,,the ,,evolution ,,of ,,old ,,testament ,,religion ,,the ,,evolution ,,of ,,old ,,testament ,,religion ,,by ,w4 ,e4 ,,orchard1 ,b4,d4 ,,london ,,james ,,clarke ,,co41 #ac #ad1 ,,fleet ,,street #aijh ,,to ,my ,wife ,,preface ,the substance of this book was originally delivered as a ,course of ,lectures to a week-night congregation4 ,the ,lecture form has been retained1 and this accounts for the repetition of the leading ideas1 while the practical interests of ,church life account for the insistence on the religious value and lesson4 ,it is hoped that this1 which might be irritating to the professional student1 may be helpful to the ordinary reader who is repelled by the technicality of critical works1 and often fails to discern the devout spirit by which such works are inspired1 or to discover what religious interest is served by them4 ,where everything is borrowed from other writers1 and no claim to originality is made1 detailed acknowledgment would be impossible1 but the resolve to attempt some such course in place of the usual form of a week-night service was formed in the ,hebrew class-room of ,westminster ,college1 ,cambridge1 while listening to the ,lectures on ,old ,testament ,theology and ,messianic ,prophecy1 delivered by the ,rev4 ,professor ,dr4 ,skinner 7now ,principal71 in which accurate scholarship was combined with a deep insight into the present religious importance of these subjects4 ,grateful acknowledgment is also due to the ,rev4 ,j4,r4 ,coates1 ,b4,a41 who kindly read through the proofs and made many valuable suggestions4 ,w4 ,e4 ,,orchard4 ,,enfield1 ,august1 #aijh4 ,,contents ,,lecture ,,page ,,introduction vii ,i4 ,,the ,,semitic ,,races #ai ,,ii4 ,,the ,,primitive ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,hebrews #ca ,,iii4 ,,mosaism #ee ,,iv4 ,,the ,,influence ,,of ,,canaan #hc ,v4 ,,prophetism--,,early ,,stages #ajg ,,vi4 ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,literary ,,prophets #ace ,,vii4 ,,the ,,effect ,,of ,,the ,,exile #afi ,,viii4 ,,the ,,work ,,of ,,the ,,priests #aie ,,ix4 ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,psalmists #bae ,x4 ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,wise #bda ,,xi4 ,,messianic ,,expectations #bfe ,,introduction ,it is a matter of common knowledge that within the last few decades a tremendous change has come over our estimate of the value of the ,old ,testament1 and that this change is of the gravest importance for our understanding of religion4 ,but what the exact nature of the change is1 and what we are to deduce from it1 is a matter of debate1 for the facts are only known to professional students and to a few others who may have been led to interest themselves in the subject4 ,with some1 for instance1 the idea prevails that the ,old ,testament has been so discredited by modern research that its religious significance is now practically worthless4 ,others believe that the results arrived at are untrue1 and regard them as the outcome of wicked attacks made upon the veracity of the ,word of ,god by men whose scholarship is a cloak for their sinister designs or a mask of their incapacity to comprehend its spiritual message4 ,there is perhaps a middle course open to some who have found a message of ,god to their souls in the ,old ,testament1 and who1 on hearing that the authorship of this book has been questioned or the historicity of that passage assailed1 are unmoved1 because they believe that it does not matter who wrote the ,pentateuch or the ,psalms so long as through these documents they hear the voice of the living ,word of ,god4 ,here then is a subject on which there exists a distressing confusion1 and1 moreover1 a subject in which ignorance plays no small part4 ,save with a few devout souls who have made a long and continuous study of the ,scriptures1 it may be doubted whether there is any widespread knowledge of the actual message of the ,old ,testament1 even among ,christian people4 ,there are certainly many people willing to defend the authority of the ,bible who spend very little time in reading it4 ,the favourite ,psalms and the evangelical passages of ,isaiah are probably well known1 and beyond this there is but the knowledge gained in early days1 from which stand out in the memory the personalities of ,samson and ,saul1 ,david and ,goliath1 and ,daniel in the lion's den1 together with the impressive stories of the ,flood1 the destruction of ,sodom and ,gomorrah1 the crossing of the ,red ,sea1 and the fall of ,jericho4 ,a very little is probably carried away from the public reading of the ,scriptures in places of worship4 ,it cannot be said that this acquaintance conveys any real impression of the magnificent message that lies embedded in these thirty-nine books which go to make up the ,old ,testament4 ,now whatever harm may be charged to the modern methods1 it can at least be claimed that neglected portions have been carefully studied1 the meaning of obscure passages discovered1 and much of importance and interest brought to light2 but more than this1 it has been discovered that the essential message of the ,old ,testament lies largely apart from those narratives and personalities that impress the superficial reader1 and rather in the record of a gradual development of the conception of ,god and of ,his purpose in calling ,israel to be the recipient of ,his self-disclosure4 ,it has been found that the striking figures of the landscape are of less importance than the road that winds among them along which revelation moves to its final goal4 ,it may be objected that the new inspiration1 which so many who have studied the ,scriptures by these methods claim to have felt1 throws quite a new emphasis on our conception of the ,old ,testament and is revolutionary of all that we have been accustomed to believe concerning it2 that the methods are such as could not legitimately be applied to the ,word of ,god1 and are the products of a criticism which is puffed up with a sense of its own superiority2 and that the results are discreditable to the ,old ,testament1 since they allege that some of the narratives are unhistorical1 some passages and even whole books unauthentic1 and traditions on which the gravest issues have been staked shown to have nothing more than a legendary basis4 ,there is much in these objections that is natural1 but much that is misunderstanding4 ,it is true that the contribution which the ,old ,testament makes to religion is estimated differently from what it was fifty years ago1 and it must be allowed that this brings a charge of having misunderstood the ,scriptures against generations of scholars and saints4 ,but it is admitted that all matters of knowledge are open to misunderstanding4 ,it is no argument against the conception that the earth moves round the sun1 that the contrary idea was held in other ages4 ,we know that the understanding of the ,old ,testament has been obscured1 often by those who ought to have been the greatest authorities on its meaning4 ,jesus read into the ,scriptures a meaning unrecognised by the authorities of ,his day1 and dealt with them in a fashion that was regarded as revolutionary4 ,to some of the ,scriptures ,he appealed as to a final authority1 but others ,he regarded as imperfect and only suited to the time in which they were written4 ,the ,jews of ,his day venerated every letter of the sacred writings1 and regarded the very copies of the ,law as sacred to the touch1 and yet on their understanding of the ,scriptures they rejected the mission and message of ,jesus4 ,christian scholarship has undoubtedly followed rather after the ,rabbis than after ,christ4 ,the message of the ,old ,testament that the new methods have made clear certainly appears to be more in conformity with the ,spirit of ,christ than with that of ,his opponents1 and if this is revolutionary then it is no new thing2 religion always moves along such lines4 ,great offence has been caused and insuperable prejudice aroused among many by the name under which these methods have become known4 ,the name1 higher criticism1 conveys to most people a suggestion of carping fault-finding and an assumption of superiority4 ,this is due to an entire misunderstanding of a technical term4 ,criticism is nothing more than the exercise of the faculty of judgment1 and1 moreover1 judgment that ought to be perfectly fair4 ,the sinister suggestion that is conveyed in the word is due to the fact that our criticisms are so often biassed by personal prejudices4 ,but this only condemns our faults1 and not the method4 ,higher criticism does not mean any assumption of superiority1 but is simply a term used to distinguish it from lower criticism4 ,the criticism that endeavours to ascertain the original text by a comparison of the various documents available is called lower1 and that which deals with matters higher up the stream of descent by which the writings have been conveyed to us1 namely1 matters of date and authorship1 is called higher criticism4 ,it might well be called literary and historical criticism1 in distinction from textual criticism4 ,it employs historical methods1 and uses the simple tests of comparison and contemporaneity4 ,for the understanding of a particular age1 it prefers those documents that describe the times in which they were written1 and give indirect evidence1 rather than those histories which were written long after the event and which reveal a purpose other than the strictly historical4 ,fortunately1 we have in the ,old ,testament many such contemporary and indirect witnesses in the writings of the ,prophets4 ,they are not consciously writing history1 but they tell us indirectly what the practices of their day were1 and especially what religious ideas were prevalent2 for it is these things that they feel called upon to attack4 ,with these reliable standards we can compare the regular histories1 which were necessarily written at a much later age1 and very often to serve some religious purpose4 ,now it is this method1 which is surely a true and proper one1 that has changed our estimate of the history and development of religion in ,israel4 ,are we to condemn the method without examination because it destroys certain traditions about the ,bible which we have received largely from ,judaism8--the ,judaism which could find no place for ,jesus6 ,but it will be answered that these methods yield results that are incompatible with the inspiration of the ,bible1 and are unworthy of ,god's revelation to us4 ,but how are we to decide what is compatible with inspiration8 ,we can only tell1 surely1 by seeing what these results are and by discovering whether they bring any inspiration to us4 ,can we be certain1 without examining the facts1 to what lines the revelation of ,god is to be restricted8 ,is this not coming to the ,bible with a theory which we have manufactured and which will surely distort the facts8 ,it will be said that anything less than absolute accuracy makes void any claim to be a ,divine revelation4 ,let us consider what this means4 ,we know that the historical spirit1 which endeavours to see history as it actually happened quite apart from our desires or sympathies1 is an ideal which has only emerged with the general spread of education1 and that in ancient times history was written largely with a view to edification1 and especially for giving such lessons as would lead to right principles being adopted for the future4 ,it was not the accuracy of the material but suitability for its purpose that weighed with the historian4 ,now1 with these conditions existing1 was it impossible for ,god to speak to men through their conceptions of history1 or had ,he to wait until the historical spirit prevailed8 ,could ,he not use the early legends which they believed1 and through them bring the truth to men8 ,we know that the greatest of all religious teachers did not scruple to embody the highest truths in such parables as lowly minds could receive4 ,we may demand that revelation shall be infallible1 but this would need in turn an infallible person to receive it1 and even then an infallible interpreter4 ,an infallible revelation would mean that there could never be any progress in revelation2 that it would have to be given perfect in one process2 that it would have to be authenticated to men by authority1 since it would be beyond the understanding of a fallible mind2 that it would break in upon every other experience1 remain isolated1 and never be grasped by that strong conviction which we call faith2 and this would entail a destruction of the mental faculties of man1 and an acknowledgment that communication between ,god and man is really impossible4 ,could not ,god speak to man in his infancy1 and with the growing understanding would there not be growing light8 ,meanwhile1 whatever we feel about these abstract principles1 we ought to know the facts4 ,in the pages that follow an endeavour is made to present the results at which a consensus of opinion has arrived4 ,there will be no great time spent in argument for or against these facts4 ,such are to be sought in the scientific works and in the dictionaries1 which alone can deal adequately with these facts1 but since many altogether refuse to consider the facts because of the inferences which they think can be drawn from them1 this book is an earnest plea for earnest men to consider whether it is not open to be shown that from these facts there comes to us a much clearer understanding of ,god's ways with man2 a more certain conviction that in the past ,god has actually spoken through the ,scriptures2 a clue to a better understanding of the place ,jesus occupies in the history of revelation2 and what we all need greatly to-day3 a preparation of heart that we may follow the leading of that ,spirit who ever has and who ever will guide into all truth those who are willing to follow ,him4 ,the aim of this book is that the reader may feel that the voice which speaks in his own heart and the voice which has guided man through all his strange history is ,one1 and is of ,god4 ,,the ,,semitic ,,races ,read1 as ,introduction to this ,lecture1 the ,tenth ,chapter of ,genesis4 ,this is one of the most interesting documents in anthropology4 ,it is an attempt at a scientific ethnology1 and seems to have been expanded from the closing verses of the preceding chapter4 ,it will be noticed that those verses are in poetical form 7,r4,v471 and are likely to be very ancient4 ,note the principles of classification3-- 7#a7 ,geographical4 ,it is a very incomplete summary of the peoples of the earth4 ,only those nations are mentioned that fill the horizon of the writer's knowledge4 ,that horizon will be found to correspond very largely with that of the prophets ,jeremiah and ,ezekiel4 7#b7 ,prejudice4 ,the evident kinship of some peoples is denied on the ground of dislike2 for the same reason1 ,moab and ,ammon1 who are well known1 are simply omitted4 ,the real test of kinship is language1 which is here ignored4 ,the names are not to be taken as individuals4 ,of this the very form is witness3 ,ludim is plural1 ,mizraim is dual1 ,tarshish is the name of a place1 and ,amorite is gentilic4 ,notes3-- ,verse #b4 ,madai ,medes4 ,javan the ,greeks1 or more particularly1 the ,ionians4 ,verse #d4 ,tarshish is probably ,spain4 ,kittim the ,cretans4 ,dodanim 7read ,rodanim #a ,ch4 i4 #g7 the inhabitants of ,rhodes4 ,verse #f4 ,mizraim3 the name for ,egypt4 ,canaan3 here and elsewhere said to be descended from ,ham4 ,beyond all doubt the ,canaanites were a ,semitic people and spoke a language akin to ,hebrew4 ,religious antagonism and the fact of their conquest demanded in the popular imagination a different ancestry4 ,verse #ad4 ,whence went forth the ,philistines is misplaced1 and should follow after ,caphtorim 7,amos ix4 #g74 ,verse #ba4 ,eber3 the name of the supposed ancestor of the ,hebrews4 ,verse #bb4 ,elam ,persia4 ,racially the ,elamites were quite distinct from the ,semites4 ,this inclusion may be a clue to the date of this ,table of ,nations2 friendship with ,persia dates from ,cyrus 7,sixth ,century ,b4,c474 7,see ,driver's ,genesis47 ,lecture ,i ,,the ,,semitic ,,races ,the ,hebrew nation forms a branch of that group of the human family known as the ,semites4 ,their relation to the other great racial divisions of mankind is far beyond the reach of our enquiry1 and we cannot even penetrate to a period when the ,semites formed an unbroken family4 ,at the remotest date to which history can take us we find the family already widely dispersed1 with distinct national characteristics well developed1 and their common ancestry quite forgotten in their violent hatreds of their unrecognised kinsmen4 ,indeed it is only the test of language which still preserves for us an indisputable proof of their common origin4 ,their existence can be traced back to a very remote date1 for fragments of their literature and other evidences of civilisation have been discovered that have been dated #ejjj-djjj ,b4,c41 and even at that period the language shows signs of phonetic degeneration that require a still further period for the process to have reached this stage4 ,the primitive home of the ,semites cannot have been1 however1 where these ancient remains have been found1 namely1 in the ,euphrates valley1 for the records themselves show that they were only immigrants there and had replaced the original inhabitants1 who came of ,sumerian stock4 ,neither was it in ,palestine1 as our own ,bible will tell us2 but it is probably to be sought in ,arabia1 where the purest ,semitic stock is still to be found4 ,in this desert home the race was bred that was destined to have such a tremendous influence on the history of the world1 and it is largely to this desert training that we can trace influences which have made them what they are4 ,the battle for life in that inhospitable land would mould a physique capable of extraordinary endurance1 and to this we can perhaps trace the virility of the modern ,jew1 who has resisted for centuries the poisonous ghettos of ,european cities and remains far healthier than his indigenous neighbours4 ,this hard training fitted them for an exacting life1 and in the ,phoenicians they became the traders of antiquity1 and in the ,carthaginians and ,saracens1 warriors not to be despised4 ,hardness easily becomes cruelty1 and purely ,semitic empires1 such as ,assyria1 developed a barbarous cruelty1 the story of which is told on their inscriptions and in the denunciations of the ,hebrew ,prophets4 ,there is something in the ,semitic character that is disliked by ,western nations1 and the ,jews have been subjects of relentless persecution in medival times1 and are still capable of arousing bitter hostility1 as may be seen from those violent eruptions of anti-,semitism which occasionally burst through the cosmopolitanism of ,western ,europe4 ,the well-defined limitations of their primitive home--crushed in between the continents of ,europe1 ,africa and ,asia1 the neutral ground of the ,eastern and ,western worlds--seem almost to be reflected in the limitations of their mental development4 ,the ,semitic tongue is crude in its simplicity and incapable of expressing an abstract idea1 and it is natural to find as a result that the philosophical faculty is almost entirely missing4 ,although they have given to the world an alphabet1 a system of numeration which has made mathematics possible1 and the beginnings of measurement and of the science of astronomy1 yet their mind is not scientific in the modern sense4 ,they possess1 as perhaps no other race1 the gift of telling stories of wonder and mystery1 and for a simple tale of love and pathos they are unsurpassed4 ,they have produced the finest lyrical literature of the ancient world1 but have contributed hardly anything to dramatic or epic poetry1 and their achievements in art have been cramped by their religious prejudices4 ,but in the realm of religion they are supreme1 and have become the high-priests of humanity1 for from them have gone forth three great religions1 and one of these capable of development into the universal religion of mankind4 ,these faiths have not been slowly evolved from the national consciousness1 but have both sprung from and been embodied in inspiring personalities2 for have they not given to the world ,moses and the ,prophets1 ,mahomet1 and the ,son of ,man8 ,the ,semites are divided by anthropologists into the following groups3 ,southern ,group--,north ,arabians1 ,sabans1 ,abyssinians2 ,northern ,group--,babylonians1 ,assyrians1 ,aramans1 ,canaanites1 ,hebrews2 and all these groups seem to have been formed from the original stock by migrations from their home in ,arabia4 ,the contracted area of the ,arabian peninsula1 the inability of the land to support a large population1 coupled with their restless spirit and the constant feuds between the tribes1 made emigration a necessity at a very early period4 ,the exact history and order of these migrations it is now impossible to trace1 but it would seem that the first great movement was eastward1 whither they were drawn by the culture and wealth of the ,sumerian civilisation in the ,euphrates valley4 ,it is quite possible that this movement commenced #fjjj years before ,christ4 ,at a later date they seem to have invaded ,egypt and left some traces upon the language and customs of that land4 ,the land of ,syria would offer a near and easy home for the emigrants1 and yet the first ,semites to arrive in ,palestine seem to have come from the ,euphrates4 ,the inhabitants they displaced were the ,hittites1 who probably came from ,asia ,minor2 they were ,turanians1 and were akin to the present inhabitants of ,armenia4 ,it is only lately that excavation has revealed the remains of a ,hittite ,empire in ,palestine4 ,the first ,semitic tribes to reach ,palestine pushed down to the seaboard1 where they developed a wonderful maritime civilisation and became the daring traders and explorers who are known in history as the ,phoenicians2 the other tribes occupied the hill country and became the ,canaanites of ,bible story4 ,of the next migration westward1 the ,bible preserves a popular account in the story of the journey of ,abraham from ,ur of the ,chaldees4 ,now ,abraham and his descendants were called ,hebrews1 and this name is traced to an ancestor who was called ,eber or ,heber4 ,it is doubtful whether an individual so named ever existed4 ,the name ,hebrew means one from the other side1 and would therefore have been a suitable name for those who crossed the ,euphrates1 coming from ,arabia2 but of this movement the ,bible knows nothing4 ,some have supposed that the name was given much later to the tribes who entered ,palestine across the ,jordan4 ,the discovery of the ,tel-el-,amarna tablets has somewhat complicated our understanding of these events4 ,these tablets were letters written by the vassal-kings of ,syria to their overlord ,amenophis ,,iii41 ,king of ,egypt1 and in them the ,king of ,jerusalem calls for help against some tribes who are invading the country and whom he names ,habiri4 ,now the date of this correspondence is about #aejj ,b4,c41 and if these are the ,hebrews1 we shall have to suppose that not all the tribes of ,israel went down into ,egypt or that the ,exodus took place some two centuries earlier than the date given in the ,bible2 but the whole question of the identification of the ,habiri is not yet certain4 ,it is1 however1 with those ,hebrew tribes who were afterwards known as the children of ,israel that we have to do2 and however remote1 and by whatever stages it is to be traced1 their ,semitic relationship is certain4 ,their own tradition of the birthplace of ,abraham shows that they are conscious of their common origin with the ,babylonians2 the stories in ,genesis acknowledge their kinship with ,moab and ,ammon1 even though national hatred has coloured the account of their birth 7,gen4 xix4 #cj-ch74 ,they formed a brotherly covenant with ,edom1 and ,ishmael is recognised not only to be kin but to be the elder4 ,the ,canaanites were disowned wrongly1 for they were certainly ,semites2 but the ,philistines rightly1 for they came into ,palestine over-sea from ,crete4 ,we need always to bear in mind that our ,bible is the product of ,semitic thought1 and whatever its universal message1 it is expressed in the forms of ,semitic genius2 and yet that the ,hebrews stand out from the other ,semitic nations is indisputable1 and the distinguishing mark is the purity of their religion4 ,what is the cause of that difference8 ,how came such a tender root out of such a dry ground8 ,renan is responsible for the popular idea that the ,semites have a natural tendency towards ,monotheism4 ,the idea should present no difficulties for a theory of ,revelation1 but it is certainly not true4 ,it is not true of the general type of ,semitic religion1 and it cannot be claimed1 in the face of the ,prophets' record of their countrymen's lapses1 that it was true even of the ,hebrews4 ,if it were said that there was that in ,semitic history and character which1 provided opportunity were given1 would offer a congenial soil for the reception of monotheistic ideas1 it would be the utmost that could be said4 ,neither is there more truth in the antithesis that contrasts the ,aryan conception of ,god as immanent with the ,semitic as transcendent2 for in their primitive stages ,aryan and ,semitic religions are alike4 ,primitive ,semitic religion is indeed quite polytheistic2 every tribe has its own god and this god is closely identified with a particular locality4 ,therefore1 to be an outcast from the tribe meant to be an exile from the protection and service of the god4 ,this idea can be found in the ,bible as late as ,david1 who thought that if he were driven forth from his own land he would have to serve other gods 7#a ,sam4 xxvi4 #ai74 ,the god is conceived to be the father of the tribe1 while the land is the mother1 and this in quite a physical and literal sense4 ,the same idea is of course frequent in the ,greek religions1 and some such conception must be the original of the strange tradition in ,genesis 7vi4 #a71 which describes a union between the sons of ,god and the daughters of men4 ,the connection of the god with the tribe is therefore simply a matter of blood descent1 and the blood becomes in consequence invested with sacred virtues4 ,the blood of the tribe cannot be shed by one of the members without incurring the vengeance of the god2 and the use of the blood of animals in various ceremonies may point to the belief in a common ancestry for men and animals2 in some tribes the animal is regarded as a superior being1 and is actually worshipped4 ,the blood of animals even is thought to be too sacred for human consumption1 and is therefore set apart by libation as suitable food for the god4 ,seeing that the connection between the god and man is only tribal1 the shedding of the blood of any other tribe is quite allowable2 for the tribal god cares only for his own people1 and others cannot approach him 7#b ,kings xvii4 #bg74 ,it is evident that a religion based upon such ideas can never be a factor in the moral development of a people4 ,it only needs to provide for help against enemies1 counsel in times of national affliction1 and oracles for difficult problems of judgment2 therefore1 in times of national prosperity and security1 it will play no part beyond that of custom2 and custom often seems the stronger in proportion to its lack of meaning4 ,we may insist that the ,hebrew religion is superior to all this because it owes its origin to the special revelation of ,god2 but even that does not preclude us from enquiring through what natural causes this revelation came1 if we believe that natural causes form some part of the working of the ,divine mind4 ,now these ideas common to ,semitic religion persisted among the ,hebrews and were only shaken by the earnest ministry of the ,prophets1 and eventually destroyed by the reflection which followed the national disaster of the ,exile4 ,the continued national trouble of ,israel was therefore a factor in her advance in the truth1 and she stands as a witness to the possibility of suffering being an educative force4 ,moreover1 she found that her ,promised ,land was only a little strip hemmed in between the desert and the sea1 where all dreams of world-empire were forbidden4 ,then it was that this nation turned her thoughts to a spiritual kingdom1 and looking across the sea that she feared to cross saw a day when the distant isles should be her possession1 because she had given to them the ,law of ,jehovah1 and the knowledge of ,god4 ,,the ,,primitive ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,hebrews ,,the ,,strata ,,of ,,the ,,pentateuch ,we give here for reference the proposed identification of the documents that critics say can be recognised in the construction of the first five books of the ,bible4 ,the theory has been developed so as to include the ,books of ,joshua1 ,judges1 and some parts of ,samuel1 all of which are said to bear the same marks of composition from pre-existing documents4 ,j4 ,jahvistic4 ,dated #ijj-gjj ,b4,c4 ,this document is especially distinguished for using the name of ,jehovah1 or ,yahw1 and is anthropomorphic in its conception of ,god4 ,e4 ,elohistic4 ,dated #gej-fej ,b4,c4 ,the name for ,god in this document is ,elohim1 and its conception of ,god is more spiritual and elevated than in ,j4 ,d4 ,deuteronomist4 ,dated #fej-eej ,b4,c4 ,this document has the style and thought of the ,book of ,deuteronomy1 where it is chiefly1 though by no means exclusively found4 ,the central idea of this document is the one sanctuary4 ,p4 ,priestly ,code4 ,dated #eej-djj ,b4,c4 ,this document supplies the framework of the ,pentateuch1 and is distinguished by its interest in questions of ritual1 and by its very legal and stereotyped style4 ,the dates given above are arrived at from a comparison of the ideas expressed in these documents with their emergence in the historical books of the ,old ,testament4 ,only for the last two can it be claimed that there are historical events which are said to confirm them4 ,these are3 the finding of the ,book of the ,law in the reign of ,josiah1 and the promulgation of the ,law by ,ezra4 ,lecture ,,ii ,,the ,,primitive ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,hebrews ,we have seen from the last lecture that an examination of the general type of ,semitic ,religion gives us no explanation of the mature development of the ,religion of the ,hebrews2 on the contrary1 that development would seem to take place in spite of the common ,semitic characteristics1 for it is against these characteristics and the natural tendency to return to them that we find the ,prophets continually at war4 ,if this is so1 can we penetrate to the first stage at which the new religious movement begins which was to reach such glorious heights in ,jeremiah1 the ,psalmists and the ,son of ,man8 ,it is certainly not to be found in the general character of ,semitic religion2 does it commence with the ancestor of the ,hebrew race1 the ,patriarch ,abraham8 ,to this question the editor of ,genesis means to return a decided answer3 the true religion of ,jehovah existed from the earliest times1 and all lower forms are deteriorations from that pure original revelation4 ,the earliest stories in ,genesis are made to bear witness to this2 ,abel offered the true worship of ,god in that he brought of the best of his flock1 thus agreeing with the sacrifice of animals set forth in the fully-developed ritual of ,leviticus as the only means of approach to ,god2 ,noah offers of clean animals2 the ,patriarchs offer animal sacrifices1 and call upon the name of ,jehovah2 ,rebekah goes to enquire of ,jehovah and obtains an oracle4 ,the author means to convey by this that the earliest religion was the religion which we find outlined in ,leviticus and ,deuteronomy1 with the exceptions that a priest is not necessary1 and that sacrifice is permitted at other places besides the one chosen sanctuary4 ,this idea is enshrined in that favourite name for ,god which we find in the ,old ,testament1 the ,god of ,abraham1 ,isaac and ,jacob4 ,we have now to enquire whether this is a correct view of the history1 or only the writer's speculations about an age long removed from his own4 ,we are moved to do this because there are certain facts in this history that do not seem to fit in with the author's view4 ,it is evident at the outset1 that the writer1 whoever he be1 is dealing with subjects concerning which he can have at best only second-hand knowledge4 ,this may have been conveyed to him in documents1 or in popular tradition4 ,if the object of the compilation of this history was not so much to produce an accurate and exact history as to interpret the past as a religious lesson for his own age1 it cannot be instantly dismissed as improbable that he may have altered some of his material so as to accord more closely with his own religious views4 ,now scholars say that they can detect the presence of various documents1 which have been loosely combined and coloured with the editor's own ideas of what should have taken place4 ,there is hardly any theory which has excited more ridicule from a certain class of ,biblical students4 ,the idea is dismissed offhand as utterly unworthy of a sacred writer2 and even if he did adopt such a scissors-and-paste method of compiling history1 it is denied that anyone could detect the various strata now4 ,no defence of these claims of the critical school need be attempted here1 for we are taking their theories as granted1 with the idea of seeing what their acceptance as true would mean to our estimate of the ,bible and ,revelation2 but it may be shown that the ,evangelist ,luke is not ashamed to confess that he used something like this method in compiling his ,gospel4 ,from the ,table that faces this lecture1 it will be seen that the critics give dates for these documents that lie very far apart1 and if the dates are even approximately true1 it is a fair conclusion that with such wide separation of time1 and with the consequent difference both in language and idea1 there should be sufficient criteria to detect the different strata4 ,the critics who have attempted the disintegration of the original documents of the ,pentateuch have been challenged to show their fitness for such a task by extricating the respective contributions in a joint authorship novel such as ,the ,chaplain of the ,fleet1 by ,walter ,besant and ,james ,rice4 ,or1 again1 such claims are discounted on the ground of the known failures of professional literary critics to recognise under pseudonym or anonymity1 the style of a well-known author1 or even to guess correctly the sex of the writer4 ,the analogy fails because the circumstances are entirely different4 ,it would be on more equal terms to deny that it would be possible to distinguish1 say1 the personal opinions of the author of an ,english ,history from the passages quoted from the ,doomsday ,book1 ,chaucer1 or an ,act of the ,long ,parliament1 if all quotation marks and references were omitted4 ,for according to the witness of the very documents themselves this conception of the early history must be set aside as not quite correct4 ,the history in ,genesis is conscious that some new start began with ,abraham3 he abandoned idolatry4 ,still more clearly is it seen that with ,moses another epoch began1 for according to one document1 the very name of ,jehovah was unknown before its revelation to ,moses 7,exod4 vi4 #b1 #c74 ,we are1 therefore1 faced with the necessity of enquiring how much of the stories of the ,patriarchs can be called history in any true sense4 ,the reasons for and against their historical value may be summarised3 ,against3 7#a7 ,the stories must have been composed long after the events took place4 7#b7 ,tribal movements and personal incidents seem to have been confused4 7#c7 ,the endeavour to explain the origin of personal and geographical names is often merely popular1 and etymologically incorrect4 7,compare with this the common errors of our own day2 for instance1 the explanation of the name of ,liverpool from a supposed bird called the liver1 now known to be entirely mythical47 7#d7 ,while the contemporary history of this period is now quite an enlightened field1 and the life1 character1 and customs of the inhabitants of ,palestine in this age of the ,patriarchs comparatively well known1 we look in vain for any mention of these persons themselves4 ,for37#a7 ,the narratives of the ,patriarchs are admitted by critics to have been taken from at least two documents of separate origin and of different dates4 ,this should double the weight of the evidence4 7#b7 ,the simplicity of the narratives in many places looks like a relation of fact4 7,but over against this must be placed the genius for relating a story of pure fiction which is so peculiar a distinction of the ,semites4 ,some of the narratives are quite artificial2 as the story of ,isaac's lie to shield his wife1 which follows a similar story related of ,abraham47 7#c7 ,we might appeal to the memory of the ,bedawin reciters1 who can repeat almost incredibly long portions of the ,koran4 ,the most likely solution of this conflicting evidence would seem to be that in the history of the ,patriarchs we have a modicum of historical foundation which has been worked up into popular and idealised legends4 ,if the stories of the three ,patriarchs be carefully studied1 it will be noticed that while the stories of ,jacob are matter of fact1 and do outline a conceivable character1 the stories of ,isaac produce only a nebulous character impression1 while ,abraham stands forth as a character which has been idealised4 ,this would be an accountable psychological process3 in the case of ,jacob a good deal of detail is remembered1 ,isaac is almost forgotten1 while in the case of ,abraham1 only the name and a few incidents are known1 which serve to form the framework of a religious lesson4 ,it is1 however1 in the conception of their religion that idealisation has most plainly occurred1 for it is mainly the religion of the ,ninth ,century1 that is1 of the age immediately preceding the great literary ,prophets4 ,in the documents themselves there is left to the careful reader ample indication in customs and narratives1 the meaning of which has escaped the notice of the editor1 that a more primitive form of religion prevailed4 ,it would seem1 as we have seen1 that the name of ,jehovah was unknown to them1 while there are evident tokens of polytheistic belief 7,gen4 xxxi4 #ai2 xxxv4 #a-d74 ,the crudity of the worship may be seen in the frequent reference to the erection of pillars and stones1 which1 it will be seen later1 have more than a merely memorial purpose4 ,the ease with which we find idolatry always reappearing in later history points to some hereditary tendency at work among the mass of the people4 ,if1 however1 we suppose that the primitive religion was entirely heathen we shall be faced with the problem of discovering some necessary point of departure to which the higher revelation could affix itself4 ,we may suppose1 therefore1 that among the ancestors of the ,hebrews there was held a faith that was relatively purer than that common to the ,semites1 a faith which contained in itself the guarantee of the possibility of advance1 if only favourable conditions arose2 that ,el1 the ,mighty ,one 7,shaddai71 was worshipped1 but along with the retention of customs and ideas that are to be found in some forms of demon worship1 that is1 with the recognition of many other great spirits1 not all of whom are thought of as inimical to man2 very much as we find among the ,north ,american ,indians the idea of a ,great ,spirit1 existing side by side with heathen practices and beliefs4 ,so far our enquiry has not taken us on to very sure ground1 and we must seek other methods4 ,in the study of ,comparative ,religion the idea of a certain natural order of the evolution of religion predominates1 but the actual origin of religion is still only a matter of speculation1 as indeed it is bound to remain from the very nature of religion itself1 since it is a vision of faith1 rising in different ages and races through quite different processes4 ,we propose now to take both the speculations and the assured results of the study of ,comparative ,religion1 and using these as tests1 see if they have left any traces in the evolution of the ,hebrew religion or if they can guide us to its possible origins4 ,the principles of such enquiry and application may be stated4 7#a7 ,the ascertained customs and ideas of other religions1 especially those of the ,semites1 will form a working hypothesis1 and if we then find any reference to these customs or ideas in the ,old ,testament1 it will make towards reasonable proof of a similar origin4 7#b7 ,we must be careful1 however1 to exclude customs that are known to have been borrowed from the ,canaanites1 such as the practice of ,baal-worship4 7#c7 ,at the same time we must beware of assuming1 without further enquiry1 that all the observances ordained by the religion of ,jehovah whose origins are connected with some historical event are to be thought of as having their beginning then4 ,it is more than likely that when a long-established custom was recognised to be heathen in its origin or tendency1 it would be strictly forbidden1 as in the case of the heathen practice of necromancy2 others which had lost their original meaning would be baptised into a new significance under the new religion4 7,with this phenomenon may be compared our own festival of ,christmas ,day1 taken over from the ,roman ,saturnalia1 and our mourning customs1 which are survivals of heathenism1 and can only with great difficulty be made to take on a ,christian meaning47 ,let us then examine the supposed origins of heathen religion1 and first of all1 that known as ,totemism4 ,totemism is a custom exceedingly common among savage tribes1 in which some animal is chosen as the badge1 or the name of the tribe1 and a blood covenant formed1 when the animal becomes the totem or god of the tribe4 ,popular instances may be given in the names of many of the ,indian tribes of ,north ,america1 or even in the crests and emblems of our now disrupted clans in ,scotland1 which can be traced back to a similar idea4 ,in other cases the totem may be one of the well-known flora of the country or some other natural object4 ,the custom is1 of course1 seen in the well-known worship of animals which has continued even among nations of advanced civilisation4 ,are there any traces of the influence of this idea at work in the religion of the ,old ,testament8 ,there are one or two tribal names which are names of animals4 ,simeon is probably the name of a hybrid between a wolf and a hyna4 ,leah means a wild cow1 and ,rachel is the ,hebrew name for an ewe4 ,the distinction between clean and unclean animals might be traced to this influence1 but it does not altogether explain the lists in ,lev4 xi4 and ,deut4 xiv4 ,another theory of the origin of religion is that known as ,animism4 ,this is the belief in the existence of spirits1--a belief prompted by the phenomena of dreams1--which usually takes the form of belief in the activity of the spirits of the recently deceased1 an activity which is sometimes thought to be harmful and therefore feared4 ,animism1 as a belief in a spiritual activity behind natural phenomena1 especially those of the fearful type1 survives in some form or other in the highest religions1 and was particularly active in the ,hebrew idea that ,jehovah controlled natural forces for the deliverance of ,his people and for ,his own wonderful manifestations4 ,animism generally survives among uncivilised peoples in the practice of ancestor worship1 of which there is no trace among the ,hebrews4 ,nevertheless1 the belief in ,animism has left some customs behind it4 ,especially is this seen in the mourning customs which are designed to render the relatives unrecognisable to the departed spirit4 ,this was effected by sprinkling ashes on the head1 going naked or clothed in sackcloth4 ,cutting the flesh for this purpose is expressly forbidden 7,lev4 xix4 #bh74 ,the ritual uncleanness of one who has come into contact with a dead body is also a relic of ,animism1 as is also the strange idea in ,num4 xix4 #ae1 which is intended to guard against the spirit taking up its abode in a position from which it would be difficult to dislodge it4 ,the funeral feast is held with the idea that the dead can still partake1 but in this case friendly feelings rather than fear operate4 ,the conclusion is that ,animism has played its part in the shaping of ,israel's religion1 but that the cruder forms of it were dropped at a very early age4 ,the religion of savage tribes is generally found to be polytheistic1 and this is supposed to be one of the earliest stages in the development of religion4 ,it takes the form of the deification of the forces of ,nature or of striking natural objects1 which are worshipped and generally feared1 and is therefore a form of ,animism4 ,if the theories of the critics as to the composition of the early books of the ,bible are correct1 we should expect to find that1 if any traces of ,polytheism could be detected1 they would be carefully obliterated from the original documents by the latest editor4 ,there are indications discernible which show that this has been done1 for although the worship of other gods is always severely condemned as the greatest of sins1 yet at the same time we find no clear recognition of the idea of the ,one ,god until the time of the ,prophets4 ,the gods of the heathen are mentioned as if they were real beings who are to be feared4 ,the evidence for this may be objected to in detail1 but the accumulation of facts does press the reader to the unavoidable conclusion that until the ,prophets1 the faith of ,israel was ,monolatry rather than ,monotheism1 that is1 the worship of one ,god rather than the definite belief that ,he is the ,only ,god4 ,the very name for ,god in the ,hebrew language has a plural form 7,elohim71 but this is explained by a grammatical custom by which things of exalted idea are spoken of in the plural1 called by grammarians1 the plural of eminence4 ,the evidence for ,polytheism quoted above from ,gen4 xxxi4 #ai2 xxxv4 #a-d1 might be referred to the introduction of alien idolatrous practices2 but this can hardly be claimed in the case of the practice mentioned in ,lev4 xvii4 #g1 which must be a reference to the cult of satyrs1 or goat-like demons which were commonly supposed to inhabit the desert1 to the discouragement of which the ceremony mentioned in ,lev4 xvi4 #h1 #aj1 #ba ff1 would seem to be directed4 ,this strange figure called ,azazel is not elsewhere described in the ,old ,testament1 but we learn from the ,book of ,enoch that this was the name for the ,king of the ,demons1 a kind of djinn who inhabited the wilderness and demanded toll of human life4 7,in agreement with what has been said before it will be noticed how this practice has been absorbed in the ritual of the ,tabernacle1 but with a different meaning47 ,even the ,first ,commandment does not explicitly deny the existence of other gods2 it merely prohibits their worship by the ,israelites4 ,it may be that this command led to the full monotheistic belief which we find in men like ,isaiah1 but that full conception cannot be fairly read into the ,first ,commandment4 ,chemosh1 the god of the ,amorites1 is mentioned in ,judges xi4 #bd1 as a real being who had given the ,amorites the possession of their land1 even as ,jehovah had given ,canaan to the ,israelites4 ,in the popular imagination these heathen gods would remain as real beings probably long after the monotheistic belief had been held by the more enlightened1 being thought of as demon powers1 in much the same way as the early ,christians regarded the gods of ,greece and ,rome4 ,when we turn to the evidence from the customs of worship that owe their origin to heathen ideas1 the supposition that the early religion of the ,hebrews was hardly distinguishable from that of the ,semitic races finds a full confirmation4 ,the most determinative of these ideas is that of the localisation of the god1 who appears only at certain specified places with which he is inseparably connected4 ,the appearance is generally in