THE PROPHETS AND THE HISTORY OF SEMITIC STYLE
WRITTEN SPECIALLY FOR THE PRESENT WORK
BY DR. D. H. MÜLLER
Professor in the University of Vienna; Member of the Imperial Academy
of Sciences, etc.
The Prophets prophesied in a far-off land, many, many hundred years
ago. They prophesied to a small nation that dwelt in a small country
and established a petty kingdom. The petty kingdom has been crushed
under the iron heel of the world’s advance, the nation scattered to
every quarter under heaven; but the writings of the prophets remain;
they have come down to us in the original text; they have been
translated into every language and are read by every nation.
To this day the words of the prophets resound from every pulpit, in
admonition and menace, for comfort and salvation. The substance of
the prophetic discourses is sufficiently familiar, and these words
spoken thousands of years ago do not fail of their effect to-day. From
the depths of the heart they welled forth, divine inspiration was
their source, they were addressed to men burdened with passions and
frailties; and hence they have kept their power through centuries and
tens of centuries.
We will not at present concern ourselves with the substance of the
prophetic books nor with the development of prophecy; we will consider
the form of the prophetic discourses. Men prized the substance so
highly that they neglected to examine the form. Are they prose or
poetry? Even this question has not been answered. A Greek oration is
minutely analysed; we know the rules of rhetoric, and divide each
oration into its component parts. A Greek or Latin poem is classed as
drama, epic, lyric, etc., and its metre is studied and criticised. What
rules govern the composition of the prophetic books?
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLE
On the basis and in pursuance of my previous researches I advance the
thesis that “the main characteristics of the style of the prophetic
writings are strophic composition and responsion.” What a strophe is
every one knows; nevertheless I will expressly state that by “strophe”
I mean a group of lines or verses, standing in relation to other
verses, and yet forming in and by themselves a compact whole.
In Semitic poetry or rhetoric, in so far as we may speak of it, the
“responsion” has hitherto been an unknown quantity; but we are familiar
with it in classical literature, the best examples being the choruses
of the Greek dramas. The strophe and antistrophe correspond in metre,
in form, and in the division of the periods; they frequently correspond
in substance also; and this correspondence is often marked by _verbal
consonance or assonance_. This peculiarity, which seems to be of
infrequent occurrence and trifling importance in Greek literature, has
been recognised and named by the exact observation and penetrative
criticism of classical philology; in Semitic poetry, where the
responsion, combined with the strophic structure, to which it serves as
the element of crystallisation, must be regarded as of the very essence
of the poem or discourse, it has neither been explained nor named.
AN EXAMPLE FROM AMOS
I will take an example of the responsion from Amos, the first prophet
who cast his discourses into literary form, Chaps. vii.-viii.
1) Thus the Lord God shewed me:
And, behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up
after the latter growth;
And, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.
2) And it came to pass that when they made an end _of eating_ the grass
of the land,
Then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee:
How shall Jacob stand? for he is small.
3) The Lord repented concerning this:
It shall not be, saith the Lord.
4) Thus the Lord God shewed me:
And, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire;
And it devoured the great deep,
And would have _devoured_ up the land.
5) Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee:
How shall Jacob stand? for he is small.
6) The Lord repented concerning this:
This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.
7) Thus he (the Lord God) shewed me:
And behold he stood beside a wall made by a plumbline, with a
plumbline in his hand.
8) And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou?
And I said, A plumbline.
Then the Lord said, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of
my people Israel;
I will not again pass them by any more:
9) And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries
of Israel shall be laid waste.
And I will _rise against_ the house of Jeroboam with _the sword_.
1) Thus the Lord God shewed me:
And, behold, [there was] a basket of summer [ripe] fruit.
2) And he said, Amos, what seest thou?
And I said, A basket of summer [ripe] fruit.
3) Then said the Lord unto me,
The end [ripeness] is come upon my people Israel;
I will not again pass by them any more.
And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day.
The _dead bodies_ shall be many; in every place have they cast them
forth: be silent.
This vision of Amos sets forth a series of punishments which have
overtaken or threaten to overtake the land. “The first two refer to
dangers already past at the time of the discourse, the last two to the
future.” In form, again, the first two and the last two exhibit a close
affinity with one another. All four strophes have eight lines apiece
and begin with the same phrase; in all four the second line begins
in the same fashion, but proceeds differently even in the verses of
each couple. In the third line the couples diverge entirely, the twin
strophes alone remaining in close correspondence.
This method of working on a definite plan was a favourite one with
the prophets. The change of picture in the same framework produces
a lasting impression, and the repetition of the same form with a
different substance fixes the mind on the thing seen, which is
in danger of vanishing all too quickly. The responsion in verses
apparently different is very noteworthy; as are lines 7 and 8
respectively, where the desolate places of Isaac correspond to the
songs of the temple changed into howlings, and the _rising with the
sword_ of the third strophe to the _many dead bodies_ of the fourth.
AN EXAMPLE FROM EZEKIEL
I take another example of correspondence between the strophes from the
Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chap. xxi.
1) _And the word of the Lord came 6) _And the word of the Lord
unto me, saying,_ came unto me, saying_,
2) _Son of man_, 7) _Son of man_,
_Set thy face_ toward the South. _Set thy face_ toward Jerusalem
_And drop thy word_ toward the _And drop thy word_ toward the
South, Sanctuaries,
_And prophesy against_ the forest _And prophesy against_ the land
of the field in the South; of Israel;
3) _And say to the_ forest of the 8) _And say to the_ land of Israel:
South:
Hear the word of the Lord;
_Thus saith the Lord God:_ _Thus saith the Lord:_
Behold I will _kindle a fire_ Behold I am against thee,
in thee And will _draw forth_ my _sword_
from its sheath
And it shall _devour_ every _green_ And will _cut off from thee_ the
tree in thee and every _dry_ tree. _righteous_ and the _wicked_.
9) Seeing that I will _cut off
from_ thee the _righteous_
and the _wicked_.
The flaming fire _shall not be Therefore shall my _sword_ go
quenched_, forth out of its sheath
And all faces shall _be burnt against all flesh
thereby_.
_From the north to the south._ _From the north to the south._
4) _And all flesh shall see_ 10) _And all flesh shall know_
_That I, the Lord_, have _That I the Lord_ have drawn
_kindled_ it: forth my _sword_ out of its
_sheath_;
_It shall not be quenched._ _It shall not return any more._
THE SONG OF THE SWORD
One of Ezekiel’s grandest poems is the Song of the Sword. The sword
from the North in the hand of Nebuchadrezzar comes forth against
Jerusalem and destroys the last remnant of life in the perishing
city. The introduction to the Song of the Sword is an allegory such
as Ezekiel loves; he looks in prophetic trance towards the south and
sees a fire approaching from thence which seizes upon the forest of
the south and devours the green tree and the dry. Then he solves the
riddle, thus interpreting the vision. By placing the riddle and the
interpretation in parallel columns, we obtain a classic example of
strict responsion.
As a third example of the responsion I select Matthew vii. 13, 14,
Enter ye in by the narrow gate:
For _wide_ is the _gate_, For _narrow_ is the _gate_,
And _broad_ is the _way_, And _straitened_ the _way_,
That _leadeth to destruction_ That _leadeth unto life_,
And _many_ be they that enter in And _few_ be they that find it.
thereby.
In order to grasp the fundamental idea, that of the responsion, let us
once more clearly define that of the strophe and antistrophe.
STROPHE AND ANTISTROPHE DEFINED
The strophe consists of a number of verses combined so as to form a
larger whole; it contains a sheaf of ideas which express a _single_
idea, just as a sheaf of rays unites to form a single light.
The antistrophe represents an analogous or contrasting idea, which is,
like the former, the sum or product of _another_ sheaf of ideas, and
answers to the former _in some or all of its component parts_.
Accordingly the responsion, thus conceived of, is the formal expression
of this relation of two or more strophes to one another. Where the
principle of the responsion is strictly carried out each line of the
first strophe corresponds to the corresponding line of the second,
either _verbally_ or _substantially_, and in the latter case either by
_parallelism_ or _antithesis_. The similarity of the majority of lines
which thus correspond throws the differences at certain points into
strong relief and renders them all the more forcible and impressive.
The highest organic structures have been analysed and found to be built
up from a single cell. All the preliminary conditions which enable the
cell to form organisms lie dormant in it already, but the germ cannot
become an organic being except by a slow process of development. What
we now have to do is to find the germ from which the responsion has
developed; and the germ of this phenomenon is the _parallelismus
membrorum_ which constitutes the vital element of apothegm and verse in
the Semitic languages, and more particularly in Hebrew. But two things
may be parallel one with another not only by analogy but by contrast.
The _parallelismus membrorum_ places side by side two or more ideas,
analogous but not identical, and adapted by their slight diversity to
give an image of what the poet desires to convey. Such sentences abound
in the prophetic discourses, as in Isaiah i. 3,
The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib:
But Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
And Amos ix. 2,
Though they dig into hell, thence shall my hand take them;
And though they climb up into heaven, thence will I bring them down.
The idea, being presented under a different figure, is repeated without
producing an effect of tedium or monotony.
What the _parallelismus membrorum_ is to the verse or sentence, that
the responsion is to the strophe or discourse.
By slight variations on the responsion two literary forms were evolved
to supply an æsthetic want. When two strophes stand in such a relation
that the conclusion of the one answers to the beginning of that
which succeeds it, the result is the _concatenation_, which unites
two strophes with one another and leads the way from one field of
thought to another. Again, if the beginning of one strophe or group of
strophes corresponds with the conclusion of the same, the result is
the _inclusion_, the object of which is to emphasise the logical and
æsthetic unity of the said strophe or group of strophes.
An example of concatenation may be cited from Isaiah, Chap. i.
One column begins--
_Hear_, O heavens, and _give ear_, O earth, for the _Lord hath spoken_--
and ends--
We should have been as _Sodom_, we should have been like unto _Gomorrah_.
The second strophe-column begins--
_Hear the word of the Lord_, ye rulers of _Sodom_;
Give ear unto the Lord our God, ye people of _Gomorrah_.
Here, as we see, the beginning of the second column answers to the
beginning of the first and is linked with its conclusion.
Habakkuk (ii. 11) affords another example,
(end of strophe)
For the _stone_ shall cry out of the _wall_,
And the _beam_ out of the _timbers_ shall answer it.
Herewith the image of a building rises before the prophet as before the
reader. A thought flashes through the prophet’s mind, and he proceeds,
(beginning of strophe)
Woe to him that _buildeth_ a _town_ with blood
And _stablisheth_ a _city_ by iniquity.
And as an example of the inclusion we may quote Jeremiah xlvi. 20-24:
(beginning of strophe)
_Egypt_ is a very fair heifer; but destruction out of the _north_ is
come, it is come.
(end of strophe)
The daughter of _Egypt_ shall be put to shame, she shall be delivered
into the hand of the people of the _north_.
In the second chapter of Zephaniah, we find an example of the two-lined
inclusion:
(beginning of strophe)
8) I have heard the _reproach_ of Moab, and the _revilings_ of the
children of Ammon,
Wherewith they have reproached _my people_ and _magnified_ themselves
against my border.
(end of strophe)
10) This shall they have for their _pride_,
Because they have _reproached_ and _magnified themselves_ against
the people of the Lord of hosts.
Thus the three literary forms, besides the strophic measure, which
govern the composition of the prophetic books are--the _responsion_,
the _concatenation_, and the _inclusion_.
If the responsion is the expression of the outward and inward
symmetry--of substance and form--proper to two strophic organisms
which, though they may be far apart, show their relation one to another
by similarity of character and structure, and correspond to each other
more or less, either by analogy or antithesis, the _concatenation_
may be regarded as the complement and counterpart of the responsion,
inasmuch as it unites the two strophic organisms by an outward and
inward bond--of substance and form. By this means the two are combined
to constitute a greater whole. For this reason the _concatenation_
does not run parallel to the responsion, but joins the _end_ of one
strophe to the _beginning_ of a second, and leads from one field of
thought to another. The _inclusion_ may be regarded as, in a certain
sense, the reverse of the concatenation. As the concatenation brings
about the conjunction of two strophes, so the inclusion constitutes the
boundary line that cuts one strophic organism off from the next. The
concatenation obliterates the distinctive character of two separate
strophic organisms, the inclusion rounds off and defines a strophe, or
group of strophes, and emphasises its distinctive character.
