"I think that the best and most perfect _The World's Progress, Vol. 01 (of 10) With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American Literature

ever saw was when I went to look at the great Phoenician sailing

vessel: for I saw the largest amount of naval tackling separately

disposed in the smallest stowage possible. For a ship, as you well know,

is brought to anchor, and again got under way, by a vast number of

wooden implements, and of ropes, and sails the sea by means of a

quantity of rigging, and is armed with a number of contrivances against

hostile vessels, and carries about with it a large supply of weapons for

the crew, and, besides, has all the utensils that a man keeps in his

dwelling-house, for each of the messes. In addition, it is loaded with a

quantity of merchandise, which the owner carries with him for his own

profit. Now all the things which I have mentioned lay in a space not

much bigger than a room that would conveniently hold ten beds. And I

remarked that they severally lay in such a way that they did not

obstruct one another, and did not require any one to look for them, and

yet they were neither placed at random, nor entangled one with another,

so as to consume time when they were suddenly wanted for use. Also I

found the captain's assistant, who is called the 'look-out-man,' so well

acquainted with the position of all the articles, and with the number of

them, that even when at a distance he would tell where everything lay,

and how many there were of each sort. Moreover, I saw this man, in his

leisure moments, examining and testing everything that a vessel needs

when at sea; so, as I was surprised, I asked him what he was about,

whereupon he replied, 'Stranger, I am looking to see, in case anything

should happen, how everything is arranged in the ship, and whether

anything is wanting or is inconveniently situated; for when a storm

arises at sea, it is not possible either to look for what is wanting, or

to put to rights what is arranged awkwardly.'"[5]

One mast and one sail seem to have been commonly used. The biremes and

triremes were so-called because of their two or three banks of oars. The

oarsmen sat in the hold, their oars passing through the vessel's side.

Phoenician traffic was always most extensive by sea. Products of

Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Carthage, Spain, Britain, besides those of

countless islands, were transported constantly by water.

THE APPROACH OF A CARAVAN.

"When spring-time flushes the desert grass,

Our kafilas wind through the Khyber Pass.

Lean are the camels, but fat the frails,

Light are the purses but heavy the bales,

As the snow-bound trade of the North comes down

To the market-square of Peshawur town.

In a turquoise twilight, crisp and chill,

A kafila camped at the foot of the hill.

Then blue smoke-haze of the cooking rose,

And tent-peg answered to hammer-nose.

And the picketed ponies shag and wild,

Strained at their ropes as the feed was piled;

And the bubbling camels beside the load

Sprawled for a furlong adown the road;

And Persian pussy-cats, brought for sale,

Spat at the dogs from the camel-bale;

And the tribesmen bellowed to hasten the food;

And the camp-fires twinkled by Fort Junrood;

And there fled on the wings of the gathering dusk

A savour of camels and carpets and musk,

A murmur of voices, a reek of smoke,

To tell us the trade of the Khyber woke."

--_Kipling: Ballad of the King's Jest._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Rawlinson: Phoenicia, 71.

[2] Graham: Roman Africa, preface.

[3] Ezekiel, 27.

[4] Rawlinson: Phoenicia, 157, ff.

[5] Xenophon: Aeconom., VIII., 11

CHAPTER IV.

OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES.

Of first concern among the industries of Phoenicia were her maritime

activities. While many Phoenician voyages led from island to island,

and from one port to another almost in sight, nevertheless the sailors

frequently made trips that necessitated their steering away from the

shore, and venturing out into the open sea. They probably made charts of

the sea and acquired some elementary knowledge of nautical affairs.

Their greatest undertaking was the circumnavigation of Africa. This was

attempted when Neccho was pharaoh of Egypt and held Western Asia in

temporary tribute. Hoping to find a water communication between the Red

Sea and the Mediterranean, he engaged Phoenician seamen to sail around

Africa. Three years were consumed in the journey, since they had to land

each year and grow food sufficient for the continuance of their voyage.

When they returned, through the Straits of Gibraltar, they reported that

the sun had been upon their right hand throughout the trip, which,

Herodotus said: "others may perhaps believe, though I certainly do not."

Little attention was given the matter until scholars began to

investigate the possibility of the earth's rotundity, whereupon the

information so long cast aside was once more noted.

For the most part it is probably true that the art of navigation was but

crudely developed, compared with the progress reached later by the

Greeks. Yet the Greeks themselves were indebted to some extent to the

earliest seamen of unquestioned courage and venturesome spirit.

Of most vital importance were Phoenicia's activities in commerce and

trade, to quite a degree dependent upon her control of the sea.

"Gather now an idea of Phoenicia in the days of her greatest power.

Station yourself upon the rocky island of Tyre, and turn your eyes

toward the west. Were your vision powerful enough, you might see the

towers of Phoenician settlements dotting the Grecian seas and lining

the coast of Africa. Meeting for a moment at the Strait of Gibraltar,

again the two lines would diverge to the north and to the south,

encompassing the known seas. Turn now to the east, and you behold the

caravans extending in long dark lines to the north and to the south. At

the extremities of the Lebanon mountains, crossing the ridge, the lines

divide and subdivide, like streams toward their sources, until they

penetrate and permeate the jungles of India and the valleys of the

Himalayas. Such was Phoenicia in her palmy days, garnering and

distributing the produce and riches of the world."[1]

Farming was also important. Products raised within Phoenicia were used

chiefly for home consumption. Orchards, gardens, and grain-fields

yielded abundant returns and provided the food supply of the population,

save for fish, and such articles of luxury as were demanded by the

citizens of the wealthy ports. The country was too small and its arable

acreage too limited to admit of extensive agricultural pursuits.

While the manufactories of the country were less important, they had an

important place. Phoenicia was widely famed for the production of four

distinct articles, in the making of which her people excelled. First of

these was a purple dye. Other nations attempted to provide the same

commodity but never equalled the perfection of the Tyrian dye. Large

quantities of shell-fish yielding the precious fluid from which it was

made, were found off the Tyrian coast. They were of two species. A

little _sac_ containing a creamy secretion was opened in one, and the

fluid carefully extracted. The other was ground up, shell and all. Both

were necessary to produce the beautiful tints peculiar to Phoenician

cloths.

Their special processes of dyeing, exposing the materials to the

different degrees of light while drying, as well as the chemical

employed to make the colors fast, were secrets well guarded, so that no

imitation could deceive when compared to the splendid purples of Tyre.

Since dress fabrics and material for covering furniture were most

desired in rich and costly hues, raw wool was extensively imported and

woven to meet the ever increasing demand. Dress stuffs from Phoenicia

were prized as booty or as tribute by the several countries which at

different periods exacted homage from Tyre and Sidon.

Sidon was famous for her glassware. Pliny the Elder, a Roman who wrote

on History and Science during the first century of the Christian era,

gave the tradition current in his day concerning the so-called

"discovery of glass."

"It is said that some Phoenician merchants, having landed on the

shores of the river Belus, were preparing their meal, and not finding

suitable stones for raising their saucepans, they used lumps of natrum

contained in their cargo for the purpose. When the natrum was exposed to

the action of the fire, it melted into the sand lying on the banks of

the river, and they saw transparent streams of some unknown liquid

trickling over the ground; this was the origin of glass." At least the

tale is reasonable, and might have been the experience of people at

different times. At all events, the art becoming known to the

Phoenicians, they attained notable skill in imitating precious stones

in colored glass. It was their experience that trinkets, such as beads,

were in great favor among half-civilized tribes with whom they traded,

and the satisfaction was mutual when a few strings of glass beads had

been exchanged for skins, ivory and even gold. It is now believed that

some of the rare glass-ware, treasured as Grecian in museums today, was

really produced in Sidon.

Articles fashioned of gold, silver and other metals were especially

attractive. Such bits of jewelry as have been discovered--necklaces,

bracelets, and rings, give evidence of a high degree of workmanship.

Bowls, goblets, and dishes were elaborately wrought from metals, and

while the decorative designs upon them were often borrowed from the

Greeks or the Egyptians, the original was frequently improved upon. The

following lines from the Iliad show how bits of Phoenician work were

treasured among the Hellenes:

"And then the son of Peleus placed in sight

Prizes of swiftness,--a wrought silver cup

That held six measures, and in beauty far

Excelled all others known; the cunning hands

Of the Sidonian artisans have given

Its graceful shape, and over the dark sea

Men of Phoenicia brought it, with their wares,

To the Greek harbors; Achilles now

Brought it before the assembly as a prize,

For which, in honor of the friend he loved,

The swiftest runners of the host should strive."

Hebrew chroniclers have described the decoration of Solomon's

temple--all wrought by Phoenician skill:

"And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's

son, ... and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was

filled with wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in

brass. And he came to King Solomon, and wrought all his work.

"For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a

line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about. And he made two

capitals of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the

height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other

capital was five cubits. And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain

work, for the capitals which were upon the top of the pillars, seven for

one capital and seven for the other capital. And he made the pillars,

and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the capitals

that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other

capital. And the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars were of

lily work in the porch, four cubits.... And he set up the pillars in the

porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar and called the name

thereof Jachin: and he sat up the left pillar and called the name

thereof Boaz. And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the

work of the pillars finished.