some form more or less human1 and the site of the manifestation is either marked for posterity by the erection of a suitable memorial1 in the shape of a stone or an altar1 or else some natural object is taken to be the actual residence of the god4 ,the god is therefore connected rather with the land than with the people1 and it is this antagonism of the popular idea with that of the ,prophets1 who stand for the relation between ,jehovah and ,israel as not territorial but covenanted1 which is the key to the history of ,israel4 ,apart from this prevalent idea1 which is in itself a sufficient proof1 we have the frequent reference to the sacredness of certain memorials and objects whose original significance cannot be hidden from the careful reader4 ,we shall examine first these objects of reverential regard and then proceed to notice some of the more outstanding customs whose origin is heathen4 7a7 ,sacred ,stones4 ,throughout the ,old ,testament we meet with numerous references to stones or circles that form convenient landmarks or natural rendezvous for national ceremonies4 ,adonijah strengthens his rebellion by a great sacrifice at the stone of ,zoheleth--the serpent's stone4 ,the extremely important part which the serpent plays in all ,semitic religion and mythology1 together with the sacrificial act at this spot1 points to its having been the ancient site of some idolatrous cult4 ,many of these sacred stones may have been the shrines of the ,canaanites1 and to some of these the invading religion attached its own meaning4 ,the circle at ,gilgal1 which is said to commemorate the crossing of the ,jordan1 may be an example of this1 for there is some contradiction in the account which refers it to a memorial erected by ,joshua for this purpose 7compare ,josh4 iv4 #b-f1 #bj ff1 with iv4 #i71 and it is more than likely that the circle of graven images mentioned in ,judges iii4 #ai 7,r4,v4 margin7 is to be identified with it4 ,among this class of sacred objects must be mentioned the obscure ,mazzebah1 translated in the margin of the ,revised ,version1 ,obelisk4 ,the use of the ,mazzebah is strictly forbidden in ,exod4 xxxiv4 #ac1 as one of the idolatrous customs of the former inhabitants of the land1 but in the ,eighth ,century the ,mazzebah is reckoned by ,hosea as one of the essentials of ,hebrew worship1 as if he knew nothing of this proscription in the ,law 7,hosea iii4 iv474 ,these pillars were evidently used to mark the place of worship1 and they are said to have been found at ,shechem1 ,bethel1 ,gilgal1 ,mizpeh1 and elsewhere4 ,from their usage in primitive ,semitic religion as well as from their prohibition in ,exodus it can be seen that they had idolatrous significance1 and it is thought that they were rudely carved to resemble the likeness of the god4 ,the two pillars placed before the temple1 called ,jachin and ,boaz1 are probably connected with the ,mazzebah4 7b7 ,sacred ,trees4 ,the continual reference to these in the ,old ,testament shows that they had some special and sacred significance4 ,such are the terebinths of ,mamre 7,gen4 xiii4 #ah2 should be singular according to the ,septuagint71 the tamarisk at ,beersheba 7,gen4 xxi4 #cc71 the palm of ,deborah 7,judges iv4 #e71 and the terebinth in ,ophrah 7,judges vi4 #aa74 ,we can understand how to desert peoples trees naturally stood for objects of thankful reverence1 and in the popular mind were regarded as the special seat and haunt of a deity4 ,that they also served for the purpose of obtaining oracles may be seen from #b ,sam4 v4 #bd2 with which may be compared the practice of oracular decision by the rustling of the famous oaks of ,delphi4 ,with this species of tree-worship we must compare the use of the ,asherah mentioned as a sacred symbol in ,judges vi4 #be2 this is expressly forbidden in ,exod4 xxxiv4 #ac1 ,deut4 xvi4 #ba4 ,it used to be supposed that this was a wooden symbol of a goddess ,asherah1 but from the description in the passage quoted from ,deuteronomy1 and from ,isa4 xvii4 #h1 it would seem to be a tree-like post1 and is more likely to be a remnant of tree worship1 as our own ,maypole may be4 ,it came to pass that the tree or tree-like pole could therefore stand beside any altar as the sign of the presence of the god1 and in the pre-,prophetic religion of ,israel this was transferred to a sign of the presence of ,jehovah until the ,asherah was forbidden1 in that great attempt to make return to idolatry impossible1 the reform under ,josiah4 7c7 ,sacred ,springs4 ,a similar origin may be supposed for the recognised sacredness of springs4 ,from the names given to some of these it is evident that they were regarded as the special seat of ,divine power1 natural enough1 as in the case of the trees1 to a desert-bred race and to dwellers in a land which never had too plentiful a supply of water4 ,the proximity of the spring to an altar or sacred stone confirms this1 as in the case of the stone ,zoheleth near the spring ,en-rogel1 the spring of the fuller4 ,the name of ,en-,mishpat 7,gen4 xiv4 #g71 the spring of judgment1 would seem to indicate that springs were used for the purpose of obtaining oracles1 but by what signs this was effected is not known4 ,the name of the spring in ,gen4 xvi4 #ad1 where the angel appeared to ,hagar1 is significant in this connection3 the well of the living one who seeth me4 ,in the customs of worship1 and in all customs to which there is attached a definite religious significance1 we find analogies in the heathen religions which show that they must have had a common origin4 ,chief among these must be classed the custom of sacrifice4 ,it is natural1 therefore1 to find that sacrifice1 which has such an undoubtedly natural explanation in heathen religions as either the food of the god or a means of propitiation1 is nowhere in the ,old ,testament explicitly defined as to its intent and meaning4 ,the root idea is1 however1 clearly seen in such customs as that of the setting forth of the ,shewbread1 however much the meaning may have become spiritualised by a purer idea of the nature of ,jehovah1 while in ,ezek4 xliv4 #g1 #ae1 this seems to be quite explicitly stated4 ,as the conception of ,deity was spiritualised1 the idea of material food would doubtless grow too repugnant to be retained in the bare offering of flesh1 and so we get the burnt-offering1 the smoke of which ,jehovah can smell4 ,the blood especially1 forms the correct offering1 since being the seat of life1 it belongs altogether to ,god4 ,on the idea of the sacrifice being used as a propitiation to the ,deity1 it follows naturally that the more costly the victim the more acceptable it will be1 and of all sacrifices the most efficacious will be that of a human being4 ,the story of ,abram and ,isaac in ,gen4 xxii4 is made to serve as a condemnation of human sacrifices1 but the origin of the story may very well have pointed the other way1 as indeed the first part of the story does2 and that the practice was common may be seen from #b ,kings xvi4 #c2 xxi4 #f2 ,jer4 vii4 #ca2 xix4 #e 7,delete the last words of ,jer4 xix4 #e1 as an evident gloss from vii4 #ca74 ,true1 in these passages human sacrifice is said to be in express contravention of the will of ,jehovah1 but no such comment is added to the story of ,jephthah 7,judges xi4 #cj ff471 while in ,micah vi4 #g1 the sacrifice of the firstborn is simply classed among other sacrifices as part of the common idea4 ,a remnant of this horrible practice is probably to be found in the consecration of the firstborn to ,jehovah1 while the legality of human sacrifice is determinative in the common practice of the ban1 by which all captives were devoted to ,jehovah1 and any violation visited by the direst vengeance2 as in the case of ,saul and ,agag4 ,another use of the sacrifice was that of ratifying a covenant by cutting a victim in parts1 between which the contracting parties passed 7,gen4 xv4 #i-ag2 ,jer4 xxxiv4 #ah74 ,much the same result will be found from enquiry into the origin of special feasts and customs that are said to have been instigated at the express command of ,jehovah2 for there is evidence which shows that they were often customs common amongst the heathen1 and were only invested with a new significance by the higher religion of the ,hebrews4 ,among these it is likely that we must reckon even the ,passover1 for the daubing of the lintels is said to be a common heathen practice1 and it will be noticed in support of the pre-,mosaic origin of the ceremony that at its first mention in ,exod4 xii4 #ba1 it is called the ,passover4 ,the meaning of the ,hebrew word translated ,passover is also capable of another meaning than that given in the story of its institution1 a meaning which also points to its being the survival of a ,semitic and heathen custom4 ,similar enquiry into ancient religions of the ,semitic type shows that originally circumcision had no special religious significance1 but was probably a sign of puberty and the right to marry4 ,as manners softened it became a family rite and there was no need to postpone it till years of manhood4 ,the practice of wearing special garments at religious rites is also found in heathen religions1 and still maintains itself in our habit of wearing ,sunday clothes4 ,the results of these enquiries are sufficiently startling to those who have been accustomed to regard the religion of ,israel as starting from some definite act of revelation which ordained these ordinances and their religious meaning for the first time4 ,but it is common enough in history to find that customs persist long after their original significance has been forgotten1 and that they are gradually invested with a meaning more appropriate to the spirit of the age4 ,we are not1 however1 shut up to the conclusion1 that1 because we can trace much of the wonderful religion of ,israel to common causes acting upon heathen religion1 there is no real work of revelation in this gradual progress from lower to higher stages4 ,it would be quite useless1 from the point of view of this book1 to enter on the fruitless discussion as to whether in the evolution of religion we have to deal with a natural process or with a supernatural revelation4 ,is any such antithesis necessary8 ,surely the one can come through the other4 ,if revelation is to reach us it must come through the ordinary processes of our minds2 the recognition that it is from ,god cannot be authenticated to us by any miracle or outward authority1 but simply by the possibility of the mind1 which ,god has made1 being able to recognise its ,maker4 ,it may be more of a difficulty to others that we should have such erroneous conceptions of history in a ,book that has been regarded as infallible on these matters4 ,we have to face the fact1 from which there is no escape1 that the historian may not have known the origin of the things of which he wrote1 or may have intentionally obscured the fact of the heathen origin of customs that had become to all pious ,israelites expressions of ,jehovah's special revelation to ,israel4 ,if we are going to call this fraud1 then it means that we are going to force on that early age a conception of historical accuracy which it certainly did not possess1 and which1 as a matter of fact1 is only a late demand of the human mind4 ,and after all1 there was truth in this reference of all their religion to the revelation of ,jehovah4 ,it witnesses to the fact that behind even the crudest religion there is something which defies explanation1 and that we have in heathen religions the slow dawning consciousness of ,god within man's soul4 ,in ,israel these things never stood still4 ,that central idea of the localisation of ,jehovah grew too small to contain the widening conception of ,him as it was evolved through reflection and national experience1 until the ,prophets burst forth with the proclamation that ,he was the ,god of the whole earth1 and ,his relation to ,israel not tribal or territorial1 but moral1 and only to be maintained by righteousness and true holiness4 ,,mosaism ,the reader is recommended to make a careful study of the following passages1 which are among the most important adduced by the critics as evidence for the non-,mosaic authorship of the ,pentateuch4 7#a7 ,mosaic authorship is never claimed for the ,pentateuch as a whole4 ,only in certain places is it noted that ,moses wrote down special things 7,exod4 xvii4 #ad2 xxiv4 #d2 xxxiv4 #bg2 ,num4 xxxiii4 #b2 ,deut4 xxxi4 #i1 #bb1 #bd74 ,moses is consistently spoken of in the third person1 and it is hardly likely that this is a style purposely adopted1 or the statement of ,num4 xii4 #c would be extraordinary in the circumstances4 ,obviously the last chapter of ,deuteronomy was not written by him1 nor is the common opinion that it was added by ,joshua at all probable1 for there is no difference in style from the rest of the book discernible1 and1 moreover1 ,dan is referred to 7,deut4 xxxiv4 #a2 cp4 also ,gen4 xiv4 #ad71 which was not so named until after the conquest4 7,josh4 xix4 #dg2 ,judges xviii4 #bi47 ,would ,moses need to authenticate his history of contemporaneous events by quoting from what are regarded as ancient books3 from the ,book of the ,wars of ,jehovah 7,num4 xxi4 #ad71 wars which could have only just commenced1 or from the poem which refers to the victory over ,sihon 7,num4 xxi4 #bg ff471 which took place at the very end of the forty years' wandering8 7#b7 ,the standpoint as a whole is that of an age later than ,moses4 ,the remark in ,gen4 xxxvi4 #ca can only have had any meaning in the age of ,david when ,edom was in submission to ,israel4 ,a late date is also needed for the following passages3 ,gen4 xii4 #f2 xiii4 #g2 xxxiv4 #g 7in ,israel6 cp4 ,judges xx4 #aj2 #b ,sam4 xiii4 #ab72 ,lev4 xviii4 #bg2 ,deut4 ii4 #ab2 iv4 #ch4 ,in fact1 the whole geographical outlook is that of an inhabitant of ,western ,palestine1 as may be seen from the use of the term ,seaward to indicate the west1 and of ,negeb1 or the desert land1 for the south4 ,these terms are used even in the description of the ,tabernacle1 which1 if taken from the site of ,mount ,sinai1 would be altogether wrong and meaningless4 ,compare ,num4 xxii4 #a2 xxxiv4 #ae2 ,deut4 i4 #a1 #e2 iii4 #h2 iv4 #da1 #df1 #di3 beyond the ,jordan1 showing clearly that the writer's position is in ,palestine1 west of the ,jordan4 7#c7 ,there is no trace in the history of any observance of the ,levitical ritual until after the exile2 the day of atonement1 the sin-offering1 the high-priest1 all are unheard of until this date4 ,nor can it be claimed that it was the ignorance of the common people1 or their apostasy1 that was responsible for this condition of things4 ,the great leaders of the various reformations are apparently also quite ignorant that none but a priest could sacrifice1 and none but a ,levite take charge of the ark4 ,samuel1 who was not a ,levite1 sleeps beside the ark and offers sacrifice4 ,elijah does nothing to recall the people to the ritual of ,leviticus4 7#d7 ,the conclusion is that1 while later ages were right in attributing to ,moses the founding of their religion and some of their ritual1 all the accumulation of law1 which had only been the growth of many centuries1 has been placed to his credit4 ,what the actual contribution of ,moses was it is now impossible to say1 but the original of the ,ten ,words and of the ,book of the ,covenant 7,exod4 xx4 #b-xxiii4 #cc7 may well go back to that age1 as may be seen from the relative simplicity of the laws and rules4 ,for example1 compare the simple regulations for the altar in ,exod4 xx4 #bd with the elaborate altar described in ,exod4 xxvii4 #a-h4 ,lecture ,,iii ,,mosaism ,the national consciousness of ,israel goes back to a series of remarkable events in which the nation was born1 and which are too deeply graven on the mind of the people to be mere legends without historical foundation4 ,these events are the deliverance from the bondage in ,egypt and the great covenant made with ,jehovah at ,sinai4 ,the indispensable personal centre1 round which these events revolve1 is that of the great national leader1 ,moses4 ,the fact that1 outside the ,pentateuch and the closely connected ,book of ,joshua1 little is known of the work of ,moses until after the exile1 has given rise to doubts concerning his historical reality4 ,if we take the writings of the ,old ,testament that are contemporary with the period they describe1 there stand out in indisputable primacy the writings of the great literary ,prophets4 ,to these modern criticism has rightly turned to discover the opinions1 customs1 and religion1 prevailing in the ,eighth ,century2 and it is claimed that by these writings we can test the historical value of the ,pentateuch1 and of the other historical books4 ,now it must be admitted that in the pre-exilic ,prophets the mention of ,moses is less frequent than we should expect from the position which is claimed for him in the books of ,exodus1 ,leviticus1 ,numbers and ,deuteronomy4 ,the ,prophets do appeal with one consent to the original covenant of ,jehovah with ,israel1 to the fulfilment of which they would recall the nation2 but only rarely is the name of ,moses associated with that covenant4 ,there are only four references to ,moses in the ,prophets before the exile 7,hosea xii4 #ac--,moses not actually named2 ,micah vi4 #d2 ,jer4 xv4 #a2 ,isa4 lxiii4 #ab--reckoned post-exilic by critics71 and in none of these is ,moses referred to as a law-giver1 but as a prophet and national deliverer4 ,we have to come to ,prophets writing after the exile to find any reference to the legislative work of ,moses 7,mal4 iv4 #d2 ,dan4 ix4 #aa-ac74 ,the purpose of the prophetic writings is moral rather than historical1 and this forbids putting more evidential weight upon this argument from silence than it will bear2 but in face of their continual appeal to the covenant of ,sinai1 this silence is at least significant4 ,evidently ,moses was not a name to conjure with in their age4 7,compare ,jer4 xxxi4 #ca1 #cb1 where the mention of the name of ,moses would have been most natural47 ,we have1 on these and other grounds1 to disregard the later idea that ,moses was the only law-giver of ,israel and the author of the ,pentateuch1 although the fact that the later legislation could only find sanction as it was included under his name1 points to him as in some way the initiator of ,israel's great ,code of ,laws4 ,while in addition to this1 it must be admitted that a great deal of the story of his life is due to the growth of legend1 there is no need to regard the figure of ,moses as entirely mythical4 ,the events by which a motley crowd of serfs became a nation and covenanted themselves to an almost new religion not only need for their explanation a great interpreter1 but also a great leader2 and this demand and need ,moses fills4 ,we may therefore safely regard ,moses as one of the great ,founders of ,religion4 ,we have now to enquire how much of the marvellous story of his life can be safely reckoned as history4 ,the document which gives the earliest1 and therefore the most trustworthy1 story of his life is dated by the critics in the ,ninth ,century1 although it is not denied that it may1 and probably does1 go back for its material to a much earlier period4 ,this document1 known to the critics as ,j1 owes its origin to early prophetic influence4 ,in this document1 as might be expected from the analogy in similar cases 7compare the absence of the birth stories in ,mark71 the story of the birth and finding of ,moses is omitted2 it is probably nothing more than an effort to find a popular explanation of his name1 as derived from ,mashah1 to draw out4 ,a much more likely origin of the name is found by modern scholars in the ,egyptian word for son 7,mesu74 ,the important thing to be noticed is that in this early document he appears first of all in ,midian1 although there are indications which show that it is known that he had previously been in ,egypt4 ,here1 alone in the wilderness1 or in intercourse with the strange ,bedawin who still inhabit that region1 there came to him a revelation of ,jehovah and the call to deliver ,israel from their bondage4 ,he returned to ,egypt with a message at once religious and national4 ,he calls upon the ,israelites to leave ,egypt and to seek a covenant with ,jehovah at ,his shrine at ,sinai4 ,during a plague1 the passage of the ,red ,sea was effected under conditions that were interpreted to be due to the direct intervention of ,jehovah2 and1 the returning tide cutting off the pursuing ,egyptians who challenged their flight1 the ,israelites stood delivered from their enemies and their first trust in ,jehovah was vindicated4 ,it is not for us to enquire into the exact causes which proved so favourable to the ,israelites and so disastrous to the ,egyptians2 we only need to know that they were interpreted religiously4 ,then around ,mount ,sinai1 with its impressive solitude and its awful storms1 ,moses gathered the people1 imparted the secret of the new worship1 made a solemn covenant by which the people of ,israel became for ever the people of ,jehovah1 and probably laid down some rudiments of legislation fitted for their primitive and nomadic condition4 ,this much at least the after history demands as the irreducible minimum4 ,if this is at all an accurate view of the founding of the religion of ,jehovah1 then we are faced with the phenomenon of a nation practically adopting a new religion4 ,we do not ignore revelation when we feel compelled to seek for natural causes which might prepare the way for this event2 and this we may attempt by an enquiry into the meaning of the name ,jehovah4 ,it should be noted at the outset that ,jehovah is a personal name1 like that of ,zeus or ,poseidon1 conveying the idea of some aspect of deity4 ,the meaning of the name is exceedingly obscure4 ,the general name for deity common to all ,semites1 and therefore belonging to the undivided primitive stock1 is ,el1 meaning either the ,mighty ,one or1 and more in accord with ,semitic conceptions of ,god1 the ,leader4 ,the meaning of the name ,jehovah is difficult to discover1 because in the first place the exact pronunciation of the word has been lost1 probably beyond recovery4 ,the word ,jehovah is a hybrid compound1 and as a matter of fact was never used as a name for ,god until the ,reformation4 ,we can be certain only that the consonants of the word were ,,jhvh 7or ,,yhwh1 ,hebrew pronunciation74 ,this extraordinary state of things is accounted for by the fact that for centuries the ,hebrew ,scriptures were unpointed or unvocalised--that is1 the consonants only were written and the necessary connecting vowels were taught orally1 and only retained in the memory for use when the ,scriptures were read aloud4 ,when in the ,ninth ,century ,a4,d4 it was likely that the pronunciation of the sacred language would be entirely forgotten1 a device for its preservation was made whereby the vowel pronunciation was indicated by means of points placed chiefly underneath the consonantal text2 very much like the dots and dashes used for vowels in ,pitman's system of shorthand4 ,when1 however1 it came to the pointing of ,,jhvh1 it was found that the pronunciation of this word had been entirely lost4 ,reverence for the name of ,god had become so exaggerated that1 in reading aloud from the ,scriptures1 wherever the sacred name occurred another word had always been substituted4 ,this word was one of respect1 but of less marked exaltation--,adonai1 equal to our word ,lord4 ,the only course open to the punctuators was that of inserting under the consonants ,,jhvh1 the vowels 7with suitable euphonic modifications7 of the word ,adonai1 with the result that we get the conflate ,jehovah1 a word which has become invested with so much solemnity to our ears1 but which was certainly not the right pronunciation1 and which has never been used by the ,jews4 ,scholars have endeavoured1 at present without any universally accepted result1 to recover the lost pronunciation by linguistic enquiries1 with the desire to discover what the word originally meant1 in the hope that it would throw some light on the origin of the religion founded by ,moses4 ,in ,exod4 iii4 #ac ff4 7,r4 ,v4 margin7 we have the traditional explanation of the word1 an explanation which is not altogether satisfactory from a grammatical point of view2 the great ,hebraist ,ewald goes so far as to pronounce it highly artificial4 ,it has been objected that the man who wrote this account1 about #gej ,b4,c41 surely understood his own language4 ,probably2 but that is not to say that he understood the etymology of it1 for etymology is a new science1 and has upset many popular derivations in the case of our own language4 ,if the explanation given in ,exodus is correct1 and we cannot with certainty put anything much better in its place1 then the meaning of the word ,jehovah would be ,he that is1 perhaps an equivalent in ,hebrew form to the ,western idea of ,the ,eternal4 ,only one of the numerous guesses as to the meaning of the original name need be quoted here3 that the word comes from a verb1 hawah1 meaning either to fall1 or to blow4 ,similar ideas would seem to account for either of these meanings4 ,he who blows1 looks like the name for the ,tempest ,god1 while that which falls has been taken to indicate a fallen meteorite1 which may have been preserved as a symbol of ,jehovah4 ,when we remember the thunderstorms at ,sinai1 and the common belief that thunder was a special theophany of ,jehovah1 these ideas are not to be hastily dismissed as altogether incredible4 ,nor should we be prevented from considering such an idea from the prejudice that it would make the origin of the religion of ,israel a piece of ,nature-worship and superstition4 ,god has taken man where ,he has found him1 and none can dare to define the limits of childish and crude conceptions within which the ,spirit of ,god can begin ,his work in man's mind4 ,the conclusion derived from the examination of the meaning of the name ,jehovah must therefore remain open until some further light is thrown on the subject4 7,scholars usually adopt the pronunciation1 ,yahwe1 as our nearest approach to the original47 ,an endeavour has been made to discover the origin of the religion of ,israel from the persistent connection of ,jehovah with the locality of ,mount ,sinai4 ,this idea continues long after in the ,promised ,land 7,deut4 xxxiii4 #b2 ,judges v4 #e71 and ,elijah takes a long journey back to the sacred spot1 presumably to get into closer touch with ,jehovah 7#a ,kings xix474 ,with the prevailing beliefs of that age in the localisation of the god1 this connection must be thought of as of more than accidental significance4 ,it is fair to assume that the seat of ,jehovah at ,sinai must have been known before the great covenant1 and is indeed required by the narrative itself 7,exod4 iii42 iv4 #bg71 while recent discoveries are said to prove that the traditional ,sinai must have been a sacred place from the earliest times4 ,moses1 however1 is clearly represented as coming to know of ,jehovah during his stay in ,midian4 ,the exact means of the revelation is said to have been the sight of a bush on fire1 yet miraculously unconsumed4 ,what actually lies behind this story--whether it is a creation of the religious imagination which sees every common bush afire with ,god--it is useless for us to try and discover4 ,a natural explanation has been sought in the fact that ,jethro1 the ,kenite1 was the priest of ,midian1 and presumably of some shrine of ,jehovah4 ,certainly ,jethro knew the name of ,jehovah1 but apparently only regarded ,him as one of the gods1 until the marvellous deliverance of the ,exodus proved ,him to be the greatest of gods 7,exod4 xviii4 #i-aa74 ,jethro performs an act of sacrifice to ,jehovah1 in the presence of ,aaron and the elders1 that looks remarkably like an act of initiation by which ,israel are introduced to the worship of ,jehovah by the regular priest of the shrine 7,exod4 xviii4 #ab74 ,the hypothesis is further strengthened by the fact that the ,kenites are found later dwelling in ,palestine 7,judges i4 #af71 and are always remembered long after as the friends of the ,israelites 7#a ,sam4 xv4 #f2 xxvii4 #aj2 xxx4 #bi74 ,the inference from this is that ,moses first learned of ,jehovah from his father-in-law ,jethro1 but that he understood more of the character of ,jehovah than ,jethro1 and by his superior religious consciousness conceived of ,him as in some way ,supreme who to ,jethro had been only one of the desert gods4 ,this theory would certainly be strengthened if ,sinai could be identified1 not with the traditional site of ,jebel ,musa in the southern part of the ,sinaitic peninsula1 but with some spot in the land of ,midian1 across the gulf of ,akaba4 ,this does indeed seem necessary from the narrative1 for from the most natural interpretation of ,exod4 iii4 #a1 ,horeb1 the mount of ,god1 was in ,midian4 ,it is generally taken for granted that ,horeb and ,sinai are identical2 the respective names are used by different documents4 ,it is said that1 for some reasons1 ,midian would fit in with the record of the journey through the wilderness better than the ,sinaitic peninsula4 ,if the parallelism of ,sinai with ,seir in ,deut4 xxxiii4 #b can be taken to show identity1 as is natural1 we have a further confirmation1 for ,seir is in ,midian4 ,the grave difficulty of all this is that it would make the religion of ,jehovah a distinct importation4 ,is such a thing as its reception by the ,hebrews credible on this account8 ,the idea of a nation changing its religion is certainly repugnant to the ,semitic mind 7,jer4 ii4 #aj1 #aa71 and some more natural connection seems necessary1 both from the narrative and from general considerations4 ,now the narrative hints that the religion was not entirely new 7,exod4 vi4 #c71 but was known to the ,patriarchs under different forms2 while the sanctity of ,sinai would seem to have been already known to some of the tribes 7,exod4 iv4 #bg74 ,there is nothing here definite enough for us to proceed to historical certainty1 but it is fair to suppose that the shrine at ,sinai was known to the ,patriarchs in their wanderings1 and that ,jehovah would be worshipped2 as would any other local god whose territory they happened to be in4 ,grant that this was partly known to the ,hebrew slaves in ,egypt2 that ,moses received the revelation of the power of ,jehovah in his exile in ,midian1 and by a splendid leap of inspiration identified the actual shrine and the ,person of ,jehovah with the ,mighty ,spirit dimly known to the ,patriarchs1 and we have an explanation that is natural and is also true2 for the ,object of man's worship has been ,one through all history4 ,when the successful passage of the ,red ,sea and the defeat of the ,egyptians were interpreted by ,moses as the direct intervention of ,jehovah1 the transition to the great covenant is made possible4 ,all this may be very contrary to the traditional idea of how ,moses received the revelation of ,jehovah1 but the facts do point this way2 and it is not for us to deny that the ,spirit of ,god could work through these natural events and through the mind of this commanding personality1 and so bring about this identification of ,jehovah and the ,great ,spirit of the ,patriarchal thought1 which was to lead to such great results for religion4 ,we are now free to investigate what the character of the religion introduced by ,moses actually was4 7#a7 ,general ,character4 ,a careful examination of its character shows that while it is by no means identical with the religion taught by the ,prophets1 and while it retained many heathen ideas and customs1 yet it contained within itself the promise and guarantee of development4 ,we have already had occasion to notice that it is not pure ,monotheism4 ,jehovah is not the only ,god2 ,he is the only ,god for ,israel4 ,the heathen deities are still regarded as having a real existence4 ,neither can it be called a purely spiritual religion1 for ,jehovah is rather said to have a spirit than to be a spirit2 ,he has a form which1 though terrible in its effect on the beholder1 by reason of its glory1 can nevertheless be seen2 ,he inhabits a special place1 which is ,his sacred territory1 and on this ,moses stumbles all unwittingly in ,midian4 ,still more emphatically against the idea of a purely spiritual religion is the fact--which the editors have done their best to hide1 but not successfully--that images of some kind were allowed1 or existed unreproved4 ,the ,ephod1 of which we hear so often1 was evidently at one time an idol4 ,the meaning of the word is of something covered1 as may be seen from ,isa4 xxx4 #bb1 where the feminine form of the word 7aphuddah7 is used of the gold plating of images2 but according to a later idea 7,exod4 xxviii4 #f-ad71 the ,ephod formed part of the dress of the ,high ,priest1 and was a kind of embroidered waistcoat4 ,this explanation1 however1 does violence to a number of passages where the ,ephod is mentioned4 ,gideon expended seventeen hundred shekels of gold on an ,ephod which he set up in ,ophrah 7,jud4 viii4 #bf f472 this cannot be a waistcoat4 ,only the explanation that the ,ephod was an image can do justice to the reference in ,judges xvii4 #e1 and it suits the passage in #a ,sam4 xxi4 #i1 if we think of the sword hanging behind an image4 ,if the ephod was nothing more than a waistcoat by which lots were determined1 we have to explain why it is so sharply condemned in ,judges viii4 #bg1 and why the text of #a ,sam4 xiv4 #ah1 which in the ,septuagint reads ephod1 in the ,hebrew text has been altered to read ark2 an alteration which is quite impossible here1 as the ark was at this time in ,kirjath ,jearim1 and1 moreover1 was never used for the purpose of obtaining oracles4 7,the only explanation is that some scribe has made this alteration because he knew that there was something idolatrous about the ephod47 ,even as late as ,hosea 7iii4 #d7 we find the ephod mentioned in a connection where it can only stand for an object of idolatrous worship4 ,it is certainly strange that the same name should be in use for an image1 and then later for a garment of the high-priest2 but the likely explanation of this is that the image was at one time clothed with a dress1 as was usual 7,jer4 x4 #i71 and that in the pockets of this the lots were kept4 ,when the use of the image became offensive the garment was retained as part of the high-priest's dress4 ,the transition is made more natural if we can suppose that the ,priest of the ,oracle1 in the early days1 was accustomed to put on the garment of the image1 under the customary idea that thus the divine knowledge of the idol would be communicated to him4 ,in #b ,kings xviii4 #d1 we read of ,nehushtan1 the brazen serpent which ,moses had made1 being used idolatrously2 but perhaps this has been wrongly ascribed to ,moses4 ,from the intimate connection of bull-worship with the worship of ,jehovah1 it would seem that the bull was regarded as a symbol of ,jehovah2 a similar idea may have instituted ,aaron's golden calf4 ,while admitting the force of this evidence1 we must still keep open the possibility that the religion instituted by ,moses was of a purer type1 but was never strong enough to drive out the remnants of heathen practice4 ,more indisputable evidence of the materialistic conception of the ,person of ,jehovah is found in the reverence paid to what is known as the ark of ,jehovah1 the making of which is certainly ascribed to ,moses4 ,the name the ark of the covenant1 was not the original name given to the ark1 but is taken from the incident recorded in ,deut4 x4 #a-e4 ,the idea that the ark was built to contain the tables of the ,law does not appear until the time of ,deuteronomy1 and is quite unknown to the older strata of the ,pentateuch4 ,in these older strata all mention of the actual making of the ark is omitted1 although there is evidence that they did contain an account of its preparation and meaning4 ,enough1 however1 is told us of the reverential treatment of it1 to show that it was a symbol of higher sanctity than a mere receptacle for the stones of the law would be likely to be4 ,it is certainly very closely identified with ,jehovah ,himself1 as may be seen from ,num4 x4 #ce4 7,this is in poetic form1 and is therefore likely to be a very early fragment4 ,it should be noticed that the ark apparently starts of itself47 ,its presence in the battlefield ensures victory1 while its absence brings about defeat 7,num4 xiv4 #db-de2 #a ,sam4 iv4 #c-g2 v4 #a ff474 ,it can hardly be that the ark was taken for ,jehovah ,himself1 but it must have contained something that was closely identified with ,jehovah2 a box is not built except with the idea of holding something4 ,we have seen that it is unlikely that that something was originally the two tables of the law2 was it something else of stone which made the transference to the tables of the law at once necessary and natural8 ,was it a stone image of ,jehovah8 ,it has been conjectured that it may have contained meteoritic stones1 which would agree with the proposed derivation of ,jehovah from the ,storm ,god of ,sinai4 ,there is nothing in the ,old ,testament which gives any support to these conjectures1 but in face of the fact that the original narrative of the making of the ark has been omitted1 and in view of the ideas of religion which were common in that period1 we cannot say that they are absolutely excluded from consideration4 ,the ark was certainly bound up with the idea of war1 and would seem to have been kept in a soldier's tent4 ,it was transferred to the dark inner temple till #ehf ,b4,c41 and from that date all trace of it is lost4 ,the ,priest's ,code 7,p7 makes provision for it in the second temple1 but we have unimpeachable ,jewish testimony that the shrine of the inner temple was absolutely empty 7,josephus1 ,war of the ,jews1 v4 v4 #e74 ,jeremiah may have been aware of the original significance of the ark as tending towards idolatry1 and hence his words in ,jer4 iii4 #af4 7#b7 ,ordinances of ,worship4 ,it remains for us to enquire into the character of the religion founded by ,moses by an examination of some of the outstanding ordinances that regulated the idea of worship4 ,here the traditional ascription of the fully developed ritual of the ,book of ,leviticus to ,moses has to be set aside1 on the consideration that we have no record of its observance until late in the period of the monarchy1 and from then it can be traced as a gradual growth of custom and ideal until its complete observance after the ,exile4 ,there does not seem to have been any priesthood of the exclusive ,levitical order founded by ,moses4 ,the story of the ,levites in ,exod4 xxxii4 can only be a late story1 for there is no record of their monopoly of the ritual service until the ,reform under ,josiah3 ,joshua1 an ,ephraimite1 is the servant of the tent2 ,samuel1 also an ,ephraimite1 sleeps beside the ark 7#a ,sam4 iii4 #c72 ,david and ,solomon assume a kind of chief priesthood 7#b ,sam4 vi4 #ac2 #a ,kings viii4 #e1 #fb ff471 and of course neither of them were ,levites4 ,the story in ,judges xvii4 gives what is perhaps the true position of the ,levites3 anyone could be consecrated as a family priest1 but the presence of a ,levite was reckoned propitious4 ,down to a very late age sacrifice seems to have remained largely a tribal or family act1 and although a descendant of ,moses' tribe 7,levi7 was regarded as possessing special advantage1 there was no law by which ,levites alone were reckoned capable of discharging priestly functions4 ,in the matter of sacrifice1 it would seem that ,moses simply adopted what was a very ancient and common practice4 ,in face of the evident neglect of the ,levitical ritual in matters of sacrifice1 both by the common people and by such great reformers as ,samuel and ,elijah1 together with the fact that in the teaching of the prophets doubts are cast on its divine origin 7,isa4 i4 #aa2 ,amos v4 #be2 ,micah vi4 #f-h71 we cannot infer that the detailed and explicit commands concerning sacrifice found in the ,book of ,leviticus are the work of ,moses1 or belong to an early age4 ,to the ,prophets1 sacrifice is always reminiscent of paganism4 ,the time when the change came in may be detected in the different value given to sacrifice by the post-exilic prophets 7,mal4 i4 #ac f471 while the incompatibility of the two views1 prophetic and priestly1 can be seen from the addition which has been made to ,ps4 li41 to bring it into accord with the later view4 ,neither is it possible for us to believe that the elaborate shrine known as the ,tabernacle owed its existence to ,moses4 ,the impossibility of transporting the cumbrous fixtures through the wilderness had been noticed before the modern era of critical study4 ,a close examination of the details of construction shows that it is nothing more than an ideal projection from the mind of a priestly writer who believed that a tent-like counterpart of ,ezekiel's temple was essential to ,israel's worship in the wilderness4 ,it is enough to recall that the tabernacle of the priestly writer's imagination is quite unknown to the historical books4 ,in ,exod4 xxxiii4 #g ff41 which may be seen to be only a fragment of an early document1 since it starts abruptly by describing the tent1 which is known as the ,tent of ,meeting1 we have what has been taken to be the ,tabernacle2 but it is nothing more than a tent for keeping the ark in4 7#c7 ,legislation4 ,how much of the legislation of the ,pentateuch is to be ascribed to ,moses we cannot tell4 ,too many hands have been at work on it for the original to be discovered4 ,a remarkable discovery was made in the year #aija of some enormous steles1 which bear in cuneiform characters what is now known as the ,code of ,hammurabi1 the oldest code of laws in the world1 the date of which is reckoned to be #bbej ,b4,c4 ,they presuppose an advanced state of civilisation and morality existing in the ,euphrates valley at that period4 ,the agreement between the ,pentateuchal ,code and the ,code of ,hammurabi argues dependence of the former on the latter to a very considerable extent1 and supplies a still further testimony to the extent to which the religion of ,israel is indebted to ,babylon4 ,the exact bearing of this discovery upon critical theories1 and especially upon the date of the ,pentateuch has perhaps hardly been estimated yet2 it does not1 however1 refute the theory which denies that the ,pentateuch as it stands is from the hand of ,moses4 ,we naturally think of the ,decalogue as the work of ,moses1 but here we are faced by the difficulty that the ,decalogue appears to exist in three recensions 7,exod4 xx4 #a-ag2 xxxiv4 #ad-bh2 ,deut4 v4 #f-ba74 ,the account in ,exod4 xxxiv41 which forms part of the document ,j1 is reckoned to be the oldest of these1 and the original of this might well go back to the time of ,moses4 ,it has been objected that the ,decalogue is too ethical to suit the time of ,moses1 but is this not because we are inclined to read into the ,ten ,commandments far more than is to be found there8 ,it can be shown that they are little more than ten laws of rights4 ,a special difficulty is found in ascribing the second commandment to this age1 in view of its frequent uncensured breach2 but perhaps there is some difference that escapes us between a molten image1 which is prescribed in the first draft 7,exod4 xxxiv4 #ag71 and the later prohibition of the graven image 7,exod4 xx4 #d74 ,in the foregoing examination we have allowed for the most rigorous demands of advanced criticism1 demands which may have to be modified as criticism becomes more of a science1 but there remains the need to discover what there was1 on these critical assumptions1 in the ,mosaic religion that provided the way for a further advance into the faith which became the glory of ,israel4 ,what is it that makes the difference between ,mosaism and the heathen ,semitic religions1 a difference which was to make the gradual growth of a pure ,monotheism possible8 ,the first important element which needs to be reckoned with is that it was a religion of choice rather than a religion of nature4 ,we saw that it was difficult to conceive how the religion of ,jehovah could have been adopted by ,israel unless there had been some previous contact4 ,what is so difficult to understand is nevertheless the one element that contained the possibility of progress4 ,the relation of ,israel to ,jehovah was neither by physical descent nor through the connection of the god with the land1 as with the heathen ,semitic religions4 ,jehovah was at first conceived of as the ,god of the tribe only1 but even this was not by nature1 but by ,his gracious choice4 ,their land was given to them by ,jehovah1 but ,his natural connection was with a far distant shrine4 ,this fact in itself must have rendered necessary some more spiritual conception of ,his habitation1 and1 though hard enough for the common people to realise1 when they entered ,canaan and found a full-grown cultus and religion in connection with the god of the land already in possession1 it was this fact upon which the ,prophets fastened and which could not be denied3 the religion of ,jehovah was a matter of choice and not of racial or local connection4 ,that choice had been ratified by solemn covenant1 to which the ,prophets appealed4 ,the relation between ,jehovah and ,israel depended therefore on the conditions of the covenant being faithfully kept4 ,when we compare the religions of the other ,semites1 which made the relation of the god and his people one which nothing could break1 and from which neither the god nor the people could escape1 we can see how this difference constituted one of the ethical germs of the religion which was destined to grow into fuller power and life4 ,there was another important conception1 which was intensified by the fact that the religion of ,jehovah was a religion of choice3 that of the jealousy of ,jehovah4 ,this was often interpreted1 especially in the pre-prophetic period1 in a very crude and in even a cruel way4 ,the jealousy of ,jehovah was very like the human passion3 uncertain1 arbitrary and irrational1 manifesting itself according to the popular mind in outbreaks of fury for ceremonial mistakes1 or for causes even less comprehensible 7,num4 iii4 #d2 #b ,sam4 vi4 #g74 ,in all the religions it was thought to be a serious thing to depart from the allegiance to the rightful god1 and sure to lay one open to his jealousy and vengeance2 but something more is now found in this idea as it develops in ,hebrew thought3 it is that the jealousy of ,jehovah is due to the great difference between ,him and the other gods1 a difference which came to be recognised as one of character4 ,something of this must go back to ,moses himself4 ,this difference is also expressed in the idea that ,he is a ,god of righteousness4 ,the word righteousness does not always have in the ,hebrew ,scriptures the absolute meaning which it has for us4 ,it was rather equal to our word rights1 which we often employ quite unethically4 ,jehovah was one who gave right judgments when questions were submitted and answered by the lot1 and ,one who brought victory to the right4 ,it was undoubtedly ,israel's right that was chiefly considered1 but there was hidden in it an ethical germ which was to bring forth notable fruit when man's sense of right was widened4 ,this at least was the mark of the new religion which ,moses impressed on the people1 impressed with such a force that it could never be quite forgotten4 ,it had new thoughts pregnant with meaning for the mind of man and for the future of religion1 and these became the fulcrum of the ,prophets' appeal4 ,from the bosom of this people was to come forth ,one who was to reveal the ,father as perfectly righteous and impartial1 and who demands for ,his service a righteousness that must far exceed that of the straitest observers of external religion4 ,it would be easy for us to despise this day of small beginnings1 or to refuse to see in it any real revelation of ,god at all4 ,doubtless this enquiry may necessitate a change in our conceptions of the work of ,moses1 but it is one that we are forced to by a multitude of facts1 and we must find a theory of inspiration wide enough to fit them4 ,crude as we