AN EXAMPLE FROM ISAIAH
I cannot refrain from giving at least one example from Isaiah of a
strophe-column, which corresponds with a parallel column of similar
structure. I select the famous vision of Chapter vi. for the purpose.
It may be regarded as one of the earliest prophecies of Isaiah, in
conception perhaps the earliest of all. The _Tesetes_ tradition
gives the passage as a single whole, without break or paragraph. In
dealing with a prophet of Isaiah’s rank, and one so pre-eminent in
the composition of these prophetic discourses, we naturally seek to
discover a definite plan in the composition of this vision, and such
a plan does, as a matter of fact, become manifest to the critical
student. The vision begins, “And I saw the Lord,” and the continuation
and complement opens with the words (verse 8), “And I heard the voice
of the Lord.” The passage, accordingly, falls into two parts, one
describing what the prophet saw, the other what he heard. If we examine
the two parts more closely we are struck by the phrase, “Then said I,”
occurring in the one after he had seen all, and in the other after he
had heard all. Hence it appears that the grand vision consists of two
images, which correspond with each other exactly.
1) _And I saw the Lord_ 8) _And I heard the voice of the
Lord, saying_,
Sitting upon a throne, high and Whom shall I send, and who will
lifted up, go for us?
And his train filled the temple. Then I said, Here am I, send me.
2) Above him stood the Seraphim:
Each one had six wings; 9) And he said, Go, and tell this
people
With twain he covered his face, Hear ye indeed, but understand
not;
And with twain he covered his And see ye indeed, but perceive
feet, not.
And with twain he did fly.
3) And one cried unto another, and 10) How fat is the heart of this
said, people
Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord And their ears how heavy,
of hosts. And their eyes as it were shut.
The whole earth is full of his Else might they see with their
glory. eyes
4) And the foundations of the And hear with their ears
thresholds were moved at the And understand with their heart,
voice of him that cried, And turn again, and be healed.
And the house was filled with smoke.
5) _Then said I_, Woe is me! 11) _Then said I_, Lord, how long?
Because I am a man of unclean And he answered, Until the
lips, etc. cities be waste, without
inhabitant, etc.
Besides these two-column discourses, of which we have just seen
an example, we find three-column discourses, especially in Micah,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. They frequently consist of three parallel parts,
each divided into two or three strophes. The strophes of each column
correspond on the one hand, the corresponding stanzas of each part on
the other, so that we have, if we may so express it, a _vertical_ and a
_horizontal_ responsion. The double responsion gives, as it were, the
fixed points between which the network of the strophes is outspread.
A classic example of this method is the great discourse in the ninth
chapter of Jeremiah, which belongs to the best period, and the
authenticity of which is unreservedly admitted by Biblical criticism.
Lack of space unfortunately forbids me to give it here arranged
according to the principles I have laid down.
It is time to observe that the same laws may be shown to prevail in
cuneiform inscriptions and the works of the prophet Mohammed.
AN ASSYRIAN EXAMPLE
As an example of responsion I give a passage from the great inscription
of Sargon (L. 186-194).
That city and that palace, (But) its ruler,
Asshur, the father of the gods, Its royal architect,
In the glory of his shining countenance May he attain to old age,
May he obtain power
Graciously may he look upon it, _For ever and ever_,
_To days far hence_ _May_ its _maker_ grow _old_.
May he proclaim its _renewing_.
_With his shining mouth may he decree_: _With his sounding lips may he
speak_:
The protecting genius, He who dwelleth in them,
The rescuing God, In health of body,
Day and night And joy of heart,
Let them rule therein, And gladness of spirit,
Nor let their power cease. May he rejoice therein,
May he taste the joy of life.
A BABYLONIAN EXAMPLE
A very instructive example of the strophe combined with responsion is
afforded by the second Babylonian version of the Creation, which has
been for the first time translated and published by T. G. Pinches. It
consists of forty lines, and is arranged in _four_ strophes of ten
lines each. The responsion is clear and vivid to the last degree,
the end harks back to the beginning with manifest intention. The
concatenation constitutes, as it were, a rivet between the strophes. I
will confine myself at present to quoting the beginning of the first
three and the ending of the last two strophes.
Str. I (beginning),
The _glorious house_, the _house of the gods_, in a glorious place had
not been made,
A plant had not been brought forth, a tree had not been created, etc.
Str. I (end),
(As for) the _glorious house, the house of the gods_, its seat had
not been made,
The whole of the lands were _sea_.
Str. II (beginning),
When within the _sea_ there was a stream
In that day Eridu was made, Ê-sagila was constructed, etc.
Str. II (end),
The _gods_ were to be caused to sit in a _seat of joy of heart_,
_He made mankind._
Str. III (beginning),
Aruru _had made the seed of mankind_ with him.
He made the beasts of the field and the living creatures of the
desert; etc.
The age of this Babylonian story of the Creation probably goes back to
at least the middle of the second millennium of our chronology, and in
this very ancient specimen of Semitic poetry we find this poetic form
fully developed.
EXAMPLES FROM THE KORAN
It seems hardly possible to believe that the Arab prophet, who regarded
it as an insult to be described as a poet, should have employed
definite literary forms, and more particularly the strophe combined
with the responsion, in his revelations. Yet such is the fact. In
most cases the strophes rise and fall in harmony with his abrupt and
agitated style (similar strophes occur in the prophetic books), but
regular strophes are to be found, and in those that rise and fall
we can trace a definite law which altogether excludes the idea of
chance. The occurrence of the strophe combined with the responsion in
the _Koran_, is a point of the utmost importance to the hypothesis
of strophic composition, because the correctness of the arrangement
of the _Koran_ in lines seems to be assured both by the rhyme and by
tradition. I will bring to your notice in this place an example of the
regular strophe from the _Koran_. In the thirty-sixth _surah_ we come
upon a passage framed, as it were, between two verses, which form the
inclusion.
v. 28. There was only one _cry_ (of Gabriel from heaven), and behold,
they became utterly extinct.
v. 49. They only wait for one _sounding_ (of the trumpet), which shall
overtake them while they are disputing together.
Between these two lie five strophes of four lines each.
Str. I, begins (v. 29),
Oh, the misery of men! no apostle cometh unto them but they laugh him
to scorn.
Str. II, begins (v. 33),
_One sign [of the resurrection] unto them_ is the dead earth, we quicken
the same, etc.
Str. III, begins (v. 37),
_The night also is a sign unto them_, we withdraw the day from the
same, etc.
Str. IV, begins (v. 41),
_It is a sign also unto them that_ they carry off their offspring in the
ship filled with merchandise, etc.
Str. V (v. 45), takes up the burden of the first, and begins,
And if it is said unto you, Fear that which is before you and that
which is behind,
It may be ye shall find mercy, etc.
I will also subjoin an example of the falling strophe combined with the
responsion, from _sura_ 56, vv. 57-72.
57) _We have created you_, will ye not therefore believe.…
58) _What think ye?_ _The seed_ that ye emit.
59) _Do ye_ create the same or are we the creators thereof?
60) We have decreed death unto you all, and we shall not be prevented.
61) We are able to substitute others like you in your stead, and to
produce you again in the condition or form which ye know not.
62) Ye know the original production by creation; will ye not therefore
consider.…
63) _What think ye_ the grain which ye sow?
64) _Do ye_ cause the same to spring forth, or _do we_ cause it to
spring forth?
65) _If we pleased, we could render_ the same dry and fruitless, so
that you would not cease to wonder, saying,
66) Verily we have contracted debts for seed and labour, but we are not
permitted to reap the fruit thereof.
67) _What think ye?_ The _water_ which ye drink,
68) _Do ye_ send down the same from the clouds, _or are we_ the senders
thereof?
69) _If we pleased we could_ render the same brackish: will ye not
therefore give thanks?
70) _What think ye?_ The _fire_ which ye strike,
71) _Do ye_ produce the tree whence ye obtain the same, _or are we_ the
producers thereof?
72) _We have ordained_ the same for an admonition, and an advantage to
those who travel through the deserts.
This passage, which is complete in itself, consists of four stanzas, of
5-4-3-2 verses, all of them diverse presentations of the same idea and
alike in construction.
The whole group is enclosed between two single verses which correspond
to one another, and form, as it were, a frame to it.
An exact observation of the _Koran_ shows that strophes of the most
varied structure occur in it, often combined with the responsion, and
held together by all kinds of other literary forms. The principal
characteristic of the strophe is still unity of idea, which, being
in its nature relative, is subject to great variation. Nor is the
strophe the final and greatest unit. As the strophe is formed by the
combination of several lines or sentences, so a group is formed of a
number of strophes and a great systematically constructed discourse
of several groups. The same laws which govern the sentence and the
verse prevail in the structure of the strophe and the formation of the
group. Parallelism and antithesis are the principal elements of form
in sentence and verse; they are likewise the forces that struggle for
expression, and assert themselves in the structure of the strophe and
the formation of the group.
The question may be raised: How did Mohammed come to adopt this form
of composition? For the present, I can only advance a hypothesis in
reply. Mohammed received the first impulse to meditate upon matters of
religion from various wise and learned men, and through them became
acquainted with the principal doctrines of Judaism and Christianity;
and in like manner he must have acquired from them the tradition of
this form of poetry, a form which, unlike the poetry of the heathen,
was not devoted to the delight and joy of life, but to religious
meditation and to ancient and pious legend. This form of composition
may have been practised and preserved by the old soothsayers (_Kahin_)
after it had been generally superseded by the new-fangled and rigidly
metrical poetry. Mohammed may possibly have acquired the secret of
this form of composition from such a Kahin, who had meditated upon the
nature of religion. He therefore rightly rejected the title of _poet_,
and with equal right called himself the “Seal of the Prophet”; for he
spoke and wrote in the style of the prophets of old.
THE PREVALENCE OF STROPHIC FORM AND RESPONSION EXPLAINED
A careful consideration of the laws of strophic form and responsion
which can be shown to exist, though in unequal measure, in the three
great Semitic literatures, leads us to the conclusion that there are
only three possible explanations of their occurrence. Either we have to
do with a phenomenon evolved independently in different parts of the
world, or these literary forms were invented by one nation and borrowed
and imitated by the others, or, lastly, they must all be referred to a
common origin.
The three nations among whom we find these literary forms are so widely
separated in space and time that there can be no question of borrowing
between them. But, again, phenomena so original and complicated could
not appear in different places without something of a common origin.
Accordingly, the only possible assumption is _that they may all be
referred to a common origin, and that even in primitive times religious
poetry was governed by these literary forms_. They have been preserved
in the Bible, the cuneiform inscriptions, and the _Koran_.
The establishment of the fact that strophic composition combined with
responsion is to be found in all three Semitic literatures naturally
drew my attention to a similar phenomenon in the choruses of Greek
tragedy, a phenomenon noted and recognised by classical philology,
though not treated with the consideration it deserves. Too much stress
has been laid on the metrical uniformity of the strophes, too little
on their substantial correspondence, and more especially on the way in
which the latter is interwoven with assonance and verbal responsion. A
certain amount of critical acumen is required for the recognition of
these subtly concealed and delicate allusions and antitheses, but when
once they are recognised, we cannot doubt that in their choruses the
Greek tragedians employed the same artistic methods as the prophets.
Strophe and antistrophe are modelled on the same pattern, not in rhythm
and syntax alone, but in idea. Now and then the correspondence may be
seen and shown to exist line for line, but in most cases it is found
only in single lines, though almost always in such as occur in the same
place, a circumstance that proves that the correspondence is not due to
chance, but that a definite artistic intention was at work to create a
certain symmetry between the two strophes.
