GIFT OF
SEELEY W. MUDD
and
GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER
DR. JOHN R. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD
JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTORI
lo tht
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SOUTHERN BRANCH
JOHN FISKE
i?
^''^L^
^u
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►
EWALDS
HISTOEY or ISRAEL
VOL. I.
LONDON : PRINTED BY
SrOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE,
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
THE
HISTORY OF ISRAEL.
HEINRICH EWALD,
Professor of the University of Göttingen.
TIt.A.]srSXi.A.TEX> FI2,OIVl THE OEünVC^lT.
Edited, avitu a Pbeface akd Appendix, by
RUSSELL M A R T I N E A U, M. A.
Professor of Hebrew in Manchester New College, London.
' The Old Testament will still be a New Testament to him who comes with a fresh
detire of information' Fuller.
SECOND EDITION,
HEVISED AND CONTINUED TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE MONARCHY.
Vol. I.
Introduction and Preliminary History.
LONDON :
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1869.
Ob i -JK)
\v\
E_9f EL
v.
^ PREFACE.
' On being asked to write a Preface to this Translation of
a portion of Professor Ewald's ' Gescliiclite des Volkes
Israel,' my first impulse was to reply that such a work
needed none — that the author is known to be one of the
most intellectually powerful, as well as most learned and
accurate of the Hebraists and Biblical scholars of the day ;
that his History of Israel, his largest, and perhaps his
J" greatest work, is acknowledged by both friends and foes
to be striking, original, and ingenious; and that, being
already not merely known by name, but read and studied
j^at our Universities, it has gained a standing among us
g^ which could not be made securer by any words of mine.
•"^ In the latter opinion I was confirmed by many expres-
i) sions in Dean Stanley's widely-read works ; especially the
M following : —
•r-'
^ It is now twenty-seven years since Arnold wrote to Bunsen
' What Wolf and Niebuhr have done for Greece and Eome,
seems sadly wanted for Judea.' The wish thus boldly expressed
for a critical and historical investigation of the Jewish history
was, in fact, already on the eve of accomplishment. At that
time Ewald was only known as one of the chief Orientalists of
Germany. He had not yet proved himself to be the first Biblical
scholar in Europe. But year by year he was advancing towards
his grand object. To his i)rofound knowledge of the Hebrew
language he added, step by step, a knowledge of each stage of
the Hebrew literature. These labours on the Prophetic and
Poetic books of the ancient Scriptures culminated in his noble
work on the History of the People of Israel — as powerful in its
VI PREFACE.
general conception as it is saturated with learning down to its
minutest details. It would be presumptuous in me either to
defend or to attack the critical analysis, which to most English
readers savours of arbitrary dogmatism, with which he assigns
special dates and authors to the manifold constituent parts of
the several books of the Old Testament : and from many of his
general statements I should venture to express my disagree-
ment, were this the place to do so. But the intimate ac-
quaintance which he exhibits with every portion of the sacred
writings, combmed as it is with a loving and reverential
appreciation of each individual character, and of the whole
spmt and purpose of the Israelitish history, has won the
respect even of those who differ widely from his conclusions.
How vast its silent effect? has been, may be seen from the re-
cognition of its value, not only in its author's own coimtry, but
in France and in England also. One instance may suffice —
the constant reference to his writings throughout the new
' Dictionary of the Bible,' to which I have myself so often
referred with advantage, and which, more than any other single
English work, is intended to represent the knowledge and
meet the wants of the rising generation. [Jewish Church, pt. i.
Preface.)
and the references on almost every page to chapter and
verse of Ewald's books, containing occasionally such
emphatic declarations as this:^
Strange that it should have been reserved for Ewald to have
first dwelt on this remarkable fact. In Avhat follows I am
indebted to him at every turn. (Pt. ii. p. 117.)
Moreover Dean Stanley does not stand alone; Dr.
Rowland Williams speaks of Ewald,
whose facidty of divination, compounded of spiritual insight
and of immense learning, I only do not praise, because praise
from me would be presumption. [Hebrew Prophets, i. Preface.)
And lu-nest Renan, tracing the history of Semitic
philology, says:
« I am requested by Dean Stanley tu as in the first, and greater than the brief
state in this second edition, tliat his obli- acknowledgement in the preface might be
gations to Ewald in the second volume of taken to imply,
his Jewish Church were at least as great
PREFACE. Vll
Des lors la connaissance de I'hebreu rentra dans le domaine
general de la pliilologie, et participa a tons les progres de la
critique par les ecrits des deux Michaelis, de Simonis, Storr,
Eichhorn, Vater, Jahn, Rosenmüller, Bauer, Paulus, de Wette,
Winer, et surtout par les admirables travaux de Gesenius et
d'Ewald, apres lesquels on pourrait croire qu'il ne reste plus
rien ä faire dans le champ special de la litterature hebraique.
[Histoire des Langues Semitiques, liv. i. eh. 1, end.)
And on Ewald's merits in the elucidation of particular
books, Dr. Ginsburg testifies thus of his treatment of
Ecclesiastes :
After tracing- these ingenious conceits, it is cheering to
come to Ewald, whose /our pages on Coheleth, subjoined to his
work on the Song of Solomon, contain more critical acumen,
and a clearer view of the true design of this book, than many a
bulky volume noticed in this sketch. {Coheleth, p. 205.)
And Renan thus of his labours on Job :
II serait injuste d'oublier qu'apres Schultens, c'est M. Ewald
qui a le plus contribue aux progres de I'exegese du livi'e de Job.
{Livre de Job, p. viii.)
But further consideration convinced me that a few
words of introduction would not be out of place, and
were in fact necessary, to indicate to the general reader
the point of view from which the book must be judged,
to prevent his approaching it with false expectations, and
then feeling disappointment or vexation ; and desirable,
for the purpose of explaining peculiarities and apologising
for weaknesses and errors in the translation.
The term ' History ' has a very wide scope — embracing
(apart from significations which have become obsolete
except in particular connections, such as Natural History)
all that can be told or known respecting the Past. Its
application varies according as the historian thinks this or
that series of facts best worth recording. We thus have
histories of kings and courts, of battles and sieges, of
treaties and le<2:islation, of civilisation and the arts. All
viii PREFACE.
these and many more a]'e perfiectly legitimate subjects ol"
history, since the only point on which all are agreed seems
to be that its subject must be something deserving serious
enquiry : we speak of the dignity of history. The manner
may be varied nearly as much as the matter. This is
inevitable, from the various conditions under which the
historian works. When recounting an event of yesterday,
of which he himself and a thousand other living men were
eye-witnesses, he needs only to recount the event itself in
the clearest language. When recording an event of a
hundred years ago, of which there are abundant contem-
porary accounts extant, his duty is diiferent : he must sift
these accounts, and prepare his story from the most trust-
worthy. When speaking of what happened a thousand
years ago, the paucity or the discrepancy in the notices he
finds of the event may be so serious as to make it impos-
sible to give a connected narrative at all ; and his history
will consist of fragmentary pieces from various chroniclers,
fitted together by an avowedly conjectural combination
of his own. Let the subject-matter be from an immea-
surably older period, of which contemporary records are
impossible, and the history will then be almost entirely an
endeavour to penetrate by critical skill to the core hidden
beneath the overgrowth of tradition and fanciful stories,
which in prehistoric times inevitably embellish and ulti-
mately utterly conceal the facts round which they cluster.
Here the object is still the same — t\\ii. knowledge of the
facts of the past ; and the name History therefore still
properly describes a work of this character. No one would
deny to the ' Histories of Hellenic Tribes and Cities ' (the
Dorians, the Minyans, &c.) of Otfried Müller, nor to the
opening part of Niebuhr's ' History of Rome,' the name
History. And for the same reason the present work,
even in its introductory portion, claims to be a History
of Israel ; although no such lucid and connected narrative
will be found in it as is generally associated with that term.
PREFACE. ix
It must also be borne in mind, that the nature of the
History is affected not only by differences in the age
described, but also by the distinctive views of the his-
torian. Look to the older histories — for exam23le, Mitford
for Greece and Goldsmith for Rome — and you will find
the earlier ages portrayed m the same vivid colours, their
events succeeding each other with the same order, as the
later and latest. Consult Otfried Miiller and Niebuhr,
and you will find this all changed — names of individuals
assumed to be designations of nations, single battles trans-
fer ned into long internecine contests, days treated as
ag/is — and as the net result, a picture grander and vaster,
bi/(t dim and hazy, and wanting all the sharp lines and
lyrilliant colouring which alone satisfy the mind craving
ftxact knowledge. Yet Miiller and Niebuhr are historians,
/equally with Mitford and Goldsmith — indeed more so;
/for they have felt that human nature bemg essentially the
/ same in all ages, any story which contradicts the j^hysical
/ or moral possibilities of that nature, stands self-con-
/ demned; and must either be purely fictitious, or so
/ altered by transmission as to have lost its original mean-
ing, which may be recoverable by careful study of the
liabilities (to exaggeration, generalisation, personifica-
tion, &c.) of ancient legends. The result may be a mis-
taken view, but it will be at least possible, conformable
to human nature, and therefore potentially historical;
whereas the older view is by hypothesis none of these.
The same difference of treatment is found also in the
ancient Hebrew history. We read the books of Genesis
and Exodus, and find a narrative of events, as clear, vivid,
and apparently connected as if it dealt with the ages
nearest to our o^vn; and the various modern Biblical his-
. tories which are merely abstracts of those books, of course
leave much the same impression on our minds. We read
Ewald, page after page, and seem to come across no clear
and distinct event; and in our disappointment perhaps we
X PREFACE.
say, ' This is no advance but a retreat ; we knew more
and better than this before.' Yet if 0. Müller and Nie-
buhr are historians, Ewald, who has done on the field
of Hebrew history what they have on that of Greek and
Roman, is so also.
The difference, then, is not between history and no -his-
tory, but between varying opinions upon history. Müller,
Niebuhr, and Ewald do not believe the history as it had
been told : they tell it as they believe. But opinion, to a
conscientious historical investigator, is not a tiling wliich
he can choose for himself. To be worth anything, it
must be the conclusion reached by his mind, it may be
against prepossessions and expectations, after full investi-
gation of all available data. He is constrained by the
higher power of Truth over him. The question is not
which makes the best story, but which is the Truth. No
one ouD'ht to need to be told that all else must be sacrificed
to Truth ; and that whoever, whether as writer or reader,
hesitates to sacrifice even the most cherished and beau-
tiful stories on the altar of historic truth, or shrinks from
submitting such to an impartial and rigorous examination,
forfeits all claim to be regarded as historian or student of
history. These modern historians have subjected their
various histories to such examination, and have arrived in
every case at analogous conclusions. The earliest period
of the life of the Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews, is now
called Mythical, and shrouded in mist where all appeared
clear before. The same is found to be the case with all
other nations whose history we have adequate means to
trace. It is not pleasanter ; we should not choose to live
in a mist, nor wish to see the clouds gathering round and
obBcuring our favourite scenes ; but the previous clearness
being discovered to have been not the clearness of nature,
but a mere daubed picture drawn by imaginative artists,
we cannot keep it longer standing between ourselves and
the truth.
PREFACE. xi
When we have advanced thus far, we find immediate
comfort and compensation for what we have sacrificed, not
only in the feeling that, after all, there is no real beauty
but in truth, but also in the new light in which we now
see history. Mythical is not synonymous with fictitious;^
the myth covers an event, or a thought, generally grander
than itself. Dorus and Aeolus were not sinirle men, but
represent the whole nations of Dorians and Aeolians ; Shem
and Ham, the whole known populations of their respective
regions, the south-west of Asia and the north of Africa.
So when Ewald shows us Abraham as a ' representative
man,' and his wanderings as those of a large tribe, and the
quarrels between Jacob and Esau as great international
struggles between the Hebrew and the Arabian tribes, rather
than the petty strife of a few herdsmen, the history assumes
a grander scale than we had any idea of before ; and we
look with heightened eagerness for what more it may dis-
close. Stories which before amused us with their pretti-
ness now tell of the fates of empires and the development
of nations ; and we see why they have been preserved from
an antiquity so high that the deeds of individuals have
long been obliterated. The mythical system, therefore, as
understood and wielded by its chief masters, is anything
but destructive of history : it rather makes a history where
before there was none. But it is not a key which must
be used everywhere alike. Of course there is a point
where history begins to be literally and not allegorically
true, where persons are individual men and not nations
in disguise. Even before this point some few literal facts
may be found ; after it some few mythical conceptions may
remain. The tact of the historian is shown in discrimi-
nating these. The mythical system must not be brought
down into historical times, nor the mythical fancies of the
early ages be presented with the vivid colouring of literal
' The word has indeed been used, with history and of writing, of which tlie literal
very questionable propriety, by Strauss truth is not guaranteed, and which may
and others, of stories spread in an age of turn out to be fictitious.
XI 1 PREFACE.
history. The mythical system is not a new sort of his-
tory that is everywhere to supplant the old, l)nt a process
by which a large field of mere fable is recovered to his-
tory, and made to yield its hidden stores. Its general spirit
is therefore not destructive, but constructive ; through it
we have more, not less history, than we had before : and
this character is not vitiated by the fact that some unskil-
ful applications of the system have been made.
These remarks will be found to have an important
bearing on the present work. The portion here trans-
lated includes the prehistoric and earliest historic age —
the age of myth and fable, where the method just de-
scribed may elicit some important historic facts. The
reader will find many such, which will probably be new
to him; and if he is at first inclined to rebel and reject
them as far-fetched and over-ingenious, he may after
lono-er dio;estion of them come to think that after all
there is something in them. This is my own, and I be-
lieve many others', experience of many of Ewald's most
original ideas.
I cannot help thinking that these considerations have
not been sufficiently present to some of the reviewers of
the first edition, who have spoken of ' tradition ' as if it
were an active force in itself which produced stories, and
as if it were something new invented by Ewald. Now,
EAV^ald discriminates the ' tradition ' from the event it re-
cords simply as the word differs from the act ; and applies
it to the story told from one generation to another of the
same event, and hence to the process of transmission of
the story wliich must take place whatever the original
event maj'' have been, whether a real or an imagined, a
divinely-inspired or a human act- The tradition is so far
from standing in the place of the event recorded, that it
acknowledges in terms the existence of a something to
be recorded. No one would endorse more heartily than
Ewald liiniself, no one has said more distinctly than Ewald
PKEFACR. Xlll
in this very book, tlie words in which the Record thinks it
sets up the truth as against the bugbear Tradition :
We sincerely trust that the English mind will long re-
cognise the true grandeur of early Hebrew history to consist
not in the wanderings and squabbles of various Arab tribes,
but in the presence of the living God, forming for himself that
people through which all nations of the earth are blessed.
I cannot forbear to remark that much injustice is done
to the subject and to Ewald himself, by this translation of
a mere fragment of his work. The history extends to the
destruction of Jerusalem, and comprises the whole period
of the existence of the Hebrews as a nation. Only at the
Exodus did their national existence in the fullest sense
commence ; of the many ensuing centuries till the time of
Samuel we have only very meagre records ; and only with
the Monarchy is the history full and distinct. This trans-
lation ends before the establishment of the monarchy, and
can therefore hardly be taken as a specimen of the general
character of the work. The prehistoric age with which it
largely deals, is absolutely exceptional; the mythical
treatment there required is equally exceptional. However
convinced we may be of the soundness of the mythical prin-
ciple for the interpretation of the primeval times, we shall
never find the history of those times a very attractive
study — at least until our minds are specially trained to
enjoy it. The stories were attractive and beautiful — only
we now see they could not be literally true ; the interpre-
tation put upon them may be true — but it wants the beauty
and attractiveness which belongs to stories of individuals
only. Hence most minds experience disappointment till
they reach the period of literal undoubted history. But
just when they are beginning to enjoy the steady approach
to this in the time of Samuel, the translation breaks off! *
' This second edition however is enlarged by the addition of the whole period
from Moses' death to Samuel.
XIV PREFACE.
Of course there were good reasons which induced the Trans-
hitor to act with such apparent perverseness. The question
was not simply which part of the book was most attractive ;
but primarily which was most required. And no one will
surely question that the ideas of a great scholar and origi-
nal thinker on the facts concealed beneath obscure myths
of the earliest age, on the gradual formation of the nation,
on its sudden adoption of its new and lofty religion, and on
the composition of the ancient books to which almost ex-
clusively we are indebted for our knowledge of these things,
are likely to be of higher value to us than his description
of purely historical times, on which less difference of opinion
is possible. Besides, Ewald's most pecuHar talents appear
in greatest force here — tact not only to detect the mythical
but to discover its interpretation; and what is styled by
Dean Stanley a ' loving and reverential appreciation of each
individual character,' and by Rowland Williams his 'faculty
of divination,' which leads to such noble conceptions as we
here find of the character and history of Abraham.
The accusation of excessive dogmatism has been so fre-
quently made against Ewald that it perhaps calls for a re-
mark in reply. It would be wearisome to the reader to find
every original version of an event attended by such phrases
as 'with due deference to the opinions of older writers,'
'as it seems to me,' ' though others have come to a different
conclusion.' He leaves these things to be understood, and
himself tells the story plainly and simply according to his
own version, supporting it with a sufficient array of refer-
ences to authorities, and leaving it then to his readers'
judgment. So far, there is surely no intentional dog-
matism ; and even a reader who thinks the authorities
cited insufficient to support the assertion in the text,
ought to hesitate before he pronounces the dogmatism to
be all on the side of the historian.
The fragmentary nature of the portion translated gives
to this book a peculiar appearance as regards the ar-
PREFACE. XV
rangement. An Introduction of 250 pages is out of all
proper proportion to a work of only 850 in all. But it
must be remembered that the Introduction was prefixed to
a history in seven volumes ; and that it discusses and dis-
criminates not the sources of the Premosaic and Mosaic
history only, but those of the whole Hebrew history down
to the times of Ezra and Nehemiah.
In another sense also this part of the history appeared
to be most required. It had suddenly attracted universal
attention in this country. After the publication of Bishop
Colenso's book, every one rushed into print on the Exodus.
Publications of every size, every temper, and every amount
of learning (except perhaps the highest), succeeded each
other rapidly, and appeared to be read with avidity. The
opinions of eminent foreign theologians were quoted on both
sides ; but without much effect, since quotations taken out
of their context might be made to mean many things. It
appeared to the Translator, who had long cherished the
hope of publishing this book, that now had really come the
time when it would do certain good ; when it would answer
many questions that were daily asked, and solve many dif-
ficulties ; when the opinions of one of the chief authorities
on the subject, presented entire and not in quotations only,
would be studied by the many who were seeking light and
not disposed to shirk the labour of finding it. The first
excitement of that time has passed — an excitement roused
however more by Bishop Colenso's position in the church,
and his presumed obligation to teach one prescribed form
of doctrme, than by the nature of his inductions, and his
system of interpretation. But the Biblical question never
can be settled to the satisfaction of men who think for
themselves until it is dissociated from the Ecclesiastical
question — that is, until it can be approached by both
writers and readers with the same freedom which is the
acknowledged essential condition of all true science, and
therefore liberated from pains and penalties attending cer-
XVI PREFACE.
tain conclusions. It is therefore well that this book should
not have appeared till a time Avhen it will come before tem-
pers less heated, and minds more clear and collected, yet
still interested. Let me add, that neither the Translator
nor I expect from our readers any general or enthusiastic
adoption of our author's views. No book which propounds
half the new ideas which will be found here can receive
such immediate homage from persons who think for them-
selves. It is a book whose influence must be silent and
slow; and those only will do justice to it who study it
long and quietly before venturing to express a confident
opinion upon it.
A few biographical data respecting the author may be
interesting to his English readers. Georg Heinrich August
von Ewald was born at Göttingen, Nov. 16, 1803. Little
is known of his origin, which was not illustrious; the
'personal nobility' indicated by the von prefixed to his
surname was conferred on him in 1841 by the King
of Würtemberg, but is now seldom if ever assumed.
He was educated at the Gymnasium of his native
town, whence he proceeded at Easter 1820 to the Uni-
versity of the same place. In 1823, on leaving the Uni-
versity, he took a situation as teacher at the Gymnasium
of Wolfenbüttel ; and in the same year gave good proof of
his diligence and the depth of his Hebrew studies by the
publication of his first work, ' Die Komposition der Genesis
kritisch untersucht ' (the Composition of Genesis critically
examined) — which, though written as a warning against
the overhasty assignment of that book to various writers
on the ground of the various names of God — the then
newly-discovered principle — is still far from obsolete. At
Easter 1824, however, he returned to Göttingen on re-
ceiving, through the instrumentality of Eichhorn his for-
mer teacher, a licence to lecture at the university as tutor
{repetent) in the faculty of Theology. Promotion followed
faster than usual; for in 1827 he became Extraordinary,
PREFACE. XVll
and in 1831 Ordinary, Professor in the Philosophical
Faculty; and in 1835 specially Professor of the Oriental
Languages. After Eichhorn's death in 1827, he lectured
on Old Testament Exegesis. During this period (in 1826,
1829 and 1836), he travelled to consult various Oriental
manuscrij)ts, to Berlin, Paris, and Italy ; and published
the following works on Oriental literature : ' De metris
carminum Arabicorum libri duo,' Brunswick 1825; 'Ueber
einige ältere Sanskrit- Metra,' Göttingen 1827; 'Liber
Wakedi de Mesopotaniige expugnatse historia e cod. Arab.
editus,' Göttingen 1827; ' Grammatica critica lingusö
Arabic«,' 2 vols. Leipsic 1831-33; 'Abhandlungen zur bib-
lischen und orientalischen Literatur,' Göttingen 1832. On
Biblical subjects he also published : 'Das Hohelied Salomo's
übersetzt mit Einleitung, &;c.' (The Song of Solomon trans-
lated, &c.), Göttingen 1826; ' Commentarius in Apocalyp-
sm/ Göttingen 1828; 'Die poetischen Bücher des Alten
Bundes ' [called in the second edition ' Die Dichter des
Alten Bundes,' the Poets of the Old Testament], 4 vols.
Göttingen 1835-39; 2nd edition 1840-67; being a trans-
lation of Psalms, Lamentations, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
Song of Solomon and Job. On Hebrew grammar he pub-
lished : ' Kritische Grammatik der Hebräischen Sprache
ausführlich bearbeitet,' Leipsic 1827; 'Grammatik der
Hebräischen Sprache des Alten Testaments,' 2nd edition
(essentially a new work), Leipsic 1835, and greatly
enlarged in successive editions up to the seventh, entitled
' Ausführliches Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Sprache des
Alten Bundes,' Göttmgen 1863; and a smaller grammar
for schools, ' Grammatik der Hebräischen Sprache in
vollständiger Kürze,' Leipsic 1828, the later editions of
which are known as ' Hebräische Sprachlehre für Anfänger.'
In 1837 he founded (with the cooperation of other Ori-
entalists) the valuable periodical ' Zeitschrift für die Kunde
des Morgenlandes,' which prepared the way for the for-
mation in 1845 of the German Oriental Society, which
VOL. I. a
XVlll PKEFACE.
publishes a ' Zeitschrift ' four times a year. In the year
1837 trouble came upon Hanover, and specially upon the
University of Göttingen, on the accession of the Duke of
Cumberland to the throne. His very first act was the
arbitrary abolition of the Hanoverian ' Staatsgrundgesetz '
or Constitution; and this encountered among the pro-
fessors a spirit unfortunately not common enough in
Germany. Seven of the most eminent — the two Grimms,
Gervinus, Yv^ilhelm AYeber, W. E. Albrecht, Dahlmann,
and Ewald — entered a solemn protest ; and when that was
of no avail, resigned their professorships, and left the
King to enjoy the desert he had made — for the seven
professors ivere the University, and when they were gone it
rapidly declined, till eleven years after even a Guelph could
admit his folly and invite the professors back again on
honourable conditions. But the fifteen hundred students
whom men now living remember to have seen there could
never be recalled ; and the university can even now count
only its six or seven hundred. Ewald then left Göt-
tingen, Dec. 12, 1837, and came to England; but in the
following year he received and accepted a call to the Uni-
versity of Tubingen, to be Ordinary Professor of Theology.
This position he held till his recall to Göttingen in 1848,
which he, alone of the seven, accepted. During his resi-
dence at Tübingen (besides preparing new and enlarged
editions of works already mentioned) Ewald published his
translation of the Prophets, ' Die Propheten des Alten
Bundes erklärt,' 2 vols. Stuttgart, 1840-41, and com-
menced this History. The first edition of the first, second,
and third volumes was published in 1843, 1845, and 1847 ;
and a supplementary volume on Hebrew Antiquities was
added, ' Die Alterthiimer des Volkes Israel.' After his re-
turn to Göttingen, and up to the present time, the following
are his chief literary labours ; ' Jahrbücher der biblischen
Wissenschaft,' a journal which he established in 1849, and
to which he was the chief, indeed generally the only con-
TREFACE. XIX
tributor; twelve volumes were published, from 1849 to
1865, after which it was given up; many valuable inves-
tigations of special subjects of Biblical history and criti-
cism were carried on in it, and are referred to in this
work. But his chief labour of this period was expended
on this History, to which the fourth, fifth, sixth, and
seventh volumes were added in the years 1852, 1855,
1858, and 1859 ; a second and enlarged edition of the
first three volumes was prepared in 1851 and 1853; and a
third of vols, i.-iv. in 18G4-66. The fifth volume of the
history, entitled ' Geschichte Christus und semer Zeit,' is
the only part of the work which has been translated into
English; it was published as ' The Life of Christ by H.
Ewald, translated and edited by Octavius Glover,' Cam-
bridge 1865. Ewald was also engaged in the study of
the New Testament, and published ' Die drei ersten
Evangelien übersetzt und erklärt' (the First Three Gos-
pels translated and expounded), Göttingen 1850; ' Die
Sendschreiben den Apostels Paulus übersetzt und erklärt'
(the Epistles of St. Paul translated and expounded),
Göttingen 1857 ; ' Die Johamieischen Schriften übersetzt
und erklärt' (the Johannine Writings translated and ex-
pounded), 2 vols. Göttingen 1861. Many disquisitions,
some of considerable importance, chiefly on Phenician
inscriptions, on the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, and on the
Sybilhne Books, were contributed by him to the Trans-
actions of the Royal Society of Sciences at Göttingen and
to the ' Göttinger Gelehrte Anzeigen,' and are also to
be had separately. I have omitted small pamphlets, and
even larger works, whose interest is merely ephemeral-
local, controversial, or political.
It remains to speak of the translation. My constant
endeavour in revising it has been to make it self-con-
sistent and uniform — which qualities it could otherwise
hardly have possessed, as the principal translator has had
several coadjutors. In the orthography of personal names
a 2
XX PREFACE.
names Ewald, consistently with his constant spirit of de-
pendence on the original sources alone, and carelessness
about what has been spoken or written since, follows the
Hebrew strictly; and it is quite intelligible that a scholar
who lives his whole life among the old Hebrew books may
be unable to force his lips to such barbarisms as the
modern pronunciation of Isaac, Jacob, &c. But the trans-
lation will fall into the hands of persons who know the
Patriarchs already under their modern names, and as we
wish to speak to them of their old friends, we take the
liberty of still calling them by the familiar names. To
this there is one important exception. The Divine name,
usually written Jehovah, is by Ewald written Jalive^ and
we have adopted this" form, with the addition of a final /<,
which makes it an exact transcript of the Hebrew letters,
and does not affect the pronunciation. The case is a
peculiar and difficult one. Jehovah is so manifestly and
demonstrably wrong, and is a monument of such utter mis-
understanding, that I feel the greatest repugnance in ever
writing it myself, and could not for shame allow it to
appear in a book of Ewald's, whose ear would be offended
by it as a musician's by a note out of tune. I append a
short Essay on the subject, for which I am solely respon-
sible, intended to explain the nature of the question to
readers to whom Ewald's remarks at vol. ii. pp. 155-58
are insufficient.
The division of the Old Testament into chapters and
verses sometimes differs in the Greek, Latin, and modern
versions, from that adopted in the printed Hebrew Bibles.
Ewald always quotes from the Hebrew ; but for the sake
of non-Hebraist readers we have in these cases of discre-
pancy always given the other numbers (which are those
of the English Bible) in brackets: thus, Num. xvii. 3
[xvi. 38]; Ps. xL 4 [8].
In order to render the divisions and subdivisions of the
work more easily intelligible, I have prefixed a Table of
PREFACE. XXI
Contents far more detailed than that in the orioinal work.
The titles given to the smaller sections — all, that is, which
do not occur as headmgs in the work itself — are added by
me, and must be regarded as only approximate hints of
what will be found in the sections in question. The diffi-
culty of indicating in half-a-dozen words the contents of a
section, should be considered in my defence by any who
find these descriptions misleading. Imperfect though they
are, they appeared to me at least harmless, and more satis-
factory than a mere blank.
The Translator wishes me gratefully to acknowledge
assistance and counsel received from Dr. John Nicholson,
of Penrith, the pupil and friend of Ewald, and translator
of his Hebrew Grammar. Dr. Nicholson had himself
translated a considerable portion of the period comprised
in the first volume, and kindly handed over his work to
be incorporated -with the rest. It should also be noted
that the translation was undertaken with the full sanction
of the author.
Russell Martineau.
London : Nov, 1868.
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE
Section I. Design of this History i
Section II. Sources op the Early History ii
A. The Story and its Foundation. Tradition . . .13
I. Natube of Nationax Tbadition 14
1. Its Subject-matter . . . . . . .15
1 ) Its Eetention by the Memory . . , .15
2) Aids to the Memory . . . . . .16
a.) Sougs; Proverbs; Proper Names . . .17
b.) Visible Monuments . . . . .20
c.) Institutions ....... 21
3) Tendency to fill up Gaps 22
a.) Names of Persons 23
b.) Periods 25
c.) Grouping in Eound Numbers . . . .26
2. Its Spirit 26
3. Its Limitation to a Narrow Circle ..... 28
II. FuRTiiEK Progress of Tradition . , . . .31
1. Its Original Style 32
2. Its Purification 35
3. Expansion of its Province 38
III. Treatment of Tradition by Historians . . . .41
B. Commencement of Hebrew Historical Composition.
Writing 45
I. Writing not practised in the Patriarchal Age . . 47
II. Use of Writing in the Time of Moses . . . .49
III. Origin of Semitic Writing 51
Grandeur of the Subject of the Historical Books . . 53
Anonjnnous Character of the Historical Books, and Art of
Historical Composition .56
C. History of Hebrew Historical Composition . . . ci
I. The Great Book of Origins (Pentateuch and Book of
Joshua) 63
3.. The oldest Historical Works 64
1) Book of the Wars of Jahveh . . . .66
2) BlOGBAl'HY OF MoSES 68
3) Book of Covenants 68
XXIV , CONTENTS OF
Section II. Sources of the Early History — continued. ^^^^
2. The Book of Origins and its Sources . . .74
1) Its Date 74
2) Its Aims 78
a.) General History from the Israelite Point
of View .78
b.) Legislation ....... 82
{i) The Sanctuary 87
(n) Sacrifices 87
(iii) The Clean and Unclean . . . .88
(z«) The Sabbath . . . . . .88
(v) The Community . . • . . 89
c.) Its Conclusion 91
3. Its Author 92
3. The Prophetical Narratohs of the Primitive Histories 96
1) The Third Narrator of the Primitive History . 97
2) The Fourth Narrator of the Primitive History . 100
a.) Character . . . . . . .100
b.) Aims 104
c.) Individuality . . . . . . .105
3) The Fifth Narrator of the Primitive History . 106
a.) Character and Age 106
b.) Method Ill
c.) Range ........ 114
4. The Deuteronomist : last Modification of the Book of
Primitive History . . . . . .115
1) Lev. xxvi. 3-45 116
2) Deuteronomy . 117
a.) Its Character and Aim . . . . .117
(i) Deut. i. 1-iv. 43 120
(w) Deut. iv. 44-xxvi. . . . . .120
(Hi) Deut. xxvii.-end ..... 121
b.) Its Sources , 125
c.) Its Age 127
3) Blessing of Moses, Deut. xxxiii 128
4) Incorporation with previous Histories . . . 129
II. The Great Book of the Kings (Judges, Ruth, Samuel,
and Kings) . 133
1. First History of the Kings : the State-annals . .136
1) Historical Passages belonging to it . . . 136
2) Prophetic Passages . . . . . .138
2. General History of the Ages of the Judges an»
the Kings: the Prophetic Hook of Kint/s . .139
1) First History 140
2) Prophetic Book of Kings 141
a.) On Samuel's Age 142
b.) On the Times after Samuel . , . .145
(i) 1 Sam. i-vii 146
(Ü) 1 Sam. viii-xiv. . . . . .147
{Hi) 1 Sam. xv-2 Sam. end . . . .147
a) 2 Sam. i-vii. ..... 148
b) 2 Sam. viii-xxi, xxiii. 8-xxiv. . .148
c) 2 Sam. xx. 26, 26, xxii, xxiii. 1-7 . 149
(iv) Solomon, &c 149
c) Style and Treatment 150
3) Later fragments % .151
THE FIRST VOLUME.
XXV
0^
Section II. Sources of the Early History — continued.
3. Looser Troiitment of this Period
1 ) Saul and David ....
2) Elijali and Eiisliah .
3) Ruth
4. Latest Form of these Books
1) Last Editor but one
a.) Introduction of Deuteronomie Id
b.) Collection of older Elements
c.) More detailed Description of Hi
2) Last Editor ....
a.) Judges ....
(i) Judges i-ii. 5
(ii) Judges ii. 6-xvi.
(Hi) Judges xvii-xxi. .
b.) Origin of the Monarchy
c.) Solomon and Later Kings .
III. Latest Book of Geneeai, History (Chronicles
Nehemiah)
1. Aim and Authorship .
2. Divisions .
1)1 Chron. i-x.
2) 1 Chron. xi-2 Chron.
3) Ezra and Nehemiah
3. Autliorities
1) Named
2) Unnamed
a.) Ezra ii, iv. 8-vi.
b.) Ezra vii-x. .
c.) Nehemiah .
3) Credibility of the Book
4. Admission into the Canon
Book of Esther .
Views of Later Times regarding Antiquity
Section III. Chronology of the Ancient History
1. As computed by the Priests .
2. Corrected by Contact with other -Nations
3. Other Supports to Chronology
4. Difficulty of establishing a General System
Section IV. Territory of this History .
Ezra
I. Physical Aspect .
1. Invigorating Influences
2. Relaxing Influences
3. Plagues and Devastation
II.
III.
Relations towards other Countries
1. Attraction of Northern Nations toward
2. Attraction of its Inhabitants towards
3. Palestine a Meeting-place of various N
Palestine
ypt •
it ions
Egy
Mixed Nationality of Oldest Inhabitants
1. Aborigines
1) Horites
2) Rephaim: .....
3) Amalekites ; Gkshue .
PACK
. 152
. 153
. 153
. 153
. 156
. 157
. 157
. 158
imes 159
. 159
. 161
. 16i
. 162
. 16J
. 164
. 165
and
. 169
. 173
. 178
. 178
. 181
. 181
. 181
. 182
. 188
. 189
. 191
. 192
. 194
. 196
. 196
. 197
. 204
. 205
. 207
. 209
. 211
. 214
. 214
. 215
. 216
. 217
. 219
. 220
. 221
. 222
. 224
. 224
. 226
. 227
. 230
XXvi CONTENTS OF
Section IV. Tereitokt of this History — continued. page
2. Semitic Invaders . 232
1) Canaanites 232
a.) Amorites 234
b.) HiTTiTES ....... 235
c.) Canaanites 236
d.) HiwiTES 237
2) Philistines 242
3) Amalekites and others 249
3. Hebrews 254
HISTORY OF ISRAEL.
BOOK I.
PBELIMINARY HISTORY OF ISRAEL.
Section I. Israel before the Migration to Egypt . . . .256
A. General Notions 256
B. The First Two Ages 261
I. Eirst Four Fathers of each Age .... 264
II. Five following Fathers 265
III. Tenth (Noah, Terah) 269
IV. Grouping and Computation ..... 274
V. Origin and Immigration of the Hebre-ws . . 277
1. Origin 277
2. Migi-ation 282
3. Continued Migration 287
C. The Third Age 288
I. The Three Patriarchs of the Nation .... 288
II. The Cycle of the Twelve Types 290
1. Of the Father 291
2. Of the Wife 292
3. Of the Child 293
4. Of Marriage 293
5. OiFolygamy 293
6. Of the Nurse . , 293
7. Of the Servant 294
III. History of the Three Patriarchs ..... 300
1. Abraham ......... 307
1) As Immigrant and Father of Nations . . . 307
a.) Nahoreans ....... 310
b.) Damascus 311
c.) Ammon and Moab 312
d.) Ketnroans ....... 314
e.) Southern Canaan 316
2) As a Man of God 317
THE FIRST VOLU^IE.
XXVI 1
Section I. Ist?ael before itie Migration to Egypt — continued, pagr
3) As exhibited Ly the existing Narratives . . . 323
a.) Before the Trial of his Faith . . . .327
b.) The Trial, with the Obstacles . . .328
{i) Sarah's Impatience .... 330
{ii) Renewed Promise .... 330
(ia) Sodom and Lot ..... 330
{iv) Sarah at Abimelech's Court . . .331
{v) Bii-th of Isaac 331
{vi) League with Abimelech . . . 331
{vii) Sacrifice of Isaac ..... 332
c.) His later Life ...... 333
4) According to Later Books ..... 333
2. Isaac; Esau 338
3. Jacob-Israel ........ 341
1) His Representative Character .... 343
2) Account in the Book of Origins .... 348
3) Life by the Foiirth Narrator 351
a.) The Birthright 352
b.) Emigration ....... 353
c.) Return 359
4) Extra-Biblical Accounts of him .... 360
IV. Twelve Sons and Tribes of Jacob ..... 362
1. The number Twelve ....... 363
2. Mutual Relations of the Twelve 371
3. Different Stories in Later Times ..... 376
V. Beginning of the Nation 381
Section II. Migration of Israel to Egypt 386
A. General Notions "-^ . 386
I. The Hyksos and the Hebrews ...... 388
II. Chronology of Israelite Migration 400
III. Concluding Inferences . . . . • • • 404
B. Joseph according to the Israelite Tradition . . . 407
I. Earliest Narrator and Book of Origins . . .412
II. Third Narrator 416
III. Fourth and Fifth Narrators 419
C. Joseph as the First-born of Israel 422
INTRODUCTION
dN^o
SECTION I.
DESIGN OF THIS HISTORY.
The history of the ancient peoj)le of Israel lies far behind us,
a concluded period of human events. Its last page was written
eighteen centuries ago ; and no one able to read it, or even to
decipher a few of its hardly legible characters, will expect from
the future a new page to complete this chapter of the world's
history. This is the basis of its first utility for us. For those
portions of universal history whose varying fortunes reach down
into the conflicts of the present, are in themselves more difficult
to survey and to describe correctly : and, even when described
by a historian of profound insight and impartial judgment, are
unwelcome to the many, whose eye is dazzled by the illusions,
and whose sympathies are bound up with the chances of the
day. Any one who should now write the history of Hanover
since the year 1830, might be doing a work which would benefit
an unprejudiced posterity; but at present, though he spoke
with the tongues of angels, he would speak to the winds. But
even when the history is further removed as to time, the truth
is less likely to find a fruitful soil, if the people or the constitu-
tion which it concerns is the same. Thus many very learned
Germans are incapable of understanding even the Middle Ages,
or the time of the Reformation — periods which are yet far re-
moved from our present position and requirements. The case is
entirely different with those portions of history which we not
only find completely finished and irreversibly sentenced, but
which do not immediately concern our country and people, or
our constitution and religion. There every passion and strife is
for ever hushed for us ; we are no longer fellow-actors on that
stage, compelled by the inevitable arrangements of the play to
VOL. I. B
2 DESIGN OF THIS HISTORY.
represent our respective i^arts only : but we stand afar off as
mere spectators, and tranquilly let the whole great drama pass
before us, through all its perplexities and denouements, down
to its final close. There the manifest results of the once varied
and complicated play have long ago written down its great
moral, in generally intelligible and eternal characters, which no
one can refuse to study ; so that, though the successful investi-
gation of histories thus remote may cost more trouble than the
■writing of the history of our own time, its utility for the present
may be so much the greater. For though the study of these
remote histories is in the first instance only an exercise of the
eye and the judgment, which strengthens the better disposed,
and directs others to surprising truths which they will not see in
the present ; yet this silent influence will go deeper, and affect
decisions and acts also — and the past, with its struggles and its
lessons, will not have been in vain for us. The most evident
and certain truths of history are found here in abundance, and
above all dispute.
This history is, moreover, that of an original people, whose
best age belongs to remote antiquity, and which, though con-
stantly in close contact with many other peoples, followed out,
with the strictest independence and the noblest effort, a pecu-
liar problem of the human mind to its highest j)oint, and did
not perish until that was attained. The history of the an-
tiquity of all nations that have in anywise raised themselves
to a lofty stage of human effort, in general not only shows us
the rudiments of the same mental powers and arts which
still exist, more or less pursued and developed, among our-
selves ; but also leads us, tlrrough more perfect knowledge
of their origin and formation, to a nearer view into their
necessity and their eternal conditions. For it will always be
instructive to discern how polity, laws, poetry, literature, and
similar intellectual possessions, have developed themselves in
a nation, when they spring from no idle imitation and half-
repetition, but from impulses and powers inherent in the nation,
and therefore with all freshness and energy. Nay, such study
is indispensable, to preserve us from being overwhelmed or
confused by the great wealth, or endless wilderness, of tra-
ditionary thoughts and secondhand cleverness, with which
later times are inundated, and to elevate us again to what is
original, independent, and necessary. Now ancient nations are
generally distinguished by a greater restriction as to sj}ace and
place, by a narrow attachment to their own sanctuary and
country, by a shy fear of what is strange, and a strict scpa-
DE^IGX OF THIS HISTORY. 3
ration according to religions, customs, and views :' for tlie rapid
communication of distant lands with eacli other, and the fre-
quent interchange of opinions, doctrines, and worships, date,
with trivial exceptions, from the latest centuries of antiquity,
which altogether display a great resemblance to what we call
modern times. One consequence of this excessive self-enclosure
of each nation, with its inherited possessions and its favourite
views, was that each more easily adopted its own characteristic
aim and activity. For as, in consequence of this very isolation,
tlie religions and gods were infinitely various, and every ener-
getic j)eople conceived itself to dwell in the centre of the earth,
and regarded the world only from its own point of view f so it
formed its peculiar estimate of the prizes of life, and pursued
what appeared to it the highest aims in its own special way.
Everything was on this account more domestic, more hearty,
more limited — and therefore also more varied and manifold. And
as the intellectual aims, contests, and victories possible to the
mind are numerous and diverse, we see that every nation that
pursued a lofty career in the open arena of such aspirations,
chose one special high aim, which became the pivot of everything
in it, and which, even under frequent intercourse with foreigners,
was never relinquished. But because every nobler nation, to
which the happiness of thus aspiring was early allotted, then
devoted the whole youthful energy of its intellectual eiforts to
the attainment of this one aim, and ]_3ursued that sole good which
was its chief end with courageous pertinacity to the uttermost —
nay often at hrst with truly Titanic efforts : those wonderful
results were produced — those finished works of some nations of
antiquity, of which history tells, and the effects of which still
endure. Thus Babylonians, Indians, Chinese, Egyptians, Phe-
uicians, Greeks, and Komans, each under favourable circum-
stances, pursued one particular aim — to a height which in some
respects no subsequent nations have ever again reached. And
even when each nation reached its highest ascent, and its day
began to decline, it was still occupied in the exclusive pursuit,
as if all its energies had just sufficed to reach that one height.
The problems of the human mind, moreover, which these ancient
nations have severally solved with wonderful independence and
consistency have borne infinite fruits for all subsequent times,
and for the most different and distant peoples. This whole truth
especially applies to that ancient nation whose histor}^ is to be
' Observe how Amos (vii. 17), Ilosea regard sojoiu-n in foreign connlries. (See
(ix. 3), and other similar prophets call Ewald's I'sabnen, 2nd ed. pp. 183 et seq.)
every foreign land polluted or nnholy ; - Ci)mi>aro Ezek. v. ö ; the Koran, Sur.
and how tlio poets of the seventh century ii. 137.
B 2
4 DESIGN OF THIS HISTORY.
explained here : for the most sublime and gigantic achievements
of Israel as a nation especially belong to those primitive times,
which also hold in their obscurity all that the Babylonians,
Egyptians, and Phenicians attained.
The ancient people of Israel had, indeed, times in which it
appeared disposed to prosecute similar aims to those pursued
by other nations. Under David and Solomon it laid a firm
basis for external dominion over the nations of the earth, out of
which an Assyrian or a Roman Empire might perhaps have
grown : in the vigour of its temporal power, it attempted to
rival the Phenicians in commerce and navigation ; and by its
own energies it advanced quite as far as the Greeks before
Socrates towards producing an independent science or philo-
soj)hy.' But all such aims, by which other nations of antiquity
became great, in this people only started up to yield at once to
the pursuit of another aim, which it had beheld so distinctly fi-om
the commencement of its historical consciousness, and toiled
after so strenuously, that permanently to abandon it was im-
possible ; which, therefore, after every momentary cessation, it
always resumed with fresh pertinacity. This aim is Perfect Ee-
ligion — a good which all aspiring nations of antiquity made a
commencement, and an attempt, to attain ; which some, the
Indians and Persians for example, really laboured to achieve
v/ith admirable devotion of noble energies ;^ but which this
people alone clearly discerned from the beginning, and then
pursued for many centuries through all difl&culties, and with the
utmost firmness and consistency, until they attained it, so far as,
among men and in ancient times, attainment was possible. The
beginning and end of the history of this people turn on this one
high aim ; and the manifold changes, and even confusions and
perversities, which manifest themselves in the long course of the
threads of its history, always ultimately tend to the solution of
this great problem, which the human mind was to work out
here. The aim was lofty enough to concentrate the highest
eflPorts of a whole people for more than a thousand years, and
to be reached at length as the prize of the noblest struggles.
And as, however the mode of the pursuit might vary, it was this
single object that was always pursued, till finally attained only
with the political death of the nation, there is hardly any his-
' Concerning tho latter, sco the third " To prove tliis more at length docs not
volume of this work, and the Essay ' On fall within the province of the present
Israel's Civil and Intellectual Li])erty in work — at any rate, does not belong to its
the time of tho Great Prophets,' in Ewald's commencement. I shall, however, touch
Jahrbuch dir Biblischen Wissenschaft, holuw on some part of the subject.
1818, pp. 95 et seq.
DESIGN OF THIS IIISTORV. 5
tory of equal compass that possesses, in all its phases and varia-
tions, so much intrinsic unity, and is so closely bound to a
single thought pertinaciously held, but always developing- itself
to higher purity. The history of this ancient peoj^le is in reality
the history of the growth of true religion, rising through all
stages to perfection ; pressing on through all conflicts to the
highest victory, and finally revealing itself in full glory and
power, in order to spread irresistibly from this centre, never
again to be lost, but to become the eternal possession and bless-
ing of all nations.
The quest of the true religion was without doubt the task of
all the nations of antiquity at the commencement, no less than
during the course, of their progressive civilisation. But this
peoj)le is the only one which from the very first plays its part
on the grand stage of national movements, simply in consequence
of its daring to find its earthly existence and honour only in
true religion as the rule and law of its life. And although,
through the discreetness and humility of its religion, it never
regarded itself as one of the oldest and inightiest nations U2:)on
earth, but always remained conscious of its historical position
among far earlier and greater nations ; yet the true commence-
ment of its importance in the world's history, compared with
that of most other distinguished nations, goes back to a
relatively very early period. But, even in that early age, its
religion could be formed only in close contact with a very
difitrent people, possessing not only a higher antiquity and
importance, but also a very early adoption of the refinements of
civilisation. Still, since the people of the present history
had received its most precious and important though scattered
recollections from that early time of its origin, long before it
became, through the bold conception of true religion, really
a people of historical significance, this history stretches back
in its first threads even to those primeval times when, like
every other human aim, religion itself was less unfolded,
and heathenism had not so far degenerated, and when in
consequence the rudiments of true religion could acquire an
easier and a firmer basis. But, as is well known, this people
separated at a very early period from the Egyptians, the then
representatives of higher human civilisation ; and through the
conception of true religion not only conquered at once a problem
new in antiquity, affecting its inner life and continuous existence
on the earth, but obtained a beautiful country as its home, and
a voice among the nations. Still, after that, it remained in
constant and close communion with the most intellectually dis-
6 DESIGN OF THIS HISTORY.
tinguislied and stirring nations of the western lialf of tlie civi-
lised world, and even exerted an influence upon tliem, and was
stimulated and guided in return. And if tliis people — which,
the lonofer it remained true to its religion in the midst of the
nations, could not but become the more peculiar and strange —
never for any long period maintained a superiority over others
in arms, arts, or commerce, yet it preserved itself through
all the earlier centuries in honourable independence and free
progressive development, through the power of its true reli-
gion, Avhich gained strength with age. And, finally, in that
which was from the first at once the most strange and the rarest
thing in antiquity, it acquired sufficient strength to preserve
itself when its material powers were shattered in this thousand
years' struggle, and to enter through dire national ruins, new-
born with the true religion into those last centuries of antiquity,
when all the western nations came into closest contact with
almost all the eastern, even the most remote. Even then, in
the closing scene of all antiquity, it still maintained its place,
reacting ujDon the world through its spiritual power, and thus
gaining the only end then conceivable.
The ultimate attainment of perfect true religion was at once
the highest and noblest aspiration of antiquity, and a goal in
striving to reach which most lost their way far too early ; others,
who had descried the mark more clearly, eventually lost it
altogether from their sight ; and this one people alone, at the
end of a two-thousand years' struggle, actually attained it.
But as this mark was from the very first held out before the
whole of antiquity as the noblest aim, apparently by clear
Divine predestination, and yet was attainable only by a single
path ; so the historj^ of this people, so far as it had this aim
from the first, and coming gradually nearer, ultimately attained
it, always seems to proceed in a straight line through the
Avhole of antiquity, though distracted by constant contact with
other and highly civilised nations. Thus its history stretches
from the very commencement of the scarcely discernible dawn
of antiquity, shares the full noonday beam Avhich lights up the
history of a few of the most prominent ancient nations, and
ceases only with the termination of the long day of ancient
history, to give place to the coming of a new day of the world's
history. The history of no other ancient people is therefore,
with all its internal movements, so closely interwoven with the
loftiest spiritual endeavours of other highly civilised nations, or
so necessarily passes into universal history ; or while preserving
its form, internal unity, and consistency, undergoes such variety
DESIGN OF THIS lIlSTÜRV. 7
and such complete alteration of external form. No nation lias
so significantly kept on its course througli the three vast epochs
of the past, radiating out ever, in the course of two thousand
years, from the smallest and most insignificant into ever-widen-
ing circles, and closing the day of antiquity with a sunset which
is itself the earnest of the uj)springing of a new and still loftier
life. Issuing from the same source as that of other nations
near it both in position and in blood, this histor}^, as regards its
inner significance, separates itself in progress of time more and
more from them, and develops itself into a peculiar form, which
enables it at last to irrigate them with ever ampler and purer
streams.
To describe this history, therefore, as far as it can be known
in all its discoverable remains and traces, is the design of this
work ; and its best commendation will be, that it describes it
•with the greatest fidelity as it really was. It needs no em-
bellishment or exaggeration : its subject is sublime enough in
itself ; and its chief glory lies in the fact, that posterity feel its
last influences and fruits, even when they know or acknowledge
it least. But just as little cause has it to dread the strictest
investigation of all its parts ; since the profoundest examina-
tion — even though it should destroy ever so many later errone-
ous views about particular subjects of this history — will enable
us to discern, with greater and greater distinctness and cer-
tainty, its actual course from beginning to end, the vital
coherence of its parts, and, in them, its true and unrivalled
greatness. To examine a projiosed historical theme without
any foolish fear, but with a hearty love of the subject, and the
single assumption that everything, when correctly understood,
has its reason and its value ; with no inflexible ulterior precon-
ceptions, but a generous appreciation and joyful welcome for
all true and great results — this is tlie universal law of every
historian. Conscientiousness demands that this principle should
be observed here too, and that nothing foreign should intrude
from any quarter whatever. Even the few remarks just made
on the unparalleled importance of this history, are to be re-
garded here, at the outset, only as a conclusion, the proofs of
which will be adduced in the investigation of the facts them-
selves. But the reader's own ex^^erience ought to teach him
that the appreciation which this history meets with is high and
cordial in proportion as the knowledge of its original features
is minute and exact. Those who do not investigate it, or who
examine it in the wrong way, or in auywise imperfectly, are in
the end its worst enemies.
8 DESIGN OF THIS HISTORY.
Like every history wliicli readies back into remote antiquity,
this especially lies before ns only in scattered notices and
monuments — here in faint hardly discernible traces, there in
simple lofty ruins, which stand out amidst the desolation, and
strike every eye ; and the farther back its beginnings ascend
into the primitive times, the more does every sure trace seem
to vanish. The common view overlooks those unobtrusive
traces on the ground, and clings only to the smooth sides of
the huge blocks of stone, which rise in bold relief in this region.
Many enquirers of modern times, however, who give themselves
the air of being very wise and circumspect, not only scorn to
j)ursue the modest traces on the ground — preferring the mazes
of their own invention — but will surrender even such a lofty
and conspicuous j)ei'Sonage as Moses the Man of God, and in
cowardly indolence retire altogether from the examination of
these scattered monuments. But it is not thus that this history
can become alive again among us as it ought, and can yield us
its proper fruit : in this way any great single phenomena that
are fortunate enough to be noticed at all, are left as isolated
and obscure as undeciphered hieroglyphics. It is only when the
investigation indefatigably pursues with equal zeal everything
that has been preserved and can be understood, and cheerfully
follows out the faint and hidden traces also, that what is dead
is recalled to life, and what is isolated enters into its necessary
coherence. Even what appears the most inconsiderable ftict in
itself, may become an important or indispensable link in the
chain ; and a spark which lies unnoticed in the way, often
serves, when raised up and properly directed, to illuminate a
confused mass lying round about.
Nor should the difficulties which meet us here in extra-
ordinary force, to say nothing of the more easily discarded mass
of errors created in modern times, deter us from such investi-
gation. There are many portions of this long and diversified
history for which we possess but few sources : the farther back
we trace its most remarkable original features and fundamental
impulses, the more scanty is their stream ; for large portions
of it we find only brief notices and secondary authorities ; and
even the sources which are now accessible, are often hard to
understand and to apply to their proper use. But even these
scanty means, well applied and carefully used, are able to
accomplish more than from a superficial estimate would be
supposed. One sure step, once taken, of itself leads us on ftirther
and fartlier ; the sparks set in motion on all sides, and flying
together, kindle an unexpected light. And while no great
DESIGN OF THIS HISTORY. 9
obscurity can thus rest over main points, it is a gain if tliose
portions which remain obscure are only marked out more dis-
tinctly for future research and ilhistration, shouki such be
possible. As the linguist, from a few specimens of an ancient
or modern dialect, settles its position in the great chart of the
languages of the earth ; as the naturalist, from a few distiuct
Ijhenomena, forms a conclusion as to the whole, — so too the
historian must exercise the art of correctly arranging, and
laying in their proper sequence, all the infinitely scattered and
various traditions from remote antiquity, and then proceed to
form further deductions from a few certain traces and testi-
monies, so as to piece together again the scattered and decayed
members of the ruined whole into greater completeness and
distinctness. To overlook and despise this history altogether,
to avoid all questions or opinions about it, is surely impossible ;
and in modern times every one is proud of any sort of investi-
gation into the antiquity which has become so obscure to us
now : why then should we not endeavour, one after another,
boldly to conquer all the difficulties, and to recognise every
truth as perfectly and as surely as is now possible ?
There are especially two means which, proj)erly applied, may
happily complete the imperfect notices of many periods : the
uniform use of all sorts of sources accessible to us, and the
constant attention to all, even the most diverse, phenomena in
the varying conditions of the people. As long as we use only
the historical portions of the Old Testament, but lack the
skill to employ the infinitely rich and (if judiciously used) ex-
tremely reliable and distinct prophetical and poetical portions,
much must be utterly lost to the substance as well as to the
elucidation of this history, which, if adroitly fitted into the
other notices and indications, would often fill up perceptible
gaps in a surprising manner. It may rather, indeed, be laid
down as an axiom, that these sources, hitherto almost totally
neglected, universally deserve the first rank ; because they
speak most directly the feelings of their age, and show us in
the clearest mirror the genuine living traits of the events to
which they allude. In fact, the historians of the Old Testa-
ment themselves acknowledge the high value of these sources,
since they, like the Arabian annalists, frequently cite songs, and
have adopted much from the prophetical books into their works.
Moreover, so long as the historian devotes his chief attention
to the conspicuous affairs of state and war, and neglects to
investigate those branches of the activity and aspiration of the
nation which flourish in modest obscurity, as well as all its
10 DESIGN OF THIS HISTORY.
changing circumstances in their chronological succession, he
will never comprehend the history in its full truth ,and im-
jDortance. It is only when we draw into this circle, not only
the history of the religion, literature, and arts of the people,
but also all the most important parts of what is called archeo-
logy, and attempt, from all discoverable traces and testimonies,
to discern the true life and character of each period, that we
can hope to draw a not altogether unsatisfactory picture of this
great and comprehensive history.
The series of these narratives cannot indeed be related as
smoothly as a European history of the last few centuries. The
various sources of this history are as yet too little estimated
according to their respective value, for this ; much also stands
too isolated in the wide circle to be unhesitatingly admitted,
without an exposition of the reasons for a decided opinion
about it : all of which chiefly aj^plies to the older j)eriods, which
yet in many respects contain the sublimest and most peculiar
elements of the history. Although there is much which, having
been already sufficiently discussed elsewhere, I shall admit
without further disquisition, and much which I shall notice
as briefly as possible, nevertheless a large portion of this work
will necessarily consist of a general and particular investigation
into the sources. But such enquiries are most advantageously
interwoven where an attempt is made at the same time, to
reconstruct a whole province of history by a correct valuation
of the sources : and to know the rig^ht reasons for fixino- the
events and epochs of remote histories, is to comprehend the
histories themselves.
Further, there is no need, on the threshold of this work,
to state at length that the true commencement of this history,
which comes to its close with Christ, begins with Moses
(although the mighty advance achieved in the time of Moses,
which is the basis of all subsequent developments, presujjposes
the sojourn of Israel in Egypt as the first step in this direction) ;
nor to show that this history passes through three great
successive periods from its commencement, until its course is
run and its final close attained — externally indicated by the
successive names of Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews, the people
itself being a different one in each of these periods ; nor, further,
that what precedes the sojourn in Egyj)t, as being foreign to
this domain, belongs to the preliminary history of the nation,
and might be called its primitive history. All this could not
now be briefly explained with sufficient clearness, but wiU dis-
tinctly apx^ear in the course of the history itself.
SOURCES OF THE EARLY HISTORY. ^
SECTION II.
SOUECES OF THE EAELY HISTORY.
As Israel at length loses its separate national existence in
that of other nations, and disappears as a j)eople, the facts of
its later history are derived in increasing copiousness from the
history of those foreign nations. This is not the place to enter
beforehand into a general description of these sources of the
later history, whether derived from heathen or other writers.
The general A^aluation of such sources, inasmuch as they only
occasionally concern our subject, belongs elsewhere ; and their
peculiar character, in so far as they give more precise views
about Israel and its history, cannot be shown until we treat
this later history itself. We shall then see how, on the gradual
absorption of Israel into other nations, the heathen came to
think of Israel, and Israel of them. It is also to be remem-
bered, that, on account of the greater proximity and abundance
of sources, the later passages of this history are much easier to
understand than the earlier. It is the most ancient portions
■ — the most important for the correct understanding of the
whole — which are the obscurest : not only because the early
stages of everything historical are to an ordinary eye dark in
proportion as the original forces mysteriously working there
are powerful, but also because the sources of information are
there scantier and obscurer.
Nor can I here discuss what the monuments and writings of
foreign nations offer incidentally for the elucidation of portions
of the ancient history of Israel. Important and instructive as
much of it is, it always concerns separate passages only of this
history, and will therefore be best appreciated where these
occur. It docs not, indeed, belong to this place to substantiate
coiTect notions about these foreign sources at all.
What the soil of the Holy Land displays on its present
surface, has been examined with growing diligence, though by
no means adequately, in modern times. But that which is
buried in it, beneath the rubbish of thousands of years, and
which is possibly of great value for history, is yet unexplored ;
12 SOURCES OF THE EARLY HISTORY.
and cannot well be otherwise, so long as the great Christian
States pursue their present various but equally mistaken policies
towards Islam, and only foster the great injustice and unjust
pre;iudices from which it sprang.
Prodiofious and numerous relics of g-ig-antic architecture and
other handicrafts, such as we possess in the monuments of the
Egyptians and of some other ancient nations, w^e shall look for
in vain in the territory of Israel, either below or above ground ;
because their external power and glory was never of long dura-
tion nor of any considerable extent, and moreover in course of
time became rarer and rarer. Another characteristic feature
of this nation is that the most important evidences of its
history are not found engraved on the rocks, as in the case of
the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Persians.
The most important sources, thei-efore, which the peoj^le
itself furnishes for its early history, are its written documents,
and these are the most considerable that can be found for the
history of any ancient people. It is only in cases in which
something like a complete and varied literature of an ancient
nation has been preserved, that we are able to attain a reliable
and perfect knowledge of the depths of its intellectual life.
The Bible, however, with its uncanonical appendages, preserves
to us in small compass very various and important portions of
such a literature ; and thus affords for this history an abundance
of wellsprings, with which no other equally ancient nation of
high cultivation can vie. It could not, indeed, well have been
otherwise, if the highest power that moved in the history of
this people and made it immortal, was true religion itself; for
this is a force which alwaj^s acts on both literature and art,
and can only easily perpetuate itself in such written monuments
of eternal meaning. I have elsewhere shown how the propheti-
cal and poetical parts of this literature are to be regarded, in an
historical point of view ; ^ but the historical books, which sujjply
almost the only materials for many periods, must here be sub-
mitted to a special enquiry, which must be exhaustive in itself,
and the results of which will always be assumed throughout
the sequel. These historical books, at the same time, most
distinctly show us in what relation the ancient j)eople stood
to the art and appreciation of history generally ; and on what
level all historical composition originally commenced among
them, and then continued to advance. Here therefore, before
' In Die Propheten des Alten Bundes 183.5-39, 4 vols. 8vo.), some volumes of
(Stuttgardt, 1840, 2 vols. 8vo.) and Die which have subsequently gone through a
Poetischen Bücher des A. B. (Göttingen, second and a third edition. — Transl.
THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION. 13
we can trace even the rudiments of historical Avriting in Israel,
we must set out from a consideration of the ultimate basis
which it found preexistent — nay, which every historical writin«]^
even now really finds already there, before it begins its busi-
ness. It is by the accurate discrimination of tradition and
history, first of all, and then by the distinct appreciation of the
relation which the historical books of the Old Testament bear
to both, that we must gain the first step towards any sure
treatment of a great portion of the history itself, as well as
towards a just estimate of the historical books which have been
preserved.
A. THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION. TRADITION.
One of the primary duties of every historical enquiry, and of
every historical composition springing therefrom, is to distin-
guish the story from its foundation, or from that which has
occasioned it, and thus to discover the truth of what actually
occurred. Our ultimate aim is the knowledge of what really
happened — not what was only related and handed down by
tradition, but what was actual fact. Such a fact, however, if
it is anything really worthy of history, will always, however
wonderful it may be, form a link in a larger chain of events,
and, in its effects at least, leave unmistakeable traces behind
it ; and when all that surprises us, or appears at first sight im-
possible, can thus be known and proved from independent testi-
mony, the doubts about it disappear, and it becomes in a strict
sense an historical possession.
A momentous event is very independent of the story about it,
which only arises as a faint counterpart, and propagates itself
as a variable shadow of it — an image that we must do all we
can to warm into life, if we wish to approach the event with a
vivid sense of the reality. Even when we receive an account
from an eyewitness, we must test it by itself, and by other
stories about tlife same occurrence which may be in circulation,
in order to obtain a correct picture : how much more necessary
must it be then, to discriminate between the story and its
foundation, when the narrative has passed through several
hands or periods, or we find several discrepant accounts of the
same event ! At any rate, we of later times, who receive such
various stories and from such distant ages and countries, cannot,
for the sake of our main object — namely, instruction for our
guidance in life from the light of history — elude a labour which
14 THE STORY AXD ITS FOUXDATIOX.
dispels only the caricatures of liistorj^, and restores its living
features with greater vividness and perfection.
Now we apply the name Tradition {^Sage) to the story as it
primarily arises and subsists without foreign aid, before the
birth of the doubting or enquiring spu'it. As such, it is the
commencement and the native soil of all narrative and all his-
tory, just as a deep religious feelmg is always the germ and basis
of all high conception of history. For that reason, it possesses
a peculiar character and a life of its own, which develops itself
the more freely the less its opposite, critical history, is mani-
fested ; and therefore it made the greatest progress, and became
most independent, in the early antiquity of all nations. We
cannot be too mindful of the fact that, in contrast to our
modern time, tradition is, as to origin, spirit, impulse, and con-
tents, a thing per se, which may indeed — in its simplest shape
at least — under similar conditions, be formed in any place and
time, but which (like so much else) only once developed itself in
all its capabilities— namely, at the beginning of all history, and
in nations which early aspired to high culture. To these it was
a rich treasury of memories, and an inexhaustible source of
amusement and insti'uction. In our brief account of it here,
however, we always specially refer to the form in which it
appears in the Old Testament.
I. Tradition is formed by the cooperation of two powers of
the mind — Memory and Imagination. But the circle where its
play is most vivid, and its preservation most faithful, is at first
very narrow, and may easily remain so even down to a later
period. This circle is the home, the family, the throng of like-
minded men, or in its greatest extent, in antiquity es]3ecially,
one single nation. When therefore, in the remote past, nation
was very sharply separated from nation, each had its peculiar
traditions, and each developed any given tradition in its peculiar
way ; and the shaping due to national character must therefore
be admitted as an essential feature in all these traditions. And
since the older and more peculiar a people is, the more its
religion influences its national character, one can easily under-
stand how powerfully the true religion of the people of Israel
must have preserved their traditions from degenerating into
falsehood and exaggeration. Yet even this religion could not
change the very nature and purport of the traditions ; indeed,
generally speaking, tradition possesses too great inherent power
to be thus constrained ; and its power had moreover gained the
upper hand in the nation long before the higher religion arose
and began to take root. Accordingly it is needful, even in tlie
TRADJTIOX. 15
present instance, to pursue this subject further, that we may
obtain a deeper insight into the extent to which tradition in-
fluenced preeminently the early history of Israel.
1. An event, whether experienced or heard by report, makes
a first powerful impression on the imagination. This is often
the truest impression that it can produce ; but so long as the story
remains stationary there, in the mere imagination, it is still
only tradition. It commonly remains a considerable time at
that stage, however, without being fixed by writing; nay, it
may even continue to develop itself for a time in spite of
Avriting ; for in ancient times, when the abundance and anima-
tion of tradition were great, writing had not so rapid an effect ;
indeed even now there are conditions in which its influence is
small. Wlien an event is very far removed as to time, the
imagination forms only an indistinct idea of it, even though it
have passed into written record, or live in accredited history.
Thus the imagiiiation is an agent in the formation of tradition,
and the latter has its most fruitful soil where the former
predominates. But the substance of tradition finds its store-
house in the memory alone for a longer or shorter time. The
memory, however, as the only treasury of tradition, labours
under many weaknesses ; but easily discerns them, and more or
less consciously employs several auxiliaries to remove them.
1) The memory will indeed faithfullj^ receive and retain the
striking incidents that have passed through not more than two
or three hands, but as the tradition advances the minuter cir-
cumstances must be gradually obliterated. It is difiicult to form
a correct idea of the circumstances under which a great event
budded and reached maturity, since the eye is more attracted
by the beaming light than the dark ground from which it shot
forth : but when the first vivid impression has faded away and
gone for ever, the bright centre of a great event will still more
throw its outer sides into shade. The memory of a very signal
event would at last survive only in a very barren and scanty
form, if no reaction subsequently arose.
But this reaction is not always wanting. For the imperfect
dress in which an important event is handed down cannot
satisfy every one and for ever ; and the lively imagination of
the relator and auditor, rather than leave it so bare, will
endeavour to supply the missing details. But when it is no
longer possible to complete the story by referring to the original
authority, it is left to the imagination of the relator to fill in
the attendant circumstances ; and this is one main source of
that discrepancy which is a characteristic of tradition. Trivial
16 THE STORY AXD ITS FOUNDATION.
variations of tliis sort are easily found tlirongliout the tradi-
tional portions of the Bible ; but nothing- so well shows the
extent to which they may run, as the fact that a story, essen-
tially the same and sprung- from one occurrence, is multiplied,
by successive changes in the details, into two or more discordant
narratives, which, being produced in different places and then
subsequently brought together, finally appear as so many dif-
ferent events, and as such are placed beside one another in a
book. This happened oftenest, of course, in such stories as
were most frequently repeated on account of their popular
subject ; as in a beautiful tradition of David's youth (1 Sam.
xxiv. and xxvi.), and still more markedly in a favourite tradi-
tion of the Patriarchal time, which is now preserved in three
forms (Gen. xii. 10-20, xx. and xxvi. 7-11). The same thing
is also met with under similar circumstances in far later times. ^
But the spirit of the event — the imperishable and permanent
truth contained in it which sinks deeper into the mind the more
frequently it is repeated, and, through countless variations in
its reproductions, always beams forth like a bright ray — that
spirit gains even greater purity and freedom, like the sun rising
out of the mists of the morning. We m-ay indeed say that in
this respect tradition, dropping or holding loosely the more
evanescent parts, but preserving the permanent basis of the
story the more tenaciously, performs in its sphere the same
purification which time works on all earthly things ; and the
venerable forms of history, so far from being disfigured or de-
faced by tradition, come forth from its laboratory born again in
a purer light.
2) The memory, however, always tries to lighten its labour.
Therefore when, in the constant progress of events, new stories,
more important than all that went before, come crowding on
out of the recent present, the circle of the older traditions
gradually contracts, and if the accumulation of later matter is
very great, contracts so as at length to leave hardly anything
of the remoter times but isolated and scanty reminiscences.
Thus tradition has also a tendency to suffer the mass of its
records to be more and more compressed and melted away,
obscured and lost. This may be traced throughout the Old
Testament ; the Hebrew tradition about the earliest times — the
main features of which, as we have it, were fixed in the interval
' Tho two nan-atives in Acts v. 19-26 of the sun standing still is made to occur
and xii. 4-11 have such a rcscmlihinco. twice, and is expressly empjiasised as
In tlio Samarifav Chronicle (chap. xx. having so occiirrod.
and foll.,cf. xxix. p. 118, Msc.) the miracle
TRADITION. 17
from the fourth to the sixth century after Moses — still has a
great deal to tell about Moses and his contemporaries ; much
less about the long sojourn in Egy|)t, and the three Patriarchs ;
and almost nothing special about the primitive times which
preceded these Patriarchs, when neither the nation, nor even
its ' fathers,' were yet in Canaan. So, too, the Books of Samuel
relate many particvilars of David's later life j)ä.ssed in the
splendour of royalty, but less about his youth before he was
king. And everything might be thus traced by stages.
But because this tendency of tradition would in the course of
centuries produce its total dissipation, perhaps with the excep-
tion of an obscure memory of some very signal events, therefore
it all the more seeks some external support to sustain and
perpetuate itself. The most natural aids of the memory in all
ages, are signs ; even our letters of the alphabet and books
are originally nothing more, and it is only subsequently that
they became, by a new art, the means of speaking to those at
a distance. But whereas in later times, when writing has got
into daily use, this single means becomes universally available,
and makes all other auxiliaries less necessary, we have here to
conceive times in which writing was used but little or not at all
■ — in which therefore tradition, if once subjected to this tendency
to lose its records, fades away more and more irresistibly, and
is obliged to have recourse to all j)ossible aids to preserve itself
from destruction. Of these aids in general there are three
kinds, in the following order :
a.) There are recollections which, on account of their peculiar
form or power, serve as supports of tradition, and which,
although themselves propagated by the memory, afford the
memory an abiding aid for preserving history. Songs have
this capability in a preeminent degree ; and while the charm of
their diction secures their own more lasting transmission, the
artistic fetters of their form preserve their contents more unal-
terably than prose can do. But great events beget a multi-
tude of songs, since the elevation of mind which they produce
awakens poets, or calls forth an emulation to celebrate memo-
rable incidents ; and the earliest kind of poetry, the lyrical,
springs so immediately from the events and thoughts which
agitate an age, that it reproduces the freshest and triiest
pictures of them. Moreover, the Hebrews and Arabs were just
the peoples among whom every important event and every time
of excitement at once generated a multitude of songs, and who
retained a preference for this simple kind of poetry in the later
stages of their civilisation. Songs therefore became a chief
VOL. I.
18 THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION.
support of tradition ; tbey preserved many historical traits,
wliicli otherwise would liave been lost ; just as, conversely, the
historical allusions, of which sont^s are full, subsequently de-
manded explanation when the favourite verses were separated.
The propagation of songs and traditions thus went hand-in-
hand, and each could reciprocally illustrate the other ; but at
every step tradition felt that the best vouchers it could produce
were citations from songs. How very much this applies not
only to Arabian, but also to Hebrew tradition, this work will so
frequently prove, especially in its earlier parts, that it is super-
fluous to cite particular illustrations here ; but how decidedly
antiquity, down to the time of David, regarded songs as one of
the best auxiliaries of the memory, is shown by the story of
David's providing for the publication and transmission of his
dirge on Saul and Jonathan, by causing the sons of Judah to
learn it correctly by heart,' which would be equivalent to sending
it to the press in our days.
Proverbs which have an historical origin afford a similar sup-
port to tradition. For genuine jjopular proverbs, wliicli have
sprung from memorable events, do not always contain proposi-
tions of naked truth, but often allude to the incident which gave
them birth; and as they thus require bistory for their own
intelligibility, they preserve many historical reminiscences which
would otherwise be lost. That Hebrew tradition — in this resjject
also like that of the Arabs — leans especially on these supports,
is evident from cases like Gen. x. 9 and 1 Sam.x. 11. (cf. xix. 24),
where the proverb is cited. Some cases of this sort, however,
require close observation to detect them in the present form of
the narrative : thus the stories of Gideon and Jephthah (Judges
vi.-viii., xii.) would not by any means have been preserved so
completely, if they had not been sustained by a number of
proverbs. Occasionally even a new story has been formed, by
later development, out of a proverbial phrase about a remark-
able incident of antiquity ; of which the passage in Judges vi.
36-40 is a striking example.
To these we must add many i^roper names of ancient persons
and places, the meaning and interpretation of which serve as a
' This appears to bo the meaning of scription must belong to the original
nt<*p.> 2 Sam. i. 18; for that it means Davidie portion of this Psalm. The ex-
• bow,' .and thus bcciimc a casual name of pressions in Deut. xxxi. 19 it scq. are, on
the song, is liighly improb.able from the the other hand, coloured by the Deutero-
mero connection in which it occurs; it "omist's special object, but may still
must stand for the Aramaic t^j^^p, and sig- e^i^^e the value attached in antiquity to
nify ' rightly, correctly.' There is similar ln^torical popular songs,
evidence in Ps. Lx. 1 [title], which super-
TRADITION. 19
support of tradition. For it cannot be doubted tliat proper
names liad their ultimate origin in actual experience of the
thing stated, and therefore often changed and multiplied with
new experiences : whereas in later times, which stand further
from the living formation of language, and exercise their in-
tellect in other directions, they lose their original signification
more and more, and are propagated by mere repetition. Now
the times in which tradition develops itself freely, border on the
period of the living formation of language, and the flames of
things have not yet become mere external means of mutual in-
telligence (as they have amongst us) ; on the contrary, they
still mean something of themselves, and have some life of their
own, an intrinsic connection between the sense and the thing
signified being felt or assumed. Thus, then, the whole historical
significance of a hero lives on in tradition together with his
name, and with the name of an ancient place is associated the
memory of its origin or history. And as all names, especially
those from remote times, aj)peal to tradition for their interpre-
tation, they preserve many recollections connected with them.
The memory of Isaac, for instance, is in part preserved by his
being the ' laugher,' or the ' gentle,' as his name imports, or his
having something to do with laughter ; Jacob ' the cunning,' and
Israel ' the wrestler with God,' also appear so characterised in
tradition, and all books which describe the period before the
Kings are full of such explanations of names. On the other
hand, the four Books of the Kings explain many names of places,'
as these might more easily be given afresh in later times ; but
only a single personal name, that of Samuel, at the beginning
of the history, where the style is antique.^ In the Books of
Ezra and Nehemiah nothing of the kind an}- longer occurs.
But all these supports, which after all are themselves sup-
ported only by the memory, only avail up to a certain j)oint.
For the ancient songs may perish, and the historical allusions
which they contain become obscure, when far removed from the
present, and when new songs and stories have become popular.
The exact import of an event which gave birth to a proverb
may be forgotten, so that later times may explain the origin
of the proverb in diverse ways.^ Proper names also are capable
of so many meanings as to the mere literal sense, that, as soon
' 1 Sam. vii. 12; 2 Sam. v. 20; cf. 2 24 shows; likewise the frequent disputes
Chron.xx.26, from thetimeof Jehoshaphat. of the Arabian traditionists and comnn-n-
- 1 Sam. i. 20 ; cf. 28. tators about the meaning of their cxceod-
' As the proverb in 1 Sam. x. 11 and xix. ingly numerous ancient proverbs.
c 2
20 THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATIOX.
as the historical memoi'y grows faint, tradition may treat them
very variously.' The early Hebrew tradition is, indeed, parti-
cularly fond of explaining proper names ; but this — as will be
subsequently shown — is to be ascribed to a later desire to in-
vestigate the origins of things. It is not surprising, therefore,
that this artificial explanation of names becomes prevalent in
the later historical writings f but as the scientific explanation
of words was unknown to the whole of antiquity, tradition
always had the freest play in this respect.
How much such simple supports can achieve, even unaided by
others, is shown by Arabian tradition, which as that of a nomad
people, knows hardly any others. It is wonderful to see what
enormous masses of ancient songs, proverbs, genealogies, and
histories, gifted Arabs repeated from memory in the first
period after Mohammed ; ^ for the memory, Avhen left to its own
unaided resources, often develops an astonishing power. But
immense as was the mass of these reminiscences, and often
painted in the truest and most living colours, when they began
to attract the notice of Chalifs and Emirs, and to be written
down, they evidently reached back only a few centuries before
Mohammed ; any older ones that were preserved among them
were very fragmentary, and devoid of all exact estimate of
chronology. No record, therefore, that is entrusted to the mere
memory, embraces more than a limited period : this cannot be
more forcibly evinced than by the example of the Arabs, who
were second to no people in pride and passion for glory, and
probably surpassed most in strength of memory.
b.) Tradition derives another kind of support from the visible
•monuments of ancient history, such as altars, temples, and
similar memorials, which, although not designed for that
end, become witnesses to posterity of former great events and
thoughts ; or such as are purposely erected for memorials, as
columns and other such works, often on a gigantic scale, of times
destitute of heroic songs or other refined means of perpetuating
memory. Now it is undeniable that, when tradition developed
itself to its present forms, such monuments existed in Palestine,
' The various explanations of the name ^ This is thoronglily confirmed by the
of /Ärtfvc suffice to prove this. Kifäh aJaghäni; we need not go beyond
'^ Namely in the prophetic narrators of the portions already printed, especially the
the early history, as I call them. Here, section about the traditionist Hanwiäd.
liowever, certain prophets of very early The Arabs, about whom we possess such
date had preceded them with vivid allu- minute and reliable information, may be
sions to the meaning of proper names, regarded as model illustrations of this
as that old prophet whose words Isaiah point,
repeats (Is. xv. 8 it seq.), and Hosea xii.
4, 12 [3, 11].
TRADITION. 21
and, altlioiigli not so great and durable as those of Egypt,
were by no means few. Even in times belong-ing to the broad
day of history, we read of monuments erected as memorials for
posterity ; and of some, in the erection of which those who had
no historical claims to them had a pride.' We likewise read of
altars, or similar objects, serving as memorials of their builders
or the first inhabitants.^ Beyond doubt, similar things happened
in the time of the Patriarchs : whenever the narrative refers to
altars or other monuments erected by them, a real monument
was extant, which either actually belonged to the primitive time,
or to which some definite memory was attached. Some of these,
as the sepulchral cavern of Abraham at Hebron, Jacob's stone
at Bethel, and the boundary-stone erected by him and Laban at
Gilead,^ are of such importance that a great portion of the
tradition turns on them.
These external supports are of course much more durable
than those first described ; and there is no doubt that whenever
Hebrew tradition has preserved any considerable reminiscences
of times several centuries anterior, it has mainly been owing to
the erection of monuments, the history of which was treasured
in the memory of a proud posterity. Later ages even were
proud to show extraordinary relics of conquered foes.* In a
country, indeed, and at a period when such monuments were
left without inscriptions (as we shall show to have been the
case constantly, at least in the Patriarchal times), even these
supports are not always adequate, as the stories to which they
relate may gradually become obscure, although the same nation
remains in the land ; but they secure tradition from this danger
much longer than the first kind of supports.
c.) The firmest support of tradition, beyond doubt, is a great
institution, which has sprung from an historical event, and has
fixed itself in the whole people : such as an annually recurring
festival, which cannot pass without recalling the great inci-
' Samuel commemorates the great vie- under the pretence of making himself a
tory over the Philistines, which was fol- name to supply • the place of cliildren
lowed by a long and honourable peace, by (2 8ara. xviii. 18). Such a monument is
a monum.ent on the field of battle, called called Q^, or specially ^♦, 'hand;' that
' the Stone of Help '—that is, of victory— jg_ .^^ elevated index to attract the atten-
and from which the neighbouring country ^.j^^,^ ^f jj^^ passers-by. (Is. Ivi. 5, xix. 19,
derived its name (1 Sam. vii. 12; cf. iv. 1). . ^zek. xxi. 24 [19].)
So Saul, on his return from a victory , ^ ^.^^_ ^,- ^^ . ^ Sam. xxiv. 18, sqq.;
over Amalek, near Carmel, on the west of ^f Judges, vi. 2-1 sqq., xxi. 4.
the Dead Sea, erects a monument which "s q^^ ^^^j ^^ ''
detains iiira there some time (1 Sam. xv. , Like the iron 'bed of the ancient giant
12); so also David after his victory over ^- -^^ j^^^^ ^j^^ j^^^ ^^ Ammon.
the Syrians (2 Sam. viii. 13). Absalom /jjj^^ iii. 11.)
also prematurely desires this honour
22 THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION.
dent to wliicli it owes either its origin, or at least some of its
attendant ceremonies. Nothing perhaps so fixed the memory
of the deliverance from Egypt in the popular mind, as the fact
that the Passover served as a commemoration of that event ;
and certain expressions distinctly indicate how the memory of
it was at this festival handed down from father to son.^ To
a still greater degree was the memory of the institution of the
community and of the encampment at Sinai sustained by the
permanence of the community itself and the consciousness of
its nature. Obliterated as the details may be, the essence and
basis of historical recollections such as these can perish only
with the institutions that have sprung from them : and nations
that have early had lofty aims, and achieved much, never entirely
lose that higher historical consciousness on which much of their
best strength is founded.
8) Now however many subjects the memory be supposed to
retain, and however faithfully their particulars be preserved,
yet it cannot possibly hold this huge mass in exact historical
connection, having already enough to do with mastering the
multifarious contents of the stories, and being moreover called
upon only when an occasion demands the repetition of a parti-
cular tradition out of the immense store. Tradition, therefore,
will retain the original historical connection and order of the
incidents only so long and so far as it can do so easily ; but is
prone to let the materials fall asunder, and so become confused
and intermixed. This affects first the particulars of one circle
of stories of the same period, then the different circles, and so
on ; until at length nothing remains of distant times but single
great ruins, which stand out on a plain of desolation, and resist
decay. And because tradition is careless of the close cohe-
rence of its materials, its circle is always open to the intrusion
of foreign elements.
This very tendency, however, provokes a counteraction : for
if tradition were alwaj'S to suffer its records to become obscure
and fragmentary, it would at length have great difficulty in
performing its own proper function. As the mind cannot be
satisfied with what is unconnected and obscure, tradition also
endeavours at length to repair and complete whatever has
become too isolated and obscure in its province ; and just where
it has been most lacerated and obscured, it makes the greatest
' What is incidentally mentioned in Deuteronomy enforces this direction much
Exod. xiii. 8-10, 14-16, as a direction for more frequently and pointedly, as if it had
the future, was undoubtetUy something been necessary, in the time of its compo-
moro than that in the time of the author, sition, to resist a growing indiflfercnee.
TRADITIOX. 23
efforts to close up tlie rents and round itself off, or even to fill
up the gaps from conjecture, inasmuch as it always aims at
being the counterpart of real history. This effort, indeed, also
affects the naiTation of events, since it v^ill not hesitate to fill
up a gap with any such transition, or minor interpolation, as
the context may seem to require. This prevails most in cases
in which the necessity is urgent ; especially :
a.) In the lists of the names of persons. For later times may,
indeed, preserve but few of the most important names of the
many heroes which were the theme of young tradition ; but
these, from the indispensable necessity of genealogical lists, are
maintained all the more firmly. Among nations which pay the
most zealous regard to the purity and glory of every family,
like the Hebrews and Arabs, the exactest and most compre-
hensive genealogies constitute one of the chief elements of tra-
dition. And though after Moses the individuality and special
j)rominence of families in Israel was subordinate to the higher
whole, yet on the other hand the importance of the hereditary
estates and privileges apj)ertaining to families formed an addi-
tional motive for still considering exact genealogical lists indis-
pensable.' But it was evidently too difiicult to preserve all
names in the lists referring to remote times ; and when, in the
further development of tradition, an attempt was made to carry
back the series of generations in the ascending line to the first
generations of the earth, many names were undoubtedly found
standing very isolated. We are still able to discern the means
that Hebrew tradition adopted in order to bring the disjointed
parts into closer coherence, and to control such large masses
of names. For the times from the Patriarchs down to Moses,
or even to David, tradition was satisfied with one member of
the genealogical series for a whole century, even though in
so doing many less celebrated names of the chain were irre-
parably lost. Thus the sojourn in Egypt, which is reckoned
at 430 years, has the four or five members of the tribe of
Levi (Levi, Kohath, Amram, Aaron (Moses), and Eleazar) to
correspond to it ; ^ and the five members of the tribe of Judah '
(Pharez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, and Nahshon). Of kindred
' Compare Ezra ii. 62, Neh. vii. 64, as And it was the same with the ancient
evidence of the latest times. The ancient Indians : see Max Mü/Ier's History of
AraVjs, down even to the first times of Anc. Sanskr. Lit. p. 378, et sqq.
Islam, had experienced and renowned ^ Exod. vi. 16-25.
^ Ruth iv. 18-20, compared with Num.
genealogists, .,»jL.^'\ (^awi«««, p. 123), i. 7. The correct explanation of this is
from whose recollections a special branch f^imd in Gen. xv. 16, compared with verso
of literature, pedigree-tracing, grew up. 13.
24 ' THE STORY AXD ITS FOUNDATION.
nature to tliis is tlie tendency wliicli tradition has to fix npon
a definite round number of members of a genealogical series
for a long period, in order to prevent one of the scattered
names from being lost. Ten members, each corresponding to
about a century, are thus reckoned for the long interval from
the Patriarchs to David — the ten parting in the middle into two
equal halves, at the great era of Moses ; ' whereas we are able,
from other sources, to show that more than twice as many
members were formerly reckoned for this very period.^ But as
ten generations were gradually assumed as an adequate round
number for the period from Jacob's twelve sons to David, so
likewise tradition used the same number to fill up the interval
from Noah's sons to Abraham's father, and, farther back still,
that from Noah to Adam ; ^ although this assumption required
more than a century to correspond to a single member. Further,
the remoter the times are, the more does tradition confine itself
to the exact coherence of the series of the chief families, and
neglect all but the indispensable part of the others. But when-
ever a knot occurs in the line — the commencement of a new
epoch, whence diverge a multitude of new celebrated families
or nations — tradition was prone to set up three equally pri-
vileged brothers instead of the usual single members. Thus
three sons, Gershom, Kohath, and Merari, proceed from Levi;
three, Abraham, Nahor, and Haran, from Terah, who concludes
the decad ; and three, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from Noah,
the tenth forefather. The pattern of this, however, has not
been derived from the three great families of Levi, as will be
shown below. Further, after the knot, the line of the chief
family is carried on in the firstborn in the case of Noah and of
Terah, but not in that of Levi, where Aaron descends from the
second of the three ; for as individuals, the descendants of Levi
are much more strictly historical personages than those of Terah
and Noah.
The case is the same with regard to numbers, which tradition
is least of all able to hand down with exactness. Here also,
as it is always the counterpart of real history, it endeavours to
fill up gaps by definite assertions ; and in so doing does not
' Ruth iv. 18-22. tho number 10 was roducod to 7 is shown
^ We lind, namely, in 1 Chron. vi. 7-13 not only by the case of Gen. c. iv. com-
[22-28] and 18-23 [33-38], two evidently pared with v., but also by that of a still
very old traditions, according to which later period in Neh. xii. 35 compared with
there were twenty-two generations between 1 Chron. xxv. 2, where from the time of
Levi and David. Asaph to that of Nehemiah there appear
^ Gen. xi. 10-26, and v., concerning only 7.
which we sliall speak subsequently. That
TRADITION, 25
necessarily go far wi'ong", provided it still retains a glimmering
conscionsncss of the distinctions of thinofs and times. For,
whether a state lasted a short or a long- time, whether a hero
died in youth or old age, whether many or few fell in a memo-
rable battle, are points on which tradition easily retains some
consciousness. All that tradition does, then, is, that instead of
vague statements, it gives a roughly estimated definite number,
since its inmost imj)ulse forbids it to give up the distinctness
of actual life. It is thus that Hebrew tradition has certain
favourite round numbers (as 3, 7, 10, 40), of which it makes the
freest use, either in these original forms, or else reduced, in-
creased, or even multiplied, as the case requires. How far tra-
dition succeeds in thus restoring a coherent chronology in the
main, may be best shown further on from the BooJc of Judges,
and still more distinctly and comprehensively from the Book of
Origins. Ancient Hebrew tradition, however, in accordance
with the religious sobriety of the nation, has always been much
more temperate in this use of numbers than that of the Indians,
which makes them the sport of the freest fancy.
b.) Tradition is less liable to confuse different periods, as a
certain feeling of the wide separation of the ancient from the
more recent, as also of the essential character of long periods,
generally becomes so firmly fixed as rather to modify the stories
of individuals in distant times in conformity to the general
view of the whole epoch than vice versa. If tradition desires
to arrange and classify the immense mass of reminiscences
and stories of distant times, it fixes on a suitable number and
scale of divisions and periods, with their distinctions, according
to which it disposes them all. Thus it assumes the scheme of
four great ages, embracing all generations of men and events
on earth, from the creation to the present ; which exhibits a
remarkable accordance with the four Yugas of the Indians,
and is to be ascribed to. many other conspiring causes besides
the mere power of tradition.
Nevertheless, such means cannot always secure the recollec-
tions of different cycles and ages from being gradually inter-
mixed and confused. Thus, for example, some achievements
are ascribed to Samson, as the later and better-known hero,
the comj)lexion of which sends us back to the Patriarchal time.^
Still more easily does the imagination of tradition combine later
incidents with earlier, when they seem to have some intrinsic
• Judges XV. 17-19.
26 THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION.
connection, and the more recent appears to explain tlie older
and obscurer.^
c.) If witli tlie desire to collect tlie scattered legends a kind
of artistic skill is combined, then certain favourite modes of
piecing together and classifying the manifold and scattered
materials are developed — arts hardly known, however, to the
simplest forms of tradition, such as those of the ancient Arabs.
One of the first of these means is the accumulation of kindred
materials, and the combination of several stories of cognate
import.^ Next, tradition tries to gather the loose mass of
scattered stories, and group them in a round number around
the chief subject, so as to have them all together in one series
and under control. As the Greek tradition reduced the labours
of Hercules to a definite round number, so that of the Hebrews
arranges the whole story of Samson in round proportions. In
like manner the Fourth Narrator of the Pentateuch disposes the
Egyj^tian plagues, and reduces them to the number ten. To
this head also belongs the apt disposition of diverse legendary
materials, so as to correspond to an internal sequence : thus
the legend of Jonah consists of three or four short stories, in
harmonious sequence and bringing the story to a natural close.^
This last mode of combining traditional elements is very inge-
nious, and borders on the more artificial modes of restoring
history, which we need not here describe.
Z. As to its spirit or inner life, however, tradition rests less
in the understanding than in the imagination and feeling. An
extraordinary event affects the imagination so strongly that the
latter forms as extraordinary an image of it. This image may
be very true and striking, and at first, so long as the event
remains fresh in the memory, is exposed to no great abuse ;
but subsequently, when separated from its living reference, and
j)reserved as to its extraordinary outside only, may become the
fruitful source of misapprehensions ; of which we shall adduce
several examples farther on. Tradition, thus filling the imagi-
nation, penetrates very deeply into the mind, and occupies the
whole feeling, but remains stationary there without examin-
ing its own contents to their foundation, and expects, just as it
is, to sufiice for the instruction of the hearer, who receives it
in its simple meaning. It is at the same time possible that the
person who collects many traditions, may prefer those which
' As in the case of Josh. vi. 26, 1 Kings the explanations in the Jahrbuch der
xvi. 34. Bibl. Wissenschaft, 1848, p. 128, sqq.
* On this and other kindred topics, see ' Die Propheten des A. B., vol. ii. p. 557,
TRADITION. 27
are more agreeable or profitable in his own estimation, and thus
exercise a certain judgment on their contents. But so long as
the judgment does not embrace the whole subject, and seek
proofs extrinsic to all traditions, the peculiar power of tradition
still maintains its rights and its continuance.
This life of tradition produces special advantages. Taking
root in the narrow but deep realm of feeling, and never sustained
by the mere memory, but always by the sympathies of every
hearer, tradition becomes one of the most intellectual and in-
fluential possessions of man. Its lore, as yet undisturbed by
doubt, acts on the mind with so much greater force. A_nd
to any one who can fathom its whole meaning, and master it by
the right art, it offers an abundance of prophetical and poetical
materials ; since the world of feeling is also that of poetry, and
the doctrines which tradition may enshrine may, to the mind of
antiquity, be emphatically of the prophetic kind. The materials
of tradition, moreover, notwithstanding a certain uniformity,
are nevertheless so fluctuating (according to page 16 sq.), and
therefore so plastic, that the poet's art is little impeded by them ;
and the farther a cycle of tradition has advanced, up to a certain
stage, the more easily does it admit poetic treatment. And a
poetic breath does sensibly pervade the traditions of the Old
Testament ; and if, notwithstanding this, epic poetry has never
flourished on this field, this must be ascribed to special causes,
which lie beyond our province.'
But what lives chiefly in the feeling, shares its defects also.
Feeling is exceedingly difierent in individuals ; and therefore
the inner life of tradition assumes different forms with individual
relators, since their whole mental idiosyncrasies pass unobserved
into it. And as no great and permanent unity is ever produced
by the mere feeling, the historical import of tradition passes
through incalculable changes, and never attains a settled form.
These fluctuations will not indeed much affect the essential
spirit of a tradition, as described at page 16 sq., and for the
reason there indicated ; but may produce great varieties in the
conception of the same event.
Moreover, when, with altered times and circumstances, the
general views and opinions, which always exercise a great
influence on the feelings, have undergone a great change, then
tradition, laying aside more and more of its ancient dress, con-
forms itself to the later ideas, and displays even greater diversity
of conception than before. We can trace this in the Old
' See the Dichter des A. B., vol. i. p. 14, sq., 50, sqq.
28 THE STORV AND ITS FOUNDATIOX,
Testament, if we observe tlie diiferent forms wliicli the same
tradition assumes as it passes through different times and
countries. WHiereas, for instance, the two oldest Narrators of
the times before Moses in the Pentateuch have a distinct con-
sciousness of the difference of the state of things anterior and
subsequent to Moses, the later Narrators infuse into their de-
scription of the earlier times, a strong mixture of Mosaic ideas,
which in their time had penetrated much deeper into the
j)Oj)nlar mmd, whilst the exact recollection of the Premosaic
age and its different character began to grow dim. The intel-
lectual significance of the subject — that which interests the
feeling — is the element which least of all can be secured by
those aids and supports of tradition described at page 15 sqq.
3. But the final and crowning property of tradition is still
to be mentioned — that tradition only develops and fixes itself
originally in a narrow domestic circle. At any rate, the circle
of those who feel a lively interest in an event strongly affecting
the imagination, and also are zealous to preserve it by tradition,
will always be a narrow one at first. But in remote antiquity
every people really moved in such a narrow circle of life and
aim. We may therefore say that nationality is a last and very
important property of tradition. Like all possessions of a nation
on such a stage of civilisation, like its religion, its law, and its
view of the world, tradition is embraced by the strongest bonds
of nationality, and grows up with the people itself, with its
heroes and their antagonists, its joys and sorrows, its destinies
and experiences. For as a nation holds fast in tradition and
incorporates with its own spirit onlj- what appears worthy of
perpetual memory from its accordance with its own peculiar
life and aim, the best part of its knowledge of itself and of its
early-appointed destiny lives in tradition ; and as, in such
times, the religion of each people belongs to its nationality,
so their tradition is full of the meaning and life of their pe-
culiar religion. To this cause tradition owes its chief import-
ance : it is one of the most sacred and domestic possessions
of every people, its pride and its discijDline, an inexhaustible
source of instruction and admonition for every succeeding gene-
ration.
Now a noble people which has already passed through a
history pervaded by a certain elevation of j^urpose, will, by the
purifying influence of tradition (described at page 16), have
presented to it the great personages to whom it owes its eleva-
tion under even purer and more brilliant aspects, and find them
a source of perpetual delight. But in eases where the memory
TRADITION.
29
of such lofty examples has, by the lapse of centuries and in-
ternal changes, lost much of its original circumstantiality, and
distinctness, and only survives in a few grand isolated traits
this memory w^iJl generally become all the more plastic, assimi-
lating to itself the new great thoughts which now constitute
the aspiring people's aim, and, when thus ingeniously modified
through their influence, be born again into the beauty of a new
life. For we are also to take into account, that no aspirins peoijle
can dispense with ideals surj)assing the most favourable imao-e
of its actual life, in which it beholds the realisation of that
better state which it has in part achieved, in part has jet to
accomplish, and in which it sees its better self. And as the eye
that seeks that ideal, and finds it not in the present, sometimes
looks forward into the future, sometimes backward into the past,
some prophets will sternly rouse the people to a sense of their
shortcomings, and to the need of futm-e perfection ; but others
will look back with fervent longing to the solemn forms of anti-
quity, to strengthen themselves by their model greatness, and
to imagine how they would now act. Should one of the latter,
however, be versed in the old traditions, and filled with the
poetry that pervades them, he will easily remodel one of the
heroic forms of ancient time, and shape it to the advanced
higher requirements of his own age. When thus presented
anew in eloquent language, eager ears will listen to the story
and treasure up its beauties. Thus it is really the aspirins
national spirit which by these means preserves, secures, and
glorifies the old heroic traditions ; and accordingly even such
renovated traditions will be distinctl}" impressed with the pecu-
liar spirit of the nation : — of all of which we have the most
instructive examples in the Patriarchs.
Such excellent results are attainable when an enlightened
and com-ageous nation is steadily advancmg in everything good.
But when, on the other hand, depressing times supervene, in
which the nation retrogrades as much as it might have advanced,
the intellectual conception of its tradition also suffers, the jiro-
gress of its purification is interrupted, and its tone bears traces
of the disturbance of the national spirit. Even the glorious
forms which once elevated the heart are no longer compre-
hended in their pure majesty, but are misunderstood, or de-
graded to lower standards, or even forgotten.^ In the actual
' Let the reader only remember what have blindly followed him in this, have
the Talmud, for example, often makes of afterwards made of them, partly from want
the traditions of the Old Testament, or of comprehension, but still more from
what Mohammed and the Muslim, who hauteur or indolence. A main cause of
30 THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION.
life of a nation, indeed, there rarely is either pure advance or
pure retrogression of all the better powers and aspirations : a
people may advance in some directions, and lag behind in others.
Thus with the Fifth Author of the Pentateuch : while the image
of the Patriarchs and Moses is prophetically exalted, his view
of the national enemies betrays many signs of that ill-humour
which gradually arose as the relation between Israel and its
neighbours grew worse.
Always, then, and in ever}- way, tradition remains deeply
impressed and firmly held by the nationality, depends on it and
changes with it. It does not yet soar above its native earth
into the pure heaven of the universal history of all nations,
emancipated from the narrowness of a particular people. It is
evident, therefore, how useful it is to compare the stories of
different nations about the same event, especially when a tradi-
tion has passed through many stages in a nation. The com-
parison of different traditions preserved about an event in the
same people, however, often ensures a similar advantage, since
different portions of the nation may easily take different views
of the same thing.
Should foreign traditions, however, intrude into the circle of
a very extensive system of national tradition, they will never
acquire a firm position and life there, unless they adapt them-
selves to its dominant spirit, and are filled by its peculiar
manner; of which also we have a few examj)les in the Old
Testament. Nationality embraces and limits even the widest
circle of traditions, and cherishes nothing in its fostering bosom
but what proceeds from or assimilates with itself.
But if the case stands thus with the nationality of tradition,
and if the people of Israel acquired their peculiar position
among the other nations through nothing so much as tlu-ough
the circumstance that true religion got rooted in it with a
power and distinctness nowhere else beheld — one can under-
stand how it must have become in external form and dress, no
less than in substance and soul, something quite different to
what it became among the heathen. True religion, during the
whole course of its struggle for ascendancy, perpetually moulded
this people according to its own inner impulse and inextin-
guishable light. Accordingly tradition, already existent or
the internal rottenness of Isldin is the mudic stories inocuhited it, and that it is
fact that it has never been able to oman- doomed by its very origin to remain uii-
cipatc itself from the lifek-ss and perverse historical for ever,
view of antiquity with which such Tal-
TOADITION. 31
newly -bom, was shaped pliantly and obediently by tlie peculiar
spirit of the religion ; the result of which is that no other na-
tional and antique traditions ever dived so deep into the life of
true religion as these. As already remarked on i^age 14, the
Hebrew tradition possesses a vivid sense for truth and fidelity,
for sobriety and modesty, and an aversion to everything immo-
derate, vain, and frivolous, by virtue of which it may be re-
garded as the diametrical opposite of all heathen, and especially
of the Egyptian and Indian traditions. Of course, even among
this people, it shaped itself very differently, according to
varieties of time and place. Where, in the many centuries of
this nation's history, the true religion raises itself highest and
most freely, there we constantly see tradition produce a glorious
reflected image of the religion, though varying according as tra-
dition has more or less power, and clothed in the most diverse
colours. And tradition is indeed constantly working, even
down into the New Testament history ; and with what sublime
simplicity and trueheartedness, conjoined with what faithfulness
and love of truth ! But when the true religion is seriously or
lastingly obscured, as in the historj^ of the kingdom of the Ten
Tribes, or later among the Hellenists, then the tradition also
becomes more fragmentary, obscure, monstrous, and wild. But
amongst the people of Israel the substance of tradition must
continually overflow, not only with the general spirit, but also
with the most distinct concej)tions and views of true religion.
Many of the profoundest reminiscences of the events and
thoughts in which the true religion was revealed, are preserved
by it most faithfully and imperishably. But also not a few of
the subhmest thoughts, which could only arise from the actually
experienced and completed life of distinct ages of the true reli-
gion, were transformed into stories of a lofty kind, through the
endeavour to retain these thoughts by giving them a lively
historical form ; and thus, by passing from mouth to mouth,
they became one of the richest and most varied elements of
tradition. Of such importance, even to religion itself, was
tradition in this nation.
II. If this is indeed the essence of tradition, then one can
readily understand further, that when once arisen, and become
so im^jortant a part of the entire mental treasures of a people,
it should also have a life and significance of its own, and may
even go through a series of various stages of development.
Even when it issues immediately from simi)le narrative, it
passes incessantly through infinite changes, but never returns
32 THE STORY AXD ITS FOUXDATIOX.
to its own foundation. Tlie best way of surveying the modes
of its changes, and the other impulses and mental capabilities
which at length associate themselves with it, is to observe the
three stages of its j^ossible progress.
1. Every great event soon finds a suitable style of narrative
to perpetuate itself in. The first vagueness of the impressions
disappears, the recollection grows distinct, and an accordant
and prevalent mode of relating the event begins to be formed.
Now as the story thus arises from the immediate experience of
a memorable event, it was quite as possible in those ancient
times as in ours, for it to be the most graphic and vivid coun-
terpai-t of the event ; indeed this was more possible then than
now, since antiquity had a youthful susceptibility for strong
and true impressions. The Old Testament contains passages
which evidently come very near this primitive style of narra-
tive. Accounts like that in Judges ix., or those about the
great scene in David's life in 2 Sam. xiii.-xx., present such
graphic pictures of that period, drawn on so real a backgi'ound,
that we can completely transport ourselves to the times in all
their circumstances, without feeling anything worth notice to
mar our vivid sense of the actual events. Graphic simplicity of
relation is a characteristic excellence of antiquity, which narra-
tive, even after it has passed through the stages we are about to
describe, gladly reassumes. For when the whole national life
was more compact, and in its naiTOw^er circle more hearty, the
observation and narration of the smallest circumstance had its
value and its charm. And as nothing but the complete picture
of the entire background and concomitant circumstances of
an event can represent its whole truth, narrative develops
that lifelike picturesqueness and that naive and enchanting
simplicity which later ages either reject, because their style
only gives prominence to the main features, and therefore has
less life and soul, or are only able to produce by new poetic
art and imitation. The Old Testament has a wealth of sucli
narratives, which, without pretending to be so, are artistic in
the best sense of the term, and, like the verses of the Iliad,
have the stamp of eternal grace and life. Without looking
further for examples, we may refer to the Booh of Origin«,
which clothes its driest subjects with unsurpassable grace, and
makes of the smallest story a living picture. And after this
ancient mode of simple faithful story had become typical
through the Pentateuch and other sacred wi'itings, how won-
derfully it was renewed in a late age in the First Book of
Maccabees, and finally, growing wondrously with the unrivalled
TRADITIOX. 33
sublimity of the subject itself, in the first three Gospels, and a
g-ren-t portion of the Acts of the Apostles !
Tradition is most beantifully developed in this simple style,
when the eminent person or period which forms its subject,
though already removed to some distance, so that the purifica-
tion above described has commenced, and the subject already
begun to display its true greatness more freely, is still regarded
with undiminished interest as one of the last grand incidents
of a past era, and is therefore still preserved more completely.
As the heroic deeds of the Samnite and still more of the Punic
wars, although then remote, could still be brought to life again
in all Roman hearts at the time of Livy; so likewise when the
Books of Samuel (or rather the ancient Book of Kings) were
written, the majestic forms of Samuel and David were not too
far removed, but were only just raised above the misappre-
ciation of their own time, and sustained by tradition in the
pure light that belonged to them. Hence no portion of the
history of the Old Testament produces comparatively so satis-
factory an effect on the historical encj[uirer as this does ; for
here we see the whole reality and truth of a great human scene
peep out behind the tradition, and discern historical greatness
surrounded by all the fetters and limitations of its temporal
conditions.
This first and simplest stage is that at which the ancient
Arabian tradition has, in the main, remained stationary, and
Avhich we can therefore most thoroughly comprehend by stud}'-
ing it on Arabian ground. When it attracted the attention of
the great, and the best traditionists, sought out from all parts
and honoured, revived the enormous mass of reminiscences
which writing soon attempted to perpetuate, the best achieve-
ments of Islam were already done ; but they had roused the
national consciousness, and" excited all the greater desire to
look back into the antiquity that was daily growing more dim.
We know cei^fcainly that they did not set to work in this with-
out foresight. The most talented and reliable relators were
preferred, who appealed, on events of which they were not them-
selves eyewitnesses, to others as authorities, often adducing a
long series of them. And as the field of the traditions was
immense, and those who wished to hear them, or to have them
written down, generally lived very far from the interior of
Arabia, in consequence of the wide diffusion of Islam, this
citation of the authorities was transferred in all its prolixity
into the oldest historical books. Now although Hebrew history
does not adopt this custom of textually incorporating these
VOL. I. D
34 THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION.
autliorities for the oral tradition, • yet there can be no doubt tliat
the Hebrews paid great attention to the question whether a
tradition was derived from a good authority or not ; for though
tradition never examines its own foundation, it may neverthe-
less discriminate very well within its own limits, and be on its
guard against too gross misrepresentations.
But if the effort to collect and survey tradition gains ascen-
dancy at a period, and in a people, disposed to poetic art, then
that poetic and prophetic spirit will manifest itself, which, we
said above (p. 27), is latent in tradition, and therefore only
waits for the most favourable opportunity to start forth. There
must indeed first be a narrator who is capable of thus treating
traditionary materials, and whose example may teach others.
Should there be such a one, he may cast a seasonable glance
from above downward, and, while speaking of an early time,
refer prophetically to a later one, the results of which he intends
to explain, and thereby link the different materials so much
the more closely together. In this case there must of course be
an intrinsic connection between the things themselves ; and the
traditionist, gifted with proplietic insight, then only combines
matters which, although separated by wide intervals, have an
internal nexus. But tradition, when, under the hand of a skilful
master, it assumes this higher form and order, ^^asses unmis-
takably into a new semi-artificial stage ; and we must regard
this as the germ of epic poetry. The fulfilment of that which,
in the prophetic survey, had been briefly foreshadowed at the
beginning, must at length come ; and a period full of prophetic
truths may most easily inspire into the dead bones of ancient
tradition this breath of prophetically poetic art. Ancient
Hebrew tradition remained stationar}»^ at this strictly j)rophetic
rudiment of a certain kind of epic poetry. A signal specimen
of it is found in Genesis xvii., where the description of a
solemn moment in the life of Abraham foreshadows the whole
history of Moses and David.
When this superadded artistic tendency is further developed,
the traditionist will often try — quite in dramatic fashion — to tie
a knot at the commencement, and then to unloose it pleasurably
' The Asänicl (in the siiiguhir, Isnad), v,-\de dispersion of the fii-st Muslims.
■which occupy such a hirge space in the While their achievements extended over
oldest historical books, and which only the whole world, and generated an infinite
later writers venture gradually to omit, supply of matter for narration, the num-
The cause why the Arabs stand alone ber of talented relators was so much i-e-
in this respect is to be sought (without duced by their bloody wars, that a stricter
excluding tlieir general sobriety of mind, attention was very early paid to the per-
cxisfing by the side of a tendency to occa- sonal guarantees of a story,
sional cxiiggcralion) in the enormously
TRADITION. sr»
antl satisfactorily in following the course of tlie narrative. For
Avlien the nan-ator is about to relate a long series of stories
concerning an eventful time, their varied and scattered images
ürst come before him condensed into one thought, and he is
prone, as he surveys the entire sequel in his mind, to let that
thought start forth at the very beginning, which all the sub-
sequent stories as they are unfolded will thoroughly confirm.
Such a mysterious beginning, by giving a brief summary and
presentiment of the grand result, rivets the attention more
forcibly, and forms a frame in which all the subsequent scenes,
down to the foreknown necessary catastrophe, can be tranquilly
exhibited. The present books are full of such genuine epic
plots ^ — more, indeed, in the later and more artificial literature
than in the older, but in both manifestly prompted by the mode
in which the oral tradition itself was delivered by a series of
slcilful narrators.
In these sometimes poetical, sometimes prophetical, attempts
to round off and skilfully dispose a series of connected traditions,
the freedom required to treat the traditionary material is so
variously developed, that we may justly regard it as forming a
transition to the next great change in this province.
2. For as soon as new and yet already concluded events of
surprising greatness, and stories that rival antiquity attract the
most attention, or the ancient traditions are thrown aside merely
from lapse of time and change of the nation's condition or abode —
then this first, and, in its degree, very finished form of the simple
tradition inevitably changes. The overflowing abundance of the
old stories, with the exact memory of the temporal and local con-
ditions of the ancient events, will be more and more washed away
by the stream of new ones. And if even at an earlier stage the
simple tradition carried on its function of purification and elimi-
nation in a quiet way, now a severer struggle arises between
the cycle of ancient stories and that of the more attractive new
ones, in which the purification and classification of tradition
spoken of above (pp. 16, 28) is carried on by the strongest means
to its extreme limits. Whatever comes off victorious out of
this struggle must, first, have been so ineffaceably ingrained
in the mind of the people that it never can be lost again : some
imperishable truth or elevating recollection must have been
attached to it, which cannot now be permanently divorced from
it, and the province of tradition must therefore have in some
' Like 1 Sam. ii. 27-86; Gon. xv. 13- 1-12. From still later times we have
16 ; Ex. iii. 12-22. There is niueh rosem- 1 Kings xiii. and other passages, of which
Llance also in the passage in 1 Sam. xvi. we will speak further on.
D 2
36 THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION.
resj)ects already become arclietypal and sacred. Secondly, it
may be tliat tliese few iudestruetibie reminiscences are saved
out of tliat severe clearance, as sublimated images of a miglity
past — a few names, and the events connected with them standing
out in these different later times as Avitnesses of a hoary an-
tiquity, like solitary granite rocks on a wide plain : but the
extreme rarity and dilapidation of these few great remains of
earlier tradition render it especially difficult to tell the stories
over again, since tradition, so long as any real life remains in it,
cannot long rest satisfied with such meagre and dry materials,
but will again try to put ncAV life into them.
A new phenomenon may then possibly arise to overcome this
difficulty. After the storms of time have passed over such a
field of tradition, and it may have long lain forgotten and deso-
late in the period of transition, the nation is awakened to a
sense of the majesty and sanctity of its ancestors ; and the relics
of the early tradition are in a manner resuscitated, the old tra-
dition comes out of the grave with new and more splendid
power, the simple tradition is horn again and remodelled by
art. It is not in general difficult to discern how this remodel-
ling proceeds. The principal thought itself, which was preserved
as the indestructible ground of a province of tradition, or as its
permanent idea, is now used to cement together all the still
extant parts. Whatever they contain that does not harmonise
with it, is neglected and rejected in proportion as the fragments
are reunited in a firm and beautiful body. Tradition, when
gathering up scattered stories into a comprehensive system, is
prone (according to p. 34) to seize upon one prominent truth,
and to find that truth in all particulars. The same is only
more necessary here. And the delineation of all the particulars,
which has now to be adopted, naturally takes the same tone as
the tradition itself (according to p. 82), and may therefore easily
be as graphic and charming as the latter. But because this
reanimation of the whole and of the parts proceeds from a
narrator and remodeller, whose warmest sympathies are for his
own time, and who revives the old tradition mainly for the sake
of his own time ; later ideas are sure to mix themselves, more
or less unobserved, in the description, and the peculiar spirit of
the age and religion of such a remodeller can never be dis-
sembled. Thus a multitude of genuine Mosaic ideas and truths
have penetrated into the Hebrew tradition about the primeval
age, and sometimes even look quite natural there.
For tradition is essentially a very plastic material, every one
conceiving and representing it in his ovvai fashion : a gifted
TRADITrOX. 37
person, therefore, can with freedom reproduce it with mnch
more beavity than he received it, without much altering its
basis. But it is most plastic when it has reached the advanced
stage of which we here speak : when it has gradually laid aside
all temporal fetters, and in its ruins only hands down a few
lofty images of antiquity as so many pure thoughts, then it not
only requires the most artistic and poetical narrators to reani-
mate it (ordinary ones being then inadecpiate to this work), but
it must allow them much greater freedom than is permitted in
the first stage, since without that the very object of reanimation
would not be attained. Here, therefore, tradition allies itself
almost necessarily with new powers and mental endowments,
and produces creations of which the first stage hardly dia-
plaj-ed the faintest rudiments. If it here observes what is
congruous and true, it becomes, by setting out from the funda-
mendal thought of a whole province of tradition, and reviving
all fragments through that thought, the genuine restorer and
new-creator of forgotten stories, and delineates — with other
colours indeed than those of the common story and history, but
with no less truth and with greater splendour — the eternal
element of antiquity afresh in the pages of the transitory
present. And because it sets out from the pin-e and heaven -
directed thoughts of an ancient cycle of tradition, and more-
over moves in a province sacred to the national feeling, it can
introduce the immediate action of Gods and Angels, and depict
the living commerce of heaven and earth exactly as the religion
of the nation on the whole conceives it, and as the special sig-
nificance of the fundamental thought of the tradition requires.
We are here, therefore, close on the confines of epic poetry with
its mythological machinery ; and if the Mosaic religion were
not rigidly opposed to the development of a regular mythology,
Hebrew tradition also might undoubtedly have easily passed on
from this stage into epic poetry — whereas it now displays a
leaning towards it, and occasionally thoroughly epic descrip-
tion,^ but nowhere real epic poetry. Nevertheless, the Hebrews
advanced so far on this stage that late writers even attempt
to remodel ancient tradition with new thoughts, and care less
for the tradition than for its new application and conception.
This transition to the greatest freedom of representation, of
course, almost destroys this stage of tradition, and rather sur-
renders the ground to mere poetry.'^
' A beautiful example of whicli is found Fourtli and Fifth Narrators in the Penta-
in Gen. xviii.-xix. '28. teuch, as will be shown further on.
- Tlic chief examples of wliioli are the
s 6 n) ti
38 THE STORY AN"D ITS FOUNDATION.
There are, however, innuuierable transitions from the simple
tradition to this its later revival on more or less sacred ground.
Whereas the life of David given in the Books of Samuel only
at its commencement takes one little flight towards a compre-
hensive survey from a superhuman point of view,^ hut only once
introduces an angel, and then in no important matter ; ^ in the
life of Moses, as we now have it, the renovation of tradition is
very marked, and in that of the Patriarchs it prevails almost
exclusively. This anticipatory remark may here sufl&ce : it gives
a tolerably distinct notion of the manner in which this kind
of tradition advances. Subsequently indeed, when the more
natural and living conception of antiquity gradually gave place
to a cold reverence for what was old as being in itself sacred,
an utterly different kind of clearing out of tradition was intro-
duced : the Books of Chronicles, which elevate the life of David
and Solomon to the same stage on which the older books place
that of Moses, simply omit everything in their lives that did not
accord with the notion of sanctity.
3. If we take all this into account, and consider from how
many different ages and provinces traditions of most varied
character come down to us, this alone will suffice to prove how
wide the province of tradition may be. The thorough know-
ledge of it, in the times when it flourishes, forms the special
business and pride of those who have a talent for it,^ just as
in other periods the study of real history ; and then the tra-
ditionists do not merely minister to the amusement and instruc-
tion of curious hearers, but are consulted as authorities in
questions of usage or law.
But such a great circle, once formed, will inevitably continue
to expand, and take up a multitude of materials that are at
first foreign to it in their origin and purport. If favourable
circumstances occur, which unite portions hitherto separated of
the same country, the various local traditions come into contact
and are interchanged. If, in addition, a jDCople is in frequent
intercourse with foreigners, their foreign traditions are adopted
and mixed with their own. We are able with tolerable distinct-
ness to survey in the Greek, but still more in the Indian tradi-
tion, the enormous wealth of the circle when thus expanded ;
' I refer to the passage 1 Sam. xvi. 1-12. such ideas and expressions are not gone-
^ In the pestilence, namely, 2 Sam.xxiw rated by the tradition.
16. But the people of tliat period felt ^ There is no doubt that the ancient
the angel of death to be then personally Hebrews had such persons as the Indians
active among them, just as they recognised call Panmamdas, and the Arabs call
the presence of an angel in tlio conduct of Jinn, although we do not now know their
the army and in battle (Judg. v. 23) ; and desigaatiou.
TRADITION. 39
but among the Hebrews also, not only were the traditions of
different tribes brought together after the union of the nation
luider the Kings — as the story of Jephthah, from the Trans-
jordanic land ; that of Samson from the tribe of Dan ; that of
Elijah and Elisha from the northern kingdom — but others also,
the matter and even the manner of which proves their foreign
origin, were admitted.^ All these, however, were recast by the
Mosaic religion before they were incorporated.
Questions about the origiyis of things — among nations, at
least, that are sufficiently elevated to propoimd such, and to
find ingenious solutions of them — are especially prone to crowd
into this circle. For tradition embraces, from the outset, the
whole wealth of the genealogical stories, and therefore legends
or opinions about the origin of the progenitors, which it en-
deavours to reach by tracing them back in a line to a point
beyond which there is no advance — nay, even to the gods. Now
when tradition has already become accustomed to that poetic
remodelling of the subject which we described at pp. 36 sqq.,
it will gladly receive into its own account of origins, the answers
which the enquiring mind gives to the questions about the
origin of the universe, clothe them in similar forms, or weave
them as well as it can into combination with its own fixed
circle. Such are the questions about the origin of the other
nations, or of celebrated families of obscure descent — of the
many wonderful phenomena which have attracted notice of in-
ventions and arts, of earth and heaven, or of the gods themselves
— subjects Avliich are enigmas for the intelligence of the most
ambitious times. Their solution requires powers utterly un-
known to the primitive simple tradition : knowledge of foreign
countries, mastery of political affairs, imagination, religion ; for
the question about the origin of the visible world, for instance,
as propounded by antiquity, belongs essentially to the province
of religion. These are only admitted in so far as they are
answered in the same popular manner that characterises tra-
dition, and are thus interwoven with an existing tissue of ideas.
Nevertheless, a people is most prone to form such traditions
about origins at a period when it is still contented with a
^ We sboiild be able to decide this with essential features are derived from foreign
much greater precision if we possessed the sources. The basis of the story in Gen. ii.
ancient cycles of tradition of the Phe- 5-iii., indeed must have wandered through
nicians and other heathens in Palestine, many foreign nations before it received its
and of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Mosaic costume. As matters now stand,
others. Such traditions, however, as those the Maliabharata and the Puranas (which
which we must ascribe to the Fourth are daily becoming more accessible to lis)
Narrator (Gen. ii. 5-iii., vi 1 4, xi 1-9), furnish most instructive comparisons for
present indisputable indications that their tl'.o Ilebrew tradition.
40 THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION.
poetical conception of tilings ; or, if any pnrely philosojjliical
element should obtrude into this circle — as has happened among
the Indians in their Puraiias, the simple style of which rather
stamps them as popular wiiting — -it is first obliged to assume the
easy and naive garb of the popular tradition. Many specimens
of this popular development of tradition have been admitted
even by the Hebrews ; but these are neither so varied nor so
bold as in heathen mythologies ; for the sober and strict unity
of God necessarily rendered impossible many questions — such
as that about the origin of the gods — which the- heathen views
of God and the world vainly attempted to solve.
It is on this last stage, and in order by such means to explain
the obscure origin of things, that tradition even creates new
persons under suitable names, which, from their very novelty,
are not hard to interpret. It represents the obscure beginning
of a nation under the notion of a single progenitor, whom, in
the absence of a traditional name, it calls after the people or
the country itself: thus Eber (Gen. x. 24) becomes the ancestor
of the Hebrews, Edom (or Esau) that of the Idumeans, Canaan
that of all the Phenician tribes. Earther, it makes progenitors
of entire quarters of the globe, as Ham and Japheth ; or of the
whole race, either of one definite period, or of the earliest con-
ceivable time — as Noah, the fVither of the renovated race, Adam,
that of primitive humanity.
Its transition into myth — that is, legendary lore about the gods
— must in like manner be most prevalent here. Eor the farther
it is removed from ocular testimony or the reality of events it
has itself experienced, the more freely can it explain isolated
and obscure facts by introducing the immediate agency aud in-
carnation of the Deity. The ambition to animate such remote
and essentially lifeless subjects leads it naturally to this boldness
of introducing the unveiled presence of Deity into history, and
thus lifting that veil which so covers ordinary events that the
common eye does not even discern the mediate operation of the
Deity in them. On the first stage, it barely ventures even to
begin to introduce the Deity just here and there, as if ten-
tatively (cf. p. 38) ; on the second, Hebrew tradition is bolder
and freer in representing the appearance of God or angels on
the earth (cf. p. 37) ; but on this third stage, it makes the Divine
agency, without any further limitation, the exclusive subject of
history, so that hardly a distinct trace of independent human
action manifests itself, and the history of the Elood, for example,
becomes uot so much a history of Noah as of God liimself.
But on whatever stai2-c Hebrew tradition thus introduces the
TRADITION. 41
Deity actmg and incavnating itself in liistorj, it nndoiibtedly
is always mythic on those occasions — taking that word in its
larg'cst acceptation; and it is of no use to deny that iji this
it approaches the style and nature of heatlien mythologies.
But it is just as certain, nevertheless, that it could never become
an actual heatlien mythology. Pure religion imparts to it a
sensitive dread of false, or even too gross, views of the Deity, as
well as of dangerous confusion of the divine and human, and —
even where it makes these attempts to introduce the immediate
agency of the Deity — inspires it with that beautiful oonsiderate-
ness and reserve which are perhaps nowhere so necessary as
here. As it thus preserves the true dignity of the Divinity
through all these perilous attempts, its choicest productions may
serve us as a model, and afford a standard to determine how far
a pure religion may venture to make sensuous representations
of the Deity. And because the Greek term myth is inseparably
connected with the whole system of heathenism, and means not
story about God, but story ahoni the gods, therefore we avoid it
in Biblical subjects, and rather speak, when we must, of sacred
or, better, of divine tradition.
On this last stage, whicli embraces the widest compass of
traditions flowing from the most diverse sources, is also lastly
developed that easy artistic style of combining any mass of
traditions by intercalation. Here art allies itself with mere
convenience, and thereby loses its limits and its beauty. This
mode of combination, however, (whicli among the Indians begins
to develop itself fully even in the Mahabharata, and early passed
from them to the Persians and Arabs,) is wholly foreign to
Hebrew tradition, although its commencements can be plainly
discerned in Homer.
III. Now the earliest historians found tradition in this con-
dition — a fluctuating and plastic material, but also a mass of
unlimited extent. They evidently could not do much more than
is open to any talented narrator : each selected such and so
many subjects as his special object required, and settled the
uncertainties and smoothed away the discrepancies as the con-
nection in which he viewed the whole appeared to demand.
But, inasmuch as writing allowed all this to be effected with
greater deliberation and on a larger scale, it all necessarily took
a more definite form and observed more fixed limits under the
writer's hand than was possible in oral delivery. In this respect
the written record, which is moreover more durable, undoubtedly
produces the first reaction against the unrestrained power of
tradition ; and in the Old Testament, the earliest historical
42 THE STOEY AND ITS FOUNDATIOX.
■writings of which important remains have been preserved, the
Book of Origins and, in a degree, the ancient Book of Kings, also
disphiy instructive examples of this earliest kind of historical
composition.
If, however, such beginnings produce a national historical
composition, it may, like every other special intellectual activity,
develop itself independently in the course of centuries, and thus
gradually unfold the germs of beautiful representation and
peculiar art which originally were only latent in it. Tradition,
according to what we said above, contains much that demands
a reanimating style of representation, a free combination of
scattered reminiscences, and an explanation of hidden causes
from a higher point of view. All these are so many germs of
artistic representation : and historical composition, having once
entered on its career of progress, may easily take possession of
these germs, in order to develop them, and so acquire a higher art.
Now this has palpably occurred in the second period of Hebrew
historical composition. The Book of Origins, and the still older
work, represent tradition very simply, and even in cases where
they venture on a lofty style (as in Gen. xvii., Exod. xix.), it ap-
pears quite cramped by the strict spirit of the Mosaic religion,
like the Egyptian or early Greek statues, which look as if
chained motionless to the ground. This is not the case with
the Book of Kings, the Fourth Narrator of the primitive history,
and other later historians. In these the representation has
acquired much greater freedom, and the old limits of the sacred
tradition are more and more obliterated. These writers are the
first that treat long series of traditions with the great art
described above (p. 35 sq.) ; and the Prologue to the Book of
Job, which is at least as late as the beginning of the seventh
century, shows to what height of beautiful free art this tendency
may at length attain. Another example of the increasing art
of this advanced literature has been explained above (p. 20) ;
and others will be particularly noticed below.
When, in the midst of a general advance in the intellectual
view and activity of a nation, historical composition adopts this
tendency, it is evident that it then plays into the hands of tra-
dition itself, and produces no strong reaction against its in-
fluence. The first powerful agent against that influence is the
removal of the narrow bounds that limit the original nationality ;
for when a people, during the period of its own advancing cul-
ture, spreads itself, as the Greeks did, over many other nations,
and curiously compares their discordant traditions with its oavu,
it will hardly adhere so exclusively to its own hereditary tradi-
TRADITION". 43
tions as before, but will adopt other views of their importance.
Moreover, if the simi^le influence of the imagination and the
sentiment g-radually y-ives place to the enquiring* and sceptical
understanding (and this restless critical spirit is promoted by
frequent intercourse with distant countries), then the second
power of tradition, the predominance of the imagination and
the feeling, is lost in the process. Then the sober judgment gains
courage to sift it, the more so as it has been already resigned
to the above-mentioned poetical freedom. Lastly, the collation
of many writings, in which it has been recorded with variations,
may often help to display its fluctuating character; and the
more the immediate history of a time is written down, or the
heroes of it commit their own memoirs to writing, the more
swiftly does the first power of tradition, the memory and the
mere transmission, lose its power.
How long soever, then, the period may be during which tra-
dition, oral and written, may develop itself in compass, and un-
fold many a bright flower on its course, it is nevertheless doomed
to perish. For it is only a peculiar mode of viewmg events,
which necessarily arises under certain situations and temjjoral
conditions, and must vanish as soon as these are completely
changed, but yet does not entirely lose its power until history,
as such, is investigated as to its own foundations. But as
these its indispensable conditions are not abrogated among all
peoples at once, its power lasts, after it has ceased to flourish,
longer in one people than in another. The Hindus, so highly
cultivated a people in other respects, have in the main never
been entirely emancipated from its influence, as is evinced by
the fact that Puranic literature continues to flourish down to the
end of the Middle Ages, nay down to our own day, and that
historical literature, strictly speaking, has not been developed.
The ancient Hebrews also disappeared from the theatre of the
world's history before this transformation, which began among
them, was completed. It is true, the very oldest historical
works, the Book of Origins and others, though exhibitmg some
dependence on tradition, display, in accordance with the Mosaic
religion, so sound a judgment in the conception and delineation
of historical events, that in process of time a genuine historical
literature might have been developed out of them. But the
decay of the entire ancient nation, consequent on the division of
the Davidic kingdom — in which only religion and, along with it,
j)oetry and a kind of philosophy developed themselves for a time
unchecked — gradually caused historical composition to degene-
rate more and more from these glorious beo-innino-s. To what
44 THE STORY AXD ITS FOUXDATIOX.
extent tlie power of tradition kept its gronnd in certain favonraMe
provinces, even long- after writing liad become a substitute for
the memory, and a kind of contemporary history had begun to
be formed, is shown by the history of Samson in the Book of
Judges, and by that of Ehjah and Elisha in the Book of Kings.
At last, in the third period of historical composition, when the
heroes of history at once wrote down their memoirs in full, the
writings of Ezra and Nehemiah about their own achievements,
and the Book of Esther, which shows to what result the unre-
strained power of tradition may lead, stand irreconcilably side
by side.
We cannot doubt, however, how we are to treat the tradition
of the Old Testament in our investigations of history. When
an account is called tradition, the name does not determine
from what sources the story may be derived, nor what founda-
tion it may have. Historical research is to supply this defi-
ciency. Tradition has its roots in actual facts ; yet it is not
absolutely history, but has a peculiar character and a value of
its own. Hebrew tradition possesses all the charms that belong-
to that of the other aspiring nations of antiquity, and, in
addition, the altogether peculiar excellence of being filled a,nd
sustained by the spirit of a higher religion — nay, of even having
become in part the vehicle for its great truths. We must
acknowledge and appreciate this excellence in itself, but we
cannot use it for strict history without investigating its historical
significance. It is absurd entirely to neglect its use for his-
torical purposes, and to consider the duty of science to be to
express sad doubts of its truth ; thereby depriving ourselves, out
of mere folly, of the most comprehensive means of searching out
a great portion of history. It is rather our duty to take tradition
just as it expects to be taken — to use it only as a means for
discovering what the real facts once were. To this we are, even
unwillingly, compelled by the different versions of the same
incident which we not unfrequently encounter. We must first
endeavour to recognise every historian as exactly as possible by
his peculiar style, in order to see how he treats traditions ; and
only then, and by these means chiefly, the traditions themselves.
It is most fortunate when we find several traditions about the
same thing by dififerent narrators, or (what is still more instruc-
tive) from widely distant periods. Thus the single passage in
Genesis xiv. throws a new light on all the other stories of the
Patriarchal world ; and many other equally surprising cases of
the same kind will meet us further on. When we find only
one account of an event, and that one has perchance passed
TRADITJOX. 45
through many haiitls and modifications, our task is indeed in-
evitably much harder : but even then we cannot be entirely in
the dark, if we rig-htly interpret the passage itself, compare it
with similar ones, accurately weigh all possibilities, and the
general character of tradition, and keep in mind all that we
know from other sources about the period in which the event
falls. And the thorough understanding of one sing-le portion of
ancient history alwaj^s leads to a surer insight into others.
We shall thus be enabled to attain our main object — to distin-
guish between the story and its foundation, and exclusively to
seek the latter with all diligence. It is not the great and the
wonderful in history of which we ought to feel a vague terror,
or which we would rather reject and deny. We know that
history has its mountains and plains, no less than the earth
has ; and hovf delighted we are to climb the former, without
despising the latter ! But we have to discover what the heights
of history really are, and to what elevation they rise above the
plains ; and the more accurately we estimate their relative pro-
portion, the more purely shall we appreciate and admire those
Alpine peaks, which not we but Another has raised.
B. COMMENCEMENT OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COjMPOSI-
TION. AVRITING.
The first historians of a people, as we have said, always find
some cycle of traditions ready to their hand ; and it is especially
the primary characteristics of tradition — tlie unforced freshness
and animation of the story, as well as the general charm of
beautiful oral description — that are transferred unchanged into
the earliest attempts to fetter tradition by writing. The only
things in these rudiments of historical composition, that distin-
guish the writer from the mere narrator, are the more compre-
hensive collection and combination of the traditions themselves,
and the wider or perhaps exacter survey of the entire province
of history which he purposes to describe in conformity with tra-
dition. If this first attempt to fetter the fluctuating tradition
should display too many variations and discrepancies between
the separate stories, the wiiter either places them entirely un-
altered beside each other (as the oldest historians of the Arabs
do, accurately exhibiting the true picture of all the confusion
and variation of tradition, and adducing their several authori-
ties) ; or he tacitly selects what appears to him the most reliable.
He may, however, also incorporate in his work two traditions
which have been developed out of one incident (accordhig
4l3 COMMENCEMENT OF HEBREW IIISTORICAL COMrOSITIOX.
to p. 16), if to liim they appear to refer to two distincts ev^ents :
thus what is related of Sarah in Genesis xii. 9-20, and what
is recorded of Rebekah in Genesis xxvi. 7-11, are both inserted
by the same author.' Yet, as the first writer who attempts this
collection of traditions cannot possibly accomplish the whole
task, such essays and commencements of historical writing are
repeated until the work is more fully done.
This is in the main the picture which the Arabs give us of
the first attempts at historical composition ; and as such com-
mencements of an entirely novel literature, among the Hebrews
as among other nations of antiquity, have suffered much from
the encroachment of later thoroughly different kinds of writing,
and as, especially in the Old Testament, they have nowhere
been preserved in their genuine pristine state throughout a
whole book, a cautious appeal to the example of the Arabs in
this cannot be otherwise than very instructive.^
It is not, however, merely a given abundance of traditions,
and the stimulus of important materials, that of themselves
beget such attempts at history ; for in that case the Arabs — to
cite this most instructive example again — might have had a
history long before Islam. The actual rise of independent his-
torical composition presupposes, especially in a primitive people,
two other conditions — the occunrence of an extraordinary time
by which a people feels itself elevated, and the existence and
current use of the art of writing.
As soon as a people is roused from its torpor by such a
happy time, which raises it powerfully and lastingly to a
higher stage, and inspires it with a far prouder consciousness
among the surrounding nations, it also looks farther round about
itself in history, and regards with very different eyes the tra-
ditions of its own early times. It was not until Islam made
the Arabs conscious of their position in the scale of nations
that the wi-iting of history commenced among them, setting
out from recently revived traditions about their ancient times,
and then soon taking up the narration of events subsequent
to the origin of Islam. If we apply this to the Hebrews,
we are not to imagine that the activity of this people on the
great theatre of nations dates its commencement from Moses.
Even before Moses, as we shall show, Israel achieved a glory,
and advanced to a height among the neighbouring nations,
' Both these pnspnpos (hut not Gen. xx.) Gattingcr Gelehrte Anzeigrjj, 1832, p. 610.
belong to the Fourtli Narrator of the Pen- More recently this sulijcct has been dis-
tatcuch. cussed by Sprenger in his Life of Mo-
^ Sec al)Ove, p. 33 ; ZeiUcJir'ift f. d. hummed.
Morgenland, bd. i. 95; iii. 228, 330, sq.,
TRADITION. 47
wliich were sufficient to awaken in it the germs of historical
composition. Nevertheless, it is difficult to prove, from the Old
Testament itself,' that the rudiments of history were formed
before Moses; and at any rate those commencements cannot
have been very important. But, as will be proved in the
sequel, there is no doubt that the Mosaic times were extraor-
dinary enough to develop these germs.
We must therefore pay all the greater regard to the second
condition, the existence of an already common wiittcn cha-
racter ; in which respect the question takes this form : Did
such a thing exist in the time of Joseph, or even Abraham, or
at any rate in that of Moses ? And as we possess no evidence
that summarily decides this point — since every investigation
into the antiquity and use of writing among the primitive
nations is obliged to go back into the mists of the remotest
times — nought remains for us but, first to note attentively
every mention of writing and its use, and then to search out
the oldest documents which necessarily presuppose writing;
always keeping in mind the peculiarity of the Hebrew characters,
and their ancient connection with other kinds of writing.
I. The accounts of the Patriarchal time contain no sure
traces of the use of writing in that early age. The Book of
Origins is so far from alluding in its minutest delineations to
such a use, that it gives distinct glimpses of the contrar}^
According to it, not only Divine covenants with man (Gen. i.,
ix., xvii.) are concluded without written documents — whereas
we see, from the example of Ex. xxiv., that such documents,
when conceivable, were not omitted in such descriptions — but
also human compacts of the most decisive importance for pos-
terity are, in Gen. xxiii., ratified in a form which never could
be adopted when there was a possibility of using written docu-
ments. To appreciate the cogency of this argument, we have
only to observe how differently the ratification of much more
trivial compacts is subsequently described.^ The Fourth Nar-
rator, who deals with the Patriarchal story subsequently to the
date of the Book of Origins, does indeed once mention a seal-
ring of Jacob's son Judah,^ and such a ring necessarily implies
' We must not appeal to Gen. xlix. or the time that they sojourned in Egypt, a
to Gen. iv. 23 sq., as if these passages must country which enjoyed the use of writing
have heen written before Moses. It might from a much earlier date, as will be shown
be more seriously asked, whether such no- when we treat of the Hyksos. Only, what
tices derived from the primitive history of was then written in Israel cannot have
the tribes as 1 Chron. vii. 20-27, viii. 1.3 been very important — iit any rate, we have
(see about them below, in the account of no traces of it.
the origin of the nation), were not written ' Jer. x.xxii.
down before Moses. It cannot be doubted ' Gen. x.xxviii. 18, 25.
that the Israelites coidd write during
48 COMMEXCEMEXT OF IIECREW IIISTOPJCAL COMPOSITIOX.
tlie use of writing" ; nevertlieless, this single exception, occurring
in this late author, and emplo5^ed as a mere embellishment of
the tradition, has no weight of proof against all the other evi-
dences ; although there is no doubt that seals were known in
the nation in the time of Moses.' Considering, then, that the
accounts of the Mosaic times follow a thoroughly diiferent type
in this matter, we must admit that that primitive time, even as
impressed on the memory of later ages, did not possess the art
of writing. And this is one of the many instances that prove
that tradition itself may preserve a correct memory of the dif-
ference of periods.
For as to the Mosaic time, the most various, and even the
earliest reminiscences concur in representing it to have pos-
sessed the familiar use of writing. The two stone tables of the
law (as we shall show further on) are, according to all evidences
and arguments, to be ascribed to Moses : but as the art of writ-
ing certainly cannot have commenced with the hardest writing-
materials, nor its use been restricted to a few words on one single
occasion, the unquestionable historical existence of these
tables necessarily implies a diffusion of the knowledge of >vi'iting
among the more cultivated portion of the people. Wliile the
oldest historian expressly states that Moses wrote down the Ten
Commandments, and an entire small book of laws besides,^ the
Book of Origins not only assigns to him the ancient list of the
stations of the people in the desert,^ but also, in the description
of the Mosaic laws, constantly presupposes the frequent use of
writing.''
The not unfrequent occurrence of writing in the succeeding
centuries from Moses to David, which the documents attest in
the most credible manner, is in perfect harmony with this.
Writing was already a usual auxiliary in common life,''' and was
likewise employed in recording new laws, which were deposited
with the older statutes in the sanctuary.*^ It is evident that
these troublous times down to David merely continued what had
been introduced in the time of Moses.
But in the time after Solomon there is so much writing that
ten thousand divine written laws are spoken of," and the great
' Ex. xxxix. 30. 27, sq. (cf. also Num. xi. 2G), and the
- Ex. xxix. 4, 7. Tliero is a pussngo Dcutürunomi.st, always assurae the exist-
frora a very ancient work in Lfv. xix. 20, cnce of writing; -at that period.
which presupposes writing. ^ Judges viii. 14; 2 yam. xi. 14 sq.
^ Num. xxxiii. 2. « Tliis is manifestly deducible from the
^ Num. V. 23; xvii. 17 sqq. [2 sqq.]; manner in which the origin of the law
Ex. xxxix. 30; Jos. xviii. 6 sqq. As a about the king is mentioned in 1 Sam.
matter of course, the Fourth Narrator, x. 2/).
Ex. xvii. 14, xxiv. 12, xxxii. 32, xxxiv. ' Hos. viii. 12 {Kclib); in agrecuieut
WRITING. 49
prophets are ready at any moment to write down their most
important declarations as perpetual memorials for ]30sterity ; '
in conformity with this, the fourth biographer of Moses repre-
sents that hero as likewise writing down an utterance made at
a decisive moment.^ Nay, we even read both of ready writers,
who must have written quite differently to the primitive way,^
and also of a twofold character ; for that intended for the com-
mon people,"* which probably retained more faithfully the simple
antique forms of the letters, necessarily implies the existence
of another kind, which we may reasonably conceive to have been
the abbreviated and less legible tachygraphic character.
II. But even independently of all outward testimonies as to
the use of writing, it is indisputable, from the written docu-
ments which we can show once existed, that writing was
employed as far back as those testimonies reach. It cannot be
proved that any written documents of ihe Patriarchal times
came down to posterity ; ^ we are likewise unable to show, at
any rate from our present sources, that any large historical work
was written immediately after the liberation of the people, and
while they were still in the desert." But the two Tables of the
Law are an incontrovertible proof that there was writing in the
age of Moses ; and, when writing once existed, the greatness
of the Mosaic age was exciting enough speedily to develop the
germs of historical composition. On the same spot, there-
fore, in the history of Israel, on which the foundation for the
whole of its subsequent development was laid, we also find the
concurrence of those two conditions from which a national
historiography may arise. Passages like the list of stations in
the desert from Egypt to the frontiers of Canaan (Num. xxxiii.),
the census of the congregation (JSTum. i. sqq. xxvi.), and others
which will be noticed further on, must, according to all indi-
cations, have been written early, and may be regarded as his-
torical documents. The ' Book of the Wars of Jahveh ' (Num.
