as in a strange land. +Not the native of Judaea, but the man who could trace his descent +from the exiles in Babylon, was reckoned as belonging to their +community. + +The first decennia after the return of the exiles, during which +they were occupied in adjusting themselves to their new homes, +were passed under a variety of adverse circumstances and by no +means either in joyousness or security. Were these then the +Messianic times which, it had been foretold, were to dawn at the +close of their captivity? They did not at all events answer the +expectations which had been formed. A settlement had been again +obtained, it was true, in the fatherland; but the Persian yoke +pressed now more heavily than ever the Babylonian had done. The +sins of God's people seemed still unforgiven, their period of +bond-service not yet at an end. A slight improvement, as is shown +by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, followed when in the +year 520 the obstacles disappeared which until then had stood in +the way of the rebuilding of the temple; the work then begun was +completed in 516. Inasmuch as the Jews were now nothing more +than a religious community, based upon the traditions of a national +existence that had ceased, the rebuilding of the temple, naturally, +was for them an event of supreme importance. + +The law of the new theocracy was the Book of Deuteronomy; this +was the foundation on which the structure was to be built. But the +force of circumstances, and the spirit of the age, had even before +and during the exile exerted a modifying influence upon that +legislative code; and it continued to do so still. At first a +"son of David" had continued to stand at the head of the Bne +haggola, but this last relic of the old monarchy soon had to give +way to a Persian governor who was under the control of the satrap +of trans-Euphratic Syria, and whose principal business was the +collection of revenue. Thenceforward the sole national chief was +Joshua the high priest, on whom, accordingly, the political +representation also of the community naturally devolved. In the +circumstances as they then were no other arrangement was possible. +The way had been paved for it long before in so far as the +Assyrians had destroyed the kingdom of Israel, while in the kingdom +of Judah which survived it the religious cultus had greater importance +attached to it than political affairs, and also inasmuch as in +point of fact the practical issue of the prophetic reformation +sketched in Deuteronomy had been to make the temple the national +centre still more than formerly. The hierocracy towards which +Ezekiel had already opened the way was simply inevitable. It took +the form of a monarchy of the high priest, he having stepped into +the place formerly occupied by the theocratic king. As his peers +and at his side stood the members of his clan, the Levites of the +old Jerusalem, who traced their descent from Zadok (Sadduk); +the common Levites held a much lower rank, so far as they had +maintained their priestly rank at all and had not been degraded, +in accordance with Ezekiel's law (chapter xliv.), to the position +of mere temple servitors. "Levite," once the title of honour +bestowed on all priests, became more and more confined to members +of the second order of the clergy. + +Meanwhile no improvement was taking place in the condition of the +Jewish colonists. They were poor; they had incurred the +hostility of their neighbours by their exclusiveness; the +Persian Government was suspicious; the incipient decline of the +great kingdom was accompanied with specially unpleasant +consequences so far as Palestine was concerned (Megabyzus). All +this naturally tended to produce in the community a certain +laxity and depression. To what purpose (it was asked) all this +religious strictness, which led to so much that was unpleasant? +Why all this zeal for Jehovah, who refused to be mollified by it? +It is a significant fact that the upper ranks of the priesthood +were least of all concerned to counteract this tendency. Their +priesthood was less to them than the predominance which was based +upon it; they looked upon the neighbouring ethnarchs as their +equals, and maintained relations of friendship with them. The +general community was only following their example when it also +began to mingle with the Amme haarec. + +The danger of Judaism merging into heathenism was imminent. But it +was averted by a new accession from without. In the year 458 Ezra +the scribe, with a great number of his compatriots, set out from +Babylon, for the purpose of reinforcing the Jewish element in +Palestine. The Jews of Babylon were more happily situated than +their Palestinian brethren, and it was comparatively easy for +them to take up a separatist attitude, because they were +surrounded by heathenism not partial but entire. They were no +great losers from the circumstance that they were precluded from +participating directly in the life of the ecclesiastical +community; the Torah had long ago become separated from the +people, and was now an independent abstraction following a career +of its own. Babylonia was the place where a further codification +of the law had been placed alongside of Deuteronomy. Ezekiel had +led the way in reducing to theory and to writing the sacred praxis +of his time; in this he was followed by an entire school; in their +exile the Levites turned scribes. Since then Babylon continued to +be the home of the Torah; and, while in Palestine itself the +practice was becoming laxer, their literary study had gradually +intensified the strictness and distinctive peculiarities of +Judaism. And now there came to Palestine a Babylonian scribe +having the law of his God in his hand, and armed with authority +from the Persian king to proceed upon the basis of this law with a +reformation of the community. + +Ezra did not set about introducing the new law immediately on his +arrival in Judaea In the first instance he concentrated his +attention on the task of effecting a strict separation between the +Bne haggola and the heathen or half-heathen inhabitants. So much +he could accomplish upon the basis of Deuteronomy, but it was long +before he gave publicity to the law which he himself had brought. +Why he hesitated so long it is impossible to say; between the +seventh and the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus (458-445 +B.C.) there is a great hiatus in the narrative of the books of Ezra +and Nehemiah. The main reason appears to have been that, in spite +of the good will of the Persian king, Ezra had not the vigorous +support of the local authorities. But this was indispensably +necessary in order to secure recognition for a new law. + +At last, in 445, it fell to the lot of a Jew, who also shared the +views of Ezra, Nehemiah ben Hakkelejah, /1/ + +****************************************** +1. According to the present punctuation this name is Hakalja +(Hachaljah), but such a pronunciation is inadmissible; it has no +possible etymology, the language having no such word as _hakal_. +The name in its correct form means "wait upon Jehovah." +******************************************* + +the cupbearer and the favourite of Artaxerxes, to be sent as Persian +governor to Judaea. After he had freed the community from external +pressure with vigour and success, and brought it into more tolerable +outward circumstances, the business of introducing the new law-book +was next proceeded with; in this Ezra and Nehemiah plainly acted in +concert. + +On the first of Tisri--the year is unfortunately not given, but it +cannot have been earlier than 444 B.C.--the promulgation of the +law began at a great gathering in Jerusalem; Ezra, supported by +the Levites, was present. Towards the end of the month, the +concluding act took place, in which the community became solemnly +bound by the contents of the law. Special prominence was given to +those provisions with which the people were directly concerned, +particularly those which related to the dues payable by the laity +to the priests. + +The covenant which hitherto had rested on Deuteronomy was thus +expanded into a covenant based upon the entire Pentateuch. +Substantially at least Ezra's law-book, in the form in which it +became the Magna Charta of Judaism in or about the year 444, must +be regarded as practically identical with our Pentateuch, although +many minor amendments and very considerable additions may have +been made at a later date. + +The character of the post-Deuteronomic legislation (Priestly Code) +is chiefly marked, in its external aspects, by the immense +extension of the dues payable to the priests, and by the sharp +distinction made between the descendants of Aaron and the common +Levites; this last feature is to be traced historically to the +circumstance that after the Deuteronomic reformation the legal +equality between the Levites who until then had ministered at the +"high places" and the priests of the temple at Jerusalem was not +_de facto_ recognised. Internally, it is mainly characterised by +its ideal of Levitical holiness, the way in which it everywhere +surrounds life with purificatory and propitiatory ceremonies, and +its prevailing reference of sacrifice to sin. Noteworthy also is +the manner in which everything is regarded from the point of view +of Jerusalem, a feature which comes much more boldly into +prominence here than in Deuteronomy; the nation and the temple are +strictly speaking identified. That externalisation towards which +the prophetical movement, in order to become practical, had +already been tending in Deuteronomy finally achieved its acme +in the legislation of Ezra; a new artificial Israel was the +result; but, after all, the old would have pleased an Amos better. +At the same time it must be remembered that the kernel needed a +shell. It was a necessity that Judaism should incrust itself in +this manner; without those hard and ossified forms the preservation +of its essential elements would have proved impossible. At +a time when all nationalities, and at the same time all bonds of +religion and national customs, were beginning to be broken up in +the seeming cosmos and real chaos of the Graeco-Roman empire, the +Jews stood out like a rock in the midst of the ocean. When the +natural conditions of independent nationality all failed them, +they nevertheless artificially maintained it with an energy +truly marvellous, and thereby preserved for themselves, and at the +same time for the whole world, an eternal good. + +As regards the subsequent history of the Jewish community under +the Persian domination, we have almost no information. The high +priest in Nehemiah's time was Eliashib, son of Joiakim and grandson +of Joshua, the patriarchal head of the sons of Zadok, who had +returned from Babylon; he was succeeded in the direct line by +Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua (Nehemiah xii. 10, 11, 22); the +last-named was in office at the time of Alexander the Great +(Josephus, Antiquities, xi. 8). Palestine was the province which +suffered most severely of all from the storms which marked the last +days of the sinking Persian empire, and it is hardly likely that +the Jews escaped their force; we know definitely, however, of only +one episode, in which the Persian general Bagoses interfered in a +disagreeable controversy about the high-priesthood (cir. 375). + +To this period also (and not, as Josephus states, to the time of +Alexander) belongs the constitution of the Samaritan community on +an independent footing by Manasseh, a Jewish priest of rank. He +was expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah in 432, for refusing to +separate from his alien wife. He took shelter with his father-in-law +Sanballat, the Samaritan prince, who built him a temple on Mount +Gerizim near Shechem, where he organised a Samaritan church and a +Samaritan worship, on the Jerusalem model, and on the basis of a +but slightly modified Jerusalem Pentateuch. If the Samaritans +had hitherto exerted, themselves to the utmost to obtain admission +into the fellowship of the Jews, they henceforward were as averse +to have anything to do with these as these were to have any +dealings with them; the temple on Mount Gerizim was now the symbol +of their independence as a distinct religious sect. For the Jews +this was a great advantage, as they had no longer to dread the +danger of syncretism. They could now quite confidently admit +the Amme haarec into their communion, in the assurance of +assimilating them without any risk of the opposite process taking +place. The Judaizing process began first with the country +districts immediately surrounding Jerusalem, and then extended to +Galilee and many portions of Peraea. In connection with it, the +Hebrew language, which hitherto had been firmly retained by the +Bne haggola, now began to yield to the Aramaic, and to hold its own +only as a sacred speech. + + + ____________ + + +11. JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY. + + +The post-Deuteronomic legislation is not addressed to the people, +but to the congregation; its chief concern is the regulation of +worship. Political matters are not touched upon, as they are in +the hands of a foreigner lord. The hierocracy is taken for granted +as the constitution of the congregation. The head of the cultus is +the head of the whole; the high priest takes the place of the +king. The other priests, though his brothers or his sons, are +officially subordinate to him, as bishops to the supreme pontiff. +They, again, are distinguished from the Levites not only by their +office but also by their noble blood, though the Levites belong by +descent to the clergy, of which they form the lowest grade. The +material basis of the hierarchical pyramid is furnished by the +contributions of the laity, which are required on a scale which +cannot be called modest. Such is the outward aspect of the rule +of the holy in Israel. Inwardly, the ideal of holiness governs +the whole of life by means of a net of ceremonies and observances +which separate the Jew from the natural man. "Holy" means almost +the same as "exclusive." Originally the term was equivalent to +divine, but now it is used chiefly in the sense of religious, +priestly, as if the divine were to be known from the worldly, the +natural, by outward marks. + +It had so fallen out, even before the exile, that the reform of +the theocracy which the prophets demanded began in the cultus; +and after the exile this tendency could not fail to be persisted in. +The restoration of Judaism took place in the form of a +restoration of the cultus. Yet this restoration was not a relapse +into the heathen ways which the prophets had attacked. The old +meaning of the festivals and of the sacrifices had long faded away, +and after the interruption of the exile they would scarcely have +blossomed again of themselves; they had become simply statutes, +unexplained commands of an absolute will. The cultus had no longer +any real value for the Deity; it was valuable only as an +exercise of obedience to the law. If it had been at first the +bond connecting Israel with heathenism, now, on the contrary, it +was the shield behind which Judaism retreated to be safe from +heathenism. There was no other means to make Judaism secure; +and the cultus was nothing more than a means to that end. It was +the shell around the faith and practice of the fathers, around the +religion of moral monotheism, which it alone preserved until it +could become the common property of the world. The great public +worship gave the new theocracy a firm centre, thus keeping it one +and undivided, and helped it to an organisation. But of more +importance was the minor private cultus of pious exercises, which +served to Judaize the whole life of every individual. For the centre +of gravity of Judaism was in the individual. Judaism was gathered +from scattered elements, and it depended on the labour of the +individual to make himself a Jew. This is the secret of the +persistence of Judaism, even in the diaspora. The initiatory act +of circumcision, which conferred an indelible character, was not +the only safeguard; the whole of the education which followed that +act went to guard against the disintegrating effects of individualism. +This is the real significance of the incessant discipline, which +consisted mainly in the observance of laws of purity and generally +of regulations devised to guard against sin. For what holiness +required was not to do good, but to avoid sin. By the sin and +trespass offerings, and by the great day of atonement, this +private cultus was connected with that of the temple; hence it was +that all these institutions fitted so admirably into the system. +The whole of life was directed in a definite sacred path; every +moment there was a divine command to fulfil, and this kept a man +from following too much the thoughts and desires of his own heart. +The Jews trained themselves with an earnestness and zeal which have +no parallel to create, in the absence of all natural conditions, +a holy nation which should answer to the law, the concrete embodiment +of the ideals of the prophets. + +In the individualism thus moulded into uniformity lay the chief +difference which separated the new period from the old. The aim +was universal culture by the law, that the prophecy should be +fulfilled which says: "They shall all be taught of God." This +universal culture was certainly of a peculiar kind, and imposed +more troublesome observances than the culture of our day. Yet the +strange duties which the law imposed were not universally felt +to be a heavy burden. Precepts which were plain and had to do +with something outward were very capable of being kept; the +harder they seemed at first, the easier were they when the habit +had been formed. A man saw that he was doing what was prescribed, +and did not ask what was the use of it. The ever-growing body of +regulations even came to be felt as a sort of emancipation from +self. Never had the individual felt himself so responsible for all +he did and left undone, but the responsibility was oppressive, and +it was well that there should be a definite precept for every hour +of his life, thus diminishing the risk of his going astray. Nor +must we forget that the Torah contained other