LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class CROWN THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY VOL. XVI ADDIS'S HEBREW RELIGION Crown Ubeologtcal WORKS ALREADY PUBLISHED Vol. I. BABEL AND BIBLE. By Dr. FRIEDRICH DELITZSCH. 5s. . Vol. II. THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST. An Historical and Critical Essay. By PAUL LOBSTEIN. 3s. Vol. III. MY STRUGGLE FOR LIGHT. Confessions of a Preacher. By R. WIMMER. 3s. 6d. Vol. IV. LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY. Its Origin, Nature, and Mission. By JEAN REVILLE. 4s. Vol. V WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? By ADOLF HARNACK. 5s. Vol. VI. FAITH AND MORALS. By W. HERRMANN. 5s. Vol. VII. EARLY HEBREW STORY. A Study of the Origin, the Value, and the Historical Background of the Legends of Israel. By JOHN P. PETERS, D.D. 5s. Vol. VIII. BIBLE PROBLEMS AND THE NEW MATERIAL FOR THEIR SOLUTION. By Prof. T. K. CHEYNE, D.Litt., D.D. 5s. Vol. IX. THE DOCTRINE OF THE ATONE- MENT AND ITS HISTORICAL EVOLUTION, AND RELIGION AND MODERN CULTURE. By the late AUGUSTE SABATIER 4s. 6d. Vol. X. THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CON- CEPTION OF CHRIST : its Significance and Value in the History of Religion. By OTTO PFLEIDERER 3s. 6d. Vol. XL THE CHILD AND RELIGION. Eleven Essays by Various Writers. 6s. Vol. XII. THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION: An Anthropological Study. By L. R.FARNELL. M.A., D.Litt. 5s. Vol. XIII. THE HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN LITER ATU RE. The Books of the New Testament. By Baron HERMANN VON SODEN, D.D. 5s. Vol. XIV. JESUS. By W. BOUSSET. 4s. Vol. XV. THE COMMUNION OF THE CHRISTIAN WITH GOD. By W. HERRMANN. Revised and much enlarged Edition. 5s. HEBREW RELIGION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF JUDAISM UNDER EZRA BY W. E. ADDIS, M.A. rt OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WILLIAMS & NORGATE 14 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON NEW YORK : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 1906 M TO E. L. A. PREFACE IT need scarcely be said that this little volume can make no claim to originality. It is simply an attempt to provide the general reader with a clear statement of fact on the history of Hebrew religion down to the middle of the fifth century B.C. In such a work references to modern authorities would have been out of place, and to give such references with any- thing like fulness would have been impossible in the space at command. It may, however, be well to say that my account of early Arabic religion has been drawn chiefly, except where other references are given, from Wellhausen's " Reste des arabischen Heidenthums." Some apology may be requisite for my frequent use of Greek and Latin authors. The quotations have always been made directly from my own reading at the time, reading which was under- taken without any thought of the Old Testament. For this reason they may seem v 164849 Preface to convey information which is too familiar to be of much use. Yet the very fact that they are drawn from the most accessible sources may remind the reader how easy it is to dis- cover points of contact between Semitic and Aryan religions, in their primitive stages. No doubt, in their subsequent course they drifted far from each other. I have tried to exercise an independent judgment, to distinguish conjecture from proof, and to furnish the reader with the means of judging for himself. If we deal honestly and fearlessly with the facts we shall assuredly find, that all real investigation ministers to revealed truth by helping us to understand how the light, faint and dim in its beginning, grew more and more till it reached the perfect day in Him who is "Light of Light, very God of very God." OXFORD, Easter 1906. VI CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE . . . . . ix CRITICAL TABLE xiii I. INTRODUCTORY . . . . . I II. PRIMITIVE FORMS OF SEMITIC RELIGION . . 15 A. Objects of Worship .... 21 B. Communion with God or Spirits . . 37 C. Feasts 46 D. Sacred Persons ... 48 E. Summary ...... 49 III. THE WORSHIP OF JEHOVAH .... 53 IV. THE INFLUENCE OF SETTLED LIFE IN CANAAN AND THE RELIGION OF JEHOVAH TO THE PERIOD OF THE LITERARY PROPHETS . 78 General View of the Pre-prophetic Religion 1 04 A. Its Moral and Theological Defects . 104 B. Its Limited Sphere . . . .114 C. Influences in Favour of Religious Pro- gress 121 D. Signs of Progressive Attainments in Religion 129 vii Contents CHAP. p A <5 E V. THE LITERARY PROPHETS DOWN TO THE DEU- TERONOMIC REFORM . . . .135 A. General Account of Prophetic Teaching 138 B. The Prophets Individually . . .156 VI. THE PROPHETIC REFORM. THE DECALOGUE. DEUTERONOMY AND JEREMIAH . . 181 Efforts to Maintain Revealed Religion . . 184 VII. THE UNKNOWN PROPHET OF THE EXILE . 207 The " Second Isaiah " 207 The Future of Israel in Second Isaiah . . 210 Israel's Mission to the Nations as Conceived by the Second Isaiah . . . .214 VIII. THE TRANSITION FROM PROPHETIC TO LEGAL RELIGION 219 A. Ezekiel : The Time in which he Lived and His Personal Characteristics . 2iy B. The " Law of Holiness "... 236 IX. THE "PRIESTLY CODE" IN ITS ULTIMATE FORM .... . 