■with this, wo find similes derived from matter, although we may possibly yet find
writing used in Is. x. 19, xxix. 11 sq.; actual specimens of these different charac-
Ps. xlv. 2 [1] ; for similes can only be ters only buried under the soil,
taken from phenomena known to every * The Song of the Sword, Gen. iv. 23 sq.,
one. is indeed very ancient, and must, from its
' Is. viii. 1, 16, XXX. 8; Hab. ii. 2. entire contents, belong to a time anterior
^ Ex. xvii. 14; the mode of delineation to JMoses; but its apophthegmatical con-
is all that is new here; the narrator ciseness makes it probable that it was long
doubtless found the declai-ation itself of preserved in the memory merely,
which we speak in some ancient book, " Tliis will be manifest from the obser-
which he might ascribe to Moses. rations which we shall make on all the
* Ps. xlv. 2 [1]. historical books, and on the Mosaic history
* Is. viii. 1; Hab. ii. 2. I have no itself,
doubt that we must take this view of this
VOL. I. E
50 COMMENCEMENT OP IIEBEEW HISTOKICAL COMPOSITION.
xxi. 14), whicli, as may be inferred from tlie citations from it,
and other indications, must be very ancient, is by its very title
declared to be historical. Thus there was, after the age of
Moses, a sufficiently broad and solid basis for the development
of historical composition.
We might here further enquire whether the Hebrew alpha-
betical character was invented by Moses or any of his con-
temporaries, or whence did the people get its alphabet. To
imagine that Moses, or even Israel at all, invented the Hebrew
character (as many did in the latest age of antiquity),^ is to
involve oneself in many difficulties. This view is not supported
by a single ancient reminiscence, nor in the remotest way by
any tradition of Biblical antiquity; and yet the invention of
an art like writing is something of which a peoj)le may be j)roud,
and of which all civilised nations have from time immemorial
been proud. And although the need of a means like writing,
for the purpose of fixing the new laws that are to bind the
community, may be ever so sensibly felt at the juncture when a
new state is founded, as it was in the time of Moses, alphabetical
writing is, nevertheless, too artificial a thing to have been dis-
covered all at once and so easily. Moreover, facts themselves
contradict this view in many ways. The Hebrew character
is a link in the larger chain of Semitic and other cognate
alphabets ; '^ but it is highly improbable in itself that a people
like the Hebrews, which in early antiquity never spread itself
widely, nor had much intercourse with foreigners, should ac-
tually have communicated the art of writing to such nations as
unquestionably excelled it in antiquity of civilisation, in the
arts of life, and in extent of commerce, such as were the
Arameans, the Phenicians, and others. The converse of this
is evinced by the nature of things. Further, an investigation
into the Semitic languages shows that the Asiatic members at
least all express the simplest notions relating to this art in the
same way,^ whereas later improvements of it are denoted by each
' Eupolemus (a writer who, according to cuneiform characters on the coiitraiy were
Eusebius, Prceparat. Evmigel. ix. 17, is probably derived from the precisely oppo-
referred to by Alexander Polyhistor in the site quarter, namely from the North and
time of Sulla, and who is also known to northern nations. See Cfutt. Gel. Änz.,
Jost'phus, Againut Apion i. 23) makes him 18.')9, p. 170.
the inventorof the Hebrew alphabet (Euse- ^ Notonly is 3ri3, to write, together with
bius 1. e. ix. 26) ; and Artapauus (Eiiseb. its many derivatives, common to all the
Pr. Ev. ix. 27) makes him the inventor of Sendtic languages (with the sole excep-
even the Eg}-ptian characters. AVe shall tion, perhaps, of the Ethiopic and Soiith
show further on what credit these writers Arabic, in which FiPIV is the connnonest
deserve. M'ord for it), but also ISp. ^>ook (properly
^ See also my Ausführliches Lehrbuch „ „7 n 1 i^^ ■ ; '■' '"r -, ■ .1
, ., , „ •' ■ / „,, -, rpi scale), and iitr t/i/,- are founil m them.
der Hehr. Spr., p. 41 sqq. 7th ed. The ■" ' ' '
WßlTING. 51
in different manners.' This phenomenon cannot be accounted
for except by assuming that this character, in its simplest use,
was first employed by an unknown primitive Semitic people,
from which all the Semitic nations which appear in history
received it along- with the most indispensable designations of
the subject ; as surely as the fact that Eloak, the name for God,
is common to all Semitic nations, proves that the primitive people
from which they all proceeded, designated God by that term ;
and just as, in following out such traces generally, we are led
to the most surprising truths about the remotest periods in the
history of nations. The proper place, however, to pursue this
subject will be in the history of the Hebrews in Egypt.
III. We see then here also how surely every enquiry into the
origin of writing among the primitive peoples of antiquity,
loses itself in a distant mist, which all our present means are
inadequate to explore. Writing is still found to have existed
among these peoples before we can historically trace it ; for, like
every primitive art, it has always surely sprung from the pressing
needs of life, and probably been soonest developed by some
nation possessing extended power and commerce. The appli-
cation of it to write history, or even to fix laws, was then mani-
festly still far off. Whatever the Semitic people may be to
which half the civilised world owes this invaluable invention,^
so much is incontrovertible, that it appears in history as a
possession of the Semitic nations long before Moses ; and we
need not scruple to assume that Israel knew and used it in
Only the pen, or instrument of ■n-riting, determine what people invented this new
must have early changed, as t^y and üin irt ; in this, too, the Hebrews doubtless
' '■'■ only followed the example set by others,
(unless U< . may possibly be related to just as in the Babylonian empire they
both) are very isolated, the Syrians using adopted the there prevalent custom of
n3p, and the Arabs and Ethiopians, with ^^I'ltiug on bricks Ezek. iv. 1.
•••'t . ^ 2 -\Yj^g jt the Phemcians, or not ? ihis
the later Jews, even employing «aAa^oy. question, as also the kindred one, whether
This IS shown by the evidently later ^j^^^.^ j^ ^^^ possible connection between
appearance of the art of making a volume, ^^-^ character and the still older Egyptian,
a roll. This does not occur among the He- ^^^■^^^. belongs to the history of the Hyk-
brews untü the seventh century b.c., and g^^_ ^^j^j^j^ ^^ sh^^U ^^^^^^ ^f ^^^^^^ Even
its complete designation is ISO npiD, should the Semitic writing (as is certainly
Ps. xl. 8 [7], Ezek. ii. 9 sqq.; its shorter conceivable) have borrowed from the
one, n^Jn, Jer. xxxVi. 14 sqq., Zech. v. Egyptian the one of its main principles
T- : ^^ namely, that of making the letter represent
1 sq., Ezra vi. 2. But the Arameans use jj^g ^^.g^ go^j^ of the name of the object
instead "lü;^ (Assam. Biblioth. i. 26, 34, depicted by it, yet its other main prin-
» ciple, that of always representing the same
"Wiseman, Horae Syriacae, p. 297) and the sound by one and the same sign, raises
Arabs ji^, or even A ^A,, as the Ethio- it infinitely above the Egyptian, and is the
• J J very thing that actually makes it, in spite
pians do (this last from the diminutive of its conciseness, an adequate represcnta-
-rojxipiov). We will not here attempt to tion of vocal sound?.
E 2
52 COMMENCEMEXT OF IIEBKEW HISTORICAL COiMPOSITIGN.
Egypt before Moses. For tliat Israel did not adopt the Egyptian
character (which is moreover hardly transferable to a language
not Egjrptian), but that of the nations cognate to itself, is
in perfect accordance with the state of things in the period
anterior to Moses.
It is probable that the cognate nations possessed not only
the art of writing but an historical literature also before Israel
did ; as Israel, according to all indications, was one of the
smpJlest andlatest in the series of great and early civilised
sister nations. When we reflect that such definite and minute
accounts as we find about Edom in Gen. xxxvi. have all the
air of being copied into the Book of Origins from the older
documents of that people itself — since the traditions of the
wisdom of the Edomites must have some foundation : ^ when
we consider the ancient narrative contained in Gen. xiv., so
strikingly different from all other accounts, in which Abraham
is described as an almost alien ' Hebrew,' much as a Canaanite
historian might have spoken of him ; ^ and observe further, that
the incidental notice which we obtain from the Book of Origins
(Num. xiii. 22), about the date of the building of the ancient
towns Hebron in Canaan, and Tanis in Egypt, has all the ap-
pearance of being a fragment of a Phenician or other foreign
work upon an historical province entirely alien to the Hebrew
works known to us ; then it cannot but appear very probable,
or rather certain, that the earliest historians of Israel found
many historical works already existing in -the cognate nations.
That the Tyrians possessed accurate histories with an exact
chronology, we know for a fact, from the fragments of the
works of Dius and Menander of Ephesus, who worked up their
contents for Greek readers.^
The more surely, therefore, might historical comjiosition in
Israel — even if certain crude attempts at it had not been made
before — have been rapidly developed after the great days of
• Much antique wisdom is ascribed to the later name Ban in place of the ancient
Edom, although in somewhat later works, Laish.
Job, Jer. xlix. 7, Obad. 8. » See Josephus, Ant. viii. 5, 3; 13, 2 ;
* Verse 13. All indications tend to show ix. 14, 2; Against Apion, \. 17 sq. These
that this whole piece, Gen. xiv., was fragments, indeed, relate only to the time
written prior to Moses. Only the mention from David onwards; but as their eon-
of Dan as a north-eastern town (verse 14) tents and style are strictly historical,
is surprising, when we compare Judges we cannot conclude from that circum-
xvii. SCI. ! ^^ wherever in this piece the stance that the Phenician histories may
modern name of a place is placed beside not have also described much more ancient
an ancient one, it is always only by way of times. See also my Abh. über dicl'himik-
oxplanation. However, as the later author üchen Ansichten von der Wdtschopfung
who inserts tliis piece evidently writes itiid den geschichtlichen Wcrth Sanchuni-
with greater freedom towards the end, we aihon's. Gott. 1851.
may suppose that in verse 14 also he put
GRANDEUR OF THE SUBJECT OF THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 53
Moses and Josliua ; and it is incontrovertible that after Moses
a Hebrew liistoriog-rapliy of momentous import both could, and
actually did, develoj) itself. How it advanced, however, and
what phases it passed through in the course of centuries, is
in the main only to be gathered from an investigation of the
documents themselves. For the accurate appreciation of this
portion of Hebrew literature shows indeed that its history is
most closely connected with that of the general development
of the nation, and that the image of the progress of all national
efforts and conditions is clearly reflected in this special product
of its mind. But as it is very difficult to form a correct appre-
ciation of the date and primitive character of the historical
books in the shape in which we find them, we must not shrink
from a connected examination of them all, and here at the
outset at least establish as much as is necessary to the general
aim and conduct of the following work. Special remarks on
the historical sources available for particular periods and events
can only be introduced in the body of the work itself.
Grandeur of the Suhject of the Historical BooTcs.
A correct appreciation of this entire province of literature
teaches us, it is true, that an uncommon activity and assiduity
of the better mind of the old nation was therein displayed,
taking a higher flight, indeed, at one time than at another, but
yet never giving up through fatigue, but, in spite of every
difference in part, maintaining on the whole so even a tenor
that the Gospels themselves, the youngest products of the true
spirit of this national literature, bear in their most important
characters almost involuntarily the greatest likeness to the
oldest. But as this branch of literature developed itself more
and more, it was soon obliged to climb the special height and
assume the peculiar direction which fell to its lot as an im-
portant member of the entire national literature. It served,
indeed, also the common lower aims of all historical writing,
registered the wars and conquests of the nation, the deeds of the
rulers, the genealogical tables, and the like. But if (according
to p. 15, 31 sq.), as tradition became a national treasui'e of Israel
it was affected by the nature of the dominant religion, much
more must this have been the case with history, its full-grown
and independent daughter. Where had religion, with its fun-
damental claims and directions, stood in such intimate relation-
ship with the whole people, whether they would or no, as here ?
and where the conception of the spiritual God, as constantly
54 GKANDEUR OF THE SUBJECT
watcliing beliind all liiiinan tliought and action, was so power-
fully active, there all historical observation and description of
things and events must also easily draw the narrator up to
God. This easy sensibility and excitability for everji^hing truly
Divine, this assiduous listening for the voice, the will, and the
almightiness of God in human affairs, this keen perception of
Divine justice, and all the wonderful disposition of Divine power,
and lastly this open eye for all human perversities and pre-
sumption, constantly exhibited by the great prophets, could not
indeed but pass over with ever-growing strength to the historians,
appear continually in their modes of conceiving and presenting
events, lend the brightest colours to their style, and even pene-
trate the simj^le narrative in no few instances.
But narration did not need to remain always so simple.
Historians who had to survey and describe whole periods, or
who undertook to embrace all preceding history, might often
design their works from the height of those sublime thoughts
which the remembrance of the relation of the true God to
human history must always excite. Where true religion has
been long active, it generally tenders its profoundest views and
truths on occasion of vivid contemplation of the whole past or
future, or of great sections of history lying before the thinker
as a reliable and completed experience. Such deep glances into
the Divine relations of all human history might have been
given in their first outlines long before a narrator sufficient for
their height and their truth arose to exhibit them with distinct
clearness in a large historical work. If now the period which
such an historian wished to embrace receded into a long-con-
cluded past, and therefore the Divine element in the history
could be easily surveyed in its dense and brilliant rays, then
there would be found under the hand of the finest historians such
works as the Book of Origins, to be mentioned further on — ■
works in which the highest sublimity of historical contempla-
tion is balanced by the exactest and soberest description of
human events and affairs, and in which one seems to behold a
living account of the working of the true God throughout all
human history, without on that account losing a correct and
(so far as the means afforded) faithful historical picture of man
and his deeds.
Moreover, many of the best Prophets gradually came to
record so many of the most important occurrences of their own
time, and experiences of their own activity, as might jDass
with posterity for the most reliable and authentic contributions
to history. They laid great stress, indeed, upon the Divine
OF THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 55
element in liistorj, without in the least marring its human
truthfulness, and in this way gave striking- hints for the por-
traying- of long periods in accordance with such higher per-
ceptions and views, and for the discrimination in narrative of
what was really Divine in human events, and in the fates of
emj)ires and dominions. And this contributed most of all to
give to Hebrew historiography its peculiar expression.
Now all this taten together created the true greatness of these
historical books. Historical writing among this people became
childlike, simple-hearted, and filled with the pure love of truth;
not indulging in that vain and lawless phantasy and desire for
fame, which easily destroys all earnest truth, but brief and terse
in delineating the true, yet at the same time always living
and stimulating. When, however, these specialities spring from
the predominant control of true religion, then she imparts to
historiography her own height of thought, and aversion to all
that is frivolous, vain, and emj)ty in narrative, such as cha-
racterises more especially the Buddhistic, but in a measure also
the entire historical literature of Heathenism, This grandeur
of material, and this simple force of representation, becomes
therefore more and more the most significant peculiarity of
Hebrew historiography, and that by which it is so sharply
distinguished from that of Heathenism. Certainly it suffers
palpably enough during retrograde times, and the Books of
Chronicles do not attain the height and splendour of the older
books, the Book of Esther even becoming, when regarded from
this point of view, its precise antithesis. But on this soil its
special impulses and preferences easily reassumed their power
at every favourable period ; and when we find in the Gospels
that the more original they are, the more these reappear in
a new form, this is by no means to be ascribed to mere
imitation.
But the height of the subject and treatment in consequence
of which Hebrew historiography stands so alone in antiquit}",
and serves for us too as a perpetual model, remained the sole
highest point which it both strove after and attained. This
forms at once its genuine glory and its immortal meaning,
which one should never ignore : but as it lays claim to no
more, it would be folly to bestow upon it any other. That it
sought out and faithfully used the most reliable sources, is a
matter of course, a consequence of its universal tendency to
plain truth and Divine earnestness : but to what may be called
in a strict sense erudition it never raised itself.
56 ANONYMOUS CHARACTER OF THE HISTORICAL BOOKS,
The Anonymous character of the Historical BooTcs, and the
Art of Historical Gonvpilation.
There is a general criterion by which, in spite of its apparent
insignificance, the whole peculiarity of Hebrew historical com-
position in relation to proper historiography can be very plainly
discerned at once. This is the Anonjonous character of the his-
torical books. Neither the historians were wont to name them-
selves as authors, nor the readers to be curious about their names.
This custom is universal at first, and only gradually relaxes in
the last centuries, as may be inferred from the Books of Ezra and
Nehemiah, and from the fact that the Books of Chronicles are
the fii'st to make exact enquiry as to the names of the authors
of ancient historical works. Even such names as 'Books of
Moses,' 'Books of Samuel,' first came into vogue in these later
ages of the ancient peoj)le ; as will be explained further on. We
must believe that the anonymous character of the historical
works was the established rule from the beginning, was preserved
unaltered even in the most flourishing times of their historical
literature, and recurred even in the last genuine descendants
of this primitive style. For whilst the Second Book of Macca-
bees by naming an author betrays itself to have sprung from a
completely Hellenistic mind, the First Book remains nameless,
as do all the Gospels ; and the fact that not even the Gospel of
John bears its author's name on its front is explained b}' this
old and consecrated custom. This very thing forms a constant
distinction between Hebrew historical composition and that of
the Greeks as well as the Arabs (or Mohammedans generally),
and is a defect from which it never entirely freed itself even in
later times. It is here almost as it is among the Hindus, where
from ancient times no great enquiry was ever made about the
author of a Purdna, and where the author was never wont to
name himself.
It is a matter of very little importance indeed, when looked at
from the simplest point of view, who is the first to write down
a well-known story or tradition. The minute diversities, too,
which the written picture produces, are easily kept in check
by the great events themselves, so long as these exercise a
lively influence on the mind of the nation ; and the stories
which the narrator essays to embody in wi'iting appear to him
so grand and so permanent that his own personality becomes
subordinate and vanishes before them. On this account all
historical composition, so long as it remains in this perfectly
AND ART OF HISTORICAL COMPILATION. 57
simple stage of development in a nation, will long continue to
be anon^auous. If the ancient Arabian history forms an ex-
ception to this, that is to be attributed to special causes (see
p. 33). The case is quite different with the Prophets : their
name, nay, their life, must at once guarantee their word.
Hence there is no portion of the Bible in which the names of
the authors have, on the whole, been so faithfully preserved.
The fame of poetry also, as soon as it has attained any eleva-
tion, is easil}^ reflected on the poets. Hence the names of
the authors are frequently mentioned in the poetical parts of
the Old Testament, whenever it was possible to do so. But no
single name of the author of a narrative work has been pre-
served, so inviolate was the ancient custom, even in the most
flourishing periods of their historical literature, and so much
more highly did the people esteem the history itself in its
grandeur and truth than the person who related it. When one
reflects, moreover, that the higher a narrator soared (p. 53 sqq.)
the more was he compelled to let his own personality disap]3ear
behind the grand Divine story he had to tell, it cannot be a
matter of surprise that the names even of the greatest historians
of the Old Testament are lost to us. Their contemporaries
could doubtless always have learnt their names, if they had
troubled themselves about it ; but it was not the custom to in-
scribe them in the books themselves, so that we should never
have known the authors' names even of our five New Testament
histories, had not special causes operated in the case of the
Gospels to prevent their names being lost.
But, in fact, this also shows that the zealous search after that
truth was not then understood to be the hard but necessary toil
of individuals. As soon as ever it becomes very difficult to
search out the whole historical truth, and there is a deeper
appreciation of that difficulty, then individuals must devote
themselves specially to that investigation ; and the historical
view which thus proceeds from a person who has examined the
whole subject, is necessarily referred to him, and to the autho-
rity of his name. Works of history will not then be often pro-
duced anonymously and circulated without a name. We may
in this respect affirm that the non-namelessness of the his-
torian is the beginning of historical science.
Now the ancient people of Israel passed the most glorious
time of its history in such a happy domestic seclusion that, on
that very account, the truth of its own history could not be much
obscured and perverted in its memory ; and it had no cause to
be very curious about foreign histories. The great sobriety of
Ö8 ANONYMOUS CIIARACTEE OF THE HISTORICAL BOOKS,
its religion further preserved it from too gross corruption of the
historical consciousness. In this simplicity of life and thought,
and during the very time that its peculiar spirit was in its most
fruitful develoi^ment, it felt little necessity for critically investi-
gating its ancient history ; and though a science of history
might have commenced in the joeriod after David and Solomon,
yet it was choked by the troubles of the succeeding times. The
impulses and germs of a stricter investigation of antiquity were
indeed then busy ; this we must discern and admit : ' but before
they could gain strength to develop themselves fairly, they were
suppressed. Thus the nation at length disappeared from the
theatre of the world's history without having attained an exact
knowledge of either its own ancient history or that of other
nations. The old Hebrew historical works supply us with the
most reliable, and relatively speaking the most abundant, mate-
rials for the investigation of the whole of that national history
which is in itself at the same time the history of the develop-
ment of the only eternally true religion. They are also filled
and sustained, in their most essential spirit, by the inmost
springs of that religion, and could not be otherwise ; yet we
must not demand from them what they do not possess and
cannot give, and we ought to acknowledge a defect which we
cannot gainsay. Here, as in every other case, it will be enough
if we find the real merits of the cause.
Now as the historians had not so much as the habit of desig-
nating their works by their names, later writers found it much
easier to copy the works of their predecessors, more or less
literally, and to digest and use their materials in the most
various ways. So long as the simjple style of historical com-
position prevails, historical works are very liable to this treat-
ment, even when the authors name themselves — as so many
Arabian histories show ; how much more easily then when they
are entirely anonymous. In fact, every strict examination of
the historical works now contained in the Canon of the Old
Testament, shows incontestably that the late authors often
copied the older works very literally, fused together the accounts
and notices given by various and sometimes discordant authori-
ties, and placed them in new combinations, and thus were rather
collectors and digesters of older historical materials, than really
' Lot the reader only consider such of which rest on trustworthy recollection
passages as 1 Sam. xxvii. 8; Num. xxiv. and investigation; and the general style
20; 1 Chr. vii. 21, where we may read of treatment to which the Deuteronomist
thi'ce different independent opinions on sulijcets the ancient history,
the primitive inhabitants of Palestine, all
AND ART OF HISTORICAL COMPILATION. 59
original authors.' In the earlier times, so long as historical
composition, with literature in general, was still flourishing,
the amalgamation and fusion of the various written documents
was effected more easily and gracefully than in the later. And
it is in accordance with this that the reference to written
authorities is in earlier times very rare, and only adopted in
indispensable cases, but in later ages becomes more frequent
and regular.
But here we arrive at one of the most memorable phenomena
in the entire ancient Hebrew literature, which extends far be-
yond the range of the historical books, and hitherto has been but
little regarded. In order to appreciate it in a manner propor-
tioned to its importance, we must think ourselves back into
the times when there was a great mass of scattered anonymous
writings on the same subject in circulation, and when it was no
easy task even to bring them together, and still less so to con-
nect them properly. If several different wi'itings on the same
subject lay scattered in disorder, it was clearly in itself an
advantage to select the best of them and combine these more
closely one with another ; and if the writings were anony-
mous, it was so much the more easy to combine them agreeably
to some special aim. But tolerably early the skilful com-
pounding of many such works into one new one must have
been raised into a special art ; for in fact there needed not simply
the will, but also considerable ability and dexterity, to effect
such a compilation ; skilfully to work over materials, to weigh
the mutually contradictory, and by the aid of possibly numerous
omissions and some connectmg or explanatory additions, to
blend the whole as far as possible, and to build up a new whole
whose origination from previous documents only a practised eye
can discover. But this special art of ho ok- compounding must
have been much practised in the nation of Israel as early as
the tenth century b.c. It extends down to very late times,
flourishing more in prosperous periods than in others, and had
manifestly the greatest influence on the whole outward form
of a large portion of the literature. It might, besides, take
many various forms. The book-compounder might add more
or less of his own, might work over all his materials with
more or less freedom. By nothing so much as by the activity
of this art can one gauge the degree of perfection to which
• In the midst of all other points of p. ci. sq. There is also much resemblance
disagreement, there is much resemhlancc in the manner in which lamhliehus' ' Vita
to this in the origin of many of the Pura- Pythagorse' has been made up from older
nas. See the remarks in Eurnouf s Pre- Greek works,
face to the ' Ehagavata Purtina,' vol. iii.
60 ANONYMOUS CHARACTER OF THE HISTORICAL BOOKS.
the entire literature of Israel thus early raised itself. It
trenches upon the entire literary field. The Book of Enoch
as we now have it owes its origin to this art.' Both the
Canonical and the Apocryphal Proverbs,^ no less than the
Psalter and the Book of Job, have passed through these finish-
ing workshops, notwithstanding the authors' names which are
here and there interwoven. Even the collection of the Sibyl-
line Books has arisen in a similar manner.^ Chief of all, how-
ever, did this art find its employment in the historical works ;
nor can anything be conceived more elegant and perfect than
the compilation of almost the whole of the Old Testament
books of narrative. For it is certain, on closer investigation,
that not merely the Pentateuch or Genesis, but almost the
whole of the historical books, are traceable to distinct and still
recognisable sources, though in most the combination has been
so cleverly executed that one frequently experiences a difficulty
in recognising the rivetings. Moreover this art is exhibited in
the three first Gospels and the Acts ; and in the ten books of
the History of the Apostles referred to Abdias, the various layers
of earlier written narratives of which they are composed are
clearly to be made out. Of such importance is it to understand
rightly this particular art, and so surely do we encounter here
the traces of a forgotten but once very eager literary activity.
There are few historical books, therefore, now in the Old
Testament, which have been preserved perfectly as they were
first composed. The latest of all, the Book of Esther, is the
onl}»^ one that we can claim as wholly such ; in the little Book of
Ruth we observe, at the end at least (iv. 18-22), a literal copy
of older writings. It therefore must certainly cost no little
trouble to discover and clearly discriminate the original works
in the present ones. All that has been preserved of them is
more or less fragmentary and confused, and it is often hard
enough even to find these fragments correctly. The necessity
of such researches, however, spontaneously forces itself on us at
every attentive perusal of the books : and, on the other hand,
we may be even glad that the late works have preserved so
many portions of the original ones, and that we are still en-
abled, by the careful study of so many fragments of the most
' See my Ahh. über des Aeik. B. HenoM 1858. That such works as the Talmud,
Entstehung, Sinn mid Zusammensctstmg. the C. J., the BaLylonian-Arabiau and
Gott. 1854. the Greek Gcoponica must have arisen in
■■^ See the Jahrbücher der Biblischen this way, is self-evident ; only in them
Wiss., iii. and xi. the names of the reputed or actual authors
' See my Abh. über Entstehung, Inhalt, of the original writings are often pre-
und Werth der Sibyllischen Bücher. Gott, served.
HISTORY OF IIEBKEW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. GI
clifFerent kinds and ages, to obtain a more complete survey of
the whole ancient Hebrew historical composition.^ We now
proceed to particulars.
C. HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
The historical works contained in the Old Testament, which
must be the chief sources of this history, are divided, both as to
their character and their external order and arrangement, into
three parts : I. The books which are devoted to the description
of the Antiquity of the nation, or the period down to the time
of the Judges : viz. the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua ;
which, however, properly only form one work, and which (if we
wished to give them a collective name) might be called the G-reat
Booh of Origins,^ or of the Primitive History. II. The books
which describe the time of the Judges and Kings, down to the
first destruction of Jerusalem : viz. the Book of Judges and the
four Books of Kings {i.e. the two of Samuel and the two of
Kings), to which we must add the Book of Ruth, which acci-
dentally has received a place in the Hebrew Bible among the
Hagiographa ; all these likewise, on their last redaction, only
formed one work, which might be appropriately called the Great
Booh of Kings. Each of these two great works, therefore, not
only embraces a separate province, but, by a surprising coinci-
dence, at the same time comprises one of the three great
periods into which the entire histor}^ of the nation is divided
by intrinsic character ; and all critical investigation brings us
to the conclusion that neither of them, in the state in which
we find them, is a single work in the strict sense, but is to be
regarded as a book in which a number of kindred accounts and
' When these investigations began to once [namely, in the Theologische Studien
be zealously pursued in Germany, more nnd Kritiken for the year 1831, p. 595
than seventy years ago, very much perver- sqq., and in the March number of the
sity of attempt and aim mingled in them. Berliner Jahrbücher for the same year.]
Scholars were too easily satisfied with The necessity of strict investigation in
hunting out mere contradictions in the this province is evident to everyone who
books, detecting want of coherence in is not wilfully blind ; and all we have to
the stories, and resolving eveiything into be concerned aboiit is, that our knowledge
' fragments ' ; whereas they had not yet and discernment should be thoroughly
foimd any largo firm basis, and were there- reliable and profound. No conscientious
fore unable to distinguish a real incon- man ought any longer to pav the least
gruity from a merely apparent discre- attention to the stupidity of those scholars
pancy. I do not now regret having who even in our day condemn all inves-
cast my first youthful work of the year tigations of this sort in the lump.
1823 [die Komposition der Genesis] into ^ Not to be confounded with that which
that wild ferment: I still maintain large I usually call the Book of Origins. This
and important portions of it. I have, latter is the older book, and one basis of
however, already spoken of it more than the present one.
G2 lllSTOEY OF IIEBIIEW HISTOKICAL COMPOSITION.
representations of the same period liave gathered round one
central work, or rather, have attached themselves to it as closely
as j)ossible — just as, in the Psalter and the Proverbs, a quantity
of kindred matter has gradually gathered round the nucleus
furnished by David's songs and Solomon's proverbs. To these
are to be added : III. Those much later works which are placed
together in the Hagiographa, namely, the Great Book of Uni-
versal History down to the Greek times (the Chronicles with the
Books of Ezra and Nehemiah), and the little Book of Esther.
These are the three strata of historical books in the Old Tes-
tament, which moreover were completed and received into the
Canon in the same order of time. And as each of the three
great works sprang, both as to origin and present shape, from
peculiar and independent tendencies of historical view and de-
scription, we find in them, when taken together and thoroughly
appreciated in all their minutest parts, the exactest possible
history of the fates and modifications of Hebrew historical com-
j)osition, from its rudiments, down through its fullest and ripest
development to its complete decay.
HISTORY OF IIEBHEW HISTOEICAL COMPOSITION. C3
I. THE GEEAT BOOK OF OEIGINS.
PENTATEUCH AND BOOK OF JOSHUA.
This work on tlie history of the ancient period of the nation is,
as to its origin and the greater part of its contents, considerably
older than the second of the three books above mentioned, and
has therefore experienced far greater transformations, before it
emerged ont of the flood of similar books, as the only one which
posterity thought worth preservation. Before it received its
last modifications, earlier historical works and documents of the
most various kind were gathered into its bosom, as rivers into
a sea; and the discovery and discrimination of these oldest
component parts is the problem, the right solution of which is
indispensable for the use of the various materials, and includes
in itself the relics of a history of the oldest Hebrew historical
composition.
Without doubt, the utmost foresight is the first condition of
sound discernment in this field. For Avhen we have to deal
with books which are no longer in their original state, and
which we only know at second or third hand, by isolated cri-
teria, it necessarily follows that the oldest are the most difficult
to discover, because repeated redactions may have so much
shortened, or transformed and amalgamated them with later ma-
terial, that it requires the utmost effort to collect the fragments
of a work from their dispersion and confusion, and to form from
them a correct notion of the whole work. As it is impossible,
however, any longer to evade ail researches of this kind — unless
we are ready beforehand to renounce every sound view about
the whole of the oldest history — everything dejDends on our
research being profound enough to exhaust all the evidences
that the present documents offer. It is surprising to see how
the varied phenomena of this province, as soon as we only make
a right beginning of comprehending them, contribute so much
light to explain each other, as to make it possible to establish
the most important certainties on what at first sight seemed
such slippery ground.'
' After I had giiined some insight into Buchs von Mose, Halle, 1798], the only
the leading necessities that govern this scholar of older date, who, after the phy-
■whole subject, I was curious to see whether sician Astruc and Eichhorn, carefully ex-
K. D. Ilgen [^Dic Urkunden des ersten aminod the Book of Genesis with refer-
C4 lIISTOIiY OF HEBREW IIISTOEICAL COMPOSITION.
1. The oldest Historical Worhs.
There are writings which have every appearance of great anti-
quity, but which do not particularly claim our notice here, be-
cause they cannot be reckoned to belong to narrative literature.
Thus, as we shall frequently remark further on, many short
codes of laws were wi-itten down at a very early date, and on
repeated occasions ; nevertheless, in so far as these were written
down by themselves, they do not belong here. It is not so easy
to conceive that such a passage as the list of the stations
(Num. xxxiii. 1-49), which must have been written early, and
which is even ascribed to Moses himself (v. 2), can ever have been
written down by itself, without belonging to a regular historical
work. If, then, we look for traces of strictly historical works,
such as we should expect to find in Israel, a close scrutiny
certainly does discover comparatively many and distinct ves-
tiges of this kind. In a general way, we include among them
all the passages which, according to all appearances, must
have already stood in some historical book or other before the
date of the Book of Origins, which we shall soon describe, and
other later works. We find such fragments of the oldest his-
torical works scattered about from the Book of Genesis down to
that of Judges ; and, as far as it can be concisely done thus
early, we will indicat^e them in the note below.'
ence to its sources — had discovered the 7, 22, xlix. 1-28. — In the Book of Exo-
triie state of the case in this book, at any dus : iv. 18, 24-27, xiii. 17-18; much
rate. But ahis ! I found that, though in xiv. ; then xv. almost entirely ; xviii.,
he occasionally takes a step on the right xix. 3-xxiv. 11, a lai-ge main-piece, al-
road, he always loses it again. As for though the Fourth Narrator must hare en-
later times, I may refer to what I have larged something in xix. — In the Book of
myself said in the Tlieologische Studien Numbers : xi. 4-9, xii. 1, 3, xx. 14-21,
und Kritiken for the year 1831, p. 590- xxi. 1-9, 12-35, xxxii. 33-42, very im-
G08 ; and to Tuch's Kommentar über die portant passages. — In the Book of Joshua :
Genesis, 1838. On the more recent un- v. 2-12, as to its basis ; much in x.-xii.,
satisfactory and often perverse works of especially the list in xii. 9-24 ; in xiii.
Hupf(4d and KnoV)cl I have written at 2-6, 13, xv. 13-19, 45-47, xvi. 10,
length in the Jahrbücher der Biblischen xvii. 11-18, xix. 47. — In the Book of
Wiss.v. p. 239-44, and Glitt. Gel. Anz., Judges: the whole chapter i. to ii. 5, little
1862, p. 17-31. The opinions of such as altered ; but also the passage in x. 8, and
Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, Keil, Kurtz, much in ix., have all the air of being
stand Ijelow and outside of all science, derived from very old documents. Many
See also p. 61 above. portions of these works are, without
' In the Book of Genesis : some ancient doubt, scattered about in other places,
elemerts in xi. 29 sq., xv. 2, xx., xxi. freely treated by later writers, and tho-
6-32, xxvi. 13-33, xxix. -xxxiii. 15; more roughly changed in the redaction. Where
connectedly and very little changed, xxxv. such materials are to be looked for, the
l_4j 6-8, 16-22; much in xxxvii., xl., consideration of the following works will
eqq., may be derived from this source, teach. It was liardly possible to explain
especially as to what regards purely Egyp- here, with all necessary detail, the grounds
tian topics ; but we do not discover the for ascribing the above-cited passages to
unadulterated original again till xlviii. one or more ancient historical works. "Wo
THE OLDEST IIISTOEICAL WORKS. 65
If we compare these fragments with the subsequent works,
which we shall soon describe, we at once discern a marked
difference between their mode of treating the history itself.
The subsequent works delineate, indeed, many incidents of the
age of Moses and Joshua with great minuteness of detail ; but
m that case they pursue more definite aims, legislative and
prophetical, and each of them, as we shall show, does so in its
own peculiar style. But these fragments have no such limited
scope in their account of these times ; moreover, the matter
which they record may be recognised as the most strictly his-
torical, and the picture which they present as the most antique.
Few as may be the comparative number of the accounts which
are now preserved in these fragments, they afford us the
clearest insight into those times, and with all their conciseness
contain an abundance of graphic and truly historical views,
which afford us the readiest key to the understanding of all
later works. We will show further on, by many examples, how
much they surpass even their immediate successor, the highly
important .BooÄ; of Origins, in simplicity and exactness, as well
as in fulness and variety of record, and to what extent it is true
that we possess no more reliable accounts of the events and
peculiarities of early times than they contain. There is hardly
anything which the historian has more to regret than the fact
that only so few of these fragments have been preserved.
These fragments also display many both rare and archaic
peculiarities in the usage of words ; ^ and much that is very
shall speak more intelligibly, and at the being read, only recurs thrice in Deute-
sanie time more concisely, on these points ronomy with the same idea, and in a
further on, in the special portions of the different connection in Chronicles and
history itself, and in part in the following Ecclesiastes. Among the remarkable for-
cxplanation of the separate historical mations are the strange infinitive •inb'U»
works. j^jj x^jji_ 2g^ ^^^ (.j-^g sufjix ''\^—, not in
' Confining ourselves to the passages , , , • , , ^ '' , •
which have been little changed, and which ^^^'«'^ (though certainly lofty prophetic
are at the same time not poetical, we find Miction), xxiu. 31. We might enumerate
here, in proportion to the trifling bulk of niany peculiar expressions, as. Kings
the passages, a great number of words ''^«^ (f'^^ ^«"^'l i° Amh^vic jancgns
which are either entirely unknown else- mangad, ^ccovA. to Isenbergs Dictionary,
where, or are not usual in prose. Thus, p. 33, 102 ; "-p^ -|-n, Mischna San-
nx Ex. xxiv. 6 ; ^''^^'X v. 11 ; -)J|3y Josh. , , . ... u \ u . c ^
^'- ' '' ?^? ' Hj> hedrin, ii. 4; AbLJl <__',J Seetzen s
V. 11 ; rCDn XV. 18, Judges i. 14; ^J^^ , '^ ■ ^
Te, • - -.-.,«_,.. ■ , ■ t\ i' i" Beisen, i. p. 61, 132; and Sultana, in
JNum. XXI. ; flDDDX xi. 4 ; in the whole -o u- > r> ? j- ••■•■<, a tit
t'T:--: Kobinson s Prtfes;'(«e, 111. 141, Amra. Marc.
Pentateuch, and throughout the entire 23, 3, 1), for broad high-road, Num. xx.
Old Testament, except the passages that 17, xxi. 22; djoh- said'of the divine, i.e.
adopt tlie word from the Pentateuch (Lam. irresistible discomfiture of an enemy, Ex.
iii. 5; Mai. i. 13; Neh. ix. 32), HX^Fl is xiv. 24, xxiii. 27, Josh. x. 10: -12"^ pX
only found in Ex. xvJii. 8 and Num. XX. 14; without trouble. Num. xx. 19; iq';)
and rhryO only in Ex. xiii. 26, xxiii. ^^^^ according to the edge of the stcord,
25; the word n^;p, in tlio remarkable i.t";.ithoutmercy,Num. xxi. 24 ; Josh.viii.
passage Ex. xix. 5, which v.as constantly 24, x. 28, 30, 32, 3ö, 37, 39, xi. 11 sq.
VOL. I. F
66 IIISTOllY OF IIEBEEW IIISTOrJCAL COMrOSITION.
isolated and obscure in later works lias certainly been borrowed
from these remains of early history, or fr'om similar sources.^
If we are asked, however, whether these fragments belong to
a single historical work which originally embraced them all, we
must answer in the negative. Although all the difficulties of
such researches are centered here, we are nevertheless able,
by gathering together into as lifelike a combination as possible
all that bears signs of having once been full of life, to discern
in these fragments several historical works from which they
must be derived. As far as we can distinguish these as to the
dates of their origin, they succeeded each other in this order :
1) The account of an important speech of Joshua's (Josh. xvii.
14-18) is evidently one of the most remarkable relics of the
oldest historical composition ; and none among all the above-
mentioned fragments is so strange as this, in purely linguistic
and artistic respects. The narration here almost stammers, as
if it had yet to learn an easy flow. This prose is as rough and
hard as a stone ; and if there is any passage in the Old Testa-
ment which proves that common — that is, not poetical — diction
(although, of course, it always existed along with poetical
diction, just as night beside day) is at first but little fit to be
written down, and only gradually and laboriously attains the
roundness which suits writing (which verse originally possesses
of itself), this passage is the one.^ Besides, we are to take into
14 sq., xix. 47; Jdgs. i. 8, 15, an ex- xix. 3, 17, 19, xx. 1, 19 sq. Peculiar
prossion which indeed often reciirs in expressions and views, when they are at
other later books after this model, bnt the same time important for the history,
which is foreign to the Book of Origins will be explained below in their places,
(concerning Gen. xxxiv. 26, see further ' It has hitherto been little noticed that
on). The case is the same with the ex- obscure words and sentences which, ac-
pression 'inti' \\) n*^^K'n ah ^e ^eß not cording to all appearance, must be based
one that escaped, Num. xxi. 35, Josh. x. ?° ancient tradition, and which yet occur
28, 30, 33, 37, 39 sq., xi. 8 (cf. viii. 22) ; ^'} ^^'^^ "^i^st of easy and flo^nng descrip-
nox maul, for r\n^^, is likewise foreign t'ons, are derived from such primitive
' T ''.- : sources, and are evidently only repeated
to the Book of Origins, compare Oen. xx. y^^ subsequent writers for the sake of the
17; XXI. 10-12; xxx. 3 ; xxxi. 33 ; Ji-x. ancient tradition. A convincing example
xxi 7,^20, 26 sq., 30 ; xxni. 12 (xx. 10), ^^^. ^^^ found in the obscure passage Gen.
with Gen. xvi. 1-8; xxv. 12; xxxv. 2o xx. 16, which, from the mere resemblance
s<l- ; nhiX 71? 071 account of, is at least of verse 17 with Ex. xv. 26, Num. xxi. 7,
nowhere so frequent a characteristic as in '"^f ^^ taken from one of these ancient
these fragments. Gen. xxi. 11, 25, xxvi. ^o^^^'^' There is a similar case in the
32 ; Ex. xviii. 8 ; Num. xii. 1 . It accords ^^"^'' ' ^^^ Dff <i of Isaac for Isaac s God,
well with all these criteria that these ^F"^- ^^"^^ ^\ 53, which must have an
fragments do not, as the Book of Origins ^"f «rical foundation
dots, introduce the name Juhveh at Ex. \ ^^^ repetition of the explanatory ^3,
vi. 2, but besides that name, constantly whichisnowhereelsesofrequentasin Josh.
use the common one Elohim, even in the xvii. IS, appears in somewhat the samo
Mililimest moments of revelation, in a way in Ex. xxiii. 33, which is likewise an
manner whicli we sliould neither expect to ancient passage ; nevertheless, it does not
find, nor actually do find, in llie Book of recur there so frequently as in the former ;
Origins, Ex. xiii. 17 sq., xviii. 1 sqq., and the passages of this 27,1/«^ Narrator
BOOK OF THE AVAKS OF JAIIVEII. 67
account tlie tlioronglily antique and almost unexampled histo-
rical contents of this passage : so that there can be no doubt
that it was written down soon after Joshua's death.
From the nature of its contents, however, this account would
originally have only formed a small section of a larger wort.
What then was the historical work to which it belono-ed —
perhaps the very oldest in Israel after Moses and Joshua ? We
once find a Booh of the Wars of Jaliveh specially cited as a
Avritten document, by a later but comparatively very ancient
historian ; ^ and if we consider both what he cites from this
source, and the name he assigns to it, it will lead us to im-
portant conclusions. Verse 14 cites from this ancient book a
thoroughly unconnected sentence, which begins and ends with
accusatives, and cites it merely as a further testimony to the
position of Israel's encampment :
[We took]
Walieb in Sufa, and the valleys of Arnon,
and the slope of the valleys that reaches to where Ar lies,
and leans upon the bordei* of Moab.
Verse 20 cites another passage for the description of a station : ^
[the dale]
that is in the field of Moab, at the head of Pisgah, and looks out over
the wilderness.
The structure of the members, and the very rare diction,^ as
well as the style of local description, which is by no means that
usual in prose, show that these are fragments of songs, of songs
of victory beyond doubt, which celebrated the conquests of the
nation — the possible compass of which we may estimate by the
similar song in Judges v. The name Booh of the Wars of
Jahveh,* indicates a book which, to judge by its title, certainly
ah'cady possess a much more flowing style ' Let the reader only consider the
generally. Besides, almost everything in very peculiar iisage of *1^K for fic-
tile language of the passage in Josh. xvii. divitf/, of DQK' for place, oi't^st-^ before
is strange. ^, „" '" . ■, . ^
' Num. xxi. 14. To be siu-e, the LXX. ^^l ^'™^ °^ •? ^1'?'*' and even serving to
translate here 5.« rodro X^y.rai 4v ß^ßKl^- define the situation of the place, llie
n6Mt,o, To-v Kvplov rV Zcobß icpAöyta,, but expression in Deut xxxiv. 1 is probibly
manifestly from a variety of misunder- only dern^d from the last phrase. How
standings ; and it is almost incompre- "/^^ l^^ "^l }'' ""■ ? ''' ''^'^''*'"''. '^ '° ?T
hensible how in the Zdf^ch. d. Beut. Mar- ^^^^^ f'^'^^ !'^^'t a m-.t« many centuries later
gml. Gcs. 1860, p. 316 sq. this utterly ff'^"^ >* 1^"^« differently. Num. xxxni.
perverse interiiretation of the words can 1 mi ^ • i i • .
be approved, and the existence of a Book ^hat is, holy wars, wars against op-
of the Wars of Jahveh A.mod. ^ve^^xxe heathens, said with the same
^ The formula of citation is indeed ab- ^P^'S''' ''' '"• \'^"'- ^'''"- ^^ ' ^''''- ^^'
sent here, but it occurs just before, and
the style of the diction indicates the same
source.
cf. 2 Sam. xxiii. 11.
F 2
68 HISTOKY OF HEBREW HISTOEICAL COMPOSITION.
did not contain only sucli songs, but a collection of all such
reminiscences of the victorious campaigns of Moses and Joshua.
We must therefore consider this to be one of the earliest his-
torical works, which also contained simple naiTatives. We
may assume, then, that the above-mentioned passage of Joshua
originally belonged to it. Another very important passage that
probably belonged to it, is the great Passover- song in Ex. xv.
1—18 ; for this has in v. 19 a brief explanatory appendix, which
the next early historian (the author of the Book of Cove-
nants), of whom we shall soon speak, must have found already
annexed to it. The work may also have contained a list of
the sites of Israel's encampment in the desert, which this same
author of the Book of Covenants used. And if the author of
the Book of Origins found Israel's stations in the desert
already recorded in this oldest historical work, we can readily
understand how he came to ascribe such a list to Moses him-
self, since it may at least at bottom be actually traceable to
him.*
2) According to all indications, we may refer to a second
historical work some passages which — in direct contrast to the
preceding unpractised attempts — display a hand more skilled
in narrative composition, so that we may on that account con-
sider this work somewhat later than the preceding ; but which,
as to contents, ascend back to very early times, and may very
well have been written in the first century after Moses. We
find no indication that this work contained more than the life
of Moses himself, and, in the absence of the original designation,
we may reasonably call it the Biography of Moses. But even the
fact of its proposing to itself so limited a subject, is (as will
appear further on) an evidence for its early date. Moses him-
self and his time are here presented to us on all sides in the
clearest light. No other work known to us describes that
great time more minutely and- familiarly, and at the same time
in such delicate and transparent language, as we discern in
these fragments. They also manifest most unmistakable simi-
larity in the external j)ro]3erties of the diction. But alas ! they
are only a very few fragments.^
3) Of a third work, many more fragments have been preserved.
And when we compare the contents of the most important
• Num. xxxiii. 2 ; on this two-fold list dently assign to it ; bnt vithout doubt
of the encaniping-plaees of Moses, SCO what many other records were ultimately de-
is said further on, of the march through rived from this work, especially that list
the desert. of the eanip-stations of Israeli under
2 Namely, E.^. iv. IS, and the whole Moses, which disagrees with the one above
chapter xviii. arc all that we can confi- referred to.
BOOK OF COVENANTS. 69
among tliem, tliey at once display a striking- common character
in one particular : they are mainly intent on showing how the
ancient compacts and covenants arose, and describe with especial
minuteness all that concerns these. It is as if people were then
in an unquiet time, in which everyone tried to secure himself
by oral or written agreements with friends, and by binding
compacts ; * such importance is here attached to covenants in
all relations of life. As a covenant is made between Israel and
Elohim in the sublimest passage of the history, ^ so, according
to this work, there is one between Jacob and Laban, Isaac
and Abimelech, Abraham and Abimelech ; ^ and there is the
greatest resemblance in the descriptions of the ratifications of
all these covenants.* This work is so peculiar in this respect,
and all equally important accounts about the Patriarchal world
contained in later works are so evidently a mere development
of the principle here laid down, ^ that I do not see how, if we
will give this work a name (its ancient name being lost), any
better designation can be found for it than that of Book of
Covenants.
If we seek the date of this work, all discoverable traces show
that, though it cannot be earlier than the second half of the
period of the Judges, or, more definitely, the beginning of Sam-
son's jurisdiction, it certainly cannot be later. If the passage
in Judges x. 8 is from this work, as I believe it is, that would
bring its to the times after Gideon ; and it is evident from
Num. xxxii. 34-42 and from the above-mentioned passages
from the present books of Joshua and Judges, that the first
times after Moses and Joshua had long become a matter of
history. Jacob's Blessing (Gen. xlix.), which has every sign of
having been borrowed from this book, brings us still nearer to
the determination of its date. For it is entirely based on an
actual view of the scattered manner in which the twelve tribes
dwelt in Canaan in the period of the Judges. The very different
conditions of the various tribes, such as must be the case
when there is no strict national unity, and was the case just
then among them, could not be more faithfully described than
' See the clear account s^i^'f^ii iii auotlier with such minuteness, yet never mentions
very aucient documeut, Gen. xiv. 13, and the 'aalt of the covenant,' as the Book of
the manner in which our work speaks of Origins does. Lev. ii. 13 ; Num. xviii. 19 ;'
its own time, Ex. xxiii. 32. of. 2 Chron. xiii. 5.
^ Ex. xxiv. * What the Book of Origins says about
^ Gen. xxi. 22-32, xxvi. 28-31, xxxi. the Divine Covenant with Abraham, Gen.
44-54. xvii., and even with Noah, Gen. ix., lies
* To see this more distinctly, we must so far removed from all historical expe-
take into account that this work, although rience, that the prototype of it can only
it describes the ratification of covenants bo sought in Ex. xxiv.
70 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMrOSITION.
tliey are in this song ; and it is as cei-tain tliat Jacob's Bless-
ing was composed in the period of the Judges as it is that
the Song of Deborah belongs to the same date. How certain it
is that it was not produced in the time of the Kings, is further
evident from the fact that the imitation of it, Moses's Blessing,
in Deut. xxxiii., was really composed for the j)urpose of sup-
plying its deficiencies, which were subsequently very sensibly
felt. For when Israel felt itself united and happy under kingly
rule, then — to say nothing of other changes which time had
wroiTght — it could no longer be contented with a benediction
which nowhere regarded the nation as a whole, and which,
with respect to some tribes, rather went off into curses, or at
any rate into bitter reproaches ; and we comprehend how a poet
might conceive the idea of remodelling it in such a way as we
see in Deut. xxxiii. Another indication tliat Jacob's Blessing
belongs to the later half of the period of the Judges is found
in the remarkable fact that Deborah's song was present to his
mind as a model ; and though it possesses much poetical beauty,
yet it is very far from having the original poetic vigour that
Deborah's song has. But the clearest indication for us is its
declaration about Dan, v. 16-18 :
Dun [judge] shall judge his people,
as any tribe of Israel.
Let Dan be a serpent in the "way,
a basilisk in the path,
That bites the horses' heels,
so that his rider fall backwards.'
— I hope for thy help, oh Jahveh !
This distinctly refers to Samson's time and judicial office,
when even the small tribe of Dan was as fortunate as any other
great one in seeing, in the person of Samson, a successful
judge and hero arise in its midst of whom it could be jjroud,
and under whom, although small and oi)pressed, it rose boldly
against the Philistine supremacy, like a serpent which, though
trodden to the earth, attacks the valiant rider behind.'^ And
it being certain that this position of the tribe under Samson
soon passed away without abiding consequences, such declaration
must surely have been written down during Samson's brief and
' Cf. tlie way in wliicli among the an- liow immediately and how fervently those
cicnt Arabs also the image of a warrior as then living hoped for Dan's, that is Sam-
a serpent is worked out, Hamäsa, p. 784 son's, victory. The interjection here be-
sq- ^ . longs to the original text just as much as
* Even the ejaculation in v. 18 is cha- that in Is. xlvii. 4.
racteristic, inasmuch as it distinctly shows
BOOK OF COVENANTS. 71
successful resistance ; from which we inay form a correct iii-
fereuce as to the date of the whole historical work of which
we speak, inasmuch as all the other indications point to the
same period.
This work, therefore, had its origm in a time which (as we
shall show in its place) rose with new zeal ag-ainst the great
dangers and corruptions which multiplied in the first careless
centuries after Moses ; a zeal which, after repeated kindlings,
at last j)i"oduced a really great deliverance under Samuel and
the first king. In this new popular fervour it might have been
considered advisable to survey the past history of the nation,
to describe its ancient victories and its destiny, its laws and its
covenants, and to remark by way of contrast how low it had
fallen in recent times, and how much of the Holy Land it had
still left in the hands of the heathen (Judges i.). Thus the
plan and nature of the work, as far as we can discover them
from its fragments, may be clearly inferred from the period of
its origin. The state of things in the time of the author, as
to the intermixture of the people with the heathen, and the
position of many unconquered heathen towns in the midst of
Israel, was evidently similar to that described in the memorable
passage in Judges i. ; a state of things that had so entirely
changed even under the first kings that the ' Book of Origins '
presents quite a different picture. It is evident that the tra-
ditions about the days of Moses and Joshua were then very
abundant and pure, as is to be expected, seeing that no new
and more important period could have obscured their memory.
Traditions of the Patriarchal time were also incorporated,
manifestly with great fulness and detail, and with reminis-
cences whose completeness gradually diminishes afterwards ; ^
we have no evidence, at least, that the work ventured on the
primitive times before Abraham. The time of the author was,
however, already so remote from the Patriarchal age, that it
was possible to use a poetic license, and venture on one bold
imaginative picture of that age. Sorrowfull}^ surveying the
condition of the scattered tribes, and compelled to pronounce
praise on some of them, and ' j)oignant blame on others, he
fled in spirit to the memory of the Patriarch Jacob, in whom
the idea of the unity of the nation alwaj^s centered, and from
whom every member of the community might exj)ect an en-
' As, for example, Phichol as general, were merely casually preserved out of a
and Ahuzzatli as friend (minister) of Abi- cycle of much more circumstantial tra-
melech, who stand now very isolated (Gen. ditions.
xxi. 22, xxvi. 26), and look as if tlu'y
72 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
during' fatlieHy interest in the fortunes of liis posterity.^ All
antiquity entertained the notion that dying persons have mo-
ments of illumination, and especially that a dying Patriarch
could foresee the destinies of his posterity.^ Thus he ventured
to make the dying- Jacob the mouthpiece of all the pure truths
to be pronounced about all the tribes.^ This is the earliest
attempt of the kind known to us ; later writers have evidently
only copied the example here set."*
Even the tribe in which the author composed his work may
in some degree be determined. He certainly did not belong to
the tribe of Levi ; he makes no allusions to its privileges and
honours, nay hardly mentions it, as this tribe had fallen very
low in the time of the Judges before Eli ; and in the only
place in which he is obliged to mention it in the series of
the tribes,'"' he coldly degrades it to a level on which it could
be placed only by a stranger, and only at that period. In like
manner, he rises with noble pride against the northern tribes,
w'hich were more intermixed with heathen.^ He praises the
tribe of Joseph indeed, as he could not then help doing ; ^ but
there is no indication that he belonged to it. On the other
hand, he everywhere exalts the tribe of Judah so markedly,^ that
we cannot shut our eyes to the special interest which draws
him towards it. And that he dwelt in the south, and regarded
the relative positions of the inhabitants from that point of
view, is deducible from his special notice of the Amorites,*^ and
from the custom thence arising of using the name of Amorites
in a general sense, instead of that of Canaanites'° — a pecu-
' That in early times a reciprocal rola- contrast to this, Moses' Blessing gives
tion was always assumed to exist between exclusive prominence to the opposite side
tlio Patriarchs and their descendants, is of Levi, Deut. xxxiii. 8-11.
clearly seen in the language of the Pro- ^ Gen. xlix. 14; Judges i.
phets : as Hosea xii. 4 sqq. [3 sqq.] ' Gen. xlix. 22-26.
'^ Ilomer, II. xxii. 365-360, and the * Gen. xlix. 8-12, where he is almost
commentators ad loc. declari'd the first-Lorn, and at any rate
' That the author docs not so much made equal to the princely tribe of Joseph
mean the sons of Jacob as the tribes in (Judges i. 2 sqq.); compare moreover tlie
Gen. xlix. 1-27, ho himself explains at very minute remarks about events belong-
the end, v. 28; and this gives us a clear ing to Judali's territory. Judges i. 12-15
hint how the whole is meant to be taken, (Josli. xv. 16-19); v. 16; Num. xxi. 1-3.
and that the speaker himself may be un- ^ Judges i. 36, where there is a very pre-
derstood to be identical with the poet, eise definition of the southern border of
The special blessing on Joseph (verses the Amorites, which is nowhere else vv.-
22-26), however, is ancient, preserved fei-rcd to.
from times long before Moses; on this '" Gen. xlviii. 22 (see on the contrary
matter see below, on Joseph. xxxiv. 2) ; Num. xxi. 13, 21 sqq., xxxii.
< Not only Moses' Elessing, Deut. 39 ; Judges i. 34 sq., x. 8. Other writers
xxxiii., but also such declarations as Gen. belonging to Judah speak in the same
xlviii. 15-19, xxvii. 27-29, 39 sq. ; Num. manner, Amos ii. 9, 10, the author of tlio
xxiii. sq., are entirely formed upon tliat ancient Book of Kings, 1 Sam. vii. 7, 14;
nio(hd. 2 Sam. xxi. 2 (see on tlio contrary Josh. ix.
* Güü, xlix. 5-7— cf. »xxxiv. 25. In 3 sqq.), and the Fifth Narrator, Gen. xv.
BOOK OF COVENANTS. 73
liarity wliicli markedly distinguishes these fragments from
others.
If we look more into the intrinsic character of this narrator,
however, we almost always find him animated, in the midst of
his representations of antiquity, by a strong affl,atus of the
prophetic spirit — a point that also distinguishes him from the
preceding narrators. Even that Blessing of Jacob could only
have been imagined by a genuine prophetic spirit ; in the de-
scription of the covenant between God and Israel the same
spirit displays itself in a glorious Divine declaration ; ' and in
other places also, and throughout, we discern its traces as a fire
constantly glowing under the ashes. Nevertheless, the nan-ator
adheres very closely to the simplicity of the ancient tradition,
and thereby differs sensibly enough from the later regular pro-
phetic narrators.
For this very reason we discern in him the rudiments of a
higher art of historical description. This shows itself also in
the fact that he is the first (as far as we know) who united the
remote period of the three Patriarchs with the Mosaic history
into one great work ; by which it became possible (as will soon
appear from the Book of Origins) for this history to be gradu-
ally enlarged into a universal history of the world. We have
the less reason to be surprised that this historian used older
written documents. He inserted the Decalogue (Ex. xx. 1-17);^
he incorporated songs which have all the signs of great anti-
quity, and which must have been written down previously.'
For such and other historical purposes, he made use of the
above-mentioned Book of the Wars of Jahveh, and probably other
written sources also. He appealed to popular songs of the
Mosaic time, of which the same may be said ;^ he even inserted
a rather minute summary of the Mosaic laws, or ' ordinances,'
which he must have received from an earlier time, as he repre-
16, to say nothing of such late wi'iters as Both are introduced with exactly the same
Josh. xxiv. 8-15 ; Judges vi. 10; x. 11 ; 1 formula, and the only easy way of ac-
Kings xxi. 26; 2 Kings xxi. 11. The counting for the historical remark ap-
author does indeed also use the name pended to the first (Ex. xv. 19), the pur-
Canaanites ; but in Ex. xxiii. 23 at least port of which is already expressed in
places the Amorites first in the series of ciiapter xiv., is by assuming that tlie
nations. autlior of this work found it already
' Ex. xxiii. 20-33. written in an ancient work, in which the
- But without the addition about the songs were accompanied by short historical
seventh day of rest after the creation, in illustrations. On the other hand, it is
the fourth commandment, verses 9-11, inconceivable that such verses as those in
which is as certainly an interpolation by Jacob's Blessing (Gen. xlix.) could be pro-
the Book of Origins, as it is certain that duced in any other way than by purely
the Decalogue in Deuteronomy shows signs literary art.
of the Deuteronomist's hand. * Num. xxi. 27-30, about wliich wo
^ Ek. XV. 1-19, and Num. xxi. 17 sq. speak further ou.
74 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION".
sents God to liave communicated it to Moses after the promul-
gation of tlie Decalogue, in order that he might lay it before
the people ; and we cannot imagine it to have come down to
him in any other way than by writing.^ This work, therefore,
presuj^poses a tolerably wide literature, and wears even a some-
what learned air, by its formula of citation, ' wherefore it is
said,' &c.^
According to all indications the Book of the Upright was
written hardly perhaps in the time of David, but certainly soon
after, under Solomon. This, as its name and its extant frag-
ments ^ show, was chiefly composed to show, by historical songs,
how an upright man in Israel, a Joshua or a Jonathan, should
live, what glorious victories he could achieve, and what glory
he would gain. Thus it was an historical manual of instruc-
tion, without connected narrative. But its collection of genuine
historical songs of ancient and recent times supplied most ex-
cellent materials to subsequent historians.
2. TJie Booh of Origins and its Sources.
We come next to the important work whose appellation as
the Booh of Origins we have revived, for reasons to be pre-
sently explained. Of this work there are fortunately longer
and more numerous fragments preserved than of that described
above, which it certainly exceeded also in its original extent.
The present work (on the discovery of whose age and author all
correct views of its entire nature must depend) , belongs to the
period of the early monarchy, and is therefore considerably
later than the other.
1) That it belongs to this period rather than to an earlier
one, is most immediately evident in general from the glances
' This is the notalile p.assage, Ex. xxi. air. But the Book of Origins, to say
2-xxiii. 19 cf. xxiv. 3. The special nothing of its utterly different authorship,
name of this section, ' ordinances,' is fixed is intended to be rather a book of laws
by xxi. 1, and xxiv. 3; but that, according than a strictly historical work, as will be
to the historian's meaning, Moses did not shown below. The resemblance to Gen.
write down tliese ' ordinances,' but merely ii. 24, x. 9, xxii. 14, might tempt us to
' the words of Jahveli,' i.e. the Decalogue, think that the cpiotations in Num. xxi.
follows from a comparison of xxiv. 4 with 14, 27 had been introduced by the Fourth
verse 3, and xx. i. We might tliercfore or Fifth Narrator; yet their hand cannot
even fancy that the historian had himself be distinctly recognised in Num. xxi.
composed this summary of laws, were it * Josh. x. 13; 2 Sara. i. 18, This ex-
iiot that the stylo of its composition and planation of the name and object of this
the plan of its present arrangement indi- book is the most probable one that can bo
cate a different conclusion. given. It was preeminently David that
* Num. xxi. 14, 27. It might surprise rendered the name and notion of tlic 'up-
118 that the ]>ook of Origins, although a right' glorious in Israel. Sec my Pmlvicn,
later work, has notliing of this learned 2nd ed., p. 4.
THE BOOK OF ORIGINS. 75
tliat it casts upon its own times in the midst of an exhibition of
the Patriarchal world. For it is bolder in such attempts at
exalted general views of times and things than the historical
work characterised above (see above, p. 34, sqq.). Whereas the
latter, so far as we see in its fragments, only once makes the
dying Jacob cast his gaze upon the extreme future, and therein
deliver exalted truths about the overclouded present of the
writer; in the Book of Origins on the contrary, the voice of
God appearing to the Patriarchs often abounds with cheering
addresses and joyous promises even for the ' seed ' or later pos-
terity ; as though the writer's present (to which such declara-
tions are properly to be referred), were one of those rare ages
that feel themselves exalted by a flood of prosperity, and anti-
cii)ate yet greater for the future. And here it is said among
other things that Abraham, and likewise that Sarah and Jacob,
shall 'become a multitude of nations, and that kings shall
come out of them.^ Now why should the blessing be so de-
fined, and limited to something so special and seemingly casual,
as that kings should descend from the Patriarchs ? and how is
it that such a conception of the Divine blessing is found only in
the demonstrable fragments of this book and in no other ? This
question can never be answered but by maintaining that the work
belongs to the first period of the rismg monarchy, which ad-
vanced the true prosperity of Israel, when in the full sense of the
words a ' multitude of nations ' assembled round the throne of
the far-ruling King of Israel, and Israel, after the dismal days of
dissolution and weakness, could boast with a new pride that it
too possessed kings. And as this generally acknowledged dignity
of the monarchy of Israel begins with David, we are thus pre-
cluded from thinking of the times of Saul. But it is no less
self-evident, on the other hand, that such declarations cannot
apply to the times of the decay of the monarchy, which com-
menced after Solomon ; and this receives distinct confirmation
from the very different tone of the later works. These decla-
rations could originate only at a time when the monarchy was
Israel's latest and as yet unmixed blessing. And, moreover,
there is not heard throughout the whole work a sound of
uneasiness occasioned by troubles of the times ; but we rather
seem to be breathing the quiet untroubled serenity of a happy
Sabbath-tide of the national life.
We are brought nearer to a result by a passage on the kings
of Edom in Gen. xxxvi., closely connected with the above-
' Gen. xvii. 5 sq. 16, xxxv. 11. The declaration about Isaac, which is now
work appears to have contained a similar lost.
76 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
mentioned declarations. When about to enumerate the series
of kings of Edom, the author finds occasion to add, that they
' reigned before there reigned any king over the children of
Israel ' (v. 31). There was then already a king in Israel at the
time that he wrote thus ; and the words excite in us the feeling
that he half envied Edom for having enjoyed far sooner than
Israel the blessings of a united and well-regulated kingdom.
But further, not only is the last- enumerated king in this series,
Hadad, described as if the narrator had kno^vn him as exactly
as one of the kings of Israel,' but the enumeration of the kings
is followed (verses 40-43) by that of the chieftains of Edom, as
if after the monarchy the country had returned to the rule of
chiefs ; this sounds quite as if David had already vanquished
the last king of Edom and put the country again under mere
chieftains. The Hadad, descended from the blood of the kings
of Edom, who at David's conquest fled, very young, to Egypt,*
may have been a grandson of Hadad the last king, as the
grandson frequently bears the grandfather's name.
But the exactest indication of the period of composition of this
work is to be sought in the account of the dedication of the
Temple of Solomon, 1 Kings viii. 1-11. This account, as we now
have it, has indeed indubitably passed through the hands of a
subsequent reviser, who must have altered or added much of it ; ^
but yet it preserves the clearest traces of having been originally
composed by the historian whose work we are here consider-
ing ; * so that we cannot but allow that the author must have
finished his work after the great event of the dedication of the
Temple of Solomon. But on the other hand, the work cannot
' That this king was still alive at the gins as the name of the month in v. 2, as
time when the work was compüsed (al- wo shall show further on. There are also
though such a thing is possible), cannot occasional differences of style, and the
bo positively inferred from the fact that whole v. 9. must he an addition by a later
his death is not mentioned in v. 39, siuce writer, on accoimt of the usage of pT
the only reason why riD»! is constantly ^^^[ of aiR as well as the general tone
added to the notice of all the preceding ^f ^j^q lano-uao-e
kings, is in order to form a transition to 4 The main proofs of this assertion are:
tlie next king ol Edom. th^ use of the word x>t"^ v. 1, and of the
^ 1 Kings XI. 14-22. An accurate com- . t ' '/ t
parison of the two accounts proves the expression y^y n\ym ^SX'> niVb^^
Hadad here mentioned to be a different Y- ^' ^^''"^1^ !'".^'*^ '^1' "i'' V^^]:^'-^^ 'I'l' '»^ t'le
person from the one spoken of in Gen. ^^'>^ «t Origins ; the perfect harmony of
xxxvi. 39. The Hadad that fled to Egypt ^'- ^ «q- with Lx. xxv. 13 sqq 20 ; xxxvii.
had evidontlv never been king at all, and ^ ' ^'^"'- ^^'- ^ ^^^■' ="^'^' °" '^'^^ contrary,
liad quite a different consort. *'"' discrepancy between these descriptions
» Even the transition with r« in v. 1 '^"'^ ^ Kings vi. 23-27 ; lastly, the remark-
, ,^ . ,. , , , '^ „ able agreement of v. 10 sq. with Ex. xl.
and U 1« entirely opposed to the usage of 34 t,,^. ^^j j.^ ^f ^i,;,!, cannot be made
the Book of Origins; the word D>:pT, apparent till wo treat of the Mosaic time.
V. 1, 3, is us foreign to the Book of Ori- Of the passages that describe the building
BOOK OF ORIGINS. 77
have been composed much hiter than the time of this dedication,
which falls in the eleventh year of the long- reign of Solomon ; '
for it must belong-, as we have said, to the first glorious period
of the monarchy. And the great fact of the building and dedi-
cation of this temple might serve the historian as a fitting con-
clusion to his work, which might even close with the noble words,
' The glory of Jahveh filled the house of Jahveli' (1 Kings viii. 10).
At least we may assume that it was completed in the first third
of Solomon's forty years' reign.
In fact no time could be more fiivourable than this to the
undertaking of an extensive historical work ; when the nation,
lately victorious over all the neighbouring tribes, delighted in
the memory of its own antiquity, and had latterly gained during
years of peace sufiicient leisure for a survey of the history and
relations of all nations of the earth. It was a grand time, such
as never returned again, with its quiet dignity and its manifold
artistic productivity. An historical work possessing a scope,
an arrangement, and an art fully worthy of the age, is the
Book of Origins, which has- not its equal for artistic beauty and
lofty historical feeling in the whole domain of Hebrew history,
and in almost every respect deserves to be called the finest
historical work of that ancient nation. As among the Greeks
the times immediately succeeding the victories over the Persians
produced an Herodotus and a Thucydides, so among the HebrcAvs
the first days of quiet after David's great victories are observed
to occasion a higher craving for historical survey and enlighten-
ment, which puts forth its fairest blossoms in this finest of aU
Hebrew histories.
If we seek a more exact knowledge of the writer's descent and
position, we do indeed find that he takes pleasure in giving pre-
cedence to the tribe of Judah in the narration of national
affairs,^ not without intending, in this as in all such descrip-
tions of ancient institutions, to present at the same time a
pattern of correct conduct for his own times. Yet it need not
be inferred from this that he belonged to that tribe, but at most
only that it was the leading one in his day (which we already
and dedication of Solomon's temple, the the later l)Ook,s, and on the other hand
following also were derived from the Book accords perfectly with the exact chrono-
of Origins: 1 Kings vii. 13-47, viii. 62- logy of the Book of Origins.
66. ■" In Num. ii. 3 sqq., vii. 12 sqq. This
' 1 Kings vi. 37 sq. It is probable that is indeed contrary to i. 5 sqq., xiii. 4 sqq.,
the last reviser borrowed this date, together xxvi. 5 sqq., but is to be ascribed to a
with the other more important one, v. I, special cause, to bo explained below. But
from tlie Book of Origins, with his accus- Josh. xiv. and xv. arc decisive, as also Gen.
tomed modifications, especially as the xlvi. 28 sqq.
important date in v. 1 stands alone in all
78 HISTORY OF IIEBFxEW IIISTOKICAL COMrOSITlON.
know from independent soiu'ces). On the other hand, he so
evidently assiduously gives prominence to everything concerning-
the tribe of Levi, and everywhere takes such especial notice of
its pri\aleges, duties, and functions, that we must at least at-
ti'ibute to him the exactest knowledge of all the concerns of
the sacerdotal tribe. But who could even possess such know-
ledge in those times, and who, moreover, portray with such
warmth even the minutest feature of the sacerdotal system, but
an actual member of the priesthood ? Particular passages of
the work are written expressly and exclusively for the priests,
to serve them as a rule in their sacerdotal functions ; the book
itself expressly making this distinction. ^ As surely as the
author of the former work was no Levite (p. 72), we must
allow the author of the present to be one ; and only by sup-
posing him to have been a Levite of the brilliant age of Solo-
mon, shall we correctly apprehend the peculiar aims as well
as the true disposition and arrangement of a large portion of
this work.
2) For, as touching the aims of the work,
a) The chief aim was unmistakably to survey from the
resting-place which that epoch had reached, the entire mass of
historical matter in its greatest extent, and to trace it back up
to the ultimate commencement of all creation. As the Greeks
after the Persian war embraced with fresh delight the history of
all nations and ages, and in a short time immensely extended
their historical survey, so this work endeavours to conceive of
history in its widest extent, as certainly no earlier work had
conceived of it. The work does, to be sure, take the nation of
Israel at once as the grand centre of all nations, and as the
great final purpose of all history ; but from that centre it over-
looks the wide circle of all nations, and from this final purpose
it boldly rises to the earliest conceivable beginning of all history.
Both elements unite in the idea of portraying the Origins — the
origins of all historical things that admit of it, of the nation of
Israel as of its individual tribes and families, of the heroes of
Israel as well as of all its institutions and laws, of all nations
of the earth as well as of the earth and heaven themselves.
And whatever the writer has to treat at ever so great length,
he must always start with the description of these origins, and
fit everything in succession into the frame thereby given. Such
a cliildlilco conception of all history, under the influence of
the first attempts to span fully its wide domain, and to con-
' Lev. vi. sq., xxi. sq.
BOOK OF ORIGIXS. 79
struct it according to a fixed principle, is undoubtedly very
natural at a certain stage of every nation's culture. The Indian
Purdnas have most faithfully j^reserved this stage of historical
instruction and easy survey ; ' and I have no hesitation in
saying that this Hebrew work in its fundamental arrangement
may be compared to such a Purdna? With this conception
are connected all the writer's views as to the con-ect division
of the wide subject-matter. For, with the attempt to survey
the history of the human race from the actual state of nations
back to the farthest antiquity, was easily combined the theory
of four gTeat Ages of mankind, in which the human race ex-
panded outwardly and advanced higher and higher in the arts,
but inwardly wore itself out in a constantly accelerating ratio ;
and in the last of which — the then present — the life of humanity
was felt to be dying out. This idea pervades the antiquity of
many cultivated nations,^ and may have come to the Hebrews
from older tribes ; but the form it then took among them
caused the entire period since the Patriarchs to be conceived as
the latest age, that of the Patriarchs as the last but one, and all
the remaining immeasurable primitive times up to the beg-inuing
of the human race as divided by the Deluge into two halves, the
first and the second age, and human life as gradually and con-
stantly degenerating in these various periods. Now as these four
ages must be conceived of as gradually progressing in the variety
and development of life, so that the latest was the most varied,
we have lesser periods comprised in the last age but one and the
beginning of the last, formed by the life of each of the three
Patriarchs, by the abode in Egypt, the life of Moses, of
Joshua, and of each of his successors. But along with this idea
the nation had yet, through its earlier fortunes, retained a clear
consciousness that it was comparatively recent and outwardly
inconsiderable auiong the nations of the earth. Accordingly
the task of a Hebrew historian being to show from the store
of ancient tradition how Israel, although so recent a com-
munity, had 3'et been separated from all other nations, and
' To Avliich the Mahä-Bhärata also be- a practice which in itself, indeed, is xery
longs, according to its own statements in proper (for a narrative only possesses its
the preface ; it is only one of the oldest complete meaning and scope in a certain
and best Purdnas, which opens its arms place and on a certain occasion), but
very widely for the reception of all pos- which easily becomes very seductive, on
sible legends. account of the facilities it affords for wrap-
■■' Of course this is said without taking ping up one story within another. See
into account the dissimilarities, such as aljove, p. 43.
principally the less developed genius for ' Cf. Vishnu-Puräna, p. 13 sqq., and
history in the Hindu works, and their more on this subject further on in this
custom of connecting the whole story history,
with some definite occasion in antiquity,
80 HISTORY OF HEBRE^7 HISTORICAL COMPOSITION,
become dominant over many in fulfilment of its liigli destiny,
his principle of airangement of the details of every period of
the primeval history was, always first to dispose of those
nations or families that do not lead down direct to Israel, that
Israel may then at length come out as a special people, and
the narrative there gain its highest attraction and greatest
breadth. This fundamental arrangement, consistently carried
out in the smallest details, pervades the entire structure of the
great work. Thus (1), after the Noachic deluge (where our
author fixes the origins of existing nations), he separates off all
the numerous nations not belonging to the race that leads
down to Israel, Gen. x., and even arranges these in such a
manner as to come in order from the most distant (Japhet) to
the nearer (Ham), and the nearest (Shem). Not till then follows
the series of generations leading down to Terah and Abraham
(Gen. xi. 10-26), to which is attached the detailed history of
Abraham. In like manner (2), he first separates off all Terah's
and Abraham's descendants who do not lead down to Isaac's
family, especially Ishmael (xxv. 12-18) ; and not till then does the
history of Isaac and his sons appear on its own account (xxv. 19
sqq.). (3) Thirdly, and lastly, he separates off Esau (xxxvi.), so
that at last Israel is left quite alone as father of the race, with
his sons representing the people, — the single great subject of
the narrative (xxxvii. 2 sqq.). Now, wherever a section of this
or any other kind begins with the explanation of the origin of
an important tribe or family, the author always puts as a kind
of title the words, ' These are the Origins of . . . ; ' ' and where
the family of the first man, and consequently the proper com-
mencement of this whole work on the history of mankind begins,
it is said. This is the Booh of the Origins of Mail (v. 1). And in
fact it can hardly be doubted that, in accordance with this super-
scription, the work bore the short title Booh of Origins. It is
true, indeed, that the narrative boldly rises yet higher, and
seeks to explain in a history of creation the origins of all visible
things (i. 1 — ii. 3) ; but this is to be regarded only as a kind of
introduction to the actual work beginning at chap. v. 1 ; for
wliich reason the introduction is also distinguished in a peculiar
manner by a concluding inscription (ii. 4). Counting up the
' The v'onl 'Origins' is adopted hero name of a tliino; (as in Gen. ii. 4) ; before
for eonciseness merely, and because it is the name of a person it properly denotes
suitabh; for the name of a book (the elder ihe hirths, that is, the posterity, of that
(^ato also wrote his Koman history under man, and the history of him and his
the title Origine.s) ■ although nn^h cor- descendants,
responds to our word only 1)efore the
BOOK OF OlllGINS. 81
sections resulting from all these considerations, we find that the
phrase, ' these are the origins of . . .,' is employed exactly ten
times to indicate a real section or essential division of the
book,' like the similar practice in Arabic books. The same
title may have been repeated in the accounts of the individual
tribes of Israel ; ^ but most of these parts of the work are now
lost.3
But precisely because the work thus treated history from the
Israelite point of view, perhaps for the first time m its widest
extent, it sought to combine all the closer, and to discriminate
all the finer, all its details. Accordingly, treating as it does
of the great unwieldy mass of historical families, nations, or
single persons, with reference to their rise and progress, it
A^entures to unite them all in a single great infinitely ramified
j)edigree, which has its root in the first man, a second progenitor
after the Deluge in Noah, and its youngest branches in the
great contemporaries of the author and their families. The
straight trunk, starting from Adam and again from Noah,
must have been treated as leading directly to the three Patri-
archs, and through them to the twelve tribes, all else being-
collateral ; and then among the twelve tribes themselves, Levi
probably served as a direct continuation of the pedigree."* This
is the first work known to us that seeks to arrange infinitesi-
mal details of origin in one comprehensive genealogy, although
such an arrangement is a very obvious one to nations like the
Hebrews and Arabs, who lay great stress upon purity of blood
and family ; but it became later the most popular form of his-
torical arrangement with the Semites. But the work attempts
also ver}'^ accurate time-distinctions, and herein especially dis-
j)lays a genuine historical spirit, opposed to the method of the
Indian Puranas. At least the members of the main direct line
of the tribe, and occasionally important collateral members also,
' [i.e. Gen. ii. 4 ; v. 1 ; vi. 9 ; x. 1 ; xi. may he preserved in the Clironicles, as in
10, 27; XXV. 12, 19; xxxvi. 1 (in xxxvi. the passages 1 Chron. ii. 42-49, öO-öö,
9 it appears to be repeated by way of re- and especially xxiii. 24-xxiv. 31.
suming the subject after the interruption * Because in this tribe the chronology
at verse 2) ; xxxvii. 2.] is carried on uninterriq-itedly, at least
- As Num. iii. 1, compared with Ruth according to the sure indications in Ex.
iv. 18, shows. vi. 16-20; and further, b'^cause in the
' For the passage in Ex. vi. 14-27 is time of the Judges the Iligh-Priests alone
merely intended to attract attention to the exhibit a kind of unbroken succession, and
descent of Moses and Aaron at the outset, not strictly speaking the Judges, as we
and is therefore designedly incomplete, might be disposed to believe from Judges
The enumeration of the series of all the iii.-xvi. ; lastly, because, as we shall show
families of Israel, which is here beg^m further on, the sacerdotal tribe is the one
but not finished, must have bepn subse- that the author renders most promineut
quently completed somewhere or other in in all other historical matters also,
the work, and undoubtedly much of it
VOL. I. G
82 HISTOKY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
are all described by the number of years of tbeir life ; ^ and as
moreover it is invariably mentioned at whsit age of each re-
sj)ective member the son who propagated the tribe further was
born to him, and as larger chronological limits also are not
wanting for greater divisions of time (Exod. xii. 40 ; 1 Kings
vi. 1), the work gives at the same time a single concatenated
chronology, and exhibits the most ancient attempt to reduce
the infinitely scattered events of history to precise dates.^ This
evident careful consideration everywhere bestowed upon the
connection of families, and upon chronology, affords one of the
main criteria for the recognition of the fragments of this work,
which indeed has not its equal on this subject, on the entire
field of ancient history until Moses and Joshua or indeed until
David, and appears to be only copied by the later works on
these times.
In consideration of the great internal diversity of the ages
comprised in this work, we shall do better to investigate below,
under the special divisions of the history itself, the questions,
how our author established this close connection of families
and times, what traditions he had received on the subject, and
on what principles he acted. It suffices here to establish the
point, that he was the first who essayed to carry out this bold
scheme.
b.) If we are led by the order and the chronology observed so
exactly throughout so wide a range, to an author whose mind
takes a pleasure, uncommon among the historians of those old
times, in method and precision^ still more must we admire this
spirit when we perceive what end he has in view in now expand-
ing and now confining within narrow limits his narration of
real events. For we then discover the remarkable fact, that the
author's most heartfelt sympathy and greatest fulness of narra-
tion are called forth only when he is treating a question of
legislation, and can fill the frame of his narrative with elucida-
tions of such judicial or moral sanctions as have their origin in
antiquity. Wherever, in his reminiscences of antiquity, he can
explain legal institutions in all their relations and applications,
or where, in the course of historical exposition, he can indicate
the great truths of the right government and conduct of the
' As Ishmaol, Gen. xxv. 17 ; Joshua, and if wo now give up all of it that is not
Jos. xxiv. 29. derived from history in a strict sense, yet
2 In tliis respect the work became the we never should forget that the mere at-
basis of all general chronology, from the tempt to give such a survey of all historical
chronicles of Julius Africanus and Eusobius chronology was in itself an advance en-
do-uni to the middle ages, and even almost tirely unknown to some other cultivated
to the beginning of the present century; nations, as for example the Hindus.
J500K OF ORIGINS. 83
nation, his language is poured forth with esjDecial freedom, and
under the inspiration of the lofty subject becomes perfected in
sharpness as well as in concinnity and beauty. There is a
peculiar charm in many of these pictures ; every reader of feel-
ing imbibes from them the purifying and invigorating spirit
of an eminently lofty mind, which lived through its own times
in warmest sympathy with them and with a treasure of truly
royal ideas, and by this light could understand the very highest
elements of antiquity, and with masterhand bring out promi-
nently, and portray gracefully, whatever in it was improving
to posterity. Even what in itself might readily have proved
very dry — such as the lengthy account of the furniture of the
sanctuary, and that of many laws on things of common life —
in his hand becouies invested with the utmost possible grace.
We should more readily feel the attractive beauty of this work,
and how far it surpasses in intrinsic force and simple art the
ordinary Indian Puranas and Mann's Book of Laws, if it had
been preserved entire and well-arranged, and could be read
connectedly, like Herodotus or the best extant parts of Livy.
So limited an aim for an historical composition, which more-
over here becomes the real principal aim, is to be explained
only from the necessities of a particular period ; but the above
indicated age of the work may serve for the elucidation of this
peculiarity also. For in that brilliant time of peace, which
produced the wisdom and the art of Solomon so well known to
tradition, the nation, victorious abroad and conscious of its
powers, could turn its energies inwards, and contemplate its
own constitutional history, as it had been gradually unfolded
since the obscurest antiquity and then existed, but had surely
never till then been fully treated in writing. Now, even inde-
pendently of the Decalogue, attempts had indeed been made
in earlier time to group shortly together the most important
popular laws, and many of these may have been long written
down ; for example, the former work contained the earliest
attempt known to us of a tolerably comprehensive codex legum
(Ex. xxi. 2, or rather^ xx. 28, to xxiii. 19), and this very Book of
Origins works up into itself small series of long-existing laws.
But we have no indication, and it is in itself improbable, that
the entire mass of imaginable legal ordinances and sacred in-
stitutions had at any earlier period been committed to writing.
However, it was not only the prosperous peace of that age
which exhorted the people to turn their attention to their
' For the words in Ex. xx. 23-26 form the true beginning of tliis vrry mutilated
legal work.
84 niSTOKY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
ancient condition and laws : they were impelled thereto also by
causes nearer at hand. Ages in which the entire hereditary
constitution of the nation undergoes a fundamental transforma-
tion, and social life receives a new organisation, may introduce
into the literature of the nation, as well as into its legislative
art and activity, the most violent shocks. With the Greeks and
Romans it was the ages of transition from the antiquated
monarchical constitutions to the republican, that most strongly
excited legislative activity in real life as well as in literature ;
and it was in these that the controversy as to what was to be
retained from the past, and what relinquished, found its way
also frequently into the Greek world of letters. Our Hebrew
epoch was, similarly, one of sensible transition from institutions
existing for centuries into a new life for the whole nation ; and
we can understand how its literature, the foundations of which
had long been laid, could not be uninfluenced by the move-
ment taking place in its life. But beyond this its position was
precisely the reverse ; for here an ancient religion had to
defend itself against the possible encroachments of the new
monarchical power. And we have the clear testimony of Hosea
viii. 12^ for the assertion that from this time onwards a branch
of literature was formed in the nation which flourished for
several centuries, and aimed at collecting and elucidating the
old hallowed laws, often in direct opposition to modern deterio-
rations. This assertion of Hosea shows at the same time that
such writings originally enjoyed no public acknowledgment at
all, but were current in the nation for centuries as free crea-
tions of literature, until this or that part of them chanced to
gain a higher authority and become sacred. And this is
evidently the origin that we must conceive for the Book of
Origins.^ If we remember, moreover, that in the time of David,
and up to the completion of the Temple of Solomon, the affairs
of the sacerdotal tribe and the institutions of religion had
experienced extensive changes, but yet were steadily flourishing,
and that the old religion and sacerdotal constitution just then
enjoyed an extraordinary magnificence from the building of a
new and splendid Temple, we can understand well enough why,
among all the origins of things described by this work, those of
' This passage presupposes that a num- which time itself was constantly rediic-
ber of books of the same kind as the ing ; they were evidently not very ancient
Bock of Origins, some of wliich were writings.
highly esieomed, were in circulation in ^ ljJjq ^i^g origin of tlie Indian Tura-
thc northern kingdom in the time of nas, which also contain a great deal of
Hosea, thotigh entirely disregarded by the religions or legal matter ; and even of
authorities. Such myriads of written laws Manu's Code of Laws, which was subsc-
cannot refer to a very ancient literature, quently so venerated.
BOOK OF ORIGINS. 85
the Mosaic sacraments and institutions, as well as of the
functions and privileges of-the sacerdotal tribe, are pre-eminently
ex2)lained. And we may see also how such legal forms and such
rights as are said to have originated in the primitive ages are
presented with the greatest diligence and copiousness, mainly
to the end that they may serve as a model and norm for the
writer's age also. This resembles the way in which in the
Mdnava-Dharmagdstra even those laws which are to be ob-
served in the writer's age are explained to Manu in the primitive
ages. The main part of the Book of Origins explains the
origin of whatever arose in Israel on the field of law, but pre-
eminently in relation to religion and the priesthood.
But it is curious to see how the author's spirit, mainly
directed to the divinely right and lawful, has penetrated the
whole work, even where he cannot yet speak of Israel at all.
As the time of Moses and Joshua was known as the great epoch
of the birth of legal institutions, and as the earlier historian
had started from the idea of the covenant concluded with God
on Sinai, so the Book of Origins undertakes to show what
divine laws and covenants had arisen even in the beo-inning of
the three previous ages of the world, under Abraham, Noah, and
Adam, and how the laws and precepts, starting like the human
race itself from the simplest beginnings, had been constantly
expanding and more full}^ developing themselves. • And so there
is only a single ground-thought which determines the inner
structure of the work (its intellectual tone and bearing), in
addition to those which, according to p. 78, sustain its external
fabric. This ground- thought, in conformity with the supreme
aim of the work, deals solely with the twofold question :
What is Law and Right to man in general? and. What is
Law and Eight for Israel in particular ? Right and law are
not the same at all times ; they change especially with all the
great vicissitudes and revolutions of history. And yet every
valid law is to preside over man and bind him as a Divine
command ; as if it existed through a covenant between God and
humanity, in which the former maintains his law and the latter
expects protection and blessing from him if it is faithful to it.
Thus all laws and constitutions, or covenants, which humanity
concludes with God, are barriers imposed by the latter for it,
within which it is to move. But every restraint thus imposed
on man is directed against his freedom, which soon chafes
ao-ainst it, and finally perhaps whoUy breaks through its barriers,
partly through the power of mere self-will and sinfulness, partly
" Gen. xvii. ; ix. 1-17 ; i. 27-30.
86 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
because man lias a presentiment that there is a higher freedom
than that imposed by this present limit. But every transgres-
sion of the law must be punished. And thus when humanity
continues its efibrts to breah through the existing Divine law,
the greatest ruin, and finally the most complete dissolution
of the age, is sure to follow, until perchance, under a new
great Man of God, a new disclosure of the eternal Divine Right
is established for humanity with fresh freedom, and at the
same time with fresh limitations and new laws. Thus applying
the above fundamental thought to the succession of the Four
Ages of the world (p. 79), and explaining by its light how the
Mosaic law, that of the last age, arose, and what significance it
possesses, the author of the Book of Origins spun the fine strong
thread which holds the entire work most closely together, and
gives it at the same time its deepest and loftiest interest.'
The book attempts, indeed, an explanation of the laws exist-
ing in the Mosaic community on every occasion which the
narrative offers for its insertion ; and accordingly, as the
author's historical feeling taught him that many laws which
were in force in the community had their origin in the ancient
times before Moses, he attaches his account of the rights and
usages of circumcision to suitable occasions in the Patriarchal
age ; ^ and again refers to the time of Joshua his explanation of
many laws and precedents of the community, and with justice
regards the entire age of Joshua as one of continual creation of
important social institutions. Within the limits of the personal
history of Moses also, he seizes every opportunity to insert
matters of law : on occasion of the flight out of Egypt he
explains at great length the laws of the Passover and of the
Pirst-born, and on occasion of the war against Midian near the
end of Moses' life, those of booty and war.^ The majority of
the Mosaic institutions and laws, however, especially those
concerning the sanctuary and the sacerdotal tribe, which in
accordance with the special tendency of the work are treated
most fully, are referred to the brief period of the peoj^le's halt
at Mount Sinai, and the true establishment of their community ;
partly because, according to definite ancient tradition, the
community was really formed there anew by the conclusion of
the last great Covenant of Man with God, partly from the
suitability of that resting-place for the explanation of a series
of institutions and laws.
• See further on this suljject what is ob- ^ Num. xxxi. Altogether different from
served in my AUcrtMlntcr, p. 117 sqq. the law uf war hiid down in Deut. xx.
* Gen. XV ii. and xxxiv.
BOOK OF ORIOIXS. 87
For as the j)rivileges, laws, and ordinances of the sanctuary,
in the widest sense of the word, appear to our author as the
highest of all laws, so in his work this hallowed period of the
people's rest at Sinai, where their permanent sanctuary was
formally instituted, becomes a resting-place also for the narra-
tive, and occasions him to make his longest pause here, to eluci-
date the most important laws relating to the sanctuary, and, in so
doing, the majority of all the laws of Israel. Now the sacred
Tabernacle of Moses had long been recognised as the great
central point of the religion and constitution of the people, and
the Ark of the Covenant had just received an accession of glory
by its reception in Solomon's Temple, built after the model
of the Tabernacle ; and therefore
(i) The author starts fi'om that visible sanctuary, and de-
scribes hoAv it Avas executed, with all its contents and appur-
tenances, after the divine model shown to Moses by Jahveh (Ex.
xxv.-xxxi.), and was so built by human hands upon earth that
it might be entered by the priests in their robes of office, or by
Moses, and the sacred rites be j^erformed in it (Ex, xxxv.-xl.).^
When the locality and external forms of the sacred rites have
been thus laid down,
(m) The nan-ative advances another stage towards its main
object, and regards exclusively the sacrifices and the manner of
' This twofold description of these com- do not hesitate about assigning them, as
plicated matters, notwithstanding some far as is possible, to their right positions
diversity (in part intentional) in the order again. It is of no use to argue with one
of the account of the execution, is never- who maintains, without even examining
theless correct on the whole, and planned the question, that such total disruptions
with great judgment. I can only hint of coherence are original and sacred. But
at this result of my researches here, as the Book of Origins, above all other books,
an explicit statement would become too displays so grand a fixed arrangement,
digressive. But so much the more im- and so masterty a disposition of the im-
peratively must the fragment in Lev. mense subject, that it is in truth only
xxiv. 1-9, which has no connection what- due to the spirit of the author that we
ever there, be transferred to its original should restore the few dislocated portions
position after Ex. xxvii. .20 sq. since v. of his beautiful work to their right places.
20 sq. actually contain the commence- Moreover it is by no means difficult to
ment of the very same fragment. See conceive how such a displacement of some
Ex. XXV. 6, XXXV. 14, and especially xl. 4, portions of the ancient work might arise
22 sq. ; for the short preliminary notice in later times, if we only consider the
about shew-bread in xxv. 30 could not demonstrable great alterations which this
suffice. In like manner the disconnected work (as we shall soon explain) has
verse in Num. vii. 89 must be reinstated undergone from its later revisers. And
in its original place after Ex. xl. 38, and even though the LXX. and all the other
the rather because Ex. xxv. 22 refers to ancient versions received the text with
its contents; and the injunctinn that fol- these violent dislocations, and, fortunately,
lows it, about the right position of the did not again arbitrarily alter it, yet how
seven lamps on the candlestick. Num. viii. recent is this text when compared with
1-2, most siurely belongs after Ex. xxxix. the true age of the work! I •will adduce
31. other arguments below in the section on
I shall soon cite other and stronger cases the reviser. See however, on some points
of the displacement of the original com- treated of above, what is observed in the
poneut parts of the Book of Origins, and Gott. Gel. Anz. 1862, p. 368-75.
88 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
offering them at the sanctuary, and elucidates fully the various
kinds of sacrifices, their purposes, and the observances attached
to them. The passage that does this in an easily apprehensible
order, extends properly only from Lev. i. to Lev. v. and from
Num. V. 5 to Num. vi. ; ' then the main subject is re^^eated,
condensed for the special use of the ^Driest into the briefer and
more technical language of regular legislation (Lev. vi. sqq.).
Whereas the priests are now enabled to offer the right sacrifices,
and do actually offer them in the presence of the whole people
after their consecration, the story of Nadab and Abihu teaches
how rigorously and with what severe chastisement the sanc-
tuary visits those who fail to treat it in a becoming manner
(Lev. viii.-x.).
{Hi) But now that Jahveh's sanctuary and sacrifices are estab-
lished in presence of the whole people, the narrative attains its
full dignity, and undertakes regularly to teach what rules must
guide the conduct of men in this community, or (to speak more
in the spirit of the work) what is holy or unholy, clean or
unclean, to the God indwelling in it. The passage that teaches
this properly extends from Lev. xi. to xx., but with the insertion
of Num. xix. after Lev. xvi. The arrangement is the simple one,
that the description ascends from the lower to the higher, and
consequently fi.rst shows what is clean or unclean, and how the
unclean is to be removed, and then, beginning from chapter
xviii., rises to the idea of the holy, and explains in loftier
language '^ and frequently incorporating short series of ancient
laws, the stern exactions of the holy upon man. The declarations
of Lev. xvii. stand in the middle between these two halves ; and
the conclusion of the whole plainly does not come till Lev. xx.
24-27. Then comes a short supplement intended specially for
the Priests on clean and unclean animals (Lev. xxi. sq.).
{iv) But as the Sabbath is the first and the last among the
duties of the Mosaic community, and had enjoyed a corre-
sponding preeminence also in the description of the Mosaic laws
' That the passages in Num. v. ö-vi. to have preceded the short narrative in
belong to this place is evident, first, from Lev. ix. 22, in the same way as tlio nar-
tho contents of the first three. Num. ratives in Ex. xxxv.-xl. constantly pre-
V. ö-vi. 21, which really only describe suppose the Divine commands in Ex.
new kinds of sacrifice, all of which, to xxv.-xxxi.
judge from their very similar beginning, ^ Especially in the expression, 'I am
arc perf -ctly suitable continuations of Jahveh,' which now first begins to recur
Lev. v.; secondly, from the blessing which frequently, and which, like so much else
follows them in Num. vi. 22-27, which in Lev. xviii.-xx., indicates that the
is prcsupi osed in Lev. ix. 22, and which, author makes a greater use of old sources
fi'om the general character and plan of here than in any other i^lace.
the Book of Origins, we must imagine
BOOK OF ORIGINS. 89
contained in tliis work,' so the author ultimately restricts himself
to it and all connected with it. The voice of living- law declares
the series of annual festivals as well as the jenv of Sabbath and
Jubilee (Lev. xxiii. xxv. 1-xxvi. 2, 46) ; and describes yet more
fully the duration and period of recurrence of the sacrifices of
the whole community to Jahveh (Num. xxviii, 1-xxx. 1). And
as vows also are to be redeemed at the sanctuary at definite
times, the laws on this subject now follow (Num. xxx. 2-17;
Lev. xxvii.). Last of all come some sacrificial laws adapted
not for the wilderness but only for the Holy Land, and which
could not on that account well be placed in Lev. i.-vii. ; with a
general conclusion (Num. xv.).^
{v) Nothing then remains to be done but that the community
be described on its popular side, with reference to the arrange-
ment and division of its tribes, and the order of its journeys
and campaigns. This gives at the same time the best transition
to the removal from Sinai and the conclusion of that long
period of sacred rest, and forms also the winding-up of this
longest and most important portion of the Book of Origins
(Num. i.-v. 4; vii. 1 88 ; viii. 5-10, 36).
Such is the simple and historical arrangement of the section
of this work devoted to the explanation of the main contents
of the Mosaic law. Although we cannot vouch for the complete
preservation of all its original chapters, yet the main part
has evidently been preserved remarkably free from obscu-
ration and alteration ; and we gain a clear insight into the
plan and execution of this most important section, as soon
as we decide to remove to their right position again the few
passages that have been displaced and put too far on towards
the end.^
' Compare Ex. xxxi. 13-17, concluding three middle portions closes with the
the commandments delivered to Moses, always apt narration of an example of
and inversely Ex. xxxv. 1-3 commencing needful punishment on account of the vio-
bis publication of them to the people, lation of the previously expounded laws,
■with Lev. xxiii. 2 sq. xxvi. 2, Num. xv. Lev. viii.-x., Lev. xxiv. 10-23, Num. xv.
32-36. 32-36, and all five parts then terminate
2 The reader must consider that accord- in narration. In like manner a special
ing to the whole character of the Book of supplement of peculiar directions for the
Origins, the omitted promulgation of laws priests is always placed before this nar-
may indeed be repaired in any place, but rative conclusion, Lev. vi. sq., xxi. sq.,
then the occasion of their enactment must Num. xv. Moreover, whatever laws or
be recounted (as in Num. xvii. sq. xxxi. legal devices are transferred to tlie suc-
xxxvi.) ; but that, on the other hand, it is ceeding portion of the lifo of Moses,
impossible to repair the omission with Num. xxvi., xxvii., xxxi. sqq., belong,
such an utterly bald inscription as Num. as to their dress and contents, to the
XV., xix., xxviii., xxx. 2 [1]. post-Sinaitic time ; which furnishes a new
* Lastly, in all probability, the placing and important reason for the correctness
of the historical piece, Lev. xxiv. 10-23, of the above-required transpositions,
after xxii. is required, for then each rf the
90 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
If we consider now the author's system of inserting accounts
of Mosaic laws into an historical narrative, there cannot be the
least doubt that his only reason for representing them as com-
municated by Jahveh to Moses, and through the latter to the
people or (when strictly sacerdotal in their contents) to Aaron '
and the j)riests, is, that in his days they had long been regarded
as sacred, and an historian therefore could not but give them
an antiquity equal to that of the community itself. The sacred
Tabernacle, which the author describes as if all its smallest
parts were the direct result of Divine precept, and which had
just recently been magnified and glorified by its transformation
into the Temple of Solomon, had evidently gained its sacred-
ness in the course of centuries. The sacrifices, the sacred
rites, and the sacerdotal functions, which our author represents
with all their minutise as Divine commands, had undoubtedly
been long practised, and they also owed their high authority to
their antiquity. Of established usages the author could mani-
festly only select the best and give them a^more definite form.
As, however, the established usages of any given time are
natui-ally treated as an indissoluble whole, although they may
have developed themselves gradually from a certain original
groundwork, it was at this early period peculiarly hard, in all
cases of the kind, to distinguish the time of origin as exactly
as we now do, or at least desire. In so far, the numerous legal
sanctions here delivered certainly have direct historical signi-
ficance only for the age of the author. And as the author
cannot have lived later — e.g. at a time when the Mosaic Taber-
nacle had long disappeared — our task is that of investigating
which of these are referable to the time and legislation of
Moses, and what has been added by degrees from other causes ;
an investigation, the results of which cannot be stated here.
But (and this may be at once carefully noted in this place) the
author never makes any pretence of being taken for Moses
himself;^ indeed we should do great wrong to the simple
narrator were we to suppose this ; for he even describes equally
innocently and on the same plan, the rise of legal institutions
under Joshua, and closes his work with the erection of the
Temple of Solomon ; and where a precept is inserted for the
' It is only an abltreviated expression, long past (Num. xv. 22 sq., xxviii. 6), or
■whenever the word of Jahveh is said to when the address suddenly becomes like
pass directly to Aaron, Lev. x. 8, JSTum. that of a priest to the asseuiLled congrega-
xviii. 20. tion. Num. xv. 15, 29; in historical nar-
- Rather does he forget now and then rations he speaks, moreover, like one
his assumed garb, when ho speaks of dwelling in the Holy Land, Josh. \. 6.
Moses and 8inai as of matters of history
BOOK OF ORIGINS. 91
connection's sake, which is to be applied only in the Holy
Land, not in the Avilderness, the author sometimes makes
Moses himself announce it only by way of prophecy, with the
addition ' when ye come into the Holy Land.'*
The Book of Origins, in thus pursuing in the above-described
main section and elsewhere its own special aim of explaining
legal matters, is indeed further removed than the previous
historical work from the mere repetition of tradition, and is
already engaged in that transition to a freer treatment of the
history of antiquity, the further consequences of which will
appear below. From a very rich body of separate ancient tra-
ditionary histories our author manifestly selects those only, in
themselves it may be not remarkably important ones, on which
could be hung an exhibition of laws or of principles of wise
government and sacerdotal administration. The appended sub-
ject itself is always treated with great freedom and at great
length, as if the narrative itself were really subordinate to the
lesson it conveyed ; and the most beautiful and elevating parts
of the work are produced by this art of shaking off a bondage
to the unmixed influence of tradition. Nevertheless the work
still cleaves faithfully and scrupulously to the fundamental
matter of the traditions ; it starts with a clear discrimination
of times, and does not intermingle later ideas with its pictures
of antiquity so carelessly as the books presently to be described.
And if it impai-ts a new life to the representation of antiquity
mainly by means of legislative matter, and sees in Moses and
Joshua ideals of popular leaders, this was just the side upon
which those ancient times were great and productive. This
revival of the ancient stories, proceeding from a writer who in
every part of his work shows himself inspired by the genuine
wisdom of a leader of the people, was that most in harmony
with the epoch of the composition of the work ; and from the
happy concurrence of the spirit of this revival with the nature
and greatness of the times portrayed, resulted the admirable
truth and the irresistible charm of this work.
c.) If we enquire, lastly, into the conclusion of the whole
work, a slight difficulty here oj)poses our speculation. For
with the description of the times of Moses and Joshua, the
explanation of all legal matters ought manifestly to cease.
This is most distinctly proved by the way in which the legal
distribution of the land among the twelve tribes is unreservedly
referred to Joshua's words and commands, although historically
' Ex. xii. L'ü ; Lev. xiv. 34, xix. 23, xxiii. 10, xxv. 2 ; Num. xv. 2; cf. Lev. xviii. 3.
92 HISTOEY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
many of these claims may liave originated after Joshua's death,
and at bottom the narrator does not deny this.' The assump-
tion that all the legal forms in Israel which could claim any
antiquity had been concluded in Moses' and Joshua's time, and
that these two heroes had been the last great instruments of
the word and deeds of Jaliveh, forms the entire foundation of
the work in so far as it describes legal matters ; and one cannot
form even the most distant idea of what the author would be
able or willing to describe on this field in the times after
Joshua. Nevertheless, the work further contains, as we saw
on pages 76 sq,, the description of the dedication of the Temple
of Solomon, with which it certainly concluded ; the rise of
monarchy in Israel, for which the author had early prepared
the reader, as we saw page 75 sq., required to be narrated at
the end at least in brief; and one sees no reason why, after
his explanation of the laws, he should not have pursued the
mere history still further than the death of Joshua. We may
therefore with justice conjecture that in a now lost passage
he brought the history down from the death of Joshua and
of the high priest Eleazar to the building of the Temple of
Solomon, though with great brevity, so that this section
did not satisfy his successors, and might easily be lost. The
lawless times of the Judges must have been diametrically op-
posed to all the ideas of the author, who would certainly
content himself with continuing the list of high-priests after
Eleazar.
But on the other hand there are unmistakable signs that
the work became very full again just about its close, when it
describes the sunny days of David. There was indeed here
no exhaustive narrative, but full accounts there were of some
sino'le events that seemed to the writer especially important.
With these we class the fragments to be described below (see
below, on the official Journals of the Kings), besides that noticed
on i)age 76 note. And we may say that this work, beginning
with the Creation and treating by preference the most beautiful
j)ortions of antiquity, nevertheless stood quite upon the footing
of its age, and, like a true time-book (or chronicle), terminated
with the description of the most recent great deeds and ac-
quisitions of its nation.
3) As in its aims, so also in its language, this work mani-
fests as much peculiarity as perfection and beauty. The style
possesses a luxurious fulness overflowing with the warmth of
' Josh. XA^iii. sc^.
BOOK OF ORIGINS.
94
S3'mpatlij, a lucidity and quiet trans23arcncy Avliich is not afraid
of sliglit repetitions conducing to represent the thought per-
fectly in all its bearings, nor shrinks from an almost poetic
symmetry of clauses, removed alike from the old-fasliioned
stiiFness and hardness of such narrations as Josh. xvii. 14-18,
and from the cold tranquillity and studied description that
became usual in later times. The matter as well as the lan-
guage and picturesque representation of this work breathes
a peculiar fresh poetic air ; more rounded and graceful, more
instinct with a light poetic charm, no prose can well be than
that of this work, which also from its florid style of description
belongs to the finest period of Hebrew literature andnational life.
Its language at least shows itself such wherever its fragments
are preserved unaltered ; and the very first passag-e. Gen. i.-ii. 4,
may serve as a clear specimen of all subsequent ones. In
details the author may be distinguished by a great multitude
of expressions either quite peculiar to him, or on the other
hand quite foreign to him.' And as he displays in all things a
highly exact spirit of order, this accuracy extends in a remark-
able way even to proper names. For he is fond of explaining
in the history the rise of new personal names beside the old
ones ; and he then discriminates the two with constant accuracy
' It would carry us here too far to ex-
plain in full tlie linguistic peculiarities of
the Book of Origins; here are a few points
which can be briefly stated. Peculiar to
the work are : the name D''S''C'5 ^ov the
Considerable, Noble among the people,
by the side of D''JpT "^'ery rare, and in
some places perhaps only through later
revision, Ex. xii. 21, Lev. iv. lö, ix. 1,
Num. xvi. 26, Josh. vii. 6, xx. 4 ; but
C^pb* nowhere occurs : the name jilSt
nny'ri for the ark; (nnsH 'X or niil^'S
is found only after Deut. x. 8, cf. xxxi. 9,
25 sq., 1 Kings viii. 1, 4, 6, perhaps
through remodelling by later writers
who called it so ; L^nj^n K is found
only in 2 Chr. xxxr. 3) ; the expression
n-TnS? ior possession, not nC^l''; lill for
garment, never n?Dp'; PIV"! ^or /lill,
always discriminated from i'\n, murder;
DJ-) often with the addition D*JDN3 for
to sfone, not h\^Ö> the very favourite ex-
prnssions D"'"!.3p for vagrant life, n^DU
for neighbour (elsewhere only in Zecii.
xiii. 7, and even there in an entirely
different connection) ; TPi^V. ^^^ service.
which in this sense only the latest writings
imitate ; the sole use of -nx for only,
whilst the pieces of other authors have
rather p-) &c. ; on the other hand, the
entire absence of such words as ]^fQ^ in
all significations, H-irtB youth, warrior,
"1^'iS treasure, which is found frequently
in Joel, Amos, and Hosea, as well as in
Josh. vi. 19, 24, and Deut., ü."|^; /«»•;', like-
wise in Joel. Many other peculiarities
are elsewhere illustrated in their proper
places in this work. The use or avoidance
of many words in this work has also a
great significance for the history of the
people itself. Thus the author chooses or
avoids certain words with manifest inten-
tion, that lie may depict antiquity with
correcter colours, and not intermingle
more modern ideas in opposition to liis
own historical feeling. For example, he
is certainly acquainted with the metal
iro7i, and once names it in a law. Num.
XXXV. 16, because it was there unavoid-
able, but elsewhere he always speaks of
brass as being usually employed in the
Mosaic period ; just as brass is said by
the Greek and Roman writers to have been
more abundant in earlier antiquity.
94 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
according to tlie principle once assumed. As he explains the
origin of the name Joshua subsisting along with Hoshea, and
would certainly never employ this appellation before the proper
time,' so he begins only at Gen. xvii. 5, 15, to call Abraham
and Sarah by these names instead of Ahram and Sarai ; and as
he explains at Ex. vi. 2 sqq., that Jahveh had not jet revealed
himself to the Patriarchs under this name, he avoids before this
passage the use of the name Jahveh, which thenceforward is
constantly recurring in the history of Moses, and previously
always calls the true God El-Shaddai on the few solemn occa-
sions of his manifestation, and elsewhere by the common name
Elohim.^ The name Jacob is indeed not always avoided in
passages subsequent to Gen. xxxv. 10, despite the declaration
there given ; but inasmuch as this name was always maintained
along with the other, Israel, in the real life of the j)eople, its
employment stands on a different footing from that of those
just mentioned.
If we combine all the distinctive marks of the Book of
Origins, it will appear that no document whose original form
has been destroyed could well be so easily and certainl}^ recog-
nised in its smallest fragments as this, because certainly no
other document of an historical character has been composed
with so high an individuality and intellectual peculiarity. And
this is just what is important for the question as to the literary
sources that may have been used by our author. For though
the author never refers in express words to any authorities,
whether written or oral, yet he incorporates the old catalogue
of the stations in Num. xxxiii.^ in his work, with the preliminary
remark that Moses wrote it (see above, p. 68). And many of
his historical remarks must, to judge by their contents, be refer-
able to very ancient records (the proof of which, however, be-
longs more suitably to the history itself further on) ; and the
change in the use of language, too, shows that he here and
there is dependent upon written authorities. In the passage
of Leviticus (xviii.-xx.) alluded to above (page 88), we remark
as much on the one hand peculiar to our author, as on the
other quite foreign to him ; and it appears from the peculiar
' Num. xiii. 8, 16. of language with the fine distinction be-
^ The Book of Origins always uses this twoen deos and 6 6e6s, which Greek and
name without the article (on the few ex- Hebrew can alike express, we are nnfor-
ceptions .see my Hebr. Gr. p. 680, 7th tunately unable to reproduce in our God.
ed.) ; whilst others, as the later writers ^ That the hand of the author of the
to be mentioned below, often use DM^XH Book of Origins is here discernible, follows
also, as if tlic true God ought to be dis- f'"«^"" DnX^V^ ■^'- ^' ^^ ^«"^^ »^ from the
tinguishcd by the article. This freedom reasons to be adduced further on.
BOOK OF ORIGINS. 95
colour of the language,' as well as from other iudications,^ that
he here incorporates in his work short series of laws that had
long been in existence. And he doubtless incorporated much
from the earlier historical work, or recast it in his own fashion.
The revelation on Mount Sinai, already described incomparably
in that work, as well as the Decalogue (where the words in
Ex. XX. 9-11 are an addition by himself), he incorporated the
rather, as the Decalogue was indispensable. How he recasts
historical accounts, is seen from Gen. xxxiii. 18-xxxiv. ;
Josh. V. 2-12. On the contrary, there is no indication that
he adopted from the Book of Covenants or elsewhere the older
legal work contained in Ex. xx. 23-xxiii. 19. Certainly one
might regard it as probable, because this legal work touches
upon many relations, especially of civil life, which, as being
foreign to his main subject, our author little regarded. Yet
it cannot be proved that he intended to embody all legal deter-
minations of the kind.
The name of the author will probably be veiled from us in
eternal obscurity. We read, indeed, of men highly renowned
for wisdom, who flourished just about the period required,^ and
we may readily imagine one of these to be the author of this
glorious work. No time, too, was probably so productive as
that of great men of the kind that we must imagine our
author. But further we are unable to prosecute the enquiry.
If, however, we regard, as we ought, mainly the mysterious
internal spirit and the general meaning of the author, as
laid down unmistakably to attentive readers (and no mode-
rately independent historian can always entirely conceal, even
in the mere narrative style, the nature and working of his
own mind) — then we must confess that rarely has so great a
mind devoted itself to the composition of history. It is true
' n^T Lev. xviii. 17, xix. 29, xx. 14, * From the special form of these laws;
occurs'elsewhere (besides the poets) only 5'"°™ the circumstance that the author,
in Judges xx. 6 ; and how the Book of ^"^ ,^'^- ^3 on, himself adds a kind of
Origins, per se, would speak in such a case Firaphra,se, &e. On the older little
is shown by Gen. xxxiv. 7 ; the image ™^' ^»mnciorum, simply inserted in
of the Canaanites being vomited from *e Book of Origins, Lev. i.-vii., see my
their own land. Lev. xviii. 24-28, xx. 22, Alkrthumer, p. 52.
is not elsewhere current with the author, ^ 1 Kings v. 11 [iv. 31]: Ethan, Ho-
and the language of the original gives man, Chalcol, and Darda, whom Solomon
even the notion of their being already surpa.sscd in wisdom, must accordingly be
expelled ; Qip'^^X in Lev. xix. 4 and xxvi. regarded as somewhat prior to Solomon,
1, old echoes of the Decalogue; "nn in and else^yhere the first two are placed in
Lev. xix. 15, cf. v. 32, elsewhere \inusual -L>'i^'"\« f""«?- One might, moreover, men-
to the author ; the whole sentence strongly ^lon Nathan the prophet ; but the question
reminds ns of older passages, as Ex. xxiii. ''^'^'^^^^ "^ t'^e case of all those whether
3 ; the beautiful thought in xix. 34, har- they were Levites or not (cf. 1 Chr. ii. 6,
monizes only with Ex. xxii. 20 [21], ^^)' ^ question which can only be au-
xxiü, 9, swered further on.
96 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
he does not belie Lis character as a priest, an hereditary and
influential one too : the visible sanctuary in Israel had at that
time been for centuries gaining a high consideration of a
peculiar kind, and the hierarchy was in the ascendant in con-
sequence of the rule of David and the building of the Temple.
The author of this work appears, according to the true mean-
ing of several passages,' very anxious to secure that no im-
proper, i.e. heathen sacrifices, nor improper priests — that is
aliens to the house of Aaron — shall approach the Mosaic sanc-
tuary ; and this also he attempts to pronounce and to establish
in the form of laws. But far higher than the priest stands in
his estimation the wise legislator and true leader of the people ;
full of that truly kingly spirit which always forms salutary
decisions and issues irresistible commands with ease, and
which even in the greatest perplexities and revolutions never
loses for long its coolness and intrepidity. Such a one, too, if
he ever is forced to administer a severe correction, does it not
without the most considerate sympathy,^ and his quiet strength
silences all contradiction, and smooths all waves to peace.^
And as the age of David and Solomon was the fairest reflex of
the Mosaic, though far below it in creative power, the glory
of the Mosaic age could be recalled and portrayed by no other
historian so adequately as by one who had felt the influence of
David's kingly spirit, and who was himself an actor in the best
part of this most hopeful age of Israelitish dominion.
Lofty spirit ! thou whose work has for centuries not h-ra-
tionally had the fortune of being taken for that of th}^ great
hero Moses himself, I know not thy name, and divine only from
thy vestiges when thou didst live, and what thou didst achieve :
but if these thy traces incontrovertibly forbid me to identify
thee with him who was greater than thou, and whom thou
thyself only desiredst to magnify according to his deserts, then
see that there is no guile in me, nor any pleasure in knowing
thee not absolutely as thou wert !
3. The Prophetic Narrators of the Primitive Histories.
The Book of Origins was surpassed on the domain of ancient
history by no subsequent work. Yet later writers did not
' Let any ono read with attention pas- comparably beautiful and yet simple turn
sages Uke Num. xvii. 1-5 [xvi. 36-4 i], of the sentiment wherewith three quota-
xviii. 3 sq. 7, 32, Lev. x. 2 sqq., Ex. tions close, Lev. x., Num. xii. and xvii.
XXX. 9, which explain one another, and ^ This is the impi'ession made upon the
compare therewith such tales from Eli's sympathising reader, especially by the glo-
and David's time as 1 8am. v., vi, 2 rious pictures of Closes" life in the Book of
Sam. vi. Numbers, to wliicli I shall return in tho
* Let any one read attentively the in- course of the history.
BOOK OF ORIGINS. C7
want for occasions for new essays upon tliis same field of
nan-ative. The fund of ancient legends was certainly not ex-
liausted by the Book of Origins and its precursors ; much
may have been told differently in different districts of the
country ; other things could be more fully and clearly described.
Moreover, time itself as it advances develops new ideas and
stories on the domain of ancient popular tradition ; and with
the brisker intercourse with foreign and distant nations, which
after Solomon was never quite broken off again, new subjects
of story and legend might easily enter from foreign parts, and
seek a combination with the older series. But more powerful
than anything else was the prophetic conception and treatment
of history through the entire course of those ages ; and as this
prophetic conception has greater freedom to mould the subject-
matter to its will, the further the field of the narrative is removed
from the present time, and the more it has thereby become
already the subject of a higher kind of contemplation, it
found in the primitive history the most impressible soil on
which it could combine with historical comT)osition. This is
the main cause of the great freedom of repeated narration,
which so remarkably distinguishes the works of this age from
the Book of Origins and the still older book ; for all legend-
ary literature will endeavour the more to break through old
restraints, and will move Avith the greater freedom, the oftener
it treats the same subject-matter ; but here it was especially
the grandeur of prophetic truths, that declared itself by means
of the freer exposition thus admitted.
The passages belongmg to this place are to be recognised
partly by the criteria resulting from their nature just explained,
partly by a tone of language and narration sensibly different
from that of the earlier works on the primitive history. The
correct discrimination of individuals among the narrators is
indeed more difiicult, as a more uniform and properly prose
style for narrative is now being gradually formed ; still on
accurate inspection tolerably distinct shades may always be
perceived in the various authors' mode of narration, which, when
they concur with other and more internal distinctionSj present
suf&ciently reliable data to the judgment.
1) The Third Narrator of the Primitive History.
As proceeding from a narrator who in the absence of any other
name is here denominated the third,^ we must discriminate a series
' One might, according to the entire above, also call him the //VA narrator: Imt
number of historical works enumerated since it cannot be proved (and is, indeed,
VOL. I. H
98 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
of pieces which, though in number rather smaller, and in so far
more cliflSeult of recognition, yet from their entire manner and
colouring can belong neither to an older work nor to the following
fourth or still later nan-ators, and discover a certain similarity
among themselves. They are the stories of the Patriarchal times
in Gen. x. 25, xx., xxix.-xxxi., and especially much of the story
of Joseph, although older matter is frequently worked up into
these passages, and much has crept in from the hand of the
subsequent narrators. Of the Mosaic history the following
pieces belong to this work : the story of the youth of Moses, in
Ex. i. 15-ii. 22 ; that of the shining of Moses' face, and the
way in which he shoAved himself subsequently to the people, in
Ex. xxxiv. 30-35, a peculiar idea of the splendour of the great
prophet ; that of the seventy elders, and of Eldad and Medad
(Num. xi.), with its extraordinarily noble expressions about
prophecy and the working of the Divine spirit ; furthermore the
line description of the internal worth and nobleness of Moses
as a prophet (Num. xii. 6-8), for all its brevity the most
beautiful and excellent rej)resentation of Moses in the whole
Pentateuch. From the history of the Flood, the fragment
Gen. viii. 6-12 probably belongs to this narrator.^ To him we
are perhaps indebted^ also for the preservation of the 14th
chapter of Genesis, that curious relic of a work of the highest
antiquity, which (according to p. 52) may have even been
written among a non-Hebrew and probably Canaanitish people,
before the age of Moses. Our narrator, perhaps an inhabitant
of the North of Palestine adjacent to Phenicia, certainly in-
troduced the passage within the pale of Hebrew history, on
account of a casual mention of Abraham in it. There are many
indications that he made especial use of the writings of the
first narrator of the primitive history.
The narrative style of this author moves in very uniform lan-
guage and description, and keeps still more simply to the old
tradition. On such exalted topics as Num. xii. 6-8 he may be
carried away by the lofty flight of his language, and sometimes
pass into an easy verse,^ but he is far removed from the more
artistic portraiture and bolder painting of the Fourth Narrator,
altof^flluT iniproLaLlc from certain indica- * Tlic rare use of ^*iy73 u'ithoiit mc!
lions previously adduced) ti.at the authors -^ ^ y^^ ^^ f^^ f^.^,^^ ^^^ ; God forhid ! v. 24,
ot th... f.rst two Morks included in t .em ^^^^^^^ ^^^ q^^ ^jj ^^ ^,j^^, ,^^,^,^
the i-nnntive Inslor.es properly so called, ^ 22, would be surprising for this nai-i-a-
^•0 prefer the name in the text. ,„,. . ,,^,^ j,^^ Samarit. and the LXX. read
• Soo tho Jahrh. der Bihl. Wisa. vi. \k D\l'pi^n for it, according to some editions
18, vii. p. 16, ix. p. 7. Oöff. Gel. An::, and manuscripts.
1803, p. 751). » Gen. xiv. I'J sq., xlviii. 19.
TIIIKD NARRATOR OF THE PRIMITIVE HISTORY. 99
next to be mentioned. But this narrator's peculiar pre-eminence
consists in his uncommonly high and distinct conception of the
working of the prophetic and the Divine spirit, which enters
more or less prominently into most of his descriptions, and
causes many of his expressions to class with the finest passages
of the Old Testament. This conception of the ancient history
comes out strongest in the life of Moses (Num. xi. sq.), but
the scheme of the life of Joseph also leads curiously to such
a x)roplietic truth (Gen. 1. 19, sq.) ; and the frequent introduc-
tion of the Dream, and its prophetic significance, by which
he is perceptibly distinguished from the other narrators,^
harmonises well with this prophetic theory of his that pervades
his whole history. As narrator of the primitive history, he
is the best prophet, as the author of the Book of Origins
was the best legislator and national leader. Now as this
narrator must from all indications have written considerably
earlier than the Fourth, we may assume him to have lived
in the tenth or ninth century, while such great prophets as
Elijah and Joel were still active ; for his history is like a re-
flex of the high prophetic activity of their times. Although
passages like Num. xi. sq. quite remmd us of Joel, we prefer
to assign to the northern kingdom a narrator who makes the
life of Joseph the most brilliant period of the Patriarchal
history, so that his work would have been to the kingdom of
Israel very much what the Book of Origins was to that of
Judah. We shall say more on this subject in the history of
Joseph.
The diction of these fragments, notwithstanding a not incon-
siderable number of peculiarities,^ exhibits far more analogy
with those of the Book of Origins than that of the Fourth Nar-
rator does : ^ another proof that this work was written tolerably
' Gen. XX. xxxi. xxxvii. xl. sq. A iii. 4-15. It is quite in harmony with tJiis
narrativo style which loves to bring into view that in the Third Narrator Moses
prominence this intellectual domain is by alone is regarded as standing far above
no means common. It is quile foreign to dreams and the like (Num. xii. 6-8).
the Book of Origins. The story in Gon. ^ As nj'^ grow, Gen. xlviii. 16, in a
xxviii. 10-22, to the very groundwork of thought which the Book of Origins and
which the dream belongs, forms no paral- ^j^^ ^^^^,^^1^ barrator express each verv
lei. The Fifth ^arrator in imitating such aiiftreutly ; r\^ü12, cover, Ex. xxxiv. 33
pictures expresses himseii cpiite ditter- •••: -
cntly. Gen. xv. 1, xlvi. 2. And wherever sq. ; NVO, suffice,' Num. xi. 22, elsewhere
beyond the primitive history anything of „^ly Judges xxi. U, Ps. xxxii. 6, and in
the kind occurs it can hardly be nnm- i,„p(.rf, Jsijih. Josh. xvii. 16, Zech. x. 10.
fluonced by the descriptions in this ^ The author calls God in the Premosaic
work: Judges vii. 13 sqq. (where l^f:» time E'/^^/nw, like the Book of Origins, and
for "ins interpretation of dreams) 1 Kings uses, like the latter, the word n*iyn foi" the
100 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMrOSITION.
soon after the Book of Orig-ins, from which it is mainl}- dis-
tinguished by its prophetic treatment and glorification of the
ancient history.
2) The Fourth Narrator of the Priifnitive History.
To another entirely indej)endent work must be referred es-
pecially several moderately long pieces which on close inspec-
tion betray some strongly marked peculiarities ; whereas many
shorter fragments and remains of it are preserved closely inter-
woven with the words of the succeeding author.
a.) The fragments of this nari-ator exhibit a culmination and
mature development of all the intellectual powers and capacities
of the ancient nation, which can hardly be surpassed. It may
be with justice maintained that this work exhibits the progress
in the treatment of primitive history to the extreme of freedom
in conception and delineation, beyond which nothing more is
possible but the artistic conformation and poetical employment
of its legends. And we may perceive clearly enough, in the
j)icture of the national life of the time that meets our eye, the
commencing relaxation of the old bonds of the Mosaic religion,
and the irresistible rise of a multitude of new thoughts and
aims.' We can here only shew this by a few of the more im-
portant phenomena.
The prophetic theory, which entered deep even into the
former work, expands itself in this with full force, and becomes
the supporter of the entire historical narrative. This work,
especially when taken together with the succeeding one, gives
a full reflection of the great prophetic power and activity that
was developed in the centuries after David. This prophetic
poAver, that had long become great in life and in literature, and
was constantly overflowing its immediate bounds, now quite
occupies the primitive history too, and remodels it with the
greatest freedom into new and fairer forms. If the few relics
of the previous work permit us to institute a comparison, that
Comnnmily, Ex. xxxir. 31 ; also D''K"'K'3 'writers frcslicncd up tlio nionior}' of the
for the heads or elders of the ponnnunity ^i''^* plori.nis days of Islam under the
recurs Ex. xxxiv. :n, although in Num. xi. *^lieltenng name of the ancient narrator
in our i-rescnt text Q^jpt «Lands constantly '^«'y«^^', 'in'' pi-o(lueed the many Histories
f,jp )(•_ ' ot Wä(|idi, -which have never been estimated
' As a somewhat analogous case in a iit their true value till our day. It is how-
kindred pe.iple, may be cited the semi- o^''^'' li>ir<ll.V necessary to observe, that the
j,o.tieal transformailon of the old Ara- f^pinl which revived the primitive histories
bic historical literature which followed of Islam was very different from that which
tho timcb of the Crusades, wlieu modern i'^i""Jclled those of the Hebrews.
FOURTH NAKRATOR OP THE rRIMITIVE HISTORY. 101
still kept pretty close to tradition witli its prophetic truths,
and was the same from a prophetic point of view as the Book of
Origins from a legislative ; whereas in this work the prophetic
idea rather sways history as its domain, and treats it from
the first with all possible freedom. Now every prophetic truth
seeks and easily finds in some part of the primitive history a
fitting support, whence it expands itself freely and exhibits
itself in its full extent. The support for the furthest existing
prophetic outlook, namely the Messianic exj)ectations which
must m the time of the writer have long been developed nearly
as we see them in the greater Prophets, was most naturally
found at the historical comniencement of all higher life in the
Patriarchs, according to the law that in moral and divine things
the extreme end must coiTespond to the extreme beginning, and
all intermediate matter contains only the process of develop-
ment.^ And were it not that these insertions of a higher
kind of history into tlie primitive times must, from their very
position, be told in the shortest form, few finer presentiments
would be found to be declared even by the real great prophets
of the ninth and eighth centuries. The truth that every unrigh-
teous rule, be it never so powerful, must necessarily fall before a
higher disposing power, and that the Divine deliverance comes
surely, finds its right place in the Egyptian-Hebrew history :
the opposite truth, how the delivered and exalted people sinks
down again through its own guilt from the height attained, and
is only rescued from total ruin by the untiring self-devotion of
such great minds as Moses, easily attaches itself to certain re-
miniscences from the desert (Ex. xxxii.-xxxiv.). And wherever
the prophetic treatment finds such an opportunity, it distinctly
unfolds all the art of unfettered description and brings forward
its innermost thoughts. Hence these passages have a high
degree of importance as regards prophetic truth ; and it were
difficult to decide between this and the former prophetic
historian, which yields to the other in depth and originality
of thought, did not the subject of these thoughts concern a
distinct side of ])rophetic truth in each.
If we then regard closer the truths which are here forced
upon us, we shall have to confess that they flow from a height
of prophetic activity and advanced national culture totally
foreign to the Book of Origins. The developed Messianic
expectations, the truth of the infinite all-surpassing gTace of
Jahveh beside the deep sinfulness and coiTuption of the earthly
' Geu. xii. 1-3, xviii. 18 sq.. xxii. 16-18, xxvi. 4 sq., xxvili. 14.
102 niSTORY OF IIEEREW lilSTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
(or natural) man,^ the similar trutlis of the non-casual origin
of the svicked principle in nian,^ — these are such illustrious
thoughts, which the sun of these ages was the first to elicit
from the sacred soil.
The language is essentially the fully developed prose style ;
but from the author's intellectual peculiarity in the treatment
of history it always inclines towards a prophetic loftiness of
description, wherever the subject will at all allow of a more
soaring flight, as at the call of Abraham and the other
periods of this great hero's life, at the call of Moses and his
deeds in Egypt. But from this prevailingly prophetic tenor
of the discourse it is, on every favourable occasion, only one
step to the poetic ; and this natural transition mto purely poetic
matter, or to an actual verse, of which we had the bare rudi-
ments in the Third Narrator (p. 98), proves to be an important
criterion of this and still more of the following narrator.^ For
though the passage Gen. xlix., spoken of on page 69, might,
and obviously did, from a precedent here, yet so constant an
intermingling of the poetic as this work displays, is a new
f)henomenon only to be explamed from the species of historical
composition that was now gaining ground.'' Even where the
author is not exactly revealing the highest prophetic truths,
he likes to intermingle poetic colours of language, and follows
a more artistic plan. But how a true poetic air may be spread
over the narration when at the same time the former strictness
of the Mosaic account of God (Mythology) was being relaxed,
and greater freedom on this subject also was making way, is
clearly shown by such glorious examples as Gen. xviii.-xix. 28,
and xxiv., w^hich have a truly epic plan, and the last of which
is quite comparable to an idyl. The mere narration with old-
fashioned brevity or with the terseness demanded by the nature
of the sources, never distinguishes this narrator, who delibe-
rately prefers a beautiful and bold revivification of antiquity.
One consequence of this great freedom of descrijjtion is,
finally, that the historical distinctions of the various ages are
more and more dropped in narration, and the ideas and colours
* Gon. iii., xviii. 1-xix. 28, xxxii. 11 p. 49, note.
sq., Ex. xxxii. -xxxiv. cf. Gen. via. 21 ■* InasiniilaiMvay in the Arabic histories
sq. incntioued on p. 100, tlio lan;^uago passes
' Gen. iii. cf. ^^ii. 21 of same narrator, easily into verse, whorever a fitting op-
* Gen. ii. 23, xxiv. 60; in the Fifth Nar- portimity occurs to insert it: cf. Zcit-
rator, Gen. ix. 2Ö-27, xxv. 23, xxvii. 27- schrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes,
_29, 39 sq. ; Num. xxiii. 7-xxiv. Gen. vol. i. p. 95 sq., 101 sq. In still later
iv. 23 sq. is of a cliftercnt kind, as ono times this freedom penetrates into tho
may see from the liistorical references \)VO]<\\ti^\Q. s\y\c, sue Die rmphcten des A.B.
llici'oin coiitaiiii'd, whicli rould not possibly vol. ii. p. 332, 392.
have .«(prung from the author himself; cf.
FOURTH NARRATOR OF THE PRIMITIVE HISTORY. 103
of language current in. the author's age are without much cere-
mony transferred to the primitive times. We saw (p. 91) how
the Book of Origins preserves a strong consciousness of these
distmctions, and prefers to portray the Premosaic antiquity
after its own fashion; but this narrator, and the next even
more, feel no scruple about transferring purely Mosaic ideas and
phrases to that age. This certainly at the same time proves
how firmly Mosaic notions had now long been rooted in the
nation, and in how great a degree, precisely from this cause, the
clear consciousness of previous totally different circumstances
was fading away. Thus not only in the history of ISToah (Gen.
viii. 20-22), but even in that of Abel and Cain (Gen. iv.), regular
Mosaic sacrifices are described, without any cautious enquiry
whether they have any place at the gate of Paradise. In the same
way we must understand the fact that our narrator, overleaping
the limit observed by the Book of Origins (p.84), and also by the
previous narrator (according to p. 89, note), calls God from the
first JaJiveh, and is always glad to employ this peculiarly pro-
phetic name wherever possible.^ Some little reserve and avoid-
ance of too modern phrases, however, might well consist with
the tendency alluded to, and is indeed clearly discernible ; as
for example it is not accident that the expression, so frequent
in later times, Neum-Jcüiveh (i.e. ' — is Jahveh's saying '), with
which the Prophets of the times after David introduced or con-
cluded their words, though first transfen-ed to the primitive age
by our narrator, yet even by him is used only once, and therefore
seems to have crept in by an oversight.^
That the author wrote as late as the age of the o-reater
Prophets, may be equally clearly inferred from other considera-
tions also. The tranquillity and polish of the narrative manner
of these passages fully answers our expectations of the poetry
of the eighth century. But besides, the narrative of the great
' He intentionally avoids it from reve- the following narrator acts quite differently
rence, e.g. in speeches addressed to hea- in this matter: see Jahrbücher der Bib-
thens or among heathens, Gen. xxxix. 9; lischen Wissenschaft, \\. p. 18. This va-
and of this kind is the instance in Gen. riety of di\'ine names, therefore, in the
iii. 3-Ö. With this view', that the name primeval history, is not without weight
Jahveh is identical with God, another for the discrimination of its elements ; but
view is certainly closely connected, viz. it presents only a single token, which
that being in itself conditioned by the must everywhere be judiciously interpreted
opposite idea of frail humanity, it must and brought into harmony with all other
have arisen in the primeval age, together indications; for when adopted and insisted
with the name of the forefather Enos on without such careful judgment, it leads
(E?iosh), i.e. man. This beautiful eon- into great errors. Moreover, it is obvious
ception, mentioned only too shortly by that different histories require the applica-
the Third Narrator in Gen. iv. 26, ap- tion of different laws,
parently emanates from that narrator '^ Gen. xxii. 16. In the whole primeval
himself, the eai'liest who would make so history it is only used on one other occa-
bold a use of the name Jahveh, whereas sion, Num. xiv. 28.
101 IIISTOEY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMrOSITIOX.
abomination at Gibeah in Judges xix. is by all indications tlie
prototype of that about Sodom (Gen. xix.) ; for the one cannot
have originated independently of the other, and it is more natu-
ral to sui^pose that to a narrator like ours the historical story
served the purpose of dressing up short legends of antiquity,
than the reverse. Moreover Hosea^ quotes the abomination at
Gibeah -certainly from that source, and yet does not, like our
narrator,^ limit the moral degradation of the early times to the
two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah only. But since Amos^ had
begun to employ these tvro cities alone by way of example for
purposes of instruction, our narrator confines himself to them,
even when speaking at length. But, on the other hand, this
narrator must have written at a tolerably long interval before
the succeeding one. We shall probably err but little, therefore,
in fixing him at the end of the ninth or commencement of the
eighth century.
b.) If we enquire about the ends that the narrator in this age
kept before his eyes, we shall j)erhaps find the truth nowhere
so evidently confirmed as here, that throughout the whole lifa
of an ancient nation like Israel the -writing of history always
follows other efforts and tendencies that have already gained
strength, and hence changes with them ; and that it is not, like
poetry, prophecy, and religion, something original and anterior.
Pro^Dhetic activity attained at that time its culminating point
inJudah, and had already produced a multitude of lofty and
eternally true thoughts. Now as these forced their way even
into the contemplation of history, and sought admission into
the yielding domain of the primitive history, the old conceptions
of it were evidently no longer universally sufficient, and new
ones arose imperceptibly. The Divine blessing awarded to the
Patriarchs was now no longer confined as in the Book of Origins
(p. 75) to the single nation of Israel, but extended, according
to the true Messianic view, over all nations of the earth : ■* and
that everything ultimately depends upon faith and the proof
of faith, was now the great jn-ophetic dogma, Avhich was soon
to transform the primitive history into accordance with itself.^
The poetical and prophetical literature had at this time at-
tained a similar height ; they now exerted a sensible influence on
historical writijig also, esjoecially on the history of the earliest
times, so that the artistic arrangement and glowing descriiDtions
» Hos. ix. 9, X. 9. ■• Gen. xii. 2, 3, xviii. 18, xxii. 18,
* Gen. xiii. 13, xix., xx. ; sec liow- xxvl. 4.
ever X. 19; Hos. xi. 8. * Slill more is tin's tiio cusp with tlie
' Anio^ iv. 11; ami lik.j\viscls;iiali i. 9, fullouing uarratur: Gen. xv. xxii.; Ex.
10. iv. 5.
FOUKTII NARRATOR OF THE PRIMITIVE HISTORY. 105
that we missed in the older works, made rapid way in tlie miore
recent. Here we discover the two objects that this work, by its
peculiar treatment of the subject was chiefly intended to secure.
It almost seems not to be the matter, as such, of the primitive
history, which is the main thing, but the mode of conception
and delineation — that is, the clothing* of a frequently-treated
subject-matter in a beautiful or at least a new dress. Many an
old reminiscence of antiquity that would else easily pass away
is refreshed by this spirit of the new age into more pleasing
and attractive forms. And if it be true that the history of a
nation's antiquity only after such a regeneration becomes its
inalienable possession (page 36), we shall be forced to admit
that, whilst much matter has been destroyed or rendered difficult
of recognition by modification, and much quite thrown away as
insignificant, at least as much has been by this means preserved
which would perhaps also have been entirely lost.
But though the majority of the fragments of this narrator
thus present nothing but old matter newly worked up after the
literary fashion demanded by the best prophecy and religion
then in vogue, nevertheless the creative power of the nation,
as applied to their old legends, was by no means exhausted ;
and many legends which had assumed an entirely new form
may now have found their way into the history. Let us here
only call attention to the story in Gen. xxxviii. of the circle
of the ancestors of David's house, which, without naming
David, can hardly have originated without a tacit reference
to the royal line of Judah. But especially, a flood of foreign
legends of a mythological character had poured in upon Judah
through the nation's freer and wider commerce since the time
of Solomon ; these our narrator received into the circle of the
early history, modified as far as possible through the spirit
of the Jahveistic religion. These are the important fragments
briefly indicated above (page 39), and to be further discussed
in their historical context ; which are peculiar in being perhaps
all referable to this narrator.
c.) At all events, however, this work was quite an independent
one, as much so as any of the foregoing. Indeed, in a literary
point of view, there could hardly be another work so new and
independent as this, because beautiful and copious delineation
is a main point with it.' So far as we are able to observe, the
' This furnishes also a weiglity ground clear, pure, and powerful a flow of speech,
for completely separating this narrator as to render it impossible even on this
from the following one. Passages, for account, to refer them to the same author
instance, such as Gen. xviii. 1-xix. 28, as Gen, xv.
from a literary point of view, exhibit so
106 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
narratives of this new work did not even rest upon fragments
of older ones ; its peculiar genius being for actual creation.
3) The Fifth Narrator of the Primitive History.
It is quite otherwise with the work of the Fifth Narrator. As
such we are to understand the author from whose hand proceeded
the first great collection and working up of all previous sources
of the primitive history, to whom therefore is to be referred the
whole existing Pentateuch together with the Book of Joshua,
with the exception of three kinds of additions which (as is soon
to be elucidated) were intercalated still later.'
a.) At the time of this author the literature of the primi-
tive history had long swelled out to an extraordinary bidk.
Most various works of various ages and from various districts
were then by all indications extant in considerable numbers ;
the age had been growing constantly more learned, and the
very multitude of works in this, as also simultaneously in other
branches of literatui-e,^ excited the demand for finer sifting and
new combinations. Accordingly we have here a narrator who,
though he delineates some points anew with his own hand and
after his own taste according to the demands of his age, yet
generally only either repeats word for word from older books, or
slightly modifies the accounts of others, and who was on the
whole rather a collector and worker-up than an independent
author and original narrator of history.
But if we enquire in what is this narrator still independent,
we find it first of all in the j)artiality for a prophetic bearing
and loftiness of thought. Here indeed he only carries further
what had already appeared in the previous narrators, espe-
cially in the last; but it is characteristic of him that he
brings out Messianic ideas less prominently,-* and with great
' It mi^^ht indeed bo supposed that 26, x. 21, must bo tlio same who wroto
the ImMi Narrator was as independent a such narratives as Gen. ix. 18-27, xv. ;
writer as his predecessors, and that we scoi Jahrbücher der Biblischen Wissenschaft,
owed to him only long passages such as vi. p. 9 sqq. 16, 17, vii. p. 25 sqq. ix. p.
