THE END OF NATIONAL LIFE.
The Hebrew monarchy established under Saul 1095 B.C., continued and
cemented under David, and weakened and ruined under Solomon, terminated
in the year 975 B.C., lasting altogether one hundred and twenty years.
This marks the culmination of national greatness and glory--and the
rapid decline and disintegration.
We now come upon the rise of a new class of men, prophets of a new
school--visionary men, dreamers and agitators, reformers--besides
miracle-mongers and fault-finders. Discontent reigned. Men began to
sing the glories of their past greatness, the wonders of Jehova, the
miracles of Moses, and the promises that the Lord had made to their
forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the land that flowed with
milk and honey.
It seems almost unaccountable, even from a theological, Christian
standpoint, that God, Jehova, the Lord almighty, should not be able
to exhibit his wonderful powers regularly, systematically, instead
of by fits and starts, on special occasions, after intervening
centuries. Why should a God come and go by leaps and jumps, appearing
and disappearing at distant ages, now helping and then punishing? Why
lead and mislead? Why permit people to be so foolish and senseless
as to create rival gods? Why should he be jealous of a wooden god,
or of any other kind of an idol?
Why should it be necessary to whip people into understanding God,
knowing him? Why were there so many thousand people slaughtered to
force conviction of his marvelous powers?
Is it not an outrage on common sense for a God to stoop to mountebank
tricks, subterfuge, and delusion, so-called miracles, in order to
establish his existence, or his presence?
If God made man, why did he not make him properly to begin with, so
as to suit himself at least? Why did he not make him so as to know
the father right from the start?
Why should this almighty God, this Jehova, keep his chosen people
continually on the rack of transgression, crime, and folly?
Why did he create them so that they should so easily forget him,
and devote their reverence, their veneration, their sacrifices,
and their prayers to some brass or wooden image?
The excuse so frequently made throughout the Bible, as a reason for
losing battles or being made captives, that the Jews forsook their
Jehova, their God, is no extenuating circumstance. How comes it that
the nations with the heathen gods were victorious and finally conquered
the Hebrew nation and led them forth as captives? The heathen gods
must have been equal, indeed frequently superior, to the Hebrew God,
because they, the heathen gods, were so very often victorious, and
finally subdued the Hebrews.
The two nations Judah and Israel fell into idolatry almost
immediately. Solomon even preferred Ashtoreth, the goddess of the
Zidonians; and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites (1
Kings xi, 5), and how many other strange gods we have no record.
Israel began as a kingdom 975 B.C.; Jeroboam, a servant of Solomon,
was the first king and Hoshea the last; Shalmanezer, king of Assyria,
took Samaria by force, and drove the Ten Tribes into Media captives,
in the year 721 B.C.; this kingdom having lasted two hundred and
fifty-four years, and having had during that time nineteen kings.
The kingdom of Judah lasted longer, beginning at the same time,
975 B.C. Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, was the first king. The
captivity of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem was completed 588
B.C. Judah had existed as a nation about three hundred and eighty-seven
years. Jehoiachin and Zedekiah were the last kings. During this period
they had about twenty-one kings. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
made a conquest of Egypt, besieged Jerusalem, pillaged and burnt the
Temple, and carried everything away that he could lay his hands on.
With few exceptions, a worse, a more brutal set of men than these
rulers never governed any nation. During their successive reigns,
we find an unbroken succession of the barbarities which were at
that time the generally recognized method of warfare, accompanied by
licentiousness, and all the other savageries of these semi-civilized
people.
Prophet traffic flourished in those days. There were as many kinds
of prophets as there were gods, with a complement of priests to
correspond.
Religious hate and intolerance was manifest on every occasion towards
one another. To gain power and control the affairs of state was
the chief aim and object. They would curse and destroy one another
whenever a favorable opportunity occurred.
