W45 
 
 1891 
 
 3fd.ed. 
 
attraca. Hrtn $ark 
 
 litfite l^istorical lOibcaty 
 
 THE GIFT OF PRESIDENT WHITE 
 
 MAINTAINED BY THE UNIVERSITY IN ACCORD- 
 ANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS 
 OF THE GIFT 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 DS 118.W45 1891 
 
 Sketch of the history of Israel and Juda 
 
 3 1924 028 583 445 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028583445 
 
ISRAEL AND JUDAH 
 
SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY 
 
 or 
 
 ISEAEL AND JUDAH 
 
 Br 
 J. WELLHAUSEN 
 
 PBOFESSOB AT MARBUBO 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 LONDON & EDINBURGH 
 
 ADAM & CHAELES BLACK 
 
 1891 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The following Sketch first appeared as the article 
 Israel in the Encyclopcedia Britannica in 1881. 
 It was afterwards reprinted in 1 8 8 5 , as an appendix 
 to the English translation of my Prolegomena. That 
 volume is now out of print, and there were diffi- 
 culties in the way of an immediate reissue of the 
 Prolegomena which do not apply to a simple reprint 
 of the historical sketch. Nor is there any intrinsic 
 reason why the two should not be separated ; the 
 latter therefore now appears, for the third time, as 
 an independent booklet. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CH*P. PAQK 
 
 I. THE BBGINNIN03 OP THE NATION I 
 
 II. THE SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE 24 
 
 III. THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM, AND THE FIRST | 
 
 THREE EINGa 39 
 
 IV. PUOM JEROBOAM I. TO JfiBOBOAM II, . 57 
 V. THE LIFE OP MEN IN OLD ISRAEL .... 70 
 
 VI. THK PALL OF SAMARIA 8 1 
 
 Vn. THE DELIVERANCE OP JCDAH 94 
 
 VIII. THE PROPHBTIO BBFOBMATION I08 
 
 IX. JEREMIAH AND THE DESTRUCTION OP JERUSALEM . I17 
 
 X. THE CAPTIVITY AND THE BBSTOBATION . , . I24 
 
 XI. THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD ... -137 
 
 Xn. THE HASMON JEANS . . . I46 
 
 XIII. HEROD AND THE ROMANS ... . I63 
 
 XIV. THE RABBINS . 184 
 
 XV. THE JEWISH DISPERSION I91 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 207 
 
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 
 
 According to the Book of Genesis, Israel was tke 
 brother of Edom, and the cousin of Moab and 
 Ammon. These foar petty peoples, which may be 
 classed together as the Hebrew group, must at one 
 time have formed some sort of a unity and have 
 passed through a common history which resulted in 
 their settlement in south-eastern Palestine. The 
 Israelites, or rather that section of the Hebrew group 
 which afterwards developed into Israel, appear at 
 first to have been the immediate neighbours of Edom, 
 and to have extended westwards towards the border 
 of Egypt. As regards the ethnological position of 
 the Hebrews as a whole, tradition has it that they 
 had connections not only with the Aramaeans of 
 
 A 
 
2 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 Osrhoene (Nahor), but also with certain of the old 
 inhabitants of the Sinaitic peninsula (Kenites, 
 Amalek, Midian). To the Canaanites, whose lan- 
 guage they had adopted, their relation was that of 
 foreign conquerors and lords to a subject race, 
 (Gen. ix. 26).^ 
 
 Some fifteen centuries before our era a section 
 of the Hebrew group left its ancient seat in the 
 extreme south of Palestine to occupy the not dis- 
 tant pasture lands of Egypt (Goshen), where they 
 carried on their old calling, that of shepherds and 
 goatherds. Although settled within the territory 
 of the Pharaohs, and recognising their authority, 
 they continued to retain all their old characteristics 
 — their language, their patriarchal institutions, their 
 nomad habits of life. 
 
 But in course of time these foreign guests were 
 subjected to changed treatment. Forced labour was 
 exacted of them for the construction of new public 
 works in Goshen, an exaction which was felt to be 
 an assault upon their freedom and honour, and which 
 in point of fact was fitted to take away all that was 
 distinctive of their nationality. But they had no 
 remedy at hand, and had submitted in despair, 
 until Moses at last saw a favourable opportunity 
 of deliverance. Reminding his oppressed brethren 
 of the God of their fathers, and urging that their 
 
 ^ Comp. Wellhausen, Die Composition des ffexatcvchs und der 
 histor. BUcher (Berlin, 1889), p. 342 sqq. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 3 
 
 cause was His, he taught them to regard self- 
 assertion against the Egyptians as an article of 
 religion ; and they became united by the deter- 
 mination to seek refuge from oppression in the 
 wilderness which was the dwelling-place of their 
 kindred and the seat of their God. At a time 
 when Egypt was scourged by a grievous plague, 
 the Hebrews broke up their settlement in Goshen 
 one night in spring, and directed their steps towards 
 their old home again. According to the accounts, 
 the king had consented to the exodus, and latterly 
 had even forced it on, but it was none the less a 
 secret flight. 
 
 To a not very numerous pastoral people such an 
 undertaking presented no great difficulty. Never- 
 theless its execution was not to be carried out 
 unimpeded. The Hebrews, compelled to abandon 
 the direct eastward road (Exod. xiii. 17, 18), 
 turned towards the south-west and encamped at 
 last -on the Egyptian shore of the northern arm of 
 the Red Sea, where they were overtaken by Pharaoh's 
 army. The situation was a critical one ; but a high 
 wind during the night left the shallow sea so low 
 that it became possible to ford it. Moses eagerly 
 accepted the suggestion, and made the venture with 
 success. The Egyptians, rushing after, came up 
 with them on the further shore, and a struggle 
 ensued. But the assailants fought at a disadvan- 
 tage, the ground being ill-suited for their chariots 
 
4 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 and horsemen ; they fell into confusion and attempted 
 a retreat. Meanwhile the wind had changed ; the 
 waters returned, and the pursuers were annihi- 
 lated.^ 
 
 After turning aside to visit Sinai, as related in 
 Exodus, the emigrants settled at Kadesh, eastwards 
 from Goshen, on tHe southern borders of Palestine,^ 
 where they remained for many years, having at the 
 well of Kadesh their sanctuary and judgment-seat 
 only, while with their flocks they ranged over an 
 extensive tract. In all probability their stay at 
 Kadesh was no involuntary detention ; rather was 
 it this locality they had immediately had in view in 
 setting out. For a civilised community of from two 
 to three millions such a settlement would, of course, 
 have been impossible ; but it was quite sufficient 
 for the immediate requirements of the Goshen shep- 
 herds, few in number as they were and inured to 
 the life of the desert. That attempts may have been 
 made by them to obtain possession of the more fertile 
 
 1 Exod. xvi. 21, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31. According to the Old Testa- 
 ment the exodus took place 480 years before the building of Solomon's 
 temple, and 960 years before the end of the Babylonian capti\'ity. 
 These figures are " systematic " or at least systematised, but even 
 so they are certainly more trustworthy than the combinations of 
 the Egyptologists. 
 
 " The site of Sin.ai ( = Horeb?) hardly admits of ascertainment. 
 The best datum would be the sanctuary of Jethro, if we could 
 identify it with Midian (Jahut iv. 451), which lies on the Arabian 
 coast of the Red Sea, obliquely facing the traditional Sinai. With 
 regard to Kadesh, see Quarterly /Statement of the Palestine Explora- 
 tion Eund (1 87 1), pp. 20, 21. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 5 
 
 country to the north is very likely ; but that from 
 the outset they contemplated the conquest of the 
 whole of Palestine proper, and that it was only in 
 expiation of a fault that they were held back at the 
 gate of the promised land until the whole generation 
 of the disobedient had died out, is not historically 
 probable. 
 
 We can assign a definite reason for their final 
 departure from Kadesh. In the district to the east 
 of Jordan the (Canaanite) Amorites had, sometime 
 previously, driven the Ammonites from the lower 
 Jabbok and deprived the Moabites of all their ter- 
 ritory to the north of the Arnon ; on the plateau 
 opposite Jericho Heshbon had become the capital of 
 Sihon, the Amorite king. This sovereign now set 
 himself to subdue southern Moab also, and not 
 without success. From these straits the Moabites 
 were rescued by their cousins, the nomads of the 
 wilderness of Kadesh. The Israelites came forward 
 on behalf of what was at once the common Hebrew 
 cause and their own particular interest ; they took 
 the field against the Amorites, vanquished them in 
 battle, and broke up the kingdom of Sihon. The 
 consequence was that the land to the south of the 
 Arnon remained in the undisputed possession of 
 Moab, while the victors themselves became masters 
 of the territory immediately to the north. Settled 
 thus between Moab and Ammbn their kinsmen, the 
 Israelites supplied the link that was wanting in the 
 
6 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 chain of petty Hebrew nationalities established in 
 the south of eastern Palestine/ 
 
 The army that went out against the Amorites 
 from Kadesh was certainly not exclusively com- 
 posed of men who, or whose fathers, had accom- 
 plished the passage of the Red Sea. Israel was 
 not a formed nation when it left Egypt ; and 
 throughout the whole period of its sojourn in the 
 wilderness it continued to be in process of growth. 
 Instead of excluding the kindred elements which 
 offered themselves to it on its new soil, it received 
 and assimilated them. The life they had lived 
 together under Moses had been the first thing to 
 awaken a feeling of solidarity among the tribes 
 which afterwards constituted the nation ; whether 
 they had previously been a unity in any sense of 
 the word is doubtful. On the other hand, the basis 
 of the unification of the tribes must certainly have 
 been laid before the conquest of Palestine proper ; 
 for with that it broke up, though the memory of it 
 continued. At the same time it must not be sup- 
 posed that all the twelve tribes already existed side 
 by side in Kadesh. The sons of the concubines of 
 Jacob — Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher — mani- 
 festly do not pertain to Israel in the same sense as 
 do those of Leah and Rachel ; probably they were 
 late arrivals and of very mixed origin. We know, 
 besides, that Benjamin was not born until afterwards, 
 
 ' Wellhausen, 1. 1., p. 343, sjj. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 7 
 
 in Palestine. If this view be correct, Israel at first 
 consisted of seven tribes, of which one only, that of 
 Joseph, traced its descent to Rachel, though in point 
 of numbers and physical strength it was the equal 
 of all the others together, while in intellectual force 
 it surpassed them. The remaining six were the sons 
 of Leah : — Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah ; Issachar, 
 Zebulon. They are always enumerated in this 
 order ; the fact that the last two are also invariably 
 mentioned apart from the rest and after Joseph has 
 its explanation in geographical considerations. 
 
 The time of Moses is invariably regarded as the 
 properly creative period in Israel's history, and on 
 that account also as giving the pattern and norm for 
 the ages which followed. Indeed, the history of 
 Israel must be held to have begun then, and the 
 foundations of a new epoch to have been laid. 
 The prophets who came after gave, it is true, greater 
 distinctness to the peculiar character of the nation, 
 bat they did not make it ; on the contrary, it made 
 them. Again, it is true that the movement which 
 resulted in the establishment of the monarchy 
 brought together for the first time into organic 
 unity the elements which previously had existed 
 only in an isolated condition ; but Israel's sense 
 of national personality was a thing of much earlier 
 origin, which even in the time of the judges bound 
 the various tribes and families together, and must 
 have had a great hold on the mind of the nation, 
 
8 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 although there was no formal and binding constitu- 
 tion to give it support. When the Israelites settled 
 in Palestine they found it inhabited by a population 
 superior to themselves both in numbers and in civi- 
 lisation, which they did not extirpate, but, on the 
 contrary, gradually subdued and absorbed. The 
 process was favoured by affinity of race and simi- 
 larity of speech ; but, however far it went, it never 
 had the effect of making Israelites Canaanites ; on 
 the contrary, it made Canaanites Israelites. Not- 
 withstanding their inferiority, numerical and other- 
 wise, they maintained their individuality, and that 
 without the support of any external organisation. 
 Thus a certain inner unity actually subsisted long 
 before it had found any outward political expression ; 
 it goes back to the time of Moses, who is to be 
 regarded as its author. 
 
 The foundation upon which, at all periods, Israel's 
 sense of its national unity rested was religious in its 
 character. It was the faith which may be summed 
 up in the formula : Jehovah is the God of Israel, and 
 Israel is the people of Jehovah. Moses was not the 
 first discoverer of this faith, but it was through him 
 that it came to be the fundamental basis of the 
 national existence and history.-^ The exigencies of 
 
 ^ Jehovah is to be regarded as having originally been a family 
 or tribal god, either of the family to which Moses belonged or of 
 the tribe of Joseph, in the poaaession of which we find the ark of 
 Jehovah, and within which occurs the earliest certain instance of 
 a composite proper name with the word Jehovah for one of its 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 9 
 
 their position severed a number of kindred clans 
 from their customary surroundings, and drove them 
 into his arms. He undertook the responsibilities 
 of their leader, and the confidence of success which 
 he manifested was justified by the result. But it 
 was not through any merit of his that the under- 
 taking (of which he was the soul) prospered as it 
 did ; his design was aided in a wholly unlooked-for 
 way, by a marvellous occurrence quite beyond his 
 control, and which no sagacity could possibly have 
 foreseen. One whom the wind and sea obeyed had 
 given him His aid. Behind him stood One higher 
 than he, whose spirit wrought in him and " whose 
 arm wrought for him, — not for his personal aggran- 
 disement indeed, but for the weal of the nation. It 
 was Jehovah. Alike what was done by the deliberate 
 purpose of Moses, and what was done without any 
 human contrivance by nature and by accident, came 
 to be regarded in one great totality as the doing 
 of Jehovah for Israel. Jehovah it was who had 
 directed each step in that process through which 
 these so diverse elements, brought together by the 
 pressure of necessity, had been caused to pass, and 
 in the course of which the first beginnings of a 
 feeling of national unity had been made to grow, 
 
 elements (Jeho-shua, Joshua). No essential distinction was felt to 
 exist between Jehovah and El, any more than between Asshur and 
 El J Jehovah was only a special name of EI which had become 
 current within a powerful circle, and which on that account was 
 all the more fitted to become the designation of a national god. 
 
10 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 This feeling Moses was the first to elicit ; he it 
 was also who maintained it in life and cherished its 
 growth. The extraordinary set of circumstances 
 which had first occasioned the new national move- 
 ment continued to subsist, though in a less degree, 
 throughout the sojourn of the people in the wilder- 
 ness, and it was under their pressure that Israel 
 continued to be moulded. To Moses, who had been 
 the means of so brilliantly helping out of their first 
 straits the Hebrews who had accompanied him out 
 of Egypt, they naturally turned in all subsequent 
 difficulties ; before him they brought all afiairs with 
 which they were not themselves able to cope. The 
 authority which his antecedents had secured for him 
 made him, as matter of course, the great national 
 " Kadhi " in the wilderness. Equally as matter of 
 course did he exercise his judicial functions, neither 
 in his own interest nor in his own name, but in the 
 interest of the whole community and in the name 
 of Jehovah. By connecting them with the sanctuary 
 of Jehovah, which stood at the well of Kadesh, he 
 made these functions independent of his person, and 
 thus he laid a firm basis for a consuetudinary law, 
 and became the originator of the Torah in Israel. 
 In doing this he succeeded in inspiring the national 
 being with that which was the very life of his own 
 soul ; through the Torah he gave a definite positive 
 expression to their sense of nationality and their 
 idea of God. Jehovah was not merely the God of 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 11 
 
 Israel ; as such he was the God at once of law and 
 of justice, the basis, the informing principle, and the 
 implied postulate of their national consciousness. 
 
 The relationship was carried on in precisely the 
 same manner as that in which it had been begun. 
 It was most especially in the graver moments of its 
 history that Israel awoke to full consciousness of 
 itself and of Jehovah. Now, at that time and for 
 centuries afterwards, the highwater marks of history 
 were indicated by the wars it recorded. The name 
 " Israel " means " El does battle," and Jehovah was 
 the warrior El, after whom the nation styled itself. 
 The camp was, so to speak, at once the cradle in 
 which the nation was nursed and the smithy in 
 which it was welded into unity ; it was also the 
 primitive sanctuary. There Israel was, and there 
 was Jehovah. If in times of peace the relations 
 between the two had become dormant, they were 
 at once called forth into fullest activity when the 
 alarm of danger was raised ; Israel's awakening was 
 always preceded by the awakening of Jehovah. 
 Jehovah awakened men who, under the guidance 
 of His Spirit, placed themselves at the nation's 
 head ; in them his proper leadership was visibly 
 expressed. Jehovah went forth with the host to 
 battle, and in its enthusiasm His presence was seen 
 (Judg. V. 13, 23). With signs and wonders from 
 heaven Jehovah decided the struggle carried on 
 upon earth. In it He was always upon Israel's 
 
12 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. l. 
 
 side ; on Israel was His whole interest concentrated, 
 although His power (for He was God) reached far 
 beyond their local limits. 
 
 Thus Jehovah was in a very real sense a living 
 God ; but the manifestations ' of His life in the 
 great crises of His people's history were of necessity 
 separated by considerable intervals of time. His 
 activity had something abrupt and tumultuary 
 about it, better suited for extraordinary occasions 
 than for ordinary daily life. Traces of this feeling 
 appear very prominently in the later stages of the 
 development. But although the relations between 
 Israel and Israel's God came most strongly into 
 prominence in times of excitement, yet it did not 
 altogether die out in the periods of comparative 
 repose. It was in the case of Jehovah just as in 
 the case of the human leaders of the people, who 
 did not in times of peace wholly lose the influence 
 they had gained in war. Jehovah had His perma- 
 nent court at the places of worship where in times 
 of quietude men clung to Him that they might not 
 lose Him in times of trouble. His chief, perhaps in 
 the time of Moses His only, sanctuary was with the 
 so-called ark of the covenant. It was a standard, 
 adapted primarily to the requirements of a wandering 
 and warlike life ; brought back from the field, it 
 became, as symbol of Jehovah's presence, the central 
 seat of His worship. The cultus itself was more 
 than a mere paying of court to Jehovah, more than 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 13 
 
 a mere expedient for retaining His sympathies 
 against times of necessity ; the Torah of Jehovah, 
 the holy administration of law, was conjoined with 
 it. This had first of all been exercised, at the 
 instance of the priest of Midian, by Moses at the 
 well of Kadesh ; it was continued after him, at 
 the sanctuary, within the circle of those who had 
 attached themselves to him and were spiritually his 
 heirs. In cases where the wisdom or the competency 
 of the ordinary judges failed, men turned direct to 
 the Godhead, i.e., to the sanctuary and those who 
 served it. Their decisions, whether given according 
 to their own lights or by lot (according to the 
 character of the question) were not derived from 
 any law, but were received direct from Jehovah.^ 
 The execution of their decisions did not lie with 
 them ; they could only advise and teach. Their 
 authority was divine, or, as we should say, moral, 
 in its character ; it rested upon that spontaneous 
 recognition of the idea of right which, though un- 
 expressed, was alive and working among the tribes 
 — upon Jehovah Himself, who was the author of 
 this generally diffused sense of right, but revealed 
 the proper determinations on points of detail only 
 to certain individuals. The priestly Torah was an 
 entirely unpolitical or rather prepolitical institution ; 
 
 ^ They were consulted chiefly on points of law, but also on .all 
 sorts of difficulties as to what was right and to be done, or wrong 
 and to be avoided. 
 
14 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 it had an existence before the state had, and it was 
 one of the invisible foundation pillars on which the 
 state rested. 
 
 War and the administration of justice were re- 
 garded as matters of religion before they became 
 matters of obligation and civil order ; this is all 
 that is really meant when a theocracy is spoken of. 
 Moses certainly organised no formal state, endowed 
 with specific holiness, upon the basis of the pro- 
 position " Jehovah is the God of Israel ; " or, at all 
 events, if he did so, the fact had not in the slightest 
 degree any practical consequence or historical signi- 
 ficance. The old patriarchal system of families and 
 clans continued as before to be the ordinary con- 
 stitution, if one can apply such a woi'd as constitution 
 at all to an unorganised conglomeration of homo- 
 geneous elements. What there was of permanent 
 official authority lay in the hands of the elders and 
 heads of houses ; in time of war they commanded 
 each his own household force, and in peace they 
 dispensed justice each within his own circle. Bub 
 this obviously imperfect and inefiicient form of 
 government showed a growing tendency to break 
 down just in pi'oportion to the magnitude of the 
 tasks which the nation in the course of its histoiy 
 was called upon to undertake. Appeal to Jehovah 
 was always in these circumstances resorted to ; His 
 court was properly that of last resort, but the ordi- 
 nary authorities were so inadequate that it had 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 15 
 
 often enough to be applied to. Theocracy, if one 
 may so say, arose as the complement of anarchy. 
 Actual and legal existence (in the modern sense) 
 was predicable only of each of the many clans ; the 
 unity of the nation began to be realised through 
 its religion. It was out of the religion of Israel 
 that the commonwealth of Israel unfolded itself 
 — not a holy state, but the state. And the state 
 continued to be, consciously, rooted in religion, 
 which prevented it from quitting or losing its 
 rapport with the soil from which it had originally 
 sprung. With the intermediate and higher stages 
 of political organisation, with the building of the 
 upper structure, however, religion had no concern ; 
 they were too far removed from the foundation. 
 The derivative, which did not carry immediately 
 in itself its own title to exist, was a matter of 
 indifference to it ; what had come into being it 
 suffered to go its own way as soon as it was capable 
 of asserting its independence. For this reason it 
 always turned by preference to the future, not in 
 a Utopian but in a thoroughly practical way ; by 
 a single step only did it keep ahead of the present. 
 It prepared the way for such developments as are 
 not derived from existing institutions, but spring 
 immediately from the depths in which human 
 society has its secret and mysterious roots. 
 
 The expression " Jehovah is the God of Israel," 
 accordingly, meant that every task of the nation, 
 
16 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 internal as well as external, was conceived as holy. 
 It certainly did not mean that the almighty Creator 
 of heaven and earth was conceived of as having 
 first made a covenant with this one people that by 
 them He might be truly known and worshipped. 
 It was not as if Jehovah had originally been 
 regarded as the God of the universe who sub- 
 sequently became the God of Israel ; on the con- 
 trary, He was primarily Israel's God, and only 
 afterwards (very long afterwards) did He come to 
 be regarded as the God of the universe. For Moses 
 to have given to the Israelites an " enlightened con- 
 ception of God " would have been to have given them 
 a stone instead of bread ; it is in the highest degree 
 probable that, with regard to the essential nature of 
 Jehovah, as distinct from His relation to men, he 
 allowed them to continue in the same way of think- 
 ing- with their fathers. With theoretical truths, 
 which were not at all in demand, he did not occupy 
 himself, but purely with practical questions which 
 were put and urged by the pressure of the times. 
 The religious starting-point of the history of Israel 
 was remarkable, not for its novelty, but for its 
 normal character. In all ancient primitive peoples 
 the relation in which God is conceived to stand to 
 the circumstances of the nation — in other words, 
 religion — furnishes a motive for law and morals ; 
 in the case of none did it become so with such 
 purity and power as in that of the Israelites. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 17 
 
 Whatever Jehovah may have been conceived to be 
 in His essential nature — God of the thunderstorm 
 or the like — this fell more and more into the back- 
 ground as mysterious and transcendental; the sub- 
 ject was not one for inquiry. All stress was laid 
 upon His activity within the world of mankind, 
 whose ends He made one with His own. Religion 
 thus did not make men partakers in a divine life, 
 but contrariwise it made God a partaker in the life 
 of men ; life in this way was not straitened by it, 
 but enlarged. ' The so-called " particularism " of 
 Israel's idea of God was in fact the real strength of 
 Israel's religion ; it thus escaped from barren mytho- 
 logisings, and became free to apply itself to the 
 moral tasks which are always given, and admit of 
 being discharged, only in definite spheres. As God 
 of the nation, Jehovah became the God of justice 
 and of right ; as God of justice and right. He came 
 to be thought of as the highest, and at last as the 
 only, power in heaven and earth. 
 
 (In the preceding sketch the attempt has been 
 made to exhibit Mosaism as it must be supposed to 
 have existed on the assumption that the history of 
 Israel commenced with it, and that for centuries it 
 continued to be the ideal root out of which that 
 history continued to grow. This being assumed, 
 we cannot treat the legislative portion of the Pen- 
 tateuch as a source from which our knowledge of 
 
 B 
 
18 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 what Mosaism really was can be derived ; for it 
 cannot in any sense be regarded as the starting- 
 point of the subsequent development. If it was 
 the work of Moses, then we must suppose it to have 
 remained a dead letter for centuries, and only through 
 King Josiah and Ezra the scribe to have become 
 operative in the national history.-^ The historical 
 tradition which has reached us relating to the period 
 of the judges and of the kings of Israel is the main 
 source, though only of course in an indirect way, of 
 our knowledge of Mosaism. But within the Penta- 
 teuch itself also the historical tradition about Moses 
 (which admits of being distinguished, and must 
 carefully be separated, from the legislative, although 
 the latter often clothes itself in narrative form) is 
 in its main features manifestly trustworthy, and can 
 only be explained as resting on actual facts. 
 
 From the historical tradition, then, it is certain 
 that Moses was the founder of the Torah. But the 
 legislative tradition cannot tell us what were the 
 positive contents of his Torah. In fact it can be 
 shown that throughout the whole of the older period 
 the Torah was no finished legislative code, but con- 
 sisted entirely of the oral decisions and instructions 
 of the priests ; as a whole it was potential only ; 
 what actually existed were the individual sentences 
 given by the priesthood as they were asked for." 
 Thus Moses was not regarded as the promulgator 
 ^ Comp. chaps, viii. and x. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 19 
 
 once for all of a national constitution, but rather as 
 the first to call into activity the actual sense for 
 law and justice, and to begin the series of oral 
 decisions which were continued after him by the 
 priests. He was the founder of the nation out of 
 which the Torah and prophecy came as later growths. 
 He laid the basis of Israel's subsequent peculiar 
 individuality, not by any one formal act, but in 
 virtue of his having throughout the whole of his 
 long life been the people's leader, judge, and centre 
 of union. 
 
 A correct conception of the manner in which the 
 Torah was made by him can be derived from the 
 narrative contained in Exod. xviii., but not from 
 the long section which- follows, relating to the 
 Sinaitic covenant (chap. xix. seq.). The giving of 
 the law at Sinai has only a formal, not to say 
 dramatic, significance. It is the product of the 
 poetic necessity for such a representation of the 
 manner in which the people was constituted 
 Jehovah's people as should appeal directly and 
 graphically to the imagination. Only so can we 
 justly interpret those expressions according to 
 which Jehovah with His own mouth thundered 
 the ten commandments down from the mountain 
 to the people below, and afterwards for forty days 
 held a confidential conference with Moses alone on 
 the summit. For the sake of producing a solemn 
 and vivid impression that is represented as having 
 
20 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 taken place in a single thrilling moment, which 
 in reality occurred slowly and almost unobserved. 
 Why Sinai should have been chosen as the scene 
 admits of ready explanation. It was the Olympus 
 of the Hebrew peoples, the earthly seat of the God- 
 head, and as such it continued to be regarded by 
 the Israelites even after their settlement in Palestine 
 (Judg. V. 4, 5). This immemorial sanctity of Sinai 
 it was that led to its being selected as the ideal 
 scene of the giving of the law, not conversely. If 
 we eliminate from the historical narrative the long 
 Sinaitic section which has but a loose connection 
 with it, the wilderness of Kadesh becomes the 
 locality of the preceding and subsequent events. It 
 was during the sojourn of many years here that the 
 organisation of the nation, in any historical sense, 
 took place. " There He made for them statute and 
 ordinance, and there He proved them," as we read 
 in Exod. xv, 25 in a dislocated poetical fragment. 
 " Judgment and trial," " Massa and Meribah," point 
 to Kadesh as the place referred to ; there at all 
 events is the scene of the narrative immediately 
 following (Exod. xvii. = Num. xx.), and doubtless 
 also of Exod. xviii. 
 
 If the legislation of the Pentateuch cease as a 
 whole to be regarded as an authentic source for our 
 knowledge of what Mosaism was, it becomes a some- 
 what precarious matter to make any exception in 
 favour of the Decalogue. In particular, the follow- 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 21 
 
 ing arguments against its, authenticity must be taken 
 into account: — (i) According to Exod. xxsiv. the 
 commandments which stood upon the two tables 
 were quite different. (2) The prohibition of images 
 was during the older period quite unknown ; Moses 
 himself is said to have made a brazen serpent which, 
 down to Hezekiah's time, continued to be worshipped 
 at Jerusalem as an image of Jehovah. (3) The 
 essentially and necessarily national character of the 
 older phases of the religion of Jehovah completely 
 disappears in the quite universal code of morals, 
 which is given in the Decalogue as the fundamental 
 law of Israel ; but the entire series of religious 
 personalities throughout the period of the judges 
 and the kings — from Deborah, who praised Jael's 
 treacherous act of murder, to David, who treated 
 his prisoners of war with the utmost cruelty — make 
 it very difficult to believe that the religion of Israel 
 was, from the outset, one of a specifically moral 
 character. The true spirit of the, old religion may 
 be gathered much more truly from Judg. v. than 
 from Exod. xx. (4) It is extremely doubtful whether 
 the actual monotheism, which is undoubtedly pre- 
 supposed in the universal moral precepts of the 
 Decalogue, could have formed the foundation of a 
 national religion. It was first developed out of the 
 national religion at the downfall of the nation, and 
 thereupon kept its hold upon the people in an arti- 
 ficial manner by means of the idea of a covenant 
 
22 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. i. 
 
 formed by the God of the universe with, in the first 
 instance, Israel alone."' 
 