precepts than those +which were merely ceremonial. The kernel did not quite harden into +wood inside the shell; we must even acknowledge that moral sentiment +gained very perceptibly in this period both in delicacy and in +power. This also is connected with the fact that religion was not, +as before, the custom of the people, but the work of the +individual. A further consequence of this was, that men began to +reflect upon religion. The age in question saw the rise of the +so-called "Wisdom," of which we possess examples in the Book of +Job, in the Proverbs of Solomon and of the Son of Sirach, and in +Ecclesiastes. This wisdom flourished not only in Judah, but also +at the same time in Edom; it had the universalistic tendency +which is natural to reflection. The Proverbs of Solomon would +scarcely claim attention had they arisen on Greek or Arabian +soil; they are remarkable in their pale generality only because +they are of Jewish origin. In the Book of Job, a problem of faith +is treated by Syrians and Arabians just as if they were Jews. In +Ecclesiastes religion abandons the theocratic ground altogether, +and becomes a kind of philosophy in which there is room even for +doubt and unbelief. Speculation did not on the whole take away +from depth of feeling; on the contrary, individualism helped to +make religion more intense. This is seen strikingly in the Psalms, +which are altogether the fruit of this period. Even the sacrificial +practice of the priests was made subjective, being incorporated in +the Torah, i.e., made a matter for every one to learn. Though the +laity could not take part in the ceremony, they were at least to +be thoroughly informed in all the minutiae of the system; the law +was a means of interesting every one in the great public +sacrificial procedure. Another circumstance also tended to remove +the centre of gravity of the temple service from the priests to +the congregation. The service of song, though executed by choirs +of singers, was yet in idea the song of the congregation, and came +to be of more importance than the acts of worship which it +accompanied and inspired. The Holy One of Israel sat enthroned, +not on the smoke-pillars of the altar, but in the praises of the +congregation pouring out its heart in prayer; the sacrifices were +merely the external occasion for visiting the temple, the real +reason for doing so lay in the need for the strength and +refreshment to be found in religious fellowship. + +By the Torah religion came to be a thing to be learned. Hence the +need of teachers in the church of the second temple. As the +scribes had codified the Torah, it was also their task to imprint +it on the minds of the people and to fill their life with it; in +this way they at the same time founded a supplementary and +changing tradition, which kept pace with the needs of the time. +The place of teaching was the synagogue; there the law and the +prophets were read and explained on the Sabbath. The synagogue and +the Sabbath were of more importance than the temple and the +festivals; and the moral influence of the scribes transcended that +of the priests, who had to be content with outward power and +dignity. The rule of religion was essentially the rule of the +law, and consequently the Rabbis at last served themselves heirs +to the hierarchs. At the same time, while the government of the +law was acknowledged in principle, it could at no time be said to +be even approximately realised in fact. The high-born priests who +stood at the head of the theocracy, cared chiefly, as was quite +natural, for the maintenance of their own supremacy. And there +were sheep in the flock not to be kept from breaking out, both in +the upper and in the lower classes of society; the school could not +suppress nature altogether. It was no trifle even to know the six +hundred and thirteen commandments of the written law, and the +incalculable number of the unwritten. Religion had to be made a +profession of, if it was to be practiced aright. It became an art, +and thereby at the same time a matter of party:, the leaders of the +religious were of course the scribes. The division became very apparent +in the time of the Hellenization which preceded the Maccabaean revolt; +at that period the name of Pharisees, i.e., the Separated, came +into vogue for the party of the religious. But the separation and +antipathy between the godly and the ungodly had existed before +this, and had marked the life of the congregation after the exile +from the very first. + +It was the law that gave the Jewish religion its peculiar +character. But, on the other hand, a hope was not wanting to that +religion; the Jews cherished the prospect of a reward for the +fulfilling of the law. This hope attached itself to the old +prophecies, certainly in a very fantastic way. The Jews had no +historical life, and therefore painted the old time according to +their ideas, and framed the time to come according to their wishes. +They stood in no living relation with either the past or the +future; the present was not with them a bridge from the +one to the other; they did not think of bestirring themselves +with a view to the kingdom of God. They had no national and +historical existence, and made no preparations to procure such a +thing for themselves; they only hoped for it as a reward of +faithful keeping of the law. Yet they dreamed not only of a +restoration of the old kingdom, but of the erection of a universal +world-monarchy, which should raise its head at Jerusalem over the +ruins of the heathen empires. They regarded the history of the +world as a great suit between themselves and the heathen. In this +suit they were in the right; and they waited for right to be +done them. If the decision was delayed, their sins were the +reason; Satan was accusing them before the throne of God, and +causing the judgment to be postponed. They were subjected to hard +trials, and if tribulation revived their hopes, with much greater +certainty did it bring their sins into sorrowful remembrance. +Outward circumstances still influenced in the strongest way +their religious mood. + +But the old belief in retribution which sought to justify itself +in connection with the fortunes of the congregation proved here +also unequal to the strain laid upon it. Even in Deuteronomy it +is maintained that the race is not to suffer for the act of an +individual. Jeremiah's contemporaries thought it monstrous that +because the fathers had eaten sour grapes the teeth of the children +should be set on edge. Ezekiel championed in a notable way the +cause of individualism on this ground. He denounced the Jews who +had remained in Palestine, and who regarded themselves as the +successors of the people of Jehovah because they dwelt in the Holy +Land and had maintained some sort of existence as a people. In his +view only those souls which were saved from the dispersion of the +exile were to count as heirs of the promise; the theocracy was +not to be perpetuated by the nation, but by the individual +righteous men. He maintained that each man lived because of his +own righteousness, and died because of his own wickedness; nay +more, the fate of the individual corresponded even in its +fluctuations to his moral worth at successive times. The aim he +pursued in this was a good one; in view of a despair which thought +there was nothing for it but to pine and rot away because of +former sins, he was anxious to maintain the freedom of the will, +ie., the possibility of repentance and forgiveness. But the way +he chose for this end was not a good one; on his showing it was +chance which ultimately decided who was good and who was wicked. +The old view of retribution which allowed time for judgment to +operate far beyond the limit of the individual life had truth in it, +but this view had none. Yet it possessed one merit, that it brought +up a problem which had to be faced, and which was a subject of +reflection for a long time afterwards. + +The problem assumed the form of a controversy as to the principle +on which piety was rewarded--this controversy taking the place of +the great contest between Israel and the heathen. Were the wicked +right in saying that there was no God, i.e., that He did not rule +and judge on earth? Did He in truth dwell behind the clouds, and +did He not care about the doings of men? In that case piety +would be an illusion. Piety cannot maintain itself if God makes +no difference between the godly and the wicked, and has nothing +more to say to the one than to the other; for piety is not +content to stretch out its hands to the empty air, it must meet an +arm descending from heaven. It must have a reward, not for the +sake of the reward, but in order to be sure of its own reality, in +order to know that there is a communion of God with men and a road +which leads to it. The usual form of this reward is the +forgiveness of sins; that is the true motive of the fear of God. +That is to say, as long as it is well with him, the godly man does +not doubt, and so does not require any unmistakable evidence by +which he may be justified and assured of the favour of God. But +misfortune and pain destroy this certainty. They are accusers +of sin, God's warnings and corrections. Now is the time to hold +fast the faith that God leads the godly to repentance, and +destroys the wicked, that He forgives the sin of the former, but +punishes and avenges that of the latter. But this faith involves a +hope of living to see better things; the justification of which +the good man is sure must at last be attested by an objective +judgment of God before the whole world, and the godly delivered +from his sufferings. Hence the constant anxiety and restlessness +of his conscience; the judgment passed upon him is ultimately +to be gathered from the external world, and he can never be sure +how it is to turn out. And a principle is also at stake the whole +time, namely, the question whether godliness or ungodliness is +right in its fundamental conviction. Each individual case at once +affects the generality, the sufferings of one godly person touch +all the godly. When he recovers and is saved, they triumph; when +he succumbs, or seems to succumb, to death, they are cast down, +unless in this case they should change their minds about him and hold +him to be a hypocrite whom God has judged and unmasked. In the same +way, they are all hurt at the prosperity of an ungodly man, and +rejoice together at his fall, not from jealousy or pleasure in +misfortune for its own sake, but because in the one case their +faith is overturned, while in the other it is confirmed. + +The tortures incident to this curious oscillation between believing +and seeing are set forth in the most trenchant way in the Book of +Job. Job, placed in an agonizing situation, condemned without hope +to the death of sinners, and yet conscious of his godliness, +demands vengeance for his blood unjustly shed. But the +vengeance is to be executed on God, and in such a case who can be +the avenger? There is no one but God Himself, and thus the +striking thought arises, that God will be the champion against God +of his innocence, after having first murdered it. From the God of +the present he appeals to the God of the future; but the identity +between these two is yet maintained, and even now the God who slays +him is the sole witness of his innocence, in which the world and +his friends have ceased to believe. God must be this now if He is to +avenge him in the future. An inner antinomy is in this way +impersonated; the view of the friends is one of which the sufferer +himself cannot divest himself; hence the conflict in his soul. +But, supported by the unconquerable power of his good conscience, +he struggles till he frees himself from the delusion; he believes +more firmly in the direct testimony of his conscience than in the +evidence of facts and the world's judgment about him, and against +the dreadful God of reality, the righteous God of faith +victoriously asserts Himself. + +Job in the end reaches the conclusion that he cannot understand +God's ways. This is a negative expression of the position that he +holds fast, in spite of all, to himself and to God; that is to +say, that not outward experience, but inner feeling, is to +decide. This inner feeling of the union of God with the godly +meets us also in some of the Psalms, where, in spite of depression +arising from untoward circumstances, it maintains itself as a +reality which cannot be shaken, which temptations and doubts even +tend to strengthen. It was a momentous step when the soul in its +relations to God ventured to take its stand upon itself, to trust +itself. This was an indirect product of prophecy, but one of not +less importance than its direct product, the law. The prophets +declared the revelation of God, which had authority for all, but +along with this they had their own personal experience, and the +subjective truth of which they thus became aware proved a more +powerful solvent and emancipator than the objective one which formed +the subject of their revelation. They preached the law to deaf ears, +and laboured in vain to convert the people. But if their labour had +produced no outward result, it had an inner result for them. +Rejected by the people, they clung the more closely to Jehovah, +in the conviction that the defeated cause was favoured by Him, +that He was with them and not with the people. Especially with +Jeremiah did prophecy, which is designed primarily to act on +others, transform itself into an inner converse with the Deity, +which lifted him above all the annoyances of his life. In this +relation, however, there was nothing distinctively prophetical, +just because it was a matter of the inner life alone, and was +sufficient for itself; it was just the essence of the life of +religion that the prophets thus brought to view and helped to +declare itself. The experience of Jeremiah propagated itself and +became the experience of religious Israel. This was the power by +which Israel was enabled to rise again after every fall; the good +conscience towards God, the profound sentiment of union with Him, +proved able to defy all the blows of outward fortune. In this +strength the servant, despised and slain, triumphed over the world; +the broken and contrite heart was clothed and set on high with the +life and power of the Almighty God. This divine spirit of +assurance rises to its boldest expression in the 73rd Psalm: +"Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; +Thou holdest me by my right hand; +Thou guidest me with Thy counsel, +and drawest me after Thee by the hand. +If I have Thee, I desire not heaven nor earth; +if my flesh and my heart fail, +Thou, God, art for ever the strength of my heart, and my portion." + +The life surrendered is here found again in a higher life, without +any expression of hope of a hereafter. In the Book of Job we do +indeed find a trace of this hope, in the form that even after the +death of the martyr, God may still find opportunity to justify +him and pronounce him innocent; yet this idea is only touched on +as a distant possibility, and is at once dropped. Certainly the +position of that man is a grand one who can cast into the scale +against death and devil his inner certainty of union with God-- +so grand indeed that we must in honesty be ashamed to repeat those +words of the 73d Psalm. But the point of view is too high. +The danger was imminent of falling from it down into the dust +and seeking comfort and support in the first earthly experience +that might offer, or, on the other hand, sinking into despair. +Subjective feeling was not enough of itself to outbid the +contradictions of nature; the feeling must take an objective form, +a world other than this one, answering the demands of morality, +must build itself up to form a contrast to the world actually +existing. The merit of laying the foundations for this +religious metaphysic which the time called for belongs, if not to +the Pharisees themselves, at least to the circles from which they +immediately proceeded. The main features of that metaphysic first +appear in the Book of Daniel, where we find a doctrine of the last +things. We have already spoken of the transition from the old +prophecy to apocalypse. With the destruction of the nation and +the cessation of historical life, hope was released from all +obligation to conform to historical conditions; it no longer set +up an aim to which even the present might aspire, but ran riot +after an ideal, at the advent of which the historical development +would be suddenly broken off. To be pious was all the Jews could +do at the time; but it caused them bitter regret that they had no +part in the government of the world, and in thought they anticipated +the fulfilment of their wishes. These they raised to an ever-higher +pitch in proportion as their antagonism to the heathen became more +pronounced, and as the world became more hostile to them and they +to the world. As the heathen empires stood in the way of the +universal dominion of Israel, the whole of them together were +regarded as one power, and this world-empire was then set over +against the kingdom of God, i.e., of Israel. The kingdom of God +was entirely future; the fulfilling of the law did not prepare the +way for it, but was only a statutory condition for its coming, +not related to it inwardly as cause to effect. History was suddenly +to come to a stop and cease. The Jews counted the days to the +judgment; the judgment was the act by which God would at once realise +all their wishes. The view thus taken of the world's history was a +very comprehensive one and well worked out from its principle, yet +of an entirely negative character; the further the world's history +went wilfully away from its goal, the nearer did it unintentionally +approach its goal. In this view, moreover, the earth always continued +to be the place of hope; the kingdom of God was brought by the judgment +into earthly history; it was on earth that the ideal was to be +realised. A step further, and the struggle of the dualism of the +earth was preluded in the skies by the angels, as the representatives +of the different powers and nations. In this struggle a place was +assigned to Satan; at first he was merely the accuser whom God Himself +had appointed, and