Two religious fanatics became especially conspicuous about 918 B.C.,
Elijah and later Elisha. The antagonism and hostility between the
leaders of factions was now very intense. Jezebel slaughtered the
prophets of her opponents, and Elijah, who was the leader of the
Jehova faction, cursed and raved, and many hundred prophets of Baal
were slaughtered (1 Kings xviii, 19, 40). It was brutality against
brutality, crime against crime, savagedom against savagedom. The
bloody struggle continued right along, the slaying being employed
on any and every occasion. Thus he caused the killing of the several
fifties, as related in 2 Kings i. Elijah was a zealot; harsh, bitter,
and merciless to the opponents of his faith. As to the miracles, they
answered the purpose well enough for a lot of ignorant, half-civilized
country people. We have had similar tricks repeated by priests all
along, deluding, cheating, and defrauding the poor simple-minded,
ignorant classes.
"And it came to pass as they still went on and talked, that behold,
there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted
them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven"
(2 Kings ii, 11). How could a man go up to heaven? The atmosphere
around this terrestrial globe is about two to three hundred miles in
hight. The law of gravitation prevents the smallest particle from
leaving the earth's surface, much more a body of the weight of a
man. The whirlwind belongs to the earth, and never reaches beyond a
certain hight. Besides, everything taken up by a whirlwind or cloud
in due time returns to mother earth. As for the horses and chariot
of fire, in later days pious persons pretend to have seen similar
appearances. A man sitting before a fire fancies he sees all kinds
of pictures and faces; they are the reflections of his mind. So when
one fancies representations of figures and objects in the clouds,
or in the moon, they are either delusions of vision, or the fancied
picture of the imagination. There are delusions of hearing. An unsound
condition of the nervous system may produce hallucinations of such a
nature; a disease or a mental derangement may occasion this sort of
nervous disturbances.
A new feature was introduced by these men--the healing art,
resuscitating the supposed dead, casting out evil spirits, laying on
hands, etc. A sillier piece of charlatanism was never put in print than
Elisha's miraculous resuscitating trick on a child in a cataleptic fit
(2 Kings iv, 34, etc.).
A craftier or more cunning piece of business was exciting Jehu, King
Ahab's general, to rebel, and to slaughter the whole of the king's
family. Elisha sends a young prophet to Jehu to pour oil on his head
and anoint him king, on his promise to exterminate the king's family
(2 Kings ix): "For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will
cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is
shut up and left in Israel" (2 Kings ix, 8).
Ahab, Jezebel, and Ahab's seventy sons were all slaughtered. All
the great man's priests, and his kinsfolk, were slain. And Elisha
called together all the prophets of Ahab's faction, all those that
worshiped Baal, and killed them all off. General Jehu was made
king as a recompense for the services he had rendered to the Elisha
faction. That was about 884 B.C.
Usurpation, conspiracy, and bloody crimes mark this period. Intrigue,
robbery, spoilings, lust, and degradation seem epidemic in these
nations. When they were not fighting each other, they were warring
with these barbarities.
Elijah had undoubtedly a powerful party at his command when he prompted
Jehu to revolt and assume the reins of government. He had everything
pretty well organized when Elijah said, "And it shall come to pass,
that him that escapeth Hazael shall Jehu slay; and him that escapeth
from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay."
"Yet I have left seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have
not bowed unto Baal" (1 Kings xix, 17, 18). These seven thousand were
no doubt his immediate disciples, not the commoner herd of people.
He selected a man to succeed him, whom he no doubt knew well--a
farmer, for Elisha was plowing when he was chosen as chief agitator,
arch-conspirator, and inheritor of all the rights and privileges of
a revolutionary leader (1 Kings xix, 20, etc.).
This plowman, prophet, and conspirator combines in himself also the
healer, preacher, and leader, etc. He cures Naaman's leprosy, causes
iron to swim, brings blessings to some and curses to others.
These knavish tricks succeeded with the ignorance and superstition
of the day. The people could be swayed in any direction by a clever,
determined, bold talker, consequently were easily excited into the
committal of any acts, no matter how revolting or brutal.
These political factions led by prophets and priests were not so gentle
and polite towards one another as they are at the present day. The
church ruled. Gods of either side alternately were in power. Those
in power killed off those who were out of power.
