contribution to it, the Prophets may be roughly classified in the
above order. The higher tendency seems to vanish from the historical
works which were composed after the Exile, save in many of the
Psalms, where religion reaches its highest expression outside the
New Testament. The tendency represented by the middle and horizontal
line ends in the somewhat superficial ethics of such works as the
Book of Proverbs. The lower tendency _is only to be judged so from
comparison_; it served its purpose, and it was an honest endeavour to
reduce the Prophetic ideals to a definite system. It is in line with
the spirit of many of the Psalms that the religion of the revelation
of Christ takes its rise, and we may see in the Sadducees and the
Pharisees the degenerate effect of the other lines of development.
Lecture VI
THE RELIGION OF THE LITERARY PROPHETS
Among the writings of the Old Testament, the Prophetical Books, whether
considered as literature or religion, are acknowledged to stand out as
unsurpassed. If the Psalms claim to rival them it is to be remembered
that the Psalms are probably to be traced to the Prophetic teaching.
The Prophets themselves begin a new era; they are creative and owe
but little to their past. That for so long a period, in unbroken
continuity, there should emerge from a tiny nation a succession of men
of differing temperament, training, and social position, who should
with remarkable unity voice truths of religion not only hitherto
unrecognised but rarely surpassed or apprehended in subsequent
history, is in itself a unique phenomenon in comparative religion.
Equally notable is the fact, that in the majority of the Prophets we
have not only the gift of religious intuition, but that this is found
in combination with great oratorical power, true poetic genius, and
practical statesmanship. They remain for all time an indisputable
witness to the Divine revelation in the development of Israel's
religion.
Previous stages which we have been able to recognise in the development
of Israel's religion do not carry us on to Amos by so inevitable a
movement, that his message could be predicted as the next stage to be
reached. When we come fresh from the investigation of the religion
held by the leaders of the people in the times of David and Solomon,
we recognise the immense strides made when we open the Book of Amos.
We can trace a likeness between Elijah and Amos in their denunciation
of wrong; but, in the sphere of religion, there is a great gulf
between them which no records of the intervening period quite help
us to bridge over. We cannot think of Amos taking part in the great
vindication of Carmel; it is probable that he would have recognised
it as useless. In Samuel, Elijah and Elisha we undoubtedly have the
religious ancestors of the Literary Prophets, but while they stood at
the head of popular movements which they led in triumph against the
intrusion of alien faiths, the Prophets that we are now to study stand
in decided antagonism to the popular faith, and the conceptions of
Israel's religion which they reiterate with such passion and insistency
were never acceptable to the people. Their religion has to make its way
against the national religion.
The importance of the Prophets is the natural starting point for
the modern study of the Old Testament, and it is from the earnest
perusal of their writings that modern Biblical science has been forced
to take up a rigorous criticism of the entire literature of the Old
Testament. Under the old methods, the Prophets had only a secondary
position in the history of the ancient revelation, since their message
was conceived as rather concerned with an age yet to come than with
their own times and needs. The Divine Law had already been given
to the people, constituting a perfect norm of religion. When the
people failed to obey the Law, then the Prophet appeared, enforced
its principles, and condemned the people's apostasy. If that message
was rejected, as it often was, then nothing was left for the Prophet
but the proclamation of vengeance, or the prediction of a time when
the Law should be ideally fulfilled by the revelation of the Gospel.