may make the beginnings of ,israel's faith1 natural as we may feel are the laws by which it worked towards its growth1 we have not been able to get any nearer to some of those ultimate questions which ask how religion begins1 what the nature of revelation is1 and how it comes to man's mind4 ,we need not think that ,god had to break in on the mind of ,moses1 so that the personality of the man was in abeyance while ,god worked through him4 ,when ,god wishes to bring men to a higher truth ,he does not supernaturally communicate it2 ,he makes human nature to produce personalities whose minds come naturally to the truth4 ,there can be no separation of natural and supernatural here2 wherever that separation is to be made1 we certainly cannot make it4 ,there can be no meaning in revelation1 and no possibility of it1 unless ,god has made man's mind to be growingly in touch with ,him and to be capable of receiving ,his revelation by the natural working of thought1 so that it seems to spring up within his own consciousness4 ,deeper into this question we are not called upon to go at present1 but no one can object that it is less reverent1 or that it shows signs of a decay of faith1 if men can see ,god to-day not only in the extraordinary and the supernatural1 but also in the ordinary and the natural4 ,if the recognition of ,god depends on spiritual vision1 then those who refuse to narrow the limits within which ,god can be seen1 and who therefore welcome all truth with gladness and without fear1 are not to be called godless and unspiritual4 ,we should learn to be thankful for ,moses1 for he was faithful as far as he knew2 if we were as faithful in proportion to the fuller light which has come to us1 religion would be a very real and inclusive thing4 ,we should also learn to take heart1 if from these beginnings such mighty movements have sprung4 ,the mistakes inevitable to the human mind do not destroy the possibility of revelation1 the error cannot everlastingly obscure the truth1 nor in the long run will evil triumph over good4 ,it was possible in that far off age1 it was possible in all ages1 it is possible now1 for a mind still far from the true conception of the ultimate nature of ,god to yet grasp something1 and by a supreme faith in the leading of a ,mighty ,power to lift a whole nation1 and through it the world1 one stage further on in goodness and truth4 ,,the ,,influence ,,of ,,canaan ,as an introduction to ,lecture ,,iv4 the reader is advised to make a careful study of ,judges i4 #a-;ii4 #e1 a mutilated fragment of a very early and reliable account of the invasion of ,canaan4 ,the opening words 7verse #a7 refer the events which follow to the period after the death of ,joshua2 but the ,book of ,joshua has already recorded the complete conquest of ,canaan1 so that there can be no place for this further invasion on a far less ambitious plan1 and apparently with less successful results4 ,it will be noticed1 however1 that this account easily falls away from the main body of the narrative2 ,judges ii4 #f follows naturally after ,joshua xxiv4 #bh1 and ignores what comes between4 ,we have1 therefore1 in this account another history of the conquest of ,canaan1 which contradicts altogether the impression--which we get from reading the ,book of ,joshua--that the conquest of ,canaan was effected by the tribes acting in unison1 that it was complete1 and that the conquered were exterminated2 it records a movement of tribes acting independently1 there is no conquest in the ordinary sense of the term1 but a footing is obtained alongside the original inhabitants of the land4 ,this account of a gradual immigration of tribes is confirmed by the discovery of inscriptions1 which seem to show that there were some tribes of the ,hebrews in ,palestine before the traditional date of the ,conquest1 and even before the ,exodus4 ,until quite lately the history of ,egypt has thrown no light on these events4 ,it has not even been possible to identify with any certainty the ,pharaoh under whom the ,exodus took place4 ,one identification is now fairly certain4 ,the ,pharaoh who enslaved the ,israelites was ,rameses ,,iii41 for discoveries have proved that it was he who built ,pithom 7,exod4 i4 #aa72 the ,exodus has therefore been referred to the reigns of ,merneptah or ,seti ,,ii41 his immediate successors4 ,the objection to this is that in these reigns both the peninsula of ,sinai and the land of ,palestine were under full ,egyptian control1 and therefore the ,exodus must be put later on1 when this control slackened4 ,this would bring the ,exodus to the date of #abjj-aahj ,b4,c4 and the ,conquest some fifty years later4 ,the latest discoveries tend to throw this result into confusion4 ,names1 which it is proposed to identify with tribes of the ,israelites1 have been found in inscriptions belonging to earlier reigns4 ,on an inscription of ,rameses ,,ii4 the name of ,asher is found as dwelling in ,north ,palestine4 ,in a list of ,thotmes ,,iii4 7still earlier1 ,sixteenth ,century1 ,b4,c47 we find the names ,jacob and ,joseph in the significant combination1 ,jacob-el and ,joseph-el1 used to describe the ,dan-,ephraim district of ,palestine4 ,this makes it more likely that the ,tel-el-,amarna tablets 7dated ,fourteenth ,century1 ,b4,c47 refer to the ,hebrews4 ,in these letters1 addressed to ,amenophis ,,iv41 the ,king of ,jerusalem appeals for help against an invasion of the ,habiri1 who are led by ,abd ,ashera4 ,the invasion is not by a large force1 as may be seen from the fact that it is thought thirty or forty ,egyptian soldiers will be sufficient for the purpose of resisting their attacks4 ,more certain than any of these references is the occurrence of the name of ,israel on a ,stele of ,merneptah1 in connection with a recital of his triumphs in ,syria4 ,the form in which this reference is made leaves no doubt that1 by this period1 ,israel was already settled in ,palestine4 7,israel is laid waste1 its corn is annihilated47 ,there is no confirmation of a ,syrian campaign under ,merneptah1 and it may be that in accordance with the fashion of the age1 he is including among his victories the exploits of his predecessors2 this would agree with the earlier date for the occupation of ,canaan by ,israel which the previous references seem to require4 ,the exact bearing of these discoveries has yet to be determined1 but they either require us to put the date of the ,exodus earlier1 which would in itself be difficult1 or1 what would bring light on many problems1 assume that not all the tribes were in bondage in ,egypt1 and that the invasion of ,canaan by various tribes1 only long after welded into a nation1 was spread over a long period4 ,lecture ,,iv ,,the ,,influence ,,of ,,canaan ,if the nation of ,israel may be said to have been born in captivity1 baptised in the ,red ,sea1 and awakened to national consciousness at ,mount ,sinai1 then the settlement in ,canaan corresponds to the no less critical period of adolescence1 when1 training and tutelage being over1 youth must choose its own path and fight its way in the world4 ,certain it is that the entrance into ,canaan largely determined the future of this people1 for it must have profoundly modified the national character1 turning as it did nomadic tribes into a settled and civilised people2 but above all1 and what more concerns us1 it proved extremely critical for the fate of that as yet untried revelation of ,jehovah1 which had still to win its way against the heathenism of the common people1 and was now by this new experience called upon to measure its strength against the attraction of a competing faith4 ,the peculiar and pathetic love of the ,jews for ,canaan is largely due to the remembrance that it was not their own land but the long promised gift of ,jehovah1 standing therefore to all time as the material proof of ,his love for ,israel2 while their estimate of it was intensely deepened by the wilderness experience which preceded4 ,that estimate seems to us somewhat exaggerated1 for to-day ,palestine has almost given up the struggle against the always threatening advance of the desert4 ,it has certainly changed for the worse under neglect and misrule1 but it can never have been a too indulgent land2 only comparison with the bare and awful desert can have called forth the description1 a land flowing with milk and honey4 ,with the long memory of restless nomadic life and the bitter thought of bondage1 any land would seem welcome that offered them freedom and safety2 while to those approaching it from the desert it seemed as fair and fruitful a land as men could desire4 ,all lands have contributed largely to the character of the nations they have reared1 and the wilderness ancestry and the character of ,canaan have played their part in the development of ,israel4 ,the very geographical position of ,canaan helps us to understand the ,hebrews1 and even to see how it was that in this land it was possible to nurture from such unpromising beginnings the wonderful development of religion that was to make this smallest of all lands one of the most sacred spots on earth1 and this strange and limited people among the greatest contributors to the moral and religious ideas of humanity4 ,crushed in between the sea and the desert1 hemmed in by great military powers1 the little buffer state itself the very crossways of ,east and ,west1 its roads never long at rest from the tramp of armies2 here was a land in which all dreams of fame and empire were hammered out1 and nothing left possible save an empire of spiritual power and the fame of a unique religion4 ,a people strangely proud and passionately exclusive1 they could never rest under the dominion of their great neighbours1 however light the burden imposed2 and since sustained resistance was out of the question by reason of their inferior numbers and lack of military power1 they resorted to irritating acts of rebellion1 or intrigued with the enemies of their overlords1 and so brought down on their land frequent vengeance4 ,such was their untameable nature that the only practical policy open to ,babylon1 if she wished to insure the loyalty1 or at least1 the neutrality of ,palestine1 was to deport the ,jews bodily to where they could be under observation4 ,so we find the greatest heroes of ,jewish history--from ,moses1 through ,gideon and ,samson1 to ,david and ,judas ,maccabus--are those who deliver the nation from oppression2 while ,israel's prayers are largely cries for succour against enemies1 or for ,divine vengeance on the oppressor2 only too eloquent a witness of the sense of their own impotence4 ,yet it was precisely this experience that forced their religion to rise above the common type1 to conquer its natural tendencies1 and to become the most magnificent faith in ,god that the world has seen4 ,of this they themselves were not ignorant2 for one of their writers points to the easy lot of ,moab as the cause of their irreligion 7,jer4 xlviii4 #aa71 and one of the ,psalmists says that it is the men who have no changes who fear not ,god 7lv4 #ai74 ,we need not consider the utterly feeble objection that all this makes the religion of ,israel the outcome of natural necessity1 rather than of ,divine revelation2 for ,god made the land that made ,israel4 ,the entry into ,canaan was therefore one of the most critical periods in the history of this people and in the development of the religion of the ,old ,testament4 ,it is1 however1 extremely difficult to discover from the means at our disposal just how or when that entry was effected4 ,the sources for this period are found in the ,books of ,joshua and ,judges1 but1 from comparison with much in the history that follows1 it is clear that they do not present us with absolute history2 yet a critical examination of these books enables us to recover the essential facts4 ,a study of the preface to this lecture will show that the story of the ,conquest is obscure in its details and difficult to reconcile with modern discoveries4 ,a careful examination of our sources shows that the description of the entry of the ,hebrews into ,canaan as a conquest1 which was settled by a few decisive battles1 is at least rather fanciful2 and as a matter of fact we have quite another picture in the first chapter of ,judges1 which partakes more of the character of an alien immigration1 a method of conquest in which the ,jews have always been remarkably successful4 ,the history in ,joshua certainly represents the ,conquest as striking1 complete1 and followed by a ruthless extermination of the defenders of their native land4 ,in view of the relations that were for long maintained between the ,canaanites and the ,hebrews1 the representation in ,judges i4 must be regarded as nearer to the facts than the story of the ,conquest according to the ,book of ,joshua4 ,the children of ,israel dwelt side by side with the ,canaanites1 simply because they were not able to drive them out2 and as a result the tribes were frequently divided by strong belts of ,canaanitish territory4 ,right through the time of the ,judges we get warfare between the ,israelites and the inhabitants of the land2 sometimes in pitched battles between the ,canaanites and the united tribes of ,israel 7,judges iv4 v471 but more generally in guerilla warfare or in the sudden surprise of a ,canaanitish garrison 7,judges xviii474 ,the result of the conflict seems to have been the gradual absorption of the two elements into one nation4 ,the records definitely admit that it was not until the time of ,david that the ,jebusites were driven from ,jerusalem 7#b ,sam4 v4 #f1 #g71 and not until ,solomon that the superiority of the ,israelites was finally established 7#a ,kings ix4 #bj1 #ba74 ,it surely is an immense relief to think that the huge slaughters recorded in the ,book of ,joshua are1 to say the least1 exaggerations4 ,the history in ,judges also clearly shows that there was little cohesion between the tribes4 ,they filtered across the ,jordan only by degrees1 and there is evidence that this process may have extended over a considerable time4 ,we have records of quarrels between ,gideon and ,ephraim 7,judges viii4 #a71 and between ,jephthah and ,ephraim 7,judges xii4 #a74 ,these inter-tribal conflicts might have been serious1 were it not for the circumstance that the ,israelites were no sooner settled in the land than other tribes of desert invaders began to press upon them1 and they had to sink family differences in order to combine against the common enemy4 ,the song of ,deborah 7,judges v47 is one of the most valuable documents we possess for the light which it throws on the conditions of religious and national life in this period1 for it is probably the only document in the ,old ,testament1 earlier than the founding of the monarchy1 that is contemporary with the events it describes4 ,it shows that the tribes had somewhat improved their position1 for they now seem to be in possession of the highlands of ,ephraim1 although the plains are still in the hands of the ,canaanites4 ,the growing power of the ,israelites and their threatening predominance moved the ,canaanites to a united effort to repress ,israel4 ,it is to face this danger that the ,prophetess ,deborah calls the tribes2 but from the way in which the praise and blame is meted out we can see that a strong sense of national unity was still lacking4 ,the important point to be noticed is that the bond of unity to which ,deborah could appeal was the name of ,jehovah4 ,it should be noted also that in the enumeration of the tribes1 ,judah1 ,simeon1 and ,levi are altogether omitted4 ,in the case of so important a tribe as ,judah this is significant1 for it agrees with the fact that until the time of ,david this tribe does not come into prominence4 ,it has been conjectured that ,judah was only a small tribe1 and may have invaded ,canaan from the south1 for it is difficult to conceive how it could have crossed the strong ,canaanitish territory which separated it from the other tribes4 ,at any rate1 at this time it was not regarded as one of the tribes of ,israel2 it may have been that this tribe embraced a strong ,canaanitish element 7,gen4 xxxviii471 and this fact may have contributed to the resentment which broke out among the other tribes when ,judah assumed the hegemony in the time of ,david1 and which led in the end to the disruption of the ,kingdom4 ,in our sources the history of this period has attached to it a religious interpretation3 apostasy1 and disobedience to the commands of ,jehovah were the causes of the people being sold into the power of their enemies2 when they returned to the worship of ,jehovah and penitently pleaded for ,his forgiveness then deliverers were raised up who vanquished their oppressors4 ,this can be nothing but a late interpretation1 for the religion of the ,book of ,judges is of quite a fixed order1 and many of the stories recorded in it will not lend themselves to any such interpretation4 ,the hand that supplied this reading of the history of this period has been identified with the author of ,deuteronomy1 or1 as some would prefer to say1 with the school of thought that produced that work4 ,there is a religious lesson in this history1 as in all history2 but it is hardly to be found in a series of apostasies and returns4 ,there are really four separate endeavours to account for the undoubted fact of the ,canaanites being spared4 7#a7 ,israel was not able to drive them out 7,judges i4 #ai1 #bg74 7#b7 ,israel was only commanded to drive them out by degrees1 lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee 7,deut4 vii4 #bb74 7#c7 ,it was a providential arrangement to keep the ,israelites practised in war 7,judges iii4 #a1 #b74 7#d7 ,it was due to direct disobedience to the command of ,jehovah 7,judges ii4 #bj74 ,the history does not entitle us to assume that the judges were officials who exercised kingly rights over a united ,israel4 ,the word translated ,judge more often means ,deliverer1 and this is certainly the part that they play4 ,of some of the so-called minor judges we know nothing beyond their names1 and there is evidence that they have simply been used to fill out a traditional period of #dhj years 7#a ,kings vi4 #a74 ,whenever the ,judges assumed kingly or judicial functions trouble and rebellion always followed4 ,the figure of ,samson displays little fitness for ruling a nation or guiding it in religion1 but the stones of his life are illuminating for the understanding of the morality and interests of that age4 ,with this revised conception of the history of the ,conquest1 and of the events which followed1 we are in a better position to estimate the effect of the change from nomadic life to a settled existence1 and to understand how critical for the future of the religion of ,jehovah this change was4 ,we see tribes possessing little national unity1 but bound together by a religion in which lay the germ of a mighty future1 entering a land where the inhabitants had reached a higher stage of civilisation1 and possessed a religion that drew its power from the fact that it was the worship of ,baal1 the possessor and owner of the land4 ,in face of these conditions it was almost inevitable that many of the customs of the original inhabitants should be gradually adopted1 and that the religion of ,jehovah should borrow something from the religion indigenous to the land4 ,this was certainly the result which followed4 ,for a considerable period we find a religion prevalent among the common people1 which is simply a conflation of the two religions4 ,there were certain elements common to both1 and certain advantages in the one1 together with corresponding weaknesses in the other1 that prepared the way for this syncretism4 ,we shall now turn to examine the religion of the ,canaanites1 which we shall find to partake largely of the common elements of ,semitic religion4 ,their deities were personifications of natural forces1 and among these there is no one which is supreme1 and nothing that tends to ,monotheism4 ,the gods are friendly and destructive by turn1 and of unreliable character4 ,it is nothing more than an undeveloped ,polytheism4 ,the religion1 as it is seen in the ,old ,testament1 groups itself around three names3 ,baal1 ,ashtoreth 7often written in plural form ,ashtaroth71 and ,molech 7otherwise written ,moloch1 ,milcom1 and known to the ,phoenicians as ,melkart74 ,the name of ,baal has a hateful memory in the pages of the ,old ,testament as the ,canaanitish deity to whom ,israel constantly apostatised4 ,the exact significance of ,baal in the ,canaanitish religion is a matter of dispute4 ,he has been identified with the sun1 and by the ,greeks with ,zeus2 so that it has been inferred that ,baal was the ,president of the ,canaanitish ,pantheon4 ,this view is no longer generally accepted1 for it certainly fails to fit in with the records of the cult preserved in the ,old ,testament4 ,the word ,baal is not a proper name1 but signifies the ,possessor2 it is used in ,semitic language for husband1 as the possessor of the wife1 and is used as the name for deity1 as the possessor of the land4 ,every land1 and indeed every locality1 will therefore have its own ,baal2 so that in the ,old ,testament we hear of the ,baalim 7the ,hebrew plural71 and these local ,baalim are further distinguished by the addition of the name of their locality or of some event with which they were connected1 as ,baal-,peor1 ,baal-,berith1 ,baal-,zebul4 ,the ,baal is especially responsible for sending rain and sunshine1 and for giving fruitful seasons4 ,he is1 therefore1 the god of agriculture1 and the great events of the agricultural year1 such as harvest and vintage1 are observed as his festivals4 ,it is natural to find the uncertainty of the weather reflected in the character of the ,baalim1 with the result that we get a religion alternating between intoxicating joy and the deepest gloom4 ,to appease the fickle god or to win his favour sacrifices1 even of human lives1 are presented1 and if ,baal continues unheeding1 scenes of the most unrestrained fanaticism prevail4 ,it is this gloomy religion which darkens the times of the later ,kings of ,judah4 ,the ,canaanitish ,baal should be distinguished from the ,baal of ,tyre 7,melkart7 whose worship was introduced by ,ahab4 ,here the introduction of an alien ,baal1 with probably different rites and ceremonies1 awoke the resentment of the prophetic party under the leadership of ,elijah1 but the worship of the ,canaanite ,baal was maintained for long unchecked4 ,closely connected with the worship of the ,baalim we find the worship of the ,ashtaroth 7,judges ii4 #ac74 ,the pronunciation of this word is obscure2 it was probably ,ashtart1 and the singular form1 ,ashtoreth 7#a ,kings xi4 #e71 has been formed by inserting the vowels of the word bosheth 7shame71 a common device in the ,old ,testament for expressing contempt4 ,ashtart is the female counterpart of ,baal1 and is spoken of in the plural for a similar reason4 ,monuments of the worship of ,ashtart are still to be found1 and from these it is evident that we have here the worship of the goddess of sexual passion1 as common in polytheistic systems1 and best known in the ,greek worship of ,aphrodite4 ,the whole conception of ,ashtart can be traced to the famous goddess ,ishtar of ,babylonian religion1 and there is only too certain evidence that in ,canaan as elsewhere the degrading rite of religious prostitution was used in this worship of female divinity 7,hosea iv4 #ac74 ,the identification of ,ashtart with the ,queen of ,heaven 7,jer4 vii4 #ah2 xliv4 #ae-be7 is not so certain4 ,as far as the worship of the latter is described to us1 it looks like an importation of the ,babylonian worship of ,ishtar1 who was identified with the planet ,venus or sometimes with the moon4 ,the cakes to pourtray her 7,jer4 xliv4 #ai7 may have been crescent-shaped cakes4 ,of a similar character was the worship that gathered around the name of ,molech4 ,we have here simply the word for king 7,milk7 with the vowels of bosheth4 ,of this name1 ,moloch1 ,milcom1 and ,melkart of ,tyre are variations4 ,molech is not to be distinguished from ,baal1 as may be seen from ,jer4 xix4 #e1 where the practice of passing children through the fire1 which was certainly connected with the worship of ,molech1 is a part of the worship of ,baal4 ,this burnt-sacrifice of children evidently belonged to the ,canaanitish religion 7#b ,kings xvi4 #c74 ,this then was the religion of the ,canaanites3 in times of prosperity and fruitful seasons1 one of rejoicing and festivity2 but in time of famine1 drought or national danger1 one of the most hopeless gloom and of the most fearful fanaticism4 ,in conflict with this religion1 the purer worship of ,jehovah yet presented certain weaknesses2 these are found chiefly in points of possible identification1 which in the course of the history actually took place4 ,this may be difficult for us to understand until we remember that ,baal and ,molech1 to ,semitic ears1 simply meant ,lord and ,king2 and ,jehovah was the ,lord and ,king of ,israel4 ,if the character of ,jehovah was not clearly apprehended as moral by the common people1 we can see how easy it was for confusion to take place4 ,the great weakness of the religion of ,jehovah was that ,he was not the ,god of ,canaan4 ,his home was in distant ,sinai1 and the only symbol of ,his presence was the ark1 a symbol bound up with the idea of war4 ,as the people settled down to a peaceful agricultural life1 the need for ,jehovah1 the warrior ,god1 would not be keenly felt4 ,there was certainly a party from the very first who recognised the difference between ,jehovah and ,baal and fought against their identification1 but so long as ,baal was believed to be a real being the danger of his secret worship at least was never far away4 ,every land had its own god1 and although the people knew that ,jehovah was their ,god1 yet they might think it necessary1 and not inconsistent1 to pay their respects to the local ,baalim on whom they were dependent for the fruits of the earth 7,hosea ii4 #h74 ,nothing therefore but a national calamity could revive the old religion in face of the attractions of the new2 if peace had been continuous it is hard to see how the religion founded by ,moses could have persevered4 ,such dangerous peace the ,children of ,israel were not to enjoy4 ,we soon hear the rousing call to the help of ,jehovah in the ,song of ,deborah1 and it was the threatened domination by the ,philistines that called the monarchy into existence and revived the religion of ,jehovah4 ,meanwhile1 however1 a process of syncretism was gradually taking place1 which it was to be the task of the ,prophets to unravel2 and how far it had gone may be seen from the difficulty they found in making the character of ,jehovah and the moral demand made upon ,his worshippers clear to the people4 ,jehovah1 it must be remembered1 was a name largely personal4 ,baal was a general name for deity1 and could be applied to ,jehovah quite truthfully4 ,that this actually took place may be seen from a number of passages in the ,old ,testament4 ,the most instructive instance is to be found in ,hosea ii4 #af2 but the names given to places point in the same direction3 ,david calls the spot where ,jehovah broke his enemies1 ,baal-perazim2 the same god is called indiscriminately1 ,baal-berith 7,judges viii4 #cc2 ix4 #d7 and ,el-berith 7,judges ix4 #df74 ,this practice accounts for the names of ,saul's son1 ,eshbaal1 and of ,jonathan's son1 ,meribbaal 7#a ,chron4 viii4 #cc1 #cd71 both of which have been altered in the ,book of ,samuel to bosheth4 7,in obedience to the command of ,exod4 xxiii4 #ac1 ,bosheth was substituted for ,baal in reading the ,scriptures4 ,the written text was altered in many places at a later period2 the ,chronicler must have found ,baal in his text of ,samuel2 that is about #bjj ,b4,c47 ,the names of ,jehovah and ,baal therefore came to have the same significance1 and the distinction began to be missed2 ,jehovah was still the ,god of ,israel1 but the moral elements of ,his religion were gradually diluted with the naturalistic conceptions of the worship of ,baal4 ,jehovah becomes the ,baal of the land2 that is1 the relation between ,him and ,israel is conceived in a natural and even physical way4 ,it is therefore no longer a covenant relation1 which depends on the observance of moral obligations1 but one of nature which cannot be broken by either party4 ,naturally the sanctuaries of the ,canaanites are taken over by the ,israelites1 and ,jehovah is worshipped in the high places4 ,all through the history worship at these local sanctuaries is condemned1 but only from a later standpoint1 for the earliest ,book of ,laws permitted an altar to be erected anywhere where ,jehovah had manifested ,himself 7,exod4 xx4 #bd74 ,around some of these undoubtedly ,canaanitish sanctuaries the stories of the ,patriarchs gathered1 but from the practices which prevailed at such places as ,bethel we can see that heathen rites were used1 for here ,jeroboam set up the golden calves1 which seem to have been used in the worship of ,jehovah1 for neither ,elijah nor ,amos condemns them4 ,jehovah is now worshipped all over the land1 but there is the same tendency to regard each separate place as having its local deity1 and so ,jehovah is multiplied 7perhaps1 ,jer4 xi4 #ac7 and needs to be further identified by the addition of place names1 as in the strange name ,el-bethel 7,gen4 xxxv4 #g71 ,el-elohe-,israel 7,gen4 xxxiii4 #bj71 in a way that is very like the multiplication of the ,baalim4 ,so deeply was the worship of ,jehovah mixed up with ,canaanitish ideas that in the reign of ,josiah the only possibility of reform lay in forbidding the worship at the local sanctuaries altogether and concentrating all worship at the central sanctuary of ,jerusalem4 ,nothing but this process of syncretism can explain the condition of religion in the subsequent history1 and it is needed to enable us to understand both the difficulty of the work of the ,prophets and the form their message takes4 ,nevertheless1 there must have been from the earliest times elements that made for a purer faith1 and that never acquiesced in this confusion between ,jehovah and ,baal1 which certainly prevailed in the popular mind2 otherwise the ,reformation of the ,eighth ,century would be an isolated and inexplicable movement1 and without that historical support the ,prophets claimed4 ,there was a party against ,baal altogether1 although they do not emerge until the monarchy4 ,this party may have consisted of the priests of ,jehovah4 ,at mention of these we must not think of the sacrificing priests described in the ,book of ,leviticus4 ,no such persons are known until after the exile2 during this period anyone could sacrifice4 ,the story of the priest in ,judges xvii4 gives a good idea of this class2 his chief duties seem to have consisted in keeping the oracle and obtaining decisions by the lot4 ,these decisions became the basis on which there was gradually built up the ,torah 7the ,law71 which1 as the word implies1 was a collection of decisions obtained by casting lots4 ,for the purpose of obtaining these decisions the priests seem to have used an idol of some kind2 for this is the most natural explanation of the ,ephod and its use in the early history4 ,there would be different degrees of intellectual and moral capacity found in the ranks of the priests1 and many of them may have had higher ideals of their duties than the one mentioned in ,judges4 ,it would be likely that those who were in charge of the ,sacred ,ark possessed a superior dignity and maintained a purer tradition4 ,gradually the magical accompaniments to their oracular decisions may have given way to more judicial deliverances1 although in the time of ,david and ,abiathar they were apparently still used 7#a ,sam4 xxx4 #g74 ,at any rate the priests kept alive the idea of ,jehovah as the dispenser of justice1 and helped to build up that system of laws for which ,israel is so justly famous4 ,this higher critical view of the history is simply one to which we are driven by the records that stand nearest to the times they describe4 ,it certainly alters considerably the ordinary conceptions of the type of religion that prevailed in those early days1 before the coming of the ,prophets2 but that such was the type is only too clearly shown by the writings of the ,prophets themselves4 ,nevertheless this view of the period1 while it shuts out a somewhat stiff and mechanical religious interpretation of the history which has been forced upon it by a later age1 is still not without a valuable lesson1 which is perhaps not taught elsewhere in the ,bible1 and yet is one that we need to have always before us4 ,it is one1 the possibility of which always exists and often threatens a spiritual religion3 the danger of a gradual encroachment and assimilation of pagan ideas until the original purity is lost almost beyond recovery4 ,if this has happened anywhere it has happened in ,christianity4 ,it was the awakening to this paganisation of ,christianity that provoked the struggle of the ,reformation1 not yet decided4 ,many of the conceptions that are still popularly identified with ,christianity are the remnants of paganism4 ,it is not necessary to enumerate the common customs which wear only a thin veneer of ,christianity2 but many of the ideas in connection with ,christian ,doctrine certainly owe more to pagan philosophy than they do to the ,new ,testament4 ,the syncretism between ,paganism and ,christianity has not been destroyed by the ,reformation4 ,many of the popular ideas of the ,atonement1 for instance1 rest on a pagan conception of ,god and a materialistic idea of ,christ's work which are so deeply involved in the common presentation of ,christianity that to present the actual ,new ,testament teaching would seem to many like a denial of the foundation truths of the ,gospel4 ,still more dangerous is the localisation of the god as the peculiar patron of the land1 which justifies many unholy wars and makes such a thing as a national repentance almost impossible4 ,there is a god of the ,british ,empire who is remarkably like the ,jehovah-,baal of the old syncretised religion that ruled in the period which we have been studying1 and whose worship begets equal indifference to the claims of true religion1 and equally cruel treatment for the prophet who strives to call men to a purer faith4 ,it is a relief to turn to a more comforting lesson4 ,it is that which assures us that man's thought of ,god is not entirely his own1 that it cannot be destroyed and is never wholly forgotten1 but ever makes its way to higher truth and greater power4 ,the way in which the higher religion comes is through the pure minds of those who wish only to live up to the fulness of the truth1 and however mistaken they be1 wish only to know and to do the will of ,god4 ,a similar task lies equally before every honest man and every true ,christian4 ,the lesson is plain3 beware of a stagnant religion that dreads progress1 and keep the mind open as a child's to ,god's further revelation of ,himself1 which has yet many things to tell us4 ,,prophetism--,,early ,,stages ,the reader is recommended to investigate for himself the origins of ,prophetism by a careful examination of the following passages3-- ,i4 ,there were originally ,guilds or ,schools of ,prophets2 from which it would appear that ,prophetism was a kind of profession 7#a ,sam4 x4 #e2 xix4 #bj2 #b ,kings ii4 #c1 #e74 ,there is nothing in the records that we possess that marks these bands of prophets as possessed of great spiritual power2 they were devoted to the cause of ,israel and ,jehovah1 and the way in which this was manifested was taken to imply that they were filled with the spirit of ,jehovah2 it inclines somewhat to the ,dervish order of enthusiastic devotion 7#a ,sam4 x4 #e2 xix4 #bj-bd74 ,it is significant that wherever these schools are found there is known to have existed a high place1 i4e41 an old ,canaanitish sanctuary1 now used for the worship of ,jehovah-,baal4 ,a similar order of prophets was connected with the worship of the ,tyrian ,baal 7#a ,kings xviii474 ,,ii4 ,samuel 7#a ,sam4 xix4 #bj7 ,elisha 7#b ,kings ii4 #ae2 iv4 #ch2 vi4 #a-g7 and in much less degree1 ,elijah 7#a ,kings xviii4 #d2 xix4 #aj7 had some connection with these schools4 ,,iii4 ,the later ,prophets did not claim descent from these guilds of prophecy1 and even repudiated any connection with them 7,amos vii4 #ad74 ,this conflict between the called prophet and the professionals is revealed in the fierce denunciations of ,isaiah 7xxix4 #aj7 and ,jeremiah 7v4 #ca2 xiv4 #ac1 #ad2 xxvi4 #g1 #h74 ,,iv4 ,the identification of these prophets with priests and seers probably gives a clue to their origin 7#a ,sam4 ix4 #i2 ,isa4 xxix4 #aj2 ,jer4 xxvi4 #g1 #h2 ,amos vii4 #ab74 ,v4 ,certain individuals who are called prophets or seers had official court connection 7#b ,sam4 xxiv4 #aa2 #a ,chron4 xxv4 #e2 ,amos vii4 #aj74 ,between these prophets and the great writers who bear the same designation1 we cannot fail to recognise an immense difference2 ,samuel and ,elijah are connecting links between the two classes4 ,elijah is rather a hero than a prophet in the later sense1 for he gives us no new doctrine1 and ,samuel is a seer who has risen to political power1 rather than a religious ruler4 ,critics have discovered evidence of a double narrative in our documents4 7,earlier7 #a ,sam4 ix4 #a-x4 #af2 xi4 xiii4 #b-xiv4 #eb4 7,later7 #a ,sam4 i4 ii4 iii4 iv4 vii4 #c-ag2 viii4 x4 #ag-be2 xii4 xv4 ,if these be examined and contrasted1 it will be found that ,samuel is more allied in the earlier narratives with the priest-seer than with the ,prophet of the type of ,amos4 ,a confirmation of this double narrative is found in the different accounts of the origin of the monarchy which they give4 ,samuel1 according to the earlier sources1 is just the type we need for the intermediate stage in the development of the ,prophet4 ,for the different historical conceptions of the work and character of ,david the narratives in ,samuel should be compared with the representation given in ,chronicles1 and with that inferred by the ascription of various ,psalms to his authorship4 ,lecture ,v ,,prophetism--,,early ,,stages ,we have seen that in the time of the ,judges the religion of ,jehovah became so mixed with elements taken over from the ,canaanites that the original revelation gained through ,moses was in danger of being lost4 ,we have now to trace the steps by which this syncretism was broken up1 and the advance made to the purely monotheistic conception and the lofty morality of the great literary ,prophets4 ,however this came about it is certain that it was not due to any gradual movement among the mass of the people1 for the type of religion which we have been considering remains largely unaltered in its hold upon the popular mind4 ,through the teaching of the earlier prophets certain reforms were attempted1 but none of them seem to have touched the heart of the nation4 ,hezekiah and ,josiah attempted to reform religion by centralising the national worship1 but1 from whatever cause1 it left the people still in opposition to the prophetic type of religion1 a conflict that was only ended by the calamity of the exile4 ,it is1 therefore1 to the prophetic band themselves that we must turn4 ,can we trace within this more limited circle a movement that shall in any way prepare us for the appearance of men of the type of ,amos8 ,to answer this question we must turn to the ,books of ,samuel and ,kings4 ,these present us with a history of the period which1 like most history1 has been written1 or over-written1 from a later standpoint and made to conform with later ideals4 ,on the whole1 however1 and by contrasting it with the still later conceptions of the ,books of ,chronicles1 we can form an accurate impression of the state of religion at this time2 and incidentally we have a valuable account of a movement that evidently gave birth to those great conceptions of religion which were to be voiced with such power and force by the great ,prophets4 ,the writers who1 apart from the value of their religious teaching1 have by their distinctive style made the ,old ,testament a contribution to the literature of the world1 are known to us as ,prophets4 ,this name they share1 however1 with others who have left us no first-hand record of their religious opinions1 and who1 as described to us in the early sources1 bear only the slightest resemblance to ,prophets as we conceive them4 ,our task will be1 therefore1 to investigate the origins of this movement which embraces such diverse elements1 and this we may commence by examining the meaning of the word ,prophet 7,nabi74 ,like many other words in the ,old ,testament that lock up important secrets1 the origin of the word ,prophet is obscure and its meaning disputed4 ,the conception which is most natural to our word ,prophet is of one who sees into the future2 this is not even the main characteristic of the writing ,prophets1 nor does it embrace all the phenomena connected with the movement1 especially in its early stages4 ,all that can be said of the word from an etymological standpoint is that it has no origin which can be traced in historical ,hebrew1 and the inference is that it is either a very ancient word1 or one borrowed from some other language4 ,the word can1 however1 hardly be ancient1 for it is not common to ,semitic tongues1 as is the word priest1 for instance1 while we have a definite statement that within historic times it superseded the older word seer 7#a ,sam4 ix4 #i74 ,the name was also used for certain devotees of the ,tyrian ,baal1 whose worship was imported by ,ahab2 but it can hardly be that the name would be adopted directly from a phenomenon that was so repugnant to the ,israelites1 although the common name hints that there was a common ancestry somewhere4 ,it seems fair to assume from the facts mentioned that the word is1 at least1 not older than the entry into ,canaan1 and while it cannot be definitely proved that it was borrowed from the ,canaanites1 there is some confirmation of this in the fact that the earliest occurrence of the name is in connection with the sons of the prophets1 who are always found in places where it is known that there were ,canaanitish sanctuaries4 ,the word ,nabi has been variously connected with the root1 nab'a1 to bubble1 and so one inspired2 with the ,arabic word1 to speak1 and so a speaker or herald4 ,the word seems to exist in ,assyrian in the form nabu1 to announce1 but this is probably from the name of the ,babylonian deity1 ,nebo1 the ,god of ,eloquence1 so that the word might mean one possessed by ,nebo4 ,some have even looked to this as the ultimate derivation of the word4 ,the investigation of the word really gives nothing satisfactory1 and we must therefore turn to examine the character of the persons to whom it was applied4 ,in various passages in the ,old ,testament1 ,seer and ,prophet are so used as to lead us to infer that they embraced identical ideas 7,isa4 xxix4 #aj2 ,amos vii4 #ab71 and in one passage1 which has only the authority of a late annotation of the text1 we learn that they were identical in their application 7#a ,sam4 ix4 #i74 ,the other name with which ,prophet is frequently bracketed is that of ,priest2 they are placed together in the denunciations of ,jeremiah 7ii4 #h2 v4 #ca74 ,our previous studies showed us that these classes were all somewhat akin in their origins2 the duties of the priest were discharged in keeping the oracles1 while the ,seer is evidently akin to the ,soothsayer1 a type that has appeared in all religions4 ,we have a concrete example of these classes being combined in ,samuel4 ,in the early story of ,samuel's first meeting with ,saul1 we find ,saul turning to consult the famous ,seer in order to discover where his father's lost asses are to be found2 and even the question of the ,seer's usual fee is mentioned 7#a ,sam4 ix4 #h74 ,this picture1 which makes ,samuel a notable ,seer1 is earlier and more authentic than that which makes him nearly a ruler over ,israel4 ,although he is nowhere called a priest1 yet he himself sacrifices1 and his presence at a sacrifice is reckoned an advantage 7#a ,sam4 xiii4 #h-ac72 while we have the story of his sleeping by the ark in his youth4 ,the ,seer is1 therefore1 an exalted type of priest who has obtained renown by the success of his prognostications1 and so we read of ,seers attached to the courts of the ,kings 7#b ,sam4 xxiv4 #aa2 #a ,chron4 xxv4 #e72 but the later sources have recognised that there is something heathenish about the word1 and have covered it up with the name ,prophet4 ,from the early descriptions of the bands of prophets in the books of ,samuel1 it would seem that they are more allied to the priestly order than to the ,seers1 for it is certain that down to the middle of the ,ninth ,century the name ,prophet stands for something different from its use as applied to ,moses and the literary ,prophets4 ,the name is applied to bands of men who prophesy1 but this prophesying is entirely unlike the methods associated by us with the prophetic spirit4 ,it is evidently something which is done1 not individually1 but in companies1 and apparently in solemn procession to the accompaniment of noisy music4 ,it must have been a species of violent incantation1 leading to acts of fierce fanaticism1 in which the clothing might be stripped off1 and often ending in complete mental prostration 7#a ,sam4 x4 #e1 #f2 xix4 #bc1 #bd74 ,the connection of music with religious exercises is almost universal1 and it always had a conspicuous place in the worship of ,jehovah 7#b ,sam4 vi4 #e2 ,isa4 xxx4 #bi71 while music has often been used to induce the prophetic vision 7#b ,kings iii4 #ae74 ,these prophets seem to have lived together in schools1 semi-monastic orders1 or guilds1 and to have been found where there were high places1 or ,canaanitish sanctuaries2 and from their behaviour we are forced to admit that we have here a common manifestation in the history of religion1 where companies of men devote themselves to fanatical outbursts that are taken to indicate possession by the ,spirit of ,god4 ,to the accompaniment of music and frenzied dancing they work themselves into a state that approaches madness--always among uncivilised peoples taken to be a sign of the hand of ,god 7,hosea ix4 #g74 ,we cannot fail to be reminded of the greater excesses of the prophets of ,baal1 the extraordinary performances of the dervish bands1 and the fanatical excesses that have always disfigured monastic institutions4 ,it cannot be dismissed1 therefore1 as incredible that this phenomenon was derived from the ,canaanites1 and developed a zeal for ,jehovah that was manifested after a fashion common to the devotees of other religions4 ,down to a very late date in the history of the ,kingdom1 the literary ,prophets found themselves in conflict with bands of prophets1 who to their judgment prophesied falsely2 and from the way in which these are often associated with the priests1 it seems probable that they represent the deteriorated--or perhaps simply the stagnant--remnant of this earlier movement4 ,it is1 however1 necessary to assume that even in the earlier movement there were purer elements than those which we have noticed1 and that it embraced individuals who were led into a real fellowship with the mind of ,god1 of which ,samuel and ,elisha are conspicuous examples4 ,religious movements of the revival type1 which have undoubtedly inspired and produced great ethical changes and resulted finally in sane religion1 have often been accompanied in their earlier stages by these frenzied outbreaks4 ,it would be in response to some of those strange mental movements which modern psychology is endeavouring to understand1 but also whenever danger threatened the nation or the national religion1 that these enthusiasts would take the field4 ,as the movement shed its purely hysterical elements1 it may have been occupied in the compilation of the records of ,israel's history1 for many of these hardly reflect the higher prophetic standpoint1 or in writing down such stories of their great heroes as we find connected with ,elijah and ,elisha4 ,a connection with the literary productions of the great ,prophets may be thus indirectly