Gen. XV., Num. xxii.-xxiv. ; while a sub- 19 sqq. With this may be compared the
sequent author used all these works, and way in whicli the latest propliets, though
thusliocami^, in the sense already explained, acting as collectors and compilers of pro-
the latest autlior. This view, moreover, phetical works, always mado independent
might be recommended by the considera- additions of their own. See my Pro2>heten
tion that tlie task of a compiler of books des Alten Bundes, i. p. 59, 60.
or history may bo quite distinct from « See my Dichter des Alten Bundes, vol.
that of an historian, and is in itself i. p. 31-44.
enough for one man. But I could not ^ Especially, lie dwells only upon the
adopt this opinion here, because it is eternal possession of the land as pro-
obvious that tlic last narrator, whose miscd to the Patriarchs, Gen. xv., xlvi. 4,
hand is seen in passages like Gen. xi. 25, Num. xxii.-xxiv. How far Messianic liopes
FIFTH NARRATOR OF THE FRIMITIVE HISTORY. 107
einpliasis inculcates the truth that that faith which stands the
test of trial is the true crown of life.' But whereas the boldness
of employing- the histories of the earliest times for instruction
and for a mirror of the existing times increases, and whereas
the descriptions are often more splendid and buoyant than
those of the previous narrator, still this writer's style has
already lost much of the former tranquil beauty and perfection.
Whilst prophetic thoughts and descriptions were raised to
so high a pitch in those ages, the popular element (as will be
further elucidated below) felt itself increasingly restricted, re-
pelled, and depressed ; which was followed in the literature by
a gradual decline from the beautiful perfection of style and
description, and in the disposition towards other nations by
a certain sourness of tone and embittered enmity. Both these
characteristics are unmistakably present in this historian. The
sharper-impressed nationality and sorer tone towards other na-
tions, especially kindred or neighbouring ones, are testified by
passages such as Gen. ix. 20-27, xix. 31-38, xxvii. 1 sqq. ;
Num. xxii.-xxiv., all of which sharply distinguish this historian
from the older writers on the primitive history, and breathe
almost the same spirit that declares itself in the exj^ressions of
Joel and later prophets about foreign nations. And as in
eneral the separation of opinions and tend encies may become
more and more trenchant in the progress of time (until
some happy fate brings about a higher reconciliation of oppo-
site views), and as just in that age a sharper partition was
growing up between the friends and the foes of spiritual religion,
this historian remarkably completes the ideas of the Book of
Origins by establishing a contrast of salvation and destruction,
of good and bad, even in the earliest stage before the Flood
(Gen. iv. ; compare above, p. 80, 102), whereas the former
author had already pursued the origin of evil further, to the
first man, and there discussed it likewise in a prophetic spirit
(Gen. iii,).
The true age of the work can be most certainly discovered by
considering more closely those relations in which, according
to evident indications in this work itself, Israel then stood to
foreign nations. It was especially Edom, Moab, and Amnion
who were again powerful and active at that time, and on whom
accordingly the narrator, who treats the history in general with
great freedom, bestows so much attention even in the earliest
times. Now of Edom it is indicated (Gen. xxvii. 39 sq.) that
are contained even in this narrative, is schaß, viii. p. 22 sqq.
shoyiam Jahrbücher der Biblischen Wissiii- ' Geu. xv. 6, xxii. ; Ex. iv. 5,
108 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COiirOSITIOX.
tliis wild warlike tribe, tliougli subservient to its brother Jacob,
should deliver itself from his yoke, if it would only earnestly
strive for that end.' Thus the happy deliverance after earnest
resolution is put as the latest in time ; and the narrative of Gen.
xxvii. is planned so as to lead to the result, that Edom does after
all finally gain a blessing from his father, a very restricted one
though it be : his land shall be less fruitful than Jacob's, but his
earnest wrestling to throw off Jacob's yoke shall not be without
result. So the whole kingdom of Judah, to which our author
may belong, was then manifestly excited by the contest with
Edom and the successful revolt of the latter. And this consi-
deration of itself leads to a time not far distant from the
prophecies of Joel ; that we may regard as the extreme limit,
before which the narrator cannot have written.^ A similar
indication, but when closer examined, far more distinct, is
given by the conclusion of the extensive prophetic passages in
Num. xxii.— xxiv., although for several reasons this is difficult for
us to understand with perfect security. The prophecy put in
Balaam's mouth comes, towards the conclusion, to speak of a
star that should rise out of Israel, not in the age immediately
succeeding Balaam, but rather at a distant future time, to
chastise and crush Moab, Edom, and all similar proud tribes
(Num. xxiv. 17-19) :
I see him, but not now,
I behold him, but not near :
A star appears out of Jacob,
And a sceptre arises out of Israel ;
Smites both the temples of Moab
And the crown of the head of all the sons of pride,
So that Edom becomes a possession.
And Seir becomes a possession — his [Israel's] enemies,
While Israel puts forth valour.^
It is not possible to see in the illustrious king from whom
this picture is boiTowed any later one than David. Moab, in-
' T'ln in Iliphil, luis undoubtedly the afford no sense unless 7 be prefixed to it ;
moaning o{ wresUiiig, striuhig, desiring, but tliis only appears so. [It is horc taken
as an apposition to Edom and Seir: J<>doni
like the common Arabic word ^\J^ in and Seir, Israel's enemies ; like viV in
which, however, the meaning is »till further ''• ^'^ ^" ^- ^^' '^"^^''^^^'^' W' i-e- HX^, is
weakened. midoubtedly the proper reading; so also
* My Propheten des Alten Bundes, vol. '^^ '^\>'\?^ according to Jer. xlviii. 45 : for
'• P-^.^- , , the image of thetwütcmplcs.rightandleft,
_ The structure of the passage v. 17-19 is just completed by that of the crown of
IS somewhat confused. In v. 19 the first the head; and, conversely, the haughtily
nienUer IS evi.jently too short and seems raised vortex Imrinoniscs very well Milh
mutilated, lu v. 18 V2*N appears to the sous of pride.
FIFTH NAßRATOE OF THE rRBriTIVE HISTORY. 109
deed, again fell off from tlie nortliern monarchy under Aluib's
son, and Jeroboam II. subjugated it anew after a long intervpJ
(2 Kings i. 1, xiv. 25, compare Is. xv. sq.) ; but neither this
Jeroboam nor any other king after David conquered both Moab
and Edom so completely at the same time. But this shining star
is not the latest thing that Balaam knows of. Of the further
destinies of Moab, indeed, he says no more ; and an inhabitant
of Judah like the author could have no reason for particularly
desiring its reconquest by Samaria. But Avhilst Balaam's eye
wanders at last with single, disjointed, ghostlike glances, over
his remotest future (which however is the actual present of the
author, and filled with all his living experiences and desires), he
declares concerning Amalek (verse 20) :
Amalek is an old primitive people ;
Nevertheless, his end hastens to the nether world ;
and concerning Ken (the Kenites) (verse 21 sq.) :
Thy dwelling is a rock,
Thy nest is fixed on a clifF:
Yet Ken will have to burn ;
How long — ere Asshur carries thee away captive ?
Now at the first glance, indeed, it is obscure how these tribes
come to stand in this connection ; for both the 'primitive people'
Amalek and the Kenites evidently disappear gradually from
history in the times after Solomon ; and yet here, in a connection
where we expect allusions to events or aspirations of these ages,
they appear sufiiciently important to be sjjecially noticed. As
to the Kenites, however, we are fully entitled (from 1 Sam. xv.
6) to bring them into so close a connection with the Amalekites
that, if we succeeded in discovering the latter in any suitable his-
torical position, there can be no further doubt about the former.
Now as the previous declaration concludes strongly and signifi-
cantly enough with the relation of Edom to Israel, the conjecture
forces itself upon us that Amalek, a part of which was at that
time fused with Edom, according to Gen. xxxvi. 12, 16, is here
mentioned because of its intimate connection with Edom, —
perhaps because in some war between the Idumeans and the
Israelites it had indulged anew its old national hatred against
the latter. And, fortunately, this more definite account has been
preserved by Josephus : • that in the war waged by Amaziah ^
against Edom, the Amalekites and Geballtes fought on the side
of the Idumeans. Now we may confidently assume that they did
' Joacp'.uiB, Aut. ix. 9. 1, 2. '^2 Kings xiv. 7.
no HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
not remain inactive under Uzziali wlien the same contest was
renewed.' For even by Uzziali Edom was not completely and
permanently subjugated. The declaration about Dumah (Is. xxi.
11 sq.) is easily reconcilable with the sense of our passage. And
if the Amalekites and Kenites, so often subjugated before, still
maintained themselves erect in Edom as though in defiance of
Israel, then it is explained how a prophetic voice of the first half
of the eighth century could announce to them a chastisement by
the Assyrians. For the Assyrians were then evidently already
menacing the more southern tribes, but under Uzziah or Jotliam
they must have been regarded in the kingdom of Judah rather
as friends and welcome deliverers from the oppressions of the
neighbouring tribes. Upon this foundation the declaration
about Japhet which our author puts into the mouth of Noah,^
receives a remarkable interpretation. But finally the seer con-
cealed beneath the name of Balaam lifts the veil yet higher :
Balaam's concluding words, in which he appears once more
to wake up like a spirit, and then to become mute for ever
(v. 23 sq.) :
Alas ! who shall live after God has done this ?
And ships from the coast of the Chittites,
They shall then afflict Asshur and afflict Eber :
Nevertheless, they too hasten to the nether world
— undoubtedly allude, from their position, to an event which must
then have been the most recent historical fact, the mention of
which was obviously intended to give the distinctest intimation
of the actual present. A pirate fleet coming from the Chittim,
i.e. the Phenician Cyprians, must, a short time before, have
harassed the Hebrew, i.e. Canaanitish and Phenician coasts,
as well as the Assyrian, i.e. Syrian, farther north. We have
no other distinct account of this event, the consequences of
wliich cannot have been very lasting. But as, according to the
Tyrian Annals of Menander,^ the Tyrian king Elulaius van-
quished the revolted Chittim, and Salmanassar, then iu his war
iigainst Tyre, desired to use this discord for his own ends, evi-
dently implying that this revolt had been a considerable one, we
are justified in assuming that the revolt of the Chittim had lasted
a long time before it was quelled by Elula)us. We should,
' 2 Chron. xxvi. 2. palpable addition, which could only origi-
* Gen. ix. 27 ; a scntoucc wliicli derives nate with one of these two narrators : see
its significance only from the peculiar cir- Jahrhilchcr der Biblischen Wissenschaft,
cunistances of the time. How completely ix. p. 7, x. p. 51.
Assyria and its history at that time filled ' See Josephus, Antiquities, ix. 14, 2;
every 7iioufh, is fieen from the immediately Isaiah xxiii. 12 (comp. 10) obviously
following interpolation of the whole pas- alludes to the possibility of such rel)elliun
sage about Ninirod, Gen. x. 8-12; a very among the Chittites.
FIFTH NARRATOR OF THE PRIMITIVE HISTORY. Ill
therefore, by no means necessarily come down to tlie times of
Salmanassar, when Judah's relation and disposition towards
Assyria was totally altered.
The supposition that the author wrote in the kingdom of
Judah is most strong-ly favoured by the arrangement of the
words of Balaam, which concern especially the relation of Edoni
to Israel ; for not Moab or Ammon, but Edom, always re-
mained in the closest connection with Judah in the times after
Solomon. To the temple-hill Moriah, moreover, we are directed
by the form that the ancient legend of the sacrifice of Isaac
here assumes (Gen. xxii. 1-14).' The story inserted as an epi-
sode in Gen. xxxviii. does not, indeed originate in a very favour-
able disposition towards the house of David and its progenitors ;
but at times sentiments might be formed which diverged to
some extent from the ordinary opinions — sentiments which
could expand themselves nowhere more readily and innocently
than in the domain of the primitive history by a semi-facetious
treatment of an ancient legend.
b.) The author certainly used for his great elaboration of
the primitive history all the sources that passed in his time for
authorities. These were in the main the above-described works,
and perhaps a few others besides, that we can trace with less
distinctness.^ He especially bases his history upon the Book of
Origins, beginning with its noble introduction (Gen. i. 1-ii. 4),
and confining himself throughout the whole history to the frame
supplied by that work to chronology. He mostly only works up
the older sources into one another, without adding much new
matter of his own. But in the first place, the flow of his own
exposition naturally expands more freely where he finds a fitting
occasion to pursue the ideas which were characterised above as
peculiar to him. And secondly, having thus brought together
such various matter from the most manifold literary sources, he
endeavours at the same time to give it a more living connection
and more comprehensive arrangement by throwing in a dash of
stronger light on certain passages. An accurate observation of
the manner in which he conducts this introduces us to the actual
workshop of his labours. It may be remarked that at the
commencement of a new section he likes to exhaust in a single
great picture all the great things that can be said or thought
about a hero or any considerable phenomenon in history, thus
■ See the recent remarks on this point der Bihlischen Wissen »chaff, xi. p. 202.
in the Giittinger Gelehrte Anzeigen for 2 ^g ^^ instance, what is said in Gen.
1863, p. 637 sqq. That in Num. xxiv 19, 5;;^ 20, iv. 1, about Eve, may have been
the -|>y {city) mnst be Jerusalem, I have ^^^^^^ f^om some work unknown to us ; see
already shown elsewhere ; see Jahrbücher Jahrbücher der Wissenschaft, ii. pi 165.
112 HISTORY OF IIEBEEW IIISTOEICAL COMPOSITION.
leading, by a brilliant introduction in a prophetic spirit, into
further details. In tliis, according- to some indications, tlie
previous narrator had prepared the way for him; but he carries
this mode of description further and with superior art. So in
Abraham's life he exhibits a striking prophetic picture at the
head of each of its three sections (Gen. xii. 1-3, xv. and xxii.
1-19) ; similarly Isaac's life is reached by a descent from an
elevation (Gen. xxvi. 1, 5) ; the same thing is done for Jacob's
life by the prophetic hue of the story of his dream (Gen. xxviii.
10-22) ; and in the case of Moses similarly an exceedingly
brilliant introduction leads on to his prophetic appearance
(Exod. iii. sq.). Now many things that this narrator puts in
this prominent position had been mentioned in the earlier
chronicles at a later occasion, as for example the covenant with
Abraham, which is described in chap. xv. in the most brilliant
colours, but which, according to the ancient arrangement, did
not occur till chap, xvii., where it is fortunately retained by the
last narrator. Accordingl}^ this peculiarity in the narrator is
intimately connected with another : filled as he is by the contents
of the history of a given period, he generally likes to bring in all
the most important circumstances as near to the beginning as
possible, and sometimes at the commencement of a new section
knits a regular epic or, to speak more correctly, prophetic knot ;
but afterwards lets the older sources of history speak for them-
selves, in so far as he accepts them. This peculiarity may be
traced into the utmost details ; it is repeated on the small as on
the large scale. As he first describes the corruptness of the
earth (Gen. vi. 1-8), intending to return thence by a fitting
transition to his ancient historical authority, and as after the
Flood he gives a short preliminary description after his own
fashion (Gen. viii. 20-22) of the renewed blessedness of Noah
(Gen. ix.), so he inserts some notices of Ishmael's history, which
occurs in chap. xxi. and xxv. 18, at the earliest possible occasion
in chap. xvi. 7-14 ; and by an epic artifice indicates the
main point of the dispute between Esau and Jacob as early
as XXV. 22-84, and gives the explanation of the name Jaliveh
(Ex. vi. 2 sq.), according to his fashion, preliminarily in Ex. iii.
13-16. Such transpositions, rendered possible by the fluctuating
nature of legend, occurred occasionally even in the cai'lier
writers. The later narrators generally transposed an event from
a later to an earlier position : but details will be better discussed
in their place in the history. Similarly in Joshua's life the nar-
rator only gives a few lengthy descriptions at the outset, espe-
cially in Josh, ii., iii. sq., v. lo-vi., and viii.
FIFTH NARRATOR OF THE PRIMITIVE HISTORY. 113
If we consider this our narrator's peculiar method of treating
his subject, we shall find it to be probable that the transpositions
in the Book of Origins, mentioned on page 87 sq., are due to
him. Whilst elaborating that ancient work in the manner
described into a new one, and leaving out or transposing much
of it (which will be shown more fully below), he may at first
have determined on leaving out various passages of the Book of
Origins, but subsequently have fortunately supplied the omission
at a later place. And the circumstance that these transposed
passages are always transposed to a later, not to an earlier
position, leads necessarily to the assumption that we have here
not the effect of chance or a multitude of hands, but the habit
of a single reviser. On a smaller scale we see the same thing
in the old Book of Kings, or the present Books of Samuel.
The author has evidently entirely omitted much from the
authorities that lay before him. This is self-evident upon a
closer understanding of the relics of ancient works received by
him ; occasionally a great abridgment of the fuller narrations of
earlier works is very perceptible in such fragmentary recapitu-
lating sentences as those about the Titans of the original world
in Gen. vi. 1-4 ; other omissions and contractions can be with
certainty discovered only by a sharper insight into the subject
and the origin of the extant narratives. • For the very reason
that the author wished to condense so many and such various
sources into a single readable work, he had to leave out much
in order to avoid having too many repetitions and too evident
contrasts.
Although this compiler unmistakably worked up and blended
together the very various matter which he held worthy of in-
sertion, yet it is equally certain that he did not deem perfect
uniformity necessary in the matter he inserted. He was evi-
dently determined mainly by the importance of a passage from
the earlier books whether to insert or to omit it, or to abridge
it more or less. Of slight repetitions and unprominent con-
tradictions in the contents of the narrative he was but little
afraid ; still less of variety in the mere use of language. He
preserves accordingly in the passages which he repeats from
older books the diversity of the names of God, Elohini and
Jahveh, in the main quite as from the above remarks he must
have received it, though, agreeably to the progress of his time,
he himself calls God Jahveh by preference. Only here and
there, especially on occasion of transitions, as in Gen. ii. 4,
' As I have lately shown in Jahrhiwher der Biblifichcn Wi!<sen schaff, ii. p. 163,
164, by an instructive example.
VOL. I. I
114 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
xvii. 1, lie puts the name Jaliveli in the midst of the words of an
old work. But it seems as if, through the constant compilation
of passages in which the names for God varied, the employ-
ment of these names themselves had imperceptibly grown more
familiar to the author. He does not call God Jahveh so exclu-
sively as the Foiu'th Narrator ; and in the history of Moses he
prepares the way for the explanation of the name Jahveh by a
sort of emulation of the Book of Origins. He therefore calls
God Elohim for a time, until the decisive moment (Ex. iii. 4-15,
18); and, as if he would bring prominently forward at the out-
set of the whole work that the two names in theii' ultimate sig-
nificance are intrinsically but one, and that Jahveh is only more
definite than Elohim, he of himself adds to the one name Jahveh
the other Elohim, in the -first passage which he bon-ows from
the Fourth NaiTator, Gen. ii. 5-iii.,' but abolishes tliis cumbrous
reduplication of appellations from the commencement of the
new fragment Gen. iv,, and thenceforward calls God always by
a single name. He especially likes to call God by the lower
name when speaking of mere manifestation by dreams,^ as if
any divine agency were adequate to produce the effect ; but m
other connections also, as in Gen. iv. 25, &c.
c.) As regards the extent of the works of this narrator (not
including the Third and Fourth Narrators), he cannot be proved
to have brought down the history beyond the death of Joshua ;^
on the contrary, everything goes to prove that that event formed
his conclusion.^ For though the oldest book of history, described
on p. 68 sqq., had embraced also the times of the Judges, and
the Book of Origins, according to p. 76 sqq., had narrated
some facts down to the first age of the monarchy, yet the last
chapters of these books might easily have been severed from
' A special proof of this is given just dependent and nowise necessary addition,
before, in Gen. ii. 4, where he similarly In 1 Kings xvi. 34, also, the mention of
appends Jahveh to Elohim ; see Jahr- the event is equally brief and isolated ;
b'tirhcr, ii. p. 164. but from tliis only follows that these two
'•' Gen. xxii. 1-3, xlvi. 2; Num. xxii. 9 last narrators, the liistorian of the primeval
sqq., compared witii 8. iiistory and that of the monarcliy, took
^ At the utmost it might be objected this event out of an earlier writing, where
that in Josh. vi. 26 th-cre was a direct it was undoul)ted]y presented in its entire
allusion to an event which took place freshness and completeness. The event
under king Ahab, the fulfilment of wliich itself, liowovor, is too incidental and in-
is given in 1 Kings xvi. 34: and tlierefore significaTit to servo in any way as a con-
lliat tlic author intended here at once to necting link between the primeval history
write down its fultilmcnt also, and conso- and that of the monarcliy.
quontly to carry down the history to Ahab's ■* Tlie last author, according to Dent,
time. IJut rather it only follows from xxxi. 16-22, only mentioned at the close
this that the Third or Fourth Narrator that after the age of Joshua Israel fell
found a narrative existing similar to that away from Jahveh ; but this may lu^vo
in 1 Kings xvi. 34, and could therefore been briefly observed; and wo now actually
allude to it in the life of Joslma: in fact, find in Josh. xxiv. 31 some words which
the short notice in Jü.sh. vi. 26 is an in- may have suggested the remark.
DEUTEEOXO.MIST : LAST MODIFICATION OF THE COOK. 11Ö
the rest and elaborated into later books treating only of tlie
history after Moses and Joshua. For, as Moses and Joslma
had concluded the greatest epoch of the early history, their
death was certainly more and more regarded during the pro-
gress of the monarchical period, as the great boundarj^-line
of the ancient and the modern age. Agreeably to this, as will
soon appear more clearly, a very different style of historical
composition was developed for each of these two all-com-
prehending periods.
4. The Deuteronomist : last modification of the Book of
Primitive History.
However freely the above-described Fourth Narrator treats
the primitive history, he nowhere betrays a legislative aim ; for,
on the one occasion when he delivers laws (Ex. xxxiv. 10-26), he
does so only in his habitual emulation of older works, to expound
the Decalogue and its origin after his own fashion. Equally far
removed is the last of the just-described prophetic narrators
from any peculiar legislative aim : but later ages are the more
indebted to him for having preserved the important legislative
portion of the Book of Origins almost uncurtailed, and thus, by
admission into his work, having perhaps saved it from total
oblivion. He is, indeed, very fond of introducing prophetic
words, but in a purely poetic garb and always in the midst of
circumstantial narration.
But this literary employment upon the primitive history,
which had been kept up so long, and yet had never led to real
historical investigation, at length bursts its last bounds and
advances a step further. It begins to regard the consecrated
ground of this history as merely matter for prof)hetic and legis-
lative purposes ; and herein it was evidently confirmed by the
other tendencies of the age. For not only did the power of
prophecy approach its slow but irrepressible fall at the end cf
the eighth century, but the later ages, weighed down by the
aggravated burden of circumstances, felt themselves more and
more impotent to carry out any serious imjjrovement of the
national life. But as literary activity was still constantly pro-
gressing, and taking a hold upon the prophetic and legislative
subject-matter, which was constant in proportion as the outward
national life was estranged from such subjects, this literary
activity attached itself most readily to the consecrated domain
of the primitive history ; Moses and his age being regarded as
the great originators of both tendencies, so that every passage
about him in the old books might excite in the writer literary
I 2
116 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
fancies and the desire of speaking- on prophetic and legislative
topics, and might be expected to be received by the reader in
the most favourable frame of mind.
1) The earliest discoverable commencement of this method
of treating, or rather of only using, the Mosaic history, is dis-
played by the inserted passage, Lev. xxvi. 3-45. This gives a
prophetic promise and menace which, though formed upon the
type of Ex. xxiii. 22 sq., is not only much more copious and
rhetorical, but holds out far more extended threatenings ;
so that it may be remarked that the early and better times of
the nation were gone and the full flood of national ills been
poured forth over the land. This passage has been purposely
tacked on to this part of the Book of Origins, because the con-
clusion of the description of so many laws, especially the con-
cluding ones about the festivals and the year of Jubilee (Lev.
xxiii. 25-xxvi. 2), goes off into generalities, opening the way
most natm-ally for a prophetic modification of general promises
or menaces ; and the recurring allusion to the sabbaths and
years of jubilee in verse 34 sq. and verse 43 (compare v. 5)
shows that it was originally intended to be annexed at this place.
Now, although in such passages as verse 9, 12 sq., 45, it dis-
tinctly imitates the language of the Book of Origins, yet it
shows prevailingly so peculiar a shade of words and phrases ^
that we must necessarily ascribe it to a writer of whom there is
nothing else extant. If we observe accurately how it not only
takes for granted at least a complete disruption of the one
kingdom, but also (in verses 36-40) describes in the liveliest
colours the sorrowful feelings of the descendants of persons
thus scattered among foreign lands, we cannot doubt but that
a descendant of the exiles of the northern kingdom indited
these strong prophetic terms, with the intention of showing
emphatically in the domain of the primitive history, what were
the general consequences of disobedience towards Jahveh, and
of thereby calling men to repentance. Accordingly this in-
sertion cannot have been written before the end of the eighth
century or the beginning of the seventh ; but to this period
' To instance only a few examples : the expression >"|~)]] to denote an idol, v. 30
words and phrases np '^v. 21, 23, 24, 27, / , ^'^ „ , i L. ,
^ ■': (properly a horror, Irom a verb 7^13 10
40, 41, nvopp V. 13, ^nb v. 36, 3 yny' . .^, . . . , ;■ . ^
L ,o ■,,,>, r.^ , • ■ •. .1 mec^ «urn SCO;-», connected With 7yv nr.st
orSy-vv. 18, 21, 24, 28, were not imitated , ■, . t^ . • ,^ r,-n j .1
repeated in Ueut. xxix. 16 [l/J, and the
l)y later writers from our author. On the expression of the increase of the land, w.
other hand latorwnters have often imitated 4^ ^O (compare Dent. xi. 17; Kzek. xxxiv.
some words wliieh appeared m no widely- v^ . j.^_ j^vü. 7 [6], Lxxxv. 13 [12], with
read book before this; such arc ^JJJ io which compare Isxviii. 16 [4.3]).
spurn, vv. 11, 15, 30, 43, 44, the strong
DEUTEROXOMIST : LAST MODIFK'ATIOX OF THE BOOK. 117
points the relation in wliicli it stands to tlie other books of the
Old Testament. Whilst the resemblance to sayino-s of the
projjhets of the eighth or earlier centuries ' rather testifies a
dependence of this author uj)on them, we find this passao-e
quoted at no earlier date than Deuteronomy,^ as well as in the
writings of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others of the same character,
but very distinctly and considerably used by them.
2) The last expounded tendency of literary activity broke
forth most thoroughly in those passages of the present fifth
book of the Pentateuch and of the Book of Joshua which are
inserted from the work of an author whom we may briefly call
*the Deuteronomist.' ^ At a time when, after the downfall of
the northern kingdom and the death of the good king Hezekiah,
the southern kingdom also was in the greatest danger of suc-
cumbing to lawlessness and other internal maladies, a member
of this kingdom living in foreign parts attempted most rigorously
and emphatically to recommend the old law, altered and reno-
vated in such a manner as to suit his times, and to employ all
the force of prophetic discourse in representing it as the sole
salvation of the kiiigdom. This he does, it is true, on the
domain of the primitive history, and therefore in the Mosaic
manner and style, but yet treating the subject-matter with the
greatest freedom. As to the external form he keeps quite close
to the ancient history, by the loftiness of which he feels himself
exalted in his unhappy times, and from whose pure strength
alone any hope was to be drawn for his times : but the narrative
quite recedes with him into the background, and serves only
either to introduce discourses and exhortations or for some
special literary purpose ; and therefore is generally limited to
a few words or sentences thrown shortly off.
a.) It is not my present business to expound the entire
significance of the work of the Deuteronomist, or prophetic
renovator and perfecter of the old law — a book which is in
many respects to the Old Testament what the Gospel of John is
to the New, and which, though wearing an historical dress, still
is widely removed from the circle of historical books. The sole
' The model to verse 5 is r.ather to be ' The name Dniteronomy may be re-
foiuicl in Amos ix. 13 sqq., that to verse 8 tained as perfectly appropriate, although
in Isaiah sxx. 17 (compare Deut. xxxii. in those passages where it is first foimd
30); and that to the often-recuiTing phrase in tlie LXX., Deut. xvii. 18 ; Josh. viii. 32,
T'lriD TNI ^'- 6 in Micah iv. 4 (that is it rests primarily upon an incorrect trans-
Joel) or even Isaiah xvii. 2. lation ; for HJii'D here is obviously in-
^ Besides this, compare verse 16 with ^^^^^^ ^^ denote' only a co«y. It is only
Deut. xxvni. 22 ; tlie whole long chapter ^^^ ^^.^^1 ^^^-^ ^|^-^i^ -^^^^ ^^^ L^X.
xxvni. of Deuteronomy is only a heighten- ^^^^ ^.^ ^.^^ recognise as correct,
ing of this passage.
lis HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
eminent significance possessed by this work when its true con-
tents and aim are regarded, as well as the great historical results
soon produced by it, will be more suitably described in the his-
tory itself. But we must here consider more closely, how the
author carried out this historical investment of his subject,
how he interwove his own words into the primitive history,
and in how far he possibly even modified the latter. And we
must observe at the outset that the historical dress freely chosen
by the author, and in those times undoubtedly the best for his
purjDose, is kept up very consistently and in accordance with
its intention.- For he desired most emphatically to recommend
the essential and eternal contents of the old law, renovated and
transformed by the new prophetic truths now gained, and to
do this as the conditions of that advanced age and the desire of
thereby working for the improvement of the existing kingdom
of David demanded. And so he introduced the only hero of an-
tiquity, Avho could serve as the right instrument for this end,
namely Moses himself, as speaking and acting a short time
before his death in this sphit. But he not only desired to pre-
scribe and recommend the right, he also wrestled with all the
powers of his mind to see it realised, and destined his work to
contribute towards this end likewise. He therefore needed a
second hero, who, as soon as ever Moses had published this last
bequest of his love to the people and died, should enter into it
as a popular leader and realise it all as the dying Moses had
wished and ardently striven for. Here Joshua naturally occurred
to him, the faithful follower of Moses and realiser of his plans,
according to the definite recollections of antiquity. As the
author hides himself with his words of prophetic improvement
under the high shield of Moses the great Proj)het, so under the
portraiture of Joshua he conceals the ideal King of his own times
such as he would have him, a realiser of what is essentially
better. And as the prophetic author endeavours to bring about
a complete renovation of the people and kingdom on the basis
of the laws here expounded, or, in other words, a new covenant
between the people and Jahveh, so far as this was possible in
writing, he causes Moses to declare to the people before his death
a new and better covenant (Deut. xxvii.-xxx.), and Joshua to act
quite in accordance with it. Thus then all that he had to repre-
sent fell into two halves, divided according to the lives of Moses
and of Joshua. But as the exposition of the contents of the
new covenant that he desired for his times necessarily took up
the most room, and as moreover the most powerful effect of the
work would proceed from the living words of Moses himself.
DEÜTEROXOMIST: LAST MODIFICATIOX OF TUE BOOK. 119
these two lialvcs could not but be vcrj unequally divided.
Where the author introduces Moses speaking^ and actin^-, the
bounds of the work are expanded to their utmost extent, and
there he puts down the varied and important matter he is about
to say, according to a large plan and tolerably strictly carried-
out arrangement.
The author desired, then, to introduce Moses as a popular
orator, speaking pretty much as the prophets of that age used
to speak before the assembled thousands. Though, however,
even the later prophets are here and there carried away by
the old prophetic style of speech, in which the Divine Ego
issued directly from the oracle and the human Ego of the
prophet vanishes before it, yet here the discourse freely breaks
through this conventional barrier of the prophetic style. As if
he who desires to preach spii-itual love as the highest good
ought to speak in a new way, more as a friend than as a prophet
in the old sense of the word, the author most successfully
ventures on this innovation, thereby infusing a hitherto un-
known charm into these purely human discourses of the great
hero. ■ Thus indeed is produced a great difference between
these speeches and the manner in which the Book of Origins,
for instance, constantly makes Jahveh first speak to Moses and
then Moses declare in the same form to the people all that he
has heard from Jahveh. Here are for the first time speeches
direct to the people on the highest topics according to a con-
sistent plan, the orator alwaj^s speaking out from himself to the
multitude — the prevailing plan in the New Testament as opposed
to the Old. And this innovation is the hapjjiest that the later
writer could have hit uj)on, if he really wished to bring the full
life of antiquity before the eyes of the after-world, and not to
resuscitate the great prophet and popular leader in vain. And,
desiring to introduce Moses renovating the old law by new
truths and repeatedly urging its acceptance with hearty zeal,
nay, even with threatening warnings, he selected the last two
months of his life as the most fitting occasion for this. For then
under the feeling of approaching death the Man of God, look-
ing back upon the experiences of the last forty years, could still
urge his loving heart to make a last exertion, but would be forced
to leave to his successors the execution of all that under the
influence of the glorified vision and aspiration of departing life
he had desired.' These are the preliminary calculations of the
inventive mind of the author.
' A similar case occurs two or tliree ' Ecclesiastes ' introduces Solomon as
hundred years later, when the poet of pouring forth his serious and instructive
1-20 IIISTORV OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
{{) After a sliort introductory narrative, or ratlier a longish
heading (Deut. v. 1-5), Moses is made to deliver an introductory
speech consistent with such a purpose, looking backwards upon
the time since the ratification of the first covenant on Sinai and
forwards ui3on the uncertain fntiu-e impendmg. And hence it
appears how qualified the speaker is to inculcate the whole law
anew, and to desire a second covenant that the people shall not
transgress as they had the first (Deut. i. C-iv. 40). As, however,
it was scarcely conceivable that Moses should have held all the
speeches of this book without any intermission, the author fills
up the pause after the first sjjeech (chap. iv. 41-43) by an act
of Moses, the essence of which he certainly took from the Book
of Origins, — an act which he may very well have performed
just before his death, but which that old book did not ascribe
so definitely to him.'
(^^) After another long heading (ch. iv. 44-v. 1), follows the
second and principal speech of this book, as if the speaker had
sj)oken the entire compass of the words from v. 1 to xxvi. in one
strain. This is the place at which the law in the form which it
is to assume for the future, is really solemnly laid before the
assembled people, and at the end a declaration given whether
they will accept it or not. And as its contents, so difiicult to
be embraced at a glance, were to be exhausted here, the whole
is classified according to its main divisions, the author starting
from the Decalogue and its renewed inculcation in v. 1-vi. 3,
and then with a fresh beginning (vi. 4) undertaking to discuss
the great subject in his own way, in all its bearings and in
the greatest detail. The classification adopted descends con-
stantly from the higher and more general to the lower and
more special. The author (1) begins with Jahveli as the single
great object of love, and makes every efibrt to commend love of
him alone and complete avoidance of all other gods (vi. 4-xiii.).
He thence (2) turns to what is most closely connected with that
subject, viz. to the special things and acts which are or ought
to be esteemed holy, and then enters more into detail, giving
a number of special commandments (xiv.-xvi. 17). Passing
now from what intimately concerns religion in the narrower
sense of the word to the outward realm and its arrangement,
he (3) discusses public rights, both the Laws of Persons — the
duties and functions of j)ublic persons, namely, the supreme
magistrates (judges and kings), priests and prophets — and the
thouglits in bis old age ; but tlie persona- we admire in Deuteronomy.
lion in this later work, notwithstanding ' As is clear from Num. xxxv. 14, corn-
its jioetie Ibrm, is not maintained with pared with Josh. xx. 8.
anything liko the ease and fiqnuess which
DEUTERONOMIST: LAST MODIFICATION OF TUE BOOK. 12l
public Laws of Things (xvi. 18-xxi. 14). To this is appended
subsequently (4) what we should call Private Law, which from
its infinite extent is all treated here mostly in very short clauses
without any discoverable sure arrangement of details. How-
ever, the section begins with household matters at xxi. 15 ; and
after a return, by way of example, to the sacred acts to be
performed by the individual (xxv. 17-xxvi. 15), the entire long
speech is wound up by a short and powerful recurrence to its
commencement (xxvi. 16-19).
(m) In the concluding speech would be expected the recipro-
cal obligation to the covenant whose contents have now been
expounded, on the part of the people, and on that of the speaker
as agent of Jahveh. But here another consideration interferes.
The covenant containing all this was surely not really concluded
by the people at that time, for where were the pledges and docu-
ments of it from the country beyond the Jordan P Rather it
was intended for the people only after they had settled in
Canaan ; indeed, strictly speaking only for those who lived in
Jerusalem at the time of the writer. On this account there fol-
lows a more intricate threefold concluding speech ; (1) the com-
mand is given, only in future to erect on one oftwo holy mounts
on the nearer side of the Jordan memorial-stones as records,
and from this sanctuary to bind the people to the new law. This
has its foundation, as will be explained, in a real reminiscence
of the ancient holiness of the mountains round Shechem (chajD.
xxvii.). Then, as if perceiving that this better law will yet not
be kept for centuries in the land on this side of the Jordan, the
writer (2) exerts his prophetic powers to the utmost, to bring
home to his readers the twofold possible consequences of their
conduct towards it — what blessings it will bring, and what a
curse the neglect of it will draw down. But it is the latter that is
chiefly depicted, in the liveliest colours and utmost range ; and
it seems as if the speaker here, overpassing the course of cen-
turies, borrowed the hues of his delineation direct from the
terrible calamities which had already come upon the people,
which indeed were oppressing them even at the time of the
author, and the removal of which he expected only through
their acceptance of that amendment which is here enjoined ; or
as if the foreboding spirit of the noble speaker of antiquity
exactly touched that putrefying sore, well known to the real con-
temporaries, from which, except through a total change and cure,
utter destruction was inevitable (xxvii. 9 sq. and xxviii. 1-68). '
' The verses xxvii. 9, 10 are wrongly give the proper meaning, and indeed are
placed here, but before ch. xxviii. they necessary there. In the work of tiio
122 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
Only after these premisses follows (3) tlie real conclusion — wliicli
alike in tenderness and impressive force, and in profound and
eternal thoughts, constitutes the true crown of the whole (xxviii.
69-xxx.).
With this comes to its close that which, in the sense of the
author, may be rightly called ' the Second Law ' or ' the New
Covenant;' and if he then, as desiring to complete that chain of
special events with which this law is hedged round, describes
Moses (xxxi.-xxxii. 47) as writing it down at a higher command,
and depositing it beside the Ark of the Covenant, and therein
accomplishing his last earthly work, with a few heartfelt part-
ing-words, directed especially to Joshua, we can but say that in
giving this turn to the narrative he is true to himself and to his
artistic point of view. Assuredly this is a vast stride in the art
of historical representation, and exhibits a freedom of treatment
which we should seek in vain in earlier times. The Book of
Origins represents Moses as receiving the stone tables of the
Decalogue, written by the finger of God, and as seeing in the
heavens the archetype of the sanctuaries which it describes (p.
87) ; but it nowhere gives the least intimation that it was itself
written by him. Rather, by stating in exceptional cases that
the names of the encampments were written down by Moses, ^ it
implies the contrary. The Fourth Narrator indeed shows some-
what more boldness in assuming the use of writings from the
hand of Moses : he represents Moses as breaking the original
tables of stone, and restoring them with his own hand ;^ and
relates that at the command of God he wrote down a Divine an-
nouncement that would reveal its full meaning only after a long
interval.^ This latter event is described just as it certainly often
occurred in reality among the prophets of the 9th and 8th cen-
turies,^ and the narrator here also does but follow his own strictly
prophetical method ; but even in this latter case it is evident
that he had before him an ancient document, and one which
he had found in a book of very great age, which he may have
verily believed had been written by Moses. But the Deu-
teronomist ventures to ascribe to a record from the hand of
Moses the entire book of Deuteronom}^, though he himself was
the first to put it forth in this form, just as he states (cli. xxvii.
Josh. viii. 82) that the memorial-stones on Mount Ebal had
contained, by Moses' appointment, the more strictly legislative
Dcutcronomist, also, there are misplace- ' Num. xxxiii. 1,2; see above, p. 68.
ments, but of a different kind from tliose * Ex. xxxiv. 27, 28.
observed (p. 87) in the Book of Origins; » Ex. xvii. 14-16.
and it would carry us too far to disi.'us.s * Isaiah viii. 16, xxx. 8.
them all here.
DEUTERONOMIST: LAST MODIFICATION OF TUE BOOK. 123
part of it from ch. v. to xxvi. And tliis g-reat boldness of histo-
rical assumption is emphatically one of the many signs of the
later age of this author ; an age which precisely because it felt
itself so far removed from that of Moses allowed the utmost
licence to the historical contemplation and treatment of it. For
although in Deviteronomy the author derived many laws and
other matter from old manuscripts which in his time might
already be reckoned, in the most general sense of the word,
Mosaic, and in so far might regard his new production as a
Mosaic work, because written in the spirit and to a great extent
in the words of Moses, yet the history itself shows that this
extreme licence in authorship was very gradually developed.
But if the author in this way wrote the chief portion of his
work (Deut. i.-xxx.) quite independently, the case becomes
different from the moment at which the words of Moses come
to an end, and the events themselves are further described.
Here he visibly takes as a basis the original history, in the
same manner as in the previously described work of the Fifth
Narrator, and up to the death of Joshua adds only what his
purpose requires. How from this point he manijjulates that
work we may at once see by the following example. It is
very remarkable that in the midst of the portion, Deut. xxxi.
14-22, in which the Deuteronomist repeats words which are
by unmistakable signs recognised as written by the Fifth Nar-
rator,^ a song is put forth which Moses and Joshua were said
to write and teach to the community for an everlasting testi-
mony to the mercy of Jaliveh, which even after their backslidings
always sought them again ; and, fi*equently as the exj)ressions of
this second document may run counter to those of the former,
still the Deuteronomist makes distinct reference to this song as
delivered by Moses before the assembled people (xxxi. 27-30,
xxxii. 44) . From this it would seem as if the great song in ch.
xxxii. had been first introduced, not by the Deuteronomist, but
by the previous narrator in his history of Moses ; which makes
a great difference in respect to the question of its age and
origin. The form and contents of this song, indeed, prove
that it must have been composed in an age subsequent to
the time of Solomon ; ^ but it comes from a poet otherwise
' This appears from the conception of as they are habitual to the Fifth Narra-
the pillar of cloud, which is peculiar to this tor ; and from other indications,
narrator, V. 15; from the expressions "iQn - The period depicted by the poet as
n^-|3 to break the Covenant, v^j for Antiquity, is, according to vv. 7-18, no
, ■:. „, , 1 ^, 1 1 Other than the age of Moses; and his
despise, T^S v. 21 (on both the word present, a generation which had already
and the sense, see Gen. vi. 5, viii. 21), fallen far from the loyalty and happiness
which are as foreign to the Deuteronomist of the Mosaic age and the first period after
124
HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
nnknown/ who embodied in it some of tlie weig-htiest prophetic
truths of his time, and can have originated neither from the
Deuteronomist, who nowhere shows himself a poet, and from
whose mode of expression it widely departs ; nor from the
previous Narrator, who indeed (according to p. 102) freely in-
troduces his own songs, but whose poetic manner and diction
are diiferent. The narrator who inserted it here must have met
vvdth it as an anonymous song, perhaps not more than fifty or
a hundred years old, and have judged it in power and sentiment
to be worthy of the dying Moses. ^ And since, according to all
indications, it must have originated about the last quarter of the
eighth century^ (but in this case cannot have been inserted by the
previous narrator), it must in all probability have been intro-
the conquest, and had become efifeminate
and presumptuous, and was then greatly
afflicted by cniel foes and other e-\-ils, and
inclined on that very account to murmur
even against Jahveh. Now the poet on
his side ought strictly to speak words of
the severest denunciation against this un-
thankful race ; but he controls himself,
and prefers to begin in gentle tones to
sing the praise of Jahveh's faithfulness :
he is, however, carried away in the midst
of his song b}' his wrath against the un-
grateful people, and summons them to
listen to the teaching of antiquity (vv. 1-7).
Here Jahveh appears as the kind Father
and Benefactor of the people (vv. 8-14) ;
but, through the very excess of their
happiness in the beautiful lands of the
conquest, they suffered themselves to be
seduced into rebellion against him, so
that he in his turn is now compelled to
turn against them (vv. 15-21). This is
the central point and pause of the song,
"which on close inspection is seen to
consist of six equal strophes. Advancing
from this point to the prophetical end,
the thouglit is carried on, in the follow-
ing manner: Great indeed are the
pi'esent chastisements, and were it not
that the enemy would grow too over-
weening, Jahveh would indict the merited
final destruction (vv. 22-27). Would
that Israel could understand that it is the
heathen who must fall, not those who have
a better foundation (vv. 28-35) ; and as-
suredly the true Messianic hope shall yet
be fulfilled (vv. 36-43). Hence it is clear
that liiis ])oem is one of those — and they
wore not few — which arose from the ovi'r-
ilowing of prophetical thoughts and Mes-
sianic hopes into song ; and that for this
rea.son, if for no other, it cannot be believed
to have existed before the beginning of
the eighth century. The diction, although
here and there very strained and abrupt,
is on the whole rather expanded and elabo-
rate than terse and reall}- antique. But
it is equally clear from the contents, that
it does not in the least profess to have
been composed in the name of Moses.
On this song see also my Jahrbücher der
Biblischen Wissenschaft, viii. pp. 41-65 ;
and Göttinger Gelehrte Anzeiffen for 1862,
pp. 375-383.
' This might easily be shown from its
very peculiar diction.
^ Other phenomena of a like kind are
met with. Confining ourselves to the
historical books we may recall the Song
of Hannah, 1 Sam. ii.
^ The ' people that is not a people ' (v.
21) who so long plagued the Israelites, is
unquestionably the Assyrians, at about
that stage of their dominion which is de-
scribed by Isaiah ch. xxxiii., if not at a
still later. Imitations of the words and
ideas of this song are not met with till
aftt-r the diffiision of Deuteronomy ; thus,
for instance, }."l"ip''' is appropriate as an
expression of fondness, and certainly ori-
ginal in V. 15; but in Dent, xxxiii. 5, 26,
and Isaiah xliv. 2, is merely copied from
thence: further, the word p^n in v. 21,
for idol ; the great calamities in vv. 24,
25 (compare Ezek. xiv. 21 ; 2 Kings xvii.
26, and elsewhere) ; v. 35 (compare with
Hab. ii. 2); and in v. 36, the proverbial
expression ^.ITUI 1-1 VW ^he close a7id the
loose, that is everything (as we say with a
simihir alliteration of initials, ' through
thick and tiiiii.') which plirase is frequently
repeated by the last author of the Books
of Kings. The same age is indicated by
such words as npil V'. 2, n"l7if? v. 15, and
others.
DEUTERONOMIST : LAST MODIFICATIOX OF THE BOOK. 125
duced by the Deuteronomist in tlie place of another, as seeming
to liim more suitable.' Fmally he concludes the life of Moses
with the remark that no prophet so great had ever again arisen
(Deut. xxxiv. 10-1 2), ^ which entirely agrees with the expression
in ch. xviii. 15-18, and in connection with this proves that
he designed the ' New Law ' to endure for the whole future, or,
according to another view, till the advent of the Messiah.^
But the views of the Deuteronomist are not fully satisfied until
he can set forth in conclusion how Joshua, as the true leader and
the successor of Moses, strengthened and encouraged by Jahveh,
zealously and with the happiest results entered into this higher
law, and concluded with the people the new covenant desired
by Moses. Thus many passages in the present Book of Joshua
were first brought into their existing form by the Deuteronomist.
The mention also of the memorials of the new covenant at
Shechem, and the statement that Joshua himself wrote every-
thing,* rej)eat in trivial things that which had been said re-
specting Moses in great ones, and must be judged in the same
way. To suppose, however, that he introduced everything that
the present Book of Joshua contains is incompatible with the
whole character and object of the work. But certain as it is
that this life of Joshua was made public by the author at
the same time with the new-moulded life of Moses, it is also
evident that his object as a vn-iter was thereby fully attained ;
and it is neither capable of proof nor even credible that he
treated in his peculiar manner the history of any later period.
b.) That the Deuteronomist had read and made use of the
historical work to which the Fifth Narrator gave its latest form,
is certain, not only from what has been adduced above, but also
from other indications.-^ But a closer examination of his words
shows that, besides this, he also drew largely upon many docu-
ments, both of a narrative and of a legislative character, which
are now entirely lost : ^ for the age had long been devoted to
' The words of ch. xxxi. 28 do really vince and his object. To what extent,
allude very manifestly to this song ; but however, his words nevertheless stand in
not so those of ch. xxxi. 21. some relation with that idea, may be seen
- From the complexion of the words and in Götünger Gelehrte Anzeigen for 1861,
ideas, also, these three verses can only p. 1414-16, and for 1862, p. 1194.
belong to the Deuteronomist. Compare ■• Josh. xxiv. 26.
V. 12 with iv. 34, xx\n. 8, &e. * Not only is the narrative of Ex. xxxii.-
=• In itself and in the mind of the Deu- xxxiv. repeated step by step in Deut. x.,
terouomist, the passage Deut. xviii. 15-19 but also that of Numb, xxii.-xxiv. is cer-
is by no means Messianic; but it readily tainly presupposed both by Josh. xxiv. 9
obtained at a later period, especially through and by Mic. vi. 5; and further proofs of
the allusion toch.xxxiv.lO-12,aMessianic the same might be given,
application. The Deuteronomist, on the ® When, for example, he says (xvii. 16
contrary, considered the full treatment of and xxviii. 68) that Jahveh had before
the Messianic idea to lie beyond his pro- commanded the people never to return
12G HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
learning, and the collection of ancient works on history had
doubtless become an established custom, as we know on docu-
mentary evidence was the case with other branches of literature.*
Much has been thus preserved by him fi'om these sources, which
would otherwise have been lost. Moreover, having amassed
a comparatively rich store of authorities upon antiquity, he
takes a manifest pleasure in pouring forth at suitable places
an abundance of curious historical lore,'^ to give to his work
a fittinof breadth of historical clothinjy. Even in the middle
of a speech of Moses appear some historical notes taken from
old books, as though even then the learned author was invo-
luntarily more prominent than Moses who was introduced as
speaking.' All this expenditure of antiquarian learning, how-
ever, is incurred, assuredly not in order to help on the history
or narrative itself, but simply to aid the legislative and pro-
phetical aim of the writer, and accordingly the historical ob-
servations, lavishly poured forth in some places, are generally
broken ofi' suddenly so as not to encroach upon that which
interests the author more than the history itself. The narrator
last described deserves the name of narrator, since the repre-
sentations of antiquity and the delineation of certain inherited
traditions are the objects aimed at by him ; but here we no
longer find a naiTator, but a speaker with the pen, who uses
history only as a dress, and rarely narrates anything at length.
With this is also connected the peculiar nature of the diction
of this author. This not only (as may be easily perceived)
differs much in single words and phrases from that of all the
other portions of the Pentateuch and of the Book of Joshua,
again to Egypt, we naturally expect to these remarks, which contain much that
find some law respecting this in the older is not foiind in other sources, merely serve
Looks; for it is the characteristic habit of the purpose of descrihing the position of
the Deuteronomist, when referringto earlier Moses in the last month before his death,
works of this character, always to have his ' It may, indeed, be fairly doubted
eye upon some one previous declaration whether the passages hero alluded to
by Jahveh. But no such declaration is (Dent. ii. 10-12, 20-23, iii. 9, 11, 13 (last
to lie found in the older books extant, half) and 14, x. 6-9) actually belong to
since the words in Ex. xiii. 17, being tlio speeches, from the tone of wliich they
spoken only with reference to one special entirely and witliout any visible reason
and temporary object, cannot be meant, depart. I hold them rather to be marginal
Therefore the Deuteronomist must liave annotations, which have hero crept into
liad before? him an ancient passage which tlie text ; and the position, barety capable
is lost to us, in accordance with which of yielding any .sense at all, which Iho
these woi-ds are to bo taken, somewhat passage x. 6-9 now occupies, affords strong
like those noticed below, p. 130, note. confirmation of this view. We should thus
' See my Dichter des Alten Bundis, vol. have here in tlie Old Testament a MS. with
IV. pp. 36-44. marginal annotations from the hand of its
2 This is shown by the whole opening author; and such a fact would sufficiently
speech, with its hi.storical introduction, show how firmly established erudition in
Deut. i. I-iv. 40._ Examples of this occur tlie strict sense had already become,
at the very beginning, in i. 1, 2, since
DEUTERONOMIST: LAST MODIFICATION OF TUE BOOK. 127
and never approaches near to tliat of the Book of Origins
except where the author repeats old laws almost verbatim ;
but exhibits in general a colouring and a method which cannot
be conceived to have existed till about the seventh century.
The differences extend even into the minutest points.* But,
broadly considered, the essence of the diction is pure rhetoric,
and this in an advanced development which suggests approach-
ing decay. By the great Proj)hets of the ninth and eighth
centuries the rhetorical capabilities of the language had been
developed as far as was possible in the public life of those times,
and the influence which this development gradually exerted
upon the narrative style is shown by the two last-mentioned
revisers of the primeval history. Prophetic orators, indeed, still
existed even in the seventh century, as we know from the life
of Jeremiah ; but as the bloom of prophetic power and activity
faded, oratory also lost its inward vigour and terseness, and fell
into a laxity which repudiated those just restraints by which
alone beauty and force can be united. And in the Deateronomist
we see rhetoric already succumbing to this relaxation ; only in
certain places, as for instance in the impressive conclusion (ch.
XXX.) does he attain terseness of style, and a vigorous and facile
grasp of his materials. The fact that rhetoric absolutely pre-
dominates in the work would itself suflSce to show that it
certainly cannot have been written before the age of the great
Prophets of the ninth and eighth centuries ; the fact that the
rhetoric itself exhibits cei-tain sig-ns of decay guides us to an
even lower antiquity.
c.) It would lead us too far, here to show from the various
other indications discoverable, that the author wrote about the
latter half of the reign of King Manasseh, and in Egypt.
As the proof cannot be given briefly, and this work is closely
connected with a large portion of the history of the seventh
century, this point can be better treated of hereafter. But its
relations to the other books of the Old Testament also lead to
the same result. Whereas even in singie words and detached
thoughts it presupposes the existence of the older books, and
even of the Book of Job,^ it was itself much read and imitated
' As, for example, the combination ^ Even if we do not ficcoiint for the pas-
-"ijQa in certain cases for the older ""»JÖ^. ^^S^ ^ent. iv. 32 by the influence of Job
befhre: Beut. vii. 24, xi. 25; Josh, x/s, ^"\^' ^'L^^'l ^^1' """"'^ thoughts of
xxi. 42, xxiii. 9; these passages are imi- ?'" , ^""^^i' ^' .3"' ^'^.'. P»'"^' necessarily
i i 1 • -17 4.1, ■ <■> rri 5 i. _..^ to Job T. 14, XXXI. 10, n. 7 ; and tluis we
tated m Esth. ix. 2. The entire root ny3 , ■ 1 j_ ^ /•
'-^-r possess at once a very important testimony
or t'Vp> otherwise foreign to the language to the age of the older portions of the
of the Pentateuch, has through the gi-eat I>ook of Job. Dent, xxviii. 49 sqq. is
poem Deut. ch. xxxii. been rendered fa- derived from Isaiah v. 20 sqq. and xxxiii.
miliar to the Deuteronomist also. 19, finc^ in gi'eat part from the previous
128 IIISTOllY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
as early as tlie age of Jeremiali ; and, as might easily be proved,
no book exerted a stronger influence both on the life of the
people and on their literature than this, when in the seventh
century peculiar circumstances rendered it the authoritative
basis of the Reformation under king Josiah.'
3) During the last gleam of happiness which once more
shone upon Judali after the national Reformation under Josiah
effected through Deuteronomy, and consequently while Josiah was
still reigning, the Blessing of Moses, which has been preserved
as an interpolation in the book of history and law recast by the
Deuteronomist (Deut, xxxiii.), was probably written. For this
imitation of the blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix.) presupposes
a very happy internal condition of the country, or at least a
very satisfactory position of the ancient religion, such as we
must believe to have existed exactly at that time, when, after
the internal reformation a bright hope for the future would
naturally spring up and find poetical expression. Here, then,
it might seeui suitable to put the old blessing of Jacob as anew
blessing into the mouth of the dying Moses. For the love of
Moses embraced not the mere separate tribes but the whole
community, and regarded the tribes only as the units of which
that was compounded. He, therefore, could only desire un-
mitigated blessing for them all, and the separate tribes here
appear subordinated to the higher unity of the Community of
Jahveh. From this conception the speaker sets out in -verses
2-6, and in this he concludes in verses 26-29 ; and as for the
whole, so for each single tribe according to its special position,
a blessing is implored. We may thus regard this even as an
improved recasting of the old blessing. The desire expressed
in verse 7, that Judah should come to his people, that is, that
the dynasty of David might again rule over the whole people of
all the tribes, is one of the most significant j)oints of detail,
and moreover completely in accord with the history of this time.
Equally characteristic is also the designation of Levi as the
honourable Priest- tribe (verses 8-11) and of Jerusalem as the
place of the Temple (verse 12), as also the fact that the Northern
tribes are blessed for turning towards the Mount of the Temple
in Jerusalem ; "^ for Galilee appears early to have turned towards
Fourth Narrator. Besides Jeremiali, (he Iiave shown up the utter perversity of a
passages Isaiah Ivii. 5 (compare Deut. xii. recent very prolix work of this kind in tlio
2) and Zf'ph. iii. 19, 20 (coniparo Jor. xiii. Jahrbücher der Biblischen Wissenschaft,
11, and Deut. xxvi. 19) stand nearest to x. pp. 183-189: see also ibid. vii. p.
Deuteronomy. 212.
' It is unnecessai-y here to speak farther - For it eannot be doubted that by the
of the views held upon Deuteronomy in Mountain in v. 19, wliieh these tribes in-
tliis day by those wlio ignore history. 1 voko, and on which they offer sacrifices of
DEÜTEROXOMIST : LAST MODIFICATIOX OF TUE BOOK. 129
Jerusalem. Against this no argument can be founded on tlie
fact tliat the old blessing pronounced upon Joseph, though no
longer quite suitable in this age, is sinij)lj repeated, in verses
13-17, from an older work consisting likewise of blessings. To
judge from the language, the song proceeds from an otherwise
unknown j)oet of the age of Jeremiah ; in respect to its position,
it is merely interpolated loosely where it stands, and not {as the
poem in Deut. xxxii.) adopted by the narrator as part of his own
work. The greatest error of all would be to suppose that the
Deuteronomist had inserted it; for with his spirit it has no
affinity, and his language finds no echo in it. But, taken together
with the case of the Deuteronomist, it serves to show how indus-
triously the most different authors of the seventh century sought
to give form and authority to their thoughts by transplanting
them into the Mosaic world.
4) Now it is true, the work of the Deuteronomist originally
appeared by itself: it represents itself everywhere as a work
that stands and has meaning by itself : and as such, too, we are
able to trace it in history at its first appearance ; moreover, the
beginning of the work, with its detailed description of the place
and circumstances in which Moses began to speak (i. 1-5) sounds
quite like the introduction of a new book. Nevertheless the
real author, in whose times there already existed a great abun-
dance of ancient historical and legislative works, some un-
doubtedly held in high honour and much used, had certainly
no intention of supplanting these, since his manifest design is
only to produce a sort of final completion of all the most valuable
materials that then existed. It is for one special object, rather
than with the view of gathering together everything that since
the time of Moses had become law among the people, that he re-
opens, as it were, the mouth of the great Lawgiver. But in fact
we see that he sometimes makes Moses in his speech refer back
to some historical fact which could only be understood if there
were earlier narratives containing a fuller account of it ;' and
in the case of the laws respecting lej^rosy, which for his purpose
he wished scarcely to touch and yet not entirely to ];)ass by,
the speaker refers with sufficient distinctness to the priestly
directions concerning it contained in the Book of Origins.^
righteousness (i.e. those referred to in Exodus, which are taken from the oldest
w. 8-11), Zion is to be understood. and simplest narrative. But the Deutero-
' As, in particular, the words of Deut. V. nomist may have found such a narrative
25-28 [28-31], xviii. 16-19, which refer in some other early book; perhaps in a
back to the narrative in Ex. XX. lt:'-2 1 ; but passage of tlie Fourth Narrator's. See
they certainly imply the existence of amuch p. 126.
more detailed and vivid account of the '' Deut. xxiv. 8. See my Alterthümcr,
events than is contained in the words of p. 180.
VOL. I. K
ll'O HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMrOSlTlOX.
Now, altliougli under Josiali this Book of Deuteronomy was
publicly recognised as tlie great and fundamental law-book of
the kingdom of Judali, yet of course, along with this, the earlier
works, which were already much used, especially for certain
purposes, and by the priests, might still be largely read, and
employed according to their contents. Such prophets and
authors as Jereuiiah and Ezekiel, therefore, had recourse to
similar works of an older stock besides Deuteronomy, Avliich
either stand in the present Pentateuch, or were lost at a
later period.^ But it was inevitable that the same art of book-
making, which was so active among the ancient people (see pp.
59 sqq.), and had been long practised esj^ecially on this domain
of primeval history, should again be tried. It was held good to
work-in the book of the Deuteronomist into one of the earlier
works, or (what might appear equally important) to enrich the
latter with the former, so as to bring together all that was
valuable respecting the ancient history. Any further additions
from other sources could then be easily appended. And cer-
tainly, among all the greater works with which that of the
Deuteronomist might have been conjoined, the choice fell most
happily upon that of the Fifth Narrator. We can also clearly
recognise the manner in which this last compiler, the true editor
of the great historical book as it has reached us, proceeded.
He left the work of the Fifth Narrator exactly as he found it,
up to the section, shortly before the death of Moses, to which
the chief portion of the Deuteronomist's work could suitably be
attached. But since the latter (as before observed) had written
the life of Joshua very briefly, the editor proceeded, after the
death of Moses, on a freer plan, uniting the more detailed
narrative given by the older work with the essential contents of
the Deuteronomist's, and so blendiug the two works completely
into one. It was certainly this last editor who inserted the
Blessing of Moses (Deut. xxxiii.) ; a passage which even yet
stands quite disconnected. In this (v. 1) Moses is called for
the first time ' the Man of God.' This name, in the two only
passages of this great book where it occurs (here and in Josh,
xiv. 6), indicates a different hand from that of the Deuterono-
mist. The very fact of the insertion of this passage enables
us to recognise most distinctly a last editor, who, however,
must have lived before the end of the seventh century, or at all
events before the destruction of Jerusalem, and brought the
work into its present and final forni.^ For there is no single
indication to lead us to any lower antiquity.
' On tliis point SCO what I said iu 1859 • * It might indeed be presumed that
in vul. vii. (Germ, cd.) pp. 412 sqq. this last editor was a'so the last modifier
EUTERONOMIST: LAST MOÜIFICATION OF TUE BOOK. 131
In conclusion, we can now understand what extraordinary
fortunes this great work underwent, before it attained its
present form — how from a small beg-inning it was enlarged and
modified at every important epoch of Hebrew literature till the
end of the seventh or the beginning of the sixth century, and
concentrated within its limits the most beautiful and lasting
literary achievements of a long series of centuries ; on a similar
system to that which, in other fields of literature, may be
observed in the collection of the Prophets, the Psalter, and the
Book of Proverbs ; with two exceptions — (1) that in the region
of history it never became customary to give the names of the
narrators as vouchers for their statements, nor to mention those
of the compilers, and (2) that this work came to a comparatively
early close, because it was commenced the soonest, and its
subject, as being purely historical, was necessarily the soonest
exhausted. In the course of the modifications and transforma-
tions which the work underwent, much of it gradually lost its
original clearness and its peculiar character. The Deuterono-
mist gives to his work which is included in the book as it
now stands, the name (which indeed the whole volume might
well bear) of Book of the Law of God,^ or Book of the Law oj
Moses ;^ by which however is strictly meant only the chief
portion of the book, excluding the present book of Joshua.
Sometimes he calls it more briefly the Book of the Laiv,^ since
the legislative portion seemed to him the most important ; and
thus the older names — Book of Origins, and the rest — were
thrown into the background. Thus, too, the ancient divisions
of the Book of Origins are very much obscured by later trans-
formations and additions ; and the whole work in its latest
form is partitioned, we know not by whom, into six large sec-
tions,* which by the Hellenists in Egypt and elsewhere were
of the whole ; and that thus the first four ' In Josli. xxiv. 26 ; likewise 2 Kings
books of the Pentateuch were cast into x. 31 ; in Chronicles, Ezra, and Neheniiah.
their present foi'm by him, and that, for * In Josh, xxiii. 6; the same name ap-
instance, the abridgments which have pears elsewhere afrer that time, 1 Kings
evidently been made in Gen. iv. and vi. ii. 3 ; 2 Kings xiv. 6, xxiii. 25, and in
(see p. 113) proceeded from him. But Chronicles and similar writings. In Deu-
on further consideration I find this view teronomy, as well as in Josh. viii. 31, 32,
not tenalile, if only because there is no- only Deuteronomy itself is to l)e undcr-
where the least trace of the spirit of the stood by the term ; but from its intimate
Deuteronomist before the first verse of connection with the older work, the wider
the Book of Deuteronomy. Such passages, use of the name must have been from the
on the other hand, as Deut. v. 25-28 [28- first possil)le.
31] and xviii. 16-19 yield no sufficient ' Deut. xxii. 46 ; compare 2 Kings xxii.
proof that the Deutercnomist in a previous 8, 11, and elsewhere. With this name
portionof his work had described the whole that of Book of the Covenant, 2 Kings
history of Moses, since what has been xxiii. 21, is interchangeable.
already said is a sufficient explanation of ^ The only natural divisions wliich tlie
these. subject-matter itself creates in the great
k2
132 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
called tlie Pentateucli (of Moses) and the Book of Joshua. But
from amid tlie wreck of the oldest writings and the multitude
of later additions, there still shines forth very much that is
original : nor have any of the later transformations been able
entirely to obscure either the grand remains of the earliest times
or the whole history of the gradual creation of the work itself ; at
least in the presence of that exact research, which alone is both
suited to the importance of the subject and fruitful of results.
work aro the following: — 1. Genesis; 2. books — Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers —
Thehistoryof MosesasfarasDeuteronomy; agrees only remotely with the original
3. Deuteronomy; 4. The time of Joshua, divisions of tlie Book of Origins (p. 86).
But the second of these parts must, on The sixth of these parts might then the
account of its gi-eat extent, have been very more readily be further separated and
early broken up into three portions, such treated as a distinct book, and entitled the
that the whole work fell into six nearly Book of Josliua.
equal parts : but this partition into three
GREAT BOOK OF THE KINGS.
133
II. THE GEEAT BOOK OF THE KINGS.
BOOKS OP JUDGES, RUTH, SAMUEL, AND KINGS.
The first phenomenon that strikes the observer here is the
marked difference in the language of this great Book of Kings,
in comparison with that of the preceding great book of the primi-
tive history. Although both are equally made up of passages by
the most diverse writers, yet on the whole each is distinguished
by a pecviliar cast of language. Many fresh words and expres-
sions become favourites here, and supplant their equivalents in
the primitive history ; ' others that are thoroughly in vogue
here, are designedly avoided in the primitive history, and evi-
dently from a historical consciousness that they were not in use
in the earliest times ; ^ but the most remarkable and pervading
characteristic is, that words of common life, which never occur
to the pen of any single relator of the primitive history, find
an unquestioned recej)tion here. ^ I have no hesitation in
' Such as T>33 prince, instead of {<"'t^3
mentioued at p. 93 (it is also peculiar to
the Chronicles in places -whicli are wanting
in the four books of Kings, I Chron. v. 2,
ix. 11, 20, xiii. 1, xxvi. 24, xxvii. 4, 16,
sxviii. 4, xxix. 22 ; 2 Chron. vi. 5. xi. 11,
22, xix. 11, xxviii. 7, xxxi. 12 sq., xxxii.
21, XXXV. 8); ")y3 in the signification to
sweep awat/ (not to bitim ; Deuteronomy is
the first that obliterates the distinction);
t^^t^'P in the sense oi p)revalent custom;
"•JTX Twii for to revca\ 1 Sam. ix. 15, xx.
2, xxii. 8, twice ; 2 Sam. vii. 27 ; Ruth iv.
4. Thei-e are quite new words, such as
riD-IXO anytJdng (which only occurs in
the Fourth Narrator) ; yj^ in derivatives,
with the signification of to sithdue, to
humble; 1-")"Iil troop, 1 Sam. xxx. 8, 15,
23 ; 2 Sam. iii. 22, iv. 2 ; 1 Kings xi. 24 ;
2 Kings V. 2, xiii. 20 sq. ; also nC'nn to
he silent (which sense is expressed by
many other words) first appears in prose
in Judges xviii. 9; 1 Kings xxii. 3; 2
Kings ii. 3, 5, vii. 9, and only in later
times in poetry, except Ps. xxxix. 3 [2].
^ This is especially shown by the name
niX2V n.l.nV l Sam. i. 3, 11, iv. 4. xv. 2,
xvii. 45 ; 2'Sam. v. 10, vi. 2, 18, vii. 7, 26
sq.; 1 Kings xviii. 15, xix. 10, 14; 2
Kings iii. 14. On the other hand, the
Books of Chronicles are again sparing in
its use, and only use it in the life of David ;
it is entirely unknown to the Pentateuch,
Joshua, and Judges.
^ Such as py^iS which was really first
introduced into the -written language by
David (cf. Psalmen, sec. ed., p. 4) ; 1 Sam.
i. 16, ii. 12, X. 27, xxv. 17, 25, xxx. 22;
2 Sam. xvi. 7, xx. 1 ; 1 Kings xxi. 10, 13 ;
Judges xix. 22, xx. 13, w]uch,in the other
province, has only penetrated into Deut.
xiii. 14 [13], XV. 9; the oath i^ nb'U'' HB
131 D'nPSt which is also put into the mouth
of heathen, the verb in that case being
made plural, 1 Sam. iii. 17, xiv. 44, xx.
13. XXV. 22; 2 Sam. iii. 9, 35, xix. 14 [13];
1 Kings ii. 23, xix. 2, xx. 10 ; 2 Kings vi.
31 ; Ruth i. 17 ; the similar oath of com-
mon life, whicli however can only bo
used by Hebrew.s, "^l^'Q^ >r]) niil.* ^n 1
Sam. XX. 3, xxv. 26, 2 Sam. xi. 11 (with
134 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMrOSlTION.
saying tliat the establislied usage of centuries must liave sanc-
tioned for the primitive history a style of nari'ative and a cast
of language utterly different from those customary in the
history of the Kings ; just as the style of the regular historians
of the Greeks differs from that of the so called logographers,
and — to cite a nearer example — as the Arabian naiTators of
easy style, the authors of Wakidi's books, of the Thousand
and one Nights, and others, select a form of language different
from that of the older historians.
This remarkable phenomenon — quite worthy of minute in-
vestigation, and sufficient to rouse us to profound meditation on
the great changes Hebrew historical composition has undergone
— necessarily leads us to assume that when historians began to
treat of the period of the Kings, the mode of delineation of the
stories of antiquity had long since adopted its established tone
and style, seeing that the above-described Book of Origins
(pp. 74 sqq.) does not indicate the commencement, but the
highest perfection, and in a certain sense the consummation,
of the development of the primitive history. When therefore
a new branch of literature, describing the history of the Kings,
was originated, doubtless by different writers at first, it
natui'ally created for itself a new style of narrative and of
language, and thus two species of historical composition, dif-
fering in many respects, were established : the long developed
style of the primitive history, which occupied a province more
or less sacred ; and the new style of the history of the Kings,
whose province was that of common life and daily progressing
events.
some variation), xv. 21 ; 2 Kings ii. 2, 4, which only occurs in Jos. xxii. 29 ; and the
6, iv. 30 : and in a shorter form 1 Sam. exclamation to secure a favourable hearing
i 26 xyii. 55; 2 Sam. xiv. 19. To this ^^^^ ^ -^^^ • ^^ s^^„^_ ;_ 2^ ,
class belong also ti>e common proverb of ■ -. ■ ^
the dead dog, or d<äg's head, 2 Sam. iii. 8, Kings ili. 17, 26; Judges vi. 13, 15, xiii.
ix. 8, xvi. 9 ; 1 Sara. xxiv. 15 [14], further 8), which, though used by the later nar-
shortened in xvii, 43; 2 Kincs viii. 13; rators of the primitive history, Gen. xliu.
as also the two phrases T-pa J'-nL**!?, 1 -0, xliv. 18; Ex.iv. 10, 13, to whom Num.
c r>.-. r.i ■■ rr- ■',:.' ■ xii. 11 may also belong, in the l?ook of
Sam. XXV. 22, 34 ;1 Kings xiv. 10, xvi. q^- -^^^ ^^ ^^^j -^^ j^^ ^.j; g -^ -^
11, XXI. 21; 2 Kings IX. 8, and n-l^ is the original reading there. The mean-
a-ltyi, 1 Kings xiv. 10, xxi. 21 ; 2 Kings ing of tiie latter expression is hardly to bo
ix. 8,' xiv. 26 (which occurs nowhere else explained by such longer phrases as that
but in the song Dout. xxxii. 36, where i" 1 ^^^^- ^^- ^* > ^^ might rather as-
it is most likely to bo original); with sume that ^3 was an abbreviation of }^3
this distinction only, that we discern a ,_ \ ,• oo i *- *i V
„ „f :„ i;«- „ „„. 1 * 11 1 1 X compare 13 Jcr. xlix. 23: but tlio most
certain (ImtTcnce between ohler and later ^^ i ^ -^ '
writings of this province in the use of the probable explanation is, that 13 is shortened
latter. f^.^,^^ ,_ ^^ /j^^ xxxiv. 36 ; 1 Sam. xxiv
(Some words of the same species are at '
any rate very rare or doubtful in the liuok 12 [11] into a mere interjection: see my
ofOrigins; aa the term of execration n'p^Vn I^^'^trhuch, 7th edition, p. 258,
GREAT BOOK OF THE KIXGS. 135
• The history of the Kings followed the events themselves much
sooner and more immediately, before centuries had separated the
sacred from the secular elements in them ; nay, it began with
the most documentary registrations and minutest descriptions
of memorable events. Springing from the immediate life of
the time, and presenting a more exact picture of the day, it
was also more ready to take the colour of the language of the
day, and less fastidious in the employment of phrases of com-
mon life. In conformity with this, it did not enter, while it
retained this simple form, on those wide surveys and lofty
generalisations which are inseparable from the primitive history,
and which, on account of their sublime import, demand a higher
language.
The difference between the two styles is most sensible when
the late historical composition is new. How far, for example,
is the Book of Origins removed as to character from the
earliest book of the Kings, although as to date separated by
scarcely a century ! This diversity indeed gradually decreases;
the later revisers of the primitive history occasionally introduce
a word hitherto foreign to that sphere ; and on the other hand
the later writers of the history of the Kings attempt grander
descriptions after the fashion of the primitive history. Neverthe-
less, the diversity never entirely disappeared down to the end
of David's reign ; and even the latest redactors of the primitive
history retain certain characteristics of the ancient language
with great consistency.^ This is essentially the same feeling as
that which prompts the author of the Book of Job to preserve the
air of antiquity in his representation of the affairs and persons
of the primitive time ; for we are by no means to fancy
Hebrew literature in the period of its fullest development and
art to have remained quite unlearned and simple.
The style in which the period of the Judges is described, like
the period itself, stands in the middle, and has less distinctive
character. Treated in the earlier portions like an appendix to
the primitive history, and written in a similar tone accordingly,
it subsequently, as the diversity of the two styles develops itself,
assumes the type of the history of the Kings ; and the later
writers properly treated the period as only a preparation for
the history of the Kings.
The most copious source left to iis for the recognition of the
' In this class we include X-IH fo"" N^■^ ^'s found in Dent. xxii. 19, and j^tn in Lev.
and "lyj for ^\'^]3^_ '•^^'^ ^^1 other archaisms xvi. 31 (where the Samaritan, however,
that pervade all portions of the Penta- has Kin), Num. v. 13; see Lehrbuch,
teueh, even Deuteronomy. Yet niy3 P- -iSo, 479.
136 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMrOSITIOX.
general character and sj)ecific modifications of historical com-
position, is found in those narratives which have been inserted
in the Great Book of King-s — that is, what the LXX. call the
four Books of Kings (the two Books of Samuel and the two
of Kings), and the Books of Judges and Ruth, which belong
to them. But the Chronicles also serve to supplement these
sources, and often in important matters. Tracing the develop-
ment of this kind of writing, as deducible from all these indica-
tions and testimonies, we obtain the following picture of it.
1. First Jiistory of the Kings.
It is evident that the great events and successes of David's
time stimulated many to attempt to preserve, at first only in
outline, written records of what was most memorable. More-
over, after the fashion of the great monarchies of adjacent
countries, the new office of Court Historian had been instituted
under David. ^ It was the duty of that official to register an
authentic account of the events of his own time ; and we are
doubtless indebted to him for many very exact notices of the
history of the Kings, that have been preserved.^
The first attempts at histories of the Kings were in general
of that twofold chai'acter that we should expect from the two-
fold tendency that pervaded those times, and also contiiiued
throughout the duration of the monarchy. They either set out
from a simple observation of occurrences, and made the mere
history of the king and the state their staple — a kind of work
that doubtless grew into the Diaries of the Kings, or State-annals,
the only origmal portions of which may be supposed to have been
those finished immediately on the death of each king ; or they set
out from a prophetical view of events, and mainly represented the
operation of prophetic energies in Israel.
1) We still possess some very instructive pieces of the first
class, which aU indications justify us in reckoning under this
head : (1) the long list of David's great warriors who sustained
his throne, 1 Chr. xi. 10-47, with some remarks on the achieve-
ments and qualities of the most important of them ; a list
which is now also found in 2 Sam. xxiii. 8-39, but with the
• This custom was rotainod to the last, as mother also, and the accounts of their
wo see from 1 Mace. xri. 23, 24, and also buildings and other undertakings, show
Joscphus, Ant. xvi. 6, 3, wliero the Greek what care must have then been bestowed
name ra viTOfxviifj.a.Ta tuv ßao'iXfwi 'HpcoSou \ipon many points of contemporary history,
first appears. jmd on how uniform a plan the domestic
- The notices given in Kings and Chro- and state records of the kings must have
nicies of the children and wives of the been kept,
■various kings, and in Judah of the king's
FIRST HISTORY OF THE KIXGS. 137
omission of some of the names at the end ; (2) the list of the
warriors who went over to David in SauFs lifetime, 1 Chr. xii.
1-22 ; (8) the list of the captains and their suite who met to-
gether in Hebron to elect David king over all Israel, 1 Chr.
xii. 23-40, with some historical remarks ; (4) an enumeration
of David's later wars against the Philistines, with a minute
account of the achievements of some of his warriors, 2 Sam.
xxi. 15-22, of which the later half only is repeated in 1 Chr.
XX. 4-8 ; (5) a survey of the state of the kingdom at the end
of David's reign, 1 Chr. xxvii.^ These passages, with some
similar registers of the tribe of Levi, only relate to the general
affairs of the state, the king, and the people, and are free fi-om
all special reference to a prophetic or sacerdotal view of history.
They contain indeed the richest treasure of purely historical
records, which, notwithstanding the greatness of the events,
have remained entirely uninfluenced by the power of tradition,
and give them quite rough and hard, without the round-
ness and circumstantiality of detailed description, and without
any real flow of narrative. It is as if it were still sufiicient to
register the mere names of the great worthies and events, Avith
a few remarks ; whereas later times feel the great number of
such names, and the mere documentary minuteness of such
descriptions burdensome. In addition, the language of some
of these pieces displays so great an aflinity with that of the
Book of Origins,^ that we must infer that they had a similar
source, or at least contemporary sources, which, according- to
pp. 76, 82, there could be no difficulty in admitting-. And it
is expressly stated that the State-annals, which appeared after
the death of each king,^ and after the death of several, were
united in a larger work, contained such detailed lists of the
families of the officials and worthies.^
In like manner some coherent remnants of the State-annals
' But verses 23, 24 must be later ad- Clirouicles and other late writings do often
ditions hy the Chronicler, deemed neces- imitate the style of the Book of Origins
sary on account of the previous naiTative and other parts of the Pentateuch, this
in chap. xxi. is proved Ly the concurrence of all the
■■^ The expressions X3V ''V""1^0' ^ ^'^^'' indications to be no mere imitation,
xii. 23, 24, and X^V ^x'^*^ ver. "33 (com- ' That this was always done at the ex-
\; ■■ • . .. press command of the tollowing king (a
pare v. 18, vii. 1 1 ; ^um. xxxi. 5, xxxii. 27 ; thing probable in itself), is evident from
Josh. IV. 13 ; Num. i. 3, 20, 22, sqq., xxvi. ^]^^ f^..^, ^hat the life of the last king of
2, sqq.) ; niDK'? ■Ui'?? 1 Chr. xn. 31 (com- ^..^jj kingdom is wanting in the official
pare Num. i. 17); rh'shib' 1 Chr. xxiii. annals of both. 2 Kings xvii. 1-6, xxiv.
24 (compare Ex. xvi. IG, xxxviii. 26; ^^T'^^- ... ^ , ,
Num i. 2, 18, 20, 22, iii. 47) and others, ^\ ^'ll afterwards be made evident
as well as the general method and arrange- fat the Chronicler had good reason for
ment of the long taxing-rolls, &c., leave thus referring to the .State-annals; 1 Chr.
no doubt on this point. Although the -^^'^'"- --^ compared with ix. 1.
138 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
liave been preserved, whicli must liave been written down
immediately after the death of Solomon. I mean the passage
in 1 Kings iv. 1-19, to which the remarks that follow in v. 2
[iv. 22] sq. vi.-viii. belong. These remnants, which the Book
of Chronicles does not repeat, as if they were too insignificant
for the histor}^, furnish a view of Solomon's household with
such minute details as could not have been obtained except
immediately after the king's death. The minute account of
Solomon's buildings must also have been written down soon
after his death.
Here then we recognise, by distinct remains, the origin and
character of the State-annals, and even though there were no
such great achievements and events to record under the kings
after Solomon, yet it is certain that the custom introduced
after the death of David and Solomon was never relinquished,
and that many genuine historical notices which are scattered
about our present Books of Kings must be derived from such
sources. With regard to their general contents, however, we
must above all bear in mind that they were written by royal
command, and therefore admitted only public, not purely do-
mestic topics : wherefore such accounts as those about David's
household, 2 Sam. x. sqq., or Jehu's violent conduct, 2 Kings
ix. sqq., can hardly have found a place in them.
2) How events were described from the prophetical point of
view, however, is; shown by the passage about the first wars
against the Philistines after David was anointed, 2 Sam. v. 17-25.
We here find a description of several successive battles, which,
in local knowledge and graphic delineation, is quite on a par
with the passage in 2 Sam. xxi. 15-22, noticed at p. 137, but
which is prominently distinguished from it by the circumstance
that it views the whole with reference to the question how far
the result corresponded to the oracle which David had each
time consulted. And when we consider how great the influence
of the oracle was in those times, and what a share prophets
had in fashioning events, we shall see that every great event
might be described either poj)ularly or prophetically, as the
^vi-iter regarded the one side or the other. To this class belongs
a portion of the original account of Nathan's speeches about
building the Temple, 2 Sam. vii. ; and many other stories, or at
least their first radiments, as 1 Sam. xiv. 18 sqq., xxii. 5, xxiii.
1-14, xxx. 7 sqq. ; 2 Sam. ii. 1 : whereas throughout the whole
of Absalom's rebellion, for instance, there is no mention of a
single oracle, or of the oracle being consulted.
We arc naturally led to suj^pose that this continued to be the
PROPHETIC BOOK OF KINGS. 139
condition of things after David also. And in fact, besides tlie
fragments preserved in Chronicles, we possess one great instance
of this, belonging to later times, in the history of Hezekiah and
his age. This narrative, contained in 2 Kings xviii. 13-xx.
and Isaiah xxxv-xxxix, must, if only from its peculiar style, be
regarded as borrov^ed from a special vs^ork, which was most
likely composed soon after the king's death, and probably by a
scholar of Isaiah, sls its sentiments are truly prophetic, and it
contains some of Isaiah's declarations, evidently derived from
accurate tradition. In the Northern Kingdom, also, we might
have expected to find similar records equally partaking of the
historical and the prophetical character. But no such clear
traces of these have come down to us : although the history of
Ahijah, 1 Kings xi. 26 sqq., xiv. 1-18, and stiU more that of
Elijah and Elisha, 1 Kings xvii-2 Kings xiii, show how power-
ful, even here, was the influence of the prophet's activity upon
the treatment of history, and how it tended to drive into the
background all other departments of history. And strictly
prophetical books always contained some historical remarks
and explanations.^
2. General history of the ages of the Judges and the Kings. The
Prophetic Book of Kings.
But the history of the monarchy could not always remain
enclosed within these original limits ; its facts, drawn from the
most various sources, had by degrees to be amalgamated and
harmonised together. Later readers may have felt increased
dissatisfaction with the crude disconnected sketchy narratives,
with their thousands of numbers, and their unexplained names,
often left as they stood in the State-annals, — all presenting
broad masses of undigested materials. Moreover, no grand
survey of a period and selection of its events, such as is de-
manded from the historian, is generally j^ossible until the period
itself has retired in some degree into the background.
But as this interest in a general survey of the history of
the Kmgs gathered strength, it was attended by a desire to
study also the long antecedent period of the Judges, as forming
a fitting introduction to the history of the earliest kings. No
doubt much that took place during the period of the Judges
might more truly be viewed as a continuation of the primeval
history, and in fact (as already stated, pp. 69 sqq.) was long so
treated. But with the prolonged duration of the monarchy,
' See my Propheten des Alten Bundes, here, possesses especial imj^ortance in re-
rol. i. pp. 44, 45. The question alluded to, forence to the authorities of the Clironicles.
140 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
men became accustomed to contemplate tlie transitional period
of tlie Judges from their own later point of view, and thus to
unite its history, in some form or other, with that of the origin
and progress of the monarchy.
Many clear indications prove that this method of historical
comj^osition bore sway with little interi'uption durmg a con-
siderable period, and attained a glorious maturity. And exactly
from this period of highest bloom, there are preserved the
remains of man}^ works which fully attest the high degree of
excellence which this historical method had attained, and its
paramount influence in this region. Since these remains are
discoverable only as incorj^orated in later works, (and in fact
only in one later work in any considerable measure,) and since
moreover a more uniform narrative style prevailed from this
time onwards, it is very difficult to discriminate them. How-
ever, by following such indications as rise clearly into view, we
are able to discriminate the following Avorks.
1) We must here distinguish, in the first instance, a work
which, by its happy example, appears to have laid the founda-
tion of this new method of writing history, though, as the
oldest discoverable by us, it is naturally preserved with the least
completeness. This work still held a place far removed from
every higher, i.e. prophetic survey of history ; it recorded the
events separately and with the utmost simplicity, and only in
occasional scattered remarks gave hints of the differences as
well as the progress observable in the great periods of history.
Its sole adornment was gracefulness and poetic animation
in the narrative ; and it desci-ibed nothing else with the same
completeness as it did the history of wars. This is the work
from which are preserved important fragments of the history
of Saul, 1 Sam. xiii., xiv., and which fully described both the
earlier and later wars of David ; and it is very possible that
the author of the next following work had this one before
him when he wrote his survey of the campaigns of David, 1
Sam. XXX. 26-31 and 2 Sam. viii. But to these narrative por-
tions, the two which close the present Book of Judges xvii —
xviii., xix-xxi. bear so decided a resemblance in their extreme
historical clearness and antiqueness, as well as in the colouring
of the separate expressions,^ that we may derive them from the
' In prose, the jiliniso Qyn n'US is xviii. 19), 1 Sum. xiv. 37, is liore cliarac-
foiind only in Judges xx. 2 and 1 Sam. xiv. t'^istic, as being foreign to tlic Book of
38; the repeated mention of the priestly Origins and other books, even where this
oracle under the stereotyped phrase ^X{^> very sul.jeet is specially treated of, Num.
112 Jntlg. i. 1, XX. 18, 23, 27 (compare
PROPHETIC BOOK OF KINGS. 141
same source. And thus we obtain an insight into the imme-
diate objects of this work.
The author may have lived soon after Solomon, perhaps under
the prosperous reign of Asa : the latest traceable portion of his
work guides us to about this time/ and we have no reason to place
him later. In fact the division of the kingdom of David had
introduced so radical a change, and turned men's thoughts so
decidedly upon the earlier history of the monarchy, that the
historian must have felt himself thereby stimulated to greater
activity ; and we can readily understand how an important work
coiüd be produced, whose main object was to give the first
connected narrative of the late glorious age, and the unhappy
division which had now taken its place. Besides, when this
author wrote, the monarchy excited almost the same feeling of
universal respect that it did at the time of the Book of Origins,
according to pp. 75 sqq., and the people still felt vividly enough
the social advantages secured by it. One main object there-
fore with the author was to display, through the narrative of pre-
ceding events, the misfortunes of the times before the monarchy,
when caprice and lawlessness were unchecked, and to contrast
with this the happiness of the kingly age ; and he enforces this
point as far as possible throughout his narrative. ^ This work
appears not to have contained any enumeration of the Judges
and their deeds, but, in its description of times anterior to the
monarchy, rather to have taken its stand upon the abstract
idea of the Community of Jahveh, and of the High Priest
as the representative of its unity at all events in a legal
sense. In order therefore to have a fixed starting-point, the
author commenced with the period succeeding Joshua's death,
and took as his basis the ancient Book of Covenants already de-
scribed, pp. 68 sqq.^ But though he nia,y perhaps have described
more than these two events belonging to the period of the Judges,
yet he certainly did not dwell very long upon this period, as he
used it merely as an introduction to the history of the monarchy.
• For in the account of the revolt from before Jehoshaphat, when the northern
t)avid's house, the description of the kingdom was regarded as simply rebellious
national assembly in 1 Kings xii.. espe- against Judah.
cially verse 20, corresponds exactly with ^ Ji^idg. xvii. 6, xxi. 25 ; compare xviii.
the earlier one in Judg. xx. 1 (compare on 1, xix. 1.
the other hand 2 Sam. ii. 4, v. 1 ) ; also the ' Besides what has been already men-
expression i^>p^, 1 Kings xi. 34 (in which ^.^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ .^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^
as in D31> xii. 18, this book accords with ^ j, i- ^ i, t V ■ "o
- T set on fire, for to burn tq), Judg. i. 8, xx.
the Book of Origins) was probably adopted 43 (elsewhere found only 2 Kings viii. 12,
from this work into the later one ; and ^nd, from imitation, Ps. Ixxiv. 4), used
the phrase ' I.^rael rebelled against the . . , .
house of David unto this day' (1 Kings ''^^''^y of ^'ties, for 3 ^IXS which occurs
xii. 19) points to a writer who lived in Judges xviii. 27.
142 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
2) But of another work wliicli sprang from tlie same tendency,
there have come down to us such extensive and connected remams
(many passages being preserved to us in their original fuhiess
and almost unchanged), that Ave are able fully to survey its
scope and extent and the division of its parts. This is the work
whose remains extend from the beginning of the Books of Samuel
into the Books of Kings, and which cannot be briefly designated
more appropriately than as the Prophetic Book of Kings. Next
to the Book of Origins, but embracing a different sphere, this is
the most agreeable and influential of the historical books. But
the peculiar charm of this work is mainly derived from the fact,
that it is the first upon the field of history which is entirely per-
vaded by the prophetic spirit ; and indeed without this no writing
among the ancient people of Israel could become highly attrac-
tive. This narrator may be distinguished among the historians of
the monarchy as emphatically the Prophetic historian. On this
account his preference for a larger survey and closer combination
of the expanding historical materials ought not to surprise us
at that early date, since no one would be so ready to present
these as a Prophet from his higher point of view.
a.) From the existing remains of this book it is easier to
discover its commencement than its close. For we cannot
doubt that this work, like our present Books of Samuel, began
with Samuel's birth and career. In this case nothing is pre-
supposed which must necessarily have preceded it, and been
elsewhere more fully treated ; for a new epoch obviously opens
with the life and activity of Samuel, from which all that follows
is developed ; and whatever is mentioned of a prior period
respecting Eli and his sons, really serves only as a counterpart
to the history of Samuel.* The narrator's main subject, to
which he is evidently hastening on, is indeed the monarchy ;
but the foundation of this was so indissolubly bound up with
the entire career of Samuel, that he could only obtain a firm
foundation by giving an account of that prophet's life.
The close of the work seems more difficult to discover, owing
to the loss of the original words, but indications are not wanting
' Except that the fact that on Eli's M'hich lie could not Init mention, add tho
death tho length of his judgeship is also oustoniary notice of tlielengtii of iiisjudge-
given, 1 Sam. iv. 18 (compare vii. IS), ship. A similar view must be taken of
miglit be taken as a proof that the narrator the appeal made to the history of Abimo-
had conimcnc(<d his work with a general lech, tlie son of Gideon, 2 Sam. xi. 21 ;
liistory of tliu .ludges. But if at the time for although this is a diiferent thing from
of the narrator the commencement of a a reference to the saci'ed liistory known
history of the .Judges had been already to every one (1 Sam. iv. 8), tho author
made (and this cannot be disproved), he might assume that tliat also was known
might consider his work as a continuation from older books on tho period of the
of tliat, and ou occasion of Eli's death, Judges.
PROPHETIC BOOK OF KlXtiS. 143
which, enable us to determme the epoch to which the author
must have brought down his history. With the least attention,
it might have been seen long ago, that this work did not close
with the present Books of Samuel, for (passing by for the
present all other signs) the first two chapters of the First Book
of Kings continue the narrative so exactly in the same style and
colouring, that we cannot discover the slightest trace of another
hand. But these two chapters, which carry on the thread of
the narrative of the Books of Samuel, are by no means a mere
supplement describing the death of David, since they carry on
the narrative further, and describe also the earliest actions of
Solomon as king in such form and with so little apparent close
as to arouse our curiosity, if we had not felt it before, to know
more of the deeds of this king ; so that we regret to see the thread
of the narrative then suddenly cut short. There is however
one especial passage at the very beginning, which gives us the
clearest insight into the actual age of the writer. The author
pauses here to survey the great whole which he is about to de-
scribe, 1 Sam. ii. 27-36 (and the same is repeated in essence but
more briefly, 1 Sam. iii. 11-14), and thus skilfully ensures the
attention of the student from the beginning to the close. Since
Eli is here threatened in prophecy with a time when he and his
father's house (i.e. the whole sacerdotal house of Ithamar), amid
the utmost national prosperity, would come to extreme want,
and his dignity be taken from him, and given to another priest
(and his house), and when, especially, all the grown members of
his house would fall, and the younger ones beg priests' bread
from the High Priest of the other house,' it is perfectly obvious
that the author hereby indicates a time when the house of
Ithamar was in disgrace, a time, too, which he had himself
passed through, and which he intended to describe fully in the
course, or rather at the close, of his work. When we consider
the importance of the sacerdotal house in those earlier times,
and reflect that, next to the king, it possessed the highest
hereditary authority in the state, we can understand how a
narrator, himself probably a Levite, while writing the history
of the monarchy, could use the fortunes of this house as a sort
of prophetical frame for his work. In fact, through all events,
whether of war or peace, the narrator holds fast the thread he
had tied at the very outset by constantly referring to the fate
of the heads of the Priesthood, and remarks significantly
that on occasion of David's flight from Jerusalem in Absalom's
' The siime thing occurs on a smaller scale in the case of Joab, 2 Sam. iii. 28,
29 ; compare 1 Kings ii. 28 sqq.
144 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
rebellion, the greatest delay was made hj Abiathar the descend-
ant of Eli.^ On the other hand, the prophecy in question cannot
have been written long after the fall of the house of Eli, since
the circumstances of that event appear to the narrator quite
vivid and undimmed by time ; besides that this house must
have afterwards in some degree recovered from this fall, as will
be shown further on. If we ask, then, at what time the various
heavy misfortunes of this house, which the work at its com-
mencement promised to reveal, actually came to pass, and in
what part of the work they are narrated, we find it indeed
announced, with an express appeal to the prophecy made to
Eli,^ that Solomon immediately after his accession degraded
Abiathar from his of&ce, and exiled him to his own estate. But
this cannot possibly be the complete fulfilment of that prophecy :
moreover the narrator here ascribes to Solomon the very signi-
ficant declaration ' that he would not now put him to death,' as
if he intended on a later occasion to describe far heavier mis-
fortunes that fell upon him and his whole house. Inde'ed, from
the declaration at the very commencement^ that the expected
faithful High Priest ' should for ever go in and out before the
anointed of Jahveh,' it undoubtedly follows that at the time of
the writer the rejection of the house of Eli had long taken
place. Moreover this anointed one can be identified only with
Solomon (or possibly his successor), but certainly not with
David. This fact, as well as the general tone of the passage,
naturally carries us beyond the death of Solomon, and we must
regret the loss of those passages of the work in which the
complete and final fulfilment of the prophecy was given.
But the clearest indication of the age of the author is found
in the fact that the same hand which begins the account of the
life of Solomon in 1 Kings i. sq., is frequently visible also in the
succeeding narratives in the Books of Kings, where it may be
infallibly distinguished from all other documents by its extreme
individuality, until it appears for the last time in the account of
the elevation of king Jehu, 2 Kings ix. 1-x. 27. On a nearer
view it is impossible to doubt that the same prophetic narrator
who related the raising of Saul to the throne in 1 Sam. ix. sq.,
sketched also this vivid picture of Jehu's elevation ; for even
the separate phrases display the greatest similarity without any
appearance of imitation. It was consequently during the ex-
cited period which followed Jehu's elevation that this work
Avas composed ; and everything indicates that the author Avas a
prophet belonging not to the northern, but to the southern
' 2 Sam. XV. 24. = 1 Kings ii. 26, 27. * 1 Sam. ii. 35.
PROPHETIC BOOK OF KINGS. 145
kingdom : but that exaltation had afiected both kingdoms at
once, and was like the last flashing up of the flame of ins^^ira-
tion of the old prophets. Through this great king, the last who
was ui'ged on and raised to the throne through prophetical
activity, the recollection of the harmonious cooperation of
Prophets and Kings as it existed in the early times from the
days of Samuel, must have been vividly recalled. And thus this
history has no other object than to display this very cooperation
from the time of Samuel and Saul down to that of Elisha and
Jehu, and to derive the fortunes which befell the monarchy
in Israel from a prophetic source. Consequently, no other his-
torical work contributes more information than this on the earlier
Prophets of Israel.
b.) At the same time the author also desired to present a
general history of the times after Samuel. He obviously em-
ployed for this purpose the best written and oral authorities, —
amongst others the songs of David, derived from a trustworthy
source,^ and of which he introduced as many as appeared
desirable. Yet the stream of his discourse is most copious and
eloquent wherever he approaches the main object of his narra-
tive : on other occasions he cuts it very short, especially in the
military portion, as is most distinctly seen in 1 Sam. xiv. 47, 48.
But as the time was now come to attempt to understand the
hidden forces engaged iu the development of those events, and
especially of the more remote among them, in the conception
and presentation of his subject the author occasionally rises far
beyond the merely material, in order to place clearly before the
eye the prophetical truths involved in the external events.
And this prophetic view and treatment being especially familiar
to him, we may justly assume that he was himself a Prophet ;
and from the careful attention which amid so many other
more weighty events he bestows uj)on the fortunes of the Ark,
as well as the Priests and Levites, and from his apparent gTeat
acquaintance with everything pertaining to them, it seems
equally certain that he was also a Levite. The prophetic
survey of events, however, which is this author's most cha-
racteristic contribution to historical knowledge, and the trans-
formation of the earlier portions of the history hence arising,
breaks forth far more freely in the case of Eli and his sons,
and of Samuel and Saul, than in that of David, where we
scarcely find even a commencing trace of it. In general, it
' The tone of the expressions, 2 Sam. such songs ; on the first occasion of doing
i. 17, iii. 33, xxii. 1, xxiii. 1, leaves no this, 2 Sam. i. 18, he names his authority,
doubt that this writer himself interpolated
VOL. I. L
146 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
first appears onlj as a light veil tlirown in certain places over
simple historical recollections. But it is precisely this conjunc-
tion of the two unanialgamated factors of the narrative (the
power of an almost perfect recollection of the whole particulars
of the history, as they formerly appeared to, and were under-
stood hy, contemporaries, and the new power contained in
the higher survey of the history as a whole, at first however
influencing onl}^ isolated particulars), which constitutes the
most remarkable, and likewise the most instructive speciality of
this work.
But with regard to the arrangement and distribution of these
extensive historical materials, it is remarkable how this work,
which is preserved to us nearly complete, already displays the
very same plan and method which is observed in even the
latest Semitic works of a similar character, especially in the
Arabic Annals of the Chalifs and other rulers.^ It thus ap-
pears as if it were an ancient usage of all Semitic historians,
to which the old Hebrew writers were also glad to conform. ^
I allude to the prevalent custom in these works to reserve all
general information about a ruler — the account of his house
and establishment, his wives and children, his habits and
customs of every kind — to the close of the record of his life. If
however the arrangements of a ruler had undergone numerous
modifications during the course of a long and changeful career,
as was in fact the case with David, the historian could then
select some convenient pause even in the middle of the ruler's
life, at which such general observations might be introduced.
Through the combination and reconciliation of this custom
with the pro2)lietical treatment of the subject, the following
arrangement and division into sections arose : ^
i.) As already stated, it is the life of Samuel as ruler, 1 Sam.
i.-vii., which lays the foundation for this history of the Monarchy
(which if it must have a general title ought undoubtedly to be
called the Book of Kings) . This, as is required by the general
plan of the work, is closed by general observations respecting
Samuel, vii. 15-17. But although Samuel still survives, and
even after the section of his life here described takes part in
public affairs, still the grand division relating to him must close
here, inasmuch as here the account of his sovereign rule as
' E.g. Alnilfida's Chronicles of Mam. We find, however, something very similar
' Hence it makes no diiForonce to the in T.aoitus, Ann. vi. 51.
exposition of I Sam. vii., whether the * We leave for the present unnoticed
■words ai'c referred lo this or to the follow- the later additions which it received, as
ing narrator. Josephus retains this usage well as the minor curtailments to which
in h\s An/i(ji<i/i'',i: although 1 Maccabees the separate parts wore subjected,
shows that it miglit be gradually relaxed.
PKOPHETIC ßOOX OF KINGS. 147
judge comes to an end, and the history henceforth moves
onward towards another ruler. This phenomenon, surprising- at
the first glance, repeats itself in a case in which on a superficial
survey it is easier to overlook it : for
n.) When the narrative passes over to the choice of the first
king and his government, 1 Sam. viii-xiv, the history of Saul's
reign might appear to be closed too early with the requisite
general observations respecting him, xiv. 47-52, since his death
does not occur until chapter xxxi. Yet it is after all quite
correct that the special history of Saul as reigning sovereign,
as understood by the author, would close with chapter xiv. For
with chapter xv. commences at once the account of the Divine
rejection of Saul, and, closely connected with this, that of
David's Divine election, thereby occasioned and rendered impe-
rative : according to the prophetical sentiment of the writer,
therefore, Saul ceases at chapter xiv. to be the true king, and
'the history both of the people and the monarchy begins to move
on towards David as the grand centre of the work.
iii.) With the life of David we reach the fullest and richest
portion of the work; for the lives of the following kings, of which
only scanty remains have been preserved, could scarcely have
presented such a long and constantly attractive series of varied
incidents and extraordinary vicissitudes. It is not surprising
therefore that this great section was subdivided into several dis-
tinct portions, corresponding with an equal number of parts of
David's life. Thus we have first the account of the rise of David
brought down to the death of Saul, in which the two heroes move
near each other, like rising and setting stars, until finall}^ the
one is completely set, and the other ascends towards the zenith,
1 Sam. xv-xxxi. But here as elsewhere the original work is
no longer found pure and complete, and still less does the
succeeding history of the reign of David in 2 Sam. i. sqq. present
the appearance of a satisfactory order in its extant form ; but
this must be referred to a later compiler, respecting whom more
hereafter. What the original form was, however, can be at
least approximately discovered, if we attend to all the scattered
indications of it. Here we have in the first place to consider
that a work which deals with its materials in so independent,
so peculiar, and moreover so agreeable a manner as this,
cannot well be supposed to have given such long and weari-
some lists as that of David's warriors, 2 Sam. xxiii. 8-39, comp.
1 Chron. xi. They may perhaps have been merely copied out
of earlier works, or with equal possibility be due to the hand
of a later collector and reviser. And since the work of this
L 2
l48 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
reviser is discoverable bj other signs also we must abide in the
belief that such passages as are most evidently heterogeneous
did not belong to the work. The comparison of 1 Chron. xi-
xxix. is instructive on this point. The original form of the
biography of David as king, which we elicit from these and
other indications, appears to have divided this portion of his
history, in conformity with its subject-matter, into the three
following sections :
a) The life of David after the death of Saul, until as king
over all Israel he had gained a firm position in Jerusalem ; a
period of uninterrupted prosperity, during which the highest
possible fortune seemed destined to fall unmixed to his share.
The extant j)ortions of this section are discovered in 2 Sam.
i-vii, and it undoubtedly finds a suitable close in the nar-
rative of the exertions made by David, when himself firmly
established in Jerusalem, to provide an equally permanent abode
for the sanctuary also, 2 Sam., vi, closing with the great pro-
phetical passage 2 Sam. vii. Here a pause is even still per-
ceptible in the history.
h) The central portion of David's reign in Jerusalem. Here
the work obviously compressed into the smallest space the most
heterogeneous materials. As might indeed be expected from the
VvTiter as a prophetic historian, he first treats with the greatest
possible succinctness of the foreign wars and victories of David,
2 Sam. viii. 1-14 (as he had previously done those of Saul, in
1 Sam. xiv. 47, 48, only that in the case of Saul still greater
conciseness was possible), apparently epitomising the earlier
history of the wars already described, p. 140 ; ' then passing over
to internal affairs, he gives only a very scanty account of the
internal arrangements of the kingdom at the commencement of
this period, 2 Sam. viii. 15-18 ; then, however, he describes
at great length the moral behaviour of David towards the pos-
terity of Saul, 2 Sam. ix, and towards his own house, x-xx. 22,
and closes with an account of two plagues which clearly did
not occur until his later years, xxi. 1-14, xxiv. The passage
respecting later wars with the Philistines which placed David's
life once more in utmost jeopardy, xxi. 15-24, must, originally
at all events, have proceeded from another hand. We discover
the same arrangement in 1 Chron. xviii-xxii. (excepting some
omissions to be hereafter explahied) ; and it cannot be denied
' Tliiit tlio notices of the wars in cliap. with which the war with Ammon, x, xii.
viii. have been much abridged, may also 20-31, is presented, on account of its con-
bo inferred from the ftdness (prolxibly nection with the history of Uriah.
equalling that of the authority consulted)
PROrilETlC BOOK OF KINGS. 149
tliat after tlius cutting out the disconnected portions,^ we obtain
as the result a simple and appropriate arrangement.
c) To the last division, the commencement of which is indi-
cated in express terms in 1 Chron. xxiii. 1, would belong-,
according- to the above-explained plan and the corresponding
example in 1 Chron. xxiii-xxix, more general surveys of David's
position and his connections especially towards the end of
his life. We no longer know how much the work originally
contained on this point, since the Chronicles here follow other
authorities : but of the extant portions, the following pieces
belong to this place : a second brief table of the internal
arrangements of the kingdom, 2 Sam. xx. 25, 2G (wanting in the
Chronicles) ; David's magnificent song of victory, composed in
his latter years, ch. xxii, and the ' Last Words of David,' xxiii.
1-7. With these the entire section was suitably closed ; ^ for
nothing then could well be added excepting his death, and that
is more appropriately taken into connection with the account of
Solomon's accession.
iv.) The account of the reigns of Solomon and his successors,
down to the limit already indicated, followed next. We have
indeed to regret that just at this part the work has come down
to us very imperfect. Yet even here many of its narratives are
preserved almost without change. Thus the notices of Solo-
mon's enemies, xi. 11-40,^ quite take us back to this work by
their peculiar style ; and in the narrative of the division of the
kingdom, 1 Kings xii, many ideas and phrases recall this work ; ■*
but these details can be better discussed hereafter, when we are
treating of this period of the history.
' Namely, the passage 2 Sam. xx. 23- almost word for word with 2 Sam. xx. 1.
26, which will soon be cousidered, and Again, the formation n3l'?0 for Jcmg)>hip
two others, xxi. 15-22 and xxiii. 8-39, of . i- , t^- ^- X-,
, • , 1 1 1 , lor. IS peculiar; 1 Kings xii. 21, compare i.
whicn we have already spoken, pp. 136 sq. ^ !.._ ^^ ^- ^ ^
Anyone capable o fa^icying and dog- ^5 ^;. 14, xi^ 47, x;iii. 8 ; 2 Sam. xii. 26
gedly maintaining that alter David s iyösc '. „ / ^ i i 1 • ,^ tr-
ijr 1 • n a ••• i 1 t XVI. 8; but elsewhere only in 2 Kings
yVords 111 2 bam. xxiii. 1, when we natu- ' , ^v • o i.i i
1, . , 1 • ^ i- n 1 t (-1 XXV. 25, and Dan. i. 6, apparently by way
rally expect nothing to iollow but the n • •, ,• -r, i '.. • , i -^i
4. f u- 1 *r ti i 11 ot imitation, liarely it uiterchanges with
account or his death, the narrator coukl , j t-
tell the story of the pestilence, ch. x.N:i v., niSpD 1 Sam. xx. 21; 1 Kings ii. 12,
must have the meanest opinion of the and riO^OIO 1 Sam. xv. 28; 2 Sam. xvi.
writers of the best period of antiquity. „. i „,. J\'' ■\,^^ „ „ „. n „„ »«L.«.« ^
„ ^ xi • ^ ^1 i li "^S iJut the latter, as well as n3?0D 1
nut everything goes to prove that those it: -
writers were not so thoughtless and un- Sam. xiii. 13, 14, xxvii. 5; 2 Sam. iii. 10,
methodical; and we have already seen in v. 12 (which is, indeed, necessary where
the Book of Origins how passages were it denotes a ' kingdom,' and which alone
torn by later hands from their original admits of a plural), seems to have got into
connection and transplanted elsewhere. the text only on a later revision; compare
' Excepting several words and phrases, 1 Sam. xxiv.21 [20], xxviii. 17 ; 2 Sam. vii.
especially in vv. 32-34. 12, 13, 16; 1 Kings v. 1 [iv. 21], ix. 5,
* The description of the Revolt in verse xi. 11, 13, 31, xii. 26, xiv. 8, xviii. 10;
16 bears the colour of the time, and agrees 2 Kings xi. 1, xiv. 5, xv. 19.
150 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
c.) Not only tlie plan and subject-matter of this work as above
described, but also its style and phraseology, exhibit a perfect
unity in so far as its language is original, and not due to mere
verbal quotation of earlier authorities. The description is not
so luxuriant and gushing as in the Book of Origins, but yet
full of internal jDOwer and external beauty, sensibly flowing from
a national life still sound and strong on the whole, and sustained
throughout by a charming simplicity and life. Since the work
was once undoubtedly very popular, its diction served as a
model to later authors ; and it is therefore difficult to descend
to details, and discover many words and expressions strictly
peculiar to it : yet a closer examination shows that such are not
wanting, ^ and brings us to the conviction that it must have
had somewhere about the extent already indicated.
Since, then, all indications show that this work remained the
fixed basis of all popular histories of the monarchy, it was after-
wards naturally often retouched, and in this process lengthened
in some parts but in others still more seriously shortened. The
extensive remains of this and the former work contained in the
Books of Samuel and Kings, exhibit traces of very considerable
abridgment, not onl}^ at the end, but in the middle also. This
is especially seen in the fact that in these fragments an un-
expected allusion is often made to subjects which ought to have
been explained before, but are now left wholly unexplained.
Thus Jonathan appears quite unexpectedly in the account of
a military expedition, 1 Sam. xiii. 2, without being described
either previously or here as Saul's son. In 1 Kings i. 8, Shi-
mei and Eei appear among the firmest supi)orters of the throne
'Besidestheexamplesalreadyfurnislied, tnie of n~l3 ^o cat, 2 Sam. iii. 35, xii. 17,
VC may observe, for instance, that the ^iü. 5 «q^/^The particle -nX ««/v, though
ordinary expression lor the Lommunitv in 1- '^ °
the Book of Origins, niUH, is wholly "ot used hero, as in the Book of Origins
fe ii^j/M, J ^Q ^j^g exclusion of pT (1 Sam. 1. 13, v.
wanting in this work, which employs the ,. , . , .it- ^
periphrasis " DV i^eoi^^e of Jahveh, 4), certainly greatly predomina es. On
^ ^ ..-'■' . . thi>othpr hand, many words elsewhere very
instead, 1 Sam. ii. 24; 2 Sam. i. 12, vi. common, never occur here ; as t^'n'in de-
21,xiv. 13; 2 Kings ix. 5; an expression .. , , , r ^i -o ^ e k ■ ■
used in the Book of Origins, Num. xvii. 6 °?*'°f. l*! '"'"'^ ""' Q" *'^^, ^"^ of Origins
[xvi. 41], only with especial emphasis, ^l*^" ^f^« us«l); »pnp to assemble with
and very rar.ly elsewhere (Num. xi. 29 ; ^^} its (lerivatives (sue . passages as 1 Sam.
and somewhat different! V, Judges xx. 2). f >^- ^^ I 2 Sam. xx^ 1 4, point at all events
The analogous phrase, 'also, the herUage ^o a somewhat different root); n)21 to
of Jahveh, 1 Sam. x. 1 ; 2 Sam. xiv. ^' 5«'^^! V^l to break up an tncamp-
16, XX. 19, xxi. 3, appears to have passed wen/, the plural of pn and npH- There are
first from this into other historical works, also expressions which at least prove tlio
1 Sam. XXVI. 19. Another favourite similarity of several portions, as tD::'3 in
phrase of this book, accnrdmci to thy 3 ■ ^ ^ ^
hearCs desire (an idea which admits of » warlike sense (not soused inthePenta-
very various renderings), 1 Sam. ii. 16 touch and Joshua), 1 Sam. xxui. 27, xxvii.
(xxiii. 20); 2 Sam. iii. 21 ; 1 Kings xi. ^O, xxx. 1, 14 (xxxi. 8); Judges xx. 37,
37, is unusual elsewhere; whieli is also ^^- 33, 44; "Vp for «Tl a'-row.
PROPHETIC BOOK OF KIXGS. 151
of the young Solomon, without our Laving the slightest prior
intimation of the importance attaching to these two men. In
1 Sam. XXX. 26-31, a passage remarkable in many respects, a
number of cities in the tribe of Jutlah are carefully enumerated,
to which David sent booty from the Philistine city of Ziklag as
a present to his old friends, because he had formerly rested there
with his army. From this we naturally expect that David's
expeditions towards this region must have been already men-
tioned in the proper place, since the reference is otherwise
unintelligible ; but we now search in vain for the passages to
which reference must be here made. How much then must
have been lost between 1 Sam. xxiii and xxx, while later hands
inserted chapters xxiv and xxvi !
3) With the passages from this and the former work are
variously interwoven those of another which must have described
very nearly the same period. For these fragments are very
similar to the former ones, and in any case not written much
later ; yet the delineation is thinner and more ftided than in the
two prior works. It also aj^pears that in this the prophetical
element did not so decidedly predominate as in those. A refer-
ence to 1 Sam. v-viii. or chapter xxxi. with their surroundings
will enable us sufficiently to appreciate the somewhat impalpable
differences between this work and the two former ones, both in
the phraseology and in the subject-matter.
It is however probable that this is the very writer who prefixed
to his history of the Kings a history of the Judges, of which
a considerable portion is still extant. By this v^e mean
the book from which a still later author took the separate
histories of the Judges, now found Judges iii. 7-xvi., to be
then modified or rewritten after his fashion. This narrator
described that long period with reference not to the High
Priests as his predecessor had done (p. 141), but to the Judges.
Of these he counted up the round number of twelve, and gave
careful statements, at least from Gideon onwards, respecting the
length of their tenure of office and their place of burial.
The constancy of this habit of itself points to an author
possessing great individuality. Moreover his judgment upon
the monarchy (Judges viii. 22-24) differed gi-eatly from
that of the previous writer, but was in perfect agreement
with the passage already noticed, 1 Sam. viii. 5-18 ; compare
X. 18, 19. Since moreover he also directed his attention to
the almost constant wars which the people had then to
bear, he seems to have arranged his work especially with
reference to the duration of these wars and of the intervening
152 IIISTOEY OF HEBKEW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIO^'.
years of peace. On suitable occasions, it is liis custom to
mention in set phrase, botli tlie fact and tlie length of the rest
secured to the land after each great commotion.^ And since
this characteristic habit ^ is repeated in some of the fragments
preserved by the Boole of Chronicles from the history of the
kings of Judah immediately succeeding Solomon,^ and appear-
ing from other indications also to contain ancient remains,'* we
have every reason to assume that this work brought down the
history in like style and arrangement to more than a hundred
years after Solomon. The delineation in such passages as
Judg. iii. 7 sqq. is quite in accordance with that already de-
scribed m the earlier histories of the Kings, and especially in
the passages of this thii-d work. But the author here obviously
makes use of very varied and very ancient sources in impor-
tant sections, as in Judges vi-viii. of a history of Gideon which
must have been written in the north country,^ and in other
passages the earliest historical work, described p. 68 sqq.^
Side by side with these more important works, there un-
doubtedly existed many smaller ones devoted to the history
of individual heroes. Thus the history of Samson was the
subject of a special composition of a very peculiar character, as
we can still see from its remains preserved in Judges xiv-xvi.
3a Looser treatment of this period of history.
Thus did this branch of historical composition reach its high-
est bloom at a comparatively early period, and it is really
surprising how much we feel the want of such beautiful histo-
rical fragments in the Second Book of Kings after the limit
assigned to them above (viz. 2 Kings x.). It seems as if the
succeeding age had lost the power of producing works so grand
' Judg. iii. 11, 30, v. 31, viii. 28: this authority is also marked by the phrase
phrase was probably withdrawn by a later ' the spirit of Jahveh moved him,' Judg.
compiler from the accounts of the next vi. 34, elsewhere found only in tlie aiiriuut
following Judges. fragments 1 Clir. xii. 18 and '1 Clir. xxiv.
" For the expression in Josh. xi. 23, 20, for our present author liiinself employs
xiv. 15, is similar, but not identical, and ß, much simpler one (^y HM) Judgi-s iii.
the number of years is not given there. 10, xi. 29, compare 2 Chr. xv. 1, xx. 14.
* 2 Chr. xiii. 23 [xiv. 1]; xiv. 4, 5 In Judg. xiv. 19, xv. 14, on Samson's life,
[0, 6]. there is a ditferent ]>hraso again with the
'' 1 Chr. xiii. 4-7, 19-21, exhibits a same meaning (^y nSv)- '^^''''^'^ '^''<'^^'"^ iiO"
more antique style, but, the other verses wiiere else except in the prophetical Book
tlie ordinary style and views of the Chroni- of Kings already described,
cler ; note especially the words ~'y*75 1^3 " Judg. ix. and x. 8 present glimpses of
xiii. 7 (p. 133) and n^O n^s' xiii. 5 a very ancient work both in the subject-
/ /^«s mi ,1 '■'• /■• , ^ matter and in certain words, as »nS v. 4,
(p. 69). The matter contained in each of ••
the two narratives is equally distinctive. '«''"'^1' recalls Gen. xlix. 4.
* Compare my Hohes Lied, p. 20. This
LOOSER TREATMENT OF THIS HISTORY. 153
and yet so pleasing. The events of the day were now noted
down with increasing promptness, but historical composition on
a grand scale gradually degenerated with the entire national
life, until in the end the events recorded of the latest kings took
a form curiously resembling those of the primeval history.
This last point is of great importance here. For we cannot
fail to observe, that in the earlier portions of this great division,
as they faded away into the distance, the same kind of loose
paraphrase as we have already seen upon the primeval histories
gained a footing, though here necessarily restrained by the
greater accuracy of memory. We may observe this to take
place in very various ways.
1) A distinct example is presented by the history of Saul and
David. For as this is now put together in 1 Samuel by an
author whom we shall soon have occasion to characterise, it also
contains in chapters xii, xv-xvii, xxiv, xxvi, xxviii, fragments
from two or three later works, in which only recollections of
the most striking portions of the history are narrated with so
much freedom as to make them appear as if newly produced,
and a special effort is made to present them with suitable
dignity, and, where possible, with the elevation of prophetic
speech. The traces of a work which narrated the life of
Solomon in its greatness, with strict concentration and pro-
phetic severity, has also been preserved in 1 Kings. But these
paiiiculars, which could not be discussed without entering into
considerable detail, must be reserved to a future occasion.
2) The history of Elijah and Elisha, the greatest Prophets of
the Northern Kingdom, as we now have it embodied in 1 Kings
xvii-2 Kings xiii, mixed with other materials, and abridged by
the loss of its commencement and in various other ways, clearly
imderwent many modifications, not merely orally, but also in
writing, before it reached the highest possible point of exaltation.
We possess in this the most striking example of the develop-
ment of the history of the Prophets during successive centuries ;
and, on a close survey of the extant portions of this special divi-
sion of historical literature, we are able to recognise the very
various elements of its composition, its earlier and its later points
of view, the original materials furnished by actual memory and
their gradual transformation, also the unmistakable colouring of
different authors, wherein however the peculiar prophetic terse-
ness and keenness of speech is never forgotten.
3) Another different and very instructive example of the grea,t
freedom with which subjects belonging to this department were
gradually treated is furnished by the story of Kuth. This story,
15-t HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
the historical substance of which cannot be discussed here,
belongs essentially, in design as well as in arrangement (iv.
17-22), to the circle of Davidical histories, although it contains
only one single event taken from the domestic life of David's
ancestors. We no longer have the means of tracing the story
through its earlier stages, but the fragment of it presented in
the Book of Ruth is sustained in existence not so much by its
absolute historical value as by the preeminent beauty of its
pictures and descriptions. Upon the primeval history it has
been several times observed that in proportion as it was more
treated by later Avriters the freer treatment gradually prevailed,
and mere description was increasingly admitted into the place
formerly occupied by narratives more strictly bound to the re-
petition of the original facts ; but here we find something quite
new and peculiar added. On carefully examining the kind of
description prevailing here, we find not merely a very soft and
lovely painting of Hebrew domestic life, which, as we may
hence infer, must have assumed a beautiful form in many places
where it needed not to trouble itself about the great world,
but also a truly artistic and learned as well as faultless
and pleasing treatment of the subject. This blending of
learning and art for the j^roduction of a beautiful narrative
is the feature most characteristic of this small historical work.
Without anxiously concealing by his language all traces of
the later age in which he wrote, the author had obviously read
himself into the sj^irit of the ancient works both of history and
of poetry, and thus produces a very striking imitation of the
older work on the Kings (see p. 142 sqq.). From his investiga-
tions of the antiquity of his people, he (in iv. 7) describes obsolete
national usages, with the careful discrimination of a scholar.
But again, antiquarian lore does not alone interest him ; he
employs it merely as a medium through which, with artistic
skill and a true feeling for moral beauty, he may present a
charming picture of antiquity, and wake anew a nearly forgot-
ten tradition from the early age of David's house. A gentle
and gracious as well as poetical spirit animates this little histo-
rical picture, and the stjle itself often insensibly passes into
actual poetry, as when Naomi (i.e. the joyous one in name as
well as in fact) exclaims (i. 20, 21) :
JRather call me the ' Trovhhd one^''
For the ÄJmighti/ has greuthj tvonhlcd me ;
liich in llesst'iifjs I departed, yet poor has Jahveli led me home :
How then call ye me the ' Joyous owe,'
For Jahveh has bowed me down, and the Almighty has brought upon me evil !
LOOSER TREATMENT OF THIS HISTORY. 155
In this we distinctly hear an echo from the Book of Job, not
merely in the general style, but even in some single words and
phrases.^
This story undoubtedly stands isolated among the many
historical books of the Old Testament, and we shall search in
vain for an historian otherwise known to us to whom we may
ascribe it. We must admit that we have here a narrator of a
perfectly individual character, whom it will be most correct to
regard as having lived during the Captivity ; for though con-
sidered by itself (as the similar cases Gen. xxxviii. and the Song
of Solomon show), such a narrative respecting a female ancestor
might readily have originated during the rule of David's house,
yet the whole literary treatment of this passage, and especially
the way in which it is mentioned (iv. 7) that a custom existed
' in Israel ' formerly (which could only cease with the national
existence) points clearly to a later time — to an age which found
one of its noblest literary occujjations in reviving the glorious
traditions of early times, and especially those relating to David's
house. ^
But it is inconceivable ä priori that an historian of that age
should have wi-itten and made public such a small piece by it-
self alone. Therefore here, as in the similar case of Jonah,^ we
are led to conclude that this story of Ruth is only one taken
from a larger series of similar pieces by the same author, and
that through mere chance this is the only one preserved. And
it certainly owes its preservation to the fact that the latest
editor of the Great Book of Kings, of which we shall treat im-
mediately, inserted it in that work at its proper place. Of this
we can at once produce a clear proof. For it cannot but strike
the reader as very curious, that the Books of Samuel never
describe David's family and lineage, neither where the first
mention of him occurs, nor elsewhere ; but on the contrary his
father, ] Sam. xvi. 1, enters upon the scene quite isolated and
without introduction. This is by no means the general style
of that work. David's family and lineage ought even more than
Samuel's (1 Sam. i. 1), or Saul's (1 Sam. ix. 1), to have been
explained, since David is obviously far more than either Samuel
or Saul the hero of the book. We may therefore justly suppose
' See especially Job xxvii. 2. This Lut iinliickily that is only one isolated
freer use of the simple name ntJ' as an ancient verse. See besides Num. xxiv.
abbreviation for HK' 7X liei'e '"^"d in Ps. ' •
xci. 1, was evidently rendered possible ..' '^^^^l'^" the Jahrb. der Bihl. Wiss.
only through the grand example of the ^'^'- P- l-'jG-ö'.
Eook of Job. Possibly the first instance ' My Propheten des Alien Bundes, vol.
of this shorter form is Ps. Ixviii. 15 [14] ; ii. pp. 556-59.
156 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
tliat tliis statement was removed from it by a later hand : but
tlien the conviction irresistibly forces itself upon us, that no one
else was so likely to do this as the author who inserted this story
of Ruth into the larger work, because its occurrence there ren-
dered the former account needless and disturbing. On this view
the LXX., who append this narrative without special title to the
Book of Judges, and place it before 1 Samuel, were quite correct ;
for the latest writer, seeking a fitting place for this piece, could
find none more suitable than this, to which it belongs according
to date, causing no interruption, and at the same time preparing
us for the immediately following history of David. And the
fact that in the modern Hebrew Bibles this piece is treated as
an independent work, and forms one of the five Megilloth, is
known to have its foundation only in a later collection of books
used in public festivals.
4. TJielatest form of these BooJcs.
Lastly, when we examine the latest form which the histor}^ of
the Kings assumed, the first thing which we ought to consider
is perhaps the remarkable influence of the Deuteronomic ideas
upon this field. For after the Reformation by Josiah, these
ideas, the age of which has been already approximately deter-
mined, p. 117 sqq., evidently penetrated deeper and deeper into
every department of life and literature. Thus they produced a
new mode of regarding the period of the Judges and the Kings,
which could not be long without influencing its treatment by
historians. We are still able to trace the steps by which these
ideas gradually gained possession of this region, and ultimately
quite transformed it, and produced their own peculiar aspect of
liistor}^
But in the meantime books of narrative were growing more
and more numerous, whilst the times which they had to describe
were lengthening and becoming more difficult to survey. Hence
here as in the primeval history, the desire naturally arose to
fuse into one narrative, by proper selection and abridgment,
the rich but not always self-consistent materials which this
diffuse literature had produced. And the more completely the
Deuteronomic ideas took possession of the extensive field of
the history of the Judges and the Kings, and strove to illumi-
nate and recast its more important features, the easier did it
become to omit from the fuller earlier works much which under
this new light seemed to have lost its importance.
LAST EDITOR BUT ONE. 157
1) The last Editor hut one.
a.) The beginning of tliis change niaj be very clearly dis-
cerned in a remodelling of the old work on the Kings described
p. 142 sqq., to which a large part of it as preserved to us has been
subjected. We here find on the one hand the freest impress of
the Deuteronomist, and recognise even the peculiar colours of his
style,' but on the other we perceive that the Deuteronomic ideas
are as yet very far from entirely penetrating and remodelling that
early work, and indeed that they only very rarely at favourable
opportunities here and there gained admission, as if cautiously
feeling their way. These two facts taken together lead to the
supposition that this is the first instance of an old historical
work being remodelled according to Deuteronomic ideas, and
we shall soon discover a still later labourer upon this same
work, already adjusted to Deuteronomic ideas. We cannot,
indeed, determine to a single year the time when this author
wrote, but all the traces which we can here observe and collect
lead clearly to the conclusion, that he did not compose his work
later than towards the close of the j^rosperous reign of Josiah.
The passages which were ■ then introduced by him into the
older narratives may be easily recognised, in part by their
Deuteronomic sentiments and peculiarities of style, and in part
also by the circumstance that they add nothing to the historic
contents of the narrative, but only present reflections, or carry
somewhat further a subject already given. We thus perceive
that it is not the history in itself, but an idea, that guided the
author to such expositions as seemed most wanted by his con-
temporaries. Besides, the words of this writer show us an age
in which, although the nation was much weakened, yet the
kingdom of David and the Temple still existed, and the hope of
their permanency still lingered.^ This could be no other than
the earliest time after the Reformation by Josiah, when the
declining kingdom appeared to be rising into new and glorious
life, and especially Jerusalem and its Temj)le to have triumphed
for ever over the darts of misfortune.
' A marked instance of this is furnished 25. A characteristic expression of similar
by the highly characteristic expression meaning is ' his heart was not perfect with
'with all thy heart,' originally employed Jahveh,' 1 Kings viii. 61, xi. 4, xv. 3, 14;
by Joel ii. 12, but first made current by 2 Kings xx. 3. This is not to be attributed
tiie Deutcronomist's discourse on all mat- to the Denteronomist, as is evident from
ters of religion ; it reappears here as a pet the consideration that neither this writer
phrase, 1 Sam. vii. 3, xii. 20, 24 ; 1 Kings nor the next speaks of that love towards
ii. 4, viii. 23, 48, xiv. 8; 2 Kings x. 31. Jahveh, the urging of whicli is th(! most
But the following writer, although quite striki ng feature of the Deuteronomist ; see
Deuteronomic in his views, uses this phrase also Josh. xxii. 5, xxiii. 11.
much less frequently; see 2 Kings xxiii. ^ As is seen in 1 Kings viii. ix.
158 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
"When we survey all these passages,* it becomes clear how
similar tliey all are in every respect, and how completely they
differ from the older work into which they are inserted, as
well as from all the earlier works already brought under con-
sideration.
b.) But this compiler was certainly the first who collected and
skilfully blended those materials of the older works which
appeared to him the most important ; of which the clearest
example is found in the long section, 1 Sam. i-1 Kings ii. Here
the different masses and strata of the narrative lie before us, so
unmixed and distinct as to be readily recognised on close in-
spection, and separated into their original elements ; whereas
from 1 Kings iii, where the great curtailment effected at a later
time begins, they are far more difficult to trace. It is obvious
that this compiler took as his basis the work of the Prophetical
NaiTator, the most beautiful of those ah-eady described, and
blended into one narrative with it all the materials he wished
to take from other works, as well as additions of his own. But
he everywhere used his own judgment in the selection of his
materials, and often placed them near together, with but little
attempt at amalgamation. The principal work also which he
employed as his basis he by no means gave without curtailment.
Among the additions which are not Deuteronomic, but intro-
duced by the compilers, we may with great probability reckon
the Song of Hannah, which is inserted at 1 Sam. ii. 1-20, inter-
' These are as folloM-s : 1 Sam. vii. 3, curtailment, should now all at once adopt
4 (which two A-erses, moi-eover, disturb an opposite course. Since, on the other
the context) ; parts of 1 Sam. xii. (a narra- hand, in the subsequent history we still
tive introduced in its present form solely occasionally find indubitable traces of his
for the gake of tlae warnings attributed to liand, we must .'suppose that he treated in
Samuel, and presenting great discrepancies the same way tlie further portions of the
in its incidental historical allusions) ; 1 history of the Kings up to the reformation
Kings ii. 2-4 (where, on occasion of under Josiah, using at the same time as
David's last injunctions to Solomon, in- his basis earlier works upon the monarch)',
stead of such words as may have originally The tone and position of the words in
stood there, we now read exhortations 1 Kings iii. 14, vi. 11-13, and ix. 6-9, also
which in every particle and pliase of direct us to the same writer ; and his style
thought clearly bear a Deuteronomic iscloarlydiscerniblethroughout Solomon's
colouring. These three interpola. ions are long prayer at tlie dedication of the Temple
all that are found between 1 Sam. i. and in 1 Kings viii. 22-61, which, from its
the beginning of 1 Kings iii., — the very whole tone, and especially from verses
place in the ancient Eook of the Kings 41-43, must have lieen written before the
where the great abridgments begin, of destruction of the Temple. The favourite
which we shall soon have to spieak. Per- phrases describing David's race as a light
haps, then, this compiler himself effected set up by Jahveh in Jerusalem (1 Kings
these abridgments commencing from this xi. 36, xv. 4 ; 2 Kings viii. 19), and Jeru-
veiy passage? But the question is no salem as the chosen city of Jahveh (1
sooner asked than it must be answered in Kings viii. 29, 44. 48, ix. 3, xiv. 21; 2
llie negative ; for no reascm can be adduced Kings xxi. 4) could at no other time have
wliy a writer who up to this point had been so readily adopted by tlie historian
only made occiisional suitable additions, as during the latter part of Josiah's nign.
and certainly had never made any great
LAST EDITOR. 159
rupting the original narrative. This poem was then undoubt-
edly taken from an older collection of songs, in Avhicli it stood
without a name, whence it was possible to have regard only in
the most general way to the nature of its contents, and to apply
it to a different age and person from the one originally intended.
It does not seem to have been composed by David himself
when he was already king, but was undoubtedly written by one
of the earliest kings of Judah.'
c.) Many indications show that as the author in narrating the
events of successive centuries approached his own times, his
work became more detailed, and he introduced many consider-
able passages of his own composition. In the story of the
founding of Solomon's Temple, 1 Kings ix. 6-9, he already
cast a true prophet's glance forward at its possible destruction,
just as was done by Jeremiah at that very time ; and doubtless
he also is the author who, in a narrative clothed in prophetic
form of the life of the first king of the ten tribes, 1 Kings xiii.
1—32, alludes to Josiah, the king of his own day, and his great
work ; ^ thus enabling us from the beginning of the history to
infer its close, and likewise approving himself as a j)rophetic
narrator. The work thus became truly proj^hetic not merely
in form but also in fact, insomuch as it contained predictions ;
for, though the author certainly witnessed the influence of the
pious king Josiah, he did not live to see the destruction of the
Temple, of which he only gave prophetic hints in the course of
his narrative. To this writer we are also undoubtedly indebted
for the extremely accurate and instructive account of the in-
ternal condition of the Samaritans toAvards the close of the reign
of King Josiah, 2 Kings xvii. 24-41.
2) The last Editor of the History of the Kings.
The history as it proceeded from the hand of this first Deu-
teronomic editor was, from all these indications, very compre-
hensive ; but this very extent may soon have become somewhat
burdensome to later readers. Besides, this work did not extend
to the close of the history of the Kings : hence another editor
might soon become necessary, who would not only shorten many
parts, but also add to it much that was of importance.
That one final author and collector edited the present Books of
Judges, Ruth, Samuel, and Kings as a whole, is to be concluded
' Com\y,\ve my Dichter des Altc/i Bu7ichs, ^ Compare 2 Kings xxiii. 1Ö-18; if m
i. pp. 111-113; a similar instance, and verse 18 Samaria is the correct i-eading,
not far removed from this in time, has it porliaps furnishes a clue to the earlier
already Ken clucidateil (p. 123). form of the story in 1 Kings xiii. 1-32.
iro HISTORY OF IlEBEEW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
from many signs, of wliicli one has been already mentioned,
and others will be noticed presently. This last author of the
present Great Book of Kings, enlarged b}" the history of the
Judges as an introduction, cannot have written before the
second half of the Babylonian Captivity, when King Jehoiachin,
who had been carried off very young to Babylon eleven years
before the destruction of Jerusalem, had been taken into favour
at court by one of Nebuchadnezzar's successors, and was already
dead.' The year of his death is not known ; but it was certainly
under the Chaldean rule, since his honourable restoration at the
Chaldean court is the last historical event the author has it in his
power to record of him. After the close of the Hebrew monarchy
history passed a very distinct verdict upon the ages succeeding
Moses and Joshua. The various princiiDles which had acted and
reacted upon each other while the great waves of that history
were still surging, separated themselves in the calm which suc-
ceeded the dissolution, and the great earnest question of the age.
Whence came so much misery upon the people ? not only invaded
the dominion of history, but even sought preeminentl}'- there
for its calmest answer. The true Prophets had indeed long since
given a general answer to such questions, and since the history'
had now on the whole substantiated the anxious forebodings of
the earlier prophets, the historian, even in that age, could not
well have done otherwise than enter into their truths ; but now
the narrator's most urgent duty was to prove the presence of
these truths throughout the various events of history.
But it was impossible to an age so deeply wounded in its pa-
triotic feelings to examine dispassionately and describe at length
the history of the many centuries between Joshua and the de-
struction of Jerusalem ; the national grief was too severe, and
the national inind too intent upon deriving consolation and in-
struction from the history, to be able to examine it impartially.
Hence the projihetic truths expressed in the Deuteronomic treat-
ment of the history which had commenced long before, became
yet more fully the light and life of the views now taken of
history. Wherever the history as a whole confirmed them, they
were brought prominently forward, and were used chiefly to raise
the student above the interminable details of history and give
a more lifelike view of its principles. He then who looked
through this long period to find an answer to the question,
_' 2 Kings XXV. 27-30; Unit tho lasl fioribes the Holy L;md as lyinq: on tho
kingr, the still older /edekiah, was already other side of the Euphrates, 1 Kings v. 4
dead, follows from .Ter. lii. 11. This last [iv. 24] (twice) ; compare Ezra iv. 10 sqq.
narrator certainly wrote in tho ncighlKHir- and a full exposition of this suhjeet ia
hofxl of the Chaldean court ; and tiiorefore the Ja/trhiuhcr der BibUschm Wissenschaft,
when he speaks in his own person he dc- vii p. 212.
LAST EDITOK. 161
through what cause had the kingdom fallen, or when and how
had it been most flourishing, could evidently not contemplate
any age except that of David with unmixed pleasure, and must
have regarded with sorroAv the centuries which preceded, as
well as those which followed, this sublime historical point,
because they repeatedly mdicated a dissolution of the unity and
stability of the kingdom as well as of the true religion. But it
w^as especially easy to attach to his remarks on these less perfect
times the historical lesson and warning which was then most
needed, and which the author inculcates in an important pas-
sage repeated almost word for word in both places.' Therefore
while it would appear desirable to give the beautiful middle
portion of the history with all the detail which the records per-
mitted, enough might seem to be done for the two long side-
pieces, the earlier and the later history, with their many painful
occurrences, by rendering the narrative as concise as possible,
so as to bring j^rominently forward only the general lesson of
the history. In accordance with all this the whole history
must have been divided by this last compiler into the three fol-
lowing main sections :
a.) He placed first the present Book of Judges as an intro-
duction to the history of the Monarchy. For this book, in its
present form, was attached to the present Books of Samuel
with the single object of having here the history of the Judges
and the Kings, i. e. of the whole period after Joshua, brought
together. This is made clear by a peculiar expression of the last
author respecting Samson, namely, that he had begun to deliver
Israel from the power of the Philistines.^ But if Samson only
began this deliverance, then the reader naturally expects to be
told of its further ]3rosecution by others after his death. Thus
a hint is already furnished by anticipation of the history of Eli,
Samuel, and David, and it cannot therefore be afiu-med that the
conclusion of the present Book of Judges closes the history and
' Tho passages meant are Judges ii. 6- inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah. Bnt
23 and 2 Kings xvii. 7-23, which both in on carefid consideration the former as-
thougiit and in expression so closely re- sumption appears not only probable but
semlde each other (see especially '^>2 103 absolutely certain, from the relative posi-
D'Db' Judg. ii. 14, 16: 2 Kings ^xvü. tion as well as from the stjde of tho two
• ^ passages : see Jahrb. der ßibl. \y it!S. x.
20, a phrase very unusual in prose) that ^ n,, j^ jg ^\^^ specially noteworthy
we cannot well help attributing both to jj^.^^^ -^^ ^ Kings xiii. 4, 5, xiv. 26,27, the
the same writer. Otherwise we must sup- i.^^^st witer views and describes the rais-
pose that the last compder, having received ; j^^, ^,p ^f Jehoahaz precisely as in Judg.
from previous ages the Book of Judges in ij_ 54 j,qq_ jj^ ^^^^ ^jo^g tlj.^^ ^f the Judges,
its present form, imitated It as an antique ■, judges xiii. 5; this is the obvious
work; and certainly the 'driving out of meaning of this passage, confirmed also
the land' mentioned in Judges xviii. 30, | . y^-^^^ 25.
need not include also the captivity of the
VOL. I. M
1G2 IIISTOEY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
renders tliat book independent of what follows. In truth, the
conclusion of the series of Judges formed by Samson's tragical
fate is so unsatisfactory as to be to the reader the first strong-
stimulus to know the further course of the Hebrew-Philistine
history. But the last author seems to have wanted either the
materials or the inclination to fill up the short interval between
the death of Samson and the middle of the rule of the already
aged Eli ; and he had only (as already shown, p. 155 sq.) the
story of Euth to fill up this gap.
The last author then did nothing with reference to the strictly
historical matter beyond combining the two earlier works on the
age of the Judges, the very diverse character of which has been
already explained p. 140 sq., p. 151, and working them up in
Deuteronomic fashion, to use a brief expression. Here again
we find the essential feature of the work to be, not the actual
narrative and history of earlier times, but the way in which the
history is treated and used for the deduction of moral lessons.
(i) The author began with a general introduction taken from
the ancient Avork, which, according to p. 141, viewed this period
without regard to the military leaders of the people ; and he
there described how the tribes had not conquered the whole
country, and had in so far failed to accomplish the Divine plan,
Judges i-ii. 5 ; a passage which seems to be greatly curtailed,
and would be much more intelligible if we had the original at
full length before us.
(m) Then the author, passing from the death of Joshua to the
description of the Judges, and following the other authorities
already noticed (p. 151 sq.), first presents a general survey of
the entire period of these Judges and of their position while it
lasted, ii. 6-iii. 4. And this point of the history gives to the
Deuteronomic ideas and doctrine an opportunity of their freest
and fullest expression. Sins against Jahveh, repentance, and
amendment, are the three pivots on which the Deuteronomic
scheme turns. The nation which during that age, after each
effort at amendment and the successive raising-up of each great
deliverer or judge relapsed again into unfaithfulness and then
into misfortune, furnishes at once the example and the lesson,
how faithless behaviour towards Jahveh always punishes itself,
and the greatest national sufferings then become necessary for
tlie moral probation and purification of the nation. In order
to establish the truth of this doctrine in each individual case
occurring from iii. 7 to xvi, the writer commences his account of
the first Judges, and then of each of the five others of whom
there was much to tell, with a previous falling-away from
LAST EDITOR. 1Ö3
Jaliveh, and misery consequent thereupon, the pressure of
which brought the people back again to Jahveh, who then
raised up the true deliverer. In the few principal actions of
the j)eriod more life is occasionally infused into this monoto-
nous narrative by a beautiful description of a Proj^het in times
of miser)' raising his voice in sorrow or in anger to declare the
truth to the people, vi. 7-10, x. 10-16. In these descriptions
the author unquestionably had in his thoughts the older
passage, ii. 1-5, which sounds more historical, besides such
passages as 1 Sam. ii. 27 sqq. In the actual history of the
Judges the author generally adopts the narrative of the earlier
authority almost verbally. But in the case of Samson, the last
of these Judges, whose life was also given by the compiler by
abridgment from a special work (see p. 152), and served as a
fitting occasion to explain the nature and origin of Nazaritism,
this lofty introduction exjjands into a grand picture of Divine
manifestation and annunciation, xiii. 1-24, such as the Fourth
Narrator of the primeval history loves, according to p. Ill sq.