 As for the question regarding the historical pre- 
 suppositions of Mosaism, there generally underlies 
 it a misunderstanding arising out of theological 
 intellectualism — an attribute found with special 
 frequency among non-theologians. Moses gave 
 no new idea of God to his people. The question 
 whence he could have derived it therefore need not 
 be raised. It could not possibly be worse answered, 
 however, than by a reference to his relations with 
 the priestly caste of Egypt and their wisdom. It 
 is not to be believed that an Egyptian deity could 
 inspire the Hebrews of Goshen with courage for the 
 struggle against the Egyptians, or that an abstrac- 
 tion of esoteric speculation could become the national 
 deity of Israel. It is not inconceivable indeed, al- 
 though at the same time quite incapable of proof, 
 that Moses was indebted to the Egyptian priests for 
 certain advantages of personal culture, or that he 
 borrowed from them on all hands in external details 
 of organisation or in matters of ritual. But the 
 origin of the germ which developed into Israel is 
 not to be sought for in Egypt, and Jehovah has 
 nothing in common with the colourless divinity of 
 Penta-ur. That monotheism must have been a 
 foreign importation, because it is contrary to that 
 sexual dualism of Godhead which is said to be the 
 ' Comp. chaps, vi.-x. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE NATION. 23 
 
 fundamental characteristic of Semitic religion, is an 
 untenable exaggeration which has recently become 
 popular out of opposition to the familiar thesis about 
 the monotheistic instinct of the Semites.^ Moab, 
 Ammon, and Edom, Israel's nearest kinsfolk and 
 neighbours, were monotheists in precisely the same 
 sense in which Israel itself was ; but it would be 
 foolish surely in their case to think of foreign 
 importation. 
 
 Manetho's statements about the Israelites are for 
 the most part to be regarded as malicious inventions : 
 whether any genuine tradition underlies them at all 
 is a point much needing to be investigated. The 
 story of Exod. ii. I seq. is a my thus which recurs 
 elsewhere, to which no further significance is at- 
 tached, for that Moses was trained in all the wisdom 
 of the Egyptians is vouched for by no earlier authori- 
 ties than Philo and the New Testament. According 
 to the Old Testament tradition his connection is with 
 Jethro's priesthood or with that of the Kenites. 
 This historical presupposition of Mosaisra has 
 external evidence in its favour, and is inherently 
 quite probable.) 
 
 1 Noldeke, Literar. Centralbl., 1877, p. 365. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE. 
 
 The kingdom of Sihon did not permanently suffice 
 the Israelites, and the disintegration of the Canaanites 
 to the west of Jordan in an endless number of king- 
 doms and cities invited attack. The first essay was 
 made by Judah in conjunction with Simeon and 
 Levi, but was far from prosperous. Simeon and 
 Levi were annihilated ; Judah also, though success- 
 ful in mastering the mountain land to the west of 
 the Dead Sea, was so only at the cost of severe 
 losses which were not again made up until the 
 accession of the Kenite families of the south (Caleb). 
 As a consequence of the secession of these tribes, 
 a new division of the nation into Israel and Judah 
 took the place of that which had previously subsisted 
 between the families of Leah and Rachel ; under 
 Israel were included all the tribes except Simeon, 
 Levi, and Judah, which three are no longer men- 
 tioned in Judg. v., where all the others are carefully 
 and exhaustively enumerated. This half-abortive 
 first invasion of the west was followed by a second 
 
 ?4 
 
SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE. 25 
 
 whicli was stronger and attended with much better 
 results. It was led by the tribe of Joseph, to which 
 the others attached themselves, Eeuben and Gad 
 only remaining behind in the old settlements. The 
 district to the north of Judah, inhabited afterwards 
 by Benjamin, was the first to be attacked. It was 
 not until after several towns of this district had one 
 by one fallen into the hands of the conquerors that 
 the Canaanites set about a united resistance. They 
 were, however, decisively repulsed by Joshua in 
 the neighbourhood of Gibeon ; and by this victory 
 the Israelites became masters of the whole central 
 plateau of Palestine. The first camp, at Gilgal, 
 near the ford of Jordan, which had been maintained 
 until then, was now removed, and the ark of Jehovah 
 brought further inland (perhaps by way of Bethel) to 
 Shiloh, where henceforward the headquarters were 
 fixed, in a position which seemed as if it had been 
 expressly made to favour attacks upon the fertile 
 tract lying beneath it on the north. The Bne 
 Rachel now occupied the new territory which up to 
 that time had been acquired — Benjamin, in im- 
 mediate contiguity with the frontier of Judah, then 
 Ephraim, stretching to beyond Shiloh, and lastly 
 Manasseh, furtherest to the north, as far as to the 
 plain of Jezreel. The centre of gravity, so to speak, 
 already lay in Ephraim, to which belonged Joshi?ia 
 and the ark. 
 
 It is mentioned as the last achievement of Joshua 
 
26 ISKAEL AND JUDAH. chap. ii. 
 
 that at the waters of Merom he defeated Jabin, 
 king of Hazor, and the allied princes of Galilee, 
 thereby opening up the north for Israelitish settlers. 
 It is quite what we should expect that a great and 
 united blow had to be struck at the Canaanites of 
 the north before the new-comers could occupy it in 
 peace ; and King Jabin, who reappears at a later 
 date, certainly does not suit the situation described 
 in Judg. iv., v. J 
 
 (The Book of Joshua represents the conquest 
 of western Palestine as having been the common 
 undertaking of all the tribes together, which, after 
 the original inhabitants have been extirpated, are 
 exhibited as laying the ownerless country at Joshua's 
 feet in order that he may divide it by lot amongst 
 them. But this is a " systematic " generalisation, 
 contradicted by the facts which we otherwise know. 
 For we possess another account of tlie conquest of 
 Palestine, that of Judg. i., which runs parallel with 
 the Book of Joshua. It is shorter indeed and more 
 superficial, yet in its entire mode of presenting tbe 
 subject more historical. According to its narrative, 
 it appears that Joshua was the leader of Joseph and 
 Benjamin only, with whom indeed Issachar, Zebulon, 
 Dan, Naphtali, and Asher made common cause. 
 \But before his time the tribe of Judah had already 
 cnossed the Jordan and effected a lodgment in the 
 territory which lay between the earlier seat of the 
 nation in the wilderness of Kadesh and its then 
 
SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE. 27 
 
 settlement on tlie plateau of Moab, forming in some 
 degree a link of connection between the two. It 
 might be supposed that the tribe of Judah had not 
 taken the longer route to the eastward of tlie Dead 
 Sea at all, but had already at Kadesh broken off 
 from the main body and thence turned its steps 
 directly northward. But the representation actually 
 given in Judg. i., to the effect that it was from 
 the direction of the Jordan and not from that of the 
 Negeb that they came to take possession of their 
 land, finds its confirmation in the fact that the 
 southern portion of their territory was the last to 
 come into their possession. The tradition is un- 
 wavering that Hebron was taken not by Judah but 
 by Caleb, a family which stood in friendly relations 
 with Israel, but had no connection with it by blood. 
 It was only through the policy of David that Caleb, 
 Othniel, Jerachmeel, and the rest of the Kenites 
 who had their homes in the Negeb became com- 
 pletely incorporated with Judah, so that Hebron 
 became at last the capital of that tribe. Its oldest 
 seats, however, lay further to the north, in the 
 region of Tekoa, Bethlehem, Baal-Judah. 
 
 It harmonises well with this view to suppose 
 that Simeon and Levi must have made at the same 
 time their attempt to effect a settlement in the hill- 
 country of Ephraim. One of their families, Dinah 
 bat Leah, met with a favourable reception in the 
 town of Shechem, and began to mix freely with its 
 
28 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. ii. 
 
 population, and thus the way was paved for the 
 establishment of peaceable relations between the 
 old inhabitants of the land and the new importa- 
 tions. But these relations were brought to an end 
 by the two brothers who, in concert it must be 
 supposed with their sister, fell upon the Shechem- 
 ites and massacred them. The final result proved 
 disastrous. The Canaanites of the surrounding 
 country united against them and completely de- 
 stroyed them. There can be no doubt as to the 
 trustworthiness of the somewhat enigmatical records 
 of those events which are given in Gen. xlix. and 
 xxxiv. ; in no other way is it possible to explain 
 why Simeon and Levi, which originally came upon 
 the stage of history on an equal footing with Reuben 
 and Judah, should have already disappeared as 
 independent tribes at the very beginning of the 
 period of the judges. Now, that the destruction 
 of Shechem by the Manassite Abimelech is quite 
 distinct from the attack made by Simeon and Levi 
 need hardly be said. On the other hand, the occur- 
 rence cannot be regarded as pre-Mosaic, but must 
 be assigned to a time previous to the conquest of 
 the hill-country of Ephraim by Joseph ; for after 
 Joseph's settlement there the two sons of Leah had 
 manifestly nothing more to hope for in that locality. 
 We are shut up, therefore, to the conclusion that 
 they crossed the Jordan at the same time as Judah 
 separated himself from the main body in search 
 
SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE, 29 
 
 of a suitable territory. That Simeou accompanied 
 Judah in the first westward attempt is expressly 
 stated in Judg. i. The fate of Levi, again, cannot 
 be separated from that of Simeon (Gen. xlix. 5-7) ; 
 that he is not expressly mentioned in Judg. i. 
 ought not to cause surprise, when it is considered 
 that later generations which regarded Levi as 
 neither more nor less than a priest would have 
 some difficulty in representing him as a thoroughly 
 secular tribe. Such nevertheless he must have 
 been, for the poet in Gen. xlix. 5—7 puts him on 
 a footing of perfect equality with Simeon, and 
 attributes to both brothers a very secular and 
 bloodthirsty character ; he has no conception that 
 Levi has a sacred vocation which is the reason of 
 the dispersion of the tribe ; the dispersion, on the 
 contrary, is regarded as a curse and no blessing, an 
 annihilation and not the means of giving permanence 
 to its tribal individuality. The shattered remains 
 of Simeon, and doubtless those of Levi also, became 
 incorporated with Judah, which thenceforward was 
 the sole representative of the three sons of Leah, 
 who according to the genealogy had been born 
 immediately after Eeuben the first-born. Judah 
 itself seems at the same time to have suffered 
 severely. Of its three older branches, Ei', Onan, 
 and Shelah, one only survived, and only by the 
 accession of foreign elements did the tribe regain 
 its vigour — by the fresh blood which the Kenites 
 
30 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. II. 
 
 of the Negeb brought. For Zarah and Pharez, 
 which took the place of Br and Onan after these 
 had disappeared, belonged originally, not to Israel, 
 but to Hezron or the Kenites ; under this designa- 
 tion are included families like those of Othniel, 
 Jerachmeel, and Caleb, and, as has been already- 
 remarked, even in David's time these were not 
 reckoned as strictly belonging to Judah. Thus the 
 depletion which the tribe had to suffer in the 
 struggle with the Canaanites at the beginning of 
 the period of the judges was the remote cause 
 of the prominence which, according to i Chron. ii., 
 the Bne Hezron afterwards attained in Judah. 
 The survivors of Simeon also appear to have been 
 forced back upon these Ilezronites in the Negeb ; 
 the cities assigned to them in the Book of Joshua 
 all belong to that region.) 
 
 Even after the united resistance of the Canaanites 
 had been broken, each individual community had 
 still enough to do before it could take firm hold 
 of the spot which it had searched out for itself or 
 to which it had been assigned. The business of 
 effecting permanent settlement was just a continua- 
 tion of the former struggle, only on a diminished 
 scale ; every tribe and every family now fought for 
 its own hand after the preliminary work had been 
 accomplished by a united effort. Naturally, there- 
 fore, the conquest was at first but an incomplete 
 one. The plain which fringed the coast was hardly 
 
SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE. 31 
 
 touched ; so also the valley of Jezreel with its girdle 
 of fortified cities stretching from Acco to Bethshean. 
 All that was subdued in the strict sense of that 
 word was the mountainous land, particularly the 
 southern hill-country of " Mount Ephraim ; " yet, 
 even here the Canaanites retained possession of not 
 a few cities, such as Jebus, Shechem, Thebez. It 
 was only after the lapse of centuries that all the 
 lacunae were filled up, and the Canaanite enclaves 
 made tributary. 
 
 The Israelites had the extraordinarily disintegrated 
 state of the enemy to thank for the ease with 
 which they had achieved success. The first storm 
 subsided comparatively soon, and conquerors and 
 conquered alike learned to accommodate themselves 
 to the new circumstances. Then the Canaanites 
 once more collected all their energies to strike a 
 blow for freedom. Under the hegemony of Sisera 
 a great league was formed, and the plain of Jezreel 
 became the centre of the reorganised power which 
 made itself felt by its attacks both northwards and 
 southwards. The Israelites were strangely helpless ; 
 it was as if neither shield nor spear could be found 
 among their 40,000 fighting men. But at last 
 there came an impulse from above, and brought life 
 and soul to the unorganised mass; Deborah sent 
 out the summons to the tribes, Barak came forward 
 as their leader against the kings of Canaan who 
 had assembled under Sisera's command by the 
 
32 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. ii. 
 
 brook of Kishon. The cavalry of the enemy was 
 unable to withstand the impetuous rush of the army 
 of Jehovah, and Sisera himself perished in the flight. 
 From that day the Canaanites, although many 
 strong towns continued to be held by them, never 
 again raised their heads. 
 
 After these occurrences some further changes 
 of a fundamental character took place in the 
 relations of the tribes. The Danites proved un- 
 able to hold against the forward pressure of the 
 Philistines their territory on the coast to the 
 west of Benjamin and Ephraim ; they accordingly 
 sought a new settlement, which was found in the 
 north at the foot of Hermon. In this way all 
 the secondary tribes westward of Jordan (Asher, 
 Naphtali, Dan) came to have their seats beside each 
 other in the northern division of the land. Eastward 
 of Jordan, Reuben rapidly fell from his old pro- 
 minence, sharing the fate of his next eldest brethren 
 Simeon and Levi. When Eglon of Moab took 
 Jericho, and laid Benjamin under tribute, it is 
 obvious that he must previously have made himself 
 master of Reuben's territory. This territory became 
 thenceforward a subject of constant dispute between 
 Moab and Israel ; the efforts to recover it, however, 
 did not proceed from Reuben himself, but from Gad, 
 a tribe which knew how to assert itself with vigour 
 against the enemies by which it was surrounded. 
 But if the Hebrews lost ground in the south, they 
 
SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE. 33 
 
 materially enlarged their borders in the north of the 
 land eastward of Jordan. Various Manassite families, 
 finding their holdings at home too small, crossed the 
 Jordan and founded colonies in Bashan and northern 
 Gilead. Although this colonisation, on account of 
 the rivalry of the Arameeans, who were also press- 
 ing forward in this direction, was but imperfectly 
 successful, it nevertheless was of very great import- 
 ance, inasmuch as it served to give new strength 
 to the bonds that united the eastern with the 
 western tribes. Not only was Gilead not lost ; it 
 even became a very vigorous member of the body- 
 politic.^ 
 
 The times of agitation and insecurity which 
 followed upon the conquest of Palestine invited 
 attacks by the eastern nomads, and once more the 
 Israelite peasantry showed all its old helplessness, 
 until at last the indignation of a Manassite of good 
 family, Gideon or Jerubbaal, was roused by the 
 
 1 It is probable that Manasseh's migration to the territory east- 
 ward of Jordan took place from the west, and later than the time 
 of Moses. The older portions of the Hexateuch speak not of two 
 and a half but only of two trans-Jordanic tribes, and exclude 
 Manasseh ; according to them the kingdom of Sihon alone .was 
 subdued by Moses, not that of Og also, the latter, indeed, being a 
 wholly legendary personage. In the song of Deborah, Machir is 
 reckoned among the western tribes, and it was not until much later 
 that this became the designation of the Manassites eastward of 
 Jordan. It is also worth noticing that Jair's colonisation of 
 northern Gilead did not take place until the time of the judges 
 (Judg. X. 3, sqq.), but is related also in Num. xxxii. 39-42. 
 
 C 
 
34 ISEAEL IND JUDAH. chap. ii. 
 
 Midianites, who had captured some of his brothers 
 and put them to death. With his family, that of 
 Abiezer, he gave pursuit, and, overtaking the enemy 
 on the borders of the wilderness, inflicted on them 
 such chastisement as put an end to these incur- 
 sions. His heroism had consequences which reached 
 far beyond the scope of his original purpose. He 
 became the champion of the peasantry against the 
 freebooters, of the cultivated land against the waste ; 
 social respect and predominance were his rewards. 
 In his native town of Ophrah he kept up a great 
 establishment, where also he built a temple with an 
 image of Jehovah overlaid with the gold which he 
 had taken from the Midianites. He transmitted 
 to his sons an authority, which was not limited 
 to Abiezer and Manasseh alone, but, however 
 slightly and indirectly, extended over Ephraim as 
 well. 
 
 On the foundations laid by Gideon Abimelech 
 his son sought to establish a kingship over Israel, 
 that is, over Ephraim and Manasseh. The pre- 
 dominance, however, which had been naturally 
 accorded to his father in virtue of his personal 
 merits, Abimelech looked upon as a thing seized by 
 force and to be maintained with injustice ; and in 
 this way he soon destroyed those fair beginnings 
 out of which even at that time a kingdom might 
 have arisen within the house of Joseph. The one 
 permanent fruit of his activity was that Shechem 
 
SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE. 35 
 
 was destroyed as a Canaanite city and rebuilt for 
 Israel.^ 
 
 The most important change of the period of the 
 judges went on gradually and in silence. The old 
 population of the country, which, according to Deut- 
 eronomy, was to have been exterminated, slowly 
 became amalgamated with the new. In this way 
 the Israelites received a very important accession 
 to their numbers. In Deborah's time the fighting 
 men of Israel numbered 40,000 ; the tribe of Dan, 
 when it migrated to Laish, counted 600 warriors ; 
 Gideon pursued the Midianites with 300. But in 
 the reigns of Saul and David we find a population 
 reckoned by millions. The rapid increase is to be 
 accounted for by the incorporation of the Canaanites, 
 
 At the same time the Hebrews learned to partici- 
 pate in the culture of the Canaanites, and quietly 
 entered into the enjoyment of the labours of their 
 predecessors. From the pastoral they advanced to 
 the agricultural stage ; corn and wine, the olive and 
 the fig, with them are habitually spoken of as the 
 necessaries of life. It was not strange that this 
 change in the manner of their everyday life should 
 be attended with certain consequences in the sphere 
 of religion also. It is inconceivable that the Is- 
 
 ^ On the narratives contained in tlie Book of Judges see Well- 
 hausen, 1. 1. p. 2 1 5 sqq, ; especially on Barak and Sisera, p. 220 sqq. ; 
 on Gideon and Abimelech, p. 223, sqq., p. 353, sqq.; on Jephthah, 
 Samson, the Danite migration, and the Benjamites of Gibeah, 
 pp. 228-238. 
 
36 ISKAEL AND JUDAH. chap. ii. 
 
 raelites should have brought with them out of the 
 desert the cultus they observed in the time of the 
 kings (Exod. xxii. xxiii. xxiv.), which throughout 
 presupposed the fields and gardens of Palestine ; 
 they borrowed it from the Oanaanites.^ This is 
 confirmed by the fact that they took over from 
 these the " Bamoth " or " high places " also, not- 
 withstanding the prohibition in Deut. xii. 
 
 It was natural enough that the Hebrews should 
 also appropriate the divinity worshipped by the 
 Canaanite peasants as the giver of their corn, wine, 
 and oil, the Baal whom the Greeks identified with 
 Dionysus. The apostasy to Baal, on the part of the 
 first generation which had quitted the wilderness 
 and adopted a settled agricultural life, is attested 
 alike by historical and prophetical tradition. Doubt- 
 less Baal, as the god of the land of Canaan, and 
 Jehovah, as the God of the nation of Israel, were in 
 the first instance co-ordinated.^ But it was not to be 
 expected that the divinity of the land should per- 
 manently be different from the God of the dominant 
 people. In proportion as Israel identified itself 
 with the conquered territory, the divinities also 
 were identified. Hence arose a certain syncretism 
 
 1 In the earliest case where the feast of the ingathering, after- 
 wards the chief feast of the Israelites, is mentioned, it is celebrated 
 by Canaanites of Shechem in honour of Ba-al (Judg. ix. 27). 
 
 ^ In Judges v. Jehovah retains his original abode in the wilder- 
 ness of Sinai, and only on occasions of necessity quits it to come to 
 Palestine. 
 
SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE. 37 
 
 between Baal and Jehovah, which had not been, got 
 over even in the time of the prophet Hosea. At 
 the same time the functions of Baal were more 
 frequently transferred to Jehovah than conversely. 
 Canaan and Baal represented the female, Israel and 
 Jehovah the male, part in this union. 
 
 Had the Israelites remained in the wilderness 
 and in barbarism, the historical development they 
 subsequently reached would hardly have been pos- 
 sible ; their career would have been like that of 
 Amalek, or, at best, like those of Edom, Moab, 
 and Ammon. Their acceptance of civilisation was 
 undoubtedly a step in the forward direction, but as 
 certainly did it also involve a peril. It involved an 
 overloading, as it were, of the system with materials 
 which it was incapable of assimilating at once. The 
 material tasks imposed threatened to destroy the 
 religious basis of the old national life. The offen- 
 sive and defensive alliances among the tribes gradu- 
 ally dissolved under the continuance of peace ; the 
 subsequent occupation of the country dispersed those 
 whom the camp had united. The enthusiastic ilan 
 with which the conquest had been achieved gave 
 way to the petty drudgery by which the individual 
 families, each in its own circle, had to accommodate 
 themselves to their new surroundings. Yet under 
 the ashes the embers were still aglow ; and the 
 course of history ever fanned them anew into flame, 
 bringing home to Israel the truths that man does 
 
38 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. ii. 
 
 not live by bread alone, and that there are other 
 things of worth than those which Baal can bestow ; 
 it brought ever again into the foreground the divine- 
 ness of heroical self-sacrifice of the individual for the 
 good of the nation. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM, AND THE FIRST 
 THREE KINGS. 
 
 The Philistines were the means of arousing from 
 their slumber Israel and Jehovah. From their 
 settlements by the sea on the low-lying plain which 
 skirts the mountains of Judah on the west, they 
 pressed northwards into the plain of Sharon, and 
 thence into the plain of Jezreel beyond, which is 
 connected with that of Sharon by the upland valley 
 of Dothan. Here, having driven out the Danites, 
 they came into direct contact with the tribe of 
 Joseph, the chief bulwark of Israel, and a great 
 battle took place at Aphek, where the plain of 
 Sharon merges into the valley of Dothan. The 
 Philistines were victorious, and carried off as a 
 trophy the Israelite standard, the ark of Jehovah, 
 Their further conquests included, not only the plain 
 of Jezreel and the hill country bordering it on the 
 south, but also the proper citadel of the country, 
 "Mount Ephraim." The old sanctuary at Shiloh 
 was destroyed by them ; its temple of Jehovah 
 
 39 
 
40 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. hi. 
 
 thenceforward lay in ruins. Their supremacy ex- 
 tended as far as to Benjamin ; the Philistines had 
 a ner-ib in Gibeah.l But the assertion that they 
 had confiscated all weapons and removed all smiths 
 must be regarded as an unhistorical exaggeration ; 
 under their regime at all events it was possible for 
 the messengers of a beleaguered city on the east of 
 Jordan to summon their countrymen in tie west to 
 their relief. 
 
 The shame of the Israelites under the reproach 
 of Philistine oppression, led, in the first instance, to 
 a widespread exaltation of religious feeling. Troops 
 of ecstatic enthusiasts showed themselves here and 
 there, and went about with musical accompaniments 
 in processions, which often took the shape of wild 
 dances ; even men of the most sedate temperament 
 were sometimes smitten with the contagion, and 
 drawn into the charmed circle. In such a pheno- 
 menon occurring in the East, there was nothing 
 intrinsically strange ; among the Canaanites such 
 " Nebiira " — for so they were styled — had long been 
 familiar, and they continued to exist in the country, 
 after the old fashion, long after their original char- 
 
 ' Nefib is an Aramaic word of uncertain meaning. In the name 
 of the town Negibin (Nisibis) it certainly seems to mean "pillars ; " 
 accordins; to i Kings iv. 5 and xxii. 48 [A.V. 47] (where it is pointed 
 nifgab), "governor" seems the best translation, and this is the only 
 rendering consistent with the expression in I Sam. xiii. 3 (" Jonathan 
 slew the nefib," &c. ). 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM. 41 
 
 acter, so far as Israel was concerned, had been 
 wholly lost. The new thing at this juncture was 
 that this spirit passed over upon Israel, and that 
 the best members of the community were seized by 
 it. It afforded an outlet for the suppressed excite- 
 ment of the nation. 
 
 The new-kindled zeal had for its object not the 
 abolition of Baal worship, but resistance to the 
 enemies of Israel. Religion and patriotism were 
 then identical. This spirit of the times was under- 
 stood by an old man, Samuel ben Elkanah, who 
 lived at Eamah, in south-western Ephraim. He 
 was not himself one of the Nebiim ; on the con- 
 trary, he was a seer of that old type which had for 
 a long time existed amongst the Hebrews much as 
 we find it amongst the Greeks or Arabs. Raised 
 by his foreseeing talent to a position of great pro- 
 minence, he found opportunity to occupy himself 
 with other questions besides those which he was 
 professionally called on to answer. The national 
 distress weighed upon his heart ; the neighbouring 
 peoples had taught him to recognise the advantages 
 which are secured by the consolidation of families 
 and tribes into a kingdom. But Samuel's peculiar 
 merit lay, not in discovering what it was that the 
 nation needed, but in finding out the man who was 
 capable of supplying that need. Having come to 
 know Saul ben Kish, a Benjamite of the town of 
 Gibeah, a man of gigantic form, and swift, enthu- 
 
42 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. m. 
 
 siastic nature, he declared to him his destiny to 
 become king over Israel. 
 
 Saul very soon had an opportunity for showing 
 whether Samuel had been a true seer or no. The 
 city of Jabesh in Gilead was besieged by the Am- 
 monites, and the inhabitants declared themselves 
 ready to surrender should they fail in obtaining 
 speedy succour from their countrymen. Their 
 messengers had passed through all Israel without 
 meeting with anything more helpful than pity, 
 until at last tidings of their case reached Saul as he 
 was returning with a yoke of oxen from the field. 
 Hewing his cattle in pieces, he caused the por- 
 tions to be sent in all directions, with the threat 
 that so should it be done with the oxen of every 
 one who should refuse to help in relieving Jabesh. 
 The people obeyed the summons, fell suddenly one 
 morning upon the Ammonites, and delivered the 
 beleaguered city. 
 
 Having thus found Saul the man for their need, 
 they refused to let him go. In Gilgal, Joshua's old 
 camp, they anointed him king. The act was equiva- 
 lent to imposing upon him the conduct of the struggle 
 against the Philistines, and so he understood it. 
 The first signal for the attack was given by his son 
 Jonathan, when he slew the ne(}ib of the Philistines 
 at Gibeah. These, in consequence, advanced in force 
 towards the focus of the revolt, and took up a posi- 
 tion opposite Gibeah on the north, being divided 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM. 43 
 
 from it only by the gorge of Mictmash. Only a 
 few hundred Benjamitea ventured to remain with 
 Saul. The struggle opened with a piece of genuine 
 old heroic daring. While the Philistines were dis- 
 persed over the country in foraging expeditions, 
 Jonathan, accompanied by his armour-bearer only, 
 and without the knowledge of Saul, made an attack 
 upon the weak post which they had left behind at 
 the pass of Michmash. After the first had been 
 surprised and overmastered, the others took to flight, 
 no doubt in the belief that the two assailants were 
 supported. They carried their panic with them 
 into the half-deserted camp, whence it spread among 
 the various foraging bands. The commotion was 
 observed from Gibeah opposite, and, without pausing 
 to consult the priestly oracle, King Saul determined 
 to attack the camp. The attempt was completely 
 successful, but involved no more than the camp and 
 its stores ; the Philistines themselves effected an 
 unmolested retreat by the difficult road of Beth- 
 horon. 
 
 Saul was no mere raw stripling when he ascended 
 the throne ; he already had a grown-up son at his 
 side. Nor was he of insignificant descent, the family 
 to which he belonged being a widespread one, and 
 his heritage considerable. His establishment at 
 Gibeah was throughout his entire reign the nucleus 
 of his kingdom. The men on whom he could always 
 reckon were his Benjamite kinsmen. He recognised 
 
44 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. hi. 
 
 as belonging to him no other public function besides 
 that of war ; the internal affairs of the country he 
 permitted to remain as they had been before his 
 accession. War was at once the business and the 
 resource of the new kingdom. It was carried on 
 against the Philistines without interruption, though 
 for the most part not in the grand style, but rather 
 in a series of border skirmishes."' 
 
