[Footnote 1: Even the most sturdy believers in the popular theory that the proper
or titular names attached to the books of the Bible are those of their
authors will hardly be prepared to maintain that Jephthah, Gideon, and
their colleagues wrote the book of Judges. Nor is it easily admissible
that Samuel wrote the two books which pass under his name, one of which
deals entirely with events which took place after his death. In fact, no
one knows who wrote either Judges or Samuel, nor when, within the range
of 100 years, their present form was given to these books.]
[Footnote 2: My citations are taken from the Revised Version, but for Lord and
God I have substituted Jahveh and Elohim.]
[Footnote 3: I need hardly say that I depend upon authoritative Biblical critics,
whenever a question of interpretation of the text arises. As Reuss
appears to me to be one of the most learned, acute, and fair-minded of
those whose works I have studied, I have made most use of the commentary
and dissertations in his splendid French edition of the Bible. But
I have also had recourse to the works of Dillman, Kalisch, Kuenen,
Thenius, Tuch, and others, in cases in which another opinion seemed
desirable.]
[Footnote 4: See "Divination," by Hazoral, _Journal of Anthropology,_ Bombay,
vol. i. No. 1.]
[Footnote 5: See, for example, the message of Jephthah to the King of the
Ammonites: "So now Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, hath dispossessed the
Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them?
Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh, thy Elohim, giveth thee to
possess?" (Jud. xi. 23, 24). For Jephthah, Chemosh is obviously as real
a personage as Jahveh.]
[Footnote 6: For example: "My oblation, my food for my offerings made by fire,
of a sweet savour to me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due
season" (Num. xxviii. 2).]
[Footnote 7: In 2 Samuel xv. 27 David says to Zadok the priest, "Art thou not a
seer?" and Gad is called David's seer.]
[Footnote 8: This would at first appear to be inconsistent with the use of the
word "prophetess" for Deborah. But it does not follow because the writer
of Judges applies the name to Deborah that it was used in her day.]
[Footnote 9: Samuel tells the cook, "Bring the potion which I gave thee, of which
I said to thee, Set it by thee." It was therefore Samuel's to give. "And
the cook took up the thigh (or shoulder) and that which was upon it and
set it before Saul." But, in the Levitical regulations, it is the thigh
(or shoulder) which becomes the priest's own property. "And the
right thigh (or shoulder) shall ye give unto the priest for an
heave-offering," which is given along with the wave breast "unto Aaron
the priest and unto his sons as a due for ever from the children of
Israel" (Lev. vii. 31-34). Reuss writes on this passage: "La cuisse
n'est point agitee, mais simplement _prelevee_ sur ce que les convives
mangeront."]
[Footnote 10: See, for example, Elkanah's sacrifice, 1 Sam. i. 3-9.]
[Footnote 11: The ghost was not supposed to be capable of devouring the gross
material substance of the offering; but his vaporous body appropriated
the smoke of the burnt sacrifice, the visible and odorous exhalations of
other offerings. The blood of the victim was particularly useful because
it was thought to be the special seat of its soul or life. A West
African negro replied to an European sceptic: "Of course, the spirit
cannot eat corporeal food, but he extracts its spiritual part, and, as
we see, leaves the material part behind" (Lippert, _Seelencult,_ p. 16).]
[Footnote 12: It is further well worth consideration whether indications of
former ancestor-worship are not to be found in the singular weight
attached to the veneration of parents in the fourth commandment. It is
the only positive commandment, in addition to those respecting the Deity
and that concerning the Sabbath, and the penalties for infringing it
were of the same character. In China, a corresponding reverence for
parents is part and parcel of ancestor-worship; so in ancient Rome and
in Greece (where parents were even called [secondary and earthly]).
The fifth commandment, as it stands, would be an excellent compromise
between ancestor-worship and monotheism. The larger hereditary share
allotted by Israelitic law to the eldest son reminds one of the
privileges attached to primogeniture in ancient Rome, which were closely
connected with ancestor-worship. There is a good deal to be said in
favour of the speculation that the ark of the covenant may have been a
relic of ancestor-worship; but that topic is too large to be dealt with
incidentally in this place]
[Footnote 13: "The Scientific Aspects of Positivism," _Fortnightly Review,_ 1869,
republished in _Lay Sermons._]
[Footnote 14: OEuvres de Bossuet, ed. 1808, t. xxxv. p. 282.]