"And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from one brim to the other: it was

round all about, and its height was five cubits: and a line of thirty

cubits did compass it round about. And under the brim of it round about

there were knobs compassing it.... It stood upon twelve oxen, three

looking toward the north, and three looking toward west, and three

looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea

was set above them, and all their hinder parts were inward. And it was

an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of

a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.... So

Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made King Solomon for

the house of the Lord."[2]

The Phoenicians never developed an imposing architecture. Timber was

abundant on the mountain slopes, and was the principal building

material. The great lack of architectural ruins in the country today may

be largely accounted for by its perishability. Stone was also available,

and appears to have been used chiefly for foundations, which were laid

deep and skillfully constructed. City walls were built of stone, and a

few remnants of these may yet be found. Gigantic stones of prodigious

size were piled one upon another and often held in place by their own

tremendous weight. In places where the solid blocks were joined

together, they were united so evenly that the blade of a knife may not

now be placed in the seam.

Tyre and Sidon were both beautiful cities, as abundant evidence goes to

testify. Carthage with her great structures of stone, became a quarry

for Italy, but the Phoenicians were imitators and never developed a

distinctive style of building.

Their sculpture survives only in tombs. A few of these have been

recovered. Some of the figures adorning the interiors of tombs are said

to possess richness and beauty. Their artists made use of huge blocks,

and for this reason their carving was in low relief, or gave such

appearance. The Greeks, on the other hand, found gigantic blocks

unwieldy, and took smaller stones for their embellishment. Consequently

the grace and delicacy of Greek sculpture was not reached in

Phoenicia.

"It seems strange that these Canaanites or Phoenicians, the scorn of

Israel, and the people against whom Joshua bent all his powers, should

have enjoyed such an uncheckered career, making themselves sole

navigators of every sea, and finally founding a city which stood

unrivalled for more than 700 years. Through their hands ... passed

grain, ivory, and skins from Libya; slaves from the Soudan, purple and

cedar from Tyre, frankincense from Arabia, copper from Cyprus, iron from

Elba, tin from Cornwall, wine from Greece, silver from Spain, and gold

and precious stones from Malabar. As a nation of traders and navigators

they established themselves on the coast, and wherever they settled,

depots and factories of various kinds were erected. We do not find them

in the interior of a country. Neither do we hear of alliances with the

people with whom they came in contact, nor of their impressing barbarian

tribes with any notions of the advantages of civilization. In the field

of intellectual acquirements the Carthaginian, as the descendant of the

Phoenician, has no place, and his skill in the gentler arts of life

has no recognition. We find no native architecture, nor do we hear of

any industrial art worth recording. Carthage, it is true, became the

metropolis of their widespread kingdom, and one of the wealthiest cities

of the world.... Temples and stately edifices adorned its streets, and

the remains of great constructional works still attest the solid

grandeur of the city. But the architecture was the work of Greek, not of

Punic, artists; and the few sculptures of note, which may be assigned to

a period anterior to the last Punic war, have nothing in common with the

rude carvings which bear the impress of Carthaginian origin. On the

other hand the art of navigation, the science of agriculture, the

principles of trading, and a system of water supply combined with the

construction of gigantic cisterns, which may still be seen at Carthage,

and in the outskirts of many towns in North Africa, became Rome's

heritage from Phoenicia."[3]

LITERATURE AND LEARNING.

Among the bequests of Phoenicia to mankind, first will always stand

the giving of an alphabet to the world. It is true that other nations

possessed a written language, but their symbols were generally so

complicated and so numerous that they could hardly have become of

general service. It was earlier assumed that the Phoenicians invented

the alphabet which they spread among the nations around them, but now it

is believed that they simply shortened and simplified symbols already in

existence. Their alphabet was widely adopted, to be sure, not because it

was most convenient, but because it was the only one known to many

nations, who never came in direct contact with dwellers on the Nile or

Mesopotamians.

In Phoenicia's palmy days literature and learning were neglected--at

least so far as can now be ascertained. It is not unlikely that scholars

lived sometimes in the larger cities, and schools were probably

maintained to some extent, but at all events, no remains of a

Phoenician literature has come down to us, and it has been commonly

surmised that no extensive literature ever existed. The nation was bent

upon its commercial life, and only such knowledge as would be essential

to traders was regarded as necessary. In later times, in the last

century before Christ and in the first century of the new era, literary

activity was more marked. We are told that there was a school of

philosophy at Sidon, and the city became a literary center, but this had

little to do with the period of Phoenician ascendency which

practically ended with Greek dominance.

RELIGION.

Somewhat more is known of the religion of Phoenicia, but here again we

are not able to trace its development in any complete sense, and most

that has been recorded concerning it was written by foreigners whose

attitude was uniformly hostile.

It is now supposed by some scholars that the Phoenician religion was

at first monotheistic, and that later the worship of many gods was

common. The third stage in its progress would be the greater portion of

the period known to us, when the gods of other peoples were allowed, by

the side of those native to the country. In Carthaginian tombs images of

Egyptian deities have been found side by side with those of ancient Tyre

and Sidon. In the beginning, the Phoenician worship was probably one

manifestation of the Sun-worship, common to Semitic peoples. The

religion of any people is a matter of growth, invariably undergoing

change, until it finally resembles but slightly what it was in the

beginning. Thus the faith of Phoenicia underwent many changes during

her 1500 years. It is agreed that the Phoenicians worshipped curiously

shaped stones at an early period, believing that deities had their abode

within them; plants also were importuned, to appease the spirit that

dwelt within them and cause each to yield food. Finally the heavenly

bodies became objects of worship, the sun being considered most

important. There must always be something appealing in the adoration

felt by primitive minds toward the sun. Most ancient people worshipped

it in one form or another, and the planet was surrounded by unfathomable

mystery in the infancy of the world.

Baal was god of the sun, Astoreth, goddess of the moon. Baal symbolized

the life-giving power of the sun as well as its destructive forces.

Maleck or Molock was the god of fire. He was a god of cruelty and

thirsted for blood. It was to satisfy some of his supposed cravings that

the human sacrifices took place. The first-born child, pure maidens,

favorite sons, were fed to the flames to appease his wrath. These

sacrifices seem strange to us today, and nations of antiquity, immuned

to cruelty and bloodshed, turned from these Phoenician customs in

horror.

An annual spring festival of great antiquity was celebrated. Probably in

early times it lacked the feature of the human sacrifice which made it

most objectionable later. Great forest trees were brought into the

temple court and planted. From their branches were suspended animals,

birds and all else intended for the sacrifice. After the images of the

gods were marched around these trees, all was set on fire and consumed

in a mighty conflagration. To make the celebration more impressive,

human sacrifices were added, especially before some great undertaking,

or upon the occasion of some national calamity.

Astoreth was the great virgin goddess. In the beginning she was

worshipped with simple rites.

"Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called

Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns;

To whose bright image nightly by the moon

Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs."

In course of time the character of the goddess changed, and she was

worshipped by most licentious practices.

In addition to their own gods, the Phoenicians readily incorporated

into their pantheon deities of those tribes and nations with whom they

opened trade. Some years after Phoenicia ceased to be a power, a

Carthaginian general made a treaty with the Emperor of Greece. The two

are reported to have sworn by numerous deities that they would preserve

it. "They swore by Zeus, Hera, and Apollo, by the tutelary deities of

the Carthaginians, by Hercules, by the moon, and the earth, by rivers,

meadows, and waters, by the gods of the allied armies, and the sun, by

all the gods who ruled over Carthage, by all the gods who ruled over

Macedon and the rest of Greece, and by all the gods of those who were

present to ratify the treaty."

At first the Phoenicians worshipped in the open air, with merely an

altar of stone. Later they built elaborate and costly temples, but they

still celebrated certain ceremonies out of doors, in groves or under the

shade of trees.

The religion of the Phoenicians was most innocent and attractive in

its earliest stages. As it developed, with its numerous priesthood

performing their bloody rites, and its necessary sacrifices, teaching

cruelty and blunting the sensibilities of its adherents, it became very

repulsive. Far from inculcating noble ideals, it made a virtue of

renouncing dear ones to agony and death; and a people who from infancy

grew accustomed to such scenes and such conceptions could never develop

finest qualities of character. Wherever Phoenician vessels landed with

their wares, there Phoenician gods and practices went also. The good

done in spreading the habits of civilization to regions remote was

mitigated by the harm done in spreading this abhorrent faith.

Several Greek myths tell of maidens being sacrificed to some monster,

such, for example, as Theseus and The Minotaur. These are believed to

have had their origin in rumors of Phoenician sacrifices. The stories

reached the shores of Greece in various forms and with the aid of Greek

imaginations were woven into the tales as we know them.

[Illustration: SHELLS OF THE SEA SNAIL FROM WHICH THE PURPLE DYE WAS

MADE.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Boughton: History of Ancient Peoples.

[2] I. Kings. 7.

[3] Graham: Roman Africa, 1, 2.

CHAPTER V.

THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE.

It is essential that the student of Hebrew history understand the

topography of Palestine, wherein the nation developed. Names of rivers,

mountains, cities, in this historic land grow familiar from frequent

repetition in the Bible, but where each was located, and what was its

position relative to other oft-mentioned spots, are queries left

unsettled by the average reader. Still more necessary is a general idea

of the country as a whole, because the very formation of the land

determined in a large measure the destiny of those who dwelt within it.