in this character he drew attention to the sins +of the Jews before God's judgment-seat, and thereby delayed the judicial +sentence in their favour; but ultimately (though this took place late, +and is not met with in the Book of Daniel) he came to be the independent +leader of the power opposed to God, God's cause being identified +with that of the Jews. But as this prelude of the struggle took +place in heaven, its result was also anticipated. The kingdom of +God is on earth a thing of the future, but even now it is preserved +in heaven with all its treasures, one day to descend from there to +the earth. Heaven is the place where the good things of the future +are kept, which are not and yet must be; that is its original and +true signification. But the most important question came at last +to be, how individuals were to have part in the glory of the +future? How was it with the martyrs who had died in the +expectation of the kingdom of God, before it came? The doctrine of +the _zakuth_ was formed: if their merit was not of service to +themselves, it was yet of service to others. But this was a +solution with which individualism could not rest content. And what +of the ungodly? Were they to escape from wrath because they +died before the day of judgment? It was necessary that the +departed also should be allowed to take some part in the coming +retribution. Thus there arose--it is remarkable how late and how +slowly--the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, that the +kingdom of God might not be of service only to those who happened +to be alive at the judgment. Yet at first this doctrine was only +used to explain particularly striking cases. The Book of Daniel +says nothing of a general resurrection, but speaks in fact only of +a resurrection of the martyrs and a punishment of the wicked after +death. With all this the resurrection is not the entrance to a +life above the earth but to a second earthly life, to a world in +which it is no longer the heathen but the Jews who bear rule and +take the lead. Of a general judgment at the last day, or of heaven +and hell in the Christian sense, the Jews know nothing, though +these ideas might so easily have suggested themselves to them. + +It is not easy to find points of view from which to pronounce on +the character of Judaism. It is a system, but a practical system, +which can scarcely be set forth in relation to one leading +thought, as it is an irregular product of history. It lives on the +stores of the past, but is not simply the total of what had been +previously acquired; it is full of new impulses, and has an +entirely different physiognomy from that of Hebrew antiquity, +so much so that it is hard even to catch a likeness. Judaism is +everywhere historically comprehensible, and yet it is a mass of +antinomies. We are struck with the free flight of thought and the +deep inwardness of feeling which are found in some passages in the +Wisdom and in the Psalms; but, on the other hand, we meet with a +pedantic asceticism which is far from lovely, and with pious +wishes the greediness of which is ill-concealed; and these +unedifying features are the dominant ones of the system. +Monotheism is worked out to its furthest consequences, and at the +same time is enlisted in the service of the narrowest selfishness; +Israel participates in the sovereignty of the One God. The +Creator of heaven and earth becomes the manager of a petty scheme +of salvation; the living God descends from His throne to make way +for the law. The law thrusts itself in everywhere; it commands +and blocks up the access to heaven; it regulates and sets limits +to the understanding of the divine working on earth. As far as it +can, it takes the soul out of religion and spoils morality. It +demands a service of God, which, though revealed, may yet with truth +be called a self-chosen and unnatural one, the sense and use of which +are apparent neither to the understanding nor the heart. The labour +is done for the sake of the exercise; it does no one any good, and +rejoices neither God nor man. It has no inner aim after which it +spontaneously strives and which it hopes to attain by itself, but +only an outward one, namely, the reward attached to it, which +might as well be attached to other and possibly even more curious +conditions. The ideal is a negative one, to keep one's self from +sin, not a positive one, to do good upon the earth; the morality +is one which scarcely requires for its exercise the existence of +fellow-creatures. Now pious exercises can dam up life and hold it +in bounds, they may conquer from it more and more ground, and at +last turn it into one great Sabbath, but they cannot penetrate it +at the root. The occupation of the hands and the desire of the +heart fall asunder. What the hands are doing has nothing in common +with the earth, and bears no reference to earthly objects; but +with the Jews the result of this is that their hope assumes a more +worldly complexion. There is no connection between the Good One +and goodness. There are exceptions, but they disappear in the +system. + +The Gospel develops hidden impulses of the Old Testament, but it is +a protest against the ruling tendency of Judaism. Jesus understands +monotheism in a different way from his contemporaries. They think +in connection with it of the folly of the heathen and their great +happiness in calling the true God their own; He thinks of the claims, +not to be disputed or avoided, which the Creator makes on the creature. +He feels the reality of God dominating the whole of life, He breathes +in the fear of the Judge who requires an account for every idle word, +and has power to destroy body and soul in hell. "No man can serve two +masters; ye cannot serve God and Mammon; where your treasure is, there +will your heart be also." This monotheism is not to be satisfied with +stipulated services, how many and great soever; it demands the whole +man, it renders doubleness of heart and hypocrisy impossible. Jesus +casts ridicule on the works of the law, the washing of hands and +vessels, the tithing of mint and cummin, the abstinence even from +doing good on the Sabbath. Against unfruitful self-sanctification +He sets up another principle of morality, that of the service of one's +neighbour. He rejects that lofty kind of goodness, which says to father +and mother, If I dedicate what I might give to you, that will be best +even for you yourselves; He contends for the weightier matters in the +law, for the common morality which sees its aim in the furtherance of +the well-being of others, and which commends itself at once to the +heart of every one. Just this natural morality of self-surrender +does He call the law of God; that supernatural morality which thinks +to outbid this, He calls the commandment of men. Thus religion +ceases to be an art which the Rabbis and Pharisees understand better +than the unlearned people which know nothing of the law. The +arrogance of the school fares ill at the hands of Jesus; He will +know nothing of the partisanship of piety or of the separateness +of the godly; He condemns the practice of judging a man's value +before God. Holiness shrinks from contact with sinners, but He +helps the world of misery and sin; and there is no commandment +on which He insists more than that of forgiving others their debts +as one hopes for forgiveness himself from heaven. He is most +distinctly opposed to Judaism in His view of the kingdom of heaven, +not as merely the future reward of the worker, but as the present +goal of effort, it being the supreme duty of man to help it to +realise itself on earth, from the individual outwards. Love is +the means, and the community of love the end. + +Self-denial is the chief demand of the Gospel; it means the same +thing as that repentance which must precede entrance into the +kingdom of God. The will thereby breaks away from the chain of +its own acts, and makes an absolutely new beginning not conditioned +by the past. The causal nexus which admits of being traced comes +here to an end, and the mutual action, which cannot be analysed, +between God and the soul begins. Miracle does not require to be +understood, only to be believed, in order to take place. With men +it is impossible, but with God it is possible. Jesus not only +affirmed this, but proved it in His own person. The impression of +His personality convinced the disciples of the fact of the +forgiveness of their sins and of their second birth, and gave them +courage to believe in a new divine life and to live it. He had in +fact lost His life and saved it; He could do as he would. He had +escaped the limits of the race and the pains of self-seeking +nature; He had found freedom and personality in God, who alone is +master of Himself, and lifts those up to Himself who seek after +Him. + +Jesus works in the world and for the world, but with His faith He +stands above the world and outside it. He can sacrifice Himself +for the world because He asks nothing from the world, but has +attained in retirement with God to equanimity and peace of soul. +And further, the entirely supra-mundane position, at which Jesus +finds courage and love to take an interest in the world, does not +lead Him to anything strained or unnatural. He trusts God's +Providence, and resigns Himself to His will, He takes up the +attitude of a child towards Him, and loves best to call Him the +Heavenly Father. The expression is simple, but the thing +signified is new. He first knows Himself, not in emotion but in +sober quietness, to be God's child; before Him no one ever felt +himself to be so, or called himself so. He is the first-born of +the Father, yet, according to His own view, a first-born among +many brethren. For He stands in this relation to God not because +His nature is unique, but because He is man; He uses always and +emphatically this general name of the race to designate His own +person. In finding the way to God for Himself He has opened it to +all; along with the nature of God He has at the same time +discovered in Himself the nature of man. + +Eternity extends into the present with Him, even on earth He lives +in the midst of the kingdom of God; even the judgment He sees +inwardly accomplished here below in the soul of man. Yet He is +far from holding the opinion that he who loves God aright does not +desire that God should love him in return. He teaches men to bear +the cross, but he does not teach that the cross is sweet and that +sickness is sound. A coming reconciliation between believing and +seeing, between morality and nature, everywhere forms the +background of His view of the world; even if He could have done +without it for His own person, yet it is a thing He takes for +granted, as it is an objective demand of righteousness. So much is +certain; for the rest the eschatology of the New Testament is so +thoroughly saturated with the Jewish ideas of the disciples, that +it is difficult to know what of it is genuine. + +Jesus was so full of new and positive ideas that He did not feel +any need for breaking old idols, so free that no constraint could +depress Him, so unconquerable that even under the load of the +greatest accumulations of rubbish He could still breathe. This +ought ye to do, He said, and not to leave the other undone; He did +not seek to take away one iota, but only to fulfil. He never +thought of leaving the Jewish community. The Church is not His +work, but an inheritance from Judaism to Christianity. Under the +Persian domination the Jews built up an unpolitical community on +the basis of religion. The Christians found themselves in a +position with regard to the Roman Empire precisely similar to that +which the Jews had occupied with regard to the Persian; and so +they also founded, after the Jewish pattern, in the midst of the +state which was foreign and hostile to them, and in which they +could not feel themselves at home, a religious community as +their true fatherland. The state is always the presupposition of +the Church; but it was at first, in the case both of the Jewish +and of the Christian Church, a foreign state. The original meaning +of the Church thus disappeared when it no longer stood over against +the heathen world-power, it having become possible for the +Christians also to possess a natural fatherland in the nation. +In this way it became much more difficult to define accurately the +spheres of the state and the Church respectively, regarding the +Church as an organisation, not as an invisible community of the +faithful. The distinction of religious and secular is a variable +one; every formation of a religious community is a step towards +the secularisation of religion; the religion of the heart alone +remains an inward thing. The tasks of the two competing +organisations are not radically different in their nature; on the +one side it may be said that had not the Christian religion found +civil order already in existence, had it come, like Islam, in +contact with the anarchy of Arabia instead of the Empire of Rome +it must have founded not the Church, but the state; on the other +side it is well known that the state has everywhere entered into +possession of fields first reclaimed to cultivation by the Church. +Now we must acknowledge that the nation is more certainly created +by God than the Church, and that God works more powerfully in the +history of the nations than in Church history. The Church, at +first a substitute for the nation which was wanting, is affected by +the same evils incident to an artificial cultivation as meet us in +Judaism. We cannot create for ourselves our sphere of life and +action; better that it should be a natural one, given by God. +And yet it would be unjust to deny the permanent advantages of +the differentiation of the two. The Church will always be able +to work in advance for the state of the future. The present state +unfortunately is in many respects only nothing more than a barrier +to chaos; if the Church has still a task, it is that of preparing +an inner unity of practical conviction, and awakening a sentiment, +first in small circles, that we belong to each other. + +Whether she is to succeed in this task is certainly the question. +The religious individualism of the Gospel is, and must remain for +all time, the true salt of the earth. The certainty that neither +death nor life can separate us from the love of God drives out that +fear which is opposed to love; an entirely supra-mundane faith +lends courage for resultless self-sacrifice and resigned obedience +on earth. We must succeed: _sursum corda_! + + + +12. THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD. + + +Palestine fell into Alexander's possession in 332; after his death +it had an ample share of the troubles arising out of the partition +of his inheritance. In 320 it was seized by Ptolemy I., who on a +Sabbath-day took Jerusalem; but in 3I5 he had to give way before +Antigonus. Even before the battle of Ipsus, however, he recovered +possession once more, and for a century thereafter Southern Syria +continued to belong to the Egyptian crown, although the Seleucidae +more than once sought to wrench it away. + +In the priestly dynasty during the period of the Ptolemies, Onias +I. ben Jaddua was succeeded by his son Simon I., after whom +again came first his brothers Eleazar and Manasseh, and next his +son Onias II.; the last-named was in his turn followed by his son +Simon II., whose praises are sung by the son of Sirach (xlix. 14-16). +At the side of the high priest stood the gerusia of the town of +Jerusalem, as a council of state, including the higher ranks of the +priesthood. The new sovereign power was at once stronger and +juster than the Persian,--at least under the earlier Ptolemies; +the power of the national government increased; to it was +intrusted the business of raising the tribute. + +As a consequence of the revolutionary changes which had taken +place in the conditions of the whole East, the Jewish dispersion +(diaspora) began vigorously to spread. It dated its beginning +indeed from an earlier period,--from the time when the Jews had lost +their land and kingdom, but yet, thanks to their religion, could +not part with their nationality. They did not by any means all +return from Babylon; perhaps the majority permanently settled +abroad. The successors of Alexander (diadochi) fully appreciated +this international element, and used it as a link between their +barbarian and Hellenic populations. Everywhere they encouraged +the settlement of Jews,--in Asia Minor, in Syria, and especially +in Egypt. Alongside of the Palestinian there arose a Hellenistic +Judaism which had its metropolis in Alexandria. Here, under +Ptolemy I. and II., the Torah had already been translated into +Greek, and around this sprung up a Jewish-Greek literature which +soon became very extensive. At the court and in the army of the +Ptolemies many Jews rose to prominent positions; everywhere they +received the preference over, and everywhere they in consequence +earned the hatred of, the indigenous population. + +After the death of Ptolemy IV. (205) Antiochus III. attained the +object towards which he and his predecessors had long been vainly +striving; after a war protracted with varying success through +several years, he succeeded at last in incorporating Palestine with +the kingdom of the Seleucidae. The Jews took his side, less perhaps +because they had become disgusted with the really sadly +degenerate Egyptian rule, than because they had foreseen the issue +of the contest, and preferred to attach themselves voluntarily to +the winning side. In grateful acknowledgment, Antiochus +confirmed and enlarged certain privileges of the "holy camp," +i.e., of Jerusalem (Josephus, Antiquities, xii. 3, 3). It soon, +however, became manifest that the Jews had made but a poor bargain +in this exchange. Three years after his defeat at Magnesia, +Antiochus III. died (187), leaving to his son Seleucus IV. an immense +burden of debt, which he had incurred by his unprosperous Roman +war. Seleucus, in his straits, could not afford to be over-scrupulous +in appropriating money where it was to be found: he did not need to +be twice told that the wealth of the temple at Jerusalem was out of +all proportion to the expenses of the sacrificial service. The +sacred treasure