254 INDEX 307 Vlll CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE {The dates given are all B.C.] A. THE MOSAIC PERIOD AND THE HISTORY OF THE NATION TILL ITS CONTACT WITH THE GREAT EASTERN EMPIRES Exodus from Egypt perhaps about 1250. Somewhat later the nomad life in the wilderness. The gradual conquest of Canaan by the Hebrews and their settlement there, beginning with the Judges and completed under the first Kings. The consolidation of the tribes under David and Solomon 1000 to 932. Ahab and Elijah, Jehu and Elisha about 850. B. THE ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN PERIOD (a) The Assyrian Period Amos, circ. 760; Hosea, between 746 and 734; Isaiah, 740-700 ; Micah, before 722. Tiglath Pileser II\, King of Assyria 745-727. Menahem, King of Israel, becomes tributary to Assyria 738. Syro-Ephraimitic War against Judah 735. Ahaz of Judah tributary to Assyria. ix Chronological Table Tiglath Pileser III. seizes Gilead, &c., and destroys Damascus 733, 732. Samaria taken by Sargon of Assyria, 722. Sennacherib of Assyria invades Judah : Jerusalem delivered 701. Esar-haddon of Assyria invades Egypt about 670. Between 850 and 750 the Jahvist and Elohist docu- ments which form the oldest parts of the Pentateuch were perhaps reduced to writing. (ft) Decline of Assyria : Rise of Babylon Zephaniah, circ. 630 ; Nahum and Joshua, circ. 625 ; Jeremiah, 627-586 ; Habakkuk, circ. 605. Nineveh threatened by Medes and Babylonians. Scythian invasion of Western Asia. Jeremiah begins his prophecies 627. Promulgation of the Deuteronomic Code 621. Necho, King of Egypt, marches against Assyria : Josiah encountering him, is defeated and slain at Megiddo 608. Nineveh taken by Cyaxares, the Mede, and Nabopolassar of Babylon 606. Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabopolassar, defeats Necho at Carchemish 605. Jehoiakim of Judah and many of his chief men carried in captivity to Babylon 597. C. PERIOD oi< THE EXILE (586-538) Ezekiel (592-570) belongs in part to the earlier years of this period and Second Isaiah i.e. Isa. xl.-lv. to its conclusion. X Chronological Table D. RETURN FROM THE EXILE AND RESTORATION OF JEWISH COMMUNITY UNDER PERSIAN RULE (a) Persian Kings Cyrus, 559-529. Cambyses, 529-522. Darius (after struggle with pseudo-Smerdis, &c.), 521- 486. Xerxes, 485-465. Artaxerxes, 465-424. (ft) Jewish History Return of many Jews under Zerubbabel and Joshua, the chief priest 538. Prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah 520-519- Second Temple completed 516. Ruth, Malachi, arid Third Isaiah i.e. Isa. Ivi.-lxvi. probably belong to this time. Return of 1800 male Jews with Ezra 458. Nehemiah goes as governor to Jerusalem and builds the city wall 445. Proclamation and solemn acceptance of the Priestly Code 444. Nehemiah's second visit to Jerusalem. Pentateuch in its present form completed by union of priestly document with older history and legislation viz. the Jahvist and Elohist, besides Deuteronomy in an expanded form 400 (?). xi Chronological Table Erection of Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim perhaps about 333. Reception of Hebrew Pentateuch with alterations by Samaritan community about the same time. To the Persian period many scholars assign Job, Proverbs (in its present form), some of the Psalms, Obadiah, Jonah, Joel. Xll CRITICAL TABLE THE HEXATEUCH, i.e., THE PENTATEUCH AND JOSHUA. THE following list of passages, belonging to the Priestly Writer, is taken from Dr. Driver's Introduction, and repre- sents the general opinion of scholars. If we subtract these and also nearly the whole of the Book of Deuteronomy, the remainder belongs to the older documents, i.e., to the Jahvist and Elohist histories. Genesis i. i.-ii. 4 a ; v. 1-28, 30-32; vi. 9-22; vii. 6, 7-9 (in parts), 11, 13-l6 a , 18-21, 24; viii. 1. 2 a , 3 b -5, 13 a ,14-19; ix. 1-17, 28-29; x. 1-7, 20, 22-23, 31-32; xi. 10-27, 31-32; xii. 4 b -5 ; xiii. 6, ll b . 12 a ; xvi. l a , 3, 15-16; xvii. xix. 29; xxi. l b , 2 b -5 ; xxiii. ; xxv. 7-11% 12-17, 19-20, 26 b ; xxvi. 34-35; xxvii. 46 xxviii. 9; xxix. 24, 29; xxxi. 18 b ; xxxiii. 18 a ; xxxiv. l-2 a , 4, 6, 8-10, 13-18, 20-24, 25 (partly), 27-29; xxxv. 9-13, 15, 22 b -29 ; xxxvi. (mostly) ; xxxvii. l-2 a ; xli. 46 ; xlvi. 6-27; xlvii. 5-6 a (Ixx.), 7-11, 27 b -28 ; xlviii. 3-6, 7 (?) ; xlix. l a , 28 b -33; 1. 12-13. Exodus i. 1-7, 13-14, 23 b -25 ; vi. 2-7 ; vii. 13, 19-20 a ; 21 b -22; viii. 5-7, 15 b -19 ; ix. 8-12; xii. 1-20, 28, 37 a ; 40-51 ; xiii. 1-2, 20; xiv. 1-4, 8-9, 15-18, 21 a . 21 C 23, xiii Critical Table 26, 27 a , 28 a , 29 ; xvi. 1-3, 6-24, 31-36 ; xvii. P ; xix. l-2 a ; xxiv. ]5-18 a ; xxv. 1 xxxi. 18 a ; xxxiv. 29-35; xxxv.-xl. Leviticus the whole, except that most of xvii.-xxvi. belong to the " Law of Holiness." Numbers i. i.-x. 28 ; xiii. l-l7 a , 21, 25-26 a [to " Paran "], 32 a ; xiv. 1-2 (mostly), 5-7, 10, 26-38 (mostly) ; xv. ; xvi. ] a , 2 b -7 a , 18-24, 27 a , 32 b , 35, 36-40, 41-50; xvii.-xix. xx. P (to "month"), 2, 3 b , 6, 12-13,22-29; xxi. 4 a (to " Hor "), 10-11; xxii. 1; xxv. 6-18; xxvi.-xxxi. xxxii. 18-19,28-32; xxxiii.-xxxvi. Deuteronomy xxxii. 48-52; xxxiv. P, 8-9. Joshua iv. 13, 19; v. 10-12; vii. 1 ; ix. 15 b , 17-21 ; xiii. 15-32; xiv. 1-5; xv. 1-13, 28-44,48-62; xvi. 4-8; xvii. P, 3-4, 7, 9 a , 9 c -10 a ; xviii. 1, 11-28; xix. 1-8; 10-46, 48, 51 ; xx. 1-3 (except " and unawares/') 6 a (to "judgment", 7-9 (Comp. Ixx.); xxi. 1-42; xxii. 9-34. The Law of Holiness is contained for the most part in Lev. xvii.-xxvi., though this section has received many additions in the style and spirit of the later Priestly Code. There is also reason to believe that the kernel of Lev. i.-v., xi.