This however comprises almost all that the last author has
added of his own, for elsewhere he has merely shortened or
slightly altered the wording of his authority, but added nothing
of importance to the history itself. And if we reflect that he
nowhere distinctly describes the evil to which, after each
amendment of their conduct, the people constantly recurred
during that age of vicissitudes (for such names as Baal and
Astarte are used quite loosely according to the custom of after-
times, and assert nothing distinctly but the relaj^se from
Jahveh), there can be no doubt that the description of in-
dividual events was coloured by his general conception of the
period ; just as the same author in the Books of Kings calls
each individual king of the Northern Kingdom wicked without
any qualification, because to his peculiar conception that king-
dom was intrinsically corrupt.
(Hi) The whole is closed (ch. xvii-xxi) with fragments from
the very different ancient authority mentioned p. 140, which
described two remarkable events of that age external to the
circle of the Judges. Here the last compiler is still further
from adding or changing anything ; for nothing even of a
Deuteronomic tendency is given. But if we ask wherefore this
compiler (or possibly even the former one) inserted only these
two stories, since he doubtless found many similar ones in the
document whence they were taken, the most obvious reply is,
that both relate to Levites, and moreover to Levites from Beth-
lehem (xvii. 7, xix. 1), and thus possessed an especial interest
1G4 HISTOra' OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMrOSITION.
for an autlior wlio iiiidoiibtedl}' sprang- from Juclali, and was
probably a Levite.'
The time at wliicli tliis book thus received its present form
cannot in general be matter of doubt, owing to its Deuteronomic
principles ; there are also found distinct traces of dependence
on the Book of the Law in its latest development. The wordy
description (xiii.) of the angel's appearance to Samson's parents
obviously imitates many shorter delineations of similar events
which the author found in the older books of law and history f
and the phrase ' they turned quickly out of the way which their
fathers walked in,' ii. 17, is both here and in Dent. ix. 16 taken
from a story given by the Fourth Narrator in the Book of the
Law, Ex. xxxii. 8, where it is undoubtedly far more genuine
and perfectly approj^riate. It is also a very decisive circum-
stance that where the author begins to sj^eak freely from
himself, ii. 6-10, he takes up the thread from the last words of
the present Book of Joshua xxiv. 28-33. ISTow here words are
found which cannot have been inserted by any earlier writer
than the Deuteronomist. ^ It would be incorrect to conclude
from this that the author wished to combine the history of the
Judges into one whole with the Book of Joshua and the Pen-
tateuch ; for he merely joins on at the end of Joshua for the
sake of a suitable commencement, and it cannot be jjroved that
in early times these books were ever united (see p. 114 sq.). But
it does follow from the above fact that, at the time of the author,
the Deuteronomist had long completed his work.
b.) The history of the Origin of the Monarchy until the acces-
sion of Solomon is given by the latest author entirel}^ or almost
entirely, unchanged from the previous compilation. For it was
not till after Solomon's time that the lesson that the kingdom
had fallen because the greater number of its princes had fostered
the repression of the higher and purer religion, assumed pro-
minence in the history. And as David had in fact remained
very true to the ancient religion, and in the later times was
moreover looked upon as the single perfect example in that long
list of kings, of a good ruler and faithful worshipper of Jahveh,
' The fact tliat tlie Book of Kuth is preceding Deuteronomic narrative ; and
concerned witli Bethlelieni has no con- verse 31 must be by the Deuteronomist,
nection with this, as has been pointed out on account of the phrases cp^ 'n''")!Sn
P-;^^^ ^'l- Dcut. iv. 26, 40, V. (16) 30 [SS],\-l €x\.
"The principal passages whicli the 0, xvii. 20, xxii. 7, xxv. 15, xxx. 18, xxxii.
author liad in view in chap. xiii. are Gen. 47, and niH'' nL*'])?3 Deut. iii. 24, xi. 3,
xvi and XXV. 21, also Judges vi. 17 sq.; 7. MoreoV«-, aecönling to p. 114. some-
wc hnd likewiKC, 1 /, 18, an amphhcahon „.i^g ,;„,;,,,, f,.^,^ tlie hand of the l<ifth
ot theshorternnagcGen.xxxu. 3()|20]. Narmtor of the primeval history must
'■> Josh. xxiv. 28 is connected with Ihc have originally stood here.
LAST EDITOR. 165
it was believed to be not from David's reign, but only from that
of his successor, until the first overthrow of the kingdom, that
the introduction of foreign religions and the dissolution of the
ancient order had been dragging the state down into corruj)tion
and inevitable ultimate destruction. The history of the mon-
archy therefore was divided by this author into two halves,
separated b}^ David's death : on the first of these, which was
almost entirely filled by the personality of David, the thought
and hope of the writer's age dwelt with evident joy and exulta-
tion ; and as moreover David's idealised image had become
an inexhaustible source of consolation and instruction for the
Messianic hopes, the author j^ublished this first half, up to the
accession of Solomon, in its original fulness, without any notice-
able omission or addition.
But apparently it was this last editor who finally added some
fragments of David's biography which he had at first designed
to omit ; at all events this is the simplest exj)lanation of the
order in which the fragments in 2 Sam. xxi-xxiv. now stand
(see above, p. 148). We may also plausibly assume that the
Chronicler had here before him the compilation of the previous
Deuteronomic editor : he read the passage 2 Sam. xxiv. in
another order (see p. 148 sq.) ; and he found the long list of
David's heroes which is given in 2 Sam. xxiii. 8-39, and is pro-
bably extracted from the State-annals, standing after 2 Sam. v.
10 (see 1 Chron. xi. 10-47) and in a more complete state.
c.) From Solomon's time, however, he gives only extracts
from this and olher earlier records, as if this long period of
ever-increasing dulness and darkness required only the briefest
description. But he begins here again to treat the history in
his independent way, to make it the medium for his own views,
and to add to the older book whatever he thought suitable. It
may therefore be said that the first half of the earlier great
work on the kings, which reaches to 1 Kings ii, was only re-
edited by the later writer, but that the latter half, from 1 Kings
iii, may be justl}^ considered as his own work. It might there-
fore have been divided into two parts more correctly than has
been done : — 1. the history of the Kings until Solomon's ac-
cession to the throne (the present Books of Samuel and 1 Kings
i. ii.) ; 2. the Kings from Solomon to the Captivity (the present
Books of Kings from 1 Kings iii.). The LXX., who enumerate
2 (4) Books of Kings after the Book of Judges, show at all
events more perception of the original connection of this great
work. And to discriminate the first from the second half, the
name of Book or Books of Samuel, on account of that hero's
166 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
importance, would not be wholly inappropriate to the former,
only that the first two chapters of the Book of Kings ought to
be added to it.
The author himself indicates the chief extracts he has made
from other works, by referring* at the close of Solomon's life to
the Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 41), and at the
close of the life of each king of both kingdoms to the State-
annals of one or the other kingdom, as the place where more of
the history might be found. An exception to this is made only
by the last king of each kingdom (which curious fact has been
already noticed, p. 137 note), and by the two kings Jehoahaz
and Jehoiachin,^ each of whom reigned only three months, so
that the State-annals probably did not contain much more than
is here narrated of them. In the life of David and Saul, on the
other hand, such references are evidently wanting only because
the last editor does not much curtail his principal document
before 1 Kings iii. The ' Life of Solomon ' also, to which the
author refers, was probably not a separate work, but only a part
or one volume of his chief authority. This previous compiler
may have constantly referred to the State-annals ; but we have
no reason for doubting that the last editor also consulted them.
From the method of quotation however thus much is certain,
that the author either wholly omitted, or greatly shortened,
most of the particulars given in these authorities respecting the
wars, the buildings (if not ecclesiastical), and other secular en-
terprises of the kings, as also their mere personal affahs ; but
on the other hand retained in fall whatever referred to religion
and especially to the Temple. In this he was governed by
certain fixed principles ; for instance, although elsewhere not
telling much of the j)ersonality of the kings, yet in the case of
each king of Judah, he mentions his mother's name, evidently
on account of the important part generally taken by the queen-
mother in the government, especially when the king was a
minor. ^ But that he abridged the narrative of his authorities
even when he aimed at completeness is seen by a comparison of
2 Kings xviii. 9-xx. with Isaiah xxxvi-xxxix, where he omits
song of Hezekiah.
The most important element added by the author, the pro-
phetic lesson of the long history commencing with Solomon, is
expounded most openly at the point where he speaks of the
' 2 Kiiif^.s xxiii. 31-35, xxiv. 8-17. It it miglit for tliat very reason not be re-
is true tliat an account of the reign of the ceived into the State-annals of Judah.
last king of Judah was prepared very ^ See 1 Kings xv. 13, which is here
early (see p. 167, note) ; but as tliis could decisive ; also ii. 19.
receive no authentication from a successor.
LAST EDITOR. 167
overtlirow of the Northern Kingdom, indicates its canses, and
at the same time casts a glance upon the coming similar over-
throw of the Southern Kingdom, 2 Kings xvii. 7-23 ; but, even
in the middle of Solomon's life, the author takes a suitable
opportunity to introduce the same truth in the words of the
previous compiler, 1 Kings ix. 6 9; and thus, though less for-
cibly than in earlier writings (p. 159), is reproduced the pro-
phetic treatment of the history, since its entire course from
Solomon corroborates the warning revealed to him in a dream
at its commencement. And as the early fall of the yet guiltier
Northern Kingdom is the centre of the evil elements of this
history, so do its good elements centre round the pious king
Josiah, who radically extirpated the worship on high places,
and carried out a national reformation with equal sincerity and
power, 2 Kings xxii. sqq. And as our author, in agreement
with the previous compiler (compare p. 159) and many of the
Prophets, ascribes the ruin of the kingdom of Judah especially
to this worship on high places, he takes care to observe at the
very outset of his own writing (1 Kings iii. 2 : comp. xi. 7-10)
that they existed even in Solomon's time ; and adds to his
account of even each good king of this kingdom, that in pro-
tecting them he did what he ought not to have done. The fact
that he calls every king of the Northern Kingdom without ex-
ception an evil-doer in the sight of Jahveh, arises from his
general view of the origin and nature of that kingdom ; but he
thus designates all those kings of the Southern Kingdom also
who had favoured idolatry. It is especially these standing
judgments pronounced upon each ruler Avhich impress upon the
work the stamp of that melancholy desolation which at the
time of its composition weighed heavily upon the dispersed
nation. Thus also in the general treatment of this part the
same method is discernible which characterises the present
Book of Judges (p. 162 sq.).
We here see in brief which of our author's editions were
most specially his own ; but besides these it is obvious that he
also wrote and appended the life of the last king Zedekiah,
which was not yet inscribed in the history of the kingdom,' as
also the still later narratives. The later portions of the stories
of Elisha may have been introduced by him, as they appear to
' It is clear that the writer had access appended to the Book of Jeremiah the
to WTitten authorities, from 2 Kings xxv. whole of chap. Iii. from the same source,
22-26, which is derived fi-omJer. xl-xliii ; omitting however the narrative 2 Kings
on the other hand Jer. xxxix. received xxv. 22-26, because he knew that it had
many additions from this end of the been already given in Jer. xl-xliii.
Books of Kings, and a still later compiler
168
HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
be merely further developments of old materials,' and witli
respect to their contents, which are far removed fe-om the fulness
and substance of the older histories, stand upon the same level
as the story in 1 Kings xiii. 1-32.
The hand of this latest author is recognisable besides, not
only in certain favourite phrases,^ but also in a great infusion
of later and foreign elements of speech, of a kind which we
have not as yet seen in any historian from Judah. This in-
fusion however appears only occasionally, and is far from per-
meating the whole work. Many of these foreign words, too,
may be attributable to the authorities employed by the author.^
' Even from very different regions : 2
Kings iv. 14-16 springs from Gen. xviii.
9-11, and 2 Kings vi. 17-20 from Gen.
xix. 11. It is often very characteristic of
such imitations that they flow copiously
from one single passage, as if it alone had
been in the mind of the later wTiter.
- We may here class ii "|J^J;3 y-in HCJ'y
which is as frequent in Deuteronomy,
Judges, and 1 Kings iii. sq. as it is else-
where rare (Num. xxxii. 13 ; 1 Sam. xv.
19 ; 2 Sam. xii. 9). ")3iprin in 2 Kings
xvii. 17, imitating 1 Kings xxi. 20, 25 ;
the use of pi for only, and the constant
use of IX ihm, in the loose transitions,
which occur especially frequently in abridg-
ments of liistories ; 1 Kings iii. 16, viii.
1, 12, ix. (11) 24, xi. 7, xvi. 21, xxii. 50
[49] ; 2 Kings viii. 22, xii. 18 [17], xiv.
8, XV. 16, xvi. 5 ; also the use of *y~lK in
narrative, 1 Kings iii. 10, but not the
frequent employment of DTIPX in the same
(iii. 5, 11, 28, V. 9 [iv. 29], x. 24, xi. 23,
xii. 22), as this may be derived from the
original authority.
^ As, for instance, we may notice that
the strongly Aramaic form nVSJO (hun-
dreds), is found only in 2 Kings xi. a few
times, and even there is avoided in verse
19 ; and that ^"iTl is found only in 1 Kings
xxi. 8, 11; rii3''"ip only in 1 Kings xx.
14 sqq.; niPID only in 1 Kings x. 15, xx.
24 ; 2 Kings xviii. 24, and an Aramaic
infinitive only in 2 Kings v. 18. Tlio
occurrence of the relative — .^\ 2 Kings
vi. 11 depends on a doubtful reading (see
my Sprachlehre, seventh ed. p. 474).
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.). 169
III. THE LATEST BOOK OF GENEEAL HISTOEY.
CHRONICLES, WITH THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.'
The trial-days of the Captivity, and the commencement of
the restoration of Jerusalem, were succeeded by centuries which
in many respects niig-ht be expected to be peculiarly favourable
to the composition of history. The close connection into
which the history of the Hebrews now entered with that of the
Persians and many other heathen nations, might render their
historical view wider, and their historical perception more
delicate. Literary activity now penetrating- deeper and deeper
into all classes, even the non-prophetical and non-sacerdotal,
was enabled to follow closer and more fully upon the events,
and thus to produce a profusion of most various works respect-
ing contemporary history itself. And in fact this good fortune
was not wanting. A new phenomenon in historical literature
is presented by the memorabilia of contemporaries, in which lay-
men and others note down with fresh feeling, and from accurate
personal recollection, what seems to them worthy of record for
the instruction of postei'ity, or perhaps even more for their own
satisfaction. Biographical memoirs of this kind, written by
men who influence their time through their own force of cha-
racter, or even are its chief support and leaders, can scarcely
arise earlier than the final margin of a long series of historical
literature. Though often presenting rather the warm feelings
of an individual than a calm consideration and short survey
of more weighty matters, these memoirs, as a glass truly re-
flecting the special history of the time, occupy a very different
rank from all ordinary historical works. "We find the most
distinct example of this in the somewhat comprehensive frag-
ments of a book by Nehemiah himself, incorporated in the
existing Book of Nehemiah. Other examples, which are scat-
tered more widely throughout the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah,
and therefore more difficult to discover, will be better treated
afterwards. As Nehemiah was a layman in high office, who
clearly did not aspire to the name and fame of a scholar or
' See Göit. Gel Anz., 1864, pp. 1205-80.
170 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
writer (for thus he exhibits himself in his memoir), we must
infer from his exam^^le that this kind of occasional authorship
was very frequent in those days.
But in other respects these ages took a form less and less
favourable to the writing- of history, as is sulhciently proved by
such strictly historical works as have come down to us from
them. When the general national life was sinking deeper and
deeper into confusion and weakness, away from the bold eleva-
tion which in the beginning of the restoration of Jerusalem it
seemed about to attain, how then should the historic art alone
have progressed and flourished, or even saved itself from the
insidious decay which the nation generally could not escape ?
The chronicler of a people submitting unwillingly to foreign
or to tyrannical rule, as was then the fate of Israel, is not
in a position to look straight at things ; nor has he scope
to look freely around him either, when his nation, driven into
the utmost straits, falls more and more under the influence
of vague and faithless fears. This decline in the character of
the historical works, being an inherent necessity, could not fail
to appear in that age of Hebrew history ; indeed its primary
origin has already been observed in the last works of the preced-
ing period. The fresh wants and tastes of a later age demanded
fresh histories ; and there are many indications that if possible
even more was now written in this department than in earlier
days. The spirit of the old religion, which animated the earlier
histories, could not at once be wholly lost or changed in the
new works ; although after a considerable lapse of time such a
change is undoubtedly very observable, manifesting itself first
only in certain peculiar books. But in general, the image pre-
sented to us in the historical works of those times, even where
they describe antiquity and the better days of old, is yet only
that of a community, subjected to many forms of internal re-
pression, but all the more proud of its ancient blessings, and
therefore increasingly anxious to retain these, and priding itself
only in tlie cause of the ancient religion and its glorification.
In the Books of Chronicles, and those of Ezra and Nehemiah,
which (as I shall hereafter j)rove) originally belonged to them,'
we possess the most comprehensive and marked work of this
' The unity of these books has also sion of this kind is not difficult to reach ;
heenrecognhed ])y Zwnz (Gottcsdicnstliehe Imt the important and fruitful question
Vorträge der Juden, Berlin, 1832, p. 21). for us is, how the hypotlicsis of the unity
In ignorance of the views there advocated, of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah is to
I liad been brought by independent in- be followed up and maintained in connec-
vestigation to the same result. Richard tion with a correct appreciation of the
Simon also attributes Ezra i-vi. to the writer and his work,
author of Chronicles. A general conclu-
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.). 171
age. For tlie more perfect understanding of this work in its
entire bearing, it is desirable first to ascertain its age with all
possible certainty and accuracy. One way to this is already
opened in the statement just made res2)ecting the connection
existing between the Books of Ezra and Neliemiah and the
Chronicles ; for the essential question then is, what was the
earliest period at which these books, which carry down the
history to the furthest point, could have been written. With-
out attempting to exhaust this question here, we may at once
assume as evident, that the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah
cannot have received their present form prior to the fourth
century before Christ, because in some passages they sj)eak
of Ezra and Nehemiah as men who in a past age acted to-
gether for the benefit of the community,' and even look back
with scarcely concealed regret to the days of Zerubbabel and
Nehemiah, as to a better age in which excellent arrangeinents
with regard to the offerings due to the priesthood were es-
tablished and observed.^
But besides all this, more definite signs are found in some
genealogies which the author introduces. Among the numerous
catalogues of families and comj^anies which the work presents
in eveiy part, we find two families which the author evidently
regards as preeminent in nobility and dignity, and whose
lineage he therefore describes in greater detail, and carries for-
ward to a lower point than that of any other. The first of these
is the royal family of David, as it had descended from the latest
kings of Judall ; which though not possessed of actual authority
was certainly still looked upon by many with a certam prefer-
ence and reverence, so that it was never forgotten which mem-
ber of the family would have been ruler if external circum-
stances had been favourable.^ The second is the High-priest's
family,* which did then actually exercise a sort of authority, and
whose living representative must have been well known to all
contemporaries. The author needs no justification for sedu-
lously distinguishing these two families, and these alone, by
tracing their genealogy with gi-eater detail and carrying it down
to a lower point. But it is equally clear that he carried it
' Neh. viii. 2, 9, xii. 26. and iu vii. 13 add several additional
- This is qnito the tone of Neh. xii. 47; generations to the series, are probably
while there is no doubt that it was written based only on a misunderstanding of the
by the same -vvTiter. writer's mode of exhibiting the line.
* 1 Chr. iii. 1 7-24, where the chronolo- ■• Neh. xii. 10, 1 1 , compare verse 22 ; the
gical series, whii-h is somewhat difficult to series of High-priests do^^^l to Jesliua the
make out, is as follows : 1, Zerubbabel ; 2, first priest of the New Temple was already
Hananiah ; 3, iShechaniah ; 4, Shemaiah ; given in 1 Chr. v. 29-41 [vi. 3-1.5]; eom-
5, Neariah ; G, Eliocnai ; 7, Hodaiah. The pare Ezra iii. 2.
various readings of the LXX. , which here
172 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
doAvn exactly as far as events permitted, so tliat the last name
in each genealogy was that of the then living head of the
family ; the contrary supposition is untenable, because there is
no reason apparent why these genealogies, so exceptionally
carried down many generations beyond the Babylonish Captivity,
should close earlier than with the last known member. When
we have thus determined the lowest point reached by this his-
tory, the problem then is to calculate correctly this series of
generations, and to discover the same names, in case they are
found to occur in the history which is known to us from other
sources. The first point that here strikes us as important is
that the royal line from Zerubbabel, that is from the time after
the Captivity, is brought down through six members, and that of
the High-priests from Joshua, the contemporary of Zerubbabel,
thi-ough five. This slight variation may be regarded as tending
to prove that both series were actually brought down to the
author's time. If therefore we reckon thirty years to a genera-
tion, these five or six generations after Zerubbabel and Joshua
bring us 1 50 or 200 years further down, so that we find our-
selves in the latest years of the Persian, or at the utmost in the
earliest years of the Greek dominion, and hence we may safely
conclude that this work could not have been written before, but
also certainly not after this point of time. To this may be
added as decisive, the testimony furnished elsewhere, that
Jaddua the last High-priest here mentioned, lived until the
commencement of the Greek rule.'
In the absence however of any distinct date, the question is
still open, whether the work was written in the last period of
the Persian rule, or at the commencement or even at a somewhat
later period of the Greek. But on a close examination, we do
not merely fail to discover in it any token however slight which
might point to a lengthened duration of the Greek rule, but it
may be shown that every probability is in favour of the contrary
supposition. Por the two genealogies just named, which are
brought down to the writer's age, stand in this respect quite
alone ; the real history closes with the days of Ezra and Nehe-
miah, beyond which we only find these two genealogies, extend-
ing to a later period ; that of the royal house being given at
the beginning of the work, and the later portion of that of the
High-priest being interwoven with the history of Ezra and
Nehemiah. This peculiarity of the work is easily accounted
' Josephus, Antiquities, xi. cap. vii. 2, sents cannot be discussed here. But the
cap. viii., according to which he -was High- tone of Nch. xii. 22 shows that he had
priest already under the Persian ride, long been High-priest when the book was
Other difficulties which this passage pro- written.
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.). 173
for. It is always difficult, and often unpleasant, for a writer to
bring the general history of his country down to his own times,
and therefore many writers intentionally avoid doing so. Most
historians, whose subject is not limited to remote antiquity or
to some definite i^eriod, would content themselves with carrying
down the thread of the narrative only to the most recent pros-
perous or momentous events, and mention the affairs of their
own day only incidentally and for special reasons. Now it ad-
mits of easy explanation why a writer, living during the latest
period of the Persian or the earliest of the Greek rule, should
have broken off the thread of the history with the last glorious
days of Jerusalem under Ezi-a and Nehemiah : the following
decads of years brought with them nothing grand or cheering
to reward the trouble of describing them ; and this work gene-
rally seems to take pleasure in describing only the prosperous
side of the history of Jerusalem. If, on the other hand, the
Greek rulers had then already made friendly advances towards
the people, and Greek freedom had already produced favourable
results even to Jerusalem, it would be inconceivable that a
general history, such as this work aspires to be, could leave
wholly unnoticed this last revolution of events, and the advan-
tages hence accruing to the Holy City. A comparison with the
example of the Book of Kings (p. 159 sq.) will make the truth
of this observation apparent. Now the way in which Cyrus
and his successors are constantly mentioned as Persian kings,*
proves that the Greek rule had already commenced ; but it cer-
tainly had not lasted long, and we may regard the work as
having been written somewhere about the time of the death of
Alexander.
1. If this be the age of the work, we can thence infer its
immediate object. It is intended to be a universal history,
arranged moreover on the same system as is adopted by the
Arabs in their ordinary works of this kind, in which the narra-
tive sets out from the creation of mankind and a multitude of
nations, but from this extensive field soon contracts itself to
the narrow limits of the one nation for which it was written.
But the people for which the chronicle under consideration was
written, was so inferior, in extent of territory and in greatness
and power, to the ancient nation, that it could not be properly
regarded as the same. In Samaria, the centre of the old He-
brew territory, a people was now established of whose affinity
vritli themselves the lords in Jerusalem would know nothing ;
' Ezra i. 1 ('1 Clir. xxxvi. 2'2), iv. r», 24, liiinrl ITagsai and Zrcli. i-viii., Ezra iv. 7,
vii. 1, Nell. xil. 22; compare on the other vi. 1, Nch. i. 11, ii. 1 !-q'^.
174 HISTOEY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
and from wliicli they felt themselves for ever separated by the
bitterest of all enmities, religious repugnance. And as little re-
mained of the ancient possessions of the people but its religion,
and that conceived in the form of the then rising hierarchy, the
religion itself had in Jerusalem alone its narrow circle and
fixed abode. Hence this general history, from its object and
its plan, was enabled to draw its circle much narrower than
similar works written at an earlier time, and necessarily became
very different from them in its spirit and tone.
As to the country and the nation of which this work treats,
we find it to be preeminently a history of Jerusalem only. To
this single city the narrative hastens on as soon as possible,
from the vast compass embraced by it at its commencement,
and then remains fixed there up to its close. The shortest and
at the same time most accurate name for the work would be
' Chronicle of Jerusalem,' especially if this name were under-
stood in the rather wider sense in which the name of the
kingdom of Jerusalem was employed during the middle ages.
Everything relating to this city and the surrounding country
is treated with the greatest interest ; even the nature of the
city population, composed of very various fragments of tribes,
appeared to the author impoi"tant enough to deserve a careful
description, both as it was before the destruction, 1 Chron. ix.
1-34, and also as it was reestablished after the restoration of
the city, Neli. xi-xii ; but in this catalogue little notice is
taken of the inhabitants of the surrounding country. And the
author not only entirely passes over the history of the rival
city of Samaria, when describing the new Jerusalem, but in
the earlier period, before the destruction of the city, omits the
history of the Northern Kingdom almost totally, although his
constant citation of ' the History of the Kings of Judah and
Israel ' proves him to have had before him a work similar in
character to our present Books of Kings. And indeed, at that
time, the origin of Jerusalem reached so far back into the
memory of a remote antiquity, and the city, having long re-
covered from its overthrow, seemed to have been so sj)ecially
destined from the earliest times to become an imperishable
sanctuary, that it is easy to understand how it could be made
the pivot upon which to hang a universal history.^
Thus restricted almost to a history of Jerusalem, the work
further becomes a history esj)ecially of the religion of that city,
' The determination of the writer to tlie holy city, is especially observable in an
leave unnoticed the period of the Judges, alteration which he makes in 2 Chr. xxxv.
bocause then Jerusalem had not yet become 18 compared with 2 Kings xxiii. 22.
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.). 175
as tlio single mip^lity power wliicli still subsisted tliere in its
pristine force. Not that the author looked back without ad-
miration and regret upon the times when Jerusalem enjoyed
also the secular sway of the kingdom of David ; the very
carrying down of David's race from Zerubbabel to the author's
own age, of which notice has been already taken, p. 172 sq.,
is a speaking testimony to the contrary. But the fact re-
mained, that in the new Jerusalem, as it had existed for the
last two hundred years, the ancient religion only had proved
itself imperishable, and thereby obtained individual sway over
many hearts, so that it was even then putting forth a new
life in many of its branches. It is this interest m religion as
it then existed and was understood, which induced the author
throughout the course of this long history to dwell so much
upon Priests of every kind, upon the Temple and its institu-
tions, and upon all other religious usages, as well as to set
forth with obvious sympathy and in full detail the merits of
those kings and great men who had gained a name in the
history of religion. This is the precise point upon which this
work differs most from the present Books of Kings, even in
those passages in which it would otherwise have fully coincided
with them, for it enlarges upon much that in them was either
entirely passed over or very shortly touched u]3on. And as
according to p. 160 sqq., the Books of Kings treat the history so
entirely in agreement with prophetical truths that they might
be named a History of the Prophets, so this work bears a strong
indication of the altered age in which it was written, in the
circumstance that it might almost be viewed as a History of
the Priesthood. If, besides, the comT)osition of this work took
place at the commencement of the Greek rule, the glorious
acts of the ancient kings for Jerusalem and its religion, and
even the favours shown by the Persian kings to the Temple
and its servants, can scarcely have been described without a
desire to receive similar favour from the new rulers.
Now here a way is opened to us to discover more nearly the
position and occupation of the author of this work. That he
was a Levite of some sort is clear from the whole tenor of his
work, and from the extremely accurate notice he takes of the
different sections of Levites. Now if on further examination
we find that throughout the work one branch of the Levites is
described with greater care than all the rest, and its functions
brought into the foreground on every possible occasion, then we
cannot doubt that he w^as a member of this very one. Now an
attentive reader of the entire work cannot fail to notice that no
176 HISTORY OF HEBREAV niSTORlCAL COMPOSITIOX.
section of the Levites is made so prominent as tlie musicians,
Avitli tlieir subdivisions, their manifold emploj'uients, and their
public appearances.' With this is closely connected the special
interest with which the author everywhere describes sacred
festivals and solemn processions ; since on such occasions
musicians could not fail to be present, and indeed are not un-
frequently expressly mentioned.^ Neither the officiating Priests,
however high their position might be, nor those Levites who
w^ere ordained instructors and judges of the people, and conse-
quently dispersed over the country, are mentioned with equal
interest. Indeed the notice of the latter is remarkably brief
and hasty ;^ and the narrator in preference takes cognisance of
all kinds of what we may call the Lower Clergy, among which
the musicians were reckoned. Under these circumstances it does
not admit of doubt that the author behmged to the corporate
body of musicians resident at the sanctuary at Jerusalem ; nor
need we be surj^rised to find that some of these included author-
ship in their devotion to the arts, and were men of learning
more frequently than the priests themselves. But finally, it is
not the history of Jerusalem alone, nor even the special history
of its religious system alone, that moved the author to compose
his work. As m that age the nation as a whole lived upon the
memory of the earlier glory and power of its religion, so the
individual historian dwells with marked exultation and scarcely
concealed regret on the glories of the earlier ages only of the
Holy City, on those kings and heroes whose acts on behalf
of the Temple and its ordinances, as well as on behalf of the
ordination and elevation of the Levites, had been conspicuously
meritorious, and on such historical events as appeared to
teach the power and inviolability of the sanctuary at Jerusalem.
Wherever anything of this kind enters into the narrative, the
historian's heart expands with joy, and he retains unabridged
' To adduce only a few passages : 1 Clir. ' leader of song, weaver of glowing prayer.'
vi. lG-33 [31—18], XV. 16-24, 28, xvi. 4- The rhyme must here not be pas.'^ed over
42, xxiii. 5 (where the narrative is inter- unnoticed, as at this late age it may not be
ruptcd by a fragmentary quotation from an entirely due to chance. We have cjiangi^d
ancient poet who, speaking in the name ^Lj^^ /,„.j.„ -.^^ inappropriate) info
of Jahveh, cliaracterises the musicians as ^ • : ^
' those wliom I have formed to sing my n^nijl- The words n^SD^ miiT' "»'st
praise:' tlie LXX. however alter this un- -^ •/■ < ^i • j- ■ i ,i
'^ , ' ,, ,. „ , . „ ,,, signify 'the singer of praises at Iho
usual collocation of words) ; xxv. ; 2 Chr. 'i- i -i Ü i i .•
V. 12, 13, vii. 6, viii. 14, XX 19-21, xxiii. ^'''''^'''' If" ''y^ '^'^'•'^'f congregation
13. xxix. 25-30 xxxi. 2 xxxiv. 12, xxxv. f''^'- ^""^ 'I'' ^"f TJ,?" f ^^'^ '"""
1- r. ••• in 11 XT 1 •• n V,. ,- tcnco St e my Lekrhuck, §, 3i-)l,b.
l.j; hzra 111. 10, 11; Neh. xii. 8. 24. 4o, 2 i> • i .i ^
,., * 1 „ .-.f- r- r. . ■, ■ JH'sidis II10 nuniorous passages in
47. A description of a son of Asaph in ^i • 1 v ••• 1 %
V 1. ,.: i-r . 1 1 . .1 • , ' Chronicles, compare hzra 111. I-7, vi.
Isili. XI. 17 IS here also to the iwint . , „ .10 x^ 1 •• -->
, ' 19-22; iSeh. vii. /3 sqq.
npnnn t^'X'l ' Compare 1 Chr. xxiii. 5 wiili 4, and
XXV. Willi x.Kvi. 29-3-'.
n?Dn? r^'^^r\''
LATEST BOOK (CIIEOXICLES, ETC.). 177
the fullest details oriven by liis authorities ; and where even
these appear to him not to do justice to the subject, he has no
scruple in introducing a more vivid colouring to testify to his
warmer sjTnpathy with the narrative, in variously expanding
the descrijitions, and interpolating songs, speeches, and similar
additions. Especially the times of David, Asa, and Jehoshaphat,
Hezekiah and Josiah, and finally Ezra and Nehemiah, are thus
made luminous spots in the history of Jerusalem, and there, under
the cover of narrative, he permits his OAvn sentiments to emerge
most distinctly. But then as one portion of the history cannot
readily receive such marked prominence and distinction with-
out a corresponding depression in another, we see that the
author in his account entirely passed over much that he found
in his authorities, which was unconnected with his special
subject, and could present little comfort and encouragement
to his contemporaries, or at all events obtain little sympathy
from them, or which seemed actually to contradict that image
of the heroes of antiquity which was endeared to the poj^ular
mind of the age. Thus when the author passes over the entire
history of David's youth, and the building of Solomon's palaces,
1 Kings vii. 1-12 — facts described by the authorities which we
know to have lain before him — and repeats only the account of
the building of Solomon's Temple, he omits onl}'- what seemed
to him of little importance ; whereas Solomon's idolatry and
other national calamities recorded in 1 Kings xi, and the inci-
dents reported in 2 Sam. xi-xx, of Bathsheba and of David's
children, are evidently omitted for another reason — because
David and Solomon were in his day so generally regarded as
ideal heroes of antiquity, that stories of the dark side of their
lives could not meet with much acceptance.
Bringing together then these three special objects which the
author undoubtedly had in view, we have every reason to believe
that in his day there existed no work upon history in general
l^repared in accordance with them, and that this book was com-
piled to meet an actual exigency of the time. As we have
already pointed out, the earlier histories preserved in the Old
Testament were written with Avidely different aims, and it is at
all events very unlikely that during the interval which separates
this book from the Book of Kings any work appeared having a
similar design and extent. But to understand fullv the erround
occupied by this work, we must take a farther step in advance.
It is everywhere most conspicuous that the author regarded the
Pentateuch with the Book of Joshua as a, sacred book, i.e. as
one imiversally recognised as a Book of Eeligion. The titles
VOL. I. N
173 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
"b}^ ■\\-liicli he frequently quotes it (see p. 131), the account of
Ezra reading * the Book of the Law of God ' at the festival
to the assembled peojjle, Neh. viii. 1-18, and other similar
grounds, fully demonstrate this ; and the fact that the author
took nothing from it beyond the most indispensable genealogies
shows with equal certainty that from its sacred character he
could assume a knowledge of it to be possessed by his readers.'
On the other hand, all the indications we possess contradict the
notion that the Books of Judges and of Kings, described p. 159,
were by the author or his contemporaries already looked upon
as equally sacred. He does indeed use these books (as will be
further explained afterwards), but treats them quite as an
ordinary authority ; and the great variations from them which
he introduces into his work seem rather to show that he desired
to present the history in many respects quite differently from
the picture there given. This Book of Chronicles, then, was
intended to be a universal history, which, acknowledging the
sacred character of the Book of the Law, adopted its historical
data without question, and could omit the full exposition of
whatever was already adequately told there.
2. Accordingly this work fell naturally into three parts of
unequal extent :
1) The Primeval History as far as David the founder of the
'power of Jerusalem,, 1 Chron. i-x. — This part is treated most
briefly, both because the narrator is hastening onward to David
and his kingdom, and because he assumes his reader's acquaint-
ance with the Pentateuch and Book of Joshua ; so that his own
additions appear chiefly in the light of a supplement to that
history. Since however the work from its universal character
ought to embrace the entire sphere of history, he here (1) places
together in cli. i. the generations from Adam down to the
twelve tribes of Jacob, as found in Genesis ; and (2) then gives a
careful survey of the genealog}^ of the twelve tribes, interspersed
with brief remarks respecting some of them, ii-vii ; and then (3)
immediately retreats from this great circle of all the tribes to
the two (namely Benjamin and Judah), who were united into
one kingdom through their metropolis Jerusalem ; and these he
' Whether exactly our present Pent;i- tlio free infrorliiction of Jerusalem in
touch is here meant might seem doubtful verso 15, that tlie quotation does not
from the passage Neh. viii. 14, 15, as the profess to be verbally exact, but takes its
words thoro quoted do not agree exactly colouring from tho Clironicles. Ezra ix.
•with Lev. xxiii. 40-43. Eut the ancients 11, 12, and Neh. i. 8, 9, present similar
eeldom quote prose passages with verbal cases: here, among other changes of minor
accuracy, andtlie essential meaning of tho importance, we find the Prophets generally
two passages is the same. This suffices to named instead of Moses— a very remark-
remove the doubt. It is also obvious from able circumstance.
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.). 179
describes reversely, according to their cities (the genealogy-
passing into topography), althongh these descriptions are far
from exhaustive, viii. 1-ix. 34. Finally, by attaching to this
the description of a single house — that of Saul of Gibeon (or
Gibeah) in Benjamin ix. 35-44,' he makes a transition to the
death of Saul, and consequently to the elevation of David, who
soon removed the seat of government to Jerusalem, and thus is
enabled to commence the last portion at once with David's
kingdom, and Jerusalem as its metropolis, chap. x. (taken from
1 Sam. xxxi.).
The two last of these three divisions contain a number of
statements which although very short are of extreme value,
since most of them are found nowhere else in the Old Testa-
ment ; which, moreover, being derived from early authorities,
often happily supplement for us traditions known from other
sources. The historian, who in every case links his narrative
to the events of primeval times, here descends far beyond the
age of David ; the genealogies according to the twelve tribes are
described in ii-vii. as they existed up to the commencement of
the Assyrian and the Babylonian captivity ; that of David only
being in iii. 10-24 (exceptionally, according to p. 171 sq.) carried
down to the author's own time. But this anticipation of time
was here necessary, because the narrator in the second part,
when he passes to the history of Jerusalem after David, has no
lonofer room to mention the histories of the other tribes ; so that
what he desired to say resj^ecting them could only be intro-
duced here, before he passed from the wide circle to the narrower
one.^ The descriptioiis of places, viii, ix, also carry us to the age
immediately preceding the Captivity,-' since, standing in contrast
to the local conditions of the new Jerusalem described in the
' It is remarkable that this very passage concluding words as inappropriate there,
occurs again just before, in A-iii. 29-40, and A similar insfcmce of repetition is found
■with two additional verses. We might in 2 Clir. i. 14-17, ix. 2Ö-28. It is one
fancj' (although the LXX. have the same of the signs of the decline of literature.
text) that it had lieen foisted into one of ^ Just as in Gen. xxxvi. much is iu-
these two passages by a later copj-ist. But serted concerning Edom which, taken
it is indispensable, both in ch. viii, where chronologicalh', ought to be reserved to a
the Bcnjamites of Gibeon are in verses much later period.
28 and 29 contrasted with others, espe- ^ Tlie particulars of this are seen with
cially those of Jerusalem, and the full list tolerable eertninty by a comparison of ix.
of places inhabited by Benjamites is not 11 with v. 40, 41 [vi. 14, 15], which
complete without the general summary in makes it clear that at all events the ge-
V. 40, and in ch. ix, where it forms the nealogical and family notices of the
transition to the history of Saul and David, southern kingdom were taken down about
The truth then seems to be that the writer thirt}- years befure its overthrow; those
himself adopted it in the first passage of the northern kingdom are carried down
from his authority, and afterwards repeated by the account in v. 22-26 to the Assp-ian
it in the second, omitting, however, the captivity.
N 2
lt;0 IIISTOKY OF IIHBREW HISTORICAL COMFOSITION.
third part, they describe the old city as it Avas during- the
government of the Davidical kings. But as they obviously
could not be conveniently introduced into the continuous his-
tory of this kingdom, as given in the second part, they find
their right place here, in continuation of the genealog'ies.
The numerous genealogical notices contained in this book are
expressed very tersely, indeed with artificial brevity, by the
habitual use of technical expressions and liberties of speech, by
which the greatest number of names can be crowded into the
narrowest space.' These abbreviations, though frequently lead-
ing to fresh mistakes and omissions, rendering the text un-
reliable, often putting serious difficulties in the way of under-
standing it rightly at the present day, and requiring a special
study in order to j^enetrate into their meaning, must neverthe-
less in the writer's age have been in frequent use, and not
therefore either Avholly new or strange. What a wide difference
Ave here behold between the ancient method adopted by the
Book of Origins, the fulness and clearness of which brings a
certain charm even into such parts of the history as of them-
selves might seem empty and tedious, and the many technical
abbreviations of this work ! and how certainly may we infer from
this very difference that the interval between that early and
this late book was filled by the development of a rich and varied
genealogical literature ! ^ But it has so happened that Ave noAV
possess in the Old Testament scarcely any other genealogies
but those of these two books. Further, it is unmistakable that
the author passes somewhat hastily over the genealogical series
of the earlier period, and that his authorities here afforded him
far richer materials than he found good to employ ; this appears
even in his arrangement and mode of describing the generations
according to the twelve tribes. He gives in considerable detail
the genealogies of those three tribes only Avhich the general
plan of his work proves to have been the nearest to him : first,
JtidaJi {ii-iv. 23), Avhere he particularl}' distinguishes the posterity
of David (iii.) ; to Judah the mention of Simeon is naturally at-
tached (iv. 24—43), and then follow (not to drop entirely the old
■ Omitting tlio -words father and son, tliat v,c find ii'n''nn "scd in the sense of
or in loss familiar instances very briefly fnrolUvq oncselTaccordhw tohmi^e,Unmqr,
designating the family relations &c. ^ ^^-^ ■ ■ ^^ ^ ^,^^^„^ cvvohias,
^ The Arabs, as already stated, p. 23, ^ -\- vP-
also possess a similar literature. The 'is the LXX. have it, i.e. book of genealo-
zeal with which this study of genealogies, gies, Neh. vii. 5. The etymology of the
census-rolls, and similar documents was word is obscure (see my AUcrihilmcr, p.
incessantly pursui'd, as well as the remark- 313). The earlier name for it is nnVlD 'D
able stages through which it passed, may , „„^ „ 1 ■ 1 • V • 1
1 I- * ,1 V »I 4. u • 1 1 (see page 80) from which is dorivutl
be estimated by tlie new technical terms ^ ^ ^ '
gradually broiiglit into use. It is not iV^Jin (Numb. i. 18).
until the Chronicles, but then constantly,
LATEST COOK (CIIROMCLES, ETC.). 181
ai-rangement according to primogeniture) Reuben and the other
tribes beyond the Jordan (v. 1-26) ; secondly, Levi (v. 27-vi.
06), to which are then attached much shorter notices of all the
remaining tribes (vii.) ; only that among these, according to
page 179, thirdly, special prominence is given to Benjamin (viii.
sq.) But, evident as it is that much is here compressed into a
narrower space than it occupied in the authorities consulted by
our author, it is very strange to find that the tribes of Zebulon
and Dan are whoU}^ passed over, and that of Naphtali (vii. 13)
disproportionately little is said : and since no kind of reason can
be found for this omission, we must consider it a mutilation of
the work by a later copyist (although the ancient translations
agree with the Masoretic text), unless we are inclined either to
accuse the author himself of this obvious departure from his own
plan, or else to conjecture. that he left his work incomplete.^
2) The continuous History of Jerusalem under David and his
successors until the Babylonian Captivity, 1 Chron. xi.— 2 Chron.
xxxvi. — Here the three last Books of Kings run parallel with
this work, but if it is occasionally shorter than these, it has on
the other hand a considerable number of additions of greater or
less extent. The author's arrangement of the events of David's
life (1 Chron. xi.-xxix.) has ah-eady been exhibited with suffi-
cient clearness (pp. 164, 165) ; in the life of Solomon his jjlan
inclines to yet greater brevity.
3) The History of the new Jerusalerii in the BooTcs of Ezra and
Nehetniah. — This third part joins on closely to the second, as
far as the story is concerned ; but like the first part contains
a great many genealogical tables, and lists of the inhabitants
of the new Jerusalem, serving as a supplement to the first.
The somewhat singular mode of composition and arrangement
adopted in this last part can however be understood only from
a correct knowledge of the authorities used in it.
3. Now the question of the authorities used by this author
throughout his work, and the manner in which he employed
them, is indeed thorny and difficult, like all such enquiries
into authorities, and is still further perplexed by the author fol-
lowing the custom of many late writers in reviving the literary
use of ancient words, as for instance some from the Book of
' As Dan -would unquestionaljly be himself. Dan is indeed carelessly passed
placed next to Naphtali, and at tiie end of over, also in vi. 46, 54 [61, 69] compared
verse 13 of eh. vii, the words HH^ ^33 ^'^^ "^"■'''- ^\ ^.' '^\'^^' ^'}f \^¥^ ^]^
T : ■ •• : name was not designedlv avoided here is
which are now meaningless, must refer to ^1^,,^,^ bv ii. 1, 2. See,'on this and other
Dan, as in Gen. xlvi. 24, 25. This is too ^^^^^^ relating to Chronicles, the Jahrlu
palpably a thoughtless onnssiün to be £^«5 ^/R ^«ss. vi. pp. 99, 100.
lightly put to the account of the writer
182 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
Origins.' But partly in tlie author's express citations and re-
ferences, partly in the above-described method of the work, and
in other indications, we find various means of proof through
which we are not left quite in the dark.
1) In considering the authorities named or at all events indi-
cated by the author, we have to discriminate two distinct kinds.
We may in the first place justly assume, that the authorities
for the numerous genealogical and topographical notices — a
prominent and valuable feature of the work — form a distinct
class ; indeed this is made evident from the mode in which
they are mentioned. For besides that it is probable in itself
that these accurate accounts were derived from taxing-rolls,
the idea is supported by the not unfrequent notices of the time
and method in Avhich actual taxations occurred ; ^ and we thus
become certain that at all events after the establishment of the
monarchy such taxations frequently took place, and muster-
rolls relating to them were preserved. The actual documents,
indeed, can hardly have been in the possession of our author ;
and we find clear indications,^ and even express testimony,^ to
the efii'ect that the accounts received by him had already passed
into various historical works and were only taken by him from
these. But their ultimate source cannot be doubtful ; we have
every reason to ascribe them in their earliest form to public
records, the most reliable source possible.^
The author may, however, very possibly, except in the passage
Neh. xii. 23, have found the more imj)ortant references to these
authorities in the older books from which he makes his extracts.
The case is quite different with the second class of authorities,
which consists of books referred to at the close of the biography
of each king of Jerusalem from the time of David, in which more
could be found respecting him. Here therefore he refers to
documents which, as we must conclude from the simple meaning
' As n-TnX' m'ny» N"''K'J, l Cln-. v. G, pjlvon twleo, already insortocl in each of
vii 40- seep Os'^note ' the two earlier works wliieh he here em-
•' The exaetest report is that in 1 Chr. Pl-'-V« '''"^ often quotes verbally.
xxiv. 6, where the officers appointed to ' ^ V xr" ,'''"'•'• '^' ' ^^'"^ ''^^'^- ^^' ^^^'•
conduct the census and taxation are men- 2-t, and Nch. xii 23, according to which
tioned by name. These taxations are *l\«^ö taxing-rolls were inserted in the
accurately dated by the reigns of the ' '^^^'''"^^ "^^ ^^^^' ti"]?^' '•^- ^^e Chronicles,
various kings, 1 Clir. v. 17, vii. 2, xxiii. 3, ^^' fetatp-annals. In the last-named pas-
27, xxvi. 31, xxvii. 23, 2-1; Neli. xii. 23; sage it is impossible to suppose our present
800 also 2 Sam. xxiv ; Ezra ii. 62 ; Neh. l^^o^s of Chronicles, so called, to be
vii. 5, 64 : in accordance with which such I'^f'^iTcd to, because the author could not
slight notices as 1 Chr. ix. 1 are to be in- '^P'''^'^ '" ''"^ '^'^y "*' '"'^ '•'^^■" ^^'°'''^'-
terprctcd. See above p. 137; and my ' ^^^' '"«tance, the phraseology of 1
Altn-tkümcr, p. 319 .sqq. Chr. iv. 38, v. 18, vii. 11 (see above, pp.
' According to Neh. vii. 5, and Ezra ii., ^^\ l^^ ^^0 ^'^''^''^^ ^^ ^^'-'^ ^o the Book of
the writer found the list which is here Origins.
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.). 183
of his words, were actually before liim, but which he did not
wish to repeat with the same fulness. Now the external dif-
ferences in the mode of citation of these books prove them to
consist of two widely divergent kinds :
On the one hand the author quotes certain titles of historical
works, viz. (to present in the first instance all these forms of
name) most frequently the ' Book of the Kings of Judali and
Israel,' 2 Chr. xvi. 11, xxv. 26, xxviii. 26 ; compare xxxii. 32, or
else in the reversed order, ' of Israel and Judah,' 2 Chr. xxvii. 7,
XXXV. 27, xxxviii. 6 ; less frequently the ' Acts of the Kings of
Israel,' 2 Chr. xxxiii. 18, or v/liat is obviously the same, the
' Book of the Kings of Israel,' xx. 34 {Israel being used in the
larger sense, including Judah ; since Manasseh is the King for
whom this book is quoted in the former passage) ; and once with
the title shortened at the close, but at the beginning expressed
with greater fulness and distinctness, the ' Story of the Book of
the Kings,' 2 Chr. xsiv. 27.' The probability is, however, that
the same work is meant throughout, especially as the second
and third names may be mere varieties of the first formed by
abbreviation at the end. For in no instance are two such
names quoted together as those of different works ; and since at
the close of the history of each king, the author only names
one such work as his authority, no reason appears why in one
case it should be one work, and in another a different one : the
work quoted being always a ' Book of Kings ' which might con-
tain the lives of all the kings. And when we ask what was this
' Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah,' it is in the first place
certain, that we must grant the author's acquaintance with the
canonical Books of Kings in their present form as described
on pp. 159 sqq., because many traces of the peculiar style of the
latest author of that book in narrative and description recur
here, as may easily be seen by a comparison of the two works
from 1 Kings iii. and 2 Chr. i. ; ^ indeed the author obviously
' The compound terra "i-iD ü'llO in writing, and is in fact a new word for -|öp ;
this passage might be supposed to bo not and the LXX. have hero only ßißxiov, and
very different in meaning from the simple even for the compound term in xxiv. 27
"lÖDi somewhat in the same way as about only ypacpr]. T3ut it seems a more proba-
this' period we find niOTD 1^:^^ in the We conjecture that the Chronicler has here
: • • given in luil the earner part at least of tho
titles to some of the Psalms (see my title of the book. Wo shall find that this
Dichter des Alten Bundes, i. p. 210) ; the agrees with its nature and contents, so far
later name ^-TMH signifying ' Study, i.e. ^s we are acquainted with them ; for it
learned work, treatise, commentary,' being ^„..fc \,^y^ l^oen a late and very compre-
merely added on to the other to render its hensive work.
meaning more definite. In 2 Chr. xiii. 22 2 Compare" especially tlio close of 2 Chr.
(compare xsvi. 22), tlie oidy other passage ^xxvi. witli the corresponding passage in
where the word is found before the Rabbi- j-j^g Socoud B;jok of Kin&s
nical ago, it clearly moans only a treatise,
184 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
used that worlc as the foundation of his history of the monarchy,
enlarf^ing- or altering it onl}^ where it seemed to him best so to
do. But to eonchide from this that the author in those refer-
ences had only the canonical Books of Kings before him, would
be a great error, because it would clearly be absurd to refer to a
book which often contains less information upon the kings of
Jerusalem, and from the days of Solomon seldom gives any
accounts which are not recorded in the new book also — as if it
were a fuller record. Equally erroneous would be the idea that
the State-annals which formed the basis of the canonical Book
of Kings were the book referred to. These constantly bear
another name, both in the Book of Kings ' and elsewhere ; '^ and
the evident discrimination of title forces us to conclude that the
object of the author's reference was not the State-annals, but
some other work.
On the other hand the author refers also to the words and
writings of individual prophets, relating to the life of some one
king. These, from their narrow range, and also apparently
from their prophetical character, may be regarded as forming a
contrast to the former kind of authorities. These references
are as follows : in David's life, to the ' Words of Samuel the
Seer, of Nathan the Prophet, and of Gad the Seer ' (1 Chr. xxix.
29, 30); in Solomon's life, to the ' Words of Nathan the Prophet,
and the Prophecy of Ah ij ah the Shilonite, and the Vision of Iddo
the Seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat ' (2 Chr. ix. 29) ;
and in ßehoboam's life, to the ' Words of Shemaiah the Prophet
and Iddo the Seer ' (xii. 15) ; in Abijah's life, to the ' Writing of
the Prophet Iddo ' (xiii. 22) ; in Jehoshaphat's life, to the ' Dis-
courses of Jehu son of Hanani ' (xx. 34) ; in the lives of Uzziali
and Hezekiah, to the ' Propliecy of Isaiah ' (xxvi. 22, xxxii. 32) ;
and finally in Manasseh's life to the ' Words of Hozai ' (xxxiii.
19) .^ But it strikes us at once as curious that, according to 2 Chr.
XX. 34, the words of Jehu the son of Hanani just mentioned had
been transferred to the 'Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah,'^
and that similarly, according to xxxii. 32, Isaiah's prophecy
was to be found in the ' Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.'*
' Namely '^5707 D''?D*n ''"l?"^ i'l every thoiijih not incorrect, was perfectly arhi-
■ "■ '^ ■( trarv, as the different name nap«\ei7r<)^€r/a
passage without exception ; 'i^^pro •<'-\^'r\_ in ^^^^^^^ foj. ^^^^^ ^^ ji^^ lxX. proves.
2 Chr. xxxiii. 18 can scarcely be regarded ^ Exceptionally, he is not designated
as an abbreviation of it. a prophet ; the LXX. understand it
■^ The other passages (1 Chr. xxvii. 24 ; ol bpHivTis, but that would be D^f'nn,
Neh. xii. 23; Esth. ii. 23, vi. 1, x. 2), in v. 18.
whicii the title Q^O^n ""in occurs, may * The LXX. read these Mords quite dif-
be considered al.'^u to refer to tiie State- ferently, ^x Kartypa'^i ßißKiov ßacnKiuiv ;
annals. The application of this name by but their error is obvious,
later writers to the liooks of Chronicles, * Here also the LXX. misundorstnnd
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.). 185
These two, tlieii, of tlie prophetical passages named were not
separate books which the xiuthor had lighted upon, but parts
of the same work, which he elsewhere cites by its general name.
But if this is true of these two cases, the doubt naturally arises
whether the other prophetical passages were not also taken from
the same work. And many indications seem to favour this idea.
For the passages in question are, in every instance but one,
found at the end of the life of each king, the more comprehen-
sive work on the kings being never named at the same time 5
whereas if they were completel}^ separate (as for instance the
Book of Jeremiah), they would certainly have only served to
supplement the narrative of the principal history. Either the
general title of the large work, or these special titles, are given
at the close of each king's life ; which looks as if these latter
were intended to take the place of the more comprehensive and
therefore less definite title. Moreover we are equally perplexed
by the indications of the contents of these apparently separate
works, if we suppose them to be prophetical books, such as
those of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or even Isaiah ; for they even con-
tained pure genealogies,' which seem very foreign to the
character of such works. The conclusion, however, which we
have drawn from the position of these prophetical references is
by no means everywhere certain ; for on one occasion (2 Chr.
xxxiii. 19) the author refers to a prophetic passage as well as to
the large work ; and it might fairly be argued that on some of
the kings it was sufficient to quote the special work only, with-
out mentioning the larger one : moreover Isaiah's work men-
tioned in xxvi. 32, on the earlier and later events of Uzziah's
reign, can hardly be understood of a merely prophetical portion
of the large work, as Isaiah did not appear as a prophet until the
last year of that king's reign. It must therefore be admitted
that besides the large history the author seems to have had
smaller prophetical books before him ; but these cannot have
been similar to our canonical Books of Jeremiah, Isaiah, &c.,
because from Samuel and other such very ancient prophets
large works of the kind are hardly to be expected. They may
have been in part prophetical records of early date, and of the
kind described pp. 138-151 ; and in part perhaps recent works
composed in the manner of the old prophets : a free kind of
literature which had then been long in vogue ; see pp. 152 sqq.
To this last division perhaps belonged the words of Hozai in
the words, inserting a Ka\ before -)2p ?!?; ^y ^^^^ general manner of the book.
which is refuted not only by the change of ' The word CTlTin? i" 2 Chron. xii. 15,
the prepositions 3 and ^J?, but still more "«'^"^'^ however the LXX. misunderstood.
186 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
2 Clir. xxxiii. 19, of wliicli the Prayer of Manasseh in our Greek
Apocrypha may probably be considered an extant fragment. In
this case the book must have had a great resemblance to the
Book of Daniel. The character of these special prophetical
passages must then be determined by special investigation of
the case of each king upon whom they are cited as authorities.
The next weighty question is, what was the form of that
large comprehensive work to which some at least of these re-
ferences point ? And here, as already shown, it would be a very
great error to imagine that the writer meant those State-annals
which were ei:)itomised in the canonical Book of Kings, and
that he, having read them again in the original form, now used
them in his peculiar way. Many of the detailed narratives
given in those State-annals may have passed immediately into
the large work which our author used — indeed there are many
reasons' for regarding this as almost certain ; but the old State-
anuals themselves cannot, for the reasons already given, have
been used by our author. But we must suppose the work to
have been a very detailed and comprehensive one. On the
other hand it contained the fullest accounts of the words and
deeds of the great Prophets, so that its principal divisions could
be even directly named from them, and sef»arated as special
works : indeed we may unhesitatingly assume that it was pub-
lished in many volumes, and that, as in the case of other lengthy
works of the ancients, its sections were gradually more and
more separated and regarded as distinct works. On the
other hand it did not refuse admission even to a multitude of
genealogical and topographical notices.^ Even the peculiar
jihrase repeated in all the references, that ' the other deeds, both
earlier and later, of this king,' may be found in this book, suf-
ficiently shows with what fulness and accurate attention to
dates the life of each king was treated there. In the life of
David, which the author treats most in detail, he several times
refers to subdivisions of the biography which he had used as
his authority.^ Where, on the other hand, that authority
may have yielded little more than he himself gave, as in the
case of the two years' reign of Amon (2 Chr. xxxiii. 21-25),
he does not refer to it all.'' When we reflect, finally, that the
' See pp. 136 sq., 182 sq. ^ The words 'in the later events of
* As we must conchide partly from the David's reign' (1 Chr. xxiii. 27), or, as if
express reference in 2 Chr. xxiv. 27, partly in explanation of this, ' in tho lOth y.ar of
from the many genealogical notices derived David's reign' (xxvi. 31), only contain a
»■ven from th<i houses of individual kings, reference to the latter portion of the au-
uiiknown to the canonical Book of Kings, thority used for the history of David.
as 2 Chr. xi. 18-23. * Jleferences are al.'io wanting in the
I
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.). 187"
real full name, * Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah,' indicates
a blending of the history of the two kingdoms, which was
probably first completely carried through by the last compiler
but one of the canonical Book of Kings, and further that stories
of the prophets clearly occupied the chief place in the work,
more especially in the age of the earlier kings (and our author
refers far oftener in the case of the earlier than in that of the
later kings to those seemingly separate prophetical works), we
might fancy that it was the very work from which, according to
pp. 164 sqq., the canonical Book of Kings was extracted. But,
although the author undoubtedly made use of that work, as fol-
lows from pp. 164 sq., and although the supposition that he used
it only indirectly, as quoted in a later large work, is refuted by
the discovery that (according to p. 184) he sometimes quotes it
by its proper title as his direct authority, the life of David shows
that besides this he must also have used a far more extensive
work. We must therefore conclude that the largest book which
he had was a work in which, on the plan of the canonical Book of
Kings (pp. 146 sqq.), the history of both kingdoms was treated
from the prophetic point of view, and in which liberties were
taken in reviving the prophetic traditions, similar to those in
the canonical Book of Kings, the origin of which we have ah*eady
traced (p. 167) ; a work, however, differing in design from the
latter in that it was not an historical epitome, but presented
the history in its fullest extent, taking in all the ancient
records.
Thus the author must have used three works : the canonical
Book of Kings, an earher compilation from the State-annals
and other sources, and a larger but later work; borrowing
from them only the history of the kings of Jndah, and repro-
ducing it in his own way, and referring for other matters which
he did not care to give, not to the canonical book (which so far
as the kings of Judah were concerned he had almost bodily
inserted), but to the later work which was not admitted into
the canon. But then we can hardly stop short of the conjec-
ture that (according to p. 183) we possess the exact name of this
great work, Midrash sepher liannfyi'lachim,. The extensive gene-
alogical notices must have been drawn chiefly from the work
which he once ' calls Sefer clibre hajjamim, i. e. Book of Daily
Events, or Chronicle ; a name which (according to p. 182, note 4)
originally designated the official calendar, but which an author
three successire short reigns of Johoram, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, for the reasons
Ahaziah, and Athaliah, 2 Chr. xxi.-xxiii. : already given p. 166.
elsewhere only in the reigns of Jehoahaz, ' Neh. xii. 23.
188 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
might easily appropriate to his own or any other work founded
upon it.
The writing- of Elijah the Prophet, mentioned 2 Chr. xxi. 12,
cannot belong here, being only mentioned in narrative, and
evidently quoted from the authorities already described. The
'Book of Lamentations,' mentioned 2 Chr. xxxv. 25, though now
lost, may be confidently affirmed not to have been a history.^
2) Thus much may be said of the authorities directly or
indirectly named by the author. But the author may very
possibly have also used other authorities without such reference,
the employment of which may be distinctly traced b}^ certain
indications. The authorities expressly named by him were too
voluminous to be taken at all completely into his work ; and
it may be on this account that he refers to them. But other
records may have been bodily incorporated, or so completely
worked into the substance of his new work as not to require
any reference. And this is distinctly the case especially with
some valuable authorities used in the last part of the work now
known under the name of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
For it cannot escape the notice of any tolerably attentive
reader, that this part of the work, separated though it has been
for thousands of years from the remainder, really belongs to it,
and received its present form from the same author. Some
grounds for this conclusion have been already given above ; but
the very complexion of the language affords sufficient proof of
it. Although, from the author's practice of literal citation
from his authorities, the language of the book is in general
rather patchy and varied than uniform and sustained, and often,
especially in the first and third parts, and in the life of David
(for the remainder of the second jjart is written more uniforml}'^,
like a short abstract), contains isolated anomalous expressions
which can only have been retained from the older books ; yet
no sooner do we fully apprehend the real nature of the work
than we discover passages the substance and style of which both
prove them to be distinctively the author's own ; and in these
a peculiar phraseology is observed, found nowhere but in this
work, though pervading every part of it.^
But certain as it is from all these indications that this last
' Soe more on this point in the new 16; Ezra i. 6, ii. 68, iii. 5, vii. 13, 15,
edition of my Dichter des Alten Bandes, 16 (Uic-e) ; Neh. xi. 2), a word fonud no-
vol. i. wlicre eise ('X(!ppt twice in Judg. v. and
2 To present here a few exinnph's : peeu- *'^^'''^ '" '"• different sense ; further iniC'D
liar to this writer is the use of 3"ljrin in singer, and many other words connected
the sense of volmiian/ offerhu/s to the with his profession and cherished opinions;
ic.iiph (1 Chr. xxix. 6" sqq. ; 2 'Clir. xvii. 731? ''' ''^'^ «''^^ (^ Chr. xii. 18, xxi. 11 ;
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.).
189
part was written by the hand of the same author, yet it also
exhibits conspicuous fragments of earlier works, which he must
have employed without making any express reference to them.
The difficult task of correctly picking out these fragments is
aggravated by the fact that the author does not use them like
official documents, and cite them entire and apart, but — some-
times even after he has begun to quote them literally^ — inter-
mixes words or thoughts of his own, and passages of other
writers, and thus presents a nearly insoluble medley. We can,
however, clearly recognise the three following different kinds of
authorities.
a.) Concerning the first years of the New Jerusalem up to the
completion of the Temple, the author found two written docu-
ments : — first, the fall and accurate catalogue in Ezra ii. of
those who returned from the Captivity (this, however, for various
reasons,' must have been inserted into an earlier history, from
which it is here repeated) ; and secondly, the official documents
2 Chr. xxix. 16, 22 ; Ezra viii. 30), found
prior to this only in a few poetical pass-
ages, and later in Esther ; the phrase QV
D'VSj supported by the authority of such
earlier passages as Lev. xxiii. 37. DV
IDV? is nowhere else so frequent as here
(1 Chr. xii. 22; 2 Chr. TÜi. 13, xxiv.
11, XXX. 21 ; Ezra iii. 4, vi. 9 ; Neh. viii.
18, xi. 23 ; compare earlier 1 Kings x. 25,
repeated 2 Chr. ix. 24) ; there are other
favourite expressions, such as the verb ppn
the phrase i?3y niH^ and the plural DI^IX
(not in general use till after Ezekiel), em-
ployed in every possible connection, as in
the phrase ni^"li<n n'"l3^piO (compare
1 Chr. xiii. 2, xiv. 17, xxii. 5, xxix. 30 ;
Ezra iii. 3, ix. 1, 2, 7, H ; Neh. ix. 30, x.
29 [28] with Ezra x. 11 ; Neh. x. 31, 32
[30, 31], where the singular interchanges
■with it. The construction exhibits, on the
one hand, a laboured condensation never
before used in prose, e.g. in the use of
the infinitive with p (as 1 Chr. xv. 2 and
elsewhere), and especially in the relative
clause (as 1 Chr. xv. 12, compare v. 3) ;
and, on the other, great laxity, as in the
very loose employment of the article
before the sfafiis constructus. The writer
also affects a certain elegance of speech and
fastidious choice of words, which leads
him, for instance, to avoid the I'epetition
' of the same epithet by saying ' Samuel the
seer, Nathan the projjhei, and Gad the
viewer ; ' for these words are not intended
to convey different ideas, as is clear from
2 Chr. xii. 15, xiii. 22. He also affects
an antique style by the use of obsolete ex-
pressions, as, for instance, in sedulously
avoiding (with very few exceptions, as
1 Clir. V. 20, xxvii. 27, Ezra viii. 20) -^y
the abbreviated form of "IC^X. though un-
doubtedly the prevalent form in his age.
In other points, however, as for instance,
the continual use of QTl^X for niH"', he
cannot disown the character of his ago.
Occasionally he manifestly imitates Ezra's
style.
' In Ezraii. 63-iii. 1 and Neh. vii. 65-73
an historical narrative was appended to
this list before it was used by Nehemiah
and oiir author. Both of these found the
same narrative so appended ; but our
author abridged it more, and piit in more
of his own (313nn Ezi-a ii. 68) : a striking
example of the way in which such docu-
ments were treated in that age. The LXX.
present the same variations as the Maso-
retic text. The original independence of
this passage is moreover proved by the
word nj'''ip Ezra ii. 1 ; Neh. vii. 6, which
is as foreign to our author as it is current
with other later writers, since in Neh. i. 3,
xi. 3, it belongs to Nehemiah's own work ;
and by the word I'lDS^'l (only found here),
which in this fuller form corresponds
exactly with opaxtJ-V, /*^ '<^, and for which
1 Clir. xxix. 7, and Ezra viii. 27, have the
shorter form j'lS'llX- (See Gottivger
Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1855, p. 1392, S(|q.,
1856, p. 798.)
190
IlISTOKY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
on the interruption and resumption of the building of the
Temjjle, in Ezra iv. 8-\d. That these, together with the royal
decrees here given, had come down to the author, admits of no
doubt;' but it is equally evident that he found them in an
earlier historical work ; ^ which consequently ma}' be regarded
as the ultimate foundation of the remaining accounts of that
period, and may have been the same in which the catalogue in
Ezra ii. was preserved from destraction. It is very difficult^ to
identify this earlier work in detail, partly from the fi-eedom with
which the author adds from his own stores,"* and partly from the
great curtailments to which the histories have here evidently
been subjected.'' That it was written in Aramaic from the fii-st,
may be inferred from the way in which that language is intro-
duced by the latest author in Ezra iv. 8. It is indeed true
that the latest author wrote as easily, nay more so, in Aramaic
than in the ancient Hebrew, which was then dying out ; for even
after the decrees of the Persian kings and the representations
made to them, are ended, he continues to use this language in
mere narrative, Ezra vi. 13, and reverts to Hebrew in Ezra
vi. 20, only when compelled to it by the consideration that the
work had been commenced in Hebrew ; and we discover more-
over here and there in this Aramaic passage unmistakable
traces of his peculiar thoughts and exjDressions.^ But the
way in which the Aramaic enters at first in Ezra iv. 8 proves
' The exactness of the names given by
tlie last compiler in Ezra iv. 7 shows that
the document used by him must have told
everything more fully and thoroughly
than we are now able to do even conjec-
turally by the lielp of the detached notices
•\vhirh he has left us.
- One proof of this is found in the fact
that tlio Aa-amaic letter which the last
compiler announces in Ezra iv. 7 does not
innnediately follow in v. 8, but not till
T'Tiy in '^'- 11> ^^'^ the intornicdiato
verses must have formed an introduction
to the letter in the history from wliich lie
quotes, V. 8 being only a title to the
following (])erlmps written with larger
or different characters in the original), and
the narrative commencing with v. 9. The
want of any clear transition between v. 7
and V. 8 proves this ; and there is a similar
case in v. G,7; see also vii. 12. Moreover
our author himself never prefixes any such
titles.
^ In Ezra t. 4 the writer uses we as if'
lie had witnessed it all. The use of the
first person ])lural in Neh. x. 1, 31-40 [ix.
38, X. 30-39] does not disprove this ; for
that passage also is based upon a con-
temporary document wliicli the last com-
piler quotes •with gi-eater freedom only
towards the close. Not only in the Latin
Chronicles of the middle ages, but also in
the Oriental histories, a similar wc or / is
found retained very curiously from the
book quoted ; see Land on the Syrian
Chronicle, of John of Kphesus, p. 38. We
must not here appeal to the iv in 2 Macc_
i. 20, 3 Mace. v. 43. The reading t«J"10N|
however, cannot originally have stood iu
this connection, but must have been trans-
posed here from vv. 9, 10 ; and we must
with the LXX. read -IIDX i" its phice.
(See Göltivqcr Gelehrte An~ei(jni, 1851,
p. 874,870.)
■* Observe 3"l3nn. Ezra ii. 68 (which
reappears in his Aramaic, Ezra vii. 13, 15,
IG), the ClV3 DV in Aramaic vi. 6; the
entire description of the sacrificial offer-
ings, vi. 9, 17, 18, which in any passage of
this whole history woidd direct us to this
author; again D"]3 IjSo. iv. 7, 24, as com-
pared with verses 8, 11.
' E.g. the extriine brevity of Ezra iv. 6
and 7.
" See the last note but one.
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.). 191
for certain tliat it was the language of liis authority, and not
merely introduced by the last author in the description of these
transactions with the Persian court and accompanying events.'
b.) From Ezra vii. the narrative, passing over a considerable
space of time, probably from a deficiency of materials, reaches
Ezra's exertions for the new Jerusalem, relating his journey
from Persia to the Holy City, ch. vii, and from ch. ix. what he
there accomplished. But here it strikes one as very strano-e
that the account of his activity in Jerusalem apparently closed
with ch. X. (the end of the present Book of Ezra), where we are
far from anticipating any such termination ; since after the
preparations described x. 16 sqq. our curiosity is roused to know
how Ezra will end the war against mixed marriages, in which
he had only just begun to attain any success, but is doomed to
disappointment. But in fact the thread of this narrative runs
on until it is satisfactorily wound up at Neh. i-vii. We must
therefore suppose that the long passage treating of Nehemiah
(Neh. i-vii.), which will soon be shown to be derived from a
memoir of Nehemiah's on his own life, was inserted here by
the latest author.^ And it is not difficult to discover the reason
of this insertion. For since the narrative of the termination
of Ezra's undertaking could not fail to mention Nehemiah's co-
operation (Neh. viii. 9, x. 2 [1]), the latest author might deem
it suitable to give a preliminary view from another source, of
Nehemiah's journey to Jerusalem and mode of action there.
Now let us bring together again the disunited passages, Ezra
vii-x. and Neh. viii-x, and examine into their origin. The
most characteristic thoughts and expressions of the latest
author are here crowded together as if he spoke entirely from
himself. Even the decree of the Persian king addressed to Ezra
(Ezra vii. 12-26), in the Ai-amaic dialect, exhibits occasional
points of phraseology so perfectly characteristic of the latest
author ^ as to drive us to the assumption that it was he who put
it into its present form, with a license of historical description
not exceeding that which the Arabian historians often em2jloy.''
' Because the last compiler docs not. the description of the temple-offerings in
as Ezra vii. 12, commence using the Ara- verse 17, and other descriptions of them
maic with the document qiioted. given Ly our author himself; and that in
- It might be fancied that the author verse 24 the office-bearers of the temple
of the apocryphal Third Book of Ezra, who are divided into classes which no one but
at ix. 37 skips at once from Ezra x. 44 to our author consistently distinguishes thus.
Keh. vii. 73, had before him a book with- ^ This will be allowed by every one
out this interpolation; but in that case he' accpiainted with the Arabic historians;
must have passed at once to Neli. viii. 1, even in works professing to give true
and not to Neh. vii. 73, a verse quite un- history any commands which it is known
suitable to the context. from other sources that a prince must
^ Not to mention again ül^nn. ■^■- 13, have issued, are often dressed up by the
15, 16, note the perfect similarity b'.twcen writer in the form of a regailar edict.
ii)2 uisTüiiY VF iii:];k]:av iiistokical compoöitiox.
Oll closer examination, liOTvever, we discover grounds for
assuming' the employment of a memoir written by Ezra himself
on his acts. For Ezra, throughout the j)assage Ezraviii. 27-ix,
is mentioned in the first person, and the use of the first person
plural in Neli. x. is connected with this phenomenon. Now we
have every reason to see in this the trace of an actual memoir
of Ezra's on his own life. For boldness like that of the Book
of Daniel, which allows any ancient hero to enter speaking of
himself in the first person, is foreign to a work like this of
purely historical purpose, and is in fact found nowhere else in it
— not even where there was a strong temptation to it, as in the
case of David ; but rather, as the numerous passages which
speak of Nehemiah in the first person are undoubtedly drawn
from his memoir, so by parity of reasoning these passages must
be derived from a similar memoir of Ezra's. Moreover, the
j)assages Ezra vii-x. and Neh. viii-x. contain such a number of
minute circumstances and careful enumeration that we are
here forced to assume as the foundation of the present nar-
rative the work of a contemporary who took an active part in
the establishment of the religion, from a consideration of the
number of names of unknown individuals brought together
here as if quoted from official documents, Ezra viii. 1-14, x.
18-44 ; Neh. x. Finally, variations in style are not wanting
here ; ' and in them too we recognise traces of an original
document not wholly effaced by the revision of the last author.
And as Nehemiah, after the pieces to be presently exhibited, in-
serted in his memoir some earlier records also, so from many
traces may we infer that Ezra did, and thus laid the foundation
of chapters i-vi. of the book now called by his name.
c.) Nehemiah's memoir, being less altered by the latest author,
is more readily recognisable. In style, subject-matter, and
plan it is quite peculiar, a personal memoir in the true sense of
the Avord, exhibiting with matchless truth the innermost nature
of the man. The exposition of this point, however, must be
reserved for the history of the time.^ Here we have chiefly to
' The phrase nyi]in"''33> Ezra vi. 19, 8, 18, showing a cuincidonocLctwoen tlicsc
20, viii. 35, X. 16 (compare iv.l), and the contemporaries in the nso of a phra.se
, . , . 1 /. • elsewlierc niK'dnimon.
employment of the article instead of IfJ'i^ . nj, peculiarities of stylo are therefore
before the verb {Lehrbuch, § 331, b), Ezra easily discriminated; they are also seen
viii. 25, X. 14, 17 (compared with v. 18, in the abrupt pause before a merely ex-
where -)t>>N takes its place), are nowhere planatory clause, as vi. 19, where nbs"?
else so common. The pious phrase "113 ■■■ r 1 1 <• • • V '
^ ^ -: or xm. 5, where "iK'X before Qt^ is de-
Din* "sed in various connections (Ezra . ^^ ^ j.^ ^ mi ^ ^ -,1
•':- ... ^ signedly left out. The most tangible
vii. 6, 9, 28, viii. 18. 22, 31) is charae- p,.n,]iaVity i.s his use of the name Jew, as
teristic; it occurs again in Neluniiah ii. if he did not count himsidf one of them.
LATEST BOOK (CHKONICLES, ETC.). 193
explain tlie manner in which the latest author used it, and must
primarily notice that, as the memoir of the ' Priest ' Ezra,
according- to extant traces, regarded exclusively the state of
rclig-ion and of the Temple of Jerusalem, so that of the Layman
and Governor Nehemiali, on the other hand, is chiefly occupied
with the condition of the city and the social welfare of its in-
habitants ; though Nehemiah, following the tendency of his
age, often, and with a certain partiality, does notice religious
matters also. Therefore (1) he describes with pleased prolixity,
Neh. i-vii. 4, how he travelled to the Holy City, restored order
there, and built up her walls. (2) He very properly pauses here
in order to present the statistics of the city and her territory, i.e.
the list of the inhabitants —both the names of those who dwelt
there on the first return from the Captivity, and their distribution
under his new arrangements. This is the passage, Neh. vii.
5-69, xi. 3-xii. 26. But the latest author, while evidently
taking the previous part almost without change, makes in this
several important alterations, adding for instance much respect-
ing the Priesthood in xii, especially after v. 10, and giving to the
passage a new conclusion in his own manner. He had, moreover,
to resume the fallen thread of the history, and of Ezra's journal
on the most" fitting occasion without necessarily waiting till the
close of Nehemiah's memoir. Consequently, after repeating
in ch. vii. 6-69 from Nehemiah the old list of the first-returned
captives, which Nehemiah himself states (vii. 5) he had found,
and with which he must also have appropriated the narrative in
w. 70-73 (although the list in question had already been given
in Ezra ii. from the same source whence Nehemiah took it), he
inserts the remainder of Ezra's history (Neh. viii.-x.), to which
the transition might seem prescribed by the subject itself, as
the one history (xii. 73) breaks off at a seventh month, and the
other (viii. 2) continues the narrative of the earlier events in
Ezra ii. 68-iii. 1, also from the beginning of a seventh month.^
(3) After this pause, ISTehemiah's memoir turned to describe the
dedication-festival for the new walls of Jerusalem, Neh. xii. 27-
xiii. 3 ; and here a^ain the latest author adds something of his
own, especially towards the end of the twelfth chapter. The
memoir finally closed (xiii. 4-31) with short and disconnected
enumerations of other services rendered by the author to
Jerusalem ; leaving the impression that in the end Nehemiah
did not care to describe all that remained in his memory as fully
' Tlie reiteration in the same work doubtedly an historian of a better age
arising hence really differ-i only in extent would have managed to avoid such pal-
from that described p. 179 sq.-; but un- pable repetitions.
VOL. I. .
194 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
as he could have done. It Avould be impossible to characterise
more accurately than in these words, the nature of a personal
memoir such as we suppose Nehemiah's work to be. The latest
author has made no alteration either here or in the simple
superscription, Neh. i. 1, which may be due to Nehemiah's own
hand. Nehemiah's memoir, then, unquestionably ended here ;
and we have every reason to believe that the latest author also
designedly chose the same point for the conclusion of his ^eat
work, inasmuch as whatever was to be said about still later times
had been already mentioned on suitable occasions.
3) After this exposition of the sources of this work, we need
no further proof of the richness of its stores of information
both from ancient and from recent times ; and we also discover
that the judgments of some modern German writers respecting
it are either based uj)on misconception, or else very unjust.
Undoubtedly the writer assumes very great historical licence in
his endeavour to revivify many periods, esj^ecially that of ancient
Jerusalem ; yet even there he restrains himself within certain
bounds. So, for instance, when he introduces songs at tlie
time of David, he onl}^ employs the present collection of Psalms,
which even then was regarded as chiefly by David. The manner
in which he deals with his sources may, however, easily lead
to misunderstanding ; and of course a work so far removed
from the early history, and describing it only through the
medium of derived authorities, must be employed for historical
purposes with very great caution. Still, by accurately observing
what is the author's own in thought, word, and description, and
what he must have derived at all events in its ultimate basis
from his authorities, and thus distinguishing the fundamental
elements of the work, we shall be enabled to use it confidently
and with much advantage even for the earlier history, and glean
from it many important and genuine accounts, which we should
elsewhere seek in vain ; indeed we may discover surprising
relics of the earliest historical works, preserved in it through
the medium of later books, which are here quoted literally. This
has been already incidentally shown in some instances, and for
the rest it will be better shown hereafter in the cases in point.
We now require only a few words more on two important facts
connected with the same subject.
For David's life the author made use of the present canonical
Book of Kings as his chief authority, but in a form differing in
many important points (as we saw on p. 187) from the present
one, and possessing the advantage of greater authenticity. But
along with this he also presents much other matter — long lists
I
LATEST BOOK (CHRONICLES, ETC.) 195
of names and families, most of whicli I have grouped together
above (p. 136 sq.), as well as long speeches and exhortations.
Now whence are these additions derived '? In the speeches and
exhortations, indeed, a slight acquaintance with the peculiarities
of the writer will allow us to see nothing more than the histori-
cal licence with which he endeavours wherever possible to
reanimate David's age. But whence can those long dry lists
be derived ? Certainly not from the work of the prophetic
historian of the Kings — the basis of the canonical Book of
Kings ; for that is an independent work, formed as it were at a
single casting, aiming at a rich, flowing, and elegant manner
of descrijition, and intentionally avoiding everything dry and
fragmentary, such as these lists and enumerations; and the two
passages which are appended to the extracts taken from it,
2 Sam. xxi. 15 sqq., xxiii. 8 sqq., are certainly (for the reasons
adduced on p. 148) placed there quite out of their connection,
having been inserted by later hands. The assumption forced
upon us by this reasoning, that such passages were derived
from some other source, is also corroborated by other considera-
tions. We read in 1 Chr. xxii. an account, wanting in 2 Sam.,
of no small preparations made by David for building the Temple.
This narrative is the natural continuation of chap, xxi., and
certainly not essentially unhistorical, so far as its ultimate basis
is concerned ; es23ecially as it does not accord with the propheti-
cal description in 2 Sam. vii. ; comp. xxiv. Since therefore an
independent work such as the prophetic History of the Kings
could not have comprised these contradictions withm itself,
these divergent accounts must be derived from other, and in
the present case even from earlier, sources. And thus we should
deprive ourselves of one of the richest and oldest sources of the
Davidical history, if we failed to do justice to the very remark-
able remains of the State-annals fortunately preserved to us in
the Book of Chronicles.
On another period, which is treated with extreme brevity in
the canonical Book of Kings — that of David's successors in
Judah down to Hezekiah — this work, when rightly understood
and applied, not only yields very valuable supplements to the
history of the monarchy, the foundation of which undoubtedly
rested on the original State-annals,^ but also tells us of many
Prophets, of whose very names we should have otherwise been
wholly ignorant.^ Indeed it is clear from p. 184 sq. that the
' E.g. sueli passages as 2 Chron. ii. 17 xxiii. 1, xxiv. 3 (compare ver. 27), &e.
[18] (compare ver. 1 [2]), iv. 7-10, xi. - Observe such instances as ' the vision
6-12, 18-23, xiii. 4-7, 19-21, xxi. 2, 3, of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam' in 2
o 2
196 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
uucanonical great work which it used as its authority con-
tained very detailed notices of such prophets, and may conse-
quently be supposed to have drawn its information from actual
projjhetical books of history (pp. 138 sq.). And thus the historian
who can carefully sift the author's various accounts, and extract
from them the precious g-rains of truth, will even here reap a
harvest as the reward of his labours.
4. Of this great work, only the third pai"t, already described
p. 182, was probably at first admitted into the Canon, under the
name of the Book of Ezra (subsequently also called the Books
of Ezra and Nehemiah) ; because we find this part separated
ofi" as an independent Avork, not only in the Masoretic text, but
also in the LXX.' The history of the new Jerusalem, which
would naturally appear especially important in after-times,
might easily be at first admitted alone into the Canon, especially
as the Books of Samuel and Kings, if alread}' admitted, woidd
apj)ear sufficient for the chief part of the history of old Jerusa-
lem. Fortunately, however, for the fuller historical knowledge
of antiquity', the two earlier divisions of the work also were sub-
sequently received into the Canon. But apparently because the
history of the new Jerusalem already existed in another canoni-
cal book, only the earlier portion of this history was copied
in its original context on occasion of this admission into the
Canon ; and in token that the rest was to be found elsewhere,
the narrative was broken ofi* in the middle of a sentence, 2 Chr.
xxxvi. 22 sq. (comp. Ezra i. 1, 2) ; a remarkable phenomenon,
which however appears also in the LXX., and seems to admit
of no other explanation.
The Boole of Esther.
The Book of Esther, which was admitted among the canoni-
cal books of the Old Testament solely for its account of the
feast of Purim, was certainly written somewhat later than the
book we have just been considering. In its mode of treating
an historical subject, also, it closes the cycle of old Hebrew
history, and is already subject to the influence of an utterly
different mode of regarding and treating history. We have
indeed already seen how historical writing gradually burst its
old bounds and took an artist's licence to reanimate its subject-
matter by means of a new thought. But the animating thought
Chr. ix. 29, of whicli unfurtunatoly only tlic ' I)iit pcrbaiis not so early as the author
title aiul lint the contents are f^iveii ; tho of tlio Apocryphal 3 Ezra, who at ii. 1
projijiet Mdo in xii. I.'), xiii. 22; and passes at oneo from 2 Chr. xxxvi. 21 to
llanani llie prophet und. r king Asa in thu Book of Ezra,
xvi. 7-10.
THE BOOK OF ESTIIEE. 197
wliicli then converted old fading traditions into pleasing new
stories, sprang at all events from tlie living well of tlie old
religion, and miglit therefore in favourable cases conjure up
figures both beautiful and truly Hebrew. But the Book of
Esther shows, for the first time, that even this well is beginning
to dry up and be lost to the historian. Its story, though ren-
dered attractive through art, highly cultivated of its kind,
knows nothing of high and pure truths, but allows low calcula-
tions of expediency, the force of blind faith, and the caprice of
passion, to reign supreme. We fall here as if from heaven to
earth ; and looking among the new forms surrounding us, we
seem to behold the Jews, or indeed the small men of the present
day in general, acting just as they now do. Moreover through
the entire narrative the author avoids, as if by design, mention-
ing the name of God ; either because the story was addressed
to minds unwilling to be reminded of higher names and things,
or rather that he himself remains to the end true to the same
low view of things in which the general plan and spirit of this
festal story took its rise ; a model narrator, at least for uni-
formity and consistency. But this, perfect and attractive as it
may be of its kind, and in this case actually is, mvist neverthe-
less be regarded as the true termination of the Hebrew histori-
cal literature, or perhaps in some respects even as diametrically
opposed to the true Hebrew conception of history. The fact
that this book, which gave the best exposition of the meaning
of the Purim feast, so higlily esteemed in recent times, was
therefore deemed worthy of a place beside the older books of the
Canon, must not blind us to its real nature and wide diversity
from all other historical books of the Old Testament, nor to the
fact that it was written at a time already far removed from the
spirit of the old religion.
The history of the proper historical literature of the Hebrews
being now concluded, this and all later books will be more
suitably considered as historical authorities, when we are
engaged upon the latest epoch of the nation.
Conclusion. — Views of later times regardi^ig Antiquity.
Looking back now at the close over the ground traversed,
we can form some idea from this one example of historical
development in the nation, hoAv great that development must
have been in other directions also. All possible species of his-
toric writing, with the single exception of the purely critical,
have been observed ; the youthful kind making the first trial of
I9S HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
its powers, the mature and cultivated, and the artificial in many
gradations ; that of the State-annals with their lapidar j style,
and that which teems with graceful description ; the legal,
the priestly, and the popular ; that which simply narrated, that
which is lifted by prophetic thoughts to a poetical elevation,
and that which reanimates its characters by freely putting
speeches into their mouths ; the almost purposeless, and that
which has the most definite aims ; the heavenly, and the utterly
earthly. Historical composition attained its highest bloom
under the first Kings, and retained this position for several cen-
turies ; but its beginnings go back even to the age of Moses,
and comprise certain extraneous pieces which appear to be of
still earlier date. It passed through vicissitudes equal to those
to which Arabic historic writing down to the time of Abulma-
hasin, Malaisi and Ibn-Chaldun was exposed, and showed itself
more varied and plastic in its course, more rich and compre-
hensive in its acquired materials, than that. Here, therefore,
standmg at the very threshold of the history of the people, we
have every reason to suppose that the nation also must have
passed through many similar vicissitudes and stages of high
cultivation ; for this it is which in every age is reflected in the
working of the intellect in historical literature.
But at any rate, up to the time of the formation of the Old
Testament Canon, historic writing did not reach a stage which
in any strict sense deserves the name of a philosophic treat-
ment of history. No complete discrimination between historic
fact and mere tradition, which would lead to an undivided search
after the former, had been effected, because the necessity of such
distinction had never been deeply felt. And this defect, having
subsisted during the most flourishing period of the People of
Israel, was still less likely to be removed in the age of their
final and utter decay, as will be further shown in the course of
the history itself.
But wherever historic insight is not constantly gaining in
systematic strictness, clearness, and rich variety, and preserved
in all its purity, it must lose more and more of its transparency,
certainty, and fulness, in direct proportion to the distance to
which the period in question is removed from the present either
in time or in vital interest. Hence the ideas held in later times
on the ancient history of Israel, especially on the very earliest
epoch, became increasingly vague and defective, and equally so
among people of the most diverse faiths — among Jews, Samari-
tans, and Christians alike. It is true that the great events
and deep experiences of any later age may throw back an un-
VIEWS OF LATER TIMES REGARDING ANTIQUITY. 199
expected lig-lit over wide spaces of ancient history. And no
sooner liad Christianity appeared than many phases of concen-
trated antiquity shone with a warm glow never seen before. But
still these are only occasional, if powerful streams of light,
which pour over the surface, but cannot reach and brighten
every j)art.
But yet the ancient history was of necessity brought into
more constant and general use with the closer and closer attach-
ment to the religion which it taught, and the wider extension
which it thenceforth experienced through its own completion
in Christianity. Consequently as the study of the history in-
creased, the caprice with which it was used increased also : for it
is only in the use of certain and clearly defined knowledge, that
consistency and freedom from caprice can always be maintained.
And again, all parties and schools, however in other respects they
differed among themselves, could not but agree in this free and
capricious use of history ; since the first Christians did not under-
stand the j)roj)er application of the few but penetrating sayings
of Christ himself which condemned this arbitrary method.
The application of the ancient sacred history was demanded
by the feelings and wants of that age, far more than its correct
description. It was applied in all imaginable ways, — in oral
instruction at every step ; in proof of all possible truths ; in
writings of the most various kinds, for warning, for reproof, for
consolation ; in books clothed in a prophetic dress, or in j)urely
poetic ones ; in forms moulded in imitation of the old Hebrew
literature, or in such as were animated by the freer breath of
the new age and especially by Greek art. Such writings
issued mainly from the most active and impetuous tendencies
of the time, — among the Jews from the Hellenists and other
separatists, among the Christians from the Gnostics and other
sects ; but here and there they are also found among the es-
tablished communities. An instance of this is furnished by the
large work, the ' Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,' ' written
by a genuine Pauline Christian, towards the beginning of the
second century ; filled with a powerful and noble spirit, it imi-
tates Jacob's Blesjing, mentioned on pp. 69 sq., in taking as
its text the sacred memories of the lives and characters of each
of the twelve sons of Jacob.
' The reprint of this work in the Codex sons as speakers, was doubtless the eir-
PseMdcjiitjr. V.T. of J. A. Fabricius, i. pp. cumstance that St. Paul was of the tribe
496-759, scarcely does more than repro- of Benjamin ; the introduction of Benja-
duce the earlier edition of Grabe, without min thus pennitting a natural allusion to
rendering it superfluous. One cause which the high historical importance of his great
led the author to introduce Jacob's twelve descendant.
200 HISTORY OF IIEBEEW HISTORICAL COMPOSITIOX.
But along with tlie flood of sucli writings, others also arose,
which, with whatever motive undertaken, were intended to
describe the ancient history simply as it was, and to make it
known to contemporaries. The only comprehensive work of
this kind preserved entire from the Grecian age, tlieAntiquities
of Flavins Josephus, though admirable in language and style, is
destitute of all high and just views of history, and addicted to
abusing any occasional freedom of treatment by the introduction
of distasteful conceits, far-fetched and infelicitous conjectures,
which betray only too clearly the Pharisee of that age.^ On the
earlier ages of the history it is difficult to discover in this
work a sin^^le fjenuine grain of ancient tradition which was not
already present in the canonical books of the Old Testament ;
and it is therefore most fortunate that the numerous attacks to
Avhich the work was exposed subsequently induced the author
to write the defence known as the Two Boohs against Apion, in
which he gives valuable extracts on the ancient history from
books otherwise lost ; for in the larger work he had given but
few such. It is for the later period only that the works of Jose- .
phus are important. On the earlier times his extracts from
older works are almost the only useful element in them. One
book, the Seder Olam (rabha) has been preserved, which for the
first time treated the chronology of the whole Old Testament
history as a subject worth knowing for its own sake ; it dates
at the earliest from the middle or close of the second century
after Christ.^ This work, which in language and spirit may be
compared with the best passages of the Mislma, was written in
an age when Judaism, already tota^Uy dissevered from Chris-
tianity, was also separating itself from all Greek culture, in
order to fall back rigidly upon the letter of the Old Testament.
Though it does not exactly treat the historical contents of
the Old Testament more arbitrarily than the Christians of the
first two centuries did, and even carefully brings together
all passages of those Scriptures which appear to possess any
importance to the establishment of a single continuous chrono-
logy, yet through the utter caprice of its arrangement it clearly
proves that no certainty can be attained by this method alone.
And even its frequent ingenuity and its attempts to reduce all
the facts of history to round and definite numbers, as well as
to exhibit surprising analogies, must have often distorted the
' For iiibtaiico, Ant. vi. 12. 8, where date, and a vrry ample but unsatisfactory
he expresses himself strongly against commentary by Johann Meyer. On the
monarchy. age of the work, see Zunz, Gotlcffdicnst-
" J'rinted at Amsterdam IG'JO, together luhe Vortriujc da- Judai, p. 85, 138.
with the Stdcr Oluiii Zuttu of much later
VIEWS OF LATER TIMES REGARDING ANTIQUITY. 201
truth. A similar judgment must bo passed upon that part of
the Mishna which relates to this subject. Let it not be thought
that the Talmud contains none but true recollections of early
times : for even in the Mishna we meet with a mode of refinine:
upon difficult points of antiquity quite analogous to the so-called
Rationalism of modern times.'
But there were other works also which united the two pur-
poses of historical description and moral exhortation. Such a
work is the Booh of Jubilees, written by a Jewish hand, about the
first century before Christ,^ and much read by Christians after-
wards. In modern times it was suj^posed to be irrecoverably
lost, until the recent discovery of an Ethiopic translation.^ The
evident design of its strict exhortations is to recommend the
accurate observance of the Sabbath with all the festal arrange-
ments of the Old Testament ; but it also explains from history
the meaning of all the sacred divisions of time, especially the
Jubilees ; to this end breaking up the entire history of the
world down to the giving of the law at Sinai into small periods,"*
everywhere half fancy and half truth.
Thus during the few centuries before and after Christ arose,
even within the bounds of the ancient community, an extremely
extensive and varied literature on the subject of the ancient
history.^ Very few of these works, however, have come down
to us complete ; many are as yet only very imperfectly known ;
and the very existence of many once popular works can only
be inferred from certain indications, which do not even enable
us to give their names or trace them with any certainty. This
truth must be steadily borne in mind in reading the works
which have come down to us : or else we shall miss the true
' See for instance tlie trifling exjilana- * Hence seems to have arisen its other
tion of the lifting of Moses' hands in Ex. name, signifying in effect t« AeTrra (sul)ti-
xvii., and of the serpent in Numb, xxi., lia, minuta) ttjs Viveaeois (comp. Kara. t5
which is given by the njt-M C'X"! ch. iii. X^Tr-rhv ^L-nyuaQai and Äen-ToAoyelv in
end. Even the Arabian Rabbis, as Epiph. Hcer. (li. 10. 12 sq. 30), and still
Saadia, Tanchum, are often only triflers in further abbreviated 'H Aeirr)) rivea-is, Parva
Biblical exegesis: Ewald, Ucber die Ar a- (jc??cs2s; which name, however, is ill-suited
hischgeschriebenenWerke Jüdischer Sprach- to a work of such extent. See G'6tting(r
ffelch'r fen, Stuttgart, 1841, p. 7; and in the Gelehrte Anzeigen, 18G0, p. 404 sq., and
Tübingen Theologische Jahrbücher, 1845, D'Abbadie's Catal. Codd. Aethiop. p. 133.
p. 574 sq. The Ethiopians generally name the book
■■^ The first certain allusion to this book KufCdcB. See also Jahrb. d. Bib. Wiss.
occurs as early as 4 Ezra xiv. 4-6. iv. 79.
^ Translated by Dillmann, with a disser- ^ Philo, at the commencement of his
tation on its age, in the Jahrhü-her der Life of Moses, refers to many highly-
Biblischen Wissenschaft, ii. p. 230 sqq. and esteemed historical works, on Moses for
iii. It was published in Ethiopic, also instance, written by Jews, but not included
edited by Dillniann, at Kiel, 1859. On a among the sacred writings; but his own
recently discovered ancient Latin version, works show how little of any importance
see Göttinger Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1862, p. respecting the ancient history coxüd bo
2 sq. gleaned from them.
202 HISTORY OF HEBREW HISTORICAL COMPOSITION.
meaning- and importance of miicli wliicli even tliey contain.^
Moreover it is very possible, indeed often obvious, that many,
and especially the earlier of these authors, made use of written
records not admitted among the canonical books. We must
not overlook even such authorities ; thoug-h the most careful
search will be rewarded with but few grains of gold in this in-
creasingly desolate expanse. For it is most melancholy to per-
ceive, that with the advance of time the correct understanding
of the distinctive features and even of the sublimity of antiquity
retrogrades. Of this many instances will come before us as we
advance.
Before the expedition of Alexander, no Greek observer had
specially noticed the peculiar manners and history of this
recluse people ; they were at that time confounded with the
Sp'ians, Phenicians, and Palestinians (or properly Philistines) :
even Herodotus neither visited their country nor learned any-
thing definite about the people or their name, except that they
were circumcised.^ But as the Jews, and subsequently the
Christians, became better known to the Greeks and Romans,
some few writers among the latter gradually began to take some
interest in the ancient history and peculiar customs of the
Israelites. Pew of these however were so free from preposses-
sion against them as Aristotle'^ or Hecateeus of Abdera ; * the
greater number were hindered by the strong wall of existing
prejudices against the nation from gaining any profound or
comprehensive view of their history, as will be further shown in
its proper place. A fresh impetus, both stronger and purer, to the
study of this history, was felt by early Christianity. No sooner
had the Christian Church gained a firm and peaceful footing in
the world, than such men asOrigen, Eusebius, and Jerome turned
their fresh energies to this sphere. Here we see the first serious
preparation and prelude to a j)hilosophic treatment of the Old
' Vory little has as yet been con-ertly been early reduced to writing. In the same
observed on the question how many and May no one (as far as I know) has yet
what uncanoiiical books are referred to pointed out that in the Mishna we occa-
in the New Testament ; but it ought at sionally find passages of a much earlier
length to be seen that much that is date: as tor instnuce \n Pir/icA/Mth, n. I,
alluded to in the historical books and in 2, some sayings which from their tone and
the Epistles, especially that to the He- style must bo very ancient, possibl}' even
brews, must necessarily come from writings derived from some early prophetic work,
which have not become canonical. It is '^ See my Altcrthümer, p. 103.
usual to assume an oral tj-adition as the ' According to Clearchus, in Josephus*
!)asis of such stories, without considering Against Apion, i. 22. This entire dis-
the utter impossibility of this assumption qiiisition in Josephus is of importance,
in the greater number of cases ; for even if * In Josephus, Against Apion, i. 22 ;
any view not found in the canonical books Eusebius, Prap. Evangclica, ix. 4 ; and
had been first formed in a school (which Diod. Sic. i. 40, according to Photius.
Philo assumes, ii. p. 81), yet it must have
VIEWS OF LATER TIMES REGARDING ANTIQUITY. 203
Testament history. But it is notorious that all such efforts
were then left incomplete, and that a long night of increasing
darkness soon supervened. Through Islam this darkness be-
came even denser ; smce, with all its eagerness to catch up and
remodel any traditions of Biblical antiquity which came in its
way, it took them only from the mouth of the then living Jews
and Christians, and not even from the best extant sources.*
Owing its own birth to a neglect of history, Islam has never given
birth to any true history.
We have now in the broad light of day to complete (what the
best Fathers of the Church began) a philosophic history, the
certainty and truth of which shall ultimately attract all alike —
Jews and Mohammedans as well as Christians, scholars as well
as soldiers and kings.
' These traditions are found collected Sibliftokc Lec/etidender Musebnänner,'[8i!),
in the great Islamite Chronicles, beginning and my own remarks in the Tübingen
with that of Tabari, or as an introduction TlieoJogisdiC Jahrbücher, 1845, p. 571 sqq.
to the history of Muharamed ; see Weil,
204
SECTION III.
CHEONOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY.
The chronology of the history of an ancient nation, whether in
its larger divisions, or in its entire extent, can never be secure
and readily available as exact science, unless it is proved that
during its national existence it employed a continuous and
fixed computation of years (or Era) in specifying the order of
events. Yet how long it is before a nation reaches this point
at all! and how few of the nations of antiquity, despite their
high culture in many other respects, ever understood the neces-
sity of this art, simple and all-sufiicient as it is ! The great
historical phenomena and events themselves may so entirely
absorb the thoughts of a nation or other community, that for a
long time they hardly find it necessary to look any further and
enquire to what definite period of time they belonged. In
Israel this deep interest in the internal life, and childlike
disregard of the outside of history, was of long duration, in-
duced and cherished as it was by historical position. Even in
the New Testament age, the narratives of the Gospel-history long
remained at this first stage of self-sufficing and homelike seclu-
sion, until at length Luke began to find its place for it in the
chronology of the great world. And ancient Israel rejoiced for
centuries in its deliverance from Egypt and the bondage of
Pharaoh, without even seriously asking the name of the Pharaoh
under whom Moses rose up, or caring much in what year or even
century he reigned. Wliere in the ordinary transactions of
life a date could not be dispensed with, as in deeds concerning
transfers of property, the ancient Israelites probably found it
sufficient to count time by the years of their ruler. No such
Israelitish document has indeed as yet been discovered; but
this system was in use among the Egyptians, even as late as the
age of the Ptolemies.^ Before the Monarchy, one sort of supreme
power in Israel possessed the requisite permanency to serve as
a reference in counting the course of years — the High-priest's
' Many Egyptian records of tlic kind interpreted, at least as far as tlie nuinljers
have already been diacovc^red and reliably are concerned.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT IIISTOEY. 205
office ; and tliis it could do even when greatly reduced in power.'
But wlien in inucli Liter times documents such as these were
appealed to, it would be necessary in the first instance to
obtain from some master of the science a determination of the
time when any <^iven ruler lived ; and thus a system seeming-ly
simple proved itself in the end particularly technical and com-
plicated. Extraordinary events also, whether joyous or grievous,
not unfrequently served as chronological landmarks, as we
clearly see in some examples taken from common life.^ But
no one such date remained long enough in the national memory
to become j)ermanent. Thus during the whole period in which
Israel flourished as a nation, no one era ever came into conti-
nuous and general use.
1. But it would be a mistake to infer from this that the ancient
Israelites possessed no means of counting the course of years.
They were assuredly not so barbarous as this ; and in every
civilised state the necessity of a continuous survey of the years
is felt at every step. Computations of years, reaching back
very far, were especially required for the settlement of the
annual festivals and the entire calendar.^ In the ancient world
generally, and in Egypt especially, this work was the duty of
the Priesthood ; * and so it doubtless was in Israel. Moreover
the Sabbatical and Jubilee years of the Israelites, Avliich were
undoubtedly faithfully observed in the earliest ages, introduced
the further necessity of computing long series of years (Cycles).
As the Priests thus had to compute ver^^ various and sometimes
extensive periods, we can see no reason Avhy they should not
have possessed a j^ermanent chronology.-'
The mode in which the Book of Origins marks time furnishes
' The groat excitement occat^ioncd in important description in Clemens Alexan-
oarly times by tlie death of a High-priest driniis, Sf7-om. vi. 4.
and the consequent inauguration of a sue- ^ The ealculation of centuries would he
cessor, and the marked epoch formed by much easier if the fiftieth year were always
these events, may 1)0 imagined from the the year of Jubilee; see ray Altcrihihmr
indications explained in my Altcrihiiiner p. 415 sq. The later Jewish scholars
des Volkes Lrael, p. 197, 425. See lists generally fixed the fiftieth, and not tlie
of priests with their years, e.g. in C. I. forty-ninth as the Jubilee year ; as we see
Gr. ii. p. 449. plainly by the Seder Olmn rahha, c. xi. ;
° Amos i. 1 ; comp. Zech. xiv. T) ; the Philo's Qurestiones in Gefiesin xvii. 1 seq.
case briefly mentioned aljovo (p. ;J2') may apud Auciier, ii. p. 209 ; Coisii/utiones
have T)een a similar one in primi'val times ; A/>o,'<(oltc(P, vii. 36, and other authorities-
a third instance is that of Ezekiel's reck- sec my Alter' hiliner, p. 419. The I'ook of
oning from the captivity of King Jelioia- Jubilees, however, reckons by jubilees of
chin, i. 2, &c. precisely seven weeks, i.e. of fort^'-nine
* Especially as distinct traces are per- yc.irs ; but thi.s is only a learned fancy of
ceptible of two beginnings to a year; one treating and reckoning the whole ancient
of which at b'ust (that maintained by the history as sacred, as if some siiecial sanc-
Pricsts) required a scientific calculation, tity lay in the constantly-z'ccurring number
See my Altcrthümer, p. 394 sq. seven.
* Of the Egyptian priests we have the
206 CHRONOLOGY
a clear proof of the possibility of a continuoTis clironology
among- tlie Israelites, and of its applicability to tbe description
of their own history. For it gives to the events following the
Exodvis from Egypt a distinct chronology dating from that very
Exodus, and reckoning the beginning of each year by the first
day of the Paschal month. This system runs through all
the extant fragments of that great work, and it would be
absurd to suppose it simply invented by that writer himself.
In fact, in the whole history of Israel, no event was fitter than
this to serve as the commencement of a chronologic era. The
Romans counted their years from the expulsion of the Tarquins,
long before the building of the city was adopted as the com-
mencement of their era. With even greater justice might the
Israelites adopt their great deliverance from Egypt, the origin
of all the higher elements of their life, as the first year of their
era. At least when the laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee
years were actually carried out (and this certainly occurred
immediately upon the conquest of the countrj^), a fixed chrono-
logy must have been established ; and at that time the year of
the Exodus may very probably have been taken as the com-
mencement of an era. Now (as already mentioned, p. 82), the
Book of Origins, in 1 Kings vi. 1, names 480 years as the time
which elapsed between the Exodus and the building of the
Temple in the fourth year of Solomon's reign. We cannot now
feel any doubt as to the basis on which this calculation rests,
especially when we remember that (according to j). 78) the
author was a Levite ; since as such he would naturally have
access to the most accurate chronology then attainable. But
the same author (according to p. 82), also in Ex. xii. 40, de-
termines the length of the sojourn in Egypt in years ; and
though the Israelites had not then the inducement of the Sab-
batical and Jubilee years to carry on a continuous clironology,
yet it must be remembered that they were then living in so
close contact with the Egyptians, old masters of the science,
that they could easily obtain the best instruction. It must also
be added, that the Book of Origins (according to the fragment
explained p. 52) gave notices of the times of the building of
ancient cities both in Egypt and Canaan. Taking all these
facts into consideration, we can no longer doubt that through-
out the best ages of the nation, the Priests jDaid great attention
to chronology, and possessed a continuous chronologic reckoning
dating from the great Israelite event, the first year of the
Exodus.
But yet this method of computation obtained little favour for
OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY. 207
the ordinary purposes of common life. It was not employed in
civil documents ; at least we do not find the slightest trace of
such a use. In ordinary books of narrative too, written on a
less grand scale, and by authors less acquainted with all ages
of history than the priestly author of the Book of Origins, it
was not used ; since in these some simpler and more obvious
system of reckoning, e.g. by the year of the reigning prince,
Avas thought sufficient. Hence many points connected with the
Old Testament chronology are really more or less uncertain,
and an air of micertainty is thus easily thrown over the whole.
For the whole early history, in many resj^ects the most impor-
tant of all, the numbers given in the Book of Origins — the
480 years after, and 430 years before the Exodus — form the
axis upon which everything turns, and upon the reliability of
which everything hangs. And precisely because these two high
numbers now stand alone in the Old Testament, and at first
sight appear incompatible with other recorded facts, it is easy
to raise doubts respecting their credibility ; and in fact objec-
tions on various grounds have been urged against it. We must
reserve proofs of the groundlessness of all such objections to the
parts which treat of the settlement in and the Exodus from
Egypt.
2. When the chronology of a history presents itself in the
state just described, the most obvious means either to establish
or to correct it, is to compare it, at all points of contact, with
the contemporary portion of the history of some other nation.
But Israel, during the whole period of its independent national
life, was too proud to aiTange and carry on its chronology on
the system of any other nation, whether Phenician, Egyptian,
or Babylonian ; and its literary culture was too rudimentary to
induce even a collateral mention of the corresponding chrono-
logy of foreign nations. Even after the division of the kingdom
which ensued after Solomon's death, the chronology of each
kingdom, so far as we can see, was dated solely by the years of
the king reigning there, without any reference to the other.
In the superscriptions of some prophetical books,' indeed, we
now read the names of the contemporary kings of both king-
doms, given for the sake of greater definiteness ; and in the
existing Books of Kings, the histories of the two kingdoms are
skilfully interwoven on the principle of associating together the
contemporary kings of both ; by which means the separate com-
putations are more readily made to correspond with and verify
' Amos i. 1, Hosea i. 1, added by tlic hand of the last collector; see my Prophctoi,
des Alten Hundes, i. p. 61.
208 CHROXOLOGY
each otlier. But in both these cases of parallelisms we trace a
later hand ; and those so-called synchronisms appear from all
available indications to have been only imported bj the learned
into the history after the total destruction of the Northern
King-dom. The earliest Hebrew writer known to have emj)loyed
a foreig-n (i.e. non-Israelite) chronology is Ezekiel, living in the
middle of the Babylonian captivity ; yet even he scarcely ven-
tures to put the foreign beside the native chronology at the
very front of his worh.^
It is therefore only where a foreign history or chronology
comes into some contact with the history of Israel that any
comi)arison can be instituted. Every combination of the kind
that can be safely made, cannot but be extremely welcome and
useful here. For the later half of the history we have at
command many points of comparison with the history of the
Phenicians, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and the Greeks,
which help to clear up many obscurities. But for the first
half of this history, i.e. the period before David and Solomon,
these sources, so far as we yet know them, fail us almost
totally.^ At present therefore the Egyptian chronology alone
possesses for both divisions of the history considerable, and for
the earlier unrivalled, importance. Manetho's numbers as yet
stand alone to vouch for the whole early history of Egypt and
the countries of Western Asia ; and from the close connection
existing at many important points between the histories of
Israel and of Egypt, they will be found of the greatest use to
us. Lately too, the secrets of the ancient Egyptian inscriptions
and pap^^i have been disclosed in increasing numbers and
accuracy ; and it is generally names a,nd dates upon these
which can be deciphered with the greatest certainty. Never-
theless we must beware of incautious or excessive reliance upon
this authoritj^, so far as it is yet accessible and appears uncor-
rupt. For though the Egyptians from the earliest times
displayed the greatest capacity for numbers and calculations,
and loved the abstruse arts of that department, yet even they
employed as yet no permanent chronological era in common
life. Eor ordinary purposes they reckoned time by the years of
the reigniTig king ; and the larger numbers preserved from their
schools contain only the frequently ingenious computations of
the learned.^
' Soc my rrophclni, ii. p. 214. lorjic th-r jEg;/}r!rr, vol. i.. Berlin, 18 19 ; to
^ The whole fourth vohime of Bun.^cn's this still iiieoiiiplete work, liis Konigslmch
yT-dJ/plciiK S/dlc in der IVcK/jcschich/civiL'rs der alten ^gi/ptcr, Berlin, 1858, also on a
to this suhject. very largo scale, serves as a supploniont.
^ Sec Lepsius'b great work iJlc Clirono- Büekh, in Munctlio und die Hundsstern-
OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY. 209
3. But beyond tlie mere numbers of years there liave come
down to us, amid the mass of historical materials, various other
supports for the chronology which are deserving of attention.
Such a support would have been furnished by the mention of
the observance of the Sabbatical, and yet more of the Jubilee
years, if such mention were frequent, or indeed occurred at all.
These Sabbatical and Jubilee years were unquestionably actually
observed by the nation, during at least the first few centuries
of their possession of Canaan.' If therefore one or more of
these years were noticed in the history, and the date of the
commencement of the series were also known, we should
possess some fixed supports for the chronology. And in fact
something of this kind was assumed by the learned Jews of
later times who examined the ancient chronology as a Avhole.
The author of the Seder Olam Babha (p. 200) teaches that the
residence of Israel in Canaan prior to the first expulsion
amounted to exactly seventeen Jubilees, or 850 years ; and in
accordance with this general assumption all special details were
computed. It was taught, for instance, that the building of
Solomon's Temple occurred exactly in the middle of a Jubilee-
period, the finding and publication of the law of Moses under
Josiah at the very commencement of the last, and the deporta-
tion of king Jehoiachin exactly in the middle of this last Jubi-
lee-period.^ But it justly excites our surprise to find these late
writers speaking so exactly of things never mentioned with
these details in the old historical Avorks, nor even by Josephus.
We need not indeed be much surprised to find no notice taken
by the historical reporters of these great epochs in the earliest
ages when they were undoubtedly observed, inasmuch as the
accounts preserved of those early times are throughout ex-
tremely brief. But if during the more fully described periods
of history (viz. the times of the Kings) all these years of rest
were really observed with the accuracy which these later
writers pretend, it cannot but appear strange that no single
observance of them, either din-ing the building of the Temple
or on any other occasion, is recorded. In the time of the new
j-)cr}o(U (Berlin, 1845), attempted to extend ' See my Alterfhitmer, p. 41 1 sqq.
this theory of artificially devised numbers, - See Seder Olam R. c. xi. 15, 23, 24, 25.
so far as to show the entire history of Egypt The time of the siege of Jerusalem Ly
Tip to Meucs to be arranged according to Sennacherib is placed by this work (ch.
the Sothiac cycle ; this is very properly dis- xxiii.) in tlie 1 1th year of a Jubilee-cycle,
puted by Lepsius. See also the critiques thercforenot immediatelj'beforeaSabbath-
on the works of Lepsius and others on this year, with an explanation of the words of
sidiject, in the Guttivger Gelehrte Anse'xjen, Isaiah xxxvii. 30, which expressly avoids
1850, pt. 83; 1851, p. 425 sqq.; 1S52, p. referring these to a Sabbath or Jubiloe-
1153 sqq.; 1858, p. 1441 sqq. year.
VOL. I. P
210 CHRONOLOGY
Jerusalem on tlie contrary, when at least the Sabbatical year
was actually observed, Josephus mentions it quite naturally
wherever it had any influence on the course of history ;' for
the seventh year's fallow, observed as strictly as it seems to
have been from about the time of Ezra and the Maccabees, had
a remarkable influence upon many social arrangements, occa-
sioning especially the demand to omit the land-tax for that
year. Now it may possibly be of some use to note one of the
years of this period which was kept as a sabbath, as by reck-
oning from thence backward and again backward, we may be
enabled to draw some sort of conclusion respecting earlier times
also. If however, in the later age, the seventh year only was
observed, and no notice was taken of the Jubilee and the fifty
years' cycle, the calculation thence deduced would not without
modification admit of apjjlication to the early times. More-
over we are ignorant of many preliminary points essential for
carrying through such a calculation with any great degree of
certainty. As to- the Rabbinical assumptions mentioned above,
we can only suppose that they sprang from the well-known
mode of dealing with the Old Testament adopted by the Rabbis ;
who hunted up supports, actual or apparent, furnished by iso-
lated sentences of Holy Writ, in order to establish their precon-
ceived opinion, and were thus, through assumptions more witty
than truthful, betrayed further and further into error. ^ To gain
firm ground here, independent of Rabbinical subtleties, we should
require at the outset very different authorities and auxiliaries
from those now at our command.
The numerous genealogical tables, of greater or less extent,
scattered throughout the Old Testament, and in part elsewhere,^
furnish another sujjport to the chronology. For by takmg twenty-
* Josephus, Jewish War,\. 2. 4; Anfi- Dukeof Manchester (in his work 77/c T/wics
quities, xiii. 8. 1, xiv. 10. 6, 16. 2, xv. 1. 2. of Daniel, London, 1815), has recently at-
See Tac. IJist.v. i. tempted to support a similar assumption
2 It is clear from the above-cited pas- by tlie passages Jcr. xxviii. 1, 3, xxxiv. 8-
sages of the Seder Olam R., that the t\yo 11, as if these numbers and words applied
passages in Ezekiel i. 1, 2 and xl. 1 served necessarily to Sabbatical years, but with-
as starting-points: the expression t^'X") out at all proving that they really have the
n3C^n (xl. 1), was explained as the com- signification which he attaches to them,
niencement of a Jubilee-cycle (but it can We know besides from other sources, that
signify only the beginning of a single year, in the learned schools of the early Eabbis
tliough certainly in a somewhat extended a great desire prevailed to reduce the
sense, and not to be restricted to the first entire ancient chronology to Jubilee-cycles.
day or first hour only) ; then the thirtieth Tl\\q Book o/"J'?fW/e(?s, mentioned p. 201, only
year mentioned in i. 1, was intei'preted of endeavours to carry out for the entire Pre-
tho thirtieth year of the preceding cycle mosaic period what others had attempted
(which is nowhere even remotely indicated), for the Postmosaic.
and so the conclusion was arrived at, that ^ See how in a later age the Profev.
the year of the llestoration of the Law t7«co/^/, c. 1, and Eusebius's l?«'^. i/ifs^o;-^, i.
by Josiah was the first year of the last 7, speak on this subject.
Jubilee-cycle before the Captivity. The
OF THE AxXClEXT IIISTORV. 211
five to thirty years as the average length of a generation in ordi-
nary historical times, we can fill up many gaps in the chronology.
And there is no doubt that such genealogies were very con-
stuiitly kcj)t, at least in periods of settled government. We
are not, indeed, distinctl}' informed, whether all new-born
children were at once registered by the Priests ; but we know
that lists were kept of the houses of the priests and of others
of about equal rank through both parents ; ' and that of all the
mcQibers of the community without exception accurate census
and muster rolls were taken.^ But great havoc may very likely
have been made in these registers from time to time, through
political commotions and the dispersion of the people ;^ and the
tables in the Books of Chronicles, with all their richness, are
transmitted to us with abbreviations so serious as often to
occasion obscurity (see pp. 180 sqq.). Here then great caution
is requisite throughout. Moreover the genealogies for long
periods are very likely(according to pp. 24 sq.) reduced to round
numbers, which demand still greater caution. Abbreviations
of this kind are found down even to quite late times.'* Never-
theless a complete and accurate comparison of all such tables
may very possibly yield some results even to the chronology.
4. All these circumstances unite to prove the great diificulty
of establishing a chronology which shall embrace the whole
history of the nation, a difiiculty which is especially felt in the
earlier period. To these considerations must be added the
especial liability of numbers to be mistaken and changed by
the transcriber.® The antiquity of the Hebrew nation passed
away without leaving any satisfactory answer to the historian's
questions on these points ; and although the Book of Origins
presents a general view of the chronology very admirable for
the early age of which it treats, yet in the following centuries
the decay of the historic spirit manifested itself in a want of
accurate attention to the chronology also. In the age of the
' Comp. Josephus, Oh 7»'s On'« Z;7"c,ch. 1, * As in 4 Ezra i. 1-3 only just twenty-
cud ; Af/ainsf, Apion, ii. 7. The small generations are reckoned from Aaron to
I'^DPlV "iSDi or Book of Generations (this Ezra; and as Ibn-Chaldun mentions from
common Ilal^lnnical title answers to the his own experience a reduction of about
i.vri'' mentioned above, p. 180 nolc, and is twenty generations to ten; Journ. Asiat.
found as early as the M. Jebamoth, iv. 13), 1847, i. p. 444 ; ii. p. 403.
given by Josephus of himself, contains '^ It is a theory incapable of proof, that
something singular. in ancient MSS. the numbers were ex-
2 Comp, my Altcrthümer, p. 350 sq. pressed only l)y letters of the alphabet,
^ Comp. Ezra ii. G2 ; Neh.vii.64; (;ven and therefore so frequently interchano-ed •
if wliat Africanus says (apud Ensebium, but no other words are in themselves so
Hist. Eccl. i. 7) of a burning of the gene- liable to interchange in writing as the
alogies by Herod is not to be taken lite- names of numbers.
rally.
P 2
ül2 CIIEONOLOGY
Greek and Oriental supremacy, indeed, there early arose in the
learned schools of Alexandria an energetic desii'e to regard
with a more strictly philosophical eye the whole history, and
with it the chronology also, of the Eastern nations ; and as this
zeal S23read to the Hellenists also, a certain Demetrius, pro-
bably either a Jew or a Samaritan living in Egypt as early as
the reign of Ptolemy Philopator, about b.c. 210, atttempted to
form a more accurate chronology of the ancient history of
Israel.* But such attempts were too isolated to lead to any
permanent results. This is very distinctly seen in Fl. Jose-
plius, who, while displaying less aptitude for chronology than
for any other branch of historical investigation, understands
its importance as well as the Greek historians, and yet
is nowhere guided by any fir ml}^ -grounded view on the sub-
ject, and consequently sways to and fro in utter indecision.^
Still less certainty, however, is exhibited by the Rabbis of a still
later time (see pp. 200 sq.). Christian scholars of the second,
third, and foui-th centuries were the first to take up these studies
anew. The subject of chronology was first briefly touched
upon by Tatian, a disciple of Justin Martyr, in his Oration to
the Greeks, and then more definitely by Theophilus of Antioch,
in the second, and yet more in the third book addressed to
Autolycus ; in which, however, he does not adopt any really
philosophic method, to bring the various dates into harmony,
but rather aims merely to show the great antiquity of the Old
Testament books and history. But Africanus and Eusebius of
Caesarea, who followed next, strove with philosophic earnest-
ness to bring the Biblical chronology into accordance with that
of other nations, and Africanus especially brought to this task
remarkable diligence and acuteness. But this, like all other
philosophic enquiries respecting the Bible, remained at that
time incomplete. The writers of the Middle Ages j)aid still
less attention to chronology ; Syrian and some other writers,
however, have preserved many isolated dates, transmitted from
ancient authorities.^ At last in modern times the investigation
of the entire subject was again resumed, and pursued anew from
the very beginning.
The later scholars of antiquity were least successful in their
' Sre the extracts from liis work pre- tionally, liy later readers, and not make
served by Alexander Polyhistor in Eusebii him personally responsible for all contra-
rrff-2}.Eimiff.\-K.. 21, 29, and m Chmentis dictions; though even then a suiRcieut
Sirom. i. 21. nnmber remain unexcnscd.
» We ought certainly, in the writings of • As in Lagardc's A7ial. Syr. (1858),
Josephus, to make allowance for many p. 120, 18 sqq.
alterations of the text made, often inten-
OF TIIK ANCIEXT niSTORY. 213
attempts to establisli a general chronology embracing all
ancient history, frequently as such attempts were made, for
various reasons. Fl. Josephus was of opinion that more than
5,000 years had elapsed from the Creation to his own day :
others reckoned exactly 5,500 years between Adam and Christ ; •
but none of these views originate in any accurate philosophic
investigation of the subject. In the Bible itself, the remains of
the Book of Origins certainly present a continuous chronology
down to the building of Solomon's Temple, according to p. 82.
But even respecting some portions of that period there are
other Biblical accounts at variance with its computations ; and
for the entire period following the building of the Temple the
canonical books contain no comjjutation of a chronological total
at all. The Bible itself therefore, with its many various parts
lying before us, rather incites to such a calculation than accom-
plishes it for us. We must be satisfied, if only from the actual
commencement of the history of Israel as a nation, we can lay
down a chronology correct in all its general features.
' Thus, according to an ancient Apo- xsviii. end. Those who reckoned by
cr3-phon and with a discrimination of the Jubilees hiid down the whole history dif-
separute periods, in Evang. Nicodemi, ch. ferently by their peculiar art.
214
SECTION IV.
TEERITORY OF THIS HISTOEY.
I. PHYSICAL ASPECT.
Many writers have tried to persuade themselves and others
that the soil makes the people : that the Bavarians or the
Saxons were destined by their soil to become what they now
are ; that Protestant Christianity does not suit the warm south,
nor Roman Catholicism the northern latitudes, and much more
to this effect. Such scholars as interpret history only by their
own scanty knowledge, or even by their narrow minds and
bleared sight, would try to convince us, too, that the nation
of this history must have possessed some attribute or other,
rightly or wrongly assumed to belong to it, because it inhabited
Palestine, and not India or Greece. But if such reasoners
would consider that in antiquity this very soil maintained
nations, religions, and civilisations of the greatest imagin-
able diversity in the narrowest comjjass, and that between
every one of its ancient and its present populations the differ-
ence is infinite, although the soil has remained the same, they
would see how little it is the ground alone that creates a nation
and a distinctive stage of civilisation. In every land, except
perhaps a Greenland or a Terra del Fuego, powers springing
from a different source elevate a people to that stage in which
the nobler forces of its mind have free play ; and when these
have once begun to act, then, if not afterwards utterly stifled,
they free the nations more and more from the bonds of the soil,
and work out everywhere results similar in the main. The dif-
ferences which remain after all, and must be ascribed to the
special influence of each country, only resemble the different
colours in the honey gathered by the bees from the different
flowers of various lands. But these powers, even when pre-
cluded from free development, act upon the nation in their very
perversion and obscuration far more forcibly than the position
and properties of its clod of earth ever can, as is proved in the
history of both ancient and modern nations. Only at the very
beginning possibly, and in the lower spheres of his existence, is
man fully exposed to the influences of the soil.
TERKITOIIY: PHYSICAL ASPKCT. 21.^
But of course a favouring soil can do much to raise a nation
speedily and easily by internal energies above the first difficul-
ties of its existence to a stage in which its higher powers have
free play. In later times, when the intellectual forces, having
once been excited and openly exerted, pass from land to land,
and can never more be utterly annihilated or repudiated, the
soil is so inoperative upon the status of a nation that these
forces often attain their highest perfection even in countries
least befriended by nature. But before such powers were
matured and diffused, the case must have been very different.
It may be truly said that in the earliest ages of human history
certain lands seem predestined by their advantageous position
to elevate their inhabitants speedily, without foreign impulse or
aid, to the higher stage of intellectual life, and to prefigure in
miniature, in bold attempts and the play of youthful power, the
career to be afterwards more slowly and deliberatel}^ run on a
larger scale by the human race in general. And among those
few lands upon which the morning star of creation shone
brightest, Palestine must certainly be included, and indeed ad-
mitted to possess some peculiar advantages over all the rest.
1. This is not the place to describe the earth and sky of this
strip of land, or their joint influence upon the products of the
soil, the animal creation, or the mere physical conditions of
human life connected with the bodily constitution, the habita-
tion, and clothing of man. These things are in many respects
the easiest to understand, and some of them have been already
treated of. To turn, then, to their influence upon the intellec-
tual life of man : the warm climate of the country, the exuber-
ant fertility of its soil, which did not even, like that of Egypt,
require the expenditure of much laborious art,' and its proximity
to lands the wealth and various treasures of which could readily
supply any deficiencies of its own, must here, earlier than in
.many other parts, have raised man above the first hard struggle
for the necessaries of life, set his mind free from bondage to
the earth, and given him leisure for higher efforts. But this
fruitful land is really only a broad strip of sea-coast,^ bounded
on every side by the wide and terrible deserts of Arabia, with
which its inhabitants were therefore always well acquainted
either by j)ersonal experience or description. Here, as in the
analogous case of Egypt, this position, keeping always before
^ This is noticed in Deuteronomy xi. sense, i.e. to the Jordan, is often in ele-
10-12, as an advantage possessed by tlie rated writing called '>{<n ''^'c coast, Isaiah
Holy Land even over Esypt, productive ^^^ i i h ^
as that had been rendered by human skill. ^^- ^ "' ^i^e J^^l^^ for instance, in the
"^ Therefore Palest ine in the narrower histories of the Crusades.
216 TEKKITORY.
their eyes tlie contrast of want and superfluity, of deatli and
life, must early have roused men's minds to reflect upon the
hidden powers of life, and to feel deeper gratitude to the gods.^
Thus even the most opposite forces here cooperated to elevate
men early to a beginning of free thought and life. How
powerfully men's minds were filled and moulde*!, especially in
this early age, by their exj)erience of the Deity, as alternately
giving and withholding, and yet in the end wonderfully de-
livering, is still clearly seen in the story of that Patriarch who
typifies the goodness of ordinary people. Isaac having even as
a child with difficulty escaped a violent death,^ settles as a man
on the borders of the desert, and has to maintain a long strife
for the possession of some hardly-gotten wells,^ but is re-
warded in the end by the distinguished favour of heaven, exhi-
bited in the hundredfold increase of his corn,'' Of similar
import are the touching stories of Hagar and Ishmael in the
desert : they seem hopelessly crushed by the inexorable hand
of famine, but yet at the last moment are reached by the good
providence of that God whose bounty fails not even in the
barren desert.^
At the very dawn of history Palestine and Egypt always
stand up clear out of the mists of earliest memories as civilised
lands. When Abraham first entered the Holy Land,^ so says
tradition, the Canaanites already dwelt there. Now these very
Canaanites appear at once, even in this earliest twilight of his-
tory, as fully civilised tribes, dwelling in cities and villages ; a
sign that the Hebrew tradition itself could not remember a
time when Palestine was not a civilised country, though the
Israelite Patriarchs were invariably pictured as not having yet
attained the blessing of any fixed abode there. Homer also
unmistatably regards the Sidonians and Egyptians as nations
of a very peculiar and advanced culture, which the Greeks
could then rather admire at a distance than emulate.'^
2i, But in close proximity with this rapid elevation to a finer
culture, we early perceive also a dangerous over-culture and
' It is sufficient liere to recall the sig- approachetl l)j' an Arabian one from the
iiific-ance which was attached to Manna first century of the Hegira ; Ham. p. lo-
in the earliest Mosaic religion, as will be 17, comp, with the songs of similar moan-
explained farther on; and to note that ing in the same work, p. 122, 4 sqq. from
many of the oldest and finest Suras of the below, 292 v. 2 sqq.
Koran are full of profound utterances on '' Gen.xxvi. 12-33.
this subject, and that nothing in the Koran * Gen. xxi. 14-19, xvi. 7-14.
is described with so much truth as the " Gen. xii. 6, xiii. 7.
gratitude; owed by necessitous man to the ' Iliad, vi. 290-2, xxiii. 742-5; Odyssey,
Deity. xiii. 28-5, xv. 414 sqq. ; Iliad, ix. 381 sqq. ;
2 Gen. xxii. Od. iv. 125 sqq. 351 sqq.
" The Biblical story lure is most closily
PHYSICAL ASPECT. 217
over-refinement, a rapid degeneracy and deep moral corruption.
If it is a universal law that the fall into corruption is deep in
proportion as the stage previously reached in civilisation and
art was high, because the arts of refinement themselves become
ministers of vice, then we may infer from the early traces of
great moral perversion cleaving to this land as an hereditary
disease, the high stage of culture which it must have attained
in the earliest times. It is true, the stories in Genesis of the
sins of Sodom, and the impudence of Canaan the son of Ham,
and the hateful origin of Moab and Amnion,^ form a series of
intimately connected ideas of primeval history, familiar only to
the Fourth and Fifth Narrators : and the strong pictures given by
the Prophets of the sins of Sodom certainly belong to no earlier
age.'^ But the strictest history must, for reasons afterwards ex-
plained, alloAV that long before the time of Moses the Canaanites
were very corrupt. The indigenous Canaanite human sacrifice,
which was transplanted by the Phenicians to Carthage, and
there kept up to the latest times, was no sign of the barbarity
common to uncultivated warlike tribes, but of the artificial
cruelty often arising from excessive polish and over-indulgence.
Amid all the changes of time the moral corruption generated
by the seductive charms of such a culture is with difl&culty lost
in the land of its birth. As in the Middle Ages complaints
were early rife of the perilous degeneracy of the Crusaders in
the land they had subjugated, so we here see that the Hebrews,
the earliest known conquerors of the same land, were not unaf-
fected by its influences. An efieminacy and depravity of life, not
unlike that of the Canaanites, and doubtless promoted in part by
the remnant of the early inhabitants, spread to a people which,
through their entire nature and laws, ought to have been most
j)roof against it, — at first indeed only partially and occasionally,^
but subsequently more generally and irresistibly. The Prophets
of the Post-davidical age bewail this much ; but nowhere is a
more striking picture given of this spreading depravity and its
causes than in the song in Deut. xxxii.
3. But if in other equally favoui'ed lands, as for instance
Egypt, such inversions of civilisation may possibly for ages
scatter their poison undisturbed, eating into the very vitals of
the nation, Palestine has always from the first had numerous
' Gen. xviii., ix. 20-27, xix. 30-38. great example of sin in ancient days; ix.
^ The first prophet who thus speaks of 9, x. 9 ; comp. p. 103 sq.
it is Isaiah; for Amos iv. 11, and Ilosea ' That this is the only proper way of
xi. 8, had mostly in view only the destruc- viewing Gibeah's infamous crime (Judges
tion of the cities in the Jordan circle ; and xix.) will bo made clear afterwards.
by Hosea, Gibeah was regarded as tht;
218 • TERRITORY.
and still more powerful antidotes in tlie desolations by physical
agencies, to which this land is exposed with a frequency and
severity perhaps unknown to any similar country. Among
these are to be named, primarily, destructive earthquakes, to
which it has at all times been exposed,^ from its position on
the track of this mysterious power from the Caspian Sea to
Sicily; frequent and most ruinous inundations;^ the unchecked
rage of desolating storms and dreadful hot winds from the
Arabian desert ; ^ a temperature not calm and equable like that
of Egypt, but liable to violent shocks and dangerous changes,
producing incalculable mischief and long-continued unfruitful-
ness of the soil ; "* the plague of locusts, and ravages occasioned
by the dreadful increase of scorpions and similar creatures ;'^
numerous diseases, some destroying life quickly, like the
plague,*" and others appalling through their slow but sure deve-
lopment, like the various species of leprosy ;^ and lastly, the
extreme instability of property and life, in consequence, as we
shall explain hereafter, of the incessant incursions of enemies.
These and other hardships of this land acted as inexorable
disturbers of the growing effeminacy. In them the inhabitants
might not unreasonably see pressing divine warnings and ex-
hortations to turn from all the errors of their ways. This
influence was naturally strongest in the earliest ages, before
men had gradually learned to overcome, whether by art or by
religion, the terrors of nature.^
This, however, gives no more than the mere possibility of
* This is of course often alluded to in stand rightly the Book of Joel. Spots
the Bible ; but while within the circle of ahnost uninhabitable on account of scor-
tradition it is mentioned only in connec- pions are still found in those parts ; see
tion with Sodom, and perhaps with simi- Ainsworth's Travels in Asia Minor, ii. p.
lar intention on occasion of the sin of 354.
Korah in Numbers xvi. 32-34, and his- " For although a ' plague like the
torically only in Amos i. 1, where Amos plagues of Egypt' is a proverb in Pales-
speaks of a gi'cat earthquake under King tine (Amos iv. 10), yet we know from both
Uzziah (the same to which a later pi'opliet ancient and modern history, how much
once pedantically refers back, Zi-ch. xiv. reason Palestine has to dread these very
5), we know from the experience both of plagues.
the Middle Ages and of modern times, ' On this see the history itself, and for
that the Biblical descriptions certainly the laws respecting leprosy, see my Alter-
flowedfrom living experiences. thilmcr, p. 179 sq.
^ See Amos via. 8, ix. 5, and the dc- ^ The earliest prophets, Joel and Amos,
scriptions of modern travellers ; it is no speak on this point as if wholly carried
mere eluince that among the plagues of away by natural terror, and always just
Egypt neither earthquake nor inundation as immediate experience prompted ; even
is named. Isaiah speaks only what time and place
^ Job i. 18; Zech. ix. 14; Ps. xi. 6; necessarily suggested; long and terrific
Ezck. xvii. 10, xix. 12. descriptions of all possible plagiies, wrought
* Consider only the vivid descriptions in one grand picture, as if one or few were
in Amos iv. 6-11 ; Jer. xiv., and the tra- insufficient, are first found in Levit. xxvi.
ditions of Patriarchal times in Gen. xii. 14-45 (see p. 116 sq.) and in Deut. xxviii.
10, xx\i. 1, xl. sqq. l;5-58,
* On this point it is sufficient to under-
RKLATIONS TOWARDS OTIIKR COUNTRIES. 219
receiving a warning from the voice of the Invisible and Divine
Being who permits no mockery of himself; and these voices,
like all others, may be unheeded when there exists no firm
basis of tinith, nor aspiration towards it. The Canaanites did
not long- allow these voices to terrify them out of their moral
supineness and low views of life ; and even Israel at the later
period of its culture received no benefit from them. But when
a nation, such as Israel was during the first period of its settle-
ment in Canaan — already planted on an indestructible basis of
spiritual truth, and as yet essentially uncorrupted and suscep-
tible of all pure impressions, had before its eyes such incessant
terrific warnings, we can well understand how powerfully these
might tend to preserve the people from the entrance of the dis-
solving and corroding influences, and to give to its character
that firmness in meeting danger, that readiness of apj)rehension
and teachableness of spirit, the combination of which is the
condition of all healthy progress.
II. RELATIONS TOWARDS OTHER COUNTRIES.
When we look round from the land itself to the position its
population occupies relative to other lands more or less closely
surrounding it, we must not fall into the error of imagining
that its position in ancient times was the same as in these
modern times, when the land, apparently for ever desolate and
depopulated, attracts no eye beyond that of the distant pilgrim,
or the booty-loving Bedouin, who soon hastens back to his
desert, or of the Egyptian neighbour, scarcely less greedy for
mere booty and for a good boundary ; when, moreover, it has
become a mere cypher in the system of large empires, and has
long ceased to be a prize vigorously fought for and obstinately
defended for its own sake. The land for which Israel journeyed
and fought during forty years, and which the Decalogue, the
earliest document of that time of wandering, exalts as the land
of every hope, and the most beautiful into which Jahveh will lead
his people ; ^ that too in which, after Moses, it was the constant
desire of the people and the blessing promised from above that
they might settle and dwell in jieace ; - that land must then have
been not only far more cultivated and fruitful, but also more
difiicult to conquer and to hold, than it now is. The question
then is, what causes combined to render this land so desirable
' Ex. XX. 12: Deut. V. 16. i. 19; Jer. xxv. 5, xxxv. 15 ; Ps. xxxvii.
2 Gen. xvii. 8, &e. ; Prov. x. 30; Isiiiiili 3 sq.
220 TERRITORY.
and so admired ; for it may be assmned tliat Israel was not tlie
only one of its numerous populations which felt so towards it.
1. The first reason is doubtless that the whole broad southern
sloj)e of Lebanon is a district blessed with a fertility extraordi-
nary of its kind. Between Egypt and the northern declivity of
Lebanon, between the wide deserts to the south and east, and the
* unfruitful salt wave ' (in the lang-uage of Homer) on the west,
there is no spot which could so excite the lust of conquest as
these mountains and valleys of inexhaustible fertility and spon-
taneous productiveness ; while these very mountains, together
with the local position of the country, made its defence easy in
those early days. But the rush of nations eager for the j)OS-
session of such cynosures of the earth, circumscribed in size
but inestimable in value, must have been greatest during the
earliest asres. As the German nations of old no sooner heard
distinct reports of the charms of the South than they steadily
turned their eyes and desires thither, so in much earlier times
the Semitic nations far and wide learned to look to this land as
a garden planted on earth by heaven. The early Arabian his-
tory is full of stories of fierce and bloody contests urged for the
possession of the smallest oasis, of a stream, or even of a well :
but here was an extensive garden of earth opened to the
contest of mighty nations. Possibly also seafarers from the
opposite European islands might assail the alluring land from
the coast, and partially occupy it.
For besides the mere fruitfulness of its soil, this land affords
other especial advantages to those who once obtain possession
of the whole, or even of some portion of it. But these will be
so often alluded to in various portions of the history, especially
that of the conquest of Canaan, that a short notice of them will
suffice here. The mountains, defiles, ravines, and caves in
which the country abounds, afford the inhabitants excellent and
various means of defence, so that a nation well prepared to
employ such advantages may feel firm and secure in possession.
While Egypt and other fruitful plains beside great rivers readily
become the prey of every conqueror, the gracious deities who
endowed this land with rich abundance, also appeared like fierce
mountain gods guarding their heights with utmost jealousy,
and beating back with fury the invading foe.' The inhabitants
probably seldom grew so effeminate throughout the land as not
to hold themselves constantly in an attitude of military defence
at many points especially favourable to warlike oj)erations, or
at least easily to resume warlike habits. Whereas Egypt was
' 1 Kiiiffs XX. 23-28.
I
RELATIONS TOWARDS OTHER COUNTRIES. 221
of old and is now a land of slaves, Lebanon, together with
its southern slope, seems, desj^ite of all other changes which
time has wrought, still to produce the same indomitable lovers
of freedom as it did thousands of years ago. Moreover a nation
which kept strictly to the western side of the Jordan could
secure its frontiers with tolerable efiiciency, by defending the
northern aj)proaches and guarding the few fords of the Jordan,
since in the south the desert afforded protection against an
enemy.
2i. But although sej>arated from Egypt by an extensive desert,
yet from the general position of surrounding nations, Canaan
stands towards that country in a relation which has from the
earliest times drawn upon it the weightiest consequences. For
Egypt, an extraordinarily cultivated and highly fertile land, ex-
ercised upon the northern tribes a power of attraction greater,
if possible, than that of Canaan, and, though the most distant,
was the most alluring link in the chain of southern lands that
attracted this migration. In prehistoric times a stream of na-
tions poured down from the north upon Egypt, like those of
Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, and Turks, who in later
times approached it by the same route, and either tried to sub-
jugate it, or actually did subjugate it. This is proved in the
prehistoric history of all these nations and languages,' and will
jjresently be illustrated by an important instance occurring
in the Premosaic age. Palestine here lies in the way ; and
it is possible that many a tribe, intending to go to Egypt, may
have remained in Palestine (as is said of Abraham, Gen.