accordingly made the narrowest possible escape +from being plundered; Heliodorus, who had been charged by the +king to seize it, was deterred at the last moment by a heavenly +vision. But the Jews derived no permanent advantage from this. + +It was a priest of rank, Simon by name, who had called the +attention of the king to the temple treasure; his motive had been +spite against the high priest Onias III., the son and successor of +Simon II. The circumstance is one indication of a melancholy +process of disintegration that was at that time going on within the +hierocracy. The high-priesthood, although there were exceptional +cases, such as that of Simon II., was regarded less as a sacred +office than as a profitable princedom; within the ranks of the +priestly nobility arose envious and jealous factions; personal +advancement was sought by means of the favour of the overlord, who +had something to say in the making of appointments. A collateral +branch of the ruling family, that of the children of Tobias, had by +means of the ill-gotten wealth of Joseph ben Tobias attained to a +position of ascendancy, and competed in point of power with the +high priest himself. It appears that the above-mentioned Simon, +and his still more scandalous brother AIenelaus, also belonged to +the Tobiadae, and, relying upon the support of their powerful party +(Josephus, Antiquities, xii. 5, 1), cherished the purpose of securing +the high-priesthood by the aid of the Syrian king. + +The failure of the mission of Heliodorus was attributed by Simon +to a piece of trickery on the part of Onias the high priest, who +accordingly found himself called upon to make his own +justification at court and to expose the intrigues of his +adversary. Meanwhile Seleucus IV. died of poison (175), and +Antiochus IV. Epiphanes did not confirm Onias in his dignity, +but detained him in Antioch, while he made over the office to his +brother Jason, who had offered a higher rent. Possibly the +Tobiadae also had something to do with this arrangement; at all +events, Menelaus was at the outset the right hand of the new high +priest. To secure still further the favour of the king, Jason held +himself out to be an enlightened friend of the Greeks, and begged +for leave to found in Jerusalem a gymnasium and an ephebeum, and to +be allowed to sell to the inhabitants there the rights of citizenship +in Antioch,--a request which was readily granted. + +The malady which had long been incubating now reached its acute +phase. Just in proportion as Hellenism showed itself friendly did +it present elements of danger to Judaism. From the periphery it +slowly advanced towards the centre, from the diaspora to +Jerusalem, from mere matters of external fashion to matters of the +most profound conviction. /1/ Especially did the upper and cultivated + +************************************* +1. The Hellenising fashion is amusingly exemplified in the Grecising +of the Jewish names; e.g., Alcimus = Eljakim, Jason = Jesus, Joshua; +Menelaus = Menahem. +**************************************** + +classes of society begin to feel ashamed, in presence of the +refined Greeks, of their Jewish singularity, and to do all in +their power to tone it down and conceal it. In this the priestly +nobility made itself conspicuous as the most secular section of +the community, and it was the high priest who took the initiative +in measures which aimed at a complete Hellenising of the Jews. He +outdid every one else in paganism. Once he sent a considerable +present for offerings to the Syrian Hercules on the occasion of his +festival; but his messenger, ashamed to apply the money to such +a purpose, set it apart for the construction of royal ships of war. + +The friendship shown by Jason for the Greek king and for all that +was Hellenic did not prevent Antiochus IV. from setting pecuniary +considerations before all others. Menelaus, intrusted with the +mission of conveying to Antioch the annual Jewish tribute, availed +himself of the opportunity to promote his own personal interests +by offering a higher sum for the high-priesthood, and having +otherwise ingratiated himself with the king, gained his object +(171). But though nominated, he did not find it quite easy to +obtain possession of the post. The Tobiadae took his side, but the +body of the people stuck to Jason, who was compelled to give way +only when Syrian troops had been brought upon the scene. Menelaus +had immediately, however, to encounter another difficulty, for he +could not at once pay the amount of tribute which he had promised. +He helped himself so far indeed by robbing the temple, but this +landed him in new embarrassments. Onias III., who was living out +of employment at Antioch, threatened to make compromising revelations +to the king; he was, however, opportunely assassinated. +The rage of the people against the priestly temple-plunderer now +broke out in a rising against a certain Lysimachus, who at the +instance of the absent Menelaus had made further inroads upon the +sacred treasury. The Jews' defence before the king (at Tyre) on +account of this uproar resolved itself into a grievous complaint +against the conduct of Menelaus. His case was a bad one, but money +again helped him out of his straits, and the extreme penalty of the +law fell upon his accusers. + +The feelings of the Jews with reference to this wolfish shepherd +may easily be imagined. Nothing but fear of Antiochus held them +in check. Then a report gained currency that the king had +perished in an expedition against Egypt (170); and Jason, who +meanwhile had found refuge in Ammanitis, availed himself of the +prevailing current of feeling to resume his authority with the +help of one thousand men. He was not able, however, to hold the +position long, partly because he showed an unwise vindictiveness +against his enemies, partly (and chiefly) because the rumour of +the death of Antiochus turned out to be false. The king was +already, in fact, close at hand on his return from Egypt, full of +anger at an insurrection which he regarded as having been directed +against himself. He inflicted severe and bloody chastisement +upon Jerusalem, carried off the treasures of the temple, and +restored Menelaus, placing Syrian officials at his side. Jason +fled from place to place, and ultimately died in misery at +Lacedaemon. + +The deepest despondency prevailed in Judaea; but its cup of +sorrow was not yet full. Antiochus, probably soon after his last +Egyptian expedition (168), sent Apollonius with an army against +Jerusalem. He fell upon the unsuspecting city, disarmed the +inhabitants and demolished the walls, but on the other hand +fortified Acra, and garrisoned it strongly, so as to make it a +standing menace to the whole country. Having thus made his +preparations, he proceeded to carry out his main instructions. +All that was religiously distinctive of Judaism was to be removed; +such was the will of the king. The Mosaic cultus was abolished, +Sabbath observance and the rite of circumcision prohibited, all +copies of the Torah confiscated and burnt. In the desecrated and +partially-destroyed temple pagan ceremonies were performed, and +upon the great altar of burnt-offering a small altar to Jupiter +Capitolinus was erected, on which the first offering was made on +25th Kislev 168. In the country towns also heathen altars were +erected, and the Jews compelled, on pain of death, publicly to +adore the false gods and to eat swine's flesh that had been +sacrificed to idols. + +The princes and grandees of the Jews had represented to Antiochus +that the people were ripe for Hellenisation; and inasmuch as, +apart from this, to reduce to uniformity the extremely motley +constituents of his kingdom was a scheme that lay near his heart, +he was very willing to believe them. That the very opposite was +the case must of course have become quite evident very soon; but +the resistance of the Jews taking the form of rebellious risings +against his creatures, he fell upon the hopeless plan of +coercion,--hopeless, for he could attain his end only by making +all Judaea one vast graveyard. There existed indeed a pagan party; +the Syrian garrison of Acra was partly composed of Jews who sold +themselves to be the executioners of their countrymen. Fear also +influenced many to deny their convictions; but the majority +adhered firmly to the religion of their fathers. Jerusalem, +the centre of the process of Hellenisation, was abandoned by its +inhabitants, who made their escape to Egypt, or hid themselves in +the country, in deserts and caves. The scribes in especial held +fast by the law; and they were joined by the party of the +Asidaeans (i.e., pious ones). + + + +13. THE HASMONAEANS. + + +At first there was no thought of meeting violence with violence; +as the Book of Daniel shows, people consoled themselves with +thoughts of the immediate intervention of God which would occur in +due time. Quite casually, without either plan or concert, a +warlike opposition arose. There was a certain priest Mattathias, +of the family of the Hasmonaeans, a man far advanced in life, +whose home was in Modein, a little country town to the west of +Jerusalem. Hither also the Syrian soldiers came to put the +population to a positive proof of their change of faith; they +insisted upon Mattathias leading the way. But he was steadfast in +his refusal; and, when another Jew addressed himself before his +eyes to the work of making the heathen offering, he killed him and +the Syrian officer as well, and destroyed the altar. Thereupon he +fled to the hill country, accompanied by his sons (Johannes Gaddi, +Simon Thassi, Judas Maccabaeus, Eleazar Auaran, Jonathan Apphus) +and other followers. But he resolved to defend himself to the +last, and not to act as some other fugitives had done, who about +the same time had allowed themselves to be surrounded and butchered +on a Sabbath-day without lifting a finger. Thus he became the head +of a band which defended the ancestral religion with the sword. +They traversed the country, demolished the altars of the false gods, +circumcised the children, and persecuted the heathen and heathenishly +disposed. The sect of the Asidaeans also intrusted itself to their +warlike protection (1Maccabees ii. 42). + +Mattathias soon died and left his leadership to Judas Maccabaeus, +by whom the struggle was carried on in the first instance after +the old fashion; soon, however, it assumed larger dimensions, when +regular armies were sent out against the insurgents. First +Apollonius, the governor of Judaea, took the field; but he was +defeated and fell in battle. Next came Seron, governor of +Ccelesyria, who also was routed near Bethhoron (I66). Upon this +Lysias, the regent to whom Antiochus IV., who was busied in the far +east, had intrusted the government of Syria and the charge of his +son, Antiochus Philopator, a minor, sent a strong force under the +command of three generals. Approaching from the west, it was their +design to advance separately upon Jerusalem, but Judas anticipated +their plan and compelled them to quit the field (166). The regent +now felt himself called on to interpose in person. Invading Judaea +from the south, he encountered the Jews at Bethsur, who, however, +offered an opposition that was not easily overcome; he was +prevented from resorting to the last measures by the intelligence +which reached him of the death of the king in Elymais (165). + +The withdrawal of Lysias secured the fulfilment of the desires of +the defenders of the faith in so far as it now enabled them to +restore the Jerusalem worship to its previous condition. They +lost no time in setting about the accomplishment of this. They +were not successful indeed in wresting Acra from the possession of +the Syrians, but they so occupied the garrison as to prevent it +from interfering with the work of restoration. On 25th Kislev 165, +the very day on which, three years before, "the abomination of +desolation" had been inaugurated, the first sacrifice was offered +on the new altar, and in commemoration of this the feast of the +dedication was thenceforth celebrated. + +As it was easy to see that danger still impended, the temple was +put into a state of defence, as also was the town of Bethsur, where +Lysias had been checked. But the favourable moment presented by +the change of sovereign was made use of for still bolder attempts. +Scattered over the whole of Southern Syria there were a number of +Jewish localities on which the heathens now proceeded to wreak +their vengeance. + +For the purpose of rescuing these oppressed co-religionists, and of +bringing them in safety to Judaea, the Maccabees made a series of +excursions, extending in some cases as far as to Lebanon and +Damascus. Lysias had his hands otherwise fully occupied, and +perhaps did not feel much disposed to continue the fight on behalf +of the cultus of Jupiter Capitolinus. Daily gaining in boldness, +the Jews now took in hand also to lay regular siege to Acra. Then +at last Lysias yielded to the pressure of Syrian and Jewish +deputations and determined to take serious steps (162). With a +large force he entered Judaea, again from the south, and laid siege +to Bethsur. Judas vainly attempted the relief of the fortress; +he sustained near Bethzachariah a defeat in which his brother Eleazar +perished. Bethsur was unable to hold out, being short of provisions +on account of the sabbatic year. The Syrians advanced next to Jerusalem +and besieged the temple; it also was insufficiently provisioned, and +would soon have been compelled to surrender, had not Lysias been again +called away at the critical moment by other exigencies. A certain +Philip was endeavouring to oust him from the regency; as it was +necessary for him to have his hands free in dealing with this new +enemy, he closed a treaty with the temple garrison and the people at +large, in accordance with which at once the political subjection +and the religious freedom of the Jews were to be maintained; Thus +the situation as it had existed before Antiochus IV. was restored. +Only no attempt was made to replace Menelaus as high priest and +ethnarch; this post was to be filled by Alcimus. + +The concessions thus made by Lysias were inevitable; and even +King Demetrius I., son of Seleucus IV., who towards the end of 162 +ascended the throne and caused both Lysias and his ward to be put +to death, had no thought of interfering with their religious +freedom. But the Maccabees desired something more than the _status +quo ante_; after having done their duty they were disinclined to +retire in favour of Alcimus, whose sole claim lay in his descent +from the old heathenishly-disposed high-priestly family. Alcimus +was compelled to invoke the assistance of the king, who caused him +to be installed by Bacchides. He was at once recognised by the +scribes and Asidaeans, for whom, with religious liberty, everything +they wished had been secured; the claims to supremacy made by +the Hasmonaeans were of no consequence to them. Doubtless the +masses also would ultimately have quietly accepted Alcimus, who of +course refrained from interference with either law or worship, had +he not abused the momentary power he derived from the presence of +Bacchides to take a foolish revenge. But the consequence of his +action was that, as soon as Bacchides had turned his back, Alcimus +was compelled to follow him. For the purpose of restoring him a +Syrian army once more invaded Judaea under Nicanor (I60), but +first at Kapharsalama and afterwards at Bethhoron was defeated by +Judas, and almost annihilated in the subsequent flight, Nicanor +himself being among the slain (13th Adar = Nicanor's day). Judas +was now at the acme of his prosperity; about this time he concluded +his (profitless) treaty with the Romans. But disaster was impending. +In the month of Nisan, barely a month after the defeat of Nicanor, +a new Syrian army under Bacchides entered Judaea from the north; +near Elasa, southward from Jerusalem, a decisive battle was fought +which was lost by Judas, and in which he himself fell. + +The religious war properly so called had already been brought +once for all to an end by the convention of Lysias. If the +struggle continued to be carried on, it was not for the faith but +for the supremacy,--less in the interests of the community than in +those of the Hasmonaeans. After the death of Judas the secular +character which the conflict had assumed ever since 162 continually +became more conspicuous. Jonathan Apphus fought for his house, and +in doing so used thoroughly worldly means. The high-priesthood, +i.e., the ethnarchy, was the goal of his ambition. So long as +Alcimus lived, it was far from his reach. Confined to the rocky +fastnesses beside the Dead Sea, he had nothing for it but, +surrounded by his faithful followers, to wait for better times. +But on the death of Alcimus (159) the Syrians refrained from +appointing a successor, to obviate the necessity of always having +to protect him with military force. During the interregnum of +seven years which followed, Jonathan again came more and more to +the front, so that at last Bacchides concluded an armistice with +him on the basis of the _status quo_ (1Maccabees ix. 13). From his +residence at Michmash Jonathan now exercised a _de facto_ authority +over the entire nation. + +When accordingly Alexander Balas, a reputed son of Antiochus IV., +rose against Demetrius, both rivals exerted themselves to secure +the alliance of Jonathan, who did not fail to benefit by their +competition. First of all, Demetrius formally recognised him as +prince of Judah; in consequence of this he removed to Jerusalem, +and expelled the heathen and heathenishly disposed, who continued +to maintain a footing only in Acra and Bethsur. Next Alexander +Balas conferred on him the title of "high priest of the nation +and friend of the king;" in gratitude for which Jonathan went +over to his side (152). He remained loya], although Demetrius +now made larger offers; he was justified by the event, for +Demetrius I. had the worst of it and was slain (150). The +victorious Balas heaped honours upon Jonathan, who maintained +his fidelity, and fought successfully in his interests when +in I47 Demetrius II., the son of Demetrius I., challenged a +conflict. The high priest was