Between the Law and the Gospel, therefore, stood the Prophets, but
they acted only as a bridge from the one to the other. The natural
method of studying their writings was to search for the fulfilment
of their predictions in history. With these aims it was perhaps
inevitable that their words should often be interpreted in a quite
unwarrantable manner; events were read back into their prophecies, or
the fulfilment was found in such ordinary coincidences that the dignity
of prediction was itself lost, the study became puerile and morbid,
while a fancied necessity as to what they must mean prevented any
scholarly and unbiassed interpretation. Their works have consequently
been largely used as mysterious oracles from which the future history
of the world could be accurately predicted. To read the Prophets in
order to obtain a picture of their own age was regarded as a secular
occupation, while every attempt to recover the original application of
their words was regarded as an endeavour to discountenance the proofs
of Divine revelation. Many of their words bear remarkable likeness to
the gracious invitations of the Gospel, so that they have been used
equally with the New Testament for Gospel preaching, but it was never
dreamed that they were real invitations to the people of their own
times, founded on the eternal laws of God's forgiveness afterwards made
clear in Christ; they were simply words spoken under mental effects
which transferred the speakers to the time of the New Testament.
Whatever the final results of the application of historical criticism
may be, it has already laid religion under a permanent obligation in
its discovery of the hitherto unrealised importance of the Prophets.
At first attention was directed to their exalted ethical and religious
standpoint, appearing as it did in an age that neither produced nor
responded to it; minute study then showed that they gave first-hand and
incidental accounts of their own times. Their messages bear witness
to the contemporary state of the religion of Jehovah and the people's
morals, and although it may be that they sometimes judged these from
their own high standard, which caused them to paint them somewhat
darker than an absolutely historical judgment would demand, yet on what
the prevailing religious opinions of the day really were, they are the
best evidence. The startling but unassailable deduction made from the
Prophets' accounts of their own times is, that in matters religious
they were proclaiming doctrines that seemed to their contemporaries
entirely novel. The Prophets do not, however, acquiesce in the charge
of novelty. They profess to go back to the original and inner meaning
of Jehovah's choice of the nation. They refer to this choice, as a
"covenant," and to the religion demanded by it, as the law of the Lord.
The first inference is that they refer to that which _we_ know as the
Law, the Pentateuch, or Law of Moses. A comparison with the Prophetic
teaching with the ordinances of, say, the Book of Leviticus, shows that
this cannot be the case, for they do not correspond. Many things there
commanded as essential are passed over in silence by the Prophets;
but the force of the argument is not wholly drawn from that, although
it has a weight here which the argument from silence cannot usually
carry, because both Leviticus and the Prophets' teaching set forth
the essentials of religion, and there can be no possibility of doubt
that the conceptions of the essentials have an altogether different
outlook. It is chiefly, though not by any means entirely, from the
standpoint of the Prophetical writings that modern criticism is forced
to revise the conception of the progress and decline of religion that
Jewish tradition has embodied in the arrangement of its Scriptures, and
especially in the ascription of the Pentateuch as a whole to the age
and authorship of Moses. The verdict from this comparison between the
Prophets and the Law is, that the five Books of Moses either did not
exist in their present form at the time of the Prophets, or, if they
did, remained entirely unknown to them.
The historical value of the Prophets is therefore to be rated very
high, not only because of their transparent sincerity, but also
because the historical data which can be secured from them are given
indirectly, and are valuable for the same reason as the remarks of a
contemporary diarist. They are unaware that they are writing history,
and are consequently free from the almost unescapable tendency of the
historian to make the facts fit into preconceived theories. Modern
criticism, therefore, does rightly in making the Prophets of paramount
importance for the understanding of the Old Testament, and when the
Prophets are thus made the test, much in the history that was either
completely hidden or difficult to understand, becomes visible and
clear, and the progress of Israel's religion is displayed in all its
grandeur and movement.
We can now turn to examine the extent of the sources from which we may
draw, in order to estimate the religious opinions and influence of the
Prophets, and to examine the peculiar character of the literature for
which they are responsible.
First in importance stand the Books of the Prophets proper. In the
ancient division of the Hebrew Bible into, (1) The Law, (2) The
Prophets, (3) The Hagiographa, or the holy writings, "The Prophets"
included, beside our Books of the Prophets, such historical Books as
Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. Significantly enough, however, Daniel
is not grouped with the Prophets, but with the Hagiographa, either
because it was not classed as prophecy, or more probably because the
Canon of "The Prophets" had been closed by the time it was written.
