_On the Literature and Religious Usages of the Ancient Hebrews_.
Obscurity of the Subject; Learning issued from the Levitical Colleges;
Schools of the Prophets; Music and Poetry; Meaning of the term Prophecy;
Illustrated by References to the Old Testament and to the New; The power
of Prediction not confined to those bred in the Schools; Race of false
Prophets; Their Malignity and Deceit; Micaiah and Ahab; Charge against
Jeremiah the Prophet; Criterion to distinguish True from False Prophets;
The Canonical Writings of the Prophets; Literature of Prophets; Sublime
Nature of their Compositions; Examples from Psalms and Prophetical
Writings; Humane and liberal Spirit; Care used to keep alive the
Knowledge of the Law; Evils arising from the Division of lsrael and
Judah; Ezra collects the Ancient Books; Schools of Prophets similar to
Convents; Sciences; Astronomy; Division of Time, Days Months, and Years;
Sabbaths and New Moons; Jewish Festivals; Passover; Pentecost; Feast of
Tabernacles; Of Trumpets; Jubilee; Daughters of Zelophedad; Feast of
Dedication; Minor Anniversaries; Solemn Character of Hebrew Learning;
Its easy Adaptation to Christianity; Superior to the Literature of all
other ancient Nations.
There is no subject on which greater obscurity prevails than that of the
learning and schools of the Hebrews prior to their return from the
Babylonian Captivity. The wise institution of Moses, which provided for
the maintenance of Levitical towns in all the tribes, secured at least an
hereditary knowledge of the law, including both its civil and its
spiritual enactments. It is extremely probable, therefore, that all the
varieties of literary attainment which might he deemed necessary, either
for the discharge of professional duties or for the ornament of private
life, were derived from those seminaries, and partook largely of their
general character and spirit. An examination of the scanty remains of that
remote period will justify, to a considerable extent, the conjecture now
made. It will appear that the poetry, the ethics, the oratory, the music,
and even the physical science cultivated in the time of Samuel and David
bore a close relation to the original object of the Levitical colleges,
and were meant to promote the principles of religion and morality, no less
than of that singular patriotism which made the Hebrew delight in his
separation from all other nations of the earth.
Our attention is first attracted by the several allusions which are
scattered over the earlier books of the Old Testament to the schools of
the prophets. These were establishments obviously intended to prepare
young men for certain offices analogous to those which are discharged in
our days by the different orders of the clergy; maintained in some degree
at the public expense; and placed under the superintendence of persons who
were distinguished for their gravity and high endowments. The principal
studies pursued in these convents appear to have been poetry and music,
the elements of which were necessary to the young prophet when he was
called to take a part in the worship of Jehovah. In the book of Samuel we
find the pupils performing on psalteries, tabrets, and harps; and in the
first section of the Chronicles it is said that the sons of Asaph, of
Heman, and of Jeduthan prophesied with harps, with psalteries, and with
cymbals. For the same reason Miriam the sister of Moses is called a
prophetess. When preparing to chant her song of triumph, upon the
destruction of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, "she took a timbrel in her
hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances."
On a similar ground is the expression to be interpreted when used by St.
Paul in the eleventh chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians.
"Every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishononreth
her head;" that is, every female who takes a part in the devotions of the
Christian Church,--the supplications and the praises,--ought, according to
the practice of eastern nations, to have her face concealed in a veil, as
becoming the modesty of her sex in a mixed congregation. The term
prophesy, in this instance, must be restricted to the use of psalmody,
because exposition or exhortation in public was not permitted to the
women, who were not allowed to speak or even to ask a question in a place
of worship. Nay, the same apostle applies the title of prophet to those
persons among the heathen who composed or uttered songs in praise of their
gods. In his Epistle to Titus he alludes to the people of Crete in these
words, "one of themselves, even a prophet of their own, has said, the
Cretans were always liars." And every classical scholar is perfectly aware
that in the language of pagan antiquity a poet and a prophet were
synonymous appellations.
But the function of the prophet was not confined to the duty of praise and
thanksgiving; it also implied the ability to expound and enforce the
principles of the Mosaical Law. He was entitled to exhort and entreat; and
we accordingly find that the greater portion of the prophetical writings
consist of remonstrances, rebukes, threatenings, and expostulations. In
order to be a prophet, in the Hebrew sense of the expression, it was not
necessary to be endowed with the power of foreseeing future events. It is
true that the holy men through whom the Almighty thought meet to reveal
his intentions relative to the church, were usually selected from the
order of persons now described. But there were several exceptions, among
whom stood preeminent the eloquent Daniel and the pathetic Amos. To
prophesy, therefore, in the later times of the Hebrew commonwealth meant
most generally the explication and enforcement of Divine truth--an import
of the term which was extended into the era of the New Testament, when the
more recondite sense of the phrase was almost entirely laid aside.
In truth, it should seem that even before the days of Samuel the opinions,
or rather perhaps the popular notions connected with the name and offices
of a prophet, had undergone some change, and began to point to higher
objects. Saul, when employed in seeking his father's asses, had journeyed
so far from home that he despaired of finding his way thither; and when he
was come to the land of Zuph he said to his servant, "Come, and let us
return; lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for
us. And he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God,
and he is an honourable man; all that he saith cometh surely to pass: now
let us go thither; peradventure he can show us our way that we should go.
Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold; if we go, what shall we bring
the man; for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present
to bring to the man of God; what have we? And the servant answered Saul
again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel
of silver; that will I give to the man of God to tell us our way.
(Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake,
Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a prophet was
beforetime called a seer.) Then said Saul to his servant, Well said; come,
let us go. So they went unto the city where the man of God was."[51]
The description of soothsayer whom Saul and his servant had resolved to
consult is very common in all lands at a certain stage of knowledge and
civilization,--a personage who, without much reliance on Divine aid, could
amuse the curiosity of a rustic and perplex his ignorance with an
ambiguous answer. But the age of Samuel required more solid qualifications
in the prophets, and hence the term seer had already given way to that of
expounder or master of eloquence and wisdom. The expedient suggested by
the attendant of the son of Kish was very natural, and quite consistent
with his rank and habits; while the easy acquiescence which he obtained
from his master denotes the simplicity of ancient times, not less than the
untutored state of mind in which the future King of Israel had left his
parent's dwelling. Before he mounted the throne, however, he was sent to
acquire the elements of learning among the sons of the prophets; whom, in
a short time, he accompanied in their pious exercises in a manner so
elevated as to astonish every one who had formerly known the young
Benjamite; till then remarkable only for a mild disposition and great
bodily strength.
The mental bias towards prediction, which is almost unavoidably acquired
by the practice of elucidation and commentary on a dark text, soon showed
itself in the schools of the prophets. Many of them, trusting to their own
ingenuity rather than to the suggestion of the Spirit of Truth, ventured
to foretel the issue of events, and to delineate the future fortunes of
nations, as well as of individuals. Hence the race of false prophets, who
brought so much obloquy upon the whole order, and not unfrequently barred
against the approach of godly admonition the ears of those who were
actually addressed by an inspired messenger. Nay, it appears that some of
them arrogated the power of realizing the good or the evil which they were
pleased to foretel; allowing the people to believe that they were
possessed with demons, who enabled them, not only to foresee, but to
influence in no small measure the course of Providence. The impression on
the mind of Ahab in regard to Micaiah leaves no room for doubt that the
king imagined the prophet to be actuated by a malignant feeling towards
him. "I hate him," he exclaimed, "for he doth not prophesy good concerning
me, but evil." Nor was the conviction that this ungracious soothsayer
spoke from his own wishes rather than from a divine impulse confined to
the Israelitish monarch. The messenger who was sent to call Micaiah spake
unto him, saying, "Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto
the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of
one of them, and speak that which is good."[52]
When we consider the uncertainty which must have attended all predictions,
where the wishes or feelings of the prophet could give a different
expression to the purposes of God, we cannot any longer be surprised at
the neglect with which such announcements were frequently treated by those
to whom they were addressed. It is remarkable, too, that one prophet did
not possess the gift of ascertaining the truth or sincerity of another who
might declare that he spoke in the name of God; and hence there were no
means of determining the good faith of this order of men, except the
general evidence of a pious character, or the test of a successful
experience. For example, when Jeremish proclaimed the approaching fall of
Jerusalem, the other prophets were among the first to oppose him, saying,
"Thou shalt surely die: why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord
that this house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate
without an inhabitant?" The princes of Judah assembled in the Temple to
hear the charge repeated against this fearless minister; when again,
"spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes, and to all the
people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against
this city, as ye have heard with your ears."
It is worthy of notice, too, that the prediction which gave so much
offence was conditional and contingent, and that Jeremiah, accordingly,
incurred the hazard of suffering the severe punishment due to a false
prophet; because if the people had turned from their sins the fate of
their capital and nation would have been protracted. "The Lord sent me to
prophesy against this house, and against this city, all the words that ye
have heard. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the
voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent him of the evil that
he hath pronounced against you. As for me, behold, I am in your hand; do
with me as seemeth good and meet unto you: but know ye for certain, that,
if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon
yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof; for of a
truth the Lord hath sent me unto you, to speak all these words in your
ears."[53]
The decision of the princes was more equitable than the accusation adduced
by the priests and prophets; for according to the law of Moses no man
could be punished for predicting the most calamitous events, provided he
persevered in the assertion that he spoke in the name of Jehovah. The
divine legislator denounced the penalty of death against every prophet who
should speak in the name of any false god, or who should speak in the name
of Jehovah that which he was not commanded to speak; but, in regard to the
latter offence, the guilt could only be substantiated by the failure of
the prophecy. "And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word
which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the
Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which
the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it
presumptuously."[54]
It is obvious, however, that in all cases where a condition was implied,
the fulfilment of the prediction could not be regarded as essential to the
establishment of the prophetic character. The capture of Jerusalem
produced the most undeniable testimony to the inspiration of Jeremiah, as
well as to the sincerity of his expostulation; yet it is well known that
his motives did not escape suspicion, and that his memory was loaded by
many of his countrymen with the charge of having favoured the Chaldeans.
