The History of the Ancient Civilizations. Duncker Max

      CHAPTER VII.

      THE ORIGIN AND DESCENT OF THE HEBREWS.

       Table of Contents

The tradition of the Hebrews of the early history and fortunes of their people previous to the settlement in Canaan is contained in the books of the Pentateuch. After they had settled in that land and had passed beyond the loose combination of their tribes to the unity of civic life, after a monarchy had been established, and under it a metropolis and a centre for the national religion had been founded, the priesthood engaged in this worship began to collect together ritualistic observances and customs of law, and to write them down in combination with anything still living about their early history in the traditions of their families. The Hebrews had found existing in Canaan that ancient and many-sided civilisation the nature and extent of which we have already attempted to describe. Of their own history they could have preserved nothing but prominent facts and decisive crises. Songs of praise and victory which celebrated the great events of the Hebrew past, such as the exodus from Egypt and the victories won over the Canaanites, of which some were already written down,[568] forms of blessing, genealogies,[569] isolated fragments of the moral law, or time-honoured sacrificial custom, or ancient rules of justice,[570] and finally narration of the wars,[571] constituted fixed points of connection in this tradition. At the new centre of religious worship the whole stock of existing ritual and custom had to be brought under review, and from hence provision made for the use of the true and acceptable kind of sacrifice, and sentence of law. The consideration of the marvellous lot which had fallen to the Hebrews, the rise of a feeble shepherd tribe under the powerful protection of Egypt, the liberation from the dominion of this great kingdom, the conquest of Canaan, the capture of ancient and strongly-fortified cities, "of fields which they had not tilled, of vineyards and olive-gardens which they had not planted, of wells which they had not dug, of cities which they had not builded," caused the Hebrews to recognise in the favour which had attended them the direct guidance of their deity. This grace would remain with them if they continued to worship the god of their fathers according to his will, in the way acceptable to him. Thus to the priests, who undertook the task of writing down the tradition, the nation appeared as a chosen people from the beginning, to whom their god had early given his blessing. In return for such grace and beneficence the Hebrews had to obey his law. This is the "covenant" which Jehovah has made with them.[572] This law, therefore, must be carefully recorded, in order that it may be obeyed exactly in every particular by the priests themselves, as by the judges and all the nation.

On the basis of this tradition, these songs and poems, genealogies and ancient records, and under the guidance of the views just pointed out, there arose at Hebron, in the first decade of the reign of David, within the circle of a priestly family, which apparently claimed to be sprung from Aaron, the brother of Moses, the Judæan text of the Pentateuch, and the Book of Joshua.[573] Composed as annals, this text deals primarily with the connection and course of the fortunes of Israel; the central point is the covenant between Jehovah (Elohim) and Israel, Israel and Jehovah, and the law, which is the body of this covenant.[574] The unity of religious worship and the centralisation of it at one place and one only is brought prominently forward, and this could not have happened till political unity had been obtained, a metropolis founded, and a seat erected there for the worship of the whole nation, or at least contemplated, if not erected. The law for the priests, the minute details of ritual which make up the chief part of this text, were, in the view of the priests, given at that mighty time when Moses led the people; though, as a matter of fact, only a few of the fundamental precepts reached so far back (see below). The centralisation of the worship also at one place of sacrifice, the command to have a common place of worship, was thought to have been in existence as early as the time of Moses, and to have been prescribed even when the Hebrews were in the desert. And the priests were more inclined to believe that the ideal sought after for their religion, for Church and State, belonged to the time of Moses, because in those days of piety and exaltation the true ordinances must have been in existence, and certain sacrificial institutions, certain principles of law and morality, actually came down from that period.

Not long after this first text arose a second, which, however, can hardly have been composed in priestly circles, and certainly did not come from Judah. With the author of this second text, it is not the collection and establishment of the law, and the desire to insist on the obedience to it, which is the main point. It is rather the personal fortunes of the fathers of the race, in which the divine guidance is shown, the manifestations of the deity in their favour, the revelations made to them by divine messengers, the importance of old customs and old names, on which he lays especial weight. He also availed himself of older written sources.[575] The language and style of this second text are more lively, versatile, and distinct than those of the first; and the importance which he ascribes to the fortunes of Joseph and the tribes of Ephraim confirms the assumption that the author belonged to this tribe. The origin of this second text falls in the second half of Solomon's reign, or immediately after it—in the decades from 970 to 950 B.C.[576]

About a hundred years later, towards the middle of the ninth century B.C., both these texts were combined and transformed into one work. The author of this combined text (the Jahvist) was guided by the feelings and views of the prophets. He is superior to the authors of the two texts in versatility, in reflection, and vivid power of imagination. Not only did he work up the two texts into one and insert into the whole his own views, but he has added some sections, the materials of which must have been furnished partly by tradition and partly by written records.[577] In this shape were the first four books of the Pentateuch, the beginning and the end of the fifth book, and the book of Joshua, at the time of the prophets Amos and Hosea. The "Second Law," i.e. the main portion of the fifth book of the Pentateuch,[578] on the other hand, was not written till the time of king Josiah, about 625 B.C., and was then added to the rest. The author of this second law also revised the book of Joshua.[579]

      If we compare the Hebrew account of the Creation with the cosmogonies of Berosus and Philo (pp. 257, 353), and the narrative of Noah's deluge with the description of the flood on the Assyrian tablets and in Berosus (p. 240 ff.), we see at the first glance how far asunder the conceptions lie—with what clearness and vigour the Hebrews have succeeded in purifying and exalting the rude fancies of the nations so closely