Therefore, in addition to the writings ascribed to the Prophets, there
is a literature which has been influenced by their teaching, and this
is found largely in those historical Books which have thus been rightly
included in the Prophetical division of the Hebrew Bible. That is to
say, however, that Books dealing with history prior to the rise of
the Prophets, show traces of an influence that can only have emerged
later. It is here that criticism seems to the ordinary reader to enter
very debatable ground, although among critical students of the Bible
the question is no longer an open one. They claim that the peculiar
conditions under which Hebrew history was compiled allow us to discern,
and to separate with ease, this later prophetical editing, whereas in
other literatures such would be impossible. History was compiled among
the Jews largely from pre-existing documents, much as it is everywhere,
with the difference that in the Old Testament the records have been
simply pieced together with whatever corrections and reductions were
rendered necessary, while the conceptions of the later times, when
this re-editing was accomplished, are often simply superimposed; this
method has been ridiculed as an invention of the critical mind, but it
is simply an indisputable if tiresome fact which has to be taken into
account in any serious study of the literature. The narratives of the
documents that have been named "J" and "E" bear the marks of having
been combined under the influence of prophetical teaching, since this
teaching, it is to be noted, is recognisably incompatible with other
parts of the stories which have been left untouched.
It has been suggested that criticism seems to assume that religion
progressed until it reached a certain height in the Eighth Century, and
to enable this theory to stand all marks of this supposed later type
appearing earlier are classed as interpolations. It is usual to trace
this theory to "Evolution gone mad." Even on the critical theories
this cannot however be legitimately shown to result, since critical
reconstruction shows that the supreme height gained in the Prophets
was never maintained, but suffered a perceptible decline. Whatever the
guiding idea of criticism may be, it cannot be an endeavour to make
the history of Israel's religion confirm some theory of the natural
development and evolution of religion. The critical theories leave us
with the problem of moral lapses to account for and with the failure
of vision to explain, and demand still a moral insight to detect the
cause. But it is clear to many that the moral causes do stand out more
clearly discoverable by this method.
The critical theory of the priority of the Prophets is not based
only upon the emergence under their teaching of certain theological
ideas for the first time; but also on the difference of style and
vocabulary which can be recognised after only a slight acquaintance
with the language; and on the general outline of the history that the
Bible itself forces upon us. It is a fact which the reader can soon
discover for himself, that the historical Books are compilations from
the records of various ages, and these various ages can be as easily
discerned as the conflicting styles of an oft-restored church, or
the disturbance of the normal geological strata that demands some
upheaval for its explanation. It must be remembered that all this is
made possible from the fact of the remarkable uniformity of ideas that
characterises the various stages of Hebrew religion.
The Prophets' teaching can therefore be traced outside their own
writings; mainly in fragmentary comments added to the narratives;
or in a superimposed colouring, which easily falls off, leaving the
original outlines in view; but it is supposed to be found grouped
into one great mass in the Book of Deuteronomy. The critics' theory
of this Book is that it is an endeavour to reduce the teaching of the
Prophets, more especially that of Isaiah, to a code, and to secure
reform by the centralisation of worship at Jerusalem. This idea of a
central worship, which leaves no record of its actual observance until
the time of Josiah, or perhaps an attempt in the reign of Hezekiah, is
so unmistakable and is so uniformly expressed that the work of this
author (perhaps we should say, this school) can be easily detected,
and many of the Books, such as Judges and Kings, can be seen to have
been subjected to a "Deuteronomist" redaction. In all these phenomena
we have teaching that presupposes the Prophets, and that stands in
contrast and often in conflict with the general tone of the original.
It is remarkable that with such redactions of history any clue to
the earlier conceptions should have been left to us, especially that
there should have been left in the records anything that would be in
disagreement with the editors' ideas, but the Jews, like the other
nations of antiquity, did not possess modern notions of exactness, and
their notions of history prevented them from understanding things that
were removed only a short distance from their own times.