It may not appear out of place to inform the young reader that the
prophets whose writings are contained in the Old Testament are in number
sixteen, and usually divided into two classes, the greater and the minor,
according to the extent of their works and the importance of their
subject. Of the former, Isaiah, who may be regarded as the chief, began to
prophesy under Uzziah, and continued till the first year of Manasseh.
Jeremiah flourished a few years before the great captivity, and lived to
witness the fulfilment of his own predictions. Ezekiel, who had been
carried into the Babylonian territory some time before the ruin of his
native country in the days of Zedekiah, began to perform his office among
the Jewish captives in the land of the Chaldees, in the fifth year after
Jehoiakim was made prisoner. Daniel, the youngest of the four, was only
twelve years of age when he was involved in the miseries of conquest, and
reduced to the condition of a dependent at a foreign court.
Among the twelve minor prophets, Jonas, Hosea, Amos, and Micah preceded
the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. Nahum and Joel appeared between
that catastrophe and the captivity of Judah. Habakkuk, Obadiah, and
Zephaniah lived at the time when Jerusalem was taken, and during part of
the captivity. Haggai, Zecharias, and Malachi, the last of the whole,
prophesied after the return from Babylon.
But our business is rather with the literature of the prophets at large
than with the special functions of the few individuals of their body who
were commissioned by Heaven to reveal the secrets of future time. Of the
fruits of their professional study we have fine examples preserved in the
Psalms of David and the Proverbs of Solomon; the former, a collection of
sacred lyrics composed for the worship of Jehovah; the latter, a compend
of practical wisdom, suggested by an enlightened experience, and expressed
in language equally striking for its divine truth and rare simplicity.
In early times the dictates of moral philosophy are enounced in short
sentences, the result of much thought, and of which the effect is usually
heightened by the introduction of a judicious antithesis both in the
sentiment and the expression. The apothegms ascribed to the wise men of
Greece belong to this kind of composition; being extremely valuable to a
rude people who can profit by the fruits of reasoning without being able
to attend to its forms, and deposite in their minds a useful precept,
unencumbered with the arguments by means of which its soundness might be
proved. The books which bear the name of Solomon are distinguished above
all others for the sage views that they exhibit of human life, and for the
sensible maxims addressed to all conditions of men who have to encounter
its manifold perils--proving a guide unto the feet and a lamp unto the
path.
In no respect does the Hebrew nation appear to greater advantage than when
viewed in the light of their sublime compositions. Nor is this remark
confined simply to the style or mechanism of their writings, which is
nevertheless allowed by the best judges to possess many merits; but may be
extended more especially to the exalted nature of their subjects,--the
works, the attributes, and the purposes of Jehovah. The poets of pagan
antiquity, on the other hand, excite by their descriptions of divine
things our ridicule or disgust. Even the most approved of their order
exhibit repulsive images of their deities, and suggest the grossest ideas
in connexion with the principles and enjoyments which prevail among the
inhabitants of Olympus. But the contemporaries of David, inferior in many
things to the ingenious people who listened to the strains of Homer and of
Virgil, are remarkable for their elevated conceptions of the Supreme Being
as the Creator and Governor of the world, not less than for the suitable
terms in which they give utterance to their exalted thoughts.
In no other country but Judea, at that early period, were such sentiments
as the following either expressed or felt. "O Jehovah, our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth, thou that hast set thy glory above
the heavens! When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon and the stars which thou has ordained; what is man, that thou art
mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Bless Jehovah,
O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great, and art clothed with honour
and majesty! Thou coverest thyself with light as with a garment, and
stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: who layeth the beams of his
chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh
upon the wings of the wind! Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and all that is
within me, bless his holy name. Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and forget not
all his benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy
diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with
loving-kindness and tender mercies. Jehovah is merciful and gracious, slow
to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He hath not dealt with us after our
sins, neither rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven
is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust."--"O Lord, thou
hast searched me and known me: thou knowest my downsitting and mine
uprising, thou understandest my thoughts long before. Thou art about my
bed and about my path, and art acquainted with all my ways. Whither shall
I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I
ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I go down to the dwelling of the
departed, thou art there also. If I take the wings of the morning and
abide in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead
me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall
cover me, even the night shall be turned into day. Yea, the darkness is no
darkness with thee, but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the
light are both alike to thee."
A similar train of lofty conception pervades the writings of the prophets.
"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the
heavens with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Behold,
the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust
of the balance; be taketh up the isles as a very little thing. It is he
that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are
as grass-hoppers. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created
these things, who bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all
by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power,
no one faileth. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth; fainteth
not, neither is weary! There is no searching of his understanding."
The following quotation from the same inspired author is very striking,
inasmuch as the truth contained in it is founded upon an enlarged view of
the Divine government, and directly pointed against that insidious
Manicheism, which, originating in the East, has gradually infected the
religious opinions of a large portion of mankind. Light was imagined to
proceed from one source, add darkness from another; all good was traced do
one being, and all evil was ascribed to a hostile and antagonist
principle. Spirit, pure and happy, arose from the former; while matter,
with its foul propensities and jarring elements, took its rise from the
latter. But Isaiah, guided by an impulse which supersedes the inferences
of the profoundest philosophy, thus speaks concerning the God of the
Hebrews:--"I am the Lord, and there is none else; there is no God besides
me: I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace and create evil;
I, the Lord, do all these things."