 It is not without significance that the warlike 
 revival of the nation proceeded from Benjamin. By 
 the battle of Aphek Bphraim had lost at once the 
 hegemony and its symbols (the camp-sanctuary at 
 Shiloh, the ark of the covenant). The centre of 
 Israel gravitated southward, and Benjamin became 
 the connecting-link between Ephraim and Judah. 
 It would appear that there the tyranny of the 
 Philistines was not so much felt. Their attacks 
 never were made through Judah, but always came 
 from the north ; on the other hand, people fled 
 from them southwards, as is instanced by the priests 
 of Shiloh, who settled in Nob, near Jerusalem. 
 Through Saul Judah entered definitely into the 
 history of Israel ; it belonged to his kingdom, and 
 
 ^ As regards the position of Samuel in the theocracy and the 
 relation in which he stood to Saul, the several narratives in the 
 Book of Samuel differ widely. The preceding account, so far as it 
 relates to Samuel, is based upon i Sam. ix,, x. 1-15, xi., where he 
 appears simply as a Roeh at Rainah, and has nothing to do either 
 with the administration of the theocracy or with the Nebiim. Com- 
 pare Wellhausen, 1. 1. p. 243 sqq. 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM. 45 
 
 it raore than most others supplied him with ener- 
 getic and faithful supporters. His famous expedition 
 against the Amalekites had been undertaken purely 
 in the interests of Judah, for it only could possibly 
 suffer from their marauding hordes. 
 
 Among the men of Judah whom the war brought 
 to Gibeah, David ben Jesse of Bethlehem took a 
 conspicuous place ; his skill on the harp brought 
 him into close relations with the king. He became 
 Saul's armour-bearer, afterwards the most intimate 
 friend of his son, finally the h usband of his daughter. 
 While he was thus winning the afiPections of the 
 court, he at the same time became the declared 
 favourite of the people, the more so because un- 
 exampled good fortune attended him in all he 
 undertook. This excited the jealousy of Saul, 
 naturally enough in an age in which the king 
 always required to be the best man. Its first out- 
 burst admitted of explanation as occasioned by an 
 attack of illness ; but soon it became obtrusively 
 clear that the king's love for his son-in-law had 
 changed into bitter hatred. Jonathan warned his 
 friend and facilitated his flight, the priests of Nob 
 at the same time providing him with arms and food. 
 He went into the wilderness of Judah, and became 
 the leader of a miscellaneous band of outlaws who 
 had been attracted by his name to lead a roving life 
 under his leadership. His kinsmen from Bethlehem 
 were of their number, but also Philistines and Hittites. 
 
46 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. hi. 
 
 Out of this band David's bodyguard subsequently 
 grew, the nucleus of his army. They reckoned also 
 a priest among them, Abiathar ben Ahimelech ben 
 Ahitob ben Phinehas ben Eli, the solitary survivor 
 of the massacre of the sons of Eli at Nob which 
 Saul had ordered on account of suspected conspiracy 
 with David. Through him David was able to have 
 recourse to the sacred lot before the ephod. In the 
 end he found it impossible to hold his own in Judali 
 against Saul's persecutions, especially as his country- 
 men for the most part withheld their assistance. 
 He therefore took the desperate step of placing his 
 services at the disposal of Achish the Philistine 
 king of Gath, by whom he was received with open 
 arms, the town of Ziklag being assigned him as a 
 residence. Here with his band he continued to 
 follow his old manner of life as an independent 
 prince, subject only to an obligation to render mili- 
 tary service to Achish. 
 
 Meanwhile the Philistines had once more mustered 
 theii' forces and marched by the usual route against 
 Israel. Saul did not allow them to advance upon 
 Gibeah, but awaited their attack in the plain of 
 Jezreel. A disastrous battle on Mount Gilboa en- 
 sued ; after seeing his three eldest sons fall one 
 after another at his side, Saul threw himself upon 
 his sword, and was followed by his armour-bearer. 
 The defeat seemed to have undone the work of his 
 life. The immediate consequence at least was that 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM. 47 
 
 the Philistines regained their lost ascendency over 
 the country to the west of Jordan. Beyond Jordan, 
 however, Abner, the cousin and generalissimo of 
 Saul, made his son Ishbaal, still a minor, king in 
 Mahanaim, and he was successful in again establish- 
 ing the dominion of the house over Jezreel, Ephraim, 
 and Benjamin, of course in uninterrupted struggle 
 with the Philistines. 
 
 But he did not regain hold of Judah. David 
 seized the opportunity to set up for himself, with 
 the sanction of the Philistines, and, it may safely 
 be presumed, as their vassal, a separate principality 
 which had its centre of gravity in the south, which 
 was inhabited, not by the tribe of Judah pi'operly 
 so called, but by the Calebites and Jerachmeelites. 
 This territory Abner disputed with him in vain. In 
 the protracted feud between the houses of Saul and 
 David, the fortunes of war declared themselves ever 
 increasingly for the latter. Personal causes at last 
 brought matters to a crisis. Abner, by taking to 
 himself a concubine of Saul's called Rizpah, had 
 roused Ishbaal's suspicions that he was aiming at 
 the inheritance, and was challenged on the point. 
 This proved too much for his patience, and forth- 
 with he abandoned the cause of his ward (the hope- 
 lessness of which had already perhaps become 
 apparent), and entered into negotiations with David 
 at Hebron. When about to set out on his return 
 he fell by the hand of Joab in the gate of Hebron, 
 
48 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. hi. 
 
 a victim of jealousy and blood-feud. His plans 
 nevertheless were realised. His death left Israel 
 leaderless and in great confusion ; Ishbaal was per- 
 sonally insignificant, and the people's homage con- 
 tinued to be rendered to him only out of grateful 
 fidelity to his father's memory. At this juncture he 
 also fell by assassins' hands. As he was taking his 
 midday rest, and even the portress had gone to sleep 
 over her task of cleaning wheat, two Benjamite 
 captains introduced themselves into his palace at 
 Mahanaim and murdered him in the vain hope of 
 earning David's thanks. The elders of Israel no 
 longer hesitated about offering David the crown, 
 which he accepted. 
 
 His residence was immediately transferred from 
 Hebron to Jebus, which until then had remained 
 in possession of the Oanaanites, and first derives 
 historical importance from him. It lay on the 
 border between Israel and Judah, — still within the 
 territory of Benjamin, but not far from Bethlehem ; 
 near also to Nob, the old priestly city. David made 
 it not only the political but also the religious 
 metropolis by transferring thither from Kirjath- 
 jearim the ark of the covenant, which he placed 
 within his citadel on what afterwards became the 
 temple hill. 
 
 Still the crown was far from being a merely 
 honorary possession ; it involved heavy responsi- 
 bilities, and doubtless what contributed more than 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM. 49 
 
 anything else to David's elevation to the throne 
 was the general recognition of the fact that he was 
 the man best fitted on the whole to overtake the 
 labour it brought with it, viz., the prosecution of 
 the war with the Philistines, a war which was as it 
 were the forge in which the kingdom of Israel was 
 welded into one. The struggle began with the 
 transference of the seat of royalty to Jerusalem ; 
 unfortunately we possess only scanty details as to 
 its progress, hardly anything more indeed than a 
 few anecdotes about deeds of prowess by individual 
 heroes. The result was in the end that David com- 
 pleted what Saul had begun, and broke for ever the 
 Philistine yoke. This was undoubtedly the greatest 
 achievement of his reign. 
 
 From the defensive against the Philistines David 
 proceeded to aggressive war, in which he subjugated 
 the three kinsfolk of Israel — Moab, Ammon, and 
 Edom. He appears to have come into conflict first 
 with the Moabites, whom he vanquished and treated 
 with savage atrocity. Not long afterwards the king 
 of Ammon died, and David sent an embassy of con- 
 dolence to Hanun his successor. Hanun suspected 
 in this a sinister design, — a suspicion we can readily 
 understand if David had already, as is probable, sub- 
 jugated Moab, — and with the utmost contumely sent 
 back the messengers to their master forthwith, at the 
 same time making preparations for war by entering 
 into alliance with various Syrian kings, and particu- 
 
 D 
 
50 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. hi. 
 
 larly with the powerful king of Soba.^ David took 
 the initiative, and sent his army under command 
 of Joab against Rabbath-Ammon. The Syrians 
 advanced to the relief of the besieged city ; but 
 Joab divided his forces, and, leaving his brother 
 Abishai to hold the Ammonites in the town in 
 check, proceeded himself against the Syrians and 
 repulsed them. On their afterwards threatening 
 to renew the attack in increased force, David went 
 against them in strength and defeated them at 
 Helam " on the river." It seems that as a result 
 of this the kingdom of Soba was broken up and 
 that of Damascus was made tributary. Rabbath- 
 Ammon could not now hold out any longer, and 
 the Ammonites shared the fate of their Moabite 
 brethren. Finally, Edom was about the same 
 time coerced and depopulated ; and thus was ful- 
 filled the vision of Balaam, — the youngest of the 
 four Hebrew nationalities trod the three elder under 
 his feet. 
 
 So far as external foes were concerned, David 
 henceforward had peace ; but new dangers arose at 
 home within his own family. At once by ill-judged 
 leniency and equally ill-timed severity he had 
 
 ' Soba appears to have been situated somewhat to the north of 
 Damascus, and to have bordered on the west with Hamath. The 
 Aramseans were beginning even at that period to press westwards ; 
 the Hittites, Phoenicians, and Israelites had common interests 
 against them. To the kingdom of Soba succeeded afterwards that 
 of Pamascus, 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM. 51 
 
 completely alienated his son Absalom, wLo, after 
 Amnon's death, was heir-apparent to the throne. 
 Absalom organised a revolt against his father, and 
 to foster it availed himself of a misunderstanding 
 which had arisen between David and the men of 
 Judah, probably because they thought they were 
 not treated with sufficient favour. The revolt had 
 its focus in Hebron ; Ahithophel, a man of Judah, 
 was its soul ; Amasa, also of Judah, its arm ; but 
 the rest of Israel was also drawn into the rebellion, 
 and only the territory to the east of Jordan remained 
 faithful. 
 
 Thither David betook himself with precipitancy, 
 for the outbreak had taken him completely by 
 surprise. At Mahanaim, which had once before 
 been the centre from which the kingdom was re- 
 gained, he collected his faithful followers around 
 him with his six hundred Cherethites and Pelethites 
 for a nucleus, Absalom, against Ahithophel's advice, 
 allowing him time for this. In the neighbourhood 
 of Mahanaim, in the wood of Ephraim, the decisive 
 blow was struck. Absalom fell, and with his death 
 the rebellion was at an end. It was Joseph that, 
 in the first instance, penitently sent a deputation to 
 the king to bring him back. Judah, on the other 
 hand, continued to hold aloof Ultimately a piece 
 of finesse on the king's part had the efiect of bring- 
 ing Judah also to its allegiance, though at the cost 
 of kindling such jealousy between Israel and Judah 
 
52 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. hi. 
 
 that Sheba tlie Benjamite raised a new revolt, this 
 time of Israelites, which was soon, however, repressed 
 by Joab. 
 
 David seems to have died soon afterwards. His 
 historical importance is very great. Judah and 
 Jerusalem were wholly his creation, and, though 
 the united kingdom of Israel founded by him and 
 Saul together soon fell to pieces, the recollection of 
 it nevertheless continued in all time to be proudly 
 cherished by the whole body of the people. His per- 
 sonal character has been often treated with undue 
 disparagement. For this we must chiefly blame his 
 canonisation by the later Jewish tradition which 
 made a Levitical saint of him and a pious hymn- 
 writer. 
 
 It then becomes a strange inconsistency that he 
 caused military prisoners to be treated with bar- 
 barity, and the bastard sons of Saul to be hanged 
 up before the Lord in Gibeon. But if we take him 
 as we find him, an antique king in a barbarous age, 
 our judgment of him will be much more favourable. 
 The most daring courage was combined in him with 
 tender susceptibility ; even after he had ascended 
 the throne he continued to retain the charm of a 
 pre-eminent and at the same time childlike person- 
 ality. Even his conduct in the affair of Uriah is 
 not by any means wholly to his discredit ; not many 
 kings can be mentioned who would have shown 
 repentance public and deep such as he manifested 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM. 53 
 
 at Nathan's rebuke. Least to his credit was his 
 weakness in relation to his sons and to Joab. On 
 the other hand, the testament attributed to him in 
 
 1 Kings ii. cannot be justly laid to his charge ; it 
 is the libel of a later hand seeking to invest him 
 with a fictitious glory. Tn like manner it is unjust 
 to hold him responsible for the deaths of Abner and 
 Amasa, or to attribute to him any conspiracy with 
 the hierocracy for the destruction of Saul, and thus 
 to deprive him of the authorship of the elegy in 
 
 2 Sam. i., which certainly was not the work of a 
 hypocrite. 
 
 Solomon had already reached the throne, some 
 time before his father's deatb, not in virtue of 
 hereditary right, but by palace intrigue which had 
 the support of the bodyguard of the Six Hundred. 
 His glory was not purchased on the battlefield. So 
 far was he from showing military capacity that he 
 allowed a new Syrian kingdom to arise at Damascus, 
 a far more dangerous thing for Israel than that of 
 Soba which had been destroyed, and which it suc- 
 ceeded. During this reign Edom also regained its 
 independence, nothing but the port of Elath remain- 
 ing in Solomon's hands. As regards Moab and 
 Ammon, we have no information ; it is not im- 
 probable that they also revolted. But if war was 
 not Solomon's forte, he certainly took much greater 
 pains than either of his predecessors in matters of 
 internal administration ; according to tradition, the 
 
64 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. hi. 
 
 wisdom of the ruler and the judge was his special 
 "gift." 
 
 The absorption of the Canaanites, a process which 
 acquired accelerated speed with the establishment 
 of the kingdom, appears to have become tolerably 
 complete in Solomon's time. As an element in the 
 community their presence tended towards tribe-dis- 
 solution and state- consolidation, and in this respect 
 also their assimilation was an important political 
 result. 
 
 Solomon could now for the first time venture, 
 without troubling himself about tribes and clans, to 
 divide the kingdom into twelve geographical pro- 
 vinces, with a royal governor in charge of each. 
 Judah alone he exempted from this arrangement, 
 as if to show special favour. For his aim was less 
 the advantage of his subjects than the benefit of his 
 exchequer, and the same object appeal's in his horse 
 traffic (i Kings ix. 19), his Ophir trade (i Kings 
 X. 11), and his cession of territory to Hiram ( i Kings 
 ix. I I ). His passions were architecture, a gorgeous 
 court, and the harem, in which he sought to rival 
 other Oriental kings, as for example his Egyptian 
 father-in-law. For this he required copious means, 
 forced labour, tribute in kind and money. He had 
 especially at heart the extension and improvement 
 of Jerusalem as a strong and splendid capital ; the 
 temple which he built was only a portion of his 
 vast citadel, which included within its precincts a 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM. 55 
 
 number of private and public buildings designed for 
 various uses. 
 
 It is plain that new currents were introduced 
 into the stream of the nation's development by such 
 a king as this. As formerly, after the occupation, 
 Canaanite culture had come in, so now, after the 
 establishment of the kingdom, the floodgate was 
 open for the admission of Oriental civilisation in a 
 deeper and wider sense. Whatever the personal 
 motives which led to it may have been, the results 
 were very important,' and by no means disadvan- 
 tageous on the whole. On the basis of the firmer 
 administration now introduced, stability and order 
 could rest ; Judah had no cause to regret its accept- 
 ance of this yoke. Closer intercourse with foreign 
 lands widened the intellectual horizon of the people, 
 and at the same time awakened it to a deeper sense 
 of its own peculiar individuality. If Solomon im- 
 ported Phoenician and Egyptian elements into the 
 worship of Jehovah at his court temple, the rigid 
 old Israelite indeed might naturally enough take 
 offence (Exod. xx. 24—26), but the temple itself 
 nevertheless ultimately acquired a great and positive 
 importance for religion. It need not be denied that 
 mischievous consequences of various kinds slipped 
 in along with the good. The king, however, can 
 hardly be blamed for his conduct in erecting in 
 the neighbourhood of Jerusalem altars to deities of 
 Ammon and Egypt. For those altars remained un- 
 
56 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. hi. 
 
 disturbed until the time of Josiah, although between 
 Solomon and him there reigned more than one pious 
 king who would certainly have destroyed them had 
 he found them as offensive as did the author of 
 Deuteronomy. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM JEROBOAM I. TO JEROBOAM II. 
 
 After the death of Solomon the discontent which 
 had been aroused by his innovations, and especially 
 by the rigour of his government, openly showed 
 itself against his successor ; and when Eehoboam 
 curtly refused the demands which had been laid 
 before him by an assembly of the elders at Shechem, 
 they withdrew from their allegiance and summoned 
 to be their king the Ephraimite Jeroboam ben Nebat, 
 who already had made an abortive attempt at revolt 
 from Solomon, and afterwards had taken refuge in 
 Egypt. Only Judah and Jerusalem remained faith- 
 ful to the house of David. Among the causes of 
 the revolt of the ten tribes, jealousy of Judah must 
 certainly be reckoned as one. The power of Joseph 
 had been weakened by the Philistines, and by the 
 establishment of the monarchy the centre of gravity 
 had been shifted from the north, where it naturally 
 lay. But now it was restored to its old and real seat ; 
 for it was not situated in Judah, but in Joseph. 
 Monarchy itself, however, was not abolished by the 
 
 57 
 
58 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. iv. 
 
 revolting tribes, conclusively showing how unavoid- 
 able and how advantageous that institution was now 
 felt to be ; but at the same time they did not refrain 
 from attempts to combine its advantages with those 
 of anarchy, a folly which was ultimately the cause of 
 their ruin. As for their departure from the Mosaic 
 cultus observed at Jerusalem, on the other hand, it 
 was first alleged against them as a sin only by the 
 later Jews. At the time religion put no obstacle 
 in the way of their separation ; on the contrary, 
 it actually suggested and promoted it (Ahijah of 
 Shiloh). The Jerusalem cultus had not yet come to 
 be regarded as the alone legitimate ; that instituted 
 by Jeroboam at Bethel and at Dan was recognised as 
 equally right ; images of the Deity were exhibited 
 in all three places, and indeed in every place where 
 a house of God was found. So far as the religious 
 and intellectual life of the nation was concerned, 
 there was no substantial difference between the 
 two kingdoms, except indeed in so far as new 
 displays of vigorous initiative generally proceeded 
 from Israel.^ 
 
 Rehoboam did not readily accept the situation ; 
 he sought to reduce the revolt by force of arms. 
 
 ' Even in the Deuterouomio redaction of the Book of Kings, it 
 is true, and still more by the Chronicler, the political rebellion of 
 Israel is regarded as having been ecclesiastical and religious in its 
 character. The Book of Chronicles regards Samaria as a heathen 
 kingdom, and recognises Judah alone as Israel. But in point of 
 fact Judah takes up the history of Israel only after the fall of 
 Samaria ; see chapters vi., vii. 
 
JEROBOAM I. TO JEROBOAM II. 59 
 
 With what degree of success is shown by the fact 
 that his rival found himself constrained to take up 
 his residence at Peniel (near Mahanaim) on the 
 other side of Jordan. The invasion of Shishak, 
 however, who took Jerusalem and burnt it, seems to 
 have given Jeroboam a breathing space. The feud 
 continued indeed, but Rehoboam could no longer 
 dream of bringing back the ten tribes. The scale 
 by-and-by turned in Israel's favour. King Baasha, 
 who had seated himself on the throne in place of 
 Nadab, Jeroboam's son, took the offensive, and 
 Asa ben Rehoboam had no help for it but to 
 call in Benhadad of Damascus against his adver- 
 sary. In this way he gained his immediate pur- 
 pose, it is true, but by the most dangerous of 
 expedients. 
 
 Baasha's son Elah was supplanted by his vizier 
 Zimri, who, however, was in his turn unable to hold 
 his own against Omri, who had supreme command 
 of the army. Against Omri there arose in another 
 part of the country a rival, Tibni ben Ginath, who 
 succeeded in maintaining some footing until his 
 death, when Omri became supreme. Omri must be 
 regarded as the founder of the first dynasty, in the 
 proper sense of that word, in Israel, and as the 
 second founder of the kingdom itself, to which he 
 gave a permanent capital in Samaria. The Bible 
 has hardly anything to tell us about him, but his 
 importance is evident from the fact that among the 
 
60 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. iv. 
 
 Assyrians " tlie kingdom of Omri " ■'^ was the ordi- 
 nary name of Israel. According to the inscription 
 of Mesha, it was he who again subjugated Moab, 
 which had become independent at the death of 
 David or of Solomon. He was not so successful 
 against the Damascenes, to whom he had to con- 
 cede certain privileges in his own capital (r Kings 
 XX. 34).^ 
 
 Ahab, who succeeded Omri his father, seems dur- 
 ing the greater part of his reign to have in some 
 sort acknowledged Syrian suzerainty. In no other 
 way can we account for the fact that in the battle 
 of Karkar against the Assyrians (854 B.C.) a con- 
 tingent was contributed by him. But this very 
 battle made the political situation so clear to him that 
 he was led to break off his relations with Damascus. 
 With this began a series of ferocious attacks on 
 Israel by Benhadad and Hazael. They were met 
 by Ahab with courage and success, but in the third 
 year of that fifty years' war he fell in the battle at 
 Eamoth-Gilead (c. 851 ). 
 
 {After the events recorded in i Kings xx., a forced 
 alliance with Damascus on the part of Samaria is 
 incredible ; but the idea of spontaneous friendly rela- 
 
 ' Bit Humri, like o?/cos Avaavlov, and similar territorial names in 
 Syiiac. 
 
 ' Oniri's accession is to be placed somewhere about 900 B.C. It 
 is a date, and the first, that can be determined with some precision, 
 if we place the battle of Karkar (854) near the end of Ahab's reign, 
 and take the servitude of Moab, which lasted forty years and ended 
 with Ahab'a death, to begin in Omri's first decade. 
 
JEROBOAM I. TO JEROBOAM II. 61 
 
 tions is also inadmissible. Schrader indeed finds 
 support for the latter theory in i Kings xx. 34 ; 
 but in that passage there is no word of any offensive 
 or defensive alliance between the rival kings ; all that 
 is stated is that Ahab releases the captive Benhadad 
 on condition (nnaa) that the latter undertakes cer- 
 tain obligations, particularly those of keeping the 
 peace and restoring the cities which had been taken. 
 By this arrangement no change was made in the 
 previously strained relations of the two kingdoms ; 
 and, moreover, the nna was not kept (xxii. i seq.). 
 Not much nearer the truth than the preceding is 
 the view that the danger threatened by Assyria 
 drove the kings of Syria and Palestine into one 
 another's arms, and so occasioned an alliance beween 
 Ahab and Benhadad. For if feelings of hostility ex- 
 isted at all between the two last-named, then Ahab 
 could not do otherwise than congratulate himself 
 that in the person of Shalmaneser II. there had 
 arisen against Benhadad an enemy who would be able 
 to keep him effectually in check. 'J'hat Shalmaneser 
 might prove dangerous to himself probably did not 
 at that time occur to him ; but if it had he would 
 still have chosen the remote in preference to the 
 immediately threatening evil. For it was the poli- 
 tical existence of Israel that was at stake in the 
 struggle with Damascus ; in such circumstances 
 every ally would of course be welcome, every enemy 
 of the enemy would be hailed as a friend, and the 
 
62 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. iv. 
 
 political wisdom wliich Max Duncker attributes to 
 Ahab would have been nothing less than unpardon- 
 able folly. The state of matters was at the outset 
 in this respect just what it continued to be through- 
 out the subsequent course of events ; the Assyrian 
 danger grew in subsequent years, and with it grew 
 the hostility between Damascus and Samaria. This 
 fact admits only of one explanation — that the Israel- 
 ites utilised to the utmost of their power for their 
 own protection against the Syrians the difficulties 
 into which the latter were thrown by ShalmaneserlL, 
 and that these in their turn, when the Assyians gave 
 them respite, were all the fiercer in their revenge. 
 On the evidence of the monuments and the Bible we 
 may even venture to assert that it was the Assyrian 
 attacks upon Damascus which at that time preserved 
 Israel from becoming Aramaic, — of course only be- 
 cause Israel made the most of them for her political 
 advantage. 
 
 Assuming that Ahab the Israelite (Ahabu Sirlaai) 
 fought in the battle of Karkar (854) on the side of 
 the king of Damascus, it was only because he could 
 not help himself; but if it is actually the case that 
 he did so, the battle of Karkar must have taken 
 place leforc the events , recorded in i Kings xx.) 
 
 The Moabites took advantage of an accession 
 under such critical circumstances to shake off the 
 yoke imposed by Omri forty years before ; an accu- 
 rate account of their success, obviously written while 
 
JEROBOAM I. TO JEROBOAM II. 63 
 
 the impression of it was still fresh/ has come down 
 to us in the famous inscription of King Mesha. 
 Ahaziah, Ahab's immediate successor, was obliged 
 to accept the situation ; after his early death a futile 
 attempt again to subjugate them was made by his 
 brother Joram. Such a campaign was possible to 
 him only in the event of the Syrians keeping quiet, 
 and in point of fact it would appear that they were 
 not in a position to follow up the advantage they had 
 gained at Ramoth ; doubtless they were hampered 
 by the inroads of the Assyrians in 850 and 849. 
 As soon as they got a little respite, however, they 
 lost no time in attacking Joram, driving him into 
 his capital, where they besieged him. Samaria had 
 already been brought to the utmost extremities of 
 famine, when suddenly the enemy raised the siege 
 on account of a report of an invasion of their own 
 land by the " Egyptians and Hittites." Possibly 
 we ought to understand by these the Assyrians 
 rather, who in 846 renewed their attacks upon 
 Syria ; to ordinary people in Israel the Assyrians 
 were an unknown quantity, for which it would be 
 natural in popular story to substitute something 
 more familiar. This turn of affairs relieved Joram 
 from his straits ; it would even seem that, favoured 
 by a change of dynasty at Damascus, he had suc- 
 ceeded in taking from the Syrians the fortress of 
 
 ' It is obvious that Mesha's narrative is to be taken with 2 Kings 
 j. I, and not with 2 Kings iii. 
 
64 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. iv. 
 
 Ramoth in Gilead, which had been the object of 
 Ahab's unsuccessful endeavours, when suddenly there 
 burst upon the house of Omri the overwhelming 
 catastrophe for which the prophets had long been 
 preparing. 
 
 When the prophets first made their appearance, 
 some time before the beginning of the Philistine 
 war, they were a novel phenomenon in Israel ; but 
 in the interval they had become so naturalised that 
 they now had a recognised and essential place in 
 connection with the religion of Jehovah. They had 
 in the process divested themselves of much that had 
 originally characterised them, but they still retained 
 their habit of appearing in companies and living 
 together in societies, and also that of wearing a 
 peculiar distinctive dress. These societies of theirs 
 had no ulterior aims ; the rabbinical notion that 
 they were schools and academies in which the study 
 of the Torah and of sacred history was pursued 
 imports later ideas into an earlier time. First-rate 
 importance on the whole cannot be claimed for the 
 Nebiim, but occasionally there arose amongst them 
 a man in whom the spirit which was cultivated 
 within their circles may be said to have risen to 
 the explosive pitch. Historical influence was exer- 
 cised at no time save by these individuals, who rose 
 above their order and even placed themselves in 
 opposition to it, but always at the same time had 
 their base of operations within it. The prototype 
 
JEROBOAM I. TO JEROBOAM II. 65 
 
 of this class of exceptional prophets, whom we not 
 unjustly have been accustomed to regard as the true, 
 is Elijah of Thisbe, the contemporary of Ahab. 
 
 In compliment to Jezebel his wife, Ahab had set 
 up in Samaria a temple with richly endowed religious 
 services in honour of the Tyrian Baal. In doing so 
 he had no intention of renouncing Jehovah ; Jehovah 
 continued to be the national God after whom he 
 named his sons Ahaziah and Jehoram. The destruc- 
 tion of Jehovah's altars or the persecution of His 
 prophets was not at all proposed, or even the intro- 
 duction of a foreign cultus elsewhere than in 
 Samaria. Jehovah's sovereignty over Israel being 
 thus only remotely if at all imperilled, the popular 
 faith found nothing specially offensive in a course 
 of action which had been followed a hundred years 
 before by Solomon also. Elijah alone was strenuous 
 in his opposition ; the masses did not understand 
 him, and were far from taking his side. To him 
 only, but not to the nation, did it seem like a 
 halting between two opinions, an irreconcilable in- 
 consistency, that Jehovah should be worshipped as 
 Israel's Grod, and a chapel to Baal should at the 
 same time be erected in Israel. 
 
 In solitary grandeur did this prophet tower con- 
 spicuously over his time ; legend, and not history, 
 could alone preserve the memory of his figure. 
 There remains a vague impression that with him 
 the development of Israel's conception of Jehovah 
 
 E 
 
66 ISKAEL AND JUDAH. chap. iv. 
 
 entered upon a new stadium, rather than any data 
 from which it can be ascertained wherein the con- 
 trast of the new with the old lay. After Jehovah, 
 acting more immediately within the political sphere, 
 had established the nation and kingdom, he now 
 began in the spiritual sphere to operate against 
 the foreign elements, the infusion of which pre- 
 viously had been permitted to go on almost un- 
 checked.^ The Eechabites, who arose at that time, 
 protested in their zeal for Jehovah altogether against 
 all civilisation which presupposes agriculture, and in 
 their fundamental principles aimed at a recurrence 
 to the primitive nomadic life of Israel in the wilder- 
 ness ; the Nazarites abstained at least from wine, the 
 chief symbol of Dionysiac civilisation. In this, indeed, 
 Elijah was not with them ; had he been so, he would 
 doubtless have been intelligible to the masses. But, 
 comprehending as he did the spirit from which these 
 demonstrations proceeded, he thought of Jehovah as 
 a great principle which cannot coexist in the same 
 heart with Baal. To him first was it revealed that 
 we have not in the various departments of nature a 
 variety of forces worthy of our worship, but that 
 there exists over all but one Holy One and one 
 Mighty One, who reveals Himself not in nature 
 
 ' It is worth noticing how much more frequent from this period 
 onwards proper names compounded with the word Jehovah become. 
 Among the names of the judges and of the kings before Ahab iu 
 Israel and Asa iu Judah, not a single instance occurs ; thence- 
 forward they become the rule. 
 