EXAMPLES FROM THE GREEK TRAGEDIES
I subjoin a few examples in support of this assertion. From the
_Prometheus_ of Æschylus, 397-414.
_Strophe_
I _mourn_ thy grievous fate,
Prometheus! From my tender eyes pours forth a flood of _tears_,
Wetting my cheeks from the springs of weeping. 400
For thus harshly Zeus,
Ruling in the law of his own will, displays
An imperious sceptre to the _gods_ of old.
_Antistrophe_
And now all the earth _mourns_,
And for that grand and ancient sway she _weeps_,
With mourning for the empire thou and thy brothers held. 410
And all who have abodes
On holy Asia’s borders, in thy loud mourned woes
Those _mortals_ suffer with thee.
The curious responsion of these two strophes is very interesting,
interwoven as it is with most of the lines, now by verbal similarity
(as in στένω and στονόεν), now by similarity of sense (_tears_ and
_weeps_), now by antithesis (_gods_ and _men_), and lastly, by an
etymological play upon words (νόμος and νέμονται). In addition we have
the contrast of ideas in the last lines, in the one strophe _Zeus
constrains_ the _gods_, in the other _men mourn complaining_. Again in
the _Œdipus Rex_ of Sophocles, 1, 863-910:
_Strophe I_ _Antistrophe I_
Beginning.
863) Be it my lot to keep 873) ’Tis _insolence_ begets the
That _reverent purity_ of tyrant, _Insolence_,
word and deed, etc. foolishly puffed up, etc.
Conclusion.
870) Ne’er shall forgetfulness 880) Rivalry that brings
lull them to rest: Weal to the state I ask not
God to end:
A great _god_ in them dwells, Never shall I depart from
nor ever waxeth old. _God_ my champion.
_Strophe II_ _Antistrophe II_
Beginning.
883) But a man who walks in 897) Never shall I more in reverence
haughty _insolence_ of go to Delphi’s holy place
word or deed,
Fearing not the hand of Nor the _shrine_ of Abæ, nor
Justice, nor revering Olympia.
_shrines_ of gods.
Conclusion.
895) But if such deeds as these 909) No longer in Apollo’s worship
are held in honour manifest,
What offerings need I bring But honours to the _gods_ go
the _gods_? all unpaid.
This form of strophic construction is worthy of note, because not only
do the strophe and antistrophe correspond, but the couples of strophes
answer to one another; in other words, besides the vertical responsion
we find a _horizontal_ responsion (as in Jeremiah ix.), expressed
sometimes by the use of identical words, sometimes by antithesis.
Euripides, _Bacchæ_.
_Strophe._ 862-870
All night in choric dances my white foot shall beat
The Bacchic rout; my head I will toss in the dewy air,
As the fawn that sports among the pleasures of green fields,
_When in fear it flees_ the chase,
Escaping the trap, overleaping the well-wrought toils.…
_Antistrophe._ 882-890
Slowly, yet surely moves the power divine,
It punisheth mortals who go the way of folly,
And madly fail to reverence the gods.
But _subtly the gods still_ wait
_Long time in hiding, and hunt down_ the impious man.…
In the strophe we have the shy and timid fawn which takes flight from
the pasture and rejoices at her escape from the pursuit of the hunters,
in the antistrophe the presumptuous man who transgresses the laws of
nature and custom. In the one the _timid flight_, in the other the
_subtle (ποικίλος) lying in wait_ of the gods; the fawn escapes the
huntsman, man escapes not the gods. The antithesis in lines 4-5 is most
striking. The last lines of both strophes are identical.
A careful study of the responsion in all the wonderful variety of form
it presents will suffice to show, even from these few examples, that
they bear an amazing resemblance to the forms exhibited by Semitic
poetry, particularly by the prophetic writings.
SEMITIC INFLUENCE AND THE GREEK CHORUS
Instead of attempting to prove here that the Greek chorus came into
being under Semitic influences I will subjoin the opinion of a
classical philologist who has studied the question more minutely than
any one else. I refer to D. P. Thomas M. Wehofer (_Untersuchungen zur
altchristlichen Epistolographie_, p. 16).
“For the rest, long before the Christian era Greek literature had
received a strong admixture of Semitic art-forms. For, as has been
convincingly proved, in my opinion, by Dr. D. H. Müller (_Die
Propheten_, p. 244 _seq._), the Greek choruses, those splendid
productions of Greek poetry, must be referred for their origin to
the temple of Apollo at Delphi, whither (according to the tradition
preserved by Euripides in the _Phœnissæ_) ‘chosen Phœnician virgins
were sent from Tyre to conduct the service of the god.’ It is evident
that the Greek chorus, the germ from which Greek tragedy was destined
to be evolved, followed the same path as Greek painting and plastic art.
“The Greek spirit took possession of all the elements of beauty it
encountered, not to preserve them in a petrified state, but by its
own working to shape and perfect them, and bring them to the highest
conceivable pitch of development.”
The genius of Greece recognised the power of Semitic poetry; it gladly
left it its soaring flight, but brought into it the noble feeling for
form which was its own peculiar gift, and to ideas and responsion added
metrical symmetry. The choruses present a happy combination of the
Semitic spirit and the Greek sense of beauty.
The assumption that the Greek chorus, with its strophe and antistrophe,
is a Semitic invention is not without bearing on the history of the
earliest ages of Semitic poetry. If the Greeks borrowed the chorus,
it must have been in use in the religious worship of the Phœnicians.
If, in connection with this fact, we consider the responsion in the
strophes of the prophetic writings, which exhibit precisely the same
method of composition and literary form as the Greek choruses, we
are forced upon the hypothesis that the earliest form of prophetic
composition must be regarded as a chorus with strophes and antistrophes.
AUTHORITIES.--_Die Propheten in ihrer ursprünglichen Form.
Die Grundgesetze der ursemitischen Poesie erschlossen und
nachgewiesen in Bibel Keilinschriften und Koran und in ihrer
Wirkung erkannt in den Chören der griechischen Tragödie_, by D.
H. Müller. 2 vols. Vienna, 1896.
_Strophen und Responsion._ Neue Beiträge. By D. H. Müller.
Vienna, 1898. (Cf. also Felix Perles in the _Wiener Zeitschrift
für Kunde des Morgenlandes_, X, 112, 71; and J. Zeenner in the
_Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie_, XX, p. 378.)
_Untersuchungen zur altchristlichen Epistolographie_, by D. P.
Thomas M. Wehofer. Vienna, 1901.
[Illustration: ANCIENT QUARRY NEAR JERUSALEM]
BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS
[The letter [a] is reserved for Editorial Matter.]
CHAPTER I. LAND AND PEOPLE
[b] L. MÉNARD, _Histoire des anciens peuples de l’Orient_.
[c] B. STADE, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_.
[d] The Holy Bible.
[e] STRABO, _Γεωγραφικά_.
[f] TACITUS, _Annales_.
[g] JUSTIN, _The History of the World_.
[h] AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, _Rerum Gestarum libri_.
[i] COMTE DE VOLNEY, _Voyage en Égypte et en Syrie_.
[j] J. G. EICKHORN, _De Antiquis Historiæ Arabum Monumentes_.
CHAPTER II. ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY
[b] A. H. SAYCE, _The Early History of the Hebrews_.
[c] MAX LÖHR, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_.
[d] WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, _Dichtung und Wahrheit_.
[e] B. STADE, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_.
[f] The Holy Bible.
[g] L. MÉNARD, _Histoire des anciens peuples de l’Orient_.
[h] EDUARD REUSS, _Introduction to the Holy Bible_.
CHAPTER III. THE JUDGES
[b] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _Antiquities of the Jews_ (translated from the
Greek by William Whiston).
[c] SALOMON MUNK, _La Palestine_.
[d] L. MÉNARD, _Histoire des anciens peuples de l’Orient_.
[e] The Holy Bible.
CHAPTER IV. SAMUEL AND SAUL
[b] J. E. RENAN, _Histoire du peuple d’Israël_.
[c] MAX DUNCKER, _Geschichte des Alterthums_.
[d] The Holy Bible.
[e] The _Talmud_.
CHAPTER V. DAVID’S REIGN
[b] RUDOLF KITTEL, _Geschichte der Hebräer_.
[c] J. E. RENAN, _Histoire du peuple d’Israël_.
[d] The _Talmud_.
[e] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _Antiquities of the Jews_ (translated from the
Greek by William Whiston).
[f] The Holy Bible.
CHAPTER VI. SOLOMON IN HIS GLORY
[b] RUDOLF KITTEL, _Geschichte der Hebräer_.
[c] The Holy Bible.
[d] F. W. NEWMAN, _A History of the Hebrew Monarchy_.
CHAPTER VII. DECAY AND CAPTIVITY
[b] L. MÉNARD, _Histoire des anciens peuples de l’Orient_.
[c] RUDOLF KITTEL, _Geschichte der Hebräer_.
[d] The Moabite Stone.
[e] A. H. SAYCE, _The Early History of the Hebrews_.
[f] Assyrian Inscriptions.
[g] SALOMON MUNK, _La Palestine_.
[h] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _Antiquities of the Jews_ (translated from the
Greek by William Whiston).
[i] The Holy Bible.
[j] The Apocrypha.
[k] GASTON C. C. MASPERO, _Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient_.
CHAPTER VIII. THE RETURN FROM CAPTIVITY
[b] The Holy Bible.
[c] J. E. RENAN, _Histoire du peuple d’Israël_.
[d] L. MÉNARD, _Histoire des anciens peuples de l’Orient_.
[e] SALOMON MUNK, _La Palestine_.
[f] XENOPHON, _Cyropædia_ (translated from the Greek by J. S. Watson
and Henry Dale).
[g] The Apocrypha.
[h] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _Antiquities of the Jews_ (translated from the
Greek by William Whiston).
CHAPTER IX. FROM NEHEMIAH TO ANTIOCHUS
[b] DAVID CASSEL, _Lehrbuch der jüdischen Geschichte und Litteratur_.
[c] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _Antiquities of the Jews_ (translated from the
Greek by William Whiston).
[d] The _Talmud_ (the _Mishnah_).
[e] J. JAHN, _The Hebrew Commonwealth_.
[f] The Apocrypha (The Books of the Maccabees).
[g] GEORGE SMITH, _The Hebrew People_.
[h] ASARIA DE’ ROSSI, _Meor Enajim_.
CHAPTER X. THE MACCABÆAN WAR
[b] F. HITZIG, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_.
[c] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _Antiquities of the Jews_ (translated from the
Greek by William Whiston).
[d] GEORGE SMITH, _The Hebrew People_.
[e] J. JAHN, _The Hebrew Commonwealth_.
[f] The Holy Bible.
[g] The Apocrypha.
[h] POLYBIUS, _Καθολικὴ κοινὴ ἱστορία_.
CHAPTER XI. FROM THE MACCABEES TO THE ROMANS
[b] GEORG WEBER, _Allgemeine Weltgeschichte_.
[c] The Apocrypha (The Book of Wisdom).
[d] GEORGE SMITH, _The Hebrew People_.
[e] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _Antiquities of the Jews_ (translated from the
Greek by William Whiston).
CHAPTER XII. THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY
[b] L. MÉNARD, _Histoire des anciens peuples de l’Orient_.
[c] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _The Antiquities of the Jews and the Wars of the
Jews_ (translated from the Greek by William Whiston).
[d] The Holy Bible.
[e] SALOMON MUNK, _La Palestine_.
[f] ORIGEN, _φιλοσοφούμενα_.
[g] CORNELIUS TACITUS, _The Works of Cornelius Tacitus_ (translated
from the Latin by A. Murphy).
[h] J. E. RENAN, _Histoire du peuple d’Israël_.
[i] E. GIBBON, _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_.
[j] SUETONIUS, _Vitæ duodecim Cæsarum_.
[k] DION CASSIUS, _Ῥωμαικὴ ἱστορία_.
[l] CLEMENS ROMANUS, _Epistolæ_.