-xv., Num. v. 5-31, vi. 1-21, ix. 9-15, xv., xix. may come from the " Law of Holiness." Exodus xxxi. 13-14 a may be an excerpt from the same document. The Prophets. Whereas there is general agreement on the criticism of the Hexateuch, there is still much uncertainty on the authenticity of large portions in the prophetic books. xiv Critical Table Amos. Probably the consolatory conclusion ix. 8-15 is a later addition, and the same may be said of the doxologies iv. 13 ; v. 8, 9 5 ix. 5, 6, which infer the glory and power of Jehovah from the works of nature. Some passages of this kind have no real connection with the context. The vague reference to the sin of Judah ii. 4, 5 cannot be authentic. Hosea. Many scholars deny that the consolatory con- clusion xiv. 2-9 is authentic, though the objections here are much less cogent than in the parallel case from Amos. Here, also, but much more often, references to Judah have been inserted (see especially i. 7) and the name Judah has been substituted for Israel. The belief that the northern kingdom was schismatic is expressed in iii. 5, but cannot be attributed to the real Hosea. Isaiah. Nothing after xxxiii. is his work, and xi. 10- xiv. 23, xv., xvi., xxi. 1-10, xxiv.-xxvii. are not from his hand. The following passages are undoubtedly authentic : (1) From the prophet's call to the Syro-Ephraimitic war i.e., from 740 to 734; vi. ii. 6 iv. i. (in part); v. 1-24; ix. 7-20; v. 26-29; vii. 1-14, 16; viii. 1-4, 5-8 a , 11-15, 16-18; xvii. 1-11. (2) From the year 711 when Sargon besieged Ashdod ; xviii. ; xx. (3) From the time of Sennacherib's invasion, xxii. ; xxviii.-xxxi. (allowing for interpolation); i. This list represents the minimum of genuine matter. Micah. Onlythe first three chapters are certainly his. Zephaniah. The authenticity of ii. 4-15, iii. 9-10, 14 20 is at least doubtful. XV Critical Table Jeremiah xlvi.-ii. is not authentic ; of the rest only portions come from the prophet and from his secretary. The subject is too complicated and disputable to be treated here in detail. Habakkuk iii. is not genuine. For a view of Habakkuk's date different from that given in the Chronological Table, see Budde's article in the " Encyclopaedia Biblica." No critical difficulty of historical importance arises with regard to any of the other prophetic writings, except Daniel, which is much later than the period embraced in this volume. The needful information on the Second and Third Isaiah has been given in the text. XVI HEBREW RELIGION CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY The Subject of Inquiry and its Interest.- It is the purpose of this little volume to trace the development of Hebrew religion down to the publication of the Pentateuch in its present form. It is not necessary to dwell at any great length on the importance of the subject. It has been said that the Hebrews had a unique genius for religion, as the Greeks had a unique genius for art in its widest sense, as the Romans had for government and law. Many of us would desire to express this fact in religious terms : to us the Hebrews hold a solitary place in the history of religion, because to them " the oracles of God were committed." Still here 1 A Hebrew Religion at the outset we may be content with a statement which assuredly does not err by exaggeration. It is reasonable to feel the attractive power of the Old Testament, because it expresses in classical form truths.f which have exercised great influence on the^ central forces of human life, and because it appeals at this hour to the deepest and the ' loftiest convictions of our nature. It is true that truths which Hebrew saints attained with toil and struggle and suffering have long since become familiar in Christendom, i.e. in the most civilised and progressive portion of mankind. Just, however, for this reason we are apt to repeat them without any lively sense of their real meaning, any adequate notion of the severe claims which they make upon us. Now we find a way of escape from this conventionality when we try to recall the momentous import of these truths to those who uttered them at the first, the surprise, the awe, the attractive and the repulsive power which they had for some who caught them as they fell from the lips of prophet or of psalmist. Nor can we value 2 Introductory the light in which we live at its just rate till we also know the darkness from which it emerged, growing more and more till it reached the perfect day in Him who is the light of the world. Here we may remark that the Old Testament loses less by trans- lation than any other ancient book. The construction of the language is so simple that it can be reproduced almost verbally in our own tongue : even the metre is of such a nature that it can to a great extent be preserved in a fairly literal translation. We cannot say as much of any great Greek or Roman writer. Translations of the Greek and Roman classics are useful chiefly to those who are familiar with the originals. No attempt to make Homer popular in an English dress has proved successful. Pope's Homer is probably indebted for the large number of its readers to the fact that it is not Homer : if correct translations of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus have been widely ap- preciated, it is because they wrote long after the classical epoch, and had few graces of style to forfeit in the process of translation. 