JEROBOAM I. TO JEROBOAM 11. 67 
 
 but in law and righteousness in the world of man. 
 The indignation he displayed against the judicial 
 murder at Jezreel was as genuine and strong as 
 that which he manifested against the worship of 
 Baal in Samaria; the one was as much a crime 
 against Jehovah as the other. 
 
 Elijah ascended to heaven before he had actually 
 achieved much in the world. The idea which his 
 successors took from him was that it was necessary 
 to make a thorough clearance from Samaria of the 
 Baal worship and of the house of Ahab as well. For 
 this practical end Elisha made use of practical 
 means. When Elijah, after the murder of Naboth, 
 had suddenly appeared before Ahab and threatened 
 him with a violent end, an officer of high command 
 had been present, Jehu ben Nimshi, and he had 
 never forgotten the incident. He now found him- 
 self at the head of the troops at Ramoth-Gilead after 
 the withdrawal to Jezreel of Joram ben Ahab from 
 the field to be healed of his wound. To Elisha the 
 moment seemed a suitable one for giving to Jehu, 
 in Jehovah's name, the command now to carry out 
 Elijah's threat against the house of Ahab. Jehu 
 gained over the captains of the army, and carried 
 out so well the task with which the prophet had 
 commissioned him that not a single survivor of 
 Ahab's dynasty or of his court was left. He next 
 extirpated Baal and his worshippers in Samaria. 
 From that date no worship of foreign gods seems 
 
68 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. iv. 
 
 ever to have recurred in Israel. Idolatry indeed 
 continued to subsist, but the images, stones, and 
 trees, even the teraphim apparently, belonged to 
 the cultus of Jehovah, or were at least brought 
 into relation with it. 
 
 Jehu founded the second and last dynasty of the 
 kingdom of Samaria. His inheritance from the 
 house of Omri included the task of defending him- 
 self against the Syrians. The forces at his disposal 
 being insufficient for this, he resorted to the ex- 
 pedient of seeking to urge the Assyrians to renew 
 their hostilities against the Aramaeans. For this 
 end his ambassadors carried presents to Shalma- 
 neser II. ; these were not of a regular but only of 
 an occasional character, but the vanity of the great 
 king represents them as the tribute of a vassal. 
 In the years 842 and 839 Assyrian campaigns 
 against Hazael of Damascus actually took place ; 
 then they were intermitted for a long time, and 
 the kings of Samaria, Jehu, and his two successors 
 were left to their own resources. These were evil 
 times for Israel. With a barbarity never relaxed 
 the frontier war went on in Gilead, where Ammon 
 and Moab showed themselves friendly to the Syrian 
 cause (Amos i.) ; occasionally great expeditions took 
 place, one of which brought King Hazael to the 
 very walls of Jerusalem. It was only with the 
 greatest difficulty that Israel's independence was 
 maintained. Once more religion went hand in 
 
JEROBOAM I. TO JEROBOAM II. 69 
 
 hand with the national cause ; the prophet Elisha 
 was the mainstay of the kings in the struggle with 
 the Syrians, " the chariot and horsemen of Israel." 
 Joash ben Joahaz ben Jehu at last succeeded in 
 inflicting upon Syria several blows which proved 
 decisive. Thenceforward Israel had nothing to 
 fear from that quarter. Under Joash's son, Jero- 
 boam II., the kingdom even reached a height of 
 external power which recalled the times of David. 
 Moab was again subdued ; southwards the frontier 
 extended to the brook of the Arabah (Amos vi. 1 4), 
 and northward to Hamath. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE LIFE OF MEN IN OLD ISRAEL. 
 
 Before proceeding to consider the rise of those 
 prophets who were the makers of the new Israel, it 
 will not be out of place here to cast a glance back- 
 wards upon the old order of things which perished 
 with the kingdom of Samaria. With reference to 
 any period earlier than the century 8 50-750 B.C., 
 we can hardly be said to possess any statistics. 
 For, while the facts of history admit of being 
 handed down with tolerable accuracy through a 
 considerable time, a contemporary literature is 
 indispensable for the description of standing con- 
 ditions. But it was within this period that Hebrew 
 literature first flourished — after the Syrians had been 
 finally repulsed, it would seem. Writing of course 
 had been practised from a much earlier period, but 
 only in formal instruments, mainly upon stone. At 
 an early period also the historical sense of the people 
 developed itself in connection with their religion ; 
 but it found its expression in songs, which in the 
 first instance were handed down by word of mouth 
 
 70 
 
LIFE UNDEE THE OLD KINGDOM. 71 
 
 only. Literature began with the collection and 
 writing out of those songs ; the " Book of the Wars 
 of the Lord " and the " Book of Jashar " were the 
 oldest historical books. The transition was next 
 made to the writing of prose history with the aid 
 of legal documents and family reminiscences; a 
 large portion of this early historiography has been 
 preserved to us in the Books of Judges, Samuel, 
 and Kings. Contemporaneously also certain col- 
 lections of laws and decisions of the priests, of 
 which we have an example in Ex. xxi., xxii., were 
 committed to writing. Somewhat later, perhaps, 
 the legends about the patriarchs and primitive 
 times, the origin of which cannot be assigned to 
 a very early date,^ received literary shape. Speci- 
 ally remarkable is the rise of a written prophecy. 
 The question why it was that Elijah and Elisha 
 committed nothing to writing, while Amos a 
 hundred years later is an author, hardly admits 
 of any other answer than that in the interval a 
 non-literary had developed into a literary age. 
 How rapid the process was may be gathered from 
 a comparison between the singularly broken utter- 
 
 1 Even the Jehovistic narratives about the patriarchs belong to 
 the time when Israel had already become a powerful kingdom ; 
 Moab, Ammon, and Edom had been subjugated (Gen. xxvii. 29), 
 and vigorous frontier wars were being carried on with the Syrians 
 about Gilead (Gen. xxxi. 52). In Gen. xxvii. 40 allusion is made 
 to the constantly repeated subjugations of Edom by Judah, alter- 
 nating with successful revolts on the part of the former ; see 
 Delitzsch on "1K'N3. 
 
72 ISKAEL AND JUDAH. chap. y. 
 
 ances of the earlier oracle contained in Isa. xt., xvi. 
 with the orations of Isaiah himself. 
 
 We begin our survey with that of the family 
 relations. Polygamy was rare, monogamy the rule ; 
 but the right of concubinage was unlimited. While 
 a high position was accorded both by affection and 
 custom to the married wife, traces still existed of 
 a state of society in which she was regarded as 
 property that went with the inheritance. The 
 marriage of relations was by no means prohibited ; 
 no offence was taken at the circumstance that 
 Abraham was the husband of his sister (by a 
 different mother). Parents had full power over 
 their children ; they had the right to sell and even 
 to sacrifice them. In this respect, however, the 
 prevailing usage was mild, as also in regard to 
 slaves, who socially held a position of comparative 
 equality with their masters, and even enjoyed some 
 measure of legal protection. Slavery, it is plain, 
 had not the same political importance as with 
 the Greeks and Eomans ; it could have been abo- 
 lished without any shock to the foundations of the 
 state. 
 
 Throughout this period agriculture and garden- 
 ing continued to be regarded as man's normal 
 calling (G-en. iii. 4) ; the laws contained in Exod. 
 xxi.-xxiii. rest entirely upon this assumption. To 
 dwell in peace under his vine and under his fig- 
 tree was the ideal of every genuine Israelite. Only 
 
LIFE UNDER THE OLD KINGDOM. 73 
 
 in a few isolated districts, as in the country to the 
 east of Jordan and in portions of Judah, did the 
 pastoral life predominate. Art and industry were 
 undeveloped, and were confined to the production of 
 simple domestic necessaries. 
 
 Commerce was in old time followed exclusively 
 by the Canaanite towns, so that the word " Canaan- 
 ite " was used in the general sense of " trader." 
 But by-and-by Israel began to tread in Canaan's 
 footsteps (Hos. xii. 8, 9 [A.V. 7, 8]).^ The towns 
 grew more influential than the country ; money 
 notably increased ; and the zeal of piety was quite 
 unable to arrest the progress of the change which 
 set in. The kings themselves, from Solomon on- 
 wards, were the first to set the bad example; they 
 eagerly sought to acquire suitable harbours, and in 
 company or in competition with the Tyrians entered 
 upon large commercial transactions. The extortions 
 of the corn-market, the formation of large estates, 
 the frequency of mortgages, all show that the small 
 peasant proprietorship was unable to hold its own 
 against the accumulations of wealth. The wage- 
 receiving class increased, and cases in which free 
 Hebrews sold themselves into slavery were not 
 rare. 
 
 On all hands the material progress of the com- 
 
 ' " Canaan (i.e., Ephraim Canaanised) has deceitful balances in 
 his hand, and loves to overreach. Ephraim indeed saith, I am 
 become rich, I have gained wealth ; but all his profits will not 
 suffice for (expiation of) the guilt which he has incurred." 
 
74 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. v. 
 
 monwealth made itself felt, tlie old simplicity of 
 manners disappeared, and luxury increased. Build- 
 ings of hewn stone began to be used even by 
 private individuals. The towns, especially the chief 
 ones, were fortified ; and in time of war refuge was 
 sought in them, and not as formerly in woods and 
 caves. Even in the time of David the Israelites 
 always fought on foot ; but now horses and chariots 
 were regarded as indispensable. The bow came to 
 be the principal weapon of offence, and a military 
 class appears to have sprung up. 
 
 The monarchy retained in the kingdom of the 
 ten tribes its military character ; the commander-in- 
 chief was the first person in the state after the 
 king. In internal afiairs its interference was slight ; 
 with systematic despotism it had little in common, 
 although of course within its narrow sphere it 
 united executive and legislative functions. It was 
 little more than the greatest house in Israel. The 
 highest official was called " master of the house- 
 hold." The court ultimately grew into a capital, 
 the municipal offices of which were held by royal 
 officials. The provinces had governors who, how- 
 ever, in time of war withdrew to the capital (i 
 Kings XX.) ; the presumption is that their sole 
 charge was collection of the revenue. 
 
 The state was not charged with affairs of internal 
 administration ; all parties were left free to main- 
 tain their own interests. Only in cases in which 
 
LIFE UNDER THE OLD KINGDOM. 75 
 
 conflicts had emerged in consequence was the king 
 approached. Ruling and judging were regarded 
 as one and the same ; there was but one word for 
 both (2 Kings xv. 5). Still, the king was not 
 altogether the only judge; there were, in fact, a 
 number of independent jurisdictions. Wherever 
 within a particular circle the power lay, there the 
 right of judging was also found, whether exercised 
 by heads of families and communities or by warriors 
 and powerful lords. It was only because the king 
 was the most powerful that he was regarded as the 
 judge of last resort; but it was equally permitted 
 to apply to him from the first. Of method and 
 rule in these things there was but little ; a man 
 was glad to find any court to receive his complaint. 
 Of course without complaint one got no justice. 
 The administration of justice was at best but a 
 scanty supplement to the practice of self-help. 
 The heir of the murdered man would not forego the 
 right of blood revenge ; but his family or the com- 
 mune gave him aid, and in case of need took 
 his place, for bloodshed had at all hazards to be 
 atoned for. 
 
 The firm establishment of civil order was rendered 
 all the more difficult by the continual wars and violent 
 changes of dynasty which ever and anon made its 
 very existence problematical. Power, which is more 
 important than righteousness to a judicatory, was 
 what the government was wanting in, In the simpler 
 
76 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. v. 
 
 social conditions of the earlier time a state which 
 was adapted merely for purposes of war might easily 
 be found to work satisfactorily enough, but a more 
 complex order of things had now arisen. Social 
 problems had begun to crop up ; for the poor and 
 the proletariat the protection of a thoughtful govern- 
 ment had come to be required, but was not forth- 
 coming. 
 
 But these defects did not check all progress. The 
 weakness of the government, the want of political 
 consolidation, were insufficient to arrest intellectual 
 advance or to corrupt the prevailing moral tone and 
 feeling for justice; in fact it was precisely in this 
 period (the period in which the main part of the 
 Jehovistic history must have been written) that the 
 intellectual and moral culture of the people stood 
 at its highest. Even when the machinery of the 
 monarchy had got out of order, the organisation of 
 the families and communes continued to subsist ; 
 the smaller circles of social life remained compara- 
 tively untouched by the catastrophes that shook the 
 greater. Above all, the national religion supplied 
 the spiritual life with an immovable basis. 
 
 The favourite illustrations of the power of religion 
 in the Israel of that period are drawn from the in- 
 stances of great prophets who raised kings out of 
 the dust and smote them to it again. But the 
 influence and importance of these is generally exag- 
 gerated in the accounts we have. That among them 
 
LIFE UNDER THE OLD KINGDOM. 77 
 
 there occasionally occurred manifestations of such 
 power as to give a new turn in history is indeed 
 true ; a figure like that of Elijah is no mere inven- 
 tion. But such a man as he was a prophecy of the 
 future rather than an actual agent in shaping the 
 present. On the whole, religion was a peaceful 
 influence, conserving rather than assailing the exist- 
 ing order of things. The majority of the prophets 
 were no revolutionists ; rather in fact were they 
 always too much inclined to prophesy in accord- 
 ance with the wishes of the party in power. Besides, 
 in ordinary circumstances their influence was inferior 
 to that of the priests, who were servants of royalty 
 at the chief sanctuaries, and everywhere attached to 
 the established order. 
 
 The Torah of Jehovah still continued to be their 
 special charge. It was not even now a code or law 
 in our sense of the word ; Jehovah had not yet made 
 His Testament ; He was still living and active in 
 Israel. But the Torah appears during this period 
 to have withdrawn itself somewhat from the business 
 of merely pronouncing legal decisions and to have 
 begun to move in a freer field. It now consisted 
 in teaching the knowledge of God, in showing the 
 right God-given way where men were not sure of 
 themselves. Many of the counsels of the priests 
 had become a common stock of moral convictions, 
 which, indeed, were all of them referred to Jehovah 
 as their author, yet had ceased to be matters of 
 
78 ISKAEL AND JUDAH. chap. v. 
 
 direct revelation. Nevertheless the Torah had still 
 occupation enough, the progressive life of the nation 
 ever affording matter for new questions. 
 
 Although in truth the Torah and the moral in- 
 fluence of Jehovah upon the national life were things 
 much weightier and much more genuinely Israelitic 
 than the cultus, yet this latter held on the whole a 
 higher place in public opinion. To the ordinary 
 man it was not moral but liturgical acts that seemed 
 to be truly religious. Altars of Jehovah occurred 
 eveiywhere, with sacred stones and trees — the latter 
 either artificial (Asheras) or natural — beside them ; 
 it was considered desirable also to have water in 
 the neighbourhood (brazen sea). In cases where a 
 temple stood before the altar it contained an ephod 
 and teraphim, a kind of images before which the lot 
 was cast by the priest. Of the old simplicity the 
 cultus retained nothing ; at the great sanctuaries 
 especially (Bethel, Gilgal, Beersheba) it had become 
 very elaborate. Its chief seasons were the agricul- 
 tural festivals — the passover, the feast of weeks, and 
 most especially the feast of the ingathering at the 
 close of the year. These were the only occasions of 
 public worship properly so called, at which every 
 one was expected to attend ; in other cases each 
 worshipper sought the presence of God only in 
 special circumstances, as for example at the begin- 
 ning and at the end of particular undertakings. 
 The cultus, as to place, time, matter, and form. 
 
LIFE UNDER THE OLD KINGDOM. 79 
 
 belonged almost entirely to the inheritance which 
 Israel had received from Canaan ; to distinguish 
 what belonged to the worship of Jehovah from that 
 which belonged to Baal was no easy matter.^ It 
 was the channel through which also paganism could 
 and did ever anew gain admittance into the worship 
 of Jehovah. Yet that publicity of the cultus which 
 arose out of the very nature of Jehovah cannot but 
 have acted as a corrective against the most fatal 
 excesses. 
 
 As for the substance of the national faith, it 
 was summed up principally in the proposition that 
 Jehovah is the God of Israel. "God" was equiva- 
 lent to "helper;" that was the meaning of the 
 word. " Help," assistance in all occasions of life, 
 — ^that was what Israel looked for from Jehovah, 
 not " salvation " in the theological sense. The for- 
 giveness of sins was a matter of subordinate im- 
 portance ; it was involved in the " help," and was a 
 matter not of faith but of experience. The relation 
 between the people and God was a natural one as 
 that of son to father ; it did not rest upon observ- 
 ance of the conditions of a pact. But it was not 
 on that account always equally lively and hearty ; 
 Jehovah was regarded as having varieties of mood. 
 To secure and retain His favour sacrifices were 
 
 1 The description of the cultus by the Prophet Hosea shows this 
 very clearly. It is obvious enough, however, that the object was 
 to serve Jehovah, and not any foreign deity, by this worship. 
 
80 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. t. 
 
 useful ; by them prayer and thanksgiving were 
 seconded. 
 
 Another main article of faith was that Jehovah 
 judges and recompenses, not after death (then all 
 men were thought to be alike), but upon the earth. 
 Here, however, but little account was taken of the 
 individual; over him the wheel of destiny remorse- 
 lessly rolled ; his part was resignation and not hope. 
 Not in the career of the individual but in the fate 
 of families and nations did the righteousness of 
 Jehovah find scope for its manifestation ; and this 
 is the only reason why the religion could dispense 
 with the conceptions of heaven and hell. For the 
 rest, it was not always easy to bring the second 
 article into correlation with the first ; in practice 
 the latter received the superior place. 
 
 It need hardly be said that superstition of every 
 kind also abounded. But the superstition of the 
 Israelites had as little real religious significance as 
 had that poetical view of nature which the Hebrews 
 doubtless shared in greater or less degree with all 
 the other nations of antiquity. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FALL OF SAMARIA. 
 
 Under King Jeroboam II., two years before a great 
 earthquake that served ever after for a date to all 
 who had experienced it, there occurred at Bethel, 
 the greatest and most conspicuous sanctuary of 
 Jehovah in Israel, a scene full of significance. The 
 multitude were assembled there with gifts and offer- 
 ings for the observance of a festival, when there 
 stepped forward a man whose grim seriousness in- 
 terrupted the joy of the feast. It was a Jud^an, 
 Amos of Tekoa, a shepherd from the wilderness 
 bordering on the Dead Sea. Into the midst of the 
 joyful tones of the songs which with harp and tabor 
 were being sung at the sacred banquet he brought 
 the discordant note of the mourner's wail. For 
 over all the joyous stir of busy life his ear caught 
 the sounds of death : " The virgin of Israel is fallen, 
 never more to rise ; lies prostrate in her own land 
 with no one to lift her up." He prophesied as 
 close at hand the downfall of the kingdom which 
 
 just at that moment was rejoicing most in the 
 
 81 „ 
 
82 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vr. 
 
 consciousness of power, and the deportation of the 
 people to a far-off northern land. 
 
 There was something rotten in the state of Israel 
 in spite of the halcyon days it enjoyed under Jero- 
 boam II. From the indirect results of war, from 
 changes in the tenure and in the culture of the soil, 
 from defective administration of justice, the humbler 
 classes had much to suffer ; they found that the times 
 were evil. But it was not this that caused Amos to 
 foresee the end of Israel, not a mere vague forebod- 
 ing of evil that forced him to leave his flocks ; the 
 dark cloud that threatened on the horizon was plain 
 enough — the Assyrians. Once already at an earlier 
 date they had directed their course south-westwards, 
 without, however, on that occasion becoming a source 
 of danger to the Israelites. But now that the bul- 
 wark against the Assyrians, Aram of Damascus, was 
 falling into ruins, a movement of these against 
 Lebanon in the time of Jeroboam II. opened to 
 Israel the alarming prospect that sooner or later 
 they would have to meet the full force of the irre- 
 sistible avalanche. 
 
 What then ? The common man was in no 
 position truly to estimate the danger ; and, so far 
 as he apprehended it, he lived in the firm faith 
 that Jehovah would not abandon His people in 
 their straits. The governing classes prided them- 
 selves on the military resources of Israel, or other- 
 wise tried to dismiss from their minds all thought 
 
THE FALL OF SAMARIA. 83 
 
 of the gravity of the situation. But Amos heard 
 the question distinctly enough, and did not hesitate 
 to answer it : the downfall of Israel is imminent. 
 It was nothing short of blasphemy to utter anything 
 of this kind, for everything, Jehovah Himself in- 
 cluded, depended on the existence of the nation. 
 But the most astounding thing has yet to come ; 
 not Asshur, but Jehovah Himself, is bringing 
 about the overthrow of Israel ; through Asshur it 
 is Jehovah that is triumphing over Israel. A para- 
 doxical thought — as if the national God were to cut 
 the ground from under His own feet ! For the faith 
 in Jehovah as the God of Israel was a faith that He 
 intervenes on behalf of His people against all enemies, 
 against the whole world ; precisely in times of danger 
 was religion shown by staying oneself upon this faith. 
 Jehovah might indeed, of course, hide His face for a 
 time, but not definitely ; in the end He ever arose at 
 last against all opposing powers. " The day of the 
 Lord " was an object of hope in all times of difficulty 
 and oppression ; it was understood as self-evident 
 that the crisis would certainly end in favour of 
 Israel. Amos took up the popular conception of 
 that day ; but how thoroughly did he change its 
 meaning ! " Woe to them who long for the day of 
 the Lord ! — What to you is the day of the Lord ? 
 It is darkness, not light." His own opposition to 
 the popular conception is formulated in a paradox 
 which he prefixes as theme to the principal section 
 
84 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vi. 
 
 of his book : — " Us alone does Jehovah know," say 
 the Israelites, drawing from this the inference that 
 He is on their side, and of course must take their 
 part. "You only do I know," Amos represents 
 Jehovah as saying, " therefore do I visit upon you 
 all your sins.'' 
 
 If the question. Whereon did Jehovah's relation 
 to Israel ultimately rest ? be asked, the answer, 
 according to the popular faith, must substantially 
 be that it rested on the fact that Jehovah was wor- 
 shipped in Israel and not among the heathen, that 
 in Israel were His altars and His dwelling. His 
 cultus was the bond between Him and the nation ; 
 when therefore it was desired to draw the bond still 
 closer, the solemn services of religion were redoubled. 
 But to the conception of Amos Jehovah is no judge 
 capable of accepting a bribe ; with the utmost in- 
 dignation he repudiates the notion that it is possible 
 to influence Him by gifts and offerings. Though 
 Israel alone has served Him he does not on that 
 account apply any other standard to it than to other 
 nations (chaps, i., ii.). If Israel is better known to 
 Him, it does not follow that on that account He 
 shuts His eyes and blindly takes a side. Neither 
 Jehovah nor His prophet recognises two moral 
 standards ; right is everywhere right, wrong always 
 wrong, even though committed against Israel's 
 worst enemies (ii. i). What Jehovah demands 
 is righteousness, — nothing more and nothing less ; 
 
THE FALL OF SAMAEIA. 85 
 
 what He hates is injustice. Sin or offence to the 
 Deity is a thing of purely moral character; with 
 such emphasis this doctrine had never before been 
 heard. Morality is that for the sake of which all 
 other things exist ; it is the alone essential thing 
 in the world. It is no postulate, no idea, but 
 at once a necessity and a fact, the most intensely 
 living of personal powers — Jehovah the God of 
 Hosts. In wrath, in ruin, this holy reality makes 
 its existence known ; it annihilates all that is 
 hollow and false. 
 
 Amos calls Jehovah the God of Hosts, never the 
 God of Israel. The nation as such is no religious 
 conception to him ; from its mere existence he can- 
 not formulate any article of faith. Sometimes it 
 seems as if he were denying Israel's prerogative 
 altogether. He does not really do so, but at least 
 the prerogative is conditional and involves a heavy 
 responsibility. The saying in iii. 2 recalls Luke 
 xii. 47. The proposition "Jehovah knows Israel" 
 is in the mouth of Amos almost the same thing as 
 " Israel knows Jehovah ; " save only that this is not 
 to be regarded as any merit on Israel's part, but as 
 a manifestation of the grace of Jehovah, who has 
 led His people by great deeds and holy men, 
 and so made Himself known. Amos knows no 
 other truth than that practical one which he has 
 found among his own people and nowhere else, 
 lying at the foundation of life and morality, and 
 
86 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vi. 
 
 which he regards as the product of a divine pro- 
 vidential ordering of history. From this point 
 of view, so thoroughly Israelitish, he pronounces 
 Israel's condemnation. He starts from premises 
 generally conceded, but he accentuates them dif- 
 ferently and draws from them divergent conclu- 
 sions. 
 
 Amos was the founder, and the purest type, of a 
 new phase of prophecy. The impending conflict of 
 Asshur with Jehovah and Israel, the ultimate down- 
 fall of Israel, is its theme. Until that date there had 
 subsisted in Palestine and Syria a number of petty 
 kingdoms and nationalities, which had their friend- 
 ships and enmities with one another, but paid no 
 heed to anything outside their own immediate 
 environment, and revolved, each on its own axis, 
 careless of the outside world, until suddenly the 
 Assyrians burst in upon them. These commenced 
 the work which was carried on by the Babylonians, 
 Persians, and Greeks, and completed by the Romans. 
 They introduced a new factor, the conception of the 
 world, — the world of course in the historical sense 
 of that expression. In presence of that conception 
 the petty nationalities lost their centre of gravity, 
 brute fact dispelled their illusions, they flung their 
 gods to the moles and to the bats (Isa. ii.). The 
 prophets of Israel alone did not allow themselves to 
 be taken by surprise by what had occurred, or to be 
 plunged in despair ; they solved by anticipation the 
 
THE FALL OP SAMAEIA. 87 
 
 grim problem whicli history set before them. They 
 absorbed into their religion that conception of the 
 world which was destroying the religions of the 
 nations, even before it had been fully grasped by 
 the secular consciousness. Where others saw only 
 the ruin of everything that is holiest, they saw the 
 triumph of Jehovah over delusion and error. What- 
 ever else might be overthrown, the really worthy 
 remained unshaken. They recognised ideal powers 
 only, right and wrong, truth and falsehood ; second 
 causes were matters of indifference to them, they 
 were no practical politicians. But they watched the 
 course of events attentively, nay, with passionate 
 interest. The present, which was passing before 
 them, became to them as it were the plot of a divine 
 drama which they watched with an intelligence that 
 anticipated the denouement. Everywhere the same 
 goal of the development, everywhere the same laws. 
 The nations are the dramatis personce, Israel the 
 hero, Jehovah the poet of the tragedy. 
 
 The canonical prophets, the series of whom begins 
 with Amos, were separated by an essential distinc- 
 tion from the class which had preceded them and 
 which still continued to be the type of the common 
 prophet. They did not seek to kindle either the 
 enthusiasm or the fanaticism of the multitude ; they 
 swam not with but against the stream. They were 
 not patriotic, at least in the ordinary acceptation of 
 that word ; they prophesied not good but evil for 
 
88 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vi. 
 
 their people (Jer. xxviii. 8). Until their time the 
 nation had sprung up out of the conception of 
 Jehovah ; now the conception of Jehovah was cast- 
 ing the nation into the shade. The natural bond 
 between the two was severed, and the relation was 
 henceforward viewed as conditional. As Grod of the 
 righteousness which is the law of the whole universe, 
 Jehovah could be Israel's God only in so far as in 
 Israel the right was recognised and followed. The 
 ethical element destroyed the national character of 
 the old religion. It still addressed itself, to be sure, 
 more to the nation and to society at large than to 
 the individual ; it insisted less upon a pure heart 
 than upon righteous institutions ; but nevertheless 
 the first step towards universalism had been accom- 
 plished, towards at once the general diffusion and 
 the individualisation of religion. Thus, although the 
 prophets were far from originating a new conception 
 of God, they none the less were the founders of what 
 has been called " ethical monotheism." But with 
 them this ethical monotheism was no product of the 
 " self- evolution of dogma," but a progressive step 
 which had been called forth simply by the course of 
 events. The providence of God brought it about 
 that this call came at an opportune period, and not 
 too suddenly. The downfall of the nation did not 
 take place until the truths and precepts of religion 
 were already strong enough to be able to live on 
 alone ; to the prophets belongs the merit of having 
 
THE FALL OF SAMARIA. 89 
 
 recognised the independence of these, and of having 
 secured perpetuity to Israel by refusing to allow 
 the conception of Jehovah to be involved in the 
 ruin of the kingdom. They saved faith by destroy- 
 ing illusion. 
 
 The event which Amos had foreseen was not long 
 in coming. The Israelites flew spontaneously, like 
 " silly doves," into the net of the Assyrians. Zecha- 
 riah ben Jeroboam was overthrown after a short reign, 
 Shallum his murderer and successor was also unable 
 to hold his own, and was followed after the horrors of 
 a civil war by Menahem ben Gadi (745 B.C.). But 
 Menahem, in the presence of domestic (and perhaps 
 also foreign) assailants,^ had no other resort than to 
 purchase by payment of a great tribute the assist- 
 ance of King Tiglath-pileser II., who at that time 
 was giving new force to the Assyrian predominance 
 
 ' It is not inconceivable that the wars carried on by Tiglath-pileser 
 II. against Hamath had some connection with his interventions in 
 favour of Menahem. The kingdom of Hamath, which may have 
 been threatened by Jeroboam II., may have availed itself of the 
 state of matters which followed his death to secure its own aggran- 
 disement at Israel's expense ; in correspondence with this attack 
 from the northern side another by Judah in concert with Hamath 
 may well have been made from the south. In this way, though not 
 without the aid of pure hypothesis, it might be possible to fit into 
 the general historical connection the fragmentary Assyrian notices 
 about Azariah of Judali and his relations to Hamath. But in that 
 case it would certainly be necessary to assume that the Assyrians 
 were badly informed as to the nature of the relations between 
 Hamath and Judah, and also as to the individual who at that time 
 held the throne of Judah. Uzziah ( = Azariah), who in his old age 
 had become a leper, could only nominally at best have been king of 
 Judah then. 
 
 w 
 
90 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vi. 
 
 in these regions. By such means he succeeded in 
 attaining his immediate end, but the further conse- 
 quence was that the rival party in the state turned 
 for support to Egypt, and Palestine now became 
 the arena of conflict between the two great world- 
 powers. 
 