But it is not only in such sublimity of language and exalted imagery that
the literature of the Hebrews surpasses the writings of the most learned
and ingenious portion of the heathen world. A distinction not less
remarkable is to be found in the humane and compassionate spirit which
animates even the earliest parts of the sacred volume; composed at a time
when the manners of all nations were still unrefined, and the softer
emotions were not held in honour. "Blessed is he who considereth the poor
and needy; the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble. The Lord will
preserve him and keep him alive; he shall be blessed upon earth, and thou
wilt not deliver him into the will of his enemies. The Lord will
strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; thou wilt make all his bed in
his sickness."
We shall in vain seek for instances of such a benign and liberal feeling
in the volumes of the most enlightened of pagan writers, whether poets or
orators. How beautifully does the following observation made by Solomon
contrast with the contempt expressed by Horace for the great body of his
countrymen:--"He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth; but he that bath
mercy on the poor happy is he. He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his
Maker."
Among the Israelites there was no distinction as to literary privilege or
philosophical sectarianism. There was no profane vulgar in the chosen
people. The stores of Divine knowledge were open to all alike. The
descendant of Jacob beheld in every member of his tribe a brother, and not
a master; one who in all the respects which give to man dignity and
self-esteem was his equal in the strictest sense of the term. Hence the
noble flame of patriotism which glowed in all the Hebrew institutions
before the people became corrupted by idolatry and a too frequent
intercourse with the surrounding tribes; and hence, too, the still more
noble spirit of fraternal affection which breathed in their ancient law,
their devotional writers, and their prophets.
It is worthy of remark, that in order to prevent any part of the sacred
oracles from becoming obsolete or falling into oblivion, the inspired
lawgiver left an injunction to read the books which bear his name, in the
hearing of all the people, at the end of every seven years at farthest.
"And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests, the sons of
Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the
elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every
seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of
tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in
the place which he shall choose, thou shaft read this law before all
Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, and women, and
children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear,
and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all
the words of this law: and that their children which have not known any
thing may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in
the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it."[55]
The value of the Levitical institution, whence originated the schools of
the prophets, will be the moat highly appreciated by those readers who
have noted the evils which arose from its suppression among the ten
tribes, and finally, in the kingdom of Judah itself. The separation of the
Israelites under Jeroboam led, in the first instance, to a defection from
the Mosaic ritual, and, in the end, to the establishment of a rival
worship,--a revolution which compelled all the Levites who remained
attached to the primitive faith to desert such of their cities as belonged
to the revolted tribes, and to seek an asylum among their brethren who
acknowledged the successor of Solomon. Hence the reign of idolatry and
that total neglect of the law which disgraced the government of the new
dynasty; though it must be granted, that with a view to perpetuate their
relationship to the father of the faithful, the people preserved certain
copies of the Pentateuch, even after the desolation of their land and the
complete extinction of their political independence.
It is more surprising to find, that even among the orthodox Hebrews at
Jerusalem the law sank into a gradual oblivion; insomuch that in the days
of Jehosophat, the fifth from David, it was found necessary to appoint a
special commission of Levites and priests to revive the knowledge of its
holy sanctions in all parts of the country. "And they taught in Judah, and
had the book of the law of the Lord with them, and went about throughout
all the cities of Judah, and taught the people."[56]
At a later period, after a succession of idolatrous princes, the neglect
of the Mosaical writings became still more general, till at length the
very manuscript, or book of the law, which used to be read in the ears of
the congregation, could nowhere be found. Josiah, famed for his piety and
attention to the ceremonies of the national religion, gave orders to
repair the Temple for the worship of Jehovah; on which occasion, Hilkiah,
the high-priest, found the precious record in the house of the Lord, and
sent it to the king.[57] A momentary zeal bound the people once more to
the belief and usages of their ancestors; but the example of the profane
or careless sovereigns who afterward filled the throne of Josiah plunged
the country once more into guilt, obliterating all recollection of the
divine statutes, at least as a code of public law. The captivity throws a
temporary cloud over the Hebrew annals, and prevents us from tracing
beyond that point the progress of opinion on this interesting subject. But
upon the return from Babylon a new era commences; and we now observe the
same people, who in their prosperity were constantly deviating into the
grossest superstitions and most contemptible idolatry, remarkable for a
rigid adherence to the ritual of Moses, and for a severe intolerance
towards all who questioned its heavenly origin or its universal
obligation. Ezra is understood to have charged himself with the duty of
collecting and arranging the manuscripts which had survived the desolation
inflicted upon his country by the arms of Assyria, at the same time
substituting for the more ancient characters usually known as the
Samaritan the Chaldean alphabet, to which his followers had now become
accustomed. From these notices, however, which respect a later period, we
return to the more primitive times immediately succeeding the era of the
commonwealth.