8 Hebrew Religion The Method of Inquiry must be Historical. Such is the subject which lies before us, and the method of inquiry, already implied, must now be stated more fully. We are entitled to ask what the Koran teaches on the nature and will of God, on the creation and preservation of the world, on the pro- phetic office of Mohammed, on the duties of believers to their brethren and to the infidel. We may reasonably do so, because the Koran is a single book, and not very long after Mohammed's death its various chapters were committed to writing and assumed approximately their present shape. Critics of the Koran have done the chief part of their work, when they have arranged the chapters in chronological order, and so enabled .us to trace the development of ideas in Mohammed's mind and the connection of this development with the changes in his environment. With the Old Testament it is altogether different. Here we are con- cerned not with a book but with a whole literature extending over many ages. Its authors lived under a great variety of out- Introductory- ward circumstance, differed from each other in spiritual experience and attainment, and held views on the nature of God and man which belong to opposite poles of thought. No doubt, there is a bond of unity between the component parts of the Old Testament which justifies us with certain precautions and reserves in treating it as one book. The nature of Jehovah and the demands which He makes upon His worshippers is the central idea from first to last. But this germ of thought underwent a long course of evolution. Criticism enables us to see how a tribal religion became national and tended to become universal, how a crude materialism wa refined little by little into spiritual notions of God and of the worship which is due to Him. Let the student read Exodus iv. 24-26 where Jehovah meets Moses on the way back to Egypt, seeks to slay him, and is appeased by the blood of the circumcision. Then let him turn to the immortal words in Micah vi., " What doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Hebrew Religion thy God?" and he can scarcely fail to see how far he has travelled and to recognise the width of intervening space between the starting-point and the goal of Hebrew religion. It is this long progress and its continuance in spite of, nay, by means of, the obstacles in its path which separates the revelation made to Israel from all natural religions. Elsewhere e.g. in the Greek tragedians there are flashes of light and glimpses of religious truth : but there is nothing parallel to the process by which Israel's religion was purified and enlarged without any diminution of its intense belief in the unity and personality of the God who had directed its history and led it by a way it knew not. There are other reasons which make it impossible to study Hebrew religion apart from the national history. God did not reveal Himself to the people directly. * He " spoke to the fathers by the prophets." * Hebrew nationality and Hebrew religion alike begin with Moses the prophet : each step in advance is made by the action of the divine Spirit in Jehovah's chosen servants and Introductory messengers. Nor did God turn these men into mechanical instruments of His will. Jeremiah, for example, remains from first to last a singularly natural character. He is a man of strong emotions which lie open before us on the written page, and grace did not destroy nature but perfect it. We have to acquaint ourselves with his tenderness of feeling and sensitive shrinking from strife, with his love and pity for his people, his passionate hatred of wrong, his sense of loneliness which cut so deep, if we would understand the way in which God trained him for the work and message of his life. Once more, it was through the history of their nation and of those great empires which destroyed the political and threatened the religious life of Israel, that the prophets came to fuller apprehension of the divine nature. They did not utter their belief in abstract shape: there is very little in the genuine text of the prophets before the exile which clothes itself in the dogmatic forms of a later day. They do not expatiate on God's omnipotence and omniscience, or upon 7 Hebrew Religion His spiritual nature. They think of Him as the righteous will who instructs His people by the events of history, warns and exhorts them by the overthrow of dynasties and the crash of empires. We cannot, there- fore, in studying the prophets, draw any sharp line of demarcation between sacred and profane history. Lastly, it must be re- membered that the earlier prophets address the nation as a whole : it is to the whole nation that Jehovah speaks, and He requires "righteousness in the gates," i.e. just in- stitutions equitably administered. It is the nation as a whole which is rewarded with prosperity or punished with disaster. For this reason, if for no other, prophecy cannot be read intelligently apart from the political events of the time. Of course, all this must not be taken to mean that there is no difference between a sketch of Hebrew religion and an account of Hebrew history. For our present purpose it will suffice to mark the chief epochs in national history and to explain their influence on religion. Many details which are interesting from a 8 Introductory secular point of view may be dismissed lightly or passed over altogether. The history of Greek art in connection with the political history of Greece would exhibit a method more or less parallel to that which we shall try to follow here. Chief Divisions in the History. It will be well to indicate at the outset the chief stages on the road. Israel's religion did not end like natural religions, but it begins where they begin. Consequently we shall deal first with those ideas which the Hebrew inherited from prehistoric times. Partly these usages are common to mankind, or at least to a large portion of it, in savage times and in the infancy of civilisation : partly they are peculiar to the races which were allied by blood and speech to the Hebrews. Next we shall have to deal with the creative work of Moses and the way in U^ which Jehovah came to be accepted as the sole God of the Hebrew tribes. Thence we shall pass to the settlement in Canaan and to the influence which agriculture and contact