unable indeed to prevent the +downfall of Alexander in 145; but Demetrius II., won by presents, +far from showing any hostility, confirmed him in his position +in consideration of a tribute of 300 talents. + +Jonathan was grateful to the king, as he showed by going with 3000 +men to his aid against the insurgent Antiochenes. But when the +latter drew back from his promise to withdraw the garrison from +Acra, he went over to the side of Trypho, who had set up a son of +Alexander Balas (Antiochus) as a rival. In the war which he now +waged as Seleucid-strategus against Demetrius he succeeded in +subduing almost the whole of Palestine. Meanwhile his brother +Simon remained behind in Judaea, mastered the fortress of Bethsur, +and resumed with great energy the siege of Acra. All this was +done in the names of Antiochus and Trypho, but really of course in +the interests of the Jews themselves. There were concluded also +treaties with the Romans and Lacedaemonians, certainly not to +the advantage of the Syrians. + +Trypho sought now to get rid of the man whom he himself had made +so powerful. He treacherously seized and imprisoned Jonathan in +Ptolemais, and meditated an attack upon the leaderless country. +But on the frontier Simon, the last remaining son of Mattathias, +met him in force. All Trypho's efforts to break through proved +futile; after skirting all Judaea from west to south, without +being able to get clear of Simon, he at last withdrew to Peraea +without having accomplished anything. On the person of Jonathan, +whom he caused to be executed, he vented the spleen he felt on the +discovery that the cause for which that prince had fought was able +to gain the victory even when deprived of his help. Simon, in +point of fact, was Jonathan's equal as a soldier and his superior +as a ruler. He secured his frontier by means of fortresses, made +himself master of Acra (141), and understood how to enable the +people in time of peace to reap the advantages that result from +successful war; agriculture, industry, and commerce (from the +haven of Joppa) began to flourish vigorously. In grateful +recognition of his services the high-priesthood and the ethnarchy +were bestowed upon him as hereditary possessions by a solemn +assembly of the people, "until a trustworthy prophet should +arise." + +Nominally the Seleucidae still continued to possess the +suzerainty. Simon naturally had detached himself from Trypho +and turned to Demetrius II., who confirmed him in his position, +remitted all arrears of tribute, and waived his rights for the +future (142). The friendship of Demetrius II. and of his +successor Antiochus Sidetes with Simon, however, lasted only as +long as Trypho still remained in the way. But, he once removed, +Sidetes altered his policy. He demanded of Simon the surrender of +Joppa, Gazara, and other towns, besides the citadel of Jerusalem, +as well as payment of all tribute resting due. The refusal of +these demands led to war, which in its earlier stages was carried +on with success, but the scales were turned after the murder of +Simon, when Sidetes in person took the field against John Hyrcanus, +Simon's son and successor. Jerusalem capitulated; in the +negotiations for peace the surrender of all the external +possessions of the Jews was insisted upon; the suzerainty of the +Syrians became once more a reality (I35). But in 130 the powerful +Antiochus Sidetes fell in an expedition against the Parthians, and +the complications anew arising in reference to the succession to +the Syrian throne placed Hyrcanus in a position to recover what he +had lost and to make new acquisitions. He subjugated Samaria +and Idumaea, compelling the inhabitants of the latter to accept +circumcision. Like his predecessors, he too sought to secure the +favour of the Romans, but derived no greater benefit from the +effort than they had done. After a prosperous reign of thirty +years he died in 105. By Josephus he is represented as a pattern +of all that a pious prince ought to be; by the rabbins as +representing a splendid high-priesthood. The darkness of the +succeeding age lent a brighter colour to his image. + +The external splendour of the Hasmonaean kingdom did not at once +die away,--the downfall of the Seleucidae, which was its negative +condition, being also a slow affair. Judah Aristobulus, the son +of Hyrcanus, who reigned for only one year, was the first to +assume the Greek title of royalty; Ituraea was subdued by him, +and circumcision forced upon the inhabitants. His brother Jonathan +(Jannaeus) Alexander (104-79), in a series of continual wars, +which were never very prosperous, never-theless succeeded in adding +the whole coast of Philistia (Gaza) as well as a great portion of +Peraea to his hereditary dominions. /1/ + +********************************************* +1. A number of half-independent towns and communes lay as tempting +subjects of dispute between the Seleucidae, the Nabathaeans or +Arabs of Petra, and the Jews. The background was occupied by the +Parthians and the Romans. +******************************************** + +But the external enlargement of the structure was secured at the cost +of its internal consistency. + +From the time when Jonathan, the son of Mattathias, began to carry +on the struggle no longer for the cause of God but for his own +interests, the scribes and the Asidaeans, as we have seen, had +withdrawn themselves from the party of the Maccabees There can +be no doubt that from their legal standpoint they were perfectly +right in contenting themselves, as they did, with the attainment +of religious liberty, and in accepting Alcimus. The Hasmonaeans +had no hereditary right to the high-priesthood, and their +politics, which aimed at the establishment of a national monarchy, +were contrary to the whole spirit and essence of the second +theocracy. The presupposition of that theocracy was foreign +domination; in no other way could its sacred--i.e., clerical-- +character be maintained. God and the law could not but be +forced into the background if a warlike kingdom, retaining indeed +the forms of a hierocracy, but really violating its spirit at +every point, should ever grow out of a mere pious community. +Above all, how could the scribes hope to retain their importance +if temple and synagogue were cast into the shade by politics and +clash of arms? But under the first great Hasmonaeans the +zealots for the law were unable to force their way to the front; +the enthusiasm of the people was too strong for them; they had +nothing for it but to keep themselves out of the current and refuse +to be swept along by it. Even under Hyrcanus, however, they +gained more prominence, and under Jannaeus their influence upon +popular opinion was paramount. For under the last-named the +secularisation of the hierocracy no longer presented any +attractive aspects; it was wholly repellent. It was looked upon +as a revolting anomaly that the king, who was usually in the +field with his army, should once and again assume the sacred mantle +in order to perform the sacrifice on some high festival, and that +his officers, profane persons as they were, should at the same +time be holders of the highest spiritual offices. The danger which +in all this threatened "the idea of Judaism" could not in these +circumstances escape the observation of even the common people; for +this idea was God and the law, not any earthly fatherland. The +masses accordingly ranged themselves with ever-growing unanimity +on the side of the Pharisees (i.e., the party of the scribes) as +against the Sadducees (i.e., the Hasmonaean party). /1/ + +***************************************** +1. PRW# means "separated," and refers perhaps to the attitude of +isolation taken by the zealots for the law during the interval +between 162 and 105. CDWQY (*SADDOUKAIOS) comes from CDWQ (*SADDOUK, +LXX.) the ancestor of the higher priesthood of Jerusalem (1Kings ii. +35; 1Samuel ii. 35; Ezekiel xliv. 15), and designates the +governing nobility. The original character of the opposition, as +it appeared under Jannaeus, changed entirely with the lapse of +time, on account of the Sadducees' gradual loss of political +power, till they fell at last to the condition of a sort of "fronde." + +On one occasion, when Alexander Jannaeus had returned to Jerusalem +at the feast of tabernacles, and was standing in his priestly +vestments before the altar to sacrifice, he was pelted by the +assembled crowd of worshippers with citrons from the green branches +they carried. By the cruelty with which he punished this insult +he excited the populace to the highest pitch, and, when he lost +his army in the disaster of Gadara, rebellion broke out. The +Pharisees summoned the Syrian king Demetrius Eucaerus; Jannaeus +was worsted and fled into the desert. But as he wandered in +helplessness there, the patriotism of the people and sympathy for +the heir of the Maccabees suddenly awoke; nature proved itself +stronger than that consistency which in the cause of the Divine +honour had not shrunk from treason. The insurgents for the most +part went over to the side of the fugitive king; the others he +ultimately overpowered after a struggle which lasted through +several years, Demetrius having withdrawn his intervention. The +vengeance which he took on the Pharisees was a bloody one; their +only escape was by voluntary exile. Thenceforward he had peace +so far as they were concerned. His last years were occupied with +the reacquisition of the conquests which he had been compelled to +yield to the Arabs during the civil war. He died in the field +at the siege of Ragaba in Peraea (79). + +Under Queen Salome, his widow, matters were as if they had been +specially arranged for the satisfaction of the Pharisees. The +high-priesthood passed to Salome's son, Hyrcanus II.; she herself +was only queen. In the management of external affairs her +authority was absolute (Antiquities, xiii. 16, 6); in home policy +she permitted the scribes to wield a paramount influence. The +common assertion, indeed, that the synedrium was at that time +practically composed of scribes, is inconsistent with the known +facts of the case; the synedrium at that time was a political +and not a scholastic authority. /1/ + +************************************* +1. Kuenen, "Over de Samenstelling van het Sanhedrin," in +Proceedings of Royal Netherl. Acad., 1866. +************************************** + +In its origin it was the municipal council of Jerusalem (so also +the councils of provincial towns are called synedria, Mark xiii. 9), +but its authority extended over the entire Jewish community; +alongside of the elders of the city the ruling priests were those +who had the greatest number of seats and votes. John Hyrcanus +appears to have been the first to introduce some scribes into its +composition; it is possible that Salome may have increased their +number, but even so this high court was far from being changed into +a college of scribes like that at Jamnia. If the domination of the +Pharisees at this time is spoken of, the expression cannot be +understood as meaning that they already held all the public +offices, but only at most that the holders of those offices found +it necessary to administer and to judge in their spirit and +according to their fundamental principles. + +The party of the Sadducees (consisting of the old Hasmonaean +officers and officials, who were of priestly family indeed, but +attached only slight importance to their priestly functions) at +length lost all patience. Led by Aristobulus, the second son of +Jannaeus, the leaders of the party came to the palace, and begged +the queen to dismiss them from the court and to send them into the +provinces. There they were successful in securing possession of +several fortresses /2/ in preparation for insurrection, a favourable + +********************************************* +2. Alexandrium, Coreae, and similar citadels, which were at that +time of great importance for Palestine and Syria. +********************************************* + +opportunity for which they were watching. Such an opportunity +occurred, it seemed to Aristobulus, as his mother lay on her +death-bed. The commandants of the fortresses were at his orders, +and by their assistance an army also, with which he accordingly +advanced upon Jerusalem, and, on the death of Salome, made himself +master of the situation (69). Hyrcanus was compelled to resign +office. With this event the good understanding between the civil +government and the Pharisees came to an end; the old antagonisms +became active once more, and now began to operate for the advantage +of a third party, the Idumaean Antipater, Hyrcanus's confidential +friend. After the latter, aided by Antipater, had at length with +great difficulty got himself into a position for asserting his +rights against Aristobulus, the Pharisees could not do otherwise +than rank themselves upon his side, and the masses joined them +against the usurper. With the help of the Nabataean monarch the +effort to restore the elder brother to the supreme authority would +doubtless have succeeded had not the Romans procured relief for +Aristobulus, besieged as he was in Jerusalem (65), though without +thereby recognising his claims. Pompey continued to delay a decision +on the controversy in 64 also when the rival claimants presented +themselves before him at Damascus; he wished first to have the +Nabataeans disposed of, and to have free access to them through +Judaea. This hesitation roused the suspicions of Aristobulus; +still he did not venture to take decisive action upon them. He +closed the passes (to Mount Ephraim) against the Romans, but +afterwards gave them up; he prepared Jerusalem for war, and then +went in person to the Roman camp at Jericho, where he promised +to open the gates of the city and also to pay a sum of money. +But the Roman ambassadors found the gates barred, and had to +return empty-handed. Aristobulus thereupon was arrested, and +siege was laid to Jerusalem. The party of Hyrcanus, as soon +as it had gained the upper hand, surrendered the town; but the +supporters of Aristobulus took their stand in the temple, and +defended it obstinately. In June 63 the place was carried by +storm; Pompey personally inspected the Holy of Holies, but +otherwise spared the religious feelings of the Jews. But he +caused the chief promoters of the war to be executed, and carried +Aristobulus and his family into captivity. He abolished the +kingship, but restored the high-priestly dignity to Hyrcanus. +The territory was materially reduced in area, and made tributary +to the Romans; the city was occupied by a Roman garrison. + + + +14. HEROD AND THE ROMANS. + + +Henceforward Roman intervention forms a constant disturbing factor +in Jewish history. The struggle between the Pharisees and the +Sadducees continued indeed to be carried on, but only because the +momentum of their old feud was not yet exhausted. The Pharisees in +a sense had been victorious. While the two brothers were pleading +their rival claims before Pompey, ambassadors from the Pharisees +had made their appearance in Damascus to petition for the abolition +of the kingship; this object had now to some extent been gained. +Less ambiguous than the victory of the Pharisees was the fall of +the Sadducees, who in losing the sovereignty of the Jewish state +lost all real importance. But the intervention of the foreign +element exercised its most powerful influence upon the temper of +the lower classes. Though in times of peace the masses still +continued to accept the guidance of the rabbins, their patriotism +instantly burst into flame as soon as a pretender to the throne, +belonging to the family of Aristobulus, appeared in Palestine. +During the decennia which immediately followed, Jewish history +was practically absorbed in vain attempts to restore the old +Hasmonaean kingdom. Insurrections of steadily increasing +dimensions were made in favour of Aristobulus, the representative +of the national cause. For Hyrcanus was not regarded as a +Hasmonaean at all, but merely as the creature of Antipater and the +Romans. First, in the year 57, Alexander the son of Aristobulus +broke into rebellion, then in 56 Aristobulus himself and his son +Antigonus, and in 55 Alexander again. Antipater was never able to +hold his own; Roman intervention was in every case necessary. +The division of the Hasmonaean state into five "aristocracies" by +Gabinius had no effect in diminishing the feeling of national unity +cherished by the Jews of Palestine. Once again, after the battle +of Carrhae, a rising took place, which Cassius speedily repressed. + +In 49 the great Roman civil war broke out; Caesar instigated +Aristobulus against Antipater, who in common with the whole East +had espoused the cause of Pompey. But Aristobulus was poisoned by +the opposite party while yet in Italy, and about the same time his +son Alexander was also put to death at Antioch; thus the danger +to Antipater passed away. After the battle of Pharsalus he went +over to Caesar's side, and soon after rendered him an important +service by helping him out of his difficulties at Alexandria. By +this means he earned the good-will of Caesar towards the whole body +of the Jews and secured for himself (or Hyrcanus) a great extension +of power and of territory. The five "synedria" or "aristocracies" +of Gabinius were superseded, the most important conquest of the +Hasmonaeans restored, the walls of Jerusalem, which Pompey had razed, +rebuilt. + +However indisputable the advantages conferred by the rule of +Antipater, the Jews could not forget that the Idumaean, in name +of Hyrcanus, the rightful heir of the Hasmonaeans, was in truth +setting up an authority of his own. The Sadducaean aristocracy +in particular, which formerly in the synedrium had shared the +supreme power with the high priest, endeavoured to restore +reality once more to the nominal ascendancy which still continued +to be attributed to the ethnarch and the synedrium. "When the +authorities (hoi 'en telei) of the Jews saw how the power of +Antipater and his sons was growing, their disposition towards him +became hostile" (Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. 