We have ascribed the cultivation of sacred knowledge to the schools of the
prophets, without having been able to trace very distinctly the
institution of these seminaries to the Levitical colleges, the proper
fountains of the national literature. In the days of Samuel, it would
appear that the necessity of certain subordinate establishments had been
admitted, in order to supply a class of persons qualified to instruct such
of the people as lived at a distance from the cities of the Levites. The
rule of the prophetical schools seems to have borne some resemblance to
that of the better description of Christian convents in the primitive
ages, enjoining abstinence and labour, together with an implicit obedience
to the authority of their superiors. The clothing, also, it may be
presumed, was humble, and somewhat peculiar. A rough garment fastened with
a girdle round the loins is alluded to by Zechariah; while the impression
made on the courtiers at Ramoth-gilead by the appearance of one of the
sons of the prophets sent thither by Elisha would lead us to the same
conclusion. "Wherefore," said they, "came this mad fellow to thee?" Nor is
it without reason that some authors have attributed the conduct of the
children who mocked Elieha to the uncouthness of his dress and to the want
of a covering for his head. Be this as it may, there is no doubt that from
the societies now mentioned sprang the most distinguished men who adorned
the happiest era of the Jewish church.
Were we allowed to form a judgment from the few incidents recorded in the
books of the Kings, we should conclude that the accomplishment of writing
was not very general among the subjects of David and Solomon. It is
ingeniously conjectured by Michaelis, that Joab, the captain of the host,
and sister's son of the inspired monarch himself, could not handle the
pen; else he would not, for the purpose of concealing from the bearer the
real object for which he was sent, have found it necessary to tax his
ingenuity by putting the very suspicious detail of Uriah's death into the
mouth of a messenger to be delivered verbally to the king. He would at
once have written to him that the devoted man was killed.[58]
As to science in its higher branches, we can not expect any proofs of
eminence among a secluded people, devoted, as the Hebrews were, to the
pursuits of agriculture and the feeding of cattle. Solomon, indeed, is
said to have been acquainted with all the productions of nature, from the
cedar of Libanus to the hyssop on the wall; and we may readily believe,
that the curiosity which distinguished his temper would find some
gratification in the researches of natural history,--the first study of
the opening mind in the earliest stage of social life. But astronomy had
not advanced farther than to present an interesting subject of
contemplation to the pious mind, which could only regard the firmament as
a smooth surface spread out like a curtain, or bearing some resemblance to
the canopy of a spacious tent. The schools of the prophets, we may
presume, were still strangers to those profound calculations which
determine the distance, the magnitude, and the periodical revolutions of
the heavenly bodies. Even the sages of Chaldea, who boast a more ancient
civilization than is claimed by the Hebrews, satisfied themselves with a
few facts which they had not learned to generalize, and sometimes with
conjectures which had hardy any relation to a fixed principle or a
scientific object. Long after the reign of David, these wise men had not
distinguished the study of the stars from the dreams of astrology.
The first application of astronomical principle is to the division of
time, as marked out by the periodical movements of the heavenly bodies.
The Hebrews combined in their calculations a reference to the sun and to
the moon, so as to avail themselves of the natural measure supplied by
each. Their year accordingly was lunisolar, consisting of twelve lunar
months, with an intercalation to make the whole agree with the annual
course of the sun. The year was further distinguished as being either
common or ecclesiastical. The former began at the autumnal equinox, the
season at which they imagined the world was created; while the latter, by
Divine appointment, commenced about six months earlier, the period when
their fathers were delivered from the thraldom of Egypt. Their months
always began with the new moon; and before the captivity they were merely
named according to their order, the first, second, third, and so on down
to the twelfth. But upon their return they used the terms which they found
employed in Babylon, according to the following series:--
Nisan[59] March.
Zif, or Ijar April.
Sivan May.
Tamuz June.
Ab July.
Elul August.
Ethanim, or Tisri September.
Bul, or Mareshuan October.
Chisleu November.
Tebeth December.
Sebat January.
Adar February.
One-half of these months consisted of thirty days, the other of
twenty-nine, alternately making in all three hundred and fifty-four. To
supply the eleven days and six hours which were deficient, they introduced
every second year an additional month of twenty-two days, and every fourth
year one of twenty-three days; by which means they approached as nearly to
the true measure as any other nation had attained till the establishment
of the Gregorian calendar.
The Hebrews divided the space from sunrise to sunset into twelve equal
parts, and hence the hours of their day varied in length according to the
season of the year. For example, when the sun rose at five and set at
seven, an hour contained seventy minutes; but when it rose at seven and
set at five, the hour was reduced to fifty minutes, and so on in
proportion to the duration of the time that the sun was above the horizon.
A similar rule applied to the night, which was likewise divided into
twelve equal portions.
It must be acknowledged, however, that the observations now made apply
rather to the acquirements of the Jews after their return from the East,
than to the more simple condition in which they appear under their judges
and prophets.
Next to the learning of this early period, the reader of the sacred
history will have his curiosity excited in regard to the time, the place,
and the manner of religious worship. When the Israelites had obtained
possession of the Holy Land, and distributed the territory among their
tribes, the tabernacle, or ambulatory temple, was placed at Shiloh, a town
in the possession of Ephraim. To that sacred retreat the Hebrews were wont
to travel at the three great festivals, to accomplish the service enjoined
by their law.