with the higher civilisation of the Hebrew Religion Canaanites exercised on the religion and morality of Canaan. We shall also con- sider the realisation of national unity by the institution of the monarchy, appending a general view of Hebrew religion before it was transformed and transfigured by the > teaching of the prophets. Afterwards we shall come to the prophets themselves, to Elijah and Elisha, and, above all, to the great literary prophets who lived before the exile, and whose works constitute the golden age of Hebrew literature. Another chapter will deal in rapid succession with the Deuter- onomic reform, with the exile and the deep cleavage which it made in Jewish thought, with the Second Isaiah, the prophet of com- fort, with Ezekiel partly prophet, partly pastor of souls, partly legislator, and with that priestly code most of which is con- tained in the middle books of the Pentateuch. The later developments of Judaism down to the Christian era may form the subject of another volume. It is hoped that the chronological table prefixed to this book will give a bird's-eye view of the whole 10 Introductory subject and will be of service for refer- ence. Results of Criticism Assumed. No doubt this chronological table makes considerable assumptions, and to some these assumptions may appear unwarranted. We are, however, obliged to take certain chronological data for granted. The results reached by the criticism of the documents are the principles from which we start. The proof of these must be sought in books like Dr. Driver's " Introduction to the Old Testament " or Hastings' " Dictionary of the Bible." An effort has been made throughout to observe the limits set by sober and moderate scholar- ship. Much is certain. On many questions of capital moment such, e.g., as the dates at which the documents composing the Pen- tateuch were written down, the date and authorship of most of the prophetic books there is practical unanimity among men whose knowledge entitles them to judge. This agreement has been slowly attained : it has been severely tested by discussion, nor is there the slightest ground for thinking 11 Hebrew Religion that it will ever be seriously disturbed. On the other hand, it must be frankly ad- mitted that there are other matters which are, and perhaps always will be, shrouded in uncertainty. No one can say with just confidence when many of the Psalms were written: there is still much debate on the amount of matter in our book of Jeremiah which comes from the prophet or from Baruch his secretary, as distinct from addi- tions made long after their time ; different scholars hold different views on the extent to which the genuine productions of other prophets have been interpolated by the scribes. Sometimes also the text of the Hebrew Bible, even when we have sought all the help which the Septuagint can give, remains uncertain or even hopelessly corrupt. We may, however, obviate the consequent difficulty by distinguishing results morally certain from theories which do not rise above a certain degree of probability, and are but conjectures more or less ingenious. For- tunately it is when we enter the region of individual morality that the date and 12 Introductory surroundings of the various authors become doubtful or insoluble problems. We say " fortunately," for whereas writers like Amos, Hosea, and Jeremiah constantly refer to contemporary events, and must therefore be most imperfectly understood till we know when they wrote and what audience they found, it is otherwise with such books as Psalms, Proverbs, or Job. They deal with the great truths of ethics and religion as they present themselves to the individual. True, their authors are the children of their time, and we must gather from their own words, as best we can, the kind of time in which they lived and the ideas which pre- vailed among their friends and foes. When we have done so much, we have done what is essential: other questions are interesting and even important, but we can afford, if need be, to pass them by. When a prophet denounces alliance with Egypt or Assyria, or depicts the intestine strife which rent Israel asunder, or hails Cyrus as the ser- vant of Jehovah, we cannot understand him till we can fix his date and ascertain the 13 Hebrew Religion political history of his time. So, too, when we encounter codes of national law which to some extent contradict each other, we are forced to ask how far they were reduced to practice, which code was promulgated first, which superseded the other. The case is altered when we are studying a writer who is perplexed by the apparent injustice of the world or expresses the thirst of man's soul for communion with the living God. Thoughts like these are in a sense inde- pendent of time. Any great literature will illustrate the distinction in question. The public orations of Demosthenes and the tragedies of Sophocles have, both of them, their historical setting. But who would dream that the precise knowledge of the date and of the contemporary history is of equal value in the case of each ? 