Whether it is Elijah or Elisha, leaders of the Jehova party, or Queen
Jezebel, leader of the Baal prophets of the other party, the result
always depends upon numbers and clever leadership.
Ferocious brutality never ceases but for a short while. There is not
a spark of humanity, no mercy, not an act of kindness or consideration.
Menahem was king of Israel 772 B.C. He smote Tipsha and all that were
therein. "And all the women therein that were with child he ripped up"
(2 Kings xv, 16).
Thus we have page after page marked with bloody crime in the book
called sacred history, scripture, and what not. And alas! this is
God's work, God's own book, God's own people.
Much has been said about the inaccuracies in the Bible--the
contradictions, the errors that are found. We are not concerned in any
of them. We are interested in directing the attention of the reader
to the book called holy scripture, a book believed to have been
written by supernatural inspiration, relating to certain acts done
by God; and these acts, accompanied by wonders, were performed for a
people especially selected by him, that were under his protection,
guidance, direct supervision; and their leaders, lawgivers, kings,
priests, prophets, and teachers were by reason of their holiness
in communication with this God, either directly or indirectly, and
thereby were endowed with powers that rendered them capable of doing
things contrary to the fixed laws of nature.
We have endeavored to point to a few of the acts of the greatest and
best men figuring in that book called scripture. These men were not
divine nor were their acts divine. Their acts were not humane, nor
anything approaching what is understood to be humane at the present
age. On the contrary, their acts were barbarous, savage, brutal,
cruel, and in many instances outrageous.
They, the Hebrews, were no better than their neighbors the heathens,
whatever their name or nationality might be. The heathen with their
idols were just as good in war, in battle, as, if not better than,
the Jews were with their God, their Jehova, and the ark, and finally
succeeded in subduing the Jews, burning their Temple with God's ark,
vessels, etc., taking them captives, and destroying them as a nation.
It is evident from history that the principal men of the nation
were corrupt; that both the kingdom of Israel and that of Judah were
rotten to the core. They were continually warring with each other,
as with other nations. Their abuses gave rise to public agitators,
who always found supporters.
Men of the Elijah and Elisha stamp never lose an opportunity, and
they made the most of all of it while they lived.
They introduced a school of thought and action that laid the foundation
for new sects that culminated in the remote future. The belief in
medical miracles was more firmly fastened upon the minds of their
followers by the prophets, fortune-tellers, and healers, than by any
class previous.
Other nations meantime were progressing in civilization--literature,
the art of warfare, etc. Greece was gaining laurels. Homer
appeared. Hesiod wrote about 900 B.C. Tyrtæus's Elegies, Archilochus's
Satires, etc., about 700 B.C. The Persians and Romans were rising and
making rapid progress and conquest, soon to sweep smaller peoples
and nations aside. These heathen made conquests, gained victories,
transplanted the captives, and were altogether far more prosperous
and successful with their idols than the Hebrews were with their
God. Nothing else better proves that the struggles for supremacy
among the human families were perfectly natural, each side depending
always on their leaders, their skill in fighting, their bravery,
and their organization; that their Gods, their idols, their oracles,
and their priests played but a small part in the transactions of life;
and that all the gods, whether idols, or mythological, or Jehovistic,
and no matter of what nationality, had all about the same material
value, power, and importance.
From our modern standpoint all the gods may be classed in one
category. We may safely pronounce them to be creatures of imagination,
sprung into existence through ignorance, fears, and superstition. They
are all alike false, frivolous, and foolish. They have not a particle
of truth in them. And the Gods that are now held in such high esteem
by many people, are no better than the Chaldean idols.
Judah is still struggling to retain her grip on her national
life. Every effort prolongs the agony. Hezekiah is king 717 B.C. Isaiah
is the prophet. Romantic dreamer, songster, critic, and man of visions,
he sees distress, ruin, and misery before him; recalls the glories
of the past, but sees none of the faults; sees the greatness of the
nation of Solomon, David, and Saul, and now beholds the national
degradation. He laments this dreadful condition with a bitterness of
feeling. Then he hopes against hope that something will happen in the
future that will bring about a happy state of his nation and reproduce
the golden prosperity of those glittering ages that are gone. This
man is a close observer, a visionary man, and a critic. He writes and
sings of his own people, of his own country. In the introduction which
he gives himself in Isaiah i and ii, he presents his vision concerning
Judah and Jerusalem, etc. He reproaches them for their sin, iniquity,
corruption, etc.: "Your country is desolate, your cities are burned
with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it
is desolate, as overthrown by strangers" (i, 7).