But it appears that a more ordinary kind of religious duty was performed
at certain stations within the several tribes, in the intervals between
the stated feasts appointed fur the whole nation; having some reference,
it is probable, to the periodical return of the Sabbath and new moons. For
this purpose the people seem to have repaired to high places, where they
might more readily perceive the lunar crescent, and give utterance to
their customary expression of gratitude and joy. This species of adoration
was connived at rather than authorized by the priests and Levites, who
found it impossible to check altogether the propensity of the multitude to
perform their worship on the high hill and under the green tree. Samuel,
the prophet and judge, saw the expediency on one occasion of building an
altar unto the Lord on Ramah, which is called the High Place; and in the
reign of Solomon the same practice was confirmed, "because there was no
house built unto the name of the Lord until those days."[60]
It is difficult to determine with precision at what epoch the Hebrews
first formed those meetings or congregations which are called
synagogues,--a name afterward more frequently applied to the buildings in
which they convened. The earliest allusion to them is found in the
seventy-fourth Psalm, where the writer, describing the havoc committed by
the Assyrians, remarks, "they have burnt up all the synagogues of God in
the land." We might infer, from this statement alone, that such edifices
were common before the Babylonian captivity; but we are supplied with a
more direct proof in the words of St. James, who informs us that "Moses of
old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the
synagogues every Sabbath-day."[61]
The duty in these places, which was confined to prayer and exposition, was
performed by that section of the Levites who are usually denominated
scribes; the higher office of sacrifice, the scene of which was first the
tabernacle and afterward the temple, being confined to the priests, the
sons of Aaron. Perhaps in remote places, where the population was small,
the inhabitants met in the house of the Levite, a conjecture which derives
some plausibility from an affecting incident mentioned in the second book
of the Kings. When the son of the woman of Shunem died, "she called unto
her husband and said, send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one
of the asses, that I may run to the man of God. And he said, wherefore
wilt thou go? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath." It is reasonable to
conclude, that on these days it was customary to repair to the dwelling of
the holy man for religious purposes.
We have already alluded to the fact, that at the first settlement of the
Promised Land the tabernacle was established in Shiloh, a village in
Ephraim, at that time the most numerous and powerful of all the tribes.
The profanity or, disobedience of the people in this district led to the
removal of the Divine presence, the symbols of which were commanded to be
deposited in Jerusalem. "Go ye," says the prophet Jeremiah, "unto my place
which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first; and see what I did
to it for the wickedness of my people Israel." Hence the origin of the
feud which subsisted so long between Ephraim and Judah, and afterward
between the Jews and Samaritans, in regard to the spot where Jehovah ought
to be worshipped. Each laid claim to a Divine appointment; neither would
yield to the other or hold the slightest intercourse in their adoration of
the same great Being; and the question remained as far as ever from being
determined when the Romans finally cut down all distinctions by their
victorious arms.
Our limits will not permit us to indulge in a minute account of the Jewish
festivals. Still the three great institutions at which all the males of
the Hebrew nation were commanded to appear before Jehovah are so
frequently mentioned in the history of the Holy Land, that we must take
leave to specify their general objects. The feast of the Passover,
comprehending that of unleavened bread, commemorated the signal
deliverance of this wonderful people from the tyranny of Pharaoh. It was
to be kept upon the fifteenth day of the first month, to last seven days,
and to begin, as all their festivals began, the evening before at the
going down of the sun.
The reader will attend to the distinction just stated--the beginning and
end of their sacred days. The celebration of the ordinary Sabbath, indeed,
commenced on the evening of Friday, and terminated at the going down of
the sun on Saturday. "From even unto even shall ye celebrate your
Sabbaths." But the Jews, in the concluding period of their government, had
innovated so far on the Mosaical institution as to prohibit the passover
from being observed on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, and to appoint the
celebration of it on the following day. The year in which our Lord
suffered death this great annual feast fell on a Friday--beginning, as
already stated, at sunset on Thursday evening--and the Redeemer
accordingly, who came to fulfil all righteousness, ate the paschal supper
with his disciples on the evening of Thursday. Yet the Jews, we find from
the evangelical narrative, were not to observe that rite till the
following evening; and hence, the early part of Friday being the
preparation, they would not go into the judgment hall "lest they should be
defiled, but that they might eat the passover" after the going down of the
sun. For the same reason they besought Pilate that the bodies might be
removed; intimating that the day which was to begin at sunset was to them
a high day, being in fact not only the Sabbath, but also the paschal
feast, both extremely solemn in the estimation of every true Israelite.
On the ground now stated is easily explained the apparent discrepancy
between the account given by St. John and that of the other Evangelists.
They tell us that our Lord celebrated the passover on Thursday evening the
first day of the yearly festival; whereas the beloved disciple relates,
that the neat morning was still the preparation of that ordinance which
was to be observed by the whole nation the ensuing night. Both statements
are perfectly correct; only our Saviour adhered to the day fixed by the
original institution, while the priests and lawyers followed the rule
established by the Sanhedrim, which threw the festival a day after its
proper time.
The proper preparation indeed of every festival began only at three
o'clock, called by the Hebrews the ninth hour, and continued till the
close of the day, or the disappearance of the sun. It was at that hour,
accordingly, that the Jews entreated the governor to take down the bodies
from the cross; holding it extremely improper that any token of a curse or
capital punishment should meet their eyes while making ready to kill the
paschal lamb.