9, 3). They were +specially jealous of the youthful Herod, to whom Galilee had been +entrusted by his father. On account of the arbitrary execution +of a robber chief Ezechias, who perhaps had originally been a +Hasmonaean partisan, they summoned him before the synedrium, +under the impression that it was not yet too late to remind him +that he was after all but a servant. But the defiant demeanour +of the culprit, and a threatening missive which at the same time +arrived from Sextus Caesar demanding his acquittal, rendered his +judges speechless, nor did they regain their courage until they +had heard the stinging reproaches of Sameas the scribe. Yet the +aged Hyrcanus, who did not comprehend the danger that was +threatening himself, postponed judgment upon Herod, and gave him +opportunity to withdraw. Having been appointed strategus of +Coelesyria by Sextus Caesar in the meanwhile he soon afterwards +appeared before Jerusalem at the head of an army, and the +authorities were compelled to address themselves in a conciliatory +manner to his father and to Phasael his brother in order to secure +his withdrawal. + +The attempt to crush the serpent which had thus effected a lodgment +in the Hasmonaean house came too late. The result of it simply +was that the Herodians had now the advantage of being able to +distinguish between Hyrcanus and his "evil counsellors." From that +moment the downfall of the Sadducaean notables was certain. It was +of no avail to them that after the battle of Philippi (42) they +accused Herod and Phasael (Antipater having been murdered in 43) +before Antony of having been helpful in every possible way to +Cassius; Antony declared himself in the most decisive manner for +the two brothers. In their despair--for properly speaking they +were not national fanatics but only egoistic politicians--they +ultimately made common cause with Antigonus the son of +Aristobulus, and threw themselves into the arms of the Parthians, +perceiving the interests of the Romans and of Herod to be +inseparable (40). Fortune at first seemed to have declared in +favour of the pretender. The masses unanimously took his side; +Phasael committed suicide in prison; with a single blow Herod was +stripped of all his following and made a helpless fugitive. He +took refuge in Rome, however, where he was named king of Judaea +by the senate, and after a somewhat protracted war he finally, +with the help of the legions of Sosius, made himself master of +Jerusalem (37). The captive Antigonus was beheaded at Antioch. + +King Herod began his reign by reorganising the synedrium; he +ordered the execution of forty-five of its noblest members, his +most zealous opponents. These were the Sadducaean notables who +long had headed the struggle against the Idumaean interlopers. +Having thus made away with the leaders of the Jerusalem +aristocracy, he directed his efforts to the business of corrupting +the rest. He appointed to the most important posts obscure +individuals, of priestly descent, from Babylon and Alexandria, +and thus replaced with creatures of his own the old aristocracy. +Nor did he rest content with this; in order to preclude the +possibility of any independent authority ever arising alongside +of his own, he abolished the life-tenure of the high-priestly +office, and brought it completely under the control of the secular +power. By this means he succeeded in relegating the Sadducees to +utter insignificance. They were driven out of their native +sphere--the political--into the region of theoretical and +ecclesiastical discussion, where they continued, but on quite +unequal terms, their old dispute with the Pharisees. + +It was during the period of Herod's activity that the Pharisees, +strictly speaking, enjoyed their greatest prosperity (Sameas and +Abtalion, Hillel and Shammai); in the synedrium they became so +numerous as almost to equal the priests and elders. Quite +consistently with their principles they had abstained from +taking any part in the life and death struggle for the existence +of the national state. Their leaders had even counselled the +fanatical defenders of Jerusalem to open the gates to the enemy; +for this service they were treated with the highest honour by Herod. +He made it part of his general policy to favour the Pharisees +(as also the sect of the Essenes, insignificant though it was), +it being his purpose to restrict the national life again within +those purely ecclesiastical channels of activity which it had +abandoned since the Maccabaean wars. However reckless his conduct +in other respects, he was always scrupulously careful to avoid +wounding religious susceptibilities (Antiquities, xiv. 16, 3). +But although the Pharisees might be quite pleased that the +high-priesthood and the kingship were no longer united in one +and the same person, and that interest in the law again overshadowed +interest in politics, the populace for their part could never +forgive Herod for overthrowing the old dynasty. That he himself, +at least in religious profession, was a Jew did not improve his +position, but rather made it worse. It was not easy for him to +stifle the national feeling after it had once been revived among +the Jews; they could not forget the recent past, and objected to +being thrust back into the time when foreign domination was endured +by them as a matter of course. The Romans were regarded in quite +a different light from that in which the Persians and the Greeks +had been viewed, and Herod was only the client of the Romans. + +His greatest danger seemed to arise from the still surviving +members of the Hasmonaean family, to whom, as is easily +understood, the national hopes clung. In the course of the earlier +years of his reign he removed every one of them from his path, +beginning with his youthful brother-in-law Aristobulus (35), after +whom came his old patron Hyrcanus II. (30), then Mariamne his wife +(29), and finally his stepmother Alexandra (28), the daughter of +Hyrcanus and the widow of Alexander Aristobuli. Subsequently, +in 25, he caused Costobarus and the sons of Babas to be executed. +While thus occupied with domestic affairs, Herod had constant +trouble also in his external relations, and each new phase in his +political position immediately made itself felt at home. In the +first instance he had much to suffer from Cleopatra, who would +willingly have seen Palestine reduced under Egyptian domination +once more, and who actually succeeded in inducing Antony to take +from Herod several fair and valuable provinces of his realm. Next, +his whole position was imperilled by the result of the battle of +Actium; he had once more ranged himself upon the wrong side. But +his tact did not fail him in winning Octavianus, as before it had +made Antony his friend. In fact he reaped nothing but advantage +from the great overturn which took place in Roman affairs; it +rid him of Cleopatra, a dangerous enemy, and gave him in the new +imperator a much better master than before. + +During the following years he had leisure to carry out those +splendid works of peace by which it was his aim to ingratiate +himself with the emperor. He founded cities and harbours +(Antipatris, Caesarea), constructed roads, theatres, and temples, +and subsidised far beyond his frontier all works of public utility. +He taxed the Jews heavily, but in compensation promoted their +material interests with energy and discretion, and built for them, +from 20 or 19 B.C. onwards, the temple at Jerusalem. To gain their +sympathies he well knew to be impossible. Apart from the Roman +legions at his back his authority had its main support in his +fortresses and in his system of espionage. + +But just as the acme of his splendour had been reached, he himself +became the instrument of a terrible vengeance for the crimes by +which his previous years had been stained; as executioner of all +the Hasmonaeans, he was now constrained to be the executioner of +his own children also. His suspicious temper had been aroused +against his now grown-up sons by Mariamne, whose claims through +their mother to the throne were superior to his own; his brother +Pheroras and his sister Salome made it their special business to +fan his jealousy into flame. To show the two somewhat arrogant +youths that the succession was not so absolutely secure in their +favour as they were supposing, the father summoned to his court +Antipater, the exiled son of a former marriage. Antipater, under +the mask of friendship, immediately began to carry on infamous +intrigues against his half brothers, in which Pheroras and Salome +unconsciously played into his hands. For years he persevered +alike in favouring and unfavouring circumstances with his part, +until at last, by the machinations of a Lacedemonian, Eurycles, +who had been bribed, Herod was induced to condemn the sons of +Mariamne at Berytus, and cause them to be strangled (Samaria, 7-6 +B.C.). Not long afterwards a difference between Antipater and +Salome led to the exposure of the former. Herod was compelled +to drain the cup to the dregs; he was not spared the knowledge +that he had murdered his children without a cause. His remorse +threw him into a serious illness, in which his strong constitution +wrestled long with death. While he lay at Jericho near his end +he gave orders for the execution of Antipater also; and to embitter +the joy of the Jews at his removal he caused their elders to be +shut up together in the hippodrome at Jericho with the injunction +to butcher them as soon as he breathed his last, that so there +might be sorrow throughout the land. The latter order, however, +was not carried out. + +His death (4 B.C.) gave the signal for an insurrection of small +beginnings which gradually spread until it ultimately infected +all the people; it was repressed by Varus with great cruelty. +Meanwhile Herod's connexions were at Rome disputing about the +inheritance. The deceased king (who was survived by several +children of various marriages) had made a will, which was +substantially confirmed by Augustus. By it his son Philip +received the northern portion of the territory on the east +of the Jordan along with the district of Paneas (Caesarea +Philippi); his thirty-seven years' reign over this region was +happy. Another son, Herod Antipas, obtained Galilee and Peraea; +he beautified his domains with architectural works (Sepphoris, +Tiberias; Livias, Machaerus), and succeeded by his fox-like +policy in ingratiating himself with the emperors, particularly +with Tiberius, for that very cause, however, becoming odious to +the Roman provincial officials. The principal heir was Archelaus, +to whom Idumaea, Judaea, and Samaritis were allotted; Augustus at +first refused him the title of king. Archelaus had experienced +the greatest difficulty in carrying through his claims before +the emperor in face of the manifold oppositions of his enemies; +the vengeance which he wreaked upon his subjects was so severe +that in 6 A,D. a Jewish and Samaritan embassy besought the emperor +for his deposition. Augustus assented, banishing Archelaus to +Vienne, and putting in his place a Roman procurator. Thenceforward +Judaea continued under procurators, with the exception of a brief +interval (41-44 A.D.), during which Herod Agrippa I. united under +his sway all the dominions of his grandfather. /1/ + +**************************************** +1. Agrippa was the grandson of Mariamne through Aristobulus. +Caligula, whose friendship he had secured in Rome, bestowed upon +him in 37 the dominions of Philip with the title of king, and +afterwards the tetrarchy of Antipas, whom he deposed and banished +to Lugdunum (39). Claudius added the possessions of Archelaus. +But the kingdom was again taken away from his son Agrippa II. +(44), who, however, after the death of his uncle, Herod of Chalcis, +obtained that principality for which at a later period (52) the +tetrarchy of Philip was substituted. His sister Berenice is known +as the mistress of Titus; another sister, Drusilla, was the wife +of the procurator Felix. The descendants of Mariamne through +Alexander held for some time an Armenian principality. +**************************************** + +The termination of the vassal kingship resulted in manifest +advantage to the Sadducees. The high priest and synedrium again +acquired political importance; they were the responsible +representatives of the nation in presence of the suzerain power, +and conceived themselves to be in some sort lords of land and +people (John xi. 48). For the Pharisees the new state of affairs +appears to have been less satisfactory. That the Romans were +much less oppressive to the Jews than the rulers of the house of +Herod was a consideration of less importance to them than the +fact that the heathen first unintentionally and then deliberately +were guilty of the rudest outrages upon the law, outrages against +which those sly half-Jews had well understood how to be on their +guard. It was among the lower ranks of the people, however, that +hatred to the Romans had its proper seat. On the basis of the views +and tendencies which had long prevailed there, a new party was now +formed, that of the Zealots, which did not, like the Pharisees, aim +merely at the fulfilment of all righteousness, i.e., of the law, +and leave everything else in the hands of God, but was determined +to take an active part in bringing about the realisation of the +kingdom of God (Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. 1, 1). + +As the transition to the new order of things was going on, the +census of Quirinius took place (6-7 A.D.); it occasioned an +immense excitement, which, however, was successfully allayed. +On the withdrawal of Quirinius, Coponius remained behind as +procurator of Judaea; he was followed, under Augustus, by Marcus +Ambivius and Annius Rufus; under Tiberius, by Valerius Gratus +(15-26 A.D.) and Pontius Pilatus (26-36 A.D.); under Caligula, +by Marcellus (36-37) and Marullus (37-41 A.D.). The procurators +were subordinate to the imperial legati of Syria; they resided +in Caesarea, and visited Jerusalem on special occasions only. +They had command of the military, and their chief business was +the maintenance of the peace and the care of the revenue. They +interested themselves in affairs of religion only in so far as +these had a political side; the temple citadel Antonia was constantly +garrisoned with a cohort. The administration of justice appears +to have been left to a very considerable extent in the hands of +the synedrium, but it was not allowed to give effect to any capital +sentence. At the head of the native authorities stood at this time +not so much the actual high priest as the college of the chief priests. +The actual office of high priest had lost its political importance +in consequence of the frequency with which its holders were changed; +thus, for example, Annas had more influence than Caiaphas. + +The principle of interfering as little as possible with the +religious liberty of the Jews was rudely assailed by the Emperor +Caius, who like a second Antiochus, after various minor vexations, +gave orders that his image should be set up in the temple of +Jerusalem as in others elsewhere. It was entirely through the +courage and tact of the Syrian governor P. Petronius that the +execution of these orders was temporarily postponed until the +emperor was induced by Agrippa I. to withdraw them. Caius soon +afterwards died, and under the rule of Agrippa I., to whom the +government of the entire kingdom of his grandfather was committed +by Claudius, the Jews enjoyed much prosperity; in every respect +the king was all they could wish. This very prosperity seems, +however, to have caused them fresh danger. For it made them feel +the government by procurators, which was resumed after the death +of Agrippa I., to be particularly hard to bear, whatever the +individual characters of these might be. They were Cuspius Fadus +(from 44, under whom Theudas), Tiberius Alexander (the Romanised +nephew of Philo, till 48), Cumanus (48-52, under whom the volcano +already began to give dangerous signs of activity), and Felix +(52-60). Felix, who has the honour to be pilloried in the pages of +Tacitus, contrived to make the dispeace permanent. The influence +of the two older parties, both of which were equally interested in +the maintenance of the existing order, and in that interest were +being drawn nearer to each other, diminished day by day. The +masses broke loose completely from the authority of the scribes; +the ruling nobility adapted itself better to the times; under the +circumstances which then prevailed, it is not surprising that +they became thoroughly secular and did not shrink from the +employment of directly immoral means for the attainment of their +ends. The Zealots became the dominant party. It was a combination +of noble and base elements; superstitious enthusiasts (Acts xxi. +38) and political assassins, the so-called sicarii, were conjoined +with honest but fanatical patriots. Felix favoured the sicarii in +order that he might utilise them; against the others his hostility +raged with indiscriminating cruelty, yet without being able to +check them. The anarchy which he left behind him as a legacy was +beyond the control of his able successor Porcius Festus (60-62), +and the last two procurators, Albinus (62-64) and Gessius Florus, +acted as if it had been their special business to encourage and +promote it. All the bonds of social order were dissolved; no +property was secure; the assassins alone prospered, and the +procurators went shares with them in the profits. + +It was inevitable that deep resentment against the Romans should +be felt in every honest heart. At last it found expression. +During his visit to Jerusalem in May 66 Florus laid hands upon the +temple treasure; the Jews allowed themselves to go so far as to +make a joke about it, which he avenged by giving over a portion of +the city to be plundered, and crucifying a number of the +inhabitants. He next insisted upon their kissing the rod, ordering +that a body of troops which was approaching should be met and +welcomed. At the persuasion of their leaders the Jews forced +themselves even to this; but a constant succession of fresh +insults and cruelties followed, till patience was quite exhausted +at last, and in a violent street fight the Romans were so handled +that the procurator withdrew from the town, leaving