CHAPTER XIII. THE REVOLT AGAINST ROME
[b] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _The Wars of the Jews_.
[c] L. MÉNARD, _Histoire des anciens peuples de l’Orient_.
[d] SALOMON MUNK, _La Palestine_.
[e] THUCYDIDES, _Συγγραφή_.
[f] F. R. LAMENNAIS, _Essai sur l’indifférence en matière de la
religion_.
CHAPTER XIV. THE FALL OF JERUSALEM
[b] H. H. MILMAN, _History of the Jews_.
[c] FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, _The Wars of the Jews_.
[d] SALOMON MUNK, _La Palestine_.
[e] L. MÉNARD, _Histoire des anciens peuples de l’Orient_.
[f] DION CASSIUS, _Ῥωμαικὴ ἱστορία_.
[g] The _Talmud_ (_Mishnah_ and _Gemara_).
CHAPTER XV. HEBREW CIVILISATION
[b] G. W. F. HEGEL, _Lectures on the Philosophy of History_.
[c] E. LEDRAIN, _L’histoire d’Israël_.
[d] E. BABELON, _Manuel d’archéologie orientale_.
[e] F. W. NEWMAN, _History of the Hebrew Monarchy_.
[f] The Holy Bible.
[g] BARUCH SPINOZA, _Opera posthuma_.
CHAPTER XVI. THE PROPHETS AND THE HISTORY OF SEMITIC STYLE
The Holy Bible.
T. G. PINCHES, “Babylonian Story of the Creation” (in _Records of the
Past_).
THOS. M. WEHOFER, _Untersuchungen zur altchristlichen
Epistolographie_.
D. H. MÜLLER, _Die Propheten in ihrer ursprünglichen Form_.
D. H. MÜLLER, _Strophen und Responsion_.
FELIX PERLES, article in _Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunde des
Morgenlandes_, X, 112, 71.
J. ZEENNER, article in _Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie_, XX,
378.
[Illustration: RAMLA, ONCE THE FINEST CITY IN PALESTINE]
A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL
BASED ON THE WORKS QUOTED, CITED, OR EDITORIALLY CONSULTED IN THE
PREPARATION OF THE PRESENT HISTORY; WITH CRITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
=Abbott=, I. K., Essays chiefly on the original texts of the Old and
New Testament, London, 1901.--=Adams=, H. C., The History of the Jews,
London, 1887.--=Alker=, E., Die vortrojanische ägyptische Chronologie
im Einklang mit der biblischen, Leobschütz, 1894.--=Amitai=, L.
K., Étude sur les rapports qui ont existé entre les romains et les
juifs jusqu’à la prise de Jerusalem, Paris, 1893.--=Andrée=, R., Zur
Volkskunde der Juden, Bielefeld and Leipsic, 1881.--=Andrée=, J.,
L’esclavage chez les anciens Hébreux, Genève, 1892.--=Andrian=, E.
von, Höhenkult asiat. und europ. Völker, Wien, 1895.--=Archinard=,
Étude d’histoire et d’archéologie d’Israël et ses voisins asiatiques:
la Phénicie, l’Aram et l’Assyrie de l’époque de Salomon à celle de
Sanherib, Genève, 1890.
* * * * *
=Babelon=, E., Manuel d’archéologie orientale, Paris, 1888.--=Back=,
S., Das Synhedrion unter Napoleon I, Prag, 1879; Die relig. gesch.
Litteratur der Juden in dem Zeitraum v. 15-18 Jahrhundert, Trier,
1893.--=Basnage=, T. de Beauval, Histoire des juifs depuis J. C.
jusqu’à présent, pour servir de continuation à l’histoire de Josephus,
La Haye, 1716.--=Bauer=, G. L., Manual of the History of the Hebrew
Nation, Nürnberg and Altdorf, 1880, 3 vols.--=Baxter=, W. L.,
Sanctuary and Sacrifices, London, 1895.--=Bellange=, C., Le judaïsme
de l’histoire du peuple juif, Paris, 1889.--=Bennett=, W. H., Economic
conditions of the Hebrew Monarchy (in _The Thinker_, 8, II, 9, I),
New York, 1893.--=Benzinger=, J., Hebräische Archæologie, Freiburg,
1894.--=Bestmann=, H., Entwicklungsgeschichte des Reiches Gottes unter
dem Alten und Neuen Bunde, Berlin, 1895.--=Berliner=, A., Geschichte
der Juden in Rom, Frankfurt, 1893.--=Bender=, A., Vorträge über die
Offenbarung Gottes auf alttest. Boden.--=Bertholet=, Die Stellung der
Israeliten und der Juden zu den Fremden, Freiburg, 1896.--=Bettany=,
G. T. A., Sketch of Judaism and Christianity in the Light of Modern
Research, London, 1892.--=Bible=, The Holy (“authorised version”),
London, 1611; (“revised version”), London, 1884.--=Blaikie=, W. G.,
Heroes of Israel, Gütersloh, 1891.--=Bloch=, J. S., Der nationale
Zwist und die Juden in Österreich, Wien, 1886.--=Bois=, H., Essais
sur les origines de la philosoph. judéo-alexandrine, Paris, 1895;
Alexandre le Grand et les juifs en Palestine, (in Revue de Théol. et
Philos., Paris, 1890-91).--=Boralevi=, E., Civiltà e Culto giudaico,
Livorno, 1893.--=Borselli=, F., Introduction in libros prophetarum,
Neapolis, 1893.--=Boscawen=, W. St. C., The Bible and the Monuments,
London, 1895.--=Braun=, M., Geschichte der Juden und ihrer Litteratur,
vom Auszug aus Ægypten bis Talmud, Breslau, 1896.--=Brooks=, J.
W., The History of the Hebrew Nation from its First Origin to the
Present Time, London, 1841.--=Brownlee=, W. C., The History of the
Jews, from the Taking of Jerusalem by Titus to the Present Time,
New York, 1842.--=Bruce=, W. S., The Ethics of the Old Testament,
Edinburgh, 1895.--=Brugsch=, H., Die biblischen sieben Jahre der
Hungersnoth, etc., Leipsic, 1891; Steininschrift und Bibelwort, Berlin,
1891.--=Budde=, K., Die Religion des Volkes Israel, Giessen, 1900;
Die Ebed-Jahwe-Lieder und die Bedeutung des Knechtes Jahwes (in Jes.
40-55), Giessen, 1900; Der Kanon des Alten Testamentes: Ein Abriss,
Giessen, 1900; Israel und Ägypten (in Deutsches Wochenblatt, No.
26).--=Buhl=, F. P. W., Det israelitiskhe Folks historie, Copenhagen,
1893.--=Buhl=, F., Kanon und Text des Alten Testamentes, Leipsic,
1891; Die Geschichte der Edomiter, Leipsic, 1893; Geographie des alten
Palästina, Freiburg, 1894; Die socialen Verhältnisse der Israeliten,
Berlin, 1898.--=Baudissin=, Count, W. H. F. C., Geschichte des
alttestamentlichen Priestertums, Leipsic, 1889; Studien zur semitischen
Religionsgeschichte, Leipsic, 1876-78, 2 vols.
* * * * *
=Capefigue=, B. H. R., Histoire philosophique des juifs, Paris,
1833.--=Casabo y Pages=, P., La España Judia, Barcelona,
1891.--=Cassel=, D., Lehrbuch der jüdischen Geschichte und Litteratur,
Leipsic, 1879.--=Castelli=, D., Storia degl’ Israeliti dalle origini
fino della monarchia, Milano, 1887; Gli ebrei sunto di storia politica
e letteraria, Florence, 1899.--=Cavagnaro=, C., Gli ebrei in Egitto,
Genova, 1890.--=Cazes=, D., Essai sur l’histoire des Israélites de
Tunisie, Paris, 1888.--=Chaikin=, A., Étude historique sur l’état des
juifs, etc., Paris, 1887.--=Chastel=, E., Histoire du Christianisme,
Paris, 1881, 4 vols.--=Cheyne=, T. K., From Isaiah to Ezra: A Study of
Ethanites and Jerahmeelites (in Am. Journ. of Theology, Vol. V., p. 433
_et seq._); Founders of Old Testament Criticism: biogr., descript.,
and critical studies, London, 1893; The Origin and Religious Contents
of the Psalter in the Light of Old Test. Criticism and the History of
Religions, London, 1894.--=Cheyne=, T. K. and Sutherland, =Black=, J.,
Encyclopædia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Liter., Polit., and
Relig. History, the Archæol., Geography, and Natural History of the
Bible, London, 1899, etc.--=Chmerkin=, X., Les juifs en Russie, Paris,
1893.--=Cobb=, W. F., Origines Judaicæ.--=Cohen=, L., Chronologische
Beiträge zur jüdischen Geschichte, Breslau, 1892.--=Commilito=,
Luther und die Juden, Leipsic, 1881.--=Conder=, C. R., The Hebrew
Tragedy, Edinburgh, 1900.--=Cordier=, H., Les juifs en Chine, Paris,
1891.--=Corneilhan=, G., Le Judaïsme en Egypte et en Syrie, Paris,
1889.--=Cornill=, Entstehung des Volkes Israel und seiner nationalen
Organisation, Hamburg, 1888 (Virchow, Samml. wissenschaftl. Vorträge,
n. F. 3 Serie, Heft 60); Einleitung, C. H., in das Alte Testament,
Freiburg, 1896.--=Costa=, I. de, Israel en de volken overzicht van de
geschiedenis der Toden tot op owzen tijd, Utrecht, 1876.
* * * * *
=Daly=, C. P., Settlement of the Jews in North America, New York,
1893.--=Davies=, T. W., Magic Divination and Demonology among
the Hebrews and their Neighbors, London, 1898.--=Davis=, M. D.,
Hebrew Deeds of English Jews before 1290, London, 1888.--=Day=, E.,
The Social Life of the Hebrews, New York, 1901.--=Deane=, W. I.,
Pseudepigrapha: An Account of Certain Apocryphal Sacred Writings
of the Jews and Early Christians, Edinburgh, 1894.--=Dédié=, M.,
Les esséniens dans leur rapports avec le judaïsme et christianisme,
Montauban, 1894.--=Deissmann=, G. A., Beiträge zur Geschichte der
Sprache, etc., des hellenistischen Judenthums, Marburg, 1895; Die
sprachliche Erforschung der griechischen Bibel, ihr gegenwärtiger
Stand und ihre Aufgaben, Giessen, 1898.--=Delattre=, R. P., Le pays
de Chanaan, province de l’ancien empire égyptien (in Revue des
questions historiques, Paris, July, 1896, pp. 5-94).--=Delitzsch=,
Franz, Geschichte der jüdischen Poesie, Leipsic, 1836; Beiträge zur
mittelalterlichen Scholastik unter Juden und Moslemen, Leipsic, 1841;
Jesus und Hillel, mit Rücksicht auf Renan und Geiger verglichen,
Erlangen, 1879; Jüdisch-arabische Poesien aus vormuhammedanischer
Zeit., Leipsic, 1874; Die biblisch-prophetische Theologie, Leipsic,
1845; Die Bücher des Alten Testaments aus dem Griechischen ins
Hebräische übersetzt, Berlin, 1885; Das System der biblischen
Psychologie, Leipsic, 1861; Physiologie und Musik in ihrer
Bedeutung für die Grammatik, besonders die hebräische; Leipsic,
1868.--=Delitzsch=, Friedrich, Wo lag das Paradies? Leipsic, 1881. The
Hebrew Language viewed in the Light of Assyrian Research, London, 1883;
Prolegomena eines neuen hebräisch-aramäischen Wörterbuchs zum Alten
Testament, Leipsic, 1886.--=Dérenbourg=, J., Essai sur l’histoire de la
Palestine, Paris, 1867.--=Dessauer=, J. H., Geschichte der Israeliten
mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Culturgeschichte derselben,
Breslau, 1870.--=Destinon=, J. v., Die Chronologie des Josephus, Kiel,
1880.--=Dillmann=, A., Über die Herkunft der urgesch. Sagen der Hebräer
(in Sitz. Ber. d. Berliner Acad. d. Wiss.), Berlin, 1882; Über den
Ursprung der alttest. Religion, Giessen, 1865; Über die Propheten des
Alten Bundes nach ihrer politischen Wirksamkeit, Giessen, 1868.--=Dion
Cassius=, History of Rome, London, 1704.--=Driver=, S. R., Introduction
to the Literature of the Old Testament, London, 1894.--=Drumont=,
E. A., La France juive, Paris, 1886.--=Duncker=, M., Geschichte des
Alterthums, Leipsic, 1877, 6 vols.--=Dutt=, A., Old Test. Theology,
London, 1900.