The Feast of Pentecost was an annual offering of gratitude to Jehovah for
having blessed the land with increase. It took place fifty days after the
passover, and hence the origin of its name in the Greek version of our
Scriptures. Another appellation was applied to it--the Feast of Weeks--for
the reason assigned by the inspired lawgiver. "Seven weeks shall thou
number unto thee; beginning to number the seven weeks from such time as
thou puttest the sickle to the corn. And thou shalt keep the feast of
weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a free-will offering of
thine hand, in the place which Jehovah shall choose to place his name
there: And thou shall remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt."[62]
This was a very suitable celebration in an agricultural society, where joy
is always experienced upon the gathering in of the fruits of the earth.
The Hebrews were especially desired on that happy occasion to contrast
their improved condition, as freemen reaping their own lands, with the
miserable state from which they had been rescued by the good providence of
Jehovah. The month of May witnessed the harvest-home of all Palestine in
the days of Moses, as well as in the present times; and no sooner was the
pleasant toil of filling their barns completed, than all the males
repaired to the holy city with the appointed tribute is their hands, and
the song of praise in their mouths. Jewish antiquaries inform us, that
there was combined with this eucharistical service a commemoration of the
wonders which took place at Mount Sinai, when the Lord condescended to
pronounce his law in the ears of his people. The history of our own
religion has supplied a greater event, which at once supersedes the pious
recollections of the Hebrew, and touches the heart of the Christian
worshipper with the feeling of a more enlightened gratitude.
The termination of the vintage was marked with a similar expression of
thanksgiving, uttered by the assembled tribes in the place which had
received the "Name of Jehovah;" the visible manifestation of his presence
and power. The precept for this observance is given in the following
terms:--"On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered
in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days.
And ye shall take unto you, on the first day, the boughs of goodly trees,
branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees and willows of the
brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. Ye shall
dwell in booths seven days, that your generations may know that I made the
children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land
of Egypt."
This festival was of the most lively and animated description, celebrated
with a joyous heart, and under the canopy of heaven, in a most delightful
season of the year. If more exquisite music and more graceful dances
accompanied the gathering in of the grapes on the banks of the Cephisus,
the tabret and the viol and the harp, which sounded around the walls of
the sacred metropolis, were not wanting in sweetness and gayety; and,
instead of the frantic riot of satyrs and bacchanals, the rejoicing was
chastened by the solemn religious recollections with which it was
associated, in a manner, remarkably pleasing and picturesque.[63]
The feast of Trumpets had a reference to the mode practised by many of the
ancients for announcing the commencements of seasons and epochs. The
beginning of every month was made known to the inhabitants of Jerusalem by
the sound of musical instruments. "Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in
the time appointed, on our solemn feast-day: for this was a statute for
Israel, a law of the God of Jacob." As the first day of the moon in
September was the beginning of the civil year, the festivity was greater
and more solemn than on other occasions. The voice of the trumpets waxed
louder than usual, and the public mind was instructed by a grave assurance
from the mouth of the proper officer, that another year was added to the
age of the world. "In the seventh month, in the first day of the month,
shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy
convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein; but ye shall offer an
offering made by fire unto the Lord."[64]
We have already alluded to the jubilee which occurred periodically after
the lapse of forty-nine years, or, as the Jews were wont to express it,
after a week of Sabbaths. The benevolent uses of this most generous
institution are known to every reader, more especially as they respected
personal freedom and the restoration of lands and houses. Great care was
taken by the Jewish legislator to prevent an accumulation of property in
one individual, or even in one tribe. Nor was his anxiety less to prevent
the alienation of land, either by sale, mortgage, or marriage. With this
view we find him enacting a rule, suggested by the case of the daughters
of Zelophedad, who had been allowed to become heirs to their father, of
which the object was to perpetuate the possession of landed estates within
the limits of each particular tribe. The heads of the chief families of
Manasseh, to which community the young women belonged, came before Moses
and the Princes of Israel, when, after reminding these dignitaries of the
fact just mentioned, they said, "If they be married to any of the sons
of the other tribes, then shall their inheritance be taken from the
inheritance of our fathers, and shall be put to the inheritance of the
tribe whereunto they are received; so shall it be taken from the lot of
our inheritance. And when the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be,
then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe
whereunto they are received: so shall their inheritance be taken away from
the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers."