His dream and hope of the future: "And he shall judge among the
nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords
into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more"
(ii, 4).
This entire chapter, like most of the chapters of Isaiah, is a work
of the imagination. It is the fancy of a dreamer who mentally sees
the thing he longs for. In his nervous exaltation, visions appear,
incoherent, meaningless, except to himself. He brings different parts
of different objects together, representing things and scenes he is
familiar with, in the form of pictures, natural in parts but unnatural
and impossible as a whole.
"As for my people, children are their oppressors and women rule over
them" (iii, 12). He describes the "tinkling ornaments" about their
feet, and their cauls and their round tires like the moon, their
chains and bracelets and mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments
of the legs, and the headbands and the tablets and the earrings, and
the rings and nose-jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the
mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins, and the glasses, and
the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails, etc. This portion is no
doubt realistic. It shows his mental condition and the mood he was in.
His humor changes: "Now I will sing to my well-beloved a song
of my beloved touching his vineyard" (v, 1). In this chapter he
touches upon everything that strikes his fancy. Hell, wind, land,
instruments, lions, etc., etc., are all introduced. He rambles all over
nature. Imaginary ideas are mixed with realities indiscriminately,
for illustration, comparison, lamentation, or complaining. High in
the temple he sees the Lord sit; sees the seraphim with six wings,
etc. (vii). And in chapter viii he has a "great roll and writes
in it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz." Verse 1:
"And I went to the prophetess; and she conceived, and had a son. Then
said the Lord to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz" (3).
Isaiah lived after the captivity of the Ten Tribes.
He also knows of the constant fighting between the Ten tribes and the
two, Israel and Judah. Israel has been carried away captive to other
lands and its country has been given to a people called Cutheans, or
Samaritans. These cultivated and adopted in some measure the Jewish
religion. In moments of despondency he refers to them as he refers
to Moab and other nations elsewhere. The whole Christian faith seems
to be based on the prophecy of the ninth chapter of Isaiah, 6th and
7th verses. Isaiah starts out in this chapter speaking of the time
when God first lightly afflicted the land of Zebulon and the land of
Naphtali, etc. In the 6th verse he says, "For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given," etc. That man has no reference to Christ
as Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
Chapter viii, verse 8: "And he shall pass through Judah; he shall
overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck, and the
stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of the land, O
Immanuel." This really means the son which the prophetess conceived,
and called Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
Chapter ix, verse 21: "Manasseh and Ephraim, and Ephraim and Manasseh;
and they together shall be against Judah," etc. He talks in a confused,
mystified fashion, alluding now to this people, now to that; at one
time to the Tribes and at another to the Moabites, Assyrians, then to
Egypt or Zion; dreams of tyrants, hypocrites, and his hopes revived
about the remnants of Israel. When he speaks of the child he has not
the remotest dream of Christ. He has no foreknowledge, except what his
judgment suggests. He feels annoyed and irritated, then his hope and
aspiration soothe and comfort him, and in chapter xi he describes a
most happy state of affairs: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young
lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them"
(verse 6). "And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones
shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like an ox"
(xi, 7), etc.
The wildest and most extravagant kinds of interpretation are given to
various passages in Isaiah. Into them the theologians force a meaning:
Chapter xxxv, 1: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be
glad for them and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the
rose." Christians say it means the joyful flourishing of Christ's
kingdom.
In chapter xliii, verse 2, Jehova declares: "I, even I, am the Lord;
and beside me there is no savior."
He repeats it in chapter xliv, verse 6: "I am the first, and I am
the last, and beside me there is no God."
Verse 8: "Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know
not any."