Palestine is bounded on the north by the base of the Lebanons, on the

east by the Arabian desert, on the south by the Wilderness of Judah--an

extension of this desert--, and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea

below Mount Carmel, while north of this mighty mountain the

Phoenicians held the coast, although the Hebrews occupied the province

of Galilee, east of the Phoenician shore.

This celebrated land is scarcely more than 150 miles in length, and

approximates 100 miles in breadth, yet every known variety of climate

may be found within its confines. From regions lying 1300 feet below

sea-level, with heat of the tropics, mountains rise to 9000 feet above

the sea, with Alpine snows and cold.

Palestine, like Greece or Switzerland, falls naturally into many small

divisions, each shut off in a measure from the rest. This explains how

it was possible for the Hebrews to occupy a considerable portion of the

land while the Canaanites, earlier inhabitants of the country, remained

undisturbed in other localities. It also explains the fact that for many

years some of the Hebrews dwelt in tents and clung to their nomadic

customs while no great distance away others of their kinsmen cultivated

the vine and tilled the soil.

While the shore of the Mediterranean was broken by several harbors along

the Phoenician coast, south of Mount Carmel the shore reaches in a

nearly straight line to Egypt. No havens invite ships to safety; no

islands dot the rocky shore. To the Hebrew the sea was a frontier rather

than a means for outside communication. So inhospitable was this coast

that invasions of Palestine were made by land rather than sea. A rocky

line of cliffs varying from thirty to one hundred feet makes landing

impossible save at two or three artificially constructed modern ports.

Six distinct land features are to be found in Palestine and deeply

affected the people who dwelt there in antiquity. First of these is the

Coast Plain, varying in width from two hundred yards to thirty miles.

The northern portion of it was known as the Plain of Sharon; the

southern portion, as the Plain of Philistia. The word _Sharon_ signifies

"forest," and in an early day a dense wood of oaks covered the region

and gave it this name. Only in the north has the forest been perpetuated

to our day. The plain was formerly, and is still, productive. It

contains gardens, orchards, and grain fields. Lacking the inspiring

beauty of the high tablelands, it possesses a quiet charm of its own.

Farther south, the Plain of Philistia stretches off in the direction of

Egypt.

This Coast Plain, falling for the most part into these two smaller

plains, has been a continuation of the great highway between Egypt and

Syria, and a famous war-path. For Egypt particularly, it was a simple

matter to dispatch troops along the shore, to strike terror to less

inaccessible inland districts. Today it lies in peaceful cultivation or

in woodlands of low undergrowth.

"The whole Maritime Plain possesses a quiet but rich beauty. If the

contours are gentle the colors are strong and varied. Along almost the

whole seaboard runs a strip of links and downs, sometimes of pure

drifting sand, sometimes of grass and sand together. Outside this border

of broken gold there is the blue sea, with its fringe of foam. Landward

the soil is a chocolate brown, with breaks and gullies, now bare to

their dirty white shingle and stagnant puddles, and now full of rich

green reeds and rushes that tell of ample water beneath. Over corn and

moorland a million flowers are scattered--poppies, pimpernels, anemones,

the convolvulus and the mallow, the narcissus and blue iris--_roses of

Sharon and lilies of the valley_. Lizards haunt all the sunny banks.

The shimmering air is filled with bees and butterflies, and with the

twittering of small birds, hushed now and then as the shadow of a great

hawk blots the haze. The soft night is sprinkled thick with glittering

fireflies."[1]

Passing the sea and the Coast Plain, the Central Range rises high and

extends throughout the entire length of Palestine, with some variations.

In this great tableland lay the famous kingdom of the Hebrews--Judaea

and Samaria. Judaea lay farther to the south and was separated from the

Coast Plain by the Shephelah--a series of low foot-hills. The Hebrews

built their western cities on these low hills rather than along the

shore. In fact the frequent attacks of the Philistines left the Coast

Plain only now and then in the hands of the Hebrews.

The word _Shephelah_ has been thought to signify _lowlands_, and may

have been applied in contrast to the highlands farther east. Ranging

from five to fifteen miles in width, this elevated strip was the scene

of constant warfare between the Hebrews and Philistines. Numerous

valleys led across it, Ajalon being perhaps most famous.

"The prevailing scenery of the region is of short, steep hillsides and

narrow glens, with a very few great trees, and thickly covered by

brushwood and oak-scrub--crags and scalps of limestone breaking through,

and a rough grey torrent-bed at the bottom of each glen.... Caves, of

course, abound--near the villages, gaping black dens for men and cattle,

but up the unfrequented glens they are hidden by hanging bush, behind

which you disturb only the wild pigeon. Bees murmur everywhere, larks

are singing; and although in the maze of hills you may wander for hours

without meeting a man, or seeing a house, you are seldom out of sound of

the human voice, shepherds and ploughmen calling to their cattle and to

each other across the glens. Higher up you rise to moorlands, with rich

grass if there is a spring, but otherwise, heath, thorns, and rough

herbs that scent the wind. Bees abound here, too, and dragon-flies,

kites and crows; sometimes an eagle floats over the cliffs of Judaea.

The sun beats strong, but you see and feel the sea; the high mountains

are behind, at night they breathe upon these ridges gentle breezes, and

the dews are very heavy.

"Altogether it is a rough, happy land, with its glens and moors, its

mingled brushwood and barley-fields; frequently under cultivation, but

for the most part broken and thirsty, with few wells and many hiding

places; just the home for strong border-men, like Samson, and just the

theatre for that guerilla warfare, varied occasionally by pitched

battles, which Israel and Philistia, the Maccabees and the Syrians,

waged with each other."[2]

At last the foot-hills merge into lofty mountains and series of

plateaus, or table-lands, surrounded by high peaks, appear. Here was

Judaea, the true home of the Hebrews. Farther north, and rising directly

from the Coast Plain, without the intervening foot-hills, was Samaria.

The physical outlines of this long, narrow range determined in advance

that it would not permanently be politically united.

Judaea was quite secure in her mountain heights. On the east her

mountains descend abruptly to the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea; on the

south lies the desert; on the east the low foot-hills, and on the north

the table-land ends in ten miles of wild, waste land. "A desolate,

fatiguing extent of rocky platforms and ridges, or moorland strewn with

boulders, and fields of shallow soil thickly mixed with stone, they are

a true border--more fit for the building of barriers than for the

cultivation of food."

Some parts of this stony plateau were fit for cultivation, but for the

most part, Judaea was a pastoral land--a country of shepherds and

herdsmen. Flocks of sheep fed on the moorlands in ancient times, as they

do today. Water has always been scanty and is preserved in wells and

cisterns for the cattle during months of drouth.

Samaria possesses softer outlines and is a land beautified by nature. As

Judaea was isolated and secure in her natural boundaries, so was Samaria

open to approach. The "openness" of the land is constantly dwelt upon by

those who picture its location. It was difficult to resist invasion and

Samaria was attacked much more often than her sister to the south.

Samaria was a fruitful land, yielding to cultivation; she lay open to

influences on every hand, and was the first to receive fresh impulses

and ideas. "Today, amid the peaceful beauty of the scene--the secluded

vale covered with corn fields, through which the winding streams flash

and glisten into the hazy distance, and the gentle hill rises without a

scarp to the olives waving on its summit--it is possible to appreciate

Isaiah's name for Samaria, _the crown of pride of Ephraim, the flower of

his glorious beauty which is on the head of the fat valley_."[3]

East of both countries and the Central Range which contained them, flows

the Jordan. Geological ages ago it is supposed that a great sea occupied

the valley of the Jordan and the regions on either side. Beneath its

deep waters, layers of limestone accumulated. In course of time, mighty

convulsions within the earth hurled these layers of rock in twain and

threw them up on both sides, until the present mountain ranges were

formed. At the same time a series of rocks were cast up diagonally

across this region to the south, thus enclosing a portion of the salt

waters within the basin so formed. Ages of rain and of glaciers followed

and when these abated, the new surface was left to develop its system of

drainage. The situation at present is almost identical with that in

early Bible times. In the northern part of Palestine, at the base of the

Lebanons, a series of streams, mountain-born, take a southernly

direction and empty into a marshy pool known as Lake Huleh; from the

southern part of this lake the river Jordan flows on to the Lake of

Galilee, whence the stream once again issues forth, this time down a

steep incline, giving it rapid impetus of motion, from whence comes its

name: Jordan--the _Down-comer_. At last its valley widens and by several

estuaries the river finally empties into the Dead Sea.

The beauty attending many rivers of the earth is lacking in the Jordan.

Cutting down its channels in a rift left already deep by eruption, this

valley lies deep below the sea-level and is exceedingly hot. Malaria

lurks in the jungles that border the river-sides, and at no time has the

region been thickly populated. The river is not suited to irrigation,

but certain portions of the valley are watered by its tributaries

sufficiently to make gardens possible.

The Dead Sea occupies the lowest portion of the valley. Soundings have

shown it to be very deep. Not only are its waters heavily charged with

salt, but other chemicals make yet more uninhabitable its basin. No fish

or other form of life lives in its waters, which possess remarkable

clearness and are intensely blue. Having no outlets save evaporation,

and lying where heat is great, the sea is like a mighty caldron, above

which a column of steam rises constantly. 6,000,000 tons of water are

estimated to rise from it daily in the form of vapor.