traced1 as it also most certainly can in the prophetic style1 which in its fierce rhythm of denunciation or its sobbing sweeps of passionate appeal recalls something of the incantation of the prophetic bands4 ,samuel1 ,elijah and ,elisha1 by their connection with this early phenomenon of prophetism and by the approximation of their work to the ideals of the later ,prophets1 are the true links between the earlier and later stages of the prophetic movement4 ,it is both credible and natural that1 when the movement had spent itself in some wonderful advance into ethical power and religious insight1 the less noble elements should have still remained and continued to claim divine inspiration1 and yet have been found in open conflict with its own nobler productions4 ,it would seem that the obscure sect known as ,nazarites were connected in some way with the early prophetic movement1 for they are mentioned side by side with the prophets 7,amos ii4 #aa1 #ab72 and it is probable that ,samuel was both a ,nazarite and a prophet 7#a ,sam4 i4 #aa71 while ,samson1 in whom the ,spirit of ,jehovah seemed to produce these strange outbursts of savage frenzy1 was certainly a ,nazarite 7,judges xiii4 #d1 #e1 #g1 #ad74 ,it would appear that the ,nazarites were men who devoted themselves to the service of ,jehovah under certain vows of abstinence from wine and ceremonial defilement4 ,the vows might be taken for life or for a limited period1 but while under the vow the hair was left unshorn4 ,there is evidence that this is an old ,semitic custom1 and that when the vow was accomplished the hair was made an offering to the god 7,num4 vi4 #ah72 to this day the pilgrims to ,mecca are forbidden to cut their hair until the journey is completed4 ,the law of the ,nazarites 7,num4 vi47 is only a late attempt to legislate for a custom that had existed independently of the institutions of the religion of ,jehovah1 and so to secure a place within the official religion for a custom that would have been difficult to suppress by prohibition4 ,similar in many respects to the ,nazarites1 but even more obscure1 were the ,rechabites1 who abstained from wine 7,jer4 xxxv4 #b-aj71 but who seem also to have protested against the adoption of any of the arts and customs of settled life1 especially as these customs were typified in the cultivation of the vine4 ,they chose these methods in order to resist the influence of ,canaan1 which was threatening so dangerously the integrity of the nation and the national religion4 ,they probably hoped by these conservative manners to destroy the syncretism between ,baal and ,jehovah2 for the only other mention of the sect in the ,old ,testament is in connection with the extirpation of the house of ,ahab 7#b ,kings x4 #ae-ag74 ,it may appear repulsive to those who have made up their minds as to the methods by which the ,spirit of ,god can work to trace back the supreme genius1 the impassioned ethical ideals1 and the practical statesmanship of the great ,prophets of ,israel to movements bordering on insanity2 yet it is from enthusiasm that most of the great saving movements of the world have come4 ,certainly the great religious revival which was soon to come in ,israel owed almost as much of its success to these bands of enthusiasts as to the personality of ,elijah4 ,it falls now to our task to trace the movement from bands to individuals1 from ,prophetism to ,prophecy1 from a phenomenon to a teaching4 ,we have records of men who seem to have moved beyond the mantic stage and who prepare the way for the great ,prophets4 ,we can conveniently call these transition prophets4 ,we shall find that they bear some resemblance to the old style of ,seer1 or to the guild prophets1 or to both4 ,of some of these we have only the merest mention1 so that they may be called the minor transition prophets4 ,two stand together by their connection with ,david and from the fact that they both seem to have been ,court officials 7#b ,sam4 vii4 #b2 xxiv4 #aa2 #a ,kings i4 #aj74 ,there is no word here of the mantic fury of the early prophets2 although in ,gad1 who makes known the best way to escape the anger of an offended ,deity1 we have a survival of the ancient seer2 but in ,nathan we have a truly noble example of one who1 although he may have been dependent on ,david for his daily bread1 yet faced him with the unsparing denunciation of his sin4 ,here is a man who regards right in ,israel more than the smile of princes1 and who has a higher conception of his office than that of a convenient manipulator of oracles for the flattering of a ,king4 ,nathan is a true ancestor of ,amos and ,jeremiah4 ,ahijah the ,shilonite is famous because he foretold the disruption of the ,kingdom 7#a ,kings xi4 #bi-ca71 and we may see in this the beginnings of that political judgment which was to become notable in the later ,prophets2 although a partisan motive might be suspected in this particular case1 when ,jeroboam1 in later years1 sent his wife to consult ,ahijah1 accompanied with the usual fee 7#a ,kings xiv4 #b71 the message he received shows that in ,ahijah we have no party politician1 but the impartial judgment of the later ,prophets4 ,there is a pathetic and somewhat mysterious story of an unnamed man of ,god who delivered the word of ,jehovah to ,jeroboam at the altar at ,bethel1 and who1 refusing the accustomed hospitality due to a prophet1 afterwards accepted the invitation of the old prophet of ,bethel1 and paid the penalty with his death4 ,we have here a story1 the moral of which may be obscure enough1 but which certainly illustrates the growing conflict between the two prophetic ideals4 ,here is a prophet who travels from his own land to rebuke the sin of a ,king to his face1 afterwards yielding to the blandishments of one of the official prophets4 ,the new ,prophetism1 tempted from its superior position by the old1 fell2 yet not many years were to elapse before these two orders1 in the persons of ,amos and ,amaziah1 were again to face one another at this same spot1 and this time the new ,prophetism was to maintain its integrity 7#a ,kings viii42 ,amos vii4 #aj-ag74 ,before we pass on to the major transition prophets1 it will be well to consider here the effect which the foundation of the ,monarchy had on the development of the religion of ,israel4 ,of the inauguration of the ,monarchy we possess two accounts2 one extremely unfavourable1 written doubtless after ,judah's experience of some of her notorious ,kings1 and in the light of a somewhat ideal conception of the ,theocratic government that was supposed to have flourished before the time of ,saul 7#a ,sam4 x4 #ag-bd72 the other account1 in which ,samuel himself at the revelation of ,jehovah initiates the movement towards the ,monarchy 7#a ,sam4 ix4 #ae-x4 #a7 by anointing ,saul1 is the one that is placed earlier by the critics4 ,the ,monarchy was an inevitable stage in the social development of a settled people1 and it was the policy of ,samuel to make the ,monarchy the organ of the ,theocracy4 ,for all this ,saul does not seem to have had any influence on religion1 or to have ever realised the needs of his times1 and under the sense of failure he became a prey to fear and depressing influences which eventually wrecked his reason4 ,round the name of ,david have gathered the national ideals of heroism and sainthood so often found in combination in early story4 ,they had a true origin in ,david1 if we judge from the standards of piety and rulership that were natural to his age4 ,outlaw1 hero1 poet1 saint--,david is the darling of ,israel's history4 ,it would be unfair to ,david to picture him as the saintly author of some of the tender ,psalms that bear his name1 although others of a more robust character might well be from his hand4 ,that ,david was a poet seems to be certain1 and the songs of lament over ,saul and ,abner1 which have strong claims to be genuine1 bear witness to his true poetic gift2 but they are deficient in any display of deep religious feeling4 ,we may have also to reduce somewhat the conception of the extent or the absoluteness of his kingly rule4 ,he was rather one of those freebooters who by their heroism and rough manly courage are able to gather round them men of their own nature and to inspire in their followers a loyal devotion4 ,to this pleasant adventurer the early ,kingdom fell1 but for long it was only a kingdom of personal followers2 nor does he ever seem to have been enthusiastically acknowledged by the whole nation1 or to have established his claims absolutely beyond dispute4 ,his heroic defence against the ,philistine invasion was sufficient to give him a great place in the affection of the people1 yet he never assumed the imperial rule in the manner of his successor ,solomon4 ,with all this necessary allowance for the idealising process of a later age1 ,david was the indispensable centre round which the early ideals and legends of the ,monarchy could collect4 ,his work was of immense importance for the future2 especially his conquest of ,jerusalem1 now for the first time wrested from the ,canaanites and destined to become in the future the centre of the national life1 to be bound up with his name1 and above all to be the peculiar dwelling-place of ,jehovah4 ,to make ,jerusalem his capital was a very diplomatic stroke1 for it was neutral territory to both ,ephraim and ,judah1 and this fact quietened the mutual jealousy of these tribes4 ,it was also a great work of ,david that by his rough piety he definitely connected the ,kingship with devotion to the cause of ,jehovah4 ,this devotion found expression in his care for the sacred palladium of the ,tribes1 although it was policy as well as piety that brought the ,ark to ,jerusalem2 for we are forced to admit that in matters of religion ,david was not greatly in advance of his times4 ,he regarded the jurisdiction of ,jehovah as not extending beyond ,palestine 7#a ,sam4 xxvi4 #ai71 and although he himself may have abandoned idols1 yet he allowed them in his house 7#a ,sam4 xix4 #ac71 while he retained the old custom of consulting the will of ,jehovah by the ,ephod 7#a ,sam4 xxx4 #g7 or by the movements of trees 7#b ,sam4 v4 #bc-be74 ,his conception of ,jehovah was that of a ,being of uncertain temper1 who would take vengeance for any acts of ceremonial violation 7#b ,sam4 vi4 #i7 or whose anger might be aroused for reasons beyond human discovery 7#b ,sam4 xxiv4 #aj-ag74 ,but it would be equally wrong to blame ,david because he does not come up to the ideals of a later age4 ,so far as it went1 we may believe that his piety was real2 he was a man after ,jehovah's own heart1 for those times4 ,he certainly did his best to found a ,kingdom on personal affection and to establish some kind of impartial justice4 ,in the matter of ,bathsheba and ,uriah ,david has been judged by impossible standards1 and especially by the religious ideas of the #east ,psalm1 which bears in its every line evidence of a morality far too deep for the age of ,david1 and which is quite unsuitable for a confession of murder and adultery4 ,it was no crime in the eyes of an oriental monarch to take his neighbour's wife1 and it was novel doctrine that ,david heard from the lips of ,nathan2 it is to be laid to his everlasting credit that he listened to this prophetic judgment1 was convicted of the sinfulness of his act1 and repented very profoundly4 ,when we pass to ,solomon we come to a character altogether different1 but one that is very difficult to estimate from the portrait presented to us in the ,old ,testament4 ,the writers allow themselves to be carried away by the tradition of his magnificence1 and by the external evidence of his piety preserved in the splendid ,temple which he reared to the glory of ,jehovah2 but they cannot produce much evidence for the depth of his personal religion4 ,he attempted to build an empire on the lines of the barbaric and superficial glories of his greatest neighbours2 but its splendour and certainly its significance have been rather overdrawn by the later historians4 ,it was a reign of splendour1 but for the religion of ,israel it was unimportant1 for it was in the main irreligious4 ,save for the presence of ,nathan at his coronation1 the prophetic ministry almost disappears in this reign2 what prophets remain are opposed to his policy4 ,solomon was little more than a worldly cosmopolitan2 his empire was magnificent in comparison with the achievements of his predecessors1 but it rested not as ,david's on the devotion of the people to a popular hero1 but depended for its strength on a system of taxation and a false imperialism3 forced labour was employed and the loyalty of the tribes was strained4 ,it was an endeavour to change the government from a natural and tribal system to that of an ,eastern despotism2 and it ended in failure4 ,the building of the ,temple was only a part of this policy1 and it was a policy resented by the prophetic party1 who were all for simplicity in matters of worship 7#b ,sam4 vii42 omit verse #ac74 ,the ,temple did not occupy too outstanding a place in the block of royal buildings1 and there is no evidence that in this age it was anything more than ,solomon's private chapel built with the desire to rival the splendid royal shrines of other countries4 ,it was evidently designed largely on heathen models1 and contained heathen symbols which the later religion absorbed with difficulty4 ,the adoption of the ,temple as the supreme centre of ,israel's worship was not the work of ,solomon1 but the effect of the teaching of ,isaiah of ,jerusalem and the consequence of the reforms of ,hezekiah and ,josiah4 ,the harem and the strange worship were similarly parts of an international policy4 ,solomon was certainly the first to give to the worship of ,jehovah an imposing splendour and regularity1 but it was not a splendour that appealed to the ,prophets4 ,the beautiful prayer of the dedication can hardly be the composition of ,solomon1 but is more likely to have been the production of a later age which endeavoured to give to this display a piety which the original did not possess4 ,in time the ,temple was to become of enormous importance1 but in this period it remained only a magnificent shrine for the ,ark4 ,the fact that two of the prophets sided with ,jeroboam may point to a revolt against this religious splendour4 ,the bulls of ,jeroboam were a counterblast to the ,temple1 and although his name is ever afterwards connected with the introduction of this idolatrous worship1 and the succeeding ,kings of ,israel condemned for their participation1 it is evident that these strictures are somewhat intensified by the conception that in the quarrel between ,israel and ,judah1 ,judah was in the right1 and by the refusal to allow for the fact that this method of worship had not been condemned by any contemporary4 ,the calves were most likely ancient symbols of ,semitic divinity1 and were certainly intended as symbols of ,jehovah4 ,nevertheless1 the future lay with the ,temple and the ,south1 for the revolution was based on a merely conservative impulse and contained no ideal4 ,in the ,south1 ,jehovah was never worshipped with such an excess of heathen symbolism1 and thither the voice of ,prophecy soon transferred itself to find in ,judah its greatest sphere4 ,we are brought now to one of the most pregnant movements of this time1 known as the northern prophetic revolt1 and to the work and personalty of the major transition prophets1 ,elijah and ,elisha4 ,the introduction of the worship of the ,tyrian ,baal by ,ahab was the signal for revolt4 ,here was a violation of the commonest conceptions of religion3 the transplantation of the worship of another god1 ,melkart1 the ,baal of ,tyre1 into the territory of ,jehovah1 who was regarded as the ,baal of ,canaan4 ,it opened the eyes of the schools of the ,prophets to the danger of the use of the name of ,baal1 and was the cause of its complete disuse as a name for ,jehovah 7,hosea ii4 #af1 #ag74 ,in the revolt against the worship of this heathen ,baal there stands out as its chief inspiration and leader the magnificent figure of the prophet ,elijah4 ,it is evident that in the story of his life we have much that is legendary and probably some confusion with the work of ,elisha1 but the religious significance is sufficiently clear4 ,we have noticed that ,elijah is remotely connected with the prophetic schools1 and they share with him the persecution organised by the devotees of ,baal2 the old mantic accompaniments of prophecy are still found in ,elijah2 he seems to charm the rain 7#a ,kings xviii4 #db71 and he certainly hears it coming4 ,with all his courage and insight he does not fully comprehend the true methods by which the religion of ,jehovah is to win its way2 conviction is to be brought by thunder and fire2 if these fail there remains the sword4 ,it may be difficult to decide whether ,elijah actually conceived the wonderful revelation at ,mount ,horeb1 but it is more than likely that to this man there came in the hour of failure the discovery that there were other ways more to the mind of ,jehovah whereby men should realise ,his presence2 a discovery which has been dramatised in the theophany on ,horeb4 ,revelation by the still small voice of inner conviction certainly gained greater recognition after the ministry of ,elijah4 ,if we seek to understand the meaning of ,elijah's stand for ,jehovah1 we shall see that it was first of all a protest against the syncretism of the ,baal and ,jehovah religions4 ,this protest may have been founded initially on conceptions not too exalted1 namely1 that ,jehovah and ,melkart could not be worshipped in the same land1 but there are evidences that ,elijah had advanced further than that4 ,his daring taunts to ,baal amount to complete scepticism as to his existence1 or at least of his power to injure the true follower of ,jehovah4 ,if that is so1 then we have in ,elijah the first monotheist4 ,he clearly perceived that in character ,baal and ,jehovah were utterly different4 ,the cruelty connected with the religion of ,jehovah still persists under ,elijah1 but the incompatibility between the true religion and heathenism is recognised and affirmed4 ,we may sum up ,elijah's religion in his own phrase3 ,i have been very jealous for ,jehovah4 ,there is another aspect of ,elijah's work which certainly forms a true transition to the teaching of the later ,prophets2 he denounces the murder of ,naboth almost as much as the worship of ,baal4 ,we trace here the rise of the ethical conception of the service of ,jehovah and the protest against social wrongs which was to become so great a part of the burden of such men as ,amos and ,micah4 ,with ,elijah we can see forming1 however dimly1 the thought of a ,kingdom of ,god1 and the peculiar patriotism of the ,prophets3 he desires an ,israel independent of all heathen alliances2 it is a conception of a ,kingdom which shall be great in intension rather than wide in extension4 ,it was this conflict of the prophetic and the so-called patriotic ideals that was to contribute largely to the final overthrow of the ,state4 ,it may have been that the ,prophets could never have built up a strong ,state on the lines they indicated1 and their very protest may have weakened the arm of statesmen and contributed to the destruction of the ,kingdom founded by ,david and ,solomon4 ,we can only feel that we side with the ,prophets4 ,if the prophetic voice had been silenced we might have had ,israel with a kingdom as mighty as ,assyria1 although that is highly doubtful2 but it would have been a kingdom as useless for its contribution to religion as that proud1 vain1 and cruel empire4 ,the theophany at ,horeb1 therefore1 whatever its embellishment and however symbolical its dress1 is the true history of this period4 ,in the development of the prophetic religion1 magic and mystery are failing1 display and external glory are passing away1 and there enters from this time the conception of the religion of the inward voice on which the work of the later ,prophets is built4 ,elisha is but a pale reflection of his master1 and makes little contribution to religion2 but we soon hear of ,micaiah 7#a ,kings xxii4 #h71 whose message reveals the still widening gap between the professional prophet and the new order of men who hear with greater clearness the true voice of ,jehovah4 ,but sixty years have to pass1 and ,northern ,palestine awakens to the echoes of a new voice1 and listens to the new message of the first of that prophetic band who have enriched literature while they have exalted religion--,amos the herdman of ,tekoa4 ,where elsewhere in history has there been a religion that1 starting in comparative heathenism1 almost lost in conflict with a fully-developed paganism1 has yet moved steadily upward1 breaking away from its origins1 shedding the false charms of magic and sorcery1 and rising by gradual ascent into fellowship with the ,will of ,god8 ,it is this movement that constitutes the inspiration of the ,old ,testament and that makes it still a ,word of ,god to us4 ,many of these conclusions1 which have been put forward and established by critical methods1 especially in reference to the religious feeling of those times1 and in the different conception of the piety of men like ,david and ,solomon1 may strike the reader as startling and disturbing4 ,that may well be1 but that is no excuse for our reading into ,bible story more than can be legitimately found there1 while it will be sure to obscure some of its highest teaching1 which is to be found not in isolated texts1 but in great movements4 ,it is the facts that we have to face1 and the facts are obscured not so much by the corrections of the history by the later historians1 as by our forcing into them the still later conceptions of our own times4 ,we have not given detailed proof of many of the positions here taken up2 they may be sought in detail by the reader in the works of ,biblical scholarship4 ,our object is to discover whether these things being so1 we can still find a true revelation in the history of this people1 and hear in it the ,voice of ,god4 ,do we not get from this corrected view of the history1 a sense of the splendid onward movement of this religion1 which in itself is so much more inspiring than the monotonous conception1 which is only the product of later ,judaism1 that the history of ,israel's religion is nothing but a series of apostasies from a pure and perfect faith8 ,that late conception is not borne out by a careful and critical study of the sources1 and it rather owes its strength to-day to a certain dogmatic conception of human nature that is needlessly pessimistic1 and to an idea of the weakness of the ,spirit of ,god in ,his dealings with man that nearly approaches atheism4 ,one or two lessons of the period stand out in strong relief4 ,one is that better things come of enthusiasm1 even when it is mistaken1 than from indifference4 ,the reference of all the institutions of ,israel to the definitely revealed ,will of ,jehovah may seem to some1 after these investigations1 a mistake4 ,this can only arise from too narrow a conception of the working of ,god and the means through which ,his ,spirit reaches man1 for it is this very reference to the ,will of ,god that is responsible for the advance in ,israel's faith4 ,to believe in the ,will of ,god1 and to refer all to it1 does gradually increase the knowledge of that ,will1 and so leads to a true revelation4 ,another lesson is1 not to despise the accompaniments of the first movements of the ,spirit of ,god in man4 ,it is not within the scope of this work to enquire why it is that when a man is moved by the ,spirit of ,god such strange phenomena as we have been studying in the prophetic bands1 which still accompany many revivals1 should be the immediate results4 ,there must be patience with these things as beginnings2 but equally must there be impatience with them when they elevate themselves into a permanent claim to recognition as the only signs of a true religious life1 and when they refuse to recognise as higher the sane and ethical movement to which they themselves have given birth4 ,one of the chief difficulties in things religious is to recognise the offspring of a great movement1 to discover the time when the child must be allowed its new-found freedom1 to know when symbols may be dropped and the reality brought in4 ,protestantism has given birth to wider thoughts about ,god and deeper appreciations of the extent of ,his working1 which are the logical outcome of ,protestantism1 and yet which are often repudiated by those whose ,protestantism is of the aggressive type4 ,a progressive movement of any kind always has these strifes4 ,they are as constant in ,science as in ,religion1 only in ,science they are more easily overcome by the greater readiness to accept new revelation4 ,christianity is a religion that moves1 and1 as ,christ ,himself foretold1 it causes the son to rise up against his father1 the new generation to come into conflict with the old4 ,ours it is never to forget that the ,kingdom of ,god is on the side of the child2 except ye receive the ,kingdom of ,god as a child1 in the spirit of enquiry and growth1 except ye never grow old1 ye cannot enter therein4 ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,literary ,,prophets ,,the ,,chronology ,,of ,,the ,,prophets ,assyrian ,period4 ,b4,c4 ,amos #gfj-gej ,b4,c4 ,hosea #gej-gcg ,accession of ,tiglath ,pileser ,,iii #gde ,isaiah #gdj-gjj ,invasion of ,sennacherib #gja ,micah #gbd- ,fall of ,samaria #gbb ,zephaniah circa #fbg ,western ,palestine invaded by ,scythians ,nahum #faj-fjh8 ,fall of ,nineveh #fjg ,chaldan ,period4 ,jeremiah #fbf-ehf ,deuteronomy discovered #fba ,habakkuk #fje-fjj8 ,first ,great ,exile #eig ,ezekiel #eic-egc ,second ,great ,exile #ehf ,persian ,period4 ,isa4 xiii4-xiv42 xxi4 #a-aj2 xxxiv41 7,date uncertain1 but xxxv4 definitely after the ,exile47 ,isa4 xl4-lv4 7,the ,second ,isaiah7 c#edj4 ,cyrus takes ,babylon #ech ,isa4 lvi4-lxvi4 7,various prophecies1 to be dated after the return47 ,return of the ,exiles #ecg ,haggai c#ebj ,zech4 i4-viii4 c#ebj ,mal4 #dfj-dej ,promulgation of the ,law #ddd ,zech4 ix4-xiv4 #cbb ,there is nothing to enable us to decide the dates of ,jonah1 ,joel1 and ,obadiah with greater definiteness than to say that they were written after the ,restoration4 ,diagram representing the religious significance of the ,prophets3-- ,,final ,,embodiment ,,golden ,,age ,,of ,,prophecy ,,silver ,,age ,,of ,,prophetic ,,teaching ,exile -------- ,,psalms -------------- #b ,,isaiah --- ,,jeremiah -- ,,hosea ,,amos ------- ,,micah--,,nah4--,,hab4 ---------------- ,,wisdom ,,literature ----------- ,,isaiah ,,deut4 ------------- ,,ezekiel ----- ,,the ,,law ,judging from the standard of ,new ,testament religion and their contribution to it1 the ,prophets may be roughly classified in the above order4 ,the higher tendency seems to vanish from the historical works which were composed after the ,exile1 save in many of the ,psalms1 where religion reaches its highest expression outside the ,new ,testament4 ,the tendency represented by the middle and horizontal line ends in the somewhat superficial ethics of such works as the ,book of ,proverbs4 ,the lower tendency is only to be judged so from comparison2 it served its purpose1 and it was an honest endeavour to reduce the ,prophetic ideals to a definite system4 ,it is in line with the spirit of many of the ,psalms that the religion of the revelation of ,christ takes its rise1 and we may see in the ,sadducees and the ,pharisees the degenerate effect of the other lines of development4 ,lecture ,,vi ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,literary ,,prophets ,among the writings of the ,old ,testament1 the ,prophetical ,books1 whether considered as literature or religion1 are acknowledged to stand out as unsurpassed4 ,if the ,psalms claim to rival them it is to be remembered that the ,psalms are probably to be traced to the ,prophetic teaching4 ,the ,prophets themselves begin a new era2 they are creative and owe but little to their past4 ,that for so long a period1 in unbroken continuity1 there should emerge from a tiny nation a succession of men of differing temperament1 training1 and social position1 who should with remarkable unity voice truths of religion not only hitherto unrecognised but rarely surpassed or apprehended in subsequent history1 is in itself a unique phenomenon in comparative religion4 ,equally notable is the fact1 that in the majority of the ,prophets we have not only the gift of religious intuition1 but that this is found in combination with great oratorical power1 true poetic genius1 and practical statesmanship4 ,they remain for all time an indisputable witness to the ,divine revelation in the development of ,israel's religion4 ,previous stages which we have been able to recognise in the development of ,israel's religion do not carry us on to ,amos by so inevitable a movement1 that his message could be predicted as the next stage to be reached4 ,when we come fresh from the investigation of the religion held by the leaders of the people in the times of ,david and ,solomon1 we recognise the immense strides made when we open the ,book of ,amos4 ,we can trace a likeness between ,elijah and ,amos in their denunciation of wrong2 but1 in the sphere of religion1 there is a great gulf between them which no records of the intervening period quite help us to bridge over4 ,we cannot think of ,amos taking part in the great vindication of ,carmel2 it is probable that he would have recognised it as useless4 ,in ,samuel1 ,elijah and ,elisha we undoubtedly have the religious ancestors of the ,literary ,prophets1 but while they stood at the head of popular movements which they led in triumph against the intrusion of alien faiths1 the ,prophets that we are now to study stand in decided antagonism to the popular faith1 and the conceptions of ,israel's religion which they reiterate with such passion and insistency were never acceptable to the people4 ,their religion has to make its way against the national religion4 ,the importance of the ,prophets is the natural starting point for the modern study of the ,old ,testament1 and it is from the earnest perusal of their writings that modern ,biblical science has been forced to take up a rigorous criticism of the entire literature of the ,old ,testament4 ,under the old methods1 the ,prophets had only a secondary position in the history of the ancient revelation1 since their message was conceived as rather concerned with an age yet to come than with their own times and needs4 ,the ,divine ,law had already been given to the people1 constituting a perfect norm of religion4 ,when the people failed to obey the ,law1 then the ,prophet appeared1 enforced its principles1 and condemned the people's apostasy4 ,if that message was rejected1 as it often was1 then nothing was left for the ,prophet but the proclamation of vengeance1 or the prediction of a time when the ,law should be ideally fulfilled by the revelation of the ,gospel4 ,between the ,law and the ,gospel1 therefore1 stood the ,prophets1 but they acted only as a bridge from the one to the other4 ,the natural method of studying their writings was to search for the fulfilment of their predictions in history4 ,with these aims it was perhaps inevitable that their words should often be interpreted in a quite unwarrantable manner2 events were read back into their prophecies1 or the fulfilment was found in such ordinary coincidences that the dignity of prediction was itself lost1 the study became puerile and morbid1 while a fancied necessity as to what they must mean prevented any scholarly and unbiassed interpretation4 ,their works have consequently been largely used as mysterious oracles from which the future history of the world could be accurately predicted4 ,to read the ,prophets in order to obtain a picture of their own age was regarded as a secular occupation1 while every attempt to recover the original application of their words was regarded as an endeavour to discountenance the proofs of ,divine revelation4 ,many of their words bear remarkable likeness to the gracious invitations of the ,gospel1 so that they have been used equally with the ,new ,testament for ,gospel preaching1 but it was never dreamed that they were real invitations to the people of their own times1 founded on the eternal laws of ,god's forgiveness afterwards made clear in ,christ2 they were simply words spoken under mental effects which transferred the speakers to the time of the ,new ,testament4 ,whatever the final results of the application of historical criticism may be1 it has already laid religion under a permanent obligation in its discovery of the hitherto unrealised importance of the ,prophets4 ,at first attention was directed to their exalted ethical and religious standpoint1 appearing as it did in an age that neither produced nor responded to it2 minute study then showed that they gave first-hand and incidental accounts of their own times4 ,their messages bear witness to the contemporary state of the religion of ,jehovah and the people's morals1 and although it may be that they sometimes judged these from their own high standard1 which caused them to paint them somewhat darker than an absolutely historical judgment would demand1 yet on what the prevailing religious opinions of the day really were1 they are the best evidence4 ,the startling but unassailable deduction made from the ,prophets' accounts of their own times is1 that in matters religious they were proclaiming doctrines that seemed to their contemporaries entirely novel4 ,the ,prophets do not1 however1 acquiesce in the charge of novelty4 ,they profess to go back to the original and inner meaning of ,jehovah's choice of the nation4 ,they refer to this choice1 as a covenant1 and to the religion demanded by it1 as the law of the ,lord4 ,the first inference is that they refer to that which we know as the ,law1 the ,pentateuch1 or ,law of ,moses4 ,a comparison with the ,prophetic teaching with the ordinances of1 say1 the ,book of ,leviticus1 shows that this cannot be the case1 for they do not correspond4 ,many things there commanded as essential are passed over in silence by the ,prophets2 but the force of the argument is not wholly drawn from that1 although it has a weight here which the argument from silence cannot usually carry1 because both ,leviticus and the ,prophets' teaching set forth the essentials of religion1 and there can be no possibility of doubt that the conceptions of the essentials have an altogether different outlook4 ,it is chiefly1 though not by any means entirely1 from the standpoint of the ,prophetical writings that modern criticism is forced to revise the conception of the progress and decline of religion that ,jewish tradition has embodied in the arrangement of its ,scriptures1 and especially in the ascription of the ,pentateuch as a whole to the age and authorship of ,moses4 ,the verdict from this comparison between the ,prophets and the ,law is1 that the five ,books of ,moses either did not exist in their present form at the time of the ,prophets1 or1 if they did1 remained entirely unknown to them4 ,the historical value of the ,prophets is therefore to be rated very high1 not only because of their transparent sincerity1 but also because the historical data which can be secured from them are given indirectly1 and are valuable for the same reason as the remarks of a contemporary diarist4 ,they are unaware that they are writing history1 and are consequently free from the almost unescapable tendency of the historian to make the facts fit into preconceived theories4 ,modern criticism1 therefore1 does rightly in making the ,prophets of paramount importance for the understanding of the ,old ,testament1 and when the ,prophets are thus made the test1 much in the history that was either completely hidden or difficult to understand1 becomes visible and clear1 and the progress of ,israel's religion is displayed in all its grandeur and movement4 ,we can now turn to examine the extent of the sources from which we may draw1 in order to estimate the religious opinions and influence of the ,prophets1 and to examine the peculiar character of the literature for which they are responsible4 ,first in importance stand the ,books of the ,prophets proper4 ,in the ancient division of the ,hebrew ,bible into1 7#a7 ,the ,law1 7#b7 ,the ,prophets1 7#c7 ,the ,hagiographa1 or the holy writings1 ,the ,prophets included1 beside our ,books of the ,prophets1 such historical ,books as ,joshua1 ,judges1 ,samuel and ,kings4 ,significantly enough1 however1 ,daniel is not grouped with the ,prophets1 but with the ,hagiographa1 either because it was not classed as prophecy1 or more probably because the ,canon of ,the ,prophets had been closed by the time it was written4 ,therefore1 in addition to the writings ascribed to the ,prophets1 there is a literature which has been influenced by their teaching1 and this is found largely in those historical ,books which have thus been rightly included in the ,prophetical division of the ,hebrew ,bible4 ,that is to say1 however1 that ,books dealing with history prior to the rise of the ,prophets1 show traces of an influence that can only have emerged later4 ,it is here that criticism seems to the ordinary reader to enter very debatable ground1 although among critical students of the ,bible the question is no longer an open one4 ,they claim that the peculiar conditions under which ,hebrew history was compiled allow us to discern1 and to separate with ease1 this later prophetical editing1 whereas in other literatures such would be impossible4 ,history was compiled among the ,jews largely from pre-existing documents1 much as it is everywhere1 with the difference that in the ,old ,testament the records have been simply pieced together with whatever corrections and reductions were rendered necessary1 while the conceptions of the later times1 when this re-editing was accomplished1 are often simply superimposed2 this method has been ridiculed as an invention of the critical mind1 but it is simply an indisputable if tiresome fact which has to be taken into account in any serious study of the literature4 ,the narratives of the documents that have been named ,j and ,e bear the marks of having been combined under the influence of prophetical teaching1 since this teaching1 it is to be noted1 is recognisably incompatible with other parts of the stories which have been left untouched4 ,it has been suggested that criticism seems to assume that religion progressed until it reached a certain height in the ,eighth ,century1 and to enable this theory to stand all marks of this supposed later type appearing earlier are classed as interpolations4 ,it is usual to trace this theory to ,evolution gone mad4 ,even on the critical theories this cannot however be legitimately shown to result1 since critical reconstruction shows that the supreme height gained in the ,prophets was never maintained1 but suffered a perceptible decline4 ,whatever the guiding idea of criticism may be1 it cannot be an endeavour to make the history of ,israel's religion confirm some theory of the natural development and evolution of religion4 ,the critical theories leave us with the problem of moral lapses to account for and with the failure of vision to explain1 and demand still a moral insight to detect the cause4 ,but it is clear to many that the moral causes do stand out more clearly discoverable by this method4 ,the critical theory of the priority of the ,prophets is not based only upon the emergence under their teaching of certain theological ideas for the first time2 but also on the difference of style and vocabulary which can be recognised after only a slight acquaintance with the language2 and on the general outline of the history that the ,bible itself forces upon us4 ,it is a fact which the reader can soon discover for himself1 that the historical ,books are compilations from the records of various ages1 and these various ages can be as easily discerned as the conflicting styles of an oft-restored church1 or the disturbance of the normal geological strata that demands some upheaval for its explanation4 ,it must be remembered that all this is made possible from the fact of the remarkable uniformity of ideas that characterises the various stages of ,hebrew religion4 ,the ,prophets' teaching can therefore be traced outside their own writings2 mainly in fragmentary comments added to the narratives2 or in a superimposed colouring1 which easily falls off1 leaving the original outlines in view2 but it is supposed to be found grouped into one great mass in the ,book of ,deuteronomy4 ,the critics' theory of this ,book is that it is an endeavour to reduce the teaching of the ,prophets1 more especially that of ,isaiah1 to a code1 and to secure reform by the centralisation of worship at ,jerusalem4 ,this idea of a central worship1 which leaves no record of its actual observance until the time of ,josiah1 or perhaps an attempt in the reign of ,hezekiah1 is so unmistakable and is so uniformly expressed that the work of this author 7perhaps we should say1 this school7 can be easily detected1 and many of the ,books1 such as ,judges and ,kings1 can be seen to have been subjected to a ,deuteronomist redaction4 ,in all these phenomena we have teaching that presupposes the ,prophets1 and that stands in contrast and often in conflict with the general tone of the original4 ,it is remarkable that with such redactions of history any clue to the earlier conceptions should have been left to us1 especially that there should have been left in the records anything that would be in disagreement with the editors' ideas1 but the ,jews1 like the other nations of antiquity1 did not possess modern notions of exactness1 and their notions of history prevented them from understanding things that were removed only a short distance from their own times4 ,it is hardly surprising to find that this ,prophetical literature was in turn liable to redaction1 though in a different degree and for a different reason1 since it has been preserved to us under peculiar conditions4 ,this at first may seem terribly confusing to the bewildered student1 and it is here that tired men reject criticism and all its works4 ,to such the reminder cannot be spared that in any branch of ,science the same conditions have to be overcome1 and if he would understand the ,old ,testament and reap the magnificent reward that its earnest study gives1 he must be prepared to face the facts and labour at their solution4 ,first of all then1 it must be noted that the ,books of the ,prophets are not so much literature1 in the ordinary sense of the word1 as reported rhetoric1 with the qualification that the reporter and the speaker may be usually assumed to be the same4 ,in most cases the speeches were written out by the ,prophet himself soon after they were delivered1 although sometimes this was done by others long after1 and expanded or altered1 as is actually reported to have been the case with the prophecies of ,jeremiah 7,jer4 xxxvi474 ,in the second place1 the literature reveals the fact that there does not seem to have been in that age any conception of literary property2 ideas are borrowed directly from one ,prophet by another1 and sometimes direct quotation is made without any acknowledgment or indication of the source4 ,the ,prophet's scribe1 his school or followers1 could amend or paraphrase2 later generations could evidently insert a qualifying phrase1 temper a threat with a qualifying condition1 or to the doom of exile add a promise of restoration4 ,when it is noticed that messages like those of ,amos or ,hosea end unexpectedly in hopeful words1 and when it is recollected that these ,prophets have been used as ,service ,books in the ,synagogue and may have been therefore altered to suit the purpose1 then we shall understand the problem that faces us and why a shadow of suspicion should rest on promises of restoration that are to be found in pre-exilic writings4 ,let it be remembered however that it is no true critical canon to assume that prediction cannot be made2 but what are we to do when such a prediction fits ill with the context1 breaks the sense1 is foreign to the outlook of the speaker1 and is in later style8 ,finally1 there seem to have been many prophecies circulated anonymously1 and since a place had to be found for these they were inserted in other writers1 on no principle that we can discover1 or more often were grouped together at the end of some notable ,prophet's works4 ,in ,zechariah we have to suppose three strata of different authorship and date1 or give up the rational study of the ,book altogether2 and in the famous case of the ,book of ,isaiah we have to suppose that some of the early chapters are the work of a post-exilic author1 while chapters xl4-lxvi4 are a heterogeneous collection by a number of writers1 of which chapters xl4-lv4 are recognised to be by one hand1 and that1 one of the most wonderful personalities which has contributed to the ,old ,testament2 about that grand figure we only know one thing1 that he was not ,isaiah of ,jerusalem4 ,this has been called sawing ,isaiah asunder and making the ,bible a piece of patchwork and the critics are blamed2 but if they are right1 these complaints are not directed at them1 but at the ,bible itself1 a proceeding which to say the least1 is not pious4 ,when a writer could say many years later that revelation came of old time in many fragments 7,heb4 i4 #a71 others beside critics fall under these hasty condemnations4 ,it is refreshing to turn from this less interesting part of our subject1 which nevertheless demands serious study from anyone who would be informed where ignorance has done and still is doing so much harm1 and to examine the features which distinguish the work of the literary ,prophets4 ,we have already spoken of the novelty of their message4 ,whatever theory is chosen for the study of ,old ,testament history1 nothing quite prepares us for the message of the ,prophet ,amos4 ,what an inspiration we miss because he does not stand in our ,bibles in his rightful place1 at the head of the ,prophets6 ,his bravery and ruggedness remind us of ,elijah1 but he brings something that ,elijah is far from giving us4 ,elijah was very jealous for the due recognition of ,jehovah as the only ,god for ,israel2 ,amos is jealous for the recognition of the true character of ,jehovah4 ,that is to say1 we receive from ,amos definite teaching concerning the character of ,jehovah and ,his relations to the people of ,israel1 and these doctrines are startling to ,israelitish ears4 ,almost the first thing that strikes us as an outstanding characteristic of the ,prophets is that they are conscious of a call to which they often appeal4 ,five of them definitely refer to the circumstances of their call 7,amos vii4 #ad2 ,hosea i4 #b2 ,isaiah vi42 ,jer4 i4 #d-aj2 ,ezek4 i4 #a-;ii4 #c74 ,the same is true of their predecessors1 but in a different way2 they stand as defenders of the national religion because they belong to the prophetic guilds or possess certain gifts of vision4 ,on the other hand the literary ,prophets are against the national religion as a perversion of the true1 and to this weary and warlike work they are called by immediate and special summons of ,god4 ,this call is not self-originated nor can it be evaded 7,jer4 xx4 #i71 and in some cases there has been no preparation for the office 7,amos vii4 #ad1 #ae71 and even positive unfitness 7,jer4 i4 #f74 ,they are very careful therefore to distinguish themselves from the schools of prophets4 ,professionalism has disappeared1 and in ,jeremiah the official idea also vanishes4 ,the peculiar mental condition of the ,prophets has of late years attracted a great deal of attention4 ,the rapture and holy frenzy into which they are sometimes thrown remind us of the phenomena accompanying the early ,prophetism1 studied in our last lecture2 but this is now accidental and is becoming rare4 ,the ,prophets often speak of this as the hand of the ,lord upon them 7,isa4 viii4 #aa72 in the visions of ,ezekiel the effect is often described as overpowering 7,ezek4 iii4 #ad ff474 ,there is a similarity between the accompaniments of these states and the trances which have been found in so many religious