* * * * *
=Edersheim=, A., Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, London, 1884; Law
and Policy of the Jews, London, 1880; Sketches of Jewish Social Life
in Days of Christ, London, 1876; History of the Jewish Nation after
the Destruction of Jerusalem under Titus, London, 1890.--=Emil=, E.,
Erinnerungen eines alten Pragers, Ghettogeschichten, etc., Leipsic,
1893.--=Errera=, L., Les juifs russes, Brussels, 1893.--=Eusebius=, F.,
Chronicon.--=Ewald=, G. H. A., Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Göttingen,
1864-1867, 7 vols. Die Altertümer des Volkes Israel, Göttingen, 1866.
_Georg Heinrich August Ewald_ was born at Göttingen, November
16, 1803; died at Göttingen, May 4, 1875. He was professor
of oriental languages in Göttingen from 1827 to 1837 and
from 1848 to 1867. Professor Ewald was one of the most
stalwart figures in that company of great men who took part
in reorganising the attitude of nineteenth-century thought
toward Hebrew literature. But while delving to the very depths
of oriental scholarship, he took no less keen an interest
in the politics of the Germany of his own time; and it was
this interest, rather than the other, which determined most
of the important steps in his personal history. Thus the
interruption of his first course as professor at Göttingen
was due to his association with that famous company known as
the “Göttingen Seven,” who protested so vigorously against
what they regarded as a political outrage that it was no
longer possible for them to retain their connection with the
university there. Subsequently Ewald was recalled to his old
post, but again a conflict came, in which he needs must say his
mind, with a result much as before. And even later in life,
when the world-famed orientalist was past his seventy-first
year, he was tried, convicted, and condemned to three weeks’
imprisonment for having expressed his honest opinions of the
actions of Prince Bismarck and the Imperial Government which
that statesman dominated. With these biographical details in
mind it can never be in question that the great orientalist was
a man of the firmest convictions, who always stood ready to
battle for the faith that was in him, which was the keynote of
his very existence. He was a controversialist, a reformer--as
has been said--another Luther. A student of oriental literature
from his early childhood, he came in after life to be
recognised everywhere as one of the greatest authorities upon
this subject; and his writings, nearly all of them having to
do with Hebrew history, mark an epoch in the progress of the
religious and historical thought of his age. The _Geschichte
des Volkes Israel_, especially, must always stand at once as
a monument of learning and as a milestone of the intellectual
progress of a generation. When it appeared, and for many years
afterwards, it seemed to the generality of scholars of the time
an iconoclastic work--a work tending to shake the foundations
of faith, though written by one whose own faith was of the
profoundest character. It was, indeed, a forerunner of that
work of biblical exegesis which has since become famous under
the popular name of the “The Higher Criticism.” But so swift
were the changes during the later decades of the nineteenth
century that what seemed iconoclasm--almost scepticism--in 1840
must be classed as conservatism in 1900. Ewald himself would
have stood aghast could he have seen whither the road on which
he had entered was sure to lead.
* * * * *
=Fenton=, J., Early Hebrew Life: a Study of Sociology, London,
1880.--=Fergusson=, J., The Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored,
London, 1851.--=Fiske=, A. K., The Jewish Scriptures: the Books of
the Old Testament in the Light of their Origin and History, New York,
1894.--=Flöckner=, Über den Character der alttest. Poesie; Beuthen,
1898.--=Floigl=, V., Chronologie der Bibel, Leipsic, 1880.--=Fowle=,
E., Short Papers on Jewish History, London, 1880.--=Fox=, A.,
Patriarchs and Leaders of Israel, London, 1890.--=Frederic=, H., The
New Exodus: Study of Israel in Russia, London, 1892.--=Fresco=, Hist.
des Israélites, Paris, 1898.
* * * * *
=Garredi=, M., Catholicisme et Judaïsme, Paris, 1888.--=Gautier=,
L., La mission du prophète Ezéchiel, Lausanne, 1895.--=Geneste=,
Max, Parallel Histories of Judah and Israel, with explanatory notes,
London, 1843.--=Geikie=, C., Landmarks of Old Testament History,
London, 1893.--=Gibbon=, Edward, The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, (ed. by W. Smith), London, 1872, 8 vols.--=Gilbert=, I.,
Nature, the Supernatural and the Religion of Israel, London,
1893.--=Gindraux=, F., À la suite des Israélites d’Egypte au Sinai,
Lausanne, 1895.--=Ginsburg=, C. D., The Moabite Stone, London, 1891
(contains translations by Dermbourg, Gannean, Geiger, Hang, Hayes,
Hitzig, Kaempf, Neubauer, Noeldeke, Schlottmann and Wright).--=Girard=,
R. de, Études de géologie biblique, Freiburg, 1893.--=Glover=, A. K.,
Jewish Chinese Papers, 1894.--=Goethe=, Wolfgang von, Dichtung und
Wahrheit, Weimar, 1811-1812, 1814.--=Goldschmidt=, S., Geschichte
der Juden in England, Berlin, 1890.--=Goodspeed=, G. S., A Sketch
of Canaanitish History to about the Year 1000 (in Bibl. World, 7,
II, Chicago, 1896).--=Gordon=, R. A., Old Testament History, London,
1890.--=Gourgeot=, E., La Domination juive en Algérie, Alger,
1894.--=Grant=, M., L’Orient et la Bible, Genève, 1897.--=Grätz=, H.,
Geschichte der Juden von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart,
Leipsic, 1853-1875; Volkstümliche Geschichte der Juden, Leipsic,
1888.--=Green=, General Introduction to the Old Testament: The
Canon, London, 1899.--=Grünbaum=, M., Neue Beiträge zur semitischen
Sagenkunde, Leiden, 1893.--=Grüneisen=, Der Ahnenkultus und die
Urreligion Israels, Halle, 1899.--=Guthe=, Geschichte des Volkes
Israel, Freiburg, 1899.
* * * * *
=Haneberg=, Die religiösen Altertümer, Stuttgart, 1869.--=Harper=,
E. J., Important Movements in Israel Prior to the Establishment of
the Kingdom (in Bibl. World, 7, II, Chicago, 1896).--=Harris=, M. H.,
The People of the Bible, New York, 1890.--=Hastings=, F. E., Biblical
Chronology, The historical period, kings, judges (in Proc. Soc. of
Bibl. Archæol., Vol. XXII, p. 10 _et seq._, London).--=Havet=, E.,
Étude d’histoire religieuse, Paris, 1894.--=Heath=, D. J., On the
Jewish Exodus, as illustrated by Certain Egyptian Papyri (in Journ.
Brit. Archæol. Assoc., Vol. XI, p. 238, London).--=Hegel=, G. W. F.,
Lectures on the Philosophy of History, London, 1857.--=Henderson=,
A., Palestine, its Historical Geography (2nd edition), Edinburgh,
1894.--=Hengstenberg=, E. W., Geschichte des Reiches Gottes unter
dem alten Bunde, Berlin, 1870-1871.--=Henne Am Rhyn=, O., Allgemeine
Kulturgeschichte, Leipsic, 1877-1879, 6 vols; Kulturgeschichte des
jüdischen Volkes von den ältesten Zeiten bis zur Gegenwart, Jena, 1892.
_Otto Henne am Rhyn_ was born August 26, 1828, at Zürich.
We have already had occasion to refer to the advantageous
point of view of the historian who is also a practical man of
affairs. The case of Henne am Rhyn is another illustration
in point. In his early days, and even till well on in life,
he was a practical journalist, and he abandoned this field
for the position of professor in the University of Zürich.
As a journalist he attained notable distinction, and the
fact of obtaining a professorship speaks for itself as to
his scholarship. The briefest glance at his _Allgemeine
Kulturgeschichte_ makes it clear that he was a man of a
broad sweep of mind, fully conversant with the great subject
which he attempted to treat. German scholarship has given us
several “culture” histories of the widest type, notably those
of Wachsmuth and Osman, but among them all there is perhaps
none of higher or more various merit than that of the Swiss
journalist-professor.
=Herzfeld=, L., Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Braunschweig, 1847-1857,
3 vols.; Handelsgeschichte der Juden des Altertums, Braunschweig,
1879.--=Hitzig=, F., Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Leipsic,
1869.--=Holtzmann=, V., Religionsgeschichtliche Vorträge, Giessen,
1902.--=Holzinger=, H., Einleitung in den Hexateuch, Freiburg,
1895.--=Hoonacker=, A. van, Nouvelles études sur la restauration
juive d’après l’exit de Babylone, Paris-Louvain, 1893.--=Hommel=,
F., The Ancient Hebrew Tradition, as illustrated by the Monuments,
London, 1897.--=Hosmer=, J. K., Jews in Ancient and Modern Times,
London, 1866; The Story of the Jews, Ancient, Mediæval, and Modern,
New York, 1891.--=Hudson=, E. H., History of the Jews in Rome, London,
1882-1884.--=Hutton=, L., Literary Landmarks of Jerusalem, New York,
1895.
* * * * *
=Inman=, Dr. T., Ancient Faiths, Liverpool, 1868-1869, 2 vols.
* * * * *
=Jacobs=, J., Studies in Biblical Archæology, London, 1894; The Jews
of Angevin History, London, 1893; Inquiry into the Sources of the
History of the Jews in Spain, London, 1894.--=Jahn=, Johann, The Hebrew
Commonwealth, London, 1829.--=Jellinek=, A., Franzosen über Juden,
Wien, 1880.--=Johnson=, W. E., Our Debt to the Past, or Chaldean
Science, London, 1890.--=Josephus=, F., Περι τοῡ Ἰουδαϊκοῡ πολέμον,
Basel, 1554; Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία, Oxford, 1720; Κατὰ Ἀπίωνος, Leipsic,
1691; Antiquities of the Jews, Edinburgh, 1843; The Wars of the Jews,
Edinburgh, 1843.
_Flavius Josephus_, a Jew, was born about the year 37 A.D.
and died about 95 A.D. He is the one secular historian whose
writings had great importance in perpetuating the knowledge
of the Jewish history throughout later classical and mediæval
times. Indeed, thanks to the subject upon which he wrote,
Josephus has continued to be better known to the general public
than almost any other classical author. Josephus, though a Jew,
spent most of his life in Rome, and he appears to have taken it
as his mission to justify his race to his western associates.
As is well known, the Jews were not favourably regarded among
the Greeks and Romans; hence the character of the narrative of
Josephus. His chief work on the history of the Jews is based
very manifestly upon the sacred records of his people. It is,
in short, in the main a bald transcript, with certain additions
and omissions, of the biblical record. It can hardly be
maintained that the transcript was made with entire candour and
honesty. In the nature of the case, these merits were hardly to
be expected of Josephus. He was a Jew, a member of a despised
and insignificant race, striving to prove to the most cultured
people in the world that the contempt in which they held his
compatriots was not merited. His whole effort, therefore,
is to magnify the importance of the Jews, to minimise their
faults. It is true he introduces into his narrative, here
and there, much matter that is not to be found in the Bible
records. To a certain extent such matter may be drawn from
other Jewish sources that have not come down to us; but it is
quite impossible to draw the line between such matter and other
matter which the imagination of Josephus may have invented, not
indeed as to bald facts, but as to the elaboration of details.