XX.), or may have been afterwards driven back upon Pales-
tine (as happened to the Hyksos, and subsequently to Israel
under Moses). As Palestine thus became the key of Egypt,
it very early became necessary to the latter to keep her
eyes on the former, and carefully watch her condition. A
strong and united power in Palestine formed the best barrier
between Egypt and the northern nations, and its friendshi})
upon equal terms would be courted by Egypt, as actually took
place during the reigns of David and Solomon. But when
Palestine was weakened by internal discord, Egypt might for
her own security begin to think of conquering either the whole
of Palestine as far as Lebanon, or at least the fortresses and
seaports on the south-west. This last case would especially
occur when the ruling power in Egypt had its seat in the north
of that country and practised navigation, as under Psammeti-
' See tlic second of my Sjiradnc'.iiscnfchafilidic AUuuidii'vgcn (Göttingen, 18G2),
p. 74 b<i. .
2-22 TERKITORY.
elms and liis successors, under the Tulunites, the Fatemites,
Ajjubites, and the Mamelukes. Thus Palestme is always in
some degree fettered to the foi-tunes of Egypt, and although
Israel cherished against Egypt at times a deadly hatred, com-
parable only to the rancour of brother against brother, yet the
inevitable tendencies of nations have always brought them back
into a very intimate mutual relation. But when great empires
•were formed, too large to have their centre of gravity on this
strip of coast, and obliged to fix it either in Africa or further
towards the interior of Asia, Palestine was never able to main-
tain herself as a strong independent kingdom, and became a
constant apple of discord between Asia and Africa.
3. It appears from all this, how by a combination of most
various causes, this strip of coast became from the earliest
times a meeting-place for the most diverse nationalities, and
how one nation here pressed incessantly upon another, and not
one, however small its territory might be, could long enjoy its
j)ower in peace. Let it not be supposed that this constant jost-
ling of nations in and around Canaan ceased with the Israelite
conquest, or even with the establishment of David's government.
No doubt it was greater in the earlier times ; but it continued
after David, whenever the power of the dominant people was at
all relaxed, and is traced down even into the Mohammedan
times. The land also, notwithstanding its small extent, pos-
sesses such great diversities of aspect and site, and offers such
numerous and manifold means of defence, that no one nation
could ever easily root out all the others, as might happen in the
valley of the Nile, or even reduce them to permanent subjection.
Indeed the truth of this can be actually verified from observation
of the perplexed relations of the different nationalities and
faiths living there side by side at the present day. Any nation,
therefore, which, amid this confusion within and danger with-
out, tried to maintain its position with vigour, and compete
with other civilised nations, would require the constant straining
of all its resources both physical and mental, and even after its
first victorious entrance into the land, would still have to pass
through many various stages of development and elevation.
Nowhere perhaps is the exhortation to constant watchfulness
and improvement so powerfully prompted as here by the inexo-
rable pressure of absolute want in the midst of abundance ;
and indeed the Prophets never hold out warnings of physical
ills only, but of war and conquest too. '
In this respect Palestine might indeed bo compared Avitli the
' i-\)V tlic CI18C uf David also, 2 Sam. xxiv. 13.
RELATIONS TOWARDS OTHER COUNTRIES. 223
Caucasus (also a continental region), -where the narrow space
is not less crowded with a medley of nations ; and as in the
earliest times the Caucasus must have been the meeting-place
especially of the various Aryan nations, so Palestine was the
great crossing-point for those of the Semitic stock. But in
reference to civilisation Palestine was incomparably more
favourably placed than the Caucasus, inasmuch as it lay on the
coast of that sea on whose innumerable promontories and
islands all the higher and freer forms of the life of the western
nations had from early times manifested themselves, as those
of the east upon the Ganges. It is an absurd idea that the
Hebrews from living in Palestine were cut off from all brisk
intercourse with distant nations. Any inclination to keep
aloof from such intercourse, which might be observed in them
in early times, sprang rather from the nature of their religion
than from deliberate intention, and it was only because the
Phenicians had anticipated them that they long kept aloof
from the coasting trade of the Mediterranean. Either with or
agamst their own wish, they must inevitably have been drawn
into the busy whirl of life surging around the Mediterranean
Sea, especially in its eastern division. We can measure the
extent of the knowledge of the position of other nations, early
gained in this centre of three continents, by the short sketch
of them given in Gen. x. And diu-ing the later ages of anti-
quity, when nations from the most distant parts of the earth,
from Persia and India, from Greece and Egj^pt, exchanged
their respective arts and culture, Palestine still formed the
central pomt of transition and communication.
To sum up : we now understand the possibility of the form-
ation of nations forced by close contact with others, whether
near or distant, constantly to carry on their own further
development, and either soon to disappear, or else to conquer
and perpetuate themselves. Such nations were not on this
account necessarily remarkable for numbers. Even in our
times multitude does not do so much as some fancy; but the
earliest period of antiquity was an age when nations were not
crowded together in such large loose masses, but lived one
beside the other, like so many families, each retaining its own
sharply defined character and distinct culture ; and when even
the smallest tribe shut itself up in its own individuality, and
relied solely on its own resources to attain whatever appeared to
be its highest good. In this respect the petty nations of ancient
Palestine exactly resemble the ancient states of Greece and
Italy, and the modern ones of Switzerland and the Netherlands;
224 TKRKITOEY.
and just as Atliens and Eome, witli the smallest possible terri-
tory, could gain a place in the history of the world, so also
could a nation of Palestine. Now two nations of Palestine, we
know, above all others that met there, bore away this palm, —
two nations so different that it is hard to imajjine a strong^er
contrast, and even acting upon each other in virtue of this very
contrast to intensify their divergence, yet both of them so con-
stituted that the results of their endeavours became permanent,
and among the most conspicuous fruits of the world's history.
III. MIXED NATIONALITY OF OLDEST INHABITANTS.
We must therefore now view the land in reference to its
earliest medley of inhabitants living there before, and con-
tinuing there during the period immediately following the
immigration of Israel. The inherent difficulty of surveying
such remote events is, indeed, here increased by the fact that
we are restricted to very few and scattered notices of them in
the Old Testament and elsewhere, and possess scarcely any
writings of the Premosaic age, with the exception of the pas-
sage Gen. xiv., the original form of which has been shown to
have probably belonged to that age (see p. 52). But at all
events these notices are from very different and in part ex-
tremely early, ages ; and besides, as the very essence of such
great national relations is to change only by slow degrees, we
may be justified in drawing from the conditions continuing at
a later period certain conclusions respecting remote times. ^
1. In cases like this, the first enquiry naturally refers to the
Aborigines, tribes of whose immigration the later inhabitants
retained neither proof nor even the faintest recollection. Be-
fore their subjugation or expulsion by other victorious invaders,
these Aborigines may have passed through many stages of
fortune, forgotten as layer after layer of po23ulation flowed over
this lowest and broadest stratum. Total expulsion, however,
can rarely have befallen the original inhabitants : upon a strip
of coast like Palestine, — the exit from whence was not easy to
' The difficailtips of this enlire qiKstion plction of tho excavations now begun,
arc not removed by the method adopted since investigations on every spot promise
by Movers (Das Phönikische Älterthum, i. greater thorougliness and certainty. 8eo
p. 1-82, 1849), as will -1)0 hereafter pointed my FrJdärmig der grossen Phünikischcn
out in some important instances; see also Inschrift von Sidon, Gotfingen, 1856;
Ja/irh. der IHM. JVi.is. ii. p. ,37 sqq. For and the results of E. Eenan's Plienician
a more accurate en<iniry into the state of Journey of Discovery, which are gradually
the C;inaanitcs and other early races of being made public.
tlie same region, we must await tho com-
MIXED XATIOXALITIES. 225
a settled population, whether on account of the great attractions
of its soil, or because its boundaries were formed by deserts,
seas, the easily defended fords of the Jordan, and the mountain-
glens of the nortli„ We are therefore justified in assuming that
many relics of the primitive inhabitants must have been spared,
consisting not merely in enslaved persons, but also in manners
and traditions. For us, indeed, all such traces are almost
erased, because the Israelitish invasion (as will soon be shown)
belonged to a later time, when the earlier strata of population
were so intermixed that it was no longer easy always to discri-
minate the earlier and the later inhabitants.
That in the very earliest age, long before the ancient migra-
tions into Egypt (i.e. long before the time of the Hyksos), a
more homogeneous group of nations established themselves in
this land, is not only probable from the general relations among
nations, but to be inferred also from more definite indications.
A change in the name of a country, such as Seir, Edom or
Esau, itself points to the successive rule of three distinct
nations, whose chronological sequence we can in this case dis-
tinguish with certainty, as w^ill soon be shown. What these
names prove to have happened to the land on the south-eastern
border of the Holy Land, and is most easy of demonstration in
that instance, is evidently true of other cases occui'ring within
the land itself. Further, all the nations which were settled in
the land in historical times, some of which are known even from
Biblical testimony to have come in from foreign parts, though
difi'ering widel}" in other respects, possessed a Semitic language,
of which amid considerable dialectic varieties the fundamental
elements were closely related. Now this is not conceivable,
unless one original nation, possessing a distinctly marked
character, had lived there, perhaps for a thousand years before
the immigration of others, to whose language after-comers had
more or less to conform. This original nation, moreover,
doubtless already had its peculiar ideas, religious ceremonies,
and customs, which more or less powerfully influenced subse-
quent immigrants ; as the worship of the horned Astarte is
known to have existed here from the earliest ages, and quite
independently of the later Phenicians.^ All these points will
however be more fully discussed as we proceed.
At the time of the Israelite occupation these Aborigines had
for many centuries been so completely subjugated, dispersed,
and ground down, that but few remains of them were still
' Ashtcroth Karnaim, Gen. xiv. 5.
VOL. I. Q
226 TERRITORY.
visible. But then the immigrants were so various, so divided,
and in some points even so weak, that it must have been very
difficult to comprise such numerous and disconnected nations
under any one fitting appellation. The Israelites called them
Canaanites, Amorites, or otherwise, according as one or the
other of them seemed the more important at the time, or they
preferred to name several together. When a nation had been
long resident in the land, no one thought of investigating the
antiquity of its settlement there. So much the more remark-
able is it that some few tribes are nevertheless described in the
Old Testament as 'ancient inhabitants of the land.'^ This
declaration is the more impartial and weighty because quite
incidental. The nations thus described are very small and
scattered tribes, but on this account the more likely to be the
remains of the aboriginal inhabitants. We are hereby entitled
to prosecute further this question of the Aborigines.
1) In the northern and more fruitful portions of the land on
this side Jordan the Aboeigines must have been very early
completely subjugated by the Canaanites and blended with
them, as not even a distant allusion to them is anywhere to
be found. The case is different with the country beyond the
Jordan, especially towards the south. Here we come upon the
traces of a people, strangers alike to the Hebrews with their
cognate tribes, and to the Canaanites, who maintained some
degree of independence until after the Mosaic age : the Horites
(LXX. Xopptiloi, i.e. dwellers in caves. Troglodytes) in the
cavernous land of Edom or Seir. The writer of the Book of
Origins himself calls them ' the dwellers in the land,' as dis-
tinguished from the later immigrants, Israel, Esau, and Edom.^
In that waiter's time this people, though subjugated for centuries
by Edom, must still have formed separate communities ; since
he thinks it worth while to enumerate their seven principal and
subordinate tribes with their seven heads.^ In the earliest
narrative. Gen. xiv. 6, they appear in Abraham's time as still
' Namely, Amalek, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8, tlie soutli-wost of the tribe of Jiulali. some
Num. xxiv. 20 ; and in its neighbourhood, singular subterranean work.s have been
the inhabitants of Gath, 1 Chron. vii. 21 ; recently discovered; see Key's Kinde his-
as also Geshur, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8. lor the iorique ct topoqraphique de la Trihu dc
last passage the LXX. have a somewhat Juda, Paris, 1863. As these cannot well
different reading, and translate very un- be referred either to Hebrevcs or to Ca-
intelligibly, as they generally do such naanites, they must be supposed to exhibit
passages as refer to the ancient Canaanite traces of tho aboriginal inliabitants, or
history ; but tho true reading has un- Horites ; and the wonder is that the
doubt edly been preserved in the Helirew. Horites should have settled so far to tlie
See above, p. 58. south-west.
'_Gen.xxxvi.20. Among the ruins of the =" Gen. xxxvi. 20-30.
ancient Bait-Gihriv or Elmthrropolis, in
MIXED XATIUXALITIES. 227
independent ; and from this passage, as well as from the Book
of Origins, we see that the name Seir, for the mountain-range
occupied by them, was peculiar to them. The Deuteronomist
evidently follows an ancient authority in saying that they were
expelled by Esau (or Edoni).' It further appears from the
careful distinction made in the Book of Origins between them
and the Canaanitish tribes, that they were not of Canaani-
tish blood, although the Amorites, also dwelling far to the
south, were. It happens very fortunately, in fine, that we gain
some knowledge of the subsequent fate of these Aborigines from
a wholly different source, the Book of Job,^ which pictures
vividly the pitiable condition to which they were reduced in the
writer's age (the eighth or seventh century). Then, houseless
and outlawed, they were thrust forth by their conquerors into
dreary and barren wildernesses, in which they dragged out in
misery a feeble existence, despised and abhorred by all, but
ready on occasion of any disaster happening to their old op-
pressors to burst suddenly forth from their miserable hiding-
places,^ full of pent-up bitterness and destructiveness, and thus
even in their ruin to remind their conquerors that they had
once been masters of the land. This reads like a scene in the
history of the Coolies or other aboriginal tribes of India, or (to
take au instance nearer home), of the Irish peasantry not more
than thirty years ago ; but we must remember that the He-
brews do not seem anywhere to have treated their subject tribes
for centuries with such severity as the Edomites treated theirs.
2) So melancholy an end is inevitable when victorious inva-
ders permanently withhold equal rights from the subjugated
people, and keep them apart and in bondage. Very different,
however, was the position these Aborigines, whom we have
just seen sunk so low, once held : as appears fi'om the following
important fact. At the time of the Israelitish conquest, as we
learn from some perfectly reliable accounts, there still existed
many remains of the Aborigines scattered through the land.
They were then ordinarily designated by a name which suggests
very difierent ideas — Rephaim, or Giants.'' Indeed primitive
' Deut. ii. 12, 22; comp, above, p. 126 were not wholly in error on the meaning
sq. of f^ome passages in ch. x?:s., I still think
- Job xvii. 6, xxiv. 5-8, xxx. 1-10. that I lu.ve understood all these passages
The zeal and fulness with which in 1836 and the history tlicrewitli connected more
I gave a public interpretation of these accurately than they.
}>assages in Job, prove that I then believed ^ Alluded to also in Deuteronomy, whose
I had found in them a new fragment of author is well acquainted with all these
historical truth, as it is not my habit to circumstances ; vii. 20.
give voluminous explanations of things * In this general sense the name is used
already disposed of. Even now, though I not unfrequently ; 2 Sam. xxi. 16-22;
.-ee that Isaac Vo.ssius and J.D. Michaelis from the State-annals, Deut. ii. 11, 20, iii.
Q 2
228 TEKRITÜKY.
tribes remaining' near to a state of nature, appear to possess
gigantic stature more frequently than the more advanced and
versatile nations. The latter appear to lose from the body
what the}' gain in the mind ; and so the Hebrews at the time of
Moses ' must have possessed very much the same short slender
stature which is now characteristic of the hardy and adroit
Arab. It might indeed be argued from certain indications that
only the ruling families of the Aborigines are here described.^
If, as appears in various descriptions, especially of the early times,
the ruling families were gorged with the fat of the land,^ it is
conceivable that the savage and warlike lords of a nation itself
of high stature would appear absolutely gigantic in the eyes of
the Canaanites and Hebrews. We should then have to suppose
that a rough robber-clan of immense stature, belonging to the
Aborigines, still maintained its power here and there, and that
the Aborigines were compelled by necessity to become subject
to them, in order to obtain their protection against invaders ;
much as in Europe, the aid of the last robber-knights was
sought. The last king of this race was Og of Bashan, and his
enormous iron sarcophagus served as a memento to after-times,''
like the heavy coats of mail of the Middle Ages to ourselves.
But this view, true as it is of the ages betAveen Moses and
David, is untrue of earlier times ; for in perfectly reliable
11 ; and the name may be thus explained had long served as a briilge over a river
from its root, since ND"l = nQ"1» stretched, {Journal Adafiqite,J\\\\o \%i\,Tp.&'id-%\);
may very well be equiValent' to lovq, tall. °^'\"' Mühammedan writers relate that he
like the German re^kc. The Hebrews ap- t°°^ "". ^'^^ .l"st fresh from the sea, and
plied the same name to the shadows of burnt it to ashes in the smi s rays ; Tabari
Hades ; literally the stretched out, i.e. the ^''^^ '" '"^ prehmmary history a long pas-
nerveless, prostrate, dead. It is evident f?^ respecting him (see Chroniquc de la-
that the language of a nation which ap- ^"'''' ^''«^«"^ ^" Persan par Dubeux, i.p. 48
plied this name to the giants, though also sq.; also, Qaznm, t, ^.,'l.^l.t p. 449, 7
Semitic, must have been originally very gqq. (,d. Wüstenfeld; Petei'n.ann's i?«"««/,
dittorent. .. ii. p. 106 sqq.). But all these traditions
^um. xiii. 27-33. .^^.^ probably based on such Kabbinieal
Because in the passag. s quoted thoy j^^p^.i, ^^ t^oso in the IJhcr de morte
appear as quite exceptional in.stances, just 3/,,.,,-,,^ 34 Gaulmw ; in Ben-Uziel on
as tlie three at Hebron Numxiii. 22; and Num. xxi. 33 sqq ; and in the Midra^h
as Og of Bashan is called the last of his j^,,^j-^f^ f„, 14 . ^„„i ^1,^,,, ,,„,;„ ^^ ,.,„
race, Deiit 111. 11 : see 1. 4. Apocryphal book upo.i Og. which appears
' ^' J"dfresiii. 29, and ,n David s song j.^ 1^,.,^.^^ g^i,^,;j \.; 13 „„j^,. ^ 1^,,^^,^,
I am. 1. / . recognisable name. Here the few notices
- Dent. 111. 11 ; without doubt a j.iece ,,f i,;,,, ;„ ^^^ old Testament were inter-
of genuuio history, f.,r the spot whore the ^^.^^.^^ ,,.;„, ^i^.^rg giant-stories and the
memorial was to be se.n is accurately do- strangest fancies ; as that he saved him-
rr '^?"i li^*" T"""* surprising that even in ^,,]f t,„.y^ ]^ ^he Deluge l>v holding on to
the Middle Ages such strange stones Noah's ark; that he lived with Abraham,
Hlioula be stil related of this old ciant- 1 r ,.\ 11 .1 \ it-.
,. , ^ , . ' '-H10 uui f^irtiu und so forth. He was thus brought into
k.ng, who stands ,so isolated in the Old eonnoction with Gen. vi. 4; and it was
resUiment: for instance, a Persian Mo- t,j„ .j^f satisfactory tlius to recover the
hammenan relates that a sinele bone of e c ^\ ■ 1 • ^ ..i
b^ uuiio ui name of one of the primeval giants there
the gigantic body of the "J^- , ^ - mentioned.
U-^- (J-
t:_ -'
MIXMl) XATIOXALITIKS. 229
reports, such as Gen. xiv. 5, Deut. iii. 13, the whole of Bashan is
called the ' land of the Kephaim,' and they appear as an unmixed
race. It may indeed be said that on such points the Deutero-
nomist only speaks rhetorically and with a purpose, to magnify
the conquest effected by Israel under a leader like Moses, over
such powerful and terrific giant races. But even the Deuterono-
mist cannot be supposed to speak without some historical basis ;
and quite independently of him, we see from a very ancient
passage. Gen. xiv. 5, that the name ' ßephaim ' was originally
borne only by a small people in Bashan beyond Jordan, having
a capital Ashteroth Karnaim (a name which proves that thus
early the horned Astarte was worshipped). But we may assume
that at the time of Abraham nations of the same race ruled
over extensive territories eastward of the Jordan ; ' in Moab they
were specially designated Emim,^ and in Ammon Zamzummim.^
On the west of the Jordan, in the central districts, they lived
at the time of Moses in more scattered settlements, — in parts
of the later tribe of Joseph (as we learn from a very ancient
record"*), and near Jerusalem, where a valley was named after
them as late as the eighth century ; '' but in the southern parts
near Hebron (which must have been their old capital), and from
thence towards the sea, they were more concentrated and
powerful ; and here in the south they bore the name of Sons of
Anak,*' with the mythological epithet of Giants' sons, given to
them by their terrified enemies.^ That Hebron was the 'ancient
' We learn this most distinctly from * Josh. xvii. 15; comp, ahove, p. 66 sq.
the invaluable aecoinits in Gen. xiv., where * Josh. xv. 8, xviii. 16; 2 Sam. v. 18,
places and names are given which are 22, xxiii. 13; Isaiah xvii 5.
otherwise wholly unknown. * Num. xiii. 22, 23 ; Josh. xi. 21 sq.,
^ Deut. ii. 11, and Gen. xiv. 5 ; compare xiv. 12, 15; comp. Deut. ii. 10 .sq.; and
Hemam [Eng. version wrongly Hnna)i\ of the merely rhetorical allusion to them, ix.
similar sound among the Horites, Gen. 1 sq.
xxx\'i. 22. ' That this is the meaning of the names
ä Since the ancient accounts used by the Qi^DJ and D'??? ''J2. Num. xiii. 33, ap-
Deuteronomist in the former case agree pg^^s also from Geil. vi. 4. Movers, by
with Gen. xiv., we may conclude that QH» taking tlicsc expressions of tlie Book of
Gen. xiv. 5, is the same as Qn, i.e. nOy, Origins and others of the kind, in a per-
' '. fectlv literal sense, as ii the Anakim,
andQ^nr thesameasn^DrnT,D^'Ut. 11. 19 Rephaim, &c., were actually mythical
sq. Beyond this we have no means of Giants and Titans, mistakes the real mean-
explaining the Dame.i Emim and Zam- ing of all these passages of the Bible ; as
zummim, since they do not, like the name much so as he would in treating the Cimbri
Rephaim, occur in any more general sense, and Teutons, nay, even the Mecklenburgh-
nor are made intelligible by any clear ers of the present day, as mythical person-
context, and we therefore are wholly igno- ages. It is the Deuteronomi.st who, by
rant what associations were connected with his rhetorical descriptions, first somewhat
the words; the merely rhetorical use of loosened the historical ground ; but it was
the appellation Sons of Avak in Deuter- not till much later, when actual historical
onomy does not warrant any such assump- names were looked for in Gen. vi. 4, that
tion respecting even these. The name Og (mentioned p. 228) could be imagined
Rephaim alone came gradually to be used to be a Titan, and even identified with the
in a wider sense. Greek Ogyges.
230 TERKITORY.
seat of their kings, appears not merely from the permanent im-
portance of that city to the entire south, but also from know-
ledge that we have of a considerable portion of the history of
the dynasty ruling there. This dynasty boasted of an ancient
heroArba,' as founder of their city, hence called by them City
of Arba (and the time of its building was still well known, see
p. 52), and also as founder of their dynasty, and therefore
entitled Father of Anak.^ But at the time of the Israelite con-
'quest their power must have been divided, and thereby weak-
ened, since three sons of Anak — Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai
— are mentioned,^
But a part of the population which from its locality can
hardly be anything else than the Rephaim, is very curiously
also called by a perfectly distinct name, Amoeites. Amos
speaks of the gigantic stature of the Amorites, just as other
writers of the Eephaim ; ■* and the Book of Origins itself calls
both the above-mentioned king Og and a similar king Silion
Amorites.^ But the diversity of name is at once explained,
when Ave discover that Amorite only means mountaineer, and
is therefore originally a topographical, not an ethnological or
national designation. How these Amorites could be brought
into a certain connection even with the Canaanites will be con-
sidered presently.
3) Again in the south-west of the land we find more traces
of the Aborigines. On one occasion in the life of David it is
stated by an ancient narrator, in order to explain how David,
then a vassal of the Philistines, could be constantly engaged in
expeditions against the south-west country, without attacking
Israel, that the objects of their hostilities were ' the ancient
inhabitants of the land,' whom, it appears, neither a Philistine
nor an Israelite leader would think it necessary to spare.^
' Wherever this name occurs — Gen. possess this reading, is indeed doubtful,
xxiii. 2; Josh. xir. 15, xr. 13, 54, xx. 7, because they have here 'AvaKljx and not
xxi.ll; Judges i. 10 — the LXX. pronounce 'AvaK; but the later periphi'asis is a fact,
the last syllable somewhat harder, 'ApÖ(Jk. and has nothing in common with the
But Movers' idea that tlie name answers Kabbalistic Adam qadinon which Movers
to the Greek "Ap/SrjXos, and is in fact iden- chooses to see here. Nor can Onka, the
tieal with the Bnliylonic B(i,\s without name of the Phenician Athene (see Steph.
foundation. The article (ySISH) i^ only Byz. s.v.) be brought into connection with
found attached to it later, Neh. xi. 25 ; Anak, at least until we know how it was
but in the older writers the article is found written in Phenician.
with pjyn- * Judges i. 1Ü; Numb. xiii. 22.
2 T^oi, ^„ TO -11 m 1. • ■* Amos ii. 9.
Josn. XV. 13; xxi. 11; 'that is s t i -in i ^ t> t • ^t
ihr. r»^nnf ,v,o„ ™ 4.1 A 1 ' ' • Joshua IX. 10; sec later JJeut. iv. 47;
tlio great man among the Anakim, in • , '
xiv. 15, is plainlv only a periphrasis ^^e^'i- ' .1 • • ., * ■ c
hazarded by some later reader or copyist. „ ^"''' /^^"^, '% *''" /^'"^ Tiiean.ng of
Whether the LXX., who in all these pas- ^^"^ ^''^'^^ '^'^'^'^'^-^ ''^^T'^ ^"^ ^ ^^'"•
sages transhite by /xTirp^TroAn, did not 'f^^'"- ^- ^^^ words Dpiy??-''3 form a
yUXKD NATIONALITIES. 231
Two such aboriginal kingdoms are mentioned here. The first
is that of the Amalekites. These apj:)ear from other indications
also to have been such, and indeed originally to have oversj^read
the whole land ; so that no name was found more fitting than
theirs to become the common designation of all the Abori-
gines ; as will be further explained hereafter. Besides this
small kingdom, which then still existed in the far south, there
was another, occuj)ying a uarroAv strip extending westwards
from Judall about to Joppa ; this was called from its chief city
Geshur, with which Gezar seems to be synonymous. This king-
dom, though sorely harassed by both Philistines and Israelites,
maintained its existence until the reign of Solomon. From the
special tribe which occupied this district from primeval times,
the land was called the land of the Avvites or Avvim ; ' but from
what has been said above, it need not surprise us that this name
is sometimes exchanged for that of Amorites. But in David's
reign there was another small kingdom of the same name
Geshur, at the very opposite point, on the north-east, on the
other side Jordan, and distinguished by the epithet Äramean,
as being surrounded by tribes speaking Aramaic.^ As such
identity of name cannot be accidental, we must regard it as a
displaced member of the same original people, the main part of
which was driven to the extreme south and south-west. The
personal name Talmai already noticed, p. 230, recurs again
here,^ although it is quite foreign to ancient Israel, and only
appears as an Israelitish name in the New Testament in the
form Bartholomew.
It is clear from all these signs that there was here a
primitive people which once extended over the whole land of
the Jordan to the left, and to the Euphrates on the right,
and to the Red Sea on the south ; and that, as in many
districts it was still disputing dominion with the Canaanites,
it was completely subjugated only by the fresh incursion
of the Hebrews under Moses. Whether they were of Semitic
race hardly admits of doubt even on a first glance. The few
names preserved ' have a Semitic form and complexion ; and
paronthetic clauso, and those following ing to Deut. ii. 23 they dwelt even unto
describe merely how far David ranged A^^ah [Gaza] ; that is (the speaker being
southwards (even to Egypt). We might north of Gaza), that Gaza was the most
conjecture n^^lHD for o'piyO- ^om 1 Sam. southerly region to which they ever ex-
XV. 7 ; but I consider every change of the tended.
Hebrew construction as unnecessary, or ^ According to 2 Sam. xv. 8 ; Josh. xii.
rather false. 5, xiii. 13 ; 1 Chron. ii. 23.
' From Jush. xiii. 3. compared with verse 3 2 Sam. iii. 3, xiii. 37.
2, it appears that the Geshuri and the Av- , ^hese are the five names of chiefs
vir*s[D\'iy;^i;i;«or.4«;i;;eisthereloremcor- already mentioned, and some names of
root] are one and the same people ; accord- tribes and places ; such as the above
232 TERRITORY.
when we consider that the chiefs who would not become sub-
ject to the Hebrews, at last retreated to the coast-towns of
the Philistines,' and that in later times the Philistines led the
descendants of these terrible giants into battle,^ and that from
the earliest period Semites were settled on many of the neigh-
bouring islands and coasts of the MediteiTanean Sea (as will
soon be shown in the case of the Philistines), we may assume
it to be highly probable that this entire stratum of nations was
connected with the Semitic peoples who were driven still further
westward beyond the sea.^
2. The land occupied by these Aborigines was both long
before and long after the Hebrew conquest, invaded by various
widely differing Semitic nations, who wholly subdued some por-
tions and obtained partial possession of others.
1) Of these the Canaanites must be regarded as the most
important. At first sight it seems doubtful whether they were
invaders or not. Fortunately, however, we possess in a passage
of the Book of Origins, Gen. x. 15-20, a record by means of
which we can measure with great accuracy the extent of the
early dominion of this important people, and without which
many perplexed points of the history of these ancient tribes
would be far more difficult to unravel. Here the separate
tribes of the Canaanites are enumerated as sons of Canaan,
and the boundaries of the territory of each described. Their
number is eleven. Sidon is mentioned as the first-born ; which
means that Sidon had from time immemorial been the greatest
Canaanitish power. Next come three nations living towards
the south, Heth, the Jebusites, and the Amorites ; then two in
the most northerly country conquered by Israel, the Girgashites "*
and the Hivvites ; then four in Phenicia, and lastly the most
northern of all, the well-known kingdom of Hamath on the
Orontes. The description then given of the Canaanite boun-
daries makes it still more evident that the writer here intends
to describe their territories as they were prior to the Israelitish
conquest. They embrace the entire land, as far as Gaza on the
south-west ; so that the Aborigines still existing there (the
quoted Dn Gen. xiv. ö ; and ly Dout. ii. dan. I'ut since Tipyeaa. known from Matt.
23 ^ viii. 28, was, accordin<jj to Euseb. Ono,n.,
1 Jqjj]^ xi 22 '^ place on a hill on the shores of the 8ea
'^ 2 S;im. xxi 16-22- 1 Sam xvii "^ Galilee, the name probably designated
» For the proof that' the whole country ^^^^ ^^»'e Canaanite kingdom which is
here was inhabited by Semites, see also named m Josh. xi. Hazor {•i\^n, Jortress,
the Jahrh. ihr liiLl. IVisx. vi. p. 88. castle) ; corresponding in so far wilh the
* Their locality is nowhere defined in name Jcbu.site, of which sonietiiiug similar
the Old Testament, except that in Josh, may be said.
xxir. 11. they arc placi d on this side Jor-
I
MIXED NATIOXALITIKS. 283
Philistines were not then yet in the same force on that coast
as later) must have been regarded as a protected and subject
population.
But this story of the eleven sons of Canaan implies no more
than a clear recollection that at some time, it might be even
centuries before the Israelitish conquest, a dominant people
named Canaan created and preserved some degree of unity
among the various tribes. The question of the age of each
separate tribe, whether they were all aboriginal or not, did not
come under consideration here : we only learn that the influ-
ence of the Canaanites had been firmly established in the land
long before the time of Moses. But as these Canaanites appear
in so many passages as only one among many ancient nations
inhabiting this land, there is no intrinsic absurdity in supposing
that even if their immigration had preceded that of Moses by
more than five centuries, they were distinct from the Abori-
gines already mentioned. In fact it is nowhere said in the Old
Testament that they were aborigines ; for the Fourth Narrator
of the primeval history, in saying incidentally that the
Canaanites were in the land before Abraham,' only means
that the land was even then already thickly peopled, and
names the Canaanites simply as the best known inhabitants.
And when we further reflect how very widely they must
have difi:ered both in mental and in j^hysical culture from
the Aborigines already described, and how utterly shattered
and dis]3ersed these Aborigines were even before Moses, a
later immigration appears on these grounds also the more pro-
bable. Many signs conspire to prove that a powerful invasion
must at a very early time have everywhere split up the first
deep stratum of population, an older and very difierent invasion
from those of the Philistines and the Hebrews, which will
afterwards come under consideration ; and we can imagine no
other such than this of the Canaanites.
So far we are guided by the Old Testament accounts of the
Canaanites. But other indej)endent traditions of the immi-
gration of the Phenicians reached Herodotus and other Greek
writers. Lidependent again of these is the genuine Phenician
tradition given by Sanchoniathon^ of the constant enmity
between the two Tyrian brothers Hypsuranius and Usous. The
' Gen. xii. 6, xiii. 7 ; and sec also such ^ In Orclli's edition p. 16 sq. ; see
passages as Num. xxii. 4. The later de- also on this legend my Ahhavdlung über
scriptions by the Fathers of the Church, die Phöiii/iischcn Ansichten von der Welt-
as collected by Moses Chorenensis {Hist. Schöpfung und Sanchuniathon (Göttingen,
i. 5), appear to be derived from the Book 1851), p. 44 sq.
of Jubilees and similar works.
•234 TERRITOin'.
first, as his name indicates, is the heavenly progenitor of the
Phenicians ; the other a wild hunter, a savage ' hair}- ' man (as
his name exjjresses), and the true tj'pe of the earliest inhabitants.
Indeed the name Uso, bj the Phenician phonetic laws, is
actually identical with the Hebrew Esau: ' not that the Tyrian
Uso derived his name from that nation Avhich the Hebrews named
Esau, but that the contrast expressed in the Phenician tradition
between two related tribes of which the younger formed a later
immigration into the land, is repeated in the history of Israel.
At the time of Moses, indeed, the immigration of the Canaan-
ites was so completely a bygone event, and had given rise to so
many new arrangements and changes, that the very name of the
principal nation, the Canaanitos, is only to be explained from
these. For on reviewing the names of the eleven tribes and of
others elsewhere named as connected with them, we find some
to be derived from corresponding cities or kingdoms ; namely,
the Phenician nations and Hamatli ; the Jebusites, so called
from Jebus an ancient name of Jerusalem, evidently because
the}'" preserved their independence and a considerable terri-
tory long after the Israelite invasion ; ^ and the Girgashites,
already mentioned, p. 2o2. These small kingdoms, seven in all,
maintained their existence with firmness generally till long
after Moses. But the case is very different with the four or
five names remaining. None of the nations bearing these can
be so called from a city or kingdom ; and four of them are
besides mentioned with such disproj^ortionate frequency, and
as spreading over such an extent of country, as is incompatible
with the idea that they constituted compact and localised king-
doms. Many indications show that these names describe the
inhabitants by certain differences of locality and occupation in
the different parts of the country.^
a.) The Amoeites. These were Highlanders, as their name "•
' As tho Plicnieian OvKwfxos answers people (see Allgemeine Zeituvfj, Juno 22,
to the Helirow Q^lj; so OHeuos to a llebr. 1839, p. 1337) ; as among the Northern
..;..;.. 1 f fi,- \ t ^- \ i. T * iShvvonians, the Pnlanians take their name
VJ^iy '•'"t this last might, according to -- ,i ^ 1 1 ^i t-, • • j- ,i
T '•*'_' " " irom the held, the Drevianians from the
my Lehrbuch, § 108 c, easily pass into wood, the Livonians from the sand (Scha-
V^V- farik, Slans-he Alterlhümer, i. p. 199) ;
"^ That they had at first a wider territory <i"^l '-^^ i" Attica there wore tlu^ 'TTrepavpioi,
appears not "only from Josh. x. but from ne5ie?s and nipaXoi; and still in Uri a
tho added clause ' in the mountains,' Josh. vaJlnj- and a mountain- Ammann are
xi. 3 ; ii this is not transposed from Num. dislinguished.
xiii. 29. * Tiiis is chiefly seen from tlie passage
* As now in tlio Soudan the population ^'^- ^^'''- ■'> where there is an hi.^torical
is divided into the towns- -j,],, tlic ''^'"''*'" ^"^ "^"^^ '""""'' ' ^^'^^ Canaanite
^ • ' language must have employed this word
desert- ^jjj and the hill- \^->- not merely of the top of trees, but also of
MIXED XATIO.VALITIES. 235
indicates, and as the chief passage about them, Num. xiii. 29
(belonging to the Book of Origins), shows. Whenever any indi-
cation is given of their locality, they always apjiear as dwelling
upon or ruling from high places.' It is, however, expressly
stated by the earliest narrator, that they dwelt originally beyond
the Scorpion-Range^ ('the going up to Akrabbim'), on the
southern boundary of the subsequent Judah, and further still to
the south-east as far as the Rock-city (Petra) of Idumea ; and
even as late as the Israelite conquest they must have held ex-
tensive sway throughout the southern regions on this side of
the Jordan ; besides this they occupied wide regions on the
other side, and had made fresh conquest there just before the
arrival of Moses. ^ Hence the earliest narrator not unnaturally
applies the name Amorite to all the ancient settlers in the south,
on the western, as well as to the entire population on the eastern
side of the Jordan ; and other writers in Judah also employ the
name in this larger sense."* But we have seen already, p. 230,
that these very Amorites, described as warlike and savage,
were mainly relics of the aboriginal population ; and their con-
nection with the Canaanites, strictly so called, must therefore
have been very loose. In fact, in careful delineations they Avere
clearly distinguished from these, and only gradually and in
later times thrown into the same category with them.^ We
possess also one jDroof that the language of the Amorites was by
no means identical with that of the Canaanites.^
b.) The contrast to these Highlanders with their strong
castles is famished by the Hittites,^ as dwellers in the valley,
that of mountains with their castles. In Origins, however, used tlie name Canaan-
1840 I published this remark on Is. xvii. ite in a wider sense, is plain from Num. xiv.
9. InSyriacLjQiDi still signifies Aero; 43-45 (Judges i. 17), compart d with Deut.i.
^r ■■ nu ^ Ol o J- II TA So also the narrator of 2 Sam. sxi. 2, puts
Knop. Chrest. p. 31. 3 from below, 70. ^ y „ ^ ^i i ^i n i /.
, ^, . -r> o *u 1 t • w Amantes for those whom the Book of
last but one, / 9, 2 ; the last passage might n»:„;„o/:„ t.^ i • \ in n- -^
,,,;.'',, • • 1 • Originsfin Josh.ix.) properlycallsÄtv7;^f*.
suggest il/fffi««« as the original meaning, ... , „
. , . . . ,, , ,,» ' As in the often retouched i.assage,
since these are in Armenian called Ulr//^, j^^gp, ;. compare Terse 10 with Josh.
Mar; and Amurin occurs as a local name, xv. 13 sq., xi. 21 sq.
ibid. 31. 3 fr. bei. « In the remarkable passage Deut. iii. 9.
' Gen. XIV. 7, of the district near Jericho , r^u u i i o r rr ,.
1 * • T . »u . Ti .. • They are called also Sons of Heth,
where mountains lie to the west ; Deut. i. r. i-, i i .i . .i ■ •'
- on 1 . J- 11 »1 ■.• T 1 fi"»™ which we learn only that their terri-
7, 29 sq. 44, irom old authorities ; Josh. X. . e i i tx • i •
c V ■• • I i? Ii • ^ tory was lormerly larger. It is an obvious
5 sq., where mention IS made of their tive •'• . ., , .• ^ ^ ,, -r., . -
1- ' L 1 1 tu . ^u- •] conjecture that the name of the Phenician
kings who ruled the country on this side. -l'-u- ■ n ■ ^ . ^ . .^ ,
„''t 1 or T u ••• . iv KiHion m Cyprus is related to the word
- Judges 1. 36, see Josh. xiu. 4 ; on the ^_ ., f'-».-^ • i i ,
o • T) 1 • 1 I ^ I J i- .u nn ! these Kittites were indeed always
Scorpion-Kange, which stretched from the •; _ axnojo
southern end of the Dead Sea to the south- written in Hebrew, and almost alwa3-s in
west, see Num. xxxiv. 4, Josh. xv. 3. Phenician, with -[, never with pI ; yet there
' As we are told not rnly by the earliest are found coins with the inscription ol eV
narrator, but b}- national songs : Num. 'S.i^wvi KtTTieTs, so that at least in Sidon
xxi. 29, comp.Gen. xiv. 5; according towhich Heth seems to be employed in the sense
the Amorites were here not aboriginal. of Canaan ; see the Jahrii'üihcr dir Bib'
* See above, p. 72. That the Book of liscken Wissenschaff, iii. p. 209. On the
156 TERRITORY.
wlio had different employments and manners, and lived, wherever
possible, in distinct and independent communities. We are
not therefore surprised to find them living near the mountains
wherever they could find room, as for instance in the south
near Hebron, and extending from thence as far as Bethel ' in
the centre of the land. They nowhere appear as warlike as the
Aniorites, but rather (according to the noteworthy description
of them in the Book of Origins),^ lovers of refinement at an
early period, and living in well-ordered communities possessing
national assemblies. Abraham's allies in war are Amorites ; ^
but when he desires to obtain a possession peaceably he turns to
the Hittites.* More in the middle of the land on the western side
of the Jordan, the name Hittite seems to have been exchanged
for one of similar import, namely Perizzite : ^ for this also desig-
nates dwellers in an open country, containing villages rather than
fortresses.'' Upon the supposition that this name is synonymous
with, and only dialectically different from, the other, its omission
from the list of tribes given in Gen. x. is easily explained.
c.) Yery little difference exists between these dwellers in the
valley and the peoj)le originally called Canaanite. The latter,
however, according to the earliest and most reliable accounts,^
inhabited the littoral regions, which lie still lower, and possess
a totally different character from the valleys just desci'ibed ; viz.
the western bank of the sultry and teeming valley of the Jordan,
probably as high up as the sea of Galilee, and likewise the coast
of the Mediterranean Sea. As possessors of these choicest parts
of the country, and especially as masters of the sea, successful
Egyptian monuments ÄJjiar and Chef a fre- * This name first appears Josh. xvii. 15 ;
quently appear as names of nations, tlie together ^Yith the Canaanites, as if those
latter especially ; and its relation to the districts liad heen then under subjection
Eiblical name is pointed out in Eunsen's to the latter people. Judges i. 4 sq. ;
JEcfypien i. p. 480 ; Rouge's Pocmc (Je Gen. xxxiv. 30, xiii. 7, comp. xii. 6.
Penfa-oicr in the Heme Contenvp. 1856, " As is clear from the similar Hebrew
p. 391 sq. ; Brugsch's Gcoffraphische word in 1 Sam. vi. 18, and from tlie re-
In-^chriflen alt ägyptischer Denkmäler ii. marks in Deut. iii. 5 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 11 ;
p. 20 sq., iii. p. 73. On the Egyptian Zech. ii. 8. HD is properly npen.
Chetse see also linvve Archkol. 1864, p. 333- ' In the Book of Origins. Num. xiii. 29,
49 Champollion considered tlie Chetse to xiv. 25; and in Josh. xi. 13, probably
be Scythians. But, according to the Assy- from the same .source ; on tlie othir hand,
rian cuneiform inscriptions, tiicChatti must they are already restricted to tlio sea-coast
lisouglit much farther to the north ; see in Josh. v.l. The name Jyj^ undoubtedly
Eawlinsons Inscription of TiglathPUeser ^. -^^^ ^^^;^,,^; ^^^^ ^,^^ ^^^^ antithesis to
^London, 18o7), p. 46 .^q.. 54 sq. The Xer- ^^% -^ „^^ ^^^^^^^ -^ ^^.^^^ ,,^,^ ^^^j,^^,^. -^ ^^^
ra^a «c^m» m Africa, mentioned ,n Ptolemy, ^^j^,,^ „^,„,,^ ^,,,^ ^^.j^i^ ;„ „^j^ ,^^„^^ .^^_
(jcoqr. IV. 0, can have been at most only -kt t ^-n i\ .i i- re i i ^t
•^ 1 ,,, . ,..i- "V JSot till atter 1 he time ot bolomon does the
a very early settlement of this people. „ n -4. • ^i /-m ] rn ^
, A ' ... . „, .. '" ^T , name Canaanite assume in the Old Testa-
' ben. xxiii., xxvi. 34, xxvii. 46 ; Juderes ^ ,.\ c c t^jj j
. „fi .< . ^" , «uu^jco njeut; the force of merchant, trader, and
' , ^ ••• even then not in common parlance. This
vjcn will
1 \ I- \^ n ■ ,n C'lii by no means hare been the original
• According to Gen. xiv. 13. • r xi j
4 r, ■■■ meaning of the word.
' Gen. xxin. °
MIXED .NATIONALITIES 237
navigators, and founders of colonies both near and distant, thej
early obtained such a preeminence above all other nations of the
land, that their name as the most widely known easily came to
be used as a comi^endious desi<j;-nation of the entire country.
Where the various parts of the country were to be distinguished,
the name was extended so as in the first instance to embrace
all the northern tribes only, and then by dei^rees to include
all the southern ones also; althoug'h the southern inhabit-
ants themselves generally employed the name Amorite in this
general sense. When the north coast alone remained unsubdued
by Israel, the name Canaan was ultimately more and more
restricted to that. It was not unknown to the Greeks as sy-
nonymous with Phenician ; ' and the Hebrews possessed no
other general name for the open land on the sea-coast, unless
it be ' Sidonia.'
d.) Lastly, different from all the above were the Hivvites or
Midlanders, who dwelt in the true middle of the land, havin«-
on the east and west the Lowlanders, on the south the High-
landers and valley-dwellers, and on the north the borderers of
Hamath.^ They, like the Canaanites, loved peaceful occupations
and trading pursuits in well-ordered communities and fortified
cities, and located themselves principally in districts the most
suitable for peaceful civil life, which from the earliest times
possessed the most flourishing inland cities. One of these was
Gibeon ; this important central city was the earliest to submit
to Israel, to secure the peace which an inland mercantile city
especially requires.^
The Hebrews became acquainted with the numerous tribes of
various nationality that occupied the land, at a time when they
were living quite isolated from each other, and becoming in-
creasingly so. This explains why they often mentioned several
conquered nations together as a periphrasis for the entire land.
With rhetorical amj)lification the earliest nari'ator names six,^
' On Xv« lis synonymous with 4>oin|, clifFcrent ^~|'ri- I'l Josh. ix. 7 this mistake
see Sanchoniathon, ed Orelli. p. 40 ; and j.^^ ^j. ,(. i„to almost all the MSS. of the
even Hecataus of Miletus, aecord.ng to j^xX. ; and in Gen. xxvi. 2, even into the
JE\. Herodian. ir,,\ ^ounp Kel., i. p. 8: present H.^brew text. [The name is properly
comp. Chocrobosrus in I.t-kkeri A'tea . //j,,y^7g „ot Hivite, Heb. 1.^.1
p. 1181; and Steplianus Byz. on the word;
comp. Buttmann's Mythologus, i. p. 233. ' Jo^^'i- '^- 11' 19- '-^''^e »'»™e H-IH may
have signified in the Canaanite language
' At the time of the Judges they were ^^^ j,^,,^ (literally that which withdraws
driven back from Antihbanon to Hamath, jtsgifs . ^ ^,^^^^,^1 derivatives from
that IS, quite to the north-east (Judges
iii. 3 ; Josh. xi. 3 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 7) ; but <J^^- ^"^^ OJiT may perhaps have
earlier we find them settled in tiie centre signified fhe community, in which case the
of theland(Gen. xxxiv. 2 ; Jcsh. ix.). We Hivvites meant those who lived in free
must observe, however, that the ancient communities (republics),
copyists often mistook >in f'^i" the cntiroly * Ex. xxiii. 23.
23« TERRITORY.
and ag-aiii, more briefly but without any change of meaning, only
three,' and even one only (according to p. 72). The Book of
Origins sometimes mentions five,* but generally Canaan only.
The Fourth and Fifth Narrators choose the same six nations
which the earliest narrator had selected.^ The Deuteronomist,
by adding the Girgashites from Gen. x., brings the number up to
the favourite round number seven.* In one important passage,
where the largest extent of the land was to be indicated ^ the
Fifth Narrator counts up as many as ten nations, by adding a few
fresh ones, of which we shall speak presently. Bat in most
cases where a shorter description suffices, either two names are
given, as Canaanite and Perizzite, or still more frequently one
only, and then the name Canaanite is preferred, although some-
times exchanged for Amorite (see p. 235), and far less frequently
for Hittite."^
If the name Canaanite thus designates originally only one
nation, dwelling apart from the others, it is possible that the
Canaanites belonged to the same immigration with the Hivvites'
and Hittites, who most resembled them in their form of civilisa-
tion ; but this does not enable us to discover the name by which
they called themselves at the time of their migration. But
there is no reason to doubt that all these immigrations belonged
to the primeval race which the Israelites called Ham. Of this
we shall have to speak further hereafter ; for the present it
suffices to notice that Canaan always appears as a son of Ham,
and that according to the ancient Hebrew conception, the two
names were interchangeable terms. ^
Observing on the one hand that the Aborigines maintained
their position in the south more than in the north, and on the
other that Sidon, even in Premosaic times, was the principal
seat of the world-renowned Canaanites, we might imagine that
the latter had burst into the land from the north-east, and
driven back the Aborigines eastwards over the Jordan as well
as to the south, taking a similar direction to Abraham's migra-
' V. 28. _ some .special cause. I3ut in Josli. i. 4, a
'^ Ex. xiii. 5; in most MSS. of the LXX. rhetorical passage, very luuisually, the
the Pcrizzitts are added at the end of the Hitlites alone are mentioned in a more
list; but this very position at tlie end is general sonst;; and the LXX. omit the
opposed to ordinary custom. , .•„ „ ».v-.__ .,.«... L« t r j-u
3 -c •■■ o 1-r ■a • 11 ('"tire passage □''nnn inX ?3- In Judith
^ Ex. 111. 8, 17, xxxiii. 2, xxxiv. 11, ^^ ,, "^. '-' •• '' "' l ' Z*^ ^, ,
comn Josh xii 8 '^'' ^^' f"ll'^^''°ff tjen. xxxiv., bliechem is
' Deut. vi'i. 1 (XX. 17 according to the '•<fl>on«^ especially among the Canaanite
LXX.), Josli. iii. 10, xxiv. 11 ; comp, "'itions ; hat this is explicahle by the
Acts xiii 19 special object and age ot the book.
* Gen. XV. 19-21. ' As we see from the entire complexion
« This is found only in 1 Kings x. 29 of the narrative in Gen. ix. 18-27.
and 2 Kings vii. 0. and here probably from
MIXED NATIONALITIES. 239
tion. But according to the earliest narrative this people were
originally settled much further to the south, as far as Petra,' at
least when mingled with the Amorites ; and their entire history,
so far as it is known to us, shows that they were driven from
the south and east further and farther towards the north-west
and the sea, where for the first time they concentrated their
strength in impregnable seaports. For the hypothesis that
they had pushed forwards from the south, like Israel at the
Exodus, speaks their derivation from Ham in the Book of Origins,
Gen. X. 6, and the tradition preserved by Greek writers of their
immigration from the Red Sea.^ They are therefore to be
reckoned among those Arabian nations which, accordino- to Gen.
X. 7, were also derived from Ham, some of which even in very
earl}-- times were no less devoted to mercantile pursuits.
To the fact of a cognate people living far to the south we also
possess another remarkable testimony, which when correctly
understood perfectly agrees with the statement of the earliest
narrator. There now exist somewhat to the east of Petra, ruins
of an ancient city called Maan, which the Israelites would have
pronounced Ma'on : here the Maonites must have had their seat,
who in Postmosaic or rather Postdavidical times appear on
the stage of history as widely spread in the south of Palestuie
and endeavouring occasionally, in conjunction with Arabian and
other nations, to enter the Holy Land from the south. ^ From
the accounts preserved 1 Chron. iv. 31-41, we learn that being-
' Judges i. 36 ; but the Book of Origins take no immediate notice of the accounts
already takes another view, Gen. x. 19, respecting thoCanaanites in the Nabathean
and fixes the boundary at the southern books : comp. Chwolson's Ucberrcste der
extremity of the Dead Sea. AUhahijlonischcn Literatur, p. 49 sqq. and
"^ Herodotus, i. 1, vii. 89 ; the Eed Sea the Glitt. Gelehrt. An::., 18Ö9, p. 1121 sq.
is here to be understood in the wider sense ' 1 Chron. iv. 39-41 : 2 Chron. xxvi. 7 •
•which Herodotus himself assigns to it, in both passages the LXX. have Vlivaioi
ii. 11. According to JusMn xviii. 2, on a pronunciation also found in the Chetib
abandoning their own country they first 1 Chron. iv. 41, and which forms the
settled down on the shore of the Assyrian transition to the Massoretic punctuation
(Syrian) lake, by which we must under- ^Jiyp (which is to be understood acconling
stand the Sea of Tiberias (the Dead Sea . ' r i i i o .^^ , >. -,,,
being expressly distinguished from this, *° ^^^y JMi,ch § 36, b.c.). In both pas-
xxxvi. 3) Movers explains these Greek ^'»^f »'j^ '^'f '' I' ^"^"»T is spoken of; even
accounts contrary to their simple and 'f '^"^ ^""f h'^^f f the period of the Judges
obvious sense, because he wishes to prove '^ P'^'Pl" ^'^^ ^^ mentioned once under
that the Canaanites were not immigrants, '»^^ "^™'' ^^ p"' ""■ ■ r l^ r ^'''''' ""^
but had always dwelt on the coast of the ^^""' ^° ^^'^^ ^i«''*^- ^^'t'l ^he LXX. pno
Mediterranean. But in the first place, for \''']3^- On the other hand, in 2 Chron.
this hypothesis is entirely opposed to the ^_^. i^ Q,j.^j^j2n i^ evidently to be read for
senseof the Old lestament. ihe tradition . ■ '•
respecting their derivation from the shore CJI^VH according to the LXX. (who also
of the Persian Gulf sounds too indefinite interchange these words in 2 Chron. xxvi.
in Strabo, Geoy. xvi. 3 ; yet the doubts of 8) ; whence follows, that the nation was
Quatrem^re {Mtmoires dc VAcadeunc des already in existence in the time of Jeho-
Inscriptions, xv. 2, 1845, p. 364 sqq.) are shaphat.
nevertheless very unfounded. We here
240 TERRITORY.
descended from Ham, tliey were really quiet and peaceable inhab-
itants of the land ; but towards the close of the eighth century
some Israelites of the tribe of Simeon made an incursion into the
rich pasture lands of Gerar^ occupied b}*^ them and slau filtered
the inhabitants. The characteristics ascribed to this people
point to a connection with the Canaanites. The quiet j)eaceable
life is peculiar to the Canaanites ; and the description of its
occurrence here amid the restless tribes of the south sounds
identical with what is said in Judges xviii. 7 of the northern
Canaanites. The fact of their descent from Ham raises to a
certainty the probable conjecture that they were a species of
Canaanites. We must accordingly regard them as a remnant
of the Amorites, which in later times under the name Maonites
spread to the west of Petra ; and this view is also favoured by
the words of Joshua xiii. 4.
It is a peculiar trait of the early civilisation of this people
that they were in a constant state of disintegration, produced by
the pride which led every city of any importance to assert its
independence and set up a separate kiilg or legislature of its
own ; whilst federal unions among those communities were
never more than transient. The eleven sons of Canaan, whose
names the Book of Origins collects together, clearly designate
only the principal historical groups still discernible after the
long-continued breaking up of the great mass ; for during the
wars with Israel, the various separate kingdoms of the Amorites,
' For -)n5 1 Chron. iv. 39, we should, Josh. xv. ö8. But Gedor, according to
T /' t-L T^'\' „„,1 •-.. . or,rl Robinson's Map. lies still more to the
accordinsr to the LXA., read 113 ana j. i • vl,, ix^ « i ti • i **
•= T-; ' north of this little Maon ; and this latter
thus we should have here the pasture-land certainly did not in the eighth centui-y con-
to the extreme south known from the gtitute a separate state, nor does it answer
Patriarchal history. Gerar is, however, ^^ ^he description in 1 Chron. iv. 39-41.
elsewhere called Philistine, and this may jj^öq ^as rather a genuine Canaanite
he quite true before the eighth century; „^^le for a city, given to many cities
for it is clear that the Israelites did not inhahited by that people ; as for instance a
possess it at that time, as it is not men- ^y^^ l,^^ or VyO n^5 is met with even on
tioned in the register in Josh. XV.; nor can ' ■ " . n t" i t i ••■ i -
,1 . , T . ] 1 o oi,_ „ ^\.r 10 the iurther side oi Jordan, J osli. xiu. 1/.
this be disproved bv 2 Lliron. xiv. IJ, mi ,. - »» - i i <. j
, , „, 1, i • i.1 ■ 1 .1 1 ti T\,T The Meivatoi or Mivaioi. celebrated as
131. Eut in the eighth century the Mao- ^ , . . i i/ / t ^
L., J 1 t 1 -i. -p /i -Di,;!:» dealers in incense, dwelt (according to
nites may liave taken it from the Philis- . . '. j • m
rr, T n 1- ^A i^,.i „.. Strabo XVI. 4 beginning and middle, comp.
lines. The reading Crw/or would lead us i • i v ^ i ^ i «i
^ ,, .^„^ / ..." -.1 ,N „,i T„i, Agatharchid. xliv.) s-omcwhcre towards the
to the "ins (written with 1). named Josh. „ , c i .^ ., c .i * i <-i
" 'r ^ ' Red Sea, but too far south to be the same
XV. 58 ; and then under the Maonites .jg ti,osc mentioned above. The repetition
we must understand, not the inhabitants of the same national name indifferent parts
of the large and important city near Petra, ^f ., ].„.ge country like Arabia might how-
but the small town (mentimied Josh. xv. ^.^.g^ be viewed in the same light as in the
5.5), in the mountains of Judali, not far case of the more familiar names Saba and
south of Hebron and Carmel ; whose in- DcdAn ; (on which see Tuch's Kommcn-
liabitaiits, however, were so truly Jewish, i,,,. ,;;/,,,;. ^[ß Genesis, p. 225 sq.), only we
tliat their ancestor was entered in the should have to suppose the southern Mi-
pedigree of Judah :is father of the neigh- „g.^ns to be a colony from the northern
l)ouring 13.'th-zur, which according to this ,^j^tJQ„ mentioned in the Chronicles,
was' subject to il, 1 CJiroii. ii. t.') ; comp.
MIXED NATIOxVALITIES. 241
Hittites, and others b}- no means form a complete whole. It is
also to be taken into account, that through these divisions into
separate nations and kingdoms, their modes of life and govern-
ment must have become increasingly dissimilar. Of this we
have one very good example. Many of the Hivvite states, not
unlike the German Free Cities, must early have adopted a pure
republican constitution without a king. This was the case with
the inventive but timid Gibeonites, who are so graphically de-
scribed in the Book of Origins ; their elders and burghers decide
every thing,' and no king of Gibeon is mentioned in the cata-
logue of the thirty -one conquered kings of Canaan, Josh. xii. 9-
24 : yet Gibeon was a powerful city, having three subject-towns
in its territory,^ and able to decide on peace and war. Similar
to this must have been the condition of the quiet, industrious
city of Laish or Leshem, which was surprised by a party of
Danites.^ The influence which such precursors necessarily
exerted upon the Israelites when they were once firmly estab-
lished in the land, will be noticed in the history of the Judges.
The high degree of civilisation attained by this race in
primeval times is attested by the whole following course of
history, even where fortune did not favour them.'' In the
interior, where they succumbed to the youthful force of the
Israelites, the spirit of the conquered was avenged by the extent
to which their civilisation and social habits passed over to the
conquerors, as will be shown presently. What they achieved on
the sea under the name Phenicians, is known to alb the world.
From the often-quoted document Gen. xiv. we are justified in
inferring that in the earliest times, when the Canaanites them-
selves were new to the land and the Aborigines hardly subdued,
a purer religion was still preserved amongst them, so that even
Abraham could implore a blessing from one of their Priest-kings.
But at the time of Moses this energetic and skilful people had
obviously reached a sort of over-ripeness in their beautiful land,
which may probably have been largely due to their never-ceasing
' Josh. ix. 11. afterwards, Ezek. xxvii. 9), might admit of
■• nu 1,- T, -R n „A T.^;,.;,fi, ,-„.. much better proof than that adduced by
- Chenhirah, Beeroth, and Kir atn-iea- -r, , , , ^ i „f..+ „^
J ] ■ in Bochart and .some modern commentators,
nm ; jObU. ix. i/. ^^^^^_^ ^^ ^1^^ ^_^^^^ ^.^^^^ ^^ ^ ^j^^ j^^ ^j^^
' Judges xviii. 7, 10, 27, 28; Josh. xix. rnountain-region of Judah (which moreover
47, the customs of tlie city were only li/:e .if]„iif.s, „f various interpretations) : n^-)f?
those of Sidon ; it therefore by no means t> t -j t i • 1 1 i^M
belonged to the Sidonians. We must con- 15p' Book-aiM, Judges i- H sq-, Josh,
sequently look upon it as a city of the xv. 15 sq. It is however m verse 49
Hivvites. exchanged for n3p n.^lpi which has been
■• Whether the Premosaic Canaanites exjilaincd by the Arabic word sunna, as
had already a University ciiy (celebrated 'City of the" Law.' The LXX. however
somewhat in the same way as Byblos was writs for both names T6Kis ypa^ß<i.Toiv.
VOL. I. R
242 TEEEITORY.
divisions, througli wMch every petty town could manufacture
its own laws — tlie worse the better. The earliest accounts show
a mass of moral depravity and unnatural crimes raising its
head among them ; ^ and the grosser pictures of the same drawn
by the later tradition on occasion of the destruction of Sodom,^
must rest on such a basis, and in so far be not destitute of
historical truth. Thus then, despite all the misery it poured
upon the people, the Israelitish conquest, which was rendered
possible by this moral rottenness and national disunion, proved
an excellent means of purification, in that the nobler part of the
nation, unable longer to maintain themselves in the interior,
gathered their forces together on the northern sea-coast for a
new and more vigorous life, and thus the regenerated remnant
of the people gained for themselves an honourable place in the
history of the world.
2) The Canaanites, if immigrants, had entered the land at so
early a period that the Old Testament records tell us nothing
exact on the subject. Very different is the case of the Philis-
tines. These must have entered at a much later period, since
a most distinct recollection of their immigration is everywhere
preserved. This broad fact is elicited with perfect certainty
from many brief traditions ^ which have come down to us ; yet
the details of the question present much that is obscure and
difficult to understand.
The name of the original inhabitants of the south-west corner
of the Jordan-land has come down to us.'' It was the Awim that
dwelt there as far as Gaza, i.e. nearly as far as the Egyptian
frontier ; living, however, not in fortified cities, but, as is ex-
pressly added, in villages, i.e. by agriculture. They were
expelled by the Philistines, who came from Caphtor. Now
nothing: is so characteristic of the Philistines as their dwelling
in fortified coast-cities. The agricultural habits of the Abori-
gines, therefore, show them to be jDerfectly different from the
Philistines, and more resembling the inland tribes. Though
said in the above-quoted passage to have been annihilated or
expelled by the Philistines, they cannot have been at once
wholly exterminated. An ancient tradition ^ shows that for a
considerable period they asserted a certain degree of indepen-
dence alongside of the five ruling Philistine cities, being
' As Levit. xviii. 3-30. latter, and we have no reason to doubt tho
' On the passages Gen. xiii. 13, xviii. fact,
and xix. we have already spoken p. 10-1. ^ Gen. x. 14 (1 Chron. i. 12); Amos
and elsewliere. Genesis xiv. leaves it ix. 7 ; Deut. ii. 23 ; comp. Roug^ in the
uncertain whether they were Aborigines Athen. Fr. 1855, p. 958.
or Canaanites ; but the mode of expros- •* Through the Deuteronomist, ii. 23.
sion in Gen. x. 20 distinctly implies the * Josh. xiii. 3.
MIXED NATIONALITIES. Ui
doubtless reduced to a kind of vassalage. Indeed, vague ex-
pressions such as we often find, of the annihilation and expulsion
of one people through the victorious invasion of another, ought
never without further evidence to be taken so literally as to
exclude the idea of any remnant of the vanquished being left,
especially in a state of vassalage.
This land, then, must originally have been called Awim from
these its early inhabitants ; yet as early as the time of the
Judges it was always called Philistia. When occurred the
Philistine invasion which produced this change of name ? Here
we must regret the short and fragmentary form in which the
ancient accounts of the migration of the Philistines have come
down to us ; for the passages just quoted show that the ancients
knew far more of this and other migrations not too remote in
antiquity than they happen to have incidentally expressed there.
We must therefore give careful attention to all extant traces of
the tradition, if we wish to obtain any degree of certainty upon
this question.
Whether the Philistines were already in possession of the land
during the Patriarchal age might, from the nature of the
extant stories concerning that age, be considered very doubtful.
Por the expressions there met with describe nothing character-
istic of this people, as known to us from other sources and
especially during the period of its highest power; and we
might fancy that the narrators had transferred the name of
a Philistine king and people of a later time into the very
earliest age,^ merely to give its usual designation to the south-
west country. Indeed, many still more weighty reasons might
be found even against the idea that the Philistines occupied a
part of the land at the time of the Israelite conquest. For
throughout all the descriptions of assaults upon the country and
conquests of parts of it, the Philistines are never mentioned,
which would appear impossible if they already possessed a part
of it. According to the very remarkable statement of the Book
of Covenants "^ (which will be further discussed hereafter), Israel
during the earliest period of the invasion conquered the three
cities Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron, of which, however, it cannot
long have retained possession. But though these cities were
soon lost again, yet the whole land as far as the Egyptian
' Abimelech, king of Gerar, is not called been introduced by a later hand. Else-
king of the Philistines either in Gen. xx. where the expression is found only applied
or xxi. 22-34, but only in xxvi. As this to the country, xxi. 32, and to the people
last chapter has throughout beeu more dwelling there, xxvi.
entirely recast than the others, it is not * Judges i. 18.
improbable that this change may have
244 TERRITOKY.
boundary was constantly claimed by the Israelites as their pos-
session. As, according to the most trustworthy traditions, the
Canaanites had formerly extended their dominion thus far,' and
as down to the latest period the name Canaan still comprised
the entire extent of country as far as Egypt, thus including the
Philistine territory ; ^ therefore these five chief cities of the
Philistines were always to be considered as belonging to Canaan,
and therefore properly speaking subject to Israel.^ Nor is it
at all necessary to suppose that these five cities — Gaza, Ashdod,
Askelon, Gath, and Ekron (as enumerated Josh. xiii. 3) — were
built by the Philistines, but rather the contrary, as in other
parts of the country the name Gath is given to genuine Canaan-
ite cities, which cannot have been founded by the Philistines, '*
Hence it might seem that the Philistines cannot have come
to this coast as conquerors and subjugated the original inhabi-
tants till after the Israelitish conquest. In fact, they do not
appear as active agents on the theatre of this history until about
the latter half of the period of the Judges ; but they then ex-
hibit such youthful force, and despite all obstacles maintain
unbroken for centuries such national energy, as proves them, in
contradistinction to the Canaanites, to retain all their pristine
vigour, and not to have reached the period of degeneracy.
But there are clear indications that the name Philistia was
very early given to the sea-coast north-east of Egypt, and was
in common use long before the latter -half of the j^eriod of the
Judges. According to the oldest and most reliable records it
was so called at the time of the Exodus, and had even then
strong fortresses and warlike inhabitants.^ Some immigration
of Philistines therefore must after all have occurred before
the time of Moses. And, dissimilar as the Philistines of the
Patriarchal age are to those of the time of the Judges, yet one
unmistakable bond of union is found in the similarity of their
proper names. ^
' As 'unto Gaza,' Gen. x. 19. well as from tlio ancient Pnf-chal song Ex.
* Zeph. ii. 5. The general name of xv. 14.
Canaan must obviously be defined by " Besides the well-known ^/;HHe/fcÄ, the
the addition of an epithet wherevtr with- foUowinj^examplesoccur: J-i-TPINl Gen. xxvi.
out, it the sense is not quite dear, as in the 26, formed as to its termination like the
passape Is. XIX. 18. familiar name Goliath (but there is al.so
« Ihis is the sense of the passage J( sh ■Qc„ftbat. of the Idumeans in 1 Kings xi.
Xiii. 3. L- ^ • •
* AsGath-HepherinthetribeofZebu- 20); 'p^^a Gen. xxi. 22, xxvi. 26;
Ion on ihennnh,imd Gitta or Gifimi'mthe t^'i^x 1 Stmi- xxi. 11 [10], xxvii. 2,
central portion of the land. How it Mas ^ j^- - 39 • j g^„^_ ^^^i;_ g ;
that the Hellenists could also sav Gef//, ^ > ^ 'r
Git/a, is shown in my Lr/,r/ji/c//, §"33 b. ^RX 2 Sam. xv. 19, 22, xviii. 2 (though
^ This follows namely ft'om the words of this name is also given to an Israelite in
the earliest narrator, Ex. xiii. 17, 18; as 2 Sam. xxiii. 29, 1 Chron. xi. 31); 5jp'
MIXED NATIONALITIES. '245
We must therefore conceive the primeval history of this
I^eojDle to have been as follows : — The same aboriginal people
which formerly covered the whole Lebanon and Jordan valley,
spread also, as many traces show, over some distant coast-lands
of the Mediterranean, as for instance Crete,' where there was in
the earliest times a tribe of Philistines. From thence, unques-
tionably as early as the Patriarchal age, they invaded the coast
which has ever since borne their name. The cause and mode
of their invasion we can never know, but may perhaps conjec-
ture that in the first instance they were called in to the assist-
ance of the Aborigines against an invasion of the Canaanites,
or migration of the Hyksos. They then (as it seems) spread
out mainly towards the extreme south, where lies Gerar, a place
of note in the history of Abraham and Isaac, which, so far as
we know, they never held after the Mosaic age. But just
before the time of Moses and Joshua they must have submitted
to the rule of the Canaanites,^ if only as allies (see on this
point p. 243). Conquered together with their Canaanite allies,
and for a while held in subjection by the Israelites, they seem
next to have sought help from their old home in Crete. This
second and greater immigration it was which made them a
nation, and gave them those characteristics which we know
through the Old Testament.
This view also accords with the mutual relation of the two or
three names by which the nation is known in the Old Testa-
ment. It was the generally-received opinion ^ that the Philis-
tines came from CiqjJitor. This now obsolete name probably
designated either the whole or a j)art of the island of Crete.*
For we find the name Cretan altematinp- with Philistine in the
2 vSam. xxi. 18 (in 1 MS. of the LXX. founded Ashdod, according to an ancient
Se^xi) for which occurs the possibly older tradition handed down, with an attempt
forna iQQ 1 Chron. xx. 4 (the LXX. partly at exjilaining the meaning of the name of
2e0<^r, partly :$a<poir). AH these are pe- ^e city und.r its Greek form "ACctos, l.y
culiar, partly because not easily found in j^" «^^^ antiquarian in Stephanus Byz. s.v.
other Canaanite languages, partly on ac- ,Z°^'r^ ,t i m .
count of the uniform and remarkable for- I«, ^en. x. 14 even Vater and Tuch
mation of men's names in a/h. correctly assumed a transposition of the
» It is for instance remarkable, tliat the ■^^oi"^'*;-
name of the river Jordan, •'lapSavos, re- L ndoubtedly the sound of the word it-
appears in Crete, Horn. Od. iii. 292 ; also ^^^^ 1^"'''' ^" ^^^ ^^^^ '^^•** C;iphtor might
in Lydia, Herod, i. 7 ; and even in Greece, ^^ "^^ '-^''*"^' "f Cyprus ; but nothing else
Horn. II. vii. 135; Apollodorus, ii. 6, 3. '^'^^ ^^ adduced to decide us in favour of
Phereeydes in the Scholia to II. vii. 135. ""^ opinion. C'oyj;jfr was first named from
Pausanias' I'lricq. v. 5. 5, 18. 2. A ^^^ island, not i-icc vcr.<<a ; and the island
Lvdian noble Ja'rdanus is mentioned by itself was probably so called from the plant
Nieolaus of Damascus, in C. Miiller's ">53 (t^'« Alhenna of the Arabs), which
Fragm. Hist. Crrtsc. iii. p. 372. grows there, and was much used by the
* At this time 'one of the fugitives from ancients,
the Red Sea,' i.e. a Phenician, may have
I
246 TERRITORY.
parallelism of the poetic verse,' and even sometimes in common
discourse, as for instance in the mouth of one who is neither
Israelite nor Philistine ; ^ and in speaking of the mercenary
soldiers maintained by the kings after David, Philistines and
Cretans are mentioned together.^ Now as the Philistines are
said to have come from Caphtor, we may assume that they had
already borne the same name in Crete. And in fact the names
of some of the Cretan cities * show that a Philistine nation may
formerly have dwelt there, of which the later Greeks knew
nothing, because after those primeval times, as Homer says,*
very various tribes jostled each other in that island, but the
Greek elements ultimately preponderated. Moreover they can
only have been one of the smaller nations in Crete, since the
land Caphtor whence they came, and from which they were
sometimes ^ called Caphtorim, must have been larger than their
own special territory ; and this Caphtor can scarcely be identi-
fied with any other part of Crete but that called by the Greeks
Cydonia, inasmuch as the name exhibits some similarity,^ and
the Cydonians were neither aboriginal inhabitants of Crete
{'\irsüKpi]Tcs), nor of the Greek race.* But the names Philistine
and Caphtor are evidently extremely ancient, and appear so
throughout the Old Testament, whereas the name Cretan as
applied to the same people does not appear of equal antiquity
or dignity. Moreover the combination ' Cerethites and Pele-
thites' of itself leads us to assume several kinds of inhabitants,
' Zeph. ii. 5; Ezek. xxv. 16. where else could Herodotus have heard
* 1 Sam. XXX. 14. it? In the later-translated books the name
ä In the well-known conjunction Crethi is very singularly rendered by 'A\\6(pu\oi,
and l'lcthi,retAmed hy Luther. That here i.e. Barbarians, Foreigners ; perhaps only
.n"?3 is shortened from .nCi'^Q merely for ^y an easy, half-jest.ng play upon that
• '•• : J 1^ ^-1 same vvKkttkijx, induced by early hatred,
the rhyme, was as far as I know first as- y^Xn^^h survived even the Captivity. But
serted in ray Kritische G-rammatik, p. 297. modern writers who quote the Ethiopia
But others have since observed, what was word ,/a/rtsa, to migrate, as furnishing the
not known to me, that Lakemacher had explanation, are certainly cleverer than
conjectured something similar; but his these translators were,
view had remained completely iinnoticed. s Och/n.xix. 17Ö.
* Tä ^oAa/wa in Strabo x. 4. beg. ; * Dcut. ii. 23 ; Jer. xlvii. 4.
}) ^aKaffäpvi] ibid., middle. Stephanus ' The Greek abbreviation KvZwv from
Byzantiiius distinguishes from the latter Kaftor is not mucli greater than that of
two cities of Crete called *aAawa and KoAx'ioi from Kasluch (Gen. x. 14), in a
^aXivvixla. Such traces are sufficient, so perfectly analogous case,
long as we are unable to explain a proper •* Hom. Ot?. xix. 173-177 ; comp. Strabo
Dame exactly by its meaning in the x. 4. But the question how Ca])]itor came
native langunge. The LXX. translate to be entitled a son of Egypt in Gen. x. 14
the word first, in the Pentateuch and isnot clo.selyconnectedwiththatrespecting
the Book of Joshua, by «ti/AicTTuijU, keep- the Philistines, but ought to be answered
ing strictly to the Ilebrew pronuncia- from the earliest history of Egypt. Roug4
lion, though from Herod, i. 105, vii. 89 lielieves he finds the name in Egyptian as
it is evident that in Egypt the name had Keflu [Bevue Archiologique, 1Ö41, ii. p.
long been pronounced Palacstina; fur 218).
MIXED NATIONALITIES. 247
earlier and later settlers ; in David's time the Cretans and Phi-
listines were perfectly distinguishable, and the name Cretans
may have been given to those who still continued to arrive from
the Greek islands. Thus all these circumstances point to a
twofold immigration.
Of the causes which induced the Philistines first to migrate
to the coast destined to perpetuate their name, we know
nothing from actual tradition; of their second immigration,
too, we learn nothing directly from the ancient authorities.
But the causes of this second can be approximately conjectured
from other facts of history which are clear to us. The Phi-
listines, so far as we can follow them historically as masters
of a part of Canaan, exhibit two very different phases of
activity and power ; and if it is ever permissible to draw in-
ferences from the gradually developed system of the present
respecting its hidden source in the past, this ought certainly to be
conceded to us here. On the one hand, the Philistines were very
warlike and valiant,' incomparably more expert than the Israel-
ites in the arts of war, and the only inhabitants of Canaan who
oj)posed any eff'ectual resistance to them, and for many centuries
contested with them the dominion of the entire land. The
difference from the Canaanites which they exliibit under this
aspect is apparent also in their language, which although Semitic
varied much from that spoken in Canaan generally. ^ On the
other hand they resemble the Canaanite settlers on the coast
in making seaports the strongholds of their power, and not
only holding the strongest of these, but cari-jing on from them
a lucrative foreign commerce, which indeed furnishes the only
satisfactory explanation of the greatness and power of their
cities.^ But the union of such violent antitheses of character
' The Targiim 2 Sam. xx. 7, gives for tlie Pliilistines identifie.s them with the
the above Crethi and Picthi — archern and Pelasgi, and that their hmguage was
s//»yfr« ; which agrees with tiie Greek tra- not Semitic, but Indo- Germanic; bnt
dilion of Rhadamanthys and Minos as the argument seems to me not correetly
inventors of the bow. conducted, even supposing it to be an
- no is undoubtedly a genuine Phih's- open question. Equally unfounded is Qua-
'•■•■• , p -^ • ., • ^ .1 • tremere's opinion that the Pliilistines
tmeword,foritisthenameg,ventothm- ^,^^^ Berbers (comp, also the JaMü-
fivepnnces. It IS interchanged w,th the ,^,^ ^,, Biblischen Wissenschaft, v. p.
synonymous Hebrew -^^ (1 Sam. vi. 4, 16, 326 sq.). The light colour of ih^ir skin
17, comp, with xviii. 30, xxix. 2-9), and on the Egyptian monuments (in Brugsch,
is certainly derived from the .^ame root, as Geographische Inschriften, ii. p. 85 sqq.j
an abbreviation from Sarrän ; but how deserves attention ; tliis suits well their
much shortened, and how peculiar a form ! connection with Crete and Caria.
See also p. 245 note. ll\Xz\fr {Urgeschichte » Askelon had much intercourse with
vnd Mythologie der PhUistäer, Leipzig, Cyprus, and possessed the oldest and
1845. and Zeitschrift der Deutschen Mor- rirhe.'-t temple of the Oüpoua 'AcppnUit),
genliindischen Gesellschaft, 1848, p. 359) Herod, i. 105 ; Strabo (xvi. 2) calls Gaza
endeavours to prove that the very name of (vBo^65 Trore. Medieval as well as modern
248 TERRITORY.
is inconceivable in one undivided small people, and in so early
an ag-e. The Avvim whom the Philistines dispossessed were
tillers of the soil and unwarlike. The Israelites were both
tillers and warlike, for the union of the two is perfectly con-
ceivable. The Canaanites, who even thus early were distin-
guished for their handicrafts, trades, and all the higher arts,
including especially marvellous architectural skill, • were by no
means fond of war for war's sake, nor pertinacious in self-
defence, any more than the Carthaginians at a later period and
on a larger field, when abandoned by the succour or the fortune
of their mercenaries. We are led by these considerations to
expect in the five small Philistine kingdoms which here took
root and flourished for centuries, a confluence of very various
elements of nationality and culture. And the possibility of such
confluence appears at once as the conclusion to which the histori-
cal consideration of the prevailing circumstances naturally tends.
We may assume (according to p. 243 sq.), that at the time of the
Israelitish conquest of Canaan, the Philistines of the first immi-
gration were greatly reduced in power, and their chief cities
already held by the commercial Canaanites, whilst the Avvim
maintained a still higher degree of independence ; and that then,
delivered by the Israelitish invasion from the Canaanite yoke,
but at the same time hard-pressed and partially conquered by the
Israelites themselves, they probably sought assistance from the
only quarter where it was to be had, namely from the Semites of
the seaboard, as for instance of Crete ; an application which was
often repeated in later times. We find both the Cretans and
their relatives the Carians ^ (the similarity of whose names is not
accidental) very often taken into pay by the ancient Asiatic
and African kings, as brave soldiers and body-guards, and their
remarkable fitness and desire for such service must have been
generally known ; ^ even David formed his body-guard of the
so called Cerethites and Pelethites. But if once a body of these
mercenaries seeking employment had gone to these maritime
cities, a stronger body may then once or more have repeated the
venture, and made themselves masters of the whole coast, j^ro-
tecting the commerce and trades already settled there, and sub-
jugating the agriculturalAvvim. One of the forces that drove
writers speak of the magnificent ruins of i-j^j^ (2 Kings xi. 4, 19) is interchanged
these citiesL r. z • > t^ with the in"l3 mentioned above as the
' See for instance Gu6rm s /- oyage '■ •'•:
ArchloJofiiquc (Paris, 1862) ii. p. 226 sq. "ame for the body-guard.
■■' Their actual connection is shown by ^ As early as Homer the Cretans served
Herodotus, i. 171-173 ; Thucydidcs, i. 8 ; thus ; as to later times see Herodotus, ii.
Strabo xiv. 2 , in the Old Testament also, 152.
MIXED XATIOXALITIRS. 249
them to emigrate may perhaps have been a famine such as some-
times occm-red in the much-divided Crete, — for example during
the internal strife of the different nationalities of the island at
the time of Minos, the mythical organiser of the kingdom.' It is
certain that the surviving Rephaim mingled with the Philistines
and made common cause with them against Israel (p. 24G sqq.) ;
that the Amorites during the period of the Judges fought with
them against Israel ; ^ and that the help of these warriors was
sought by the Sidonians in far later times f while the Askelonian
king, who is said to have conquered the Sidonians, and induced
them to found the new city of T}Te,'* a year before the fall of
Troy, may very probably have been a Philistine.
Lastly, though for ever driven back by Israel upon a narrow
strip of sea-coast, the Philistines nevertheless, through their
fortified cities on the confines of Africa, always possessed such
importance in the eyes of the Egyptians that the latter called
the whole land of Canaan from them Palestine ; ^ and this desig-
nation gradually superseded the older name Canaan, and became
prevalent everywhere, through the spread of Hellenic culture
under the successors of Alexander.
3) We have yet to notice the incursions of wandering tribes
living in tents on the southern and eastern borders — the Arabian
tribes, as they may conveniently be called. Their incursions
must have been quite as frequent in the Premosaic age as in
that of the Judges and subsequently, in which we can trace their
recurrence in greater or less force. None of these attacks made
by tent-tribes uj)on tribes long domiciled in the land ever had
any great or enduring result. The new genius of Mohammed was
required to make of them anything more than freebooting ex-
peditions, followed by occasional settlements. Still at times they
exerted so much influence over the country, and left such evi-
dences of their occurrence scattered about, that we must here
briefly review those of the Premosaic period,
' According to Stephanus Byzantinus, ' Jer. xlvii. 5.
under rd(a, this city was once named ■* Justin, xviii. 3, 5.
Mii'wa, as if 3Iinos himself, wilh JSacns * In Philo, Opira, ii. p. 20, where, ac-
and Rhadamanthys, had founded it. To cording to the present reading, the name
this time may belong that migration from Palestine is derived from the Syrians, we
Crete spoken of by Tacitus, Hist. v. 2, nnist read according to one MS. 'S.vpiav for
mixing up the Jews with the ancient 2wfo«. In our own day the conjectiu'e has
Idaeans of Crete ; because it is generally been hazarded, that the name of the city
assigned to the per od of the downfall Pelusium is identical with Pliilistine ; but
of Kronos and the commencement of this is improbable in itself (Pelusium being
the reign of Zeus; i.e. the beginning of only the Greek name of the city), and can-
the historical age associated with the not be proved from the words of Plutarch,
name of Minos. TlaKaiarivhv ^ XiriKovawv (de Is. et Os. ch.
^ This is the meaning of the passage xvii.).
1 Sam. vii. 14.
•250 TERRITORY.
The Amalekites, in primeval times, must have been one of
the strongest and most warlike nations of north-western Arabia.
They endeavoured repeatedly to force their way into Canaan from
the south, and form a settlement there. Erom the fact that
they are not mentioned in the list of nations in Gen. x., no more
can be inferred than that at the time of the composition of the
Book of Origins they had already lost their ancient importance.
In the earliest age known to us, according to a story of extreme
antiquity,^ they possessed the entire tract stretching southwards
from Canaan to Egypt ; but before this they must have been
settled actually in the middle of Canaan, where a ' Mountain of
the Amalekites ' in Ephraim long preserved their name -^ indeed
we have good reason (from p. 231 sq.) to suppose that it was
chiefly they who constituted the aboriginal poj^ulation of the
entire valley of the Jordan.^ They may, moreover, formerly
have really been a settled people. The Kenites, their allies in
Moses's time and subsequently, were indeed a nomadic race, and
the Amalekites themselves, when finally expelled into the desert,
would of necessity adopt more and more the nomadic tent-life.
Nevertheless, their appearance in historical times is exactly
that of a nation which, having been driven back into the desert
successively by Canaanites, Philistines, and Israelites, could
never forget that it had for centuries possessed the beautiful
land of Canaan and been its first colonists, and which therefore
repeatedly made the greatest exertions to regain its former pos-
session. At the time of Moses and afterwards they still held many
posts in the extreme south, remnants of their ancient power,
and in conjunction with the Canaanites often defended them
bravely against Israel.* Indeed the hostility which they mani-
fested towards the Israelites at the Exodus — in harassing them
on the march and cutting off the lagging, weak, or weary, in
true Bedouin fashion'^ — was quite pertinacious and bitter enough
to account for the strong national animosity which existed for
centuries between Amalek and Israel. It was the hatred of two
' Gen. xiv. 7 ; comp. 1 Sam. xxvii. 8. tlio Amalekites ; -whence it would follow
* The fuller name of the mountain is that in tiie north-east of tiie land a rem-
found Judf!es xii. 15; the shorter Amalek nant of this nation liad maintained itself
in poetic language, Judges V. 14 ; and it up to the time of David. It should bo ob-
is clear from both passages that a region served that this smali territory of Maacali
of great extent must have been intended ; appears always closely bound up with
possibly thecentreof the mountain strong- Geshur, ali-eady mentioued p. 231.
holds of Ephraim, where first Amalek and ■" Book of Origins ; Numb. xiii. 29 ; xiv.
afterwards Ephraim dwelt in largo iium- 25, 43, 45.
bcrs, and licld their national assembUiges. ' The clearer and earlier tradition on
" Very curiously the LXX. (at least ac- tliispointisfoundinDeut. xxv. 17, 18. The
cording to most MSS.) treat tho king Fourth Narrator treats this reminiscence
of Maacah in 2 Sam. x. 6, 8 as a king of after his own fashion, Ex. xvii. 8-16.
MIXED NATIONALITIES. 251
rivals disputing a splendid prize which the one had previously
possessed and still partially possessed, and the other was trying
to get for himself by ousting him ; and to this was added the an-
tipathy constantly existing between nomadic and settled nations,
to which latter class Israel even at this early period belonged.
One short saying ^ preserved from that primeval time shows
very distinctly how deeply-rooted was this aversion in Israel ;
it ascribes to Moses these words,
' Yea, the hand to tliG tin-one of Jah : ^
Jahveh makes war against Auialek
From generation to generation ! '
And in fact the eternal war against Amalek and his gods,
vowed by Israel in these words of glowing indignation, must
have contributed much to the gradual complete dissolution and
annihilation of this once-powerful people. The commencement
of this decline is visible even before the Mosaic age. Firstly,
we are informed of the important fact that the Kenites, named
Gen. XV. 19, many of whom accompanied the Israelites to Canaan,
originally constituted a sub- tribe of Amalek,^ from which how-
ever the greater part seceded at the time of Moses and joined the
Israelites; but this stands in too close connection with the history
of Israel under Moses to be fittingly discussed here. Secondly,
the Kenizzites, who in Gen. xv. 19 are near to the Kenites,
must, according to all indications, have occupied a similar
position. At the time when the Israelites conquered Canaan
some of these Kenizzites, doubtless consisting of a few ruling
families, were dispersed over the 'and at the extreme south.
Othniel, Caleb's younger brother and likewise son-in-law, is
called a son of Kenaz,"* and Caleb himself, the son of Jephunneh,
has the appellation Kenizzite.^ The original meaning of Keniz-
' Ex. xvii. 16. whether any or what kind of connection
* i.e. 'I swear, raising my hand existed between the ancient and the modern
heavenwards,' Gen. xiv. 22. Tlie great tribe. We must not be misled by mere
antiquity of this saying is seen also from simihirity of name, without further indi-
its peculiar language; neither the expres- cation of relationship, on the extensive
sion about the hand, nor Q2, which must subject of the affinities of primeval tribes ;
be a dialectic variety of Spp.being found ^^^^^ we might think, for example, that the
elsewhere. locality ,,Ui,0^ in Upper Egypt {Bescrip-
3 1 Sam. XV. 6 ; the account in 1 Sam. ^-^^^ ^^ VEgypte. Etat Moderne, xviii. 3,
XXX. 29. IS not opposf-d to tins. The name ^g ^^ ^^^^ '^^^.^^ ^j^^ j^^^^j^.,.,^ p^l^j^. ^2, ,7^,^^.
ot such a desert tribe has been preserved ,i,rj)e„t. Morgen. Ges. 1857, p. 59), had
.-o-
^„ . ,. , . .1 , , 1 some connection with the Canaanites.
down to Christian times: ^cli shortened
C*^ • •* Judges i. 13, iii. 9; Josh. xv. 17;
from X\ »-; Ham. p. 228, 3, 8; 263, 9 1 Chron. iv. 13 ; the LXX. indeed inter-
„ .11 rn , • • «.. 1 . 1 L pret the three first passages as if Kenaz
sq. &c., ^,\\ laban 1. p. 82 last but one, t^^^^ ^.^j^^,,^ ^.^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^
comp.also clJJ^ in Mohammed's history: 5 InXhe Book of Origins, Num. xxxii.
it is however hardly possible to ascertain 12 ; Josh. xiv. 6, 14 ; comp, verse 13.
252 TERRITORY.
zite being fully established, this can evidently only mean that
Caleb and his adherents had connected themselves vrith the
Kenizzites dwelling in southern Canaan, and were acknowledged
by them as possessing all the privileges of their tribe. When
at a later time these Kenizzites were forced into a j)osition of
dependence upon Caleb's posterity, Kenaz might be called his
grandson.^ Another section dwelt in Edoni, and appears there
as one of Esau's grandsons through Eliphaz.^ This therefore
must, through a sacrifice of perfect independence, have entered
into the union of the Edomite tribes, exactly as Caleb and his
confederates into that of the Israelites. Now since Amalek
and Kenaz are both described as grandsons of Edom through
Eliphaz, but the former was the son of a concubine, which marks
him as a subordinate or servile member of the kingdom,^ it is
evident that the Edomites, though making no difficulty (as the
Israelites did) about receiving Amalekitesinto their confederacy,
yet held the Kenizzites, who must before this time have re-
nounced their connection with the Amalekites, in far higher
esteem, as did the Israelites also.
But for many centuries after Moses this indomitable people
continued its struggle for independence as oj)portunity offered.
Their enmity towards Israel remained unchanged ; and when
they could do nothing greater, they could at least make plun-
dering expeditions ^ in company with other tribes who made
incursions from the south-east ; for which they were repeatedly
made to feel the vengeance of Israel.^ After the severe casti-
gations they received from Saul and David,'' they disappear for
a time from history, but are mentioned as late as the second
half of the eighth century (p. 109 sq.), and again towards
its close, when 500 Simeonites, as if to revive the old ani-
mosity, hunted up in the mountains of Edom their old prey,
Hhe rest of the Amalekites who were escaped,' and exter-
minated them and occupied their territory.^
' As is found in 1 Cliron. iv. 15 ; un- * As is exprossly stated 1 Sam. xiv. 48.
doubtedlyfromagenuineanciontauthority. * Judges iii. 13, vi. 3, 33; see x. 12, and
^ In the J5ook of Origins, Gen. xxxvi. abort», p. 109 sq.
11, 15, 42. 6 1 Sam. xiv. 48 ; xv. 27, 8; comp. xxx.
ä In the Eook of Origins, Gen. xxxvi. 12, 13 ; 2 Sam. i. 8.
IG ; therefore lie is elosely connected witli ^ 1 Chron. iv. 42, 43. The subsequent
thellorites, i. e. the Aborigines (comp. Gen. poetic mention of tliis nation in Ps. Ixxxiii.
xxxvi. 12 with 22). Curiously he is not among many others with which Israel had
named in vv. 40-43, but, perhaps this to contend from a very early period, has
admits of explanation ; for if the meaning hardly any more historical signiticanco
of vv. 40-43 has been correctly given on than that Haman is called in the Book of
p. 76, it is intelligible why the Hebrews Esther an Agagite, i.e. (see 1 Sam. xv.).
here also did not liku to rocogniso the sove- a chief of the original enemies (the'Ama-
reignty of Amalek. lekites) ; so at least Josephus explains.
MIXED NATION ALITIES.
253
The position assigned in the Old Testament records to this
once widespread and powerful people ought especially to be
studied by any one who wishes to form a correct judgment
upon the later accounts of them given by Arabic writers. •
As the Amalekites in historical times made inroads from the
south, so did the Kadmonites, who are mentioned next to them in
Gen. XV. 19, from the east. These are undoubtedly what their
name expresses, Orientals, Saracens,^ otherwise B'ne Kedem, or
Sons of the East ; a name restricted in practice to the east con-
tiguous to Palestine, and comprising only the Arabian nations
dwelling between Palestine and the Euj^hrates. Amono- these
the Midianites alone gained historical celebrity, as a powerful
conquering nation,-^ the others being in fact mentioned only
' Among the numerous accounts of this
people, th'TC is much which has originated
in a careless intermingling of Biblical
stories (see the Introduction to the
ancient work of Abdalhakam iipon Egypt
[which I possess in manuscript, see Zeifsch.
für d. Morgenland, iii. 3], now edited by
Karle, Göttingen, 1856; Masudi's Golden
Meadoivs, London, 1841, i. pp. 76, 93, 94,
97, 98; de Sacy's Abdollatif, p. 519; the
Kita/) Alaghäni in the Jour. As. 1838, ii.
p. 206 f^q. ; Tabari edited by Dubeux,
i. p. 47-55 (but comp. pp. US," 121), 209,
210, 261, 262; also Ibn-Chaldim in the
Jour. As. 1844, i. p. 306) ; but they cannot
all have had such an origin. These ac-
counts assert in substance: 1. that Am-
lak or Amlik (both derived from Amlik)
was neither allied to Ishmael nor to Kach-
tan (Joktan) ; i.e. was one of the few
aboriginal Arabian tribes which dwelt
first in Yemen, and then spread by way of
Mecca and Medina to Syria, where it had
powerful rulers (Abultida's PrcB-Islamitc
Annals, ]pTp. 16,178; the proverb of <__;»• .c
in de Sacy's Hariri, p. 139 sq.) ; this can-
not rest merely on Num. xxiv. 20 ; on the
contrary, Amaiek is thereby placed in a
list of Arabian tribes (named in Gen. x. 7)
which stand in no sort of connection with
Abraham. 2. That it at one time gave
kings to Egypt; on which point more will
be said afterwards in the history of Joseph.
3. That even as late as the kingdom of
Alhira it had powerful princes, whoso sub-
jects had peculiar ol>ligations. Hamasa, p.
253, V. 1 and 254, el Belcri in WUstenfekVs
Genealoffi.scJ/e TnheUrn der Amber Beg.
p. 405 ; Abulfida, p. 122. In the ancient
work j,s^x,^ (Cod. Mcdiol. Ambros. 100
according to Hammer), which also else-
where mentions frequent invasions of Syria
and Palestine by the ancient Arabs, there
is a notice of mighty kings of Amaiek at
the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and of their
invasion of Syria (according to an abstract
kindly communicated to me by Earl Mun-
ster and Dr. Sprenger in their journey
through Tübingen, in the autumn of 1841).
In many cases the name Amalekite may
have signified among the later Arabs
merely an aboriginal race ; as in the case
of the oblong Amalekite tombs similar in
form to those of the ancient Egyptians,
which Captain Newbold found near Jeru-
salem in 1846, and described in the Trans.
As. Sac. London. But the pronunciation
pbJ2V is quite Hebrew, according to my
Lehrbuch, 87 d.
It is clear from these and similar pas-
sages, that I nowhere overestimate the
Moslim tales of the Amalekites and other
nations of antiquity, or draw conclusions
from them alone as reliable sources. But
besides the Bedouin, Arabia had in certain
parts settled races, among whom writing
and literature, though gradually degene-
rating, flourished from the earliest times
(for it is not true that these were first
introduced by Mohammed). Moreover,
the early Moslim, as has been siiown in
Fihrist, had at their command a mass of
works since wholly lost. These considera-
tions are not sufficiently kept in view by
Th. Nöldeke in his treatise lieber die
Anudekitrr nnd einige andere Kachbarvöl-
ker der L^raditen, Göttingen, 1864.
^ 5 .wH st^'ll designates among the Mo-
hammedans chiefly the districts to the
east of Palestine, on the Euphrates (as in
Freytag's Chrestomathi/, s.\. KemCdcddin,
p. 119, 17), and the name Saraceni was
in use among the Romans long before
Islam, apparently from the time of Trajan's
and Hadrian's wars.
' Num. XXV. sqq.; Judges vi.-viii.
254 TERRITORY.
in connection with them.' But as the Book of Origins "^ de-
scribes them as Abraham's descendants, they find their proper
place in the primeval history of the Hebrews, as is also the case
with the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, who settled near,
or else in the very midst of the Hebrews. Of the Hebrews, then,
we now propose to give a connected account.
3. A strong contrast to all the migrations already noticed
is furnished by that of the Hebrews, of whom the Israelites ori-
ginally formed but one small branch. Here we have a people
which, according to its own clear memories, had entered the
land from the north-east — the quarter whence, on prehistoric,
i.e. philological and physical grounds, perhaps all the nations
already described may be thought to have originally come, al-
though in every case in which we can trace their steps back-
ward in actual history, we always find that they had already been
either settled down or leading a wandering life somewhere else
first. From the same quarter other nations were in later ages
seen to issue — Assyrians, Scythians, Turks, and Mongols, whose
advance was chiefly marked by the use of mere physical force,
coming and going without leaving any intellectual creation to
witness of its existence. The Ancient Hebrews, on the contrary,
effected a revolution in these favoured lands, the force of which
was felt for centuries by the nations previously settled there, and
generated a new spiritual life, whose noblest fruit still remained,
nay rather first became truly known and valued, as the nation
itself perished. We here enter upon a fresh region, of which
we could never have had the faintest idea from any of the na-
tions already described. This it is which constitutes the proper
subject of the present history.
The memory of this Hebrew immigration, however, as pre-
served in the historical books written after the establishment of
the Mosaic religion, is so closely bound up with the whole history
of primeval times preserved by Israel, that it will be best treated
of in that connection.
An ancient nation, which had already played some part and
reaped some laurels on the great theatre of nations, on gazing
backwards, inspired by a new desire to form a clear picture of its
own remote antiquity, would discover very various but scattered
and indistinct remembrances, which ultimately lost themselves
in an obscurity impenetrable to memory alone. But where
memory fails, hypothesis always steps in ; and m. the varied
' Judges vi. 3; comp. Isaiah xi. 14; assigned to Dip, v. 6, deserves especial at-
Jcr. xlix. 28. tention.
^ Gen. XXV. 1-G, whore the prominence
MIXED NATIONALITIES. 255
mass of traditionary matter preserved by an imaginative people,
much is always to be found tliat springs from mere hypothesis
and a busy fancy. The combination of these two essentially
different elements may then continue for a further period, even
after the awakening of the desire to look back into the distant
past and gain a clearer conception of it.' These mixed memories
of its primitive state, which each nation thus forms and pre-
serves in a manner characteristic of its intellectual stage, we
here designate its Preliminary History. A complete separa-
tion is thereby effected between the Preliminary and the pro-
perly so called National History. Indeed the mere aspect of the
subject constrains us to admit that the history of the Israelites
as a nation can only properly commence with the Twelve Tribes ;
and that whatever is told of the Patriarchs and of still earlier
times, belongs to an essentially different region of history.
' As shown more fully pp. 26 sqq.
HISTORY OF ISRAEL.
BOOK I
PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF ISRAEL.
SECTION I.
ISKAEL BEFORE THE MIGRATION TO EGYPT.
A. GENERAL NOTIONS.
This Preliminary History embraces partly liistorical matter
concerning the earliest times, treasured in the memory of the
people at a later day, or received by them into their traditions
from other nations ; but partly also their own ideas and imagin-
ings respecting those primeval ages, their connection with the
other nations of the earth, with the first members of the human
race and Avith God Himself. It is evident therefore that, as-
cending from the period which I call here the historical, the
accounts which we possess divide themselves into various stages
which were clearly enough distinguished in the national con-
sciousness. On the lowest stage, nearest to the historical period,
stand the traditions of the abode of the people when but little
civilised, in Canaan, of their emigration thither from the north-
east, and of the grand forms of the Fathers, alike of the people
of Israel and of the other kindred Hebrew tribes. The dim re-
membrance of this migration which the Hebrew race preserved
in their later position far to the south-west, together with their
tradition of an original connection with other nations dwelling
in the north and east, forms the boundary-line of this stage of
the preliminary history. But behind this there arises a remoter
question which no cultivated people can forbear to ask : in what
relation they stand not only towards a few kindred nations, but
towards all the peoples of the earth : a question the answer to
which goes beyond the traditions of all existing nations, and
leads into a cloud-land which can be reached only by means of
linguistic and physical investigations, or (where these are un-
tried or incomplete) by imagination merely, and never embraces
GENERAL NOTIOXS. C57
more than tlio origin of the existing nations and men. Bnt his-
torical qnestions and imag-inings logically stretch beyond these ;
nor can the ascending movement, once excited, again be laid
to rest before, upon the third and last stage, and apart from all
existing nations and living men, it has brought into view under
an historical form the original condition of humanity, and the
connection of mankind, and of the whole creation with the
Creator ; establishing on this subject a truth from which as from
a first cause every further impulse of human history — that is of
man's development — may be traced at leisure.
These ore the three stages of primeval history, which the Book
of Origins distinguishes by the Creation, the Renovation of the
human race after the great Flood, and Abraham's entrance into
Canaan, as the commencement of so many great turning-points
(or epochs), describing each characteristically and in detail
with equal simplicity and precision ; while the later narrators
introduce from other sources many fuller or varying accounts.
When to this we add, that the time after the close of the Patri-
archal world is in the Book of Origins regarded as the properly
historical age, continuing little changed in character, in com-
parison with the primeval age, to the author's own day, then
we see here before us four great Ages, into which the author re-
garded the entire domain of the world's history as falling, and
according to the succession of which he arranged his work, as has
been further explained above, p. 79 sq. But the Book of Origins
evidently did not originate this conception of Four Ages of the
world, since it does not explain the ground on which it rests,
but rather tells its whole story briefly according to that idea, as
if it were already long established and well known.
Unquestionably, then, we must recognise here the same Four
Ages of the world of which the old legends both of the Greeks
and of the Hindus speak. Nor is it the number four alone in
which a strikinof ajjreement is found amonj:^ the Hebrews,
Greeks, and Hindus — nations widely separated in character as
in locality : they have all likewise worked out the conception
of a gradual decline of the human race from the primitive per-
fection of the first age to the second, third, and fourth. These
facts force us to recognise the traces of a primary tradition
which was given before the separate existence of such nations
as the Hebrews, Greeks, and Hindus, and from which they all
drank in common. We may be certain also that with the tradi-
tion of the four gradually declining ages were handed down
various particulars concerning them : for example, one account
of the Creation of the visible world in all its parts, and another of
VOL. I. S
258 I'RELIMIXARY HISTORY.
the great Flood at tlie end of the first age : partly because tlie
conception of the Four Ages could become clear and fixed only
by means of such minute details respecting the commencement,
course, and nature of each ; and partly also because the accounts
of the Creation and the Flood given in the Book of Origins re-
cur among the Greeks, Hindus, and some other nations of an-
tiquity, with so close a resemblance in essential portions, that
we must assume for them also a common original source.
Much indeed of that which the later narrators add to the re-
presentations of the Book of Origins respecting the first two
Ages (see p. 38 sq.), appears on a closer examination to have been
first impoi-ted from Eastern Asia through the brisker intercourse
Avith foreign countries which especially marked the period after
the tenth century ; and then to have been so penetrated and
leavened with the spirit of the Mosaic religion that it could
find a place amid the ancient sacred traditions and ideas. But
the case is quite different with those narratives of the Book of
Origins which in their essential basis are found also among
foreign and remote nations. Their importation can in no way be
proved or rendered probable ; yet while they manifest in every
feature an extreme simplicity and primitive purity, though
ah-eady tinged by the spirit of the Mosaic religion, we find them
again not only in Eastern Asia but also in ancient Europe.
Moreover, the composition of the Book of Origins dates from a
time when the great influx of fresh stories and ideas from the
east had not begun, and the people of Israel retained essentially
their ancient condition. Their source must therefore reach
back beyond the histories of the separate nations then existing
into that obscure primeval period of the existence of one un-
known, but early civilised nation, which was afterwards dissolved
into the nations of that day, but left many wonderful relics as
traces of its former existence. One such relic of the culture of
this prehistoric people is the language of the historical nations,
which clearly points to a common basis ; and the Semitic group
of languages is connected, at least remotely, with the Mediter-
ranean or Aryan group,' Another relic of this primeval nation
are these old traditions : for where a cultivated language is
found, there must be also a groundwork of peculiar institu-
tions, traditions, and historical ideas ; and if nations, while di-
verging widely from their original unity, preserve the essential
elements of the primeval language, each in its own way, and
according to its special development, we can see no reason why
• Tliis sulrcct is trcatod in detail in Sprachlehre, and more at length in tlio
the various editions of my Hehräischc ivto Sprachwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen.
GENERAL NOTIONS. 259
they slioulcT not similarly have retained from the same period a
common basis of traditions, laws, and customs.'
But a comparison of the different forms which this primeval
tradition of the Four Ages has assumed among each of these
nations according to its peculiar history and culture, brings as
to the conclusion that the Hebrew story presents the most con-
spicuous fragments of it, and lends us the most aid in inferring
its original shape. For the Greek tradition, even in its oldest
extant version,^ only presents conceptions beautiful as poetry,
but utterly barren of historical matter and tone, and not even
conveying an idea of the reason for this division of all past time
into four ages : for it would be manifestly absurd to suppose the
reason for a four-fold division to have been that only four metals
— gold, silver, brass, and iron — were known, and so only four
ages corresponding to these could be affirmed. Clearly the
thought of comparing the constant degeneration of the four
ages with four metals similarly sinking in value is simply the
Greek addition ; but the fact that this merely poetical thought
was required to revive and recast the whole idea of the four
ages, proves satisfactorily that the original conceptions of the
details were already lost.
In the Hindu accounts the original form of the tradition is
much more clearly recognisable ; especially if we compare the
various modifications of the story presented by different writers,
and draw our picture of the original from them all combined.^
Some points are then even more plainly to be recognised in
these than in the Hebrew tradition, of which indeed we have
only the one single version given in the Book of Origins. For
' While I have been careful to avoid graduated according to the four elements.
combining what is really heterogeneous, Even among the Arabs was preserved a
or making any unwarrantable assumption, tradition (according to Sur. vi. G ; com-
I have always in this sense maintained ■, ,\ jy ■ r I ^^\
,, -u-iv c t- ■ •„•!•• pare x. 14) of a series of ages •• 1
the possibility of a certain original simi- i' ' \ •ir'/
lai-ity among all the above-mentioned commencing with one supremely blest.
nations, not merely in language, but in s A number of ancient Hindu traditions
myths and customs also. (See Gott. Gel. are given very briefly by Manu, i. 68-86 ;
An:r. 1831, pp. 1012-13.) K. 0. 3Iiiller, j^ter and more highly developed ones arc
in the introduction to liis History of Greek founfj i,i Wilson's Vishnu-Pumna, p. 23-
Litcrature, made a similar admission. 26, 2.j9-271 ; compare p. 622. The
- In Hcsiod's Works and Days, \. 103- Bliagavata Parana, iii. 11. 18 sqq», fui-^
199: Hesiod's introduction of the Heroic nishes little that is characteristic. The
Age (making really five ages) is oln-iously Buddhist notion, given by S.-hiefner in
his own innovation; and an attentive the St. 'Pctemhurg Bunetin de rAaidemic,
perusal makes it evident that he had 193, is peculiar but not very ancient. In
received the series of four ages only, cor- the Veda no detailed account of the Yout
responding to the four metals, with a few Ages of the world has as yet been found ;
uncertain fragmentary details, and that but this docs not prove that the whole
his own imagination added all the rest, conception was unknown among the Hindus
In Mexico, the four ages of the world wei-e till a late period.
S 2
260 PRELIMIXARY HISTORY.
example, it is certain from them that tlie original idea of the Four
Ages was formed by looking from below upwards, or in other
words by looking from thei^resent further and further back into
the distant strata of primeval time, somewhat as conjectured
above, see p. 256 sq.' The regular proportion which was con-
ceived to subsist among the Four Ages and to be expressed in
numbers is another instance : for though it might indeed be
presumed, that in the endeavour to form anything like a com-
plete conception of these Four Ages the scanty historical reminis-
cences of primeval times would be eked out by the assumption
of mutual numerical relations yielding four terms of a propor-
tion, yet this is first visibly confirmed by the Hindu traditions.^
The Hebrew tradition, on the other hand, possesses high ex-
cellence, in that it accurately distinguishes and bounds the. four
ages according to their intrinsic nature, so that we see clearly
vvdiy four — neither more or less — are assumed, how each of them
differs intrinsically from the rest, and has its meaning only in
its own place and order. Their succession is not determined by
a mere change in general mutual relations— each containing
merely its definite space, its numbers and its greater or less de-
gree of virtue : but each possesses, independently of its relation
to the others, an external boundary and an internal life and
character of its own, which make its existence in this particu-
lar form possible only this once ; and together they include the
whole domain of historical traditions. The non- Hebrew legends,
by tearing the Great Flood away from its original position in
the series of these Four Ages and setting it up as an independent
event, have lost one clear distinction between the first two ages.
And the Greek legend, by not assigning even to the third age
any of the famous heroic names which approach the domain of
strict history, fails to make anj adequate distinction between
the two middle ages.^
' The proof of this is furnished by the beings; thus arose the Eg;y'ptian conccp-
names : KaH-juga is the fourth age, the tion (one simihir to which is still prevalent
sorro-wful present; B>'äpara-jugn,ihe\\\\v'\, in Japan\ half apparent even in Ilosiod,
has its name derived from the number two, of the suocessive rule of Gocls, Demigods,
as if counted from below; Treta-jvga, the Man .s, and Moi.
second, from the number three ; but lioth * The progression of the Four Ages is
of these, now that the names and traditions exactly in the proportion of the numbers
are more minutely worked out, contain at 1, 2, 3, 4 ; but after starting with the
the same time an allusion to the gradual simple conception that the lenglh of
decrease of the four pips on the dice, in human life was in the first age 400 years,
the game of dice. This artificial, and, in the second 300, in the third 200, and in
therefore, probably modern, image being the fourth 100 (Manu, i. 83), they after-
once introduced, the Krita- or Safja-juga, wards multiplied these numbers pre-
t ho first age, signifying that of Perfection or posterously; the original numbers, how-
Truth, is represented by the four pips, tho ever, being still discernible,
best throw of the dice. Other figures were ' I have gone at length into the subject
suggested by the various kinds of living of Primeval Eiblical History in tho Jahrb.
THE FIRST TWO AGES. 261
B. THE FIRST TWO AGES.
Looking closer, after these general remarks, into each of the
three ages of the primeval history, we see at once that the first
two ages, as described in the Book of Origins, present a certain
mutual resemblance, and consequent common contrast to the
following age. It is true, indeed, that each is essentially suffi-
ciently distinguished from the other : the first shows what man
was at his creation, and how even in this primeval state the
race sank gradually lower and lower, until the Flood swept them
away ; the second, how the new human race, starting from that
terrible time of purification and new-birth, developed itself into
the great and wide-sjjread nations now existing. But at the
time when the idea of the Four Ages was established, it was not
possible to recall the memory of any individuals who had actually
lived in the two first ages, as it was of those who had lived in
the following third or fourth age. In this respect, these two
ages, as representing only the great events of the Creation, the
Flood, and the development of the existing nations, but void of
other interest, and lacking the history of individual men, neces-
sarily formed a contrast to the two following, which are rich in
contents, and present an ample supply of tradition respecting
individual heroes of the older times.
But again even from the first there was something so repug-
nant to natural feeling in this emptiness of an entire age,' that
tradition early sought to fill up the gaps as satisfactorily as
possible. A continuous series of men and races must surely
have lived even then (so it might fairly be argued), and occu-
pied these wide spaces : and when the inclination of tradition
to fill up the gaps was once aroused, material enough was soon
presented to satisfy the demand. For tradition has in its
boundless store no lack of names available to fill these voids.
Some of these names originally expressed mere ideas, exhibiting
the first man, and similar founders of new races or nationalities
as conceived by the ancients, in the concrete form of individuals ;
as for instance among the Hindus, to whom Manu (or Man) is
the first man, and the creator of all other beings. Other names
der Bihl. Wiss. vol. i.-ix. ; and tliorcfure vividiuKs ; as has Leen dono above in the
need not. rein at here much which is said case of the Four Ages.
there. Compare here also Lasscn's/wf/'/irZic ' The Hindu tradition in the Pvrhias
AUerthumnkunde, i. p. 499 sqq. Kothing accordingly specifies the seven Eishis and
is so convenient, hut at the same time so otlier necessary personages, not only for
perverse, as to assume a mere casual coin- all tlie past six Manvanfaras (creations),
cidence, even in cases where it is possible but even for the seven that are yet to coniQ
to pursue the scattered traces till we can {J'is/inu-Pitr. 259-271).
reproduce the lost whole in its original
2G2 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
denoted gods wlio had been formerly venerated, but were then
reo-arded, not as utterly gone, but only as become x^owerless and
lifeless and withdrawn into obscurity, and who therefore must
have appeared especially suited to people the empty spaces of
the remotest ages. Others, finally, were the surviving names
of ancient heroes which, no longer possessing any real meaning
among the living nations, were readily thrown back into the
remote regions of the primeval times.
But tradition, in filling uj) the sj^ace of an entire age out of
such materials, could not accept at random an unlimited num-
ber of names, because the very conception of a long past age,
although allowing a certain necessary fulness, demanded limits
and moderation in resiDect to numbers. Accordingly we find
round numbers always employed; the more because names,
wiiich, being handed down from the remotest times, might
easily be lost, tend to group themselves in round numbers (see
p. 26 sq.). Among these numbers, seven and ten perpetually
recur : the Hindus speak of the seven Maharshis (great saints)
of the primeval period,^ and of seven Prajapatis (ancestors).^
But even more than the number seven, the number ten ^ ap-
pears so constantly in the traditions of ancient nations respect-
ing the x)i"imeval world, that we cannot but regard this sacred
number of ancestors as an element of the one common original
tradition. And if in the transmitted forms of this common
tradition groups of seven or ten names were always assigned to
fill up the sj)ace of that age, we must in this respect also hold
the special form of the Hebrew tradition as the clearest and
most ancient. For while the traditions of the other nations
merely place seven or ten names as those of the Forefathers at
the head of all history, and confine them to the first age,"* the
Hebrew tradition repeats the series in both the first two ages ;
it makes of the individual names in each a symmetrical series,
' Thus in the Mahuhharata {Matsjo- sqq. ; Moses Choren. Hist. i. 3 ; among
^;«A7yawaOT, V. 30), iind numerous Pz<rrt««s, the Assyrians, ten kings from Ham to
compare "Wilson's Vühnu-Fur. p. 23 sq., Ninyas, and ten from Japhet to Aram,
270, and the ol>servations on pp. 49, 50. Moses Chor. i. 4, according to Abydenos ;
'■^ The appellation Frajapati is often among the Egyptians, thirty Memphitie
interchanged with il/«A«r«/<i; but properly and ten Thinitic kings, -who according to
speaking there is a difference between Manetho folloM-ed Mcncs. Even among
tliem. the ancient Mongols similar round niim-
' Among the Hindus ten is the ruling bers are found connected with national
number; Manu, i. 34 sq. Vis?mu-P7!r. traditions of this character; see Journal
p. 49 sq. Bhägavata-Puräna, iii. 12. 21, Asiat. 1842, i. p. 90-92; 1859, ii. p. 520.
sqq., 20. 9 sqq., ix. 1. 12 sqq.; comp. ■* The Hindus, however, reckon twenty-
also the statements in Kleuker's Zendav. one Prajapatis, i.e. seven, multiplied by
i. 20, iii. 117; among the Babylonians the three Rgea {Mahatiharala/i.^Z). The
there are ten kings, reckoned from Aldrcs Babylonians appear also to have counted
to Xisiithros, the hero of the Deluge, ten generations after as well as before
Berosus, ed. Richter (Leipsic, 1825), p. 52 the Deluge. Berosus, ed. Richter, p. 68.
TUR FIRST TWO AGES. 263
following each other from father to son like the members of a
sovereign house. In lilce manner the close of each of these two
ages, at which the tranquil succession of time ceases, and a
broader development suddenly begins, is indicated by a device
which might be compared to a knot in the thread — namely,
by giving to every tenth Forefather three sons instead of one,
who separate and found the new world, each in his own way.
Here we see a complete system of ideas, as antique in its sim-
plicity as it is well connected in itself, of which the other
nations have preserved mere fragments. There can be no
question that we are approaching the origin of the tradition,
when we discover the natural unfolding of a fundamental con-
ception unabridged and unconfused in all its parts. This is
especially the case here, inasmuch as it will soon appear that
the materials of the fiUing-up reach far back before the time of
Moses.
It nowhere appears, however, on closer investigation, that
with these round numbers the primeval tradition transmitted
definite names of persons, which might recur in recognisable
varieties of the same sound in the traditions peculiar to each of
these ancient nations. We find, on the contrary, that each
nation which preserved that base of primeval tradition, had
already arrived at a stage when its own memories of old times
could furnish the names required by those round numbers. In
the case of the Hebrew tradition, this leads directly to some
very remarkable results. In the twenty names which come first
in the narrative, we discover the relics of a cycle of traditions,
which have indeed a Semitic colouring, but date from a primeval
Premosaic age ; and we thus gain admission to a region which
except at this point is virtually entirely lost to us. Elsewhere
the Mosaic religion unsparingly destroyed the older religion
with all its traditions which happened not to relate to the three
Patriarchs ; and even here these twenty names stand bare and
lifeless, scarcely anything distinctive being recorded of any of
them ; and it is a happy chance that the somewhat later nar-
rator of Gen. iv. has rescued in a cycle of seven Forefathers a
few more complete but deviating traditions from the same
region. But when we regard these bare names somewhat more
narrowly, a large part of the original Hebrew tiuditional history
seems to revive before us from a sleep of thousands of years.
Respecting times of what it might well seem presumptuous to
expect any accurate information, we thus gain a considerable
portion of assured knowledge, sufficient at least to give us a
tolerably reliable insight into the most ancient religion and the
2G4 PKELIMINARY HISTORY.
earliest dwelling-places of the Hebrews. And for this reanima-
tion of the twenty Forefathers mentioned in the Book of Origins
(Gen. V. and xi. 10-26), the diverging account by the later writer
of Gen. iv. concerning seven of the Forefathers before the Flood
is of great service, since we are prepared, after the foregoing
remarks on the Hindu Fathers, to recognise in the number
seven only an ancient substitute for the ten.
I. The names of the four earliest of the ten Forefathers who
lived before the Flood, must be first examined. They are in
part easily intelligible, and really express only the ideas of
' man ' and ' child ' twice following in this order. The first
name, Adam, and the third, Enos, are universally admitted to
denote ' man.' The second name, Seth, the son of Adam, which
properly signifies scion or gertn, as well as the fourth, Cainan,
which sio-nifies a created thing, a creature,^ yield the idea of a
young man. The evidence for the later case is strengthened by
the fact that Cain, a shortened form of Cainan, appears in the
other version (Gen. iv.) as the son of Adam himself. Thus we
have here a combination of two expressions only for the first
men — as father and son — as the old and the ever-young human-
ity. These double forms may perhaps at first have been only
dialectic varieties,^ until they were brought side by side by the
necessity of making up a series of ten.
We must now compare with these the fom- earliest of the ten
Forefathers after the Flood. The names of the first two distinctly
designate the special race which claimed them as its progenitors.
Sliem is itself the honourable designation of this race, and Ar-
pliaxad the name of one of its original seats. But the fourth
name, Salah, again, plainly signifies nothing but infant, child,
* That J-|L'* <^an have the signifieation contrasted ideas — of 6W as the absohitely
, ■". . o 1 - ., , powerful, and of 7nan, matched with God,
given above, IS interred Irom its own moan- ■',.•,, .1 11-1^ ^
^ ' L . , as the absohitely wr«/r/ It can scarcelv
lüg, and tliat of the cognate ^rv^, and j^^^^ ^^^^^^ i^^^^-y^ because jyij« became
also indicated by the Fourth Narrator in a almost obsolete in Hebrew, as also in
happy play upon the word in Gen. iv. 25. Arabic. The history of tlicse two words,
|'>p might be a dialectic variety of n3p> therefore, takes us to a primeval people
and thence mean to create, as the Fourth far to tiie north. Tlie writer of Gen. iv.
Narrator again seems to intimate by hitting 26 retained a correct feeling of the origin
lipon the signitieation child, obtained by a of these ideas. It is to be hoped that no
play on words in iv. 1. one will fancy a connection between Sdh
'^ As is known to be the case with Q'lX and the Egyptian Seih for Typhun. (But
and C'lJ«. According to my Sprachlehre, ^liis has since actually occurivd ; Bun.sen
% 153 d, this word is formed in inten- '^^d tlic Dutch scholar A\ Pleyto have
. , .,. ^ -L . y'. 7 -i. really attempted this combination; the
tional opposition to iqi'p.^, God, as its ^,^,^J^ j^ ^j^^^^^ j^^ ^j^^ ^...^^ Gel. Anz.
contrasted idea. Both words have been 1802, ])p. 2022-28. But see also Sujuthi's
preserved in the most various Semitic / U I- • •„ i^ t ' rt ■ 1 1
y * »C -. ,n ,U-«.,< in Dr. Lees Vrunial
languages (ihougii singularly enoni^h not (*_j>^-ä^'" J v-\ä>-h
in the Ethiopic). AVIiat iSumitic nation Manuacripts, p. 16.)
originated this e-xiuvssiun of tlic two
THE FIEST TWO ACJKS. 2ö5
youth;' and tlie tliird, Ciiiian,^ is actually identical with the
fourth of the first series, Thus this group is laid out upon
essentially the same plan as the former, — the only difference
being that instead of the more general names, Adam and Enos,
those peculiar to the Semites are here chosen, and are both pro-
moted into the first two places.
II. As the first four of each series, and in analogy with these
the first two of the shorter series of seven, stand in close con-
nection together, and constitute a special portion of the original
Semitic tradition, so also the five following of each series form
another similar group, naturally sej^arated through their close
mutual connection from the former. But the first grouj) of five,
chosen for the first age, is derived from quite a different sphere
from the second, appropriated to the second age.
With the five names which the Book of Origins placed in the
first series (Gen. v. 15-28) the five names adduced by the sub-
sequent narrator (Gen. iv. 17-24) essentially agree, as even a
slight comparison shows. Their arrangement is but little dif-
ferent ; and with res]>ect to the variation in the spelling of three
of them, it should be borne in mind that the later writer ob-
tained the names by a comparatively learned method, probably
after they had passed through a long series of transcriptions ;^
for according to every indication the original sounds are those
given in the Book of Origins. This being presupposed, the
first and most evident result at which we arrive from indications
scattered through both books, is that in the original tradition
Enoch and Lamech must have figured as demigods or even as
• roi^, as in Solomon's Song iv. 13 and genuine are too numerous to be slighted.
Is. xvi'^'s: from whieh passages we infer ^I'« l^^f "^<i Demetrius in his work on
that the word bore this signification Chronology found the name in this series
especially in northern Palestine. AVe aiecord.ng to Eusebms, /V^^. £^»9. i^^^
might fancy Shelah to be identical with ^l), as also the an hor of the Book of
the ancient Arabian prophet Ssalieh (see ^noch, but not Josephus.
Tabari, according to Dul)eux, p. 121-127 ; * The reading ^X^inO for ps'pSnö 'las
Journal Asiatique, 1845, ii. p. 532). But exactly the appearance of originating in
his history is so essentially Arabian, with careless reading or writing of the text ;
only the faintest tinge of Biblical colour- ^xti'inO also, for nbc'inO. may have
ing, that no such coinbin:ttlon can bo ^n-ij^eu from a similar oversight; only
entertained ; as I have already shown m -^-^y f^p •^y may pass as a real change
the Tübingen Theoloq. JaJirh. 18i5, p. 572 / . "'" a ^ ^^i.■^ 1 i
^ ". J T, -^ V • * of pronunciation, and would then (accord-
SÜ. Caussin de Perceval s views respect- . ' ^ „ 77 7 , a a^ \ • * i.
^ , . . ing to my Sprachlehre, § 53 a) point to
ing this ^Jl^, in his Essai snr l' Hisloire .j,j y^j^i- f^pi^ TT-. The pronunciation
des Arahcs', i. p. 25, 26, are quite iuad- Methcsalem, which must also have been
missible. ' fuvjid, though rarely, in ancient documents
^ I assume that the LXX. have assigned (coniinire Taluiri ed. Diibeux, i. p. 91), is
to this name its proper place; although referable on the other hand to the phouftic
it is somewhat singular that Selah has law explained in the Lihrhiwh, •£. 11, ^ji
just tlie same number ot years, 130 and 7th ed.
'öoü, yet the reasons for regarding it as
266 PRELIMIXARY niSTORY.
gods. The former ai)pears from his name to be the Inaugura-
tor, the Beginner, and thence a good spirit, who, like the Latin
Janus and the Hindu Ganeca,' was invoked on any new or diffi-
cult undertaking. Thence, probably, he became the god of the
new year, which recurs every 3G5 days, and for this reason
the existing tradition, Glen, v., assigns to him a lifetime of 365
years. If he was regarded as preeminently, and more than all
others a good spirit, this fact serves to explain how tradition,
which, being tinged with the Mosaic feeling, could recognise in
him only a man, was induced to depict him as realising the
ideal of goodness of life, in the beautiful words of Gen. v. 21-24.
His name is also the only one of which, apart from the Old Tes-
tament, a dim remembrance seems to have been preserved to
later times. In the apocryphal book which bears his name,^ he
appears as a Prophet ; but this may be only an inference from
his position as great grandfather of Noah, and from his having
been distinguished as the last pious man before the Flood (Gen.v.).
That the later writers praise him as a patron of knowledge
and as the inventor of writing, agrees well with his character ;
and Stephanus of Byzantium,^ in naming Iconium on Mount
Taurus as the seat of his worship, and making this consist in
lamentation for his death as that of the good spirit (as is also
said of the worship of the Syrian Adonis), unquestionably quotes
a genuine historical tradition. By the ancient city named after
Enoch (Gen. iv, 17) this very city, Iconium in Phrygia, may be
meant.
To this good spirit, Lamecli,'' who concludes the grouj),
* Or Ganajpatis, which I note here to 'hvvaK6s, -which can hardly have had any
prevent a precipitate comparison between Lut a Biblical origin; as that he livtd
tlio Hindu and Hebrew n;inies. above 300 years, and that the Deluge,
■^ Quoted in the Epistle of Jude 14, predicted by an oracle, followed his deatii.
15; eojnpare also on this suly'eet my It accords well with this, that Anak was
large Abhandlung ülier des Aethio2nschen a man's name among the Pagan Arnu-
Buches Henokh, Enistdmvg, Sinn und nians; see Moses Chor. Hist. ii. 71.
Ziisa7nmensetzunff Gott. 1854, and the ^ 1 ^_j. is still found among the Arabs as a
Jahrh. der BihI.Wtss.y\.X). \ snn. 1 ]ust , 4- • , tt
remark in passing that the Persian goddess P'-oper name (Wetzstein s Hauran, pp 23,
^wa/»-^, whoso name the Greeks modi- 40, 42, 70) as hkewise T]i:q among Abra-
fied into Nancea, is merely the feminine ham's descendants, Gen. xxv. 4, xlvi. 9.
counterpart of this primitive Anak. In However, in the Sibylline books, i. 19G,
Zend literature the Anähita has an in- Phrygia must from ver. 260 sq. be iden-
flexion which seems to show that in Zend tical with Ararat.
its original meaning was the Innr.acu- ■* Possibly in the original tradition Enoch
laic; but there seems to bo no corresjiond- stood first, as in Gen. iv. ; certainly the
ing goddess in the Veda ; and her worship contrast between the two could not be
api)eurs first in history as an extraneous more sharply marked. Having thus re-
elcnient interwoven with the Zarathustrian covered tlie city, we next recognise in the
(Zoroastrian) religion. land of Nod, o]iposite Eden, v. 16, whither
^ Under tlie head 'IkJ^ioc, wlicrc« much Cain goes, and where his posterity must
is al.so related of the pia-ton lure named be souglit for, the Lnd mentioned Gen.
THE FIRST TWO AGES. -267
evidently forms the counterpart. His very name may denote
a predatory savage ;' and so, according to Gen. iv. 19-24, he
was taken as the gloomy symbol of a race degenerated into
savage selfishness, the accepted type of the heroes of a revenge-
ful age. For in joy over the sword invented by one of his sons,
he exclaims in the old song :
Adah and Zillali, liear my voice !
Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech !
For the man I slew for my own wound,
The child I struck dead on account of my own hurt !
Was Cain avenged seven times ? ^
Lamech will be seven and seventy times !
In this song the names of two demigoddesses, also of this group,
are accidentally preserv^ed.^
If then these two out of the five names have certainly had
the significance of typical beings, the three others also must
have had the same. And Methuselah, who stands imme-
diately before Lamech, is evidently, as his name implies, the
Warrior who stands nearest to the implacable avenger Death
— a sort of Mars : Mahalal-el is the god of Light — a Sun-
god, like Apollo ; and Jared, who stands by his side, on the
other hand, is the god of the Lowland or the Water.* And
when we consider that the number five is the simplest of the
round and sacred numbers, we may well suppose that we have
here a complete group of ancient Gods and Demigods, who
were banished into this distant age, only because (like Kronos
and Saturn with their fellows, in the European legends) they
were suj)planted by other deities.
X. 22 — Lydia in the extensive sense in ' The names not only of the five heroes
which it was probahly understood by the but also of these two women, belong clearly
Hebrews. The proverb (v. 12) may very to a very early Premosaic age; and it is
possibly have had an influence in changing obvious that these verses furnish tlie real
the I into n. n!D*7p ht-re and ii. 14, as in basis of the whole narrative. Gen. iv. ; fur
1 Sam. xiii. 5, can hardly have any other ^-^''^t 1« ^'^"*^ jf''^":^ «f Cain's vengeance,
_ '_j vi'Y. 13-16, evidently rests upon this song,
T«««,,;»,^ fV,ov. ,,r.„^<.,-y/. Of \ ■; ver. 24. And as this kind of wild revenge
meaning ttian onpontc, as Aij_i ^t ■ ^- ^^ at ■ i • i- . i
" I C IS essentially un-Mosaic, being directed
towards; the LXX. give Gen. ii. 14, cor- against personal enemies only, not against
rectly Karfvavri ^hcravpiicv, as is also ihe the enemies of Jahveh and his people, it
reading of Theophilus, to ^(^J'o/?/«^«, ii. 30. follows from every indication that this
' The root ixh, though obsolete, must song must be actually Premosaic, and
^ th'Tefore the most ancient contained in the
bo connecte d withU! ^^ll ^^?- ^^'] T^'^t'''™^"^:, . . ^. ^ . ^,
' T ' ' ' < Compare nii, i.e. new, which might
all which express the idea of snatching or , .i x i- \^' tvt i- i-
.111 »iiuii lApic p. be the Indian Varuna. Masudi, according
robbintr. The proper name Aouavoy cer- „ ■ >n i t - i ■
iuL>i.iii^. a.iic 1^ 1 t~^ ,„,.•„„ to Sprenger i. p. 71, always says Lud iii-
taiiiv existed m Attica (Kangabes W»aoi<. . i c r j i n i ^i ^
,, •■■ '.r.,\ , ^ ^u- ^ „„„_„„i„v^ stead of Jcrfö, probably only through a
Hdl. 11. p. 8G4); but this can scarcely be ^ r j j a
a contraction of Aao>axoy. false reading, "^J for t^..-
'■* Compare also my Lehrbuch, § 3G2 b.
26S
TRELIMINARY HISTORY.
Among the corresponding names in the second series Eber
stands at the head, — a sign that from this point the thread of
the genealogy is to be carried on only in respect to the Hebrews,
one branch of the Semites. The four following, in all probability,
refer to cities situated at various points, from the sources of the
Euphrates and Tigris to the southern part of Mesojiotamia. Till
something more certain is discovered, Peleg may be identified
with Palu, or rather Palude, high up near the source of the
Euphrates,' Reu ^ with Arghana, somewhat more to the south
near the source of the Tigris ; ^ — places which have long since
smik into insignificance, only sharing the fate of many other
almost extinct cities of those parts whose former greatness
can be more clearly proved. Serug * is the city between Bira
on the Eujihrates, Haran and Edessa, which was well known
as late as the Middle Ages. Lastly, Nahor seems still to at-
test his ancient power in many local names in those regions,
as for example, to the south, below Ana, in Haditha (i.e. New
City) which bears the epithet Elnaura, probably a remnant of
the ancient name;^ to the north in el-Na'iira, whose name
has undergone an Arabic transformation ; ^ and in various
others.'' In these five names we evidently do not meet with
' The place is found for instance in AV&-
kidi's Conquest of Mesopotamia, last edited
by Mordtmaun after Niebuhr, Hamburg,
1847; and in the Armenian History of
Mattliias of Edessa, p. 234 in Dulaurier.
A cuneiform inscription has now been dis-
covered there ; see Layai'd's A'iiiereJi, ii.
p. 1 72. On the other hand, the 'PäKya of
Stephanus Byz. seems to have lain too far
west, Paphlagonia (as also Phryges,
Bebrykes) too far north ; but possibly
the Paghesh {i. e. Palesh), Journ. Asiat.
1855, p. 234, maybe what we seek.
2 Thus the LXX. ho-yav for the Maso-
retic .ly"). It is scarcely necessary to
say, that the play upon words in the ex-
planation of the name Peleg, Gen. x. 25
(which moreover is an interpolation by
th(? Fifth Narrator), need not jirevent our
regarding it as the name of a place, and
seeking fur it accordingly.
* See Berghaus's ma}), and Ainsworth's
Travels in Asia Minor, ii. p. 362 ; this
name Arghana is doubtless connected
with that of the mountain-range running
to tlie north of it from the Argajus (now
Arjiscli), in Cajipadocia (Strabo, xii. 2. 8),
to the Ai-ghi range on the south of Ararat,
and extending to liie \\\Vv of Urumia :
(see Aiuswortii, ii. p. 292 ; ]5adgcr's Nesto-
rinns, i. \>. 35 s(j.)
* Aitliougll bulll til.' LXX. :u:d th-
Masora pronounce it "X^polx, we may
yet return to the true pronunciation.
Some modern travellers, however, write
Seruj (see Ainsworth, i. p. 306, 310, ii.
p. 102-103).
* Abulfida's GcograpJiy, the Arabic
text, Paris, 1840, p. 2S7, 3. The name
Kausa in Büsching, p. 234, seems a false
reading of ittl\ Eeiske read nur a, and
translated it lime ; but d'Anville inter-
prets it as the city Nahardea. The posi-
tion of the city on an island in the
Euphrates accords well with the descrip-
tion of the Nahoreans, inasmuch as they
spread themselves out on both sides of the
Euphrates, Gen. xxii. 20-24. But com-
pare also the Itfii-ptun in Chamchean,
i. 3.
" Kemdleldin's ///.s^ry f/i/a/f/; (Alep-
po), ed. Freytag, p. 8 and 13, Arab.
' As J .^v' Nachrcin, near Maredin,
(tliough fartlier to the east) in Wäkidi's
Conquest of Mesopotamia, cd. Mordtmann,
]). 175. "We might be tempted to identify
the name n^ti' (already otherwise ex-
plained at p. 2Ü4 sq.) withSalacli in Adia-
bene, often incidentally mentioned by
Assemani {Silici in Pliny, JJist. Nat. vi.
30). ]5ut in the first place it is too far
to tlie cast for the other pl:iccs niontijned
TIIK FIRST TWO AGES. 2G9
references to gods or heroes, as in those of the first series.
If here any firm ground is to be reached, it must be that
of locality ; and tlie fact that these four cities lie not fiir
from one another gives us a presumption that they have been
truly identified. If we add to this that they stretch down in
the same order from the north-east towards the south-west
into the fruitful lands of Mesopotamia, we may perhaps discern
in them four kingdoms which the Hebrews founded in suc-
cession as they pressed forward towards the south, or four
capitals from which they may have exercised dominion in the
remotest times. And the fact that Nahor, who here appears
first as the grandfather of Abraham, is again introduced as his
brother, is another proof that these names, so far from owing
their origin to chance or caj)rice, are probably the designations
of ancient Hebrew kingdoms, of which Nah or maintained itself
longer than the rest. In the existing form of the narrative
they have become mere lifeless designations of ancestors or
forefathers, of whom however nothing characteristic is reported
except the name ; but through them we are visibly brought
into contact with definite regions and epochs.
III. But the case is very difFerent with the tenth name, with
which each of the two series closes. Noah,' both in name and
in fact, is the impersonation of the idea of a renovated and
better world. For all the more aspiring nations of antiquity,
in spite of their conception of a decline in the duration and
external hapi)iness of human life, cherished also the opposite
sentiment, that a multitude of old and pernicious errors were
discovered and destroyed, and that then upon the ruins of a
fearful depravity a new purer and wiser life was built. These
•with it, being on the farther bank of the brew ; but thi,s only entitles us to suppose
Tigris, and in the second, the orthography the name to belong to the primeval ago of
opposes it ; for Assemaui, though writing the Semites. It must have had the mean-
rho in the Bibl. Orient. T. ii. p. 115, sub- '"g '"«'^ /»-^sh, to judge from the cognate
sequently, at T. iii. p. ii. p. 709, 710, 777, roots X3, Ex. xii. 9, and D^ Num. vi. 3.
evidently corrects himself and writes "^pD Even in the existing narrative as given in
(see Ainsworth, ii. p. 241). He is also in the Book of Origins, it was after the lapse
error in supposing the name to be derived of one year, and at the beginning of a new
n o 7 ■ ..u- • /-» \ «N TO- one, that Nonh left the ark. The oxplana-
{rom Seleueia : this is > n > N£P, differ- .•'.., , ,, r^-j,., ^^ i ■•" <-
' tion ot tlie name by the Infth Narrator in
ent from j^QACD A. '^ , Assemani, iii. Gen. v. 29 hits the sense correctly, at least
i. p. 391 sqq., and Badger's Nestorians. i. >» «o f'^i" ^s it represents Noah as the in-
p jr,g_ augu'-ator of abetter age; following this
' ' It" is to be observed that only later '',1'^='' t'l^ later^ writers generally explain
the name by araTroucty, as Theoph. Ant.
writers write _ »J in imitation of the Ad Aufo/>/c.\ü. ch. 18. The name of the
„, , ~ . ^ .. iu i. n ni I rp ^ city Nc/ch, south-east of Miish, and west
Old Testament, yet that the Old Testa- „|- \7«„ /Aj^^^^^fU ;: qqa\ i
^ -^ ,r , ■ T • 1- T n\ \ ot \ an (Ainsworth, ii. p. 380), perliaps
ment itself (even in Isaiah liv. 9) has • r f , *i <. m i . H
, • ^1 • 1 ■ ^ ,. i _ indicates that rNoah was once actvally
always n\ which points to a root n3- u.v, „^ • n, „ * i ■ i
•' ' '-•" ^ ' - wursnippod in those parts as a demigod.
This root is not found in ordinary lie-
270
rUELLMIXARY HISTORY
are tlie two contrasted feelings wliicli constantly penetrate and
nioiild the better life of every nation, and of wliicli the one
generates the other ; youthful and aspiring nations, as the
Hebrews and others of antiquity, could feel them more vividly
and pursue them farther than others. When therefore there
came before such nations dim pictures and traditions of a
mio-hty flood, which had once covered the earth and destroyed
all life,* this naturally generated the idea that its purpose must
have been to wash clean the sin-stained world, to sweep away
the first hopelessly degraded race of men, and produce upon a
purified and renovated earth a new race, stimulated by that
warning voice to become both jDurer and wiser. This alone is
the essential and necessar}^ element in the conception of the
Flood, more or less discernible through all varieties in the story.^
The comparison afterwards made in the first ages of Christianity
between Noah's Flood and Baptism exactly and happily re-
called the original meaning of the story. In Noah, as the
new Adam, the initiator of the still existing race of men,
Hebrew antiquity embodied this truth. The ascription of the
first culture of the vine to Noah onl}' expresses the honour paid
to him as the introducer of a joyous age, since the growth of
the vine was justly esteemed the sign of a higher civilisation,
with arts and cares, but also with joys of its own.^ And the
' These widely scattered traditions have
not as yet been accurately examined and
explained. The most remarkable fact in
them is perhaps that the Egyptians, at
least according to Manetho, had no tra-
dition of a primeval Flood, althongh (or
rather because) they were so accustomed to
yearly inundations — for those spoken of so
late as the 17th and 18th dynasties (Eu-
sebius, Chron. Arm. ii. p. 85 ; Georgias
Syncellus, Chron. p. 118, 119, 130-132,
liind.) were only inserted by the Fathers
of the Church, and those mentioned by
Origen, Against CeLsus, i. 20 (iv. 2), are
only what Egyptian philosophers spoke of.
How much earlier the notion of such a
deluge prevaik'd tlironghout Syria, is evi-
dent even from Eucian's book on the God-
dess of Hierapolis. Hut, as remarked in
the Jahrb. der Bihl. Wits. vii. p. 2, sqq.,
the very language of the oldest nations
points to such primeval traditions (com-
pare also the Ethiopic ^^'^ Enoch
Ixxxix. 23 sq. with i^J^\ Sur. 1. 13.
^O^ is related to ^^"i, HQ^« and G'flP
Jsnocli Ixxxix. ß).