movements1 and which are now attracting the attention of the scientific world so seriously4 ,only the results differ remarkably from the effects obtained in hypnotic and sub-conscious states1 with which the prophetic gift has sometimes been compared4 ,the ,prophet still exhibits his natural style when under the influence of the ,word of the ,lord4 ,yet it may be that there is something to be learned along the lines of modern research2 we know that if certain states of mental passivity can be induced1 there lies open a new realm of knowledge1 which1 although it can be accounted for1 cannot be summoned under ordinary mental conditions2 add to this the superior moral constitution which seems to be missing from the mediums of spiritualistic phenomena to-day1 and the prophetic consciousness becomes more comprehensible4 ,the ,prophets often speak of visions1 but it is difficult to gather their actual character4 ,it can hardly be objective2 it is more like the artistic vision which creates within the mind in perfect detail and objectivity1 so that what is seen has greater reality than any reproduction on canvas or in stone4 ,the mind would seem to project its vision by the strength of its imaginative powers1 so that1 owing to the emotion aroused by the nature of the truth perceived1 the revelation appears to come from an entirely external source4 ,sometimes it would seem to be an actual beholding of some natural object1 which induces a train of thought1 as the case of ,amos's vision of the plumb-line may well be4 ,we cannot think either of any organic hearing of their message1 since they sometimes also declare that they see it4 ,their predictive power has been exaggerated1 chiefly because it was thought that this was the only office of the ,prophet4 ,where it occurs it is mostly a natural deduction from their insight into the movements of their age1 their conception of the unchangeable character of ,jehovah1 and their belief in ,his providential government2 the emphasis is never upon details1 and it may be added that the prediction is by no means always fulfilled4 ,their vision of the future usually takes a certain outline1 or order2 a national calamity is immediately impending1 in which they recognise the punishment of the people's sins and the complete triumph and vindication of ,jehovah2 this will result in a purifying of the nation1 and in the immediate succession there will come the ,messianic or ideal era4 ,still there are predictions which cannot be explained on any theory yet broached1 such as the prediction by ,isaiah of the destruction of ,sennacherib's army1 or ,jeremiah's prophecy of the ,restoration4 ,if this is ordinary second sight1 then it is strange that it should have occurred in so many cases at this time when prophecy was dropping its mysterious accompaniments4 ,yet it may be recalled that in the history of all nations there has been1 in times of great national affliction1 a tendency to prophecy of this order1 which can sometimes claim a remarkable fulfilment4 ,the distinguishing glory of ,israel's prophecy is1 however1 to be sought in its ethical character1 and it is perhaps to the writings of men like our own ,carlyle1 where we often catch the old prophetic ring1 that we are to look for its analogy4 ,among the things that separate ,amos from his predecessors is the use of a literary channel for the dissemination of his teaching1 which was of course primarily preaching4 ,this in itself marks a great change4 ,what was it that led the ,prophet to write down the message which he had delivered8 ,it may have been that there was a tendency towards literature at that particular period1 but even before this the habit of keeping records must have commenced1 while there is evidence of collections of poems or sagas1 such as the ,book of ,jasher1 or the ,book of the ,wars of the ,lord1 being in existence from a very early period4 ,it is evident therefore that we need some particular occurrence to account for the adoption of literature as the vehicle of ,prophecy4 ,it has been suggested that the cause is to be sought initially in the rejection of the message of ,amos by those to whom it was delivered3 he was aware of the permanent application of the truths that he had delivered1 and since his own times would not hearken he resolved to commit them to the verdict of posterity4 ,the example once set1 it was natural for the succeeding ,prophets to wish to give something more than the fleeting character of the spoken word to teaching that was new and that had been rejected1 and therefore to adopt this form 7,isa4 viii4 #af f474 ,whatever the cause1 we are thankful for the results4 ,the channel chosen for the preservation of their messages was not purely literary2 the form is not that of the essay1 or thesis2 it has not the studied elegance of poetry1 yet it rises above prose1 and rhythmic verse is found scattered throughout their writings4 ,these reports of passionate oratory fall naturally into poetic form as the ,prophet is carried away by his message4 ,especially do we find a very extensive use of symbolism1 which has proved a trap into which the literalist has hastened to fall4 ,the relation of the ,prophets to the ,state is difficult for us accurately to appreciate4 ,samuel1 ,elijah1 and ,elisha headed what were practically popular revolutions2 in them nationalism overshadows the universally religious1 or the purely moral ideal4 ,to appreciate the contrast that the literary ,prophets present to this1 a careful study should be made of #b ,kings ix4 #g-aj2 x4 #cj1 and this compared with the verdict of ,hosea1 which rises above the standard of ,state interest to a judgment of universal morals 7,hosea i4 #d74 ,the literary ,prophets have no office at court and receive no fee 7,micah iii4 #b72 but they have an official connection with the nation1 which they regard as the chosen instrument for the establishment of ,god's reign2 they have no conception of a secular state for ,israel4 ,it became therefore a tragedy for ,jeremiah to be so completely rejected by the nation1 for then he felt his prophetic office really ceased4 ,it was this that drove him into a personal relationship with ,god that is not reached by any other of the ,prophets4 ,it is not correct to say that the ,prophets were social reformers or practical politicians4 ,their sole concern is with religion1 but it is a religion that goes very deep1 and that must express itself in social and national ethics4 ,it is however upon their distinctive message that the chief interest centres1 not only for the understanding of their age1 but for their permanent contribution to religion4 ,it is a declaration of pure ethical ,monotheism4 ,jehovah is not simply the tutelary deity of ,israel2 ,he is the ,only ,god4 ,the gods of the other nations are not real beings2 this truth is vividly expressed in the scorn which is poured on idols and their worship4 ,jehovah is a spiritual ,being2 therefore the crusade against the idols that had been used in the worship of ,jehovah is an outcome of prophetic teaching4 ,this condemnation of idols in the worship of ,jehovah is not actually met with until ,hosea 7xiii4 #b71 but that any visible form of ,jehovah is derogatory to the true conception of ,his glory is the only possible deduction from prophetic teaching4 ,we still get the nave terms that refer to ,jehovah as if ,he had bodily parts2 but this is nothing more than the necessary imagery which all spiritual conceptions have to employ1 and which are not mistaken by any save the most ignorant4 ,this purely spiritual ,being fills the whole universe 7,deut4 x4 #ad2 #a ,kings viii4 #bg2 ,jer4 xxiii4 #bd2 esp4 ,isa4 xxxi4 #c1 which implies more clearly than any other statement in the ,old ,testament the spirituality of ,god1 and thus anticipates the declaration of ,jesus to the woman of ,samaria74 ,but it is with the ethical character of ,jehovah that they are mostly concerned4 ,he is righteous2 which means more than the early conception that ,he simply defends ,israel's right4 ,they insist on ,his complete impartiality1 which no choice of ,israel for ,his own can turn aside3 ,you only have ,i known of all the families of the earth1 therefore will ,i visit upon you all your iniquities4 ,they fall back again and again on ,his absolute fidelity and truthfulness4 ,the arbitrary character which is ascribed to ,jehovah in the ,books of ,samuel has completely disappeared2 the ,prophet can say3 ,come and let us reason together1 saith ,jehovah4 ,universalism is the necessary corollary to ,monotheism1 but the strong sense of ,israel as ,his chosen instrument hinders the clear statement of this truth by the ,prophets4 ,a particular regard for ,israel still colours their vision2 but they are altogether against the popular estimate in maintaining that this choice was made solely as a means for reaching the whole world4 ,universalism is seen forming in the idea that ,jehovah is concerned with the punishment of other nations1 since ,he it is who will punish them for their sins2 not only for their hatred of ,his chosen1 but for their cruelty to other nations3 ,he will punish ,moab for his inhumanity to ,edom 7,amos ii4 #a74 ,this is a great advance4 ,even when the surrounding nations afflict ,israel it is not because the ,lord has no control over them1 but it is ,he that raises up the hostile powers as instruments of ,his chastisement4 ,even kinder views are to be found in ,amos1 in whose tiny book we find nearly all the characteristic ideas of the ,prophets2 for ,jehovah is said to have been concerned in the early migratory movements not only of the ,hebrews1 but of the hated ,philistines and ,assyrians 7,amos ix4 #g74 ,the grand universalism of ,isaiah xix4 #ai-be only needs us to recall the part that ,egypt and ,assyria played in the history of ,israel1 in order to appreciate its magnanimity4 ,yet in spite of these passages1 the outlook as a whole is centred on ,israel1 and works of a definitely universalistic nature could hardly have found a place in the canon4 ,this spirit probably made it necessary for the writer of ,jonah to embody his universalistic doctrines in the form of an obscure parable about a ,prophet and a whale4 ,it was the same national bigotry that led to the rejection of the ,son of man4 ,it is in the idea of the conditions of the covenant between ,jehovah and ,israel that the teaching of the ,prophets stands in such contrast to the conceptions of the people4 ,that relation was conceived of1 as we have seen1 as tribal2 the ,prophets declare it to rest on a covenant of choice1 which is to be maintained by the adherence of the parties to the original terms4 ,they love to place in contrast the unwearied faithfulness of ,jehovah and the fickleness of the people2 while they alternate between threats of ,jehovah's complete rejection and the recurring thought that despite all ,he can never change1 and against all known custom will even welcome back the harlot nation4 ,jehovah's requirements from ,israel1 for the proper maintenance of the covenant1 are simply the full allegiance of the people2 but how this is to be displayed is not so definitely described4 ,there must be a pure worship of ,jehovah1 but this is not to find expression in accurate ritual or great sacrifices4 ,indeed it cannot be claimed that the ,prophets are at all concerned about ritual4 ,the ,book of ,deuteronomy distinctly lays down that the true worship of ,jehovah is to be performed at one chosen central spot1 while ,leviticus provides an elaborate method of approach1 which can only be neglected at the peril of the worshipper4 ,on the other hand1 it is certain that the ,prophets found the people worshipping at the high places1 the old ,canaanitish shrines1 with many customs which would be a direct infringement of the ,code of ,leviticus1 yet they are entirely unconcerned with these faults4 ,the principle of sacrifice as a means of worship had existed from ancient times1 and is to be found in nearly all religions2 yet there is an overwhelming verdict from the pre-exilic ,prophets that shows that they are doubtful of its ,divine appointment or of its necessity4 7,these passages should be carefully examined3--,amos v4 #be2 ,hosea vi4 #f2 ,isa4 i4 #aa-ag2 ,micah vi4 #f-h2 #a ,sam4 xv4 #bb2 ,jer4 vi4 #bj2 vii4 #ba-bc2 and ,jeremiah may have been a priest67 ,there is only one conclusion possible2 these ,prophets had never seen the ,book of ,leviticus4 ,the ritual which the ,prophets seek is that of an upright life4 ,they base all their morality on religious ideas4 ,the great incentive to moral conduct is the recognition that the whole nation and land is the property of ,jehovah2 any social wrong is wrong against ,him4 ,so we find that the earliest attempt to formulate this teaching in a code contains many regulations which are purely humanitarian 7,deut4 xiv4 #bi2 xix4 #b ff42 xxi4 #aj-ag2 xxii4 #a-c2 xxiv4 #f1 #aj-ae74 ,ritual is turned into ethics4 ,against the inequalities and injustices of their day the ,prophets set their faces1 with an utter disregard for consequences3 they hurled their accusations at the nation with tremendous energy1 in public1 before kings1 as men went up to worship2 fiery denunciation mingling with a patriot's tears2 for the time1 all unavailing4 ,yet they have had their harvest1 and to-day they are among the voices that call men to social reform4 ,it will be well to endeavour to show1 in the briefest possible outline1 the historic setting of this mighty message4 ,it was shortly after the opening of the ,eighth ,century that threatening indications began to gather on the horizon of ,northern ,israel4 ,the situation called for a ,prophet's message4 ,amos1 the herdman of ,tekoa1 comes like a whirlwind from ,judah1 utters his message at ,bethel and returns4 ,he is the first and in many respects the greatest of that meteoric band who illumine the dark night of ,israel's history2 later ,prophets repeat his words and share his ideas4 ,hosea1 from the ,northern ,kingdom1 follows in his steps1 but with a message made the more tender from the fact that the whole drama of ,israel's unfaithfulness to her husband ,jehovah had been brought home to him in a personal domestic tragedy4 ,the tender heart which led him to forgive his unfaithful wife1 wondered if ,jehovah would not be equally forgiving1 and through this experience he almost penetrates to the thought of ,god as ,love4 ,a few years later1 a voice is heard in the villages of ,judah proclaiming the message of ,amos with the same call to simple reality3 ,micah pleads for simple life1 simple worship1 simple justice4 ,with this transference of the prophetic voice to the ,southern ,kingdom there falls an awful silence on the ,north4 ,in #gbb ,b4,c41 ,samaria fell before the arms of ,assyria1 and ,israel ceased to exist4 ,for centuries that land was to remain silent and despised1 until there should come from ,galilee of the ,gentiles ,he of whom all the ,prophets spake4 ,one would expect that the awful doom which had overtaken the ,northern ,kingdom would not have been without effect on ,judah4 ,its only visible effect was the strengthening of her belief in her own inviolability1 and the acceptance of the idea that ,israel's fall was due to her separation from ,judah4 ,if a ,prophet could have turned the people's thought in a saner direction1 then it would have been accomplished by ,isaiah1 the most princely and the most literary of all the ,prophets4 ,his work was not indeed without effect4 ,he was the means of lifting prophecy into popular favour1 and a revival followed his teaching4 ,the chief cause of this favour was the events of the memorable year1 #gja ,b4,c4 ,in face of the demands of ,assyria1 ,isaiah had all along counselled submission and the avoidance of all intrigues with ,egypt4 ,but the violation of the treaty by ,sennacherib1 who demanded the surrender of the city after he had been bought off1 roused the anger of ,isaiah4 ,in answer to the insulting message of the ,rabshakeh1 while the army lay round the city1 in obedience to the word of ,jehovah he counsels resistance4 ,nothing seemed more improbable than that there could be any escape for ,jerusalem2 nevertheless he declared that the holy city should be inviolable4 ,the great host with their insolent captain lay before the gates1 but in the morning ,the ,gentile1 unsmote by the sword1 ,had melted like snow in the glance of the ,lord4 ,whatever the actual cause of the raising of the siege may have been1 there can be no doubt that something did happen to the ,assyrian army which ,isaiah was able to attribute to the intervention of ,jehovah1 for from this time ,isaiah became famous4 ,to those who see in the fulfilment of prediction the chief end of prophecy this event will naturally seem of profound importance4 ,to another view of the function of prophecy this is the least thing that ,isaiah did1 for while it lifted his name into popular favour1 that same deliverance proved a snare to the inhabitants of ,jerusalem4 ,for his declaration of the city's inviolability was remembered long after1 and quoted as if it had been of universal1 instead of temporary application1 while his moral teaching was forgotten4 ,to that trick of national memory the exile was largely due4 ,from this time the sacrosanct character of the city obsessed the popular mind1 and in consequence the ,temple became1 for the first time since its erection1 of supreme significance in ,jewish eyes4 ,following ,isaiah1 there was a movement1 commenced probably by his disciples1 that strove to bring the ,temple into prominence as the one authorised place of worship4 ,possibly during the reactionary reign of ,manasseh1 when their master is said to have been martyred1 they worked at this idea1 and driven into silence by the persecutions of the king they employed their pens in producing a code of laws1 which undoubtedly gathered into legal form many of the customs which had existed for centuries1 and endeavoured to give them the religious interpretation of the prophetic teaching4 ,its chief injunction was the suppression of the high places as no longer authorised for the worship of ,jehovah1 hoping to centre thereby the whole of the nation's worship at the ,temple4 ,this code was probably laid up for publication in brighter days1 and was discovered in the reign of ,josiah1 in the year #fba ,b4,c4 ,there can be but little doubt1 from the reforms instituted1 and from the total disregard of them until this time1 that this code was our ,book of ,deuteronomy4 ,since it was published under the name of ,moses1 many moderns have looked upon its compilation as a pious forgery4 ,this is to read into a past age the legal conceptions of ,western civilisation4 ,it must be remembered that many of these laws could be legitimately traced back to ,moses or to his influence1 and there was no idea of deception in using his name4 ,the hand of the ,school which produced this work can also be traced in the compilation and redaction of other historical works1 which were undertaken with this idea of making the past history teach the value of the reforms they wished the people to adopt4 ,this was not only regarded as legitimate1 but as a sacred duty imposed upon them4 ,the modern historical ideal1 which instigates research with the sole intention of discovering the facts1 is only the product of our own age1 and is still unsuccessfully striven after4 ,the reformation under ,josiah is therefore known as the ,deuteronomic reformation4 ,from this time the ,temple becomes the only spot where ,god can be publicly worshipped1 and the local shrines are forbidden4 ,this may seem an arbitrary action1 and it is possible that for some time it called forth loud complaints2 but it was certainly for the benefit of religion4 ,it had been proved to be impossible to dissociate the local shrines from the customs and ideas which had descended from the original ,canaanitish worship carried on there4 ,with a central worship it was found possible to check practices that were not in accordance with the religion of ,jehovah4 ,the teaching of the ,prophets finds then in the ,book of ,deuteronomy its first-fruits of reform4 ,the relation of one young man to this new movement is full of peculiar interest and difficulty4 ,it was at this very time that ,jeremiah began his ministry1 and it is possible that he took some part in the movement 7,jer4 xi4 #h74 ,he also lived to see the reaction and to prove that the reform was only superficial4 ,there is one passage which seems to point to a change of view and even to the suspicion that the new code was not authoritative 7,jer4 vii4 #h74 ,when ,jeremiah attacked the sin of the people1 and warned them that the presence of ,jehovah's ,temple would not suffice to protect them if they persisted in their iniquity1 his message was rejected and eventually he was imprisoned and silenced by a coalition of the priests and prophets4 ,jeremiah ceased therefore to be the ,prophet of that nation4 ,in his loneliness and sorrow1 his thoughts turned in an hitherto unexplored direction4 ,he complains to ,god in words which sound almost blasphemous1 and pours forth expostulations that are the reverse of the submissive spirit usually thought proper to religion2 but it is through this agony that ,jeremiah discovers that ,god can be something to him1 not only as the ,prophet of the nation1 but for himself4 ,he discovers personal religion4 ,his next discovery is equally momentous2 for he is led to see that no promulgation of laws can save the nation3 ordinances do not change the heart4 ,he sorrowfully pronounces the doom of the nation1 but as he stands by its open grave he sings of its resurrection4 ,when purged by trial the nation shall return1 and the ,new ,covenant shall be set up1 in which ,jehovah shall write ,his laws in their hearts4 ,it is a long far-off look that he gives1 and the picture is not complete until ,one sits at a last supper and says3 ,this cup is the ,new ,covenant in my blood4 ,,the ,,effect ,,of ,,the ,,exile ,dates for reference3-- ,b4,c4 #eig4 ,jehoiachin and #aj1jjj captives deported to ,babylon1 and ,zedekiah made king in his stead4 ,,first ,,captivity4 #ehg-f4 ,jerusalem besieged1 ,zedekiah taken to ,babylon1 ,jerusalem and the ,temple destroyed1 and the whole population1 save the very poorest1 deported to ,babylon4 ,,second ,,captivity4 #ech4 ,cyrus issues edict for ,return4 ,return under ,sheshbazzar 787 7,ezra i474 #ecg4 ,return under ,zerubbabel 7,ezra ii474 #deh4 ,arrival of ,ezra4 #dde4 ,first ,mission of ,nehemiah4 #dcc4 ,second ,mission of ,nehemiah4 ,there is a good deal of uncertainty about the above dates1 and the condition of the documents in ,ezra-,nehemiah offers difficulties which have not1 so far1 found acceptable solutions4 ,some have sought to identify ,sheshbazzar with ,zerubbabel1 and to bring down the date of the ,return to #ebb-ba4 ,it will be seen from the above ,table that ,jeremiah's prophecy of ,seventy ,years was not literally fulfilled4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the student would receive a clear idea of the growth of ,israel's institutions and the way in which they have been incorporated in the successive documents1 by tracing the development of the ,sabbath in the following passages4 ,some claim that the ,records of ,babylonia show that the observance of the seventh day as sacred goes back to the origins of primitive ,semitic religion4 7#a7 ,in ,j-,e 7which may be prior to ,amos in oral form1 and perhaps slightly later as documents73 ,exod4 xxiii4 #ab2 xxxiv4 #ba2 xx4 #h4 7#b7 ,in historical books3 #b ,kings iv4 #bb1 #bc2 ,amos viii4 #e2 ,hosea ii4 #aa2 ,isa4 i4 #ac4 7#c7 ,in ,d3 ,deut4 v4 #ad4 7#d7 ,in ,jer4 xvii4 #ai-bg4 7,jeremiah is the first writer to show traces of the influence of ,deuteronomy47 7#e7 ,in ,h1 ,the ,code of ,holiness 7,lev4 xvii4-xxvi473 ,lev4 xix4 #c1 #cj2 xxvi4 #b4 7#f7 ,in ,ezek4 xx4 #ab1 #ac4 7#g7 ,in ,p3 ,gen4 ii4 #a-c2 ,exod4 xx4 #aj1 #aa2 xxxi4 #ab-ag2 xxxv4 #a-c2 ,lev4 xxiii4 #c2 ,num4 xv4 #cb-cf2 ,exod4 xvi4 #e1 #bb-cj4 7#h7 ,in post-exilic observance3 ,neh4 xiii4 #ae-bb2 ,isa4 lvi4 #b1 #d1 #f2 lviii4 #ac1 f42 lxvi4 #bc4 ,lecture ,,vii ,,the ,,effect ,,of ,,the ,,exile ,in the year #eig ,b4,c41 a catastrophe long foretold befell the ,kingdom of ,judah4 ,nebuchadrezzar invaded the land1 took ,jerusalem1 and robbing the land of every person of importance or usefulness1 transported them together with ,king ,jehoiachin to ,babylon1 hoping doubtless to prevent any further trouble with ,juda4 ,in what a conflict of emotion must the exiles have left that city which they had fondly imagined inviolable6 for even in ,babylon they continued to believe that so long as ,jerusalem stood1 ,jehovah would have a citadel1 and the holy city would remain a symbolic witness to their unconquered religion4 ,with the captives there went a young man who was destined to leave a deep impression upon the future of his nation--the priest ,ezekiel4 ,arrived in ,babylon1 he felt himself called to a prophetic ministry to the exiles1 and his first message was directed to the crushing of their remaining hopes2 for with dramatic symbolism he predicted that ,jerusalem would be utterly destroyed4 ,the suicidal policy of ,zedekiah1 whom ,nebuchadrezzar had left to carry on the government as his vassal1 soon fulfilled this prophecy2 for sedition and intrigue soon compelled ,nebuchadrezzar to adopt still stricter measures4 ,he again marched into ,juda and besieged ,jerusalem4 ,this time the ,jews expected no mercy1 and resisted with such tenacity that the siege lasted for nearly two years4 ,on the ninth day of the ,fourth month1 7our ,july7 #ehf ,b4,c41 a day still kept with solemn fasting by the ,jews1 a breach was made in the walls and the city capitulated4 ,a month later the entire destruction of the city and ,temple was ruthlessly carried out1 and the whole population1 with the exception of a few husbandmen1 was deported to swell the company of exiles now at ,babylon4 ,this was the inevitable culmination of the policy of the ,kingdom of ,judah under her latest monarchs4 ,the position of their land laid them open to conflicts with the powers of ,assyria and ,babylon4 ,the wise and peaceful policy of ,solomon had been departed from1 and indeed rendered impossible by the disruption of the ,tribes4 ,a period of national decadence seems to have followed1 in which luxury and corruption undermined all political sanity1 and both rulers and people became blind to the dangers that threatened4 ,such religion as existed1 only expressed itself in bursts of fanaticism1 and filled the people with the fatal idea that ,jehovah would never suffer the ,temple to be violated or the holy city to be taken4 ,the disaster of the ,exile is charged by the ,prophets to the unrepented sins of the nation1 and while this is a religious interpretation it is not unsupported by a review of the history4 ,the people had set their hearts upon a glorious kingdom of material prosperity1 presided over and protected by a mighty national deity2 the ,prophets wanted a kingdom of righteousness1 which would reflect the character of ,jehovah and be a witness to the nations of ,his reality and power4 ,while they saw in the ,exile a calamity which meant the destruction of the nation1 and an evidence that ,jehovah had broken ,his covenant because of disobedience1 they clung to the belief that the end for which ,jehovah had chosen ,israel might still be attained4 ,that nation might be destroyed1 yet from its ruins there would arise a ,kingdom of ,god2 a remnant would return1 weaned from a false religion1 to work out a new ideal of holiness and service4 ,the period which follows is one of great obscurity and the records which are actually dated from this time are scanty4 ,literary criticism however throws great light on this period because it believes that it is from the ,exile that we are to date many institutions and writings that have been referred to a previous age4 ,this may seem at first sight a desperate device1 since so little is known of the actual conditions2 and yet unfettered investigation can arrive at no other conclusion1 the exilic stamp being often unmistakable and even showing itself in geographical outlook 7#a ,kings iv4 #bd74 ,if we take the ,bible as it stands1 it presents us with the story of an early legislation given by ,moses1 neglected however by the entire people1 including the ,reformers and ,prophets1 until it suddenly appears after the ,exile as the acknowledged code for the regulation of religion and common life4 ,it would be quite possible to conceive that the shock of the ,exile drove the ,jews to examine the details of the neglected covenant of ,jehovah and to restore the authority of the ,law of ,moses4 ,such however is impossible1 not only from that fact that there is no mention of the ,law of ,moses in the records that can be dated between the ,conquest of ,canaan and the ,exile1 but that in this period we can discern customs and ideas gradually growing up that find their full and final embodiment in the ,pentateuch as we now possess it4 ,from the lawless condition of the ,judges and the early monarchy1 we advance to the teaching of the ,prophets4 ,it is ,isaiah who contributes the ideas which lie at the basis of the ,deuteronomic ,code1 and the time of ,josiah is the first to show the influence of that code4 ,ezekiel is the first to show any trace of the ideas which we find embodied in ,leviticus1 but these1 as we shall see1 have to be explained as anticipations of1 rather than as an acquaintance with1 the finished ,levitical ,code4 ,when we consider what effect the ,exile would have upon the more thoughtful of the ,jews1 we can imagine that conscience would be shocked into activity1 and a new interest would be taken in their strange history1 especially in its prophetic interpretation4 ,it is common in history to find that repentance rarely goes so deep as to grasp the inner meaning of its discovered sin1 but is apt to content itself with somewhat superficial methods of showing its sincerity and securing future compliance with religion4 ,so at least1 the records of ,israel's history assure us1 happened in this instance1 and one of the resolutions of their penitence took concrete form in the writing or editing of their history so that it should be a warning to the future1 and in codifying customs and drawing up regulations which should make apostasy for ever impossible4 ,many references in the ancient records or in the oral tradition which savoured of idolatry or of a too anthropomorphic conception of ,god were corrected1 as those references1 the tendency of which was not detected1 have remained to bear witness2 and the whole history was fitted somewhat clumsily into a mechanical scheme1 which was rather what they thought ought to have happened than what really did happen4 ,one example of this may be seen in the condemnation which is navely passed on king after king because he had allowed sacrifice to be made at the high places2 the fact being that this was not made illegitimate until the reign of ,josiah4 ,in this way external offences were marked and abandoned1 while the deeper incongruity between the national religion and the teaching of the ,prophets was missed4 ,if we seek in this period for the rise of ideas which shall bridge over the change from the popular religion on the one hand1 and the religion of ,jeremiah on the other1 to the complete unity of the national religion under ,nehemiah and ,ezra1 we shall find a most important link in the ,book of ,ezekiel4 ,the ,book of ,ezekiel is said to be the least read book in the ,bible1 yet its author plays a most important part in the history of ,israel's religion1 and to grasp the position which he occupies is to have a focus point from which the whole development may be conveniently grasped4 ,the ,prophet probably got a better hearing from his contemporaries than any of his predecessors4 ,he accompanied the body of captives who left ,jerusalem for ,babylon in the year #eig1 and his works date from soon after that year and go down to about #egj4 ,the men to whom he was called to speak were therefore his fellow captives1 and he had not to look far for a text for his sermons4 ,his hearers were in ,babylon for their sins1 and they knew it4 ,his style of preaching is difficult1 and his method of embodying his message in visions marks a new phenomenon in ,israel's religion4 ,he states truth in strange and fanciful figures1 a method which was to form an example for the later works of ,judaism1 and if we detect in ,ezekiel a return to the extravagance of the earlier prophecy1 we must make allowance for the tragic times in which he lived2 especially must we do this where we trace a falling off from his predecessors in moral insight and in the ritualistic influence which his work undoubtedly left behind him4 ,ezekiel continues the work of the pre-exilic ,prophets in that he proclaims their characteristic doctrines1 and naturally he shows distinct traces of the influence of ,jeremiah4 ,what is new1 is that he gives to those doctrines a more fixed and somewhat pedantic form1 and a greater self-consciousness is discernible2 the prophecies are accurately arranged1 and the language is marked by precision2 rhetoric is less frequent1 and the prophecies look more fit for reading than for delivery4 ,the idea of ,god is the same as in the earlier ,prophets1 but in ,ezekiel it is elevated and rarified2 especially is great emphasis laid upon the attribute of holiness1 which is however a ceremonial rather than a purely ethical conception4 ,the characteristic idea of the ,prophets1 that ,jehovah chose ,israel not for their own sakes1 becomes the idea that ,jehovah did this for ,his own sake alone1 and this is so often repeated that it almost looks like arbitrariness4 ,the cause of ,judah's punishment is still traced to the sin of the people1 but that sin is now definitely determined to be idolatry2 and this is insisted on almost to the exclusion of the social and ethical wrongs assailed by the earlier ,prophets4 ,while1 however1 ,ezekiel enforces the bitter lessons of the ,exile1 he carefully distinguishes the true interpretation of that disaster from that which rose readily to the popular mind4 ,he disposes of the conception that the ,captivity was due to the inability of ,jehovah to defend ,his own land 7xxxvi4 #bj72 it was a punishment for sin 7xxxix4 #bc71 and in ,his own time ,he will prove this by restoring them to their land again 7xxxix4 #be74 ,neither will he allow them to rest in the flattering thought that they were only suffering for the unvisited sins of a former generation2 he insists1 probably with greater rigour than experience would sanction1 that each man bears his own sin1 and never suffers for the sins of others4 ,but to those who admit the justice of his charges1 and who therefore regard the future as hopeless1 he preaches a tender doctrine of forgiveness and the possibility of cleansing from sin4 ,from the events of his times1 he seeks to draw lessons which should redeem the mistakes that had been made in the past3 the teaching of the ,prophets must be kept before the people in definite rules and religious ceremonies4 ,old customs1 whose original significance had long been forgotten1 were invested with new interpretations worthy of the true religion of ,jehovah1 and were made not only customs1 but religious commands4 ,in the book which bears his name1 and especially in chapters xl4-xlviii41 he outlines a policy in which the whole of national life is comprehended in its religious significance1 and thus the calamity of future apostasy prevented4 ,the new ,state is to centre round the idea of worship3 the ,temple with its services and appointments is to be the expression of the national life4 ,now in this scheme there is little doubt that we have the beginning of the ,levitical system1 for ,ezekiel is related to ,leviticus as the rough sketch to the finished plan4 ,if ,leviticus in its present form existed in ,ezekiel's time1 then the work of the ,prophet was not only entirely unnecessary1 but careless and presumptuous4 ,some of the facts which point to the priority of ,ezekiel to the ,levitical ,code may be noticed4 ,in the ,levitical ,code we find that a distinction is made between priests and ,levites4 ,this is not found in ,deuteronomy 7xvii4 #i1 #ah2 xviii4 #a7 but is first found in ,ezekiel 7xliv4 #aj-ae71 where it is explained to be due to the degradation of the ,levites as a punishment for leading the people into idolatry2 in ,leviticus we reach the final stage1 where the distinction is accepted without explanation4 ,in ,ezekiel we have no mention of the high-priest or of the ,day of ,atonement1 both of which figure so largely in the ,priest's ,code1 although we can find foreshadowings of the ,day of ,atonement 7,ezek4 xlv4 #ah-bj74 ,indeed we meet with no mention of the ,day of ,atonement1 apart from the ,priestly ,code1 until ,zechariah 7vii4 #e2 viii4 #ai74 ,the general conclusion may be safely drawn1 that during and after the ,exile1 ,ezekiel's ideas were stiffened and developed into the full legislation now preserved for us in ,leviticus4 ,we may rightly claim ,ezekiel to be the founder of ,judaism1 with its transcendent conception of ,jehovah and its great attention to ceremonial detail1 and we are bound therefore to recognise in ,ezekiel a falling off from the ideals of the pre-exilic ,prophets2 he is a prophet in priest's clothing4 ,yet it may be questioned whether the idealistic teaching of the ,prophets could have been preserved through the periods of the ,exile and the ,restoration1 without this formal process4 ,an outer husk of formality had to develop in order that the living kernel might be protected during the critical years when ,persia1 ,greece1 and ,rome were to press their alien ideas upon this people4 ,it has been well for the world that ,ezekiel clothed the ,prophets' teaching in the resisting garments of ,judaism4 ,the ,exile could not fail to leave upon the ,jewish nation an imperishable mark1 and they emerged from that trial a different people4 ,it was a shock that brought a repentance the ,prophets had often laboured for in vain1 and this repentance was marked by the initiation of many new movements in thought1 and by a more stringent and solemn observance of their peculiar institutions4 ,probably in that alien land many of the ,jews adopted the customs of their conquerors1 since it is estimated that not more than a small fraction returned to ,palestine4 ,this defection would impress upon those who remained faithful the necessity for a strict policy of separation1 and from this time certain institutions which had been inherited from ancient ,semitic practice received a new meaning4 ,chief among these may be noticed the observance of the ,sabbath1 and the rite of circumcision4 ,the observance of a certain day as sacred to the gods is a custom that is found in nearly all early religions1 and there are traces of such an observance in the ,babylonian religion4 ,we do not find however in the historical books of the ,bible that mention of the ,sabbath which would be expected1 if it was observed with the strictness common after the ,exile4 ,there are traces of an observance1 not strictly defined1 save that it is in association with the new moon feasts1 and is combined with social relaxation 7#b ,kings iv4 #bb1 #bc2 ,hosea ii4 #aa2 ,amos viii4 #e2 ,isa4 i4 #ac74 ,even before the ,exile however a more religious conception had arisen 7,jer4 xvii4 #ai-bg71 and is even then referred to as an earlier command4 ,the change after the ,exile was towards an ever increasing strictness 7,isa4 lvi4 #b1 #d1 #f2 lviii4 #ac2 lxvi4 #bc2 ,neh4 xiii4 #ae-bb74 ,the rite of circumcision was by no means peculiar to the ,jewish religion 7,jer4 ix4 #be1 #bf71 except perhaps in so far as it was performed in infancy3 its origin and growth are very obscure4 ,its original significance was early lost and its interpretation was probably due to the ,prophets themselves1 who often referred to a spiritual circumcision1 and thus made possible the full ceremonial interpretation which became so important a feature in later ,judaism4 ,we have seen that there is evidence to prove that the religion of ,israel had not always been averse to the use of idols as part of the legitimate worship of ,jehovah4 ,the ,prophets began the protest against this1 not so much because of its principles1 but because of the immoral practices with which idol worship was connected4 ,but after the ,exile1 idolatry was for ever separated from the worship of ,jehovah1 and in the later ,prophets idolatry becomes the target for their most scornful invective4 ,it has been suggested that this new abhorrence accounts for the non-return of the ,ark1 which in this period disappears from history4 ,among the most important of the new institutions that can be traced back to the period of the ,exile is the founding of the ,synagogue4 ,in the land of ,exile1 away from the one spot where sacrifice was permitted1 worship had to be carried on without the aid of sacrificial or ceremonial rites1 but there was nothing to prevent the people from gathering together for prayer or to hear read their newly reverenced prophetic books4 ,it is quite possible that this led to a collection of the ,prophets' writings being made1 and perhaps to some editing to meet their present needs4 ,this movement was of profound importance for the future development of religion1 for it was in the ,synagogue rather than in the ,temple that ,christianity was to find the readiest medium for its dissemination and the earliest model for its worship4 ,the ,synagogue itself prepared the way for the more spiritual developments within ,judaism1 for away from the ,temple sacrifices and their always dangerous suggestions men learned that the sacrifice of the broken heart was more acceptable to ,jehovah2 and so the way was prepared for that magnificent collection of prayers and songs which we call the ,psalms1 which were afterwards to be used as an accompaniment to a form of worship that they frequently condemn4 ,the external and legal conceptions were1 however1 to be the most visible results gained from the ,exile1 and they were to mould religion for many a year4 ,the materials for an exact history of the return from ,exile do not exist in our ,bibles2 the accounts found in ,ezra and ,nehemiah raise questions which have not yet been satisfactorily answered4 ,the ,prophets who had foretold the destruction of the kingdom of ,judah had never been able to rest in the thought that this was the final chapter in ,jehovah's dealings with ,his people1 and their faith forced them to peer through this impending disaster and dimly discern a purpose yet to be disclosed4 ,this is often pictured in merely general terms1 but in ,jeremiah and ,ezekiel these hopes issued in the definite prophecy of the restoration of the ,jews to their own land within a certain period4 ,when political changes brought this on the horizon of possibility1 the times wakened the voice of one crying in the wilderness1 in some respects the most wonderful of all that noble band we have been studying4 ,the name of this herald has not been preserved1 but he is known to criticism as the ,second ,isaiah4 ,this does not of course mean that he bore that name1 but it is a convenient designation for the writings that occupy the second half of the work included under the name of ,isaiah4 ,the separation of chapters xl4-lxvi4 from those which precede1 as from different hands1 is one of the most universally accepted results of criticism4 ,the preceding chapters end with a historic survey of events that happened in the lifetime of the great ,isaiah of ,jerusalem1 and then suddenly the whole outlook and atmosphere change4 ,critics claim that the test of language and style is itself decisive1 but while this must remain a question on which only ,hebrew experts are qualified to pronounce1 the difference of theological ideas1 and the change of situation cannot be missed by any attentive ,english reader4 ,indeed that the situation has changed is a fact which has never been challenged4 ,from chapter xl41 the audience addressed consists no longer of the proud and scornful peoples of the time of ,hezekiah1 but of penitent captives far from their native land some #aej years later2 the accepted explanation used to be that ,isaiah transported himself to this later time by a miracle of prophetic inspiration4 ,but there is really only one adducible reason for attributing this prophecy to ,isaiah3 it is bound up with the book that bears his name as the title4 ,this reason is of little value when we admit our ignorance of the method by which the ,old ,testament was finally edited1 and when the internal evidence entirely contradicts the traditional theory4 ,for it must be borne in mind that the explanation that this is due to a prophetic transportation is only a hypothesis framed to fit the conditions1 and has no claim to acceptance if there can be found one that does equal justice to the facts without appealing to such an unusual method4 ,moreover1 the hypothesis of prediction does not fit the facts1 for while some parts of the prophecy have predictive form1 others have not4 ,for instance1 the picture of ,cyrus and his conquests1 complete even to the name of the hero1 is not only presented as if he were on the stage of actual history1 but his appearance is adduced as a convincing evidence of the fulfilment of prophecy4 ,what fulfilment would it be if ,cyrus was yet a figure of the unknown future8 ,if it is claimed that this presentation is due to what is known to ,hebrew grammarians as a use of the prophetic present tense1 in which things future in fact1 are stated as present1 owing to the vividness of the prophetic consciousness1 then we must ask why it is that ,cyrus is presented as a figure of contemporary history1 while the fall of ,babylon is still spoken of as future4 ,this distinction would be meaningless if the whole of this period was seen from some anterior time4 ,the settled results of criticism were greatly ridiculed when further investigation pronounced that only chapters xl4-lv4 can have come from this great ,prophet1 and that the remainder of the book is of a composite character1 extending at least to the time of the ,second ,temple4 ,to have to bring in a third author1 or even more1 to explain this book is quoted as an example of the foolishness of criticism4 ,now the critics may be wrong1 but their theories are simply endeavours to understand these prophecies by setting them in their exact historical surroundings4 ,surely this is a task worthy of any reverent student of the ,old ,testament1 and if it brings1 as many believe1 wonderful light on these messages1 and thus sets free their eternal significance1 then these men should earn gratitude rather than ridicule1 when the difficulty of their task calls for a continual rearrangement and a finer adjustment4 ,the critical reconstruction of this prophecy therefore places chapters xl4-lv4 among the scenes it depicts1 and in the very history whose movements called it forth4 ,the exact conditions can be discerned4 ,after the death of ,nebuchadrezzar the kingdom of the ,chaldans began to decline1 and when ,cyrus succeeded to the throne of ,persia its fate was determined4 ,his victorious campaigns1 culminating in the fall of ,sardis in ,b4,c4 #edg1 could not fail to reach the ears of the exiles in ,babylon1 and many a whisper of hope must have been exchanged1 and many a prophecy handed on4 ,babylon itself fell before the conqueror in #ech and between these two dates1 and perhaps nearer to the latter1 the internal witness of the prophecy demands that it should be placed4 ,when we turn to examine the work of this unknown messenger we cannot help noticing the difference in style1 which even the translation cannot obscure4 ,the great ,isaiah writes in terse1 closely-packed sentences1 with all the authoritative manner customary with the ,prophets4 ,this writer1 on the other hand1 is rhetorical1 and loves to dwell on his favourite ideas4 ,the sharp word of the prophetic deliverance here gives way to a reasoning exposition and a pleading tenderness that makes this prophecy a ,gospel before the ,gospels4 ,the distinctive religious ideas can be easily marked4 ,absolute ,monotheism is insisted on with a fulness and repetition which shows that it is in some