 Menahem transmitted his kingdom to Pekahiah ; 
 Pekahiah was murdered about 735 B.C. by Pekah, 
 and Pekah himself shortly afterwards was over- 
 thrown. All this happened within a few years. 
 It would have been possible to conjecture the state 
 of the country in these circumstances, even if we 
 had not been informed of it by means of the pro- 
 phetical book of Hosea, which dates from the time 
 when the Assyrians had begun indeed to tamper 
 with the country, but had not yet shown their full 
 design. After the death of Jeroboam II. there had 
 been wild outbursts of partisan war ; none of the 
 kings who in quick succession appeared and disap- 
 peared had real power, none established order. It 
 was as if the danger from without, which was only 
 too obviously threatening the existence of the king- 
 dom, had already dissolved all internal bonds ; every 
 one was at war with his neighbour. Assyrians and 
 Egyptians were called in to support this or that 
 government ; by such expedients the external con- 
 fusion was, naturally, only increased. Was there 
 any other quarter in which help could yet be 
 sought ? The people, led by the priests, turned to 
 
THE FALL OF SAMAKIA. 91 
 
 the altars of Jehovah, and outdid itself in pious 
 works, as if by any such illusory means, out of all 
 relation to the practical problem in hand, the gan- 
 grene of anarchy could possibly be healed. Still 
 more zealous than Amos against the cultus was 
 Hosea, not merely on the ground that it had the 
 absurd motive of forcing Jehovah's favour, but also 
 because it was of heathenish character, nature- 
 worship and idolatry. That Jehovah is the true 
 and only helper is certainly not denied by Hosea. 
 But His help is coupled with the condition that 
 Israel shall undergo a complete cbange, and of such 
 a change he sees no prospect. On this account the 
 downfall of the state is in Hosea's view inevitable, 
 but not final ruin, only such an overthrow as is 
 necessary for the transition to a new and fair re- 
 commencement. In Hosea's prophecies the relation 
 between Jehovah and Israel is conceived of as dis- 
 soluble, and as actually on the point of being 
 dissolved, but it has struck its roots so deep that it 
 must inevitably at last establish itself again. 
 
 The first actual collision between Israel and 
 Assyria occurred in 734. Eesin, king of Damas- 
 cus, and Pekah, king of Samaria, had united in an 
 expedition against Judah, where at that time Ahaz 
 ben Jotham occupied the throne. But Ahaz 
 parried the blow by placing himself under the pro- 
 tection of the Assyrians, who perhaps would in any 
 case have struck in against the alliance between 
 
92 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vi. 
 
 Aram and Israel. Tiglath-pileser made his first 
 appearance in 734, first on the sea- coast of Pales- 
 tine, and subsequently either in this or in the 
 following year took up his quarters in the kingdom 
 of the ten tribes. After he had ravaged Gralilee 
 and Gileadj he finally concluded a peace with 
 Samaria conditionally on his receiving the head 
 of King Pekah and a considerable yearly tribute. 
 Hosea ben Elah was raised to the throne in Pekah's 
 place and acknowledged by the Assyrian as a vassal. 
 For some ten years he held his position quietly, 
 regularly paying his dues. But when at the death 
 of Tiglath-pileser the Syro- Palestinian kingdoms 
 rebelled en masse, Samaria also was seized with the 
 delirium of patriotic fanaticism (Isa. xxviii.). Rely- 
 ing upon the help of Seve,.king of Ethiopia and 
 Egypt, Hosea ventured on a revolt from Assyria. 
 But the Egyptians left him in the lurch as soon as 
 Shalmaneser IV., Tiglath-pileser's successor, invaded 
 his territory. Before his capital had fallen, Hosea 
 himself fell into the hands of the Assyrians. Sa- 
 maria offered a desperate resistance, and succumbed 
 only to Sargon, Shalmaneser's successor (721). 
 Energetic measures were adopted by the victor for 
 the pacification of the country ; he carried all the 
 inhabitants of mark into captivity to Calachene, 
 Gozanitis, and Armenia. Much light is thrown 
 upon the conditions of the national religion then 
 and upon its subsequent development by the single 
 
THE FALL OF SAMAEIA. 93 
 
 fact that the exiled Israelites were absorbed by the 
 surrounding heathenism without leaving a trace 
 behind them, while the population of Judah, who 
 had the benefit of a hundred years' respite, held 
 their faith fast throughout the period of the Baby- 
 lonian exile, and by means of it were able to main- 
 tain their own individuality afterwards in all the 
 circumstances that arose. The fact that the fall 
 of Samaria did not hinder but helped the religion 
 of Jehovah is entirely due to the prophets. That 
 they had foreseen the downfall of the state, and 
 declared in the name of religion that it was in- 
 evitable, was a matter of much greater historical 
 importance than the actual downfall itself. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE DELIVERANCE OF JUDAH. 
 
 Hitherto the small kingdom of Judah had stood in 
 the background. Its political history had been 
 determined almost exclusively by its relation to 
 Israel. Under the dynasty of Omri the original 
 enmity had been changed into a close but perhaps 
 not quite voluntary friendship. Judah found itself 
 drawn completely into the train of the more power- 
 ful neighbouring state, and seems even to have 
 rendered it military service. The fall of the house 
 of Omri was an ominous event for Judah as well 
 as Israel ; Jehu, as he passed to the throne, put 
 to death not only Ahaziah the king but also two 
 and forty other members of the royal house of David 
 who had fallen into his hands ; and those who still 
 survived, children for the most part, were murdered 
 wholesale by the regent Athaliah for reasons that 
 are unknown. Only one little boy, Joash, was 
 concealed from her fury, and by a successful con- 
 spiracy six years afterwards was placed upon the 
 throne of his ancestors. At that time the Syrians 
 
 94 
 
THE DELIVERANCE OF JUDAH. 95 
 
 were extending their incursions to Judah and 
 Philistia, and Joash bought them off from Jeru- 
 salem with the temple treasures. Perhaps it was 
 this disgrace that he expiated with his death ; in 
 like manner perhaps the assassination of his successor 
 Amaziah is to be accounted for by the discredit 
 he had incurred by a reckless and unsuccessful war 
 against Israel. Just as Israel was beginning to 
 recover itself after the happy termination of the 
 Syrian wars, Judah also experienced its period of 
 highest prosperity. What Jeroboam II. was to 
 the northern kingdom, Uzziah was to that of the 
 south. He appears to have obtained possession 
 of Edom, and for a considerable time to have held 
 that one province of David's conquests which fell 
 to Judah. At the trading port of Elath he revived 
 the commerce which Solomon had created. The 
 prosperity of his long reign was uninterrupted till 
 in his later years he was smitten with leprosy, and 
 found it necessary to hand over the affairs of the 
 kingdom to his son Jotham. But Jotham appears 
 to have died about the same time as his father, — 
 his successor, still in very early youth (Isa. iii. 12), 
 being Ahaz ben Jotham ben Uzziah. 
 
 If Judah could not compare with Israel in political 
 and general historical importance, it nevertheless 
 enjoyed more than one considerable advantage over 
 the larger kingdom. It was much safer from foreign 
 foes ; for the Egyptians, as a rule, were not danger- 
 
96 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vii. 
 
 ous neighbours. But its chief advantage consisted 
 in the stability of its dynasty. It was David who 
 had elevated Judah and Jerusalem to a position 
 of historical significance, and the prosperity of his 
 house was most intimately connected with that of 
 the town and territory, and even with that of 
 religion. On two separate occasions it occurred 
 that a king of Judah was murdered by subjects, 
 but in both cases the "people of the land" rose 
 up against the assassins and once more placed a 
 member of the Davidic family upon the throne. 
 The one actual recorded revolution was that against 
 Athaliah, which had for its object the restoration 
 of the throne to the legitimate heir. Under shelter 
 of the monarchy the other institutions of the state 
 also acquired a measure of permanency such as was 
 not found at all in Israel, where everything depended 
 on the character of individuals, and the existing 
 order of things was ever liable to be subjected to 
 fresh dispute. Life in Judah was a much more 
 stable affair, though not so exciting or dramatic. 
 Possibly the greater isolation of the little kingdom, 
 its more intimate relations with the neighbouring 
 wilderness, and the more primitive modes of life 
 which resulted, were also factors which contributed 
 to this general result. 
 
 In the capital of course the life was not primitive, 
 and its influence was undoubtedly greater than that 
 of the country. Successive kings exerted them- 
 
THE DELIVERANCE OF JUDAH. 97 
 
 selves for its external improvement, and in this 
 respect Hezekiali ben Ahaz was specially distin- 
 guished. Above all they manifested great interest 
 in the temple, which from an early period exerted 
 a powerful force of attraction over the entire mass 
 of the population. They regulated the cultus accord- 
 ing to their individual tastes, added to it or curtailed 
 it at their pleasure, and dealt with the sacred trea- 
 sures as they chose. Although the priests had in 
 a certain sense great power — the conspiracy against 
 Athaliah was led not by a prophet but by a priest 
 — they were nevertheless subjects of the king, and 
 had to act according to his orders. That the cultus 
 of Jehovah at Jerusalem was purer than that at 
 Bethel or at Samaria is an assertion which is con- 
 tradicted by more than one well-attested fact. In 
 this respect there was no essential difference between 
 Israel and Judah. It was in Israel that the reaction 
 against Baal-worship originated which afterwards 
 passed over into Judah ; the initiative in all such 
 matters was Israel's. There the experiments were 
 made from which Jerusalem learned the lesson. 
 How deep was the interest felt in the affairs of the 
 larger kingdom by the inhabitants even of one of 
 the smaller provincial towns of Judah is shown in 
 the instance of Amos of Tekoa. 
 
 Step by step with the decline of Israel after the 
 death of Jeroboam II. did Judah rise in importance ; 
 it was already preparing to take the inheritance. 
 
 G 
 
98 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vii. 
 
 The man through whom the transition of the history 
 from Israel to Judah was effected, and who was the 
 means of securing for the latter kingdom a period 
 of respite, which was fruitful of the best results for 
 the consolidation of true reHgion, was the prophet 
 Isaiah. The history of his activity is at the same 
 time the history of Judah during that period. 
 
 Isaiah became conscious of his vocation in the 
 year of King TJzziah's death ; his earliest discourses 
 date from the beginning of the reign of Ahaz. In 
 them he contemplates the imminent downfall of 
 Samaria, and threatens Judah also with the chas- 
 tisement its political and social sins deserve. In 
 chap, ix., and also in chaps, ii.— v., he still confines 
 himself on the whole to generalities quite after the 
 manner of Amos. But on the occasion of the expe- 
 dition of the allied Syrians and Ephraimites against 
 Jerusalem he interposed with bold decision in the 
 sphere of practical politics. To the very last he 
 endeavoured to restrain Ahaz from his purpose of 
 summoning the Assyrians to his help ; he assured 
 him of Jehovah's countenance, and offered him a 
 token in pledge. When the king refused this, the 
 prophet recognised that matters had gone too far, 
 and that the coming of the Assyrians could not be 
 averted. He then declared that the dreaded danger 
 would indeed be obviated by that course, but that 
 another far more serious would be incurred. For 
 the Egyptians would resist the westward movement 
 
THE DELIVERANCE OF JUDAH. 99 
 
 of Assyria, and Judah, as the field of war, would be 
 utterly laid waste ; only a remnant would remain as 
 the basis of a better future. 
 
 The actual issue, however, was not yet quite so dis- 
 astrous. The Egyptians did not interfere with the 
 Assyrians, and left Samaria and Damascus to their 
 fate. Judah became indeed tributary to Assyria, 
 but at the same time enjoyed considerable prosperity. 
 Henceforward the prophet's most zealous efforts were 
 directed to the object of securing the maintenance, 
 at any price, of this condition of affairs. He sought 
 by every means at his command to keep Judah from 
 any sort of intervention in the politics of the great 
 powers, in order that it might devote itself with 
 undivided energies to the necessities of internal 
 affairs. He actually succeeded in maintaining the 
 peace for many years, even at times when in the 
 petty kingdoms around the spirit of revolt was 
 abroad. The ill success of all attempts elsewhere 
 to shake off the yoke confirmed him in the convic- 
 tion that Assyria was the rod of chastisement wielded 
 by Jehovah over the nations, who had no alternative 
 but to yield to its iron sway. 
 
 While thirty years passed thus peacefully away 
 so far as foreign relations were concerned, internal 
 changes of all the greater importance were taking 
 place. Hezekiah ben Ahaz undertook for the first 
 time a thoroughgoing reformation in the cultus of 
 Jehovah. " He removed the high places, and brake 
 
100 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vii. 
 
 the pillars, and cut down the Asherah, and brake in 
 pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made ; " 
 so we are told in 2 Kings xviii. 4, with a mixture 
 of the general and the special that does not inspire 
 much confidence. For, e.g., the " high places " 
 which Solomon had raised on the Mount of Olives 
 were not removed by Hezekiah, although they stood 
 quite close to Jerusalem, and moreover were conse- 
 crated to foreign deities. And in every respect 
 there must have been a wide difference between the 
 objects and results of the reformations of Hezekiah 
 and Josiah. Undoubtedly Hezekiah undertook his 
 reforms in worship under the influence of Isaiah. 
 Following in the footsteps of Hosea, who had been 
 the first to take and to express offence at the use 
 of images in the worship of Jehovah, this prophet, 
 utilising the impression which the destruction of 
 Samaria had produced in Jerusalem (Isa. xvii., cf. 
 Jer. iii.), strove to the utmost against the adoration 
 of the work of men's hands in the holy places, 
 against the Asherahs and pillars (sun-pillars), and, 
 above all, against the ephods, i.e., the idols of silver 
 and gold, of which the land was full. But against 
 the high, places in and by themselves, against the 
 multiplicity of the altars of Jehovah, he made no 
 protest. " (In the Messianic time) ye shall loathe 
 and cast away as an unclean thing your graven 
 images with silver coverings and your molten images 
 overlaid with gold," he says (xxx. 22) ; and the 
 
THE DELIVEEANCE OF JUDAH. 101 
 
 inference is that he contemplated the purifica- 
 tion of the high places from superstitious excesses, 
 but by no means their abolition. To this one ob- 
 ject "^ Hezekiah's reformation seems to have confined 
 itself — an object of much greater primary import- 
 ance than the destruction of the altars them- 
 selves. Their destruction was a measure which arose 
 simply out of despair of the possibility of cleansing 
 them. 
 
 Sargon, king of Assyria, was succeeded in 705 
 by Sennacherib. The opportunity was seized by 
 Merodach Baladan of Babylon to secure his inde- 
 pendence ; and by means of an embassy he urged 
 Hezekiah also to throw off the yoke. The proposal 
 was adopted, and the king of Judah was joined by 
 other petty kingdoms, especially some of the Philis- 
 tine towns. Relations with Egypt were estab- 
 lished to secure its support in case of nee J. Senna- 
 cherib's more immediate and pressing business in 
 Babylon enabled Palestine to gain some time ; but 
 the issue of that revolt made self-deception impos- 
 sible as to the probable result of the other move- 
 ment. 
 
 This was the period at which Isaiah, already far 
 advanced in life, wielded his greatest influence. The 
 
 ' That is, to the abolition of the images. Jeremiah's polemic is 
 directed no longer against the images, but against wood and stone, 
 i.e., Asherahs and pillars. The date of the reformation under 
 Hezekiah is uncertain ; perhaps it ought to be placed after Senna- 
 cherib's withdrawal from Jerusalem. 
 
102 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vii. 
 
 preparations for revolt, the negotiations with Egypt, 
 were concealed from him — a proof how greatly he 
 was feared at court. When he came to know of 
 them, it was already too late to undo what had been 
 done. But he could at least give vent to his anger. 
 With Jerusalem, it seemed to him, the story of 
 Samaria was repeating itself; uninstructed by that 
 sad lesson, the capital was giving itself up to the 
 mad intoxication of leaders who would inevitably 
 bring her to ruin. " Quietness and rest " had been 
 the motto given by Jehovah to Judah, powerless as 
 it was and much in need of a period of peace ; in- 
 stead of this, defiance based on ignorance and false- 
 hood expressed the prevailing temper. But those 
 who refused to listen to the intelligible language of 
 Jehovah would be compelled to hear Him speak in 
 Assyrian speech in a way that would deafen and 
 blind them. Isaiah shows himself no less indignant 
 against the crowd that stupidly stared at his excite- 
 ment than against the God-forsaken folly of the 
 king, with his counsellors, his priests, and his 
 prophets. They do not suffer themselves to be 
 shaken out of their ordinary routine by the gravity 
 of such a crisis as this ; the living work of Jehovah 
 is to them a sealed book ; their piety does not 
 extend beyond the respect they show for certain 
 human precepts learnt by rote. 
 
 Meanwhile Sennacherib, at the head of a great 
 army, was advancing against Philistia and Judah 
 
THE DELIVEEANCE OF JUDAH. 103 
 
 along the Phcenician coast (70 1 ). Having captured 
 Ascalon, he next laid siege to Ekron, which, after 
 the Egyptian army sent to its relief had been de- 
 feated at Eltekeh, fell into the enemy's hand, and 
 was severely dealt with. Simultaneously various 
 fortresses of Judah were occupied, and the level 
 country was devastated (Isa. i.). The consequence 
 was that Hezekiah, in a state of panic, offered to 
 the Assyrians his submission, which was accepted 
 on payment of a heavy penalty, he being per- 
 mitted, however, to retain possession of Jerusalem. 
 He seemed to have got cheaply off from the unequal 
 contest. 
 
 The way being thus cleared, Sennacherib pressed 
 on southwards, for the Egyptians were collecting 
 their forces against him. The nearer he came to 
 the enemy the more undesirable did he find it that 
 he should leave in his rear so important a fortress 
 as Jerusalem in the hands of a doubtful vassal. Not- 
 withstanding the recently ratified treaty, therefore, 
 he demanded the surrender of the city, believing 
 that a policy of intimidation would be enough to 
 secure it from Hezekiah. But there was another 
 personality in Jerusalem of whom his plans had 
 taken no account. Isaiah had indeed regarded the 
 revolt from Assyria as a rebellion against Jehovah 
 Himself, and therefore as a perfectly hopeless under- 
 taking, which could only result in the utmost humilia- 
 tion and sternest chastisement for Judah. But much 
 
104 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vii. 
 
 more distinctly than Amos and Hosea before him 
 did lie hold firm as an article of faith the conviction 
 that the kingdom would not be utterly annihilated ; 
 all his speeches of solemn warning closed with the 
 announcement that a remnant should return and 
 form the kernel of a new commonwealth to be 
 fashioned after Jehovah's own heart. For him, in 
 contrast to Amos, the great crisis had a positive 
 character ; in contrast to Hosea, he did not expect 
 a temporary suspension of the theocracy, to be fol- 
 lowed by its complete reconstruction, but in the 
 pious and God-fearing individuals who were still to 
 be met with in this Sodom of iniquity, he saw the 
 threads, thin, indeed, yet sufficient, which formed 
 the links between the Israel of the present and its 
 better future. Over against the vain confidence of 
 the multitude Isaiah had hitherto brought into pro- 
 minence the darker obverse of his religious belief, 
 but now he confronted their present depression with 
 its bright reverse ; faint-heartedness was still more 
 alien to his nature than temerity. In the name of 
 Jehovah he bade King Hezekiah be of good courage, 
 and urged that he should by no means surrender. 
 The Assyrians would not be able to take the city, 
 not even to shoot an arrow into it, nor to bring up 
 their siege train against it. " I know thy sitting, 
 thy going, and thy standing," is Jehovah's language 
 to the Assyrian, " and also thy rage against Me. 
 And I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle 
 
THE DELIVEKANCE OF JUDAH. 105 
 
 in thy lips, and I will turn tkee back by the way by 
 which thou earnest." And thus it proved in the 
 issue. By a still unexplained catastrophe, the main 
 army of Sennacherib was annihilated on the frontier 
 between Egypt and Palestine, and Jerusalem thereby 
 freed from all danger. The Assyrian king had to 
 save himself by a hurried retreat to Nineveh ; 
 Isaiah was triumphant. A more magnificent close 
 of a period of influential public life can hardly be 
 imagined. 
 
 (What Sennacherib himself relates of his expe- 
 dition against his rebellious vassals in Palestine ^ 
 runs parallel with 2 Kings xviii. 14—16, but not 
 with the rest of the Bible narrative. These three 
 verses are peculiar, and their source is different 
 from that of the context. After having captured 
 various Phoenician cities, and received tribute from 
 a number of kings, his first measure is forcibly to 
 restore the Assyrian governor who had been expelled 
 from Ascalon, and next he turns his arms againsh 
 Ekron. This city had put in irons its own king, 
 Padi (who remained loyal to the suzerain), and 
 handed him over to Hezekiah, who appears as the 
 soul of the rebellion in these quarters. The Egyp- 
 tians, who as usual have a hand in the matter, 
 advance with an army for the relief of the beleaguered 
 city, but are defeated near Eltekeh in the immediate 
 neighbourhood ; Ekron is taken, remorselessly chas- 
 
 1 George Smith, " Assyrian Eponyin Canon," pp. 67, 68, 1 31-136. 
 
106 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. vii. 
 
 tised, and forced to take Padi back again as its 
 king. For Hezekiah in the meantime has delivered 
 up his prisoner, and, terrified by the fall of his 
 fortresses and the devastation of his territory, has 
 accepted the position of a vassal once more, paying 
 at the same time a heavy fine, inclusive of thirty 
 talents of gold and 800 of silver. Such is the 
 Assyrian account. If we treat the 300 talents 
 mentioned in 2 Kings xviii. 14 as Syrian ( = 800 
 Babylonian), it completely fills in the vague outlines 
 given in 2 Kings xviii. 14-16, and, while confirm- 
 ing in their place immediately after ver. 1 3 these 
 verses, unrelated as they are to the main connection 
 of the Biblical narrative, corrects them only in one 
 point, by making it probable that the subjection of 
 Hezekiah (which is not equivalent to the surrender 
 of his city) took place while Sennacherib was still 
 before Ekron, and not at later date when he had 
 gone further south towards Libnah. As regards- 
 his further advance towards Egypt, and the reasons 
 of his sudden withdrawal (related by Herodotus also 
 from Egyptian tradition), the great king is silent, 
 having nothing to boast of in it. The battle of 
 Eltekeh, which is to be regarded only as an episode 
 in the siege of Ekron, being merely the repulse of 
 the Egyptian relieving army, was not an event of 
 great historical importance, and ought not to be 
 brought into any connection either with 2 Kings 
 xix. 7 or with xix. 35 ; Sennacherib's inscription 
 
THE DELIVEEANCE OF JUDAH. 107 
 
 speaks only of the first and prosperous stage of 
 the expedition, not of the decisive one which re- 
 sulted so disastrously for him, as must be clear 
 from the words themselves to every unprejudiced 
 reader.) 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PROPHETIC REFORMATION. 
 
 Isaiah was so completely a prophet that even his 
 wife was called the prophetess after him. No such 
 title could have been bestowed on the wife of either 
 Amos or Hosea. But what distinguished him more 
 than anything else from those predecessors was that 
 his position was not, like theirs, apart from the 
 government ; he sat close to the helm, and took a 
 very real part in directing the course of the vessel. 
 He was more positive and practical than they ; he 
 wished to make his influence felt, and when for the 
 moment he was unsuccessful in this so far as the 
 great whole of the state was concerned, he busied 
 himself in gathering round him a small circle of 
 like-minded persons on whom his hope for the future 
 rested. Now that Israel had been destroyed, he 
 wished at all events to save Judah. The lofty 
 ideality of his faith (ii. i seq.) did not hinder him 
 from calling in the aid of practical means for this 
 end. But the current of his activities was by the 
 circumstances of the case directed into a channel 
 
 108 
 
THE PEOPHETIC REFORMATION. 109 
 
 in which after his death they continued to flow 
 towards a goal which had hardly been contemplated 
 by himself. 
 
 The political importance of the people of Jehovah 
 was reduced to a minimum when Judah only was 
 left. Already at an earlier period in that kingdom 
 the sacred had come to be of more importance than 
 the secular ; much more was this the case under 
 the suzerainty of Assyria. The circumstances of 
 the time themselves urged that the religion of Israel 
 should divest itself of all politico-national character ; 
 but Isaiah also did his best to further this end. 
 It was his most zealous endeavour to hold king and 
 people aloof from every patriotic movement ; to 
 him the true religious attitude was one of quietness 
 and sitting still, non-intervention in political affairs, 
 concentration on the problems of internal govern- 
 ment. But he was compelled to leave over for the 
 coming Messiah (xi. i se^-) that reformation in legal 
 and social matters which seemed to him so neces- 
 sary; all that he could bring the secular rulers of 
 his country to undertake was a reform in worship. 
 This was the most easily solved of the problems 
 alluded to above, and it was also that which most 
 closely corresponded to the character of the kingdom 
 of Judah. Thus it came about that the reform 
 of the theocracy which had been contemplated by 
 Isaiah led to its transformation into an ecclesiastical 
 state. No less influential in effecting a radical 
 
110 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. viii. 
 
 change in the old popular religion was Isaiah's 
 doctrine which identified the true Israel with the 
 holy remnant which alone should emerge from the 
 crisis unconsumed. For that remnant was more 
 than a mere object of hope ; it actually stood before 
 him in the persons of that little group of pious 
 individuals gathered around him. Isaiah founded 
 no " ecclesiola i7i icclesia " indeed, but certainly 
 an " ecclesia in civitate Dei." Now began that 
 distinction between the true Israel and the Israel 
 according to the flesh, that bipartite division of the 
 nation which became so important in later times. 
 As head and founder of the prophetic party in 
 Judah, Isaiah was, involuntarily, the man who 
 took the first steps towards the institution of the 
 Church. 
 
 The catastrophe which befell the army of Senna- 
 cherib had no very great effect upon the external 
 affairs of Judah. Sennacherib indeed, being busy 
 in the east, was unable to retrieve the loss he had 
 sustained, but his son Esarhaddon, who succeeded 
 him in 68 1, resumed the Egyptian war with better 
 success. He made himself master of the Nile valley, 
 and brought the Ethiopians into submission. That 
 the petty kingdoms of Palestine returned to the 
 old relations of dependence is to be taken as a 
 matter of course. Judah appears to have resumed 
 the yoke voluntarily. It appears to have made but 
 little impression, that Manasseh ben Hezekiah came 
 
THE PROPHETIC REFOR>IATIOX. Ill 
 
 again under Assyrian suzerainty; since the time 
 of Ahaz Judah had been accustomed to this relation. 
 The Book of Bangs speaks only of internal affairs 
 under the reign of Manasseh. According to it, he 
 was a bad ruler, who permitted, and even caused 
 innocent blood to flow like water. But what was 
 of greater consequence for the future, he took up 
 an attitude of hostility towards the prophetic party 
 of reform, and put himself on the side of the reaction 
 which would fain bring back to the place of hononr 
 the old popular half-pagan conception of Jehovah, 
 as against the pure and holy God whom the prophets 
 worshipped. The revulsion manifested itself as the 
 reform had done, chiefly in matters of worship. 
 The old idolatrous furniture of the sanctuaries was 
 reinstated in its place, and new frippery was im- 
 ported from all quarters, especially from Assyria 
 and Babylon, to renovate the old religion ; with 
 Jehovah was now associated a " queen of heaven." 
 Yet, as usual, the restoration did more than merely 
 bring back the old order of things. What at an 
 earlier period had been mere naivete now became 
 superstition, and could hold its ground only by 
 having imparted to it artificially a deeper meaning 
 which was itself borrowed from the prophetical circle 
 of ideas. Again, earnestness superseded the old 
 joyousness of the cultus ; this now had reference 
 principally to sin and its atonement. Value was 
 attached to services rendered to the Deity, just 
 
112 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. viii. 
 
 in proportion to their hardness and unnaturalness ; 
 at this period it was that the old precept to sacrifice 
 to Jehovah the male that opens the matrix was 
 extended to children. The counter-reformation was 
 far from being unaffected by the preceding refor- 
 mation, although it understood religious earnestness 
 in quite another sense, and sought, not to eliminate 
 heathenism from the cultns, but to animate it with 
 new life. On the other hand, the reaction was, 
 in the end, found to have left distinct traces of 
 its influence in the ultimate issue of the refor- 
 mation. 
 
 We possess one document dating from Manasseh's 
 time in Micah vi. I— vii. 6. Here, where the law- 
 lessness and utter disregard of every moral restraint 
 in Judah are set in a hideous light, the prophetic 
 point of view, as contrasted with the new refine- 
 ments in worship, attains also its simplest and purest 
 expression. Perhaps to this period the Decalogue 
 also, which is so eloquently silent in regard to cultus, 
 is to be assigned. Jehovah demands nothing for 
 Himself, all that He asks is only for men ; this is 
 here the fundamental law of the theocracy. 
 