It is hardly surprising to find that this Prophetical literature was
in turn liable to redaction, though in a different degree and for a
different reason, since it has been preserved to us under peculiar
conditions. This at first may seem terribly confusing to the bewildered
student, and it is here that tired men reject criticism and all its
works. To such the reminder cannot be spared that in any branch of
Science the same conditions have to be overcome, and if he would
understand the Old Testament and reap the magnificent reward that its
earnest study gives, he must be prepared to face the facts and labour
at their solution.
First of all then, it must be noted that the Books of the Prophets are
not so much literature, in the ordinary sense of the word, as reported
rhetoric, with the qualification that the reporter and the speaker may
be usually assumed to be the same. In most cases the speeches were
written out by the Prophet himself soon after they were delivered,
although sometimes this was done by others long after, and expanded
or altered, as is actually reported to have been the case with the
prophecies of Jeremiah (Jer. xxxvi.).
In the second place, the literature reveals the fact that there does
not seem to have been in that age any conception of literary property;
ideas are borrowed directly from one Prophet by another, and sometimes
direct quotation is made without any acknowledgment or indication of
the source. The Prophet's scribe, his school or followers, could amend
or paraphrase; later generations could evidently insert a qualifying
phrase, temper a threat with a qualifying condition, or to the doom of
exile add a promise of restoration. When it is noticed that messages
like those of Amos or Hosea end unexpectedly in hopeful words, and
when it is recollected that these Prophets have been used as Service
Books in the Synagogue and may have been therefore altered to suit the
purpose, then we shall understand the problem that faces us and why a
shadow of suspicion should rest on promises of restoration that are to
be found in pre-exilic writings. Let it be remembered however that it
is no true critical canon to assume that prediction cannot be made; but
what are we to do when such a prediction fits ill with the context,
breaks the sense, is foreign to the outlook of the speaker, and is in
later style?
Finally, there seem to have been many prophecies circulated
anonymously, and since a place had to be found for these they were
inserted in other writers, on no principle that we can discover, or
more often were grouped together at the end of some notable Prophet's
works. In Zechariah we have to suppose three strata of different
authorship and date, or give up the rational study of the Book
altogether; and in the famous case of the Book of Isaiah we have to
suppose that some of the early chapters are the work of a post-exilic
author, while chapters xl.-lxvi. are a heterogeneous collection by a
number of writers, of which chapters xl.-lv. are recognised to be by
one hand, and that, one of the most wonderful personalities which has
contributed to the Old Testament; about that grand figure we only know
one thing, that he was not Isaiah of Jerusalem. This has been called
"sawing Isaiah asunder" and making the Bible a piece of patchwork and
the critics are blamed; but if they are right, these complaints are
not directed at them, but at the Bible itself, a proceeding which to
say the least, is not pious. When a writer could say many years later
that revelation came of old time in many fragments (Heb. i. 1), others
beside critics fall under these hasty condemnations.
It is refreshing to turn from this less interesting part of our
subject, which nevertheless demands serious study from anyone who
would be informed where ignorance has done and still is doing so much
harm, and to examine the features which distinguish the work of the
literary Prophets. We have already spoken of the novelty of their
message. Whatever theory is chosen for the study of Old Testament
history, nothing quite prepares us for the message of the Prophet Amos.
What an inspiration we miss because he does not stand in our Bibles
in his rightful place, at the head of the Prophets! His bravery and
ruggedness remind us of Elijah, but he brings something that Elijah is
far from giving us. Elijah was very jealous for the due recognition of
Jehovah as the only God for Israel; Amos is jealous for the recognition
of the true _character_ of Jehovah. That is to say, we receive from
Amos definite teaching concerning the character of Jehovah and His
relations to the people of Israel, and these doctrines are startling to
Israelitish ears.