degree a new truth4 ,there is none beside ,jehovah2 ,he is alone1 unique2 and description is exhausted in the endeavour to picture ,his glory and power4 ,he is now constantly referred to as the ,creator of the world1 the framer of the stars on high1 the maker of both darkness and light1 both good and evil2 so that no room is left for the dualism that the ,prophet may have learned to despise in the ,babylonian religion4 ,his finest scorn is reserved for the conception that an idol can have any claim to divinity4 ,he depicts the process of their manufacture1 their utter helplessness2 it may be that he had seen them borne in to the capital as the suburbs fell before the invader4 ,universalism struggles for expression in this writer1 but it is not always so clear and definite as in the writings of the great ,isaiah4 ,this arises however1 not so much from the racial prejudices that have so clogged the ,hebrew mind1 as from a reading of ,israel's history which the prophet was well entitled to make1 namely1 that she was to be the premier nation in the instruction of the world in righteousness and the knowledge of ,god1 the priest-nation of humanity4 ,this conception of the nation's history and destiny is embodied in a personification known as the ,servant of ,jehovah4 ,israel has been chosen as the ,servant so that the light may be brought to the nations4 ,in this mission the ,servant meets with persecution1 yet turns not back from those who pluck off the hair nor hides his face from shame and spitting4 ,the slightest retrospect of ,israel's history shows that the ,servant of ,jehovah was trained for his task only through suffering4 ,israel had suffered for her sins of presumption and disobedience2 but were the nations who punished her any more righteous8 ,moreover1 many of those who sat down by the waters of ,babylon and wept when they remembered ,zion must have been pious and righteous1 and innocent of the causes of their nation's calamities4 ,as the prophet broods over the meaning of the ,exile1 as it affected the godly remnant1 he begins to see that this suffering1 undeserved though it might be in particular cases1 would become a supreme lesson in righteousness to the world4 ,this assumption is embodied in the astonishing drama of the suffering ,servant2 one who suffers from a disfiguring disease1 which marks him out to all beholders as the afflicted of ,jehovah1 and who is therefore despised and rejected of men4 ,but the day comes when the idea slowly dawns upon men that this servant-nation suffered for the sake of the world1 bore the consciousness of sin when other nations lived in carelessness and flourished on cruelty4 ,the ,prophet believed that this patient suffering would be an awakening force and would be the means of bringing the world to the knowledge of ,god4 ,it is a marvellous reading of ,israel's history2 but it is true1 for that little nation despised and rejected by ,empires1 battered by the armed forces which surrounded her1 has made the whole world her debtor4 ,but indirectly this interpretation is a revelation of the meaning of all history1 and especially of that strange law of vicarious suffering which binds all the world one and makes every new age in debt to the past4 ,this unknown writer has contributed one of the most fruitful ideas to the philosophy of history4 ,it is not surprising that most early commentators have tried to read in the #ecrd chapter a picture1 not of a nation1 but of some definite person2 although the ,prophet definitely identifies the ,servant of the ,lord with ,israel 7,isa4 xli4 #h74 ,but when did ,israel embody such a conception8 ,it can only stand for an ideal of what ,israel ought to have been2 and there have been many things which have entered into the composition of the picture4 ,it has been suggested that one of the ,prophets sat for this picture1 just as sometimes an artist painting a symbolical picture will get one of his friends to sit for the model2 and who could be better for this purpose than ,jeremiah1 the rejected of the nation8 ,the interpretation that finds in this picture a minute prediction of the life and passion of ,jesus is not sanctioned by a careful study of the passage2 but the instinct that has led to this is right in the main1 for as we travel down the ages looking for the fulfilment of this ideal1 we only rest with complete satisfaction on the story of the life and death of ,one who stepping out from this very race1 by ,his uninterrupted communion with ,god1 ,his hatred of sin and ,his profound sympathy with mankind1 bore away the sin of the world on the red flood of sacrifice1 and brought in for ever the true ,kingdom of ,god4 ,an increasing number of ,old ,testament scholars believe that another of the ,prophets contains an interpretation of the ,exile1 conceived in the same spirit as that of the ,second ,isaiah1 although veiled under such a strange allegorical form that centuries of ,jewish and ,christian interpretation have entirely missed its meaning4 ,the book of the ,prophet ,jonah belongs to a later age1 and should probably stand last of all the ,minor ,prophets1 but the critical interpretation of the prophecy falls naturally to be considered here4 ,the character of the ,book reveals on close inspection that it was never intended for history2 as its inclusion among the prophetical writings perhaps recognises4 ,it is not only the improbability of the whale episode that has led to this conclusion1 but the whole character of the events narrated3 the sudden growth and withering of the gourd1 the instant repentance of the ,ninevites1 which included a forced rgime of fasting even for the cattle6 ,moreover1 the closing words of the book breathe a spirit of universalism and humanity that is almost the high-water mark of ,old ,testament inspiration1 and this encourages the reader to look for some deeper meaning in the rest of the book4 ,the story as interpreted by critical methods is that ,jonah is the nation of ,israel1 chosen to be a missionary nation to the heathen4 ,on refusing the task which ,divine selection had marked out for her she is thrown into exile1 and has been restored for the purpose of carrying out her original mission4 ,this is here symbolised by the whale swallowing ,jonah1 who on being cast up proceeded on his neglected commission1 though still with little love for his work4 ,the imagery is crude and may strike the reader as exceedingly improbable1 until his attention is drawn to the fact that the whale or sea-monster plays a great part in ,old ,testament imagery and is once actually used as a symbol of the ,exile4 ,nebuchadrezzar the ,king of ,babylon hath devoured me1 444 he hath swallowed me up like a dragon1 444 he hath cast me out4444 ,i will do judgment upon ,bel in ,babylon1 and ,i will bring out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up 7,jer4 li4 #cd1 #dd74 ,with this interpretation as a clue1 the book becomes luminous4 ,it is an apology for the ,gentiles who are shown to be capable of repentance2 ,israel is blamed for her grudging estimate of the heathen1 for her refusal to convey to them the light which she enjoyed1 and for her fear lest others should share the favour of ,jehovah4 ,perhaps the symbolic character of the book was adopted1 because the author knew that if such truths were boldly stated they would never be received by his age2 and so he hoped that the truth might enter in through an interesting story of wonder and adventure4 ,it can hardly be claimed that the author has been successful2 for the ,jews resisted the universalism of the ,son of ,man and the propagandist methods of the ,apostle ,paul1 while ,christendom has been far more concerned in proving that a whale can swallow a man1 than in carrying out the command to evangelise those who know not their right hand from their left4 ,,the ,,work ,,of ,,the ,,priests ,the following passage 7,exod4 vii4 #ad-be7 illustrates the attempt to disintegrate the various documents 7,j is indicated by roman type1 ,e by italics1 and ,p by ,,capitals74 ,and ,yahwe said unto ,moses1 ,pharaoh's heart is stubborn1 he refuseth to let the people go4 ,get thee unto ,pharaoh in the morning2 lo1 he goeth out unto the water2 and thou shalt stand by the river's brink to meet him2 and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take into thine hand4 ,and thou shalt say unto him1 ,yahwe1 the ,god of the ,hebrews1 hath sent me unto thee1 saying1 ,let my people go1 that they may serve me in the wilderness3 and1 behold1 hitherto thou hast not hearkened4 ,thus saith ,yahwe1 in this thou shalt know that ,i am ,yahwe3 behold1 ,i will smite 444 with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river1 and they shall be turned to blood4 ,and the fish that is in the river shall die1 and the river shall stink2 and the ,egyptians shall loathe to drink water from the river4 ,,and ,,yahwe ,,said ,,unto ,,moses1 ,,say ,,unto ,,aaron1 ,,take ,,thy ,,rod1 ,,and ,,stretch ,,out ,,thine ,,hand ,,over ,,the ,,waters ,,of ,,egypt1 ,,over ,,their ,,rivers1 ,,over ,,their ,,streams1 ,,and ,,over ,,their ,,pools1 ,,and ,,over ,,all ,,their ,,ponds ,,of ,,water1 ,,that ,,they ,,may ,,become ,,blood2 ,,and ,,there ,,shall ,,be ,,blood ,,throughout ,,all ,,the ,,land ,,of ,,egypt1 ,,both ,,in ,,vessels ,,of ,,wood ,,and ,,in ,,vessels ,,of ,,stone4 ,,and ,,moses ,,and ,,aaron ,,did ,,so1 ,,as ,,yahwe ,,commanded2 and he lifted up the rod1 and smote the waters that were in the river2 in the sight of ,pharaoh1 and in the sight of his servants2 and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood4 ,and the fish that was in the ,river died2 and the river stank1 and the ,egyptians could not drink water from the river2 ,,and ,,the ,,blood ,,was ,,throughout ,,all ,,the ,,land ,,of ,,egypt4 ,,and ,,the ,,magicians ,,of ,,egypt ,,did ,,in ,,like ,,manner ,,with ,,their ,,enchantments3 ,,and ,,pharaoh',s ,,heart ,,was ,,hardened1 ,,and ,,he ,,hearkened ,,not ,,unto ,,them2 ,,as ,,yahwe ,,had ,,spoken4 ,and ,pharaoh turned and went into his house1 neither did he lay even this to heart4 ,and all the ,egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink2 for they could not drink of the water of the river4 ,and seven days were fulfilled1 after that ,yahwe had smitten the river4 ,notes3--,the account in ,j evidently had nothing about the water being turned into blood4 ,yahwe himself will smite the river 7,ye' or2 the ,nile7 so that the fish will die4 ,the river probably stood after smite 444 in ,j4 ,in ,e ,moses is commanded to smite with his rod1 and the ,nile will be turned into blood4 ,in verse #ag thine must have stood in the original and was altered to mine when the documents were pieced together4 ,in ,p ,aaron is to take the rod1 and now all the rivers of ,egypt1 and even the water in the houses1 is to be turned into blood4 ,notice the formal repetition in ,p4 ,lecture ,,viii ,,the ,,work ,,of ,,the ,,priests ,we have seen that the ,exile produced two important prophetical works4 ,the one is a vision of a restored ,jewish state1 contemplated under the guise of a ,church rather than as a ,nation2 the work of the priestly ,prophet ,ezekiel4 ,the other is incorporated in the second half of the prophecies ascribed to ,isaiah2 the author is unknown1 but the work is an attempt to interpret the calamitous history of the ,exile in such a fashion that the nation might be led to take as its ideal for the future1 the ,servant of ,jehovah1 the bearer of light to the nations of the world4 ,the outlook in these two works is entirely different1 yet both seem to have called forth a school which endeavoured to work out their ideals1 but the school of ,ezekiel obtained a more immediate recognition and exerted the greater influence on the nation4 ,for the first time in ,israel's history a prophet is found who is concerned with matters of ritual1 the regulation of a priesthood1 and the details of ecclesiasticism4 ,ezekiel endeavoured to secure the reforms demanded by the ,prophets1 not only by the effect of his own preaching1 but by the formation of definite organisations and the establishment of certain customs4 ,the priestly school which followed ,ezekiel and developed his conceptions1 possessed sufficient prestige to persuade the nation that their scheme was of ,divine authority4 ,their work was carried on during and after the ,exile1 but with the exception of ,ezra1 the names of the authors have not been preserved4 ,in the ,bible history their work suddenly appears under the name of the law of ,moses in #ddd ,b4,c4 ,the first certain mention of the recognition and observance of this law is found in ,nehemiah 7viii471 where a memorable scene is described4 ,ezra the ,scribe1 the writer of the words of the commandments of the ,lord and of his statutes to ,israel 7,ezra vii4 #aa71 has come from ,babylon1 bringing with him the law of ,moses4 ,the people are gathered together on a certain day1 and from morning to noon1 the law is read in their hearing1 with such comments and explanations as seemed necessary4 ,the immediate result of this publication was the discovery that important provisions had been neglected and commands very seriously transgressed1 and there followed such grief and alarm among those who listened1 that it was difficult for the authorities to persuade the people to abandon their mourning and rejoice in the fact that the law had now been made known to them4 ,on the morrow a further reading took place1 when they discovered that on that very day they ought to be keeping a feast of tabernacles4 ,the feast was therefore observed for the appointed time of eight days1 and it is expressly noted that this had not been done since the time of ,joshua4 ,other reforms were immediately set in motion2 marriage with those not of pure ,jewish blood was not only forbidden but1 where such had actually been contracted1 an immediate dissolution was enforced2 a tax of one third of a shekel was levied for the upkeep of the ,temple ,services1 and the law of the ,sabbath was rigorously enforced4 ,now this picture was not written by a contemporary1 and critics have found such difficulty in discovering the exact historical facts that considerable doubt has been aroused1 not only concerning the historicity of this event1 but even concerning the existence of ,ezra himself4 ,but it is certain that in the ,fifth ,century ,b4,c41 laws were obeyed and institutions were recognised1 of which we have no record1 outside the ,pentateuch1 in the earlier historical books4 ,the question to be answered is3 ,what was that law of ,moses which ,ezra brought to ,jerusalem and read to the people8 ,later ,judaism calls the first five books of the ,bible the ,law of ,moses1 and for centuries both ,jewish and ,christian scholars have identified ,ezra's law with these books1 have supposed that they existed from the time of ,moses downwards1 but were entirely neglected by the ,jews until this time4 ,modern research is compelled to dissent altogether from this tradition4 ,our purpose in this book prevents us from discussing the details of this controversy1 but in addition to what has been already said in an earlier lecture1 the main results of critical study on the origin of the ,law may be outlined4 ,from the time occupied by ,ezra in reading his law it is inferred that it could hardly have been our first five books of the ,bible2 and since to carry out the laws contained in them would involve endless discussion because of their contradictory character 7compare for example the directions for keeping the feast of ,tabernacles in ,deut4 xvi4 #ac1 #ae1 which commands seven days1 with ,lev4 xxiii4 #ci1 which adds an eighth day for a solemn assembly2 compare also the account in #a ,kings viii4 #ff1 with #b ,chron4 vii4 #h1 #aj71 it is thought that this law of ,ezra must have been much smaller than the ,pentateuch1 and much more homogeneous4 ,the ,pentateuch not only contains more than laws1 but even the legal sections bear the marks of such widely different aims and conditions that we are compelled to assume a gradual collection1 with continual redaction and codification1 in order to account for the various phenomena4 ,the earliest strata may go back to a great antiquity1 and the customs themselves must often be primitive ,semitic survivals1 but the critical contention is that1 as a whole1 the ,law of ,moses owes its present form to an age later than the ,exile1 and somewhat later than ,ezra himself2 for ,ezra's code has itself been revised 7compare ,neh4 x4 #cb1 where a third of a shekel is appointed1 with ,exod4 xxx4 #ac1 where it has increased to half a shekel71 before it was amalgamated with the ,pentateuch in its existing form4 ,the critical basis for this theory of the gradual formation of the law is found first in the fact that the legislation of the ,pentateuch is not homogeneous3 it is so contradictory that to carry out the law as it stands would be found impossible4 ,it is claimed that the presence of the various strata can be detected by the numerous repetitions 7e4g41 the commandments exist in three recensions3 ,exod4 xx4 #a-ag2 xxxiv4 #ag-bh2 ,deut4 v4 #f-ba72 by the use of different names for ,god1 by the difference in language and style1 and by the change in theological conceptions2 and moreover1 that these different strata can be roughly assigned to various ages1 which can be actually confirmed by the record of their observance in the historical books 7compare the provisions made for the ,ark in ,exod4 xxv4-xl42 ,num4 iii4-iv41 with its actual treatment in #a ,sam474 ,the different strata of the laws1 and the ages to which they may be roughly assigned1 are as follows3--,the earliest code of laws is said to be that of the ,book of the ,covenant 7,exod4 xxiv4 #g71 found in ,exod4 xx4 #bj-xxiii4 #cc4 ,the primitive character of this code can be discerned1 by the comparison of its directions for worship with those of later ages4 ,it sanctioned the erection of rude altars at any place where ,jehovah had been revealed1 whereas in later codes no place except the one chosen spot can be used for worship1 and the altar must be of highly specialised construction 7compare ,exod4 xx4 #bd-bf and ,deut4 xii4 #d-bd1 with ,exod4 xxvii4 #a-h74 ,now it is precisely this informal worship1 which could be performed by any one and at any place1 that appears to have been the custom until the time of the reformation under ,josiah2 and in his times1 and as the cause of his reform1 the critics place the ,book of ,deuteronomy1 v4-xxvi42 for it presupposes the teaching of the prophets and is the programme followed by ,josiah4 ,then next follows the ,law of ,holiness 7,lev4 xvii4-xxvi472 which is either the outcome of ,ezekiel's work or is shortly prior to it2 anyhow1 the connection is close4 ,then in #ddd ,b4,c4 appears the code of ,ezra1 which was afterwards developed and set in a brief narrative describing the historical preparation for the law and its actual deliverance by ,moses2 this document of history and laws is known for convenience as the ,priestly ,code1 and is denoted by the letter ,p4 ,the editorial framework of the completed ,hexateuch 7the first six books of the ,bible71 is of the same stamp as the ,priests' ,code1 and the date of its final compilation must not be put very much later than ,ezra1 since the ,samaritan ,pentateuch probably goes back to the ,fourth ,century1 from which date it can claim an independent existence4 ,it is this work of the ,priests that we are now to examine4 ,p is to be found at present scattered throughout the ,hexateuch1 and embraces nearly the whole of ,leviticus1 ,numbers and a good portion of ,exodus2 is found in many scattered passages in ,genesis and in a small portion of ,joshua and ,judges1 especially1 in the latter case1 in the closing chapters2 there is only a very little in ,deuteronomy4 ,although not the work of one hand1 these passages can be detected by their unity of motive1 the uniform phraseology1 the priestly outlook1 and their concern with legal and ritualistic regulations4 ,the style is stereotyped1 measured1 and prosaic1 and is rendered somewhat monotonous by the repetition of stated formulae4 ,the theological ideas are dominated by the thought of the awful holiness of ,god and the danger that there lies in approaching ,him in any other than the ordained way4 ,what were the sources from which this code drew its material8 ,it is not suggested that the code was simply invented during the ,exile4 ,many of the legal commands concerning uncleanness1 leprosy1 and marriage are really ancient customs1 and only owed their codification to this late age2 for they reflect a low stage of culture1 and their rites of purification are primitive4 ,again sacrifice had been performed as far back as ,semitic history can be traced1 and customs which had persisted were now simply tabulated and their form fixed4 ,many of the sacrificial rites prescribed in the code still bear the marks of their early origin1 especially in the case of the burnt and the peace-offerings1 but the law of the sin-offering shows artificial elaboration4 ,undoubtedly when ,solomon's ,temple was built a new sacrificial ritual would be developed more in keeping with the splendour of the edifice1 and as the ,temple increased in prestige1 and when under ,isaiah's influence it became the one spot at which sacrifice could be performed1 the priestly caste would keep the rite in their own hands and perform it with more care2 and all this would become the basis for a new ritualistic legislation4 ,the minuteness of the ,priestly ,code often gives the impression of a record of exact history1 but a careful examination of such measurements as are given in the case of the ,ark or the ,tabernacle do not confirm the historical accuracy2 for the ,tabernacle cannot be made exactly as described1 and if it could be1 would neither stand up1 nor be suitable for the purpose for which it was intended1 nor be able to be transported through the desert4 ,it is simply a tent-like model of the ,temple projected into the early history on the theory that the worship which existed in the writer's time was that which had always existed4 ,the artificial conception of the history which ,p follows can of course be seen1 if we separate the various strata of the first six books in the ,bible1 but it can be seen without this difficult and controversial method by comparing the history of ,kings with ,chronicles3 the one written largely before and the other entirely after the legislation of ,p had been accepted4 ,the law of the ,day of ,atonement is almost entirely late1 and originated in the deepened sense of guilt produced during the ,exile2 neither is there any trace of its observance until that time4 ,a difficult question has arisen concerning the date of this legislation since the discovery of the ,code of ,hammurabi4 ,hammurabi was a ,babylonian king who lived somewhere about #b1bej ,b4,c41 and who has been identified by some with the ,amraphael of ,gen4 xiv4 ,his code reveals a fairly advanced stage of civilisation and morality existing in ,babylon at that time1 but its chief interest for us is found in the fact that many of the laws concerning common life1 marriage1 etc41 are not only like the laws of the ,bible1 but in some cases are verbally similar4 ,this phenomenon demands some theory of contact between the two codes1 but no theory has yet been found that explains all the facts4 ,the idea of direct borrowing on either side can hardly be taken seriously1 and the correspondence between the two codes hardly requires that2 so that the question is narrowed to one of influence4 ,this influence would seem to be most natural in the time of the ,exile1 were it not that the strictly exclusive spirit then developed by the ,jews makes it unthinkable4 ,there remains either the explanation of a common basis for the two codes1 traceable to their ,semitic origin1 or what has received the greater support from scholars1 the idea that the influence of ,hammurabi's laws on ,israel's legislation is to be traced through the former inhabitants of ,canaan4 ,to understand how this is possible1 we must remember that it is now known that ,babylon had predominating influence over ,western ,palestine before the conquest of ,canaan by the ,hebrews2 that the inhabitants of the land were much more civilised than their conquerors2 and that the invaders did not exterminate the inhabitants1 but quietly effected a settlement among them and adopted many of their customs4 ,while on the subject of the influence of ,babylon it will be convenient to notice here that this influence is not confined to legal matters1 but can be traced in certain legendary elements in the ,old ,testament4 ,the ideal of the ,priests' ,code would not tolerate heathen mythology that could be detected as such1 to appear in its work1 and yet there are definite traces of such mythology to be found in ,ps account of the creation in ,gen4 i4 ,the discovery of the libraries of ,assurbanipal has brought to light records of a mythological cosmogony which1 while utterly different in conception and spirit from ,genesis1 is sufficiently similar to suggest some degree of connection4 ,this ,babylonian ,epic of creation deals not so much with the remarkably scientific idea of a gradual creation of our earth out of chaotic materials1 but with a conflict of gods and monsters which is supposed to have taken place before the creation4 ,in the opening verses of the ,bible there is a reference to the partition of the deep1 which is here called by the non-,hebrew name ,tehom1 into two parts3 the waters above and the waters under the firmament4 ,now in the ,babylonian story the actual creation of the earth is preceded by a mighty struggle between ,marduk1 the sun-god 7the ,merodach of the ,bible7 and a great dragon symbolical of the primeval waters1 which bears the name ,tiamat1 the ,babylonian form of ,tehom4 ,the influence of this myth is the more certainly to be traced in ,genesis1 because it appears elsewhere in the ,old ,testament under the form of a legend of a conflict between ,jehovah and ,rahab1 a mighty dragon2 and this legend is generally in some way connected with creation 7,job ix4 #ac2 xxvi4 #ab2 ,isa4 li4 #i2 ,ps4 lxxxix4 #aj74 ,there is also a ,babylonian story of the flood which keeps even closer to the ,bible narrative1 and it may be seen from the ,babylonian version that this is more probably another form of the dragon myth than a common memory of a tremendous deluge4 ,a ,babylonian seal cylinder in the ,british ,museum bears the picture of a man and woman standing one on each side of a sacred tree1 from which they are picking fruit1 while a serpent coils around the tree2 but no written explanation of this very suggestive picture has been discovered4 ,these mythical stories have come down from primitive ,semitic times1 but we cannot fail to notice that while their ancestry is undoubtedly common1 there is a tremendous difference between the stage reached under the inspiration of the ,hebrew genius and the crude ,polytheism of the ,babylonian stories4 ,their connection in some way is unmistakable1 but still more certain is their different ethical and religious level4 ,the fact of the borrowing does not deny the inspiration2 it rather reveals how powerful that inspiration was4 ,to turn now to a consideration of the work of the ,priests4 ,we must doubtless concede to the workers a very lofty motive3 it was nothing less than an endeavour to include the whole of the nation's life under the conception that ,god was dwelling among ,his people1 and that the nation must be holy because ,he is holy4 ,but in the working out of this purpose the ideal is neither secured nor maintained4 ,the holiness of ,god is insisted on with much reiteration1 but it is conceived of as a physical rather than a moral attribute4 ,it is really only a conception of the unapproachability of ,god unless certain purely ritual and physical conditions are observed4 ,for the enforcement of this idea the old custom of sacrifice was elaborated and strictly defined1 but strangely enough1 without explicit teaching as to its meaning4 ,this is peculiar1 and it seems to have remained largely unnoticed1 for many ,biblical expositors have adopted without inquiry the idea that the sacrifices were substitutionary1 piacular1 and typical of the sacrifice of ,christ4 ,the piacular meaning suggests itself at so many points that it is startling to find that it cannot be borne out by careful examination4 ,the sacrifices are in most instances only efficacious for the forgiveness of unintentional sins1 or for the atonement of ritualistic mistakes made in ignorance or through inadvertence4 ,the ceremony of laying the hands of the offerer on the head of the intended victim1 suggests that a symbolical transference of guilt is taking place1 and yet only in one case is this accompanied by a confession of sins1 and there the victim is not slain1 but led away for ,azazel4 ,the sin-offering involved the death of the animal1 but an animal was not absolutely necessary for the purpose1 and flour might be substituted2 and even where we have the slain animal1 the idea that the animal has taken the place of the sinner seems to be excluded by the fact that its flesh is regarded as most holy4 ,the offerings are said to make atonement1 but we are not told how this is affected unless in the passage that states that it is the blood that maketh atonement1 by reason of the life4 ,the word translated atonement means simply a covering1 and of course may mean that the blood1 which is symbolical of the offered life1 either covers the eyes of ,god from beholding the sin1 or covers the sinner4 ,we are left then1 either with the deduction that the exact significance of the sacrifices was not mentioned because everyone knew what it was1 or that it has not been told because it was too mysterious1 or that there was no definite meaning attached to them4 ,originally sacrifice did not bear a piacular significance1 but it would be unsafe to argue from this that no substitutionary value was attached to the ,levitical sacrifices by these priestly lawyers2 indeed the only safe conclusion seems to be that the priests adopted these sacrifices1 which were time-honoured1 as the proper ritual for the approach to ,god1 without any definite inquiry as to their meaning4 ,but taking the ,levitical system as a whole there seems to underlie it the theory of symbolical1 although not piacular substitution4 ,god owns man entirely1 and that by right3 his time1 possessions1 flocks1 and lands2 and demands from him the completest recognition of this ownership4 ,now in practice1 this absolute demand can only be recognised by substitute and proxy2 and so we have the recognition of ,god's claims by the observance of one holy day in seven1 by the ransom of the first-born1 by the sabbatical and jubilee years1 by the tithes1 and especially by the sacrifices4 ,his dwelling in the land is symbolised by the respect paid to one symbolical holy place2 and the continual service ,he demands is represented by the daily service carried on by the ,levitical caste4 ,but even if this be the intention of the system1 it is nowhere so defined1 and therefore it is not surprising to find that people soon forgot the symbolical meaning1 and treated the symbol as a thing sufficient in itself2 with the result1 that the service of ,god came to be restricted to a performance of rites that had lost all significance4 ,one explanation would soon silence any criticism of this scheme that might arise1 namely1 that ,god had so ordained that men should worship ,him4 ,but deeper still there lay a radical misconception of the very nature of ,god and of the service ,he seeks4 ,god was conceived as inimical not so much to man's sin1 as to man himself2 and this danger was averted by the use of protective rites which needed to be performed with scrupulous care1 lest a mistake might bring down on the worshipper immediate and awful destruction1 quite irrespective of his moral condition4 ,doubtless the nation might be impressed by these means with the awful aloofness of ,god1 and there must often have accompanied this some notion of the ethical character that was expressed in this separateness2 but the means taken for satisfying this character and demand in the nature of ,god could never have had any other result than it did1 namely1 the conception that attention to details of ritual could be a substitute for the much more difficult service of repentance and righteousness4 ,it is possible that we may be under-estimating the real motive of the ,priests' work and its actual success in preserving religion under these forms2 but the radical evil is clearly exposed when we come to the time of another calamity1 that which befel the nation under ,antiochus ,epiphanes1 when no other method of averting the anger of ,god seems to have been thought of1 except that of increasing the rigour of this ritual law and fencing it round with still further restrictions1 until it became a burden too heavy to be borne4 ,such a rgime utterly failed to understand the teaching of ,jesus and could only regard ,his religion as impious and lacking in all that was essential1 reverential1 or good1 and it was the ,law which put ,jesus to death4 ,it is much to be deplored that the ,sacrifice of ,christ has in turn been explained to the conscience touched to penitence and tenderness by the story of the ,cross1 rather by the analogy of the ,old ,testament sacrifices than by its complete superiority to them as based upon a different and ethical order2 for the rags and tatters of the ,levitical system still impede the religious life2 allowing men to think that ,god is content with substitutes1 can be placated with blood1 and is more concerned with abstract regulations than with moral change4 ,and so there still hang about religion the same inconsistencies1 the same slaughter of the prophets1 the same blindness to the eternal demands of personal and social righteousness4 ,the motive of the work of the ,priests may have been to enforce the prophetic repentance1 but to gain this end they compromised with unspiritual ritual1 and on that compromise ,christ was1 and is still crucified4 ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,psalmists ,titles of the ,psalms1 descriptive of their contents3-- 7#a7 ,song1 ,heb4 ,shirah4 ,a lyrical poem for singing4 ,probably the earliest title1 which in some instances may have belonged to the original composition4 7#b7 ,michtam1 perhaps1 a golden piece4 ,the title indicates their artistic form and choice contents4 ,they were probably all taken from a previous collection4 7#c7 ,maschil1 a meditative poem1 from a collection made perhaps in the late ,persian period4 7#d7 ,psalm1 ,heb4 ,mizmor4 ,the name given to a collection used for public worship1 probably in the early ,greek period4 7#e7 ,shiggaion1 7,ps4 vii42 also in plural1 ,hab4 iii4 #a47 ,some take this to mean a wild1 passionate composition1 but this ,psalm hardly bears that character4 ,perhaps we may expect a textual corruption from ,neginah3 a song accompanied with musical instruments4 7#f7 ,a song of ,ascents3 used in the processions to the ,temple4 7#g7 ,a prayer4 ,on the question of the ,davidic authorship of the ,psalms1 the following passages should be examined2 they would appear to be in hopeless disagreement with the life of ,david as depicted in the historical books4 ,ps4 v4 #h-aj2 vi4 #g1 f42 xii4 #a-d2 xvii4 #i-ad2 xxii42 xxvii4 #aj1 #ab2 xxxv4 #aa-ba2 xli4 #e-i2 liv4 #b-f2 lxii4 #c1 f4 ,the ,psalms which are ascribed to some definite occasion in ,david's life are not on the whole any more suitable to the situation1 although there is generally some single phrase which probably gave rise to this identification4 ,the great commentator ,ewald1 on literary grounds ascribed the following ,psalms to ,david because of their originality and dignified spirit3 ,ps4 iii42 iv42 vii42 viii42 xi42 xv42 xviii42 xix4 #a-f2 xxiv4 #a-f2 xxiv4 #g-aj2 xxix42 xxxii42 lx4 #f-i2 lxviii4 #ac-ah2 ci42 cxliv4 #ab-ad4 ,briggs would not go so far as to indicate ,davidic ,psalms1 but would put as far back as the ,early ,monarchy1 ,ps4 vii41 xiii41 xviii41 xxiii41 xxiv4 b1 lx4 a1 and cx4 ,lecture ,,ix ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,psalmists ,the principles of ,biblical criticism have often been traced to a vigorous application of the theory of evolution to the growth of religious ideas4 ,such an application1 if without the support of facts1 would discredit all critical results2 but as a matter of fact1 the critical readjustment of the ,old ,testament does not give a perfect progression in religious development4 ,indeed1 it leaves us with a perplexing story of decline from high attainment4 ,the ,law follows the ,prophets1 and no theory can recognise the ,law as an advance upon prophetic teaching4 ,the national rejection of the ,prophets is the central tragedy of ,hebrew history and prepares us for the national rejection of ,jesus4 ,yet between the ,prophets and the religion of the ,gospels we are able to trace an almost continuous link in the religion of the ,psalmists4 ,this connection is somewhat obscured by the early date assigned to the ,psalms by uncritical tradition1 by the heterogeneous character of the collection1 and by its continual redaction in the interest of the purpose to which they were adapted4 ,in adopting this collection of religious poems for the purpose of public praise1 it is more than likely that additions were made1 in order that they might more fitly express the need of the time1 while reverence for the writings1 by the time at least1 of the final edition of the work1 operated to preserve the original2 as may be seen1 for instance1 in the addition made to the fifty-first ,psalm 7ver4 #ah1 #ai71 which in its original form condemns the very worship in which it was used4 ,moreover the collection is as much a prayer-book as a hymn-book1 for many of the ,psalms are really prayers1 and five of them are actually so entitled4 ,the book was certainly used in the ,temple services1 but on the whole it must have seemed more fitted for the non-sacrificial and non-ceremonial worship of the synagogue1 or for the private devotions of pious men and women4 ,however and wherever used1 it must have nourished a deep personal religion and kept alive hopes to which ,christianity afterwards appealed4 ,no other single book of the ,old ,testament has had such an influence on ,christian piety and worship4 ,from ancient times to the present day the ,psalms have been chanted1 and in ,churches of widely differing ritual they have been considered the only fit vehicle for ,christian praise4 ,nothing more clearly demonstrates their proximity to the ,christian view of things1 although the modern spirit in ,christendom is finding it increasingly difficult to express itself in the language of all the ,psalms1 on account of their imprecatory wishes4 ,perhaps still more1 the predominant tone of the book1 which is one of crying for deliverance from overwhelming enemies and oppression1 hardly suits the safety of our times1 or meets the demand for a joyful religious spirit4 ,many of the ,psalms become real only in times of severe spiritual trial1 and where there exists a deep sense of contrition2 still better do they express the emotions which arise in times of national calamity or religious persecution2 and most of all when men are constrained to take arms in the cause of religion and righteousness4 ,they have never sounded so fitting as on the lips of the ,reformers1 ,cromwell's ,ironsides1 or the ,scottish ,covenanters4 ,and yet their great breadth of appeal1 their touching of every possible note in religious experience--penitence and joy1 questioning and trust1 longing and satisfaction1 defeat and victory1--their majestic literary form1 and their poetic inspiration will preserve them for ever as sublime utterances of universal religion4 ,but our work is not to appraise their eternal value1 but to estimate their significance1 influence1 and position in the development of ,old ,testament religion2 and to do this we must endeavour to trace the origin and compilation of the ,psalter4 ,the criticism of the ,psalter is faced by a peculiarly difficult and complex problem1 arising from the lack of historic connection1 the possible obliteration by editorial redaction1 and the difficulty of interpreting with certainty even those data which the text presents1 and it has by no means yet reached settled conclusions2 only general and tentative results can be noted here4 ,that1 however1 the book is the result of a gradual process1 may be seen from the presence of doublets 7liii4 xiv42 lxx4 xl4 #ac-ag2 cviii4 lvii4 #g-aa lx4 #e-ab71 and from the subscription at the end of ,book ,,ii41 which displays ignorance of the fact that further ,psalms1 ascribed to ,david follow4 ,it will be more convenient to start from the final position and work backward2 and that final position is undoubtedly this1 that the ,book of ,psalms as it stands in our ,bible is the hymn-book of the restored ,second ,temple4 ,it is a book prepared for musical accompaniment2 this may be seen from the titles still preserved at the head of many of the ,psalms4 ,these titles are of three kinds3 they describe the nature of the poetic composition2 they give the names of the authors and sometimes the circumstances in which they were composed2 and the third kind are most probably to be explained as instructions for musical setting4 ,these last-named titles are in most cases very obscure2 the ,revised ,version has simply transliterated the ,hebrew words4 ,on the assumption that these are musical terms1 we have three classes of them in the ,psalms4 ,one class apparently gives directions for the tune to which the ,psalm is to be sung1 and this tune is named1 like some modern hymn tunes1 after the words with which the tune had been originally or customarily associated2 these appear to have been popular songs1 not necessarily of an entirely religious character 7,ps4 lvi41 ,r4,v4 title3 set to ,jonath elem rehokim2 mar4 translates3 ,the silent dove of them that are afar off2 ,ps4 lvii41 lviii43 set to ,al tashheth1 which means3 ,do not destroy4 ,in the ,septuagint the setting of ,ps4 lxx4 has been altered to3 ,save me1 ,o ,lord74 ,other titles seem to direct the voice to be used in singing1 as either falsetto or bass 7,ps4 xlvi41 set to ,alamoth2 probably maiden-like voices1 and as women took no part in the service of the choirs1 this must refer either to tenor1 or male falsetto2 ,ps4 vi41 xii41 set to the ,sheminith4 ,r4,v4 mar41 the eighth4 ,this is probably the octave or bass voice74 ,two references are to be found to the instrumental accompaniment to be used1 as either stringed or wind instruments 7,ps4 iv41 vi41 etc41 on stringed instruments2 ,ps4 v41 with the ,nehiloth1 mar41 wind instruments74 ,the much discussed meaning of ,selah is most probably to be sought in a musical direction4 ,the word means3 lift up4 ,the ,septuagint translates1 interlude1 but many other versions 7,version of ,aquila1 ,syriac ,peshitto1 ,jerome and the ,targum7 translate1 for ever4 ,this duplicate translation suggests the very possible clue that at the places where ,selah appears1 the ,psalm might be ended1 if desired1 and the for ever1 or the doxology1 which was usually sung at the end of the ,psalm and which is found at the end of each book1 could be taken there4 ,as completed1 the ,psalter is therefore a book with directions for a fully organised and choral worship1 and we have to seek for a time when such a worship was in existence4 ,the difficulty is that these musical directions are somewhat rare and are not found in the later books1 but only in connection with those ,psalms entitled1 for the ,director4 ,as the instruments mentioned are only of the simplest kind and not of the varied character used in the ornate worship of the ,temple 7cxlix4 #c2 cl4 #c-e71 and as by the time the ,greek translation was made 7#aej ,b4,c471 their significance was forgotten1 we have to put the final edition long after the founding of synagogue worship1 in which the ,director's ,psalm ,book was first used1 and at some period when there had been a complete change in musical practice4 ,this demands a time when ,hellenistic culture had moulded even the ,temple worship4 7,the ,jews were under ,greek influence and rule from ,b4,c4 #ccc to ,b4,c4 #fc47 ,the time from which a full choral service was in use in the ,temple is to be carried back1 according to the ,chronicler1 to the time of ,solomon and ,david1 but a comparison with the earlier history contained in the ,books of the ,kings does not confirm this4 ,the ,chronicler1 who from his interest in these matters seems to have been a member of one of the ,levite choirs1 really gives us the customs current in his times1 and infers that they went back unchanged to the time of the building of the first ,temple and to the preparatory work of ,david4 ,these considerations1 together with the admitted lateness of many of the ,psalms1 some of them undoubtedly belonging to the times of the ,maccaban wars1 bring us down to that late age and perhaps more precisely to the time of the rededicated ,temple 7#afe ,b4,c471 and demand that the final edition of the ,psalter is to be placed somewhere about #aej ,b4,c4 ,we might expect to find traces of the growth of the ,psalter in the division into five books 7at xli41 lxxii41 cvi41 cl41 see ,r4 ,v471 but there seems no real division necessary between ,books ,,iv4 and ,v4 and the five-fold division may be due to the desire to imitate the divisions of the ,law2 the other divisions however contain more hopeful suggestions4 ,the first book1 for instance1 is almost entirely ascribed to ,david 7,ps4 i4 is an introduction to the whole book1 composed for the final edition1 and ,ps4 ii4 may have been also placed in front as part of the introduction4 ,ps4 xxxiii41 which is very late1 may have been added as a kind of doxology to ,ps4 xxxii4 ,the rest are ascribed to ,david74 ,the second book is largely ,davidic and it concludes with the statement3 the prayers of ,david the son of ,jesse are ended4 ,in spite of this notice ,psalms are found ascribed to ,david in the books that follow1 so that the remark must have been found appended to a collection that the final editor took over2 it cannot be due to his own hand4 ,further evidence of compilation is to be found in the strange occurrence of the different names for ,god3 ,elohim and ,jehovah4 ,in the first book the name of ,jehovah preponderates4 ,in ,book ,,ii4 the name ,elohim is found most frequently4 ,then in ,book ,,iii4 ,psalms lxxiii4-lxxxiii4 use ,elohim only1 and lxxxiv4-lxxxix4 ,jehovah mainly2 and in practically the whole of ,books ,,iv4 and ,v4 ,jehovah is almost solely used1 ,the reason for this phenomenon must be sought in editorial redaction1 for in the duplicate ,psalms1 xiv4 and liii41 xl4 #ac-ag and lxx41 ,jehovah is found in the first recension and ,elohim in the second4 ,the ,elohistic character of lxxiii4-lxxxiii4 may be due to the original compiler since they are all ascribed to ,asaph and otherwise bear marks of common production4 ,the ,elohistic redaction may have been made in a period when the name ,jehovah sounded tribal and almost heathenish2 but a similar test leads to the conclusion that the first collection enjoyed by this time a liturgical familiarity1 which did not permit of alteration4 ,the reversion to the name of ,jehovah in ,books ,,iv4 and ,v4 might be explained by the fact that in later times the name was written but never pronounced4 ,on the line of these suggestions we should expect to find that ,book ,i4 contained the earliest ,psalms and ,books ,,iv4 and ,v4 the latest2 this is roughly correct1 if we allow for the possibility of minor insertions being made for various purposes in the last edition4 ,in ,book ,v4 there is a group of ,psalms 7civ4-cvi41 cxi4-cxiii41 cxv4-cxvii41 cxxxv41 cxlvi4-cl471 which are distinguished by either commencing or ending with ,hallelujah1 and are known as the ,hallels4 ,from their contents1 it may be observed that they are suitable for use at the ,great ,festivals1 and it is known that they were1 and are still so used by the ,jews4 ,they imply a highly organised musical service 7,ps4 cl471 they require a time when the festivals were regularly observed and when the worship of the ,temple could be carried on without fear4 ,such conditions