From its very nature, the Jordan was not a river to which a nation might

become devoted--as, for example, the Egyptians were to their Nile.

Nevertheless, no other stream has become so embodied into literature, or

so endeared to a great religious world. The Hebrews regarded the Jordan

as a boundary--a frontier. Significant is the fact that when it is

mentioned in the Bible it is generally accompanied by some word meaning

_over_ or _across_. _Over_ Jordan, _beyond_ the stream which because of

its fever-breeding, lion-populated jungles and its strange sea,

signified death, destruction, calamity, rather than life. _Beyond_ the

Jordan, then, lay the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey.

East of the Jordan valley, the Eastern Range rises similarly to the

Central Range on the west side. The plateaus of Moab and Gilead seem

higher than the others, for whereas the Central Range rises gradually

from a series of foothills to its exalted height, the Eastern Range

rises abruptly from the extremely low river-valley.

The Eastern Range is blessed with a temperate climate. Heat is always

moderated by breezes which bring health and prosperity with them. The

soil is fertile, sufficiently watered and very productive. It is a

region where agriculture and grazing are followed, and natural

conditions are favorable to both occupations. In spite of these

advantages, the region lies exposed to the south and east. Desert tribes

make life and fortune uncertain for the inhabitants. Even today, when

conditions have been somewhat improved, those who grow crops in this

region must pay tribute to wandering tribes who demand it, or lose their

all. How much more precarious must life have been in those days when

even among the most enlightened nations the hand of the plunderer was

scarcely restrained at all. The Hebrew tribes which settled this plateau

were in the beginning as strong as those that located farther east, but

they could not maintain their individuality against the conditions that

beset them. Sooner or later, they drifted with the restless hordes and

lost their identity.

One more natural division remains to be considered--the Plain of

Esdraelon. Triangular in shape, one point lies north of Mt. Carmel,

while the two long lines extend south-easterly, and meet the third near

the river Jordan. It was this famous plain that gave access to the

Central Range from the west--from the Coast Plain, approach to Samaria

was not difficult by this means.

The region is rather made up of a series of plains, broken by scattered

mountains, yet permitting free passage from the sea to the river Jordan.

An ancient route lay along this way. It has been called the key to

Palestine, and over it came the enemies of Israel. Especially

interesting is the following description, with the added explanation of

a bit of ancient Hebrew poetry characterizing the region:

"As you stand upon that last headland of Gilboa, 200 feet above the

plain, ... the great triangle is spread before you. Along the north of

it the steep brown wall of the Galilean hills, about 1000 feet high,

runs almost due west, till it breaks out and down to the feet of Carmel,

in the forest slopes just high enough to hide the Plain of Acre and sea.

But over and past these slopes Carmel's steady ridge, deepening in blue

the while, carries the eye out to its dark promontory above the

Mediterranean. From this end of Carmel the lower Samarian hills, green

with bush and dotted by white villages, run southeast to the main

Samarian range, and on their edge, due south, seven miles across the

bay, Jenin stands out with its minarets and palms.... But the rest of

the plain is before you--a great expanse of loam, red and black, which

in a more peaceful land would be one sea of waving wheat with island

villages; but here is what its modern name implies, a free, wild

prairie, upon which but one or two hamlets have ventured forth from the

cover of the hills and a timid and tardy cultivation is only now seeking

to overtake the waste of coarse grass and the thistly herbs that camels

love. There is no water visible. The Kishon itself flows in a muddy

trench, unseen five yards away. But here and there a clump of trees

shows where a deep well is worked to keep a little orchard green through

summer.... The roads have no limit to their breadth, but sprawl, as if

at most seasons one caravan could not follow for mud on the path of

another. But these details sink in a great sense of space, and of a

level made almost absolute by the rise of hills on every side of it. It

is a vast inland basin, and from it there breaks just at your feet,

between Jezreel and Shunem, the valley Jordanwards,--breaks as visibly

as river from lake, with a slope and almost the look of a current upon

it.... From Jezreel you can appreciate everything in the literature and

in the history of Esdraelon.

"To begin with, you can enjoy that happiest sketch of a landscape and

its history that was ever drawn in half a dozen lines, _Issachar_--to

which the most of Esdraelon fell--

"Issachar is a large-limbed ass,

Stretching himself between the sheepfolds:

For he saw a resting-place that it was good,

And the land that it was pleasant."

"Such exactly is Esdraelon--a land relaxed and sprawling up among the

hills to north, south and east, as you will see a loosened ass roll and

stretch his limbs any day in the sunshine of a Syrian village yard. To

the highlander looking down upon it, Esdraelon is room to stretch in and

lie happy. Yet the figure of the ass goes further--the room must be paid

for--

'So he bowed his shoulder to bear

And became a servant under task-work.'

"The inheritors of this plain never enjoyed the highland independent of

Manasseh or Naphtali. Open to east and west, Esdraelon was at distant

intervals the war-path or battle-field of great empires.... Even when

there has been no invasion to fear, Esdraelon has still suffered: when

she has not been the camp of the foreigner she has served as the estate

of her neighbors."[4]

CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIVITY OF PALESTINE.

As we might expect in a land possessing such a varied topography, nearly

every known climate is represented in Palestine. Along the seashore the

salt breezes of ocean blow; the climate of the Coast Plain is mild and

pleasant, and favorable to the growth of gardens and orchards; within

the Central Range itself several varieties of climate prevail, and in

the low valley of the Jordan and in the region of the Dead Sea, the heat

of the tropics obtains. The plateaus of the Eastern Range are visited by

health-giving breezes, which moderate the atmosphere. Farther east and

south extends the desert, with its parched sands and sultry air, yet in

the very sight of these desert wastes rise snowy mountain peaks.

"There are palms in Jericho and pine forests in Lebanon. In the Ghor, in

summer, you are under a temperature of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit,

and yet you see glistening the snow-fields of Hermon. All the

intermediate steps between these extremes the eye can see at one sweep

from Carmel--the sands and palms of the coast; the wheat-fields of

Esdraelon, the oaks and sycamores of Galilee; the pines, the peaks, the

snows of Anti-Lebanon. How closely these differences lie to each other!

Take a section of the country across Judaea. With its palms and shadoofs

the Philistine Plain might be a part of the Egyptian Delta; but on the

hills of the Shephelah which overlook it, you are in the scenery of

Southern Europe; the Judaean moors which overlook them are like the

barer uplands of Central Germany; the shepherds wear sheep-skin cloaks

and live under stone roofs--sometimes the snow lies deep; a few miles

farther east and you are down on the desert among the Bedouin, with

their tents of hair and their cotton clothing; a few miles farther

still, and you drop to torrid heat in the Jordan Valley; a few miles

beyond that and you rise to the plateau of the Belka, where the Arabs

say 'the cold is always at home.' Yet from Philistia to the Belka is

scarcely seventy miles."[5]

The year is divided into a wet and a dry season. The rains begin the

last of October and are over by the last of March. These are called the

"early" rains in the Old Testament. Showers which fall in the late

spring are called the "latter" rains. From May until October the summer

is dry. The vegetation is sustained in many places by the heavy dews.

Water is not abundant and the rain-water which falls during the winter

months is stored in wells and cisterns for use in the dry months.

Flowers of many varieties are found through the land and range from

those common to tropical and desert lands to those native to high

altitudes. As in Egypt the fertile land borders upon the shifting desert

sands, so in Palestine the strong contrasts between the productive and

waste lands is the more marked because of their proximity.

Palestine is not a land of heavy forests. To be sure, ages upon ages of

habitation have divested many slopes of native timber, but evidences go

to show that at no time since records began has the country been heavily

forested. Today the woodlands are frequently mere undergrowth. Orchards

are plentiful. The olive is most widely cultivated; apricots, figs,

oranges, almond and walnut trees are grown, and the vine is grown

extensively. Grain fields wave on the plains, in the valleys and

lowlands, wheat, barley and millet being most abundant. Vegetables of

many varieties are commonly raised. Beans, tomatoes, onions and melons

are produced in large quantities. Grass is grown only on small areas,

pasturage being for the most part found on the public land. During the

summer months pasturage exists only near the large fountains or the

carefully built cisterns. These are jealously guarded by their owners.

In earlier times and now, to some extent, wells and pools are provided

to preserve water falling during the winter, and these are for the use

of all who come to them with their flocks and herds.

We find no such condition here as in Egypt, where crops grow abundantly

if the seeds be but once dropped into the ground. On the contrary, while

grains, fruits and garden produce are generally grown, care and constant

industry are required to bring forth good yields. Certain portions of

the country are adapted to the art of husbandry, while others have

always been better suited to cattle and sheep raising. So much of the

tablelands is rocky and stony and unsuited for cultivation that no

arable spots are allowed to go untended.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 149.

[2] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 208.

[3] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 349.

[4] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 381.

[5] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 56.

CHAPTER VI.

EFFECTS OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS UPON THE HEBREWS.