2 The Mfifujojia/ih/chioin of the Muhä-
blidrata, which howovor introduces much
extraneous matter, and touches too briefly
on what is essential, speaks nevertheless
of the ' Washing period' of the worlds ;
9I. 28. The Hindus niDreover have many
accounts of floods, both in ancient (in the
Veda) and in more recent times (Wilson's
Pref. to the VMnu-Turana, p. li. ; Bhä-
gaeata-Purann, i. 3. 15). Buruouf indeed
doubted (in the preface to vol. iii. of tlio
Bhagavata-l'urana, Paris, 1818, p. xxxiv.
sqq.) the mention of the Deluge in the Veda,
and consequently questioned the antiquity
of tliis tradition among the Hindus gene-
rally ; and Fel. Neve agreed with liim in
tlie Annates de la Philosophie chreiicnne,
18 19, April, May; but that it is really Tncn-
tiinicd in tlie Veda has now been distinctly
shown by R. Roth, in the^Vlunicii Gelehrte
Anzeigen, 1849, pt. 26 sq. and 1850, pt. 72,
and by Albert Weber, in his hulische
Studien, No. 2. See Ja/irb. der Bibl. Wiss.
iv. p. 227.
' Tlio fact that only the later narrator
of Gen. ix. 18-29 mentions Noah as a vine-
grower, does not prove tlie tradition itself
to bo of later origin, especially as it is
noticed only incidentally and with refer-
ence to another object. And without
wisliing to ignore tlie difference between
Noah and Dionysus the son of Zeus, we
THE FIRST TWO AGES. 271
fact that lie was regarded as an instrument chosen by God to
rescue the human race for a new and better development explains
why the writer of the Book of Origins should depict him as in
every respect a man after God's own heart, and on this basis
design his picture of that wonderful revolution of humanity. In
that picture, moreover, under all the complication of details,
the few and simple ground-strokes of the original concejition are
still clearly discernible. The fact that Mount Ararat is the
locality assigned to Noah's ark also proves a close connection
of his story with those of Enoch (see above, ]). 2GG sq.) and of
other similar personages.
If any doubt should still b3 felt whether the personality of
Noah as the Adam of the new and historical epoch ' had this
origin, another proof of it might be adduced from the varying
representation of the seven antediluvian Forefathers put forward
by the later narrator. In this shorter series not Noah but
Lamecli is evidently intended to close the first age : first on
the general ground that he is the seventh, secondly (according
to p. 267) as being the symbol of the degeneration of men into
gross sensuality, which culminates in him and becomes ripe
for destruction and death ; and lastly, as the father of three
sons, who here exhibit a knot in the continuous line of the race
and a subsequent new commencement, precisely analogous to
those exhibited by the three sons of Noah and the three of
Terah in the Book of Origins. This last fact is very important
and decisive. As in the case of the twenty Forefathers in the
Book of Origins only the father and the eldest son are named,
and a plurality of sons only in the case of the tenth and
twentieth, when their number is three ; so with these seven
Forefathers the line continues direct and simple until the seventh
who has three sons. The appearance of Abel, who passes away
like a breath,^ alongside of Cain, although one of the most
may yet convince ourselves that among languages; as in modern Persian mni
the Greeks in like manner Dionysus marks ^f^^^ ,„^^^) ^^^ j^ ^^..^^.j^ ^ (literally
the commencement of a new era of civih- J
sation. This idea, moreover, admirably '"^" jcrmented).
suits Noah descending from Ararat ; even ' ^^ in the Hindu accounts of the
now th.^ vine grows wild in Eastern Pon- Deluge, Manu (i.e. Adam) himself reap-
tus and other parts of Armenia more lux- P^-'^rs under a special appellation as son of
uriantlyand ineradicably than anywhere Vivasvan (the Sun); and for a similai-
else. That it was n.jt the wild produce ^fasou they reckon tour Manus, obvKnisly
only, but the proper art of vine-growing ^'^ correspond with the Four Ages of the
that was originated by a primeval race, is ^''"■'I'i' Bhagamd-GUa, x. 6.
shown by the remarkable circumstance * But that this allusion to a word p^n.
that the word w/??^ \>\ Ethiopic mi«, Ar- meaning breath, does not belong to the
menian gini, is common to very distant original story is shown in the Jahrb. der
Semitic and Aryan languages, and is lost Bibl. Wifs. vi. p. 7 sq^.
only in coinparativily recent or remote
o7_) rRElJMlNAKY HISTORY.
beautiful features of the storj, is certainly its latest transfor-
mation, efPoeted at the time of the Foiirth Narrator, when the
seven anteclih^vian Forefathers were coming to he regarded as
altogether evil, and Cainan or Cain, esj)eciallj, to be held as
the type of wicked men ; ' for when this was the case it was
necessary (since evil always draws out its opposite) to place by
the side of this Father, who as the son of Adam was the
type of the wicked child, a good brother, towards whom Cain
showed himself in the same character as, according to the
same narrator, the elder brother-nations, Edom, Moab, and
Ammon, did towards the good but small nation of Israel.^
But the three sons of Lamech, with all their difference from
the three sons of Noah, have still one great intrinsic point of
resemblance to them. All three bear names formed from one
root, which may have originally denoted Sons of that Father,
or children of the new age.^ In olden times brothers or sisters
of one house often bore names differing only by minor varia-
tions in meaning or formation;* and so here the same funda-
mental woi'd, when used as a personal name, was broken up
into the three forms, Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal. But the three
sons of Lamech were also to be regarded as founders of the
new age of civilisation, and therefore were required to express
tlie three great classes into which every civilised nation of that
age was divided. Thus Jabal (whose name also may signify
the produce which the soil yields to manual laboui-) became the
ancestor of the third class — the Vi9as as the Hindus would
say — except that the Israelitish tradition, following the example
of the Hebrew Patriarchs, prefers to speak of pastoral nomads
rather than of tillers of the soil. Jubal (whose name readily
suggests Johel or Juhel, i.e. loud crashing music) became pro-
genitor of musicians, or even (through the natural connection
of all the fine arts) of artists and the learned class (the Brah-
mans) in general. Lastly, Tubal, the son of another mother,
formed a contrast to both the former, and became progenitor of
' Some traco of a similar Ijclicf inay iiiiincd Ä//rcWf?'/ and .y//r''f/?(/ (sno l)aiillia\i
prrhaps be di.seovcre.l among tiio Cartha- ^^^ ^y,. j^^^-,^ ,-). ;,, .j,^ k^,.^„ I ^
j^inians; see Ziitsrh. fur das Morgenland, »---v
vol. iv. p. 410; vol.vii. p. 82. and ,,,\« are associated to<;i'llicr; and
^ The early pas^sa^e, Gen iy. 21, repards ^^^^_^ "^l^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^j^ ^ain is chan^.-d into
Cam only as the first son of Adam in con- ^^^^.^ ^^ j.^^.,^^ ,^ counterpart to his broti.er
trast to Lamecli as hiter horn; and the *• . . , x i-. i ••
idea expressed in iv. 1.3-1Ö, may hnvo -^^"'"'^ ! J"«t as <i^\> {\ Enoch xxii. 7. In
only been suj,'fj;i'sted in connci'tion with ancient Hindu tradition also similar phe-
tliat ancient saying. nomena are found, as appears from
' Literally, production, J'riiil, as >')2'> I'urnoufs Introduction a I lUsloiri'. dii
* 1.1 VyA^-k. xxiii. 2. So in the Mncient ^^""'WA/smc, i. p. 360, and many other
Arabian legend the two sons of 'Ad arc r''""*-'^-
THE FI U.ST TWO AGES. 273
the arm-bearer or warrior-class (the Kshatriyas) ; retaining', how-
ever, the full name Tubal-Cain,' which, as Cain in one dialect
may denote a spear,^ would sig-nify Son of a Spear, or Warrior.
As therefore in the Book of Origins the three sons of Noah
designate the new world with reference to the broad distinc-
tions of nationality still existing, so these sons of Lamech
describe it with reference to the three classes into which the
nations were divided at their more advanced stage of deve-
lopment. The threefold partition therefore must in this case,
as in that of Noah and Terah, manifestly have a meaning that
shall embrace the whole of the new age : and brief as is the
existing account (Gen. iv. 20-22) this meaning visibly shines
through it. That these traditions were once much richer and
more detailed Ave see also from the bare mention made of the
sister of this Tubal-Cain, Naamah, who, as her name Grace
justifies us in presuming, may originally have held a place
beside that rough warrior similar to that of the Greek Aj^liro-
dite as the beloved of Ares.^
Of Terah, who concludes the second series, the Book of
Origins (apart from the years of his life, which will be spoken
of presently) really tells us nothing except that he had three
sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran,* and that while journeying
with them from the land of the Chaldeans, he died on his
road at Harran'^ in Mesopotamia; and the later narrators had
nothing to add to this. Now as this can only be intended to in-
dicate such ancient national migrations as had been retained in
memory, we have every reason to regard the name of this con-
cluder of the second age also as originally figurative. The
three childi^en of this twentieth Forefather refer to the histori-
cally known nations of the Third Age, and specially to Abraham
as the historic hero of the period ; he himself floats over them
' Some connection with Caiu or Cainan ai-t/s/m in general (Lat.fabcr), Zohair M.
must originally have existed here, since he v. 1.5, and entirely different from tlio
helongs evidently to the same group, and former.
Tubai-Cain may have oi-iginally signified * It has been preserved as Nemc in
'Cain's descendant.' Perhaps the name the Punic (see Göft. Gelehr. Anz. 1860,
of the nomad tribe Cain (Kenites), which p. 1369) ; as also the proper names La-
after the time of Moses played a part in mcch and Adah in Asia Minor (see the
the history of Israel (see above, p. 251), Jahrb. der Bihl. Wins. vi. p. 2; Strabo's
caused the early contraction of Cainan into Gcoyrafhy, xiv. 2, 17; C. .Schmidt, Z?<>-
Cain; and may have even contributed to Geschichte Kariens (Göttingen, 1861, p.
the impression of Cain's restless wander- 1 3). See also Hesychius, Lex., according
ings ; Gen. iv. 13-15. to whom Adah is the Babylonian Hera.
■' Jll? as spear is clearly only another 4 pp, q.^^ ^i. 26 sq.
form of nji? cwtKa = /w.v/'«, "{..„LrjKnös, s |-,|-, Qen. xi. 31 sq. Lat. Carrac;
'^, 'ii'i'o spelt Harran, to distinguish it from
Chrcst. p. 23, Ö; ,^ on tlie contrary is tiie a1jove-named Jin-
W" I T T
VOL. I. T
274 PRELIM I. VARY HISTORY.
as the personification of the National Migration,' from the hip of
•which issued the luminous forms of the following age ; and as
iill the nations of the modem earth discovered their original unity
in Noah, so the Hebrews who had moved towards the south-west
found in him a unity demanded alike by tradition and im agination.
IV. The two series of ten Forefathers are therefore each made
up of three smaller groups of four, five and one individuals.
Each of these groups has a distinct meaning of its own. Every
name which enters into them certainly existed with a living
meaning long before they were thus ranked together ; but in
this very grouping, so as twice to make up the number ten,
they betray the same arranging hand. We know not whose
hand this was ; it is only manifest that he lived long before the
writer of the Book of Origins.
These tAvice ten names, hoAvever, were made to extend over the
space of two ages, much in the same manner as more recent and
better known ages were described by the succession and pedi-
gree of those rulers who had held the chief power in them.
And since, in times when chronology had attained the import-
ance which we know was the case among the most ancient
Egyptians and Phenicians, it was always endeavoured to append
to such historical lists of rulers the number of years that each had
lived or reigned (as e.g. Manetho's Egyptian dynasties show),
it was but natural that here also a definite number of years
should be assigned to each Father. Another essential feature
of the idea of the Four Ages (see p. 250 sqq.) was, that they ex-
hibited a continuous lapse from an original condition richer in
divine blessings. But this lapse may also be conceived as re-
feiTing to length of life ; since the more complex and bewilder-
ing the higher strivings of a nation become, the more rapidly
does the life of the individual threaten to be worn out, and the
transient life of the men of the eager hurrying modern age might
well be regarded as progressively diminished from an original
duration of far greater length. And thus in ancient Israel the
idea became prevalent, that the duration of hunum life had
<liminislied step by step through the great periods of the jjast.^
The form into Avhicli the details were cast by the force of
general assumj)tions such as these is even now very clearly dis-
' It is quite as natural to suppose niH terms in tlie words assigned to the Pa-
I'onnscted with niX to wander, \.o journey, triarch Jacob himself in the Book of Ori-
!^s"lDn with -)f2X : which last analogy was gins, Gen.xlvii.8, 9, and poetie;illy in those
for the first time asserted in 182G, in my put into the mouth of a contemporary of
.S'rt«r/ nf Solomon, iii. 6. Itseoms, however, the Patriarclis, in Job viii. 8, 9 ; compared
that in the present instance, T\ is radical, with xlii. 16. Hence tlio Messianic hope
X softened from it. expressed in Isaiuh Ixv. 20.
* This feeling is expressed in general
THE FIRST TWO AGES. 275
cernible iu tlie main. On looking tlirong-h tlie data concernino-
the lives of persons in tlie Four Ages down to the time of Moses
and the Conquest, we discover the prevailing view to be that
which assumes from 120 to 140 years as the extreme ]imit of
human life in the existing epoch ; for just as the men of the
Third Age were conceived as far outliving that term, in the
Fourth Joseph dies at 110, Levi at 137, Kehath at 133, Amram
at 137, his sons Aaron and Moses at 120, Joshua, like his pro-
genitor Joseph, somewhat below the Levites, at 110;' with other
indications of the same view.^ Now from this Fourth Age to
determine bj successive proportionate augmentation the pos-
sible years of human life in the earlier ages, the number 125
was evidently taken as the basis of the Fourth, from which by
repeatedly doubling the number 1000 was reached as the ulti-
mate limit: 125, 250, 500, 1000. Thus was prescribed to everv
historical j)ersonage, according to the age in which he lived, a
maximum length of life which might not be exceeded. If the
Hebrew conception went in this assumption somewhat beyond
the most ancient Hindu, which (see p. 260) adopted the propor-
tion 100, 200, 300, 400, on the other hand it always remained
free from those extravagant extensions of these numbers into
which the later Hindu traditions fell.
It would be expected then, from such a beginning, that the
length of life of individuals also would be made greater or less
on similar principles, tradition simply working out and develop-
ing any assumption that had once been accepted. Even at the
commencement of the Fourth Age, the lives of the just-named
heroes, though of different length, are manifestly determined
on general principles; for the 120, 133, and 137 years of the
Levite chiefs are really made up of mere round numbers, and
exhibit, when contrasted with the 110 of the non-Levitical chiefs,
an increase indicative of the higher dignity of Levi. Much
more will this be the case with the twenty names of the first
' According to the passages, Gen. 1. 26 ; age (see Gen. xi. 1-9) ; but still we can
Ex. vi. 16-20 ; Deut, xxxiv. 7 ; Josh. xxiv. discern plainly the original meaning of the
29 ; all derived from the Book of Origins, words to be, that the period of 120 years
- These refer especially to the 120 years as the limit of human life was appointed
mentioned in Gen. vi. 3. These words are by way of punishment for a new genera-
indeed obscure, inasmuch as they are put tion. With this is imdoubtedly connected
here out of the proper context, evidently the ancient sanctity of the number 60
because in this entire passage (Gen. vi. 1-4) among certain nations : among tlie Hindus,
the Fifth Narrator gives only very brief who call the 60 years' cycle Vrihaspali-
extract.s from some written authority which (^akra ; the Chinese, who still reckon time
he had before him. Nor does the term of by this number ; the Babylonians, who '
120 years for the life of man belong fitly made it the standard number of their
to this passage, where the coming age is chronology, both j^ractical and theoretical
not the fourth, but the second; and the (Bcrosus, in Richter, p. 53); and the
original tradition may very probably have Latins. See also the Q'rq Vecir, p. 60, 2.
assigned those giants to the second or third
27Ü FRELLMIXARV IIISTOKV.
two ages. Ill fact these general principles are clearl}' discernible
in many of the statements given in the Book of Origins respect-
iiiff the acre of each Forefather before and after the birth of the
first son. In these the length of life, at least on the whole,
diminishes by degrees: the 130 years of Adam before, and the
800 after, the bii'th of Seth are as transparent as Noah's 500
3'ears before the birth of his three sons, and his subsequent 100
years before and 350 years after the Flood ; or as the 500 years
that Shem lived after the Flood (as if for a sign that the second
age v^^ith its limit of 500 years had begun) ; or as the 70 years
of Terah before and his 135 years after the birth of his three
sons. In the case of Enoch we may besides (see p. 26G) justly
presume that his number 365 (which the Book of Origins di-
vides into 65 and 300) had been fixed by earlier legends, which
made it impossible to adopt a higher ; the effect being, that in
comparison to others of the same age, his death is made to ap-
pear an early one. If some points in these numbers are more
obsciu'e, it is to be considered first that the store of tradition
on these earliest times, originally abundant and varied, has come
down to us in too scanty measure to give us even an approxi-
mate insight into all the grounds which influenced the arrangers
of the numbers ; and secondly, that out of the many original!}^
existing versions of the traditions respecting the ages of the
twenty Forefathers, only the single version followed by the Book
of Origins has been preserved to us. Moreover, the great
variations of the Seventy and the Samaritan text, both from the
Masoretic text and between themselves, and even among various
manuscripts of the same text, show that, as soon as ever we
descend from the fixed bomids of an age to examine the numbers
assigned to individuals within that age, the whole ground be-
comes unsteady beneath our feet.^
' Ancient and modern critics h:\ve so Mohnike, in Illgcn's Zeitschrift für his-
fuUy discussed tlieso variations that I deem torischc Thcolorjic, vi. 2), which niaki's great
it unnecessary hero to treat the subject pretensions to judgment and caution, yot
fully, although I consider the Masoretic displays hardly any of either ; see also
text Ity no means everywhere and withoxit Lesucur's Chrnnoloi/ie des Eois d. Egypte,
exception entitled to the preference which p. 300 sqq. The subject is followed up, in
is now again accorded to it by most of the an article by Bertheau, in the Jahrcshericht
moderns. To take a striking instance, it der Deutschen Morcjenl. Gcsellsch. Leipsic,
shortens by one hundred years the ago of 1846. To state briefly my own decided
each father between Shem and Terah be- opinion, I consider that the first founders
fore the birth of his eldest son. The great of these chronologies proceeded very sys-
importance formerly attached to every tematically, taking (according to p. 27a),
statement which had a bearing on the as the duration of each generation in the
general chronology of ancient history, is four successive ages of the world, 30, 60,
very properly diminished in modern esti- 120, 240 years respectively, which would
mation ; yet it is to be regretted that even give for the two first 240 x 10 = 2400 and
Oriental scholars can still produce trea- 120x10 = 1200 years respectively, em-
tises such as that of Kask (translated by bracing together the whole period from
THE FIRST TWO AGES. 277
In tlie history of the Flood, where the chronology goes still
more into details, the working of the same general principles is
easily recognisable, and the particular determinations flow very
naturally from the assumption of one solar year as the duration
of the Flood.'
V. The Origin and Immigration of the Hebrews.
But the most imj)ortant result of the examination of these
traditions respecting the remotest times will after all lie in their
disclosures of the earliest fortunes of the Hebrew race ; and in
this respect it can scarcely be said how much valuable historical
material still lies hidden here.
1. The Hebrews preserve, according to these traditions, the
consciousness of an original connection with other nations, some
of whom, speaking in relation to the higher antiquity, dwelt
far removed from them. Their special ancestor Eber descends
through Arphaxad from Shem, the father of Elam, Asshur,
Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram (Gen. x. 22). Now the five nations
who collectively laid claim to the lofty name of Shem ai'e not
only perfectly historic, but also exactly defined in respect
to their position. The circle began with Elam (Elymais)
beyond the Tigris towards the south-east on the Persian gulf:
proceeded northward to the Tigris with Asshur (the Assyrians) ;
turned to the north-west with Arphaxad ; stretched far westward
to the Semitic nations of Asia Minor with Lud (the Lydians) ;
and finally returned from thence in a south-easterly direction to
the Euphrates with Aram. If now we ask why the Hebrews
classed themselves with this circle of nations, the reason cannot
lie simply in connection of language : for all the very various
nations which (according to p. 224 sqq.) came into contact
with Palestine in the earliest times — original inhabitants and
migrating tribes alike — spoke the Semitic tongue, and in re-
spect to language stood as close as possible to the Hebrews,
and yet were never regarded as akin to them. As little could
it be found in national partiality or aversion, since most of these
nations, in the oldest times known to us, were quite estranged
from them, and the Hebrews properly speaking are like a single
branch pushed forward to an extreme distance on the south-west.
Adam to the Deluge, and thence to Abra- Nahor at the birth of the eldest son of
ham's entrance into Canaan. For both each, 2(58, 288, and 129 years respectively,
these periods it is the LXX. ■^hich ap- The A-ariations of the Samaritan and tlie
proaches most nearly to the numbers just Hebrew text are thus generally arbitrary,
given, and which I therefore regard as the ' See more on this subject in the Jahrb.
most authentic now existing : we only re- do- Bill. Wiss. vii. 8 sqq.
quire to assign to Adam, Lamech, and
•278 ]'REL1M1XAKY IIISTOKV.
We must therefore assume that a primitive national conscious-
ness preserved in the memory of the Hebrews their relationship
with these distant northern and eastern nations. But if we
inquire further what could have led the Hebrews to conceive
those live remote nations, with whom they felt themselves to be
related through one of their number, as having originally been
brethren and sons of Shem, we are compelled to assume that
a closer connection formerly united them to each other, a
connection however which rested neither on contiguity of
their external boundaries (for this palpably did not exist) nor
merely upon their possession of a common language (for, as
we have seen, the so-called Semitic language extended much
further), but upon firmer foundations. The bond which united
these nations might possibly have been simply identity of
religion ; even as the Hindus, notwithstanding their division
into an innumerable multitude of particular kingdoms, always
conceived themselves as dwelling together in the Jambudvipa,
the great centre of the earth, as then* permanent home. But as
it is certain that the Hindu religion proceeded ultimately from
the Brahmans and the compact nucleiis of a once ruling-
nation, so also the connection of those Semitic nations in the
primeval ages when a religion did not extend itself, as now, by
its own power, is to be traced to a nation that once ruled over
all those countries. This nation afterwards parted into the five
distinct nations which referred to Shem as their father; and
to it the Hebrews, though dwelling so far to the south-west,
always claimed to have belonged. The accounts contamed in
the primitive fragment (Gen. xiv.) concerning mighty con-
federate kings beyond the Euphrates, the traditions respecting
a primeval Assyrian kingdom in Ctesias and others, the deri-
vation of the most ancient Lydian dynasty from Ninus and
Belus,' the claim of such cities as Damascus and Askelon to
Semiramis as their original Queen,^ these and other like indi-
cations refer in all probability to this original nation and the
power that it once possessed. Indeed it may be unhesitatingly
assumed that the renowned name of Semiramis, which occurs as
a personal name even among the Hebrews,^ stands in con-
' Herod, i. 7. Thecity of Askolon also, 93 sq., 97 sq.; see above, p. 245). Wo
according to the Lydian Xantluis and have already (p. 267) hazarded the con-
Nicolaus of Damascus, was founded by a ^^^turr that l-l^, Gen. x. 22, is probably
Lydian, as is stated by Stephamis Byz. idmtical with nij. Gen. iv. 16.
s.v. AtTKaW; and with this would curiously 2 jj,,fi,, ^,^^,.1 9, l ; Diodorus Sieulus,
accord the derivation of Anialck, from j; ., . see Lurian, 7A' Ä« <%m, c. xiv. or
J ^', in Arabic accounts {Luhevx's Tabari, p. 1061 Eourd.
i. 209; Abulfida's Ami. Anhid. pp. 76, ' ^hc niinio niDn^D^' i-^ an early form,
THE FIRST TWO AGES. 279
nection witli Slieni as the name of tliis original nation and its
hero.
The same thing appears in another way if we consider the
name Sheni in its relations to the two other sons of Noah.
Whatever the three names, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, may have
originally signified, it is at least evident, that the primeval
nation which divided all the nations of the earth into three
groups, and took to itself as one of these three the name of
Shem, deemed itself established in a commanding position in a
conspicuous centre of the world, and thence named all the alien
nations northwards Japheth, and southwards Ham. The feeling
that lay at the root of this idea we can easily conjecture from
the subsequent description of such a ' Navel of the earth,'
Ezek. V. But how should this name have come into use in
Palestine, where the Hebrews found themselves dwelling in the
midst of the Hamites, on the south-westerly border of the circle
which included the Semitic nations ? The name must rather
have originated in a northern table-land, which was in fact
situated in the middle of the five nations mentioned above,
e.g. in Arphaxad. The three names also certainly descended
together from the remotest antiquity, and were only traditionally
known to the Hebrews ; they are scarcely met with in their
ordinary speech or narrative ;' they have in Hebrew no manifest
meaning,^ and might seem, like many of the names of the twenty
Forefathers, to have their source in the traditions of the primitive
nation in the north. As the Hindus apportion the south to
Yama (the god of Death), and the north to Kuvera (the god of
Treasure^), so here the former might be assigned to Ham, the
latter to Japheth ; and the fact that in the Greek mythology
also there is an lapetus,* although little more than a mere
name, derived probably from Asia Mmor, where from the
belonging to the time of David (1 Cliron. quite obscure, since the play upon words
XV. 18, 20, xvi. 5; 2 Chron. xvii. 8); in Gen. ix. 27 comes from the Fifth Nar-
formed like D~l"iyT^5 (1 Kings iv. 6), and rator only,
probably of sim'ilar'moaning. ,, ' ^^'l /»^ ,^^^J."- 22, and Alex, von
' It is only once (1 Chron. iv. 40) that Humboldt m the T lertdjahrsscknjt, 1838,
the name Ham appears in the narrative. P ', "; • i, ^,
The song in Gen. ix. 25-29, with the nar- , He^^o^ f J^ff.'^^"^' 134, 507-511 ;
rative to which it belongs, is derived from Apollodorus^^i/. i.^l 3, and ,. 2, S;
the Fifth Narrator; see above, p. 107, and fetephanus Eyz. s v. A5am and 'I/cJ.w ;
elsewhere ^^^' '^^'^'^ Bochart s Geographia, p. 2, 13,
■' Dt^^ in Hebrew would signify name, f° ^'^° ^^"'"^^ «^ Aristophanes (v. 98;,)
. •■ o ./ jjg appears as an aged divinity, an easy
Jame, which m itself gives here no appro- object of ridicule ; see also the inscriptions
priate meaning, and though on (for which in A. Conze's Beisc auf die hiscln des
Eupolemus in Enscbii Prcq). Evang. \x. 7'äwÄ7scäctz i^/pcrfs (Hanover, 1860), p. 91.
17 reads XouV) may, in the sense of hot, The phrase, the boundaries of Japhet
be an intelligible designation of the south, (Judith ii. 15), probably refers to those
yet ]-|2i, in our present Hebrew, remains on the north.
2S0 I'RRLLMIXARY HISTORY.
earliest times Greek and Semitic nations inter ming-led, might
favour this origin of the name.
The Liter idea finds strong support in a northern legend
which some Armenian authors have j)reserved for us. We must
in these researches generally look to the old traditions of more
northern nations, because the oldest reminiscences of the people
of Israel themselves carry us into these regions ; and hitherto, in
the absence of any copious supply of Assyrian or Babylonian
documents, we possess no other aids so near at hand and so
ancient as the Armenian writers, who often used much older
books. Now according to this legend, Xisuthros (who among
them answers to Noah among the Hebrews) had three sons who
ruled over all mankind, each in his own domain ; — Zervan,
Titan and Japetosthe.' These three were regarded as gods, as
the two latter were among the Greeks also. Zervan, so cele-
brated in the Zoroastrian religion,'^ was compared to the Greek
Kronos. To Titan, as god of the Lower World,' the dominion
of the South might be assigned, and to Japetosthe as god of
Heaven, that of the North.* From this conception the Hebrew
tradition has manifestly retained the idea of Japheth as ruler
of the North ; but it also lends force to the idea that Ham and
Shem also were formerly regarded as gods. According to the
Armenian authors, there was not only a hero (or god) Sim, son of
Xisuthros,'^ but also a mountain bearing his name, near Taurus ;^
and this may have been regarded by the primitive Hebrews as
the seat of a mighty dominion and religion — the sacred centre
of a kingdom which included in itself all those five nations and
countries. The name Ham remains hitherto the obscurest of
those belonging to this period, and cannot yet be accurately
traced.^ We may however at least afiirm that the combination
' IMoscs of Chorene {History, i. ö) gives contnist to light and heaven is equally
this account, following a work based on Cüntiiined in them all.
Berosus, ancl again {ib. eh. 8) following ■* Very curiously, even the Samaritan
Mar-Iba Catinas ; he also refers to some Chronicle (ed. Juynboll, p. 271) attributes
early Armenian popular songs. (he lightning to his son.
" See Elisseus, History of Vardan, ch. * Tl"' words of Moses Chor., i. 5, who
ii. ; Eznik, Against Heresies, ii. 1. The on this point follows Olympiodorus, do not
latter explains zervan as ' fate,' but says sound as if they were only borrowed from
it might also mean ' brilliancy.' The Si- tl»' I^ihle.
bylline versos (iii. 110 Fr.) render it by ' Moses Chor. i. 5, end ; i. 22, ii. 7, 81,
Kii6vos. No one surely will seriously This tempts us to conjecture tiiat the ori-
maintain that the Armenian Iupet(,s/he ori- gin^l meaning of the word DtT was ' height.'
ginated in a misunderstanding of 'loTreTtSy ' There is no reason for connecting him
Te,foundintheGreekverses just alluded to. with the Egyptian god Anion or llammon.
=> On the assumption, namely, that the According to AVilkinson {Mtmiiers and
Titans are in origin the same as the Hindu Customs, iv. p. 203) there was in Egypt
JJiiitja and Asura. These, ind(>ed, have an ancient god Khem, subsequently com -
their name from Ditis (i.e. Ttj^i^?), the pared with Pan: and could it l>e shown
opposite of Adiiis and AdiIJa ; but the that his worship existe<l in primitive times
THE PIUST TWO AGES. 281
of the tliree names Sliem, Ham and Jai^lietli among tlie Hebrews
differs only by age and more primitive form from that of Zervan,
Titan, and Japetosthe.
Other scattered traces of the sacred traditions of the primitive
nation also lead us back to those northern regions. We met
with Enoch at Iconium on Taurus, imder the name of Annakos
(p. 266) ; and the well-known coins of the neighbouring Apamea
Kibotos, with the Ark and other signs of the Flood, such as
the name Nli,' though dating only from the time of the CaBsars
and the first half of the third centur}^ after Christ, can hardly
have borrowed these signs exclusively from the Old Testament,
since they represent one pair only as rescued, and not, like
the Old Testament, the Father's sons and sons' wives as well.
The tradition of the Flood in the Book of Origins (Gen. viii. 4)
points definitely to Ararat : there, according to this mythology,
was the hallowed starting-point and centre of all the nations,
but especially of that group of them which dwelt nearest to it,
and called themselves Shem. And although the conception of
the four Rivers of Paradise which the Fourth Narrator intro-
duces (Gren. ii. 10-14), seems to have its ultimate source in the
remotest east, and after many transformations to have reached
Palestine only in the time of the Kings,^ yet even in its present
in Canaan, we should here stand on firmer Q, the name in question may have ori.
ground. Ancient writers speak also of a ^^^^^ ^^^^^ j^^^^ ^ ^^^ ^^^-^^ ^^.j^j^^
certain Chom or Chon and Chons, also ^^Ug^i itself Shem to the entire south, and
Sera, i.e. XOX8. or X6A8., as the Egyp- subsequently been restricted to Egypt, as
tian Herakles (Jablonskii Ojmscula, ed. te the most important southern kiuydom.
Water, ii. p. 195 sqq. ; E. Eochette in the See below, on Edom.
Memoires de T Acadhnie des Inscriptions, ' Eckhel, Boctrina Kununonim, toI. iii,
xvii. 2, p. 324 sqq. ; compare 'Xnixfpov p. 132-139, treats this subject in detail,
Kparris, Eratosthenes ap. Syncellum, i. p. and shows a third letter to be wanting
205). after Nn. Undoubtedly the diffusion of
More important to the present subject the LXX. and the Old Testament histories
is the fact that the Egyptians called their in that age contributed much to bring such
own country Xtj^io, or in another dialect, Itcal traditions to hght : one decisive in-
Käme X'^iULH i.e. black, as was fa^ce of this, from about this time, is
"^^ ' ... found in the notice in the Sibylline Books,
noticed by Plutarch, i>e 7s. c;; Osm xxxm. ;_ 268 sq. From Moses of Chorene,
But by the Hebrews, especially m tlie Öeo^w^uff, xliii., we learn how constantly
earliest times, the term Ham was not ^i^^ ^j.], was located in Phrygia. Prom
applied to Egypt exclusively ; and it only ^^.^ce may probably have sprung Herodo-
begins to be poetically so called in some of tus' well-known story of the origin of man-
the latest of the Psalms (Ixxviii. cv. cvi.) y^\j^(\ i^ Phrygia.
If however, as Eupolemus, p. 400, says, 2 The origin of the story of Paradise,
the name Ham was interchangeable with Gen. ii. 5 sqq., is a question reserved for
Asbolos (i.e. soot), this must refer to another place ; but here I must observe
the dark complexion of the Egyptians, that I do not believe the original form of
who were in Greek also designated (ueAa^- th.,t description of Paradise will be ever
Xpofs and fj.e\dfnro5is (see the common- f^^\]y understood, or the four rivers be
tators on Apollod. Bibl. ii. 1, 4). As the properly interpreted, till some of the
Egyptian meaning Wrtc/t is thus uhimately „ames of rivers are allowed to have
connected with that of the Hebrew D-IH, been changed during the migration of the
28-2 PRn:LI>nXARY HISTORY.
form it elearl}^ shows us the locality in which the Hebrews
from early reminiscences imag-iued their Eden (a pure Semitic
word). For as the Hebrews could only appropriate this tradi-
tion by making- the Tigris and the Euplirates two of the rivers
of Paradise, it is evident that Eden was supposed to have lain
at the very sources of these streams, in the sacred neighbour-
hood of Ararat.
It has been customary in Germany during the last fifty years
to call Semitic all the nations who spoke a language kindred
with the Hebrew, and this usage may be maintained, in default
of a better. But in the language of antiquity the Semites in-
cluded only a portion of these nations ; and although nations such
as the Phenicians, Philistines, &c., related in speech, but other-
wise alien to the ancient Semites, may probably at an incal-
culably remote period have issued from the same northern
birth-place, the Hebrews in Palestine no longer felt themselves
akin, but entirely foreign to them. Thus it is certain that the
Hebrews belonged to quite another order of nations, and kept up
a lively remembrance of the north as the land of their descent.'
2. As the oldest reminiscences of the people refer to a mother
country wdiose sanctuary was very different from that which they
developed for themselves in Palestine, so also we find traces of
a remembrance of the migration which brought them gradually
nearer to the country which afterwards became their holy land.
It is certainly no unimportant historical ftict that the Hebrew
nation does not claim an extreme antiquity. Their ancestor
Eber descends from Shem through Arphaxad (for Canaan and
Salah may be passed by, see p. 264). Now Arphaxad is
without doubt the most northern country of Assyria, on the
southern border of Armenia, which Ptolemy^ alone among all
the Greek and Poman authors mentions under the correspond-
ing name of Arrapachitis, and describes, so insignificant had
this once important and powerful land become. There lies,
liowever, in the name itself a farther witness as to its situation
and inhabitants ; Arphaxad appears to denote ' Stronghold of
the Chaldeans,' ^ and was perhaps at first used of the chief city
lopjend. In my opinion tho Pison and the eially Shem ; some of the most recent are
Gihon are the Indus and the Ganges; to noticed in the Jahrb. der BihI. Wiss. m.
these were originally added two others p. 208 sq., xi. p. 181 sq. It deserves
liehjnging to the same region ; hut when notice, however, that Cappadocia is con-
the legend passed to the HcLrews in Pa- nected with Canaan and Ham in Tcsta-
lestine, the latter were exclianged for the nnintum Bimonis, vi. and in Cliamchean's
familiar Tigris and E^uphrales. Armmian History, i. 3. Docs this date
' It seems supcrfiuoiis after these ex- from Herod's nigii ?
planations to refute in d<tail the opinions - Gcograjjhij, vi. 1.
of others on N.,alfs three son.s, and espe- 3 ^^.^j^ ,„j ^^ \ ^ .,, ,,,.11 .,, ^^\^
THE FIRST TWO AGES.
283
of the country ; and Ur of the Chaldees, whence according to
the very ancient author of Gen. xi. 28, 31, Abraham journeyed
to Palestine, is probably only the name used of the same country
in the time of that writer.' The Chaldeans, in name originally
identical with the nation in this day called the Kurds, were even
at a very early period widely scattered,^ as the Kurds are now f
but we have every reason to believe their original seat to be the
mountain country called Arrax^achitis. After the seventh century
before Christ, indeed, a new no n- Semitic nation — essentially the
same that has ever since retained the name Kurds — appears
under this name. This is explained by the hypothesis that a
northern people who had conquered the land gradually assumed
its ancient name, as the Saxons beyond the sea appropriated
the name of Britons.
signifies fo bind, to make fast. Now as
Arrapa (Ptolemy's Geog. vi. 1), was the
name of a city in Arrapaehitis still exist-
ing under the form 1 y/y nujL {Jahrb. der
Bibl. Wiss. X. p. 169), and as several
cities, and especially the Mell-knowu Ar-
bela, which is not too far distant, are
named PXSIN, probably signifying ' God's
stronghold,' and as also 21N alone is the
name of some cities (see Josh. xv. 52, 1
jy"
a name given by Abdolhakara to th®
Kings iv. 10; and the -well-known
^J
u
in Yemen), this name had probably the
meaning of fortress. The use of ^ mili-
tates but little against the word being
compounded with the name of the Chal-
deans, because elsewhere this is written
with \^,\ but never with Q. And we know
from the general laws of sound that the
Hebrew pronunciation Chasd is the earlier
one, from which sprang Chard or Kurd
(Gord), and then Chald.
' That Ur-Ch/zsd im WHS not regarded as
a city, but as a coimtry, is shown by the
wliole meaning and context of the passage
in Gen. xi. 28 sqq., and the LXX. are
correct in rendering it by ri x'^P°- '^'^^
XaXSaiwu. A Zendic origin for the word
1-1i{ can hardly be sought in an age preced-
ing the seventh and eighth centuries. But
a comparison with ^.'j ^^csjj' i^\\
gives us at once the meaning, ' residence,'
'i-egion.' Curiously, however, in Arme-
nian, nuii^iun^ {gavar or Jcavar) de-
notes x'^P"- (Faustus Byz. v. 7), and
with tliis accords not only jJCLO (Bar-
hebr. p. 105) but also i",^^ (sometimes
Egyptian Nomes). Compare also Jusin
vair, denoting place. Ur as a city has
however been sought for in many places,
both in ancient and modern times : Jose-
phus {Ant. i. 6. 5) says that the grave of
Terah was still shown in Ure the town of
the Chaldees, but he does not define its
exact position ; many of the Fathers took it
for Edessa, because the proper name of this
city was Urhoi (originally, however, Osroi,
now Orfa). Later writers have often
thought of the Castellum Ur mentioned
by Amm. Marc. xxv. 8. Eupolemus in
Eusebii Prcep. Evang. ix. 17, imagined
it to be Uric, also called Camerine, be-
tween Babylon and Bosra. Just now,
English travellers are identifying Abra-
ham's Ur with a place there called Varka,
where extensive ruins have been lately
found and excavated, and cuneiform in-
scriptions have be«n discovered (see
Loftus, Travels and Researches in Chul-
dea and Susiana, London, 1867, pp. 131,
161, 162); but this place is much too far
to the south. (See more on tliis suljject in
tlie Göttinger Gel. Am. 1858, p. 182 sqq.)
Still stranger is the notion prevalent
among the Moslim, that Abraham mi-
grated from Kutha ^".C or \\X in Southern
Babylonia (see the Marassid, ii. p. 519;
Jelaloddin's History of the Temple at
Jfrw.sy/^f/rt, translated byEeynolds from the
Arabic into English, 1836, pp. 16,333, 427;
Chwolson's SsaUer, ii. p. 452 sqq.), wliich
was probably derived from the Samaritans.
^ As is proved by the reception of one
Chesedamongthe Nahorites inGcn.xxii.22
^ See Eödiger in the Zeitschrift für das
Morgenland, iii. p. 3 sq.
284 PRELBFINARY HISTORY.
That Eber is called a son of iliis AipLaxad means simply that
the Hebrews remembered that they had in their earliest ages
lived in this land, and from thence had journeyed to the sontli.
Be^'ond this remembrance they manifestly I'etained nothing- ;
but that their small nation had once dwelt in that great home
of their race was still clear to them. Nothing is hereby really
determined respecting the origin and connection of this name,
Hebrew, which fills so eminent a place in history ; we are
at liberty to snpply the void as we best can. It would be
entirely erroneous to assume that the name was given to them
only by foreigners after they had passed over the Euphrates, and
that it originally signified the people of the farther side, that is,
who had come from the farther side. This idea can hardly lie
even in the name ; ^ and while there is nothing to show that
the name emanated from strangers, nothing is more manifest
than that the nation called themselves by it and had done so as
long as memory conld reach ; indeed this is the only one of
their names that appears to have been current in the earliest
times. The history of this name shows that it must have been
most frequently used in the ancient times, before that branch of
the Hebrews which took the name of Israel became dominant,
but that after the time of the Kings it entirely disappeared from
ordinary speech,^ and was only revived in the period immediately
before Christ, like many other names of the primeval times,
through the prevalence of a learned mode of regarding anti-
quity, when it came afresh into esteem through the reverence
then felt for Abraham.^
Of the three great epochs into which the history of this nation
' As the region beyond the Euphrates Hebrew is found in the ancient fragment
is always called "insn "iSy. and never Gen. xiv. ; it is used also by the Earliest
-iny simply, we sho;id have to assume an Historian, Ex xxi. 2, and by the Third
'Av ^ •' iSarrator of the primeval history (ben.
abbreviation found nowhere else, and de- ^j jg^ xjijj^ 32^ probably also Ex. v. 3),
void of intrinsic probability. The LXX. ^^^ j^ ^he ancient Book of Kings in the
in translating n3yn. Gen. xiv. 13, by earlier period preceding the death of
6 Treparns may indeed have had some such Saul, 1 Sam. iv. 9, xiii. 3, 7, xiv. 21 ;
idea. The sense of any such designation hence it would seem to have been avoided
is however sli(jwn to be absolutely un- in the Book of Origins, and already for-
certain by the Euthers of tlie Church, who gotten in the time of the great Prophets,
know not what to make of it ; as we see Perhaps, however, a trace of this ancient
from Origen on Numb. xxiv. 24, Matt, national name is preserved in the coni-
xiv. 22. See also Gott. Gel. Am. 1837, pound word 'Aioßper in Sam-hoviallnm,
p. 9.59, sq. The doubts which in 1826 I p. 42 (Orelli), if we may alter the reading
threw out in my Kritbchc. Grammaiik to 'Aj^e/SpeV, and interpret it as ri"'"lDy pj?.
against this derivation, were only too well Hebn w fountain, i.e. Nymph.
founded, though at the time misunderstood ^ As we find for instance in the New
by many. Testament; John i. 9 is a mere imitation
^ Tliis was likewise noticed in my from Gen. xl. From such late writers as
KritiKche Grammatik of 1826, but it can these is derived tlie modern designation
be now defined more exactly. The name of the language of Canaan as Hebrew,
THE FIKST TWO AGES. 285
falls, the name Hebrew strictly denotes tlie earliest, in wliich
Israel with great toil strugg-led out as an independent nation
from amid the crowd of kindred and alien peoj^les. In the
second epoch, in which after the establishment of the kingly
rule its native power reached the mightiest development, its
name Israel became as sublime and glorious as the nation itself,
and su2)planted the older more general name. And as no notable
period need want for a suitable sign and name, the third and
last epoch of the history is distinguished by the name Jew,
together with a resuscitation of the old name Hebrew. In like
manner, in the sichere of religion these three epochs, which
embrace the whole history, are distinguished by a change in the
mode of speaking the Divine name Jahveh (Jahveli alone, Jahveh
Sabaoth, Jahveh suppressed) ; for thus great national changes
and revolutions generally leave their mark on words and names
in daily use. Thus then the national name Hebrew, even
more than the Divine name Jahveh, reaches up into the earliest
times ; and the people, seeing in it nothing less than the token
of their own origin, called their progenitor Eber.
But since Eber (as before observed) was conceived only as one
son of Arphaxad, we are entitled to ask further whether these
Hebrews, who could have inhabited but a small portion of the
ancient land of the Chaldeans, had not a connection with any
more distant region. And here the name of the Iberians, who
dwelt somewhat farther to the north, forces itself upon us
involuntarily, so that we can hardly help thinking of some
connection with them. What language among the hundreds
spoken in that medley of races in the Caucasus ^ that of the
Iberians was, it is not possible for us to unriddle from the
short description which Strabo gives of them ; ^ but there is
nothing to oppose the possibility that they and their language
were originally of the Semitic stock. Up to this great parting
of the nations we should then be enabled to trace back the
stream of their national life to its source, though of the primary
signification of their name it is as difficult to speak as of the
' Strabo, xi. 2, 16. The original meaning of the name He-
= Strabo, xi. 3. That the Iberians a ^^^^^ '* of course not determined thereby;
the otlier end of the ancient world, in and we may therefore conjecture that it is
Spain, were related to them, was only a connected with the root ^z to explain, to
conjecture of some ancient writi'rs; whicli -^'
S. F. W. Hoflfmann (Die Iberer im Osten ^1'^'^^ P^«"»- ''^ expound, and thus desig-
und im Westen, Lpz. 1838) supports, but nates the nation which was separated by
with ineffectual arguments. The Arme- it« language from all non-Hebrews, and
niah pronunciation, J^era, shows that the -^ ' ^
long vowel of the Greek form was not contrast« them with the tyi"? or ,^-
essential, (Welsh, Barbarians). ^
286 PRELLMIXARY HISTORY.
names of the Arameans (except that this name seems to have
been originally identical with that of the Armenians), or of the
Assji-ians, Chaldeans, Ljdians, and Elameans. And how easily
a section of a nation mig-lit migrate southwards from the
Caucasian Iberia, and then grow into historical greatness, is
shown by the very similar case which Amos ' briefly mentions.
It was well known in the time of Amos that the Arameans
(here used in the narrower sense of the Damascenes ^) had
emigrated from the Cyrus, the same river that, according to
Strabo, flows through Iberia also ; although Amos by a strange
sport of destiny was conii^elled to threaten them with banish-
ment to this same northern river, which had then become
Assyrian.^
That the name of Hebrews originally included more nations
than Israel alone follows not only from the position Avhich the
ancient tradition gives to Eber, but also from other indications.
When the ancient fragment, Gen. xiv. 13, gives the epithet
' the Hebrew ' to Abraham (though his name in itself by no
means suggests the word Hebrew^), it evidently ascribes to the
name Hebrew a much wider extension, and speaks just as
we might expect from the primitive views of national rela-
tionships contained in the genealogical tables of the Book of
Origins. In like manner the Fifth Narrator, who had several
very old accounts before his eyes, speaks of ' all the sons of
Eber,' in a place where he must have had in view many more
nations than the one people of Israel.^ The name Hebrew,
indeed, belongs to all the nations who came over the Euplirates
with Abraham. So also long before Abraham, according to
ancient tradition, a powerful branch of the Hebrews, under the
name Joktan,^ had migrated into the south of Arabia and there
founded flourishing kingdoms ; for nothing else can be meant
when Joktan (Gen. x. 25-30) is made the second son of Eber.
And since in northern Arabia many tribes are placed in a close
relation to Abraham, the name Hebrew might well be very pre-
dominant throughout the whole length of that country. But
' Amos ix. 7. more Ihiui tlic whole land of Canaan.
- According to Amos i. 5. " Tlie name pp''- LXX. 'UicTav, as also
' Amos i. 5. - o^ J o-
■• Although Artapanus, in Eusebii P/Y(?/5. '-^r*-', his son k,,^,'?^.!^', and all the
Kranff Ax. 18, derives the name Hebrew names" with s prefixed present a eliarae-
from Abraham. ^^^y^^^^^ f„rmatiün of the aneient Hebrew
Because Gen. x. 21, a verse inserted (see Lehrbuch, § ir)2a), which probably
by the Fifth Narrator, speaks in the style distinguished it from all other branches of
of the genealogies. The same narrator the Semitic stock ; the pronunciation of
liowcver in Numb. xxiv. 24 (where the ^, , , , , n •• i
context is very different), understands the ^'^^ ^''^'"' '^'''^^''^ ^^-^'' '^'""•' ^^' ^""'"
name Eber, as used in poetry, to mean no parison therewith tu be Arabised.
THE FIRST TWO AGES. 28T
we mnst beware of fancying tliat the name Arab, whicb was
gradually extended to all the nations of that immense country
only after the setenth century before Christ, was produced only
by a slight modification of the older name Hebrew.^
The people who remained in the north on the far side of the
Euphrates seem then to have founded several small kingdoms,
the memory of which (see p. 268) has probably been retained in
the names of the four direct descendants of Eber, and among
whom the Nahoreans, who lived in Harran, have been some-
what more fully described for us because of Jacob's close con-
nection with them. That Nahor is the name both of the
father and of the second of the three sons of Terah (seep. 273),
agrees well with this supposition; and the name of Haran,
the third of the three sons of Terah and the father of Lot,
is probably still preserved in that of a northern country, the
situation of which agrees not ill with the idea.^
3. Accordingly, in the migration from Ur-Chasdim dis-
tinguished by the name of Abraham and his companions, as
well as in the subsequent one of Jacob, who took the same
direction from the more southerly Harran, we see only con-
tinuations of the migratory movements of this primitive
people, which, after having struck out probably in many direc-
tions, now took its farthest course towards the south-west, and
thus found its last goal in Egypt. But this leads us into a new
region. Here rises into view the land which Avas destined to
be to the children of Israel, when arrived at maturity and com-
peting for the good places of the earth, infinitely more sacred
than ever the fatherland of their childhood had been ; and on
which the plot was laid of all the rich history that follows. Yet
so long as the migration reaches only the fore-land of Egypt,
Canaan, and not that great centre and point of attraction
of ancient civilisation itself, we remain gtill only in the Pri-
meval History.
' This name xiudoubtedly may be traced Arabia, since 2"iy resembles the Hebrew
back to the signification 21V Sfej>pc ^^^-jy, but is foreign to ordinary Arabic.
(Isaiah xxi. 13), as also according to the
Moslira only the i^\^z\ are genuine ' .J^J^ °'' <^'.^^J whose capital is Ber-
Bedouins, and these two names are inter- daa. See Kcmaleldln in Freytag's Chres-
changeable(Hamäsa,p. 294r,v. 2);butthese tomathy,^. 138,8; Abnlfida's Geography,
very words of Isaiah (xxi. 13) show that in p. 386 sq. ed. Reinaiid ; and Journal
the ninth or eighth century it was not yet Aüatique, 18i7, i. p. 444 ; ii. p. 4'>3 ; in
in use; aud according to Jer. iii. 2, Ezek. Armenian probably Harkh (which is only
xxvii. 21, and Isaiah xiii. 20, it was not a plural form); in Moses Chor. History,
current till the seventh century, when the i. 9, 10, Geography, Ixix. On another
name Hebrew had been long obsolete. But Ai-ran beyond the Tigris in Media, see
the iisage of language shows that this Rawlinson in Journal of the Boyal Gco-
ua'ue originated in Northern not Central graphical Society, x. 81 sq. 139 sq.
288 IMIELLMLXAEY IIISTOKY.
C. THE TIIIED AGE.
1. The Three Patriarchs of the Nation.
The Third Age is properly (according to p. 275 sqq.) that of
the Heroes.^ Those only are strictly Heroes, whom every nation
boasts of possessing in the time of its fresh energy and youth,
and of whom the earliest and most powerful serves as the founder
or father of the nation itself. For the conception of such pre-
historic heroes afterwards spreads further, and the like grand
forms are finally transferred even into the preceding ages ; so
that their collective image is constantly being removed farther
and higher (of which we had an example at p. 275) ; but their
proper place is unquestionably in this Third Age, immediately
before the historic period. And they may be conceived as
entirely filling the space of this age, the Book of Origins even
jjlacing the last remnants of the Hero-race in the earliest part
of the age of Moses as enemies of Israel.^ But since in the case
of Israel their Egyptian period makes the boundary between
the two last ages, all the persons who in the strict sense may
be called their fathers fall before this time, especially those
whom in the spirit of the tradition itself we must distinguish
under the name of the three Patriarchs.
The region of these three Patriarchs is thus sharply defined
on both sides. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-Israel are, accord-
ing to the trae national feeling, the great names of the three
sole founders and types of the Canaan ite-Hebrew nation ; the
addition of Joseph to the number belongs to a much later
view.^ In the old tradition concerning them their sphere is
separated from that which precedes it by the fact that they
first tread the holy ground, and thus Avith them the narra-
tive first acquires the true Mosaic expansion and warmth of
tone. From the following it is separated by the fact that even
Joseph's life sinks into the scale usiial in the later age, while
the three others all remain upon the higher scale of the as yet
little enfeebled hero-life.
The exact investigation of this region is rendered difficult,
' D''~l'3-l. oi", necordiiif:; to tlic earlier ^ Numb. xiii. 22, 28, 33.
mor.. mythical appellation, Q-^'.^J. See ' It is clear from the affeof the passap;cs
^ ', , J,.,, „r ■■ \' Ps. Ixxvii. IG I lö|, Ixxx. 2 [lJ,L\xxi. 6 [Öl.
i\K Jahrb. der Jhhl. Jf !.v,s. vu. j.. 18 s(]. "- ' ^ ^ '- -"
TU I Kb AUE. 28Ü
bocanse (witli a very few exceptions to be mentioned sliortlj) wc
liave knowledge of it only from Biblical sonrces, since these three
Patriarchs could not possibly be to other nations what they were
to the Hebrews after Moses. But there is some compensation
in the greater fulness and variety that are here to be observed
for the first time in the specially Hebrew accounts. If we
recognise in this far-off cloud-land comparatively little real
history with the desirable certainty and completeness, we wel-
come the more gladly some important truths which are in the
strictest sense historical, as soon as we are prepared to see
them, aright.
But the more narrowly we reinvestigate the multitude of
primitive traditions and reminiscences here united, which upon
a closer view appear remarkably rich and varied, the more
manifest it becomes that even in those ancient times when their
foundation was laid there were two veins from which, by a kind
of intermingling, they grew into their present form. One half
only, though indeed by far the most important one, is so to
speak purely Hebrew ; and this carries us easily and securely
back to the basis of the true history of that primeval period when
the nation of Israel and those immediately related to it were
formed. Of another kind are single scattered traditions, which
in their essential substance and general bearing reciu' also
among other ancient nations belonging to the same sphere of
high civilisation, different as they may at the first glance ap-
pear in the naines of places and of persons. The carrying off
of Sarah and of E-ebekah by a foreign king has unmistakable
resemblance to the Greek legend of Helen and the Hindu story
of Sita ; and in the original meaning of these traditions unques-
tionably it was the honour and beauty of the kingdom itself of
whose protection and recovery they spoke. In like manner, as
will be shown below, many things narrated of Isaac and Jacob
recur in the traditions of the most ancient neighbouring nations.*
In fact, we have here only fragments of a primitive body of
tradition existing in these regions long before the time of these
Patriarchs, which early mingled itself with the remembrance of
the grand patriarchal days, and adorned that with many flowers
which then, bedewed by the spirit of the religion of Israel,
shone again with a double radiance. How this might happen
is shown by the case explained above Q). 275 sqq.), as well
' It is perfectly obvious that this ex- covery of wine. Athen. Dcipn. xv. 6, 8,
tends much further, to later as well as to Hygin. Fah. 130. See also vol. 2 on
earlier times. loarius, like Noah in Gen. Jephthah and Samson,
ix. 21, meets with disaster through his dis-
VOL. I. U
2C0 TRELIMIXAEY HISTORY.
as by many otliers ; and nothing else so clearly indicates the
antiquity of all these traditions respecting the Patriarchs as
the fact that through them we can look back farther into a
still remoter sphere. A third soiu-ce of these traditions is found
in the peculiar legends of the Canaanites ; that of Sodom, for
example, Gen. xviii. xix. is unquestionably purely Canaanitic.
That which may still be recognised as belonging to the an-
cient accounts of the time of these Patriarchs, will be here
explained with a careful distinction of its sources. At a later
period the history of the Patriarchs, in common with the whole
of the primeval history and even that of Moses, gradually be-
came a field for arbitrary invention, as may be seen in the ex-
tant fragments of that literature : • but upon these no close
attention need be bestowed.
II. The Cycle of the T\\^elve Types.
If we look simply at the prevailing character of the narra-
tives and representations of this period given in the most an-
cient sources, we shall find little that is really historical to say
of the three Patriarchs. For on a close view it is obvious that
to the nation as we see it in the time of Moses they had not
only long served as types, and therefore receded more and more
into a prehistoric region, but also that they were members of
a very large circle of national types.
When an ancient people occupied a jjosition from which it
could look back upon a previous period of grandeur and re-
nown, in which its own foundations had been laid and its
organisation advanced, the few indestructible personages of that
past, its true Heroes, naturally formed in the imagination a
circle, and were treated as so many members of a typical house.
For the distinction of a Hero, as contrasted with a God, so long
at least as they are not confounded with each other (Avliich
generally took place in the more refined heathen religions), is
this : that the God is the type of all men, but the Hero of one
special order, correspondent to his own character; the Hero
being always conceived as the man of his age, stamped with all
its peculiarities. Thus a limited type is involved in the very
' ^Vii instance of this soi-t of Egyptian- fictition.s early histor}' on Slicm and liis
Abraliamic history, witli a king Nokao, age. But the iise of Aln-aham's and
with Jcrusah'm, &c., is given by Josophns Isaac's names in adjuration by the Egyp-
in liis JfVfi.sh Wars, v. 9, 4, but not re- tians and others, aflRrmed hy Origen,
pealed in his AnilquitlrK. In an addcn- Contra Cclstnn, i. 5. 1, ir. 4. 3 sq., can
dum, given liy a Gre('k codex to Barnabas f)nly be referred to a hitcr confusion of.
.\ii. ed. Dress., may Ite seen a piece of religions.
THIRD AGE. 291
conception of tlie Hero. And since the family, especially in the
wide sense of the Patriarchal world, is the primary sphere of
the manifold interests and activities of man, and in antiqnity,
much more than at the present day, even a considerable nation
considered itself to be living together in the domestic circle of
a house,^ we cannot wonder that a national hero was always re-
garded not as an individual only, but as a member of a typical
house, who is distinctly remembered mainly by virtue of the
definite position he held in it. The distant period when
these Heroes lived is the sacred time, past but never to be
forgotten and in spirit ever present, in which the nation as a
house or family first gained the true feeling of a home. Around
its hearth are ranged the historic forms to which the nation
looks up as types of all the various members of its lower present
house, while many subordinate persons of the same circle owe
the vivid impression they have left merely to their connection
with the rest. Heroes of every possible complexion are gene-
rally embraced in a certain definite circle ; around one or two
chief heroes others are ranked as counterj)arts, and fill their
necessary place. If the Hiad, however, owing to special causes
represents a scene of camps and battles, the Odyssey, like the
Ramayanaand Mahäbharata, exhibits the domestic life of Heroes
and Heroines, and this view will ever tend to become the domi-
nant one. Even when under peculiar circumstances the grouj^s
of Heroes and of Gods are intermingled, and produce that
elaborate heathen mythology which we see in its completest form
among the Greeks and the Hindus, the very heavens become
the seat of a typical house, and Indra or Zeus is but the pre-
eminent father and ruler of the organised circle of gods of the
most varied qualities who surround him.
Although the typical house of the people of Israel has come
down to us incomplete in some of its members, we may by some
attention see that it embraced a circle of exactly twelve mem-
bers, who were again distributed according to the seven funda-
mental relations possible to an ancient Patriarchal house. At
the head stand —
1. The three Patriarchs themselves as the Fathers and most
prominent forms of this typical house. The combination
of these three may be compared with that of Agamemnon,
Achilles and Ulysses, around whom the whole Iliad ranges
' It is not poots only who still porpctn- Josh. xxi. -l.l ; 1 Sam. vii. 1 sriq. ; 2 Sani;
ally speak of the house of Jacob (Isaiah i. 12, ii. 4-11, v. 6, 1.5, xii. S, xv. 3;
xxix. 22 ; Amos v. 1, 5, vi. 11), but also 1 Kings xii. 21, 23, xx. 31).
historians (Ex. xvi. 31, xl. 38 ; Lev. x. G ;
292 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
itself, or with Aiicliises, ^neas, and Ascanius in the Trojan
legends : what follows agrees still more exactly. In the Hindu
legends, with the chief hero there is generally ranked a secon-
dary one, who reflects in a lower degree his exalted character,
as if from an appi^ehension of the truth that an ideal type
can only be seen in its right light by means of an inferior yet
asj^iring copy of itself, and from the desire to place before
ordinary men wdio could not rise to the level of the ideal a
lower yet still admirable model. In these legends the secon-
dary hero appears as a younger brother of the chief : as Rama
and Lakshmana, Krishna and Bala. And in the Mahabharata,
where the idea of the chief hero assumes a threefold form in the
persons of Judhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna as representatives
of the three kingly virtues of justice, valour, and wisdom,' there
stand beside these three elder brothers at least two younger, bear-
ing a like significance. So Isaac stands beside Abraham, lower,
but resembling him, nnder the conception of a son who in all
things faithfully follows his father. Jacob is then introduced
as the third of this series, though in a dijfferent character. He
also, as father of the nation, is a type, but under quite another
aspect : so little can even the combination of the three Fathers
in a tyj)ical house conceal the fact that the house on which in
after years the nation looked back with pride as the home
of its childhood, really grew out of two different houses ; some-
what as in the heroic legends of Rome Numa was put beside
Romulus and Remus ^ as worthy of no less reverence ; or as in
the Greek myth, Hercules was at length received into the house
of Olympus. Standing side by side each has an equal claim to
the honour of being a father in the typical house ; yet with
this equality a certain diversity of character may be perceived,
even as the linman relationships, whose types they are, amid a
common excellence exhibit great variety. The nature of this
variety will be more suitably explained hereafter : it is evident
that the paternal, as the first of the seven fundamental relations
of every house, admits most obviously of this internal variety,
here presented in a threefold form.
2^. As the type of the Wife there appears Sai^ah, as that of
the Concubine Hagar, both standing by the side of the first of
the three Fathers, and partaking of his higher dignity. Con-
sidering Sarah under this aspect, we can apprehend the full sig-
' Eut in Ibis instance it is characteris- ^ These two, curiously, form a similar
fieally Hindu, that Arjuna, as the type of pair to Kama and Lakshmana in the Hindu
wisdom, has at least a spiritual supremacy tradition; altlioufjjh Romulus, who from
over his two brothers, and accomplishes his name ought to be the younger, conquers
more tlxan tliey. Remus.
THIRD AGE, 293
nificance of tlie story, undoubtedly popular in antiquity, of lier
rescue from the hands of a lascivious prince. This narrative as it
stands in Gen. xx. is Canaanitic and ijrimeval ; with some mo-
difications it is transferred by the Fourth Narrator to Egypt,
Gen. xii. 10-20; and in Gen. xxvi. 7-11 is applied by others
to Rebekah also. Like Sarah, her type, every chaste matron in
times when wanton hands were everjrwhere, hoped to live in
honour ; and in so far nothing can be objected against the his-
torical signification of the narrative. But the fact that it was
deemed important to associate with the wife the concubine as
her inferior counterpart, and to jAnce them in mutual relation,
proves, quite as strongly as the marriage of two sisters at once
to the same husband (to be presently mentioned),^ that this con-
ception of the Twelve Types had its origin before the time of
Moses.
3- As type of the Child there appears Isaac ; exhibiting
the same quiet and cheerful spirit also as father by the side of
Abraham. As type of the true child, he serves in the Mosaic
community as an example of circumcision. Gen. xxi. 4. How
old the origin of this view is, is clear from the fact that all
the existing stories of their long and anxious waiting for him,
of his choice as the heir, of his childlike obedience and his
trustful journey even to sacrifice at his father's will, refer essen-
tially to this his typical significance.
4. The same Isaac in union with Rebekah stands as the type
of true Betrothal and Marriage, represented in a charming idyl
of unsurpassable beauty and true Mosaic spirit in the fragment
Gen. xxiv, emanating from the Fourth Narrator.
5. But because the marriage-bond did not always retain this
true and simple character, least of all in the early times, Leah
and Rachel were admitted into the circle, as types of the posi-
tion of one wife towards another equally legitimate, but less
beloved : a fi-equent case, especially in the primitive times.^
But, the frequency of this relation being presupposed, the type
demanded an exactly equal original title on the part of each
without favour or disfavour, and only in this sense can they (like
the two knights of the Hindu and Greek mythology), be inse-
parably ranged together m the typical house.
6. To complete the number of female members of the typi-
cal household, we have Deborah, Rebekah's nui-se, as type of
the Nurse of Heroes, to whom is assigned an elevated position
' Contrary to Lev. xviii. 18. See my Academy's Mooiaishcricldc, 18.59, p. 340.
AJtcHhiuiicr, p. 227, and similar instances ^ j)j,^,t xxi. 10-17,
from Iliiidu antiqiiily in the Berlin
294 PK 1 11. 1. MIX A UV IIISTOUV.
in the traditions of other nations also.^ Much more mention must
have been made of her orig-inallj, and her memory is almost lost
in the existing traditions, which are. certainly in part greatly
curtailed. In Gen. xxiv. 59 she is meant, though not expressly
named ; but the few words respecting her death and the tree
held sacred to her memory in Gen. xxxv. 8 sufficiently testify to
the spirit of the earlier story. And the fact that the later judge
of the same name (Judges iv. v.) , who was also a kind of hero-
nui'se, had her seat under this same tree at Bethel,^ is a fresh
proof of the ancient spread of the tradition respecting her.
7. Finally, to close the circle, is added as the twelfth t3^pe
Abraham's upper Servcmt and steward,^ whose position accord-
ing to the whole constitution of the ancient house is so far
honourable and important that he could no more be omitted
in the series of types, than in Olympus the doorkeeper and
messenger. It is true his memory has suffered in what has
come down to us, and only casually, in an antique phrase in
Gen. XV. 2, has his name Eliezer of Damascus been preserved :
but how dignified a part he played in the tradition in its living
freshness may be plainly seen in the beautiful description of his
service Gen. xxiv., where he is unquestionably intended, though
not named.
In this manner we can still, on the whole with great certainty,
understand this cycle of types of the national life, and see how
complete it was.^ The best proof of it is, farther, that all the tra-
ditions which do not rest upon one of these twelve types, or upon
Lot, Ishmael or Esau, who are brought into prominence as con-
trasts to the three chief heroes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have
become quite lifeless and empty. The Nahoreans, Gen. xxii.
20-24, and the Ketureans or Saracens, Gen. xxv. 1-4, were
related nations once as important as the others ; but since they
' Comp, the Tmmlua of riautiis ; A^ir- ' It is well known that the Greeks also
gil's JlCnciJ, iv. 634, vii. 1 sqq. had a cycU' of twelve pods, or in some dis-
^ As the same topographical position is tricts of eight (see Jihihiisches Ulusdn/i,
assigned in eitlier case, the discrepancy in 1843, p. 489). In al! ancient nations we find
the name of the tree, which in Gen. xxxv. a tendency to the repetition of similar coni-
8 is called the oa/c of lamc^nlation, and in hiuations and round nnmbers : as among
Judges iv. 5 11 pah/i, is not of essential the Egyptians, who grouped tlieir deities
importance. as father, mother, and child (Wilkinson's
" In order to pi'cvent the dispersion of Maimers and Customs, iv. 231), and re-
tho family properly in default of a male cognised eight great divinities (Lepsius,
lieir, such a one was often adopted as a Chrovologie, i. 2ö3). Let it not, however,
son, or married to his master's daugliter; he supposed that the above idea of an an-
as is also seen in the story of the powerful cient Hebrew cycle of twelve prototypes was
Jiirha, in 1 C'lir. ii. 34 sq. The Tvsta- suggested to me by these examples. On the
menlinn Levi, eh. vi., calls this Eliezer contrary, it was forced upon me from the
by the name Jiblai, and contains a separate simple investigation of the subject, and I
tradition respecting him. w:;s myself .surprisid at the rcsidt.
TUIUT) AGE. 295
had no place in that ch'cle, their mere names were handed down,
and no reminiscence is linked with them.
As to the age in which this circle of types became fixed in
the mind of the people, every indication besides those already
mentioned points to the last few centuries before Moses. For
true as it may be that these types were among- the wants of every
aspiring nation (see pp. 29 sq.), still they generally sprang up
to satisfy a felt need, which could only arise while such a
nation moved in a very narrow and homelike sphere, and could
picture to itself all that was lofty and noble only by looking
back to its own past, to the exalted house from which it had
issued. It is essentially the domestic and homely spirit that
enfolds itself in this circle of paternal types ; in later times as
the nation enters into a wider sphere and attains a larger his-
tory, an infinite number of new types opens out before it. This
consideration leads us to the Premosaic time when Israel dwelt
in Egypt, externally ojDpressed and without internal movement,
yet with an elevating remembrance of its nobler j)ast. This
idea is further fortified by the consideration that the conception
of such Heroes is opposed to the strict Mosaic religion, and at
least could not have issued from it. For in the sense of an-
tiquity the true Hero is a being intermediate between God and
man, who, long after he has left the earth, retains a sort of
mystic bond with later generations, knows those who look to
him, regards them with deep sympathy, and even as a mediator
hears their prayers. Thus he becomes the recipient of a kind
of worship, which according to strict monotheism is due to One
alone ; and thus it is quite fitting that among the Prophets (at
a time when the Mosaic doctrine was beginning with greatest
vigour to unfold all the consequences involved in it) the Great
Unnamed One, although speaking as usual of Abraham and
Sarah as the venei-able jiarents of the nation,' is yet driven to
the new declaration that the peoj)le of Jahveh must not regard
Abraham and Israel as their fathers and protectors, nor address
prayers to them, but that Jahveh alone was their Father and
Redeemer.^ In this the Mosaic doctrine does but utter that
which from the first lay within it, and which must logically
sooner or later have come clearly into view.
But in the first centuries of the Mosaic religion all that cha-
racterised the Israelitish nationality in contrast to the other
nations was too eagerly grasped to suffer this typical circle to
lose much of its value, to the popular heart. If the Mosaic
' Itaiali li. 1, 2; ccmp. xlviii. 1. ^ Ifaiah ]xiii. 16; cciiip. Ixiv. 7 [8].
or,G PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
religion absolutely forbade tlie dedication of a true worship (a
cultas) to tlieir persons, their memory, cherisbed above that
of all other men, could cleave to sacred places, as the many
traditions respecting the three Patriarchs, the pillar at Rachel's
grave, Gen. xxxv. 20, and the mourning oak for Deborah (p. 294)
show. And to how great an extent, at least in the height of
poetical feeling, an enduring reciprocal action between them and
the existing nation was affirmed, is shown not only by Jacob's
Blessing (Gen. xlix. comp. pp. 69 sq.) but by such extraordi-
nary expressions as Jer. xxxi. 15.^
We may indeed easily understand that the need of such
t^-pes would be felt afresh with every new direction of the
national life ; and accordingly later times set up Moses as the
type for prophetical gifts, Samson for the Nazarite life, Joseph,
Joshua, and David for leadership and rule in different aspects,
David for lyrical poetry, and Solomon for wisdom and poetic
a,rt. We have also an example which shows how types were set
up for individual occupations, and which in age and form closely
approaches the great typical circle of the Twelve, in the two
Hebrew midwives whom Pharaoh could not induce by his tlireats
to destroy the male infants, and of whom the Third I^Tarrator
says : ' because they feared God rather than Pharaoh, they were
blessed also by God in house and in possessions.' ^ The typical
significance of these two midwives is indicated partly by the
style of this short narrative, and partly by the fact that there are
but two of them, like the two j)hysicians of the Hindu heaven
(A9vinau), since this number must have been practically quite
insTifficient. Even their names are probably only metaphorical.^
But notwithstanding all this, the twelve primitive types main-
tained their preeminence during the centuries which succeeded
Moses, the most brilliant period of the nation's history, nor could
any other type force itself into equally high and general esteem.
In this mean between a vivid feeling of their continued
spiritual activity, and the avoidance of any act of worship to-
wards them, these sacred types of the spirit and the power of
the higher religion gained an increasing hold upon the national
' Hosea xii. 4 sqq. expresses ver^' dis- xvi. 22. With this was in fact connected
linctly the feeling of such a living com- the belief in a kind of continuous con-
niunion between the ancestral father and sciousness on the part of every deceased
his people. The words in Isaiah xxix. father of a tribe : I Sam. ii. 33 ; 2 Sara.
22 sqf]., when closely examined, also ad- vii. 16 (according to the common reading),
mit of a signification whicli is ai)i)ropriate * Ex. i. I.5-2I.
here (ver. 23, ' when ho sees his sons, as the ' DIQ'J' ni'ij ^o connected with nT*3t^'D
work of mine hands in him,' i.e. according (gg^p 'j^ös. xiii. 13 ; Is. xxxvii. 3, Ixvi. 9) ;
to XIX. 25, ' when he sees them amended ^nd ny-IS which has the same sense as
and blessed [he will see how] they hallow , , ^ . , , , , r ^,
my name') : similarly, Luke i, r,J, .'-,.5. 72, »''^ l=^'f'>'-. ^''^1' V-13' ^^^ '" ^"•''"^'- f"^^^'-
TIIIKD AGE. 297
mind, and grew into those beautiful fonns wliicli again became
their most eloquent interpreters. Such a revival all those noble
forms, so far as they hold an important place in the existing
traditions, have visibly experienced ; but especially those which
stand highest and gather the others round themselves, the three
Patriarchs. As the conception of their spiritual character is
developed in the Book of Origins and still more by the Third and
Fourth Narrators, they give the pattern of a life which through
ceaseless and triumphant aspiring to God receives from him its
true streng*th and aid, and thus advances from blessing to
blessing. There the heart meets those j)ure and noble forms
on which it would gladly repose its faitli, but which it cannot
find in the present. In those bright regions it beholds, with a
clearness nowhere else to be attained, the true God, whose
mighty hand it seeks in vain beneath the veil of the real and
the tediousness of daily life, condescending to those who walk
worthy of him. And since the Divine blessing on the life of the
Patriarchs had been long inly felt by those who looked to them
as their types, contemplation, looking back to the primeval
time when the foundation of all these blessings was laid, now
took a higher flight, and ventured to regard in the reverse
order the whole coiu-se of the past and present history, tracing
it according to its Divine necessity.^
In this res23ect the three Patriarchs are entirely alike : they
are all types of an exalted life, and instruments of the Divine
blessing for illimitable time. But besides this, which is common
to all three, each j)ossesses a very marked character ; for even
the absolutely good when embodied in jDersonal life must express
itself in diverse modes, without thereby ceasing to be good, and
the Patriarchs being thus different are the more fit types of
life in its many-coloured reality. It is at the outset desirable
and possible that the Mosaic life should be exhibited in an
individual person perfect in power and in act ; and of this the
first Patriarch Abraham is the type. Initiating as father,
founder, and ruler a new era, and deriving neither his know-
ledge nor his power from another, he unites the most absolute
dominion and original power of soul with the utmost purity,
j)eacefulness, and energy of action ; perfectly irrej^roachable,
and yet at the same time ruling and conquering by his own
' Gen. xvii. 2-8 ; xxxv. 11, 12, from the thoy were written, not only pride, Imt also
Book of Origins; xii. 2, 3, 7, xiii. 14-17, eagerness to live not unworthily of .sucii
XV. 18 Sqq.. xxii. 17, 18, xxvi. 4, xxviii. ancestors, and are therefore to be regardi'J
14, by the Fourth and Fifth Narrators, as only theoretical and conditional, is seen
Uut that such glorious words were intended from one clear and admirable hint, thrown
to excite in tiiose of later days for whom out in Gen. xviii. lo, 19.
298 Pili: LIM 1 NARY HISTORY.
godlike power, comparable at most to a* ' Prince of God ' (Gen.
xxiii. 6 : comp. xxi. 22), or to a ' Prophet ' (Gen. xx. 7), and as
the most generally perfect placed at the head of the triad.
But there are not many who can equal or approach such a type.
And after such an example has once been given, it is more
than mere duty, it is excellence rather, not to fall behind him
but to tread faithfully in his footsteps and inherit his bless-
ing ; a life less highly pitched may also be a good one, and
may be crowned with a blessing not inferior. Of this life the
type is Isaac, living from his birth in possession of high
wordly endowments, not of lofty independent power, but faitli-
ful, kind, and gentle, preserving that which was already given,
and thus at last blest like Abraham. And if few can emulate
Abraham, it may be hoped that many or even all might be like
this second Patriarch. But experience shows how few there
are among the multitude even of those peaceful and upright
souls whose type Isaac is ; uncertainty of will and its conse-
quences, crafty designs or passion-guided actions, carry away
so many even amid the light of truth. And the issue of such
deviations must be a terrible strife, in which the struggler may
indeed be finally victorious and return to the good, but only
through long suffering and by the strenuous exertion of all his
noblest powers, often bearing too for the rest of his life an out-
ward mark as a memento of his perilous encounter. The tjqje
of this life, good and blest in the end but conquering only after
severe strife and deserved sorrow, is Jacob-Israel, who for this
very reason stands last and lowest in the series and bears a
twofold name, Jacob, ' the crafty,' in his lower human aspect ;
' Israel,' ' the God-striver,' after his last divine victory ; though
even then he remains at least in body ' the halting,' Gen.
xxxii. 32 [31]. In this victorious end he stands as a type;
but it is manifestly in that double- sidedness that he corre-
sponds most perfectly with the actual nation which also revered
in him its immediate father. Among the three he was evi-
dently the hero best known and most beloved in later ages ;
and many traditions from the sphere of the lower life (which
would not have accorded with the elevation and dignity of
Abraham) have been retained in the series of legends, here
very differently coloured, given by our chief narrator. Tra-
ditions such as that he lifted with ease a well-stone which
all the other shepherds together could scarcely raise (Gen.
xxix. 10) ; that he discovered the art of producing particular
colours in lambs not yet born (xxx. 37 sqq.) ; even that he
wrestled till morning witli a spirit of the night that attacked
THIRD ACE. 299
him (xxxii. 25 [24]), go back into the region of the primitive
Palestinian traditions, and belong in their origin and natnre
to the same rank with those related of Ulysses, Apollo, or
Krishna.^
But in every complete tradition, which exhibits an Heroic
Pantheon, as the Iliad or the Mahabharata for example, the
most i^rominent personages and tyi)es are confronted by an
eqnal number of counterparts, as enemies : and here Lot, Ish-
mael, and Esau appear as the three counter-heroes. To furnish
these contrasts, the traditions which were developed among the
kindred nations around were unquestionably early blended with
those of the Israelites. For although at the present day all
indej)endent accounts of the traditions of these nations are lost,
we can plainly trace the intermixture. There can be no more
genuinely Arabian tradition than that in which Hagar in the
midst of the desert and utterly despairing of life suddenly dis-
covers a well till then unknown, and meets as it were a visible
messenger from heaven.^ And as the Arabs who trace their de-
scent from Ishmael were certainly at all times a far more nume-
rous people than the Israelites, and the Idumeans much earlier
civilised, the existing traditions speak of Ishmael and Esau as
by nature the first-born, giving them in this respect the same
place as they held in the foreign traditions. But since the
Israelites at the time of the chief narrator had become con-
scious of their intellectual if not political superiority over these
kindred nations, these foreign traditions had already been trans-
formed by them: the three ancestors of the other nations, though
still eminent of their kind, and serving as types for lower classes
of persons and spheres of life, being regarded as not reaching
the same height of spiritual cajDacity and dignity as the three
Israelite types, and therefore as quitting the Holy Land. They
correspond also in the successive lowering of the three types,
the most admirable counterpart being opposed to the sublimest
type. The relation of Abraham to his nej)hew Lot (Moab-
Ammon) is the delightful and reciprocally beneficent relation
of a superior who rules solely by personal loftiness of character
towards an inferior who freely yields to it and is protected by
it ; a pattern of peaceful agreement and mutual blessing between
two neighbouring persons or nations. Ishmael, Avho with his
mother Hagar presents the image of the proud intractable
' I licro lay especial stress on this point, nearest to tlie later nation, and never in
with reference to ■what has Leen already connection with Abraham. Yet it does
stated, p. 289. It is equally remarkable with Sarah, according to p. 292, coni-
that nothing of this sort is found except pared with p. 289.
in connection with this Putriareli, the - Gen. xxi. 1ü-19; comp. xvi. 7, II.
300 PEELTMINARY HISTORY.
temper of tlio Arab of tlie desert, departs from Canaan not so
easily and willing-ly as Lot indeed, but still without strife with
the mild and loving- Isaac; and he always holds his place as the
first-born of Abraham, and is highly honoured in the tradition
as the representative of a great and powerful nation, though
descended from Abraham only as the son of a concubine. Esau,
on the other hand, rightly the first-born, also loses at length
his birthright, because he sinks back into barbarism from a
state of culture previously attained, but only after a long and
not inglorious struggle with Jacob, an adversary inferior in
external strength but superior in craft and art : the true type
of a nation which (like the Idumeans, the next of kin to the
Hebrews) fails to maintain faithfully and carefully the blessings
it once possessed, and so, notwithstanding considerable external
power and more truthful natural feeling, succumbs at last to
the arts of a persevering and more highly aspiring brother-
nation ; ' and also the representative of the historical struggles
of the Postmosaic nations. In this manner the three counter-
parts of the genuine Hebrew heroes also form a complete circle ;
so that when the primitive tradition had to tell of other related
nations and ancestors, e.g. of the Nahoreans (Gen. xxii. 20-24)
and the sons of Ketui-ah (Gen. xxv. 1-4), these have maintained
no vital connection with the already perfect story, but lie dead
beside it, the demand for counterparts to the thi-ee great forms
of the primeval Hebrew times having exhausted itself in these
three foreign ancestors.
III. The History of the Three Patriarchs.
If nothing more than the typical signification of each form in
this Hero-Pantheon had been handed down to us, we might
with justice insist that the three Patriarchs must at least have
lived and performed extraordinary deeds, because otherwise
there would be no accounting for the rise of the existing tradi-
tions respecting them ; but we should be obliged to forego any
inquiry into their significance as historical persons. The type,
once set up with such decision, is with difficulty defined in the
conception of those who cleave to it with their whole soul,
except in so far as it defines itself by contact with its fellow
types ; and the endeavour to apprehend it introduces other
views, which are incapable of strict historical proof, but without
which it is supposed impossible to conceive it.
But happily there is open to us, at least in respect to Abra-
" In the siimo way as thn 'honest,' fore the Frciu'hinau — deservedly, bocauso
(Jeiiiiaii has always had to give w;iy bo- tlirougli lii.s own t'lidt.
THE THREE PATEIARCHS. 301
liam, a source of another kind liitlierto little regarded by recent
scliolars, wliicli at once introduces us into a very different region
of historical contemplation, and affords us the clearest view
into tlie Ideality of his history. This is the fragment in Gen. xiv,
of small extent but inestimable value to the historian, of the
general nature and significance of which we have sj)oken in
pp. 52 sq.^ Here we see Abraham in real life, often very
different from the Abraham of the other writers. He wages
war, of which, as not very befitting to a Prophet and Saint
in the Mosaic senscj the other accounts nowhere give the
remotest indication. With the Canaanites Aner, Eshcol and
Mamre (of whom we have not the most distant knowledge from
other sources, and whose names have a thoroughly historical
sound) he stands in a mutual league which pledges them to
help one another in war ; he thus, exactly like them, looks
like the head of a powerful house in Canaan. He receives
a blessing from the Canaanite priest-king Melchizedek, and
renders homage to him as it can be rendered only to a priest of
high antiquity. Bat while all this, diverge as it may from the
other representations, is historically so lucid and self-evident as
to entitle us to say that here we have the true picture of the
highest antiquity, and so Abraham must have acted in real life,
he is at the same time endowed with so simple yet so exalted a
greatness, so sympathetic in Lot's fate, so devoted and free
from all self-seeking, nay, so nobly indignant at the very ap-
pearance of it (ver. 21-24), and so venerated by his contem-
poraries, that we can well comprehend how from such an
Abraham of real life the Abraham of tradition could arise.
Also in respect to his external condition and abode this primi-
tive narration (ver. 18) agrees with the main contents of the
prevailing tradition. To this it may be added, that in this
fragment Abraham is touched upon not deliberately, but rather
incidentally, since its aim is evidently a much more general one
than to describe the history of Abraham. And thus nothing
remains for us, but to rejoice in the rare good fortune which
has preserved to us this single instructive fragment : for he
who after a carefal study of it could still doubt the reality of
the lives of Abraham and Lot, can scarcely be even beginning
to see anything with certainty in this field of history.
Further, there glimmer also out of the prevalent traditions
not a few scintillations of reality. Especially peculiar to
' I drew attention as o.irly as 1831 to tioncil, seo a full disquisition, by Tueli, in
the extreme importance of the passajre, the Z'itsch. der D cut. Morcjcnl. Gcs. 1847,
Goa. xiv. On the localities there mju- p. 161-194.
302 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
the author of the Book of Origins is a very clear and firmly
held conception of the difference between the primitive Patri-
archal and the Mosaic times ; and to one who in our day
studies the history of that primeval period it gives a true
pleasure to observe how simple and pure the fragmentary remi-
niscences of it, reduced in number as they even then were, re-
mained. He has a clear consciousness that the art of writing,
with all its conseqiTcnces, was wanting in the Patriarchal times,
as is further explained in p. 47. He well knows also the dis-
tinction of the Patriarchal religion, not only in respect to names
(carefully avoiding for example, for those times, the name Jahveh)
but also in what relates to its objects. Thus, e.g. he never repre-
sents the Patriarchs as bringing the sacrifices which later became
customary, but ascribes to them simple usages which were after-
wards entirely lost. In this appreciation of the religion of
antiquity, the Fourth and Fifth Narrators are very difi'erent
(compare pp. 103 sq.) ; but all the narrators agree in describing
the external life of the Patriarchs in Canaan as totally difi'erent
from that which those who lived after Moses had before their
eyes ; not as settled and peacefully developed, but as somewhat
unstable and migratory, without the restraints but also without
the advantages of a well-ordered social system, which how-
ever, according to the same traditions, existed around them
among the Canaanites. In this peculiar and fixed conception
must surely be embodied a true remembrance of the general
character of the period. The conception of this distinctive
character is so strong in the author of the Book of Origins, that
he constantly describes the life of the Patriarchs in Canaan as
a, pilgrimage.^
And there remained not only a consciousness of the difference
of the periods : when the author of the Book of Origins wrote,
there were still preserved a multitude of verbal traditions as w^ell
as of external objects and memorials, which pointed to an earlier
and much simpler time. There were sacred trees and groves
with which notable remembrances were linked ; for the most
i:)art, solitary trees of centuries of growth, the terebinth-tree of
Mamre (a Canaanite who must have first possesssed the spot on
which it stood), ^ the terebinth-tree of Moreh, so called for a
' D'*")3??) fjcn. xvii. 8, xxviii. t, xxxvi. Lut this caniiol havo been the original
7, xxxvi'i! 1, xlvii. 9 ; Ex. vi. 4. The meaning.
liigluT application of this idea to the ' ^^en. xiii. 18, xiv. 13, xviii. 1 ; comp,
transitory natnre of luimnn life in general ^'^'- ^4. Joscplius {A>ifiq. i. 10. 4 ; comp.
(Hob. vi.' 13; 1 Pet. i. 1, ii. 11; Ephes. ^«'ji>A War, iv. 9. 7), in calling such a
ii. 19) is indeed already apparent in treo 0//.yr/?rt», means only wry t)W, accord-
such poetical words as Ps. x.xxix. 13 [12] ; '"S to a well known Greek phrase.
Till-: TIIRKH TATRl ARCUS. 303
similar reason,^ the tamarisk at Beerslieba,'^ tlie oak of mourn-
ing- at Bethel ; * places which in the period after Moses pos-
sessed in popular belief a deep-rooted sanctity. There were
besides primeval altars, which were in later times open to the
public gaze, standing free beneath the heavens, as the sim-
plicitj of the earliest times had erected them.'' And the fact
that, according to the short narratives given respecting them,
many of these altars and other holy places received at their
origin particular names (brief and manifestly historical as ' God
of Bethel,' like our church names St. James's, St. Mary's, and so
on),^ is but another proof for us that the circle of a definite and
peculiar religion was formerly drawn around each such place :
for the religions of these primitive times are even locally as
various and manifold as is always found to be the case with
natural religions. Still older and simpler, if possible, are the
pillars or stone-memorials, which from the general tenor of the
legends must be supposed to be set up without any inscrip-
tion, without even the Egyptian picture-writing, some in com-
memoration of holy places or of covenants ; ^ some as boundary-
marks near which on account of their sacredness an altar mio-ht
be frequently erected ; ^ some as grave-stones, like those of
Egypt and Phenicia, of which many (though always provided
with written characters) have been discovered.*
By such objects, which from their character or the descrip-
tions given of them must have belonged to an early period,
the contemporaries of Saul and David were largely surrounded ;
and we can easily conceive how firmly and permanently they
maintained a vivid memory of that primitive time and of its
difierence from later days. The Patriarchal age had been
entirely without writing or written records (p. 47) ; yet these
permanent and visible remains were for the subsequent genera-
tions like a great natural book, in which to read the existence
of the ancestors of whom early tradition spoke.
It is indeed possible that the remembrance Avliich was sus-
tained by such tokens had not remained correct in every detail ;
as for example, the sacred tree and altar at Shechem is attri-
buted to Abraham by the Fourth Narrator of the Primitive
history,^ but not by the older ones. It is further possible, from
' Gen. xii. 6 ; comp. Dout. xi. 30. " Gen. xxxv. 11, lö ; eump. Ex. xxiv. -1 ;
^ Gon. xxi. 33. Josh. xxiv. 27.
' Gen. XXXV. 8. ' Geii. xxxi. 40-')! ; comp. Isaiah xix.
■• Gen. XXXV. 1, 3, 7 ; comp. xii. 7, xiii. 19.
18, xxvi. 20, xxxiii. 20. >* Gen. xxxv. 20.
* Gen. xxxv. 7, xxxiii. 20, xxi. 33 ; " Gen. xii. G, 7.
comp. Ex. xvii. 1.5.
304 rREUMIXARY HISTORY.
the close contact of the Hebrews and the Canaanit<^s at an
early period, that the sacredness of a place that had first been
deemed holy by the Canaanites, and afterwards by the Hebrews,
mio-ht at the time of David be referred immediately to a
Patriarch. This is very probable with respect to Bethel. For
according to the oldest existing account (Gen. xxxv.) two an-
cient sanctuaries existed there, one of which, the memorial-
stone erected in the open country remote from the city, appears
to be the jDroperly Hebrew one approx^riated to Jacob and bear-
ing the sj)ecial name of Bethel ; ' while the other, the altar, is
not only expressly distinguished from the former, but also held
somewhat lower, and referred strictly to the ancient Canaanite
city of Luz.^ From this tone of the oldest tradition known
to us, and from the statement that Luz was the older name,
we may be disposed to recognise in Luz the more ancient
Canaanite, and in Bethel the properly Hebrew sanctuar}^ of the
same place ; but since in David's time the Canaanites had
long been driven out of Luz, both the holy places could then
be referred to Jacob, although a great difference was still made
between them.
In fine, it is plain, on a closer examination, that even in
David's time, and yet more in the following centuries, there
was a tendency to represent every place which had been deemed
holy for an immemorial time, as having been hallowed by one
of the three Patriarchs. At the time of the chief narrators the
prevailing view was, at least where possible, that a Patriarch
had dwelt there, or visited the spot in passing, or consecrated
it on account of a manifestation of Deity there vouchsafed to
hiin ; and in the very considerable series of holy places, the
order of the encampments in which the Patriarchs on their
journeyings tarried for a longer or shorter time, and where
the gods (that is, God and angels, or angels alone) descended
and took up their abode, seems to have been laid down. For
among all the places at which, according to the existing naiTa-
tives, the Patriarchs dwelt, scarcely one is to be found which, in
the popular belief of David's time and subsequent!}", had not
possessed an acknowledged and j)rimcval sanctity.^ And on the
' Gen. XXXV. 9-1 Ö ; comp, xxviii. lU-'2'2. been accidcntnll}- preserved, lluTe would
^ Gen. XXXV. 1-7; comp. Josli. xviil. 13; liave been a total absence of proof, even
Judges i. 22, 23. lor Gen. xxxii. 2, 3 [1, 2]. The only local-
^ Thougli no other direct proof should ities, however, which are not elsowlicrc
exist of llie sanctity of such a place, yet referred to, are: 1. Peniel (literally, 'Face
taking into consideration the paucity of of God'), Gen. xxxii. 31, 32 [30, 31], and
our records, this must not lead us at Becr-laJiai-roi (literally, 'Well of the
once to doubt the fact. Had not the hint Living One who sees mo,' i.e. 'overlooks me
in the Hong of Solomon (vii. 1 [vi. 13]) not, even in the desert'), Gen. xvi. H, 15,
Till-: THREE PATRIARCHS. 3ü',
other hand, several places are drawn only casually or tenta-
tively into this circle ; the city of Mahanaim for example
(properly double cam]?), on the further side of Jordan, is linked
to Jacob's history by no stronger bond than the story that there
a whole cncmnjnnent of angels appeared to him;' and the
Temple-hill, Moriah, which appears by every indication to have
been consecrated only by David and Solomon, is dragged into
the history of Abraham — in only one story hoAvever, and that
by the Fourth Narrator.^
But to go further and say boldly that all the places in Canaan
in which the tradition places the three Patriarchs were only
borrowed from the histor}^ of the Postmosaic period, and that
therefore we know nothing of their historical existence and re-
sidence in Canaan, would be quite opposed to wisdom and truth ;
for a rigorous scrutiny discovers after all a solid background of
fact to these primitive histories. A careful examination proves
that Abraham is described by the oldest tradition as travelling
about in southern Canaan only, and dwelling here or there for
a longer time. Gen. xii. 9 tells of his journey into that region ;
the terebinth tree of Mamre, not far from Hebron, Gen. xiii-
xix, Hebron itself, the place of Sarah's death, ch. xxiii, then
Gerar still farther to the south, ch. xx, and Beersheba, ch. xxi-
xxii, all belong to this part of Canaan ; and it is only the Fourth
Narrator who represents him as passing quickly by Shechem and
Bethel in the middle of the country, Gen. xii. 6-8. Still more
limited according to the most authentic tradition are Isaac's
journeys on the most southern and least fruitful border of
the Holy Land, where only occasional oases stand out from
vast deserts, especially at Beer-Lahai-roi and Beersheba, Gen.
xxiv. 62, XXV. 11, xxvi. 1-33.^ Jacob, on the other hand, besides
southern abodes, is placed also in the middle part of Canaan,
which is the sj^ecial region of his activity and power, Shechem
and Bethel especially appearing'* to have been the true seats of
his greatness as well as of his religion. Now how can it be ac-
cidental that not the whole Holy Land, nor even the same part
of it, but a diöerent and limited space in it, is assigned to each
iu which rases the name itself liospeaks Dothain, mentioned in eh. xxxvii., to She-
the historic sanctity. 2. Succoth, Gen. ehem. The name Pcnid or Phanuel was
xxxiii. 17, and in Abraham's }n.storv, also Plienician, and is rendered in Greek
Gerar, Gen. xx. 1 (comi"i. xxvi. 1, 17), by SeoG ■Kp6ffanrov in .Strabo xxi. 2. 6, 16.
cities of whose history we know nothing, ' Gen. xxxii. 2, 3 [1, 2].
though in an ancient hymn, Ps. Jx. 8, ' Gen. xxii. 2-4.
Succoth is mentioned with Shechem. The * For xxxv. 27-29, according to which
ancient sanctity of Hebron is for us a Isaac dies at Hebron, ought rather to bo
matter of course. The wells named in compared with ch. xxiii.
xxvi. obviousl}- belonged, by some old al- ■* From ch. xxviii. — xxxvii.
loiment, to Beersheba, in the same way as
VOL. I. X
306 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
Patriarcli as the cliiof locality of his life ? Aiid why are Abra-
ham and Isaac banished into the most barren steppes on the
southern border of Canaan ? Why is Jacob alone assigned even
to its central part? Surely, unless we here choose darkness
instead of light, we must confess that at the time of the chief
narrators, the tradition preserved, at least in its main outlines,
some clear reminiscences of the life and abode of all the three
Patriarchs, and of each individually as distinguished from the
others.
This general result is confirmed by some especially conspi-
cuous phenomena. In the case of Abraham, who is always
placed in the southern country only, the family sepulchre and
the grove of Mamre ^ near Hebron, are made prominent as his
only permanent possessions even in this region. On this, how-
ever, the Book of Origins, at the death of Sarah and that of all
the Patriarchs (though not of Joseph), lays so extraordinary a
weight, and it is described in Gen. xxiii. and elsewhere so fully
and explicitly in respect to its position and its oldest possessors,
that we cannot doubt it was the primeval family-grave of the
national chiefs, and was traced back as an established possession
of the house to the Patriarchal times.' Besides this in Abra-
ham's and Isaac's life weight is laid only on Beersheba as
actually possessed by them by treaty.^
In the centre of Canaan Jacob holds a similar position. Here
the city of Shechem is the only one which the oldest tradition
known to us recognises as acquired by him ; acquired however
in quite a different way, by right of war, and by means of. the
tribes of Simeon and Levi, which long before Moses must have
been much stronger and more warlike than later.'* After the
conquest of the whole land the tribe of Ephraim always possessed
this city ; and therefore in the tradition it is given by Jacob, as
his own city, out of special affection to his beloved Joseph.*
Thus it must have been a much older reminiscence that Simeon
and Levi conquered it. And then Bethelj which lay not far
' So named from the Canaanitc possos- But this city cortainly dates from tlie very
sor Mamre ; see also Josephus, Jewish earliest times, as is proved l>y its very
War, iv. 9. 7. name, whicli is identical with that of quo
"^ But whether the great edifices at of equal antiquity still existing in Ilauran
Hebron now shown as the Patriarchs' ^ . gg^ Journal of the Eoml Geo-
Tombs (and called also b^' the Moslim i^J^~\ , „ . „ ^ tt ,
, • ,, , 1. T-i- H7- ' graimteal Society, 18oo, p. 245. Hebron
J-W 1 c:-^lj see the Jihan Numa, ^^^^ j^ ^^^ ^f t,^g f^,^ ^j^jgg^ ^^^ ^^^^^ of
"Wilson's 7yrt«r7s o/MöjBiWe, i. p. 363-366) whoso foundation was always accurately
are really so anci<'nt, has now become more remembered in later times: see p. 52.
than doubtful, after the more careful in- ' Gen. xxi. 22-34, xxvi. 2G-33.
vestigation of them wliich was commenced * Gen. xxxiii. 18 — xxxiv, xxxvii. 12 sqq.,
only last year (see the Gott. Gel. Anz. xlix. 5-7.
1863, p. 636, on Dean Stanley's researches). » Gen. xlviii. 21, 22.
ABRAHAM. 307
from thence, receives in Jacob's history snch prominence as a
stone-sanctuary, as can be explained only on the supposition
that in that earlier time a peculiar development of the Canaan-
ite religion must have been connected with it.
Finally, if we consult the history of the Israelites after they
had reconquered the Holy Land under Joshua, we see other
sanctuaries rising up at Gilg-al, at Sliiloh, and elsewhere, which
in the time of the Judges were the most important, but are
never mixed up with the Patriarchal history. In this there
lies accordingly a new and weighty proof that the tradition ac-
curately distmguished, at least in the main, the Premosaic and
the Postmosaic sanctuaries of the nation, one of the chief
elements of the history of each period : and we shall be still
less disposed to find in the existing accounts of the Patriarchal
world nothing but unhistorical invention.
Thus, the historical basis of this period in general being now
made good, we can attempt to advance further into details,
and seek to discover with all attainable certainty, how much in
the various traditions which are connected more or less closely
with each of the three Patriarchs may be recognised as real
history.
1. Abraham.
1) Abraham, as Immigrant and Father of Nations.
In the oldest extant record respecting Abraham, Gen. xiv, we
see him in the clear light of history, the separate rays of which
were nearly all gathered into a focus in pp. 301 sq. ; and we
have only to lament that its brevity does not allow us to collect
many more such rays and from them to form a connected his-
tory of this hero of the remotest past. We see him acting as a
powerful domestic prince, among many similar jjrinces, who like
him held Canaan in possession ; not calling himself King, like
Melchizedek the priest-king of Salem, ^ because he was the
father and protector of his house, living with his family and
bondmen in the open country, yet equal in jjower to the petty
Canaanite kings ; placing in the field at his first nod 318 chosen
servants, and second to none in military experience ; yet leagued
for mutual aid with the three Canaanite potentates, Mamre (on
' The position hero indicated shows at on this point my Johnnneische Schriften,
once that it cannot liave been Jenisaloni ; i. p. 171), hut a (hffcrcnt place (sec the
it was clearly a city on the other side Jor- Gott. Gel. Anz. 18G3, p. 1630-7, and the
dan, which must be traversed on the return somewhat earlier Jahrb. der Bibl. Wiss.
route from Damascus to Sodom : certainly vol. v. p. 23-1-5.
not the Salem meutioucd John iii. 23 (see
X 2
308 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
whose domain lie chvells, we know not exact!}- liow), Eslicol and
Aner ; somevvliat as in Joshua's days the small princes of that
land could not dispense Avith mutual leagues in time of danger.'
He is however sufficiently distinguished from his Canaanite allies
as a ' Hebrew' (ver. 13) and as the avenger of Lot his 'brother,'
who is thereby also made a Hebrew. But the question forces
itself the more strongly upon us, how he could be leagued with
Oanaanites and with them pursue the four northei'ii kings who
had invaded the land ? We must confess our inability, with
the scanty sources as yet accessible, fully to solve this riddle.
The short account in Gen. xiv. sounds thoroughly historical.
The names of the north-eastern kings and countries must be
derived from a high antiquity, since those of two of the countries
nowhere appear again and seem in later ages to have vanished.^
The kings of the five cities sunk in the Dead Sea have in like
manner truly historical names ;^ indeed the whole fragment is
full of primeval and almost obsolete names, which the Third
Narrator felt called upon to explain by appending the names
usual in his time. The fact that the chiefs of the other nations
conquered by the four confederate kings of the north-east
(ver. 0-7) are not given with equal accuracy, may be explained
by the supposition that the Third ISTarrator, being interested only
in the histories of Abraham and Lot, preferred to shorten the
remaining description of this otherwise fully detailed expedition;
for the Mdiole narrative looks like a fragment torn from a more
general history of Western Asia, merely on account of the men-
tion of Abraham contained in it. But detached as this account
may be, it is at least evident from it that the Canaanites were
at that time highly civilised, since they had a Priest-king like
Melchizedek, whom Abraham held in honour, but that they
were even then so weakened by endless divisions and b}^ the
emasculating influence of that culture itself, as either to jDay
tribute to the warlike nations of the north-east (as the five
kings of the cities of the Dead Sea had done for twelve years
before they rebelled, ver. 4), or to seek for some valiant descen-
dants of the northern lands living in their midst, who in return
for certain concessions and services promised them protection
' Seewh.it is said further on of Josli. x. * Tlio name nf the fifth king — ver. 2 —
und Baal-L'cri/7/. is possilily only oniittod Ly accident ; at
'^ Namely EUasar and Goyim, with the least all (he others have quite historical-
well-known countries Shinar or Babylonia sonnding najnes. It was however snp-
and Elam on the oast, whose king Che- plied sis follows, according to Tlieopli.
dorlaomer is called the chief commander. Ant. y/(/ Auiol. ii. 4;j ; BaKax ßacnXfvs
On the historical significance of this mili- 27)7<ii/3 t^s BaAoK KeK\i]fxivris ; both from
tary movement of the north-eastern nations yL_
Hcc below where the Ilyksds are treated of. " '•*
ABRAlLUr. 309
and defence. Abraliam dwells among tlie terebinths of Mamre
Ills ally ; this appears as if the latter had ceded that dwelling
to him in retnrn for his reception into the league ; and all his
three Canaanite allies seem to have more need of him than he
of them (compare ver. 24). The covenant of Abraham and Isaac
with Abimelech the king of Gerar, which is spoken of in ancient
soui'ces,^ is made, according to the extant accounts, on the ex-
press ground that the native ruler thinks that he cannot safely
dispense with the foreign princes ; and thus these stories,
though derived from very diiferent sources, and notwithstand-
ing their very dissimilar tone, agree with the most ancient
account in Gen. xiv.
In fact this idea furnishes the only tenable historical view of
the migration of Abraham and his kindred. They did not con-
quer the land, nor at first hold it by mere force of arms, like the
four north-eastern kings from whose hand Abraham delivered
Lot, Gen. xiv. They advanced as leaders of small bands with
their fencible servants and the herds, at first rather sought or
even invited by the old inhabitants of the land, as good war-
riors and serviceable allies, than forcing themselves upon them.
Thus they took up their abode and obtained possessions among
them, but were always wishing to migrate farther, even into
Egypt. This desire was naturally strengthened in proportion
as the need which the Canaanite princes had of their alliance
was weakened. This is especially shown by the narrative of
Isaac's fortunes after the death of his dreaded father. Gen.
XXV. 15 sqq. Little as we are able to prove all the details of
that migration from the north towards Egypt, which probably
continued for centuries, it may with great certainty be con-
ceived as on the whole similar to the gradual advance of many
other northern nations ; as of the Germans towards Rome, and
of the Turks in these same regions in the Middle Ages, who
also were often sought as allies or otherwise in one way or an-
other as brave protectors. And if later the peaceable and mu-
tually beneficial community of such various nationalities issued
sometimes in strife and bloodshed (of which the narrative in
Gen. xxxiv. contains one of the clearest reminiscences), it was
only what in similar circumstances has always occurred to
other nations too.
If this then was the true character of these migrations, we
can see that they might last for centuries, and that nothing
less than the forcible rearrangement of the political relations of
Canaan through the Mosaic kingdom of Israel put a final stop
' Gen. xxi. 22-34; xxvi. 1Ö-33.
310 rRELDlIXARY HISTORY.
to the clepenclence of Canaan on the influences of tlie north-east ;
for Chushan-Kishathahn, who shortly after Joshua, issuing- from
Mesopotamia, subdued Canaan,^ is the last ruler of this kind for
many centuries. Further, we now understand that Abraham's
name can designate only one of the most important and oldest
of the Hebrew immigrations. But since Abraham had so early
attained a name glorious among the Hebrews advancing towards
the south, and since he was everything especially to the nation of
Israel which arose out of this immigration, and to their nearest
kindred, his name came to be the grand centre and rallying-
poiut of all the memory of those times — primarily with reference
to nationality only ; so that at the time when the nations
thought the most of affinity of race as affecting their relations
towards their neighbours, he was placed in a strict domestic rela-
tion to all the diä:'erent nations of this great popular migration.
Thus among the people of Israel a clear remembrance con-
nected those immigrations which subsequently became the most
important, and fi-om Avhich national territories and governments
had been formed, with the pedigree of Abraham, since the chiefs
of the early developed kindred nationalities of this kind were
ranked in a definite relationship aromid this greatest of their
heroes. In this pedigree of Abraham given by the Book of
Origins there lies concealed indisputably a great amount of an-
cient memories of those national relations : indeed we can see in
it an illustration of the great progress and extent of the Hebrew
migration. For,
a.) That portion of the Hebrews wh^ch remained in the north
by the Euphrates, the Nahoreans, are represented as springing
from one of the two brothers of Abraham. These may have
dwelt first on the farther side of the Euphrates, since they had
their ancient sanctuary in the Mesopotamian Harran ; ^ but
the twelve tribes into which they were divided appear to have
spread themselves out also on this side of the Euphrates as far
as the eastern boundary of Palestine, and southwards to the
Red Sea.^ Their chief importance in this history is in connec-
tion with Jacob. Unquestionably they once constituted a king-
dom as powerful as that of Israel, but they must early have been
' Jiitlgos iii. 8-11. xxli. 21-24, three uncloiihtedly belong to
^ Not merely docs Jacob come thenco, this side of the Euphrates: Uz (Eng.
but tlie l^irofiitlicr Terah, according to an version here oul}' Hue, and Iiero tlio LXX.
early tradition in Gen. xi. 32, is mentioned pronounce it not kös but Oü^), I5uz, and
as finally resting tliero ; so that it must Maacliah, which last is synonymous witli
have been at one time the seat of some the Hci-mon district; Aram, in ver. 21, is
eanctuary arouud which the whole nation iindouljtedly identical willi Kam in Job
gatliercil. xxxii. 2.
" Of the twelve names mentioned in Gen.
ABKAHAM. 311
broken up and dispersed, since in the later history tlie very
nanie of Nahor dies out. At one time even Chaldeans be-
longed to their kingdom (see pp. 283 sq.), the chief tribe
however, called Uz, or Hellenistically Aus (Ausitis),^ extending
on this side of the Euphrates far towards the south, and immor-
talised by the history of Job, at the time of its highest power
certainly formed by itself a mighty kingdom ; but long before
the Mosaic age was so compressed by advancing Arameans that
it came to be reckoned among the immediate sons of Aram,^
and appears in historic times only as a small portion of Edom,
by which it must have been afterwards subdued.^
b.) On the direct route from the Euphrates to Palestine lay
the ancient Damascus ; and that this city was brought into
connection with Abraham by the most ancient tradition is
proved by the primitive j)i'Overbial expression preserved in Gen.
XV. 2,* in which Damascus, as the fatherland of Eliezer, Abra-
ham's steward, makes a claim on his whole inheritance. For
by vu'tue of the intimate relation of the head-slave to the house,
he being often regarded in the absence of children as heir to
the whole property,-' when Damascus is called the city of Eliezer
it implies almost as much as if it had been called the city of a
son of Abraham ; except that the bond which thus connects it
with Abraham is described as a very remote and loose one.
But that the Israelite tradition had lost almost all memory of
this j)rimitive connection of Damascus with Abraham is ex-
plained by the fact that this city, probably in the age shortly
before Moses, was entirely estranged from the Hebrew nation-
ality, by a change which happily we can still demonstrate.
In the interval it was unquestionably possessed by a new and
powerful emigration, namely by Arameans from the river Cyrus
in Armenia (mentioned by Amos, ix. 9).*" It is indeed commonly
termed an Aramean city, and as the nearest to the Hebrews was
by them often called simply Aram. This immigration, being
so well known in the time of Amos, must, even if it happened
' See also Ptolemy's GeograpJ/i/, and belongs to the proverb, yet the origin of
the remarks in tlie Gütt. Gel. Anz. 1863, the proverb clearly lies in the local and
p. 200. the personal name, and therefore in an
^2 Gen. X. 22, 23; comp. xxii. 21. ancient story. In the closely conjoined
ä Gen. xxxvi. 28, Dent. iv. 21, Lam. iv. -nords of the proverb, ' Dama.scus of
21 (see my t/o/^, p. 20, 21, 343-4, 2nd ed.). Eliezer' (i.e. Eliezer's city, according to
Josephus indeed {Ant. i. 6. 4) reckons my ieÄr/>McÄ, § 286 c), the name of the city
Trachonitis and Damascus as belonging is intentionally made to precede, as being
to Uz, but as usual without giving any more important to the sense than the indi-
rcason vidual Eliezer.
' The Fifth Narrator himself is obliged * On this see above, p. 294.
to explain it by a parnphi-ase in his own " That by Aram Amos really meant Da-
words in vor. 3 ; and though the play on mascus is evident also from i. 5; comp,
words in pt'tDT and pCD ""Q undoubtedly Is. vii., xvii. 3.
312 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
before the conquest of Canaan by Joshua (iu which Damascus,
as not inhabited by the Canaanite race, had no part), have
taken phice not earUer than the period succeeding Abraham
and Jacob; and the similar case rehited above (pp. oil sq.),
respectmg Uz and the rest of the Nahoreans greatly aids this
conception. Now it is remarkable that in the Greek and Arabian
times the Damascenes boasted of their descent from Abraham,
and showed 'a dwelling of Abraham' as a memorial of him among
thom.* Whether this view had first been developed b}- Christi-
anity, or somewhat earlier, through the Greek translation of the
Old Testament, merely on the basis of the incidental expression
Gen. XV. 2, may Avell be doubted. A dim remembrance of the
same fact in long distant ages, which among the Hebrews had
linked itself with the expression in Gen. xv. 2, may have been
more strongly preserved at Damascus itself; and thus Damascus
Avould the more surely constitute a link in the chain of this
primeval Hebrew migration.
c.) Directl}^ to the south of Damascus, on the eastern side of
the Jordan, dwelt the two nations Amnion and Moab, which
traced their descent from Lot the nephew of Abraham. Since
Lot is mentioned only in the traditionary history, and in ordi-
nary life onl}^ Moab or Amnion were sjDoken of,^ it might be
imaofined that he never had a true historical existence, did not
the ancient fragment Gen. xiv. beforehand condemn that as-
sumption. Here we see him described quite historically as
' brother ' (i.e. near relative) of Abraham,^ living in Sodom, as if
' In the first plaoo, Nicolaiis of Damas- Adores, by a common abbreviation ('Ader
ens, a witness of the highest anthority, in or 'Ador being also a dialectic varia-
the fonrth book of his history, spoke of tion for 'Ezer), may be latent the very
Abraham's ancient renown in Damascus Eliezer of whom we have lately spoken,
and in a village which still continued to The Arabian historians vary: soellerbelot,
bear his name (see Josephus, Ant. i. 7. 2 ; s.v. Ahraham, Ibn-Batuta, ed. Lee, p. 28,
repeated by Eusebius, 7'r(i?/x£'i'««^. ix. 16). 29; Jehileddin, History of Jirusalcm,-^.
In the second place, apparently cjui to in- 400,406, Reyn.; StephanusByz. s.v. Aa^uao--
depcndent of this arc the accounts jiiven k6s has nothing to the point; see also
iu abstract by Justin {Ilistoria, xxxvi. 2), Petorniann's lü'lscn, i. p. 307.
according to which Damascus, Azehis, '■' For the very late Psalm Ixxxiii. 7-9,
Adores, and then Abraham and Israel, certainly obtained the appellation Sons of
were the ancient kings of the city; even Lot only from a learned study of the pri-
supposing the two middle names to be de- mcval history.
rived from the Ilazael and Ben-H:ul:id ^ The term /'n'/Z/i-r in vcr. 14, 16 (a very
frequently named in the Books of Kings, ancient document) may be understood in
and consequently to belong to a much later the same sense as it is used of Jacob in
age, yet the tradition of Abraham and Gen. xxxi. 23, 25, 46, 54 (also a very an-
Israel would remain ; and the Dama-scencs cient passage) ; the more distinctive name
arc said by Justin to refer the origin of is however used in ver. 12. Philo, On,
the whole Jewish people to themselves and AJiraham, xxxvii, speaks far too coutemp-
their city. But wo have no valid reason tuonsly of Lot, from mere rhetorical one-
to doubt the existence of an ancient Ilazael ^idt'dnc-s ; but speaks ditferently in his
as Prince of Damascus, whose name may Life of Moses, ii. 10.
have been taken by later princes; and in
ABRAHAM. 313
among the old inliabitaiits of the farther side of Jordan he
played much the same part as Abraham on this ; and though in
Gen. xiv. 5 the same countries are spoken of which were after-
wards called Ammon and Moab, no mention is made of these
names. It is remarkable besides how, without reference to any
other narratives, a Lotan (i.e. perhaps one, or a -part, of Lot)
stands first among all the old races of Seir (see pp. 226 sq.),' and
must have formerlj^ been very important in their history. In
this there is evidently a remnant of a primeval tradition of an
intermingling- of the original inhabitants with a conquering
nation called Lot. On the other hand, the name of Lot's father
Haran, who died in Ur Chasdim (pp. 283 sq.), before his son
emigrated thence with Abraham, strongly suggests the la,nd of
Arrän near Armenia (p. 287). But the Iscah, whose name is pre-
served only in a fragment of the oldest historical work, was pro-
bably regarded as the ancestress of the two nations who trace
their descent from Lot, as Sarah and Milcah were treated as
foremothers of the descendants of Abraham and Nahor.^
The greatness and power of a nation called by the name of
Lot, at least in the two halves into which it must have been
divided long before the time of Moses, descend much lower into
the region of known history than do those of the two former
nations. Not without reason was Lot in the old national tradi-
tions placed in so close a relation to Abraham : the clear later
history of Israel from Moses onwards also witnesses that this
Hebrew people must formerly have had an intimate share in all
the greatness and glory which is attached to Abraham's name.
But the notion that this pair of nations, Moab and Ammon,
were once more flourishing, may be confirmed also by special
testimony. The tradition of the destruction of the four Canaan-
itish cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim (p. 10-i and
242), is certainly very old ; and that volcanic convulsion was the
agent in it is not only suggested by the oldest and most signi-
ficant figures employed in this tradition,^ but also confirmed in
' Gen. xxxvi. 20, 22, 29. historical work. Iscah would thus appear
^ If we must find some significant re- as both sister and wife to Lot ; and 8arah
ferenee for the name Iscah, which now was nearly related to Abraham, according
stands quite isolated in Gen. xi. 29, it can to Gen. xx. 12; and Milcah to Nahor,
be no other than this ; and like all other according to Gen. xi. 29.
names of similar rank in the primeval * These are now interwoven with the
genealogies, it must have been significant, words of Gen. xix. 24-29, but are still re-
But besides this detached notice of Iscah, cognisable. It was probably throuah read-
the passage Gen. xi. 29, 30, exhibits in ing the Septuagint that the attention of
n^l a form so antiquated and so unlike tlie Greeks was directed to this alteration
/^T> 1 ff /-v • • ,1 ^ 1 T 1 of the surface. See Strabo, xvi. 2. -tl,
the Book oi Origins, that we are obliged rv -^ tt- t - ^ ^ -n i i
. . .^ ^' ^ i. ,1 I- ^ lacitus, Hist. V. / ; Sol. roliik. xxxvi.
to recognise in it a tragraent ot the earliest
314 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
our own days b}' a close examination of tlie -wliole bed of tlie
Jordan and the Dead Sea.' We can now, indeed, in consequence
of tills careful examination of the ground, better understand
many aspects and details of the tradition itself. The engulfed
cities must have been in the southern half of the Dead Sea.
This half has a strikingly shallow bottom, and undoubtedly only
the larger northern part with its far greater depth existed
before the last great change in the ground : oral tradition also
places the ancient Sodom on the south-west shore. There,
not far from the margin, still appears the strange cone of salt
standing like a pillar, in which the ancient tradition so easily
found a petrified human being (Lot's wife) ; and we see noAV
that it was not without reason that Josephus testified that
this pUlar of salt existed to his day, and that he himself
had seen it.^ And if the city of Zoar,^ by itself, or even with
its province, lay in the peninsula which cuts deeply into the
southern half of the Sea of Salt, and looks like a portion of
land that escaped the general overthrow, the tradition might
easily take the form that it had belonged as a fifth to the four
cities, and been spared by special grace.'* But in this tradi-
dition the glory originally fell on Lot alone ; it was his race
only that had boasted of a higher degree of the divine favoiu'
than the Canaanites could claim ; and it is evidently only
the later Israelitish modification of the legend that connected
Abraham with it.
d.) Farther in the wilderness two nations claimed origin from
Abraham : a smaller one of six branches which descended from
the mere concubine Keturah, dwelling for the most part east
' "W. F. Lynch, Narrative of the United by Ambiaii writers (as Edrisi, p. 337 sq.
Statcfi Eajocdiiion to the River Jordan and Kazvini, ii. p. 61 ; ALiilfida, Gcvyraphy,
the Bcml Sea London, 1850: Jahrb der p. 228), at the present timo tlioWadi.^c ,uS
BM. Wifs. 111. p. 190; and on Sanlcys , . . ^ ^ ,. , "^-J
views, ibid. Ti. p. 80 sqq. It deserves no- ^''"^«'« '^^ name from tins phice, even if
tico that -qsn (0 overthrow, the constant thi« is not also the case with the existing
expression iVancientHL-brewfor the earth- village.aj:^^, whoseappellationsignifying
^ seedfichl lias in modern times become com-
quako at Sodom, reappears in the ..Ixij'«^ mon for small places in that region. The
Snr. liii. 5-1, and is well explained ^by ^"'■'" *« ^'^'^ ^°*'^' ^^'''''^i Eertou and Saulcy
"1.. . I T .11 • Q- iM-n , [Athen, franc. 18;34, p. 902) identified
^.y^^ U^y, Isstakhri, p. 3o. Moll. A ^,.;iii ^1,1^, ,.;,y_ \,^^ nothing to do with it ;
similar lake Jammune, in northern Le- and whether the low hill near Hebron,
iTaT^'if'Tsif ^f^^'''''^^^plT' ^hich is now called ^ (see the JiÄa«-
1. Ziy, 6()Z, 11. 66V>). C omparo also Phie- _ >
gracpedion, in Aristophanes' Birds, 822. N^lmä s. v.), is the ancient one is doubtful.
'^ Ant. i. 11. 4. See also the Zeitsch. der Diut. Morg. Ges.
' The LXX. preserve the harder pro- 1847, p. 190 sqq. ; Ritters i'.Vv/ArArZimi'y?/;/^/,
nunciation 2r)7cup. xiv. 108 sqq., xv. r)87, 8. On Sodom, the
* Gen. xix. 19-22. Wliil,- Hr. citv -• ^^"^^^ '''"•' - 'i"'l '/m^^v^, see also Tristram's
' '•' f- ' Land oj Israel, p. 319-29, 332-3, 350-53,
(also \ zj *'"*^^jm) 't^ 'Jft^'» mentioned ^03.
ABRAHAM.
'.15
from Palestine, and so coming under tlie conception of Bne-
Kedem (Sons of the East) or Saracens^ (the later term wMch had
the same meaning) ; and a greater one of twelve branches, all
of which descended through Ishmael from Hagar,^ the higher-
standing concubine, which spread first over Northern Arabia to
the south of Palestine,^ but afterwards also far to the east. As
these nations in the Israelitish tradition appeared as sons of
Abraham by concubines, that is, as of lower standing and half-
degenerate, so also in history they probably yielded themselves
up very early to the Arabian desert life, spread themselves over
the wide plains, and were thus severed from the other nation-
alities of kindred blood who addicted themselves rather to the
culture of the soil. But one at least of these eighteen nations,
the Midianites, was an exception to this rule : they were very
early settled partly on the Arabian coast opposite the peninsula
of Sinai, distinguished themselves by commerce and other arts
of civilised life, and in early times came repeatedly into close
contact with Israel, but in the end receded in cultm-e and power,
as Israel advanced. In the earliest period the Ketureans, of
' See above, p. 253. Zimran, who stands
at the head of the six chief tribes men-
tioned in Gen. xxv. 6, probably reappears
but once, in Jer. xxv. 25, and Cushan
(probably the same as Jokshan) only in
Hab. iii. 7, and Shuah only in Job ii.
11. The Shebaites and Dedaneans, men-
tioned in Gen. xxv. 3, as subordinate
tribes of Jokshan, arc obviously only iso-
lated families of these old Arabian tribes,
■nhich are well known to us from other
sources (compare JJ in Tarafa's Moall.
V. 3) ; but this very circumstance confirms
our assertion that the Ketureans were
immigrants into Arabia. The notices given
by Islamite Arabs of the twelve sons of
Ishmael, with Qaidir and NcVnt at their
head, seem to have a Biblical origin ; but
the Journal asiafique, Aug. 1838, p. 197-
216, contains a remarkable account de-
rived from the Kitäb alaghäni of a tribe
Qatura or Qatur. Compare Caussin de
Perceval, Essai sur VHistoire des Arabes, i.
p. 20-23, 168, 176, sq. Fresnel attempts
the difficiiit comparison of the early He-
brew and the Arabian accounts in the Jotir.
asiatique, Aug. 1838, p. 217-221, Sept.
1840, p. 177-202, 1853, i. p. 43 sqq., but
with as little success as crowned Caussin
de Perceval's work in 1847. Considering
how great the interval of time which has
elapsed, we cannot expect to recover more
than a few traces of these ancient tribes,
as the primeval combinations of tribes in
Arabia were evidently very early dissolved.
We oiight, however, to observe that
Burckhardt, in his Notes on the Bedouins
(London, 1830), claims to have discovered
the remains of a primitive religion and
usage which formerly embraced the whole
of Arabia.
^ That Hagar was with them a national
name, and not a mere invention of Israel-
ite tradition, appears also from the men-
tion of a nation of Hagarites, 1 Chron. v. 10,
19, 20, whose name is in Ps. Ixxxiii. 7 [6]
put in poetic parallelism with Ishmaelite.
Strabo, x\'j. 4. 2, joins them with the Na-
bateans and Chauloteaus ; 'Aypaioi or
'Aypees appear likewise in I)iony.sius
Pericg. v. 956 and in Steph. Byz. On
Hagar as identical with Bahrain, see the
Marasid in the Mushtarik, p. 438. How
Paul (Gal. iv. 24 sq.) could interpret the
name Hagar by ' Mount Sinai,' whether
from the name of a city.
^r?>^
ill Hijr
(Masudi, i. p. 76 ; Abulf. p. 88), or on
some other ground, is discussed in my
Sc7idschreibcn des Ap. Paulus, p. 493 sqq.
Jahrb. der Bibl. Wiss. viii. p. 200.
^ Tliis is deduced from the way in which
the ancient tradition always puts Ishmael
and Hagar in the desert leading to Egypt,
or even connects them with Egypt itself,
Gen. xxi. 21, xvi. 7, compare xxv. 18:
on the other hand, somo of the twc-lve
tribes or sons of Islmiaei, mentioned in
XXV. 13-15, certainly lived on the east of
Palestine.
316 PRELnriNARY IIISTOKV.
whom tliese Midiauites were a branch, were very powerful ; this
we know because thej soon disappear from history, and yet must
once have been an important nation. But even at the time of
the Book of Origins the Ishmaelites were far more jDOwerful
than they, as is clear from the distinction with which this book
treats them and their progenitor.' Still later they take the place
of the former in ordinary language.^ These also seem long to
have been steadfast to their league of twelve. Kedar, in the
Book of Origins the second of the twelve branches, becomes
prominent in somewhat later times as the most powerful,^ and
the Nabateans (Nebajoth), who take the first place there, con-
stitute at a still more recent period a great kingdom over-
shadowing the ancient league."*
e.) As settling down in Canaan, and there becoming the father
of Isaac by Sarah, Abraham is represented in the old tradition
as established only in certain definite localities of the southern
country : and it has been shown in p. '305 sq. that in this must
lie the undimmed memory of a fact. But his stock immediately
spreads, abroad in three branches, Isaac, Ishmael and the sons
of Keturah ; and this continues down into historical times, and
gives the first occasion to the custom of genealogical series
mentioned on p. 24.
These then are the kindred nations, whose memory clung so
closely to the name of the ancient Hero ; who must all have
looked to him with high regard, and many of whom, with others
somewhat younger, who appear as his grandsons (Esau and
the twelve sons of Jacob), always revered him as their father,
so that in the history he is celebrated as the Father of Nations^
— not the least of the lofty titles which preserve his memory.
And although in after-times the nation of Israel made a
special boast of him as their first father, it could never be
forgotten even in their sacred traditions that he originally
stood in much wider national relations, and rather deserved
the name of Father of many Nations.^ How it camo to pass
' Gen. xvii. 18, 20, xxv. 12-18. received with great caution. Jusepbus
'•^ Isiimaelite is a more general term for {Ant. \. 1.5, ii. 9. 3) gives only a very
Midianito, Gen. xxxvii. 25, 27, 28, 36, general conjocttire as to the position of
xxxix. 1 ; Judges vii. 12, viii. 22, 24. the Ketureans, in assigning to tliem Trog-
^ Isaiah xxi. 16, 17, and subsequently. lodytis and the regions on the Ked Sea,
* Compare Quatromere in the Journal and was perhaps led to this by the position
asiutique, 1833. Tiio ancient capital Nn/ntta of anciontMidian. Long Ix'fore .Joscplms,
on the Red Sea is now rediscovered in the however, other Ilelenists had found Aftr
ruins of ^,W,'>r Aewr), kcÄmi ; see and Africa in ^Qy, Gen. xxv. 4, possibly
UuHclm dc la Hoc. dc Gloriraphie, Nov. Dec. ^^^^Y" ''l'^ ^'^^- '^'^'^P^*^'^ ^^^^ P^ouncia-
1819. On the Aeufc/j KtÄyÜTj see the rciiiarks ^\on K<pnp.
in Maltzan's WuUfahrt nach Melclca, i. p. * ^^■"- ^^'\\- *' •'•
9,5, 96, 114 sqq., which must however l-o " ^en. xvii. 4, o ; compare ver. 16.
ABRAHAM. 317
afterwards that the single nation of Israel could appropriate
• him as in a special sense their first and highest father, will
become clear only when we consider the other respects in which
he became a yet mightier influence in the world's history.
2) Ahrahavt as a Man of God.
For had Abraham been nothing more than even the greatest
of the leaders in that national migration, his name would at
most have been handed down as bare and lifeless as those of other
once renowned heroes of those times. But assuredly there
began with him a new and great epoch in the history of the
development of religion : he first domesticated in his house and
race the worship of that ' God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,'
who, as personating the fundamental idea of a true God, was
never forgotten even after the laj)se of centuries, until by the
prophetic spirit of Moses he was placed in a yet higher light, and
became the eternal light of all true religion.' To apprehend
even the historical possibility of this we must carefully bring
together the scanty accounts which have been preserved from
those times with all the scattered traces that history aflbrds.
And this presents in brief somewhat the following concej)tion.
It was not only the ordinary necessities of life, nor even mere
desire of conquest, which caused that mighty national migration
of the Hebrews from the north-east. Other and nobler impulses
also ruled them. Already even among those hitherto uncorrupted
northern nations, simple religion was falling more and more into
a false and artificial state, and superstitions of all kinds became
23revalent. But in the very strife against this corruption there
arose in many of the Hebrews a new and powerful tendency to-
wards the true religion ; and no few would flee from the ferment
of strife in the north, because they were attracted by the southern
lands, where, although the moral corruption was vastly greater,
there flourished also an insight and wisdom which had even then
become widely renowned. Among all who thus migrated from
the north there can have been none who felt more deeply the
spiritual needs of the time, or who had early been called upon
to strive harder for the knowledge and veneration of the true
God— hereby happily learning how to strive and live — than
Abraham. When he trod the soil of Canaan he was accordino-
o
' See further the treatment of this sub- cognise any of the mental characteristics
ject in the Jahrh. der Bihl. Wiss. x. p. of those early ages, we ought to beware
1-28. W. Pleyte's La Religion des Pre- of hasty and unfounded judgment upon
Tsraelitcs (Utrecht, 1862) is reviewed in them, and collect most carefully any real
the Giitt. Gel. An-. 1862, p. 1822-28. atoms of reliable knowledge of "them that
Considering how difficult it now is to re- arc still to be found.
318 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
to all reliable traditions already advanced in years, and matured
in the service of a God truly known ; but we can scarcely
conceive what conflicts be must even then have endured, and
from what mortal dangers been rescued.' Assuredly be bad
learned in tbe severest life-battles wdiat tbe true God -was, even
as be was destined to learn still more of tbat trutb on tbe soil
of bis new fatberland. But bis real greatness is tbis, tbat be
not only steadfastly maintained tbe knowledge of tbe true God
in bis own practice and life, but knew bow to make it lasting
in bis bouse and race. And in notbing is tbe memory of tbe
reality and grandeur of bis God-fearing and God-blessed life
more evidently preserved tlian in tbis, tbat powerful and devout
men even among foreign nations were compelled to confess tbat
' God was witb bim ;' and eagerly sougbt bis friendsbip and
blessing.^
It is true tbat wbile tbe national relations, at least in tbeir
main features, bave been preserved in tolerably sure remem-
brance, a comprebension of tbe more delicate and mutable
essence of tbe religion of tbose times is mucb more difficult.
Tbe Book of Origins, indeed, represents tbe same God wbo re-
vealed bimself from Moses onward, as revealing bimself also
to tbe tliree Patriarcbs, tbougb not by tbe name Jabveli, but
by tbat of El-Sbaddai ;^ but as siu-ely as tbese names were not
cbanged by mere accident, and a new name always indicates
a new conception, tbese words do imply tbe remembrance of a
difference between tbe religion of tbe times before and after
Moses. Only tbe Fourth and Fiftb Narrators on tbe one band
transfer tbe name and conception of Jabveb completely and with-
out distinction to tbe primeval period (p. 103, 114 sq.), and on
tbe other represent Moses as speaking of ' the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob,' or more briefly tbe ' God of tbe Fathers,'^ as
of the same meaning with Jabveb ; and in this the Deuterono-
' Wc hero leave out of siglit the later the key to those popular stories in wliioh
narratives which will bo subsequently dis- the memory of Abraham's superhuman
cussed; but one little word in Isaiah xxix. greatness has fastened on certain sharply
22, that ' Jalivoh redeemed Abraham,' defined crises of his history, and often been
points with sufficient clearness to great M'ittily compressed into a few pithy w^ords,
battles and dangers of which our present as Gen. xx. ITj-lT ; xii. 10-20. On the
naiTativcs, beginning at ch. xii., furnish puzzling woitls, xx. 16, see my Lehrbuch,
110 hint, but which, we have every reason p. 327, 7th ed. It is very important hero
to expect, would occur before Abraliam eu- to recognise aright the great antiquity of
tcred Canaan. Isaiah must undoulitcdly such passages, and to observe how the
have had before him many earlier and striking old words and recollections were
fuller stx)ries of Abraham. by degrees softened down into such later
^ As appears from the very old narra- descriptions as xii. 10-20.
five in Gen. XXI. 22-34, and the yet earlier ^ I'^x. vi. 3; Gen. xvii. 1.
out in xiv. 18-20. Such passages furnish * Ex. iii. G, 13, 15, 16, iv. 5.
ABRAHAM. 319
mist follows them.' Even the oldest sources indeed, in tlie
simple but peculiar expression ' the God of my father,' ^ imply a
certain connection between the Premosaic and the Postmosaic
God, even as Moses himself adopted as his foundation all that
was truly good in the older popular religion ; but this is only a
denial of the importation of foreign elements, and not an as-
sertion which would have been contradicted by history, that
it had not been internally reformed and more firmly defined by
Moses.
We must, therefore, look for other and, if possible, stronger
proofs. And here we may start from the use of the name of
God himself, which we observe in this nation in the mist of the
remotest antiquity. We saw (p. 264) that the common name
for God Eloah, among the Hebrews as among all the Semites,
goes back into the earliest times ; and it is remarkable that this
word for God, as also those bearing the cognate meaning of
Lord, are always employed in the special Hebrew tongue, from
those early times, in the plural number.^ We might easily
suppose this to be a Hebrew peculiarity, were it not unquestion-
ably very ancient ; for the later poets, especially after the end
of the eighth century before Christ, began to substitute for
Eloliim the singular Eloah, which prevails in Arabic and
Aramaic. The original plural meaning being then virtually
lost, poets at least were able to make the innovation. The for-
mation of these plural words for God and Lord leads us back
into that far-off time when the conception of majesty and power
seemed to be exalted by those of multitude and universality.'*
It was effected, however, without so formal a change of the
whole sentence as is involved in the so-called plural of Royalty
in our speech, but simply by a slight modification of the word
God or Lord.^ But the origination of a plural word for God
implies that even in that early age when this word was developed,
the idea of many gods existed. The conception of God, indeed,
' Deut. i. 11, 21, iv. 1, vi. 3, xil. 1, Egyptian Londago, as I hare read that
xxvi. 7, xxvii. 3. The words |n3 "iCi'S fit the present day a fellah addresses his
-s-,« f^-,U T^oV, ^„;;,- 1 :„ t.u;„ ^ „ master as «rM^^ (see also Briice's Travels,
riin^ UJ? Josh. xvni. 3, in this oonnec- ■ % i . ^i i • . j^ ^^ ^
tion appear like an addition from the ';^' but the histm-y of the langimge seems
hand of the Douteronomist. ^° '"^ ° P^^'" ^^^^'^ the use ot the plural
'■i F '2 x%'iii 4 ^^ much older.
3 Am, th^ Etiiiopic word for God, / Analogo^^? ^ /!"/ i« the Hebi-ew use
rr. 1 .1 1 n, • ^„ I ..1 or the plural in the tormation oi abstract
affords the only other instance where there f t i i ? e i-rv n ^/';^''"
,. • • 1, (-U •*. • ■ nouns (see my Leiirlmch, «1/9 a), and the
is room tor inquiry whether it was origi- .\ s> ■ ■ • ii • *
11 1 1 tv,t.„^u ;^ „„w.,;., „ „„„^<--„ „ use of the teminine, especially in Aramaic,
nail V plural, though in certain connections . . i • ^ i t ■ ,
1 V 1-1 , Z■,^„,,^.,^ to give emphasis to names of dignity (see
used quite like a singular. t i i i s ^','^ e\ J \ "
^ The question might arise whether the '">' ^''"•^"''A § 177 i).
nation did not adopt this usage during the
3-20 rilKLnilXARY IIISTOKY.
appeared to the most ancient world boundlessly extensible, and
inlinitel}' divisible ; and thus in this jDlural word polytheism
mi'-ht easily have found its firmest prop,' It is the more sui--
jirisinc^ therefore, secondly, that we find this jilural word
Elohim employed by the people of Israel Avith the greatest
regularity and strictness, always in the purest monotheistic
sense : so that it is grammatically treated as a real plural only
when it is designed to speak expressly of many gods ; for ex-
ample, in the heathen sense, in conversation with the heathen,
or other exceptional cases. ^ When, then, did so marked and so
fixed a distinction in the use of this word begin ? Is its strictly
monotheistic employment due to Moses ? It appears not ; but
that it was firmly established before his day. There is no indi-
cation that it was first introduced by him : he rather makes use
of the new name Jahveh. Or was it introduced in the time
immediately preceding Moses, when Israel, in strife with the
Eg3'ptians, gained a great elevation of their life ? Of this, too,
we have no trace.
We have therefore, in the primeval use of the word Elohim,
a memorable testimony that even the Patriarchs of the nation
thought and spoke monotheistically. But we j)ossess other
testimonies also from the same earliest period of a religion
correspondmg vv'ith the simplest faith in the Invisible God.
Nothing is more characteristic of the earliest worship of this
nation, as it existed even till the time of Moses, than the custom
of erecting everj^'here simple altars without images or temples
under the open sky.^ These suffice where men believe in an
invisible heavenly God ; and in their very simplicity they cor-
respond to the simplicity of a true religion. And all the stern
strife between Israel and the Egyptians, afterwards developed,
was essentially a religious strife, which could not well have
arisen until Israel possessed a basis of true religion, of which it
refused to be robbed by the Egyptian superstitions.
The history of the conflict between Monotheism and Poly-
theism is in the main that of the development of every higher
truth. Like every truth, monotheism in itself lies safe in the
liuman breast ; in the moment when man actually perceives the
living God he can perceive him only as one power ; he can feel
his spirit only in the presence of one God. But according to
time, place, and condition, man may perceive the Divine as
easily in infinitely varied and manifold ways : and here is the
source of Polytheism, which, like every error, having once arisen
' As is evident from the plural, D^2~iri, ' ^^^'" "W Lchrlivch, § 308 a.
^.cnaUs, ' ' " ' •'^^^' "'V Altirihiimcr., p. 133 «q.
AI5KAHAM. 321
will long maintain itself. But it is also accordant with the
nature of all development that, as Polytheism assumed a settled
form, Monotheism struggled against it the more powerfnllj.
Even by the Patriarchs of Israel, according to every indication,
this struggle was maintained ; and we may well assume that the
Canaanites also were at that time so far cultivated, that amons^
them also there were incipient and scattered monotheistic
movements ; indeed, the instance of Melchizedek gives sufficient
evidence of this. But that the faith of the Patriarchs of Israel
was entirely independent appears from their peculiar name for
the true God, El-Shaddai.
But although this was certainly a commencement of Mono-
theism, it was not quite the Mosaic form of it. It was only the
one supreme and almighty God, whom individual enlightened
spirits knew, and sought as far as possible to retain in their
own circle ; it was the one true God, whom the father of a
household, having clearly known him, elevated over all others
as the God at least of himself and his house, because in that
age the mere household of one powerful man was all-im-
portant, and no nation in the higher sense of the word had as
yet been developed at all. And in this sense each of the three
Patriarchs could hold the more firmly to one God, the more
purely domestic his own rule was ; their god continuing thus
to be an individual household God.' That they apprehended
this one God under a strict moral aspect, and in opposition
to many lower conceptions, is vouched by their whole life as
the founders of a new epoch, on which their posterity looked
back with pride. The Canaanite Priest-king also, when (ac-
cording to the ancient fragment, Gen. xiv. 20, comp. ver. 22) he
would bless Abraham, calls on ' the Supreme God, the Creator of
heaven and earth,' as the God whom he adores. But the god
of a household, however exalted he may be conceived to be,
still suffers other gods besides himself for other households and
other men, and thus is by no means a safeguard against poly-
theism, especially since these can easily be somehow associated
with him. And that the Divine Being in the Premosaic period
was apprehended with this idea of undefined extent and possible
divisibility, is proved by the most ancient tradition itself, in
which the god of Abraham and the god of Nahor are invoked by
oath as two different gods, and ' the God of the father of both '
is placed above this duality, simply that the two gods may not
' Even at a much later perind this was xxiv. 15 ; compare £x. xxxii. 10 ; 1 Cliron.
still laid down as a possibility, Josh. iv. 10.
VOL. I. T
322 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
aj^pear to have a separate existence and tlius contradict the
Mosaic religion.' It is also shown by plain indications (see
l>. 290 sqq.), that at least in the popular concejition a Hero-
Pantheon was superadded to the chief god and the house-god of
the ruler. Equally ineffective was this indefinite aj)prehension
of one god completely to suppress idolatry. How firmly rooted
this practice was, at least among the women and inferior do-
mestics, is evident from the obstinate retention of the Teraphim
(or Fcnates) many centuries after Moses, and in spite of the
commands of the higher religion. Tradition indeed does not
deny idolatry at least on the part of Rachel and Laban.^ Thus
there was wanting to the one God worshipped by the Patriarchs
all the distinctness and definiteness of the God of Moses.
But as in that early period mankind were strongly exposed
to the immediate influence of the visible, and everything sym-
bolical exerted over them a living power, some of the most
ancient sj^mbols of higher thoughts lasted from it even to the
later Mosaic times ; and these reveal most plainly an original
conn-ection of the Hebrews with the northern nations. The
Israelites under Moses would assuredl}^ have known nothing of
Cherubs or of Seraphim as heavenly animals, unless the memory
of these shapes of the older religious faith had been preseiTcd
from a higher antiquity ; ^ and with these are connected the
other sacred reminiscences which have been above related.
But if this was the state of the most ancient religion in the
Hebrew nation while yet they sojourned in their northern home,
it is evident how great a risk they ran of falling before the
allurements of a low sensuous ftiith and a dissolute ungodly life.
