In the beginning when men created gods they made them in their own
image, cruel, unrestrained and vacillating, All the early religions give
evidence of the savage nature of ancient man. The departed gods, viewed
in the light of modern ideals, were all ugly devils. The boasted God of
the Jews is no exception. Although the books of the Old Testament do
not give us the earliest and doubtless still more savage beliefs of the
Israelites, the oldest portions, such as the legends embodied in Genesis
and the historical books, sufficiently betray that Jahveh was no better
than his compeers. It is evident that originally he was only one of many
gods. He is always spoken of as a family deity--the God of Abraham, of
Isaac and of Jacob. Human sacrifices were at one time offered to him
(see Genesis xxii., Leviticus xxvii. 29, Numbers xxv. 4, Judges xi.
31-39,1 Samuel xv. 23, Micah vi. 6,7). He is anthropomorphic, yet
anything but a gentleman. In his decalogue he describes himself as "a
jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
until the third and fourth generation." He delights in blood and
sacrifice. He is entitled "a god of battles," "Lord of hosts," and "a
man of war." He has the form, the movements, and the imperfections of a
human being. Man is said to be made in his image and after his likeness.
It is plain these words must be taken in their literal significance,
since, a little further on, Adam is described, in the same language, as
having begotten Seth "in his own likeness and after his image" (Genesis
v. 3).
Jahveh walks in the garden in the cool of the day. He has come down to
see the tower of Babel (Gen. xi. 5). He covers Moses with "his hand" so
that he should not see "his face"; and while Moses stands in a clift of
the rock Jahveh shows him "his back parts" (Exodus xxxiii. 23). He makes
clothes for Adam and Eve, and writes his laws with his own finger. After
six days' work we are told that "on the seventh day he rested and was
refreshed" (Exodus xxxi. 17). When Noah sacrificed we are told that
"Jahveh smelled a sweet savor" (Gen. vii. 21). He creates mankind and
then regrets their creation--"It repented Jahveh that he had made man
on the earth and it grieved him at his heart" (Genesis vi. 6). He puts
a bow in the clouds in order to remember his vow, and again and again he
repents of the evil which he thought to do unto his people (see Exodus
xxxii. 14; Numbers xiv.; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16; Jonah iii. 10; etc.)
Jacob wrestles with him; and when things do not go as they wish, Moses,
Joshua, David and Job no more hesitate to remonstrate with their deity
than the African hesitates to chide the fetish that does not answer his
prayers.
In the early books Jahveh is irascible and unjust. His temper is soon
up, and his vengeance usually falls on the wrong parties. Eve eats the
forbidden fruit and all her female descendants are condemned to pains
at childbirth. Pharaoh refuses to let the Hebrews go and the firstborn
child of every Egyptian family is slain, and other dreadful afflictions
are poured on the innocent people. David, like a wise king, takes
a census of his nation, and Jahveh punishes him by slaying seventy
thousand of the people by a pestilence (1 Chron. xxi. 1--17). He
slaughters fifty thousand inhabitants of the village of Bethshemesh
for innocently looking into his travelling-trunk on its return from
captivity (1 Samuel vi. 19). He smites Uzzah for putting his hand to
save the ark from falling (2 Samuel vi. 6, 7), and withers Jeroboam's
hand for venturing to put it upon the altar (1 Kings xiii. 4). He sends
bears to kill forty-two little children for calling Elisha "bald-head"
(2 Kings ii. 23, 24), and his general conduct is that of a barbarous,
bloodthirsty and irresponsible tyrant. We say nothing here of the
character of his favorite people. "Man paints himself in his gods," said
Schiller.
The captivity of the Jews and their consequent contact with other
nations led to their own refinement and an enlarged ideal of their
divinity. He improves much in his character, tastes and propensities.
Nehemiah addressed Jahveh in the elevated tone the Persians addressed
Ahura-Mazda. Whereas in the old days Jahveh ordered whole hecatombs of
sheep and oxen to be sacrificed to him, doubtless because his priests
liked beef and mutton (they had the meat and he had the smell)--the
prophet Isaiah in his first chapter writes, "To what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifices unto me?" saith Jahveh. "Wash you, make you
clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do
evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge
the fatherless, plead for the widow." Similarly, Micah gives worship an
ethical instead of a ceremonial character: "Will Jahveh be pleased with
thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my
firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my
soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jahveh
require of thee but to do justly and love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God." Ezekiel bluntly contradicts Moses, and declares that "the son
shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear
the iniquity of the son" (xviii. 20).
The second Isaiah even looks forward to the time when Gentiles will
acknowledge the Jewish Jahveh, and Zechariah declares "Thus saith Jahveh
of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass that the ten men shall
take hold of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the
skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have
heard that God is with you" (viii. 23).
Jewish vanity did not permit tolerance to extend beyond this. Even in
the New Testament God only offers salvation to those who believe, and
mercilessly damns all the rest. "An honest God is the noblest work of
man," and theists of all kinds have found great difficulty in supplying
the article.
Herbert Spencer, in a paper on "Religion" in the _Nineteenth Century_*
well says: "If we contrast the Hebrew God described in primitive
tradition, manlike in appearance, appetites and emotions, with the
Hebrew Gods as characterised by the prophets, there is shown a widening
range of power along with a nature increasingly remote from that of man.
And on passing to the conceptions of him which are now entertained,
we are made aware of an extreme transfiguration. By a convenient
obliviousness, a deity who in early times is represented as hardening
men's hearts so that they may commit punishable acts, and as employing
a lying spirit to deceive them, comes to be mostly thought of as an
embodiment of virtues transcending the highest we can imagine." And so
the idea of God developes
"Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought."
* January, 1884.
For the process is not simply from the savage to the civilised--it is
from the definite to the dim. As man advances God retires. With each
increase of our knowledge of nature the sphere of the supernatural is
lessened till all deities and devils are seen to be but reflections of
man's imagination and symbols of his ignorance.