Certain natural effects of the physical conditions upon the people in

Palestine have been apparent as we traced the general land formation. It

is evident that in an age when easy communication was essential to

union, there could be no political unity among a people dwelling in a

country so divided by mountains, plains, and valleys. Again, we would

expect tribes settling the plateaus of the Central Range to develop

differently from those peopling the fertile plain of Sharon. Indeed,

within this range itself we have found that the inhabitants of austere

Judaea led a life unlike that of more accessible Samaria. Other effects

of natural conditions upon the Hebrews are evident, as we shall see.

The very climate of Palestine seems to have had its influence in molding

the religious thought of Israel. "The climate of Palestine is regular

enough to provoke men to methodical labour for its fruits, but the

regularity is often interrupted. The early rains or the latter rains

fail, drought comes occasionally for two years in succession, and that

means famine and pestilence. There are too, the visitations of the

locust, which are said to be bad every fifth or sixth year, and there

are earthquakes, also periodical in Syria. Thus a purely mechanical

conception of nature as something certain and inevitable, whose

processes are more or less under man's control, is impossible; and the

imagination is roused to feel the presence of a will behind nature, in

face of whose interruptions of the fruitfulness or stability of the land

man is absolutely helpless. To such a climate, then, is partly due

Israel's doctrine of Providence."[1] In Deuteronomy the contrast between

Egypt, the land just left, and Palestine, to which Israel was then

passing, is drawn, and the price of prosperity definitely given.

"But the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land

of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and

wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: but the land, whither

ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water

of the rain of heaven. A land which Jehovah thy God careth for: the eyes

of Jehovah thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year

even unto the end of the year.

"And it shall come to pass, if ye shall harken diligently unto my

commandments which I command you this day, to love Jehovah your God, and

to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will

give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the

latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and

thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou

mayst eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not

deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and

_then_ Jehovah's wrath be kindled against you and he shut up the heaven,

that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off

the good land which Jehovah giveth you."[2]

The productivity of the soil had two important results in the

development of the Hebrews. The first affected the very nature of their

being, for it changed them from desert nomads into herders and small

farmers. In place of the tent, they adopted the house, the _fixed_

habitation. Instead of wandering from pasture to pasture with their

cattle and families, as they had done for generation upon generation

before their sojourn in Egypt, they cultivated the land and found it

overflowing with "milk and honey." In the Song of Moses this great

transformation is pictured with vividness and beauty:

"Remember the days of old,

Consider the years of generation on generation.

Ask thy father and he will show thee,

Thine elders and they will tell thee.

When the highest gave nations their heritage,

When he sundered the children of men.

He set the border of the tribes,

By the number of the children of Israel.

For the portion of Jehovah is his people,

Jacob the measure of his heritage.

He found him in a land of the desert,

In a waste, in a howling wilderness.

He encompassed him, He distinguished him,

He watched him as the apple of His eye.

As an eagle stirreth his nest,

Fluttereth over his young,

Spreadeth abroad his wings, taketh them,

Beareth them up on his pinions,

Jehovah alone led him

And no strange god was with him.

He made him to ride on the Land's high places,

And to eat of the growth of the field.

He gave him to suck honey from the cliff,

And oil from the flinty rock.

Cream of kine and milk of sheep,

With lambs' fat and rams'

Breed of Bashan and he-goats,

With fat of the kidneys of wheat;

And the blood of the grape thou drankest in foam!"

While settlement in Palestine produced an advancement in civilization,

it brought at the same time a lower plane of religious life and thought.

With sudden plenty and no longer enforced abstinence of the desert, came

a certain confusion and riot. The desert tends to inspire monotheistic

ideas and conceptions; lands of varied aspect, such as Greece or

Palestine, inspire polytheistic conceptions--divided power rather than

unity.

"The creed of the desert nomad is simple and austere--for nature about

him is monotonous, silent, and illiberal. But Syria is a land of lavish

gifts and oracles--where woods are full of mysterious speech, and rivers

burst suddenly from the ground, where the freedom of nature excites, and

seems to sanction, the passions of the human body, where food is rich,

and men drink wine. The spirit and the senses are equally taken by

surprise. _No one can tell how many voices a tree has who has not come

up to it from the silence of the great desert...._

"But with the awe comes the sense of indulgence, and the starved

instincts of the body break riotously forth.... All this is said to

have happened to Israel from almost their first encampment in Canaan."

"They moved him to jealousy with strange gods,

With abominations provoked him to anger.

They sacrificed to monsters undivine,

Gods they had known not,

New things, lately come in,

Their fathers never had them in awe."

One more effect of physical conditions may be noted here, leaving the

rest to appear in connection with Israel's story--namely, the effect of

the picturesqueness of the land upon these former desert nomads. For one

who has made himself familiar with the beautiful places of earth,

Palestine has its charm, but to people journeying thither from the

wastes of desert, the land possesses matchless beauty. Before calling

attention to the reflection of scenery to be found in ancient Hebrew

writings, let us read the description of certain aspects of the country,

as given by one who knows every foot of the land and has watched it in

and out of season.

"There is the coast-line from the headland of Carmel--northwards the

Gulf of Haifa, with its yellow sands and palms, ... southwards Sharon

with her scattered forest, her coast of sand and grass: westwards the

green sea and the wonderful shadows of the clouds upon it--grey when you

look at them with your face to the sun, but, with the sun behind you,

purple, and more like Homer's 'wine-colored' water than anything I have

seen on the Mediterranean. There is the _excellency of Carmel_ itself:

wheat-fields climbing from Esdraelon to the first bare rocks, then thick

bush and scrub, young ilex, wild olives and pines, with undergrowth of

large purple thistles, mallows with blossoms like pelargoniums, stocks

of hollyhocks, golden broom, honeysuckle, and convolvulus--then, between

the shoulders of the mountain, olive-groves, their dull green mass

banked by the lighter forest trees, and on the flanks the broad lawns,

where in the shadow of great oaks you look far out to sea. There is the

Lake of Galilee as you see it from Gadara, with the hills of Naphtali

above it, and Hermon filling all the north. There, is the prospective

of the Jordan Valley as you look up from over Jericho, between the bare

ranges of Gilead and Ephraim, with the winding ribbon of the river's

jungle, and the top of Hermon like a white cloud in the infinite

distance. There is the forest of Gilead, where you ride, two thousand

feet high, under the boughs of great trees creaking and rustling in the

wind, with all Western Palestine before you. There is the moonlight view

out of the bush on the northern flank of Tabor, the leap of the sun over

the edge of Bashan, summer morning in the Shephelah, and sunset over the

Mediterranean, when you see it from the gateway of the ruins on Samaria

down the glistening Vale of Barley. Even in the barest provinces you get

many a little picture that lives with you for life--a chocolate-coloured

bank with red poppies against the green of the prickly pear hedge above

it, and a yellow lizard darting across; a river-bed of pink oleanders

flush with the plain; a gorge in Judaea, where you look up between

limestone walls picked out with tufts of grass and black-and-tan goats

cropping at them, the deep blue sky over all, and, on the edge of the

only shadow, a well, a trough, and a solitary herdsman.

"And then there are those prospects in which no other country can match

Palestine, for no other has a valley like the Ghor, or a desert like

that which falls from Judaea to the Dead Sea. There is the view from the

Mount of Olives, down twenty miles of desert hill-tops to the deep blue

waters, with the wall of Moab glowing on the further side like burnished

copper, and staining the blue sea red with its light. There is the view

of the Dead Sea through the hazy afternoon, when across the yellow

foreground of Jeshimon the white Lisan rises like a pack of Greenland

ice from the blue waters, and beyond it the Moab range, misty, silent

and weird. There are the precipices of Masada and Engedi sheer from the

salt coast. And, above all, there is the view from Engedi under the full

moon, when the sea is bridged with gold, and the eastern mountains are

black with a border of opal."[3]

The literature of no other people has more vividly reflected a landscape

than has that of the ancient Hebrews. Without some understanding of

Palestine, one would fail to appreciate much that is beautiful in Hebrew

poetry. While we shall touch upon this again in the consideration of

Hebrew literature, some examples will sufficiently illustrate this

point. Take, for example, a portion of the Hundred and Fourth Psalm:

He sendeth forth springs into the valleys;

They run among the mountains:

They give drink to every beast of the field;

The wild asses quench their thirst.

By them the fowl of the heaven have their habitation,

They sing around the branches.

He watereth the mountains from his chambers:

The earth is satisfied with the fruits of thy work.

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,

And herb for the service of man:

That he may bring forth food out of the earth,

And wine that maketh glad the heart of man,

And oil to make his face to shine,

And bread that strengtheneth man's heart.

The trees of Jehovah are satisfied;

The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;

Where the birds make their nests:

As for the stork, the fir trees are her house;

The high mountains are for the wild goats;

The rocks are a refuge for the conies.

O Jehovah, how manifold are thy works!

In wisdom hast thou made them all:

The earth is full of thy riches.

Yonder is the sea, great and wide,

Wherein are things creeping innumerable,

Both small and great beasts.

There go the ships;

There is leviathan, whom thou hast formed to take his pastime therein.

These wait all upon thee,

That thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

This poem reflects general characteristics of the land. The next is a

pastoral poem which could have been written only in Judaea. Its figures

are pastoral throughout, and lack of acquaintance with the land wherein

it was produced often causes one to miss the successive pictures it

portrays. Reference is made to the Twenty-third Psalm, wherein the

comparison of the shepherd with his sheep is maintained.