Chapter xlix: "Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken ye people from
afar; the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my
mother hath he made mention of my name." This is supposed to mean,
Christ being sent to the Jews complaineth of them.
Chapter lv: "Thus saith the Lord, where is the bill of your mother's
divorcement, whom I have put away? or which creditors is it to whom I
have sold you? Behold! for your iniquities you have sold yourselves,
and for your transgression is your mother put away." It is said that
this means, Christ sheweth that the dereliction of the Jews is not
to be imputed to him, by his ability to save. This is the Christian
interpretation of the above passage. It is a misrepresentation of
facts as well as meaning. Why twist, torture, and falsify it?
Isaiah lived in stirring times. After the captivity of the Ten
Tribes, the government and the people were corrupt. An invasion was at
hand. Sennacherib invades Judea 712-711 B.C. The Medes and Assyrians
were also fighting for supremacy. Being an educated man, he knew the
history of his nation--their trials, the triumph and the glory they
had enjoyed, and the decline of this people with its pride and pomp
to a passing away. He had ample material to supply his imagination; he
therefore dreamed, sang praises, saw visions, hoping for something to
turn up, miraculous or otherwise, to save the remnant of his nation. He
cannot be compared to the two strong, rough miracle-mongers of Israel,
Elijah and Elisha, that had lived over a century before him.
This idealistic dreamer had not the slightest knowledge of coming
events, of what was to happen seven hundred years later. The minds
of men had slowly undergone changes.
The rigidity of the Mosaic laws had undergone some modification,
and some change in interpretation as to the meaning of the many
commands and usages. With every battle and with every invasion new
notions, new customs, were introduced. The transition was surely
laying the foundation for various schools, which was inevitable as
the intelligence and education progressed.
After Isaiah Jeremiah comes, as a natural result of the age. Manasseh,
king of Judah, had been carried captive to Babylon, and restored to
power 677 B.C. Ammon and Josiah follow. The latter is killed, and his
successor, Jehoahaz king of Judah, is deposed and carried to Egypt
609. Three years later Nebuchadnezzar conquers Jerusalem. Jehoiachin
reigns three months, and he is carried off captive to Babylon, besides
three thousand of the principal persons of dignity, and among these
was Ezekiel (598 B.C.). Zedekiah was appointed king. He was the uncle
of Jehoiachin, twenty-one years of age when he began his reign; a
bad one it was, and he suffered for it. And he was the last of the
kings of Judah. In 588 B.C. Jerusalem was captured and destroyed,
the Temple burnt; the sons and friends of Zedekiah were slain;
Zedekiah's eyes were put out, and he was bound and taken to Babylon.
Jeremiah had spoken a good many truths, and given them ample warnings
what would happen. He met with a great deal of opposition--was thrown
into prison and made to suffer for his boldness. His exhortations
and his appeals availed nothing.
The heads of the high priests and those of the rulers were cut off. The
destruction was complete.
Jeremiah wrote fifty-two chapters, and Christian interpreters managed
to find two places in this entire writing that indicated Christ's
kingdom:
Chapter xxiii, verse 5; "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and
prosper and shall execute justice and judgment in the earth"--meaning,
Christ shall rule and save them.
Chapter xxxi, verse 22: "How long wilt thou go about, O thou
backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the
earth. A woman shall compass a man"--meaning, Christ is promised.
These are the only two spots whence any possible allusion can be drawn.
This man is unlike the visionary, romantic dreamer Isaiah, whose
imagination and nervous exaltation kept him more or less in a state of
excitability and carried him into regions of dreamland where his hopes
and wishes were planted. Jeremiah writes up the historical occurrences;
passes judgment on his own people and on the nations his people had to
struggle with, bewailing their corruption, wickedness, wretchedness,
misery. He never dreams of Christ or Christianity, nor does he in
any part allude to Christ. He also, like Isaiah, wrote and acted in
accordance with the times he lived in. He was a steadfast friend
to his disciple Baruch. His lamentations describing the miserable
state of Jerusalem, bewailing its calamities, are perfectly human,
and perfectly natural for a patriot and a poet of his time.