14 CHAPTER II PRIMITIVE FOlliMS OF SEMITIC RELIGION Semitic Nations in Relation to Each Other. Hebrew is a form of Semitic speech, and the Hebrews belonged to the larger family of Semitic nations. True, the term " Semitic " is incorrect : it has arisen from the fact that Gen. x. traces the origin of the Hebrews, of the Aramseans or Syrians, and of certain Arab tribes to Shem, Noah's eldest son. In Gen. x., however, the principle of arrange- ment is geographical rather than ethnolo- gical, and, were we to follow it consistently, we should have to exclude from the Semitic family the Canaanites, though their speech was almost identical with Hebrew, and to include Elam and Lud, whose language, in all probability, was of quite different sort. We must remember also that simi- larity or even identity of language does 15 OF THE UNIVERSITY OF Hebrew Religion / not of itself prove kinship in blood. English people speak one tongue : yet who can say how much Celtic or pre- Celtic blood flows in their veins? Still, it would be inconvenient to banish a title which has been accepted for a century or more, especially as no better name has been suggested. By Semitic languages, then, we mean the Arabic and Ethiopic of the south, Hebrew, Phoenician, Moabite (which we may call Middle Semitic), Aramaic, and Assyrian on the north and north-east. The points of similarity between these languages is very striking: they all employ forms and idioms strange and startling to those who have had no previous acquaint- ance with non- Aryan speech. In vocabulary also they are close to each other, though here, of course, the amount of similarity varies much. Indeed it would be mis- leading to compare the Semitic with the Indo-European family of languages: rather the similarity which binds them together resembles that which exists between the different varieties of the Teutonic or of the 16 Forms of Semitic Religion Slavic dialects. The primitive form of Semitic speech has perished, leaving no vestige behind. On the whole, though only on the whole, it is best represented by Arabic, for the nomad Arabs dwelt apart and their language was, on this account, less exposed to contamina- tion. For the same reason the fragments of ancient Arabic religion are of special value for the history of religion in Israel. Such frag- ments have been preserved in poems from the time of " ignorance " i.e. prior to the adop- tion of Islam, in the prohibitions of the Koran, in usages which linger among the Bedouin even now. Often they throw strong light on notices of ancient cults in the Old Testament, and when Arabic and Hebrew usage coincide, we are justified, unless it can be shown that one race has borrowed from the other, in accepting this agreement, as a survival from the time when the distinctions in Semitic speech and nationality had not yet arisen. Here, however, it is to be observed that the facts in question have little or nothing to do with theories on the cradle-land of the Semites. That is a vexed and apparently 17 B Hebrew Religion insoluble question. It would be idle to argue that Iceland was the original home of the Teutons because the oldest forms of Teutonic speech have been preserved there. 27/6^ Word " Ebhim"The usual Hebrew name for God is " Elohim," a word which combines a plural form with singular meaning. The corresponding singular "El" also occurs, but unless qualified by a defining adjective or genitive, is rare in prose. The root "El" is common to all varieties of Semitic speech, and the familiar "Allah " of Arabic is simply " Ilah," " God," with the article " al " prefixed and assimilated in accordance with the common rule. It is natural to ask next what is the primary sense of this venerable word. This, however, is still a subject of dispute, and as yet no certain answer can he given. "Power" is, on the whole, the likeliest explanation, and in the plural form there may have been at first a reference to a number of supernatural powers which manifested themselves at one place or on one occasion. If this be so, the word 18 Forms of Semitic Religion would convey, simultaneously, the notion of multiplicity and unity. But whatever the original force of the word may have been, we can, in any case, note several points of in- terest in the history of its use. It must have been employed first when the notion of deity was exceedingly vague, and the current wor- ship was paid to spirits rather than to gods properly so called. A god has a history and a character of his own. Apollo, for example, was the son of Zeus and Leto : he is the lord of light and life and healing : he slew the dragon python : he was the lover of the nymph Daphne, and had intrigues with maidens of mortal birth. The Semites, when they were left to themselves i.e. when they did not, like the Assyrians and Phoenicians, assimilate elements of alien religion cannot be said to have developed a mythology except in a very rudimentary fashion. The Arabs, to be sure, had come to believe in many gods and goddesses which, unlike mere spirits, had their home in the sky. But we are never told that the goddesses conceive and bear children. If, when the Muslims forced them 19 Hebrew Religion to consider the relation of the goddesses to Allah, the heathen Arabs replied that these were his daughters, they simply meant that the goddesses shared Allah's nature and were subordinate to him. Now, much the same language except that inferior gods rather than goddesses are in question occurs in an ancient section of Genesis (vi. 1-4), which supplies the nearest approach to mythology within the compass of the Old Testament. There we read that "sons of Elohim" were captivated by the beauty of women and became by them fathers of giants. It is noteworthy that these superhuman beings are called " sons of Elohim " and not sons of Jehovah, for the story belongs to a remote period, while the name of Jehovah was un- known. We must remember also that in Hebrew and Arabic the word " son " is much more freely used than with us. In Hebrew " a son of death " denotes a man under a capital sentence ; "a son of fifty years " is the habitual phrase in ordinary prose for a man fifty years old ; "a son of the merchants " in Arabic means no more than a member of a 20 Forms of Semitic Religion mercantile guild. 