"The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want."

Only a good faithful shepherd could lead his sheep in Judaea so that at

no time would they want for care or food.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:"

Pasturage was often scanty, and to lie always in _green_ pastures was

the greatest boon that could befall the sheep.

"He leadeth me beside the still waters."

Not lakes, but cisterns or pools, constructed to hold the rains of

winter for use in the dry months of summer. Unless these were carefully

sought out in each new pasture, the sheep would suffer from thirst.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For thou art with me:

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

When one pasture was exhausted, it was necessary to journey to another.

Danger lurked on every side. Did the sheep wander away, they were sure

to be attacked by fierce animals, or stolen by other herders. The

shepherd led the way amid all dangers, and his rod and staff gave

assurance to the sheep some distance from him.

"Thou preparest a table before me

In the presence of mine enemies:

Thou anointest my head with oil;

My cup runneth over."

The figure is not changed here, as some have supposed, and a banquet

introduced. Quite on the contrary. In that land grew many poisonous

herbs, likely to be unnoticed by the sheep. The shepherd watched to see

that his flock found food free from these enemies. Then at last, when

the night fell, and the flock was gathered into the fold, the shepherd

stood by the door with a cup of oil in his hand ready to pour on the

heads of weary, exhausted lambs, thus to refresh and revive them. Only a

little could be spared for each one. To have a cup filled to overflowing

was a wonderful blessing. So is the figure carried on to the end of the

beautiful song, and only goodness and mercy could possibly attend one so

protected.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Smith: Historical Geography of Holy Land, 73.

[2] Deuteronomy 11, 10.

[3] Smith: Historical Geography, 94.

CHAPTER VII.

SOURCES OF HEBREW HISTORY.

We may divide the sources of early Hebrew history into (1) Hebrew

sources, and (2) sources supplied by contemporaneous nations and by

archæology. The Hebrew sources are principally three: the historical

books of the Old Testament, the Talmud, the writings of Josephus. The

sources derived elsewhere are records and inscriptions throwing light

upon the events of this ancient nation as chronicled by the Egyptians,

Babylonians, and Assyrians, and statements of Greek travellers and

writers bearing upon their later development. Moreover, in late years

the spade of the excavator has unearthed ruins and remains which have

added materially to previous knowledge of the subject and have

established beyond any doubt facts previously unsettled.

Before taking up a discussion of the historical books of the Old

Testament--the first of the Hebrew sources,--it is necessary that we

consider the compilation of the Bible, and understand how the many books

which compose it were made up, and gathered into the one volume with

which we are now familiar.

Only in late years have people generally been ready to approach the

study of the Bible in the spirit of modern investigation long applied to

other fields of learning. While the reasons for this reluctance may not

be at once apparent, they are not difficult to discover.

During the Middle Ages religious teaching was guarded and kept alive by

monks in the monasteries of Europe. Only with them was learning of any

sort fostered and saved from extinction during the period known as the

Dark Ages. The books which these monks studied, and the records and

productions they committed to paper or parchment, were invariably

written in Latin--a tongue unknown to the people at large. Since the

Bible existed only in Latin, Hebrew or Greek, it was a sealed book to

the masses, who knew it only through brief portions read and explained

to them by the priests.

After a time, translations were made, first of portions only, then the

entire work was rendered in modern languages. Still it was not

considered fitting to allow its contents to be generally known. Copies

were chained to pulpits in the cathedrals and were opened by the priest

alone. Those who might have been able to procure the costly copies were

not permitted to do so. In the story of England we shall find that only

a few centuries ago, to possess a Bible and read it aloud in the family

was made an offense and was punishable if discovered. Thus a mystery

attached to the Scriptures, instilled into the masses by those who

guarded the ancient volume. The awe and reverence so aroused, clung to

the Bible generations after its contents had become familiar to the

Christian world. One scholar calls the Bible "literature smothered in

reverence."

Again, no other event can be cited throughout history which has had so

great an effect upon the world as had the ministry of Christ, recorded

at length in the New Testament. The doctrines he taught have been held

sacred by his followers in all subsequent ages.

The prophetic literature of the Old Testament had foretold the coming of

some one who should restore Israel, and the ancient Hebrew nation looked

with expectancy to the birth of one who should raise their kingdom to

the rank of powerful nations of the earth. By some, Christ was

identified with the one whose coming the prophets had proclaimed, and

thus a continuity was found throughout the Bible--from the epic of

creation in the beginning, to the birth and teaching of Christ, and the

added records of his apostles. For many years the entire work was spoken

of as the "Word of God," and equal reverence given the sixty-four books

which compose it. A verse would be quoted from one chapter with no

regard to its context quite as freely as from another. Sentences would

be extracted from primitive Hebrew law and put side by side with

portions of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, or Paul's letters to mission

churches. Finally scholars began to exclaim against such crude and

literal interpretation of the Scriptures. "Here," they exclaimed, "is a

book embodying legends current among a Semitic people twenty-five

hundred years before the birth of Christ; there are prayers and hymns

of praise composed at varying periods and finally brought together into

one collection; and once again, here is a series of letters written by

early preachers of the gospel to their outlying churches, and you are

culling a stanza here, a verse there, and a sentence in a third place,

as though they were of equal value and had been written under similar

circumstances!" Far from welcoming new light upon the subject of deep

importance, a cry of indignation arose, from the clergy as well as

laymen. It was argued that a scientific study of the Bible would be sure

to detract from the force and influence of its teachings, and was in

itself irreverent. But the spark of Promethean fire was not destined to

go out--the spirit of investigation was abroad. The more scholars

searched and studied, the more they were persuaded that a scientific

exposition of the Bible would enhance rather than lessen its value. They

saw that changing ideas in the book itself existed and had been passed

over by those who did not understand them and who thought it their duty

to blindly accept what they did not comprehend; while a broader

conception was destined to lead to the establishment of profound

religious truths, far more satisfying than the earlier blind belief.

At last the facts these scholars derived, the methods they applied, the

conclusions they reached, largely overcame prejudices of long standing,

and it may safely be said that today only those people oppose a

scientific study of the Bible who are themselves unfamiliar with

scientific study in other fields of knowledge.

With this explanation, the results of careful investigation of the Old

Testament will henceforth be cited and used freely with no further

comment, since by such study alone can we come into a true understanding

of a wonderful literature and a remarkable people.

The word _Bible_ means _books_, or a _library_. A considerable portion

of Hebrew literature has herein been preserved to us. Originally these

productions were written in the ancient Hebrew tongue, and had no

connection with one another save that they treated of the same people at

different stages of their development, and further, treated in some

form--most of them, at least--of their faith. When these writings were

first collected and bound together, more books were included than at

present. Since then the collection has been edited and re-edited.

Compilers have introduced notes in the text and assigned authorship of

certain writings to those who were themselves mere compilers. Later

still, it became customary to write books in verses; into this form the

contents of the Scriptures were thrown. Instead of a narrative being

given at length it was divided into verses, as in our Bibles at present

used. Instead of a poem being reproduced in its original form, or a

drama being divided by the speeches of its participants, both were cast

into verses and numbered. Thus prose and poetry came to have the same

appearance.

"More than fifty books, the production of a large number of different

authors representing periods of time extending over many centuries, are

all comprehended between the covers of a single volume. There is no

greater monument of the power of printing to diffuse thought than this

fact, that the whole classic literature of one of the world's greatest

peoples can be carried about in the hand or pocket.

"But there is another side to the matter. A high price has been paid for

this feat of manufacturing a portable literature: no less a price than

the effacement from the books of the Bible of their whole literary

structure. Where the literature is dramatic there are no names of

speakers nor divisions of speeches; there are no titles to essays or

poems, nor anything to mark where one poem or discourse ends and another

begins. It is as if the whole were printed 'solid,' like a newspaper

without newspaper headings. The most familiar English literature treated

in this fashion would lose a great part of its literary interest; the

writings of the Hebrews suffer still more through our unfamiliarity with

many of the literary forms in which they were cast. Even this statement

does not fully represent the injury done to this literature of the Bible

by the traditional shape in which it is presented to us. Between the

Biblical writers and our own times have intervened ages in which all

interest in literary beauty was lost, and philosophic activity took the

form of protracted discussions of brief sayings or 'texts.' Accordingly

this solidified matter of Hebrew literature has been divided up into

single sentences or 'verses,' numbered mechanically one, two, three,

etc., and thus the original literary form has been further obscured. It

is not surprising that to most readers the Bible has become, not a

literature, but simply a store-house of pious 'texts.'"[1]

We call certain books of the Old Testament _historical_, but this does

not mean, in this case, that they were written with the sole object of

chronicling the events of Hebrew progress. They were at the same time

books of devotion, showing God's dealing with them, His chosen people.

Before the ninth or eighth century B.C., records of Israel's past

existed only in snatches of song and in traditions handed down by word

of mouth from one generation to another. The Song of Deborah, preserved

in the Book of Judges, belongs to a remote period; the legends of

creation, common to the Semitic race, as related in Genesis were current

from time immemorial. In the eighth century before Christ an effort was

made in the "Schools of the Prophets" to compile the history of Israel,

but the leading motive was rather to illustrate God's favor to them in

the past by citing instances familiar to them all, and to prove that

divine protection had been withdrawn from them when they had gone

astray--as exemplified in their past, rather than to leave for future

ages records of their heroic deeds and victories and civil

administration. The result was that the historical writings prepared

were based on ancient traditions, to be sure, but reflected the

religious beliefs and the normal ideas of the age in which they were

produced.