Ezekiel was in Chaldea among the captives about 590 B.C. This man is
also largely endowed with a prolific imagination; he is a visionary
man. He adopts a new method of talking; when the word of the Lord comes
to him, "Son of Man" is the manner in which he is addressed. Jeremiah
uses the expression, "Sayeth the Lord," or "the word to Jeremiah from
the Lord saying"----Isaiah uses, "Thus saith the Lord."
Ezekiel wrote forty-eight chapters. The following are interpreted to
mean Christ:
Chapter xxxiv, verse 20: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them:
Behold I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the
lean cattle"--meaning, the kingdom of Christ.
Chapter xxxvi, verse 25: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you;
and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your
idols, will I cleanse you"--meaning, the blessings of Christ's kingdom.
Chapter xxxvii, verse 20: "And the sticks whereon thou writest shall
be in thine hand before their eyes"--meaning, the promises of Christ's
kingdom.
The political methods of governing nations which had their origin
in the ages of barbarism, ignorance, and brutality, left the rotten
remnants to construct upon them a system of rules for the guidance
of the masses, to control, subjugate, and restrain their mental
faculties, the development and advancement of their understanding,
and to perpetuate the suppression of their higher intellectual powers.
The beliefs in a God with the inferior natural human functions were
handed down to us through many centuries, undergoing transitions and
changes to suit the occasions, circumstances, and times.
The toning down of the Hebrew God is in the first instance mainly
due to the beneficent influences of the heathen, as they were then
called. The educational facilities the Jews enjoyed during their
captivity were of a better and higher order, and how much of the entire
book called scripture is due to these opportunities afforded them we
shall never know. History teaches us, however, that Ezra, when Cyrus
was king of Persia, 457 B.C., was permitted to go to Jerusalem to
collect what manuscripts and data he could find, and he is credited to
have written the Chronicles 453 B.C. How many more books or parts were
written and compiled by Ezra and his companions will remain a mystery.
The work of resuscitating the nation--to recover its former importance,
to reëstablish some of its former glory--was attempted seventy years
later, under Cyrus, who granted the Jews the privilege to return and
rebuild the Temple.
They were prompted to do this out of pure motives of patriotism, and it
can be regarded only as a struggle to continue to exist as a portion
of a historic people. The Levites were instrumental in bringing about
their return. The tribes were those belonging to the kingdom of Judah.
At this time an opposition temple and an opposition religion was
established by the people of Samaria, a mixture of Cutheans and
Israelites. The rivalry and hatred towards each other was as intense
as the hatred and bitter factional fight had been between the Ten
Tribes and the two tribes Israel and Judah.
Affairs did not succeed well. There were quarrels, wrangles,
application to higher authorities to arbitrate and decide their
differences and disputes. New kings, new powers, came for conquest and
plunder. New leaders, new governors, deceit, treachery, rebellion,
assassination, mark these centuries under Assyrians, Persians,
Greeks, and Romans, until 63 B.C., when Judea was made a Roman
province. Meantime new sects had organized under different names,
each one giving its interpretation as to the signification of the
laws contained in the books that were handed down to them. From
the multiplicity of opinions, sects, factions, and fanaticisms, the
already modified ideas were about to undergo a farther transition,
that helped to inaugurate what might well be termed a reformation.
While this nation was crumbling to pieces other nations had advanced
in civilization, in art, science, and literature, that never claimed
to have done anything under the influence of a Jehova, or any symbol
representing him. These nations--Greeks, Romans, Persians--seemed
to have succeeded better with mythological gods than the Jews
with theirs. They had laws to govern them, which required neither
smoke nor thunder to make them. Man, plain man, made them. Some
were surrounded with mysterious ceremonies, symbols; others were
not. Lycurgus reforms the constitution of Sparta 884 B.C. Carpets
are made for tents about this time. The art of sculpture rises in
Egypt. Buddha's religion is introduced into India, and an attempt
is made to discover the primitive language of mankind by Psameticus;
and, what is of considerable importance, children are being educated
in the Grecian language and manners 660 B.C.