 Manasseh's life was a long one, and his son Amon 
 walked in his ways. The latter died after a brief 
 reign, and with his death a new era for Judah 
 began. It was introduced by the great catastrophe 
 in which the Assyrian empire came to an end. The 
 sovereignty of the world was beginning to pass out 
 
THE PKOPHETiC KEFORMATIOX. 113 
 
 of the hands of the Semites into those of the Aryans. 
 Phraortes of Media indeed was unsuccessful in 
 his attempt against the Assyrians, bat Cyaxares 
 beat them and proceeded to besiege their capital. 
 The Scythian invasion of Media and Western 
 Asia (c. 630) at this juncture gave them another 
 respite of more than twenty years ; but even it 
 tended to break in pieces the great, loosely-com- 
 pacted monarchy. The provinces became gra- 
 dually disintegrated, and the kingdom shrivelled 
 up till it covered no more than the land of 
 Asshnr.^ 
 
 The inroad of the Scythians aroused to energy 
 again the voice of prophecy which had been dumb 
 during the very sinful but not very animated period 
 of ^lanasseh's reign. Zephaniah and Jeremiah 
 threatened with the mysterious northern foe, just 
 as Amos and Hosea had formerly done with the 
 Assyrians. The Scythians actually did invade 
 
 ' Ovir knowledge of the events of the second half of the seventh 
 century has remained singularly imperfect hitherto, notwithstand- 
 ing the importance of the changes they wrought on the face of the 
 ancient world. The account given above is that of Herodotus 
 (L 103-106), and there the matter must rest until really authentic 
 sources shall have been brought to light. With regard to the final 
 siege of Nineveh, our chief informant is Ctesias, as quoted by 
 Diodorus (ii. 26, 27). Whether the prophecy of Nahum relates 
 to the last siege is doubtful (in spite of ii. 7, and the oracle given 
 in Diodorus, Sti. rV ^'^fov oWeis i\il Kara Kpdros ihv ijA) Tpirepoi' 6 
 irorafjios tj w6\ei -yivrfrai. TroXd/um), inasmuch as Nahum (i. 9) 
 expressly speaks of the siege alluded to by him as the first, saying, 
 "the trouble shall not rise up the second time." 
 
 H 
 
114 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. viii. 
 
 Palestine in 626 (the 13th year of Josiah), and 
 penetrated as far as to Egypt ; but their course lay 
 along the shore line, and they left Judah untouched. 
 This danger that had come so near and yet passed 
 them by, this instance of a prophetic threatening 
 that had come to pass and yet been mercifully 
 averted, made a powerful impression upon the people 
 of Judah ; public opinion went through a revolution 
 in favour of the reforming party which was able 
 to gain for itself the support also of the young king 
 Josiah ben Amon. The circumstances were favour- 
 able for coming forward with a comprehensive 
 programme for a reconstruction of the theocracy. 
 In the year 621 (the eighteenth of Josiah) Deu- 
 teronomy was discovered, accepted, and carried into 
 effect. 
 
 The Deuteronomic legislation is designed for the 
 reformation, by no means of the cultus alone, but 
 at least quite as much of the civil relations of life. 
 The social interest is placed above the cultus, inas- 
 much as everywhere humane ends are assigned for 
 the rites and offerings. In this it is plainly seen 
 that Deuteronomy is the progeny of the prophetic 
 spirit/'^'Still more plainly does this appear in the 
 motifs of the legislation ; according to these, Jehovah 
 is the only God, whose service demands the whole 
 heart and every energy ; He has entered into a 
 covenant with Israel, but upon fundamental con- 
 ditions that, as contained in the Decalogue, are 
 
THE PROPHETIC REFORMATION. 115 
 
 purely moral and of absolute universality. No- 
 where does the fundamental religious thought of 
 prophecy find clearer expression than in Deutero- 
 nomy, — the thought that Jehovah asks nothing for 
 Himself, but asks it as a religious duty that man 
 should render to man what is right, that His 
 will lies not in any unknown height, but in the 
 moral sphere which is known and understood by 
 all.i 
 
 But the result of the innovation did not corre- 
 spond exactly to its prophetic origin. Prophecy 
 died when its precepts attained to the force of laws ; 
 the prophetic ideas lost their purity when they 
 became practical. Whatever may have been contem- 
 plated, only provisional regulations actually admitted 
 of being carried, and even these only in co-operation 
 with the king and the priests, and with due regard 
 to the capacity of the masses. The final outcome 
 of the Deuteronomic reformation was principally 
 that the cultus of Jehovah was limited to Jeru- 
 salem and abolished everywhere else, — such was 
 the popular and practical form of prophetic mono- 
 theism. The importance of the Solomonic temple 
 
 ■ The commandments wliich I command thee are not unattainable 
 for thee, neither are they far off ; not in heaven so that one might 
 say, Who can climb up into heaven and bring them down, and tell 
 us them that we might do them 1 not beyond the sea so that one 
 mio-ht say, Who shall go over the sea, and fetch them, and tell 
 us them that we might do them ! — but the matter lies very near 
 thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, so that thou canat do it 
 (Deut. XXX. 11-14). 
 
116 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. viii. 
 
 was thereby increased iu the highest degi'ee, and 
 so also the influence of the priests of Jerusalem, 
 the sons of Zadok, who now in point of fact got 
 rid entirely of their rivals, the priests of the country 
 districts. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JEEEMIAH AND THE DESTRTJCTION OF JEHCSALEM. 
 
 JosiAH lived for thirteen years after the accomplish- 
 ment of his great work. It was a happy period 
 of external and internal prosperity. The nation 
 possessed the covenant, and kept it. It seemed 
 as if the conditions had been attained on which, 
 according to the prophets, the continuance of the 
 theocracy depended ; if their threatenings against 
 Israel had been fulfilled, so now was Jndah prov- 
 ing itself the heir of their promises. Already in 
 Deuteronomy is the " extension of the frontier " 
 taken into consideration, and Josiah actually put 
 his hand to the task of seeking the attainment of 
 this end. 
 
 Jehovah and Israel, religion and patriotism, once 
 more went hand in hand. Jeremiah alone did not 
 suffer himself to be misled by the general feeling. 
 He was a second Amos, upon a higher platform — 
 but, unlike his predecessor, a prophet by profession ; 
 his history, like Isaiah's, is practically the history 
 of his time. In the work of introducing Deutero- 
 
 117 
 
118 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. ix. 
 
 nomy he had taken an active part, and throughout 
 his life he showed his zeal against unlawful altars 
 and against the adoration of wood and stone 
 (Asherahs and pillars). But he was by no means 
 satisfied with the results of the reformation that had 
 been effected ; nothing appeared to him more sinful 
 or more silly than the false confidence produced by 
 it in Jehovah and in the inviolability of His one 
 true temple. This confidence he maintained to be 
 delusive ; Judah was not a whit better than Israel 
 had been, the temple of Jerusalem would be de- 
 stroyed one day like the temple of Shiloh. The 
 external improvements on which the people of Judah 
 prided themselves he held to leave this severe judg- 
 ment unaffected ; what was needed was a quite dif- 
 ferent sort of change, a change of heart, not very 
 easy positively to define. 
 
 An opportunity for showing his opposition pre- 
 sented itself to the prophet at the juncture when 
 King Josiah had fallen at Megiddo in the battle 
 with Pharaoh Necho (608), and when the people 
 were seeking safety and protection by cleaving to 
 Jehovah and His holy temple. At the instance of 
 the priests and the prophets he had almost expiated 
 with his blood the blasphemies he had uttered against 
 the popular belief; but he did not suffer himself to 
 be driven from his course. Even when the times 
 had grown quiet again, he persisted, at the risk of 
 his life and uuder universal reproach and ridicule, 
 
DESTRUCTION OF JEEUSALEM. 119 
 
 in his work as a prophet of evil. Moments of 
 despair sometimes came to him ; but that he had 
 correctly estimated the true value of the great con- 
 version of the nation was speedily proved by the 
 facts. Although Deuteronomy was not formally 
 abolished under Jehoiakim, who as the vassal of 
 Egypt ascended the throne of his father Josiah, 
 nevertheless it ceased to have practical weight, the 
 battle of Megiddo having shown that in spite of 
 the covenant with Jehovah the possibilities of non- 
 success in war remained the same as before. Je- 
 hoiakim tended to return to the ways of Manasseh, 
 not only as regarded idolatry, but also in his con- 
 tempt for law and the private rights of his subjects ; 
 — the two things seem to stand in connection. 
 
 The course of events at last brought upon the 
 theocracy the visible ruin which Jeremiah had been 
 so long expecting. After the Egyptians had sub- 
 jugated Syria at the time when the Modes and 
 Chaldaeans were busied with the siege of Nineveh, 
 Nebuchadnezzar, that task accomplished, came upon 
 them from Babylon and routed them on the Euph- 
 rates near Carchemish (605—4). The people of 
 Judah rejoiced at the fall of Nineveh, and also at 
 the result of Carchemish ; but they were soon un- 
 deceived when the prospect began to open on them 
 of simply exchanging the Egyptian for the Ohaldtean 
 yoke. The power of the Chaldseans had been quite 
 unsuspected, and now it was found that in them the 
 
120 ISRAEL AND JUDAII. chap. rx. 
 
 Assyrians had suddenly returned to life. Jeremiah 
 was the only man who gained any credit by these 
 events. His much ridiculed " enemy out of the 
 north," of whom he had of old been wont to speak 
 so much, now began to be talked of with respect, 
 although his name was no longer " the Scythian " 
 but " the Babylonian." It was an epoch, — the close 
 of an account which balanced in his favour. There- 
 fore it was that precisely at this moment he received 
 the Divine command to commit to writing that 
 which for twenty-three years he had been preaching, 
 and which, ever pronounced impossible, had now 
 showed itself so close at hand. 
 
 After Ihe victory of Carchemish the Ohaldaaans 
 drove Pharaoh out of Syria, and also compelled the 
 submission of Jehoiakim (c. 602). I'W three years 
 he continued \o pay his tribute, and then he with- 
 held it ; a mad passion for liberty, kindled by 
 religious fanaticism, had begun to rage with pm-- 
 tentous power amongst the influential classes, tlin 
 grandees, the priests, and the prophets. Nt^bu- 
 chadnezzar satisfied himself in the first instanco 
 with raising against Judah several of the smaller 
 nationalities around, especially I lie Edomites; not 
 lill 597 did he appear in person before Jerusalem. 
 The town was compelled to yield ; the more im- 
 portant citizens were carried into exile, amono-st 
 them the young king Jechoniah, son of Jehoiakim, 
 who had died in the interval ; Zedekiah ben Josiah 
 
DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 121 
 
 was made king in his stead over the remnant left 
 behind. The patriotic fanaticism that' had led to 
 the revolt was not broken even by this blow. Within 
 four years afterwards new plans of liberation began to 
 be again set on foot ; on this occasion, however, the 
 influence of Jeremiah proved strong enough to avert 
 the danger. But when a definite prospect of help 
 from Pharaoh Hophra (Apries) presented itself in 
 589, the craving for independence pi-oved quite 
 irrepressible. Revolt was declared ; and in a very 
 short time the Chaldsean army, with Nebuchad- 
 nezzar at its head, lay before Jerusalem. For a 
 while everything seemed to move prosperously; the 
 Egyptians came to the rescue, and the Chaldeans 
 were compelled to raise the siege in order to cope 
 with them. At this there was great joy in Jeru- 
 salem ; only Jeremiah continued to express his 
 gloomy ^•iews. The event proved that he was 
 right ; the Egyptians were repulsed and the siege 
 resumed. The city was bent on obstinate resistance ; 
 in vain did Jeremiah, at continual risk of his life, 
 endeavour to bring it to reason. The king, who 
 agreed with t he prophet, did not venture to assert 
 his opinion against the dominant terrorism. The 
 town in these circumstances was at last taken by 
 storm, and, along with the temple, reduced to ruins. 
 Cruel vengeance was taken on tlie king and grandees, 
 and the pacification of the country was ensured 
 by another and larger deportation of the inhabitants 
 
122 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. ix. 
 
 to Babylon. Thus terminated in 586 the kingdom 
 of Judah. 
 
 The prophets had been the spiritual destroyers 
 of the old Israel. In old times the nation had 
 been the ideal of religion in actual realisation ; the 
 prophets confronted the nation with an ideal to 
 which it did not correspond. Then to bridge over 
 this interval the abstract ideal was framed into a 
 law, and to this law the nation was to be conformed. 
 The attempt had very important consequences, inas- 
 much as Jehovah continued to be a living power 
 in the law, when He was no longer realised as 
 present in the nation ; but that was not what the 
 prophets had meant to effect. What they were 
 unconsciously labouring towards was that religious 
 individualism which had its historical source in the 
 national downfall, and manifested itself not exclu- 
 sively within the prophetical sphere. With such 
 men as Amos and Hosea the moral personality based 
 upon an inner conviction burst through the limits 
 of mere nationality ; their mistake was in supposing 
 that they could make their way of thinking the 
 basis of a national life. Jeremiah saw through the 
 mistake ; the true Israel was narrowed to him- 
 self Of the truth of his conviction he never 
 had a moment's doubt ; he knew that Jehovah was 
 on his side, that on him depended the eternal 
 future. Instead of the nation, the heart and the 
 individual conviction were to him the subject of 
 
DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 123 
 
 religion. On the ruins of Jerusalem he gazed into 
 the future filled with joyful hope, sure of this, that 
 Jehovah would one day pardon past sin and renew 
 the relation which had been broken off — though on 
 the basis of another covenant than that laid down 
 in Deuteronomy. " I will put my law upon their 
 heart, and write it on their mind ; none shall say 
 to his neighbour, Know the Lord, for all shall have 
 that knowledge within them." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THK CAPTIVITY AND THE RESTORATION. 
 
 The exiled Jews were not scattered all over Ohaldeea, 
 but were allowed to remain together in families and 
 clans. Many of them, notwithstanding this circum- 
 stance, must have lapsed and become merged in 
 the surrounding heathenism ; but many also con- 
 tinued faithful to Jehovah and to Israel. They 
 laboured under much depression and sadness, groan- 
 ing under the wrath of Jehovah, who had rejected 
 His people and cancelled His covenant. They were 
 lying under a sort of vast interdict ; they could 
 not celebrate any sacrifice or keep any feast ; they 
 could only observe days of fasting and humiliation, 
 and such rites as had no inseparable connection 
 with the Holy Land. The observance of the Sabbath, 
 and the practice of the rite of circumcision, acquired 
 much greater importance than they formerly pos- 
 sessed as signs of a common religion. The meet- 
 ings on the Sabbath day out of which the synagogues 
 were afterwards developed appear to have first come 
 into use during this period ; perhaps also even then 
 
 ^ 124 
 
CAPTIVITY AND RESTOKATION. 125 
 
 it had become customary to read aloud from the 
 prophetic writings which set forth that all had 
 happened in the providence of God, and moreover 
 that the days of adversity were not to last for 
 ever. 
 
 Matters improved somewhat as Cyrus entered 
 upon his victorious career. Was he the man in 
 whom the Messianic prophecies had found their 
 fulfilment ? The majority were unwilling to think 
 so. For it was out of Israel (they argued) that 
 the Messiah was to proceed who should establish 
 the kingdom of God upon the ruins of the kingdoms 
 of the world ; the restitution effected by means of 
 a Persian could only be regarded as a passing inci- 
 dent in the course of an historical process that had 
 its goal entirely elsewhere. This doubt was met 
 by more than one prophetical writer, and especially 
 by the great anonymous author to whom we are 
 indebted for Isa. xL, seq. "Away with sorrow; 
 deliverance is already at the door ! Is it then a 
 humiliating thing that Israel should owe its freedom 
 to a Persian ? Nay, is it not rather a proof of 
 the world-wide sway of the God of Jacob that He 
 should thus summon His instruments from the ends 
 of the earth ? Who else than Jehovah could have 
 thus sent Cyrus ? Surely not the false gods which 
 He has destroyed ? Jehovah alone it was who 
 foretold and foreknew the things which are now 
 coming to pass, — because long ago He had pre- 
 
126 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. x. 
 
 arranged and predetermined them, and they are 
 now being executed in accordance with His plan. 
 Eejoice therefore in prospect of your near deliver- 
 ance ; prepare yourselves for the new era ; gird 
 yourselves for the return to your homes." It is 
 to be observed, as characteristic in this prophecy, 
 how the idea of Jehovah as God alone and God 
 over all — in constantly recurring lyrical parenthesis 
 He is praised as the author of the world and of 
 all nature — is yet placed in positive relation to 
 Israel alone, and that upon the principle that Israel 
 is in exclusive possession of the universal truth, 
 which cannot perish with Israel, but must, through 
 the instrumentality of Israel, become the common 
 possession of the whole world. " There is no Go d 
 bu t Jeh ovah, a nd Israel is His prophet. " 
 
 For many years the Persian monarch put the 
 patience of the Jews to the proof; Jehovah's judg- 
 ment upon the Chaldeeans, instead of advancing, 
 seemed to recede. At length, however, their hopes 
 were realised ; in the year 538 Cyrus brought the 
 empire of Babylon to an end, and gave the exiles 
 leave to seek their fatherland once more. This per- 
 mission was not made use of by all, or even by a 
 majority. The number of those who returned is 
 stated at 42,360 ; whether women and children are 
 included in this figure is uncertain. On arriving 
 at their destination, after the difficult march through 
 the desert, they did not spread themselves over the 
 
CAPTIVITY AND RESTORATION. 127 
 
 whole of Judah, but settled chiefly in the neighbour- 
 hood of Jerusalem. The Calebites, for example, 
 who previously had had their settlements in and 
 around Hebron, now settled in Bethlehem and in 
 the district of Ephrath. They found it necessary 
 to concentrate themselves in face of a threatened 
 admixture of doubtful elements. From all sides 
 people belonging to the surrounding nations had 
 pressed into the depopulated territory of Judah. 
 Not only had they annexed the border territories — 
 where, for example, the Bdomites or Idumgeans held 
 the whole of the Negeb as far as to Hebron ; they 
 had effected lodgments everywhere, and — as the 
 Ammonites, Ashdodites, and especially the Sama- 
 ritans — had amalgamated with the older Jewish 
 population, a residue of which had remained in 
 the country in spite of all that had happened. 
 These half-breed " pagani" (Amme haare^) gave 
 a friendly reception to the returning exiles (Bne 
 haggola) ; particularly did the Samaritans show 
 themselves anxious to make common cause with 
 them. But they were met with no reciprocal cor- 
 diality. The lesson of religious isolation which the 
 children of the captivity had learned in Babylon, 
 they did not forget on their return to their home._ 
 Here also they lived as in a strange land. Not tlie ^ 
 native of Judaea, but the man who could trace his ( 
 descent from the exiles in Babylon, was reckoned as^ 
 belonging to their community. 
 
128 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. x. 
 
 The first decennia after the return of the exiles, 
 during which they were occupied in adjusting them- 
 selves to their new homes, were passed under a 
 variety of adverse circumstances, and by no means 
 either in joyousness or security. Were these then 
 the Messianic times which, it had been foretold, 
 were to dawn at the close of their captivity ? They 
 did not, at all events, answer the expectations which 
 had been formed. A settlement, 
 obtained, it was true, in the (Fatherla nd^ but the 
 Persian yoke pressed now more heavily than ever 
 the Babylonian had done. The sins of God's people 
 seemed still unforgiven, their period of bond-service 
 not yet at an end. A slight improvement, as is 
 shown by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, 
 followed, when in the year 520 the obstacles disap- 
 peared, which until then had stood in the way of 
 the rebuilding of the temple ; the work then begun 
 was completed in 516. Inasmuch as the Jews were 
 now nothing more than a religious community, based 
 upon the traditions of a national existence that had 
 ceased, the rebuilding of the temple naturally was 
 for them an event of supreme importance. 
 
 The law of the new theocracy was the Book of 
 Deuteronomy ; this was the foundation on which 
 the structure was to be built. But the force of 
 circumstances and the spirit of the age had even 
 before and during the exile exerted a modifying 
 influence upon that legislative code ; and it con- 
 
CAPTIVITY AND RESTOEATION. 129 
 
 tinued to do so still. At first a " son of David " 
 had continued to stand at the head of the Bne 
 haggola, but this last relic of the old monarchy soon 
 had to give way to the Persian governor, who was 
 under the control of the satrap of trans-Euphratic 
 Syria, and whose principal business was the collec- 
 tion of revenue. Thenceforward the sole national 
 chief was Joshua, the high priest, on whom, accord- 
 ingly, the political representation also of the com- 
 munity naturally devolved. In the circumstances 
 as they then were no other arrangement was possible. 
 The way had been paved for it long before, in so 
 far as the Assyrians had destroyed the kingdom of 
 Israel, while in the kingdom of Judah, which sur- 
 vived it, the religious cultus had greater importance 
 attached to it than political affairs, and also inasmuch 
 as in point of fact the practical issue of the prophetic 
 reformation sketched in Deuteronomy had been to 
 make the temple the national centre still more than 
 formerly. The hierocracy towards which Ezekiel 
 had already opened the way was simply inevitable. 
 It took the form of a monarchy of the high priest, 
 he having stepped into the place formerly occupied 
 by the theocratic king. As his peers and at his 
 side stood the members of his clan, the Levites of 
 the old Jerusalem, who traced their descent from 
 Zadok (Sadduk) ; the common Levites held a much 
 lower rank, so far as they had maintained their 
 priestly rank at all and had not been degraded, in 
 
130 ISRAEL AXD JUDAH. CHAP. x. 
 
 accordance with Ezekiel's law (cbap. xliv."), to the 
 position of mere temple servitors. '• Levite," once 
 the title of honour bestowed on all priests, became 
 more and more confined to members of the second 
 oi'der of the clergv. 
 
 Meanwhile no improvement was taking place in 
 the condition of the Jewish colonists. They were 
 poor ; they had incurred the hostility of their 
 neighbours by their exclnsiveness ; the Pereian 
 Government was suspicious ; the incipient decline 
 of the great kingdom was accompanied with 
 specially unpleasant consequences so fai" as Pales- 
 tine was concerned (Megabyzus). All this natu- 
 rally tended to produce in the community a certain 
 laxity and depression. To what purpose (it was 
 asked) all this religious strictness, which led to so 
 much that was unpleasant ? Wliy all this zeal for 
 Jehovah, who refused to be mollified by it? It is 
 a significant fact that the upper ranks of the priest- 
 hood were least of all concerned to counteract this 
 tendency. Theii- priesthood was less to them than 
 the predominance which was based upon it; they 
 looked upon the neighbouring ethnarchs as their 
 equals, and maintained relations of friendship with 
 them. The general community was only following 
 their example when it also began to mingle with 
 the Amme haaref. 
 
 The danger of Judaism merging into heathenism 
 was imminent. But it was averted by a new 
 
CArTIVITY AXD KESTOIUTIOX. ISl 
 
 *^.\>cssicva liv«a xrithout* In tie yesur 4 5 > Eira the 
 soibe, with a grevst aamber of hii^ oompstrioriv. s-et 
 oat froai Babrloo, for the porpose of rc-mfoir^^ini: 
 the Jfwis^h eJement iii Psi^t^stir.?. The .Texrs of 
 R8l>Tlon xr«>? mora hspphr j^iToated than their 
 IV.es^Tir.lsn bnethrea, and ii xr*s oomparatively 
 easy fisr them to tab? np a separatist attito«[e> 
 be>cai3se tii?\- Tresre <UTro;: u^ed by heathenism not 
 pania} 1 r.T eatir*, 'HieT were no crcx-st losexs from 
 the t'ir<-a:rji.ra:ii-vs that they wej^? prt^c-in^cd £N>m 
 putidpating direietly in the life of the t^ivlo^asiia^l 
 ecaaiinunitv ; :>.e Tcsrah had ]v^:iir a^ro becomesem- 
 rat ed from rise people, aj:^3 was i^tow an indo]v:iideiiT 
 a^bsTjajMJon followinj^ a caj^t^r of its own. R^by- 
 ]onia -was the place where a forther codification of 
 the law r.ad beea j^oi^o. alongsiae of DeateaKscioiny. 
 Kieiiel had lov-j the way in redncinir to theory and 
 tt> wriTini; the sac-:red prasds of his time : i:i This he 
 was followed hy an entir? sohool ; in their e^xile the 
 Lerites txaned s^-^ribes, Sir.oe then Babylon ocai- 
 tinnrvi to be the home <tf the Torah ; and, while in 
 PalesTir.e itsself the practioe w;-,s beoomiiii: laxer, 
 the Ktexarr st.-.dT had cradnallv ii.Tensi£o3 the 
 sTrioTriess aiid aisTinotive pecr/..sri::es of Jna;usni. 
 And now The^e c;-.-.r:e to Pali^iine a Babylonian 
 scribe hsv::.c t3»e law of his God in his hand, and 
 armed wJTh aathoriry fiK>m the Pei^aai kini: to 
 piTDC^^ r.p.'va the nasis of ihis law with a ivfoirma- 
 tion iSTthe c^orainnnitv. 
 
132 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap, x, 
 
 Ezra did not set about introdndng the new law 
 immediately on his arrival in Jndaea. In the first 
 instance, he concentrated his attention on the task 
 of effecting a strict separation between the Bne 
 haggola and the heathen or half-heathen inhabitants. 
 So much he could accomplish upon the basis of 
 Deuteronomy, but it was long before he gave 
 publicity to the law which he himself had brought. 
 Why he hesitated so lon^/ it is impossible to say ; 
 between the seventh and the twentieth year of 
 Artaxerxes Longimanus (458—445 B.C.) there is a 
 great hiatus in the narrative of the books of Ezra 
 and Neheioiah, The main reason appears to have 
 been that, in spite of the good will of the Per- 
 sian king, Ezra had not the vigorons support of 
 the local authorities. But this was indispen.sably 
 necessary in order to secure rfrfogriition for a new 
 law. 
 
 At last, in 445, it fell to the lot of a Jew, who 
 also shared the views of Ezra, Nehemiah ben Hak- 
 kelejah,^ the cupbearer and the favourite of Arta- 
 xerxes, to be sent as Pfrnian governor to Judaea. 
 After he had freed the community from external 
 pressure with vigour and success, and brought it 
 into more tolerable outward circumstances, the busi- 
 ness of introdnclric.5 the new law-book was next 
 
 ' Accfjrding Ui the present pnnctnation thifi name i.^ Hakaija 
 (Hachaljah), but sneb a proniinciation is inadmmible ; it has no 
 possible etymology, the language having no such word an hahil,. 
 The name in its correct form means, " Wait npon Jehovah," 
 
rtT'cseofii -size : in t~" -^ F.-v *. £Z:i V--- ~"^. • pSaiohr 
 
 ii!T n^iZ-ti. the v-^-z.-.r^^ i^c r-'-'i: p-a:ir-. iz. ^z^--i 
 Tir~s cr tr~ law. ;^t:e:■-i- rr: r— jg '=■^5 r^TriH '■■: 
 
 Ife r;.--:Lixr vlikk liil-rr: bad rf<-ei £=i T^r-- 
 
 :-:l£ ^ra*y i?--sirr^rrlr iliiti^i-S Daay "rjiTe haan 
 iz-si ra~ii-ir !•;' Tis Tr^esr^. asd If tie ^ssp ci5- 
 
134 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. x. 
 
 the Deuteronomic reformation the legal equality 
 between the Levites who until then had ministered 
 at the " high places " and the priests of the temple 
 at Jerusalem was not de facto recognised. Inter- 
 nally, it is mainly characterised by its ideal of 
 Levitical holiness, the way in which it everywhere 
 surrounds life with purificatory and pi'opitiatory 
 ceremonies, and its prevailing reference of sacrifice 
 to sin. Noteworthy also is the manner in which 
 everything is regai'ded from the point of view of 
 Jerusalem, a feature which comes much more boldly 
 into prominence here than in Deuteronomy ; the 
 nation and the temple are strictly speaking identi- 
 fied. That externalisation towards which the pro- 
 phetical movement, in order to become practical, 
 had already been tending in Deuteronomy finally 
 achieved its acme in the legislation of Ezra ; a new 
 artificial Israel was the result ; but, after all, the 
 old would have pleased an Amos better. At the 
 same time it must be remembered that the kernel 
 needed a shell. It was a necessity that Judaism 
 should incrust itself in this manner ; without -those 
 hai'd and ossified forms the preservation of its 
 essential elements would have proved impossible. 
 At a time when all nationalities, and at the same 
 time all bonds of religion and national customs, 
 were beginning to be broken up in the seeming 
 cosmos and real chaos of the Grseco-Roman empire, 
 the Jews stood out like a rock in the midst of the 
 
CAPTIVITY AND RESTORATION. 135 
 
 ocean. When the natural conditions of independent 
 nationality all failed them, they nevertheless artifi- 
 cially maintained it with an energy truly marvellous, 
 and thereby preserved for themselves, and at the 
 same time for the whole world, an eternal good. 
 
 As regards the subsequent history of the Jewish 
 community under the Persian domination, we have 
 almost no information. The high priest in Nehe- 
 miah's time was Eliashib, son of Joiakim and 
 grandson of Joshua, the patriarchal head of the 
 sons of Zadok, who had returned from Babylon ; 
 he was succeeded in the direct line by Joiada, 
 Johanan, and Jaddua (Neh. xii. lo, ii, 22); the 
 last-named was in office at the time of Alexander 
 the Great (Joseph., Ant., xi. 8). Palestine was the 
 province which suffered most severely of all from 
 the storms which marked the last days of the sink- 
 ing Persian empire, and it is hardly likely that the 
 Jews escaped their force ; we know definitely, how- 
 ever, of only one episode, in which the Persian 
 general Bagoses interfered in a disagreeable con- 
 troversy about the high-priesthood (cir. 375)- 
 
 To this period also (and not, as Josephus states, 
 to the time of Alexander) belongs the constitution 
 of the Samaritan community on an independent 
 footing by Manasseh, a Jewish priest of rank. He 
 was expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah in 432, 
 for refusing to separate from his alien wife. He 
 took shelter with his father-in-law Sanballat, the 
 
136 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. x. 
 