And this result must have really taken place in that nation
(who had otherwise remained so simple and robust) even before
Abraham : indeed Abraham must have had to combat most
strenuously among his nearest kindred and in his own house
with the seductions of the ripening heathenism, and men cor-
rupted by them. The Fifth Narrator has omitted to relate this
before the present brilliant oj)ening of the history of Abraham
' In tlio iiiKloTiljtcdly ancient p^'rasc, scraplis of heaven were fho best watclicrs
Gen. xxxi. 53. and guardians of the heavenly throui^ The
■^ Gen. xxxi. 19 sqq., xxxv. 2-4. gifrantic Chenil) was originally only one,
' D-1"l3 points to an Aryan derivation wluTcas of the smaller and more fairy-like
(see my remarks on Ezekiel i.) : and seraphs there were ahvays many. The
nicy, despite the slight mutation of ^'"^^^ ^''''^ Sphinxes are unknown to the
''',..,. , , , „ , . . most ancient sculpture and writing of
Bounds, IS nid.spu ably of the same origin jr ^. ^ .,„^| «nly app.ar there after the
as5p<£«a,.. As .sharp glowing eyes and H^-ksos period, i.s an additi<nial proof that
colours were regarded ,y the ancients as ^if g^^.j, .symbolical images had their origin
the chief features ol tins creature, so in „.^ • , -p^,.„f i,,,» ;„ f<„,,f,..,i \„;.,
- ,, , ,, ' . , not in Ji<eypt L)ut in Central ^Lsia.
virtue of exactly fcuch eyes the winged ^'"-
ABRAHAM. 323
(Gen. xii.), as if lie hastened past this dark picture to give
greater prominence to that noble introduction which had been
already delineated by the Fourth (Gen. xii. 1-3) ; but the re-
membrance of it has been elsewhere preserved.' The strife was
assuredly long and hard. But the highest and most peculiar
element iu his history, and that which has become most fruitful
for all future time, is, that he clung so firmly to his assurance
of the one true God, and recognised so clearly that true salva-
tion can come from him alone, that he chose rather to abandon
fatherland and relations than faith in the sole omnipotence and
helpfulness of this supersensuous, heavenly and only true God,
and resolved to make this confidence the root of his life and
influence. With this feeling he must first have acted as a
powerful prince towards his own extensive household, and after-
wards have persevered in the same course in Canaan and in
Egypt, among nations where he encountered a much higher
wisdom and more enlarged experience, but at the same time
much over-refinement and moral corruption.
3) Abraham as exhibited by the existing Narratives.
Although we may convince ourselves satisfactorily of the
truth of all that has hitherto been exj)lained of the actual
liistoiy of Abraham, it is not to be denied that in the Old
Testament but few and scattered passages concerning him from
the oldest writings have been preserved. What we now know
of him with any considerable coherence is due to no earlier
source than the Book of Origins ; but, unhappily, a large portion
of that which this book had originally told of this greatest of
the Patriarchs has been lost. As it, however (see p. 82 sqq.),
brings forward with the greatest interest all that relates to
law and rule, Abraham appears in it chiefly as the great
father and founder of the j)eople of Israel ; as the type of the
true ruler, in so far as he is a father of his house and
nation ; and as the first Hebrew mhabitant of the Holy Land
at the commencement of the Third Age of the world, and at
the same time as the noble prototype of all its later inhabitants.
' Apart from tbo Dentcronomic and versal depravity of manners, from which
subsequent narratives wliieh will bo dis- Abraham alune, as the venerated founder
cuasod hereafter, it follows from the ar- of this Age, was by God himself preserved,
rangemeut of the Book of Origins itself, But then the Deuteronomist himself must
iiü displayed in my Altcrthilmer, p. 118, have derived from earlier records the in-
2nd ed., that its author must have de- formation respecting Abraham's relatives,
scribed, at the close of the second and which he introduces incidentally, Josh,
commencement of the Third Age, a uni- xxiv.
324 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
In tlie second place, so far as concerns law, tlie idea of a
covenant between God and man being tbe big-best point of view
taken in tbis book of every great crisis of bistory (see p. 85
sqq.), a new covenant of tbis kind serves also to express tbe
p-randeur of Abraham's wbole life, all tbat is eminent in it
being gathered together under tbis conception. Tbe Covenant
stipulates, on the part of man, first of all, the right regulation
and attitude of the spiritual life (Gen. xvii. 1, 2), and then de-
mands, as an outward sign of this moral purity and consecration
(a Sacrament), Circumcision (ver. 9-14). But immediately upon
tbat primary condition of inward consecration, there follows on
Elohim's side the promise of the highest blessing, as his part
of the Covenant ; and thus the sublimest divine words which
this narrator can conceive to have been addressed to Abraham
are accumulated at this point (ver. 4-8). Circumcision, as the
sign of this sublime Covenant, is enacted very beautifully exactly
at the time when the birth of Isaac is approaching ; so that this
first child of the community may at his very birth become the
type of all its true children, and enter through this sign into
the higher community now formed. Thus here also is placed
the sublime moment when, among other j)romises, is given that
of the approaching birth of Isaac, and through him the secure
continuance of tbis Covenant and its blessings for ever, and
when Abram and Sarai, as the first parents in this eternal
Covenant, receive the new names of Abraham and Sarah,' cor-
responding to their new higher dignity (ver. 5, 15-21). And
that this zenith of Abraham's life may be attained at tbe true
noon of the life of a Patriarch of this era (see pp. 275 sq.), the
sacred year of this Covenant and expectation of the genuine
child of the community is Abraham's 100th year (ver. 24,
xxi. 5) ; that is, in the original sense of the tradition, not much
beyond the golden middle of the Patriarch's life (compare
' As, ho-wevor, the alteration of Loth (Jialunii) could be easily shortened into
these names only consists in a slight dif- Ql {Rum; see Lchrhich, § 72c). In
ference of ])ronunciation, we must suppose ^Y^e other case, however, the pronunciation
the story of the change of the name ,/ffco/> ,^j^ (Sarai) is certainly the older, and
into Is7-ae.l to be the earner, and this to bo . "' . .
formed from it. The ori<riiuil name does '^s original meaning the obscurer. But the
not seem to be Q-aX {Ahram, which might ^»"^''i' "'^e Ahruham,&s synonymous witli
^ : ." Ab-Humon (father of a multitude), and
bo a similar formation to Dnpy- tlic name ^^^, {Sarah), as meaning Princess, ap-
of Moses' father), as this prounnciation pj^^ed to the narrator most suited to
would put the utmost difficulty mtlieway of ^ho higher dignity conferred upon them,
the interpretation given in Gen.xyii. 5, but Moreover, the giving of names stands in
nn'X^^(.AInaham),^hßro-2^{Äh)m:xyU connection with circumcision; see my
a dialectic abbreviation for "f^iiiAbi, father AltertMlmer, p. 110,
of; see my Lehrbuch, § 273 b), and QHT
ABRAHAM. 325
ch. XXV. 7).' This opens large sections of Abraham's history
to further chronological arrangement. We necessarily expect
the birth of Isaac, and in connection with it the expulsion of
Ishmael, somewhat as they are described in Gen. xxi. 1-21.
The assumj)tion of the mid-life of the Patriarch reacts also on
the conception of his earlier history. For since at the intro-
duction of circumcision, according to old and well-foiuided
traditions, Ishmael was about 13 years old,^ Abraham must
at his birth have been 86 years old ; ^ while still further back, at
the time of his innnigration into Canaan, 75 years are assigned
to him, corresponding very well with this number 100.'' And
since the 175 years of his whole life evidently answer to these
75 and 100, all the years of Abraham's life are accounted for.
So far, therefore, we can securely trace the plan of the life of
Abraham given by this chief narrator. Many other passages
are to be referred, with more or less modification, to him and
the other ancient sources ; as the story of Sarah's fate in the
court of the Prince Abimelech, ch. xx. ; that of the legal
23rocedure for giving possession of Beersheba, ch. xxi. 22-82
(where the name of that prince's captain, Phichol, nowhere else
mentioned, must be derived from old tradition) ; that of the
family sepulchre, ch. xxiii, where in beautiful picturesque
language the Book of Origins again finely discloses its deep
sense of law. But on the whole, these remains of the ancient
sources are very scattered.
The Fourth and Fifth Narrators conceive the preeminence of
Abraham in a diflPerent manner, and thereby transform a chief
part of this history. In their time the lapse of centuries had
strengthened the nation's consciousness of the great blessing of
the true religion which flowed in upon them abundantly out of
the primeval period of their past ancestors. Thus they, even
more strongly than the Book of Origins, figured Abraham
chiefly as the type of the great and universal Divine blessing,
spreading from one saintly man to many, to all his nation, and
even to many nations ; the idea being then modified by the
' Tradition similarly magnifies many * Gen. xii. 4 : the discrepancy between
other numbers belonging to the same this number and that assigned to Torah's
period : Ishmael is a child wlien fourteen life in xi. 26, 32, is to be explained (con-
years old. Gen. xxi. 14-16 ; the sacrificed trar}' to Acts vii. 4) by the assumption
lamb is three years old, xv. 9; and Isaac that Abraham departed from Harran before
and Esau were both married in their for- his fathers death ; for the numbers are
tieth year, xxv. 20, xxvi. 34. undoubtedly all taken from the Book of
2 ^QeZi'itschrift für das Morgenland, \\\. Origins, whose author, in his usual way,
p. 230; Zohar (i. p. 16öb, ed. Amstel.) finishedoiF with Terah only that he might
takes the twelfth year as the first of be able then to dwell on Abraham's history
puberty and accountability. alone.
' Gen. xvi. 16.
32G rRELIMINARY HISTOEY.
Messianic hope of tliat time. It is taken for granted tliat the
later nation, tatiglit bj its ancestor, wonld also always be
worthy of this blessing- ; ' and the aim of the particular de-
scriptions of these narrators was especially to show liotv Abra-
ham himself had become perfectly worthy of it.
But farther, that simple purity and sanctit}^ of life which,
according to the Book of Origins, was expected from Abraham
(Gen. xvii.) did not suffice for their own time, more advanced
as it was in prophetical culture (p. 104 sq.). For a life of piety
there was then demanded the maintenance of faith through
the longest trial and the severest temptations, — a momentous
progress, the historical causes and consequences of which can-
not here be discussed. Accordingly while the Book of Origins
sums up all that is highest in Abraham's character in the one
name of a ' Prince of God,' and most delights to depict men as
meeting him more and more with the spontaneous respect and
homage due to one enjoying that Divine protection,* by these
last narrators he is regarded rather as a Prophet, and is even
called by that name.^ But if the climax of his life is found here,
and Abraham serves as the sole perfect type of this character, it
is evident that he may be regarded also as the sole great hero of
the true faith, and of the Divine justification thereby attained,
and that a narrator of the traditions, filled with this thought,
might remould from his new point of view the scattered re-
miniscences respecting him. He met with much that might
lead him to this ; the tradition of the temptation to sacrifice
Isaac is, by many indications, old : ^ that of Sarah's danger (see
p. 293) was easily brought into connection with the same idea ;
and Abraham's receiving his promised heir only in his hundredth
year might be interpreted by a somewhat later age to imply that
the pledge had been fulfilled through a severe testing of the
parents, and after all expectation had been given up.'^ In this
' According to the importaut passage, circumstances already explained, the Eook
Gen. xviii. 19. of Origins makes no difficulty in ascriliing
* Gen. xxiii. 6 ; compared with the to Abraham after Sarah's death another
fiarlier expression, xxi. 22, wife and many sons, xxv, 1—1. I view
' Gen. XX. 7. the words in xvii. 17 beginning with pnV*!
* See my AltcrtMlmer, p. 79 sq., 261 sq. as an addition by the Fifth Narrator, and
Similar traditions among the Pheniciaus xxi. 6 sq. as added by the Third. Isaac
will be mentioned hereafter in treating of ^vas certainly always regarded as much
l''^'^'^^' younger than Ishmael, Gen. xi. 30, xxi.
* The description of Isaac as son of 2, 7 ; and in aid of the historical reasons
very aged parents, and of the laughter which may have induced the early tradi-
which accompanied his annunciation and tion to regard the tribes of Isaac and
birth, not only in eh. xviii, but also in Joseph as later, and therefore to make the
eh. xvii. and xxi, appears to me mere Patriarchs Isaac and Joseph younger sons
addition and amplification by later writers. in the pedigree, came the religious truth
Let it be rcmouibered that, besides the that as all the greatest blessings of life
ABRAHAM. 327
manner, the tliouglit that even the perfectly irreproachable is
tried in the faith through all degrees even to the uttermost,
and only when completely approved can attain the highest and
most enduring Divine blessing, becomes the keystone of the
history of Abraham, and binds all the most prominent events of
his life into a new whole. That which precedes this series of
trials of his faith is but preparation for, and that which follows
to the end of his life is but the issue of, this intensest activity
in the grand middle period of his life.
a.) Thus, although Abraham is exhibited from the first as
the same perfect hero, all that is brought together by the last
narrator (Gen. xi. 27-xiv.) as far as the first trial of fiiith in
ch. XV, serves but as a preparation for the great development
in the middle of his life. According to this version Jahveli calls
Abraham into the Holy Land, and promises him beforehand all
the grand and unparalleled future of the history, ch. xii. 1-3 (for
this narrator delights in such sublime commencements in pre-
paration for what is to follow, p. Ill sq.) ; and then Abraham
willingly follows the call from above, and travels through the
Holy Land, building altars to his God, and receiving from him
gracious messages (xii. 4-9). Here already, in Abraham's
progress as far as Egypt, and the danger which befell Sarah at
the court of that country, it is shown what protection the holy
life of such a hero extends even to the farthest borders of his
house, and how little a woman like Sarah is liable to actual
wrong (xii. 10-20).' And in his behaviour towards Lot, Abraham
exhibits even in the casual disputes which may arise between
people of kindred race, that noble spirit of endurance and paci-
fication which turns all possible evil to good. Accordingly Lot
yields voluntarily, and removes eastwards into the very land
which in the subsequent history his descendants Moab and
Amnion possess ; and Jahveh blesses anew him who by such
conduct retains his abode in Canaan, ch. xiii. And as towards
Lot, so does he behave towards people and princes of foreign
race, even to the king of Sodom, rendering aid to others with
noble boldness and self-devotion, and is blessed for it even by
can be obtained only by slow and laborious ' The legend of Sarah's danger was
striving, so these exalted Fathers of the transplanted to Egypt by the Fourth Nar-
nation were born into the world only after rator, as appears from the style of treat-
lengthened expectation and anxiety. But nient: earlier narrators had related the
we see with equal distinctness that this same of a Canaanite court (Gen. xx.).
feature of the tradition was first eagerly Considering, however, that Isaac's power
prosecuted by later wi-iters, so that none is alway.s described as weaker than Abra-
earlier than the Fifth Narrator transfers ham's, it is natural to look for the original
it to the birth of Esau aud Jacob, Gen. scene of the story in his life; see Gen.
XXV. 21. xxvi. 7-11.
328 I'RHLIMINARY HISTORY.
the foreign priest-king Melcliizedek ; ' as is stated in ch. xiv,
wliicli is inserted almost word for word from the primitive
history often referred to above.
In fact, after these trials and these proofs of an unsurpassable
elevation of life, it seems as if nothing further could be added
to him ; and yet all this is but the introduction to something
higher still, since hitherto everything has gone right with him
of itself, so to speak, and his own trust and endurance have not
yet been tried ; though this trial would seem to be nowhere so
necessary as in the case of one who occupies so exalted a sphere
of life. If much has been given to him and much is to be
expected from him, the mere accidental success of all his affairs
will in his case suffice less than in that of others : a deeper
probation of his inmost heart must be added, so that when he
has approved himself through a.11 the stages of that test, then
and then only he may attain those spiritual blessings which
surpass all casual and transient success.
b.) This trial turns at first, as it might seem to us later-born
and alien readers, upon an unimportant blessing — the advent of
a lawful heir, and the birth of Isaac. But, Avithout insisting
too strongly on the fiict that this is really a blessing, or that
in a trial the important element is not the inherent value of the
object, but the price at which it is held by him who is tried,
from his personal position and feeling, or even that the blessing
of bodily issue is immensely greater in those primitive times
when the very bases of the household, the nation, and the
kingdom are to be laid, than at a period when the first necessary
wants have long been supplied, and spiritual blessings therefore
can come more freely into view — it is to be remembered that in
the genuine meaning of the tradition this j)romised and eagerly
awaited son and heir is no common child, but as it were the
primitive child of the community, the type of its constant reno-
vation and continuance, without whose birth and preservation
the subsequent community could neither have arisen, nor have
felt itself endowed Avith permanence and perpetual youth. What
were Abraham as the origin and head of a national communit}^,
if that which he founded expired with him and were not secured
by the continuance of the same house filled with his spirit, since
' It has been alread^^ noticed, however, to the nortli. Tlie Hebrew text of Gen.
in p. 307, that Salem, his metropolis, was xxxiii. 18 does not mention a city Salem,
not Jeriisalem ; the ' fortress Salam,' said thouij;li the LXX. do; but it is remarkable
to bo conquered by Rhamses (Brugsch, that the Book of Jubilees xxx. places it to
(icogr(t]>hlsche Inschriften, ii. p. 71 sq.; the east of Shechem, as if its position were
Histoire d'Egijpk; i. p. \^'>) may have been well known to the author.
either the city just named or one further
ABRAHAM. 329
no strict severance of the domestic and national from the
spiritual could then exist ?
Moved by such reflections as these, the narrator naturally
exhibits the father and founder of the nation himself as ex-
pecting- with relig'ious eagerness the lawful heir, and, though
all his other wishes are fulfilled, painfully agitated at last by
longing for this latest blessing. Thus is prepared a trial fit for
a hero such as he. The divine certainty that this necessary
keystone shall not ultimately fail, is indeed easily reached by
one as blameless as Abraham ; but even when the time ap-
proaches, the realisation may be deferred and encounter mani-
fold hindrances. And when the long desired but much delayed
son is born, and the natural blessing gained, the further ques-
tion arises whether he, who thus far holds it only as an earthly
good, is able to guard and maintain it also as a spiritual and
permanent blessing. In this are contained a multitude of
possible degrees of trial for his faith, even to the utmost ; and
a way is opened for the great development of the middle period
of his life.
The narrator therefore, according to his custom (p. Ill),
commences in a strain befitting the loftiness of Abraham's
whole life, with a sublime i^evelation of the divine certainty
of the desired blessing, ch. xv. When, on another gracious ap-
pearance of Jahveh, Abraham ventures timidly to utter what he
longs for, the former, not merely in words (ver. 4) promises
him his desire, but also directs his gaze to the stars, which his
posterity shall equal in number (ver. 5). Finally, when Abraham,
having proved his faith in a region not reached by sense, seizes
a fiivourable opportunity to entreat yet more boldly for an out-
ward sign and pledge, Jahveh gives him his Covenant as such a
mutual pledge (ver. 9-20). This covenant-making is in the
main transferred hither by the later narrator from the older
tradition in ch. xvii ; but he very appropriately uses the occa-
sion of this description of the Covenant only to foreshadow
here (where for the first time posterity are seriously spoken of)
the whole future destiny of Israel (p. 35). Having put the
commencement of this revelation in the night and treated it as
a night-vision (ver. 1-9), he similarly embodies its conclusion
also in a night-scene. On the following day, Abraham, having
put everything in proper order for a sacrifice at a sanctuary,
and lain down to slee^) towards evening on the hallowed
ground,' expectant of what is to come, not only sees a fire
' This is a distinct allusion to the rite p. 298. But even Marcus Aurelius in his
oi incubatio, on which see xay Alterthilmcr, Memorabilia, i. 17, says something similar
330 PRELIiriNARY HISTORY.
passing between tlie pieces as a sign of the conclusion of tlie
covenant, (and how else but in such a fire-sign could Jahveh
show himself in the darkness of night P) but hears also in that
solemn moment a Divine voice foretell the fortunes of that
j)Osterity for whose sake this covenant is made (ver. 10-20).
And since this prophecy cannot give only joyful announcements
of Israel's lot (e.g. in Egypt), unfavourable prognostics pre-
cede : birds of prey, which try to seize the sacrificial pieces
when already placed,^ but are driven away in good time by
Abraham ; and then at sunset, or about the first sleep, the
irruption of a fearful darkness.
But in the agitation of real life this last express Divine
assurance is met by multitudes of obstacles and new trials.
(i) In the first place, Sarah becomes impatient of the delay,
and Abraham is obliged to submit to her wish to have a son, at
least indirectly by her maid ; Ishmael, although even before
his birth persecuted by Sarah, must be born in Abraham's
house (ch. xvi.). By the birth of this but half lawful son, the
advent of the true one, who alone can have been intended by
Jahveh as worthy, is evidently thrown back further into uncer-
tainty.
(m) But as, according to the older story, circumcision was
introduced thirteen years later as the sign of the covenant, and
the birth of Isaac then promised for the following year, the
later narrator uses this to set forth that the true son — •
although the announcement might be received with laughter
on account of the great age of the parents — will yet surely come
(ch. xvii.).
{Hi) At this moment of high-wrought expectation, the
interlude of the fate of Sodom and of Lot (ch. xviii, xix.)
is very effectively introduced by this narrator. "While Jahveh
is about to show favour to Sarah in giving her the expected
lawful son, he has also to come down to earth for a veiy
different reason, on account of Sodom. But whether he
descend to bless or to punish, neither blessing nor chastise-
ment can be found immutably necessary by Jahveh till after
a just examination. So at this moment critical to entire
nations on every side, there comes first examination, and
then, as its consequence, retribution. But the examination
begins with him who has alwa3^s stood the highest — Abra-
liam ; for, should ho be found guilty, the very severest
of liinisolf. Compare also licvue Archcolog. description very like this, only more elabo-
18G(), p. 11 G sc|(i. rated ; in which the mention of ara, v. 231,
' Virgil {jEneid, iii. 225 sqq.) gives a deserves especial attention.
ABRAHAM. 381
puiiislimont would await even him.' But when Iho Divine
Being approaches him in the illusive form of three strangers
seeking shelter, he hastens to meet them with the most real
and active kindness possible ; and then, as the Divinity is
gradually revealed to him as he deserves to know — first in a
renewed promise of the approaching birth of Isaac, notwith-
standing the laughter of Sarah, who thought herself unnoticed
in the background, and again in an intimation of ihe fate of
Sodom then to be decided, — he steps before the One, who has
already sent his two subordinates (messengers or angels) to
Sodom, and ventures even at the last hour to present an urgent
intercession for that city, flowing from the purest love (for he
would rescue all its inhabitants, not Lot alone), and persists
in it with desperate boldness, and to his own risk. But while
Abraham thus perfectly approves himself, and wins for those
over whom punishment has long impended, the very easiest
condition of forgiveness, it is proved in the self-same night
that even this condition is not fulfilled in Sodom. In the dark-
ness of this night, therefore, these two angels, quitting their
invisibility, complete their work of horror, scarcely rescuing
even the family of Lot. With an unsurpassable beauty, the nar-
rative concludes (xix. 27, 28) by returning again to Abraham,
whose first gaze and thought on the morrow turned towards
Sodom, but found only traces of its utter ruin.
(iv) In the same decisive year also occurs Sarah's danger at
the court of Abimelech; and how then could she become the
mother of the lawful son ? But, according to the older tradi-
tion, this danger also passes over, and brings an actual increase
of safety to Sarah and honoiu' to Abraham (ch. xx.).
(u) Finally, late indeed, but at the right time, comes the
Lawful Son, for whom Ishmael must soon make way (ch. xxi.
1-21).
(vi) To this is appended, almost unaltered from the older work,
though not strictly belonging to this connection, the account
of Beersheba (xxi. 22-34), the pith of which lies simply in the
thought that even in things of this world possession is per-
manent and legitimate only when it rests not on mere natural
taking and giving, but upon mutual agreement, upon a cove-
nant between Higher and Lower, and consequently upon oath.
King Abimelech seeks of his own free will to enter into a
peaceful league with Abraham; but the latter prudently ar-
ranges beforehand everything from which strife might arise
' Comp:ire Jci'tmiali xxv. 29 , ! Peter iv. 1 7.
382 TRELIMINAEY HISTORY.
between them, and binds the former, who in external position
is his superior, bj the acceptance of a gift in token of homage,
to the remembrance of his duty of protection.' But even Isaac,
when finally obtained, is as yet only a blessing of nature for
Abraham ; a son like any other son, though of the lawful
mother ; Abraham's son because born to Abraham, and nur-
tured in his house. True labour, the labour of a soul wi'estling
in faith, Abraham has never had for him since his birth ; and
yet that only is a spiritual, and therefore true and abiding
blessing, which we are able to make our own in the strife and
wrestling of a faithful spirit.
{vii) Therefore, just when the highest blessing is obtained
in Isaac, the highest trial of faith and obedience comes to
Abraham. That same Isaac, some Divine voice says to him in
the night, he must sacrifice at a fitting place. ^ Though he be
the highest and dearest of all external blessings, that on which
the father's whole life now turns, Abraham must be ready to
render him back to him from whom he has been received. And
behold, this hero of faith, following the Divine voice as he has
hitherto apprehended it, shrinks not nor tarries to offer even
this hardest sacrifice. With wonderful self-control and calm-
ness, he makes all needful preparations ; he even carries them
all out deliberately himself. But let it not be thought that,
having once believed the command to be from above, he fulfilled
it rigidly and blindly ; he enters upon it indeed with patience
and firmness — as a religious man he cannot do otherwise, so
long as by his best efforts he can discern no other decision from
above. But, though his devotedness is perfect, he does not carry
out the command as if nothing beside this hard necessity were
still conceivable and possible, — as if no other and higher truth
could be announced from heaven. When the son, the unconscious
victim, already bearing the wood for the offering, and willingly
following his father's every command, inquires for the victim,
]ie does not suffer that heart-breaking question to divert him
from that which he has recognised as the will of Heaven, but
neither does he answer with unfeeling readiness, ' Thou art
he !' but in his anguish cries out as if involuntarily, and yet
inspired by a true prophetic impulse, ' God himself will provide
• Gen. xxxii. 14 [13] — xxxiii. 11. de- biit most .sifruificantly, transfer Abraham's
RCi'ibes siuiilarly the relation subsisting sacrifice to Jcru.salem, thou^^h very artfully
between Jacol) and Esau, undoubtedly in thoy rather indicate than name tJie spot.
imitation of this same earliest narrator. Thei-o is, however, no doubt that that is
* It is quite in keeping with the style the pbico meant, as has been quite recently
of the Fourtli and Fifth Narrators, that demonstrated in the Gott. Gd.Anz. 1863,
tJiey exceptionally (according to p. 30Ö), p. 637 sq.
ABRAHAM. 333
the lamb.' From tliis liappy combination in Abraham, of roadi-
iiGss and devotedness of act, with the true readiness of thought,
of hope, and of believing expectation, arises the most glorious
and blessed of results. Already he has bound his son, already-
raised the knife, already all but sacrificed the innocent, obedient,
unresisting child, when at the last moment a A'oice from above
is heard again — not now like that dream- voice of the night, but
clear and loud in the full day, bidding him abstain from the
actual deed, now that his temper, his true faith, is proved; and
his eyes are ojiened to see beside him the victim which is
actually better pleasing to Jahveh. The highest trial of faith
thus ends with the gain of a new and great truth ; ^ and not
only is Isaac rescued for ever through this death-pang of his
father, but an indestructible foundation is laid for the com-
munity which was destined to be perpetuated for ever in every
form of blessing,
c.) Nothing higher can follow : the rest of Abraham's life
flows on undisturbed in that happy rej^ose which is the ideal
condition for old age, and the third part of the narrative is
occupied only with accounts of the various domestic concerns of
the hero and his kindred, of the acquisition of the family sepul-
chre, and of the arrangements for Isaac's happy marriage.^
4) Abraham according to the later Boohs.
Thus it is only the finished art of the last narrator which
moulds the history of Abraham to that brilliant type of the
Mosaic religion which never afterwards grows pale ; anything
greater is not attempted in this region, and indeed were
scarcely to be conceived. For this very reason this conception
of the champion who stands at the head of all the heroes of the
faith in the Holy Land, when once powerfully aroused, could
not stand still ; and the Bible itself still shows certain indica-
tions how it progressed by the aid of tradition. For what causes
Abraham migrated from the north, the narrative as shaped by
the last author does not precisely indicate (p. 322 sq.), although
the oldest sources allowed the full historical facts to appear
more manifestly (p. 323 note). By these oldest authorities it
is simply mentioned that Terah, Abraham's father, desired to
' Viz. the truth that Jahveh does not primeval time, through the experience of
desire human SMcrifices. There -^^-as cer- the greatest liero of the faith. The higher
tainly <i time when it was possible to meaning of this tradition is also indicated,
conceive, and therefore to attempt, the Heb. xi. 19, in the words eV Trapaj3oAj7.
contrary. But it was refuted even in that * Gen. xxii. 20 — xxv. 11.
334 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
journey with him and others to Canaan, but came with them only
as far as Harran in Mesopotamia, where they all settled provi-
sionally, and he afterwards died.^ The Fourth Narrator gives pro-
minence to the parting of Abraham from his home and country,
and takes occasion from it to expound the truth of the Divine
call to spirits of such innate power and such strength of faith,
somewhat in the same manner as was held of the Prophets,
and often preached in the eighth century ; ' but he asserts
nothing respecting the religion of his father. And the existing
Pentateuch merely says incidentally in one place in Deuteronomy
that on the farther side of the Euphrates Terah and the other
ancestors of the peojjle had served other gods ; ^ an assertion
not exhibiting merely a further development of tradition,
separating with increasing sharpness between the polytheism
external to Israel and the one God worshipped by them, but
(according to p. 323) really based upon older narratives which
were in later times more brought into notice. Now partly the
hiatus in the jjrevalent story, which must always have been
very apparent, partly the pleasure of reviving the Patriarchal
time in later days in new and vivid pictures, must have
tempted an author, who probably also used other ancient
stories, to sketch a striking picture, showing how much
Abraham, while yet m his father's house, had to suffer for
his worship of the true God ; and this work must have been
much read in the centuries immediately before Christ.'* This
narrative brought Nimrod, as the great heathen king and
persecutor of the pious, into contact with Abraham ; but in
doing so it certainly only started from the name ' land of the
Chaldeans ' as Abraham's northern fatherland (p. 282 sq.), and
thence concluded that Nimrod, as the single celebrated ancient
king of the Chaldeans, must have been his opponent; and when
' Gen. xi. 31, 32. IIow diiferent is tlio and a number of other late j^assagcs.
later description in tlie Book of Juditli, * Yettlio phrase in Is. xxix. 22, ' Jahvoh
V. G-9 ! This and other similar deserip- redeemed Aliraliam,' is certainly ancient,
tions given in later times cannot possibly though very remarkable, and (as shown
bo all derived from the words in Gon. on p. 318) scarcely explicable from the
xi. 31 sqq. But it is certain on other narratives contained in our present Genesis
grounds that this passage has been much alone ; for it would imply that Abraham
curtailed (see Jahrb. der Bihl. Wiss. x. had been rescued out of some great bodily
p. 20 sqq.) ; and even if the discrepancy danger, and tlius brought to the know-
in the numbers found at Gen. xi. 26, xii. 4, ledge of the true God. At any rate, Uiero
can bo reconciled as shown at p. 32.5, yet were in Isaiah's time earlier stories of
■we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that Abraham, and vciy distinct and detailed
Abraham's own history now commences ones too. But pictures of Abraham's early
most al)rui)tly, G«-n. xii. 1. history such as those found in Judith and
^ Gen. xii. 1-4, compared with Is. vi., in Acts vii. 2-4 must be derived from
Amos vii. 15; also Jer. i. tome later source.
* Josh. xxiv. 2, 14 ; see Judith v. G-9,
ABRAHAM. 335
the writer represented him as cast by the terrible Nimrod into
the furnace, the Book of Daniel was in his eye. But Abraham
became in later ages more and more the favourite object of
a thousand forms of pious expressions, poems and stories.'
Standing titles of honour were also being perpetually created
for him, to heighten the splendour which antiquity had already
lavished on him. Especially after the sixth century before
Christ, everything exalted which could then be possibly con-
ceived of Abraham was summed up in the new name ' Friend
of God.' 2 This name is still retained in the Islamite world as
the most suitable ; and there its abbreviation, ' The Friend '
(El Chalil), is directly interchangeable with the name Ibrahim.
The immediate occasion for this name was furnished undoubtedly
by the beautiful narrative from the hand of the Fourth Narrator
Gen. xviii. 1-xix. 28. Simpler and yet accordant with the spirit
of true religion is the title ' Servant of Jahveh,' which he re-
ceived equally gradually ;^ as also that of ' The Faithful.''* The
Rabbis finally, who sought to round off everything, brought
"up the temptations of Abraham to the number ten.^
The assumption of Josephus,^ that Berosus in his Chaldean
history made mention of Abraham, is shown by his own words
to be groundless ; for he could not find in Berosus even the
name of the ' great and just man, learned in astrology,' who
lived among the Chaldeans in the tenth generation after the
Flood, and therefore only assumed arbitrarily that Abraham
was intended. According to all that we now know, on the con-
trary, Abraham's memory was preserved only in the Israelitisli
history, till Asia was opened to the Greeks and Romans by
the Macedonian conquests, and the Greek translation of the old
Testament, as well as the spread of Judaism and Christianity,
excited a new curiosity respecting the history of this hero
of antiquity. But at that time the derivation of Abraham
from Ur-Chasdim (p. 283) misled the investigators in many
ways. Thinking that by the term Chaldeans could only be
' AH the R.aljbinical stories about Alirn- give him the title 6 7rpefr/8i;T6po9, actually
ham are now collected and elucidated in B. according io the Holy Script iii-cs, ii. p. 46,
Beer's Lcbefi Abraham's nach Auffassung or ch. xxxix. of his long oration on Abra-
dcr Jüdischen Sage, Le\}pf<ic, 18Ö9. ham (which contains nothing else pecu-
2 Is. xli. 8 ; see 2 ChroD. xx. 7 ; James liar). On the other hand, the work on
ii. 23 ; Clemens Eomanus, Ep. ad Cor. Jonah ascribed to Philo (Anchor, ii. p.
X. 17; Homil. xviii. 13; Abdiae, Hist. 592) does certainly mention Patriarchs
Ajwst. iv. 5 ; and Melo ap. Euseb. Frap. who were thrown into the ßre by Baby-
Evang. ix. 19. Ionian tyrants.
' See the addition of th.o LXX. to Gen. * P. Ahoth, v. 3.
xviii. 17. _ " >4wi'.i. 7; repeated by Eusebius, PrcF^j.
•' 6 inffrhs iirwvvfx'is, Philo, Op}'), i. Ev. ix. 16.
p. 259. Philo, more slrangely, wishes to
336 I'KKLLMJ.VAKT HISTOKV.
denoted the liigUy civilised Chaldeans of Babylon ' at their o-svn
day, they conceived of Abraham and Joseph as Chaldeans dis-
tinguished respectively in astrology- and in weights and measures,
and said that they both had gone to Egypt to instruct the
Egyi^tians in these arts as well as in the true religion.'^ This
view is in so far true, that these arts really appear to have pro-
ceeded more from the Babylonians than from the Egyptians,
and that there is distinct evidence that weights were introduced
from Babylon into Egypt.^ But that Abraham and Joseph were
the means of introducing them is a mere conjecture of those
wi'iters. It is curious how fond the Greek writers were of this
jDarticular idea, which became familiar to them from the celebrity
of the Chaldeans. Not only writers of the character and age
of Justin Martyr constantly speak of Abraham and Lot as
Chaldeans, but even in the Orphic poems * the Chaldean sage is
undoubtedly meant for Abraham.
Among the ancient Arabs, far more than among the
Babylonians, we should expect to find independent traditions
of Abraham's early sovereignty and greatness. The fame of
Abraham was certainly wide-spread among the Arabs of the
interior long before Mohammed ; as their own ancestor and
hero, they transferred him, with Hagar and Tshmael, to Mecca,
regarded him as the builder of the far-famed sanctuary there,
the Kaaba ; and gloried in the possession of an image of him
there, and of his footprint on the black stone. And in confor-
mity with the Old Testament, they also distinguished as
Arahised, certain northern tribes supposed to be derived from
Ishmael, from the pure Arabs. We also possess some poetical
accounts from the pre-Islamite period, respecting Abraham,
as founder of the religious observances connected with the
Kaaba.'' 'But it is quite evident that at the institution of
Islam, very vague traditions alone remained concerning him,
and that these were eagerly pursued by Mohammed for his own
special object. For the name of Abraham, as an ancient Ara-
bian prophet, was for Mohammed a weapon against both Jew
' There is an exact parallel to this ' See Böckh's Metrologische Uvtirmich-
p'cat transformation of the Chaldeans vvcfcn, Berlin, 1838.
in that of the Toltecs, the former con- ■* Quoted hy Aristolmlus, nnder Pto-
cjuerors of Mexico, into artists, after they lemy IV.. in the third century before
had lost the sovereignty. Christ, in Eiiseliius, Pro'p. Ev. xiii. 12,
'^ Josephus, Ai)t. i. 8. 2. Eusebius, p. 665 Vig. I do not here notice the
Prff'p. El.', ix. 16-19, 23. See also Fabri- Nabatean fragments respecting Ibrahim
cius in the Codex T.snidefiffr. Veteris 7'eM. the Cavaaiiitc from Kiiiha (see p. 283),
i. p. .'3")6, T);')?. According to Eusebius, published by Ch'wolson in 1859.
xvii., Kupolennis identifiid Ur-Chasdim * See the two lines in the Hamasa, p.
with a place in I'abylonia named Urie, 125, 3 sq.
Otherwise A'awmwc ; but see above, p. 283.
1
ABRAHAM.
337
and Christian ; Mohammed therefore eagerlj caught up all
attainable stories about him, derived principally from the highly
coloured narratives of later writers, and afterwards worked them
uj) himself with great freedom.' But though his memory was
thus renewed in Islam, and certain scenes of his life depicted in
the most vivid colours, especially his contest with Nimrod and
the Babylonian idolators, among whom was his own father ; yet
all such narratives (except the truly Arabian idea of his having
lived and worked at Mecca) are very plainly derived from
Biblical sources : a single word of the Bible often servin«- as
the foundation of an entire history. Nothing distinct of what
the ancient Ishmaelites may have related, centuries before
Christ, of their progenitor, remained in these later times ; and
as the history of Job (Ayyub) was first known to the Arabs
in Christian times from the Old Testament,^ so Ibrahim'' s old
renown seems first to have been revived among them by the
Jews scattered through Arabia, and through the introduction
of Christianity.^ Only if it were possible to recover some far
earlier Arabian accounts, might we hope for much more impor-
tant aid to historical research."* And though the Sabians, from
mere similarity of sound, attempted to identify the name of
' Keran, Siir. ii 118 sqq., 260 sqq.,
iii. 89 sq., iv. 124, vi. 74 sqq., ix. 115,
xi. 72 sqq., xiv. 38 sqq., xxi. 52 sqq.,
xxix. 15 sqq., xxxvii. Sl sqq., li. 24 sqq..
Ix. 4 sqq.
2 Zeitsch.für d. Morg. iii. p. 234.
^ The stories about Ibrahim collected
by Arabic historians are now found most
complete in Tabari's Chronicle ; in which,
however, as given by Dubeux, i. p. 127-
194, two or three sources must have been
brought togetherwith hardly any amalga-
mation. See also Jelaleddin's History of
Jerusalem, p. 320-377, ed. Eeyn. On care-
fully examining all this perplexed mass of
narratives, we find that 1. Some few are
genuine Arabic, relating to the Ca ahn;
2. The principal materials were derived
from the Koran, from other traditions
which had passed through the Rabbinical
sieve, and from the Old Testament itself.
But the combination of such heterogeneous
elements occasioned no small difficulty ;
as in the question whether Isaac, accord-
ing to the Old Testament, or Ishmael,
according to the genuine Arabic view, was
the first-born, whom his father was called
on to sacrifice ; and in that respecting the
name ^-«r, ,;^, given in the Koran to
Abraham's father, which seems to have
originated only in a false reading of the
VOL. I.
©apa of the LXX. But along with these
we meet with some extremely nai've stories
springing indeed merely from the combi-
nation of Arabic and Biblical elements,
but animated by a highly poetic spirit.
Ibrahim repeatedly visits Ishmael from
Syria, and Elijah-like creates and jiresents
on these occasions all the several treasures
of Mecca, &c. &c. AVhat is reported on
the transference of the guardianship of
the Ca'aba from the Ishmaelites to the
genuine Arabic tribe Jorham (Abulfida's
Avn. Antdsl. p. 192 ; comp. Tabari, p. 152
sq.), may perhaps deserve investigation.
But this transference is thrown so far
Ijack, to the age of Näbit, or Kaidar (i.e.
theNabateansorKedarites(Gen.xxA'. 12\
sons of Ishmael, that we can scarcely ex-
pect to find any former groimd there.
* A Chinese notice of Arabia has been
lately brought under discussion, in which
Ishmael, born at Mecca, but immediately
abandoned by his mother, digs in the soil
of the desert a deep well of healing water;
see Schott in the Berliner Akad. Monats-
berichte, 1849, p. 336 ; and compare Tabari,
p. 156. But this is not a primeval tradi-
tion independent of the Bible, if, as Schott
says in the Chinese S. L. p. 75, the notice
dates no farther back than Mohammedan
times.
338 PRELIMIXARY HISTORY.
Abraham -with that of Brahma, ' the notion has not even the
remotest historical importance.^
2. Isaac ; Esau.
With Isaac we arrive at the two youngest nations of this
great migration, the twelve tribes of Esan and the tAvelve
ti'ibes of Jacob, where the clear daylight of national history
first breaks upon us ; while Esau and Jacob, as the two sons of
Isaac, still elude our gaze amid the dim morning mists of his-
torical antiquity. There can indeed be no question that the
two nations, Esau or Edom, and Jacob, are really the youngest
of the whole circle. With regard to Israel, this is a matter of
course ; but also the nation of Edom, Israel's kindred race,
appears in the full light of history as a far fresher and more
vigorous peoj)le than Ammon or Moab, the next in affinity to
both. But it is also important to remember, that Esau is yet
the first-born son ; and that only the Mesopotamian mother has
a special attachment to the Mesopotamian Jacob. This nation
of Edom, which throughout its entire history was recognised
by Israel as a brother race, and must originally have formed
part of one and the same nation, is certainly the elder; and
in the olden time even j)redominated in power and prosperity.
This predominance was indeed attained during that period when
Israel was sinking deeper and deeper under Egyptian bondage ;
but even after the time of Moses, Edom long maintained its
position as an important and independent power, by the side
of the kindred race, notwithstanding the new and lofty aspira-
tions to which Israel had then aw^akened ; and in far later times
its ancient greatness and former precedence over Israel were
not easily forgotten. Its head-quarters were still the land of
mountain and cavern which stretches southwards from the Dead
Sea to the Red, where Abraham and Isaac had once pitched
their tents, according to id. 305 sqq. ; but its dominion must often
have extended far to the north, and have spread on the east
and west, over both sides of the Jordan valley. And we have
many indications that this rude and warlike mountain-race,
though always retaining that original type, were no strangers,
in their earlier and better days, to the arts of civilised life.
' Pop Sliahrast&ni's Elmilal, p. 444 sq., repeated eren l)y Orientalists like Tiolilen,
anil Cliwolson's Ssahier, i. p. 226 sqq., ii. to derive Abraham from Brahma. aiKl
p. .503, 743. Sarali from Sarasvati. AVorst of all, Julius
* Quito inexcusable, therefore, is tho Hvaww { Stimmen der Z( it, '^\;\y,\m2), vn-
idoa sot up in our ovm times by tho deavours thus to prove all tlic Patriarclis
.Würzburg philosopher, J. .T.Wagner, and unliistorical personages.
ISAAC ; ESAU. 339
The wisdom of Eclom long retained its repute ; and one gleam
of the departed glorj- is still reflected to us in the Book of Job.
Early traditions also of important discoveries were transmitted
bj Edom to the peojDle of Israel.' We shall explain further on
the causes of Edom's gradual decline after the time of Moses,
until it became wholly unable to cope successfully with Israel,
younger ' brother ' of the race.
The early glories of Edom are indeed reflected back upon
Isaac, the ancestor, and give to his history the most vivid
interest. The few accounts which we have of Isaac have evi-
dently been much tampered with by later narrators ; but we
have every reason to doubt whether the earlier ones can have
had much to tell of this Patriarch. If Isaac was in truth what
his name — ' the Laughing,' that is, the kind and gentle — im-
plies, — if he, among the three Patriarchs, passed preeminently
for the type of that kindly and quiet nature which guards
its possession of its allotted share of worldly good through un-
pretending goodness and unwavering fidelity (p. 298), the old
legends could hardly have anything very remarkable or varied
to relate of him. As rightful son and heir, he had no need by
great deeds or great qualities to win for himself what was already
his. His greatness and his duty consisted only in the faithful
maintenance of these spiritual and material possessions ; and
to this, a firm, unruffled, and virtuous nature, even if unaccom-
panied by extraordinary powers of mind, was fully equal.
Isaac thus typifies the true child of the community, who by
faithful obedience and self-sacrifice even unto death, rewards
his parents' hopes and longings, toil and care ;^ and thus earns
by merit a new title to what is already his by birth. In like
manner, his union with Pebekah is the prototype of every happy
marriage, approved by parents, and blessed by God, as appears
in the beautiful story in chap. xxiv. And where the preliminary
conditions which ought to precede every such undertaking are
of the kind here described — the design proceeding from a house-
hold animated by such paternal afi'ection as that of Abraham,
' As the tradition in Geu. xxxvi. 24, of people the (for him) very long passage,
the discovery by herdsmen, following the Gen. xxxvi.
track of their asses, of the warm-baths ^ A Greek parallel to the tradition of
(elsewhere celebrated) of that region ; Isaac's deliverance from death at the altar,
-^ is the story of Phrixus son of Athamas, in
comp, the place ^ ■]] ^ and its origin ApoUodorus, i. 9. 1, embarrassed, however,
T X A 1 1 11 1 ' i- hy much extraneous matter. A Hindu
according to Abdalhakam s narrative n i • ^ ■ ^i, ^ ^ /-• i •
/■nr -I' ^ I- 7j 7 /^i ir ■ no-- parallel exists lu the storv ot Cunahsepa ;
{Wens CTescktchfe dtr Ckaitfen, I. T).2So). ^ -r> ^t ■ .-c t j- i c./ ?• ■•
tj. 1 1 .• .1 . .1 \i, e see Koth in the Indische btudien, ii. p.
It also deserves notice that the author of 11.7 . > i-
the Book of Origins thought it worth " ""'
while to devote to the history of this
Z 2
340 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
and such filial devotion as that of Isaac, and directed with such
purity of jiurpose towards so suitable an object — the journey
undertaken for its accomplishment will prove as prosperous
throug-hout its course as that of Abraham's messenger ; ' and
the bride, though like E-ebekah she may never have seen her
destined husband, will be guided by as correct a presentiment
of success ; "^ and the lovers, before unknown to each other, will
from the moment of their first unexpected meeting, feel a love
as true and lasting as Isaac and Rebekah,^
Then, as himself the head of a household, Isaac treads in
Abraham's footsteps, like him serving Jahveh, and protected
by Jahveh, harassed perhaps awhile \>^ envious neighbours,
exposed by his gentle, peace-loving nature to many hostile
assaults ; yet in the end, by quiet persistency and the secret
working of the Divine blessing, gaining an honourable victory.
For what victory could there be more glorious than that his
very enemies sue for friendship and alliance with him as the
approved friend of God?* All the accounts, therefore, of this
successor of Abraham in his independent character,^ are but a
famter copy, often only slightly modified, of Abraham's words
and deeds ; differing principally in this, that Isaac appears
throughout a person of less povv^er and independence, and there-
fore more exposed to hostile attacks. But although so little
that is special or distinctive is found in our present accounts
of Isaac, this is no reason whatever for treating his history as
an unreality. Even the very peculiar locality in the Holy Land
which every tradition so distinctly assigns to him, according to
p. 305, proves upon what firm historic ground his memory was
indestructibly based. He sojourned only in scattered portions of
the parched-up southern land.^ These portions were his chiefly
as an inheritance from his father ; and even this heritage he
could not wholly maintain as his own ; though, according to the
' Gen. xxiv. 1-Gl. clescribrd, especially by Vaiideveldo (Syjv'a
^ vv. Ö7, Ö8. and Vulrstinc, ii. p. 136 sqq.). The name
' XK. 62, 67; for tlio interpretation of probalily denoted originally Seven We/ls,
these words, so far as they present any notwitlisiandint; the more exalted a]iplica-
diffieulty, see my Alttrthihner, p. 232-3, tion given to it in tlio old narrative of
and what is said in my Lrhrhnch, p. 327, Gen. xxi. 28 sqq. Comjiare the place
on the corresponding words in Gen. xx. s-
16. Even at the present day, the unbe- , ^^ mentioned in Guerin's Voyage
trothed maidens of the Tiiarik wear no -V 7. i . • ^, mi i ■>•
veil; Bee Hanoteau, Gravimairc dc la Arckrologiqnc, x. i^. 2bQ. Through a dia-
Langne Tammlick, p. xix. 1^^*'^' difference, according to my Lehrbuch,
«Gen. xxvi. 12-33; comp. Job xlii. S, 280 d, the numeral might be placed last,
g J,« 1 he well Lahai-I\oi is perhaps identical
* Gen. xxvi. 1-33. ^\\\\ the Lckich, which in Vandcvelde's
• Beershcba, the most important of tliese '"'^P ^'^^ somewhat to the north of
places, has now been di.'?covered and I>eer.sheba.
JACOB-ISEAEL. 341
tradition, fortune appears in the end to have become somewhat
more favourable to him. But it is phiin that from the earlj
records of other nations less definite information may be
looked for concerning Isaac than concerning either of the
other Patriarchs.^
As Isaac is never mentioned but under one name, he appears
to us always under the same simple character : — a good, true-
hearted father ; a contented, inoffensive, pious man ; called to
no special career of ambition or duty, but attaining all the
more surely to quiet domestic happiness. Very different is the
hero of the double name, next to be described, whose twofold
appellation expresses in itself the two-sided aspect of his
nature and his fortimes.
3. Jacob-Israel.
With him must have begun a new and imj3ortant develop-
ment in the history of the ancient movements of the Hebrew
tribes towards the south. This lofty position is assigned to
him by the whole complexion of the popular tradition, as a
great hero, and as father of the special nation, Israel.^ As
we have already seen (p. 292), the position which he occupies
among the twelve prototypes, and especially among the three
Patriarchs, shows him to have been the last admitted into an
already existing cycle of typical personages. But it is not
finally the individual greatness of the hero which effects his
entrance into this sacred circle. His distinctive rank in tradi-
tion is always as Father of the House of Israel ; his name retains
its perennial significance only as the head of a new and mighty
people ; and thus his admission as third and youngest into the
typical cycle of Patriarchs, indicates that a new Hebrew race
of fresh vigour and sj^ecial endowments had sprung up on the
same soil where the Hebraic tribes rei)resented by Abraham
and Isaac had already won a place in history. It was only
this new race, which, mingling with parts of the older tribes,
and gaining strength thereby, was to become that peculiar
people of Canaan, now immortalised under the name of Israel.
• No one surely will thiuk of eounectiiig no more than the actual people of Israel,
our Isaac with the Egyptian 'l(raiK6s in and this only in poetry; Abruham being,
Plutai'ch's De hide et Osiri, xxix, uotwith- moreover, only found thus employed at a
standing that he is there classed with somewhat late period (tliough allusively
Typhon. in Is. xxix. 22, and also, at least after
^ It is not to be overlooked, but indeed Jacob, in Micah vii. 20 ; comp. Is. xli. 8,
agrees perfectly with the previous ex- 9; 11. 1, 2 ; Ixi. 16); but Isaac somewhat
planation, that the names Isaac and earlier, especially in Amos.
Abraham in a national sense designate
342 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
Of the immediate occasion of this great movement in the
very middle of the Patriarchal period, and the exact manner in
■which it was accomplished, only some few points can now be
ascertained, while the greater number remain quite obscure.
Yet to a keen explorer some significant traces are discoverable in
the darkness, and leave no doubt on the main point with which
we are here concerned. On the one hand, Jacob's kindred in
Mesopotamia are expressly styled ' Arameans ' in the Book of
Origins ; ^ and the special district of that wide region where
they dwelt is called the Aramean Yoke,^ being the plain around
Harran, midway betwixt the two mountain-ranges. Thence
sprang the mother, who of her two sons loves only Jacob, the
younger (p. 338) ; and even he might himself be called an Ara-
mean when any importance attached to his derivation from
that foreign land.^ But taking these very accounts in their
true sense, nothing is more certain or self-evident than that
neither Jacob himself nor any of his kindred beyond the
Euplu'ates were of Aramean blood ; consequently they can only
have been called Arameans, because the north-eastern land
where they had then dwelt was so inundated by Aramean
tribes, that the region itself, and even the Hebrews still linger-
ing there, might be commonly known as Aramean ; the countries
of the Arameans and of the Canaanites being generally opjDOsed
to each other in rough distinctions. On the other hand, we
have already in a diflerent connection observed of the Abori-
ginal Hebrew tribes of the Nahoreans and Damascenes, that
they must, after Abraham's time, have been more and more
broken up by the encroachments of the Arameans (p. 310 sqq.) ;
and even Abraham, according to p. 301 sqq., was compelled to
defend himself and the Canaanites against the repeated inroads
of these north-eastern nations.
Taking ail together, it is clear that during the period when
Jacob, the Mesopotamic-Hebrew chief, first shines forth from
the darkness, a great movement of the Arameans must have
taken place in the same region from which Abraham had been
' Gen. XXV. 20, xxviii. 5 ; ami in like named from the city, if only because
manner in the Third Narrator, xxxi. 20. Ilo.sea (xii. 13), alluding to Jacob's history,
24. interprets that ancient name by the com-
^ This is the literal meaning of the mon Hebrew, the Field of Aram. This
name Qix pQ (see Jahrb. der Bihl. name is now found only in the Book of
Wiss. iv. p"lö6), from nQ or nQ«, tohind ^'"«'."^ ' *'f l''^^'''' "fr'-^^'oi'« "'^l^^'iys men-
(to twist). Arabic geographers, indeed, tion instead the well-known city Harran
sp'-ak of a city in that district. Tell / I^<^"t- ^''^•'- 5; '« ;«w {hi. lost)
Fedduii, which inav liave thence derived ^' «»'«"' was w^ Jathr (a proposition of
its name ^Cliwolson's &«/.i>r, i. p. 304)- ^^""^"^^ Jacob s antecedents being here
but the land itself cannot have been ^''^^'"^^ °"^y °" ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^'
JACOB-ISRAEL. 343
driven by similar causes to emigrate. After Abraham's depar-
ture, the Hebrews in those hinds must have been more and
more harassed; till Jacob at length shook himself free, and
arrived safely with his people in Canaan, where he restored the
Hebrew power, somewhat fallen into decay after Abraham's
death ; a portion of the Hebrews in Canaan coalescing closely
with him and his followers. Through him much was doubtless
done to strengthen and maintain both the power of the Hebrews
in Canaan, and all such fitting obsei'vances in all departments
of their life, as had their origin in Abraham's household. Yet
in matters of religion it would seem as if this second stream of
Hebrew migration had also brought Avith it some admixture of
less pure elements from the north-east. The images of house-
hold gods [Teraplii'm) which maintained their place for ages
in many houses of Israel,^ are indeed spoken of as objects of
reverence only to Jacob's wives and their father Laban, not to
Jacob himself; but the consecration of a stone, as the firm
immovable object towards which the looks and words of the
worshipper must be directed, bears every indication of origina-
ting with the Shepherd- hero himself, and was on that ground
long retained among his posterity.^ ' The Shepherd of the Stone
of Israel ' became the most expressive title for the God of the
great Shepherd-hero.^
1) This historical conception of Jacob is, moreover, confirmed
in detail by a multitude of remarkable reminiscences of him.
Of these the most important is that relating to the earliest
portion of his career, and thus bearing upon all the rest : — the
memory of his migration from Harran in Mesopotamia, with
wives and children, people and possessions. Nothing can more
plainly testify that under him a new and victorious portion of
the Hebrew race pushed forwards into Canaan from the lands
where they had been cradled, than this memory of his life, which
puts him in contrast with Isaac, Esau, and others, and on an
equality with Abraham ; more especially as we shall afterwards
see that by the twelve children whom he is rej^resented as
bringing with him from Harran, more is meant than twelve
individuals. That among the various Hebraic tribes which have
pushed forward towards the south-west, that which bears this
hero's name has displayed a most peculiar character, and played
a very special part in history ; and that although the youngest
and outwardly weakest, it was yet the subtlest, cunningest, and
' See aLove, p. 322, and my AUcrthilmer, 17 sqq.
p. 256 sqq. ' According to the ancient testimony in
2 See the Jahrh. der Bibl. Wiss, x. p. the Blessing on Joseph, Gen. xlix. 24.
34i PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
most pliable, and tlius eventually the conqueror of tliem all, is
plainly taught by the history of all ages, commencing with its
very first appearance. In many respects its original position
might be likened to that of the Franks among the German
nations b}' Avliom the Koman empire was crushed. But as these
had first to make a way for themselves over the strata of kindred
nations which were dominant before them, so the tradition of a
new Hebrew immigration under Jacob-Israel is certahaly a most
acciu-ate remembrance of the origin of the power wielded by
them in Canaan and Egypt.
Another ancient feature of the legend is this : — that the hero
enters Canaan as Jacob, but here gains for himself the ncAv
conqueror's title of Israel.^ Both names were indeed emj^loyed
almost without distinction in common speech, and even in the
hero's own liistor}' are not always kept so distinct as might have
been expected (compare p. 94). But in itself Israel — God's
Warrior — was indisputably the higher name, befitting a hero
who, strengthened by God, had endured the hardest conflicts,
and achieved godlike victories. Now it is certainly possible
that a great man may through his life and deeds have won for
himself in later years a new and higher name, which would be
used in addition to the first, or perhajDS entirely supersede it ; ^
but it is never to be forgotten that the hero of whom we are
now speaking is also regarded as the father of the whole nation,
and therefore his names have also a sj^ecial importance as
national names. When a country, a nation, or even a single
city, bears several names, there is an antecedent probability
that these names preserve the memory of some great changes
in its rulers. As we know that the same city bore the Israelitish
name Bethel, but also the older Canaanite name of Luz (p. 304),
thus preserving its histor}'-, as inhabited first by Canaanites and
afterwards by HebrcAvs, so the names Kirjath-arba^ and Hebron,
Jebus and Jerusalem, were doubtless exchanged only because
these cities were governed at different periods by very difierent
nations. One of the best examples of the change in national
names lies close at hand, in Jacob-Israel's own brother : in the
three names Seir, Edom, Esau, we have a clear indication that
the Aboriginal race that called itself Seir was first subjugated
by Canaanites bearing the name Edom, and then (together with
' Cit-n. XXXV. 10-15, according to tlic Solomon-J.diiliah, 2 Sam. xii. 34, 35.
Book of Origiii.s; xxxii. 23-33, according ' This might mean originally Four
to the Ttiird Narrator; who howovor, here Cities, as Eoersheba, according to p. 340,
as cIsewluTc, probably made use of the is Seven Wells ; and it is possil)le that the
First Narrator. dreaded chief Arba (p. 230) obtained his
■■' As Giduou-Jeriibbaal, Judges vi-viii; name from it.
JACOB-ISRAEL. 345
the latter) by Hebrews bearing the name Esau :^ the last name,
however, never entirely superseding the two first ; and that of
Edom in particular continuing to be very frequently used in com-
mon life. In like manner, the tribe which in the north beyond the
Euj)hrates had borne the name of Jacob, and immigrated under
that name into Canaan, doubtless took from its victorious leader
its new name Israel, only when by mixture with older Hebraic
tribes in that land it had there grown into a mighty peoj)le. And
while the memory of two great epochs of the early hijtory is
thus preserved, other traces are discovered in the very earliest
traditions, which tend in the same direction, indicating that
this 2)eople must have grown up in Canaan from a double stem.
Thus Jacob-Israel has two wives, of very different natures ; his
children are divided between two very dissimilar families, and
these again group themselves around Judah (Reuben) and
Joseph. Joseph and Benjamin are indeed the only two of the
later family, and Benjamin is even a child of Canaan ; while
Ephraim, who is closely connected with Joseph, indicates
an admixture of the Canaanite element. We shall afterwards
pursue this subject further ; but thus much is clear, that the
change of name recorded of Abraham and Sarah in the Book of
Origins (p. 324) can only be an imitation of the story of the
change of Jacob's name to Israel, because in this latter case
there is an important historical reason for the change, and the
two names are perfectly distinct from each other and both in
po23ular use ; whereas in the former, the reason assigned is
factitious ; and the change itself is only an ingenious and
scarcely perceptible modification of the same name.
But one constant feature appears in all the stories about
Jacob : he is always, as his name denotes, the Crafty. Whether
he crosses the Euphrates or the Jordan, he is the same. In the
whole Hebrew legend he plays much the same part (at least in
his lower or human character) as Ulysses in the Greek. It
' Seir maybe nearly equivalent in force its inhabitants Edom has alwaj's been the
to Esau — hairy, rough; to be understood prevailing name (see xxxii. 4 | 3] ; xxxiii.
originally of tlie rough mountain-land; in 16). See also above, p. 234. The name of
history it appears as the land of the the neighbouring land Uz also (p. 311)
Horites (p. 226) ; and as the oldest name seems to be only an abbreviation from
(Gen. xxxvi. 20-30; comp. ver. 9), although Esau; and the later Arabs unite both in
the Last Narrator plays upon the name the name ^,\. Z.W\\son, \n Lands of
on occasion of Esau's birth, in Gen. xxv. , „.,, W •• ' „ y. i . ^ ,
25. On tlie other hand, according to all ^^^^ .^'*^'; }■ P- ^32 sq., Imds traces of the
tradition, Esau is th. most receat and ancient Idumeans among the Fellahs of
the proper Hebrew name, and therefore Wädi-Müsa; i^t,:^^, however, is not
also the name of the ruler and the idling ^^^^ ^f Gen. xxxvi. 3 sqq., but pro-
race; interchanging with Edom (Gen. , ', ; '^.j ■ , • , -r.
xxxvi. 18, 19), but called also Father of ^^^^J identical with Batseba.
Edom (vv. 9, 43) ; for the country and
346 rRELIMIXAFvY HISTORY.
might indeed be supposed that this feature in the portrait of
the Patriarch was only sublimated from the character of the
Mosaic people, and intended to typify an overdone intellectual
cleverness, often perhaps passing into really reprehensible de-
ception and unstraig'htforwarduess, which we observe in the
Hebrew people iu times nearer to our own. Indeed the Prophets '
often typify such national sins in the person of this Patriarch,
who, as the nearest in time, is most truly the father of the na-
tion, and therefore, more appropriately than Abraham or Isaac,
is made to reflect both the characteristic virtues and the distinc-
tive failings of the nation. But we have evidence ver}^ remark-
able likewise in another point of view, that both the use and
the meaning of this word, which is obviously the more ancient
appellation, have come down to us from an age when there can
have been no thought of the future nation of which the prophets
were thinking. We possess a circumstantial account of decep-
tions practised between Jacob and Laban — a very cui-ious piece,
which might really be called the Hebrew Comedy of Errors,
planned with such evident art and so Avell worked out that we
may with justice suppose it to have been formerly represented
b}^ actors at popular festivals and thence afterwards transferred
to narrative.^ But the tale, when traced back to its original
idea, was obviously intended to represent the struggle between
the crafty Hebrews on the opposite banks of the Euj^hrates ;
showing how the southern Hebrews gained the upper hand in
the contest, and the northern were driven off with derision. In
such wise, probably for whole centuries, the two kindred tribes,
Nalior (or Laban) and Israel, on the Jiorthern boundary of
Palestine, may have wrangled together, now in sport, now in
sober earnest, with mutual taunts and attempts to overreach one
another. And since after the time of Moses no such connec-
tion any longer existed between them (unquestionably because,
according to p. 311 sq., the Arameans had thrown themselves
between them by occupying Damascus), we must admit this to
be a fragment of the primeval histor^^, which shows us in what
very early times Israel was already recognised as a people able
to hold its own against far greater nations. When we further
remark that, in close connection with the foregoing, the First
' Hof^ea, xii. 4 eq. [3 sq.], speaks how- witli the general drift of the passage; we
over without any such insinuation; but must not iiere allow ourselves to be misled
utterances such as Is. xliii. 27, xlviii. 8, by the expression ;!% /rs;; /«('/(er, for this
eertaiiiiy are to the point. But in Is. me-dns no more than fonfat/ier. They are
xliii. 27, wn nuist understand Jacob only, all forefathers or patriarchs, but this one
and not Al^rahani, since tiie latter would only is the Forefaihrr of Israel.
neither make sense in itself, nor accord '■' Gen. xxix. 15-xxxii. 1 [xxxi. 55].
JACOB-ISRAEL. 347
Narrator vividly describes the frontier-stones and covenantal
monuments erected between these two nations on Mount Gilead,'
and that this also g-uides us to a period far removed in cha-
racter and history from the Mosaic, we cannot doubt that we
here come upon vestiges of the actual primeval history of the
tribes of Israel, of similar character to others which we shall
notice in the sequel. This story of the boundary between the
northern and the southern Hebrews certainly presents very gro-
tesque images of the ancient chiefs Laban and Jacob. Laban
and his people, when about to conclude a treaty of peace, erected
a watch-tower {3Iizpah), as if for a watchman on the part of that
God who looks down from his height to keep watch ovei' oath and
covenant ; and Jacob not only erects a memorial column, but
causes his people to pile uj) a lofty mound of stones [Gileacl),
Avhich may serve at once as an altar of sacrifice and as a table
for the common repast which is to solemnise the covenant.
Laban then swears by the Mound and the Watch-tower, Jacob
by the Mound also and by the Column, and both parties thus
commemorate the solemn compact, which is to banish for all
future time every occasion of strife between the two kindred
houses and nations.^ Noav this column, no doubt, was once to
be seen as a landmark on Mount Gilead^ (p. 21, 303), and was
erected there by human hands; the watch-tower was the city and
fortress of Mizpah, on one of the heights of Gilead ; the mound
was the rocky mountain-range of Gilead itself. It thus seems
' That the account in Gen. xsxi. ii-öi, remarks by the Last Narrator, who indeed
although it has passed through the hands must unquestionably have written them,
of the Third and Fifth NaiTators, is But nS^'SH is thus neither sufficiently
originally derivMl from the First Narrator, ^^^^^^, -^ \^^^ ^^^ ^f ^^^ sentence (for
IS shown not only by its general purport, ^ j^^ ^^ precede, as in verse 52), nor
but by the phraseology m the antique t ••
and unusual expression pn^"» nns, ver. f'^cn intelligible in itself; since, though
,' 7 ■■■. ''' nn^'Sn m w. ÖI, 52 was explained m
53 (comp. ver. 42); and m that of the t •• - - ^
brethnn of Jacob and of Labiin (see ver. 45, nSV^n was not. We should here
above, p. 312), by the description in vv. 46, reflect also how miich more suitable it is
54, of the covenant being concluded there that both parties should swear either by
and then at a repast (just as in xxvi. 30 ; something common to the two, as the
Ex. xxiv. 4-11), and by the mention of Cairn (a masculine noun), or each by
the covenant itself (see p. 69 sq.). something special to himself — the one by
2 It cannot be denied that the extant the Pillar, the other by the Watch-tower
text of w. 45-54 is very obscure, chiefly (both feminines ; for there is an obvious
because the mention of the Watch-tower, pm-poso even in the change of gender).
in ver. 49, is quite unexpected, and, placed "\Ve would, therefore, ratlier suppose that
where it is, even destroys the natural the Last Narrator, who in ver. 48 sq. adds
context of the speech. We might suppose explanatory remarks of his own, omitted
that only Laban pronounced the oath, and to mention the W:'.tch-tower after ver. 44,
that his speech, beginning v^'. 48-50, was as well as the word niy iu ver. 49 ; and in
merely resumed and completed in 51-53; ^, . j *i ^ rr 1 j
•' I ^ .' ver. 51 transposed the names of Laban and
then the words from J3 ^y, ver. 48,and again ^^^^-^ -^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^j^^ ^^^^
from ItJ'X. ver. 49 tothe end (comp.xxii.l4), effect.
should' be omitted, as being merely two ' Judges x. 7, xi. 11, 34.
348 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
that tradition formerly spoke of the whole mountain as having
been piled up b}- Jacob and his followers in their border-strife
with Laban, Avhile the solitary fortress on its commanding emi-
nence was the work of Laban — much like the Phenician legend
of the Pillars of Hercules. But precisely this grotesque con-
ception of the underlying legend, so foreign to the spirit of the
Mosaic age, carries us back to a very early period, and shows us
traces of the very oldest narrator.
There yet remains one most distinctive feature of the legend :
Jacob appears throughout as the great 81ie'plierd of antiquity.
In this character he stands out distinct among the three Patri-
archs ; all the separate traditions respecting him seem to breathe
the same perfume of pastoral life. His badge is the shej)herd's
staff. But he is honoured not merely as the great inventor of
various pastoral arts, but also as one who, like a god, could
overcome all by strength of arm and fist. ' Even in this latter
character, many earlier myths have been unconsciously .trans-
ferred by the love and reverence of his descendants to him, the
last especial father of their race (p. 289 sq.) ; and for centuries
the people seem to have delighted in the thought that in him,
their veritable ancestor, they might boast of a rival to the heathen
Hercules or Apollo. Nor can it be denied that the memory of
this favourite hero long threw even that of Abraham into the
background, until after Moses' time it could be revived under
more propitious circumstances. But in all this lies a clear
consciousness that the Hebrews, as a roving pastoral people,
such as they became under Jacob, were in early times very
different from the Arameans and Canaanites. And with this
simple way of life that simple religious worship which, accord-
ing to p. 343, had a sacred stone as its central symbol, harmon-
ised most perfectly.
2) If such is clearly the foundation of Jacob's history, with
its manifold legends, it becomes at once evident that he was
originally designated as a son of Isaac only in the sense in
which such relationships are generally to be understood of
nations and tribes, as will be presently explained anew in refer-
ence to the sons of Jacob himself. By fusion of his own people
with Isaac's tribe, Jacob became son of him and twin-brother
of Esau ; and if Esau is invariably regarded as the elder brother,
this is only a fresh confirmation of the oj)inion that Jacob's
own arrival was of later date, and that only a portion of Isaac's
people and tribes became blended with the new immigrants
' Besides Gen. xxix. 1-10, already mentionod, see espocially xxx. 31-43 ; xxxii.
2.')-33 [24-32].
JACOB-ISRAEL. 349
who bore Jacob's name. It will be shown in the proper place
that, even as late as the time of Moses, Israel's 2)osition with
regard to Edom seems that of a kindred but weaker nation,
but that in the earliest times a close defensive alliance appears
to have subsisted between them. But even the account of
the meeting between the two brothers on Jacob's arrival from
Mesopotamia' bears still unmistakable traces of this old feel-
ing of Esau's preponderance and magnanimity. It represents
Esau as having always been dominant in Edom ; whereas,
accordi7ig to the Book of Origins, it was onl}- after Isaac's
death that the brothers separate, and Esau by an amicable
arrangement with his brother migrates into Edom.^ It depicts
very clearly the relative position of the two brothers, like that
in which the two brother-nations stood to each other in the
days of Moses and the Judges ; and although the Last Narrator
makes many additions, and freely recasts the whole, his ac-
count, both in its general substance and in various isolated
expressions,^ locia.j be traced back with certainty to the earliest
Narrator.
But when it had once become a settled idea, that in this
sense Jacob and Esau were brothers, and sons of Isaac, the
legend of Jacob's immigration into Canaan could then be most
easily maintained by considering it only a retuim to the land
of his father Isaac* And the Book of Origins, v/hich contains
the earliest demonstrable account preserved to us, assigns a
reason, quite in harmony with the spirit of the age, why Jacob,
born in Canaan, passed earl}^ over Jordan and Eu]3hrates — not
to return thence till he had become the true Jacoh-Israel, and got
wives and children, wealth and j)ower. For when this book was
written, au ever-widening breach had for generations divided
the two nations, formerly so closely leagued together, and Edom
had been actually subjugated by David (p. 75 sq.). Edom had
also visibly fallen away from the higher religion, and become
friendly to the practices of the Canaanites, in the same decree
as Israel had remained true to the former and receded from
the latter. This book,^ therefore, assigns Esau's Canaanite
marriages as the immediate cause of the brothers' separation,
* Gen. xxxii. 4 [3]-xxxiii. 17. ^ Just think how diiferently we should
* According to Gen. xxxv. 29 ; xxxvi. judge of Jacob's oriijin, hud \vc only the
6, 7 ; which is uotopposed to the statement brief notice in Deut. xxvi. 4, where, for a
in xxviii. 9 of the .same book. special object (to insi.'-t, namely, on his
* As JiÖ3. Gren. xxxii. 18 [17], xxxiii.8, original poverty and mean estate), he is
compared with Ex. iv. 24, 27 ; and on called— not entirely without historic truth
the other hand, yjn, Gen. xxviii. 11, xxxii. —^^ Aramean !
, r • ---T T. '' o -,-x * ^•^"- ^^^'- 3^: 35, xxvii. 40-xxviii. 9.
1 [xxxi. OöJ ; ihx. V. 3, 20.
350 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
and of Jacob's jom-ney beyond the Eupbrates. As Isbmael,
according to the same narrator, bad by an Egyi^tian marriage
wholly separated himself from the pure blood of Abraham/ so
in like manner Esau, through his union with two Canaanite
women. This alienates his parents from him ; and Isaac, urged
by Eebekah, sends the second son, with his full blessing, to his
Iviudred beyond the Euphrates. It avails little that Esau then,
as if to amend his fault, takes another wife, who is at least
of the house of Ishmael. Jacob consequently was to find in
Laban the man on whom he might prove himself ' The Crafty,'
and whom he should overcome by well-devised artifice ; while
Esau, of whose expedition into Edom and settlement there
during Isaac's lifetime ^ the present work gives no explanation
or particulars whatever, comes to meet him on the frontier when
returning from Mesopotamia : an equivocal act, not prompted
by memory of the quarrels or deadly feuds of their youth, but
rather the self-assertion of one who has not yet finally relin-
quished his birthright claim upon Canaan, and waits first to
observe Jacob's behaviour. And indeed, throughout the whole
of the earlier narrative,^ no stress whatever is laid upon childish
quarrels or previous causes of offence : the actual battle-field
witnesses simply a trial of wits between the crafty Jacob and
the no less crafty Laban, wherein subtlety is fitly matched
against subtlety.
However, this true Hebrew Comedy of Errors, to which we
have alluded (p. 846) as adopted by the Last Narrator, is not
derived from the Book of Origins ; but, as now extant, bears
every trace, like much else relating to Jacob's life, of being by
the Third Narrator."* And although we receive it from the Last
Narrator abridged here and there and mutilated in the earlier
part,-^ 3^et the fine plan of the whole is still intelligible, and the
unique narrative breathes throughout a true poetic sj^irit, felt
by every susceptible reader ; so that we seem often to catch
' Gen. xxi. 21. * At xxix. lö sqq., Laban is aliruptly
^ Gen. xxxii. 4 [3]. deseribed as a crafty man, though not tho
' Gen. xxxii. 4 [3] sqq. sliplitest hint had previously been given
* That this does not originate with tlio of liis cliaraeter. Tlien, some account of
Last Narrator, is ck>ar from the method Laban's further tricks in the compact
in ■which he treats the narrative beginning concerning the flocks, and his repeated
at Gen. xxix. 15; biit there is quite as though unavailing alterations of that com-
little trace of the Book of Origins, of pact, should manifestly have preceded ch.
which the style and manner appear only xxxi. 1 ; which is rendered certain by the
in the account of Jacob's removal from allusion to them in xxxi. 7-10. How much
IMesopotaniia in xxxi. 18; comp, xxxvi. G. the Last Narrator omitted and altered in
Some indications which point to the Third xxxi. 44-54, has been already explained
Narrator we have already mentioned at at p. 347.
p. 99.
JACOB-ISRAEL. 351
the dance and music of actual verse.' Elsewhere also m the
writings of this author, similar outbursts of poetic feeling-,
though hardly actual verse, may be remarked.
3) It is then by the Fourth Narrator, and still more by the
Fifth, that the life of this Patriarch has been cast into the
shape Avhich has won for it an imperishable memory. In the
time of the latter especially, the breach between the two nations,
Israel and Edom, had been gradually widening into a deadly
feud, which endured for centuries, and determined in great part
the history of the kingdom of Judah (see p. 107 sqq.). The
image of this fearful struggle between the two nations and
religions naturally intrudes into the writer's conception of the
primeval history, and gives its prevailing tone to that. The
quarrel with Esau thus becomes the sole pivot on which revolves
the eventful life of Jacob, until, victorious over all opposition,
he appears in old age as the recognised successor of Abraham
and Isaac. Here again we find an exemplification of the prin-
ciple that any considerable transplanting of a whole department
of popular legends can only flow from a great change in the
fortunes of the peoples themselves. But it is equally noteworthy,
that the venerable legend of Jacob's life is now not merely
expanded in bulk, but imbued with a far deeper moral signifi-
cance, and reproduced in a new form of higher poetic beauty.
The sharp antithesis in Jacob's imier life is now for the first
time brought prominently forward. Jacob, by birth the younger,
and consequently the inferior, yet impelled by some mysterious
higher power to supreme rule, from his early years fights his
way up, contending with unwearied energy against Esau, and
even under the most unfavourable circumstances never shrinks
from beginning the struggle again — true type of the character
of the wrestler, never wholly subdued, with resources for every
exigency, and skill to meet every difficulty. But since in this
upward struggle against the savage but honest Esau, he had
at first made use of artifices prompted by the headstrong im-
pulse of the moment, but not sanctioned by duty or religion,
he deservedly brings on himself his brother's deadly persecu-
tion ; is compelled to wander forlorn and helpless far from the
laud of his fathers, and becomes involved in a long succession
of severe troubles and sufferings ; with the hope of at last
emerging from the severe ordeal as from a new birth — no
longer the crafty wrestler, but the real ' God-wrestler ; ' thus
consummating at last an enduring triumph over Esau. This
' As in the 'winged words' between Gilead, xxxi. 26-30, 36-42; henee also
Laban and Jacob at their meeting in poetical expressions such as ''05311, v. 39.
35-2 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
is the new idea that here strives for expression, pervading and
animating all.
a.) In the very first mention of the brothers, even before
their birth, the narrator takes occasion to indicate beforehand
the inevitable final issne, already fore-ordained in the Divine
purj)ose. If Jacob, with God's help, is ultimately to triumph
over all, and to overcome Esau the elder-born, this can only
be thi'oug-h some special indwelling spiritual force, whose origin
can be referred to no definite epoch in his life : neither to his
advanced age, his youth, nor his birth.' The twins struggle
even in their mother's womb, thus foreshadowing the great
future struggle between the nations ; and an oracle declares
that the issue will be the triumph of the younger son (and
people). Thus also, in their very birth, the younger seizes the
elder by the heel, as if irresistibly impelled to pass him and
wrest from him his natural riglit — the first occasion on which
Jacob's name is interjjreted as the ' Heel-Grasper,' ' one who
tries to trip another up from behind,' the ' Crafty.' ^
But this is only an attempt, after the manner of this narrator,
to foreshadow at a glance the leading interest of the whole
following history ; the actual career of the twins then proceeds
to its development, quite independently of this predestination ;
yet to this the ultimate issue at last returns. The opposite
natures of the two brothers are however early manifested (Gen.
XXV. 27-34). If Esau, the rough huntsman, earns our contempt
for the levity with which, in mere craving after momentary
gratification, he trifles away his birthright,^ the quiet home-
loving Jacob, who craftily Avorks on him to this end,^ certainly
merits no praise. But such boy's play furnishes a telling hint
of the future.
But the bold venture made in the ensuing narrative of Gen.
xxvii. 1-1-5, as to the anticipation of the birthright by Jacob,
was justified in the first place by the established notion of Jacob
as The Crafty : a characteristic easily transferred to the mother,
naturally partial to the weaker and gentler child ; especially as
from a higher point of view this bestowal of the parental blessing
on Jacob was considered justifiable. For, in the time of the
' Cnnip. such expressions fis .Ter. i. T). liim in ITeh. xi. IG, 17, is so fnr not inap-
' Gen XXV. 20-23, comp, xxvii. 3G ; propriate.
comp. IlosPii xii. 4. Similar conceptions * QJT), in Gen. xxv. 27, cannot, possilily
an<l stories mipliteasilv arise ; comp. Gen ^- -f^ /^hmelrss, hr^ncst ; since that idea
xxxvM, 28-.-5I): Apol o.lorus. ,.. 2 1 ; and x,,^y,r^on\sen neither with the context nor
str.kmply similar is tlu- story of the hirth ,,it,, ^,,, character of the Crafty ■ nor has
f)i (irmuzf and Ahriman, as told livJ'.znik, ii i ,i • ■ i •
,..,,....,' J -•.-■.■iiiv, tlie word Uns meanin(r anywhere in prose,
■ , mi • 1 , , exceiitinp; Job i, ii. Jt must here rather
" 1 lie severe ni(l;'inent pronounced on i . * i -.i _•_ i • t -j
•' '^ ' ^ hii connected with Q-q, and signify quiet.
JACUli-lSRAEL. 353
later narrator, a higher destiny had long- subjected Edom to the
Hebrews, thus giving to the latter the birthright-blessing of the
elder race. But at the same time the difficulty had become ap-
parent of keeping so wild and warlike a people as Edom long-
in subjection (p. 107 sq.). Supposing such a struggle to have
been alieady of long duration, it might indeed be thought that
Isaac, beguiled at first by the arts of Jacob and his mother,
must yet in that solemn moment have been inspired by true
prophecy to bless the younger son instead of the elder ; ' but that
Esau did then arrive just in time to win by iirgent pleading
the one blessing, that by strenuous resistance he should be
able at last to break his brother's yoke. The narrator repre-
sents Isaac as having recourse ou this occasion to a more de-
licious repast, in order to rouse the prophetic faculty ; as all the
weaker forms of prophecy seize upon phj^sical irritants to their
exercise ; ^ a conception which accords well with the position
generally assigned by tradition to Isaac as the least spiritual of
the three Patriarchs. And though it is of the very essence of
the narrative that these j^rophetic declarations respecting the
position of the two brothers should be authoritative, yet the
narrator, far from approving Jacob's deception, represents him
as flying from Esau's merited hatred ; and skilfully leads back
the thread of the history to the earlier legend, where Jacob is
sent forth, with his father's blessing, to seek a fitting wife among
his kindred in the far north-east.
b.) It was this disastrous state, however, which first opened
to Jacob the possibility of true amendment and self-conquest,
wherein his heart should at last rise superior to its own guile.
Driven forth from the happy paternal hearth, and wandering
helpless in a strange land, he is forced to fix his hope more
steadfastly than ever on Jahveh, and, whatever his labour or
his subtlety, beware of encountering the Just One with deceit.
Thus was deliverance yet possible for him. And that Jahveh will
never abandon one who trusts in him, least of all when striving
darkly forward to a doubtful future, is beautifully indicated by
the Fourth Narrator, in that passage of rare grandeur, which he
places at the beginning of Jacob's history.^ Here the wanderer,
still but a few da^y's journey from the parental home, is com-
pelled to pass the night in the fields, his head resting on a hard
' Following tlio similar but older story added that the D''Jti)n in Is. x\-ii. 8, as a
ill Gen. xlviii. 13-20. contraction of }n-|n = tbin. CHn be only
2 Proph. des A. B. i. 37, 39. .. , . ,.',-=-' . ' =■■ . . .•
» Gen.xxviii. 10-22; seep. 104 sq., 112, very slightly diiferent from mr33, since m
303 sq., and iny Alterthnmer, p. 260. To Levit. xxvi. 30 the two are conjoined,
this passage of the Altcrthiinur may be
VOL. I. A A
354 TKELIMINARY HISTORY.
stone ; and just then, in this hardest and most forlorn pli<i:ht,
sees the heavens open and the Deity made g^raciouslj manifest ;
receives the snbHmest promises and encouragements, and vows
himself with fresh ardour, as one new-born, to the service of
Jahveh. A somewhat similar account seems indeed, according
to XXXV. 1-15, to have already occupied the same place in the
earlier historj^ ; but when we now read that Jacob at once set
up» the stone as a monument and anointed it (compare on the
other hand xxxv. 14), we perceive by this and other signs how
freely the later historian must have transformed this splendid
passage.
And Jacob does in fact arrive prosperously at Harran, * meets
happily with Rachel at the very first, and is then blessed with
wives and children, power and wealth, beyond his highest ex-
pectations. But he there also finds in Laban, with whom he
has to live perpetually in the closest contact, a father-in-law
no less crafty and alive to his own advantage than himself.
He thus finds himself for the first time in a regular school of
deceit, where craft is matched against craft : old Laban desires
to use the industrious and marvellously lucky shep)herd as
long as possible for his own benefit, and descends to any low
cunning which tends to this end, as for example repeated
arbitrary alteration in the conditions of service. ^ The indefa-
tigable servant cannot and will not always toil for others only,
and finds himself compelled to op>pose artifice to ai-tifice. The
advantage appears at first to be wholly with the crafty old
man, who has experience and paternal dignity on his side,
while Jacob has only his shepherd's staff and his force of will.
The contest is long and various, but the final turn of the scale
in such an encounter of craft with craft must plainly be deter-
mined only by the difference in the original motive ; since he
who without just cause first resorted to stratagem, cannot
be nerved through all ensuing complications by the same calm
strong consciousness of right as he who emjjloyed similar
weapons only on compulsion and in self-defence. And thus,
as is shown even as early as in the Third Narrator's account,
Jacob remains victor at last in this long and complicated game
of real life ; bafiling by his superior craft the unprovoked and
unwarranted acts of his opponent. Thus,
(1) Laban breaks faith with him respecting Rachel, under a
plausible pretext, but in reality that he may profit longer by his
services. But Jacob, who, like Apollo or Krishna, gives to men
' Sec ahovo, p. 342. An ancient ./«co//,s called; see the doscription in Badger's
Well is still shown near tho city; Init it Nestorians, i. p. 344.
may fairly \)f asked, when it was first so * Gen. xxxi. 41 ; sec p. 350 jintc.
JACOB-ISRAEL. 355
the example how the true hero ought sometimes to abase him-
self and serve, not only cheerfully accomplishes seven additional
years of service, but is rewarded beyond his expectations m
wives and children (xxix. 13-xxx. 24).
(2) When Jacob, at the expiration of this second term of
seven years (xxxi. 38, 41), very reasonably thinks of founding a
house of his own, and wishes to return home, Laban, instead of
releasing him honourably after his faithful service, endeavours
with artful selfishness to retain him by the offer of wages ; but
reluctant, from the same selfish spirit, to propose on his own
part any definite and handsome recompense, leaves it with feigned
magnanimity to his son-in-law to name his own conditions, in the
ill-disguised hope that he may be overawed to rate his services
far below their real value. And Jacob, thus forced to employ
similar craft on his own part, does indeed propose a new mode
of payment, which will apparently yield so little, that Laban
eagerly catches at it : that the particoloured lambs, hitherto a
very small proportion of the whole, are henceforth to be the pro-
perty of the shepherd. But the crafty Jacob, having the right
on his side, is favoured by the special aid of his Grod with a
new device for the artificial propagation of particoloured lambs.
Laban beholds with disma}^ the amazing increase of Jacob's
flocks through this very stipulation. Even when, at his desire,
a somewhat different variety of particolour is adopted as the
condition, fortune still remains wondrously on Jacob's side
(xxx. 25-43, supplemented by xxxi. 7-12).^
(3) When Laban, though only taken in his own net, and with
no just cause of grievance, becomes at last so thoroughly ex-
asperated with his son-in-law that the latter has everything to
fear from his revenge, Jacob resolves, in concert with Laban 's
own daughters, and encouraged by supernatural visions and
promises, to seize the first opportunity of flight, carrying with
him the earnings of his twenty laborious years. He now takes
the initiative in those artifices which have hitherto always
originated with the morose old man ; he steals Laban's heart ;
that is, he goes off without giving Laban the slightest intima-
tion, or seeking in a7iy way to propitiate him; and escapes suc-
cessfully across the Euphrates (xxxi. 1-21). It is, however, a
striking feature in the legend, introducing a new complication
into this drama of complications, that Rachel herself, without
Jacob's complicity, steals from her self-seeking father his house-
•■ The story of the inventive genius of blcs that of Apollo Poimnios, as inventor
the great Shepherd-Chief no doubt existed of thecithara, &c. See further Björnstahl's
originally on its own account, and rescm- Reisen, vi. 2. p. 399.
A A 2
r-56 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
hold-gods ; ' as if tlierebj to appropriate and carry with them
into Canaan entire and undivided the good fortune of the
paternal house, all participation in which had been denied by
Laban to herself and her husband.
(4) Then, when Laban learns their flight and the loss of his
household-gods, and for the first time finds himself entirely the
injured party, he pursues the fugitive with armed force, and
comes up with him at Gilead, the north-eastern frontier of
Canaan, in the larger sense of the word ; and Jacob seems in
imminent peril of losing at one blow all that he bas painfully
and laboriously gained.
(5) But as if an evil conscience still preyed secretly on Laban,
he is warned by a supernatural voice in a dream, the evening
before the decisive encounter was expected, not to proceed too
violently against Jacob. But though his violence is thereby
somewhat mitigated, he considers that he has at least full
ground of complaint against him for the robbery of the house-
hold-gods. But as Jacob in good faith disclaims all knowledge
of the theft, Laban by this complaint only puts himself again
in the wrong. When Rachel then, with successful cunning,
manages to keep the household-gods hidden from his most dili-
gent search, he is completely humbled, and can scarcely main-
tain even the semblance of paternal dignity, and has to content
himself with concluding a treaty of peace and alliance with
Jacob (xxxi. 44-xxxii. 3), which happily winds up this long
game of well-matched wits, the true Hebrew Comedy of Errors.'*
That in the time of the earlier historian some such memorial of
these transactions as is described, xxxi. 45, 51, really stood on
Mount Gilead — that Gilead was once the mountain-frontier be-
tween the Aramean and Canaanite nations, the scene in former
ages of border struggles and treaties of peace like these ; such
is the basis of strict historic truth on which this series of stories
is built up (compare p. 346 sqq.). But it is fitly related in con-
clusion (xxxii. 2 [1] sq.), how Jacob, victor at last in the long
struggle, is met on his entrance into the Holy Land by a troop
of angels, as if to hail him conqueror, and conduct him from
the threshold to the very heart of the land. This storj', more-
over, serves also to explain the sanctity attached to the city
Mahanaim (alread}" mentioned, p. 305) between Gilead and the
Jordan ; and indeed would otherwise have been impossible.
' In tlio siimo nortli-ofistorn district, - That this pioco falls naturally into fivo
but in tho first century af/er Christ, a divisions, like an actual drama, is shown
similar custom is mentioned by Joscphus, in a more comprehensive manner in the
A)it. xviii. 9. 5. Tübingen Theo'. Juhrh. 1815, p. 752 sq.
JACOB-ISRAEL. 357
But scarce has lie thus crossed the threshold, arrd is delivered
from this great danger on the north-east, than he is threatened
with one yet more formidable on the south from Esau, who,
althoug-h already established in Edoni, has by no means relin-
quished his claim upon Canaan, and is now approaching with
an armed force. ^ His superior strength Jacob can neither dis-
regard nor resist ; he therefore has reconrse to the politic expe-
dient of sending an amicable message to announce his coming.
But the messengers bring back no further news than that Esau,
strongly armed, is already on the way. Jacob thus unexpectedly
finds himself involved afresh in extreme perplexity. Even here,
however, his presence of mind never fails him ; he promptly
decides on a measure frequently resorted to in military tactics :
dividing his people into two bodies, that if one half should
succumb to the attack, the other may meantime have a chance
of escape. He then concentrates all his powers in solemn and
urgent supplication to his God ; and finally selects from his
best possessions a choice present for Esau, which should be sent
forward to meet and surprise him on the way (xxxii. 4-22 [3-21] ) .
But when he has thus hurriedly done all which human sagacity
can devise to mitigate the approaching danger, is he thereby
really secured from it? May not one unfriendly glance, one
single assault from Esau, annihilate at one blow the fruits of so
many laborious years ? It is a happy conception of the later
historian, to introduce just at this moment of Jacob's most tor-
turing suspense, when his early treachery towards Esau returned
suddenly in fearful retribution upon his soul, his wrestling with
the Angel : the answer, as it were, to the prayer immediately
before. For nowhere else could Jacob have a more momentous
contest than at this crisis, when all that he has gained is at
stake, when the great question of the j)OSsession of Canaan is to
be decided, and in the jjersons of Esau and Jacob the destinies
of whole nations are suspended in the balance. Much, it is
true, Jacob has already gained ; yet precisely that which he
formerly gained from his brother he holds as yet on a merely
human tenure — the right of the cunningest and the strongest,
rather than by the divine right of pure aspiration and spiritual
conquest. And yet man knows no real or unalienable possession
but that which he has won rather from God than from man,
and has thus made a part of his very life and soul. The ordi-
nary struggles of youth, exciting rather than decisive, and
prompted for the most part by mere passion, are followed inevi-
' Tliis description strikinfjly resembles more historic age; both are from the First
that given Num. xx. 20, belonging to a Karrator,
358 PKELDIIXAIIY HISTORY.
tabl}' by the final and decisive struggle with the Gods them-
selves ; and he only who fails not in this can win for himself
the Divine blessing, which brings with it true possession and
enduring jjrosperity.' So in this critical night Jacob is met
unawares by a mighty wrestler, and forced to wrestle with the
unknown and mysterious visitor ; and the wrestling lasts without
interruption the whole night long. Jacob's courage never for
one moment fails ; only when with the break of day the hour
comes at which the Unknown must leave, he sprains Jacob's
hip, in order to end the contest with honour and free himself.
But Jacob, now first understanding with whom he has con-
tended, will not loose hold of his antagonist till the latter has
blessed him. For he is alone the true hero who holds on un-
flinching to the end, and suffers not the hardly-won victory to
be wrested from him after all. Now therefore the angel,
revealing himself fully at last, blesses him by the new name of
Israel — as one who has wrestled with both God and man. Now
is accomplished the true spiritual triumph of the great hero,
made a new man through such superhuman conflicts ; though,
as the legend finely concludes, he receives a lameness, a memento
of the mortal combat he has passed through, and a reminder of
past weakness ; as if the moral deformity of ' The Crafty ' had
jmssed into i\\e body, and were henceforth to attach to that
only.^ Many old materials, doubtless, have been worked up into
this conception : the popular belief in fearful nightly phantoms
vanishing with the dawn ; ^ the easy change of interpretation
given to the old name Israel (God's Wrestler), as denoting one
who had striven with, and therefore perhaps even against God ;
also, no doubt, some ancient notion of this Patriarch as Limping,
connected wdtli the idea of his craftiness and crookedness ; and
the localisation of the night-scene on the river Jabbok (as if this
' The rirst Punic War was, on tlio prirt Dionys. x. 375-377 ; comp. R. Roclictte
of the Romans, a mere human struggle, in the Mem. de FAcad. des Inscr. xvii. 2,
unrlertaken reckk'ssly and without moral p. 102 sqq. A double meaning like that
justification ; successful indeed, yet bring- in the name Israel (p. 344) has been found
ing no abiding advantage ; the Second in Ignatius @fo(popr]T6s.
only Ijecame a divinely-ordered contest. ^ As tlie Hindu RÄkshasa ; compare
The same might be said of the first, also the destroying niglit-spirits in Soiiom,
second, and tiiird (tlie Seven Years') Sile- Gen. xix. 15. Here the other original
sian Wars of Frederick II. elements of the tradition are clearly dis-
■'' Somewhat as the Apostle Paul speaks ceruiblo ; for this belief dates certainly
of himself in 2 Cor. xii. 7. There is much from Premosaic times. That much fuller
resemblance between this WTestling of and somewhat different versions onco
Jacob, and that of Arjuna with Civa, fully existed, is evident from Hosea xii. 4 sq.
described in the Muliuhharuta, iii. 11952 [3 sq.], accordingtowhicli the hard.strugglo
S(iq. ; and that of Zeus witli Athene and drew tears from the hero ; and only through
the great wrestler Hercules, in Greek weeping and urgent supplication was he
mythology, Paus. viii. 28, 53, Tzetz. on victorious at last, and gained the crowning
Lycophron, v. GG2 sq., and Nounus, blessing.
JACOB-lSPtAEL. 359
name signified ' Eiver of Wrestling'), and near tlie place called
Peniel (p. 304 sq.) — all tliese are made to fit in well with these
stories, and the whole episode is then interwoven most harmo-
niously with Jacob's history. When he has indeed conquered
in this spiritual conflict, he beholds Esau on the morrow with
feelings quite different from the fears he had entertained on
the previous evening. Warmly and kindly Esau receives the
delicate honours and surprises prepared for him ; but when from
brotherly feeling he shrinks from accepting the gift intended
for him, prudent Jacob succeeds in pressing it on him, as if
thereby to jiurchase immunity from all possible future hostility. '
Even Esau's offer of an escort is prudently declined, lest any
unforeseen occasion of dissension should arise ; and thus the
threatened danger passes happily over (xxxiii. 1-17).
c.) And as Jacob now advances farther into the Holy Land,
his progress is marked by that lofty secmity which springs
from internal peace and completeness. He remains long in
central Canaan, and takes the city of Shechem, not without
criminal treachery and cruelty ; but the wrong is done without
his complicity by his two sons, Simeon and Levi,^ who are
severely reproved by the father. So high still stands the
repute of his house, that he is most unexpectedly allowed
by the Canaanites to advance without disturbance ; as though
some supernatural awe deterred them from pursuing him
(xxxiii. 18-xxxv. 5). On arriving at Bethel, the central point
of his divine achievements and experiences, he erects an altar
and a pillar ; having first sternly enforced the removal of all
such idols as had been surreptitiously introduced into his
household — for instance the above-mentioned household-gods
carried off by Eachel. There, and not till then, according to
the Book of Origins, did his God appear to him to impart his
highest blessing, and bestow upon him the new name of Israel.^
Thus he advances gradually to the farthest south, where his
aged father yet lives, ch. xxxv.
' See something similar in Gen. xxi. signifying that he was henceforth no longer
28-30; and above, p. 331 sq. 'The Tricky,' but ' God's straightforward
- And, strictly speaking, it belongs nian,' 71^ "^ps. Only in this freer, but
rather to the shortly-following history of certainly later account, is the contrast
these tribes. sufficiently prominent ; and that such a
* The Last Narrator omits therefore story did once exist may be inferred from
in Gen. xxxv. 10, the explanation of the the mode of designating members of the
name Israel, because he has already given people Israel in the lofty style as Qi-lt^'',
it at xxxii. 29 from another source. But The Righteous (Num. xxiii. 10, Ps. xxxiii
as the ancients took great license in the 1, !).,„ ^i. 17) ; and from the new deriva-
explanation of proper names (see xxix- tive )>i-\^> {Lehrbuch, 8 167 a). Only from
xxxi.), we must suppose there to have 1 • '■ •
existed pretty early another account, by ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^'o™ QJ? (above, p. 352), do the
which God gave to Jacob the name Israel, words in John i. 48 become iatelligible.
360 PRELIMINAllY HISTORY.
And still later, in the history of Joseph, he remains the
same — patient, long-enduring ; tried through long years by
deepest mental anguish, not wholly without blame on his own
part, through over-indulged partiality for the son of his too
early lost Rachel; yet again triumphing gloriously over all
contradictious of fate, and dying at last a prince revered alike
b}^ Hebrews and Egyptians, after having witnessed a fortune far
transcending in splendour and extent even that of Abraham ; '
as the tradition itself confesses. Thus the tradition remains
self- consistent throughout.
We cannot, however, fail to observe, that the history of
Jacob gradually and almost imperceptibly passes into that of
the tribes (or sons), above whom hovers, vague and dim, the
awful form of Israel, the aged Patriarch.^ Especially fine is
the turn thus given to the history, w^hen called to relate the
evil deeds and wicked lusts of these sons ; and with the one
great exception of Joseph, what else is there to tell of them ?
In their collective history is vividly anticipated the future
history of the nation ; its many shortcomings, its manifold cor-
ruptions ; as if the guileful nature, wholly eiadcated at last in
the much-tried father, sprang up again and spread in rank
luxuriance among his descendants ; first in Simeon and Levi
(ch. xxxiv.), and still more in the history of Joseph. The old
father, who now, made perfect through suffering, appears like
some superior spirit watching over them, sternly rebukes all
these follies and misdeeds committed behind his back ; and
yet eventually he himself has to bear the burden of iniquities
planned without his knowledge. Thus Jacob is still, though
in a different sense, what he was entitled in his youth — the
laboriously striving, much-enduring man of God. Thus, even in
the Postmosaic period, the better spirit still hovers over the
nation, often obscured and almost despairing, yet abandoning
them never, and in the end really beholding with rapture a
great and glorious restoration of all the erring ones.
4) It is not surprising that of Jacob-Israel as representative
specially and exclusively of this people of Israel, less mention
should be made than of Abraham, in such extra Biblical records
as other nations have preserved to us. We have, however,
(p. -312), met with Israhel in the old legend of Damascus. And
under the name Isiris, or in a more strictly Greek form Isirios,
we probably meet him again in old Phenician tradition. Here
Isiris is described as ' brother of Chna, the first Phenician,' so
' See on this point the very juiciont '■' As even the account given in the Book
words Gen. xlix. 26. of Origins in Gen. xxxiv. 7 admits.
JACOB-ISRAEL. 361
called.' Now no one has a better right to the appellation,
' brother of Canaan,' than he who bears the rather fuller form
of name, Israel. The Phenician tradition indeed calls him also
' Discoverer of the Three Letters,' and ascribes to him a change
in the old Phenician theology, consisting in the discovery of
some new sacred word of three letters ; ^ in reference apparently
to some later school in Israel (that is, in the kingdom of the
Ten Tribes), which harmonised together the Phenician and
Israelite mythologies ; but that the ancestor of these tribes was
called a brother of Canaan may be connected with a primeval
historical reminiscence of Israel's first immigration and combi-
nation with Canaanites. Now if by Isiris the Phenicians meant
the ancient Israel, this will probably serve to explain another
singular passage in Sanchoniathon. Krouos, called also Israel
by the Phenicians (so it runs), had by the rustic nymph
Anobret an only son (see above, p. 284), named from that cir-
cumstance Jeud. When the country was involved in great
perils of war, he adorned this son with ro3"al jjomp, and
sacrificed him upon an altar erected for the purpose.^ This
story is said to come in the first instance from Sanchoniathon ;
but, as here told, is not derived from Philo of Byblus, but from
Porphyry's special work on the Jews. The first point here to
be remarked is, that Sanchoniathon elsewhere tells other similar
stories of Kronos. The sacrifice of children in its most corrupt
form was, especially among the Phenicians, an old custom
(according to p. 326) ; and as it was especially offered to
Kronos, he became so standing a representative of it, that
many stories of the kind were told of him, as we can still trace
distinctly in Philo's Sanchoniathon.'' But from these direct
extracts from Sanchoniathon we learn with certainty that Kronos
was named in Phenician El^ not Israel ; ^ consequently in the
' Sanchoniathon, p. 40, 5 sq. Orelli; on lin". Gen. xxii. 2, 16); and indeed "i-in*
Chnä see above, p 236. Gaisford took is actually Aramean for the Hebrew n^Hs'
the reading Jmnos from Mhb., but it is -V
not the only form they give. and after the express and repeated ex-
- Which are the three letters here to be pl-insition appended in the Greek, we
nndersti)od, it is difficult or impossible o"g^t to doubt no longer. Yet Gais-
for us to specify. Can they be the three ford m the first passage reads on the
fundamental letters of Israel itself, -|C:^^ ? -luthority of MSS. 'leSouS, which could
since we perceive from the new form J-IX'^. °°^^' ^^ '^''X' ^'^^"^''^d; this, however, is
(p. 3/39), how busy people were at a later probably only an early conjecture, and
time in finding a mystic meaning for this incorrect as an emendation. At any rate,
name.
Judah is not to be thought of.
3 Sanchoniathon, p. 42 sq. ; repeated ' Sanchoniathon, p. xxxvi. 5, 6. Comp,
iv. 16. by Yig. p. 156; further, in the P- xxx. 1,2.
newly-recovered work of Eusebius, Theoph. * Sanchoniathon, p. xxvi. 1, xxviii. 16,
ii. 12, 54, 59. The 'leouS of the ear- xxxiv. 3 ; wliore Gaisford has throughout
lier editions would then be T-iri'' (comp, restored 'HAos for 'lAos.
362 TRELIMIXARY HISTORY.
above passage, preserved tlirougli a secondary source, a cliange
of names must have taken place.' The apparent cause of this
is, that the author of the work on the Jews supposed Abra-
ham's sacrifice in Gen. xxii. to be identical with that related
by the Phenicians of Kronos, or rather derived from it ; and
that, as he found in Sanchouiathon nothing about Abraham,
he regarded the name Israel as compounded of El and the Isiris
already mentioned, and in Jeud perhaps recognised the name
Judah. Many of the later Greek writers indulged in arbitrary
conjectures and confusions of this kind, and we must be on our
guard against using any of them incautiously as historical
proofs.^
Other stories about Jacob, given by later writers, are always
found to be essentially derived from the Old Testament records.^
IV. The Twelve Sons and Tribes of Jacob.**
The Twelve Tribes thus enter into the history almost unno-
ticed with Jacob. While the Patriarch is spoken of in life,
these appear in the legend more or less as his sons ; but, after
his and Joseph's death, this mode of treatment is virtually
dropped, and Jacob's twelve sons are considered simply as
tribes. Yet even the early legend does not speak of them in
the lump merely as sons of Jacob, but even from their birth
makes distinctions among them, assigning some to one and
some to another mother, and ranging them in a fixed order of
seniority. The correct comprehension of this and other features
of the tradition, with constant reference to later situations more
nearly approaching to positive history, helps us to understand
an historic relation which, though founded in the depths of
the primeval age, interferes with great force in all critical mo-
ments of the later history. A correct conception of the nature
' This is so obvious, that two MSS. stich shadows to flight, as has been ab-oady
(p. 42) and others besides (iv. 16) i-ead observed in the same conneetion, p. 338.
even''HAoj/for 'Iffpa-^A; but although Gais- With respect to the Nabateo-Arabic de-
ford has adopted this, it still appears to scriptions of primeval times, I here reaffirm
me to be only a later emendation, made what I have already said in the Jahrh,
because it was not understood how Israel der Bihl. W/.^s. x. p. 1 sq.
belono^cd to the context. See also on the ^ The comproliensivo scheme of the
piiteages of Sanchoniathon the Gotdncjer above (p. 212) mentioned learned chrono-
Gvl.Anz. 1859, p. 143 sq. legist i)e7netrius (in Eusebii Prcep.Evang.
^ And yet some modern scholars (espe- ix. 21), though elaborately extending the
cially Volney, in his Bechcrchcs noi'.velles chronology further than it is given in the
stir rilistoirc ancicyinc, i. p. 148 sq.) have Bible (and by a different method from
built up on tliis and even weaker grounds that of the Book of Jubilees, mentioned
arguments for the unhistorical character p. 201), really agrees in substance with
of Israel, Abraham, and any or all ot'.ier tiie Old Testament.
persons and things belonging to the Pa- ■* See Gott. Gd. Am. 18G4, pp. 1260-
triarchal world. True knowledge puts all 80.
THE TWELVE TRIBES. 363
of the Twelve Tribes, moreover, to start with, will preserve us
from many aberrations in our future progress.
It cannot certainly be doubted that we are here concerned,
not with the actual twelve sons of a single family, or with their
petty domestic transactions, but with historic relations, potent
for centuries in their influence on people and kingdom, and
working j)ersistently with incisive force deep in the national
life. In the earliest history of a nation or tribe we often find
some single name alone preserved as the hero and father of his
people ; and these single names are afterwards enrolled in
genealogical records, in such arrangement as may be gathered
from the memory yet remaining of their original connection ;
but there are unquestionable indications in primeval history
itself that the names of Abraham, Jacob, and his sons, were
from the first associated with the idea of corresponding nations
and tribes.^ Even those details respecting the wives and
children of Jacob, which now appear most trivial or gro-
tesque, must be regarded in fact as a deposit from some re-
mote region, some higher level of antiquity ; as when stray
raindrops a,t times descend transfigured into snow-flakes, sur-
prising the eye by their new aspect, but unable to retain for
long the form thus temporarily assumed. We can only endea-
vour to discern in the faint and disconnected indications still
left to us, such mutual relations of tribe and nation as were
important from their maintenance through many ag-es. But
the recognition of the special points, on which all depends, is
in this case peculiarly difficult.
1. We have to consider the fixed round number of the twelve
sons of Jacob ; and oiir inquiries can only properly begin with
the consideration of the fundamental meaning and application
of this number. It becomes evident, on closer investigation,
that this cannot be looked upon as an isolated historic fact, a
circumstance as casual as the number of children in this or that
private family. On the contrary, this number, only slightl}'
varied in its combinations, is repeated — both in the small circle
here constituted by it, and in other regions touching upon it
from without — so frequently and persistently, that it is imjjos-
sible not to suspect the influence of some more general law.
As Israel consists of twelve tribes, so the same principle, under
many forms, runs through the subdivisions of the separate tribes,
as if there were a desire to bring the whole national life under one
' In reference to Abraham comp. Gen. of each (p. 312), using the expression (o
xiv. With regard to Jacob and Laban, designate members of one community ; as
the First Narrator speaks of thu ' Brethren' is slill done in 1 Chron. xxv. 7.
Aaron
Shubael
Reliabiali
}Amram\^^
Izhar
Hebron
Uzziel
i
Libni
Laaclan
Shimei
) Gcrslion
Jaaziah
Mahli
Mushi
} Merari
364 PRELIMIXAUY HISTORY.
demiite and consistent form. If we take first tlie tribe of Levi,
"we cannot but perceive, on close inspection, that from the very
earliest times it was divided into twelve branches. The first
division was indeed into the three great branches, Kohath,
Gershon, Merari, which consequently appear always in gene-
alogies as his three sons.^ But we gather with certainty,
though not without considerable research,^ that these three
great branches divided again into twelve smaller, and these still
in such equal proportions, that six divisions fell to Kohath, three
to Gershon, and three to Merari ; so that the first was equal
in power and importance to the two latter. These subdivisions
stand as follows, according to the order which obtained from
the time of Moses — in which but one single innovation is dis-
cernible, namely, that the line of Aaron, as High Priest, is
placed first : —
Levi
The same principle is substantially carried out in the division
of the conquered land, when this tribe receives fortj'-eight (that
is, four times twelve) cities ; here again distributed in so nearly
equal a proportion, that Kohath receives thirteen, and afterwards
ten, Gershon thirteen, and Merari twelve.^ Again, on the as-
sembling of the Levites under David to the festival of carrying
up the Ark of the Covenant to Zion, there appear six heads of
the tribe, with their followers, obviously only by a different com-
2:)utation of the same fundamental number.^ Again, we observe
the same in David's arrangements for the sacred music, a special
department of Levitical service, by which all the musicians,
under the three leaders, Heman of Kohath, Asajih of Gershon,
and Ethan or Jeduthun of Merari, were divided into twenty-
' Gen. xlvi. 1 1 ; Ex.vi. 16; Num.iii. 17, drawn from vfrv different sources — and
xxvi. 57 ; 1 Cliron. v. 27 [vi. 1], vi. 1 [16]. .siijiplementino; and eniendinfi; tlie one by
Accordingly, from the fact that in .strictly the other. AVc tliu-s find, for example,
genealogical accounts Gershon always that in xxiii. 7 ""JQ must have fallen out
stands first (tliough in all other.s Kohath |,gfoj.e jny"?, and that the words in vv.
a,s the more powerful occupies that posi- g and 9 have to be emended accordingly,
tion), we must infer that in the earliest r^^^^,^^ j^ „ocumentarv .vidence of a pro-
times Gershon possessed the higher dig- ^j^^.j^ ^-^^^-y^^. eonfusion in 1 Chron. i. 35-
mty and power. It is also recorded that 37^ compared ^nth Gen. xxxvi. 10-14.
Moses himself named his first-born Gor- 3 n^,,,,. ^xxv. 6, 7 ; Josh. xxi. 3-8.
shom: hx. xviii. 3, 11. 22 ; 1 Chron. xxui. 4 1 chron. xv. 5-10; Elizaphan here
^^" obviously stands for Iziiar ; and the three
* The tnith can lie attained by com- — Kohalli, Merari, and Gerslion -are
paring together 1 Chron. xxiv. 20-31, evidently treated as three individuals
xxiii. 6-23 and vi. 1-3 [lC-18] — pas.sages standing beside throe other individuals.
THE TWELVE TRIBES. 365
four bancTs (fourteen under Heman, four under Asaph, and six
under Ethan, each with its appointed leader), each band con-
sisting of twelve individuals, 288 altogether.' Again, an ar-
rangement exactly corresponding with this is observed in the
twenty-four higher sacerdotal orders, which were continued
down to the latest times. At other times the whole tribe was
indeed redistributed into smaller branches ; so that the Book of
Origins, in genealogies and assessments of the people, speaks
always of eight branches onlj^ ; "^ but it is evident that even here
it is the fundamental number, whether four or twelve, which
recurs in a new combination.
Or if we take the tribe of Judah, we have indeed to regret
that the Chronicles, although giving veiy detailed genealogical
notices in book 1, ch. ii-iv. 23, do not arrange them more
clearly, or present them more comprehensively and com-
pletely. Thus much, howevej-, ma}' be gathered, that these
particulars are derived from two different genealogies of the
tribe of Judah; since the account begins in one place, ch. ii,
iii, and there has regard principally to the house of David (ii.
9-17, iii.), but then in ch. iv. 1-23 begins quite afresh upon a
different plan. But the detail is in both too unmethodical and
incomplete to give us any confidence that we have all the data
under our eyes. If the ancient sources whence these chronicles
are derived had come down to us without curtailment or obscu-
ration, we should jjossess even in the dry catalogues of names a
valuable means towards identifying important portions of the
early history of this great tribe. For unquestionably, in many
of these sources, the proper family-history of the tribe was com-
bined with the history of the country as a whole, as well as of
the possessions and residences of the more powerful families ;
and we very plainly remark, that a city or district very generally
gave the name of Father to the chief who owned it, or by whose
family it was governed.^ Both these records, however, even in
the state in which they have come down to us, afford, when
closely examined, a confirmation of the above proposition. The
first, starting from Shelali, Pharez, and Zerali, as the thi-ee im-
mediate sons of Judah, derives through Hezron, the first-born
' 1 Chron. xxt. compand with xv. 16- place of three individuals (as in 1 Chron.
24. XV. 5-10) ; and Korah is .siilistituted for
- Ex. vi. 17-19; Num. iii. 17-39; ac- Izhar, according to 1 Chron. ^-i. 7 [22],
cordingly we have here four of Kohath; and 22 [•'^7], ix. 19, xii. 6, xxvi. 1.
of Merari and Gershon, two each. It is ' As ' Shobal the father of Kirjath-
remarkable that in the later return, Num. jearim, Salma the father of Bethlehem,
xxvi. 57, 58, the same number of branches Jlareph the fatlier of Beth-gader' (all
appears, and divided in the same way ; well-known names of cities), 1 Chron.
but the three main brandies take the ii. 50, 51. See above, p. 345 note.
3G6
PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
of Pliarez, precisely six families : Jerahmeel, Ram (whence
David) and Chelubai, Segub, Asliur, and Caleb ; ' and from
the first-born Jerahmeel exactly six families again.^ Now,
finding here so far the very same arrangement as occurred
before with respect to one of the sons of Levi, we have every
reason to suppose that the remaining six families were derived
from t]]e two other sons of Judah. These sons, who are jDassed
over in the extant Chronicle in almost perfect silence, cannot
possibly have stood at first so baldly in the genealogy ; for we
have elsewhere traces of their former importance ;' and the
Book of Origins, in deriving two families from Pharez, so as to
give to Judah altogether four lines,^ does what amounts sub-
stantially to the same thing. The other record, however, though
starting with a very different scheme of the main stems of Judah,
which made Pharez, Hezron, Shelali,^ Carmi, Hur and Sliobal,
his immediate sons," adds afterwards to these six principal lines
six others more loosely arranged, the Sons of Kenaz, Sons of
Caleb, Sons of Jehaleleel, Sons of Ezra, Sons of Shimon, and Sons
of Ishi ;" so that the number twelve is exactly completed. The
different distribution is sufficiently explained by the probability of
this record having been drawn up at a different time, after a new
assessment of the tribe. But we possess also from an entirely
' RaiUjinii. 10-17 and ili., is placed first
by the Chronicle only on David's account ;
Segulj, ii. 21-23; Asluir, 24 (comp. iv.
5-7) ; Jerahmeel, ii. 25-41 ; Caleb seems
to be twice mentioned, ii. 18-20 and 42-
Ö5 ; but as there is not the slightest re-
semblance in the two descriptions, and as
Chelubai has been announced jxist before,
in ii. 9, the words in ii. 18-20 and 50-55,
must be understood of Chelubai, and those
in 42-49 of the Caleb known to us from
other sources. The confusion between the
two like-sounding names appears (as the
LXX. also prove) to have been made very
early. Cheliib in iv. 11 is again different.
^ Five sons by one mother (ii. 25, 27) ;
the sixth by another (26, 28-41).
' The Chronicle (ii. sq.) does not again
mention Shelah, and Zorali only in ii. 6, 7 ;
for it is clear from Josh. vii. 1, that
Carmi must be a son of Zimri, or accord-
ing to another reading of Zabdi ; but the
four names, Etham, Jleman, Caicol, and
Dara (more correctly Darda), are appa-
rently taken in this order from 1 Kings
V. 11 [iv. 31]; while before "I ij^.l, v. 7, several
words must have dropped oiit. They are,
however, often mentioned elsewhere : iv.
21-23, ix. 5, 6 ; Neh. xi. 5 ; Num. xxvi. 20.
* Num.. xxvi. 20-22; Gen. xlvi. 12.
'' The omission of Shelah is indeed re-
paired at the very end, iv. 21-23; but he
might obviously have been mentioned be-
fore in iv. 1. Pharez must then stand per-
haps for Ilamul, mentioned in ii. 5.
•> Carmi must here stand for Zerah, as
is clear from p. 366, note 4 ; Hur and
Shobal appear in the other document (ii.
19, 20, 50, 52) as connected with Che-
lubai.
' On examining the entire document
iv. 1-23, now much abbreviated, we find
(1) tliat vv. 3, 4, as well as 8-12, belong
to Hur, nu^ntioned vcr. 1, since nniL^' (I'ead
nti'-in) ''1 ^'^^1'- 1 1 refers back to ver. 4 ; there-
foi'e also nt^'in is probably to be read in
ver. 8 for vv"5 ; and certainly something has
dropped out after nW ver. 3. (2) That the
words in iv. 5-7 (comp. ii. 24), belong
properly fo the genealogy of Hezron, ver. 1.
There then remain only the six already
mentioned, which cannot be traced back
to any other than Judah liimself, and
being always introduced by ija, obviously
represent so many independent families
in Judall. In vcr. 17, '')2) '« to be read for
|3-V On other connected points, see the
Ja/n-/>. cirr Bihl. JViss. vi. p. 98, 99.
THE TWELVE TRIBES. 367
different quarter, tlio Book of Origins, another very exactly kept
record ; according- to which Jndah, considered as a district, and
without reference to the families by whom it was held, was di-
vided into ten parts or circles ; ' and Simeon, which had attached
itself to Judah, and almost coalesced with it, comprised two
similar circles ;^ thus we meet again the number kuelve, in a
new form. And even so late as under the Romans, Judea was
divided into ten Toparchies, with two supplementary ones formed
out of Galilee and Perea. '
The genealogical accounts of the other tribes in the Books
of Chronicles are much shorter ; and in the case of two, they
are wholly wanting. Of Benjamin only, after the first short
account in book 1, vii. 6-1 2, a longer one is given in
ch. viii, which appears both from its language and its con-
tents to be derived from a diiferent source, and is concerned
more with the history of towns than with genealogy in the
strict sense ; but it shows sufficiently how diffei\^ntly, at dif-
ferent times and for different objects, the main and collateral
branches of a tribe were arranged. A comparison of the ac-
counts in Chronicles with those of the Book of Origins yields
the following results. Of the tribes of Reuben,'' Issachar,''
Asher,^ and Naphtali,'^ each has four main branches — the
same fundamental division as we found virtually in Levi
and Judah. The same radical number is given to Ephraim
both by the Book of Origins and by Chronicles ; ^ to Gad by
' Josli. XV. 21-62. It i.s evident that are always easily intei'changed : /,f//r/'/i</'Ä,
each of tlie cities which are euumeratcd § 167 a.
in this document constitiited a distinct * Gen. xlvi. 13 (where 2V\^'' is to he
department. On the other hand, the ^p.^^j fo^ ^V) ; Num. xxvi. 23-25 • 1
Philistine cities named in vv. 45-47 are Chron. vii. 1. ' ■ - — ,
oln-iously foreign to the document, partly 6 Qg,, ^Ivi. 17; 1 Chron. vii 30-37-
because they are here reckoned on an ^fter vv. 38, 39 come two more standing
entirely different system, partly on histo- sing\y'. Num. xxvi. 44-47 gives only a
rical grounds, of which we shall speak in different distribution, as if Beriah took
the sequel. f]-,e place of two, as above in the case of
■' Josh. xix. 1-9. Levi and .Tudah.
3 Phny, Hist. iW. v. 13 (15); comp. i q^j^ ^j^-i^ 27; Num. xxvi. 48, 49-
Josephus, Jrtcish War, iii. 3. 5. \ Chron. vii. 13. '
< Gen. xlvi. 9; Ex. vi. 14; Num. xxvi. «Numbers xxvi. 35. 36. But hero
5, 6 ; 1 Chron. v. 3. The ancients often ^gaiii the first of the three is divided into
pronounced Ri(htl, a pronunciation very ^wo, and thus equivalent to two, as in the
wide-spread, particularly in the East, ^ase of Judah, Asher, and essentially of
Thus the last syllable of the name has the Lp^j ^^o. The name Shuthclah is also
same sound as in Israe', which inversely ^^^ ^^jj^ as first-born of Ephraim in
is often pronounced hraen (J. W ilson s 1 Qhvon. vii. 20-27, but three others with
Lands of the. Bihle, 1. p. 330); and m hi^, . y^j jn .such a way as to let us see
other words also the same change of a that the Tahan there named, who appears
final I and MIS found. plSn, however, in {„ 1 Chron. vii. 25 as grandson of a cer-
spite of the ingenious story in Gen. xxix. tain IJesheph, represents in fact a later
32, is probablj' originally a diminutive; generation.
and in that class of words these two sounds
CG8 rRELI.MlXAKY HISTORY'.
Clironicles : ' of Simeon also the same may be proved ; - and the
three assigned to Zebuhm (who is wholly omitted in Chro-
nicles),^ if interpreted in the same way as in the case of Levi
and Judah, may be regarded as a factor of the original number.
To Benjamin^ and Manasseh,^ six is the number given; also to
the first-born of Judah-Pharez (see p. oOo sq.), and to the first-
born of Issachar.'' Accordingly the only instance of entire dis-
crepancy is afforded by Dan (omitted by Chronicles), of whom
the Book of Origins names only one main branch;^ but it is
self-evident that this peculiarity cannot be fundamental ; and
it may be inferred moreover, from other indications, that this
tribe early experienced greater vicissitudes than any other.
So great a uniformity can scarcely be attributed to chance.
How deep-rooted and sacred was the popular feeling for the
number twelve in all matters of public concern, appears not
only from the twelve Types exhibited above, but also from the
jjractice fidl}- described in one passage,^ adopted for the foun-
dation of a new colony ; the settlers being sent out under thir-
teen leaders, as if this constituted a whole nation on a small
scale. The number thirteen is to be interpreted by the analogy
of the twelve tribes, in which precedence was given to Joseph
or Levi, and the single tribe of Joseph was divided into the two
of Ephraim and Manasseh.
But does any one maintain that it all came thus only because
' 1 Chron. T. 11, 12; fuUowcd, v. 13, tliose of tho Chronielos ; five with some
by seven others as their brethren, who, greater alterations of name appear also
however, as sons of Abihail, are traced in 1 Chron. viii. 1, 2; on the remarkably
back to a separate ancestor, Buz; doubt- large number ten given in Gen. xlvi. 21,
less because they were added only at the see below, under tlie Egyptian period,
time of the conquest of the land under * By counting Maciiir and Giiead in
Moses. The Book of Origins (Gfn. xlvi. Num. xxvi. 29-34, or better without them
1(5; Num. xxvi. 15-18) gives here quite in Josh. xvii. 1, 2; the accounts in 1
different names, but uniformly seven ; for Chron. v. 23, 24, vii. 14-19 are very con-
the slight discrepancies between tiiese _ fused. Compare the scheme given in Gen.
two passages are easily explained. The xlviii. 6, and what will hereafter be re-
name Joel, given in v. 12 to an actual son marked concerning those documents. But
of Gad, is certainly curious. even in the case of Manasseh, we can not
* The Shaul, mentioned as fifth and only see that the full number was twelve,
last in Num. xxvi. 12-14 and 1 Chron. but discover very instructividy how it was
iv. 24, is in Gen. xlvi. 10 and Ex. vi. 15 gained: to the six in Josli. xvii. 2, or
expressly distinguished and placed lower ratlier (one being subtracted in ver. 3) to
as ' son of the Canaanitish woman ;' in tho five, must be added the five less im-
both tho hitter passages, moreover, six portant (regarded as female lines), in ver. 3,
sons are mentioned, and "iflV instead of and then the two in ver. 5 (where ton is
mt- then correct), Giiead and Bashau. See
* Gen. xlvi. 14; Num. xxvi. 26, 27. also Num. xxxvi. 11.
* But 1 Chron. vii. 6-11, 12 di.stin- « 1 Chron. vii. 2.
puislies very clearly tliree jfrincij'al from ' Gen. xlvi. 23 ; Num. xxvi. 42, 43 ;
three subordinate branches; Nam. xxvi. see also on this point p. 181.
38-41, likewise reckons six (the first-bora ^ Of the tribe of Simeon, 1 Chron. iv.
being again split into two), under names 34-43.
wliich it is not difficult to recogni.se in
Tllli; TWiaVE TKIBES. 3C9
Jacob liappencd by mere chance to have twelve sons born to
hhn'? A ghmce out beyond the immediate frontier of this
single people Israel ought to convince hira of his error. For
wherever we learn anything respecting the internal ramifica-
tions of any kindred people, we find the same fundamental
numbers and proportions occur. The Nalioreans in the north
(p. 310) were divided into twelve accurately cited tribes, again
subdivided into eight and four ; ' a circumstance particularly
striking, as the extant tradition generally cares but little about
this people. The Ishmaelites, in like manner, branched off into
twelve tribes under twelve heads, as the Book of Origins with
evident interest repeatedly mentions ; ^ but their subdivisions
have not been preserved. The Ketureans were also divided into
exactly six tribes^ (see p. Sli). The Idumeans, concerning
whom the Book of Origins gives most circumstantial informa-
tion (Gen. xxxvi, see p. 76), split indeed into three principal
branches, Eliphaz, Eeuel, and Aholibamah ; but it is probable
that six tribes belonged to the first, and six to the other two
together; to which, according to ver. 12, Amalek, originally a
quite foreign nation (p. 251), must at some j^articular time have
attached itself as a collateral tribe."* Asa territory also, Idumea
was divided into this same number of districts, both in the
earliest '^ and in later times, notwithstanding alterations in the
names of the districts, probably produced by changes of re-
sidence of the chiefs or subordinate governors, in consequence
of iiiternal revolutions.^ Of the divisions of the Moabites and
Ammonites we unfortunately know nothing. But neither the
• Book of Origins, Gon. xxii. 20-24. appear as grandsons of E>au. They re-
^ Gen. xvii. 20, xxv. lo-lG. The words appear, however, somewhat altered, pos-
iu I lie middle of ver. 16 compared with ch. sibly from the Book of Origins having
xx.wi. cxhihit an omission. already made iise of viirious authorities.
^ Tile name of Medan, one of diese six, But it is clear, from ver. 12 compared
is certalnlj-m^t, an abhrevi'ttionof ^Z/V//'«» ; with ver. 22, tliat Amalek must in some
the latter may be rather a dialectic dimi- way be excepted from the fourteen divi-
-^ sions mentioned in vv. 15-19, and Korah
imtive from the former (fcrnied like ..^.j- obviously cannot be intended to represent
" a double district, as might appear from
//i;»yrtr, pronounced with //a instead of the vv. 16, 18: perhaps as originally belong-
more usual «i, y.i'A/-/;«6-A, § 167 a), especially ing to Eliphaz, he is in his right place in
as it is placed after it in Gen. xxv. 2. ver. 16.
The single passage Gen. xxxvii. 36, as * Thus are the names in vv. lä-lO, to
compared with ver. 28, cannot, be appealed be understood, as is clear from the con-
to in support of the abbreviation ; for this trast in vv. 40-43 ; see above, p. 76.
could, according to my Lehrhurh, § 164 b, ° There are in fact only eleven heads of
affect only tlie derivative >j^"ip jV«//»«7Y<' ; tribes named vv. 40-43; but both here
if even the reading is certain.' ^"^^ ;." ^ ^'if""- !;. J*' "^«^«:;''l «f ^'f l.^^t"
^ The heads of tribes named in Gen. ^^entioned, the LXX have Za<^cofr, derived
xxxvi. lö-ig, are obviously intended to fi-""ODynivv. 11, 15; this theretore must
rule over the samcdistricts or trib.'S which certainly have stood here originally as the
just before, in the genealogy in vv. 10-14, twelfth name.
VOL. I. B B
370 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
Canaanites (p. 232), nor tlie Aboriginal inhabitants (p. 226 sq.),
show anj trace of this arrangement in their national life.
Beinjjf thus led to recognise in this scheme an institution
which was firmly established among the Hebrews in the wider
sense of the term, even before the rise of Israel as a nation,
maintained among every Hebrew people through many cen-
turies unchanged, by the sanctity of ancient usage, and in this
particular nation carried out even in the ramifications of each
sepai'ate tribe, we are called upon to seek some sufficient cause
for a phenomenon so striking and so uniform in its manifesta-
tions. Nowhere can this be sought with so much probability
as in the plan of taking votes in the assembly, and of marshal-
ling the army in camp and on the field. For both purposes
a fixed order was required ; and as for the entire nation, so also
for each single tribe in the management of its own aS'airs, such
a system might be necessary. I shall revert later to the ancient
constitution of the Community ; for the present, the examples
in Numb, i, ii, vii. suffice to show that the subdivision in
question had really this purpose for war as well as for peace.
But the special selection of the number twelve for this end
is certainly peculiarly Hebrew, for this region at least,^ and
must have some remote cause fiir back in the dim antiquity of
these peoples.^ A nation without the blessing of an organised
community entitled to vote, requires no such fixed classifica-
tion ; and in fact no trace of such is to be discovered among
the Arabs of the Desert at the present day, either in present
usage or in the traditions of their race ; though, as we have
seen (p. 369), both Midianites and Ishmaelites certainly once
possessed it. But where these institutions do exist, the sej^a-
rate tribes and families in the meetings of the Community
feel as children and grandchildren in their father's home,
gathered around a fiither, whether visible or invisible ; for
above the visible head in their midst, the Divine and Invisible
would also be enthroned in memory. This alone could be the
' A similar arranf^ement is, howevpr, originally divided into twelve communities,
found among the Etruscans, Livy, i. 8. And even the ancient kingdom of Bornu
We may also justly adduce the twelve in Africa -was divided into twelve military
princes of the Ph;eacians, the king forming contingents, each under its separate flag;
the thirteenth, in Odi/ssey, viii. 390 sq., see Kölle, African Native Literature, p.
and the similar ai'rangement among the 259 sq. See also G. Miillor's America-
Thracians, Uiad, x. 488-495. Even in nische Urrcligionen, pp. 91-94.
later times, the lonians and ^olians ^ The reason for this lies undoubtedly
divi<lcd themselves according to the sacred in the ancient sanctity of t!ie twelve
number of the mouths (HiTod. i. 14Ö, 140, months. See my Altcrthihncr, p. 38G sqq.
149); the Dorians used the number six Ordinary public duties, such, for instance,
(Lachmann, Spartanische Sfaaf.sverfas- as that of keeping watch, might naturcdly
sung, p. 84 ; comp. 259) ; and Attica was have a monthly rotation.
THE TWELVE TRIBES. 371
abiding import of tlie name of the 'Twelve Children of Israel.'
It is, indeed, quite usual to speak of the chief, or the family,
or the people, by whom a district, city, or nation, was governed,
as its Father. Thus Esau is called the father of Edom (compare
p. 345 note, and p. 365) ; and the fact that Machir is called the
son, and Gilead the grandson, of Manasseh (p. 368) — Gilead
undoubtedlj' signifying originally only the well-known mountain
district of that name — can only have arisen from some special
relation Avhich Gilead and its inhabitants had formed with the
tribe of Manasseh, as their lord and father. But where several
tribes at once are called the sons of one father, we must infer
the existence of a community constituted and organised accord-
ing to some fixed number, probably venerable from old custom,
and thus enrolled around their head.
2. In this sense, all the twelve sons of Jacob stand upon au
equal footing ; all having equal claims on the favour and pro-
tection of the community. The legend, however, made abiding
and significant distinctions among them in saying that, first,
four are born of Leah; then, after a pause, two from each of
the handmaids ; and finally two more from Leah, and two
from Rachel. And thus, even among the six sons of Leah, the
first four are distinctly separated from the others. Now dis-
tinctions which even the legend has preserved, we are the more
called upon to follow up. And in fact it is manifest froiu
other indications also, that tradition has preserved in these
slight traits the memory of most important and long-enduring
relations among the tribes, and therein a valuable fragment of
early history.
For it is in the first place most significant that the tribes,
while all claiming one father, ranged themselves notwith-
standing under two mothers. Herein is conveyed the remem-
brance, confirmed, as we have seen (p. 345 sq.), by other indica-
tions, that this nation was composed of two difi'erent elements,
both indeed of Hebrew blood, but first united under the chief
Jacob-Israel, newly come to Canaan. Nothing can be more in
harmony with the ancient popular feeling, which regards the
community as a father's house, than this reverent recognition
of one father only, by a community united in one heroic career,
while the different component parts, not yet wholly fused to-
gether, but retaining traces of former independence or incon-
gruity, are fitly assigned to different mothers. So in the three
Koman tribes, Eamnes, Titles, Luceres, was commemorated the
origin of Home from three different populations; so Eomulus is
372 rHELIMLVAKY HISTORY.
said to have named tlie thirty Curiae from thirty Sabine matrons ; '
and so, to take the nearest example to our present subject, the
Idumeaus in their three tribes traced their descent from one
Ilittite, one Horite, and one Ishmaelite wife of Esau : ^ clearly
J) roving that the Hittite, Horite, and Ishmaelite elements of
their 2)0wer were still distinctly to be traced at the time of the
Book of Origins ; as indeed this book expressly states of the
Jlorites (p. 226). Many similar hints and glimpses are afforded
by the genealogies of the Old Testament. These dry names of
primeval history, if we can once awake them from their sleep,
are far from remaining dead and stiff; but restored to life impart
wondrous traditional lore respecting the original relations of
peoples and tribes ; as the strata and fossils of the earth, when
rightly questioned, relate the history of long-vanished ages.
Novf in the fact that Jacob's two wives, unlike the three or
four of Esau, are described by the legend not merely as Hebrew
women, but as sisters — and moreover so inseparable that their
father could substitute the one for the other— lies, doubtless,
the remembrance, that the two elements of which the nation
was composed were very early fused together in intimate union,
both being of true Hebrew blood to begin with, and then being
bound to each other by one great common object. Yet some
trace of this double origin runs through the whole subsequent
history of the nation, varjdng with time and circumstance, yet
never long lost sight of, and often breaking forth rudely in
violent hostility or long-continued alienation. Although, after
the times of Moses and of David, a number of new causes con-
tributed to widen this breach and render it at last incurable, it
evidently goes back to the obscure antecedents of the nation,
and had, doubtless, its primal origin in the two different elements
of which the entire people was constituted. Thus supposing,
' Livy, i. 13. case might gradually pas« into 3. T';e
* Gen. xxxvi. 2 sq., where foi- vipi we name JlDb'B xxvi. 34, which in xxviii. 9
ought to read '»"in, as is clear from the must Le substituted fur the inappropriate
Horite names, Anah, Zibeon, sind Aholi- D^HQ. must howev r, according to xxxvi.
baniah in vv. 20, 24, 41, and still more so 2, 4, 10, be surely regardeil as arising
from ver. 2o ; these names are also inter- from a confusion with rilV- The Eook
changedbytheLXX. inJosh. ix. 7(p.237). of Origins evidently does'not contradict
On the other hand, it follows incontestably it^^lf in alluding no farther in ch. xxxvi. to
from Gen. xxvi. 34, 35, xxvii. 46, xxviii. the second Hittite wife, possibly because
9, that tradition originally named two ghe was supposed to be childless' On the
Hittite wives of Esau ; to whom was other hand several instances have already
afterwards added an Ishmaelite, and occurred in reference to the sons of Jacob,
finally a Honte wife. This also corre- in which the Book of Origins gives different
sponils exactly with M'hat has been already numbers in the later census-lists, from
often said of the employment of the funda- ti,o.se tulopted in family records of a more
mental number 4 x 3 = 12; and affimls liistorieal character.
a distinct e-^amplc, how a 4 in such a
THE TWELVE TRIBES, 373
as we may with certainty assume, that the six tribes of Leah
form the one portion, and the two or three of Eachel the othei',
we may certainly proceed to regard those of Rachel as the di-
vision which accompanied Jacob on his retnrn to Canaan, thus
standing nearest to the common chief and father ; and those of
Leah as the descendants of Abraham and Isaac already settled
in Canaan. Not without meaning does the lerxend make all
Leah's sons the elder, and Eeuben the actual first-bom, but
Eachel and her children the especial favourites of the father.
Similarly Jacob himself, coming from another land to Canaan
and to the house of Isaac, is called the j'Ounger, and Esau the
elder, son of Isaac. And the impossibility that these two differ-
ent portions should exist side by side in the same national com-
munity, without the one exercising superior influence and taking
the lead over the other, suggests the historical meaning of the
old legend of Eeuben's loss of his birthright. Tradition has
many similar instances of the loss of this right ; and it is clear
that when nations, tribes, and families, rather than individuals,
are really intended, the memory of a struggle between two
powers, and the triumph of the one which was formerly the in-
ferior, forms the historical basis. Indeed it is only thus that
the importance attributed to such narratives can be explained ;
since even what in them appears sportive and jocose, as the
birth of Pharez and his twin brother, sons of Tamar and
Judah,' though prompted by popular humour, bore reference,
notwithstanding, to matters of grave import. How among
equals the higher position, and thus the rank of first-born,
was achieved, is in one instance distinctly explained — in the
genealogy of Aharhel, of the Judaic branch Ashur ; Jabez,'^
as an old book related, became the 7nost honoured among his
brethren;^ and thus his house came to be regarded among
their kindred as that of the first-born. But while the circum-
stantial account of Jacob's repeated struggles with Esau for the
birthright is given by no earlier narrator than the Fourth and
Fifth, before whose mind doubtless floated older legends of the
same nature, and especially that respecting Ephraim and Ma-
rasseh (p. 352 sq.), the tradition of Eeuben is certainly one of
the oldest, and derived immediately from the Earliest Narralor.^
That Eeuben was once the principal tribe, and took the lead
' Gen. xxxviii. 28 sq. H^y must be taken as sjuouymoiis with
^ Who has one of the cities of JiiJah L- • 7 77-
calhd l.y his name, 1 ChroD. ii. .55. ^/V ' '■''■ Jb>-jO ^cp-ce, rav/c. digmiy,
^ 1 Chron. iv. 8-10. The pass^age mufc^t (Ezek. xl. 20), 'my couch of h'ylmess, dig'
from its pliraseoh)gy be very ancient. 'nifi/' according to my Lthrbiuh, § 287 c.
* Gen. XXXV. 22 : xlix. :>, 4, where
374 TRELIMINARY HISTORY.
of the rest, may be regarded as historic truth ; since the family
tradition uniformly assigns to him the highest place, and thus
preserves the memory of the esteem in which he was originally
held. That he insolently abused his superiority, and thus for-
feited his honourable j)Osition, may be signified in the legend,
given by the First Narrator, of his abusing his father's concu-
bine,^ and thus bringing on himself his father's cui-se. But it is
also plain that he must have lost his position in very early times,
since only such remote and obscure reminiscences of the fact
have been preserved. His place is taken, not by Judah (as the
Postmosaic history would lead us to expect), but by Joseph, as
we are assured by express statements,^ and by the result of all
enquiry into the history of the earliest times. But in the per-
son of Joseph the other and younger portion of the community
gained the ascendancy ; and we have here unquestionably a
fragment of primeval history respecting the internal divisions
and contests of the two portions out of which the community
grew.
Nor, secondly, can it be without significance, that of the
twelve sons of Jacob, some are derived from concubines, but
supposed to be adopted as children by the two real mothers of
the family ; that of these, two belong to Leah and two to
Eacliel; just as among the twelve tribes of Nahor precisely
four are attributed to a concubine.^ The same thing occurs
elsewhere in these ancient family and national histories. It
very frequently happens that one or more sons of an ancient
chief are not treated as children of the family-mother ; but
we generally find in such cases that the sons attributed to
concubines stand outside of the round number assumed,^ and
form a very small minority.^ As we have here essentially the
relations and distinctions actually subsisting between the several
sections of the community, there can be no doubt that in these
less distinguished sons we must recognise the rej^resentatives
of supplementary tribes, or, as the Romans called them, Gentes
Minores, which were received into the national bond, but with
certain limitations of privilege, either on points of mere liono-
' This picture is oLvioxisly borrowed Gen. xxxvi. 12; comp. 22, 16, 40, and
from such historical incidents as that in above p. 252. Por Shaul as son of Simeon,
2 Sam. xvi. 21, 22. see p. 368.
^ The statement in 1 Chron. v. 1, 2, is ^ As in the case of Nahor, Gen. xxii.
strictly historical ; the expression ' the 20-24, and Israel. In that of Caleb,
Crowned among his brethren' is indeed I Chron. ii. 42-49, the present text is
employed by poets (Gen. xlix. 26, Deut. obscure, as we do not see with what vv.
xxxiii. 16), but obviously not without his- 47 and 49 are connected; in that of
torieal significance, of those old times. Manasseh, 1 Chron. vii. 14, much has
Gen. xxn. 24. obviously been dropped out before "lü'J^^Ö
* As Aniakk in tlie case . of Edom,
THE TWELVE TRIBES. 375
rary precedenco, or in weightier matters. Siicli a position,
however, could hardly have arisen except either by the reception
into the national league of fresh nations or families, in some in-
stances subjug-ated, but allowed to retain certain rights, and in
other cases voluntarily appealing for protection and adoption ;
or else by the declension of older members from their original
rank. As that portion of the Amalekites which was reckoned
as connected tlu'ough a Horite mother Timna, a concubine of
Esau, with the kingdom of Edom, ' formerly j)0ssessed fewer
privileges than the other twelve tribes ; so in Israel the four
tribes which could derive themselves from the two true mothers
of the nation only through Jacob's two concubines, enjoyed
from the first less j)Ower and consideration than the eight others,
though they had a share in the essential rights and benefits
possessed by the community. It will be explained further on
how this original relation was maintained even at the conquest
and partition of Canaan under Joshua ; and we possess herein a
surprising proof of the correctness of the legend. But even in
the legend these sons of Jacob are regarded as the rudest and
most cruel ; as is sufficiently shown by the account of Joseph's
connection with the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah, who had charge
of him in his childhood, and ill requited his innocent confi-
dence.^ And that Ishmael and the sons of Keturah are likewise
accounted only the ofi'spring of Abraham's concubines, is but a
farther application of this ancient mode of viewing national
relations.