These facts are mentioned to show that nations that were not hampered
with the Jehovistic religion, that had no miracles, wonders, or
arks, were more advanced in the national sciences, had made farther
progress in the general civilization of mankind, than the Hebrews. The
electricity of amber was discovered by Thales, and he also taught
the spherical form of the earth as the true cause of lunar eclipses,
640 B.C. Schools of learning flourished in many places. Authors
appeared whose writings are classic to this day--Sappho, Alcæus, Æsop,
Pittachus. Solon's legislation in Athens superseded the laws of Draco.
It was not the Mosaic God that made these people intelligent, gave
them their understanding. Their enlightenment was due simply to the
natural processes of the great nervous centers, independent of all
supernatural interference.
The school of statuary was opened at Athens by Depoenus and
Scyllis. Comedies were enacted on a cart by Susarian and Dolon. Dials
were invented by Anaximander, etc. Learning is encouraged at Athens,
and a public library is founded. All this and much more occurs about
540 B.C.
Persia, too, is rapidly spreading its empire; growing powerful;
progressing in wealth, commerce, and learning. Zoroaster founds his
philosophy, without bloodshed, rapine, or murder.
Rome is in a nourishing condition; takes its first census 565
B.C.--811,700 citizens--spreading its empire.
We must ever bear in mind that all these nations were called heathen,
and their methods of belief are looked upon by Christian teachers as
much inferior to their own.
Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, is not inferior in his morality
to any of the moralists of the age in which he lived, 522 B.C. And
we may safely say he is equal even to the morals of to-day. Manners,
methods, and fashions change, but certain principles remain.
We can examine the pages of the history of other human races and
compare them with the Jews, God's own chosen race, his own people,
and the heathen takes the prize in every branch of science, art, and
the progress of civilization. The Hebrews for many, many centuries,
with their blind infatuation with the supernatural, their constant
superstitious practices of their ceremonial, their senseless devotion
to an imaginary piece of extravagance, were so steeped in stupidity
and ignorance that they had neither time nor inclination to observe
and examine nature and its workings, so remained slaves to their
preposterous practices.
Republics become fashionable. Corinth starts with her republican
form of government 582 B.C., and Rome follows in abolishing a regal
government and establishing a republic 509 B.C.
The Carthaginians make a voyage to Great Britain for tin, etc.
Sophocles, Plato, Socrates, Aristophanes, and a host of renowned
men rise to teach the world how to think, how to speak. Philosophy,
medicine, morality, poetry, history, comedy, tragedy, arts, and
science had a firm hold on the public mind. A degree of refinement
both in manner and in conduct prevailed among all classes.
It was about this time that Ezra and his companions were
compiling--rather collecting--fragments for composing the book of
Chronicles. Other books may have been compiled or written.
Nehemiah followed Ezra. He rebuilt and repeopled Jerusalem. For all
that, nothing good of a permanent character was accomplished.
Time goes on, centuries accumulate; intelligence, experience, and a
higher grade of civilization appear. Nations grow more powerful. The
struggle for supremacy continues, and Judah, like a shuttlecock,
is thrown about from nation to nation, now under one dominion and
now under another.
Religious opinions, however, are forming. They are hostile, bitter,
inimical towards one another; accompanied with all the hatred,
jealousy, spite, that religious differences usually engender. They
are all anxious to hold office, priestly or otherwise, consequently
bribery, lying, and misrepresentation are the means used to gain
the influence of those in power. The rivalry between the sects makes
matters no better.
The Samaritan sect were already in existence when Ezra returned to
Jerusalem. Hostilities led to conflicts, and there was little peace
between them.
In Judea there were several sects, holding various opinions. Like
so many political factions, each sought control, and tried to uphold
its peculiar views and interpretations.
The Sadducees sprang into life about 244 B.C. This sect believed
that the soul dies with the body; "nor do they regard the observance
of anything besides that the law enjoins them; for they think it an
instance of virtue to dispute with those teachers of philosophy whom
they frequent; but this doctrine is received but by few, yet by those
still of greatest dignity. But they are able to do almost anything of
themselves; for when they become magistrates, as they are unwillingly
and by force sometimes obliged to be, they addict themselves to the
notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would not otherwise
hear them" (Josephus).