only the +cohort in Antonia. Once again was an attempt at pacification made +by Agrippa II., who hastened from Alexandria with this purpose, +but the Jews could not bring themselves to make submission to +Gessius Florus. It so happened that at this juncture the fortress +of Masada on the Dead Sea fell into the hands of the Zealots; the +courage of the party of action rose, and at the instance of the +hot-headed Eleazar the son of Ananias, a man, still young, of +highest priestly family, the sacrifice on behalf of the emperor +was discontinued, ie., revolt was declared. But the native +authorities continued opposed to a war. At their request King +Agrippa sent soldiers to Jerusalem; at first they appeared to +have some effect, but ultimately they were glad to make their +escape in safety from the city. The cohort in Antonia was in like +manner unable to hold its own; freedom was given it to withdraw; +but, contrary to the terms of capitulation, it was put to the +sword. The war party now signalised its triumph over all elements +of opposition from within by the murder of the high priest +Ananias. + +A triumph was gained also over the outer foe. The Syrian legate, +Cestius Gallus, appeared before Jerusalem in the autumn of 66, but +after a short period raised the siege; his deliberate withdrawal +was changed into a precipitate flight in an attack made by the +Jews at Bethhoron. The revolt now spread irresistibly through +all ranks and classes of the population, and the aristocracy found +it expedient itself to assume the leadership. An autonomous +government was organised, with the noblest members of the community +at its head; of these the most important was the high priest +Ananus. + +Meanwhile Nero entrusted the conduct of the Jewish war to Vespasian, +his best general. In the spring of 67 he began his task in +Galilee, where the historian Josephus had command of the +insurgents. The Jews entirely distrusted him and he them; in a +short time the Romans were masters of Galilee, only a few strong +places holding out against them. Josephus was besieged in +Jotapata, and taken prisoner; the other places also were unable to +hold out long. Such of the champions of freedom in Galilee as +escaped betook themselves to Jerusalem; amongst these was the +Zealot leader John of Giscala. There they told the story of their +misfortunes, of which they laid the blame upon Josephus, and upon +the aristocratic government as having no heart for the common cause +and having treachery for their motto. The Zealots now openly aimed +at the overthrow of the existing government, but Ananus bravely +withstood them, and pressed so hard on them that they summoned +the Idumaeans into the city to their aid. These honourable fanatics +indeed withdrew again as soon as they had discovered that they were +being used for sinister designs; but in the meanwhile they had +accomplished the work of the Zealots. The old magistracy of +Jerusalem was destroyed, Ananus with the heads of the aristocracy +and very many other respectable citizens put to death. The radicals, +for the most part not natives of the city, came into power; John +of Giscala at their head tyrannized over the inhabitants. + +While these events were taking place in Jerusalem, Vespasian had +subdued the whole country, with the exception of one or two +fortresses. But as he was setting about the siege of the capital, +tidings arrived of the death of Nero, and the offensive was +discontinued. For almost two years (June 68 to April 70), with +a short break, war was suspended. When Vespasian at the end of +this period became emperor, he entrusted to Titus the task of +reducing Jerusalem. There in the interval the internal struggle +had been going on, even after the radicals had gained the mastery. +As a counterpoise to John of Giscala the citizens had received +the guerilla captain Simon bar Giora into the city; the two were +now at feud with each other, but were alike in their rapacity +towards the citizens. John occupied the temple, Simon the upper +city Iying over against it on the west. For a short time a third +entered into competition with the two rivals, a certain Eleazar +who had separated from John and established himself in the inner +temple. But just as Titus was beginning the siege (Easter, 70) +John contrived to get rid of this interloper. + +Titus attacked from the north. After the lower city had fallen +into his hands, he raised banks with a view to the storm of the +temple and the upper city. But the defenders, who were now united +in a common cause, taught him by their vigorous resistance that +his object was not to be so quickly gained. He therefore +determined to reduce them by famine, and for this end completely +surrounded the city with a strong wall. In the beginning of July +he renewed the attack, which he directed in the first instance +against the temple. The tower of Antonia fell on the 5th, but the +temple continued to beheld notwithstanding; until the I7th the +daily sacrifice continued to be offered. The Romans succeeded in +gaining the outer court in August only. To drive them out, the +Jews in the night of August 10-11 made a sortie, but were +compelled to retire, the enemy forcing their way behind them into +the inner court. A legionary flung a firebrand into an annexe of +the temple, and soon the whole structure was in flames. A terrible +slaughter of the defenders ensued, but John with a determined band +succeeded in cutting his way out, and by means of the bridge over +the Tyropceon valley made his escape into the upper city. + +No attack had as yet been directed against this quarter; but +famine was working terrible ravages among the crowded population. +Those in command, however, refused to capitulate unless freedom to +withdraw along with their wives and children were granted. These +terms being withheld, a storm, after the usual preparations on the +part of the Romans, took place. The resistance was feeble; the +strong towers were hardly defended at all; Simon bar Giora and +John of Giscala now thought only of their personal safety. In the +unprotected city the Roman soldiers spread fire and slaughter +unchecked (September 7, 70). + +Of those who survived also some were put to death; the rest were +sold or carried off to the mines and amphitheatres. The city was +levelled with the ground; the tenth legion was left behind in +charge. Titus took with him to Rome for his triumphal procession +Simon bar Giora and John of Giscala, along with seven hundred other +prisoners, also the sacred booty taken from the temple, the +candlestick, the golden table, and a copy of the Torah. He was +slightly premature with his triumph; for some time elapsed, and +more than one bloody battle was necessary before the rebellion +was completely stifled. It did not come wholly to an end until +the fall of Masada (April 73). + + + +I5. THE RABBINS. + + +Even now Palestine continued for a while to be the centre of Jewish +life, but only in order to prepare the way for its transition +into thoroughly cosmopolitan forms. The development of thought +sustained no break on account of the sad events which had taken +place, but was only directed once more in a consistent manner +towards these objects which had been set before it from the time of +the Babylonian exile. On the ruins of the city and of the temple +the Pharisaic Judaism which rests upon the law and the school +celebrated its triumph. National fanaticism indeed was not yet +extinguished, but it burnt itself completely out in the vigorous +insurrection led by Simeon bar Koziba (Bar Cochebas, 132-135). +That a conspicuous rabbin, Akiba, should have taken part in it, +and have recognised in Simeon the Messiah, was an inconsistency +on his part which redounds to his honour. + +Inasmuch as the power of the rabbins did not depend upon the +political or hierarchical forms of the old commonwealth, it +survived the fall of the latter. Out of what hitherto had been a +purely moral influence something of an official position now +grew. They formed themselves into a college which regarded +itself as a continuation of the old synedrium, and which carried +forward its name. At first its seat was at Jamnia, but it soon +removed to Galilee, and remained longest at Tiberias. The +presidency was hereditary in the family of Hillel, with the last +descendants of whom the court itself came to an end. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. The following is the genealogy of the first Nasi:--Gamaliel ben +Simeon (Josephus, Vita, 38) ben Gamaliel (Acts v. 34, xxii. 3) ben +simeon ben Hillel. The name Gamaliel was that which occurred most +frequently among the patriarchs; see Codex Theod. xvi. 8, 22. +*************************************** + +The respect in which the synedrial president was held rapidly +increased; like Christian patriarchs under Mahometan rule, he was +also recognised by the imperial government as the municipal head +of the Jews of Palestine, and bore the secular title of the old +high priests (nasi, ethnarch, patriarch). Under him the Palestinian +Jews continued to form a kind of state within a state until the 5th +century. From the non-Palestinian Jews he received offerings of +money. (Compare Gothofredus on Codex Theod., xvi. 8, "De Judaeis;" +and Morinus, Exer. Bibl., ii. exerc. 3, 4). + +The task of the rabbins was so to reorganise Judaism under the new +circumstances that it could continue to assert its distinctive +character. What of external consistency had been lost through the +extinction of the ancient commonwealth required to be compensated +for by an inner centralisation proportionately stronger. The +separation from everything heathenish became more pronounced than +before; the use of the Greek language was of necessity still +permitted, but at least the Septuagint was set aside by Aquila +(Cod. Justinian., Nov. 146) inasmuch as it had now become the +Christian Bible. For to this period also belongs the definitive +separation between the synagogue and the church; henceforward +Christianity could no longer figure as a Jewish sect. +Intensified exclusiveness was accompanied by increased internal +stringency. What at an earlier period had still remained to some +extent fluid now became rigidly fixed; for example, an authentic +text of the canon was now established, and at the same time the +distinction between canon and apocrypha sharply drawn. The old +tendency of the scribes to leave as little as possible free to the +individual conscience, but to bring everything within the scope of +positive ordinance, now celebrated its greatest triumphs. It was +only an apparent movement in the direction of liberty, if +regulations which had become quite impossible were now modified or +cancelled. The most influential of the rabbins were indeed the +least solicitous about the maintenance of what was old, and had no +hesitation in introducing numerous and thoroughgoing innovations; +but the conservatives R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and R. Ishmael ben +Elisha were in truth more liberal-minded than the leaders of the +party of progress, notably than R. Akiba. Even the Ultramontanes +have never hesitated at departures from the usage of the ancient +and mediaeval church; and the Pharisaic rabbins were guided in +their innovations by liberal principles no more than they. +The object of the new determinations was simply to widen the +domain of the law in a consistent manner, to bring the individual +entirely under the iron rule of system. But the Jewish +communities gave willing obedience to the hierarchy of the +rabbins; Judaism had to be maintained, cost what it might. That +the means employed were well adapted to the purpose of maintaining +the Jews as a firmly compacted religious community even after all +bonds of nationality had fallen away cannot be doubted. But +whether the attainment of this purpose by incredible exertion was +a real blessing to themselves and the world may very well be +disputed. + +One consequence of the process of intellectual isolation and of the +effort to shape everything in accordance with hard and fast rules +and doctrines was the systematisation and codification of juristic +and ritual tradition, a work with which a beginning was made in the +century following the destruction of Jerusalem. Towards the end +of the 2nd century the Pharisaic doctrine of Hillel as it had been +further matured by Akiba was codified and elevated to the position +of statute law by the patriarch Rabban Judah the Holy (Mishna). /1/ + +************************************* +1. The Mishna succeeded almost, but not quite, in completely doing +away with all conflicting tendencies. At first the heterodox +tradition of that time was also committed to writing (R. Ishmael +ben Elisha) and so handed down,--in various forms (col]ection of +the Baraithas, that is, of old precepts which had not been received +into the Mishna, in the Tosephtha). Nor did the active opposition +altogether die out even at a later period; under favouring +circumstances it awoke to new life in Karaism, the founder of which, +Anan ben David, lived in Babylonia in the middle of the 8th century. +************************************ + +But this was only the first stage in the process of systematising +and fixing tradition. The Mishna became itself the object of +rabbinical comment and supplement; the Tannaim, whose work was +registered in the Mathnetha (Mishna, DEUTERWSIS = doctrine), were +followed by the Amoraim, whose work in turn took permanent shape +in the Gemara (= doctrine). The Palestinian Gemara was reduced +to writing in perhaps the 4th or 5th century; unfortunately it +has been preserved to us only in part, but appears to have reached +the Middle Ages in a perfect state (compare Schiller-Szinessy in +the Academy, 1878, p. 170 seq.). Even thus the process which +issued in the production of the Talmud was not yet completed; +the Babylonian Amoraim carried it forward for some time longer, +until at last at the rise of Islam the Babylonian Gemara was +also written down. + +In the sth century Palestine ceased to be the centre of Judaism. +Several circumstances conspired to bring this about. The position +of the Jews in the Roman Empire had changed for the worse with the +elevation of Christianity to be the religion of the state; the +large autonomy which until then they had enjoyed in Palestine +was now restricted; above all, the family of the Patriarchs, +which had come to form a veritable dynasty, became extinct. /1/ + +**************************************** +1. Compare Gothofredus on Cod. Theod., xvi. 8, 29, ad voc. "post +excessum patriarcharum." +**************************************** + + +But this did not make an end of what may be called the Jewish +church-state; henceforward it had its home in Babylonia. From the +period of the exile, a numerous and coherent body of Jews had +continued to subsist there; the Parthians and Sassanidae granted +them self-government; at their head was a native prince (Resh +Galutha,--can be clearly traced from 2nd century A.D. onwards) +who, when the Palestinian patriarchate came to an end, was left +without a rival. This remarkable relic of a Jewish commonwealth +continued to exist until the time of the Abassides. /2/ + +************************************ +2. See Noeldeke, Tabari; 68, 118, and Kremer, Culturgeschichte des +Orients unter den Chalifen, i. 188, ii. 176. +************************************ + + +Even as early as the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. certain +rabbins, at their head Abba Areka (Rab), had migrated from Palestine +and founded a settlement for learning in the law in Babylonia. +The schools there (at Pumbeditha, Sora, Nahardea) prospered greatly, +vied with those of Palestine, and continued to exist after the +cessation of the latter, when the patriarchate became extinct; thus +they had the last word in the settlement of doctrine. + +Alongside of the settlement of tradition went another task, that +of fixing the letters of the consonantal text of the Bible (by the +Massora), its vowel pronunciation (by the punctuation), and its +translation into the Aramaic vernacular (Targum). Here also the +Babylonians came after the Palestinians, yet of this sort of +erudition Palestine continued to be the headquarters even after the +5th century. + +With this task--that of attaining to the greatest possible +conformity to the letter and of continuing therein--the inner +development of Jewish thought came to an end. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. Compare F. Weber, System der altsynagagalen palaestinischen +Theologie, Leipsic, 1880. +**************************************** + + + +The later Hebrew literature, which does not fall to be considered +here, contributed very few new elements; in so far as an intellectual +life existed at all among the Jews of the Middle Ages, it was not +a growth of native soil but proceeded from the Mahometan or Latin +culture of individuals. The Kabbala at most, and even it hardly +with justice, can be regarded as having been a genuine product of +Judaism. It originated in Palestine, and subsequently flourished +chiefly in the later Middle Ages in Spain, and, like all other +methodised nonsense, had strong attractions for Christian scholars. + + + +16. THE JEWISH DISPERSION. + + +Something still remains to be said with reference to the diaspora. +We have seen how it began; in spite of Josephus (Antiquities, +xi. 5, 2), it is to be carried back not to the Assyrian but merely +to the Babylonian captivity; it was not composed of Israelites, +but solely of citizens of the southern kingdom. It received its +greatest impulse from Alexander, and then afterwards from Caesar. +In the Graeco-Roman period Jerusalem at the time of the great +festival presented the appearance of a veritable Babel (Acts ii. +9-11); with the Jews themselves were mingled the proselytes (Acts +ii. 11), for even already that religion was gaining considerable +conquests among the heathen; as King Agrippa I. writes to the +Emperor Caius (Philo, Legat. ad Gaium, sec. 36), +"Jerusalem is the metropolis not only of Judaea but of very many +lands, on account of the colonies which on various occasions +('epi xairwn) it has sent out into the adjoining countries of Egypt, +Phoenicia, Syria, and Coelesyria, and into the more remote Pamphylia, +Cilicia, the greater part of Asia Minor as far as to Bithynia and +the remotest parts of Pontus; likewise into Europe--Thessaly, +Boeotia, Macedonia, AEtolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth, most parts +(and these the fairest) of the Peloponnesus. Nor are the Jewish +settlements confined to the mainland only; they are found also in +the more important islands, Euboea, Cyprus, Crete. I do not insist +on the countries beyond the Euphrates, for with few exceptions all +of them, Babylon and the fertile regions around it, have Jewish +inhabitants." +In the west of Europe also they were not wanting; many thousands +of them lived in Rome. In those cities where they were at all +numerous they, during the imperial period, formed separate +communities; Josephus has preserved a great variety of documents +in which the Roman authorities recognise their rights and liberties +(especially as regards the Sabbath rest and the observance of +festivals). Of greatest importance was the community in Alexandria; +according to Philo a million of Jews had their residence there under +an ethnarch for whom a gerusia was afterwards substituted by Augustus +(In Flac., secs. 6, 10). The extent to which this diaspora was +helpful in the diffusion of Christianity, the manner in which the +mission of the apostles everywhere attached itself to the synagogues +and proseuchai, is well known from the New Testament. That the +Christians of the 1st cenentury had much to suffer along with the Jews +is also a familiar fact. For at this period, in other respects +more favourable to them than any other had previously been, the +Jews had occasionally to endure persecution. The emperors, taking +umbrage at their intrusiveness, more than once banished them from +Rome (Acts xviii. 