That the meaning is similar when tradition derives only some
parts of a nation from one or more daughters of the common
ancestor, will be more particularly shown below.
Thirdl}^, after the above remarks, it is needless to explain
further, how it is anything but accidental that the legend re-
specting Jacob's sons divides them throughout into groups of
four — expressly stating that Leah, after bearing four, long re-
mained barren ; that then were bom the four sons of the
concubines, the two belonging to Eachel coming first ; and,
finally, after a long interval, the four others ; two of Leah, and
last of all, two of Rachel. Now, putting together all that has
been so far worked out, we discover beneath this legendary
veil the plainest memorials of the original relations between
the great national members of the Israelite community. The
' Tliis portion of Anialck, then, had into tlio national federation ; the ITorites
tnrncd first to the Horites (to whom hc'mff then still independent in luloni (seo
indeed the Amalekites were related ; seo p. 226).
p. 225 «j(j.), and been liy lliem received - Gen. xxsvii. 2.
370 PRELDIINARY HISTORY.
cliildren of Leah originally preponderated in strength and in
numbers, being as eight to four, or at least, as six to two and
to four. First Reuben, or afterwards Joseph — though even
when the latter had obtained the precedence, Reuben and his
three tribes voted first, and in other respects asserted their
dignity ; — then either the two other tribes of Leah and the
two of Zilpah, or the four inferior tribes together ; lastly,
the four remaining tribes, but so that Joseph and Benjamin
gave the casting vote : — this was probably the earliest order of
voting in the general assembly ; and all other national arrange-
ments would be formed on the same model. Later events may
have altered many of the details, as will be further shown
below ; but so firmly must this ancient constitution have en-
dui'ed for centuries, so deeply must it have impressed itself
on the whole life and feeling of the people, that even under
circumstances the most altered, twelve, as the sacred number of
the nation, w^as somehow maintained, and where it had been
lost restored if possible (as, for instance, by the division of
Joseph into Ephraim and Manasseh, after the withdrawal of
Levi as the priestly tribe), and in theory and hope at least never
abandoned. '
3, Certainly in the period after Solomon such distinctions
between the twelve tribes, resting on early tradition, had long-
lost any actual meaning ; since, though the original number
was still held sacred in thought and hope, the reality had in
many respects greatly changed. All the more easily was this
old tradition seized upon by the new prophetic spii-it, whoso
230wer pervaded the centuries immediately after Solomon ; and
it is marvellous to see how a genealogical legend, apparently so
remote from the sphere of morality, received in the hands of
the Third and Fourth I^arrators^ a sense in complete harmony
with the spirit of a higher religion. The connecting thread is
not, however, difficult to trace. The two tribes of Rachel, and
especially Joseph-Ephraim, though originally last in order,
Avere yet regarded as the most highly privileged, and therefore
the best beloved sons of the common father, and their ances-
tress Rachel as his dearest wife. Yet, on the other hand, there
seemed no moral ground for the preference thus given to the
' See my Commentar zi(,r Äfocahjpsc, original conception of tlic sultject as well
1828. p. 164 sq. as those put first, and appear exactly as if
'^ Tlie plan and substance of the enliro intended to point tiic significance of the
narrative of Gen. xxix. 16-xxx. 24 como names with more precision tlian had been
from the Third Narrator; the Fourth done Ly tiie Tliird Nai-rator. On the
ol)viously added the second explanation of other hand the name Jahirh in xxix. 31 -
the names ZeLulon and Jcseph in xxx. 35 may liavo been merely .substituted by
20, 24. Tliese do not liarinonise witlt the the Fourth Narrator for an original AYoa/w.
TUR TWRLVH TT? in HS. 377
tribe of Epliraim, since the branch Josepli-Epliraim had as-
suredly not always maintained the lofty purity attributed by
the legend to its ancestor Joseph. Rachel, too, was esteemed
superior to her sister in beauty and fascination, but not in real
virtue. Under these circumstances the whole life of the two
mothers, and their relation to the common ancestor, might bo
regarded as a competition between external advantages and
pretensions and undeserved neglect— a competition whose issue,
under Divine guidance, can never be doubtful, if under so severe
a trial patience and virtue fail not; and thus is suggested a
principle of the higher religion, to w^hich every element of the
ancient legend most beautifully adapts itself. Jacob loves and
wishes to have the more beautiful sister only ; yet the elder,
whom it is unfair to set aside at once for her inferior charms,
not only becomes his wife, equal in rights and position to
Rachel, but is blessed before Rachel with four sons, thus gain-
ing honour among the people, and even securing the love of
her unwilling husband. But Rachel, now becoming impatient,
gets from Jacob, at least through her handmaid Bilhah, two
sons for herself. Yet even here Leah is not behindhand, and
by similar means also gets two sons for herself. At length
Rachel, reduced to extremit}^, tries to obtain the certainty of
offspring by bargaining with her sister for the mandrakes found
by Reuben, like a little Cuj)id. But on the contrary, as if in
punishment of Rachel's deed, Leah receives two more sons and
a davighter ; till at length Rachel, wholly abased and humbled,
is visited by a gleam of Divine favour, and she bears the son
who, both in loftiness of character and in influence with his
father, is soon to surpass all the others and become their prince;
and with whose birth, according to ancient tradition, the circle
of twelve seemed to be completed. But after the birth of this
peerless son, she is not long spared to enjoy her happiness, and at
Benjamin's bii'th she loses her life, when just entering Canaan.'
The interpretations given of the personal names of the sons
spring from no more ancient conception of the family history
than this. That personal names were originally significant,
was indeed the true feeling of antiquity (p. 19), and the twelve
heads of tribes were of sufficient historic importance to make
it necessary to give an exj^lanation of the full import of their
names with those of other heroes. But, on the other hand, the
names of these Patriarchs belonged to a period too remote for
' It is perhaps only for Lrcviiy's sake born in Jlesopotamia, as vv. lG-22 appear
that in tlie Book of Origins, Gen. xxxv. from all indications to belong to the First
23-26, Benjamin is reckoned among thoso Narrator..
378 TEELIMINARY HISTORY.
their origiual meaning to liave been retained witli certainty in
the tenth or ninth century before Christ. So in this as in
similar cases, the great freedom with which the living language
interj^reted its ancient words was called into play to hud in
thena a meaning corresponding to new ideas.
Another example of the mode in which such old family
legends were applied is afibrded by the Book of Origins, in the
case of Jacob's only daughter, Dinah, ' who stands singly beside
his twelve sons. That we are not to understand this daughter
literally as an individual, follows from the view we have
arrived at respecting the brothers, as well as from the meaning
in all similar cases. For though in early genealogies we occa-
sionally find a daughter expressly mentioned, such instances
are so rare and isolated,^ that it is impossible to believe them
intended for daughters in the mere literal sense ; and as all
domestic relations, in this connection, represent in fact the
movements of nations and tribes, the same rule must apply
here also ; for if the chief of a tribe or family had in any case a
daughter thus exceptionally mentioned, some important family
history must formerly have entwined itself around her name ;
as will be shown with regard to Caleb's daughter Achsa, of whom
we have so bald a mention in 1 Chron. ii. 49. Now if the son of
a concubine is meant to denote the father and representative of
some less privileged tribe or family, -which has come in from the
outside and attached itself to the main stem, so on the other
hand a daughter standing alone would betoken the passing
over of a portion of the nation, tribe, or family, with their pos-
sessions, to another nation, tribe, or family as the case may be.
So Caleb's daughter Achsa brings to Othniel great possessions ;
so Aholibamah and Tinnia denote the absorption of the Horites
into the Idumeans ; and so the marriage of Hezron, Judah's
grandson, to a daughter of Machir of Gilead,^ plainly indicates
a fusion of these two races, to form the so-called townships of
Jair,'* in the farthest east. So, also, the proposed marriage of
Jacob's daughter Dinah with Shechem, son of Hamor, must
indicate the commencement of an alliance of a part, or (which
' Gen. xxxiii. 18-xxxiv; comp, with vii. 2i) ; Heman's three daughters, men-
xlvi. 15, XXX. 21. lioncd with his fourteen sons (1 Chron.
^ The only other examples prior to Post- xxv. 5); Sheshan's daughters without
mosaic times are, Serah the daughter of hrothers (ii. 34); other cases in 1 Chron.
Asher (Gen. xlvi. 17, mentioned again iv. 3, vii. 32, and in like manner Zeloplic-
among matters merely special to the tribe, had's five daughters, under Manassdi ;
in Num. xxvi. 40, 1 Chron. vii. 30); concerning whom see above, p. 3ö8, and my
Aholibamah daugliter of Anah and Timna AUcriM'mcr, p. 204 sq.
among the Horites (Gen. xxxvi. 25, 22); ' 1 Chron. ii. 21-23.
.Slierah daugliter of Ephraim (1 Cliron. * Ilavoth-Jair.T'X'' Jl-in Num. xxxii.41.
THE TWELVE TRIBES. 379
is tlie same thing) a tribe, of the community of Jacob with
Canaanites settled in the ancient city of Shecheni, under a Ca-
naanite dynasty bearing the name of Hamor. ' The Earliest Nar-
rator had already touched on this, ^ and blamed the cruelty with
which the tribes of Simeon and Levi had punished by fire and
sword the attempt of the Canaanites to ravish and subjugate a
portion of Jacob ; and the yery fact that Levi here appears in
a very different character from that which he bore after Moses'
time, shows this to be a relic of very ancient legend. But the
Book of Origins, after its manner, seizes the oj^portunity to
inculcate right conduct, and to show by this example in eloquent
language and the clear words of law, how Israel ought to act
when brought into close contact with strangers, and how inter-
marriage and family intercourse may be possible between Israel
and the heathen ; but represents the old father as observing an
ominous silence respecting the cruelty with which Dinah's two
brothers in this unusual case avenged her wrongs upon the
offender and his city.
Differently, again, does the Fourth Narrator treat the un-
dovibtedly very old family tradition^ of Judah's sons. This
legend essentially asserted two things. First, that two of
Judah's three eldest sons. Er and Onan, were lost sight of in
history, even before Israel came to Egypt. ^ But this we have
every reason to understand of some early catastrophe, which
swept away the two first families of the tribe of Judah so en-
tirely, that, though appearing in the genealogies in their due
place, they are described only as having died early. ^ Indeed,
every son's name which stands quite isolated and barren in these
ancient genealogies may similarly be held to denote a family
which has become extinct. But the do^vnfall of an older branch
generally causes the rise of a younger; and tribes and their
branches always tend toward the restitution of their original
numbers. And therefore, secondly, this tradition conveys the fact
that, in place of these two early-lost sons of Judah, two younger
branches, Zarah and Pharez, arose, of whom Pharez eventually
* From the fact that the name of the reckoning by ntO^b'P KrsUa, ' pieces of
very city (Shechem) where this event ^^ , ^^^ ^^^^ elsewhere except in
occurred, was homo by one of h,s sons j^,,, xxiv. 32 and Job xlii. 11 ; the Book
(comp Gen xxxn, 18), ,t can only be ,u- ^f Origins reckons money by shekels,
fcrred that this dominant family at one Qen. xxiii. 15-16 ; Ex. xxx. 15.
time ruled over more cities tlian this 3 q^.q xxxviii
^^^- _ * As stated in the Book of Origins,
* This follows from Gen. xlix. 5-7 ; the Gen. xlvi. 12, Num. xxvi. 19.
beginning also of the narrative of xxxiii. * Among the families of Judah, how-
18-20, appears to be derived from the ever, a certain Er is mentioned in 1 Chron.
earliest book, if only on account of the iv. 21, as subordinate to Shclali.
3^0
rriELonxARY ii ist(')ry.
oLtained tlie precedence (p. 373). Now tliere are two ways in
wliieli the fathers and representatives of younger branches thus
taking- the place of elder may consistently be treated in tradi-
tionary history. First, they may be described simply as later-
born sons of the same father. Of this kind is a very ancient
account of the sons of Ephraim/ apj)arently referring to early
strusfo-lcs between the Israelites and the aboriginal inhabitants
in the pre-Egyptian period, ^ and affording therefore the best
230ssible illustration of the present case. Ephraim (so it is said
in the Chronicles on unquestionably ancient authority) lost
two of his sons, Ezer and Elad, who, in some quarrel with the
native inhabitants, went to Galh^ to carry off cattle, but were
themselves slain. Whereupon their old father mourned many
days, visited and consoled by his brethren, like Job in his afflic-
tion, until his wife bore him" another son, Beriah, as well as
a daughter ; the son being the same from whom the great hero
Joshua descended in the tenth generation.'* Secondly, such
branches may be represented under the form of grandsons
adopted as children. Of this we have an instance in Joseph's
' 1 Chron. vii. 20-23. Wo nmst liewnro
of regardiug the "ipij 1 Chron. vii. 21, as
identical with .( ; the latter has a
perfectly distinct etymology, and signifies
a stranger artificiaUy made into a son.
^ This might appear doubtful, from the
circumstance that 1 Chron. viii. 13 actually
tells of one iioriah, who there ajipears as
substitute and also as avenger of tho.se
fallen in the war with Gath, how he with
his brother Shema expelled the inhabi-
tants from Gath. He is indeed said to
belong to the tribe of Benj:unin ; but from
the affinity between tiie tribes of Ephraim
and Benjamin, this difference is unim-
portant. But he is regarded as the head
of a family of Ajalon, a city close on the
Postniosaicp()s.«essions of Benjamin; hence
it might perhaps seem probable that the
contests in question belonged to the very
commencement of the Postmof-aie period.
But in fact these are not sufficient grounds
for doubting the pre-Egyptian existence
of this stiiry ; and thus wc have here a
remarkable tmdition of extremely ancient
occurrences. See my remarks \u Jahrb. der
Bihl. Wiss. vi. pp. 99-100. On the war-
like deeds of some of Jacob's sons and of
Jacob himself against the Canaan ites and
against Esau, as also on the fortunes of
Esau himself, we have fur'.her .stories in
the ' Testaments of the Twelve ratrinrchs,'
noticed on p 200, especially" Test. Jiid. eh.
iii-vii, ix. Teat. Bcnj. x end. Erom what
sources these accounts of the kings and
localities of the Patriarchal world wero
derived, may be inferred from the Book
of Jubilees, xxxiv, xxx^'ii. (comp, xxx.)
and similar books. Such works indeed
continued in constant use down to a much
later period (see Zunz, Gottesd. Vorträge,
p. 145 ; Jellinek's Jiet ha Midrusch, iii. pp.
1-5). The earliest work not in the Canon,
which our author seems from the 'J'eaf.
Naff. V. to have used, was one probably
written imder thc' Seleucid», which con-
tained information on the acts of Jacob
and his sons ; but whether its author had
access to any very ancient works, we have
no means of knowing. But it is impossible
to workout clear historic uotionsfrom such
late materials ; and the great freedom with
which earlier accounts have been hero
handled, is seen from the Te.st. Jad. viii.
compared with Gen. xxxviii. 1.
' Tiie AvA-im before the Philist'nc con-
quest must therefore be here intended, as
is clear from p. 243.
* I regard this as the correct nie;ini)ig
of the words 1 Chron. vii. 20-27; 'he
arrangement of the words, taken strictly,
can yield no other sense ; for the ) before
D'liin V. 21, must designate the apodosis,
accorclingto my icÄJ'i. § 343 c. Shutheluh's
genealogy is then carried down in seven,
and Reshe])h"sin ten generations, as far as
Joshua, which is cpiite seJf-cousistenl.
TilK BKGIXXIXG OF THE NATIOX. 381
two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim : tliey were received into the
rank and privileges of whole tribes, and are said by the Third
Narrator to have been blessed and adopted as children by the
dying Jacob. Midway between these two alternatives stands the
case of Zarah and Pharez. They are called children of Tamar,
Judah's daughter-in-law, yet at the same time his own sons.
This is brought about through a single j^et complicated crime,
in which nearly every member of the family had a share. After
the eldest son's death without issue, the widow's claim to mar-
riage was refused, first by the infamous second son and then by
the father. She at last avenges her wrong on the father himself,
and Judah unexpectedly finds himself the father of two sons,
who may be also denominated his grandsons, and for the shame
of whose birth he dared not execute fitting justice on the widow.
Once assume (as was so long assumed in Israel) the high mo-
rality and binding, because divinely-imposed, obligation of the
Icvirate marriage,' and we cannot refuse to see the point and
bearing of this half-comic dress, which covers the account of
very ancient relations of family and tribe. And even before the
Fourth Narrator had fully worked out the legend, it is very
likel}^ that popular wit in the ninth century may have taken
its revenge upon the reigning house of David, descended from
that very Pharez, for many harsh or unwarrantable acts, by
this satirical version of that house's origin, to which the Book of
Euth, probably with at least equal truth, affords the opposite.
Y. The Begiitning of the NatiojST.
After such historical traces, few but unmistakable, it is im-
possible to deny that the beginning of Israel as a nation dates
from pre-Egyptian times.
The great chief whom the Nation has always revered as its
father may probably have settled in Canaan with the germ of
the people, and consequently of the twelve tribes. His commu-
nity, whether large or small, must have been divided into twelve
branches. But in Canaan many other populations (out of whom
indeed the Twelve Tribes which obtained a name in history
originally proceeded) must have early attached themselves to
this nucleus ; consisting partly of Hebrew elements, already long-
existing in Canaan (whence Jacob was made the grandson of
Abraham), and partlj^ of foreign admixtures. The existence of
the latter cannot possibly be denied ; and how little the boast
' Or iiKirriago willi ;i brutlicr-iu-l.iw, on wlik-h scu my AUcrth'dincr, p. 2o9 sq.
382 TRELIMINARY HISTORY.
of tlie pure blood of Abraham and Jacob is worth is shown by
the whole histor}'- of the nation, from this its first beginning
down through all succeeding time. We must allow, indeed,
that the Book of Origins must have some historical foundation
when it lays such stress on the greater purity of Israel's Hebrew
blood ^ in the account of his and Esau's wives ; as also the later
historians who assert the same. Unquestionably the Israelites
did hold themselves more closely together, and could more
easily do so, being the nation latest settled in the land. But
that this boast is to be allowed only in comparison with other
Hebrew races who allied themselves more freely with alien blood,
is evident from a multitude of unequivocal signs ; and indeed
is not denied by the historians themselves, who unhesitatingly
admit even the very first sons of Jacob to have taken Canaanitish
wives.^ Even the examination of the names of tribes, fathers
of tribes, and sons of tribes (the latter representing the compo-
nent fiimilies) leads to the same results. To deny the existence
of such great men, such fathers and benefactors of the people
as Jacob and Joseph, would be pure folly ; but with regard to
many other names, the traces we can find only enable us to see
that before the time of Jacob they were fully formed tribes and
populations, which in smaller or larger proportions were ab-
sorbed into Jacob's community, and are here accordingly com-
memorated as sons or grandsons of that Patriarch. The six
families of Manasseh are derived from him only through Machir,
his son, and Gilead, his grandson. Here the name of the
mountain-land of Gilead was evidently introduced only because
after the time of Moses its ruling house became subject to the
tribe of Manasseh. In another case, the name of Ephrath for
Bethlehem is on the one hand very old, and unquestionably
Premosaic, yet on the other plainly connected with the name of
the tribe Ephraim ; ^ although after the conquest of the land
under Joshua the dominion of this tribe never extended so far
* Gon. xxvi. 34, 35, xxvii. 46-xxviii. 9, dcnce that Ephraim, in any strict sense of
xxxvi., Gen. xxiv. hy the Third Narrator: the words, cannot have been born in Egypt,
but from xxii. 20-1^4, we conchide that Aregion ^;Ara;!ff, famed for its fruitfulncss,
the Book of Origins had already mentioned is curiously found in the south-east of Abys-
Isaac's wife in a similar sense. sinia, and not far from it an Argobba also
2 Gen. xxxriii. 2, xlvi. 10. (compare a^lX in Bashan, Dent. iii. 4,
^ Ephrathite is the form used for one 1 Kings iv. 13), see Harris's Highlands of
of the tribe Ephraim, 1 Sam. i. 1, 1 Kings Ethiopia, ii. p. 347 sqq., Isenberg und
xi. 26, as if the original word were Krapf's Journal (London 1843), p. 289;
Epliratli, and Ei)hr;iim a plural irrcgu- Ijudolf also names it, but very briefly,
larly formed from it ; see also 1 Chron. From the wide extent of the regions ovtr
ii. 24. Tlie story of the father Ephraim which these and many other Semitic names
mentioned p. 38(», if proved to be Pre- are dispersed, wo see how very old these
mosaic, would much strengthen the evi- local names must bo.
THE BEGINNING OF THE NATION. 383
to the south. Hence there is every reason to consider Ephrath
an old branch of the Canaanites which, in combination witli a
more purely Hebrew family, known as Machir or Manasseli,
formed the tribe of Joseph. This also explains why Ephraim
was originally reckoned second to Manasseh, and not allowed to
rank as the first-born of Joseph.^ And if Esau, as we learn
from reliable authority,^ had really a Hittite wife named Judith,
the name Judah would also be old-Canaan ite. If, asrain,
Reuben and Simeon had each a son Carmi,^ Eeuben and Judah
a Hezron,^ Simeon and Judah a son Zerah,^ Ephraim and Ben-
jamin a Becher,'' Levi and Esau a Korah,^ Eeuben and Midian
a Hanoch^ (p. 315 sq.) ; these coincidences can scarcely be at-
tributed to chance, but may represent the breaking up of other
nationalities, of which part was absorbed into one tribe, part into
another. Of the similar, but to us more intelligible, case of the
Sons of Kenaz, in connection with Judah and Esau, we have
already spoken, p. 251.
Further testimony on the question, how deep the fusion of
Canaanite and Hebrew races went,^ and how long before the
Egyptian period Israel must have dwelt in Canaan, is afforded
by the language of the country ; on which, however, many
errors are now current. It has in our days been commonly
assumed, that the Hebrew was quite like the Phenician or
Punic ; the principal authority for this opinion being
the well-known expressions in St. Augustine's writings. But
this African bishop was not himself versed in languages, and
was only aware of a general similarity between the two, without
any definite knowledge. If these two languages were perfectly
alike, it is not easy to understand how the Israelite tradition,
examined above, could speak of so wide a separation between
the nations ; and the historical credit of the Biblical narratives
would suffer extremely in consequence. But the assumption
that the language of the Canaanites, although Semitic, was
originally identical with that of the Hebrews, or exhibited only
the very slightest differences from it, is not confirmed by the
' Gen. xlriii. " Gen. xxv. 4, xlvi. 9, Niinil). xxvi. 5 ;
* Gon. xxvi. Si ; compare Jehiid in the l)ut this name is certainly derived from the
tribe Dan, Josh. xix. 4.5, and liiubcn iu divine personage mentioned at p. 265 sq.,
the tribe Judah, xv. 6. and this furnishes a proof of the existence
' 1 Chron. ii. 7, iv. 1, v. 3. of hi.s worship at this early ago.
* 1 Chron. v. 3, and above, p. 30.) .sq. " Yot special reasons, Ezekiel, xvi. 3, 45,
' Numb. xxvi. 13; 1 Chrou. iv. 24, lays great stress upon this, speaking how-
ii. 6, ix. 6 ; see above, p. SGö sq. ever more as prophet than as liistorian.
^ Gen. xlvi. 21; 1 Chron. vii. 6 ; Niuul). Similarly Moab and Amnion are con-
xxvi. 35. temptuously reckoned with the Canaanites
' See above, p. 3G5 note, and Gen. xxxvi. in Judith v. 3 ; compare however v. 6.
5, xiv. 16.
38 4 ril!::LlML\AHY IIISTOEV.
remains of tlie Plieuiciaii language, so far as is at present
known witli any certainty.' On the contrary the Old Testament
itself shows, by the many different names which it often gives
of the same country or the same city,'^ that in this land the
variety of languages (though all Semitic) was as great as that
of the peoples. These m.anifold languages, however, as far as
we have means to inspect them, had assuredly a certain marked
resemblance among themselves ; which can be explained only
by supposing that the original inhabitants, never utterly su])-
pressed, here founded a true national language, to which all
incomers, Canaanite as well as Hebrew and Philistine, inevitablj'
conformed; and which naturally coincides most with that of
the Canaanites, who mingled first and most freely with the
natives.' Now the Israelites, who, as we have seen, entered the
country in smaller bodies, must even before the Egyptian period
have so completely adopted this language, that even in Egypt
they took very little from the ii'gyptian ; and after the conquest
under Joshua, they seem to have yielded more and more to the
influence of its na.tive elements,** and were able to converse
easily with the Phenicians ; whereas the speech beyond Gilead
and Euphrates, being Aramean, was considered a foreign
tongue.'* This last circumstance is not surprising, if the con-
jecture respecting Damascus, p. 311 sq., be correct, that during
the sojourn of Israel in 'Egypt, the Aramean tribes had pushed
farther southward, cutting the Israelites off entirely from their
former kindred in the north. It is a great mistake in our day
to assume an Aramean origin for the Hebrews, or an}-- special
resemblance between the languages of the Ara,means and the
Hebrews.*^
' Tliis is a most important result of our tlie difforenco is expressly referred to
latest invesligations ; see my Ab/iandli/w/ tliree distinct natioualities, Hermon of tlio
il'ier das Phöni/iischc in the Zdfschrift für Hebrews being called Shenir by tho Amo-
das Morgenland, iv. s. 4ÜÜ-418, continued rites, and 8irion by the Sidunians.
vi. p. 288 sqq., vi i. p. 70 sqcj. ; also my ^ Ilenco Isaiah xix. 18 could, not ini-
Ahhandlnng über die Inschrift von Mar- properly, understand Hebrew to be in-
scille, Avhich appeared in the Jahrh. der c\ndod in the term lanffuac/c of Canaan,
liihl. Wiss. i., and is more correctly printed ■* This is one of the chief results esta-
iu tlie Ahhrmdhmyin der Göttmger Gesell, blished in tho above-named treatises on
der Wi.'^s. iv. ; and especially my Erk'ä- the Plienician.
rmig der grossen I'hönikiscfmn Inschrift von * Tlie two Ai-amaic words used as a
Sidon (Gott. 18.56), as well as many later transhition of Gikad, according to a pecu-
articles. liar interpretation of llie latter in Gen.
^ 8cir, Edoin, Esau, see p. 34-1; Jerusa- xxxi. 47, may be ancient, as well ;is the
Icm and Jelnts, see below ; Liiz anil Bethel, entire verse ; they afford, as is well known,
the first the Canaanite, the second the the earliest testimony on the nature of
Hebrew name, see p. 304. K rjuth-Arha Aramaic as a distinct language.
and Hebron, p. '1?>Ü. Ephralh and Beth- ^ Two special causes hive contributed
leliem ; compare the very distinct tes- to this error. On the one hand, .Jacob
timony from tlio Mosaic ago in Numb, himself and his Mesopotamian connections
xxxii. 38. On one occasiüu, Deut. iii. 9, arc even in early writings often classed
THE BEGLNWING OF THE XATIOX.
S85
In religion and manners, on the other hand, the IsraeUtes
certainly maintained far more individuality, as the whole fol-
lowing history shows. And the hero could give such unity
to a nation composed of these differing elements, that to bear
his double name was ever accounted its highest honour, must
in actual life have been so great, that in history proper he
would have shone as brightly as in legend, if of him as of
Abraham some great record had been preserved from far distant
days. As it is, we can only pronounce with certainty that his
individual deeds must have been worthy of a great historical
personage, but are forced to relinquish the attemj)t to gain any
close and connected idea of the details of his career ; content
to have brought together the scattered traces that remain to
testify to the actual beginnings of this national history.
■with the Arameans : but in what sense
this is meant in the ancient narratives,
and even by the Deuteronomist, has been
already sufficiently explained, p. 342 sq.
Abraham himself was never called an
Aramean, and the Hebrews always knew
themselves to be very different from the
Arameans. On the other hand, it became
the fashion with Hellenistic writers in the
latest period of this history to call Abra-
ham, and even Moses (Philo's Life of
Moses, i. 2. 7), Chaldeans, and the Hebrew
language Chaldee (Philo especially does
so, ii p. 138-140, 412 sqq.; Aucher, ii.
p. 208). But this confusion sprang solely
from the causes already stated, p. 335 sq.
Rarely, however, did a writer go so far as
to call the Israelites, by way of praise,
'descendants of the Chaldeans,' as in
Judith V. 6-9, and Josephus, Against
Aplon, i. 13 ; but as the latter in ch. vi.
follows the custom of his age in using the
name Chaldean as equivalent to philo-
sopher, it is obvious why he and other
writers like him were glad to find a Chal-
dean origin for the Patriarchs.
VOL. I.
CC
386
SECTION II.
THE MIGRATION OP ISRAEL TO EGVPT.
A. GENEKAL NOTIONS.
The pre-Egyptiaii period of the liistory of Israel had, as we
have seen, a certain grandenr of its own, to which the nation,
even when transformed by the spirit of a higher religion, conld
look back with joy and pride ; and some of the fibres of the
purer religion and upright lofty tone of mind, which after
Moses Was inseparable from the national life as regulated by
law, may be traced back to the glorious heroes of that primitive
age. A mystic bond of uniformity of feeling and consistency
of aim often runs for centuries throug-h the fortunes of a nation
which preserves the best elements of its life from ruin. The
modern Germans may see in their national hero Arminias and
his Romanising brother Flavins only too true a prototype of
their own good and bad elements. In the same way, many a
characteristic of the people of Israel^ which developed its full
power only after the time of Moses, may have had its root in
that early age.
But it is (as Avas remarked on p. 287) in the Egyptian period
that we first perceive a distinct preparation for this nation's
especial mission. Egypt, both through her wealth and treasures,
and through her incomparably early and high culture, was in the
earliest times for the less civilised nations surrounding her, very
much what in later times Athens and Rome were for the northern
tribes : a magnet^ attracting or repelling, but from which all
departed other than they came ; a high school for all migrating
races, whether conquering or conquered. Much indeed both
of art and of practical experience she had to impart ; mingled
however, even thus early, with too much that was degraded and
repulsive ; and a simple primitive people, when submitted to her
strong and manifold influences, necessarily received an impress
varying in strength with its own native force of character. Even
after Egypt had for centuries lost both strength and indepen-
dence, and become the prey of invader after invader, it still re-
tained for the adjacent lands of Asia something of the magic
MICilLVTIOX TO EliYlT. 3t<7 .
cliarm, wliicli ' the Thousand and One Nig-lits ' so vividly describe.
How mighty then, must the influence of Egypt have been, in
her first flush of prosperity and culture, to u.s well-nigh inex-
plicable, but attested by those wondrous monuments, the accu-
rate investigation of which has been reserved for our own days,
and for the hands of such scholars as Rosellini, Wilkinson, and
Lepsius.
But certain as it is that the intimate connection of Israel
with this earliest-civilised among the nations alone enabled him
to take the first step which introduced him into the great world-
history, it is equally evident on the other hand that the first
step in this change, the migration of Israel into Egypt, formed
only a transition-period between the preliminary and the proper
history of the nation. For as the narrative now stands in the
Old Testament, the history of this period is concerned with the
twelve tribes simply as individuals, sons of Jacob. And whilst
in the early traditions (see p. 288) even Joseph, incomparably
the most illustrious of those sons, is never placed on an equality
with the three great Patriarchs, but put as it were one step
below that Heroic age, yet his history almost coincides with the
closing portion of Jacob's ; and in death the two appear all but
equal. But important as are in themselves these opening scenes
of the Egyptian period, it is not there that we shall find the
germ of that great history which was to make Israel immortal.
This transition-epoch must therefore be regarded in close con-
nection with the prehistoric period, and kept distinct from the
subsequent history of the nation.
A close examination of this beginning of IsraePs life in Egypt
is indeed beset with serious difficulties : the age is still so
remote, the sources of information are so scanty. It is true
that the Biblical narratives, which appear copious rather from
their volume than from the amount of strictly historical infoi-
mation which they contain, receive here for the first time some-
thing like completion by contributions from without. While
Herodotus and Diodorus, in their accounts of Egyj)t, are almost
silent on this remote section of histor}-, it is fortunate that of a
work compiled from good native sources — that of Manetho on
the thirty-one Egyptian dynasties, from the first mortal sovereign
Menes down to Alexander and the Ptolemies — some extracts,
unfortunately scanty and corrupted, have been preserved in the
Chronicle of Eusebius, and others in Georgius Syncellus,' who
' In several passages in the Chrono- mately derived from Manetlio. larflu r
graphy, Bonn edition ; especially pp. 99- references will bo given later, iu treating
146. Even such obscure notices as thcjso of the Exodus,
in Tac. Hist, v. 3, may probably bo ulti-
c c 2
3S8 rRELIMlXARV HISTORY.
quotes from the History of Julius Afrieanus. Still more fortunate
is it that Flavius Josephus, who in this part of his Antiquities
adhered closely to Biblical and Jewish authorities,^ was induced
by the violent opposition of certain contemporar}^ writers to quote
at full leno^th, in his work against Apion, two long passages of
Manetho, whose work is unfortunately lost.'^ But in his appli-
cation of these passages of Manetho to the history of Israel,
Josephus himself falls into serious errors ; and it is difficult to
say how much mischief was done by premature attempts on the
part of Jewish and Christian scholars of that day to reconcile the
Biblical and the Egyptian accounts. To this cause may be princi-
pally attributed the confused state of the few remaining extracts
from Manetho. Nor have even the labours of modern scholars
in deciphering Egyptian inscriptions been rew^arded as yet by
much reliable information with respect to this particular portion
of early history. Moreover, some who undertook most confi-
dently to interpret the inscriptions, and whose services in deci-
phering have in some instances been most meritorious, have
been hitherto the least disposed to an impartial consideration
and comparison of the Biblical records. Besides which it must
be borne in mind that the number of monuments requiring
examination is constantly receiving accessions, and the deci-
phering of those already found is still far from complete. At
this very time, indeed, fresh discoveries are again looked for.^
Under these circumstances, the following is pretty nearl}- all
that can be affirmed with certaint3^
I. That the whole Hebrew movement from the north could
terminate only in rich and beautiful Egypt may be inferred, as
Ave have seen (p. 309 sqq.), from the general mutual relations of
the nations of those times. But we possess besides sufficient
' Thai ho was awaro of the oxisteiioo lat Ion nf revolutidiis of Sirius, 1,101 years
of olln^r opini(jns is huwevcr evident from in length, does not appear to me sulH-
liis passing intimation, 'that Israel was ciontly proved. The great work of Lepsins,
flei-iveil nut from Hgypt, but from Meso- Chronologic der Arr/i/pfrr, the first vol. of
IH.tamia' {A?i/i(/. ii. 7.4); an assertion wliieh appeared iii Berlin, lS-19, is not
which in liis work Agriinsf. Apion he de- yot completed ; but an instalment of its
fends at length, against opponents wliom completion was furnished in 18Ö8, by his
he mentions byname. Indeed none but Boo/c of the Kiiu/s of Ancient FAjrjpt, con-
Pagans were then capable of such an error taining valuable documents. And in the
as to r«^fer the origin of Israel to Egypt last few years new excavations and inves-
and Africa. tigations have been earned out Ijy Ma-
- Ar/ainst Ajiion,\. 1 1-1(1 and 20-31. riette and others, in the north-east of
'Since this was written in 1842, Bun- P^jypt, the very district most important
.son's work on IOgyi>t appeared, the first to our present subject ; and from these
volume in 184;"», and the fifth and last in much new light niay be expected. See
1807; also B.iekh'.s Manetho und die Revue Archeolocfiquc, 1861, p. 249-50,
//«?tf/«/erMy)mw/r, whf)So assumption, that 3:58-40, 1862, "p. 297 sqq.; Chabas in
INIanetho's clironoiogy, commencing with Langioi.s' Nunm,nati(iue den Arahss, pp.
JMoncH, was based upon a scientific ealcu- 146-40.
MIGRATION TO EGYPT. 389
evidence to prove that eve7i from tlie first this great migration,
esj^eciallj as connected with the name of Abraham, took this
direction. According to one account,^ no sooner is Abraham
settled in Canaan, than he journeys, though but for a short time,
into Egypt ; and, according to another,^ Isaac wa,s restrained
only by express Divine prohibition from carrying out a similar
jjurpose. It is true that these two accounts come to us in
their present form only from the Fourth Narrator ; and that in
both a famine in Canaan is assigned as the immediate motive
of the journey into Egypt; which looks as if the later great
migration of Israel through flimine floated before the narrator's
mind, and these two earlier Patriarchs were intended to present
a type of that later history. But unless some ancient and
already written legend of Abraham's journey into Egypt had
come down to the Fourth Narrator, he would not have ventured
so to relate it. Of this we are assured by a correct apprecia-
tion of his character. But this shows us at least how faint the
memory of those earlier migrations had become in his day. So
much the brighter and clearer appears in both earlier and later
records the migration brought about by Joseph. Yet even
here those distant times are regarded so exclusively from an
Israelitish point of view, and so little notice is taken of the
internal affaii's of Egypt, that we are only the more anxious to
compare the narrative with the accounts given of these great
events by the Egyptians themselves.
Now it is clear from the fragments of Manetho, that before
the Eighteenth Dynasty, whose great power and well-esta-
blished rule the monuments sufficiently attest, Egypt was the
scene of numerous and prolonged contests with the races
called by the stationary Egyptians Shej^herds (that is Nomads),
and towards whom, as even Hebrew tradition bears witness,^
they cherished for centuries a deep-seated aversion. According
to the very scanty fi-agments quoted in Julius Africanus, and
again from him in Georgius Syncellus, the Fifteenth Dynasty con-
sisted of Phenician (that is Canaanite) foreigners, who reigned
284 years ; the Sixteenth of other ' Shepherds,' who reigned 518
years ; the Seventeenth of forty-three ' Shepherds ' and forty-
three Theban (that is, native) kings, reigning altogether 151
' Gen. xii. 10-20. dotiis at le'ast (ii. 46-47, and compare
* Gen. xxvi. 1-6. 164) only the caste of s^wincliords was
^ Gon. xlvi. 34, compared with xliii. rcfrardod by them as neoes.sarily nnelcan,
32. Jndping by the many expressive and all other herdsmen held a higher
representations on sepulehral monuments, position, we mnst limit the application of
the rich Egyptians took especial pleasure the Hebrew proverb to the free herdsmen,
in the possession of numerous flocks and and to very early times, shortly after the
shepherds. And as in the time of Hero- expulsion of the Hyksos.
390 rUKLnilNAUY IlISTOllV.
years. According to the fragments in Ensebius and others,
however, the Seventeenth Dynasty consisted for 106 years of
Phenician Shepherd-Kings, whose personal names are given,
and who are the same that were assigned by other writers to the
Fifteenth. Confusions and inaccuracies, which we have not as
yet means to correct with any certainty, have evidently entered
here.^ But we may safely infer, in general terms, a long con-
tinuance of the supremacy of the Shepherd-Kings in Egypt.
Josephus, though leaving out of view the succession of dynasties,
gives a detailed account, of thoroughly Egyptian complexion,
concerning the Shepherd-Kings (who according to Manetho
were called in Egyptian Hyksos'^). Its chief points are as
follows :— The Shepherds, coming from the east, conquered the
country by a sudden blow, burnt down the cities, destroyed
the temples, and in general treated the inhabitants with the
greatest cruelty. The first king, Salatis by name,^ settled
himself in Memphis, but selected Avaris, a newly-built city in
the province of Sethros eastwards, on the Bubastic branch of
the Nile,'* as a strong place to be defended by a permanent force
of 240,000 men, and also as a summer residence for himself,
where he might annually review and reward the soldiers. He
also fortified strongly other positions towards the east, in fear of
an Assyrian invasion. This king, who reigned 19 years ; Baeon,
44 3^ears ; Apachnos, 36 years and 7 months ; Apophis or Apho-
phis, 61 years ; Janias, 50 years and 1 month ; and Assis,'' 49
years and 2 months ; were the first six sovereigns of the
Hyksos (as if another family, also of the Hyksos, had suc-
' Ensebius, as we see in his Canon in the other abstracts tobe a corrnption of
{Chron. vol. ii. p. 78), supposed theappel- the same word.
lation Shepherd-Kings to refer to Joseph * This Avaris is evidently the city
and his brethren ; but was doubtless mis- alluded to by Georgius Synoellus, as built
led by the error on the part of Josephus, by the Hyksos in the Sethroitic Nomos ;
mentioned below. and this shows that Josephus M'rongly
* Many Egyptians, aceordingto Manetho, speaks of the Saitic Nomos, instead of the
preferred interpreting this name as CrtjJi'ive Sethroitic, which is on the south-west of
Shepherds. This perversion of the sense Pelusium.
is evidently only a bitter jest against the ^ Tiiis name is perhaps more correctly
former rulers of the land ; as in Rosellini's given in the other extracts as Archie),,
Mo7nim. Storici, plates xxvi-xxviii (com- although Assis, like Salatis, is good Se-
pnre Lepsius,Z>ßw,t-/««7tr, iii. 61 sq., 87 sq., mitic {VJV, 2^'^^'^"^"^^) J ^^^ ^^ -A^iz, king
109 128 sq., 139 sq.), the Shos are repre- ^f y^^^^^^' -^ „mentioned by Josephus, An-
sented upon the triumphal monuments in ^- -^-.^^ ^^ ^_ j„ the Jewid War, v.
chains; and I cannot understand how 9/4 Josephus incidentally calls the king
Itoselhni could sane ion an interpretation •„ 'u',;,,,^ Abv..hnn,\-i«;t,.1 V..J
.VU.CW..M ...U.U ^auc 10a an uiLei-preumon ;„ ^.j^^^^ ^-^^^ Abraham visited Egypt^
so irreconcilable with history. Josephus, tvt„ i • t*. • •. ,. ■ 11
^^ „„,,„.„ „,,•„! „ 1 -^ • ^ 1 iNecliao. It is quite uncertain whence he
ot course, seized eagerly upon it, in order ^ 1 »i • .■ 1 1 i
to make out that It referred to Joseph's took this name, whi^l^ -.„.. .t.,.„.l.o
captivity in l-^gypt. ^ ""^ '■"^7 ^" ''' "^i'^
=• Tl.i's name is such good Semitic, and ?^'■V'S^ T/ 1"' r'
corresponds so strikingly^ith Gen. xl i. 6, " 'i^)/'^!'';^^!^« f'J'-
t hat we must suppose ,SV.;/..v, which occurs ''"' '^'^"^' ^'^"'^^-
LI IG RATION TO EGYPT. 391
coeded them). At length, after 511 years, the kmgs of the
Thebais and the rest of Egypt conducted a long war against
them to a successful issue, and the king Misphragmuthosis, '
shut them up in Avaris. There, however, they entrenched and
defended themselves so well that his son Tethmosis (also
called Tuthmosis, Thummosis, and Thmosis^) although be-
sieging them with 480,000 men, was forced to allow them to
leave the country. They accordingly marched out without
molestation, about 240,000 strong, and in fear of the Assyrians
(whose power was far to the north), immediately settled down
in Judea, and built Jerusalem.
This story bears, it is true, unmistakable signs of good
remembrance ; indeed the fragments of Manetho, even from
the history of Menes the first king downwards, generally testify
to a conception of occurrences very accurate for so remote a
period — a sign of the extraordinarily early cultivation of letters
and documentary science among the Egyptians. The great
city Avaris, on an eastern branch of the Nile, which was built
by the Hyksos as a great fortified camp, indicates from its
position the quarter from which they entered Egypt, offering
an exact parallel to Gilgal, the strong encampment of Israel on
the west of the Jordan, whence that people under Joshua and
his successors subdued Canaan. The names of Judea and Jeru-
salem may indeed have got into the narrative only through the
historical ideas about the south of Canaan current for several
centuries before Manetho ; for although the name Jerusalem
is old (older than David), yet to our modern knowledge its
combination here with that of Judea makes it very doubtful
whether this element of the story dates from sufficient antiquity.
But a welcome indication that the fear of the Assyrians (or
northern nations) felt by the Hyksos, was not withovit reason,
and a hint as to what nations are to be understood under the
term Assyrian, is presented in the often-quoted passage, Gen.
xiv. And this historical view is corroborated not only by Ctesias
in his account of an early Assyrian empire, but by many other
traditions, as will be further shown below.
But Flavins Josephus, in understanding by the Hyksos only
the Israelites during their settlement in Egypt, and identi-
' In Josephus wrongly spelt 'AA(o-</)pa7/u. ; liorn of the god Taaut or Tot. The second
the A\ being evidently a niistnke for M, member is from the Coptic root ;«««, taking
since L occurs in old Egyptian (except in in the noun first a long ä, and then modi-
tlie Easmurian dialect) no more than in tying it into u. Moses, the great leader
Zend. of Israel, when grown up, probably pre-
^ Tlie oldest pronunciation, however, ferred to call himself simply thus, and to
must have been Tötmose, i.e. son «f Tacmt, drop the Egyptian god from his name.
■3\)2 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
fying the expulsion of these Sliepherd-Kings with the Exodus
of Israel under Moses, manifestly falls into f^reat error. Not
only is he thereby compelled Avithout any sufficient ground to
reject as fabulous a later account of Manetho's, but even this
first account contains no single proof that Israel, at least that
people alone, was understood by the name of Hj^ksos ; still less
does it refer to Moses, or to any circumstance of the Israelitish
Exodus under him. Such an assumption also confuses the
whole chronology. The statement in 1 Kings vi. 1, that 480
years elapsed between the Exodus from Egypt and the com-
mencement of the building of the Temple of Solomon, and the
corresponding statement in Ex. xii. 40, that Israel sojourned
430 years in Egypt, are derived in all probability (p. 76, 81 sq.)
from the Book of Origins, and consequently from very reliable
sources ; their accuracy is confirmed by every fresh investiga-
tion ; and they constitute the only two fixed points by which all
Hebrew chronology is held in place. Putting the foundation
of Solomon's Temple in one of the last decads of the eleventh
century before Christ, the Exodus will fall near the end of the
sixteenth century. Many of the learned, however, even before
Josephus, had, for reasons to be explained shortly, pushed the
date of the Exodus further back. And Josephus, whose object
in the books against Apion was to establish against pagan
writers of the day, the two propositions that Israel was not an
offshoot from Egypt, and that it was a very ancient nation,
seized wdth evident eagerness upon this story of Manetho's of
the settlement and subsequent expulsion of the Hyksos, be-
cause, once assuming the identity of these with Israel, he could
not only represent Israel as utterly distinct from the Egyjitians,
but push the date of Moses back to 2000 years before his own
time. ' Perhaps he might have attained all that he Avished to
prove in vindication of the good name of his nation, by another
and a safer way ; unable to find that course, he was seduced
into this bypath, which deprives the early history of Israel of all
its light, but secures to us some compensation in the important
extracts from Manetho.
Abandoning the view of Josephus on the subject, one might
suppose that the Phenician Shepherd-Kings of whom Eusebius
and Syncellus speak (and no doubt Manetho himself used this
name) were to be understood in the most obvious sense of the
' Tliat. Moses lived 2,000 years Ijofore, to his Antiquities and his work Against
nnd that 5,000 liad elapsed since the Apion, \. 1,1 , d,,\Q. The present reading,
Creation, IS assumed hyJos.pInis throupjli- however, in ^«i'. viii. 3. 1, certaiiilj' docs
out all his writings; sec the inlroductioii not agree with these figures.
MIGRATfnX TO FXIYIT. 393
words, of an immigration of Canaanites into Egypt, perhaps at
a time preceding the advance of the Hebrews into Canaan.
Many isolated facts might be adduced in favour of this view,
as for instance the great ethnological myth which puts Canaan,
as the son of Ham, into a very close connection with Egypt
(p. 239 sq.) ; and the ' T}T:ian Camp' at Memphis, in later
times, ^ which might perhaps be a relic left by a Canaanite j)opu-
lation in very early times. But Manetho's second story, of which
we shall speak presently, cannot be brought into accordance
with this view, and even in itself the hypothesis is beset with
improbabilities. The Canaanites, as far back as we can trace
them in history, were not shepherd-tribes at all, but had long
passed that stage of civilisation. Even such branches of them
as the Amorites, who were least given to the arts and trades of
cities (p. 234 sq.), never appear like nomads, or like the camf)S
of conquering hordes such as Manetho graphically describes the
Hyksos, Moreover, as ancient tradition (p. 239) brought them
into the land of the Jordan from quite a different quarter, so
also historical indications show their constant tendency to have
been still further to the west. Towards Egypt they turned
with eagerness only for the sake of trade, but ajjpear from
many indications^ to have always been well received there in
that capacity. But this would be scarcely credible, if they
were identical with the detested Shepherd-tribes. We pass
over other still less probable opinions respecting the Hyksos,
propounded by modern scholars.^
I have always recognised that the Hyksos must stand in
some close relation to the Hebrews ; understanding this word,
however, not in its ordinary acceptation, but in the primitive
sense in which, as above explained, they first appear in the
land of the Jordan. Coming, according to Manetho, from the
east, the Hyksos established on the north-eastern boundary of
Egypt an entrenched camp, on which they could easily fall
back at any moment. They are even called, according to one
• Herod, ii. 112. pollion that the Shos of the hieroglypliics
* Seels, xxiii. 3,and Jos.y^^amsi^^^jw«, were identical with the ShctcB (Chetae)
i. 12, with reference to later times ; the and that these were Scythians (Momu
earlier intercourse between the nation.s is Sfor. i. 1, p. 173 sqq., ii. 1. p. 66-68).
attested by the frequent connection be- Latcsr, however, he gradually retracted this
tween the Egyptian and the Phonician ojjinion, but without arriving- difinitely
religious rites and usages of all kinds. A Jit anything better (ii. 1. p. 433-45, 2. p.
remembrance of it is even found in Greek 246-58). In fact the vanquished in the
mythology, Apollod. Bild. ii. 1, 4 (where illustrations (i. pi. xxvi.) look much more
'Eyxip^V probably arose from the river like people from the deserts adjoining
lirT'p')- Egypt ; they are bringing gazelles as their
' Such as Rosellini's opinion th.it thoy tributary offering,
were Scythians. He believed with Cham-
394 rili:LlJ[l?>ARY HISTORY.
reading, Phenician ShepJierds, wliicli, considering tliat the
Greeks called all the inhabitants of Canaan indiscriminately
Phenicians, or even Palestinians, is almost identical with
Hebrew Shepherds.^ The description of them as wandering
and encamping tribes, agrees exactly with the reminiscences
preserved in the Old Testament of the primitive Hebrew
race, gradually pushing forwards from the north- east, towards
the south and Egypt ; for it cannot surprise us that the Egyp-
tians should dwell chiefly upon the offensive characteristic of
the invaders, and the ravages committed by them. The six
kings' names which have been preserved, differ from all the
numerous names of Egyptian kings found in Manetho's long
list; and not only has the first king, Salatis (i.e. Lord), a
name easily recognised as Semitic, but even that of the great
camp, Avaris or Abaris,^ signifies in all probability the Hebrew
Camp.^ And they may very possibly have ruled in Egypt for
several centuries without serious injury to the higher culture
and science of Egyptian life. For even according to Manetho's
expressions quoted by Josephus, representing the Theban (or
Southern) and other Egyptian kings as in the end suddenly rising
up and expelling them, they can have been only suzerains of
the land, surrounded by their vassal-kings, and satisfied with a
mere recognition by these of their own supremacy.
This, however, does not decide what particular Hebrew tribes
are here to be understood. We must indeed at once recognise
the broad fact that this conquest of Egypt, placed by Manetho
(to speak in round numbers) considerably more than 2,000
}ears before Christ, must refer to the very earliest Hebrew
2nigration into Egypt of which any memory has remained.
' The story of the shepherd Philitis, to phiis adds that, according to an old Tlieo-
whom (according to Herod, ii. 128) the logy (i.e. the Mythology), Abaris was
Egyptians ascribed the building of the called i he Ciü/ of T^jikon. This, however,
])yraiiiids of Cheops and Chcphren, from was not intended as an explanation of the
hatred to those kings, because \mder them name Abaris, but only to show that the
he had kept sheep on that spot, would, Egyptians devoted this hated city to the
if his name is derivod from the Philis- Evil God. Very recently the name Ihnar
tines and the tradition embodies a re- has actually been found on Egyptian monu-
collection of the Ilyksos, still only indi- ments relating to the time of the Hjksos ;
cate the district from which tlie latter see De Roug^ in the Bevtcc Anh. 18C0,
originally came. The legend may perhaps p. 309 sq.; 1861, ii. p. 215; Brugsch's
account for the use in Ethiopic of the Gcograjih. Inschriften, i. p. 51. Eut the
,,.^„,1 /O i>i\' '" t I 1 7 7 7\ t'Xii'Ct site of this Hyksös-city still remains
Mora /;^.r. I , raiyt (properly i«//«)//«y/) ,i i ^.f i -x t • i ^ d
f,.^ /„■/,«/ ;„ <i ^i 1 V 1,- 1 11 dcmbtful; it was certainly not the same
lor (jiant, in IJic liook of Enoch and else- rr • \\t\ ..i 4.1 i^ j
yf,\^^y.f, as Tanis. Whether the name was formed
from Egyptian elements may require
_ In both places where fliis city is men- further investigation ; but to suppose that
tioiied {Against Apiun), i. 11 and 26, the the Hebrews themselves had their name
reading varies between "Aßapis and from this Avaris (as Erugsch suggests,
^^"P'^- Gcoq. Ins. i. 90), is flu. reverse <jf' any
•' In the second passage, indeed, Jose- possible historical truth.
I\[1G KATION TO EGYl'T. 395
We cannot therefore refer it to tlio immigration of tlie People
of Israel into Egjpt ; since that appellation (see p. 341 sqq.)
implies a settlement of Hebrews in Canaan, which took place
later ; and the nation so called is represented in the Old Testa-
ment as moving from Canaan into Egypt only on the summons
of Joseph — a Hebrew who had already become powerful there,
when his father Israel was already old and grey. The Biblical
reminiscences of Abraham's and Isaac's connection with Egypt
are much more likely to be connected with the events in ques-
tion. In their present state, indeed, these reminiscences, as was
shown on p. 388 sq., retain only a faint outline, and have re-
ceived a strongly Mosaic colouring-, both moral and historical.
Moreover, the idea that the migration of the two Patriarchs was
occasioned by the same cause as the later national migration
to the same country, viz. a famine in Canaan, is very vague
and general, since Egypt must always have appeared to the
neighbouring nations a land of inexhaustible plenty. But
in these early legends the two elder Patriarchs evidently stand
in almost the same relation to Egypt as the third ; although
Abraham's brief visit, and Isaac's projected migration, . hin-
dered by express Divine prohibition, appear like types of Israel's
great migration to the same country, which also was not to
result in a permanent settlement.' Abraham's migration also
appears from the legend to have been from the far north to
Egypt; and both Patriarchs, according to the constant tenor
of this tradition, appear, even when in Canaan, to have alwaj^s
remained in the south, close upon the Egj^ptian frontier
(p. 305 sq.). On the other hand, it would be an equal violation
of history to understand Abraham and his family alone by this
Hyksos people. It is only in the extant Israelitish legend that
he appears as the great father of all the Hebrews far and wide
around Canaan. According to Genesis xiv. (p. 286 sq., 307 sq.),
he was originally a powerful individual Hebrew in Canaan, like
many others ; in accordance with which his visit to Egypt,
even in the extant legend, appears as of no great length or im-
portance ; and in the tradition which in many ways subordinates
Lot, Ishmael, and the sons of Keturah, to him, we are already
])repared (by p. 309 sq.) to see nothing absolutely primitive.
It would therefore seem more connect to represent the Hyksos
as comprehending all those various tribes, some small and
some great, which were generally united only by their com-
mon Hebrew origin, and at that particular time also by a
' Cnmpnre Gen. xlvi. 1-4 with xxvi. 1, passed under the hand of tlie Fourth
2. and xii. 10-20, passagcf^ which have Narratüi*.
39G raELIMIXARY IIISTOKV.
common movement southward ; some of wliom pressed forward
into Egypt, otliers established themselves in Canaan and the ad-
jacent countries ; probably with many shiftings backward and
forward, of which now only some faint reminiscences can with
difficulty be traced; Abraham being only one among many leaders
of these tribes. This view is actually confirmed by other indica-
tions. The Midianites and the Kenites, from whom Moses (as will
be afterwards shown) received so much assistance in his exertions
for Israel, may themselves, according to Manetho's account,
have belonged to the Hyksos formerly expelled from Egypt,
and have assisted Moses the more zealously on this account.
It cannot be for nothing that the oldest tradition gives to Ish-
mael an Egyptian mother and an Egy^^tian wife,' and makes him
dwell on the very borders of Egypt.^ Lot, moreover, according
to the Fourth Narrator, accompanies Abraham into Egypt:
this, if not expressly stated in Gen. xii. 10-20, is made all the
more distinct in Gen. xiii. 1-18, where the old authorities have
probably been more strictly adhered to.
But we must here especially call to mind (from p. 253) that
Arabian tradition attributes to that people also an early conquest
of Egypt. Most writers fix upon the Amalekites as the parti-
cular Arab tribe who have a claim to this renown ; others the
'Adites,'^ also an aboriginal tribe, but not mentioned by the Bible.
Preserved as this tradition has been through Moslem writers, it
certainly comes before us adulterated by the learned with Biblical
ideas and incidents, which have evidently determined its special
character. The Pharaohs sprung from Arabian blood, are said
to have dwelt in the city Awar,"^ and to have reigned there under
Jacob and Joseph, and even under Moses ; the names of some
are very precisely given, and sound quite Arabic no doubt, but
with some foreign additions, clearly testifying to the fusion of
heterogeneous elements.^ It is impossible to doubt that all these
stories, as they at present stand, originated in a mere desire of
blending and enriching the legends of the Koran (especially
that of Joseph) with other well-known histories ; and this fresh
zeal may have been very active even in the first century of
' Gen. xvi. 1, 7, 14, xxi. 9, 14, 21, * See the names in Wäkidi, Exjnign.
* Gen. xxi. 21, XXV. 18. Acfi. ed. Hamaker, p. 41, 60; Taliart,
^ iSee the extracts (only too short) in Ciiron. i. p. 209, 210, 2G1, 262; Al.ulfid.
Caussin de Perceval's Ksaai sur I' Hisioirc ///.s/. ^w/rw/. p. 30, 70, 100 ; Abdalhakanii,
des Arahcs, vol. i. p. 7-13. Lih. de histona Aecjypti aniiquu, ed. Karle,
* Abbreviated from Avaris (p. 394). Gott. 185G. In any case they are the
Here we perceive most jdainly an infusion names of the Pharaohs in Joseph's and
of details from the Ilyksös story, such as a Moses' times only ; the name Arsliius, cor-
pcdant would attempt ; and it is actually niptcd in most manuscripts into Aräsha,
pretended that Awar stood on the site of points to the Arciiles of jVlaiulho.
the later Alexandria !
MIGRATION TO EGYPT. 397
Islam. Yet it cannot be denied tliat some memory of a former
Arabian conquest and long dominion over Eg-ypt might remain
among tlie Arabians even in the time of Mohammed. Such
memories of former greatness do not easily pass away from a
nation's recollection. Upon this foundation the accounts of the
Hyksos, given by the learned in the early days of Islam, must
then have been piled, and gradually mingled with the national
reminiscences. It had indeed been mentioned even by Manetho,
that some thought the Hyksos were Arabs, • but important as
this short comment must seem to our view of the subject, it is
too incidental to have been the sole origin of the later Arabian
stories. The mere names, Amalek,^ and still more Ad, occurring-
in them may have been employed at a later time only as a
designation of extreme antiquity ; but they prove at the same
time that these stories were not originally derived from Josephus
and the Fathers of the Church.
We must therefore suppose that a great movement of nations
from the north to Egypt took place in the earliest times, and
carried the inhabitants of northern Arabia in multitudes thither :
a movement which we can describe by no other name but
Hebrew, and in which Abraham bore a part, although only as a
small prince. This actually throws the first ray of light on the
obscure relations of the early world. Internal dissensions, and
the first rise of the Assyrian or rather Aramean power in the
north, may have impelled the Hebrews southwards, and then
driven them, conjointly with the aboriginal tribes of Palestine
and northern Arabia, into Egypt, where they founded the d}^-
nasty of the Shepherd-Kings. Thus that early age may have
presented the first example of those persevering and varied
contests of the Asiatic nations with Egypt, which were repeated
under the later Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Persians, and again
under Islam by the Arabs, Persians, and Turks.
But if we consider farther, that Egyptian records always
' Tir'tj Se Xijovffiv auTovs''Apaßas ehat, the Hyksos period, adopted both by the
JosQ\i\niH,Aijal7isiÄpion,i.l4:. Thti Greek Arabs and the Hebrews, though in each
myth also connects Arabia in ancient times case with some variation in the pronun-
very closely with Egypt ; xVpoUod. BifA. ciation. For this word accords with
ii. 1. 4, 5. irvpafxis, excepting that it is without the
^ In Numb. xxiv. 20 the Amalekites Egyptian article ; and is certainly derived,
are expressly called aborigines : but it is ^j^j^ ^j^^ ^j^^, ^ ^. -^^^ ^^^^^^ ^ ^
inconceivable that a passage like this, , •, ■ ,,, '",i ,'
little understood or noticed at a later age, f «''^^'ff^. a« the pyramids might be called,
alone induced Moslim scholars to regard being the most ancient of sanctuaries. At
this people as their ancestors. It seems '"^ "^"^^ ^''^er period, the same word with
more probable that in ^\^i, compared ^^^^ ^^^icle passed into Arabic, as Ij
with 3-\n (Job iii. 14), we possess a with the meaning of an ordinary sanctuary;
^^ ^. 1 1 J. see Goft. Gel. An^. 1856, p. 1069 sq.
genuine Egyptian word preserved trom ' ^ ^
398 rUELI.MlXARY IIISTOKV.
speak of several successive Hylcsos dynasties, and ascribe to
them all the same dread of the Assyrian power ; and again,
that the complication of nationalities in the adjacent country of
Canaan, ancient as it is, must have arisen about the time when
these different lines of Hylcsos bore sway in Egypt, implying
great and repeated revolutions in the possession of the two
neighbour-countries, we may hope to gain a still clearer un-
derstanding of these circumstances when we add all other testi-
monies and indications that meet us. Such details as we are
able to ascertain distinctly from the general history of so many
centuries may be stated somewhat as follows.
The settlement of the Canaanites in the land which ever after
retained their name occurred probably about tlie middle of the
third millennium before Christ ; when Abraham entered the land
they were believed to have been long settled there. ^ But the
original inhabitants, whose Semitic dialect (see p. 383 sq.) always
remained the basis of the language, may thus have been hard-
pressed, and have begun to throw themselves in full force into
Egypt, even before the outbreak of the struggle in the far north
between the Hebrews and the Arameans, which resulted in the
former pushing on farther and farther to the south-west, and
ultimately conquering Egypt. Their princes, the Hyksos, once
having forced the Egyptian power in many battles far back to the
south, could now hold their ground undisturbed for centuries in
northern and central Egypt ; and for a long time they no doubt
had more contests among themselves, and against repeated
assaults from Asia, than against the Egyptians. Thus they
assumed more and more of the brilliant and long-established
royal state of the old Egyptian Pharaohs ; thinking thus, j)ro-
bably, to add greater security to their empire, still threatened
on many sides ; just as in later times the Parthian kings seemed
to adopt all the refinements of Greek culture. Abraliam and
Joseph in the Pentateuch come to the courts of apj)arently
native Egyptian kings ; yet this semblance does not make it
iinpossible that the sovereigns then reigning in the north of
Egypt may have been Hyksos. For the reason just alleged,
some blending of the native Egyptian with the more Hebraic
' The. words in G-en. xii. 6,xiii.7, cannot Hence there is a contrast here between
possibly mean to say tliat when Abraham those particuLir inliabitaiits, the Canaan-
entered the land it had never been nn- ites, and the earlier ones wlium we liavo
juopbd sinee the Delnge ; for by the described as Aljoriginos. And the forco
fuinlaniental idea of the ancient traditions of the remark lies in pointing ont that
this was a matter of course witli regard to those worst and most hostile tribes, the
the beginning of the Third Age of the Canaanites, were then already in jiosses-
world, and by Gen. xi. 1 it was only at sion. The contrast is tlien brought for-
Ihe commencement of the Second Age that ward more clearly in xiii. 13, xv. 10.
any such depopulation was conceivable.
MIGRATIOX TO EGYPT. 399
Hyksos civilisation was unavoidable ; b^^t beyond tliat, tlieso
tribes evidently retained marked peculiarities in lang-uage, cus-
toms, and religion, distinguishing tliem from the Egyptians, and
bringing them nearer to the people of Israel, who were in many
respects their followers. In fact the peculiar culture of this
evidently very enlightened youthful race, perfected in the seat
of the old Egyptian philosophy and art, may be j)la.inly traced
far into succeeding centuries ; though we have to regret that so
little definite knowledge of them can now be recovered. From
them, for instance, was unquestionably derived the Semitic
name of Egypt, which must have spread from them to all other
nations of that race ; ^ and many similar instances will be here-
after noted. One thing is clear — that the city Zoan (or, as the
Greeks called it, Tanis), on that eastern branch of the Nile to
which it afterwards gave its name, was long their seat of empire,
and owed to them its greatness and its ancient renown. For
the foundation and early history of this city were long remem-
bered even in Israel ; ^ as if this were the only Egyptian city of
which the origin was so exactly known, and was preserved in as
vivid remembrance as that of the oldest and most celebrated
cities of Canaan. And whereas before the time of the Hyksos
this city had never been the residence of any Egyptian dynasty,
it became afterwards the seat of empire for several native
Egyptian dynasties, and notably so of the Twenty-first and
Twenty-third. The very name of the city,^ which in Semitic
signifies Wandering, seems at once to point it out as the ro^^al
seat of the Wandering Shepherds, or Hyksos. ■*
When later writers, on the other hand, speak of a powerful
> ilf2>ram, or according to a later abbre- present day in the uamo l As iu
viation Mizr : see the Jahrb. de?- Bihl. tu
Jl'm. X. p. 174. Whether any of the gods Coptic also the name is pronounced
common to tlie_ Phenicians and the 'X^^tiG or Z^ItH (wholly different
Egyptians, as for instance the Cabiri, can
be derived from the Hyksos period, is a ^om the 003 It!, of Upper Egypt, like-
subject deserving closer investigation ; wise named Tanis by the G-reeks), it bc-
compare Raoul-Rochette iu tiie Memoires comes yet more improbable that it is
de VAcad. des Insor. xvii. 2, p. 373 sq. identical with the Avnris noticed p. 394,
- ' Hebron was built seven years before as Brugsch ( Geographische Inschriften i.
tlie Egyptian Tanis,' Numb. xiii. 22, from p. 88 sq.) and de Rouge think,
tiio Book of Origins. ^ To tliis must now be added the im-
^ The very designation ' the Eyypticm portant excavations on the ancient site of
Tanis,' in the Book of Origins, suggests Tanis just accomplished under Mariatte :
tlie existence of other cities of the same the peculiar character of the remains dis-
name beyond the Egyptian boundary ; covered there point to the Hyksos, and
and in fact jy'v is derived from tlie genuine afford additional proof of the fact, that
, , . , ' t . J 7 J ■ under them Egyptian art assumed a new
Arabic root -u, to wander, to lourncii ; „ , ''•'f , , ,i t» -j
(^-^■^ ' ^ ./ ' torm, and was loved by them. Besides
and this Arabic letter shows how easily tlie the references on p. 388 sq., see the Revuj
sibilant might be changed into t, though in de V Instruction 2>it'bliqu.", for April 1862,
tlio country itself it is preserved to the p. 25 sqq.
400 rUKLlMINARY IIISTOKV.
Assyrian empire existing in the time of tlie Hyksos, and me-
nacing them, we may leave it doubtful whether the great
northern power was already known by the name of Assyria.
But certain it is (seep. 311 sq.) that the Arameans were then al-
ready advancing in great strength from the north-east towards
the south-west. The four allied kings, whom Abraham has to
combat (p. 301, 307 sq.), and whose speedy overthrow gained
liim gratitude even from the Canaanites, came from the north-
east,' and were doubtless bent upon a j^lundering incursion into
Egypt. Even tbe comjjaratively recent Armenians retain a dim
remembrance that their empire began towards the end of the
third millennium before Christ.* And we may fairly assume a
connection between this belief and the great movements of races
in those early times.
II. Under these circumstances it seems certainly at first sight
less difficult to understand how the Israelites, a Hebrew people,
could be transplanted to Egypt, especially if at the time of the
migration the Hyksos were reigning there ; but it becomes all
the harder to define accurately the external and internal condi-
tions of the times which witnessed the lasting removal of Israel
thither. There must have been something quite exceptional in
the circumstances affecting that one nation, if it were only from
the fact that they are known to have been able to remain long
after the expulsion of the other Hyksos ; inasmuch as not only
the decisive passage of Manetho (hereafter to be full}^ explained),
on the actual Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, but also the
chronology of 1 Kings vi. 1 (discussed p. 76 sq.), together with
all other indications, prove that they left Egypt at a much later
time and virtually alone. But those circumstances are in truth
still involved in obscurity, which we have no present means of
efi'ectuall}^ dispelling by any simple and clear testimony. In
order, therefore, to work our way as near as possible to the
dark centre, we must begin with the remotest point which can
be ascertained with certainty, that is, with the exact chronology
of Israel's migration into Egypt.
The testimony of the Book of Origins (according to p. 81 sq.)
is that Israel dwelt 430 years in Egypt, Ex. xii. 40. This evi-
dence, reliable both from its antiquity and from its position,
fixes the period, if not exactly to a year, at least within a cen-
' Furtlicr proof is needed wlietlici- tlio ' Compare St. Martin, Memoircs sur
posiliün of I'^llasar is correetly dctirminrd rArtnenie, i. p. 407 sq. Primeval rela-
in OppiTl's J'J.r/H'(/Uion sclent, en Me.so- lions of tliis kind must be Lhe foundation
po/tnnie, ii. p. 224. See the Persian opinion oftlie story given liy AlexandiTPoi yliistor,
on the question in ChwoLson's Ueherrestc that Judaea andldumaea were daugiiters of
der Allbahylonischeii Literatur,^. 19. .Seniiraniis. See Stepiianus %zant. s. vv.
MIGKATION TO ECYi'T. 401
tury, or even ten years. It is true that a somewhat phiusible
objection may be urg-ed against its accnracy. Abraham comes
to Canaan in his 75th year, lives in all 175 years, and has
Isaac in his lOOtli; Isaac lives 180 years and has Jacob
in his 60th; and Jacob goes to Egypt in his 130th.' This
gives 215 years,^ exactly the half of the 430, as the period
assigned by the Book of Origins to the residence in Canaan.
This coincidence between 430 and 215 is the less likely to be
accidental, since all the chronology of the Patriarchal times is
evidently stated only in round numbers. But in the Alexandrian
translation, as well as in the Samaritan text, we find this
number 430, not bodily altered, but by an insertion in the text
made to bear a totally different meaning ; it being here said
that ' Israel abode 430 years in Egypt and in Canaan.'' The
lives of the three Patriarchs in Canaan are manifestly here
included, so that only just the half, 215 years, is left for the
residence in Egypt ; and thus it became the general custom
with those authors who adhered to the Pentateuch,^ to assign
only 215 years to the sojourn in Egypt. But this reading
betrays itself to be spurious, were it only through the occurrence
in it of the name Israel, which is out of place, since the resi-
dence of the first two Patriarchs in Canaan must be included in
the calculation ; on which account the Alexandrian Codex of
the Septuagint, with the Samaritan text (consistently enough),
inserts also the words ' and their fathers ' after Israel. We
can therefore regard this reading only as an attempt to provide
an easy solution of the difficulty which the chronology appeared
to present, similar to the numerous well-meant but mostly
unsuccessful attempts to remove certain difficulties from history,
of which the last few centuries before and the first four or five
after Christ are full. It is clear that the stumbling-block in
the present case '' was the impossibility of reconciling the state-
ments made in other passages of the Pentateuch'^ on the ages
of the four successive Patriarchs : —
Levi ......
Kohath .....
Am ram .....
Moses at the Exodus .
487 „in all.
' Gen. xii. 4, xxi. ö, xxv. 7, 26, xlvii. 9, for Israel's sojourn in Egypt ; and he speaks
compared with ver. 28. from an extensive survey of the ages.
2 100 f 60 + 130-75 = 215. •• This is also distinctly seen from the
^ As the Apostle, in Gal. iii. 17. On the Srdir 01am R. ch. iii.
other hand, Theopliilus of Antioch {ad * Ex. vi. 16-20 and vii. 7 ; comp;ire
Aidohjc. iii. 9, 2-1) still counted 430 years Deut. xxxiv. 7 ; Nundi. xiv. 34.
VOL. I. DD
137
years
133
?5
137
>5
80
5?
402 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
Avitli tliese 430 years, so as to allow for the birth of Koliaih
before the mig-ration, ^ and for the necessary subtraction of the
uncertain number of years that Kohath may have lived after
the birth of Amram, and Amram after that of Moses. For if
the son was born in the father's I30th year, only 140 years will
be left for the whole period ; and even if the son was not born
till the father's 65th or 70th year, only 215 years will remain.
The discrepancy is all the more startling because it is the Book
of Origins itself that gives all these particular data side by side
with the general statement as to the 430 years. But no other
inference can really be drawn from this, than that the specifi-
cations of the age of each individual Patriarch must have been
derived from a source quite distinct from that of the general
statement as to the length of Israel's sojourn in Egypt ; and
while there is every sign (see p. 23 sq., 211) that the former have
passed through the stream of tradition, the latter may very
probably be drawn from some more exact chronological meniorj^,
such as might be preserved in the writings even of other na-
tions, Egyptians or Phenicians for example ; since the Book of
Origins knows the exact date of the building of very ancient
cities, such as Hebron, and Tanis in Egypt (p. 52) „ So that the
very contradiction between the two calculations affords strong
evidence in support of the 430 years.' We fall back, then, upon
the full 430. This number was undoubtedly found in this place
by the earliest reader whose existence we can detect with cer-
tainty, namely the Fifth Narrator, as we must conclude from his
rounding off the number to 400, according to proj^hetic usage,
in Gen. xv. 13. Besides, more complete genealogies have also
been preserved, which satisfactorily prove this number of years
to be the correct one.'^
Here indeed we meet a new difficulty : that it is impossible
to suppose the number 215 of the years of the Patriarchs'
residence in Canaan to have arisen quite independently of this
430, its double. One might fancy the 430 to have originated
in an intentional doubling of the 215. But if artifice is to be
assumed on either side, the above remarks, as well as the pre-
' See Gen. xlvi. 11, compared with verse rcquisito 430 years. TIio higli princely
2G. power of Josepli and Joshna accounts for
* Accordinf; to the true interpretation of the accuracy of tliis list. It was not until
1 Chron. vii. 20-27 there were exactly ten after the days of Mosesand Aaron that tlio
Bucccssive {jrencrations between Joseph and generations of Levi were noted with equal
tlie grandfather of .Joshua, granting that minuteness. A similar instance of the co-
oncc, in ver. 25, after t0y ij^ is omitted existence of a brief and a full genealogical
(eompare Numb. ii. 18)'; even if the tabic for the same period has been already
average length of each generation be re- "oticcd, p. 24 sq.
ducod under foHy years, we j-et obtain I lie
MIGRATION TO EGYPT. 403
vious investigation of the Patriarclial age, leave little doubt,
that the length of the three Patriarchs' joint lives in Canaan is
uinch more probably determined from the 430 than vice versa,
through bisection of them, because the half of that period
seemed to allow suitable and sufficient scope for the lives in
question (see p. 324 sq.).
Assuming then the accuracy of the 430 years as the time of
Israel's stay in Egyjjt, the Egypto- Israelite chronology appears
to be somewhat as follows. According to Manetho's narrative
(hereafter to be noticed) the Exodus of Israel took j)lace under
a king Amenophis. Now if we compare the 480 years that
intervened between the commencement of Solomon's Temple
and the Exodus with the Egyptian chronology according to
Manetho, we find that this interval just allows for the three
dynasties which reigned before King Sesonchis, the founder of
the Twenty-second or Bubastic dynasty (known to us by the
later history of Solomon and of ßehoboam) ' ; since
According to Africanus. According to Eiisebius.
the 19th dynasty reigned 209 years
the 20th „ „ 135 „
the 21st „ „ 130 „
194
years
172
5J
130
5J
being altogether'^ 474 „ 496 „
the smaller number of years assigned by Africanus to the
Twentieth dynasty (in which the length of the separate reigns is
omitted by both writers) being in some measure compensated by
the smaller number given by Eusebius to the Nineteenth. Even if
we accej^t the larger total, 496 years, as the basis of our calcula-
tions, we shall not exceed the limit ; since the building of the
Temple was begun in the fourth year of Solomon, and Sesonchis,
who only reigned twenty-one years, certainly coincides with
Solomon's advanced age. Now the famous Eighteenth Egyptian
dynasty, the longest and most flourishing of which we have any
definite knowledge, is said by all authorities to have ended its
line of sixteen or seventeen kings with Amenophis, who reigned
according to Eusebius forty years, according to Africanus
nineteen ; a discrepancy which may be safely attributed to the
transcribers only ; but whatever was the length of his reign, the
Israelitish Exodus can be brought within it ; and we have thus
a very important instance of agreement between the accounts
' 1 Kings xi. 40, compared with verse Twenty-first dynast}'. I do not here discuss
18, xir. 2.5 sqrj. the point, which has no great importance
- Böckh (pp. 262, ßl3) proposes to road for our present subject.
114 instead of 130 in Africanus for the
404 rßELLMlXAKY lUSTOIlV.
of Manetho and those of the Old Testament ; which elsewhere,
as will be presently shown, appear to differ widely from each
other. Now since the Eighteenth dynasty lasted, according to
Eusebius 348, according to Africanus^ 263 years, the migration
of Israel into Egypt will fall in the very middle of the Hyksos
period; unless we follow Eusebius in reducing this to 106 years,
which would certainly be too short a period, being in direct
contradiction to Josephus as well as to Africanus.
This is fully confirmed by such faint indications as are con-
tained in the early Israelite history. Israel there appears as a
younger branch of the Hebraic race, making its first southward
movement later than the rest, just as it afterwards entered
Egypt later ; and it always remained one of the principal fea-
tures in the legend that Josej)h had gone first to Egypt, and
become the ruler of the country, before he sent for his brethren
and assigned them a habitation there. In this picture of the
powerful brother who prepared the way into Egypt for the
Twelve Tribes, has been preserved no very obscure remembrance
of the historical relation subsisting between Israel and the other
Hyksos, Avhich we must interpret by the fuller information de-
rived from Egyptian sources.
III. The only point, therefore, of these histories, now almost
faded from the knowledge of posterity, which still remains ob-
scure, is the question how Israel, after having entered Egypt
under the protection of the kindred power of the Hyksos, es-
caped the expulsion from the enchanting Nile valley which these
suffered, and on the contrary was able to remain in Egypt
during nearly the whole period of the powerful Eighteenth dy-
nasty, the conquerors of the Hyksos? This problem is not
solved by assuming that Israel was simply subdued by the new
conquerors, and preferred remaining in Egypjb as a subject
people, while their kindred tribes preferred entire expulsion, or,
if we choose so to consider it, a return to their former seats in
the east. For although the Israelitish history says much of
Egyptian bondage, yet it speaks not as if this had subsisted and
been legally recognised for centuries, but as if it were a ca-
' Here, however, he is certiiinly mis- Kg3'pt till 1300, and that the time of
taken. On tlie arguments whieli have been Israel's abudo in Kgypt did not exceed
recently revived against tiie numliers 430 about 100 years; but I lind it weak and
and 480, I have spoken in the G-ott. (id. tmsatisfactory. Recently, however, Vic.
An::. 18.')0, p. 817 sqq.; 1851, p. 42Ö sqq., de Rouge and Brugsch have adopted the
1858, p. 1448 sqq. Äluch woiglit has l)een opinion of Bunsen and Lepsius, that tho
fiivon to tlie work of Engelstoft {Hisforia E.\odus occurred in tho year 1314 b.c.,
J'ojjuU Judaici BUil'wa usque ad occupa- which wouhl thi'ow tlie comineucoment of
timciii PidiKst'mce a<l relatioiies jiercijrinas the entire Hyksos period much later; but
rxaiiiinata ct dujista. Havn. 1832) as positive proof of this is still wanting. See
having proved that Mo.sos did not leave Gott. Gel. Am. 1858, p. 1448 sc^q.
MIGRATIOX TO EGYPT. 40.5
pricious innovation on the part of ' a king who knew not Joseph,'
and against which Israel rose at last in indignant resistance.
And the actual Exodus of Israel is represented — especially, be it
noted, bj the oldest narrator • — as effected by a fully equipped
and disciplined army. But how could a nation which had been
thoroughly enslaved for more than three centuries march out
all at once in jDerfect martial array ? in Egypt, too, whose de-
fenceless inhabitants have never risen with any success against
a power holding the whole countr}-, except under favour of great
internal dissensions ? Moreover, the Israelitish traditions make
not the slightest allusion to any breach among the Hebraic races
in Egypt, through which, whether by coercion or by a volun-
tary act, Israel alone among these might have been brought to
side with the Egyptians. The essence of the Israelites' tra-
dition on the commencement of their conrection with Eg373t is
simply that Joseph, already settled with his sons in Egypt, in
the service of a royal house whose manners at least were strictly
Egyptian,^ calls the rest of his kinsfolk out of Canaan, to esta-
blish themselves honourably in Goshen, the easternmost pro-
vince of Egypt.
If we try to combine all this into a consistent scheme, the
following is almost the only conception which, in the absence of
further direct testimony, we can form of these occurrences. The
smaller part of the Israelite nation, distinguished in the extant
tradition by the name and fame of Josej^h, and consisting essen-
tially of the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, afterwards
separated, migrated to Egypt first, under the rule of the Hyksos,
and the 430 years of the residence in Egypt may be supposed
to 2*o back to this commencement of the Israelitish mioration.
Perhaps it may also be assumed as certain that the tribe of
Benjamin took 23art in this first migration, partly because this
seems obscurely indicated by one incident of the existing narra-
tive,^ and partly because the tribe of Benjamin was especially in
the very earliest times closely connected with Joseph. Joseph
indisputably did much for the education and elevation of his
peox^le, and was also a real potentate in Egypt; as is implied by his
very name, the original meaning of which answers exactly to the
Latin Augustus.^ Not for nothing did his j^eople at the Exodus
' Ex. xiii. 18. against the Shephords, xlvi. 34.
* Even if we attach no weight to such ^ Gen. xlii. 15 sqq.
isohited indications as the Egy[ tian word ' ExjJained independently of the two
in the royal command in Gon. xli. 43, the interpretations given in Gen. xxx. 23, 24;
■whole tone of the narrative would lead to which are merely deduced from the general
the same conclusion ; especially the anti- spirit and connected meaning of the exist-
pathy then entertained by the Egyptians ing story, as shown above, p. 377 sq.
406 I'llELLMlXARY HISTORY.
cany his mummy with them as a sacred relic, and carefully pre-
serve it, until after the conquest of Canaan it could be inten-ed
at Shecheni,' which was for centuries a gathering-place of the
cong-regation. But his position as the father and onl}^ hero of
a tribe most important in early times may have been determined
later, on accovmt of his historical greatness, and the benefits
conferred by him on the nation generally and his own tribe in
particular (see p. 382 sq.). What adventures befell him in Egypt,
before he became ruler there and drew all Israel after him, will
probably never be determined by strict history. The wrong
which he is said in the legend to have endured there, the impri-
sonment from which he was summoned to Pharaoh, may very
possibly have been due to some other cause than the enmity of
Potiphar's wife, which we shall see to have been woven into
the history only by the Fourth Narrator. For the assumption,
which naturally results from the historical relations of parties
as explained above, that this smaller part of the Israelite nation
became involved in serious contests with the kindred Hyksos,
resulting in danger and distress to themselves, would at once
exjjlain how, on the expulsion of the Hyksos, they would side
with the king of Egypt, and their leader Joseph confer the
greatest benefits upon Pharaoh and the country, and yet not
consider that he had put the crowning stroke to his work, till
he had attracted the remaining and stronger portion of his own
people to the eastern frontier of Egypt. As the Romans during
their career of victory and defeat gladly employed Germans
against Glermans, so to the new Egyptian dynasty nothing could
well have been more welcome, on the expulsion of the Hyksos,
than to have one vigorous uncorrupted Hebrew tribe to use
against the others. The Hyksos, who had fled back to the east,
doubtless still hovered long on the frontiers, only biding their
time to renew their incursions ; and the nature of the situation,
as well as the frequent allusions to such battles discovered on
the Egyptian monuments, make it certain that the struggle was
very prolonged. Joseph may then, with the sanction of the
king of Egypt, have adopted a measure identical with that of
the modern Military Frontier, which proved the only efiicient
defence to the civilisation of Europe against the Turks — sum-
moning Israel in a body out of Canaan, and establishing them in
Goshen as a frontier-guard of the kingdom against any new
attacks of the Hyksos.
This view is favoured by all the historical indications, and
' According to the earliest hibtorical work: Gen. 1. 2P>; Ex. xiii. 19; Josh. xxiv. 32 ;
compand with Geu. xlviii. 22.
ISRAELITE TRADITION OF JOSEril. 407
opposed by none. The land of Goslien may certainly, as is said
in the extant stories, be a very suitable part of Egypt for a pas-
toral people ;' but it was evidently chosen for Israel as being the
frontier province towards the east, and an advanced post on the
side of the Arabian desert, whence the Hyksos might easily
renew their incursions. It has been already shown (p. 379) that
the Israelites were in early times very warlike and powerful ;
and so when making their final Exodus from Egypt they appear
well eqviipped for war (p. 405). It will soon be apparent that
the whole course and close of the history of Israel in Egypt can
be satisfactorily understood in no other way.
B. JOSEPH ACCORDING TO THE ISRAELITE TRADITION.
The Israelite tradition, however, now lies before us in a
highly elaborated form, which does not connect the migration
to Egypt with the affairs of the great world, as was probably
done by those who lived nearer the time. During the best ages
of the religious life and thought of Israel, a deep mystical idea
gradually connected itself with the memory ofthat extraordinary
son of Jacob, and transfigured his history into the form in which
we have it. One characteristic impulse of the true religion,
which in Israel gradually penetrated the life and spirit of the
people, was to foster the feeling for domestic afiection and
virtvie. In the light of that religion, the domestic instincts of
every home became glorified. So also the warm sense of
mutual relationship in the larger home of the community and
the nation naturally assumed in this people a strength propor-
tioned to their religious isolation. To the Israelite, therefore
(see p. 290 sqq.), the world of the Patriarchs became a sort of
grand ancestral hall, in which he sought and found the best
types of all forms of domestic virtue. But there the brightest
types are generally the fathers and mothers. Not till Joseph
was the type of the best of brothers and the closest fraternal
union found : — standing, however, near enough to the age of the
Patriarchs (see p. 387) to be similarly glorified by the light of
their religion. At the call of the one brother who has risen to
high station in Egypt, his ten or eleven brothers come with
their families to the fertile land of Goshen, under the protec-
tion of Pharaoh : — this is the simple fundamental idea, the
memory of which has been always preserved. The fortunate
exchange of a region so uncertain in its produce as Canaan
' Littlo more than this is implied by tlic expressions iu Gen. xlv. 18, 20, xlvii. G, 11,
compaved with xlv. 10, xlvi. 28, xlvii. 1—1.
408 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
for one of so mucli more constant fertility as Egypt ; the invi-
tation of the powerful Eg-^^rptian brother, joyfully obeyed by all;
the hapj)y re-union in Egypt ; — these simple ideas are the most
prominent features of a tradition, which manifestly originated
not with the Egyj)tians nor with Joseph, but in the midst of
1 he great multitude, first settled by Joseph in Egypt, and after-
wards trained under a higher religion : for theirs are the feelings
which it reflects. It is true, some more immediate cause of
this migration of an entire nation into Egypt is still required ;
and this is found in an emergency which might occur not once
only but very often. Since Egypt is known far and wide through
all surrounding countries as a land of exuberant fertility and
resources which no famine could ever utterly exhaust, and since
in those early times, as in later years, its garners doubtless
often averted famine from the neighbouring countries, it was
natural to think of Jose^^h, the Egyptian minister, as a careful
manager, providing for the wants of many lands, and calling
his own peojple into Egyj^t during a long-continued famine ; as
if thus to secvire them for all future time against any possible
recurrence of such scarcity. This plainly shows with w'hat
feelings the dwellers in Canaan from the very earliest times
regarded the rich corn-fields of Egypt ; and it is quite in ac-
cordance with this feeling, but at the same time most charac-
teristic of the Mosaic religion, that the Fourth Narrator has
transferred this same innocent motive to Abraham's and Isaac's
exjjeditions into Egypt also (p. 389).
It is curious to observe what capabilities of expansion were
latent in this simple basis of old tradition ; and still more so to
see into what grand proportions this tradition at length unfolded
itself in the warm sunshine of such a religion as the Mosaic.
Since the heads of the twelve tribes are to be regarded as
brothers, whereas Joseph must be thought of as far surj^assing
the others, it may easily be conceived what tempting ojDpor-
tunities were here offered for working up the old legend of the
migration of the tribes at Joseph's bidding into a j)icture of
fraternal and domestic life. And any established notions of the
mutual relations of the tribes, which were formed in the Post-
mosaic times, might naturally contribute to give a definite out-
line and life-like colouring to the old tradition of Joseph; just as
Jacob and Esau are depicted in the legend with the characteristic
traits of the races which they severally represent (p. 800 sqq.).
And so it is most instructive to observe, through what successive
stages the history of Joseph must have passed before attaining
the matured and attractive form in A\hicli it has become an
heirloom of the liuintm race, and mav serve both as a beautiful
ISRAELITE TRADITION OF JOSKriI. 409
monument of antiquity and as a testimony to the old Hebrew
genius.
But as witli regard to Abraham (p. 301 sqq.) we found one
ancient fragment preserved which throws a clear light on the
real nature of his history, so respecting Joseph we have in the
Blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix. 22-26), at least one poetical passage
which seems to speak to us from a far more distant time : —
Joseph is son of a fruitful vine,
Son of a fruitful vine by a well,
With exuberant branches upon the wall.'
Then they envied him, and shot,
And assaulted him, the men of arrows :
But his bow abode in strength.
And the arms of his hands were kept nimble,
Erom the hands of the Mighty Ojie of Jacob,
From there where is the Shepherd of the Stone of Israel,'-*
From the God of thy father — may he help thee,
And from the Almighty — may he bless thee,
With blessings of the heaven above.
Blessings of the deep that lieth below,
Blessings of breast and w^omb ! ^
Thy father's blessings overtopped the summit of the everlasting
mountains.
The bounds of the ancient hills :
May they come upon Joseph's head,
Upon the head of the Crowned among his brethren I*
The diction of these lines certainly bears the stamp of extreme
antiquity. The language itself here moves laboriously, and is
' The fruitful vim alludes not to ^ I.e. blessings of fruit fiihiess in every
Kiicliel, but to Ephraim, as is evident quarter — on the soil through rain and
from the general spirit of this blessing; dew and springs of water, auil on animal
we must moreover decide to read niJ? nature, both man and beast. All this lies
mvv daughters, i.e. branches, shoots of concentrated in the words of these three
■■•;, c ■• m Httle lines. Equally pregnant with blessiugr
growth, of exuberance. The very com- j^ t^^ ^^^^^^^ g^^ech
mencement thus transports us only nito , 4, jf ji^j^ i^i^.^j ^^ fruitfulness
he landscape of greatest fertility, the „ j^ ^ were still inadequate, ti.e
land ot Ephraim; thi.sluxur.ant soil drew i„tinite blessing bestowed upon Jacob
upon hira the envy of his most powerful ,ii,„,,if j, fi^^n^ j,^^^!,^,, ,,/j,i,,^ ^,^^^,^
brothers t u .x ^^^^ ^•^"- The second n2-«2 "'lust be com-
^ I.e. from heaven, from whence the
Shepherd's God, adored at the sacred stone bined with 4_lj itiipyos, and is chosen
(p. 343, 3Ö4), stretched down his mighty ^ '
hands to uphold the hands of Joseph in only for the play upon the word. Moreover,
battle. See also Ex. xvii. 12; rS here is the '^V. "Tl'in i^ ^^ ^^ read, and niXn to be
antithesis of T33 there, and would not be derived from nXH (see my Lehrbuch, 7th
so suitably combined etymologically with ed. p. 481). The words might imleed be
V\»j^=^T1Il iron. The same phase of supposed susceptible of the following
"~"^ ■•■•" meaning :—' The blessings of thy f.ither
thought continues in verse 25, and then surpass the blessings of the eternal moun-
breaks suddenly into a distinct prophecy tains, the jot] (according to the meaning
ot luturo blessing. l'rohal>ly instead of elsewhere borne by mSFl) ''/' the ever-
nC nX we ought to read with the Sa- ;,„^;„^ ,^jif^, -^ perhaps"; "all ihe fruitful-
maritan text ''C ^^. mss of mountains and hills; and a still
410 PKELIMINARY HISTORY.
weighed down as it were with redundance, to a degree which
we find in no other of the oldest lyric fragments extant ; and
the words are stranger, the images bolder and sharper, than we
meet with elsewhere. The complexion of the language and
poetry thus transports us into the remotest antiquity, and assures
us that these lines, if not literally spoken by the dying Patriarch,
but by the usual poetic artifice put into his mouth by another,
must yet proceed from some poet of the time before Moses. *
And the substance of the lines takes us back into the immediate
presence of those early days. We here observe at the very
outset that Joseph is put into the closest connection with the
ancient tribe of Ephraim, but in a sense quite different from
that afterwards received (p. 382 sq.) ; while the concluding words
bring Jacob before us as a prince possessing a power and dignity
of which the ordinary histories woidd never allow us to suspect
the existence. Also what is said of God, as the ' Shepherd of
the Stone of Jacob,' breathes the spirit of Premosaic times.
But the most remarkable part is the clear and circumstantial
declaration about Joseph himself. As Joseph had been from
the first the most highly blest, and subsequently enabled by
Divine helj) to triumph over the assaults of enemies whom that
very prosperity embittered against him, the Patriarch wishes for
him not only all earthly blessing, but the continuance of those
far higher spiritual gifts which he had himself enjoyed ; in
token of which he calls him the Oroumed atnong his brethren,
thereby designating him as his own successor. Such is the
simple meaning of these words, which have been often considered
obscure. But in this exaltation of Joseph above his brethren,
it is of course implied that the powerful warlike antagonists
over whom he triumphed at length, were no others than his
brethren.^ The contests must therefore have been very different
closer connection might be thus imagined p. 69 sqq.) from the age of Samson, and is
between the blessings in verse 25, and therefore comparatively verj^ ancient ; but
tiioso in verse 26. But the play on the the special declaration about Joseph is so
word woidd then be very obscure; and obviously distinct in its whole tone and
a word such as niXn dcshv, joy, cannot be manner from all the otiiors, that wo must
nuirely identical with fruitfulness of soil ; consider it much older than they, and even
and it would also be unsuitable to speak as the UKjdel anil earliest known example
of the blessings possessed or dispensed (if of this species of poetry. Similarly in
we were so to understand the word) by the the Blessing of Moses in Deut. xxxiii.
father, as surpassing those mentioned in also, it is the passage about .Toso])h
verse 2.'), -which proceeded directly from (versos 13-17) which must evidently have
God. Very pointed, however, is the inti- been borrowed by the poet of that song
mation conveyed in these final words, of from some composition of earlier date,
the extraordinary dignity and power for- though less ancient than that which wo
merly ])ossessed by Jacob, and wiiich was are now considering. See the Gott. Gel.
jiow to descend to Joseph. Anz. 1862, p. 1192 sq.
' Tlie whole Blessing of Jacob, as given - This must not be referred to the
in Gen. xlix, dates indeed (according to struggles between tho tribes in the time
ISRAELITE TRADITION OF JOSEPH. 411
from tliat spiteful boys' play among the brothers of which we
hear in the history of Joseph's boyhood ; and these ancient
words transport us into the midst of the most ancient contests
among the tribes of Israel, in their harsh undisguised realit3^
And it is just possible that we may trace here some foundation
for the notion which seems to have held its ground as late as
the time of Artapanus,^ that Joseph, being oppressed by his
brethren, himself implored some neighbouring Arab tribes to
take him with them into Egypt. This is the simplest possible
version of the story ; it is one which indicates most plainly a
connection between Joseph and the Hyksos ; and is the easiest
to harmonise with the account given by the Third Narrator of
the Midianite merchants, who carried Joseph into Egypt. And
thus, as the Third Narrator often follows the earliest, it may
possibly be derived from the very oldest authority.
But the poetical passage in question, above all others, here
deserves our closest attention. In these lines and in Lamech's
song (mentioned p. 267) we possess the only existing relics of
the Hebrew poetry of the Premosaic period, and may see from
them how very early the art originated in that race. Their
poetry was even then essentially the same as regards mere
form, that we find it from the times of Moses and David ; but
how different the spirit which pervades it ! especially in La-
mech's song, which dates perhaps from a time before Abraham,
and may be a genuine popular song, brought by the race from
their last dwelling-place in the north. But even in Jacob's words
we meet at every step a sj)irit which transports us into the life
of the old Premosaic age, and can even obtain a near view
with our own eyes of the possibility of the formation of such
oracles. That the spirit of a great father hovered invisible over
his children after death with a power as indestructible as had
been his influence during life, and that the three Patriarchs
especially were still very near to their people, held by the mystic
bond of a glorified fellow-life and sympathy, — was a faith which,
as we have seen (p. 29C), was long and firmly held by the nation,
even after the transformation of their ideas by Moses. But this
faith must have possessed the greatest force in the early ao-es,
before either the mind of the individual or the soul of the
nation had raised and concentrated itself upon the full reality
and glory of the God who not till later, through Moses, became
the one great possession of Israel. Among the Egyptians, a
of the Judges; this would only be possible far earlior ago.
if the poet were the same who wrote the ^ Eusobius, P/YSjj. E"«'. ix. 23 ; sec below,
blessings on the other tribes in Geu. xlix, II. p. 89.
but not if these lines are derived from a
412 PRELIMIXARY HISTORY.
similar belief in the unquenchable vitality of the sj^irits of tbe
inig-hty Dead, led early to the Oracle of the Dead ; which from
all indications appears to have attained its earliest and fullest
development in that land of magic, and to have propagated
thence its elaborate arts, and of course also its early degenerate
superstitions, over the adjacent countries. It is a sign of the
higher religion aspired after in Israel from the time of Abraham,
that among them in Egypt itself we find, instead of those vulgar
oracles, this eagerness to hear the voice of the resuscitated
Patriarch, which was most to be expected when the weal or woe
of the whole people was at stake. So it was in the earliest
ages that such words of Jacob would most naturally be ex-
pected. All the various declarations in a similar sense put by
later poets and poetical narrators into the mouth of Jacob and
other Patriarchs,' are only imitations, Avhich were continued
through many centuries, until in yet later times such revelations
were daringly attributed to Moses,^ and to other saints of still
more recent date.^
But the words of Jacob which we have just been considering,
bear witness in this connection to the greatness attributed to
this Patriarch also. For when it is here said in antique words
and figures that the divine blessings granted him were ' high
as the hills,' we gain an idea such as is now attainable nowhere
else, of the historical importance and power of this Patriarch ;
and this most ancient and independent testimony adds no little
weight to the series of evidence already brought forward (p. 342
sqq.) upon his history.
Keturning now to the ordinary history of Joseph in order to in-
vestigate its component parts, we discover the following facts : —
I. Of the Earliest Narrator's history of Joseph only some
fragments remain ; ■* and these relate only to the issue of the
' Gen. xlix. 1-21,27 ; thon p.-issagos such press rcforenco to those words, speaks of
as Gen. xii. 1-3 by the Fourth, and xxvii. tlie twelve Tribes, as if in explanation of
27-29, 39, 40 by the Fifth Narrator of the liis own more elevated language, Gen.
primeval liistory ; as has been already fully xlix. 28.
explained, p. 104 sqq. ■* They are here interwoven with the
■■^ Deut. xxxiii, comp. p. 128 sq. words of the Book of Origins ; Gen. xlvi.
' In Daniel. All this constituted a 28-30, xlviii. 7, 22,1. 24-26; sentences
special branch of poetical and tinally of the whole phraseology of which is quite
literary art among the people of Israel, antique, and perfectly different from that
That these outpourings, as conceived by of the Book of Origins. Conipai-c also Ex.
their own authors, are not to bo under- xiv. 6, with Gen. xlvi. 29; Ex. xiii. 19
stood in a coarse literal sense, is shown (a s;^ntence connected with verses 17, 18)
by the fact that such a writer does not with Gen. 1. 24-26. The same eai-ly docu-
scrnple at times to abandon the poetic ment is also occasionally recognisable in
stylo, and s|)cak in plain prose. Thus single words; in 313^10 Gen. xlvii. 5, 11
this very Earliest Narrator of the primeval (,^,,„,eas nvj in xlv. 18, 20), compared
history, after giving Jacobs words on his . „
twelve suns, immcdiatelv, and with ox- Mith Ex.xxn. 4 [0] /;/.s ; an 1 m nnyiD-t^f^'i'-
ISRAELITE TllAÜITIÜX OF JOSI^TII. 413
stoiy, and give us no information liow Joseph first came into
Egypt, or sent for liis brothers thither. Tlie most important fact
concerning this history is the statement that Jacob sent Judah
on before, to show him the way to Goshen ; ' which is difficult
to reconcile with the account given by the Thhd and Fourth
Narrators, of Joseph's sending chariots to meet him, since if
these were sent the precaution of sending Judah on before was
unnecessary. But the First Narrator's account certainly does
not require the assumption of a previous journey into Egypt on
the part of all the brothers. We are told by this author that
Joseph had disappeared from Canaan, and that his aged fatlier
never saw him again till he met him in Egypt.^ But how any
tidings of him first reached his kindred in Canaan, or why he
summoned them into Egj'pt, the writer does not inform us.
From the Book of Origins, indeed, several rather long fra«--
ments of this history have been preserved ; ^ and here we find
the migration of all the tribes of Israel attributed to a protracted
famine under which both Canaan and Egypt suffered.'* And
here the peculiar characteristics of this author are plainly
visible : with his keen eye for the affairs of empires and
nationalities and his admiration for legislative wisdom in their
rulers, he makes Joseph his ideal statesman, careful at once for
the weal of populous nations, and for the consolidation and
increase of the royal authority, and winning his best victories
through the combmation of these seemingly opposite aims.
By providently storing up in his garners supplies of corn
su.fficient for many years of possible scarcity, Joseph was enabled
not only to secure to the people the present means of existence
and the possibility of better times in future, but to establish a
more solid organisation of government, such as a nation is
very loth to accede to except in a time of overmastering neces-
sity. The character of Egyptian government from early times
had its origin in the j)eculiarity of the soil itself, which renders
^jfards very frequent, but foreign to the li.aving partially rewritten some sentences.
Book of Origins, Gen. xlvi. 34 ; see Levit. * Wliether any certain notice of this
xviii. and supra, p. 94 sq. famine and of the Israelite immigration
' Gen. xlvi. 28. The LXX. felt the willever be reoovcredintheearly Egyptian
difficulty here, and endeavoured to over- literature, it is difficult to sa}-. But some-
come it by a transposition of words and thing bearing the same general character
a freer translation. has been already discovered : see Brugsch,
2 Gen. xlvi. 29, 30. Hi.-itoired: Egypte,\.^. 56, 63; SamuelBirch
» Gen. xlvi. 5-xlvii. 26, xlviii. 3-7, "^ Heidenlieim's Bout. Vi rtdjahrsschrift
xlviii. 22-xi;x, I. 12, 13, 22-26; these J'^r Enyl.thcol.ForscJmng,\m\,^:liö-2i:l ;
passao-es being understood with the limi- -'I'l^^ '"'»"J expressions of opinion by De
tation explained above. The words XH ^^.''"Se, as in the Bcime archcol. 1860, p. 91.
, .. „„ 1 1 ■■ oo o/- • " l lie seven years' famine in E„^ypt through
xlvn. 23 and p., xlvu. 22, 26, surprise us ^^^^,^^ ^^^^-^^^ mentioned in Ovid's Art of
in the Book of Origins ; and the hitter may Love, i. 617 sq. are certainly derived from
perhaps point to the Litest Narrator as the Bilde.
414 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
it necessary for the ruling power to take into its O'svn hands the
charge of irrigation and other fertilising measures, in order
to win from it a gi-eater productiveness than is possible to the
limited means and capricious treatment of individual cultivators.
The latter thus become peculiarly dependent on the government,
and may then be regarded almost as mere hereditary tenants of
their lands, which they hold on consideration of constant and
heavy dues paid to the state; but at the same time their own best
interests are evidently thus promoted, as the same plan has been
maintained in Egypt under every change of dynasty. And this
was indeed only the earliest establishment of a system the essen-
tial principle of which is eventually adopted in ever}^ organised
state : the only difference being whether alongside of this grow-
ing dependency of the individual upon the ruling power, which
inevitably accomj^anies the growing power of the nation, the
constitutional freedom of the community and the individual is
or is not carefully preserved and exercised. The Book of Origins,
therefore, in relating how Joseph took advantage of the pressure
of famine to offer great relief in the terms of tenure, and as an
equivalent therefor to persuade the Egyptians to dwell in or-
ganised town-communities, and to bring them into the position
of tenants, holding their land and other possessions from the
king, and paying him yearly the fifth of the produce, the land of
the priests (which was regarded as holy, that is, immediately de-
rived as a s])ecial gift from the gods) being alone excepted,^ says
essentially the same as is reported at a much later date by the
Greeks ;^ only that these exempt the lands of the warrior-caste
also from this law, and refer the authorship of the law itself not
to Joseph, but to no less a name than the celebrated ancient king
Sesostris. As to the latter point, however, there seems at present
no reason to give up the tradition contained in the Book of
Origins in favour of this far more modern Greek version of the
story. It is very probable that this new constitution of the king-
dom took place immediately after the expulsion of the Hyksos.
And the wisdom for which Joseph was celebrated is not likely
to have consisted only in his having induced the Israelites to
settle in the country ; such an enterprise as the peaceful settle-
ment of a foreign race among the Egyptians implies in itself a
long preceding series of well-considered measures for the benefit
of the kingdom ; and perhaps the Israelites were stationed on
the eastern frontier quite as much as a protection against any
possible internal disturbances as against the expelled Hyksos.
But to accuse Joseph of promoting by this means the establish-
' God. xlvii. 13-'26. = ITotolI. ii. 168; Diod. i. 73.
ISRAELITE TRADITION OF JOSEPH. 415
ment of an arbitrary and cruel system of government is a follj'
which, has been already sufficiently disposed of.'
This historian, however, gives no particulars as to the duration
of the famine in Egjq^t, but relates the great change effected
by Joseph in the internal administration of the kingdom, with
as much minuteness as if nothing had been previously said of
the seven years. On occasion of the settlement of Israel in
Egypt likewise, no mention is made of the seven years of famine.
On Joseph's call the twelve tribes came to the eastern frontier ;
then only does he inform the king of them, of their ways of life,
and the advantage which he may derive from their services, as
good shepherds and guardians of the royal flocks ; ^ and not till
this moment do they receive the royal sanction to their settle-
ment ; all which looks as if what is said in xlv. 1 7 sqq. had not
been said at all. Moreover they come not solely on account of
the famine, but with a definite and permanent position and
occupation in view. Since all this is tolerably sufficient to
render the whole story intelligible, it is probable that neither
the Book of Origins, nor the yet older historian whom it here
evidently closely follows, had described the commencement of
Joseph's history with anything like the minute and graphic
detail which our extant account possesses ; and it is certainly
not the result of chance that the oldest notices of Joseph con-
tained in the long piece of naiTative now extant are introduced
towards the end.
The ' seventy souls,' who according to the Book of Origins
went with Jacob into Egypt, may probably be understood to
have originally signified the number of the heads of the assembled
peox)le. The number seventy or seventy-two naturally suggests
this.^ But this book, dealing with the whole subject of the
' The Hebrew historian has oLvioixsIy is curious what internal contradictions
no partiality for this heavy Egyptian land- hare crept into an enumeration evidently
tax, nor for the Egyptians themselves, calculated at first with great exactness,
who submitted to it l3ecause they had no Gen. xlvi. 8-27. There ought to he 70
means of helping themselves. But as the souls; hut in verse 15 we should have to
nation, so is the ruler ; and where the take 33 to be a slip of the pen for 32 ;
nation is helpless, it must be content with since to add the father Jacob to these 32
whatever help the nücr will give. In contradicts the di.stinet words of verse 1Ö,
Israel itself, the administration and taxa- according to which only the sons and
tion were quite different ; and the Book of daughters (that is, all the chikben) of
Origins here only intends once more to Leah are intended to be comprised here,
explain a curious origin. The reckoning is also unnecessarily per-
2 That this post was very important, plexed by a second mention of Joseph's
and might be regarded as one of the places sons in verse 27 after that in verses 19-
about court, is evident from the general 22 ; for we see from the number 66 given
character of the coiu-ts of ancient kings, in verse 26, that Joseph himself ought
Compare 1 Chron. xxvii. 20-31 with Gen. also to be omitted from the previous cnu-
xlvii. 6. meration. We must, therefore, suppose
' See the Alterthiimcr, p. 284 sqq. It that the calculation was made originally
416 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
migration merely as a passage of early Israelitisli history, and
with reference only to the progenitors of the futnre nation,
enumerates exactly as many names of Jacob's children and
grandchildren as will, with Jacob's own, make np this round
number. For this purpose the author doubtless employed the
ancient family-pedigrees, admitting, however, in order to pro-
duce the round number, many a name which in his own time
had become obsolete. This at least would fully explain the
discrepancies between this as an antiquarian account of the
ramifications of the tribes ^ and the legal enumeration elsewhere
given in the Book of Origins,^ and especially how to Benjamin
ten families are assigned in the former and only six in the
latter (see p. 368).
II. It seems from all indications to have been the Third
Narrator whose lofty prophetic genius first threw the history of
Joseph into that attractive spiritualised form, which made it
the never-failing delight of later readers, and led to various
attempts to elaborate it still further in the same style.
That Joseph, either as a tribe or as the father of a tribe, very
early disappeared from Canaan, and then in Egypt unexpectedly
rose to great power, which turned to the advantage of all the
tribes of Israel, had been, as we have shown, a long-established
tradition. Yaiious replies may perhaps have been given to the
question, how and why he vanished from Canaan ; but none
would appear to the notions of that day so satisfactory as tha.t
which found the reason in the quarrels of jealous brothers ; since
the internecine feuds of the tribes had never within the memory
of man been quite laid to rest, and burst out with especial fury
just after the time of Solomon. We seem here to recognise the
expression of a feeling which agitated the better heart of the
Northern Kingdom, — a lament for the lot of Joseph, their hero ;
who, despite of the preeminence which was his by birth and
gifts, was pursued by the jealousy of his brethren, and by their
treachery driven into banishment, to the inexpressible grief of
his aged father. The narrator himself probably belonged to
the northern kingdom ; as may be inferred, not only from the
great elaboration and peculiar distinctness given to this par-
ticular legend of Joseph the hero of that kingdom, but also from
the circumstance, that among the other brothers he assigns the
principal part not, like the other narrators, to Judah, but to
somewhat dilTcrcntly, und that the total and daiightrrs, of Jacob ; and with Jacob
ouf;ht properly to be 72. Supposing the and Leah, 72.
right niinil)er in ver. 15 to be 33, and ' Gen. xlvi. 8-27 ; comp. Ex. i 1-5, vi.
consequently one of Leah's offspring to be 14-27 (p. 81 s(j.).
omitted, wc hare exactly 70 children, sons ^ Numb. xxvi.
ISRAELITE TRADITIOX OF JOSEPH. 417
Reuben.' The conception which this writer formed of the
brothers' treachery seems from all intelligible indications to
have been as follov/s. The brothers, among whom the sons of
the father's concnbmes bore a peculiar hatred towards the nobler
born son, were going to kill him, but at the suggestion of Reuben,
who hoped secretly to rescue him, only threw him into a pit.
When they were gone, some trading Midianites (from the other
side of the Jordan) heard his cries, pulled him out of the pit, and
carried him secretly into Egypt to sell him as a slave. ^ This
must have been the simplest form of the conception of Joseph's
history which we are considering ; leading at once to the story
of Joseph's unlooked-for elevation from a servile condition to a
position of high authority in Egj^t ; and we have every reason
to consider this Egyptian legend of Joseph's servitude as the
oldest basis of his story (p. 406 sq.). And in this version the
thread of the narrative runs on naturally, telling how it hap-
pened that Joseph was sold to the Captain of the Executioners,
who as such was governor of the State Prison, and how for his
remarkable talents Joseph himself was by him put in charge of
the prison, and from thence summoned before the king.
With the idea that Joseph's servitude had commenced even
before he left Canaan, it was quite consistent to suppose him still
very young when the great experiences of life came upon him.
He was seventeen years old when made captive in Canaan, thirty
when he became Pharaoh's servant, says the Third Narrator.-''
How far this chronology accords with that of the Book of Origins,
cannot now be discovered with certainty, since Jacob's age at
the time of his marriage, which this book in its original form
proba,bly gave, as it gave Isaac's and Esau's,^ is omitted in the
extant narrative. If however we may assume, as most consistent
with the extant portions of the book,'^ that the writer supposed
Jacob's marriage to have taken place, not in his seventieth year
(which would follow from the first assumption), but soon after
his fortieth, he must then have placed Joseph's birth, which
was believed in ancient tradition to have happened twenty years
after the marriage,^ between Jacob's sixtieth and seventieth
' Gen. xxxvii. 21-24, 29, xlii. 22, 37, tainly earlier than that of the Ishmaelites,
38 ; on the other hand xlvi. 48 in the because the latter name is more general
First Narrator, and xxxvii. 25-28, xliii. and recent, the former much more definite
3-10, xliv. 18-34 in the Fourth. This and ancient, seep. 315.
change is especially perceptible, and in ^ Gen. xxxvii. 2, xli. 46.
itself inexplicable between xlii and xliii. * Gen. xxv. 20, comp. 26, xxvi. 34.
sq. * Compare Gen. xxvi. 34 with xxvii.
* Comp. Gen. xl. 15 with xxxvii. 28, 36. 46-xxviii. 9.
The insertion of the Midianites is cer- " Gen. xxxi. 38, 41 ; comp. xxx. 25.
VOL. I. E E
418 rRELTMINARY HISTORY.
years ; wliereas according to the Third Narrator it must liave
occurred in his ninetieth, if we assume that Jacob, as is stated
in the Book of Origins,' was one hundred and thirty years old
when he came to Egypt, and that only the Third and Fourth
Narrators' seven years of plenty and two of famine intervene
between Joseph's elevation and Jacob's arrival.^ The irrecon-
cilableness of these numbers is in truth a proof of the different
origin of the narratives themselves.
The disjointed fragments of popular versions such as these of
the story of Joseph now receive a new life worthy of the gi*eat
subject, through one grand idea inspired by a narrator, who
deserves to be distinguished from all others by the epithet of
the prophetic. Through jealousy and folly the brothers would
fain annihilate one whose goodness is inconvenient to themselves ;
but he, by remaining always true to himself even in the depths
of misery, becomes the unconscious instrument of a great de-
liverance Avhich triumphs over all ills, and spreads its blessings
upon all : — a glorious proof, that good, whether as the Divine
will, or as the highest force of the human, is always mightier
than its op^josite. ^ To a God who thus always works out good,
Joseph becomes the great instrument for good. He is therefore
here not merely the great sage and the wise statesman as in the
Book of Origins, but a hero of pure devoted love, and of untiring
activity for the good of all. While love in its purity is thus the
very essence of his own being, his severest trials are brought
about by its two opposites — by the false love of his too doting
fa,ther, and by the hatred of his brethren. But, remaining ever
true to himself, indefatigable for good even in an Egyptian
prison, he becomes finally the benefactor, not only of those who
had injured him, but even of a multitude of nations. But those
who have offended against perfect love, whether by false love
or by hatred, cannot be restored without first passing- through
a severe trial. The aged father had been already sufficiently
punished by the long and woeful loss of his too fondly loved
son. A more humiliating expiation awaits the brothers : he
who in his own life realises the true love and wisdom himself
becomes the instrument of their expiation. To him, without
knowing him, they must have recourse in their own time of
need, and to him must pray for inercy even when they have
recognised him.'' But he, with painful self-constraint and the
semblance of cruelty, will not show them all his love, till he
' Gen. xlvii. 9. conclusion (Gen. ]. 20), very clearly reveals
- Gen. xlv. 6. ilie principle of liis entire narrative.
' Tiiis narrator himself imlced, af tlie ■* Gen xiii, 1. ir^-'^l.
ISRAELITE TKADITIOX OF JOSEPH. 419
lias repeatedly probed tliem to tlie quick, brought tbeiu to a
voluntary confession of their sin, and made new and better men
of them.'
The general conception being thus maintained at the true
prophetic elevation, the separate images and incidents also are
here of a prophetic character. The dream, as a prophetic
power, is the mainspring which brings about the events. In a
dream the boy with innocent surprise first divines his future
greatness ; ^ a dream occurs twice in the Egyptian prison and
forms the turning point of his destiny ; ^ in a dream, lastly, the
whole future fate of Egypt is locked up from the king, and the
interpretation of that dream opens Joseph's path to great-
ness.'* The prominence given to this agency is, as Ave saw at
p. 99, characteristic of the narrator ; but it is also peculiarly
appropriate in a picture of Egyptian life, the belief in dreams
having been from the earliest times very strong among that
people.^
III. This narrative, already worked up so elaborately and
attractively by the Third Narrator, was again amplified by the
Fourth, who, as if fascinated by its beauty, drew out some of
its threads to greater length and inserted new ones. He also
introduces darker colours, as when at the very outset'' he
represents the brothers as deliberately selling their brother.
From him proceeds a new trial which Joseph has to undergo,
from false love of another kind, on the part of Potiphar's wife.^
To insert this conveniently it was necessary to bring Joseph
first into Potiphar's house, and from thence into the prison.
This looks very much as if the governor of the prison whose
favour Joseph enjoyed were not Potiphar but some one else.
To this author is also due the prolonged suspense of the final
trial of Joseph's brethren on their second journey.^ Joseph's
divining-cup also,^ though apparently harmonising with the
prophetic colouring of the Third Narrator, really belongs to the
Fourth ; and is found on consideration to represent a mode
of proj^hecy very different from the dreams of the former writer.
' Gen. xlii, xlv. Narrators. See de Eouge, in the Eevue
2 Gen. xxxvii. Archeol. 1862, ii. p. 389. A similar story
^ Gen. xl. is given by Nicoiaiis of Damascus ; see
* Gen. xli. C. Miiller's Fragmenta Hist. Gr. iii. p.
^ That narrator depicts Egyptian cus- 389 (ö6). Moreover, nothing can be more
toms throughout witli great truth of siniihir tlian the legend of Sijavusli in the
colouring ; but this the Book of Origins Shahname.
had already done in its own way (according " Gen. xxxvii. 2Ö sqq.
to p. 413 sq.) ; and the intercourse between ' Gen. xxxix.
Egyjit and Israel was very considerable ^ Gen. xliii, xli v.
througliout the lifetime of all these four '■' Gen. xliv. 2, 5.
4-20 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
It was the Fifth Narrator by wliom all these various elements
were wrought into a single narrative.'
But eA'en under the hands of these later authors the history
of Joseph in one respect faithfully retains its original character,
— in so far as it remains perfectly distinct in character from
the stories of the Patriarchal age. Joseph's blameless character
has indeed much of the Patriarchal type ; being in fact much
sujjerior to Jacob's, and notably distinguished from Moses and
Aaron, the greatest of his successors. But in other respects he
and his brothers move within the limits of ordinary life, without
any of those revelations from above which were granted to the
three Patriarchs. It was reserved for far later writers in the
Old Testament to ignore this distinction, and to place Joseph on
a perfect equality with the Patriarchs (p. 288).
In Greek and Latin authors, with the single exception of the
passage mentioned at p. 411, we find nothing respecting Josej^h,
but what has been either derived immediately from the Old
Testament records, or naturally inferred from them.^ Por the
invention of weights and measures, referred by Artapanus^ to
Joseph, is perhaps only inferred from the wise division of land
and produce which as we have seen was attributed to him,
although it is possible that the Egyjptians may have first
received a system of weights and measures fi-om the Babylonians
or some other Semitic people (p. 336). And it is onl}^ from his
repute as the fertiliser of Egyj)t, that some old Arabic wi-iters,
expressing evidently the po^^ular notion then existing in Egypt
itself, refer to him the formation of the great water-works and
canals at Fayyum.'*
But the history of Joseph, when once recorded for everlasting
remembrance in the Pentateuch, ought not to have been so
wonderfully attractive, if it were not to tempt early writers of
the Hellenistic age to expand it still fui-ther in the style ap-
proved by the taste of that age. At least in the last century
before Christ this history must have famished the subject for
a new ornate and imaginative treatment, on a large scale,
' From chapter xlvi. the Last Narrator anything new.
repeats the woi-ds of the Book of Origins, ' In Eusebius, rr(pp. En. ix. 23. Jose-
with slight alterations and additions ; but phus in like manner ascribes to Abraham
the passages xlviii. 9-21, 1. 1-11, 14-21, the invention of geometry among the
are again by the Third Narrator, and Egyptians (p. 336) ; nay, he even derives
prove that ho also described the deliver- it ultimately from Cain, as the earliest
anco out of Egypt. tiller of the ground: Ant. i. 2.
'■^ Artapanus and the poet Philo, in * Abdalhakam's Hist. Aegypt. ed. Karle
Eusebius, Prcpp. Ev. ix. 23 sq.; Justin p. 4. 11-14. But many otlier ancient
xxxvi. 2, 7-10 ; where Moses even becomes l)uildings were also ascribed to him : see
.To.seph's son ; Josephus, Ant. ii. 2-8. Nor Carmoly's Ituieraircs, p. 530.
does the Tp.siamentum Sim, ii-v contain
ISKAELITE TRADITION OF JOSEril, 421
originating- just where a writer might feel impelled thereto, in
Egypt. This work has not yet been recovered ; but Fl. Josephus
quotes from it a trait which pleased him/ though without saying
or apj)arently remembering whence he had derived it. And it
was perhaps this book which made the characteristic Egyptian
comparison of Joseph with Sarapis,^ a demigod who only appears
in the Ptolemaic age, who was described as a beautiful youth
who, having been through the infernal regions, imparts to men
in this upper world various gifts of healing, and also plenteous
harvests, — in token of which latter character he bore on his
head a corn measure and a yard measure. Other authors,
misled by the similarity of name, identified Joseph the sage
with ^sop.^ The twelfth Sura of the Koran,'* remarkable on
many accounts, contains a poetical enlargement of the legend
founded primarily upon embellished versions of history, such as
we find in Fl. Josephus ; and this again Avas afterwards worked up
more highly by Mohammedan writers, in their poems of ' Yusuf
and Zalikha (Zulaikha).' These however differ so widely from
the original legend in tone and feeling, that they have no claim
to be regarded as true offshoots from the grand old stem,'^ But
in later times they even showed Joseph's tomb beside the Nile,**
though (according to p. 406) it must from the time of Moses
have been only an empty sepulchre.
' Ant. ii. 4. 3-5. It deserves to be in- it passed into Egypt, such a name might
vestigated whether tlie Syrian work treat- he indigenous.
ing of Joseph's history, in a Nitrian ^ See Ebedjesu in Assemani's Biblioth.
Codex in the British Miisenm, be an old Oritnt. iii. 1. p. 74 sq. ; Eeiske in Lessing's
translation of tliis which was in use in the IVcrke, vol. xxn. p. 355 ; J. Zündel,
time of Josephus. And the same work Eaojx etait-il Juif ou Ef/ypticn '! Rcvuc
may probably be intended by the title, AnJieol. 1861, i. p. 354-69.
The Words of Joseph the Just, in tlie ■• See further remarks on this in tlie
Ascensio Jesaiae, iv. 22 ; or by tliatof The G'ott. Gel. Anz. 1360, p. 1452 sqq.
Book of Asenath, so called from Joseph's * On the other hand, Philo describes
wife mentioned in Gen. xli. 45, xlvi. 20 ; this son of Jacob, speaking the sense of
the commencement of whicli is given in the later legend, as the Elxt Yount/ (i.
Greek in the Codex Pscudepigraphus of p. 309), but in his little work On Joseph,
Fabricius ii. p. 85-102; and which ac- he gives as usual only a lengthy and rhe-
cording to Dillmann's Catcd. Codd. Aeth. torical, often bad and offensive paraphrase
Musei Britann. p. 4 is found complete in of tlie Bible narrative, and yet gives an
the Ethiopic Canon. allegorical interpretation of the first
* According to Melito in Cureton's half. On principle he follows no other
Spic. Ayr. p. 24, 6; and something similar authorities; but yet he sometimes deviates,
even in the Gerndra, at ty üi- 3 ; and and makes in ch. xx. a remarkable addi-
also in Suidas, under Sapairts. On Sa- tion. To make the narrative consistent,
rapis see Taciti Hist. iv. 81-84 ; Plutarch he also leaves out some facts entirely, e.g.
On Isis and Osiris, xx\-iii. sq. If he was the preparatory mission of Judah, men-
distinguished, as Plutarch says, by the tionedp. 413.
sign of the Cerberus and Bragon, the " See Abdalliakam's //ü'ät'. ^r^/y^;;". p. 15,
question arises whether liis name is not and the Rabbinical passages in Hciden-
identical with fj"ib> (p. 322) ; Egyptian it lioim's Bent. Viertcljahrsschrift für Engl,
evidently cannot be ; and in Pontus, whence ''''^ '''• t'orschuvg, 1861. p. 248 sqq.
4J2 PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
C. JOSEPH AS THE FIKST-BOKN OF ISEAEL. CONCLUSION OF
THE PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
The memory of that great change ^vllich took place in Israel
some 430 years before Moses, took a form quite in the spirit of
prehistoric tradition, in the brief and sig'nificant title given to
Joseph, The First-Born of Israel.' ' Tlie Crowned among his
Brethren,' he had been also named in Jacob's ancient Blessing
(p. 409) ; yet well as this expresses the ancient preeminence of
that one tribe, a still deeper meaning is conveyed in the words,
First-Born of Israel. Tradition, seeking a new and htting
name and idea to express every important relation among men,
could here find no image so happy as the conception that Reuben
originally held precedence in Israel, and Joseph afterwards
came into his place — that what the former forfeited for his
an'Ogance (p. 373 sq.) the latter gained by wisdom and faith-
fulness. Nor let it be understood as referring only to the mortal
individual Joseph ; for it is the tribe of Joseph which remained
the leading race, from the Egyptian period until many centuries
after the time of Moses, and whose preeminence, gained in those
early days, became so completely incorporated with the national
life, as to give its peculiar impress to the later history. When
Judah rose in later times to such importance among the twelve
tribes as might have entitled him equally to the designation
First-Born, the primitive modes of thought and expression had
so far passed away, that such a title was scarcely likely to be
applied to him.^
Eeuben, the natural First-Born of Israel, whose right, even
when he had trifled it away, could not be forgotten ; Joseph,
whose exalted virtues won for him the forfeited place ; Judah,
to whom in fact though not in name the honour finally fell :
these three figures may be regarded as typifying three great
I^eriods of Israelite history, the tAvo first of Avhich belong to the
dim twilight of the prehistoric age. And how long must even
the first of these national conditions have endured, to impress
its remembrance on the national mind, indelible through all the
changes and convulsions of later years !
At the close of the prehistoric period of Israel, we may con-
sider that this much at least has been made evident — that if
' This is referred to as early as in the bullock. See also 1 Chron. v. 1, 2.
very ancient passage, Gen. xlviii. 22 ; but '•' As is in fact expressly stated in
also in the often retrtuchcd Blessing of 1 Chron. v. 2, compared with 2 8am.
Jacob, in Deut. xxxiii. 17, "we find an xix. -14, according to the reading of the
allusion to it in tin' ]ihrabc, a JirsUinfj LXX.
JOSEPH AS TIIH FIRST-BORN OF ISRAEL. 423
Olli}' we diligently seek and riglitl}- apply all tlie means at our
command, many most important historic truths may be recovered
even from that distant age. We have not telescopes of sufficient
power to discern and describe each single star among the
glittering multitude of that distant heaven; yet some single
stars begin to shine with greater brilliancy, if we will but
refrain from gratuitously throwing dust into our eyes. And it
is not impossible that we may yet discover still more as^ we
gain by degrees more efficient means of observation.
Nor is our view wholly limited to Israel as one of the nations
of the earth, — to an acquaintance with some of its early habits
and institutions. Imperishable fragments of Israelite Poetry
and Prophecy have been borne to us safely on the waves of
the far-ofP ocean of primeval history ; thus revealing to us
the antiquity of the origin of those two influential arts,
which especially in that nation were to become so wonderful
a power.
]:nd of the first a^olume.
i.dXiiHN : rmxTF.n r.v
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INDEX
AciON's Modern Cookery 20
Alcock's Residence in Japan 16
Allies on Formation of Christianity 15
Alpine Guide (Tlie) 16
Alvensleben's Maximilian in Mexico 4
Apjohn's Manual of the Metalloids 9
Aenold's Manual of English Literature .. 5
Aenott's Elements of Physics 8
Arundines Cami 18
Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson 6
Ayee's Treasury of Bible Knowledge 11
Bacon's Essays by Wiiately 5
Life and Letters, by Spedding . . 3
Works 4
Bain on the Emotions and Will 7
on the Senses and Intellect 7
on the Study of Character 7
Ball's Guide to the Central Alps lO
• Guide to the Western Alps l(i
Guide to the Eastern Alps 16
Baenaed's Drawing from Nature 1-1
Bayldon's Rents and Tillages 13
Beaten Tracks 16
Beckee's Charides and Gallus 17
Beethoven's Letters 4
Benfey's Sanskrit-English Dictionary 6
Beery's Journals 3
Black's Treatise on Brewing 20
Blackley and Friedlandee's German
and English Dictionary G
Blaine's Rural b-ports 19
• Veterinary Art 19
Blight's Week at the Land's End 17
Booth's Epigrams G
BouENE on Screw Propeller 13
's Catechism of the Steam Engine . . 13
Handbook of Steam Engine 13
Treatise on the Steam Engine 13
Bowdlee's Family Siiaksfeare 18
Beamley-Mooee's Six Sisters of theValleys 17
Beande's Dictionary of Science, Litei-ature,
and Art 10
Brat's (C.) Education of the Feelings 7
• Philosi iphy of Necessity 7
On Force 7
Beinton on Food and Digestion 20
Beistow's Glossary of Mineralogy 8
Brodie's Constitutional Histoi-y 1
(Sir C. B.) Works 11
Browne's Exposition 39 Articles 14
Buckle's History of Civilisation 2
Bull's Hints to Motliers 20
Maternal Management of Children . . 20
Bunsen's Ancient Egypt 3
God in History 3
Memoirs 3
BuNSEN (E. De) on Apocrypha 15
— '3 Keys of St. Peter 15
Bueke's Vicissitudes of Families 4
Burton's Christian Church 3
Cabinet Lawyer 20
Calvert's Wife's Manual 15
Gates's Biographical Dictionary 3
Cats and Farlie's Moral Emblems 12
Chorale Book for England II
Christian Schools and Scholars 6
Clough's Lives from Plutarch 2
CoLENSO (Bishop) on Pentateuch and Book
of Joshua 15
CoLLlNS's Horse Traimr's Guide 19
Commonplace Philosopher in Town and
Country c
Conington's Chemical Analysis 10
■ Translation of Virgil's Jilneid 18
CoNTANSEAu's Two French and English
Dictionaries 6
CoNTBEAEE and HowsoN'sLife and Epistles
of St. Paul 11
Cook's Acts of the Apostles 14
CoPL.iND's Dictionai-y of Practical Medicine 11
Coulthaet's Decimal Interest Tables 20
Cox's Manual of Mythology 17
Talcs of the Great Persian War 2
Tales from Greek Mythology 17
Tales of the Gods and Heroes 17
Tales of Thebes and Argos 17
Ceawley's Billiard Book 20
Ceesy's Encyclopaidia of Civil Engineering 13
Critical Essays of a Country Parson 6
Ceowe's History of France 2
Crump on Banking, &c 19
CussANS's Graraiiiar of Heraldry 12
Dart's Iliad of Homer 18
D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation in
the time of Calvin 2
Davidson's Introduction to New Testament 14
Dayman's Dante's Divina Commedia 18
De.id Shot (The), by Marksman 19
De Burgh's Maritime International Law.. 20
De la Rive's Treatise on Electricity 8
De Moegan on ^Matter and Spirit 7
De Tocqueville's Democracy in America . 2
Diseaeli's Speeches on Reform 5
DoBSON on the Ox 19
Dove on Storms 8
Dyer's City of Rome 2
Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste .... 12
Edwards's Shipmaster's Guide 20
Elements of Botany 9
22
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Ellicott's Commentary on Ephesians .... 14
Destiny of tlie Creature 14
Lectures on Life of Christ .... 14
Commentary on Galatians .... 14
• Pastoral Epist. 14
riiilippians,&c. 14
Thessaloniaus 14
Engel's Introduction to National Music . . 11
Essays and Reviews 15
on Rclipion and Literature, edited by
Manning, First and Second Series . . 15
Ewald's History of Israel 14
Faiebairn's Application of Cast and
Wrought Ii-on to Building 13
Information for Engineers .... 13
Treatise on Mills and Millwork 13
Fairbairn on Iron Shipbuilding 13
Farkar's Chapters on Language 5
Fei.kin on Hosiery & Lace Manufactures. . 13
Ffoitlkes"s Christendom's Divisions 15
Fliedner's (Pastor) Life 4
FKANCls'b Fishing Book 19
(Sir P.) Memoir and Journal .... 3
FEorrE's History of England 1
Short Studies G
Ganot's Elementary Physics 8
GiLBER^r and Churchill's Dolomite Moun-
tains 16
Gjll's Papal Drama 2
GiLLT's Shipwrecks of the Navy 17
Goodeve's Elements of Mechanism 13
Gorle's Questions on Browne's Exposition
of the 39 Articles 14
Grant's Ethics of Aristotle 4
Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson 6
Gray's Anatomy 11
Greene's Corals and Sea Jellies '? 9
Sponges and Animalculae 9
Grove on Correlation of Physical Forces . . 8
Gwilt's Encyclopredia of Architecture .... 12
Handbook of Angling, by Ephemera 19
Hare on Election of Representatives 5
HARLETand Brown's Histological Demon-
strations 11
Hartwig'« Harmonies of Nature 9
Polar World 9
■ Sea and its Living Wonders — 9
Tropical World 9
Havghton's Manual of Geology 8
Hawker's Instructions to Young Sports-
men 19
Hearn's Plutology 2
on English Government 2
Helps's Spanish Conquest in America — 2
Henderson's Folk-Lore C
Heeschel's Essays from Reviews 10
■ Outlines of Astronomy 7
Preliminary Discourse on the
Study of Natural Philosophy 8
Hewitt on the Diseases of Women 10
Hodgson's Time and Space 7
Holmes's System of Surgery 10
Hooker and Walkkr-Arnott's British
Flora 9
Hopkins's Hawaii 8
Hokne"8 Introduction to tlic Scriptures .. 14
Compendium of tlie Scriptures .. 14
Hoes let's Manual of Poisons 9
HoSKYNS's Occasional Essays 7
How we Spent the Summer 16
Howard's Gymnastic Exercises 11
Howitt's Australian Discovery IG
Rural Life of England 17
Visits to Remarkable Places 17
Hudson's Executor's Guide 20
Hughes's Garden Architecture 13
(W.) Jfanual of Geogra])hy 7
Hullah's History of Modern Music 11
Transition Musical Lectures — 11
Sacred Music 11
Humphreys's Sentiments of Shakspearc .. 12
Button's Studies in Parliament 6
Hymns from Liji-a Germanica 14
Ingelow's Poems 18
Story of Doom 18
Icelandic Legends, Second Series 17
Jameson's Legends of the Saints and Mar-
tjTS 12
Legends of the ^Madonna 12
Legends of the Monastic Orders 12
Jameson and Eastlake's History of Our
Lord 12
Jenner's Holy Child 18
Johnston's Gazettc-r, or General Geo-
gi-aphical Dictionary 7
Kalisch's Commentary on the Bible 5
Hebrew Gi ammar 5
Keith on Destiny of the World 14
I'ulfilment of Prophecy 14
Keller's Lake Dwellings of Switzci'land . . 9
Kesteven's Domestic Medicine 11
KiRBY anil Spence's Entomology 9
Knight's Arch of Titus 17
Lady's Toiu' round Monte Rosa 16
Landon's (L. E. L.) Poetical Works 18
Latham's English Dictionary 5
River Plate 7
Lawrence on Rocks 8
Lecky''s History of Rationalism 3
Leisure Hours in Town 6
Lessons of Middle Age 6
Letters of Distinguished Musicians 4
Lewes's Biograi)hical History of Philosophy 3
LiEDELLand Scott's Greek-English Lexicon 6
Abridged ditto 6
Life of Man Symbolised 12
LiNDLEY and Moore's Treasury of Botany 9
Longman's Lectures on History of England 2
Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture — IS
Gardening 13
Plants 9
Trees and Shrubs 9
Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture IS
Lowndes's Engineer's Handiiook 12
Lyra Domestica 15
Eucharistica 16
Germanica 12, 16-
Messianica 16
Mystica 16
Sacra 16
Macaulay's (Lord) Essays 2
NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS and CO.
23
Macaulat's History of England 1
Lays of Ancient Rome 18
Miscellaneous Writings C
Speeches 5
Works 1
Macfaeren's Lectures on Harmony H
MACLEOD'S Elements of Political Economy 4
Dictionary of Political Economy 4
Elements of Banking 19
Theory and Practice of Banking 19
McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce .... 19
Geographical Dictionary .... 7
Maguiee's Irish in America 17
Life of Father Mathew 3
Rome and its Rulers 3
Malleson's French in India 2
Manning on Holy Gliost 15
's England and Chi'istendom 15
Maeshalx's Physiology 10
Maeshman's History of India 2
■ Life of Havelock 4
Martineaü's Endeavours after the Chris-
tian Life 16
Massey on Shakspeare's Sonnets 18
's History of England 1
Massingeeed's History of ths Reformation 3
Matjndee's Biographical Treasury 4
Geographical Treasury 8
. Historical Treasury 8
. Scientific and Literary Treasury 9
• Treasury of Knowledge 20
Treasury of Natural History . . 9
Matjet's Physical Geography 8
Mat's Constitutional History of England. . 1
Melville's Digby Grand 17
■ General Bounce 17
. Gladiators 17
Good for Nothing 17
Holml )y House 17
Interpreter 17
■ — • Kate Coventry 17
. Queen's JIaries 17
Mendelssohn's Letters 4
Meeiyale's (H.) Historical Studies 1
(C.) Fall of the Roman Republic 2
■■ Romans imd&r the Empire 2
Boyle Lectures 2
Miles on Horse's Foot and Horse Shoeing . 19
on Horses' Teeth and Stables 19
Mill on Liberty 4
on Repres'ntative Government 4
on Utilitarianism 4
's Dissertations and Discussions 4
Political Economy 4
System of Logic 4
Hamilton's Philosophy 4
Inaugural Address at St. Andrew's . 5
Millee's Elements of Chemistry 10
Mitchell's Manual of Assaying 13
Monsell's Beatitudes 15
His Presence not his Memory. . 15
' Spiritual Songs ' 15
Montgomeet on Pregnancy 10
Mooee's Irish Melodies 18
Lalla Rookh 18
Journal and Correspondence 3
Poetical Works 18
(Dr. G.) First Man 8
Moeell's Elements of Psychology 7
Mental Philosophy 7
Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History 15
Mozaet's Letters 4
Müller's (Max) Chips from a German
AVorkshop 7
Lectures on the Science of Lan-
guage 5
(K. O.) Literature of Ancient
Greece 2
MuECHisoN on Continued Fevers 10
JIuee's Language and Literature of Greece 2
New Testament Illustrated with Wood En-
gravings from the Old Masters 12
Newman's History of his Religious Opinions 8
Nicholas's Pedigree of the English People C
Nichols's Handbook to British Museum.. 20
Nightingale's Notes on Hospitals 20
Nilsson's Scandinavia 9
Odling's Animal Chemistry 10
Course of Practical Chemisti-y . . 10
Manual of Chemistry 10
Original Designs for Wood Carving 12
Owen's Comparative Anatomy and Physio-
logy of Vertebrate Animals 8
Owen's Lectures on the Invertebrata 8
OxENHAM on Atonement 16
Packe's Guide to the Pyrenees 16
Paget's Lectures on Surgical Pathology . . 10
Peeeiea's Manual of Materia Medica 11
Peekins's Tuscan Sculptors 12
Phillips's Guide to Geology 8
Pictures in Tyrol 16
Piesse's Art of Perfumery 13
Chemical, Natural, and Physical Magic 18
Pike's English and their Origin 6
Pitt on Brewing 20
Playtime with the Poets 18
Peatt's Law of Building Societies 20
Peescott's Scripture Difficulties 14
Peoctor's Handbook of the Stars 7
Saturn V
Pyckoft's Course of English Reading .... 5
. Cricket Field 19
Eaikes's Englishman in India 17
Raymond on Fishing without Cnielty .... 18
Reade's Poetical Works 18
Recreations of a Country Paison 6
Reilly's Map of Mont Blanc 16
RiTEEs's Rose Amateur's Guide 9
RoGEEs's Correspondence of Greyson 7
Eclipse of Faith 7
Defence of Faith 7
Essays from the Edinbii,rgh Re-
view 7
Reason and Faith 7
Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and
Phrases 5
RoNALDS's Fly -Fisher's Entomology 19
Rowton's Debjiter 6
Rudd's Aristophanes ig
Russell on Government and Constitution 1
Sandaes's Justinian's Institutes 4
Schubert's Life, translated by Coleeidge 4
Scott's Lectures on the Fine Arts U
Seebohm's Oxford Reformers of 1498 2
Sewell's After Life 16
Glimpse of the World 16
History of the Early Church .... 3
Journal of a Home Life 17
24
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Sewells rasbius TlioiiKht> on Religion • ■ 1->
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Examination for Confn-mation .. 15
— Stories and Tales 17
Shaw's "Work on Wine 20
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Shipley's Church and the World 15
Tracts for the Day 15
Short Whist li'
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(G.) Reign of King David Vi
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Restoration of Health 11
Sunday Afternoons at the Parish Church . . ö
Tatloe's (Jeremy) Works, edited by Eden 15
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Tennent's Ceylon 9
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Thirlwall's History of Greece 2
TiMBs's Curiosities of Loudon 17
Thomson's (Archbishop) Laws of Thought 5
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Todd (A.) on Parliamentary Government . . 1
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Ttnd all's Lectures on Heat 8
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Memoir of Faraday 4
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Way to Rest 7
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Ward's Workmen and Wages 4
Watson's Principles and I'ractice of Physic 10
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Webster &. Wilkinson's Greek Testament 1.3
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Wendt's Papers on Maritime Law 20
West on Children's Diseases 10
Whately's English Synonymes 5
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Whist, what to Lead, by Cam 20
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Willich's Popular Tables 20
WiNSLOW on Light 8
Wood's Bible Animals 9
Homes without Hands 9
AVoodward's Historical and Chronological
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Wright's Homer's Iliad 18
Yonge's English-Greek Lexicon 3
Abridged ditto 3
Horace 18
Young's Nautical Dictionary 20
YouATT on the Dog 19
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
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