This sect, one would judge, consisted of the wealthy and more
enlightened class.
"The Pharisees live meanly, despise delicacies in diet, and they
follow the contract of reason; and what that prescribes for them, as
good for them, they do; and they think they ought earnestly to strive
to observe reason's dictates for practice. They also pay respect to
such as are in years; nor are they so bold as to contradict them in
anything which they have introduced; and, when they determine that
all things are done by fate, they do not take away the freedom from
men of acting as they think fit; since their notion is, that it hath
pleased God to make a temperament, whereby what he wills is done,
but so that the will of man can act virtuously or viciously. They
also believe that souls have an immortal vigour in them, and that
under the earth there will be rewards or punishments according as they
have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to
be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have
power to revive and live again; on account of which doctrines they are
able greatly to persuade the body of the people; and whatsoever they
do about divine worship, prayers and sacrifices, they perform them
according to their directions; insomuch that the cities gave great
attestation to them, on account of their entire virtuous conduct, both
in the actions of their lives, and of their discourse also" (Josephus).
"The doctrine of the Essenes is this, that all things are best ascribed
to God. They teach the immortality of souls and esteem that rewards
of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for, and when they send
what they have dedicated to God unto the Temple, they do not offer
sacrifices, because they have more pure lustrations of their own;
on which account they are excluded from the common court of the
Temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves; yet is their course
of life better than other men; and they entirely addict themselves to
husbandry. It also deserves our admiration, how much they exceed all
other men that addict themselves to virtue, and this in righteousness;
and indeed to such a degree that as it hath never appeared among any
other men, neither Greeks nor Barbarians, no, not for a little time,
so hath it endured a long while among them. This is demonstrated by
that institution of theirs, which will not suffer anything to hinder
them from having all things in common; so that a rich man enjoys no
more of his own wealth than he that hath nothing at all. There are
about four thousand men that live in this way; and neither have many
wives, nor are desirous to keep servants; as thinking the latter tempts
men to be unjust; but as they live by themselves, they minister one
to another. They also appoint certain stewards to receive the income
of their revenues, and of the fruits of the ground; such as are good
men, and priests, who are to get their coin and their food ready for
them. Of a fourth sect of Jewish philosophers, Judas the Galilean was
the author. These men agree in all other things with Pharisaic notions;
but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is
to be their only ruler and lord. They also do not value dying any kind
of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations and
friends, nor can any such fear make them call any man Lord" (Josephus).
These matters are quoted to show the changes and modifications
religious opinions were undergoing, and must have undergone for many
centuries previously, until they reached the present stage.
The arguments, discussions, and reasons given, as well as the beliefs
adopted, differ only in degree and kind from those when Abraham and his
father dissented from the mode of worship then extant in Chaldea, some
one thousand nine hundred years previous, and from the modifications
introduced by Moses, the greater part of which were adopted from the
Egyptians--whence the Jews really got the first taste of civilization.
These religious notions of the Jews are the opinions, simply the
opinions, of a small branch of the human family. There are a great
many others.
During all these centuries little or nothing was known of the natural,
of the more intimate relations of nature and nature's forces. And
of all nations the Jewish race knew the least. They were too much
occupied with the supernatural to ever learn anything of the natural.
The supernatural idea sprang from the mire of ignorance and barbarism
and savagery. Crime and outrage mark the centuries as it rolled along
in the tide of human events, halting only when forced, and renewing
its current when there was nothing to bar its way--struggling madly,
conquering, fighting, subduing. Life was of no value, and everything
was brutally crushed under this monstrous supernatural idea, until
at length it was brought to halt by superior natural forces that in
time crushed and subdued it.
After one thousand four hundred years of Jehovaism, of various
shades and hues, this religion emerges from the past ages to the
coming centuries in a new garb, slightly improved, somewhat milder
in temper, and wearing altogether a new mask, so that neither Father
Abraham nor General Moses would recognize his offspring.