Almost the first thing that strikes us as an outstanding characteristic
of the Prophets is that they are conscious of a call to which they
often appeal. Five of them definitely refer to the circumstances of
their call (Amos vii. 14; Hosea i. 2; Isaiah vi.; Jer. i. 4-10; Ezek.
i. 1-ii. 3). The same is true of their predecessors, but in a different
way; they stand as defenders of the national religion because they
belong to the prophetic guilds or possess certain gifts of vision. On
the other hand the literary Prophets are against the national religion
as a perversion of the true, and to this weary and warlike work they
are called by immediate and special summons of God. This call is not
self-originated nor can it be evaded (Jer. xx. 9), and in some cases
there has been no preparation for the office (Amos vii. 14, 15), and
even positive unfitness (Jer. i. 6). They are very careful therefore to
distinguish themselves from the schools of prophets. Professionalism
has disappeared, and in Jeremiah the official idea also vanishes.
The peculiar mental condition of the Prophets has of late years
attracted a great deal of attention. The rapture and holy frenzy into
which they are sometimes thrown remind us of the phenomena accompanying
the early Prophetism, studied in our last lecture; but this is now
accidental and is becoming rare. The Prophets often speak of this as
"the hand of the Lord" upon them (Isa. viii. 11); in the visions of
Ezekiel the effect is often described as overpowering (Ezek. iii. 14
ff.). There is a similarity between the accompaniments of these states
and the trances which have been found in so many religious movements,
and which are now attracting the attention of the scientific world
so seriously. Only the results differ remarkably from the effects
obtained in hypnotic and sub-conscious states, with which the prophetic
gift has sometimes been compared. The Prophet still exhibits his
natural style when under the influence of the Word of the Lord. Yet it
may be that there is something to be learned along the lines of modern
research; we know that if certain states of mental passivity can be
induced, there lies open a new realm of knowledge, which, although
it can be accounted for, cannot be summoned under ordinary mental
conditions; add to this the superior moral constitution which seems to
be missing from the mediums of spiritualistic phenomena to-day, and the
prophetic consciousness becomes more comprehensible. The Prophets often
speak of visions, but it is difficult to gather their actual character.
It can hardly be objective; it is more like the artistic vision which
creates within the mind in perfect detail and objectivity, so that
what is seen has greater reality than any reproduction on canvas or in
stone. The mind would seem to project its vision by the strength of its
imaginative powers, so that, owing to the emotion aroused by the nature
of the truth perceived, the revelation appears to come from an entirely
external source. Sometimes it would seem to be an actual beholding of
some natural object, which induces a train of thought, as the case of
Amos's vision of the plumb-line may well be. We cannot think either
of any organic hearing of their message, since they sometimes also
declare that they "see" it.
Their predictive power has been exaggerated, chiefly because it was
thought that this was the only office of the Prophet. Where it occurs
it is mostly a natural deduction from their insight into the movements
of their age, their conception of the unchangeable character of
Jehovah, and their belief in His providential government; the emphasis
is never upon details, and it may be added that the prediction is by
no means always fulfilled. Their vision of the future usually takes
a certain outline, or order; a national calamity is immediately
impending, in which they recognise the punishment of the people's sins
and the complete triumph and vindication of Jehovah; this will result
in a purifying of the nation, and in the immediate succession there
will come the Messianic or ideal era. Still there are predictions which
cannot be explained on any theory yet broached, such as the prediction
by Isaiah of the destruction of Sennacherib's army, or Jeremiah's
prophecy of the Restoration. If this is ordinary second sight, then it
is strange that it should have occurred in so many cases at this time
when prophecy was dropping its mysterious accompaniments. Yet it may be
recalled that in the history of all nations there has been, in times
of great national affliction, a tendency to prophecy of this order,
which can sometimes claim a remarkable fulfilment. The distinguishing
glory of Israel's prophecy is, however, to be sought in its ethical
character, and it is perhaps to the writings of men like our own
Carlyle, where we often catch the old prophetic ring, that we are to
look for its analogy.