 Samaritan prince, who built him a temple on 
 Mount Gerizim near Shechem, where he organised 
 a Samaritan church and a Samaritan worship, on 
 the Jerusalem model, and on the basis of a but 
 slightly modiiied Jerusalem Pentateuch. If the 
 Samaritans had hitherto exerted themselves to the 
 utmost to obtain admission into the fellowship of 
 the Jews, they henceforward were as averse to have 
 anything to do with these as these were to have 
 any dealings with them ; the temple on Mount 
 Gerizim was now the symbol of their independence 
 as a distinct religious sect. For the Jews this was 
 a great advantage, as they had no longer to dread 
 the danger of syncretism. They could now quite 
 confidently admit the Am me haarec into their com- 
 munion, in the assurance of assimilating them with- 
 out any risk of the opposite process taking place. 
 The Judaising process began first with the country 
 districts immediately surrounding Jerusalem, and 
 then extended to Galilee, Philistia, and many por- 
 tions of Pergea. In connection with it, the Hebrew 
 language, which hitherto had been firmly retained 
 by the Bne haggola, now began to yield to the 
 Aramaic, and to hold its own only as a sacred 
 speech. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD. 
 
 Palestise fell into Alexander's possession in 332; 
 after his death it had an ample share of the troubles 
 arising out of the partition of his inheritance. In 
 3 20 it was seized by Ptolemy I., who on a Sabbath- 
 day took Jerusalem ; but in 315 he had to give 
 way before Antigonns. Even before the battle of 
 Ipsus, however, he seems to have recovered posses- 
 sion once more, and for a centnry thereafter Southern 
 Syria continued to belong to the Egyptian crown, 
 although the Seleucidae more than once sought to 
 wrench it away. 
 
 In the priestly dynasty during the period of the 
 Ptolemies, Onias I. ben Jaddua was succeeded by 
 his son Simon I., after whom again came first his 
 brothers Eleazar and Manasseh, and next his son 
 Onias II. ; the last-named was in his turn followed 
 by his son Simon II., whose praises are sung by 
 the son of Sirach (xlix. 14—16). At the side of 
 the high priest stood the gerusia of the town of 
 Jerusalem, as a council of state, including the higher 
 ranks of the priesthood. The new sovereign power 
 
 137 
 
138 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xi. 
 
 was at once stronger and juster than the Persian, 
 — at least under the earlier Ptolemies ; the power 
 of the national government increased ; to it was 
 entrusted the business of raising the tribute. 
 
 As a consequence of the revolutionary changes 
 which had taken place in the conditions of the 
 whole East, the Jewish dispersion (diaspora) began 
 vigorously to spread. It dated its beginning indeed 
 from an earlier period, — from the time when the 
 Jews had lost their land and kingdom, but yet, 
 thanks to their religion, could not part with their 
 nationality. They did not by any means all return 
 from Babylon ; perhaps the majority permanently 
 settled abroad. The successors of Alexander (dia- 
 dochi) fully appreciated this internationa l element, 
 and used it as a link between their barbarian and 
 Hellenic populations. Everywhere they encouraged 
 the settlement of Jews, — in Asia Minor, in Syria, 
 and especially in Egypt. Alongside of the Pales- 
 tinian there arose a Hellenistic Judaism which had 
 its metropolis in Alexandria. Here, under Ptolemy 
 I. and II., the Torah had already been translated 
 into Greek, and around this sprung up a Jewish- 
 Greek literature which soon became very extensive. 
 At the court and in the army of the Ptolemies many 
 Jews rose to prominent positions ; everywhere they 
 received the preference over, and everywhere they 
 in consequence earned the hatred of, the indigenous 
 • population. 
 
THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD. 139 
 
 After the death of Ptolemy IV. (205) Antiochus 
 III. attained the object towards which he and his 
 predecessors had long been vainly striving ; after 
 a war protracted with varying success through 
 several years, he succeeded at last in incorporating 
 Palestine with the kingdom of the Seleucidse. The 
 Jews took his side, less perhaps because they had 
 become disgusted with the really sadly degenerate 
 Egyptian rule, than because they had foreseen the 
 issue of the contest, and preferred to attach them- 
 selves voluntarily to the winning side. In grateful 
 acknowledgment, Antiochus confirmed and enlarged 
 certain privileges of the " holy camp," i.e., of Jeru- 
 salem (Joseph., Ant., xii. 3, 3). It soon, however, 
 became manifest that the Jews had made but a 
 poor bargain in this exchange. Three years after 
 his defeat at Magnesia, Antiochus III. died (187), 
 leaving to his son Seleucus IV. an immense burden 
 of debt, which he had incurred by his unprosperous 
 Roman war. Seleucus, in his straits, could not 
 afford to be over-scrupulous in appropriating money 
 where it was to be found : he did not need to be 
 twice told that the wealth of the temple at Jeru- 
 salem was out of all proportion to the expenses of 
 the sacrificial service. The sacred treasure accord- 
 ingly made the narrowest possible escape from 
 being plundered ; Heliodorus, who had been charged 
 by the king to seize it, is said to have been deterred 
 at the last moment by a heavenly vision. But 
 
140 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xi. 
 
 the Jews derived no permanent advantage from 
 this. 
 
 It was a piiest of rank, Simon by name, who 
 had called the attention of the king to the temple 
 treasure ; his motive had been spite against the 
 high priest Onias III., the son and successor of 
 Simon II. The circumstance is one indication of 
 a melancholy process of disintegration that was at 
 that time going on within the hierocracy. The 
 high-priesthood, although there were exceptional 
 cases, such as that of Simon II., was regarded less 
 ''as a sacred office than as a profitable princedom ; 
 within the ranks of the priestly nobility arose en- 
 vious and jealous factions ; personal advancement 
 was sought by means of the favour of the overlord, 
 who had something to say in the making of appoint- 
 ments. A collateral branch of the ruling family, 
 that of the children of Tobias, had by means of the 
 ill-gotten wealth of Joseph ben Tobias attained to 
 a position of ascendency, and competed in point of 
 power with the high priest himself. It appears 
 that the above-mentioned Simon, and his still more 
 scandalous brother Menelaus, also belonged to the 
 Tobiadae, and, relying upon the support of their 
 powerful party (Jos., Ant., xii. 5, i), cherished the 
 purpose of securing the high-priesthood by the aid 
 of the Syrian king. 
 
 The failure of the mission of Heliodorus was 
 attributed by Simon to a piece of trickery on the 
 
THE HELLENISTIC PEKIOD. 141 
 
 part of Onias the tigh priest, who accordingly found 
 himself called upon to make his own justification at 
 court and to expose the intrigues of his adversary. 
 Meanwhile Seleucus IV. died of poison (l7S), and 
 Antiochus IV. Epiphanes did not confirm Onias in 
 his dignity, but detained him in Antioch, while he 
 made over the office to his brother Jason, who had 
 offered a higher rent. Possibly the Tobiadse also 
 had something to do with this arrangement ; at all 
 events, Menelaus was at the outset the right hand 
 of the new high priest. To secure still further the 
 favour of the king, Jason held himself out to be an 
 enlightened friend of the Greeks, and begged for 
 leave to found in Jerusalem a gymnasium and an 
 ephebeum, and to be allowed to sell to the inhabi- 
 tants there the rights of citizenship in Antioch, — 
 a request which was readily granted. 
 
 The malady which had long been incubating now 
 reached its acute phase. Just in proportion as 
 Hellenism showed itself friendly did it present ele- 
 ments of danger to Judaism. From the periphery 
 it slowly advanced towards the centre, from the 
 diaspora to Jerusalem, from mere matters of ex- 
 ternal fashion to matters of the most profound con- 
 viction.^ Especially did the upper and cultivated 
 classes of society begin to feel ashamed, in presence 
 
 1 The Hellenising fashion is amusingly exemplified in the Grecising 
 of tlie Jewish names ; e.g., Aloimus = Eljakiin, Jason = Jesus, 
 Joshua ; Menelaus = Menahem. 
 
142 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xi. 
 
 of the refined Greeks, of their Jewish singularity, 
 and to do all in their power to tone it down and 
 conceal it. In this the priestly nobility made itself 
 conspicuous as the most secular section of the com- 
 munity, and it was the high priest who took the 
 initiative in measures which aimed at a complete 
 Hellenising of the Jews. He outdid every one else 
 in paganism. Once he sent a considerable present 
 for offerings to the Tyrian Hercules on the occasion 
 of his festival ; but his messenger, ashamed to apply 
 the money to such a purpose, set it apart for the 
 construction of royal ships of war. 
 
 The friendship shown by Jason for the Greek 
 king and for all that was Hellenic did not prevent 
 Antiochus IV. from setting pecuniary considerations 
 before all others. Menelaus, entrusted with the 
 mission of conveying to Antioch the annual Jewish 
 tribute, availed himself of the opportunity to pro- 
 mote his own personal interests by offering a higher 
 sum for the high-priesthood, and, having otherwise 
 ingratiated himself with the king, gained his object 
 (171). But though nominated, he did not find it 
 quite easy to obtain possession of the post. The 
 Tobiadge took his side, but the body of the people 
 stuck to Jason, who was compelled to give way only 
 when Syrian troops had been brought upon the 
 scene. Menelaus had immediately, however, to 
 encounter another difficulty, for he could not at 
 once pay the amount of tribute which he had 
 
THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD. 143 
 
 promised. He helped himself so far indeed by 
 robbing the temple, but this landed him in new 
 embarrassments. Onias III., who was living out 
 of employment at Antioch, threatened to make 
 compromising revelations to the king ; he was, 
 however, opportunely assassinated. The rage of 
 the people against the priestly temple-plunderer 
 now broke out in a rising against a certain Lysi-' 
 machus, who at the instance of the absent Menelaus 
 had made further ini'oads upon the sacred treasury. 
 The Jews' defence before the king (at Tyre) on 
 account of this uproar resolved itself into a grievous 
 complaint against the conduct of Menelaus. His 
 case was a bad one, but money again helped him 
 out of his straits, and the extreme penalty of the 
 law fell upon his accusers. 
 
 The feelings of the Jews with reference to this 
 wolfish shepherd may easily be imagined. Nothing 
 but fear of Antiochus held them in check. Then 
 a report gained currency that the king had perished 
 in an expedition against Egypt (170); and Jason, 
 who meanwhile had found refuge in Ammanitis, 
 availed himself of the prevailing current of feeling 
 to resume his authority with the help of one thou- 
 sand men. He was not able, however, to hold the 
 position long, partly because he showed an unwise 
 vindictiveness against his enemies, partly (and 
 chiefly) because the rumour of the death of Antiochus 
 turned out to be false. The king was already, in 
 
144 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xi. 
 
 fact, close at hand on his return from Egypt, full 
 of anger at an insurrection which he regarded as 
 having been directed against himself. He inflicted 
 severe and bloody chastisement upon Jerusalem, 
 carried off the treasures of the temple, and restored 
 Menelaus, placing Syrian officials at his side. Jason 
 fled from place to place, and ultimately died in 
 misery at Lacedsemon. 
 
 The deepest despondency prevailed in Judaea ; 
 but its cup of sorrow was not yet full. Antiochus, 
 probably soon after his last Egyptian expedition 
 (i68), sent Apollonius with an army against Jeru- 
 salem. He fell upon the unsuspecting city, dis- 
 armed the inhabitants and demolished the walls, 
 but on the other hand fortified Acra, and garrisoned 
 it strongly, so as to make it a standing menace 
 to the whole country. Having thus made his 
 preparations, he proceeded to carry out his main 
 instructions. All that was religiously distinctive 
 of Judaism was to be removed ; such was the will 
 of the king. The Mosaic cultus was abolished. 
 Sabbath observance and the rite of circumcision 
 prohibited, all copies of the Torah confiscated and 
 burnt. In the desecrated and partially-destroyed 
 temple pagan ceremonies were performed, and upon 
 the great altar of burnt- offering a small altar to 
 Zeus Olympios was erected, on which the first 
 offering was made on 2Sth Kislev i68. In the 
 country towns also heathen altars were erected, and 
 
THE HELLENISTIC PEKIOD. 145 
 
 the Jews compelled, on pain of death, publicly to 
 adore the false gods and to eat swine's flesh that 
 had been sacrificed to idols. 
 
 The princes and grandees of the Jews had repre- 
 sented to Antiochns that the people were ripe for 
 Hellenisation ; and inasmuch as, apart from this, 
 to reduce to uniformity the extremely motley con- 
 stituents of his kingdom was a scheme that lay 
 near his heart, he was very willing to believe them. 
 That the very opposite was the case must of course 
 have become quite evident very soon ; but the re- 
 sistance of the Jews taking the form of rebellious 
 risings against his creatures, he fell upon the hope- 
 less plan of coercion, — hopeless, for he could attain 
 his end only by making all Judaea one vast grave- 
 yard. There existed indeed a pagan party ; the 
 Syrian garrison of Acra was partly composed of 
 Jews who sold themselves to be the executioners 
 of their countrymen. Fear also influenced many 
 to deny their convictions ; but the majority adhered 
 firmly to the religion of their fathers. Jerusalem, 
 the centre of the process of Hellenisation, was 
 abandoned by its inhabitants, who made their escape 
 to Egypt, or hid themselves in the country, in 
 deserts and caves. The scribes in especial held fast 
 by the law ; and they were joined by the party of 
 the Asidaeans (i.e., pious ones). 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE HASMON^ANS. 
 
 At first there was no thought of meeting violence 
 with violence ; as the Book of Daniel shows, people 
 consoled themselves with thoughts of the immediate 
 intervention of God which would occur in due time. 
 Quite casually, without either plan or concert, a 
 warlike opposition arose. There was a certain 
 priest Mattathias, of the family of the Hasmonseans, 
 a man far advanced in life, whose home was in 
 Modein, a little country town to the west of Jeru- 
 salem. Hither also the Syrian soldiers came to put 
 the population to a positive proof of their change 
 of faith ; they insisted upon Mattathias leading the 
 way. But he was steadfast in his refusal ; and, 
 when another Jew addressed himself before his 
 eyes to the work of making the heathen offering, 
 he killed him and the Syrian officer as well, and 
 destroyed the altar. Thereupon he fled to the hill 
 country, accompanied by his sons (Johannes Gaddi, 
 Simon Thassi, Judas Maccabseus, Bleazar Auaran, 
 Jonathan Apphus) and other followers. But he 
 
 116 
 
THE HASMON^ANS. 147 
 
 resolved to defend himself to the last, and not to 
 act as some other fugitives had done, who about 
 the same time had allowed themselves to be sur- 
 rounded and butchered on a Sabbath-day without 
 lifting a finger. Thus he became the head of a 
 band which defended the ancestral religion with the 
 sword. They traversed the country, demolished 
 the altars of the false gods, circumcised the chil- 
 dren, and persecuted the heathen and heathenishly 
 disposed. The sect of the Asidseans also intrusted 
 itself to their warlike protection (i Mace. ii. 42). 
 
 Mattathias soon died and left his leadership to 
 Judas Maccabaeus, by whom the struggle was 
 carried on in the first instance after the old fashion ; 
 soon, however, it assumed larger dimensions, when 
 regular armies were sent out against the insurgents. 
 First ApoUonius, the governor of Judsea, took the 
 field ; but he was defeated and fell in battle. Next 
 came Seron, governor of Coelesyria, who also was 
 routed near Bethhoron (166). Upon this Lysias, 
 the regent to whom Antiochus IV., who was busied 
 in the far east, had intrusted the government of 
 Syria and the charge of his son, Antiochus Philo- 
 pator, a minor, sent a strong force under the com- 
 mand of three generals. Approaching from the 
 west, it was their design to advance separately upon 
 Jerusalem, but Judas anticipated their plan and com- 
 pelled them to quit the field (166). The regent 
 now felt himself called on to interpose in person. 
 
148 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xii. 
 
 Invading Judtea from the south, he encountered the 
 Jews at Bethsur, who, however, offered an opposi- 
 tion that was not easily overcome ; he was prevented 
 fz'om resorting to the last measures by the intelli- 
 gence which reached him of the death of the king 
 in Elymais (165). 
 
 The withdrawal of Lysias secured the fulfilment 
 of the desires of the defenders of the faith in so far 
 as it now enabled them to restore the Jerusalem 
 worship to its previous condition. They lost no 
 time in setting about the accomplishment of this. 
 They were not successful indeed in wresting Acra 
 from the possession of the Syrians, but they so 
 occupied the garrison as to prevent it from inter- 
 fering with the work of restoration. On 25th 
 Kislev 165, the very day on which, three years 
 before, " the abomination of desolation " had been 
 inaugurated, the first sacrifice was offered on the 
 new altar, and in commemoration of this the feast 
 of the dedication was thenceforth celebrated. 
 
 As it was easy to see that danger still im- 
 pended, the temple was put into a state of defence, 
 as also was the town of Bethsur, where Lysias had 
 been checked. But the favourable moment pre- 
 sented by the change of sovereign was made use of 
 for still bolder attempts. Scattered over the whole 
 of Southern Syi'ia there were a number of Jewish 
 localities on which the heathens now proceeded 
 to wreak their vengeance. For the purpose of 
 
THE HASMONiEANS. 149 
 
 rescuing these oppressed co-religionists, and of 
 bringing them in safety to Judeea, the Mac- 
 cabees made a series of excursions, extending in 
 some cases as far as to Lebanon and Damascus. 
 Lysias had his hands otherwise fully occupied, 
 and perhaps did not feel much disposed to con- 
 tinue the fight on behalf of the cultus of Zeus 
 Olympics. Daily gaining in boldness, the Jews 
 now took in hand also to lay regular siege to Acra. 
 Then at last Lysias yielded -to the pressure of Syrian 
 and Jewish deputations, and determined to take 
 serious steps (162). With a large force he entered 
 Jud^a, again from the south, and laid siege to 
 Bethsur. Judas vainly attempted the relief of the 
 fortress ; he sustained near Bethzachariah a defeat 
 in which his brother Eleazar perished. Bethsur 
 was unable to hold out, being short of provisions on 
 account of the sabbatic year. The Syrians ad- 
 vanced next to Jerusalem and besieged the temple ; 
 it also was insufficiently provisioned, and would 
 soon have been compelled to surrender, had not 
 Lysias been again called away at the critical 
 moment by other exigencies. A certain Philip 
 was endeavouring to oust him from the regency ; as 
 it was necessary for him to have his hands free in 
 dealing with this new enemy, he closed a treaty 
 with the temple garrison and the people at large, 
 in accordance with which at once the political sub- 
 jection and the religious freedom of the Jews were 
 
150 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xii. 
 
 to be maintained. Thus the situation as it had 
 existed before Antiochus IV. was restored. Only- 
 no attempt was made to replace Menelaus as high 
 priest and ethnarch ; this post was to be filled by 
 Alcimus. 
 
 The concessions thus made by Lysias were inevit- 
 able ; and even King Demetrius I., son of Seleucus 
 IV., who towards the end of 162 ascended the 
 throne and caused both Lysias and his ward to 
 be put to death, had no thought of interfering with 
 their religious freedom. But the Maccabees desired 
 something more than the status quo ante; after 
 having done their duty they were disinclined to 
 retire in favour of Alcimus, whose sole claim lay 
 in his descent from the old heathenishly-disposed 
 high-priestly family. Alcimus was compelled to 
 invoke the assistance of the king, who caused him 
 to be installed by Bacchides. He was at once 
 recognised by the scribes and Asidgeans, for whom, 
 with religious liberty, everything they wished had 
 been secured ; the claims to autonomy made by the 
 Hasmongeans were of no consequence to them. 
 Doubtless the masses also would ultimately have 
 quietly accepted Alcimus, who of course refrained 
 from interference with either law or worship, had 
 he not abused the momentary power he derived 
 from the presence of Bacchides to take a foolish 
 revenge. The consequence of his action was that, 
 as soon as Bacchides had turned his back, Alcimus 
 
THE HASMON^ANS. 151 
 
 was compelled to follow him. For the purpose of 
 restoring him a Syrian army once more invaded 
 Judaea under Nicanor (i6o), but first at Kaphar- 
 salama and afterwards at Bethhoron was defeated 
 by Judas, and almost annihilated in the subsequent 
 flight, Nicanor himself being among the slain (13th 
 Adar = Nicanor's day). Judas was now at the acme 
 of his prosperity ; about this time he concluded his 
 (profitless) treaty with the Romans. But disaster 
 was impending. In the month of Nisan, barely a 
 month after the defeat of Nicanor, a new Syrian 
 army under Bacchides entered Judaea from the 
 north ; near Blasa, southward from Jerusalem, a 
 decisive battle was fought which was lost by Judas, 
 and in which he himself fell. 
 
 The religious war properly so called had already 
 been brought once for all to an end by the con- 
 vention of Lysias. If the struggle continued to 
 be carried on, it was not for the faith but for the 
 supremacy — less in the interests of the community 
 than in those of the Hasmonseans. After the death 
 of Judas the secular character which the conflict 
 had assumed ever since 162 continually became 
 more conspicuous. Jonathan Apphus fought for 
 his house, and in doing so used thoroughly worldly 
 means. The high-priesthood, i.e., the ethnarchy, 
 was the goal of his ambition. So long as Alcimus 
 lived, it was far from his reach. Confined to the 
 rocky fastnesses beside the Dead Sea, he had nothing 
 
152 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xii. 
 
 for it but, surrounded by his faithful followers, to 
 wait for better times. But on the death of Alcimus 
 (159) the Syrians refrained from appointing a suc- 
 cessor, to obviate the necessity of always having to 
 protect him with military force. During the inter- 
 regnum of seven years which followed, Jonathan 
 again came more and more to the front, so that at 
 last Bacchides concluded an armistice with him on 
 the basis of the stahis quo (r Mace. is. 73). From 
 his residence at Michmash Jonathan now exercised 
 a de facto authority over the entire nation. 
 
 When accordingly Alexander Balas, a reputed 
 son of Antiochus IV., rose against Demetrius, both 
 rivals exerted themselves to secure the alliance of 
 Jonathan, who did not fail to benefit by their com- 
 petition. First of all, Demetrius formally recog- 
 nised him as prince of Judah ; in consequence of 
 this he removed to Jerusalem, and expelled the 
 heathen and heathenishly disposed, who continued 
 to maintain a footing only in Acra and Bethsur. 
 Next Alexander Balas conferred on him the title 
 of " high priest of the nation and friend of the 
 king ; " in gratitude for which Jonathan went over 
 to his side (152). He remained loyal, although 
 Demetrius now made larger offers; he was justified 
 by the event, for Demetrius I. had the worst of it 
 and was slain (150). The victorious Balas heaped 
 honours upon Jonathan, who maintained his fidelity, 
 and fought successfully in his interests when in 147 
 
THE HASMONiEANS. 153 
 
 Demetrius II., the son of Demetrius I., challenged 
 a conflict. The high priest was unable indeed to 
 prevent the downfall of Alexander in 145 ; but 
 Demetrius II., won by presents, far from showing 
 any hostility, confirmed him in his position in 
 consideration of a tribute of 300 talents. 
 
 Jonathan was grateful to the king, as he showed 
 by going with 3000 men to his aid against the 
 insurgent Antiochenes. But when the latter drew 
 back from his promise to withdraw the garrison 
 from Acra, he went over to the side of Trypho, who 
 had set up a son of Alexander Balas (Antiochus) 
 as a rival. In the war which he now waged as 
 Seleucid-strategus against Demetrius he succeeded 
 in subduing almost the whole of Palestine. Mean- 
 while his brother Simon remained behind in Judaea, 
 mastered the fortress of Bethsur, and resumed with 
 great energy the siege of Acra. All this was done 
 in the names of Antiochus and Trypho, but really 
 of course in the interests of the Jews themselves. 
 There were concluded also treaties with the Romans 
 and Lacedaemonians, certainly not to the advantage 
 of the Syrians. 
 
 Trypho sought now to get rid of the man whom 
 he himself had made so powerful. He treacherously 
 seized and imprisoned Jonathan in Ptolemais, and 
 meditated an attack upon the leaderless country. 
 But on the frontier Simon, the last remaining son 
 of Mattathias, met him in force. All Trypho's 
 
154 ISKAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xii. 
 
 efforts to break througli proved futile ; after skirt- 
 ing all Judaea from west to south, without being 
 able to get clear of Simon, he at last withdrew 
 to Pereea without having accomplished anything. 
 On the person of Jonathan, whom he caused to be 
 executed, he vented the spleen he felt on the dis- 
 covery that the cause for which that prince had 
 fought was able to gain the victory even when 
 deprived of his help. Simon, in point of fact, was 
 Jonathan's equal as a soldier and his superior as a 
 ruler. He secured his frontier by means of for- 
 tresses, made himself master of Acra (141), and 
 understood how to enable the people in time of 
 peace to reap the advantages that result from suc- 
 cessful war ; agriculture, industry, and commerce 
 (from the haven of Joppa) began to flourish 
 vigorously. In grateful recognition of his services 
 the high-priesthood and the ethnarchy were be- 
 stowed upon him as hereditary possessions by a 
 solemn assembly of the people, " until a trustworthy 
 prophet should arise." 
 
 Nominally the Seleucidse still continued to possess 
 the suzerainty. Simon naturally had detached him- 
 self from Trypho and turned to Demetrius II., who 
 confirmed him in his position, remitted all arrears 
 of tribute, and waived his rights for the future (142). 
 The friendship of Demetrius II. and of his successor 
 Antiochus Sidetes with Simon, however, lasted only 
 as long as Trypho still remained in the way. But, 
 
THE HASMON^ANS. 156 
 
 he once removed, Sidetes altered his policy. He 
 demanded of Simon the surrender of Joppa, Gazara, 
 and other towns, besides the citadel of Jerusalem, 
 as well as payment of all tribute resting due. The 
 refusal of these demands led to war, which in its 
 earlier stages was carried on with success, but the 
 scales were turned after the murder of Simon, when 
 Sidetes in person took the field against John Hyr- 
 canus, Simon's son and successor. Jerusalem capitu- 
 lated. In the negotiations for peace the surrender 
 of all the external possessions of the Jews was in- 
 sisted upon ; the suzerainty of the Syrians became 
 once more a reality (135). But in 130 the power- 
 ful Antiochus Sidetes fell in an expedition against 
 the Parthians, and the complications anew arising 
 in reference to the succession to the Syrian throne 
 placed Hyrcanus in a position to recover what he 
 had lost, and to make new acquisitions. He subju- 
 gated Samaria and Idumaea, compelling the inhabi- 
 tants of the latter to accept circumcision. Like his 
 predecessors, he too sought to secure the favour of 
 the Romans, but derived no greater benefit from the 
 effort than they had done. After a prosperous reign 
 of thirty years he died in 105. By Josephus he is 
 represented as a pattern of all that a pious prince 
 ought to be ; by the rabbins as representing a 
 splendid high-priesthood. The darkness of the suc- 
 ceeding age lent a brighter colour to his image. 
 The external splendour of the Hasmonsean king- 
 
166 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xii. 
 
 dom did not at once die away — the downfall of the 
 Seleucidae, which was its negative condition, being 
 also a slow affair. Judah Aristobulus, the son of 
 Hyrcanus, who reigned for only one year, was the 
 first to assume the Greek title of royalty ; Itursea 
 was in part subdued by him, and circumcision forced 
 upon the inhabitants. His brother Jonathan (Jan- 
 nseus) Alexander (104-79), in a series of continual 
 wars, which were never very prosperous, nevertheless 
 succeeded in adding the whole coast of Philistia 
 (Gaza) as well as a great portion of Pereea to his 
 hereditary dominions.^ But the external enlarge- 
 ment of the structure was secured at the cost of its 
 internal consistency. 
 
 From the time when Jonathan, the son of Matta- 
 thias, began to carry on the struggle no longer for 
 the cause of God, but for his own interests, the 
 scribes and the Asidaeans, as we have seen, had 
 withdrawn themselves from the party of the Macca- 
 bees. There can be no doubt that from their legal 
 standpoint they were perfectly right in contenting 
 themselves, as they did, with the attainment of 
 religious liberty, and in accepting Alcimus. The 
 Hasmonasans had no hereditary right to the high- 
 priesthood, and their politics, which aimed at the 
 establishment of a national monarchy, were contrary 
 
 ' A number of half independent towns and communes lay as 
 tempting subjects of dispute between the Seleucidte, the Nabathteans 
 or Arabs of Petra, and the Jews. The background was occupied 
 by the Parthians and the Romans. 
 
THE HASMONiEANS. 157 
 
 to the whole spirit and essence of the second theo- 
 cracy. The presupposition of that theocracy was 
 foreign domination ; in no other way could its sacred, 
 i.e., clerical, character be maintained. God and the 
 law could not but be forced into the background if 
 a warlike kingdom, retaining indeed the forms of a 
 hierocracy, but really violating its spirit at every 
 point, should ever grow out of a mere pious com- 
 munity. Above all, how could the scribes hope to 
 retain their importance if temple and synagogue were 
 cast into the shade by politics and clash of arms ? 
 But under the first great Hasmoneeans the zealots 
 for the law were unable to force their way to the 
 front ; the enthusiasm of the people was too strong 
 for them ; they had nothing for it but to keep them- 
 selves out of the current and refuse to be swept 
 along by it. Even under Hyrcanus, however, they 
 gained more prominence, and under Jannseus their 
 influence upon popular opinion was paramount. 
 For under the last-named the secularisation of the 
 hierocracy no longer presented any attractive aspects ; 
 it was wholly repellent. It was looked upon as a 
 revolting anomaly that the king, who was usually 
 in the field with his army, should once and again 
 assume the sacred mantle in order to perform the 
 sacrifice on some high festival, and that his officers, 
 profane persons as they were, should at the same 
 time be holders of the highest spiritual offices. The 
 danger which in all this threatened "the idea of 
 
168 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xii. 
 