The work of Josephus has an added importance in that it brings
the history of his race down to his own time; that is to say,
to the latter part of the first century A.D. For later events,
in some of which the author himself participated as a military
leader, the work of Josephus is the highest, if not indeed the
sole authority, and we have quoted from him frequently. For the
earlier period, Josephus depended upon the traditions of his
race.
=Jost=, Israel Marcus, Geschichte der Israeliten, Berlin, 1820-1847,
12 vols.; Allgemeine Geschichte des israelitischen Volkes, Leipsic,
1850; Geschichte des Judentums und seiner Sekten, Leipsic, 1857-1889,
3 vols.--=Justinius=, Historiæ Philippicæ et totius Mundi Origenes
et Terræ Situs, Venice, 1470.--=Jungfer=, H., Die Juden unter
Friedrich dem Grossen, Leipsic, 1880.--=Justi=, F., Geschichte der
altorientalischen Völker im Altertum, St. Petersburg, 1884.
* * * * *
=Kahn=, L., Histoire de la communauté israélite à Paris, Paris,
1894.--=Kalischer=, E., Parabel und Fabel bei den alten Hebräern,
Berlin, 1894.--=Kamphausen=, A., Das Lied Moses, Leipsic, 1862; Das
Gebet des Herrn, Elberfeld, 1866; Die Chronologie der hebräischen
Könige, Bonn, 1883; Das Buch Daniel und die neuere Geschichtsforschung,
Leipsic, 1893; Bleek’s Einleitung ins Alte Testament, Berlin,
1870.--=Karpeles=, G., A Sketch of Jewish History, Philadelphia, 1897;
Jewish Literature and Other Essays, Philadelphia, 1895.--=Kautzsch=,
An Outline of the History of the Literature of the Old Testament, New
York, 1899.--=Keil=, Handbuch der biblischen Archæologie, Frankfurt,
1875.--=Kellner=, Max, The Assyrian Monuments (illustrating the Sermons
of Isaiah), Boston, 1900.--=Kellogg=, S. H., The Jews, or Prediction
and Fulfilment, New York, 1883.--=Kennard=, H. M., Philistines and
Israelites: A New Light on the World’s History, London, 1895.--=Kent=,
C. F., A History of the Hebrew People, New York, 1896; A History
of the Jewish People during the Babylonian, Persian, and Greek
Periods, New York, 1899.--=Kirkpatrick=, A. F., The Doctrine of the
Prophets, London, 1897.--=Kittel=, R., Die Anfänge der hebräischen
Geschichtsschreibung im Alten Testament, Leipsic, 1895; Geschichte der
Hebräer, Gotha, 1884.--=Klostermann=, Geschichte des Volkes Israel bis
zur Restauration unter Esra und Nehemia, München, 1896.--=Koehler=,
A., Lehrbuch der Geschichte des Alten Bundes, Erlangen,
1875-1881.--=Kohlbauer=, A., Geschichte des alttestamentlichen
Bundesvolkes, Regensburg, 1886.--=König=, Ed., Einleitung in das Alte
Testament mit Einschluss der Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten
Testamentes, Bonn, 1893.--=Kosters=, W. H., Die Wiederherstellung
Israels (in der Pers. Studie), Heidelberg, 1895.--=Kuehnen=, A.,
Gottesdienst von Israel, Haarlem, 1869-1870; Hist. critisch onderzoek
naar het ontstaan en de verzameling van de boeken des ouden Verbonds.
2 uitgave. Leyden, 1885-1893; Die Profeten und die Profetie in Israel,
Leyden, 1875, 2 vols.; Volksreligion und Weltreligion, Berlin, 1883;
Skizzen aus der Geschichte Israels, Nimwegen, 1882-1892, 2 vols.;
Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur biblischen Wissenschaft, Freiburg,
1894.--=Kurtz=, J. H., Geschichte des alten Bundes, Berlin, 1848-1855,
2 vols.
* * * * *
=Landau=, R., Geschichte der jüdischen Ärzte, Berlin, 1895.--=Laroche=,
E., Chronologie des Israélites, Angers, 1892.--=Latimer=, Judæa: from
Cyrus to Titus, 537 B.C.-70 A.D., London, 1894.--=Lazarus=, M., Die
Ethik des Judentums, Frankfurt, 1898.--=Leathes=, S., The Law in the
Prophets, London, 1894.--=Ledrain=, E., L’histoire d’Israël, avec
append. par J. Oppert, Paris, 1879.
_Eugène Ledrain_ was born at St. Suzanne (Mayenne), France, in
1844. Professor Ledrain is a distinguished member of that large
coterie of French scholars who have devoted their lives to the
study of biblical history. His works have for some reason not
been translated, and his name is therefore not very familiar to
the English reader. His particular field has been the history
of the Jews in all its phases. His industry is illustrated not
only by the long list of his writings, but particularly by the
fact that these included a new translation of the Bible. So
much said, it is clear that his investigations have been of
a kind to give him the fullest familiarity with his subject,
and it is no surprise to find that he is able to present his
knowledge in an acceptable form.
=Leitner=, F., Die prophetische Inspiration, Freiburg,
1894.--=Lidzbarski=, Handbuch der nordsemitischen Epigraphik nebst
ausgew. Inschrift., Weimar, 1898.--_Lieblein_, J., L’exode des hébreux
(in Proc. Soc. of Bibl. Archæol., Vol. XX, p. 277; Vol. XXI, p. 53,
London, 1898).--=Lincke=, V., Die Entstehung des Judentums (in Ztschr.
für Wissenschaftl. Theologie, Jahrg. 44, p. 481 _et seq._, Leipsic,
1901).--=Linden=, G. v., Der Sieg des Judentums über das Germanentum,
Leipsic, 1879.--=Lindo=, E. H., History of the Jews of Spain and
Portugal, London, 1848.--=Lippe=, Ch. D., Biblisches Lexicon der
gesammten jüd. Litteratur der Gegenwart, Wien, 1881.--=Löhr=, M.,
Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Strassburg, 1900.--=Lotz=, W., Geschichte
und Offenbarung im Alten Testament, Leipsic, 1894.--=Löwenstein=,
L., Beiträge zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, Frankfurt,
1895.--=Lury=, I., Geschichte der Edomiter im biblischen Zeitalter,
Bern, 1897.--=Lyon=, Sketch of Babylonian and Assyrian History with
special reference to Palestine (in Bibl. World, 7, II, Chicago, 1896).
* * * * *
=McCurdy=, F. F., History, Prophecy, and the Monuments to the Fall
of Nineveh, London, 1894; To the Downfall of Samaria, London,
1894.--=MacDonald=, M., Harmony of Ancient History and Chronology of
the Egyptians and the Jews, Philadelphia, 1891.--=Magdeleine=, J.
de, La France catholique et la France juive, Paris, 1888.--=Magnus=,
Lady Philip, Outlines of Jewish History, London, 1892.--=Mally=, J.,
Historia sacra antiqui Testamenti, Strigonii, 1890.--=Margoliouth=, G.,
Hebrew-Babylonian Affinities, London, 1899.--=Marquart=, J., Fundamente
israelitischer und jüdischer Geschichte, Göttingen, 1896.--=Marti=, K.,
Geschichte der israelitischen Religion, Strassburg, 1897.--=Masse=, E.,
La Révolution française et la Rabbinat, Paris, 1890.--=Mayers=, M., The
History of the Jews: from their Origin to their Ultimate Dispersion,
London, 1824.--=Mears=, J. W., From Exile to Overthrow: a History of
the Jews from Babylonian Captivity, Philadelphia, 1881.--=Ménard=, L.
N., Histoire des Israélites, Paris, 1883; Histoire des anciens peuples
de l’Orient, Paris, 1883.
_Louis Nicolas Ménard_ was born at Paris, October 15, 1822.
The celebrated French professor of art is better known to
the general public through his historical writings than
through those that pertain to his own speciality. But,
indeed, it would be perhaps keeping in too narrow a vein to
speak of Ménard as pre-eminently a specialist in the field
of art, for his interests are cosmopolitan, and he is quite
as much at home in the field of history pure and simple as
in that of his favourite study. As a writer, Ménard has the
merit of comprehensiveness of view and of unusual felicity
of presentation. His history of the Israelites is, on some
accounts, the best brief popular presentation of the subject
that has been written in any language. It is at once free from
the idolatrous prejudice which has marred the works of certain
historians, and from the iconoclastic prejudice which has
disfigured certain others. It is a work, therefore, which every
earnest student of ancient history who would wish to view the
Israelites in their proper historic perspective, may read with
interest and profit.
=Mendelssohn=, M., Jerusalem, Berlin, 1783.--=Merx=, Adalbert, Zur
Geschichte des Stammes Levi, 1870.--=Meyer=, Ed., Die Entstehung des
Judentums, Halle, 1896; Geschichte des Altertums, Stuttgart, 1884-1902,
5 vols.--=Mills=, A., The ancient Hebrews, New York and Chicago,
1874.--=Milman=, H. H., The History of the Jews from the Earliest
Period to the Present Time, London, 1878.--Moabite Stone. (For numerous
translations see Christian D. Ginsburg.)--=Moebius=, H., Die Kinder
Israel nie in Ägypten, Ilmenau, 1884.--=Monasch=, M., Geschiedenis
van het volk Israel, Amsterdam, 1891.--=Montefiore=, C. G., Lectures
on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by the Religion
of the Ancient Hebrews (Hibbert Lectures, 1892), London, 1893 (2nd
edition).--=Montet=, J., Le Deutéronome et la question de l’Hexateuque,
Paris, 1895.--=Morrison=, W. D., The Jews under Roman rule, London,
1890.--=Moulton=, H. G., The Literary Study of the Bible, London,
1895.--=Munk=, Salomon, La Palestine, Paris, 1845.
* * * * *
=Naville=, E., The Store City of Pithom, London, 1885.--=Neil=, J.,
Pictured Palestine, London, 1893.--=Nestle=, E., Marginalien und
Materialien, Tübingen, 1893.--=Neteler=, B., Stellung der alttest.
Zeitrechnung in der altorientalischen Geschichte, Münster, 1893; Die
Zeitstellung des israelitischen Auszugs, Münster, 1895.--=Neubauer=,
A., Mediæval Jewish Chronicles, London, 1887.--=Neubauer=, A., and
=Stern=, M., Hebräische Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen, Berlin,
1888.--=Newman=, F. W., A History of the Hebrew Monarchy, London, 1847.
_Francis William Newman_ was born at London, June 27, 1805.
Professor Newman had the misfortune to be the brother of
a man more famous than himself. His name, partly on this
account, is comparatively little known to-day, while that of
the Cardinal is almost a household word. Nevertheless, he was
a man of distinguished scholarship, and traces of that same
stalwart character of mind which characterised his brother are
manifest everywhere in his writings. His history of the Hebrew
monarchy, written about the middle of the century,--when,
as we have already noted, the higher criticism was making
itself felt,--remains to this day one of the clearest and most
interesting and authoritative accounts of that people. To most
readers of the time of its first publication it must have
seemed a daringly iconoclastic work, and even now there are
many who would follow some of its pages with bated breath. Yet
neither its fairness, its lack of prejudice, nor its scholarly
foundations can be in question, and combined with these traits
it has qualities of style which must give it a lasting value
for the popular reader.
=Niebuhr=, C., Die Chronologie der Geschichte Israels, Ägyptens,
etc., Leipsic, 1894; Geschichte des Hebräischen Zeitalters, Berlin,
1894.--=Nikel=, I., Der Monotheismus Israels in der vorexil. Zeit,
Paderborn, 1893.--=Nöldeke=, Th., Die Amalekiter, Göttingen, 1864;
Alttestamentliche Litteratur, Leipsic, 1868: Untersuchungen zur Kritik
des Alten Testamentes, Kiel, 1869; Inschriften des Königs Mesa von
Moab, Kiel, 1870; Die semitischen Sprachen, Leipsic, 1887.--=Novikov=,
T., Das jüdische Russland, Berlin, 1892.--=Nowack=, W., Die sozial.
