The following account of the Hebrew religion, translated from Spamer’s
work (p. 297) already cited, will be found instructive:
“Originally there was no difference between the religion of the Hebrews
and that of the neighboring tribes. The lord=Baal of Moab was named
Kamosh, that of the Hebrews Yahwe. Yahwe was the national god, above all
the god of battle.... Altars made of earth or unhewn stone were erected
for him on mountains, hills or under green trees; next to the altar stood
either a stone column (Masseba) or a sacred tree (Ashera). In the temple
the image of Yahwe represented him in human form or, as in Dan or Bethel,
in that of a bull. Next to Yahwe were other gods: first, Baal, the supreme
lord of the world, who had a special temple in Jerusalem; secondly,
Astarte, to whom Solomon built an altar near Jerusalem.
“Solomon had also built altars to Kamosh, the god of the Moabites, to
Milkom, the god of the Ammonites and in his temple other gods beside Yahwe
were worshipped; amongst them a demi-god and a serpent of brass
(Neshushtan) which was abolished later on by Hiskia. All of these gods,
who were also worshipped by the neighbors of the enemies of Israel, became
secondary to the tribal god to whom Israel owed its greatness.
“Yahwe becomes the first and mightiest, and is identified with El, the
supreme god of the Semites, whose individuality is vague. On the other
hand ‘the Baal,’ the principal god of all neighboring people, especially
of the Phœnicians, possesses a marked individuality which excludes his
identification with other gods. He is worshipped in separate centres of
cult and becomes the rival of Yahwe....” The rivalry and the struggle for
religious and political supremacy between the priests, prophets and
followers of Yahwe, the god of heaven, and Baal, the lord of earth,
culminated in about B.C. 837, when the temple of the latter was destroyed
and his priesthood killed.
“It was not until about 750 B.C., however, that the national god Yahwe
became the acknowledged sole god of the universe next to whom all other
gods were as mere phantoms.... A remarkable transformation took place
about this time in the conception of a divinity and of morality; the moral
precepts of religion were developed and clearly formulated and the ten
commandments promulgated. As time progressed the voices of prophets and
priesthood became more and more loud in condemnation of the use of idols
and symbols of divinity. Hosea especially denounced the cult of Yahwe
under the form of a bull; Jeremias went so far as to disapprove of the
holy ark itself which stood in the temple of Jerusalem.
“Later on, when, about B.C. 621, one of the most important events in the
history of mankind had taken place and the book of the law, the Sepher
Hathora, was discovered by the high priest in the temple of Jerusalem,
during its restoration, the Hebrew religion was reformed, reorganized and
reëstablished on lines which favored the development of more refined and
elevated religious teachings. All idols and symbols were abolished. Naught
could destroy, however, the deeply rooted idea that it was in Jerusalem
alone, or Mount Sion, that Yahwe was to be worshipped. This was the chosen
site to which offerings and tithes were to be carried. As the chosen
people of Yahwe, Israel was also to be a holy nation which was to
distinguish itself by its superior religion and morality and, in order to
do so, was to keep itself rigidly apart and aloof from other people.
“Thus this little nation cultivated and perfected the religious
capabilities of the human race and laid the foundation for Christianity
and the Islam.”
Jerusalem, the ancient capital, occupied almost the centre of Canaan and
was founded on Mount Zion, the highest elevation in the district. From
time immemorial Jerusalem has indeed contained a spot reputed to mark the
centre of the world and a sacred stone is also venerated there to this day
and is now associated, in a curious way, with the biblical account of
Jacob’s dream of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven.
It was obviously as a result of their deeply ingrained ideal of central
power that the Israelites who migrated from Ur, the seat of moon-worship,
and wandered into Palestine, engaged in a long struggle which ended in
their successful capture, in 1050 B.C., of Jerusalem, the sacred city,
situated in the centre of the land. The importance of this conquest to the
Israelites can only be rightly estimated when it is realized that, during
countless centuries, this single branch of the Semitic race had adhered to
the cult of the central, changeless, ever-present and light-giving guiding
star, and gradually developed the higher conception of an invisible,
omnipotent and omniscient God. It will be seen that, while other branches
of their race gradually developed separate cults of the dual principles of
nature, they had remained faithful to the primeval recognition of a single
pole-star and, rising to a loftier conception, constituted themselves the
champions of a pure monotheism, disconnected from the cult of heaven and
earth or sun and moon which, associated with dual reproductive principles,
justly became the horror and abomination of the Israelites. It is
interesting to recall the fact that, about 908 B.C., Jezebel, the wife of
Ahab and daughter of the king of Tyre, set up the cult of the dual
principles of nature in Israel and, destroying the priests and prophets of
Jehovah, built a temple to Baal and Astarte and appointed 450 priests and
500 prophets to the respective service of these divinities. This
historical incident furnishes a striking instance of the united cult of
the Above and Below in direct antagonism to that of the Centre which had
already developed into a definite and pure monotheism.(101)