are to be found together only after the ,exile1 and then only during the period of ,greek rule2 and to this late period the composition of these ,psalms is to be referred4 ,an even later date is demanded for some ,psalms that are said to reflect the rebellion against the ,hellenizing movement enforced by ,antiochus ,epiphanes1 in which the ,maccabees played such a heroic part4 ,this date is confirmed by the references to3 the assembly of the saints 7,ps4 cxlix4 #a1 ,heb4 hasidim1 the purist party formed in that time72 the cruel persecution for religious opinions 7,ps4 xliv4 #ag-bb2 lxxix4 #b2 lxxxiii4 #c1 #d72 the defiling of the ,temple1 the burning of the synagogues1 and the silence of the ,prophetic voice 7,ps4 lxxiv4 #g-i2 lxxix4 #a74 ,other ,maccaban ,psalms are said to be3 cx41 where there is a reference to some priest who is not in the legitimate succession1 which entirely describes the ,priest-,kings of the ,maccaban dynasty 7other scholars would put this ,psalm very early2 on the other hand there are alleged traces of an acrostic that would spell ,simon1 the first of the ,maccaban ,priest-,kings72 cxv4 cxviii41 which celebrate successful wars in which the leaders have been the house of ,aaron1 to which house the ,maccabees of course belonged4 ,this is the latest date that is demanded for any of the ,psalms1 and in the present condition of criticism we can only say that between this and some earlier period the book is to be placed4 ,it must now be our task to discover the earliest date that any of the ,psalms demand4 ,we have seen that ,book ,i4 seems to be the earliest collection1 and tradition assumes that this was the work of ,david and was the ,psalm ,book used in the ,first ,temple4 ,to discuss this point it is necessary to enquire into the reliability of the titles that ascribe the ,psalms to definite authors4 ,these titles give3 one each to ,moses1 ,ethan1 and ,heman2 two to ,solomon2 eleven to the ,sons of ,korah2 twelve to ,asaph2 and seventy-three to ,david 7it is doubtful whether ,jeduthun is a person2 if so he is probably the same as ,ethan3 ,ps4 xxxix41 lxii41 lxxvii41 titles2 cp4 #a ,chron4 vi4 #dd with #a ,chron4 ix4 #af74 ,now it should be noticed that none of the authors are later than ,solomon 7,ethan1 #a ,kings iv4 #ca1 #a ,chron4 vi4 #dd2 ,heman1 #a ,kings iv4 #ca1 #a ,chron4 vi4 #cc1 xv4 #ag1 #ai1 xxv4 #e2 ,asaph1 #a ,chron4 vi4 #ci1 xxv4 #a;f1 ,neh4 xii4 #df2 in ,ezra ii4 #da1 ,neh4 vii4 #dd1 ,asaph seems to mean a guild of singers rather than an individual74 ,if any of the ,psalms ascribed to authors might be expected to yield confirmation by internal evidence1 it would be ,ps4 xc42 but there is nothing in its language or thought that points to extreme antiquity4 ,there is also nothing in the ,psalms themselves that confirms the authorship of the contemporaries of ,solomon1 ,ethan and ,heman4 ,the title of ,ps4 cxxvii41 of ,solomon1 is missing in the ,septuagint and is evidently a late gloss1 and the title of ,ps4 lxxii4 is translated in the ,septuagint3 a psalm for ,solomon1 which certainly describes the contents better4 ,the ,psalms ascribed to the ,sons of ,korah 7xlii4-xlix41 lxxxiv41 lxxxv41 lxxxvii41 lxxxviii42 #b ,chron4 xx4 #ai1 #a ,chron4 xxvi4 #ai2 but #a ,chron4 vi4 #cc-ch shows that ,kohathite and ,korahite are the same71 have common features1 as have also the ,psalms ascribed to ,asaph1 which imply that they are at least guild collections2 but their exalted conception of ,god1 their consciousness of national righteousness1 the reference to synagogue worship and the cessation of prophecy 7lxxiv4 #h;f7 point to a time subsequent to ,ezra4 ,the chief interest of the titles is found in the ascription of so many ,psalms to ,david4 ,it was long thought that ,david was not only the author of the ,psalms ascribed to him1 but that he was also editor of the entire ,psalter4 7,when as early as ,theodore of ,mopsuestia it was recognised that some of the ,psalms were ,maccaban1 it was supposed that ,david wrote them in the spirit of prophecy47 ,our enquiry may be narrowed down to those ,psalms that are ascribed to ,david in the earliest collection1 ,book ,i4 ,do these reflect the conditions and development of his times8 ,it must be replied that there is nothing in the ,davidic ,psalms as a whole to distinguish them from other ,psalms1 and what historical connection they betray seems everywhere to belong to an age later than ,david4 ,the ,temple is spoken of as already in existence 7,ps4 v4 #g2 xi4 #d7 and the name for ,jerusalem1 my holy hill1 seems to demand a time subsequent to the mission of ,isaiah4 ,the general conditions of life reflected are clearly those in which a godly minority is oppressed and wickedness is established in the land2 a condition which finds no parallel in the ,books of ,samuel4 ,moreover1 the religious ideas are far in advance of those that seem to have been prevalent in the time of ,david or that can be traced to him4 ,the general tone of the ,psalms is one of a chastened piety that hardly existed in the time of the kingdom1 and the religious ideas everywhere show dependence upon the teaching of the ,prophets4 ,there is hardly a verse of the fifty-first ,psalm which cannot be paralleled in ,jeremiah1 but there is almost nothing in the ,psalm that makes it a fitting confession for an adulterer and murderer4 ,these considerations lead us to enquire whether the ,hebrew preposition translated of ,david denotes authorship2 its accurate signification is belonging to1 and from the analogy of the other titles we infer this to mean that the editor found these ,psalms in a collection ascribed to ,david4 ,what gave the name of ,david to that collection8 ,some of the ,psalms may be pre-exilic and may even go down to the early monarchy2 ,ps4 xx4 may belong to the ,old ,kingdom1 but it can hardly have come from the lips of ,david2 it is ,ps4 xviii4 that has perhaps the greatest claim to ,davidic authorship4 ,this ,psalm is also found in #b ,sam4 xxii41 but there it seems to be an interpolation1 for it breaks apart verses that apparently once stood together 7#b ,sam4 xxi4 #bb and xxiii4 #h74 ,yet we meet with a reference to the ,temple even in this ,psalm 7#b ,sam4 xxi4 #g72 at the same time several of its passages would come very fittingly from the ,warrior ,king1 and would be suitable to his barbarous times4 ,in this ,psalm1 if anywhere1 we may possess some original ,davidic fragments4 ,we must conclude therefore1 that the ,davidic ,psalter was so called because its origin was somehow due to ,david1 or because it contained some ,song of ,david which must have been considerably altered to suit liturgical purposes4 ,the early tradition of ,david ascribes to him a poetic and musical gift 7#a ,sam4 xvi4 #ah2 ,amos4 vi4 #e71 and of this the lament over ,saul and ,jonathan 7#b ,sam4 i47 is a sufficient confirmation1 but it should be noticed that it is remarkably free from any religious sentiment whatsoever4 ,it must be due to the later tradition of the ,chronicler that ,david has been credited as the saintly author of the whole ,book of ,psalms4 ,the conclusion is that the titles are not1 strictly speaking1 a claim to authorship1 but are names given1 for various reasons1 to pre-existing collections2 that the earliest of these collections may contain pre-exilic ,psalms1 but that everything points to the collection being made for use in the time of the ,second ,temple4 ,the references to a king do not necessitate any re-consideration of this verdict2 they may be personifications of the nation in the light of ,messianic conceptions4 ,this position has been steadily resisted by some in the interests of tradition1 but without any real religious reason being adduced2 for the idea that this decision denies the authority of ,christ and ,his ,apostles is disposed of by the simple fact that in the ,new ,testament1 ,david is simply a name for the ,psalter 7,ps4 ii4 is ascribed to ,david in ,acts ii4 #cd2 it is anonymous in the ,psalter4 ,heb4 iv4 #g has in ,david2 this does not refer to authorship1 for the author of this ,epistle never quotes the ,scriptures save anonymously74 ,to others it will perhaps come as a great relief to feel that the writer of some of the most spiritual utterances of personal religion need not be identified with the historical ,david4 ,there are awful possibilities of failure in the most religious men1 but the problem here is more difficult than that3 it would compel us to think of ,david as displaying in public no hint of the secrets of his inner religious life1 but very much that contradicts them4 ,the traditional idea of the authorship of the ,psalms has done grave injustice to the sincere if passionate character of the historical ,david4 ,the origin of such a tradition is due as much to the spiritual blindness as to the careless historic judgment of later ,judaism1 and its acceptance by generations of ,christian students speaks a greater reverence for tradition than for religious insight4 ,to be compelled to date the great majority of the ,psalms within the period #ejj-aej ,b4,c41 is indeed a comforting interpretation of ,jewish history2 for it shows that the barren ground of post-exilic times was not without its tender flowers of piety and an appreciation of the prophetic religion far beyond that of the ,prophets' contemporaries4 ,the gloss of legalism1 which can be traced in the ,psalter1 and which was inevitable when these private devotions were adapted to the ,levitical worship of the ,temple1 has not succeeded in obscuring1 but rather brings into greater clearness the spiritual elements in the ,psalms4 ,it is welcome to turn from this task of literary criticism1 which finds in the ,psalms its most difficult field1 and which perhaps yields here less help than in other branches of ,bible literature1 to an endeavour to appreciate the religion of the ,psalmists4 ,there is difficulty here also2 but now it is in the splendour of the composition1 the magnificent breadth of experience they embrace1 the classic utterance of the eternal religion of the heart4 ,we have recognised the heterogeneous character of the collection1 and it is only to be expected that this should be reflected in the variety of religious ideas4 ,a theology of the ,psalter is as impossible as it is mistaken4 ,the quality of poetic genius varies1 the heights of religious inspiration sometimes reached are not consistently maintained1 and there are many lower levels4 ,and yet there remains a sufficient unity to leave a very definite impression2 that unity owes little to similarity of circumstances1 to contemporaneity1 or to the influence of a theological school2 it is rather due to the unreflective simplicity of the human mind in the realised presence of ,god4 ,in that position all unfettered religion speaks one tongue3 the only mother tongue of humanity4 ,the inspiration of the ,psalmist owes its beauty to the absence of self-consciousness4 ,there is nothing here of the prophetic claim to speak in the name of ,god2 in the ,psalms ,god does not speak to men1 men speak to ,god1 but it is just because of this that the revelation in the ,psalms reaches so far beyond the limits of ,old ,testament religion and seems to grasp that religion which was to be personified in the consciousness of ,jesus4 ,we are compelled to recognise that men's prayers are themselves a revelation of ,god1 and that when men seek to voice their highest aspiration we catch the sound of a deep undertone1 the supplication of the ,spirit that intercedes within4 ,as an expression of eternal religion the ,psalms have one serious defect1 which really unfits them1 without careful selection1 for use in ,christian worship--their awful imprecations upon enemies4 ,there are hardly to be found in the whole realm of literature more fearful desires for vengeance than in the ,psalms 7cix4 #f-ae4 cxxxvii4 #i2 cxl4 #aj74 ,to date the ,psalms from the comfortable times of the monarchy1 under the martial supremacy of ,david and ,solomon1 is to make them cruel without meaning2 but imagine the sufferings of the ,israelites in ,exile1 or in the still worse times when the pious remnant were persecuted by their own irreligious and apostate countrymen1 which was so often their lot in post-exilic times1 and these expressions can be explained1 even if they cannot be justified4 ,the desire for vengeance does not arise from personal motives1 but is doubtless due to the complete identification of the ,psalmist with the cause of ,god and righteousness1 and to his burning indignation against the cruelty1 injustice1 and craftiness of the impenitent wicked4 ,thus understood1 there is a moral element in this anger1 which is not only to be condoned but even admired4 ,this deep moral revulsion has been one of the greatest factors in moulding history along righteous lines4 ,but when all this has been said1 it remains to be acknowledged frankly that this is not the religion of the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,the anger at sin is right1 but the desire for vengeance is no real cure for sin4 ,it is far from the deep wisdom of the ,son of ,man2 but we have to remember1 when we judge the ,psalms from that standard1 that ,his wisdom is still unaccepted1 not only by the world1 but by many who profess ,his name4 ,it is in the ,psalms that personal religion receives its clearest exposition in the ,old ,testament1 and this spirit owes much to the personal experience of ,jeremiah4 ,there has been an endeavour to find the speaking subject of the ,psalms not in the individual but in the nation4 ,there are national ,psalms1 but many others cannot be successfully interpreted save as the expressions of personal devotion4 ,national religion could never reach these heights2 it is bound down to the average level1 it is always open to unethical movements and ideas4 ,the personal element is not to be confused with the individualistic2 the personal is wider than the individual2 it realises the things that lie at the base of all human life1 and when it is most personal it speaks the most universal language4 ,it is in the deep sense of sin and the assurance of forgiveness that the ,psalms are the classics for all who know the secrets they utter2 and the sense of sin can never be felt save under the searching light of ,god's very presence4 ,to be deeply conscious of sin is the first step towards any high revelation of ,god1 and of this the fifty-first ,psalm is the most perfect expression2 there we see the sense of inward sin1 opening up the possibility of a separation between the self and that higher self1 the holy spirit1 and bringing about the severest mental pain and anguish4 ,naturally1 the ,psalms hardly rise to the ,christian ground of forgiveness1 but the thirty-second ,psalm vibrates with the joy that the ,christian knows and1 when mere figures of speech are discounted1 it springs from the same reason3 the acknowledgment of one's sin and the consciousness of its forgiveness in the newly realised communion with ,god4 ,in dealing with the problem of the providential order of the world1 the ,psalms hardly reflect any higher conceptions than those found elsewhere in the ,old ,testament1 if they even rise as high as the conception of the ,second ,isaiah4 ,the idea that goodness is rewarded by long life and prosperity1 and that wickedness is always marked by outward disaster is the root idea2 and the fact that this is not confirmed by observation is the cause of the complaint of many a ,psalm4 ,this problem receives no conscious solution throughout the book4 ,the revelation given through the worship of the sanctuary only shows that the prosperity of the wicked is temporary 7,ps4 xxxvii41 lxxiii472 but how often even this must seem to be untrue1 for in many cases there are no bands in their death4 ,nothing higher is reached than pride in one's integrity and the assurance that somehow and somewhere retribution is sure4 ,there is no conception of the principle of vicarious suffering1 and the values set upon righteousness and prosperity never attain to those words of ,jesus3 ,blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness sake4 ,the pressure of this problem of ,providence is supposed to have driven the ,psalmists to pierce the veil and to descry beyond the grave a compensation for the inequalities of this life1 and passages are frequently adduced to prove this 7,ps4 xvi4 #aj1 #aa2 xvii4 #ae2 xlix41 #ae2 lxxiii4 #bc-bf74 ,the current belief of ,israel embraced an existence after death1 but only in the form of unconscious and shadowy life in the under world1 ,sheol1 and this is most explicitly expressed in many of the ,psalms 7vi4 #e2 xxx4 #i2 xlix4 #ad2 lxxxviii4 #aj-ab74 ,what then is the significance of the expressions which seem to point to something more8 ,an accurate translation and a correct exegesis dispose of nearly all of these passages as in any sense explicit evidence for a definite belief in immortality2 but there remains a witness of much greater value4 ,it is through communion with ,god1 and because of the significance with which it invests conscious life that the ,psalmists are led to feel that their experience can never be interrupted by death4 ,to those who know the reality of personal communion with ,god1 this has more cogency than any other argument for immortality4 ,the experience of communion throws a new value on personality and gives a deeper meaning to this life1 and in face of this discovery death becomes nothing more than a passing shadow4 ,while therefore the application of ,ps4 xvi4 #aj to the resurrection of ,christ is foreign to the methods of modern interpretation1 that passage does show the real significance of the resurrection of ,christ2 for it is the person of ,christ in communion with ,god that has brought life and immortality to light4 ,the ,psalmist shared this vital experience whether he was able to infer immortality of the soul from it or not4 ,but the glory of the ,psalms is found in their realisation of the presence of ,god4 ,this expresses itself in the vivid consciousness of a present and helpful ,personality rather than in intellectual concepts or theological definitions4 ,the transcendence of ,god receives full appreciation1 but it is never in terms of spatial distance1 but in an inward realisation of ,his moral excellence 7,ps4 xxxvi4 #e-g74 ,to the discerning soul the presence of ,god is inescapable and is absolutely omnipresent 7,ps4 cxxxix4 #g-aj74 ,right alongside of the recognition of the might of ,god and ,his holiness1 there is found the sense of ,his fatherly pity1 ,his gentleness1 and ,his understanding of us 7,ps4 ciii4 #ac2 xviii4 #ce74 ,it would be altogether mistaken to look in the ,psalms for that conception of ,nature which has become one of the greatest gains of modern culture4 ,to the ,psalmist ,nature has no meaning apart from ,god1 and it is merely the sphere of ,his activity4 ,but the beginnings of a poetic delight in things is felt almost on every page 7,ps4 xxiii4 #b2 lv4 #f2 lxv4 #h1 #i2 xciii4 #c2 cvii4 #bd2 cx4 #c;b2 cxxiv4 #e2 cxxx4 #f2 cxxxix4 #ah;b72 while the so-called ,nature ,psalms 7viii41 xix41 xxix41 lxv41 xciii41 civ41 cxlviii47 yield a conception of creation and of the relation of ,god to the world that has not sufficiently shaped theology1 and as a consequence has made it possible for us to think of a conflict between religion and science4 ,the consciousness of ,god as of a present living ,personality is the great contribution of ,hebrew religion1 and of this the ,psalms are the supreme expression4 ,all conception of a merely unconscious1 all-pervading essence is transcended by the intense experience of communion2 ,he is an ever present help in time of trouble4 ,the ,hebrew ,psalmist may be a child beside the ,hindu sage or the ,greek philosopher1 but no one has ever sounded the human heart as he4 ,the experience he has bequeathed to the world is that of a ,god who is infinite1 mighty and all-present1 and yet ,one who can be known in the experiences of temporal life and felt in the limitations of the human mind2 ,one who shepherds and guides men1 and who can take the place of human friend or nearest relative4 ,this is in the direct line with ,christ's consciousness of the ,father4 ,without this we may have a mysticism that must perforce remain silent1 or a philosophy that loses itself in the endeavour to reconcile the antinomies of thought1 but without this we cannot have a religion that can satisfy the craving of the human heart for an infinite1 holy1 and helping ,companion4 ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,wise ,in determining from internal evidence whether ,job is later or earlier than ,proverbs1 the following comparisons should be examined3-- ,job v4 #ag and ,prov4 iii4 #aa4 xi4 #h ix4 #ah4 xv4 #g viii4 #be4 xviii4 #e1f xiii4 #i4 xxi4 #ag xxiv4 #bj4 xxii4 #bh iv4 #ah4 xxviii4 #ah iii4 #ae2 viii4 #aa4 xxviii4 #bh i4 #g4 ,in these examples1 it might be noted1 it is the friends of ,job who quote the ,proverbs2 except in ,job xxi4 #ag1 where ,job questions the ,proverb already quoted by ,bildad1 rather than quotes it with approval2 and in the case of xxviii4 #ah1 #bh1 the whole chapter is regarded by critics as suspicious1 on the ground that the sentiments here expressed by ,job are in contradiction to his general attitude4 ,these passages would seem somewhat to confirm the idea that the ,book of ,job is intended to be a criticism of the theory of ,providence found in ,proverbs4 99 99 99 99 99 ,on the suggestion that ,ecclesiastes owes its disjointed character to some disarrangement of the original sheets of the ,,ms41 ,bickell proposes to read the book in the following order3-- 7#a7 i4 #a-;ii4 #aa4 7#b7 v4 #i-vi4 #g4 7#c7 iii4 #i-;iv4 #h4 7#d7 ii4 #ab-;iii4 #h4 7#e7 viii4 #f-;ix4 #c4 7#f7 ix4 #aa-x4 #a4 7#g7 vi4 #h-vii4 #bb4 7#h7 iv4 #i-v4 #h4 7#i7 x4 #af-xi4 #f 7#aj7 vii4 #bc-viii4 #e4 7#aa7 x4 #b-x4 #ae4 7#ab7 ix4 #d-aj4 7#ac7 xi4 #g-xii4 #h4 ,bickell would regard the ,appendix1 xii4 #i-ad1 as a later addition4 ,lecture ,x ,,the ,,religion ,,of ,,the ,,wise ,certain books of the ,old ,testament have a marked resemblance both in their subject-matter and in their religious and ethical outlook4 ,they stand out from the other classes of the literature1 for they are neither prophetical1 like the writings of the ,prophets or the histories written under their influence1 nor legalistic1 like the great codes of the ,pentateuch1 nor liturgical and devotional1 like the ,psalms2 and for convenience they are designated3 the ,wisdom ,literature4 ,these writings deal chiefly with wisdom1 or the practical ordering of life1 and we frequently find a reference to the words of the wise1 as if there was a school of teachers who were devoted to the discussion of these problems4 ,the chief contributions of this school are1 in our ,bible1 the ,book of ,proverbs1 and in the ,apocrypha1 ,wisdom and ,ecclesiasticus4 ,job and ,ecclesiastes are occupied with the same problems1 but their attitude is critical and their method of treatment peculiar4 ,no one can fail to feel the almost perplexing difference of this literature from the rest of the ,old ,testament2 unlike the prophetic it has less a message to the conscience than a problem for the mind2 unlike the historical books it is perfectly timeless1 and utterly detached from the national hopes2 it is not occupied with ceremonies or ritual1 but with religion as a matter of conduct4 ,the nearest approach to this is to be found in some of the ,psalms1 which1 passing from the emotions of the devout spirit1 become engaged with the problems and injustices of life4 ,its religion is more universal than that of the ,prophets or even of the ,psalmists1 but it is less emotional2 the religion of the heart has given way to the wisdom of the mind4 ,we have here the beginnings of a philosophy1 a mental activity strangely absent from the ,hebrew race2 it is not however a speculative philosophy1 but one purely concerned with practical life2 and yet there is a direct progression traceable from the chapters in ,proverbs 7i4-ix471 which are devoted to the praise of wisdom1 through the work known as the ,wisdom of ,solomon1 to ,philo1 the great ,jewish philosopher1 who endeavoured to interpret ,moses by ,plato and to reconcile ,hebrew religion with ,greek speculation4 ,although in this literature we have the beginnings of a philosophy it is rather that of the street than of the academy2 a cultivation of a philosophic attitude towards life1 its problems and duties1 rather than any speculation on metaphysical reality or the absolute origin of things4 ,the wisdom we hear so much of is an intellectual virtue1 although it embraces neither speculation nor learning1 but is limited to mean sagacity1 shrewdness1 prudence in the conduct of life4 ,this is the main theme of the ,proverbs1 but the problem of the correct ordering of life unearths a deeper and darker one--the problem of the existence of evil1 the injustice of life as revealed in the blind indiscrimination of trouble1 pain1 and death4 ,with this problem some of the ,psalms and the ,books of ,job and ,ecclesiastes especially deal4 ,in seeking to place this literature1 we are met with an even worse difficulty than in the case of the ,psalms2 for the entire absence of historical allusion1 and the spirit of detachment in which religious questions are discussed1 leave no trace of date or age4 ,the three books in our ,bible belonging to this literature are ascribed to very early authors2 two to ,solomon and one traditionally to ,job or ,moses1 although the ,book of ,job is really anonymous4 ,now it is exceedingly difficult to gather from the prophetic or historical books any trace of the opinions that are found in the ,wisdom ,literature4 ,the problem of evil certainly began to occupy the minds of men like ,jeremiah even before the ,exile2 but in the picture which the ,prophets give us of the ,jewish state under the late monarchy1 we get no glimpse of a people who looked on life and religion as do the writers of these books4 ,in the ,wisdom ,literature we find references to the wise as to a special class in the community 7,prov4 i4 #f2 xxii4 #ag2 xxiv4 #bc2 ,job xv4 #ah72 in the historical literature we find the wisdom of certain men extolled 7,solomon1 #a ,kings iii4 #af-bh2 iv4 #bi-cd2 x4 #c ff42 ,joseph1 ,gen4 xli4 #ci2 the four wise men1 #a ,kings iv4 #ca1 the wisdom of ,egypt1 the ,east1 #a ,kings iv4 #cj1 and of ,edom1 ,ob4 #h2 ,jer4 xlix4 #g71 and in the prophetic writings the wise are mentioned as a class distinct from the prophet and the priest 7,jer4 xviii4 #ah7 and often in a depreciatory way 7,isa4 xxix4 #ad2 ,jer4 viii4 #h2 ix4 #ab74 ,it seems almost impossible to identify the wise men of ,proverbs with this class who receive so little praise from the ,prophets4 ,the wise men of ,proverbs do not speak as if they needed to defend themselves against the claims of the prophet 7,prov4 xxix4 #ah2 the reference to vision1 which can only mean a communication to the prophet1 is not found elsewhere in ,proverbs and is doubted by many scholars71 nor can we understand the need for the message of the ,prophets if this practical religion of the wise was current in their times4 ,this religion may lack passion and be without national consciousness1 but ,isaiah and ,micah would surely have found something to their heart's desire in its pure ethical character4 ,indeed1 the religious thought seems to be dependent on the teaching of the ,prophets1 but only at a distance1 for it is ethically advanced and has become somewhat rarefied and unemotional4 ,the literary character seems also to point to a later age2 for it is academical1 sophistical1 and polished4 ,the polish of the ,proverbs might be due to constant use among the common people1 but they are not like popular sayings 7cp4 #a ,sam1 xxiv4 #ac2 #a ,kings xx4 #aa2 ,jer4 xxxi4 #bi2 ,ezek4 xviii4 #b71 and their evident kinship with ,wisdom and ,ecclesiasticus indicates a late post-exilic origin4 ,we shall first devote some time to an examination of the ,book of ,proverbs4 ,the ,hebrew proverb 7mashal7 means a representation1 and may be used of a fable or a taunt1 but is more especially confined to any generalisation from experience or observation on life and character expressed in a rhythmic and polished form4 ,the most usual form of the proverb is a couplet in which a common fact of ,nature is placed beside a common fact of human life3 ,where there is no wood the fire goes out1 and where there is no talebearer strife will cease4 ,the book as a whole would seem to be ascribed to ,solomon 7i4 #a71 but this is only the tradition of the final editor2 for1 as in the case of the ,psalter1 ,proverbs shows every trace of gradual compilation1 and the names of other authors are given4 ,the main divisions of the book are as follows3-- ,a4 7i4 #a-f74 ,the prologue1 by the final editor1 either ascribing the work to ,solomon or else praising his proverbs4 ,b4 7i4 #g-;ix474 ,this seems to be the latest addition to the book2 it is not a collection of proverbs at all1 but is a continuous discourse in praise of ,wisdom4 ,in viii4 #bb ,wisdom is personified as a creature of ,god present at the creation of the world4 ,this hypostatization of an attribute of ,god is one of the latest developments of ,hebrew thought1 and is so unusual to its genius that we are compelled to seek for some possibility of infiltration from foreign sources4 ,the idea is still further developed in ,ecclesiasticus 7xxiv471 and in the ,book of ,wisdom has become quite a ,platonic speculation 7vii4 #bb-viii4 #a74 ,the appearance of this idea in ,hebrew thought seems to be most explicable in the period of ,greek influence1 when ,plato's doctrine of the ,idea might become known in ,palestine2 somewhere about #bej ,b4,c4 seems a likely date4 ,the identification of virtue with knowledge1 which we find in the book1 is also due to ,greek thought4 ,it was along this line of development that the conception of the ,logos was welcomed into ,jewish thought1 to have through ,philo such a profound influence on some of the writers of the ,new ,testament4 ,c4 7x4-xxii4 #af74 ,this collection of proverbs is ascribed to ,solomon and is generally thought by critics to be the oldest main collection2 many would even be willing to assign it to the golden age of the monarchy4 ,the ,solomonic authorship is1 however1 unthinkable2 the sentiments expressed are unsuitable for a luxurious and polygamous monarch 7xv4 #af1 xxi4 #ca2 xxii4 #ad2 xiii4 #a2 cp4 #a ,kings iv4 #bf2 xi4 #a1 #d1 #e-ac2 xii4 #aj1 #aa71 and the ascription to ,solomon is probably due to circumstances similar to those which operated in the case of the ascription of the ,psalms to ,david4 ,there are many objections to any pre-exilic time as a suitable historic background for this collection2 there is no mention of idolatry1 whereas we learn from ,ezekiel 7vi41 viii41 xxiii47 that idolatry was practised in ,jerusalem down to the time of the city's destruction2 monogamy seems to be taken quite for granted1 whereas it would appear that polygamy was general before the prophetic reforms2 and of the great upheaval that these reforms involved1 this collection shows no trace4 ,the national religion has here given place to universalism1 a development that seems to demand some experience of contact with other nations and especially some acquaintance with foreign culture4 ,the references to the king neither require ,solomonic authorship nor demand an age when the monarchy was established2 for they are only general sentiments concerning the duties of the king in the ,state1 and are of such a nature that they show very little reminiscence of ,israel's actual experience of a monarchy4 ,d4 7xxii4 #ag-xxiv4 #bb7 and ,e4 7xxiv4 #bc-cd7 are two collections of the sayings of the wise1 whose ascription1 together with the reference to instruction1 points to an advanced stage of reflection and teaching1 and perhaps to the existence of philosophic teachers who had schools and pupils4 ,f4 7xxv4-xxix474 ,these also are proverbs of ,solomon1 which the men of ,hezekiah1 ,king of ,judah1 copied out4 ,this title has an air of circumstantiality about it which looks like a genuine historical note1 and it has been observed that there is a change of tone1 in this collection1 in regard to the monarchy1 as if some actual experience of kingly tyranny had been lately borne2 so that if we were to refer this collection to the age mentioned in the title we should have to ante-date the collection1 ,c4 ,but in view of the state of society here portrayed1 which is similar to that of ,ecclesiasticus1 we have no alternative but to regard the title1 as in the case of some of the ,davidic ,psalms1 as due to later ,jewish scribes1 and as without authority4 ,g41 ,h4 and ,i4 are three small collections 7xxx42 xxxi4 #a-i2 xxxi4 #aj-ca71 the first by ,agur3 a very obscure passage1 apparently quoting a declaration of reverent agnosticism1 with a reply to it by some more believing scribe4 ,the second is ascribed to ,king ,lemuel1 and the third is in praise of a virtuous woman1 by an anonymous writer4 ,the religious teaching of the ,proverbs would seem to be a refinement of the prophetic religion1 standing quite apart from the legal and ritual development4 ,religion has become entirely a matter of ethics2 the creed is wonderfully colourless and simple1 and the inducement to virtue remains almost entirely on the plane of utilitarianism and prudence4 ,there is a good deal that is quite worldly wisdom1 but pure religion is by no means wanting 7xxi4 #c2 xiv4 #cd72 the fear of the ,lord is not slavish fear1 but is a guiding principle for life and the beginning of wisdom4 ,men are divided somewhat roughly into the foolish and the wise2 and although no book in the world has ever depicted the foolishness of men with greater variety and reality1 yet there seems no hope that folly may be overcome1 or that wicked men can be turned from their ways2 ,wisdom knows no forgiveness and can only mock when men turn to her too late 7i4 #bd-bh74 ,yet the ethical level is high2 woman especially is highly estimated1 and the home life is held sacred2 kindness to animals is inculcated 7xii4 #aj71 and there is a real approach to absolute ethics in such sayings as3 ,say not thou1 ,i will recompense evil2 ,say not ,i will do so to him as he hath done to me 7xx4 #bb2 xxiv4 #ag1 #bi2 xxv4 #ba1 #bb74 ,the writers have been called humanists1 and this rightly describes their position2 it is the highest level rabbinical religion ever reached2 it has its parallel in some of the aphoristic teaching of ,jesus1 but it has no message for the outcast and fallen2 it knows no secret whereby the fool may be made wise and the heart be changed by a great emotion2 it is the religion of the sage1 not the religion of the ,saviour4 ,the doctrine of retribution is still thought to be quite satisfactory in its working 7ii4 #ba f42 x4 #be2 xi4 #ba74 ,in an earlier and less reflective age this idea would not have been unexpected2 but it is remarkable that it should be acquiesced in by the wise men2 and yet it is an idea of life that seems to persist against all experience3 it is found in the time of ,christ and it still obtains1 especially in the judgment of the cause of poverty4 ,perhaps its persistence is to be traced to an ideal of justice so strong as to obscure accurate observation of the facts4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when we turn to the ,book of ,job we come to a work not only the greatest product of the wise men1 but the supreme literary production of the ,hebrew nation4 ,the grandeur of its language has somewhat obscured the real meaning of the book2 for the opinions that the book was written to controvert are stated with such vivid power and poetic grace that they are now often quoted as ,biblical truths of equal value with the opinions apparently supported by the author4 ,it is our task1 not so much to admire the literary talent of the author1 as to estimate his contribution to the religion of ,israel4 ,the ,book of ,job has been referred to almost every age from ,moses to post-exilic times4 ,there is certainly an endeavour to reproduce the conditions of the patriarchal age1 in the avoidance of the name ,jehovah 7,exod4 vi4 #c71 and in the money standard adopted 7,job4 xlii4 #aa72 but there is no desire to deceive the reader1 for this archaic atmosphere is adopted merely as the appropriate setting of the dialogue1 and is not maintained3 the name ,jehovah slips from the author's pen1 he takes no pains to conceal his knowledge of the ,law and his interest in the questions of his own times4 ,the question of age is not to be complicated by the question of authorship2 there was a person named ,job1 known to ,ezekiel 7xiv4 #ad71 but there is nowhere any assumption that ,job himself wrote the book2 and the mechanical and symbolical character of the disasters which befall ,job1 and the nature of the compensation1 show that we have here only dramatic settings for the speeches and not actual history4 ,it is likely that there was a well-known tradition of a man named ,job who had suffered overwhelming troubles and eventually had been restored to his former prosperity1 and this is made the basis for a discussion of the problem of suffering4 ,it has been suggested that in the ,prologue and ,epilogue we have fragments of that old tradition1 since these passages are in prose while the body of the book is in semi-poetic rhythm2 but the prose form is best explained as that always adopted by the ,hebrews for narrative1 for we find ideas in these parts that betray as late a date as anything in the body of the work4 ,considered on internal evidence1 everything seems to point to the age which produced the rest of the ,wisdom ,literature2 and more precisely1 a date shortly before or shortly after ,proverbs1 seems indicated4 ,the material for deciding more particularly is such that different conclusions may be drawn from it4 ,for instance1 the personification of wisdom in ,proverbs seems to be in advance of the idea of wisdom in ,job2 and if we could think of the development of an idea always coinciding with chronological progression1 then ,job would need to be placed earlier than ,proverbs2 but this is complicated by the fact that the main body of the book of the ,proverbs may have been in circulation before the earlier chapters were added4 ,yet there are apparent quotations from the ,proverbs in the ,book of ,job 7xv4 #g f4 ,prov4 viii4 #bb-be71 and the reference to the lamp of the wicked being put out 7,prov4 xiii4 #i2 xxiv4 #bj7 seems clearly to have ,proverbs in mind 7,job4 xxi4 #ag74 ,dependence might1 of course1 be taken to lie the other way1 but on the whole1 it would appear that the problems dealt with in ,job have not yet emerged for the writers of the ,proverbs1 and indeed ,job seems rather an indictment of the superficial idea1 which we find everywhere assumed in the earlier work that prosperity and goodness are inseparable4 ,the most satisfactory order seems therefore to be3 ,proverbs1 ,job1 ,ecclesiastes4 ,the idea that ,job is to be understood as a personification of the nation1 such as we were led to conceive in the allegory of ,jonah and in the ,servant of the ,lord1 can hardly be maintained in face of the perfect detachment from the history and the national hopes that characterises the book4 ,the book deals with a problem already stirring in the minds of the ,prophets and the theme of many of the ,psalms1 but here stated with an awful daring and intensity and as the subject-matter of an entirely new form of literary composition4 ,the ,book of ,job is not a drama1 in the sense that it was ever intended1 or would be suitable1 for presentation on the stage2 but it is a poem with dramatic elements and it has a dramatic movement4 ,the endeavour to understand the message of the book is rendered difficult because different points of view are presented1 and this has suggested different authors4 ,the book certainly has well-marked divisions1 and they appear to yield distinct and different solutions of the problem of suffering4 ,the ,prologue shows us what has taken place in heaven1 and seems to infer that the trials came upon ,job to establish his faith and righteousness2 but the speeches between ,job and his friends1 in the second division1 if by the same author as the ,prologue1 skilfully avoid this explanation1 and the drama pursues its course with the actors remaining in complete ignorance of the solution that has been disclosed to the audience4 ,the third division is taken up with the speeches of ,elihu3 these break the continuity of the poem1 ,job makes no reply to him1 and ,elihu is not mentioned in the ,epilogue4 ,an examination of these speeches shows that they fall somewhat below the level of brilliance and originality maintained in the rest of the book1 and the idea that they proceed from another writer of the same school1 who felt that the arguments of the three friends had not been presented in the best possible way1 is worthy of consideration4 ,the speeches of ,jehovah are by the author of the main portion and are wonderfully impressive and grand1 although the exact contribution that they make to the discussion of the problem is difficult to discern4 ,the ,epilogue falls back into prose1 and was certainly written by one who had the entire work before him2 but it so misses the meaning of the whole argument1 and is content with such a superficial solution of restoration1 that it has been thought by many to be an addition to the original work4 ,whatever may be thought of the idea of plural authorship as a solution of these divergences1 the divergences themselves must be borne in mind in any attempt to estimate the message of the book4 ,but are these different points of view incompatible with a single author8 ,with an author of such extraordinary talent in voicing opinions with which he evidently does not agree1 it cannot be said to be impossible2 and it may be that he only wished to state the problem and to give those answers which were current in his age1 leaving it to the reader to discover whether these answers were really solutions2 the ,prologue and ,epilogue may have nothing to do with the didactive motive1 but only be due to dramatic and artistic demands4 ,the theology of ,job certainly demands a late age and an advanced stage of reflection4 ,one interesting point is raised by the employment1 in the ,prologue1 of the figure of ,satan4 ,this personality1 so fruitful a factor in speculation on the cause of evil1 demands a careful study4 ,it should be noted1 first1 that he is referred to as the ,satan1 that is1 the ,adversary2 it is a generic1 not a proper1 name4 ,this creature is represented as appearing together with the angels in the presence of ,god1 and although his designs are sinister and his suggestions unworthy1 he is still a minister doing the will of ,god4 ,this delegation of evil advocacy can be traced1 from the idea that it is due to ,god ,himself 7#b ,sam4 xxiv4 #a71 to the work of the separate spirit who offered to entice ,ahab 7#a ,kings xxii4 #ba71 and then to the greater definiteness of our author4 ,beyond this book1 again1 the adversary is a darker character who has to be rebuked by ,god 7,zech4 iii471 and in the history of the ,chronicler the ,satan has become ,satan1 a proper name 7#a ,chron4 xxi4 #a2 cp4 #b ,sam4 xxiv4 #a72 but we have to go outside the ,old ,testament ,canon to get a completely dualistic opposition of ,god and ,satan 7,wisdom ii4 #bd74 ,the conception of ,god has passed1 in this book1 entirely beyond the tribal ,deity ,jehovah1 and even beyond the ethical ,personality known to the ,prophets1 to ,one who is felt to be unknowable2 and yet withal ,job clings to the idea that he shall one day see the face of the ,redeemer who now hides ,himself4 ,as in the ,psalms1 the alleged idea of immortality 7xix4 #be ff47 is not very definite1 and so contradicts the general expectation of the book 7vii4 #i f4 x4 #ba f4 xiv4 #aj ff4 #bj ff4 xvi4 #bb2 xxi4 #bf2 xxx4 #bc71 that it must be taken to refer to ,job's conviction that some vindication of his cause will be made here in this life4 ,at the same time the idea of a future judgment which shall proclaim his innocence and the ill-desert of his sufferings1 is so strong1 that it sweeps death out of vision1 and the hope of the future life hovers in the thought if it does not break into language4 ,a dispassionate examination of the solutions here offered to the problem of suffering shows that nothing really beyond a negative position is reached in this book4 ,the speeches of ,job must be taken to convey the author's opinions1 and they are a most emphatic repudiation of the doctrine of ,providence expressed by the three friends4 ,they can only repeat the accepted notion that suffering is everywhere the cause of sin1 and with scorn and indignation ,job repudiates the charge1 so far as he is concerned2 he maintains his innocence and appeals to ,god as his witness2 but the ,witness is silent and there is no daysman betwixt them4 ,job's protest is not concerned with mere innocence1 for in one magnificent passage he appeals to his beneficent life spent in the service of the poor and needy 7xxxi474 ,the answers of ,job leave the little system of ,providence supported by his friends1 completely discredited1 and in this particular ,jehovah sides with ,job4 ,the theophany and speeches of ,jehovah do not1 however1 seem to convey any further contribution to the problem than perhaps the idea that for man it is insoluble1 because he does not and cannot see the whole2 and so nothing is left for man but to bear his griefs in silence and maintain his trust in ,god4 ,job remains1 not only the finest contribution of ,semitic genius to the realm of literature1 but a classic for all those who feel the anguish of the world and the unintelligible perplexities of life4 ,if it conveys no real solution1 it at least disposes of one long accepted as adequate1 and its complete overthrow removes one of the worst mistakes of human observation and refutes one of the cruellest judgments of men4 ,the idea that prosperity always follows goodness has been a most disastrous bequest of ,hebrew thought1 and has more than anything else obscured from men's eyes the real meaning of life1 prevented an accurate judgment of character1 and done much to turn aside the expression of sympathy and obscure the duty of pity and forgiveness4 ,that a solution was not within the limits of ,israel's faith cannot be affirmed with ,isa4 liii4 before us2 but that it had never been rightly understood and had never taken deep hold of even noble minds is driven home with a telling force1 in a further contribution of the ,wisdom ,literature1 the ,book of ,ecclesiastes4 ,the name ,ecclesiastes is borrowed from the attempt to translate the ,hebrew term ,qoheleth into ,greek4 ,of this name a variety of interpretations have been put forward 7,qoheleth1 from qahal an assembly1 is the active feminine participle and means1 one who calls1 or addresses1 or is merely member of1 an assembly2 ,a4,v41 the ,preacher2 ,r4,v4 the great ,orator71 but the one that perhaps best describes the term is that of the debater4 ,the work is put forward in the name of ,solomon1 and of all the works ascribed to him there is none that would come so suitably from the pen of that monarch1 if he ever reflected deeply on his career2 but this ascription is not kept up with any idea of deceiving the reader1 but is simply one of the literary customs of the time and a way of honouring a great name1 for there are biographical statements impossible to ,solomon 7,i was king1 i4 #ab2 above all that were before me in ,jerusalem1 i4 #af71 while the reflection of society and the stage of thought1 but most notably the extremely late language1 betray what is one of the latest of the ,old ,testament writings4 ,ecclesiastes is a work that has held an unusual fascination for certain types of disposition1 ,renan declaring that it was the only lovely thing that ever came from a ,hebrew mind4 ,the presence of the book at all in the ,old ,testament is strange1 and there were strong opinions against admitting it into the ,canon2 it was perhaps only eventually sanctioned because its contradictory statements made it possible to interpret the book as a work written to controvert pessimistic ideas1 which are brought forward only to be refuted4 ,for the intention