1 So, here, the sons of Elohim are those who possess the nature of spirits and not of men. With this passage we may compare another, viz. 1 Sam. xxviii. 13. Saul, we are told, just before his last fatal battle, consulted a witch at Endor. She, at his request, evoked from Sheol, the abode of departed spirits, the ghost of Samuel, Saul's early friend and counsellor. As the ghost ascends, the woman cries out, "I see Elohim rising from the earth." Samuel is no longer a human being : he belongs to the sphere of the divine. A. OBJECTS OF WORSHIP (1) Worship of the Dead. We understand this use of Elohim for ghost better when we consider what deep roots the worship of the dead, and especially of ancestors, struck in Semitic soil. A " masseba," or sacred pillar 2 1 The idiom is not unknown in Greek though it is far less common. Plato, for instance, uses (Legg, 7C9 B.) " the sons of painters" as a periphrasis for " painters." 2 " Usually a [Greek] tomb was surmounted by a a-rfjXrj or KiW " [i.e. a pillar]. " On the vases the offerings are represented as set down upon the square base of the pillar, as on an altar." Tucker's Introduction to the Choephoroi, p. xxxiii. 21 Hebrew Religion corresponding to that which stood by Jehovah's altar stood (Gen. xxxv. 20) by the grave of Rachel, from whom the house of Joseph claimed descent. The higher religion of the prophets was never able to eradicate ancient superstition of this kind. Hence the law twice over (Deut. xviii. 11; Lev. xix. 31) forbids consultation of departed spirits, and the prohibition was by no means unnecessary. The custom prevailed in the last days of the Judaean monarchy (2 Kings xxi. 6) and long after the return from Babylon (Isa. Ixv. 4). It subsists among the Bedouin at this day, though they pro- fess the religion of Mohammed. Both Hebrews and Arabs buried instead of burn- ing their dead. The Arabs used to pour wine and water on the grave, and allusions to the custom of feeding the dead are to be found in Hosea ix. 4 and Deut. xxvi. 14. The removal of the hair from the head (Isa. xxii. 12) or face (Isa. xv. 2) in case of mourning may be a relic of the hair offering once widely diffused. So, too, the practice of covering the head (2 Sam. xv. 30 ; Jer. xiv. 3), 22 Forms of Semitic Religion as a token of sorrow, may have arisen from fear of seeing the spirit which hovered for a time over the corpse: Elijah is said to have covered his head in the near presence of Jehovah. 1 Perhaps the dust strewed on the head may have been taken at first from the grave, so that the mourner entered thereby into communion with the dead man's spirit, and this interpretation of the rite is confirmed by the usage of the ancient Arabs, who actually drank dust from the grave dissolved in water. 2 The sackcloth which was worn by prophets (Isa. xx.) as well as mourners may have been a sacred vestment, and the formal rending of the ordinary garment may have been simply the preparation for putting on the sackcloth. The modern Jew goes barefoot in mourning, as Moses did when he drew near to the burning bush. Even the wailing acquires a new import, when we learn that the Arabs cried to the spirit of the dead, " Be not far off." Assuming that the explana- 1 This, however, is at best a plausible guess. The Romans covered the head in sacrificing, apparently to keep any ill-omened object out of sight. See Verg. ^En. iii. 405, seq. 2 Robertson Smith, " Rel. Sem.," p. 304, n. 3. 23 Hebrew Religion tions given are satisfactory on the whole, we can see why prophets and legislators con- demned the current ritual of the dead. It was a primeval form of worship opposed to that of Jehovah, the one and only legitimate object of Israel's public worship. " Shall not a people inquire of its God ? Shall it inquire of the dead on behalf of the living ? " (Isa. viii. 19). The higher religion would admit of no fellowship with the lower : even the necessary care for the dead, even the least contact with a corpse made a man unclean. But the original idea of uncleanness goes back beyond the era of the prophets. Originally, a man who had touched a corpse became unclean, because he was charged with supernatural influence of a perilous kind. 1 This worship of the dead serves to explain much of the constitution and fundamental axioms of ancient society. The limitation of inherit- ance to males was natural, since it was the office of the sons, and especially of the 1 Among the Arabs, however, contact with a corpse did not defile. The Hebrews also, at one time, had no scruples on this point, See, e.g., Ezek. xliii. 7, seq. 24 Forms of Semitic Religion eldest son, to make oblation for the dead. A woman's passionate desire to be the mother of sons sprang from the same source. Of course this worship of the dead was familiar far beyond the limits of Semitic race and speech. We find the feeding of the dead elaborately described in the eleventh book of the Odyssey, and in the Chcephoroi of ^Eschylus and the Antigone of Sophocles the underlying notion of service due to the dead is substantially the same, though the form of libation is greatly refined. At Rome the priestly colleges had strict rules against defilement by contact with a corpse, rules closely analogous to those which obtained among the Hebrews. 1 (2) Sacred Stones. It must not, how- ever, be supposed that the spirits wor- shipped among Semites were always spirits of the dead. There were spirits which had never borne the human form. Some of these took up their abode in stones. The black stone at Mecca, afterwards 1 See Tacit. Ann. i. 63, with Furneaux's iiote ; which contains much curious information on the subject. 