[Footnote 15: I should like further to add the expression of my indebtedness to
two works by Herr Julius Lippert, _Der Seelencult in seinen Beziehungen
zur alt-hebraischen Religion_ and _Die Religionen der europaischen
Culturvolker,_ both pubished in 1881. I have found them full of valuable
suggestions.]
[Footnote 16: See among others the remarkable work of Fustel de Coulanges,
_La Cite antique,_ in which the social importance of the old Roman
ancestor-worship is brought out with great clearness.]
[Footnote 17: Supposed to be "the finer or more aeriform part of the body,"
standing in "the same relation to the body as the perfume and the
more essential qualities of a flower do to the more solid substances"
(Mariner, vol. ii. p. 127).]
[Footnote 18: A kind of "clients" in the Roman sense.]
[Footnote 19: It is worthy of remark that [Greek] among the Greeks, and _Deus_
among the Romans, had the same wide signification. The _dii manes_ were
ghosts of ancestors=Atuas of the family.]
[Footnote 20: _Voyages aux iles du Grand Ocean,_ t. i. p. 482.]
[Footnote 21: _Te Ika a Maui: New Zealand and its Inhabitants,_ p. 72.]
[Footnote 22: Compare: "And Samuel said unto Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me?"
(I Sam. xxviii. l5)]
[Footnote 23: Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia,_ p. 238.]
[Footnote 24: See Lippert's excellent remarks on this subject, _Der Seelencult,_
p. 89.]
[Footnote 25: _Sciography_ has the authority of Cudworth, _Intellectual System,_
vol. ii. p. 836. Sciomancy [Greek], which, in the sense of divination
by ghosts, may be found in Bailey's _Dictionary_ (1751: also furnishes a
precedent for my coinage.]
[Footnote 26: "Kami" is used in the sense of Elohim; and is also, like our word
"Lord," employed as a title of respect among men, as indeed Elohim was.]
[Footnote 27: [The Assyrians thus raised Assur to a position of pre-eminence.]]
[Footnote 28: I refer those who wish to know the reasons which lead me to take up
this position to the works of Reuss and Wellhausen, [and especially to
Stade's _Geschichte des Volkes Israel._]]
[Footnote 29: Bunsen. _Egypt's Place,_ vol. v. p.129, note.]
[Footnote 30: See Birch, in _Egypt's Place,_ vol. v; and Brugsch, _History of
Egypt._]
[Footnote 31: Even by Graetz, who, though a fair enough historian, cannot be
accused of any desire to over-estimate the importance of Egyptian
influence upon his people.]
[Footnote 32: Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden,_ Bd. i. p. 370.]
[Footnote 33: See the careful analsyis of the work of the Alexandrian philosopher
and theologian (who, it should be remembered, was a most devout Jew,
held in the highest esteem by his countrymen) in Siegfried's _Philo von
Alexandrien,_ 1875. (Also Dr. J. Drummond's _Philo Judaeus,_ 1888.)]
[Footnote 34: I am not unaware of the existence of many and widely divergent
sects and schools among the Jews at all periods of their history, since
the dispersion. But I imagine that orthodox Judaism is now pretty much
what it was in Philo's time; while Peter and Paul, if they could return
to life, would certainly have to learn the catechism of either the
Roman, Greek, or Anglican Churches, if they desired to be considered
orthodox Christians.]
[Footnote 35: Dante's description of Lucifer engaged in the eternal mastication
of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot--
"Da ogni bocca dirompea co' denti
Un peccatore, a guisa di maciulla,
Si che tre ne facea così dolenti.
A quel dinanzi il mordere era nulla,
Verso 'l graffiar, che tal volta la schiena
Rimanea della pelle tutta brulla"--
is quite in harmony with the Pisan picture and perfectly Polynesian in
conception.]