To this judicious remonstrance Moses gave the following answer:--"This
is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the daughters of
Zelophedad; let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family
of the tribe of heir father shall they marry. And every daughter that
possesseth an inheritance shall be wife unto one of the family, of the
tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the
inheritance of his fathers. Neither shall the inheritance remove from one
tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of
Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance."[65]
Besides the anniversaries enjoined by Divine authority, the Hebrews
observed several which were meant to keep alive the remembrance of certain
great events recorded in their history. Of these was the Feast of
Dedication mentioned by St. John, referring, it has been thought, to the
purification of the altar by Judas Maccabaeus, after it had been profaned
by Antiochus, the king of Syria. When the ceremony was performed, "Judas
and his brethren, with the whole congregation of Israel, ordained that the
days of the dedication of the altar should be kept in their season, from
year to year, by the space of eight days, from the five-and-twentieth day
of the ninth month (November), with mirth and gladness."[66]
The restoration of the heavenly fire in the temple, after the return from
Babylon, was likewise commemorated every year. This sacred flame, which
had been long extinct, was revived on the altar the day that Nehemiah
performed sacrifice in the new building. For this reason the Jews of
Palestine wrote to those in Egypt, recommending an annual festival in
remembrance of an event so important to their national worship. They
thought it necessary to certify them of the fact, that their brethren also
might celebrate the "feast of the fire which was given us when Neemias
offered sacrifice after that he had builded the Temple and the altar."[67]
It was likewise a custom among this singular people, that the young women
"went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days
in a year." A more joyous ceremony, on the fourteenth and fifteenth days
of the month Adar, reminded the faithful Hebrew of the triumph gained by
his kindred over the cruel and perfidious Haman, who had intended to
extirpate their whole race. Besides these, we find in the book of
Zecharias the prophet an allusion to the "fast of the fourth month, and
the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the
tenth;" days of humiliation which probably recalled certain national
calamities, such as the destruction of their city and Temple, and the era
of their long captivity.
In concluding this chapter on the literature and religion of the ancient
Hebrews, we may remark, in regard to the system bequeathed to them by
Moses, that it contains the only complete body of law which was ever given
to a people at one time,--that it is the only entire body of law which has
come down to our days,--that it is the only body of ancient law which
still governs an existing people,--that, the nation which it respects
being scattered over the face of the whole earth, it is the only body of
law that is equally observed in the four quarters of the globe,--and,
finally, that all the other codes of law of which history has preserved
any recollection, were given to communities who already had written
statutes, but who wished to change their form or modify their application;
whereas, in this case, we behold a new society under the hands of a
legislator who proceeds to lay its very foundations.[68]
It may be said of the Hebrews, that they had no profane literature, no
works devoted to mere amusement or relaxation. As they admitted no image
of any thing in heaven or in earth, they consequently rejected the use of
all those arts called imitative, and which supply so large a portion of
the more refined enjoyment characteristic of civilized nations. In like
manner, they seem to have viewed in the light of sacrilege every attempt
to bring down the sublime language in which they praised Jehovah and
recorded his mighty works, to the more common and less hallowed purposes
of fictitious narrative, or of amatory, dramatic, and lyrical composition.
The Jews have no epic poem to throw a lustre on the early annals of their
literature. Even the Song of Songs is allowed to have a spiritual import,
pointing to much higher themes than Solomon and his Egyptian bride. A
solemn gravity pervades all their writings, befitting a people who were
charged with the religious history of the world and with the oracles of
Divine truth. No smile appears to have ever brightened the countenance of
a Jewish author,--no trifling thought to have passed through his mind,--no
ludicrous association to have been formed in his fancy. In describing the
flood of Deucalion, the Roman poet laughs at the grotesque misery which he
himself exhibits, and purposely groups together objects with the intention
of exerting to his readers the feeling of ridicule. But in no instance can
we detect the faintest symptom of levity in the Hebrew penmen; their
style, like their subject, is uniformly exalted, chaste, and severe; they
wrote to men concerning the things of God, in a manner suitable to such a
momentous communication; and they never ceased to remember that, in all
their records, whether historical or prophetic, they were employed in
propagating those glad tidings by which all the families of the earth were
to be blessed.
There can be no stronger proof of the pure and sublime nature of Hebrew
poetry than is supplied by the remarkable fact, that it has been
introduced into the service of the Christian church, and found suitable
for expressing those lofty sentiments with which the gospel inspires the
heart of every true worshipper. No other nation of the ancient world has
produced a single poem which could be used by an enlightened people in
these days for the purposes of devotion.[69] Hesiod, although much
esteemed for the moral tone of his compositions, presents very few ideas
indeed capable of being accommodated to the theology of an improved age.
In perusing the works of the greatest writers of paganism, we are struck
with a monstrous incongruity in all their conceptions of the Supreme
Being. The majesty with which the Hebrews surrounded Jehovah is entirely
wanting; the attributes belonging to the great Sovereign of the universe
are not appreciated; the providence of the Divine mind, united with
benevolence, compassion, and mercy, is never found to enter into their
descriptions of the eternal First Cause; while their incessant deviations
into polytheism outrage our religious feelings, and carry us back to the
verb rudest periods of human history.
In these respects the literature of the Jews is far exalted above that of
every other nation of which history has preserved any traces. It must be
acknowledged, that we remain ignorant of the learning and theological
opinions cultivated among the Persians at the time when the Jews were
under their dominion, and cannot therefore determine the precise extent to
which the dogmas of the captive tribes were affected by their intercourse
with a race of men who certainly taught the doctrine of the Divine unity,
and abstained from idolatrous usages. But confining our judgment even to
the oldest compositions of the Hebrews, those, for example, which may be
traced to the days of Moses, of Samuel, and of David, we cannot hesitate
to pronounce that they are distinguished by a remarkable peculiarity,
indicating by the most unambiguous tokens, that, in all things pertaining
to religious belief, the descendants of Jacob were placed under a special
superintendence and direction.