Probleme in Israel, Strassburg, 1892; Die Entstehung der israelitischen
Religion, Strassburg, 1895.
* * * * *
=Öhler=, G. F., Theologie des Alten Testamentes; (3 ed.), Stuttgart,
1893.--=Oppert=, J., Salomon et ses successeurs: solution d’un
problème chronologique, Paris, 1877.--=Origen=, φιλοσοφουμενα (in
Jac. Gronovius’ Theasaurus Antiquitatem Græcorum, Vol. X, p. 349,
_et seq._ Leyden, 1697).--=Ottley=, R. L., A Short History of the
Hebrews to the Roman Period, Cambridge, 1901; Hebrew Prophets, London,
1898.--=Oxford=, A. W., Introduction to the History of Ancient Israel,
London, 1887.
* * * * *
=Palmer=, E. H., History of the Jewish Nation, London,
1874.--=Paludan-Muller=, B., Bibelhistorien og den gameltestamentlige
Kritik, Copenhagen, 1893.--=Perreau=, P., Gli ebrei in Inghilterra
nel secole XI e XII, Trieste, 1887.--=Philipson=, D., Old European
Jewries, Philadelphia, 1894.--=Picciotto=, J., Sketches of Anglo-Jewish
History, London, 1875.--=Piepenbring=, C., Histoire du peuple d’Israël,
Paris, 1898.--=Pomeranz=, B., La Grèce et la Judée dans l’antiquité,
Paris, 1891.--=Post=, G. E., Essays on the Sects and Nationalities of
Syria and Palestine (in Quart. Statement of Eg. Explor. Fund, London,
1890).--=Prévost-Paradol=, L. A., Essai sur l’histoire universelle,
Paris, 1890.
_Lucien Anatole Prévost-Paradol_ was born at Paris, August 8,
1829; died by his own hand, in Washington, U.S.A., July 20,
1870. The celebrated author of the _Essay on Universal History_
was not primarily a historian--certainly not a great historian.
He was a professional writer and practical politician. But
practical politics is, after all, nothing more or less than
contemporary history, and from the earliest times the men who
have taken part in the events of their epoch have been regarded
as the most competent to describe these; one need but mention
the names of Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius as cases in
point. Not that Prévost-Paradol can be justly compared to these
great historians, not that it can in any sense be claimed
that he wrote a great history, but that the practices of a
professional politician in any age necessarily give him, on
some accounts, a better point of view from which to look out
upon the events of universal history than can be attained by
the mere closet student. The great difficulty with the large
mass of modern historical literature is that the men who have
produced it have been impractical closet students, who knew
next to nothing of the actual life of the practical everyday
diplomatist and statesman; hence so much infantile criticism
and childish credulity in estimating the motives of the men who
in all ages have made history; hence also, on the other hand,
the value of the estimate of any man who, having had forced
upon him a practical realisation of the motives that control
men in modern history, shall attempt to estimate, from the
point of view thus gained, the deeds of men of other times.
Doubly valuable must be such work if the practical statesman
who makes it is also an accomplished writer. Such was the
status of Prévost-Paradol. His work has the charm of a polished
literary style, and his estimate of peoples and of events is
that of one who is at once artist and man of affairs. What he
says of the Hebrews or any other people is not to be considered
as the estimate of a scholar who has devoted his life to
studying the original sources for his history, yet it is the
estimate of a littérateur of scholarly habits, who is fully
in touch with his subject, at least at second hand, and whose
skill as a writer enables him to bring it more vividly before
his public than the more scholarly investigator is usually able
to do.
=Price=, J. M., Important Movements in Israel Prior to 1000 B.C.
(in Bibl. World, 7, II, Chicago, 1896); The Monuments and the Old
Testament, Chicago, 1900.--=Prideaux=, H., History of the connection of
the Old and New Testaments, London, 1715-1717, 6 vols.
* * * * *
=Rabelleau=, M., Histoire des Hébreux, Paris, 1825.--=Racah=, L., Gl.
Israeliti. Storia politico-litteraria, Roma, 1898.--=Reinach=, T.,
Histoire des israélites, etc., Paris, 1884.--=Renan=, J. E., Histoire
du peuple d’Israël, Paris, 1887-93, 4 vols.
_Joseph Ernest Renan_ was born at Tréguier, Côtes-du-Nord,
France, January 27, 1823; died at Paris, October 2, 1892.
Doubtless no other name that we have occasion to cite in
connection with Hebrew history is so widely known to the
general public as that of Renan. The famous ex-priest, who
till the end of his life contended that he was still at heart
a priest, early gained the ear of the public and maintained
it to the end, partly through the eloquence of his discourse,
partly through the seemingly startling character of his
message. As a stylist, even in the land of stylists, Renan,
from the first, took a foremost rank; as a littérateur, his
position was assured, whatever subject he might choose to
treat. But he also attained a corresponding distinction as
a scholar pure and simple. He devoted himself early to the
fullest investigation of Hebrew history, and his whole life
was bound up with this task. Starting out with the intention
of becoming a priest, he found himself presently lacking in
sympathy with some of the dearest tenets of the church, and
was led to retire from his prospective profession to devote
himself purely to his literary pursuits. He became known, and
for a time at least it seemingly pleased him to be known, as a
sceptic, and his name has been mentioned with opprobrium from
many a pulpit. Yet whoever reads his work from the standpoint
of our own generation will find in it but little that is
startlingly iconoclastic, and will be almost prepared to admit
that Renan was right when he said--perhaps half jestingly--that
he was still a priest to the end. In his later years, Renan
himself came to feel that he had, perhaps, in so far that he
had combated ancient beliefs, been doing little more than to
fight a man of straw, and at last regretted that he had not
turned his attention to some field of science rather than to
the narrower channel of the history of an ancient nation. Yet
perhaps this regret was ill-advised; for after all, Renan’s
cast of mind was essentially theological, and it must be at
least an open question whether he could have accomplished more
in any field of science than he was able to accomplish in the
field of history and of literature. Had he, on the other hand,
chosen a purely literary field, without the hampering weight
of historical traditions, he might very probably have produced
something of more lasting merit than any of his existing
histories. Be that as it may, however, his histories remain as
a monument of industry and of artistic presentation which the
biblical student of our generation cannot neglect.
=Rendu=, A., The Jewish Race in Ancient and Roman History, London,
1895.--=Reville=, A., Herodes der Grosse: Cap. aus der jüdischen
Geschichte des l. Halbjahres vor Christus (in Deutsche Revue, Berlin,
Mai-Juli, 1892).--=Riehm=, C. A., Handwörterbuch des biblischen
Altertums, Bielefeld, 1892-1894; Die Gesetzgebung Mosis im Lande
Moab, Gotha, 1854; Die besondere Bedeutung des Alten Testamentes für
die religiöse Erkenntniss, Halle, 1864; Die messianische Weissagung,
Gotha, 1875; Der Begriff der Sühne im Alten Testament, Gotha, 1877;
Der biblische Schöpfungsbericht, Halle, 1881; Einleitung in das Alte
Testament (ed. by Brandt), Halle, 1889; Alttestamentliche Theologie
(ed. by Pahncke), Halle, 1889.--=Riggs=, T. S., History of the Jewish
People during Maccabean and Roman Periods (Incl. New Test. Times),
1900.--=Robert=, U., Les signes d’infamie au moyen age, juifs, etc.,
Paris, 1817.--=Robertson=, James, The Early Religion of Israel as
set forth by Biblical Writers and by Modern Critical Historians,
London, 1892; The Poetry and Religion of the Psalms, London,
1899.--=Rodocanachi=, E., Le Ghetto à Rome, Paris, 1891.--=Röhricht=,
R., Bibliotheca geographica Palæstinæ Chronolog. (Verzeichniss der
auf Palästinas Geographie bezüglichen Litteratur von 338 bis 1878),
Berlin, 1890.--=Rosenmüller=, Handbuch der biblischen Altertumskunde,
Leipsic, 1823-1827, 2 vols.--=Roskoff=, Die hebräischen Altertümer,
Wien, 1857.--=Rothschild=, C. de and R. de, The History and Literature
of the Israelites according to the Old Testament and the Apocrypha,
London, 1871.--=Rougé=, E. de, Moïse et les hébreux d’après les
monuments, Paris, 1869.--=Rupprecht=, E., Beitr. zur richtigen Lösung
des Pentateuchrätsels, Gütersloh, 1896.
* * * * *
=Saalschütz=, J. L., Archæologie der Hebräer, Königsberg, 1855-1856,
2 vols.--=Sack=, I., Israël et Juda (in Revue d’études juives, Vol.
XXXVIII, p. 172 _et seq._ Vol. XXXIX, Paris, 1898).--=Sailer=, F., Die
Juden und das Deutsche Reich, Berlin, 1876.--=Sanday=, W., The Oracles
of God, London, 1891.--=Sayce=, A. H., The Higher Criticism and the
Verdict of the Monuments, London, 1894; Patriarchal Palestine, London,
1895; Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations, London, 1899; The Early
History of the Hebrews, London, 1897; Fresh Light from the Ancient
Monuments (Religious Tract Society), London, 1893.--=Scaliger=, J. J.,
Thesaurus Temporum, Leyden, 1606.--=Schäfer=, Die religiösen Altertümer
der Bibel, Münster, 1892.--=Schalin=, Z., Der Aufenthalt der Israeliten
in Ägypten, Helsingfors, 1894.--=Schall=, E., Staatsverfassung der
Juden, Leipsic, 1894.--=Scharling=, H., Hauran, Reisebilder aus
Palästina, Bremen, 1890.--=Schenkel=, Bibellexicon für Geistliche
und Gemeindeglieder, Leipsic, 1869-1875, 5 vols.--=Schlatter=,
Zur Topographie und Geschichte Palästinas, Calw and Stuttgart,
1894.--=Schlosser=, F. C., Weltgeschichte, Frankfurt, 1844-1854, 19
vols.--=Schmidt=, N., Moses, his Age and his Work (in Biblical World,
7, II, Chicago, 1896).--=Scholz=, A., Zeit und Ort der Entstehung
der Bücher des Alten Testamentes, Würzburg, 1893.--=Scholz=, P.,
Die heiligen Altertümer des Volkes Israel, Regensburg, 1869-1870, 2
vols.--=Schrader=, Eberhard, Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament,
Berlin, 1872, 2 vols.; 2nd edition, 1883 (English translation, London,
1885-1889, 2 vols.); Studien zur Kritik und Erklärung der biblischen
Urgeschichte, Berlin, 1863.
_Eberhard Schrader_ was born at Brunswick, Germany, January 5,
1836. Professor Schrader is known to scholars everywhere as one
of the leaders among modern Hebrew scholars. In particular,
his investigations have looked to the elucidation of Hebrew
history from the Mesopotamian side, so to speak. He early took
up the study of the cuneiform writing, and became known as
one of the foremost authorities in that new field. From this
standpoint he has investigated, as far as might be, the origin
of the Hebrew people, and has compared the biblical records
with the similar ones which the exhumations at Nineveh and
Babylon have revealed. The scholarship of Professor Schrader is
essentially of the German type, in the more ponderous meaning
of that word. There is little in his writings to appeal to
the popular audience, except that the subject has universal
interest. Nevertheless, some of them have been translated into
English and widely read; in particular, the translations of the
so-called Chaldean Genesis have interested a wide public.