of the work is difficult to gather owing to its disjointed and incomplete character1 which makes the book as it stands a mass of contradictions4 ,some passages profess utter pessimism and unbelief in ,god's providence1 while others1 like the closing chapter1 seek to inculcate religious fear and trust4 ,various theories have been proposed to explain these phenomena occurring in one book4 ,it has been suggested that the work is a dialogue between a doubting scholar and an orthodox believer4 ,with a view of straightening out the argument it has been conjectured that the sheets of the original have somehow become disarranged1 and others have thought of a series of interpolations in an originally quite unbelieving work2 first by a writer who wishes to defend ,wisdom from the author's charges of unprofitableness1 and then by a writer who wishes to defend the providence of ,god4 ,if interpolation is to be thought of at all--and it should only be a refuge of despair--it is to be sought in the opening and closing verses of the last chapter 7xii4 #a1 #ac1 #ad71 which may have been added to correct the influence of the work2 but even they are not impossible from this strangely vacillating author4 ,certainly no explanations can remove the gloomy tone of the book4 ,the writer seems to have come into contact with ,greek pessimism1 and from this standpoint he sees nothing true in the ,hebrew doctrine of retribution1 and especially does he reject the too optimistic doctrines of the ,wisdom school4 ,the problems that are solved so simply in ,proverbs1 stated and left unanswered by ,job1 are by this author answered in entirely negative fashion3 nothing is profitable in this life1 nothing is new2 nature and man move in an endless cycle without hope or meaning4 ,the pursuit of ,wisdom is just as foolish as the pursuit of folly3 the end of the fool and the end of the wicked is the same2 life is not worth living2 vanity of vanities1 all is vanity4 ,in this book we at last come upon a clear recognition of the doctrine of immortality1 but only to find it explicitly denied by our author 7iii4 #ai-ba74 ,the only solution that the writer proposes is a sad ,epicureanism3 make the best of a bad world4 ,and yet in spite of this conclusion the author still believes in ,god 7iii4 #aa1 #ad2 viii4 #ag72 but ,he is a ,god who has hidden ,his purpose from man and whom man can do nothing to turn from ,his ways4 ,this is more like the inscrutable ,fate of the ,greek tragedians than the ,jehovah of the ,prophets3 indeed the word ,jehovah is never once used throughout the book4 ,if the concluding chapter comes from the original author1 then it recommends a religious attitude towards these mysteries2 but there is no revelation of anything that gives assurance of the reasonableness of this position or of the goodness of ,god4 ,what are we to learn from this ,book8 ,are we to refuse to read it and to reverse the judgment that included it in the ,canon8 ,hardly that4 ,it is well that man's doubts should find a place in the same sacred collection with his surest beliefs1 for doubt may be but a stage in a process from an inadequate to a fuller faith4 ,the book shows that the common appreciation of ,israel's faith could not satisfy the mind that had its attention fixed upon the facts of life2 and especially does it show that the hope of immortality1 apart from which ,israel's faith had largely developed1 is not the one thing that is lacking4 ,that hope1 with its promise of retribution in a future and better world1 will always appear too speculative to some minds to relieve the burdens of the life that now is1 and even if believed in1 it would offer no real clue to the meaning of our trials here1 but only tend to take men's eyes off this life where perchance they might find the solution they have missed4 ,for there is an attitude to life that solves its darkest problems1 a disposition which transmutes its pain and failure1 finding it no enigma1 but an opportunity for learning the will of the ,father2 our presence here not a thing to be reluctantly borne1 but a task to be joyfully accepted as the commission of ,god4 ,the book of ,ecclesiastes shows us1 therefore1 that the revelation through ,israel is not yet complete2 for it voices the unsatisfied need and stretches out hands of faith for something not yet made known4 ,it is the deep dark of the night2 the next hour will see the ,morning ,star of ,bethlehem above the horizon1 the fleeing shadows and the breaking of the day4 ,,messianic ,,expectations ,the prevalence of the expectation of a personal ,messiah reflected in the ,gospels1 and the clearness and consistency of the idea1 are not to be explained solely from the ,old ,testament prophecies4 ,in the ,apocrypha the ,messianic expectation has almost died out 7,ecclus4 xlix4 #aa2 #a ,macc4 ii4 #eg71 but after the ,maccaban revolt it revived1 owing doubtless to the disappointment caused by the deterioration of the ,hasmonan dynasty1 of which so much had been expected4 ,the ,pharisees1 who resented the policy of the ,hasmonans1 made the idea of a restoration of the ,davidic line the peculiar property of their party1 and from this time until the appearance of ,jesus1 ,messianic expectation reached a point never before attained4 ,the following summary shows the emergence of the idea in the literature of the period3-- 7#a7 ,the ,dream-,visions of ,enoch4 ,b4,c4 #aff-afa4 ,the ,messiah appears under the figure of a white bullock1 and the saints are changed into ,his image4 ,the ,messiah has only an official function in the world-drama1 and a human though glorified personality4 7#b7 ,the ,sibylline ,oracles4 ,in a passage assigned to ,b4,c4 #adj1 the ,messiah is represented as a ,god-sent ,king1 who is expected to arise from the ,east1 and whose appearance will be a signal for an attack upon the ,temple by the ,gentiles4 7#c7 ,the ,book of ,jubilees4 ,b4,c4 #ace-aje4 ,the writer is concerned more with the ,messianic ,kingdom1 which he conceives of spiritually1 than with the ,messiah1 who is only alluded to once1 and who is expected to arise from ,judah4 7#d7 ,the ,similitudes of ,enoch4 ,b4,c4 #ie-hj4 ,this part of the ,book of ,enoch is much occupied with the person of the ,messiah4 ,he is definitely named the ,messiah1 and also bears the titles the ,elect ,one1 the ,righteous ,one1 and the ,son of ,man4 ,he is a ,prophet and a ,teacher1 the light of the ,gentiles1 all judgment is committed unto ,him1 and ,he will sit on the throne of ,his glory4 ,he will raise again to life all the righteous who have died4 7#e7 ,the ,psalms of ,solomon4 ,b4,c4 #gj-dj4 ,the ,messiah is to be sinless2 ,he is the ,son of ,david2 ,he will not adopt the ordinary methods of warfare1 but will smite the earth with the rod of ,his mouth4 ,the following works all belong to the ,christian era1 but they may reflect ideas that had an earlier origin3-- 7#f7 ,the ,assumption of ,moses4 ,a4,d4 #g-cj4 ,the hope of an earthly ,messiah is abandoned and it is ,god ,himself who is expected to take vengeance on ,his enemies4 7#g7 ,the ,apocalypse of ,baruch4 c4 #gj ,a4,d4 ,the ,messiah will appear after ,israel's enemies have been destroyed4 ,his ,kingdom is likened to the bright lightning1 and at the end of ,his reign ,he is to return in glory to heaven4 7#h7 #b ,esdras4 ,a4,d4 #ha-if4 ,the ,messiah1 although more than earthly1 dies after a reign of #djj years4 ,he is pictured as a lion rebuking an eagle 7the ,roman power71 and as it were with the likeness of a man arising from the midst of the sea1 and flying with the clouds of heaven4 ,lecture ,,xi ,,messianic ,,expectations ,in all the stages through which the ,old ,testament religion passed there seems to have existed a consciousness of their imperfection1 and this produced a tendency to gaze into the future1 in which it was thought the ideal religion would exist1 and where could be descried the perfect realisation of ,god's dwelling among men4 ,it is natural that this characteristic should find its clearest expression in the ,prophets4 ,when their eyes are upon the present1 they condemn2 when they look to the immediate future1 they utter grave warning and the shadows deepen upon their faces2 but when they lift their eyes to the distant hills of time1 the light is on their faces1 and they break into songs of the days that are yet to be4 ,it is this vision of the future and the endeavour to give it a definite outline that runs like a thread through the ,old ,testament and forces us to look beyond its borders for the ultimate issue of its religious development4 ,this subject may best be studied under the general head of ,messianic expectations4 ,the immediate difficulty in understanding this subject is found in the circumstance that it has received from ,bible students an exaggerated attention1 and has been pursued with methods that the best modern scholarship cannot sanction4 ,the eager hunting for ,messianic prophecy1 and the desire to find literal fulfilment1 has often stretched the meaning of passages unwarrantably and made a sane exegesis appear tame and uninteresting4 ,but more disastrous has been the effect upon the understanding of the ,old ,testament as a whole4 ,the literature has been treated as a mysterious typology1 in which some indirect picture of the ,messiah was to be discovered1 or a series of exact predictions of ,his life and work4 ,this has destroyed the sense of perspective1 it has ignored the message of the ,prophets to their own age1 and it has been responsible for the idea that the religion of the ,psalmists was simply a pious expectation of the ,messiah1 instead of a real communion with ,god4 ,it is difficult to gain a right appreciation of this subject after it has suffered such abuse1 but a serious effort should be made2 for it is in the understanding of the ,messianic expectation that we shall find a key to the ,new ,testament and more especially to that conflict of soul which the acceptance of the ,messiahship seems to have brought upon ,jesus4 ,the method of study followed will be an endeavour to read all alleged ,messianic predictions1 first of all in the light of their actual meaning for the age in which they were uttered2 but more particularly it will embrace the general ideas of the future of which the conception of the ,messiah forms only a part4 ,we shall find that the conscious prediction of the ,messiah is somewhat reduced in bulk1 and that the ,messianic expectation includes something more than a figure of the ,messiah himself1 and is indeed sometimes found without any such feature4 ,the ,messianic ideal involves the whole conception of the religious future of ,israel4 ,the ,hebrew religion receives much inspiration from its tradition of the past1 but infinitely more from its hopes for the future3 the golden age is not thought to lie far back in history1 but in a time yet to come4 ,it seems likely that this idea was widely dispersed even among the common people1 and it is therefore only natural that it should often have been held in an unspiritual manner and expressed after a material fashion4 ,this hope was seized upon by the ,prophets1 and by them elevated above a merely material expectation2 they enriched it by the wealth of their creative genius1 and from their time it receives a definite content4 ,standing far above their contemporaries in their conception of the meaning of ,jehovah's covenant with ,israel1 the ,prophets were forced to realise the failure of their message to win immediate acceptance1 and sometimes they witnessed its entire rejection by the people2 and therefore it was inevitable that they should look to the future to yield what the present seemed unable to produce3 a religion pure1 simple1 and free from all limitations4 ,if we inquire the reason of this hope1 we find it in their trust in ,jehovah's covenant and in their conviction of the ultimate triumph of truth4 ,now it was not unnatural1 with the peculiar character of their national history1 for their hopes to group themselves around some commanding figure2 for all along ,israel had been moved by splendid personalities4 ,they were accustomed to the appearance of men whose power and genius marked them out as fitted by ,jehovah for some mighty task2 so that whenever they think of the future and come to a detailed description of their vision they descry one dominant figure1 the symbol and representative of the people1 but also the symbol and representative of the power of ,jehovah dwelling among them4 ,this figure receives his peculiar outline largely from the needs of their immediate times1 and any person of whom great things are expected may be hailed as the ,messiah 7,cyrus1 ,isa4 xlv4 #a2 ,haggai ii4 #bj-bc1 seems to suggest that ,zerubbabel is the expected ,messiah2 and ,zech4 vi4 #ab uses ,messianic language of ,joshua the ,high ,priest74 ,we should have expected that the figure of the ,messiah1 as conceived by the ,prophets1 would partake largely of the prophetic office idealised and accepted by an obedient people4 ,this however is not the case4 ,there is a promise of a prophet made through ,moses1 which in the ,new ,testament has been interpreted as a ,messianic prophecy 7,deut4 xviii4 #ah2 ,acts iii4 #bb1 vii4 #cg71 but an examination of the passage1 which follows a denunciation of the practices of divination1 necromancy1 and sorcery1 out of which primitive ,prophetism arose1 shows that it is a promise of the establishment of the prophetic office rather than of any one person4 ,elsewhere ,moses is made to exclaim3 would that all the ,lord's people were prophets 7,num4 xi4 #bi74 ,both these passages are due to prophetic teaching1 and this is the ,prophets' conception of their office3 they do not rejoice in their splendid isolation and their unique relation to ,god2 they are grieved that the people do not share their possession of the ,spirit of ,god and their hearing of ,his word1 for to them these things are the essence of all true religion4 ,so they look forward to a time when their office will no longer be necessary 7,jer4 xxxi4 #cd71 and when the ,spirit of the ,lord shall be poured out on all flesh 7,joel ii4 #bh;f74 ,it is not in any contradiction to this that the picture of the ,servant of the ,lord1 delineated by the ,second ,isaiah1 is largely drawn from the prophetic office 7,isa4 xlii4 #a-d1 xlix4 #a-f1 l4 #d72 for the ,servant is the ,nation of ,israel fulfilling her prophetic role among the nations of mankind4 ,in the late prophecy of ,malachi the figure of ,elijah the prophet is seen in the future1 but only as the herald of the coming of the ,messianic era 7,mal4 iv4 #e74 ,the ,priest contributes little more than the ,prophet to the picture 7,zech4 iii42 vi4 #ab2 ,psa4 cx472 for to the prophetic conception of things the ,priesthood is hardly a necessary office in a true religion4 ,it is from the office of the ,king that the ,messiah is largely drawn4 ,this conception could only have arisen after the founding of the monarchy and only when the real ,david had faded far enough into the past to be idealised4 ,it was in their experience of the imperfection of the ,kings of ,israel and ,judah that the ,prophets saw the need for a true kingly head2 and in the oppression of military kingdoms1 the need for a mighty warrior4 ,and yet it is not a king who fills the picture of the future1 so much as a kingdom4 ,outside the ,prophets and the ,psalms we find little expectation of a personal ,messiah1 but we find almost everywhere the conception of an ideal or ,messianic age4 ,what has been called the ,protevangelium1 the promise to the woman that her seed should bruise the serpent's head 7,gen4 iii4 #ae71 does not point explicitly to any one person1 but simply promises that in man's eternal warfare with temptation he shall at length gain the victory4 ,the prophecy of ,balaam 7,num4 xxiv4 #ag-ai7 involves nothing more than the future supremacy of ,israel4 ,jacob's blessing on ,judah 7,gen4 xlix4 #aj7 promises a stable dynasty to that tribe1 and the reference to ,shiloh is so obscure that nothing can be built upon it 7,shiloh may mean peace1 but in the ,septuagint the phrase is translated3 until that which is his shall come4 ,another ancient reading is3 till he come whose it is4 ,shiloh might refer to the town of that name1 but this would give no help to the interpretation4 ,the text must be corrupt74 ,it will be necessary for us to examine the circle of ideas which form the background of the ,messianic hope and from which the idea of the ,messiah emerges4 ,when the ,prophets speak of the future they often use a strange phrase3 the day of the ,lord4 ,this is found first in ,amos 7v4 #ah71 but its occurrence there shows that it was already a term in use among the people1 for ,amos had to dissent from the popular idea of its character4 ,the term comes from the ,hebrew idiom of the day of battle1 and it comes to be used of the great conflict in which ,jehovah will entirely overthrow the enemies of ,israel2 it is therefore looked for with expectant hope4 ,amos points out that the manifestation of ,jehovah will be fatal to sin1 whether in ,israel or in other nations3 dies ir1 dies illa4 ,thus modified by ,amos this is the conception which1 with varying details1 becomes the prophetic idea of the ,day of the ,lord4 ,it may therefore come in some threatened invasion2 later1 it is conceived as a gathering of all the nations against ,jerusalem1 from which we get the picture of ,armageddon1 the last great war before the establishment of peace2 and finally it becomes the world assize1 and so the day of judgment of the ,new ,testament4 ,this day is to separate the history of ,god's dealings with men into two distinct periods1 and will be the dividing line between the perfect and the imperfect2 so that all the bright visions of the future are to be after those days4 ,the ,prophets believe that reconstruction can only come after destruction1 that history will reach its ideal over a precipice2 they believe in a reform by cataclysm rather than by evolution4 ,every threatening of political change or national disaster may herald the coming of that day2 it is always at hand2 to their vision1 they are living near the finality of things4 ,there is a great deal in this imagery that fails to appeal to modern ideas of history and progress4 ,it was part of the prophetic scheme and as such was a limitation of perfect vision2 but shorn of its mere form it remains a witness to their consciousness of the activity of ,god in human history and of ,his judgment in the crises of the world4 ,the form was a limitation essential to their stage of mental evolution and to its intelligibility to their age2 its spirit is an eternal message to mankind4 ,immediately after the ,day of the ,lord1 the ,messianic ,age is ushered in1 and in depicting the conditions of that time the lyrical genius of the ,prophets reaches its supreme expression1 and these passages still inspire the reformer and move men with their ideals of peace4 ,the picture of that age is composed by projecting into the future their own institutions and especially their religious conceptions4 ,they picture a condition of human society which is best described in the phrase1 the kingdom of ,god2 for although such an expression never breaks forth from their lips1 its contents are obviously in their minds4 ,it is to be a community in which the will of ,god is perfectly realised1 when religion shall no longer consist in statutes and commands1 but in the recognition of an inner law4 ,absolute righteousness1 individual and civil1 will prevail1 and the nations shall learn war no more4 ,the animal and natural creation will share in this beneficent order3 the lion shall lie down with the lamb1 and the wilderness shall blossom like the rose2 the veil shall be torn from men's vision1 all tears shall be wiped away1 and death shall be swallowed up in victory4 ,when they come to depict the subjects of this kingdom they fail to attain to the inner and ethical requirements enunciated by ,jesus1 for national hopes and ambitions still cloud their outlook4 ,there are two streams of thought--one frankly particularistic1 where the future of the heathen is ignored1 or where they are simply to be exterminated2 and the other universalistic1 where the conversion of the whole world is expected 7,isa4 xlv4 #bb2 ,jer4 xii4 #ad ff1 xvi4 #ai2 cp4 ,isa4 xi4 #ad-af with xix4 #ah-be74 ,it is somewhat surprising1 in view of the subsequent development of these ideas under ,christian thought1 that the sphere of this tremendous change is conceived to be this present earth2 and even when the necessity of a new earth and a new heaven is considered1 it is still earth that is to be the chief theatre of events4 ,heaven is conceived of as the dwelling place of ,jehovah1 but there is no idea that this great change is to be postponed or relegated to some heavenly condition2 heaven is to come down to earth and ,jehovah is to dwell among ,his people and be their ,god4 ,it is from the ground of these ideas that there arises the conception of the person known as the ,messiah1 who shall be the ,divine instrument in bringing about this blessed condition4 ,messiah is from the ,hebrew1 ,mashiah1 and means anointed one4 ,the actual phrase1 the ,messiah1 without further qualification1 is not found in the ,old ,testament 7,dan4 ix4 #be1 ,a4,v4 ,the ,messiah is incorrect2 it should read3 an anointed one1 a prince1 as ,r4,v4 mar472 but after the closing of the ,canon the phrase was constantly used to denote the ,jewish hope of the appearance of a singular person1 of ,davidic descent1 who should be superhumanly endowed1 and who should overturn the enemies of the ,jews and place their nation at the head of the world4 ,the title recalls the mode of consecration used for priests and kings by anointing them with oil 7,lev4 iv4 #c1 #e1 #af2 vi4 #bb2 #a ,sam4 ii4 #ce2 xii4 #c71 and the anointed of ,jehovah is the common title for the kings of ,israel4 ,the origin of this idea of the ,messianic ,king may certainly be traced to ,nathan's promise to ,david of a perpetual seed which should occupy his throne and be the special delight and care of ,jehovah 7#b ,sam4 vii4 #b-ag74 ,in the presence of a weak or unworthy occupant of the throne this promise would come to mind1 and would gather new meaning as the ,prophets saw in the troubles of their times the imminence of the ,day of the ,lord4 ,it is to the prophet ,isaiah that we owe a striking conception of a monarch who not only fulfils his promise but transcends it in a way that is hardly conceivable in a merely human king4 ,the first emergence of this hope in the mind of the prophet occurs when he attempts to restrain ,ahaz from joining the fatal confederacy of ,syria and ,ephraim against ,assyria4 ,when ,ahaz demands some confirmation1 the prophet promises the sign of a young woman who shall bear a child named ,immanuel 7,isa4 vii4 #ad-ag74 ,following ,matthew1 ,christian expositors have taken this to be a prophecy of the virgin birth of ,jesus2 although it is difficult to see how this could be a sign to ,ahaz4 ,the subject is obscure to the last degree4 ,the ,hebrew word rendered a virgin1 although capable of such a special application1 means simply a young woman4 ,the translation virgin was first made by the ,septuagint1 and this may point to the fact that at the time this version was made the ,messiah was expected to be born of a virgin4 ,the prophecy seems to have arisen from the conviction that the ,assyrian invasion would bring into existence some person who should represent the active presence of ,god with ,his people2 and beyond this explanation there is nothing but mere speculation4 ,but in a later oracle of ,isaiah's 7ix4 #f;f71 the conception has grown in definiteness1 and this expected person is crowned with such honorific titles as ,wonder of a ,counsellor1 ,hero-,god1 ,father of ,eternity1 ,prince of ,peace4 ,to our ears these titles convey the sense of absolute ,divinity1 but it is questionable whether they meant that to ,isaiah4 ,eastern monarchs have always been addressed with high-sounding titles1 and ,isaiah's language may have been coloured by foreign court customs2 but still it would remain that the titles lead us to expect an unexampled figure who possesses attributes that mark him out as specially equipped by ,god4 ,once more ,isaiah returns to this figure 7xi4 #a-ab71 and now definitely asserts that he shall spring from ,david's line2 only now the majesty of his person is conceived as due to his seven-fold possession of the ,spirit of ,jehovah1 and his character fits him rather for administrative and prophetic work4 ,micah1 a contemporary of ,isaiah1 has much the same figure 7v4 #b-e7 of a mighty prince of ,davidic lineage and of mysterious birth 7,bethlehem simply stands here for ,david's line1 and whose outgoings have been from eternity probably means nothing more than that his descent shall spring from this ancient ancestor74 ,there is an inexplicable element in these predictions1 but they have been found elsewhere1 outside ,israel1 in times of great national danger or expectation4 ,in ,israel1 the idealisation of ,david1 the personal element in her history1 and the increased possibilities discovered in human personality when under the complete dominion of the ,spirit of ,jehovah1 have contributed to the creation of this figure4 ,it cannot be said that it was a mental vision of the person of ,jesus that shaped the prophecy1 for it must not be forgotten that it was an immediate fulfilment that they expected2 and indeed their picture so utterly misled the ,jews1 that1 when ,christ claimed to be the ,messiah1 they treated ,his claim as blasphemous4 ,while we can see that ,christ was indeed a ,king1 it is only by a spiritual conception of kingship1 and only after the verdict of history has crowned ,him as a true ruler of men2 not by any actual resemblance to the external magnificence of the ,messianic ,king4 ,when the ,messianic call came to ,jesus ,he found in these passages a difficulty1 for they outlined a programme ,he could only reject2 but it was other and indirect allusions of the old ,testament1 some of which had never been considered as ,messianic1 that ,jesus took for ,his pattern4 ,this meant a reading of prophecy very different from that of the ,jews of ,his time1 and it is surely here that the views we have found ourselves forced to accept in regard to ,old ,testament prophecy can claim the support of ,jesus ,himself4 ,it is important to grasp this point3 the argument from predictions definitely fulfilled in ,jesus has failed to convince the ,jews1 who ought to understand their own ,scriptures best1 and we must recognise that it is only a spiritual interpretation of prophecy and a valuation of ,jesus which owes nothing to flesh and blood that can see in ,him ,one of whom all the ,prophets bore witness4 ,it is to these other conceptions1 to which the spiritual intuition of ,jesus led ,him in ,his search for support for ,his ,messianic ideals1 that we must now turn4 ,the first of these in importance is undoubtedly the ,servant of the ,lord4 ,we saw when examining this idea that it was an ideal of a nation rather than of an individual1 and yet it was upon this that ,jesus fixed1 and it was this idea that seemed to mould ,his whole conception of ,his mission4 ,according to ,luke1 the first discourse of ,jesus took place in the ,synagogue at ,nazareth1 where ,he set forth ,his programme and policy1 and stated them to be identical with those the prophet had outlined for the nation centuries before 7,luke iv4 #af-ba2 ,isa4 lxi4 #a1 #b72 and the evangelist ,matthew sees in the methods of ,jesus a fulfilment of the prophecy of the ,servant 7,matt4 xii4 #ah-ba2 ,isa4 xlii4 #a-d74 ,it was probably as ,jesus saw the clouds gather about ,his life and disaster began to threaten that ,he was led to study the career of that ,servant and see that it involved suffering1 being despised and rejected of men2 and so ,he came to find the key to the mystery of ,his ,cross in that classic of the vicarious life1 the fifty-third chapter of ,isaiah4 ,jesus was probably the first to interpret that passage in a ,messianic sense4 ,his reason for adopting the title of the ,son of ,man is exceedingly difficult to trace2 it may be said that no completely satisfactory explanation of the origin or meaning of the term has yet been discovered1 and in the present state of research on the subject it would be folly to commit ourselves to any of the theories that have been propounded4 ,we can only keep in mind the various facts1 which the use of this title in the ,gospels presents to us4 ,it is clear that ,jesus did not intend the title to be a declaration to the world that ,he had accepted the ,messianic call2 for all along it was ,his deliberate purpose to conceal ,his ,messiahship1 and for reasons that are obvious1 when we consider the difference between ,his conception of ,messianic function and that of the ,jews of ,his day4 ,again1 although there is a slight difference between ,daniel1 where we only hear of one like unto a son of man1 and ,jesus who calls ,himself the son of man1 yet when challenged by the high-priest ,jesus certainly quotes from ,daniel 7,dan4 vii4 #ac2 ,mark xiv4 #fb74 ,now in ,daniel it is not a person who is figured by this title1 so much as a humane kingdom which is to replace the kingdoms that were more like beasts in their character4 ,it is only in the ,book of ,enoch that the ,son of ,man is definitely identified with the ,messiah4 ,did ,jesus ever read that ,book1 or were its ideas at all commonly known8 ,if so we should have to concede that the ,son of ,man meant the ,messiah1 both to ,jesus and to the people1 and yet this is an apparent contradiction of ,his general motive in keeping the ,messiahship secret4 ,perhaps1 and the suggestion is made with the knowledge that in the present state of the problem it can be nothing more than a suggestion1 there is a line that has not been exhausted1 and along which help may yet be found4 ,it starts from the fact that ,jesus seems to have adopted the character of the ,servant of the ,lord under the name of the ,son of ,man2 and we have seen that both these are ideals of a community or a nation rather than of a person4 ,again1 that somehow the title the ,son of ,man had ,messianic significance1 and in the mind of ,jesus was connected with the figure in ,daniel1 is seen from ,his confession before ,caiaphas4 ,the contradiction between these facts and the purpose of concealing ,his ,messiahship can perhaps be solved by noticing that ,jesus never explicitly identifies ,himself with the ,son of ,man2 and if all the passages where this title is found in the ,synoptics are examined1 they seem to separate themselves into three distinct groups3 7#a7 where the reference might be not only to ,jesus ,himself but to ,man fulfilling his ideal2 7#b7 where the reference is to the suffering which the ,son of ,man must undergo2 7#c7 and most important1 this term is always used when ,jesus speaks of that mysterious return on the clouds which is known as the ,second ,advent4 ,the conclusion to which it is suggested all these facts point is that although ,jesus believed ,himself to be the personal centre on which the ,messianic hope converged1 it was not to ,himself personally1 but to the new humanity which ,his ,spirit should beget1 that ,he looked for the complete fulfilment of the ,messianic hope4 ,thus at least are linked together the fact that the ,prophets are occupied rather with the ,messianic community than with the ,messiah1 and the fact that ,jesus made the centre and aim of ,his teaching the ,kingdom rather than its personal embodiment in ,himself4 ,jesus certainly read these ,prophets more according to their real inwardness than any of ,his contemporaries or than many generations of ,christian scholars2 and there is no better preparation for the serious study of the ,gospels than a careful examination of the growing revelation of the ,old ,testament religion1 and the inner meaning of the ,messianic hope4 ,of this wonderful growth and moving revelation1 it can be said1 in a way deeper than the old typological and prophetic methods of study could understand1 that ,christ is the aim and the goal2 not only ,jesus of ,nazareth with ,his unique ,personality1 but that still more transcendent mystery1 the ,christ within the heart1 ,christ the head of every man4 ,if we have learned nothing else1 surely we have learned this3 that behind the hopes of mankind1 behind their misty dreams1 their gropings after truth1 their struggles for righteousness1 are the eternal thoughts of ,god2 and although these may transcend their poor reflection in the mind of man1 as the heavens the earth1 yet this remains3 that for every hope implanted1 there is an answer beyond our expectation2 for every desire ,godward1 the revelation of the ,father-friend2 for every ideal of the human heart1 the ,christ2 and for every effort after human progress1 the ever nearer coming of the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,,index ,abraham1 emigration of1 #bc2 historicity of1 #cf2 religion of1 #ca1 #cd ,adonai1 #fj ,ahijah1 #aag ,altars1 erected anywhere1 #ih2 construction of1 #bjj ,amaziah1 #aah ,amos1 #ih1 #aah1 #acf1 #adh1 #aeb1 #aei1 #bga ,animals1 as tribal names1 #ci2 clean and unclean1 #dj2 worship of1 #bf1 #ci1 #fh1 #abd ,animism1 #dj1 #da ,apostasy1 #ij1 #abi ,arabia1 home of ,semites1 #bj1 #bb ,ark1 #fi1 #gj1 #aba1 #ahj ,armageddon1 #bgb ,aryan conception of ,god1 #be ,asaph1 #bbb1 #bbe ,asherah1 #df ,ashtoreth1 or ,ashtart1 #id ,assembly of the saints1 #bbc ,assyria1 #aef1 #afj1 #afa ,atonement1 #ajb1 #bjh2 of ,christ1 #baj1 #baa2 ,day of1 #agg1 #agh ,azazel1 #db1 #bjg1 #bjh ,baal1 #ch1 #ib1 #if1 #ih ,baal of ,tyre1 #id1 #aji1 #abe4 ,see also under ,melkart ,babylon1 fall of1 #ahe2 ,jews in1 #afi-agd1 #agi1 #ahe1 #bjd ,babylonian epic of ,creation1 #bje2 influence of1 #bjd-bjf ,babylonian religion1 #ahf ,balaam1 prophecy of1 #bga ,ban1 the1 #di ,blood1 significance of1 #bf1 #bjh2 food of deity1 #dh ,book of the ,covenant1 #bjj ,bosheth1 #id1 #ig ,bull-worship1 #fh1 #ih1 #abd ,calf-worship4 ,see under ,bull ,canaan1 influence of1 #bg1 #hc-hf1 #agj2 conquest of1 #hb1 #hf1 #hg2 ,jewish love for1 #hc2 limitations of1 #hd ,canaanites1 customs of1 borrowed1 #ib1 #ih2 origin of1 #bc1 #bd2 religion of1 #ch1 #ib-ie2 sanctuaries of1 #ih1 #aeh1 #afc2 why not exterminated1 #ij2 and ,hebrews1 #hg ,centralization of worship1 #add1 #aeg1 #afc ,chemosh1 #dc ,choice of ,israel1 ,jehovah's1 #ge2 prophetic conception of1 #aef1 #ahg ,christ the goal of ,old ,testament1 #bhb4 ,and see under ,jesus ,christianity1 #aja1 #bgd ,chronicler1 the1 #bba ,circumcision1 #ej1 #ahj ,comparative religion1 #ch ,conditions of life among ,semites1 #bj2 in time of ,judges1 #hg2 after exile1 #aif1 #bcb2 in time of ,psalms1 #bbf1 #bca1 #bcb2 reflected in ,wisdom lit41 #bdg2 in ,ecclesiastes1 #bei2 in ,messianic age1 #bgc ,covenant at ,sinai1 #eh1 #fe2 prophetic conception of1 #gf1 #aeg1 #bfg ,covenant-sacrifice1 #di1 #fc ,creation1 #ahf1 #bje2 ,babylonian legend of1 #bje ,customs retained with new significance1 #ci1 #ej1 #agf ,customs1 mourning1 #dj ,cyrus1 #ahc1 #ahe1 #bfh ,daniel1 ,book of1 #ada ,david1 character of1 #aai1 #aba1 #bbi2 influence of1 #abj2 his kingdom1 #hh1 #abj2 a poet1 #aai2 his religious ideas1 #aba2 his work1 #abj2 and the ,messiah1 #bgj1 #bge ,day of ,atonement1 #agg2 of the ,lord1 #bga2 of judgment1 #bgb ,deborah1 ,song of1 #hh ,decalogue1 the1 #gd ,deluge1 the1 #bjf ,deuteronomy1 ,book of1 #ade1 #aeg1 #afb1 #bjj ,development of ,religion1 xiv1 #bg1 #cg1 #gi1 #hf1 #ii1 #abh1 #abi1 #aca1 #adb1 #bae1 #bhb ,director's ,psalm ,book1 #bbj ,documents1 various1 how detected1 #cc1 #aid1 #aii ,e1 #cj1 #adb1 #aid ,ecclesiastes1 name1 #beh2 ,book of1 #bfj2 ascribed to ,solomon1 #beh2 significance of1 #bfb ,el1 #cg1 #ei ,elijah1 #ih1 #ii1 #ajf1 #aad1 #abe1 #abf1 #acf1 #adh ,elisha1 #aac1 #aad1 #abe1 #abh ,elohim1 #cj1 #db1 #bbb ,ephod1 #fg1 #ajj ,ethical conceptions1 #abg1 #aeb1 #aee1 #aeh1 #bdd1 #bdi ,ethnology of ,old ,testament1 #ah ,exile1 date of1 #acd1 #afh2 cause of1 #aga1 #agf2 critical view of1 #aga1 #agb2 lessons from1 #aij2 religion after1 #bcj ,exilic stamp on literature1 #agb ,exodus1 the1 #eh2 date of1 #bd1 #hb ,ezekiel1 #afi1 #agd1 #age1 #agh1 #aie2 ,book of1 #agd1 #agg2 his school1 #aie2 and ,leviticus1 #agb1 #agg ,ezra1 #aha2 introduces the ,law1 #aif1 #aig2 what did it include8 #aih1 #bjj ,feast of ,tabernacles1 #aig1 #aih ,forgiveness1 #bjg1 #bcc ,funeral feasts1 #da ,gad1 #aag ,god1 name of4 ,see under ,elohim1 ,el and ,jehovah ,god1 conception of1 ,semitic1 #be1 #bf2 ,aryan1 #be2 anthropomorphic1 #dh1 #ff1 #aee2 ethical1 #if1 #aee1 #baa2 local1 #dc1 #eb1 #fb1 #ge1 #if2 spiritual1 #aee2 tribal1 #bf1 #cb1 #ge2 materialistic1 #fi1 #gj2 as the ,storm ,god1 #gj2 as the ,creator1 #ahf ,god1 conception of1 by ,david1 #bf2 by ,prophets1 #aed1 #aee1 #age1 #ahf2 by ,psalmists1 #bcf2 in ,job1 #bef2 in ,ecclesiastes1 #bfa ,god1 holiness of1 #age1 #bjg2 jealousy of1 #gf2 righteousness of1 #gg1 #aee1 #bcb ,habiri1 #bd1 #hb ,hallel ,psalms1 #bbc ,hammurabi1 code of1 #gc1 #bjc1 #bjd ,heathen deities1 #db1 #dc1 #ff1 #aed ,hebrew1 meaning of name1 #bc ,hebrew ,bible1 divisions of1 #ada ,hebrews1 relation to other nations1 #ah1 #ai1 #bb1 #bd1 #he1 #aef ,heroes of ,israel1 #he ,hexateuch1 #bjj ,high places1 worship at1 condemned1 #agc4 ,see also ,canaanitish sanctuaries ,higher criticism1 xi1 xii ,historical value of ,hebrew tradition1 #cb1 #ahc1 #bbh1 #bbi1 #bde1 #bdg ,historical books1 ,prophets' influence on1 #aad1 #ada1 #adb ,history1 ancient conception of1 xiii1 #cb1 #ea1 #ade1 #afc2 how compiled1 #aad1 #adb1 #adc2 religious interpretation of1 #ij1 #aja1 #abi1 #aga1 #agf1 #ahg1 #ahi4 ,see also under ,redaction ,hittites1 #bc ,holiness1 #age1 #bjg1 #bcf2 code of1 #bjj ,horeb1 ,theophany at1 #abf1 #abh ,hosea1 #aei ,human sacrifice1 #dh1 #di1 #ie ,ideal ,israel1 #ahh ,idolatry and images1 #cg1 #de1 #fg1 #fh1 #gj1 #aed1 #agf1 #ahj1 #ahf1 #bdg ,immortality in ,psalms1 #cd1 #ce2 in ,job1 #bef2 in ,ecclesiastes1 #bfa1 #bfb ,inspiration1 xiii1 #abi1 #bjf1 #bca2 how related to infallibility1 xiii1 xiv ,interpolations1 #adf ,isaiah1 #afj1 #bie2 ,book of1 #adg1 #aef2 authorship of1 #adg1 #ahb-ahe ,israel4 ,see under ,hebrews ,j1 #cj1 #cb1 #aid ,jehovah1 name1 #ei2 pronunciation1 #fj1 #fb2 explanation of1 #fa ,jehovah and other nations1 #aef2 and ,baal1 #ig1 #ih2 and ,israel1 #dd ,jehovah1 religion of1 date1 #ca1 #cd1 #fe2 weakness of1 #ib1 #ie1 #if2 prophetic conception of1 #aed1 #aee2 a religion of choice1 #fe1 #ge ,jehovah4 ,see also under ,god ,jeremiah1 #aed1 #afd1 #ahh ,jeroboam1 #abd ,jerusalem1 connection with ,david1 #abj2 idea of inviolability1 #afa1 #afi1 #agj2 besieged by ,sennacherib1 #afa2 deliverance of1 #afa2 besieged by ,nebuchadrezzar1 #agj2 destruction of1 #afi1 #agj ,jesus and ,messiahship1 #bff1 #bgf1 #bgh1 #bhj1 #bha2 and new covenant1 #gg2 and ,levitical system1 #baj2 and ,revelation1 xv1 #gg2 and ,prophets1 #bgc1 #bhb2 and ,psalms1 #bca1 #bcb1 #bcd2 and ,proverbs1 #bej2 and ,isa4 liii41 #ahi2 and ,book of ,daniel1 #bhj1 #bha2 and ,book of ,enoch1 #bhj2 and ,old ,testament1 x ,jethro1 #fb ,jews4 ,see under ,hebrews ,job1 #bea2 ,book of1 #bej2 date of1 #bea1 #beb2 author1 #bea1 #bed1 #bee2 divisions of1 #bec ,jonah1 ,book of1 #aef1 #ahi ,joshua1 ,book of1 #hb1 #hf1 #hg ,josiah1 reform of1 #afb1 #afc1 #bjj ,judah1 tribe of1 #hi ,judaism1 #agh ,judges1 functions of1 #ia2 ,book of1 #hb1 #hg1 #hh1 #ij1 #add ,kenites1 #fd ,king4 ,see under ,monarchy and ,messiah ,kingdom of ,god1 #bh1 #abg1 #aca1 #aga1 #bgc1 #bhb ,korah1 sons of1 #bbe ,law1 origin of1 #agc2 of ,moses1 #aif-aih2 later than ,prophets1 #acg1 #aeh2 no observance of1 until after exile1 #ed1 #agb1 #aii4 ,see also under ,pentateuch and ,moses ,levi1 tribe of1 #hi ,levite choirs1 #bba ,levites1 #ga2 distinguished from priests1 #agg ,levitical system1 #bjh2 intention of1 #bji ,leviticus1 ,book of1 #aeg1 #aeh1 #agb ,literary ideals1 #adf1 #afc1 #bea1 #bei ,localization of ,god1 #dc1 #if1 #ajc ,local sanctuaries1 #eh1 #ei ,lower criticism1 xi ,maccabees1 the1 #bbc1 #bbd2 times of1 #bba2 ,psalms of1 #bbd1 #bbf ,manasseh1 #afb ,mazzebah1 the1 #de ,melkart1 #id1 #ie1 #abe4 ,see also ,baal of ,tyre ,memorial stones1 #cg1 #dd ,messiah1 name1 #bgd2 title1 #bgf2 ,davidic descent of1 #bge1 #bgg ,messiah in the ,prophets1 #bfi1 #bgf2 in ,apocrypha1 #bfd ,messiah as ,prophet1 #bfi2 ,priest1 #bgj2 ,king1 #bgj1 #bge ,messianic age1 #aea1 #bgj1 #bgc ,messianic ,king1 #bbh ,messianic prophecy1 #bff1 #bfg1 #bfi-bga1 #bge-bgg2 includes more than a person1 #bfg1 #bga1 #bha ,micah1 #afj1 #bgg ,micaiah1 #abh ,midian1 #fd ,molech1 #ie1 #if ,monarchy1 origin of1 #ig1 #ajf1 #aah2 in ,psalms1 #bbh2 in ,proverbs1 #bdg1 #bdh ,monotheism among ,semites1 #be2 ,hebrews1 #ci1 #dc2 not taught by ,moses1 #ff2 in the ,prophets1 #db1 #aed1 #ahf ,moses1 name1 #eg2 historical reality1 #ee1 #eg2 his call1 #eh1 #fc2 mention before exile1 #ef2 not author of ,pentateuch1 #ed1 #eg4 ,see also under ,law1 and ,pentateuch ,music and prophecy1 #aab ,musical directions in ,psalter1 #bah-bbj ,musical services1 #bbc ,nathan1 #aag1 #abb1 #bge ,nature in ,psalter1 #bcf ,nazarites1 #aad ,nebuchadrezzar1 #afi ,necromancy1 #ci ,nehustan1 #fh ,new ,covenant1 the1 #afe ,new ,testament1 ,psalms quoted in1 #bbi ,new ,testament and ,old ,testament1 #bff4 ,see also under ,christianity1 and ,jesus ,old ,testament1 attitude of ,jesus to1 x2 ,jewish reverence for1 x4 ,see also under ,hebrew ,bible ,oracles1 #bg1 #df1 #dg1 #fh1 #gg1 #ajj ,origin of religion1 #ea1 #fb ,p1 #aid4 ,see under ,priestly ,code ,palestine4 ,see under ,canaan ,particularism1 #aee1 #ahf1 #aia1 #bgc ,passover1 the1 #di ,patriarchs1 historicity of1 #ce ,pentateuch1 strata of1 #cj1 #aid1 #aii1 #bjj2 how discovered1 #cd1 #aid1 #aii2 not by ,moses1 #ed1 #gc2 ,samaritan1 #bja4 ,see also under ,law1 and ,moses ,personal conception of religion1 #aed1 #aff1 #bcb1 #bcc1 #bce1 #bcg ,personalities1 influence of1 on history1 #bfh ,personification1 #ahf1 #ahi1 #bcb1 #bdf1 #beb1 #bec ,pharaoh of the ,exodus1 #hb ,philistines1 #bd1 #ig ,philo1 #bdb1 #bdf ,philosophy1 #ba1 #bdf1 #beb ,phoenicians1 #bj1 #bc ,poetry1 sign of early date1 #ah1 #fi1 #hh2 of ,david1 #aai1 #bbh2 in ,prophets1 #aec2 in ,psalms1 #bcf2 in ,proverbs1 #bde ,polytheism among ,semites1 #be2 among ,hebrews1 #cg2 the religion of savages1 #da2 in original documents1 #da2 evidence of1 #db ,prayer1 #baf1 #bca ,prediction1 #acg1 #aea1 #ahb1 #ahc1 #bff1 #bgh ,priesthood1 #fc2 in time of ,moses1 #ga1 #aaa1 #bjb2 in time of ,judges1 #ed1fh1 #ajj2 in ,ezekiel1 #agg2 after exile1 #bji2 of ,messiah1 #bgj4 ,see also under ,levites ,priestly code1 the1 #bjj-bjb2 ideals of1 #bjf1 #baj4 ,see also under ,levitical system ,priestly school1 the1 #aif1 #bjf ,problem of ,providence1 #bcd1 #bej1 #bec1 #beg1 #bei1 #bfj ,problem of suffering1 #ahg1 #bdc1 #bea1 #bec1 #beg1 #beh1 #bfb ,progress1 causes of1 #ge1 #ig1 #ajb4 ,see under ,development ,prophesying1 #aab ,prophet1 name of1 #aji1 #aaj ,prophetic bands1 #ajf1 #aab1 #abe ,prophetic consciousness1 #adi1 #aej ,prophetic literature1 how compiled1 #ade1 #adf1 #aeb ,prophetic style1 #aad1 #ade1 #aej1 #aec1 #ahe ,prophets1 origin of1 #ajf2 two classes1 #ajh1 #aaa1 #adi1 #aec2 conflict between1 #aac1 #abh2 their call1 #adh2 their relation to ,state1 #aag1 #abg1 #aec2 and national religion1 #acf1 #adi2 and the ,covenant1 #aci1 #aeg2 chronology of1 #acd2 their place in history1 #acg2 importance of1 for criticism1 xii1 #acg1 #ach2 their picture of their age1 #ach1 #aci2 they are creative1 #ace2 their relation to the ,law1 #acg1 #aci1 #adj1 #adc1 #afd1 #bae2 and the ,gospel1 #acf1 #acg1 #ach2 their scheme of the future1 #aea1 #bgb ,protestantism1 #aca ,protevangelium1 the1 #bgj ,proverb1 the1 #bde ,proverbs1 ,book of1 #bde2 its relation to ,job1 #bdj1 #beb2 divisions of1 #bde2 date of1 #bdg ,psalms1 titles of1 #bad1 #bah1 #bai1 #bbd1 #bbe1 #bbh2 ascription to ,david1 #bad1 #bah1 #bba1 #bbb1 #bbe-bbi2 authorship of1 #bbd1 #bbe2 some are prayers1 #baf2 use in synagogue1 #baf2 in the temple1 #baf1 #bah2 ,hallels1 #bbc2 ,maccaban1 #bbd1 #bbf2 tone of1 #bag2 imprecations in1 #bag1 #bca1 #bcb2 and the ,gospel1 #bae2 and ,christianity1 #baf2 their conception of ,god1 #bbe1 #bcf ,psalter1 the1 criticism of1 #bag1 #bah2 date of1 #bba1 #bbe-bbg1 #bbi1 #bca2 ,books of1 #bba2 a gradual compilation1 #bah1 #bba ,queen of ,heaven1 #ie ,rahab1 #bje ,rechabites1 #aae ,redaction1 #add1 #ade1 #agc1 #bae1 #bah ,reform1 #ajg2 of ,elijah1 #abf2 of ,prophets1 #aci2 under ,josiah1 #add1 #afb1 #afc2 after exile1 #ahj1 #aha2 under ,ezra1 #aif1 #bjj ,religion1 origin of1 #ch1 #gh2 primitive1 #cb1 #ci1 #dj1 #db1 #dc2 ,semitic1 #be2 of ,patriarchs1 #ca1 #cb1 #cd1 #cf1 #cg1 #fe2 in time of ,moses1 #ed2 in time of ,judges1 #fg1 #ga2 of ,canaanites1 #ib-ie2 under monarchy1 #ajh1 #aab1 #aeh2 after exile1 #agi1 #aha2 ,levitical conception of1 #bji1 #baj2 of ,psalmists1 #bcj1 #bca-bce2 in ,wisdom lit41 #bdb1 #bdd2 in ,proverbs1 #bdi2 in ,job1 #bee2 in ,ecclesiastes1 #bfa2 of the future1 #bfe1 #bfh1 #bgc ,repentance1 #agc1 #agh ,restoration1 the1 #aha1 #ahb ,retribution1 #bej1 #bfb4 ,and see under ,problem of ,providence ,revelation1 xiii1 #ea1 #fc1 #ff1 #gh1 #gi1 #bca ,ritual1 #aeg1 #bji1 #baa ,sabbath1 #afh1 #agi ,sacred springs1 #dg ,sacred stones1 #dd ,sacred trees1 #df ,sacrifice1 primitive1 #dg1 #dh2 adopted by ,moses1 #gb2 covenant1 #di1 #fc2 human1 #dh1 #di2 ,prophetic estimate of1 #gb1 #aeh2 in ,p1 #bjb1 #bjg2 meaning of1 #bjg1 #bjh2 of ,christ1 #baj1 #baa4 ,see also under ,atonement ,samaria1 fall of1 #acd1 #afj ,samson1 #aae ,samuel1 #ajf1 #aaa1 #aac1 #aad1 #aai ,satan1 #bee1 #bff ,saul1 #aaa1 #aab1 #aai ,scepticism1 #bdh1 #bfj1 #bfa ,science1 #ba1 #aca1 #bcg ,second ,isaiah1 #adg1 #ahj4 ,see also under ,isaiah ,seer1 #ajj ,selah1 #bai1 #bbj ,semites1 home of1 #bj2 desert life1 #bj2 ,western antipathy to1 #ba2 their contribution to thought1 #ba2 to science1 #ba2 to religion1 #bb2 groups of1 #bb2 migrations of1 #bb ,semitic character of our ,bible1 #be ,semitic language1 #ai ,semitic religion1 #be1 #bf2 tribal1 #bf2 value of1 #bg2 does not account for ,hebrew religion1 #be1 #ca ,sennacherib1 #afj ,servant of the ,lord1 #ahg1 #ahh1 #bfi1 #bgh1 #bhj2 the suffering1 #ahg1 #bgi ,shekel1 temple1 #aig1 #aii ,shewbread1 #dh ,shiloh1 #bga ,simeon1 tribe of1 #hi ,simon ,maccabus1 #bbd ,sin1 #agf1 #bjg1 #bji1 #bcb1 #bcc ,sin-offering1 the1 #bjg ,sinai1 #eh1 #fb1 #fd1 #fe ,social conceptions1 #abg1 #aeh1 #aei ,solomon1 #hh1 #abb1 #bbd1 #bbe2 ,proverbs ascribed to1 #bde1 #bdf1 #bdh2 and ,ecclesiastes1 #bei ,son of ,man1 the1 title of1 #bgi-bha ,sons of the ,prophets1 #ajf1 #aaj-aab4 ,see also under ,prophetic bands ,substitution1 #bjh1 #bji ,supernatural1 the1 #gi ,symbolism1 #bjh1 #bji ,synagogue1 the1 #ahj1 #aha1 #baf ,syncretism1 #ib1 #ig1 #ii1 #aja1 #ajb1 #ajg ,tabernacle1 the1 #gb1 #gc1 #bjb ,tabernacles1 ,feast of1 #aig1 #aih ,tehom1 ,tiamat1 #bje ,tel-el-,amarna1 tablets1 #bd1 #hb ,temple1 the1 #abb-abd1 #afb1 #afd1 #agg1 #bjb2 worship of1 #bbj1 #bcj2 mentioned in ,psalms1 #bbf1 #bbg ,torah1 #ajj ,totemism1 #ci ,tradition1 ,jewish1 #bbi ,tribes1 names of1 #dj2 unity of1 #hh1 #ia ,universalism1 #aee1 #aef1 #ahf1 #aij1 #aia1 #bdb1 #bgd ,virgin birth1 the1 #bgf ,wisdom1 #bdc1 #bdf1 #bdi1 #bfa ,wisdom literature1 #bda2 compared with rest of ,bible1 #bdc-bdd2 date of1 #bde ,wise men1 the1 #bdd1 #bdh ,worship1 prophetic conception of1 #aeg2 of synagogue1 #aha2 of temple1 #bbj1 #bcj4 ,and see under ,altars1 ,religion1 ,god1 and ,sacrifice ,zechariah1 ,book of1 #acd1 #adg ,,bradbury1 ,,agnew1 ,,co4 ,,ld41 ,,printers1 ,,london ,,and ,,tonbridge4 ,transcribers' ,notes3 ,cover created by ,transcriber and placed in the ,public ,domain4 ,punctuation1 hyphenation1 and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book2 otherwise they were not changed4 ,simple typographical errors were corrected2 occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained4 ,ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained4 ,missing periods at the ends of the ,roman numbers of ,biblical citations have been added4 ,index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references1 but on page #bhe1 reference to page #bie under ,isaiah should be to page #aie4 ,page #bjh3 how this is affected perhaps should be effected4 ,page #bhh3 ,,bradbury1 ,,agnew1 ,,co4 ,,ld4 was printed that way1 as ,,ld4