2). The good will of the native population they +never secured; they were most hated in Egypt and Syria, where they +were strongest. /1/ + +********************************** +1. Compare Schuerer, Neutest. Zeitgeschichte (1874), sec. 31. +The place taken by the Jewish element in the world of that time +is brilliantly set forth by Mommsen in his History of Rome (book +v. chapter ii.; English translation iv. p. 538 seq., 1866):-- +"How numerous even in Rome the Jewish population was already before +Caesar's time, and how closely at the same time the Jews even then +kept together as fellow-countrymen, is shown by the remark of an +author of this period, that it was dangerous for a governor to offend +the Jews in his province, because he might then certainly reckon on +being hissed after his return, by the populace of the capital. +Even at this time the predominant business of the Jews was trade.... +At this period too we encounter the peculiar antipathy of the +Occidentals touards this so thoroughly Oriental race and their +foreign opinions and customs. This Judaism, although not the most +pleasing feature in the nowhere pleasing picture of the mixture of +nations which then prevailed, was, nevertheless, an historical +element developing itself in the natural course of things,... +which Caesar just like his predecessor Alexander fostered as far +as possible....They did not, of course, contemplate placing the +Jewish nationality on an equal footing with the Hellenic or +Italo-Hellenic. But the Jew who has not, like the Occidental, +received the Pandora's gift of political organisation, and stands +substantially in a relation of indifference to the state, who, +moreover, is as reluctant to give up the essence of his national +idiosyncrasy as he is ready to clothe it with any nationality at +pleasure and to adapt himself up to a certain degree to foreign +habits--the Jew was, for this very reason, as it were, made for +a state which was to be built on the ruins of a hundred living +polities, and to be endowed with a somewhat abstract and, from +the outset, weakened nationality. In the ancient world also Judaism +was an effective leaven of cosmopolitanism and of national +decomposition." +********************************************* + +The position of the Jews in the Roman Empire was naturally not +improved by the great risings under Nero, Trajan (in Cyrene, +Cyprus, Mesopotamia), and Hadrian. The East strictly so called, +became more and more their proper home. The Christianization of +the empire helped still further in a very special way to detach +them from the Western world. /1/ + +*********************************** +1. For a brief time only were they again favoured by Julian the +Apostate; compare Gibbon, chapter xxiii. +*********************************** + +They sided with the Persians against the Byzantines; in the year +614 they were even put in possession of Jerusalem by Chosroes, +but were not long able to hold their own against Heraclius. /2/ + +************************************* +2. Gibbon, chapter xlvi. +************************************* + +With Islam also they found themselves in greater sympathy than with +Christianity, although they were cruelly treated by Mahomet in Arabia, +and driven by Omar out of the Hejaz, and notwithstanding the facts +that they were as matter of course excluded from citizenship, and +that they were held by Moslems as a whole in greater contempt than +the Christians. They throve especially well on what may be called +the bridge between East and West, in Mauretania and Spain, where they +were the intellectual intermediaries between the Arab and the Latin +culture. In the Sephardim and Ashkenazim the distinction between the +subtler Oriental and the more conservative Western Jews has maintained +itself in Europe also. From the 8th century onwards Judaism put +forth a remarkable side shoot in the Khazars on the Volga; if +legend Is to he believed, but little was required at one time to +have induced the Russians to accept the Jewish rather than the +Christian faith. + +In the West the equal civil rights which Caracalla had conferred on +all free inhabitants of the empire came to an end, so far as the +Jews were concerned, in the time of Constantine. The state then +became the secular arm of the church, and took action, though with +less severity, against Jews just as against heretics and pagans. +As early as the year 315, Constantine made conversion from +Christianity to Judaism a penal offence, and prohibited Jews, on +pain of death, from circumcising their Christian slaves. These +laws were re-enacted and made more severe by Constantius, who +attached the penalty of death to marriages between Jews and +Christians. Theodosius I. and Honorius, indeed, by strictly +prohibiting the destruction of synagogues, and by maintaining the +old regulation that a Jew was not to be summoned before a court of +justice on a Sabbath-day, put a check upon the militant zeal of the +Church, by which even Chrysostom, for example, allowed himself to +be carried away at Antioch. But Honorius rendered them ineligible +for civil or military service, leaving open to them only the bar +and the decurionate, the latter being a _privilegiium odiosum_. +Their liberty to try cases by their own law was curtailed; the cases +between Jews and Christians were to be tried by Christian judges +only. Theodosius II. prohibited them from building new synagogues, +and anew enforced their disability for all state employments. Most +hostile of all was the orthodox Justinian, who, however, was still +more severe against Pagans and Samaritans. /1/ + +****************************************** +1. Cod. Theod., xvi. 8: "De Judaeis, Coelicolis, et Samaritanis;" +Cod. Just., i. 9: "De Judaeis et Coelicolis." With regard to +these coelicolae, see Gothofredus on Cod. Theod., xvi. 8, 9, and +also J. Bernays, "Ueber die Gottesfuerchtigen bei Juvenal," in +the Comm. Philol in hon. Th. Mommsen, 1877, p. 163. +****************************************** + +He harassed the Jews with a law enjoining them to observe Easter on +the same day as the Christians, a law which it was of course found +impossible to carry out. /2/ + +******************************************* +2. Gibbon, chapter xlvii. +******************************************* + +In the Germanic states which arose upon the ruins of the Roman +empire, the Jews did not fare badly on the whole. It was only +in cases where the state was dominated by the Catholic Church, as, +for example; among the Spanish Visigoths, that they were cruelly +oppressed; among the Arian Ostrogoths, on the other hand, they +had nothing to complain of. One thing in their favour was the +Germanic principle that the law to be applied depended not on the +land but on the nationality, as now in the East Europeans are +judged by the consuls according to the law of their respective +nations. The autonomy of the Jewish communities, which had been +curtailed by the later emperors, was now enlarged once more under +the laxer political and legal conditions. The Jews fared +remarkably well under the Frankish monarchy; the Carolingians helped +them in every possible way, making no account of the complaints of +the bishops. They were allowed to hold property in land, but +showed no eagerness for it; leaving agriculture to the Germans, they +devoted them selves to trade. The market was completely in their +hands; as a specially lucrative branch of commerce they still +carried on the traffic in slaves, which had engaged them even in +ancient times. /1/ + +*************************************** +1. Agobardus Lugdunensis, Die Insolentia Judaeorum, De Judaicis +superstitionibus. Agobard was no superstitious fanatic, but one +of the weightiest and most enlightened ecclesiastics of the Middle +Ages. +*************************************** + +Meanwhile the Church was not remiss in seeking constantly repeated +re-enactments of the old imperial laws, in the framing of which she +had had paramount influence, and which she now incorporated with +her own canon law. /2/ + +*************************************** +2. Compare Decret. i., dist. 45, c. 3; Decr. ii., caus. 23, +qaest. 8, c. 9, caus. 28, qu. 1, c. 10-12; Decr. iii., de +consecr., dist. 4, c. 93; Decretal. Greg. 5, 6 ("De Judaeis, +Sarracenis, et eorum servis"), 5, 19, 18; Extrav. commun 5, 2. +*************************************** + +Gradually she succeeded in attaining her object. In the later Middle +Ages the position of the Jews in the Christian society deteriorated. +Intercourse with them was shunned; their isolation from being +voluntary became compulsory; from the I3th century onwards they were +obliged to wear, as a distinctive mark (more necessary in the East +than in the West), a round or square yellow badge on their breast. /3/ + +***************************************** +3. Compare Du Cange, s. v. "Judaei;" also Reuter, Gesch. d. +Aufklaerung im Mittelalter, i. 154 seq. In spite of all the legal +restrictions laid upon them, the Jews still continued to have great +influence with the princes, and more especially with the popes, of +the Middle Ages. +***************************************** + +The difference of religion elicited a well-marked religious hate with +oft-repeated deadly outbreaks, especially during the period of the +crusades, and afterwards when the Black Death was raging (1348-50). +Practical consequences like these the Church of course did not +countenance; the popes set themselves against persecutions of +the Jews, /4/ + +***************************************** +4. Decr. ii. 23, 8, 9. Alexander II. omnibus episeopis Hispaniae: +Dispar...est Judaeorum et Sarracenorum eausa; in illos enim, qui +Christianos persequuntur et ex urbibus et propriis sedibus pellunt, +juste pugnatur, hi vero ubique servire parati sunt. +******************************************** + +but with imperfect success. The popular aversion rested by no means +exclusively on religious considerations; worldly motives were also +present. The Jews of that period had in a still higher degree +than now the control of financial affairs in their hands; and they +used it without scruple. The Church herself had unintentionally +given them a monopoly of the money market, by forbidding +Christians to take interest. /5/ + +******************************************** +5. Decretal. Greg. v. 19, 18. Innocent III. in name of the +Lateran Council: Quanto amplius Christiana religio ab exactione +compescitur usurarum, tanto gravisu super his Judaeorum perfidia +insolescit, ita quod brevi tempore Christianorum exhauriunt +facultates. Volentes igitur in hac parse prospicere Christianis, +ne a Judaeis immaniter aggraventur, synodali decreto statuimus, ut, +si de caetero quocunque praetextu Judaaei a Christianis graves +immoderatasve usuras extorserint, Christianorum eis participium +subtrahatur, donec de immoderato gravamine satisfecerint competenter.... +Principibus autem injungimus, ut propter hoc non sint Christianis +infesti, sed potius a tanto gravamine studeant cohibere Judaeos. +****************************************** + +In this way the Jews became rich indeed, but at the same time made +themselves still more repugnant to the Christian population than +they previously were by reason of their religion. + +Having, according to the later mediaeval system, no rights in the +Christian state, the Jews were tolerated only in those territories +where the sovereign in the exercise of free favour accorded them +protection. This protection was granted them in many quarters, +but never for nothing; numerous and various taxes, which could be +raised or changed in a perfectly arbitrary way, were exacted in +exchange. But in countries where the feeling of nationality +attained to a vigorous development, the spirit of toleration was +speedily exhausted; the Jews were expelled by the act of the +state. England was the first kingdom in which this occurred +(1290); France followed in 1395, Spain and Portugal in 1492 and +1495. In this way it came about that the Holy Roman Empire-- +Germany, Italy, and adjoining districts--became the chief abode of +the Jews. /1/ In the anarchy which here prevailed they could best + +***************************************** +1. The Polish Jews are German Jews who migrated in the Middle Ages +to Poland, but have maintained to the present day their German +speech, a mediaeval South-Frankish dialect, of course greatly +corrupted. In Russian "German" and "Jew" mean the same thing. +****************************************** + +maintain their separate attitude, and if they were expelled from +one locality they readily found refuge in some other. The +emperor had indeed the right of extirpating them altogether (with +the exception of a small number to be left as a memorial); but, +in the first place, he had in various ways given up this right to +the states of the empire, and, moreover, his pecuniary resources +were so small that he could not afford to want the tax which the +Jews as his "servi camerae" paid him for protecting their persons +and property. In spite of many savage persecutions the Jews +maintained their ground, especially in those parts of Germany +where the political confusion was greatest. They even succeeded +in maintaining a kind of autonomy by means of an arrangement in +virtue of which civil processes which they had against each other +were decided by their own rabbins in accordance with the law of +the Talmud. /2/ + +********************************************** +2. Stobbe, Die Juden in Deutschl. waehr. d. Mittelalt., +Brunsw., 1866. +********************************************** + +The Jews, through their having on the one hand separated theselves, +and on the other hand been excluded on religious grounds +from the Gentiles, gained an internal solidarity and solidity +which has hitherto enabled them to survive all the attacks of time. +The hostility of the Middle Ages involved them in no danger; the +greatest peril has been brought upon them by modern times, along +with permission and increasing inducements to abandon their +separate position. It is worth while to recall on this point the +opinion of Spinoza, who was well able to form a competent judgment +(Tract. Theol. polit., c. 4, ad fin.):-- +"That the Jews have maintained themselves so long in spite of their +dispersed and disorganised condition is not at all to be wondered at, +when it is considered how they separated themselves from all other +nationalities in such a way as to bring upon themselves the hatred +of all, and that not only by external rites contrary to those of +other nations, but also by the sign of circumcision, which they +maintain most religiously. Experience shows that their +conservation is due in a great degree to the very hatred which +they have incurred. When the king of Spain compelled the Jews +either to accept the national religion or to go into banishment, +very many of them accepted the Roman Catholic faith, and in +virtue of this received all the privileges of Spanish subjects, and +were declared eligible for every honour; the consequence was that +a process of absorption began immediately, and in a short time +neither trace nor memory of them survived. Quite different was +the history of those whom the king of Portugal compelled to accept +the creed of his nation; although converted, they continued to +live apart from the rest of their fellow-subjects, having been +declared unfit for any dignity. So great importance do I attach +to the sign of circumcision also in this connection, that I am +persuaded that it is sufficient by itself to maintain the separate +existence of the nation for ever." +The persistency of the race may of course prove a harder thing to +overcome than Spinoza has supposed; but nevertheless he will be +found to have spoken truly in declaring that the so-called +emancipation of the Jews must inevitably lead to the extinction +of Judaism wherever the process is extended beyond the political +to the social sphere. For the accomplishment of this centuries +may be required. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prolegomena to the History of Israel +by Julius Wellhausen + +************************************************************************ + +This file should be named 4732.txt or 4732.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, prole12.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, prole11a.txt + +This etext was produced by Geoffrey Cowling. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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