The historical books include Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,

Joshua, Judges, I. and II. Samuel, I. and II. Kings, Chronicles, Ezra,

and Nehemiah. Other books, such as Isaiah, for example, include

historical matter.

"The first portion of the history, the biblical _Genesis_, gives us what

that word implies--the Gradual Formation of the Chosen Nation. The next

section on the Exodus (the biblical _Exodus_, _Leviticus_, _Numbers_),

the Emigration of the Chosen People to the Land of Promise; with

migration goes the gradual evolution into an organized nation, and the

massing at this point of legal documents makes the Constitutional

History of Israel. Under the name of The Judges (the biblical _Joshua_,

_Judges_, part of _Samuel_) we next distinguish the Grand Transition: a

people starting with theocracy, the government of an invisible God,

comes to accept the rule of visible kings copied from nations around.

But precisely at the time these kings begin there is established a

regular order of 'prophets,' or interpreters for God, representing the

old idea of theocracy: the fourth period of the history may be named as

The Kings and The Prophets, a regular Government of Kings tempered by an

Opposition of Prophets. Then comes the Exile: the witnessing of Israel

for Jehovah has to be carried on in the land of strangers. There return

from exile, not the whole people, but only those who are devoted to the

service of God; not the Hebrew Nation, but the Jewish Church: and the

final section is thus the Ecclesiastical History of _The Chronicles_.

The spirit of the history is throughout made emphatic by story, or at

times by fable or song. But in addition to the formal historic books we

have to note two others:

"_Deuteronomy_ gives us the Orations and Songs of Moses, emphasizing the

crisis of the leader's Farewell to Israel. And in Isaiah we find a

certain dramatic work, which, in connection with the deliverance from

exile, reads a meaning into events such as strikes a unity through the

whole career of the chosen people: it is an Epilogue to the History of

Israel."

The _Talmud_ has been mentioned as a second source of Hebrew history.

The word itself means literally "learning," or "teaching." It is the

name given a collection of Hebrew writings which were written primarily

to explain and exemplify Jewish law. Two Talmuds were prepared, one in

Babylon--known as the Babylonian Talmud, or the Talmud of the Eastern

land; the other written in Jerusalem, known as the Talmud of the Western

land. They were kept in the temples and added to and continued by rabbis

through the first five centuries after the Christian era. The interest

in them for the historian today centers around the traditions and

legends introduced, these having been current among the Hebrews

generations earlier. The Talmud is rich in folklore, and so possesses

relative value from a historical standpoint.

Third among Hebrew sources we have noted the Writings of Josephus.

Josephus was a Jewish priest who lived in the first century after

Christ. Not only was he himself a priest but for twenty-four generations

before him his forefathers had presided in the temple. During his life,

Palestine was held by the Romans, and he wrote the "Antiquities of the

Jews," and a history of the Jewish War, to acquaint the people of his

day with the story of his people. He claims to have found his material

in the sacred books of the temple and frequently explains at length

events merely mentioned in the Old Testament. His writings have been

valued both in early and recent times.

Among the sources elsewhere obtained, the records of contemporaneous

nations are of first importance. The oppression of the Israelites under

the Egyptian pharaoh, for example, is believed to find confirmation in

scenes and inscriptions recently discovered in the valley of the Nile.

In our study of Assyrian conquest, we have noted tribute lists and

memorials celebrating victories over the Hebrew kingdoms, recovered

among other ruins in Mesopotamia. The king of Babylonia finally left

Jerusalem, the beautiful city of Palestine, demolished and well nigh

abandoned. Thousands of her noblest citizens were taken captives to

Babylon. This incident was naturally chronicled in Babylonian annals.

Similar instances might be cited, but these serve to show ways in which

material for Hebrew history may be gleaned from the records of nations

that flourished by her side.

Lastly we may note the results of archaeological research as supplying

material for the reconstruction of Israel's past. In 1883 M. Naville

opened a mound wherein was discovered a portion of what is supposed to

have been Pithom--one of the two "store-cities," built by the Children

of Israel while in bondage. The bricks still remaining verified the

story as it has come down to us from the Hebrews themselves, in the Book

of Exodus. The lower rows of bricks were mixed with straw; those laid in

later were kneaded with stubble, and those last placed were formed

simply of sun-dried mud.

Explorations have been carried on recently in Jerusalem and elsewhere in

Palestine, and some important discoveries have already been made.

[Illustration: HARBOR OF JAPPA]

In spite of these various means, we have scanty material at best for the

reconstruction of Hebrew history. The Hebrews were unhistorical and did

not appreciate, nor apparently care to preserve, their secular history.

Records of priceless value were allowed to perish and we have today

only extracts from them, or some simple phrase concerning them. It

was the portion of Israel to tell the world of her religion and to leave

to others the extolling of earthly successes and failures. The comments

of alien nations are unsatisfactory, for their attitude was generally

hostile, or at least, unsympathetic. Nevertheless, while questions

remain unanswered and certain points disputed by authorities, we are

able to follow with some degree of certainty the formation of the Hebrew

nation and its political development.

[Illustration: HIGH PRIEST.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Biblical Masterpieces, Moulton, Intro.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE HEBREWS PRIOR TO THEIR OCCUPATION OF CANAAN.

Regarding the earliest period of Israel's existence there has been wide

difference of opinion. Until recently there have been many who have

accepted literally the early books of the Old Testament, composed

hundreds of years after the events recorded took place, and the product

of several writers, all of whom were filled with a desire to show the

favor of God exemplified in every detail of Hebrew progress. If one

takes the position that the history of the Hebrews is different from

that of every other people in the world's history, if it be held that

their development cannot be traced as the unfolding of all other peoples

has been traced, then there is nothing more to be said--one can merely

chronicle the wonders and marvel. If, on the other hand, one accepts the

absolutely established historical fact that these people began as other

nations began, in a very crude and primitive state, and came slowly into

enlightenment as did nations contemporaneous with them, then the

progress of the early Hebrews can be similarly followed. The conclusions

which seem to be best substantiated are the ones we shall consider,

noting at the same time that among authorities and scholars many

differences of opinion still exist.

It is generally conceded that about 1500 B.C. a company of Semitics,

originally inhabiting Arabia, but for some years settlers in

Mesopotamia, set out from the Euphrates valley--probably from Ur--and

journeyed westward. The name Abraham is the one tradition gives as the

leader of this company, which after the fashion of nomads, sought new

pastures in districts less crowded than those of Chaldea. Among those

who attached themselves to this migration appear to have been the

ancestors of the tribes later known as the Moabites, Ammonites and

Edomites. By slow stages this band of emigrants passed into Syria and

reached at length the country we know as Palestine. At that time it was

known as Canaan, and was the home of Semitics more or less closely

related to the people we know as Phoenicians. The Canaanites and

Phoenicians are often identified. As a matter of fact, the Canaanites

were Phoenicians who occupied the country districts and, save for a

common heritage, had little in common with those merchantmen who filled

the great sea-ports of Phoenicia.

The Moabites and Ammonites immediately settled the most fertile places

in the plateaus of the Eastern Range, and continued the sheep-raising

and cattle grazing to which they had long been accustomed. The Edomites

also found homes for themselves. The few followers of Abraham appear to

have continued their life as tent-dwellers in the southern part of

Canaan. In course of time, they were re-enforced by a second company

from Mesopotamia,--a tribe bearing the name of Jacob. The word Jacob

means re-enforcement, and he is represented in the Old Testament as the

father of twelve children, later spoken of as the twelve tribes of

Israel. It was quite customary for Hebrew writers of a late period to

treat the names of tribes as individuals, and to attribute to the

individuals thus created characteristics peculiar to the patriarchal, or

heroic age. "However plastic and distinct the individualities of Ishmael

and Edom, Israel and Joseph may seem to us, they are all only

personifications and representations of the races of tribes whose names

they bear.... When Jacob and Laban together set up a boundary-stone upon

Mount Gilead and make a solemn and sworn covenant that neither of them

henceforth will pass this boundary with evil intent, it is perfectly

plain that this is not a private agreement between father-in-law and

son-in-law, but a legal regulation of tribal boundary rights between

Israel and Aram."[1]

Leadership of the whole band of Israelites was desired by the tribe of

Joseph, which, failing to secure it, departed from the rest and

journeyed to Egypt. Here, after some time, the other tribes gathered and

settled a fertile district northeast of the Delta, and known by the name

of Goshen.

When these Israelites first came into Egypt, a great Semitic upheaval

had taken place in the ancient world, and there seem to be reasons for

thinking that the welcome given them was due to the fact that a Semitic

pharaoh ruled in Egypt. In any event, they lived peaceably for two or

three generations--how much longer we do not know--when the aspect of

matters changed. The native rulers were restored and because Egypt was

having difficulty with tribes in Western Asia, foreigners within her

immediate borders were looked upon with suspicion. A large number of

laborers were needed to carry on gigantic building projects, and the

Israelites were suddenly impressed as public slaves, and set to work

under armed guards.