=Schultz=, H., The Theology of the Old Testament, London, 1895
(2nd edition).--=Schürer=, Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im
Zeitalter Christi, Leipsic, 1885; Der Kalender und die Æra von
Gaza (in Sitz. Ber. d. Berliner Acad. d. Wiss. no. 41).--=Scott=,
C. A., The Making of Israel, from Joseph to Joshua, Edinburgh,
1895.--=Seinecke=, L. C., Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Göttingen,
1876-1884.--=Sellin=, Beitr. zur isr. und jüd. Religionsgeschichte,
Leipsic, 1895.--=Sharpe=, S., History of the Hebrew Nation and its
Literature, London, 1882.--=Shuckford=, S., The Sacred and Profane
History of the World, London, 1728-1754.--=Sime=, J., The Kingdom
of all Israel: its History, London, 1883.--=Smend=, R., Lehrbuch d.
alttest. Religionsgeschichte, Freiburg, 1899.--=Smith=, George, The
Hebrew People.--=Smith=, G. A., The Historical Geography of the Holy
Land, London, 1901.--=Smith=, W., Illustrated History of the Bible,
1871; Dictionary of the Bible, London, 1860-1863, 3 vols.--=Smith=,
W. R., The Prophets of Israel and their Place in History, to the
Close of the Eighth Century: with Additional Notes by T. K. Cheyne,
London, 1895.--=Soares=, Th. G., Hebrew Historiography (in Bibl.
World), Chicago, September, 1893.--=Solly=, H. S., Antiquities of
Israel, London, 1876.--=Somerville=, R., The Parallel History of the
Jewish Monarchy, Cambridge, 1895.--=Spanier=, M., Quellenbuch für den
Unterricht in jüdischer Geschichte, Frankfurt, 1890.--=Spence=, H. D.
M., and =Exell=, J. S., Pulpit Commentary, London, 1880.--=Spiro=, S.,
Étude sur le peuple samaritain, Paris, 1897.--=Stade=, B., Geschichte
des Volkes Israel, Berlin, 1887, 2 vols.; Die Entstehung des Volkes
Israel, Giessen, 1899.
_Bernhard Stade_ was born at Arnstadt, May 11, 1848; professor
of Old Testament history in the University of Giessen.
Scholarship is so universally a pre-requisite to the holding of
a professorship in German universities that the iteration of
the fact becomes tiresome. One might almost say that no German
dares to think of writing a book on history or science without
having first made himself fully master of his subject. When
a book comes from a German press one is usually justified in
assuming that it will be found to have all the authority that
can come from mere knowledge of the subject of which it treats.
The Germans are proverbially linguists and philologists.
Scholarship with them is traditional, and the tradition was
never more amply sustained than in the present generation.
But there is one other question to be asked in taking up a
German book, the answer to which is by no means so secure,
and that is the question as to the style of the author; for
unfortunately German scholarship is not more proverbial among
the writers of history than is German lack of literary mastery.
The German language peculiarly lends itself to a manner of
presentation that seems to the Frenchman or the Englishman
obscure; and there is only here and there a writer in the long
list of German historians who has achieved that distinction of
style which, it must be freely admitted, is almost a national
heritage with the Frenchman and which is by no means unusual
with the writers of English. Among this select company we at
once recall the name of Heeren, and it will be remembered that
such men as Curtius and Mommsen have done their full share
to create a new standard of literary excellence for their
countrymen. It seems clear that the admirable examples thus
given have not been lost upon the German historians of the
present generation. Among these it will, perhaps, hardly be
claimed that Professor Stade has attained in this regard a
peculiar distinction, but at least he has secured an honourable
place; and there is, perhaps, no other work on the history
of Israel which, as a whole, can claim a better average of
desirable qualities, at once of knowledge and of style, than
the work now before us.
=Staerk=, W., Studien zur Religions- und Sprachgeschichte des Alten
Testamentes, Berlin, 1899.--=Stanley=, A. P., Lectures on the
History of the Jewish Church, London, 1884, 3 vols.--=Stapfer=,
E., La Palestine au temps de Jésus-Christ, (5th edition), Paris,
1892.--=Stave=, Über den Einfluss des Parsismus auf das Judentum,
1898.--=Steinschneider=, M., Die hebräischen Übersetzungen des
Mittelalters, Berlin, 1893.--=Stern=, M., Urkundliche Beiträge über
die Stellung der Juden, Kiel, 1893; Die israelitische Bevölkerung
der deutschen Städte, Frankfurt, 1890-1896.--=Steuernagel=,
Der Rahmen des Deuteronomiums, Halle, 1894; Die Entstehung des
deuteronom. Gesetzes, Halle, 1895.--=Stosch=, G., Alttest. Studien,
Gütersloh, 1895.--=Strange=, Guy de, Palestine under the Moslems. A
Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500, London,
1896.--=Sulzbach=, A., Die religiöse und weltliche Poesie der Juden
vom 7, bis zum 16, Jahrhundert, Trier, 1893.--=Sunderland=, I. T., The
Bible: its Origin and Growth, New York, 1893.
* * * * *
=Tacitus=, Cornelius, Historiæ Venice, 1470.--=The Talmud=,
Venice, 1520-23.--=Tineo=, H. A., Los Judios en España, Madrid,
1881.--=Tristram=, H. B., Land of Israel, London, 1865.
* * * * *
=Uhlemann=, M. A., Israeliten und Hyksos in Ägypten: eine histor.
kritische Untersuchung, Berlin, 1856.--=Unger=, G. F., Die
Seleucidenära der Makkabäerbücher, München, 1895; Die Regierungsjahre
der makkab. Fürsten (Abhdl. Acad. München, Heft. 2).
* * * * *
=Vatke=, W., Die biblische Theologie wissenschaftlich dargestellt,
Berlin, 1835.--=Vernes=, M., Du prétendu polythéisme des hébreux,
Paris, 1893, 2 vols.--=Visser=, I. Th. de, Hebreeuwsche Archæologie,
Utrecht, 1894.
* * * * *
=Ward=, A., Hebrew Monarchy: its History and Purpose, London,
1900.--=Weber=, G., Allgemeine Weltgeschichte, Leipsic,
1857-1880.--=Weber=, G., and =Holtzmann=, H. J., Geschichte des Volkes
Israel und der Entstehung des Christentums, Leipsic, 1867.--=Weber=,
J. B., and =Kempter=, W., La Situation des Juifs en Russie, Paris,
1893.--=Wedgwood=, J., The Message of Israel in the Light of Modern
Criticism, London, 1894.--=Weill=, A., Les cinq livres (mosaïstes)
de Moïse, Paris, 1893; Le centenaire de l’émancipation des Juifs,
Paris, 1888.--=Weinstein=, N. I., Beiträge zur Geschichte der Essäer,
Bern, 1892.--=Wellhausen=, J., Geschichte Israels, Berlin, 1878;
Sketch of the History of Israel and Judah, (3rd edition), London,
1895; Compos. d. Hexateuchs, Berlin, 1889; Skizzen und Vorarbeiten,
vol. V., Berlin, 1895; Ansicht über den Gang der Geschichte Israels,
Berlin, 1878. (_Julius Wellhausen_ was born in Hameln, Germany, May
17th, 1844. At present, holds a professorial chair at Göttingen. He
is one of the best known of the critical investigators of the Bible
narratives.)--=Wendland=, P., Die Therapeuten und die philon. Schrift
vom beschaulichen Leben: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des hellen.
Judentums, Leipsic, 1894.--=Westphal=, R., Allgemeine Metrik der
indogermanischen und semitischen Völker, Berlin, 1893.--=Wete=, Henry
Barclay, The Old Testament in Greek according to the Septuaginta,
Cambridge, 1898.--=Wiener=, L., The history of Yiddish Literature
in the XIXth Century, New York, 1889.--=Wilberforce=, B. F., Heroes
of Hebrew History, London, 1895.--=Wildeboer=, G., De Letterkunde
des Ouden Verbonds naar de tijdsorde van haar ontstaan, Groningen,
1893; Die Litteratur des Alten Testamentes, Göttingen, 1895; Die
Entstehung des alttestamentlichen Kanons, Gotha, 1894.--=Willrich=, H.,
Judaica: Forschungen zur hellen.-jüdischen Geschichte und Litteratur,
Göttingen, 1900; Juden und Griechen vor der makkabäischen Erhebung,
Göttingen, 1895.--=Wilson=, A. M., The Wines of the Bible, London,
1877.--=Winckler=, Hugo, Geschichte Israels in Einzeldarstellungen,
Leipsic, 1895; Altorientalische Forschungen, Leipsic, 1893;
Alttestamentliche Untersuchungen, Leipsic, 1892.--=Winer=, G. B.,
Biblisches Realwörterbuch, Leipsic, 1847-1848.--=Wright=, G. H. B., Was
Israel ever in Egypt? London, 1895.
* * * * *
=Xenophon=, Κυροπαιδεία, Florence, 1516.
* * * * *
=Zahn=, A., Israelitische und jüdische Geschichte; Beurtheilung der
Schrift, Gütersloh, 1895.--=Zeller=, P., Biblisches Handwörterbuch
(2nd edition), Calw and Stuttgart, 1893.--=Zenos=, A. C., The Elements
of the Higher Criticism, New York, 1895.--=Zöckler=, Die Apokryphen
des Alten Testamentes, nebst Anhang über Pseudepigraphenlitteratur,
München, 1893.--=Zunz=, L., Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden,
Frankfurt, 1892.
PART V
THE HISTORY OF PHŒNICIA
BASED CHIEFLY UPON THE FOLLOWING AUTHORITIES
A. H. L. HEEREN, JOHN KENRICK, O. MELTZER, T. MOMMSEN,
F. C. MOVERS, R. PIETSCHMANN
WITH ADDITIONAL CITATIONS FROM
APPIANUS ALEXANDRINUS, ARISTOTLE, ARRIAN, THE HOLY BIBLE,
C. K. J. VON BUNSEN, PHILO BYBLIUS, QUINTUS CURTIUS,
W. DEECKE, DIODORUS, MAX DUNCKER, ERATOSTHENES,
EUPOLEMUS, ED. GERHARD, E. GIBBON, P. F.
J. GOSSELIN, GEORGE GROTE, HANNO,
HERODOTUS, F. HOMMEL, ISOCRATES,
ST. JEROME (HIERONYMUS),
FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, JUSTIN, MENANDER OF EPHESUS, POMPONIUS MELA,
B. G. NIEBUHR, J. P. PETERS, JAS. RENNELL, VICOMTE DE ROUGÉ,
SALLUSTIUS, SANCHONIATHON, PLINIUS SECUNDUS, STRABO,
THEOPHILUS, THUCYDIDES, GEORG WEBER, WILLIAM
OF TYRE, H. WUTTKE, XENOPHON
TOGETHER WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON
THE INDIVIDUALITY OF PHŒNICIAN HISTORY AND ORIGIN
OF THE NAME
BY
RICHARD PIETSCHMANN
COPYRIGHT, 1904,
BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS.
_All rights reserved._
PART V.--PHŒNICIA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INDIVIDUALITY OF PHŒNICIAN HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF THE NAME 243
PHŒNICIAN HISTORY IN OUTLINE 246
CARTHAGINIAN HISTORY IN OUTLINE 251
CHAPTER I. LAND AND PEOPLE 255
CHAPTER II. EARLY HISTORY AND INFLUENCES 263
CHAPTER III. THE PHŒNICIAN TIME OF POWER 279
CHAPTER IV. PHŒNICIA UNDER THE PERSIANS 289
CHAPTER V. PHŒNICIA UNDER THE GREEKS, THE ROMANS, AND THE
SARACENS 301
CHAPTER VI. THE STORY OF CARTHAGE 308
CHAPTER VII. PHŒNICIAN COMMERCE 329
CHAPTER VIII. PHŒNICIAN CIVILISATION 346
APPENDIX A. CLASSICAL TRADITIONS 356
BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 361
A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PHŒNICIAN HISTORY 363
INDIVIDUALITY OF PHŒNICIAN HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF THE NAME
BY RICHARD PIETSCHMANN
Translated for this work from his _Geschichte der Phönizier_.
The history of both the Egyptian and the Babylonian peoples is closely
bound up with the territorial history of a limited tract of land,
while with the Phœnicians it is quite otherwise. Their history is
in a far less degree the history of their land. Among all civilised
nations of antiquity, Phœnicia was the first that, maintaining its
national individuality and its form of civilisation, learned to become
independent of the clod of earth upon which this individuality had
been developed. It was the first that, by means of emigration and the
founding of settlements, gained sufficient space to attain to full
historical importance.