25 Hebrew Religion built into the Caaba, was the priniary and central object of veneration, and like importance was attached to a sacred stone in the time-honoured sanctuary at Bethel. No doubt, the feature of early worship is obscured by the editorial process to which the narrative in Genesis (xxviii. 11-22) has been subjected. Still, the original sense of the story, which is a iepo$ A 0709, or temple myth, comes out clearly in the concluding verse : " This stone which I have set up as a masseba (or sacred pillar) shall be a house (or dwelling-place) of a god." In homage to the indwelling deity Jacob is said to have anointed the stone : unction being in the East an act of courtesy to a guest, was fitly offered to the spirit in the stone which the worshipper desired to conciliate. The same practice is attested in the case of the Assyrians by an inscription of Esarhaddon : " \i0oi \nrapoi" "lapides uncti," are technical terms for anointed stones in Greek and Latin, and for meteoric stones the Greeks used the very word " Bethel " (/3arnAo?, or fiairvXiov'), which they must have borrowed from the Phceni- 20 Forms of Semitic Religion cians. It has been suggested, though this is a hazardous conjecture, that the title, " rock of Israel," ^fiven to Jehovah in an early poem (Gen. xlix. 24), may have originated in stone- worship, or rather in the worship of spirits which lived in stones, though, of course, to the Biblical writer who employed it the title had become no more than a figure of speech. In any case, many passages in the Old Tes- tament (e.g. Jer. ii. 27, besides place-names like Ebenezer) show that this form of wor- ship was widely spread. We should add that the word " masseba " is generally used not for a stone in its rough state, but for a stone erected by man, who then invites the spirit to hallow it by its presence. Moreover, several " masseboth " might be erected together (Exod. xxiv. 4. Comp. Joshua iv. 20). So far, even in the earliest epoch of which we have any knowledge, the use of the sacred stone has advanced beyond fetichism. In Hosea's day the " masseba " still formed an indispens- able piece of sacred furniture. He looks for- ward to a period of exile in which " sacrifice and ' masseba ' " shall cease to be, as if the end 27 Hebrew Religion of the one were the end of the other. After a time the "masseba" came in the minds of some to be regarded as no more than a memo- rial stone, like gravestones or monuments among ourselves. Finally the Deuteronomist (Deut. xii. 3, &c.), recognising dangerous associations with superstition, prohibited the " masseba " absolutely. From like motives the Koran (v. 93) prohibited the "ansab," a plural form identical with the Hebrew " mas- seba " not only in meaning but in etymology. (3) Sacred Trees. For certain species of trees the Hebrew language employs a re- markable word which appears in forms slightly varied as " elah," " elon," " allon." Evidently the word resembles the root "el," i.e. God, and most likely the words "elah," &c., were names of evergreen trees in which men saw manifestations of divine life. Such objects would be especially striking in the wilder- ness, where vegetation is stunted and meagre. They might also be regarded as the chosen dwelling-places of superhuman beings. We have evidence for this later and, by com- parison, higher view in the fact that several 28 Forms of Semitic Religion trees might grow together, all of them asso- ciated with the same divine being. It is said, for instance, in the legends of Mohammed, that Chalid, at the prophet's bidding, cut down three trees sacred to Uzza, from the last of which she leapt in the guise of a woman. It is plain from the reiterated denunciations of the Hebrew prophets that tree-worship, or the worship of spirits living in trees, was an in- veterate habit of the Israelites. They loved to gather for sacred rites " under every luxuriant tree." One such grew in the sanctuary of Jehovah at Shechem (Joshua xxiv. 26), like the palm-tree which flourished (Od. vi. 163) by Apollo's birthplace and shrine at Delos. Ap- parently it is the same tree which is called the "oak of the soothsayer" (Gen. xii. 6), or "of the diviners" (Judges ix. 37), and at all events the name given clearly indi- cates the sacred character attributed to trees. Even David (2 Sam. v. 22, seq.} took the rust- ling sound in the Beca trees as an omen, and we are reminded of that most ancient oracle in Greece where men sought to know the mind of Zeus "from the leafy oak tall of 29 Hebrew Religion stature." As the "masseba" was a substitute for the sacred stone, so was the " asherah " a pole or mast planted near an altar a substitute for the sacred tree. The " asherah " stood at Canaanite shrines (Exod. xxxiv. 13 ; Judges vi. 25), in the sanctuary of Samaria (2 Kings xiii. C) and of Bethel (2 Kings xxiii. 15), as well as in the temple at Jeru- salem (2 Kings xxiii. 6). The worship of trees passed through much the same phases as the worship of stones. The trees became objects of interest connected with the lives of the Patriarchs, and finally the use of the " asherah " was forbidden altogether. 1 (4) Sacred Wells. Sacred wells or springs are less frequently mentioned in the Bible, and there is no polemic against them in the 1 Dr. Moore, in EncycL Bibl., art. " Ash era," denies that the ce Asherah " was a substitute for the sacred tree, chiefly on the ground that in 2 Kings xvii. 10 the "asherahs" are said to have been put " under every green tree," and cannot, therefore, have been substitutes for trees. But the passage is admittedly late, and the familiar phrase,