It was against all nature that desert nomads, accustomed to the freedom

of the wide world, would long endure this servitude. The instincts of

their ancestors would live on for many generations, although temporarily

overpowered. After being ground down by the heel of the oppressor for a

considerable number of years, they were at length incited by Moses to

depart for the land still known to them by stories handed down from

father to son--the land of Canaan.

Moses, by birth a Hebrew, had been educated in the family of an

Egyptian, but became an outlaw upon killing an Egyptian while defending

one of his own kinsmen. Escaping to the land of the Midianites, he had

drunk in the air of freedom and the instincts of his forefathers were

stimulated into activity. He took on the religion of the Midianites and

accepted Jahweh as his God. He grieved over the condition to which his

people had fallen, and brooding over it, experienced a divine commission

to restore them to freedom. Rallying them in the name of Jahweh, he led

them out of the land of bondage. According to the Hebrew account, Egypt

was at that particular time stricken by plagues, and the people,

naturally superstitious, attributed their afflictions to the foreigners

within their land. So incensed against them did they become that the

ruler, in a moment of weakness, consented to their exodus. No sooner had

they departed, however, than he bethought him of the laborers he had

lost, and dispatched the flower of his cavalry to compel their return.

A wind, blowing fiercely, made a fording of the Sea possible for the

Israelites, but the cavalry, sent in pursuit, was engulfed and lost.

This incident was seized upon as a mark of divine favor by these

disheartened people, who saw direct intervention of Jahweh in their

behalf. Thus the power of a supreme God was impressed upon their minds

as long years of religious instruction could never have impressed it.

For forty years the Children of Israel wandered in the desert, loitering

here and there, finding their way between hostile tribes. During these

years the figure of Moses stands forth with unfailing strength and

courage. The people he had led thither were mere children, rendered

dependent and unsteadfast by their long period of servitude. When

difficulties beset them, they did not hesitate to turn upon their

deliverer and reproach him, and to wish often to return to the land they

had recently left, where food was always forthcoming, even though at the

expense of liberty and self-respect. But Moses, with staunch heart and

great patience, slowly organized them into a religious body, finding

unity for them in the one God, Jahweh. Meanwhile a new generation was

growing up among them; sons and daughters who were born in the air of

freedom, assimilated new ideas more readily, were more steadfast in

their purpose, and grew into greater self-reliance than their fathers

knew. With this new spirit manifest, we see the possibilities of a

dawning nation, and a more promising future.

Not long before the exodus, incoming Philistines pressed the Canaanites

farther east, and they in turn displaced the Moabites and Ammonites from

their fertile homes in the Eastern Range. These Semitics remembered

their old allies, now in the desert, and besought them for aid. The

Israelites helped them defeat the Canaanites and then appropriated the

fertile places for themselves. Soon, however, increasing numbers made it

necessary to seek wider room, and the tribe of Judah crossed the Jordan

and settled the tableland which afterwards bore its name. This

settlement was not made without great effort, for the earlier

inhabitants held tenaciously to the land. The tribes of Simeon and Levi

tried to do likewise, but their treachery made them victims to the

revenge of the Canaanites. The Levites disappeared as a tribe, but were

perpetuated as a priestly order. The Simeonites became absorbed with the

tribe of Judah. Reuben and Gad remained east of the Jordan, and the

remaining tribes united under Joshua and made an attack upon the central

part of Canaan. Jericho fell into their hands, also Ai and Bethel. When

these most exposed places fell to their portion, the inhabitants of

Gibeon, a Canaanite stronghold, grew alarmed for their own safety and

craftily sought a treaty with the invaders. This becoming known among

the league of Canaanite cities, banded together to drive out the

Israelites, the members of the league were so incensed that they marched

against the walls of Gibeon for thus deserting their common cause. The

citizens of Gibeon appealed to the Hebrews for aid, and according to

their treaty, Joshua led his army out to meet the forces of the

besiegers.

The Hebrews were accustomed to hand-to-hand conflicts, and to the

heights; the Canaanites fought wherever possible with chariots, and

naturally preferred the plains. At first it seemed as though the

advantage belonged to the Canaanites, for they carried the battle into

the plain, and had strong cities behind them. Nevertheless, a sudden

rain made the earth so soft that their chariots availed them little, and

when the rain changed to hail, their ranks were thrown into confusion.

The book of Jashar, an ancient Hebrew work, has not been preserved but

was apparently made up of old ballads and war songs. A fragment repeated

in the book of Joshua recounts that Joshua, the famous Hebrew warrior,

commanded the sun and moon to stand still until the battle ended. Some

infer that he wished daylight to remain until the battle could be fought

out; others hold that he wanted the darkness of the storm to continue,

to further discomfit the Canaanites.

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon;

And thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed,

Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies."[2]

Victory belonged to the Israelites, and the seven tribes took possession

of trans-Jordan regions.

"But this does not mean that Israel was in full possession of the land:

by far the best and most fertile portions of it, and especially the

majority of the cities, whose strong fortifications made them

impregnable to the primitive military skill of the Israelites, remained

in possession of the Canaanites; it was chiefly the woody mountain

chains of northern and middle Palestine that had come into the power of

Israel, and the Canaanites had partly to be subdued by force and partly

to be peacefully absorbed--a long and difficult task."[3]

"Then sang Moses and the Children of Israel this song unto the Lord:

"I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:

The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and song,

And he is become my salvation:

This is my God, and I will praise him;

My father's God, and I will exalt him.

(1) _Sung by Men._

"The Lord is a man of war:

The Lord is his name.

Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea:

And his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.

The deeps cover them:

They went down into the depths like a stone.

_Sung by Women._

"Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:

The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

(2) _Men._

"Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power,

Thy right hand, O Lord, dasheth in pieces the enemy.

And in the greatness of thine excellency thou overthrowest

Them that rise up against thee:

Thou sendest forth thy wrath, it consumeth them as stubble

And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were piled up,

The floods stood upright as an heap;

The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.

The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil:

My lust shall be satisfied upon them;

I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them

Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them:

They sank as lead in the mighty waters.

_Women._

"Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:

The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

(3) _Men._

"Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the Gods?

Who is like thee, glorious in holiness,

Fearful in praises, doing wonders?

Thou stretchest out thy right hand,

The earth swallowed them.

Thou in thy mercy hast led the people which thou hast redeemed:

Thou hast guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation.

The peoples have heard, they tremble:

Till thy people pass over, O Lord,

Till the people pass over which thou hast purchased.

Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine

inheritance,

The place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in,

The sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.

The Lord shall reign forever and ever.

_Women._

"Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:

The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."

--_Modern Reader's Bible._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] History of the People of Israel; Cornill, 30.

[2] Joshua, 10, 12.

[3] History of People of Israel, 47.

CHAPTER IX.

THE ERA OF THE JUDGES.

As we have seen, Joshua's victory left the conquest of Canaan but begun.

It so happened that the great powers were too absorbed with their own

affairs to expand by conquest, so the earlier inhabitants of Palestine

and the Hebrews were left to fight out their difficulties as best they

might. For some generations after the entrance of the Israelites into

Canaan, confusion and disorder ruled. The invaders would win the heights

in a given region, while around them in the plains and valleys,

flourished hostile clans, often harassing and threatening their

settlements. Years of peace would settle over the land, and the two

peoples--Israelites and Canaanites--would intermarry, when again the old

hatred would break out anew.

The period following the death of Joshua has been called the "Era of the

Judges." The simple statement of the ancient Hebrew chronicler makes

clear the situation: "And there was no king in Israel; each man did that

which was right in his own eyes." Our knowledge of this age is derived

chiefly from the Book of Judges, which contains some of the earliest

records of the Israelites. However, the material herein contained has

not come down to us first hand. A prophet of later times selected such

material as suited his purpose from records which were accessible to

him. The writer or writers of the Book of Judges desired to inculcate

religious truths--not to recount historical events. Such pictures of the

life during those years which followed Hebrew occupation of Canaan as

seemed best were fitted into phrases like these: "And the people of

Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jahweh, and Jahweh

delivered them into the hands of their enemies." "The people of Israel

cried unto Jahweh and He raised up to them a deliverer, and the land had

rest." It seems to have been fortunately the case that the older

material was incorporated into the phrases with little change, and from

it one is able to get a very fair idea of the stage of progress to

which the Hebrews had then arrived.

Thirteen _Judges_ are mentioned in the Old Testament, and there were

surely many more whose names were not recorded. In times of emergency,

danger, attack or oppression, a clan, or several clans, one tribe or

possibly two or three tribes, would voluntarily unite under some chosen

chieftain, whose duties and powers were indefinite. If he were able to

deliver them in their distress, they acknowledged him as their leader so

long as he lived. When a similar occasion arose, it was met in a similar

way. Since differences between clans, disputes between individuals, and

various questions were referred to this chief for settlement, later

writers named these men from this duty of referees, _Judges_. Their

earliest title of "deliverer" was more expressive. The story of the

several recorded judges may be read in the biblical book bearing that

name. We shall consider the work of three--not necessarily the most

important in Israel's history.

The World's Progress, Vol. 01 (of 10) With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American Literature · 第 22 / 23 章

"I think that the best and most perfect arrangement of things which I