As the Jews are reputedly "the chosen people of God,"--chosen by him
out of all the nations of the earth to be the special recipients of his
favors,--the chosen instruments through which to communicate his will
and his laws to the whole human race, and chosen to be a moral example
for all mankind, for that age, and for all future generations,--it
becomes a matter of great importance to know their real character for
morality, for intelligence, for honesty, and for reliability. And that
we may, in the effort to present a brief sketch of their character,
furnish no ground for suspecting any misrepresentation, we will present
it in the language of Jewish and Christian writers of established
reputation. It may reasonably be presumed that their own writers would
be more likely to overrate than underrate their virtues. Hear, then,
what one of their leading prophets says of them. Isaiah thus describes
them (Isa. lix.): "Their hands are defiled with blood, and their
fingers with iniquity; and their lips speak lies; their tongues mutter
perverseness. None of them call for justice; none of them plead for
truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and
bring forth iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hand. Their
feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their
thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their
paths." Such is a description of God's holy people by one of their
number. And David completes the picture by declaring, "There is none
righteous; no, not one."
And Christ calls them "a generation of vipers." Rather a shocking
picture of God's peculiar people! "Peculiar" they were, if Isaiah's
description of them was true,--peculiar for defective character. It is
rather strange that Jehovah should have selected such moral outlaws as
lawgivers and moral examples for the whole human race. There were,
at the time, several nations superior to the Jews in morals and
intelligence, and much farther advanced in civilization. The Greeks,
Egyptians, Chaldeans, and a portion of the Hindoos were in advance of
the Jews.
The Rev. Mr. Hilliard, in a sermon preached in New York in 1861, says
of the Jews, "They were by nature, perhaps, the most _cruel and
blood-thirsty_, as well as idolatrous, people in the world." And yet he
says in the same sermon, "that the Lord chose the Israelites because of
their adaptedness of character to the carrying out of his divine ends of
mercy to the race." What cogent reasoning! Why not select the Devil at
once, if beings the most _cruel and blood-thirsty_ were best calculated
for "carrying out his divine ends of mercy to the race"? Here is more
proof of the evil effects of preaching, or adhering to, a religion which
is so full of errors, absurdities, and immoral elements, that it blinds
the moral vision, and weakens the reasoning faculties to give it a
place in the mind, and leads to a system of false reasoning, and often
corrupts the natural judgment. We have more orthodox testimony to
show the defective morals of the Lord's chosen people. Dr. Burnet (a
Christian writer), in his "Archæologia Philosophie," says, "They were
of a gross and sluggish nature, not qualified for the contemplation of
natural things, nor the perception of divine ones. And consequently,"
he tells us, "Moses provided nothing for them of an intellectual nature,
and promised them nothing beyond this life,--did not teach a future
state of existence." Lactantius says, "They were never visited by the
learned men of other countries, because they were never famous for
literature." St. Cyril says,
"Moses never attempted to philosophize with the Jews, because they were
'grossly ignorant,' and addicted to idolatry." Dr. Burnet further says,
"They were depraved in their manners and discipline, and almost bereaved
of humanity. If I may speak the truth,... they were a vile company
of men,--an assembly of slaves brought out of Egyptian prisons, who
understood no art but that of making bricks." Josephus, being a Jew, was
their friend and defender; and yet he says, "They were so illiterate,
that they never wrote any thing, or held intercourse with the learned."
St. Cyril says, "Some of them adored the sun as a deity; others, the
moon and stars; and others, beasts, and birds." One writer says, "They
hated all nations, and were hated by all nations," and they seemed
determined to exterminate all nations but their own. They might also
have used the language of an ancient Christian sect, who declared, "We
are the friends of God, and the enemies of all mankind." Lot it be borne
in mind that the testimonies here cited are not from infidel writers,
but all from Jews and Christians, who, we should presume, could have no
motive for exaggerating their moral defects, but rather inducements for
concealing them. Other similar testimony might be presented. Some of
the laws which Moses adopted for the government of the Jews corroborates
still further the statement that they occupied a very low position in
the scale of morals as well as intellect; for the laws of a nation are
a true standard of their character. Hence the law of Moses prohibiting
uncleanness (Lev. xv.), the law against Incest (Lev. xviii.). Laws
against bestiality, to prohibit both sexes from carnal familiarity with
beasts, and various other laws of a similar character, furnish a clear
implication that they were addicted to all these vile habits; and a law
to compel them to wash their hands leads to the conclusion that they
were inclined to be filthy in their habits. And the following law shows
that they were not very particular about their food: "Ye may eat
the locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the
grasshopper after his kind" (Lev. xi. 22). Here were three kinds of
rather repulsive insects which the Jews were expected to eat, at
least licensed to use as food. Can such a nation be considered to be
civilized? If so, where is a nation now existing that can not, with
equal propriety, be said to be civilized? This portraiture of the Jewish
character is not here presented in any caviling spirit, or to show that
they are justly objects of either censure or ridicule. Far from it. They
most probably acted up to the highest light they were in possession of.
The primary motive of this exhibition of their character is to show that
they possessed no qualifications and no traits of character calculated
to fit them for moral lawgivers and moral exemplars for us, and for the
_whole human race_; and we can not assume, without really dishonoring
ourselves, that such a morally and intellectually inferior nation of
people were the chosen instruments in the hands of God to communicate
the revelation of his will to the human family. We are under no moral
obligation to believe it. A revelation from a pure, perfect, and holy
God must (if we assume a revelation necessary) come through a pure and
holy channel: otherwise it would be contaminated and corrupted before
it reached us. If God could consent to communicate a revelation to the
human race through such a channel as the Jewish nation furnished, we see
not how he could escape a stigma upon his character for stooping to such
ignoble means. And would not the act of familiarizing himself with such
a people show that he kept bad company, and furnish a bad ex-ample to us
who are enjoined to be "perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect"?