 Judaism " could not in these circumstances escape 
 the observation of even the common people ; for 
 this idea was God and the law, not any earthly- 
 fatherland. The masses accordingly ranged them- 
 selves with ever-growing unanimity on the side of 
 the Pharisees (i.e., the party of the scribes) as 
 against the Sadducees (i.e., the Hasmonsean party ).'^ 
 On one occasion, when Alexander Jannseus had 
 returned to Jerusalem at the feast of tabernacles, 
 and was standing in his priestly vestments before 
 the altar to sacrifice, he was pelted by the assembled 
 crowd of worshippers with citrons from the green 
 branches they carried. By the cruelty with which 
 he punished this insult he excited the populace to 
 the highest pitch, and, when he lost his army in 
 the disaster of Gadara, rebellion broke out. The 
 Pharisees summoned the Syrian king Demetrius 
 Eucserus ; Jannseus was worsted and fled into the 
 desert. But as he wandered in helplessness there, 
 the patriotism of the people and sympathy for the 
 heir of the Maccabees suddenly awoke ; jiature 
 proved itself stronger than that consistency which 
 
 ' tJ'nS means " separated," and refers perhaps to the attitude of 
 isolation taken by the zealots for the law during the interval 
 between 162 and 105. *pnx (2a58ovKaTos) comes from pIT^ 
 (XaSSovK, LXX. in Ezekiel), the ancestor of the higher priesthood 
 of Jerusalem (i Kings ii. 35 ; 1 Sam. ii. 35 ; Ezek. xliv. 15), and 
 designates the governing nobility. The original character of the 
 opposition, as it appeared under Jannseus, changed entirely with the 
 lapse of time, on account of the Sadducees' gradual loss of political 
 power, till they fell at last to the condition of a sort of " fronde." 
 
THE HASMON^ANS. 169 
 
 in the cause of the Divine honour had not shrunk 
 from treason. The insurgents for the most part 
 went over to the side of the fugitive king ; the 
 others he ultimately overpowered after a struggle 
 which lasted through several years, Demetrius having 
 withdrawn his intervention. The vengeance which 
 he took on the Pharisees was a bloody one ; their 
 only escape was by voluntary exile. Thenceforward 
 he had peace so far as they were concerned. His 
 last years were occupied with the reacquisitiou of 
 the conquests which he had been compelled to 
 yield to the Arabs during the civil war. He died 
 in the field at the siege of Ragaba in Persea (79). 
 
 Under Queen Salome, his widow, matters were as 
 if they had been specially arranged for the satis- 
 faction of the Pharisees. The high-priesthood 
 passed to Salome's son, Hyrcanus II.; she herself 
 was only queen. In the management of external 
 affairs her authority was absolute {Ant., xiii. 16, 6); 
 in home policy she permitted the scribes to wield a 
 paramount influence. The common assertion, in- 
 deed, that the synedrium was at that time practically 
 composed of scribes, is inconsistent with the known 
 facts of the case ; the synedrium at that time was 
 a political and not a scholastic authority.^ In its 
 origin it was the municipal council of Jerusalem 
 (so also the councils of provincial towns are called 
 
 ^ Kuenen, " Over de Samenstelling van het Sanhedrin," in Pro- 
 ceedings of Royal Netherl, Acad., 1866. 
 
160 ISKAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xii. 
 
 synedria, Mark xiii. 9), but its authority extended 
 over the entire Jewish community ; alongside of 
 the elders of the city the ruling priests were those 
 who had the greatest number of seats and votes. 
 John Hyrcanus appears to have been the first to 
 introduce some scribes into its composition; it is 
 possible that Salome may have increased their 
 number, but even so this high court was far from 
 being changed into a college of scribes like that at 
 Jamnia. If the domination of the Pharisees at 
 this time is spoken of, the expression cannot be 
 understood as meaning that they already held all 
 the public oflSces, but only at most that the holders 
 of those offices found it necessary to administer and 
 to judge in their spirit and according to their 
 fundamental principles. 
 
 The party of the Sadducees (consisting of the 
 old Hasmoneean officers and officials, who were of 
 priestly family indeed, but attached only slight im- 
 portance to their priestly functions) at length lost 
 all patience. Led by Aristobulus, the second son 
 of Jannaeus, the leaders of the party came to the 
 palace, and begged the queen to dismiss them from 
 the court and to send them into the provinces. 
 There they were successful in securing j)ossession 
 of several fortresses ^ in preparation for insurrec- 
 tion, a favourable opportunity for which they were 
 
 1 Alexandrium, Corese, and similar citadels, which were at that 
 time of great importance for Palestine and Syria. 
 
THE HASMONiEANS. 161 
 
 watching. Such an opportunity occurred, it seemed 
 to Aristobulus, as his mother lay on her death-bed. 
 The commandants of the fortresses were at his 
 orders, and by their assistance an army also, with 
 which he accordingly advanced upon Jerusalem, 
 and, on the death of Salome, made himself master 
 of the situation (69). Hyrcanus was compelled to 
 resign office. With this event the good understand- 
 ing between the civil government and the Pharisees 
 came to an end ; the old antagonisms became active 
 once more, and now began to operate for the ad- 
 vantage of a third party, the Idumaean Antipater, 
 Hyrcanus's confidential friend. After the latter, aided 
 by Antipater, had at length with great difficulty got 
 himself into a position for asserting his rights against 
 Aristobulus, the Pharisees could not do otherwise 
 than rank themselves upon his side, and the masses 
 joined them against the usurper. With the help of 
 the Nabataean monarch the effort to restore the elder 
 brother to the supreme authority would doubtless 
 have succeeded had not the Romans procured relief 
 for Aristobulus, besieged as he was in Jerusalem 
 (65), though without thereby recognising his claims. 
 Pompey continued to delay a decision on the con- 
 troversy in 64 also when the rival claimants pre- 
 sented themselves before him at Damascus ; he 
 wished first to have the Nabatseans disposed of, 
 and to have free access to them through Judaea. 
 This hesitation roused the suspicions of Aristobulus ; 
 
 L 
 
162 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xii. 
 
 still he did not venture to take decisive action upon 
 them. He closed the passes (to Mount Ephraim) 
 against the Eomans, but afterwards gave them up ; 
 he prepared Jerusalem for war, and then went in 
 person to the Roman camp at Jericho, where he 
 promised to open the gates of the city and also to 
 pay a sum of money. But the Roman ambassadors 
 found the gates barred, and had to return empty- 
 handed. Aristobulus thereupon was arrested, and 
 siege was laid to Jerusalem. The party of Hyrcanus, 
 as soon as it had gained the upper hand, sur- 
 rendered the town; but the supporters of Aristo- 
 bulus took their stand in the temple, and defended 
 it obstinately. In June 6^ the place was carried 
 by storm ; Pompey personally inspected the Holy 
 of Holies, but otherwise spared the religious feelings 
 of the Jews. But he caused the chief promoters 
 of the war to be executed, and carried Aristobulus 
 and his family into captivity. He abolished the 
 kingship, but restored the high-priestly dignity to 
 Hyrcanus. The territory was materially reduced 
 in area, and made tributary to the Romans ; the 
 city was occuiDied by a Roman garrison. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HEROD AND THE ROMANS. 
 
 Henceforward Roman intervention forms a con- 
 stant disturbing factor in Jewish history. The 
 struggle between the Pharisees and the Saddu- 
 cees continued indeed to be carried on, but onlv 
 because the momentum of their old feud was not 
 yet exhausted. The Pharisees in a sense had been 
 victorious. While the two brothers were plead- 
 ing their rival claims before Pompey, ambassa- 
 dors from the Pharisees had made their appearance 
 in Damascus to demand the abolition of the king- 
 ship; this object had now to some extent been 
 gained. Less ambiguous than the victory of the 
 Pharisees was the fall of the Sadducees, who in 
 losing the sovereignty of the Jewish state lost all 
 real importance. But the intervention of the foreign 
 element exercised its most powerful influence upon 
 the temper of the lower classes. Though in times 
 of peace the masses still continued to accept the 
 guidance of the rabbins, their patriotism instantly 
 burst into flame as soon as a pretender to the 
 
 163 
 
164 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiii. 
 
 throne, belonging to the family of Aristobulus, 
 appeared in Palestine. During the decennia which 
 immediately followed, Jewish history was practi- 
 cally absorbed in vain attempts to restore the old 
 Hasmonasan kingdom. Insurrections of steadily 
 increasing dimensions were made in favour of 
 Aristobulus, the representative of the national 
 cause. For Hyrcanus was not regarded as a Has- 
 raonaean at all, but merely as the creature of 
 Antipater and the Romans. First, in the year 
 57, Alexander the son of Aristobulus broke into 
 rebellion, then in 56 Aristobulus himself and 
 his son Antigonus, and in 55 Alexander again. 
 Antipater was never able to hold his own ; Roman 
 intervention was in every case necessary. The 
 division of the Hasmonsean state into five " aristo- 
 cracies " by Gabinius had no effect in diminishing 
 the feeling of national unity cherished by the Jews 
 of Palestine. Once again, after the battle of 
 Carrh^, a rising took place, which Cassius speedily 
 repressed. 
 
 In 49 the great Roman civil war broke out ; 
 Cassar instigated Aristobulus against Antipater, who 
 in common with the whole East had espoused the 
 cause of Pompey. But Aristobulus was poisoned 
 by the opposite party while yet in Italy, and about 
 the same time his son Alexander was also put to 
 death at Antioch ; thus the danger to Antipater 
 passed away. After the battle of Pharsalus he 
 
HEROD AND THE ROMANS. 165 
 
 went over to Csesar's side, aud soon after rendered 
 him an important service by helping him out of 
 his difficulties at Alexandria. By this means he 
 earned the good-will of Caesar towards the whole 
 body of the Jews, and secured for himself (or Hyr- 
 canus) a great extension of power and of territory. 
 The five " synedria " or " aristocracies " of Gabinius 
 were superseded, the most important conquest of 
 the Hasmon^ans restored, the walls of Jerusalem, 
 which Pompey had razed, rebuilt. 
 
 However indisputable the advantages conferred 
 by the rule of Antipater were, the Jews could not 
 forget that the Idumaean, in name of Hyrcanus, the 
 rightful heir of the Hasmonifians, was in truth 
 setting up an authority of his own. The Saddu- 
 ctean aristocracy in particular, which formerly in 
 the synedrium had shared the supreme power with 
 the high priest, endeavoured to restore reality once 
 more to the nominal ascendancy which still con- 
 tinued to be attributed to the ethnarch and the 
 synedrium. " When the authorities (oi ev reXei) 
 of the Jews saw how the power of Antipater and 
 his sons was growing, their disposition towards 
 him became hostile" (Jos., Ant., xiv. 9, 3). They 
 were specially jealous of the youthful Herod, to 
 whom Galilee had been entrusted by his father. 
 On account of the arbitrary execution of a robber 
 chief Ezechias, who perhaps had originally been a 
 Hasmonagan partisan, they summoned him before 
 
166 ISEAEL AND JtJDAH. chap. xiii. 
 
 the synedrium, under the impression that it was 
 not yet too late to remind him that he was after 
 all but a servant. But the defiant demeanour of 
 the culprit, and a threatening missive which at 
 the same time arrived from Sextus Ctesar demand- 
 ing his acquittal, rendered his judges speechless; 
 nor did they regain their courage until they had 
 heard the stinging reproaches of Sameas the scribe. 
 Yet the aged Hyrcanus, who did not comprehend 
 the danger that was threatening himself, postponed 
 judgment upon Herod, and gave him opportunity 
 to withdraw. Having been appointed strategus 
 of Ccelesyria by Sextus Csesar in the meanwhile 
 he soon afterwards appeared before Jerusalem at 
 the head of an army, and the authorities were 
 compelled to address themselves in a conciliatory 
 manner to his father, and to Phasael his brother, 
 in order to secure his withdrawal. 
 
 The attempt to crush the serpent which had 
 thus effected a lodgment in the Hasmonaean house 
 came too late. The result of it simply was that the 
 Herodians had now the advantage of being able to 
 distinguish between Hyrcanus and his " evil coun- 
 sellors." From that moment the downfall of the 
 Sadducsean notables was certain. It was of no 
 avail to them that after the battle of Philippi (42) 
 they accused Herod and Phasael (Antipater having 
 been murdered in 43) before Antony of having 
 been helpful in every possible way to Cassius ; 
 
HEROD AND THE ROMANS. 167 
 
 Antony declared himself in the most decisive man- 
 ner for the two brothers. In their despair — for 
 properly speaking they were not national fanatics, 
 but only egoistic politicians — they ultimately made 
 common cause with Antigonus the son of Aristo- 
 bulus, and threw themselves into the arms of the 
 Parthians, perceiving the interests of the Romans 
 and of Herod to be inseparable (40). Fortune at 
 first seemed to have declared in favour of the pre- 
 tender. The masses unanimously took his side ; 
 Phasael committed suicide in prison ; with a single 
 blow Herod was stripped of all his following and 
 made a helpless fugitive. He took refuge in Rome, 
 however, where he was named king of Judeea by 
 the senate, and after a somewhat protracted war he 
 finally, with the help of the legions of Sosius, made 
 himself master o£ Jerusalem (37). The captive 
 Antigonus was beheaded at Antioch. 
 
 King Herod began his reign by reorganising the 
 synedrium ; he ordered the execution of forty-five 
 of its noblest members, his most zealous opponents. 
 These were the Sadducsean notables who long had 
 headed the struggle against the Idumsean inter- 
 lopers. Having thus made away with the leaders 
 of the Jerusalem aristocracy, he directed his efforts 
 to the business of corrupting the rest. He ap- 
 pointed to the most important posts obscure in- 
 dividuals, of priestly descent, from Babylon and 
 Alexandria, and thus replaced with creatures of his 
 
168 ISKAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiii. 
 
 own the old aristocracy. Nor did he rest content 
 with this; in order to preclude the possibility of 
 any independent authority ever arising alongside of 
 his own, he abolished the life-tenure of the high- 
 priestly office, and brought it completely under the 
 control of the secular power. By this means he 
 succeeded in relegating the Sadducees to utter insig- 
 nificance. They were driven out of their native 
 sphere — the political — into the region of theoretical 
 and ecclesiastical discussion, where they continued, 
 but on quite unequal terms, their old dispute with 
 the Pharisees. 
 
 It was during the period of Herod's activity 
 that the Pharisees, strictly speaking, enjoyed their 
 greatest prosperity (Sameas and Abtalion, Hillel 
 and Shammai) ; in the synedriura they became so 
 numerous as almost to equal the priests and elders. 
 Quite consistently with their principles they had 
 abstained from taking any part in the life and 
 death struggle for the existence of the national 
 state. Their leaders had even counselled the fana- 
 tical defenders of Jerusalem to open the gates to 
 the enemy ; for this service they were treated with 
 the highest honour by Herod. He made it part of 
 his general policy to favour the Pharisees (as also 
 the sect of the Bssenes, insignificant though it was), 
 it being his purpose to restrict the national life 
 again within those purely ecclesiastical channels of 
 activity which it had abandoned since the Macca- 
 
HEKOD AND THE ROMANS. 169 
 
 baean wars. However reckless his conduct in other 
 respects, he was always scrupulously careful to 
 avoid wounding religious susceptibilities (Ant., xiv. 
 1 6, 3). But although the Pharisees might be 
 quite pleased that the high-priesthood and the 
 kingship were no longer united in one and the 
 same person, and that interest in the law again 
 overshadowed interest in politics, the populace for 
 their part could never forgive Herod for overthrow- 
 ing the old dynasty. That he himself, at least in 
 religious profession, was a Jew, did not improve his 
 position, but rather made it worse. It was not easy 
 for him to stifle the national feeling after it had 
 once been revived among the Jews ; they could not 
 forget the recent past, and objected to being thrust 
 back into the time when foreign domination was en- 
 dured by them as a matter of course. The Romans 
 were regarded in quite a different light from that in 
 which the Persians and the Greeks had been viewed, 
 and Herod was only the client of the Romans. 
 
 His greatest danger seemed to arise from the still 
 surviving members of the Hasmonsean family, to 
 whom, as is easily understood, the national hopes 
 clung. In the course of the earlier years of his 
 reign he removed every one of them from his path, 
 beginning with his youthful brother-in-law Aristo- 
 bulus (35), after whom came his old patron Hyr- 
 canus II. (30), then Mariamne his wife (29), and 
 finally his stepmother Alexandra (28), the daughter 
 
170 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiii. 
 
 of Hyrcanus and the widow of Alexandei* Aristobuli. 
 Subsequently, in 25, he caused Costobarus and the 
 sons of Babas to be executed. While thus occupied 
 with domestic affairs, Herod had constant trouble 
 also in his external relations, and each new phase 
 in his political position immediately made itself felt 
 at home. In the first instance he had much to 
 suffer from Cleopatra, who would willingly have 
 seen Palestine reduced under Egyptian domination 
 once more, and who actually succeeded in inducing 
 Antony to take from Herod several fair and valuable 
 provinces of his realm. Next, his whole position 
 was imperilled by the result of the battle of 
 Actium ; he had once more ranged himself upon 
 the wrong side. But his tact did not fail him in 
 winning Octavianus, as before it had made Antony 
 his friend. In fact he reaped nothing but advan- 
 tage from the great overturn which took place in 
 Roman affairs ; it rid him of Cleopatra, a dangerous 
 enemy, and gave him in the new imperator a much 
 better master than he had before. 
 
 During the following years he had leisure to 
 carry out those splendid works of peace by which 
 it was his aim to ingratiate himself with the em- 
 ' peror. He founded cities and harbours (Antipatris, 
 Csesarea), constructed roads, theatres, and temples, 
 and subsidised far beyond his frontier all works 
 of public utility. He taxed the Jews heavily, but 
 in compensation promoted their material interests 
 
HEROD AND THE ROMANS. l7l 
 
 with energy and discretion, and built for them, 
 from 20 or 19 B.C. onwards, the temple at Jeru- 
 salem. To gain their sympathies he well knew 
 to be imjaossible. Apart from the Roman legions 
 at his back his authority had its main support in 
 his fortresses and in his system of espionage. 
 
 But just as the acme of his splendour had been 
 reached, he himself became the instrument of a 
 terrible vengeance for the crimes by which his 
 previous years had been stained; as executioner 
 of all the Hasmonjeans, he was now constrained 
 to be the executioner of his own children also. His 
 suspicious temper had been aroused against his 
 now grown-up sons by Mariamne, whose claims 
 through their mother to the throne were superior 
 to his own; his brother Pheroras and his sister 
 Salome made it their special business to fan his 
 jealousy into flame. To show the two somewhat 
 arrogant youths that the succession was not so 
 absolutely secure in their favour as they Were sup- 
 posing, the father summoned to his court Antipater, 
 the exiled son of a former marriage. Antipater, 
 under the mask of friendship, immediately began 
 to carry on infamous intrigues against his half- 
 brothers, in which Pheroras and Salome uncon- 
 sciously played into his hands. For years he 
 persevered alike in favouring and unfavouring cir- 
 cumstances with his part, until at last, by the 
 machinations of a Lacedemonian, Eurycles, who 
 
172 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiii. 
 
 had been bribed, Herod was induced to make con- 
 demn the sons of Mariamne at Berytus, and cause 
 them to be strangled (Samaria, 7-6 B.C.). Not 
 long afterwards a difEerence between Antipater and 
 Salome led to the exposure of the former. Herod 
 was compelled to drain the cup to the dregs; he 
 was not spared the knowledge that he had mur- 
 dered his children without a cause. His remorse 
 threw him into a serious illness, in which his strong 
 constitution wrestled long with death. While he 
 lay at Jericho near his end he gave orders for the 
 execution of Antipater also ; and to embitter the 
 joy of the Jews at his removal he caused their elders 
 to be shut up together in the hippodrome at Jericho 
 with the injunction to butcher them as soon as he 
 breathed his last, that so there might be sorrow 
 throughout the land. The latter order, however, 
 was not carried out. 
 
 His death (4 B.c.) gave the signal for an insur- 
 rection of small beginnings which gradually spread 
 until it ultimately infected all the people ; it was 
 repressed by Varus with great cruelty. Meanwhile 
 Herod's connections were at Rome disputing about 
 the inheritance. The deceased king (who was sur- 
 vived by several children of various marriages) had 
 made a will, which was substantially confirmed 
 by Augustus. By it his son Philip received the 
 northern portion of the territory on the east of 
 the Jordan along with the district of Paneas 
 
HEROD AND THE ROMANS. 173 
 
 (Csesarea Philippi) ; his thirty-seven years' reign 
 over this region was happy. Another son, Herod 
 Antipas, obtained Galilee and Peraea ; he beautified 
 his domains with architectural works (Sepphoris, 
 Tiberias ; Livias, Machserus), and succeeded by his 
 fox-like policy in ingratiating himself with the em- 
 perors, particularly with Tiberius, for that very 
 cause, however, becoming odious to the Roman pro- 
 vincial oflScials. The principal heir was Archelaus, 
 to whom IduniEea, Judaea, and Samaritis were 
 allotted; Augustus at first refused him the title 
 of king. Archelaus had experienced the greatest 
 difficulty in carrying through his claims before the 
 emperor in face of the manifold oppositions of his 
 enemies ; the vengeance which he wreaked upon 
 his subjects was so severe that in 6 a.d. a Jewish 
 and Samaritan embassy besought the emperor 
 for his deposition. Augustus assented, banishing 
 Archelaus to Vienne, and putting in his place a 
 Roman procurator. Thenceforward Judaea con- 
 tinued under procurators, with the exception of a 
 brief interval (41—44 A.D.), during which Herod 
 Agrippa I. united under his sway all the dominions 
 of his grandfather.^ 
 
 ^ Agrippa was the grandson of Mariamne through Aristobulus. 
 Caligula, whosw friendship he had secured in Rome, bestowed upon 
 him in 37 the dominions of Philip with the title of king, and after- 
 wards the tetrarchy of Antipas, whom he deposed and banished to 
 Lugdunum (39). Claudius added the possessions of Archelaus. 
 But the kingdom was again taken away from his son Agrippa II. 
 
174 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xm. 
 
 The termination of the vassal kingship resulted 
 in manifest advantage to the Sadducees. The high 
 priest and synedrium again acquired political im- 
 portance; they were the responsible representatives 
 of the nation in presence of the suzerain power, and 
 conceived themselves to be in some sort lords of 
 land and people (John xi. 4S). For the Pharisees 
 the new state of affairs appears to have been less 
 satisfactory. That the Romans were much less 
 oppressive to the Jews than the rulers of the house 
 of Herod was a consideration of less importance to 
 them than the fact that the heathen first uninten- 
 tionally and then deliberately were guilty of the 
 rudest outrages upon the law, outrages against 
 which those sly half-Jews had well understood how 
 to be on their guard. It was among the lower 
 ranks of the people, however, that hatred to the 
 Romans had its proper seat. On the basis of the 
 views and tendencies which had long prevailed there, 
 a new party was now formed, that of the Zealots, 
 which did not, like the Pharisees, aim merely at the 
 fulfilment of all righteousness, i.e., of the law, and 
 leave everything else in the hands of God, but was 
 determined to take an active part in bringing about 
 
 (44), who, however, after the death of his uncle, Herod of Chalcis, 
 obtained that principality for which at a later period (52) the 
 tetrarchy of Philip was substituted. His sister Berenice is known 
 as the mistress of Titus ; another sister, Drusilla, was the wife 
 of the procurator Felix. The descendants of Mariamne through 
 Alexander held for some time an Armenian principality. 
 
HEROD AND THE ROMANS. 175 
 
 the realisation of the kingdom of God (Jos., Ant., 
 xviii. I, i). 
 
 As the transition to the new order of things was 
 going on, the census of Quirinius took place (6-y 
 A.D.) ; it occasioned an immense excitement, which, 
 however, was successfully allayed. On the with- 
 drawal of Quirinius, Coponius remained behind as 
 procurator of Judaea ; he was followed, under Augus- 
 tus, by Marcus Ambivius and Annius Rufus ; under 
 Tiberius, by Valerius Gratus (15-26 a.d.) and Pon- 
 tius Pilatus (26-36 A.D.) ; under Caligula, by Mar- 
 cellus (36-37) and MaruUus (37-41 A.D.). The 
 procurators were subordinate to the imperial legati 
 of Syria ; they resided in Caesarea, and visited Jeru- 
 salem on special occasions only. They had command 
 of the military, and their chief business was the 
 maintenance of the peace and the care of the 
 revenue. They interested themselves in affairs of 
 religion only in so far as these had a political side ; 
 the temple citadel Antonia was constantly garrisoned 
 with a cohort. The administration of justice appears 
 to have been left to a very considerable extent in 
 the hands of the synedrium, but it was not allowed 
 to give effect to any capital sentence. At the head 
 of the native authorities stood at this time not so 
 much the actual high priest as the college of the 
 chief priests. The actual office of high priest had 
 lost its political importance in consequence of the 
 frequency with which its holders were changed; 
 
176 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiii. 
 
 thus, for example, Annas had more influence than 
 Caiaphas. 
 
 The principle of interfering as little as possible 
 with the religious liberty of the Jews was rudely 
 assailed by the Emperor Oaius, who, like a second 
 Antiochus, after various minor vexations, gave orders 
 that his image should be set up in the temple of 
 Jerusalem as in others elsewhere. It was entirely 
 through the courage and tact of the Syrian governor 
 P. Petronius that the execution of these orders was 
 temporarily postponed until the emperor was in- 
 duced by Agrippa I. to withdraw them. Caius soon 
 afterwards died, and under the rule of Agrippa I., 
 to whom the government of the entire kingdom of 
 his grandfather was committed by Claudius, thf 
 Jews enjoyed much prosperity ; in every respect the 
 king was all they could wish. This very prosperity 
 seems, however, to have caused them fresh danger. 
 For it made them feel the government by pro- 
 curators, which was resumed after the death of 
 Agrippa I., to be particularly hard to bear, whatever 
 the individual characters of these might be. They 
 were Cuspius Fadus (from 44, under whom Theudas), 
 Tiberius Alexander (the Romanised nephew of Philo, 
 till 48), Cumanus (48-52, under whom the volcano 
 already began to give dangerous signs of activity), 
 and Felix (52-60). Felix, who has the honour to 
 be pilloried in the pages of Tacitus, contrived to 
 make the dispeace permanent. The influence of the 
 
HEROD AND THE ROilANS. 177 
 
 two older parties, both of wMch were equally in- 
 terested in the maintenance of the existing order, 
 and in that interest were being drawn nearer to each 
 other, diminished day by day. The masses broke 
 loose completely from the authority of the scribes. 
 The ruling nobility adapted itself better to the times ; 
 under the cu-cumstances which then prevailed, it is 
 not surprising that they became thoroughly secular 
 and did not shiioi from the employment of directly 
 immoral means for the attainment of their ends. 
 The Zealots became the dominant party. It was a 
 combination of noble and base elements ; super- 
 stitious enthusiasts (Acts xxi. 38), and political 
 assassins, the so-called sicarii, were conjoined with 
 honest but fanati cal patr iots. Fehx favoured the 
 sicarii in order that he might utilise them ; against 
 the others his hostility raged with indiscrinunating 
 cruelty, yet without being able to check them. The 
 anarchy which he left behind him as a legacy was 
 beyond the control of his able successor Porcius 
 Festus (60-62), and the last two procurators, Albinus 
 (62-64) ^^<^ Gessius Floras, acted as if it had been 
 their special business to encourage and promote it. 
 All the bonds of social order were dissolved; no 
 property was secure ; the assassins alone prospered, 
 and the procurators went shares with them in the 
 profits. 
 
 It was inevitable that deep resentment against the 
 Romans should be felt in every honest heart. At 
 
 M 
 
178 ISKAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiii. 
 
 last it found expression. During his visit to Jeru- 
 salem in May 66, Floras laid hands upon the temple 
 treasure ; the Jews allowed themselves to go so far 
 as to make a joke about it, which he avenged by- 
 giving over a portion of the city to be plundered, 
 and crucifying a number of the inhabitants. He 
 next insisted upon their kissing the rod, ordering 
 that a body of troops which was approaching should 
 be met and welcomed. At the persuasion of their 
 leaders the Jews forced themselves even to this ; but 
 a constant succession of fresh insults and cruelties 
 followed, till patience was quite exhausted at last, 
 and in a violent street fight the Romans were so 
 handled that the procurator withdrew from the 
 town, leaving only the cohort in Antonia. Once 
 again was an attempt at pacification made by 
 Agrippa II., who hastened from Alexandria with 
 this purpose, but the Jews could not bring them- 
 selves to make submission to Gessius Florus. It 
 so happened that at this juncture the fortress of 
 Masada on the Dead Sea fell into the hands of the 
 Zealots ; the courage of the party of action rose, 
 and at the instance of the hot-headed Eleazar, the 
 sou of Ananias, a man still young, of highest 
 priestly family, the sacrifice on behalf of the em- 
 peror was discontinued, i.e., revolt was declared. 
 But the native authorities continued opposed to a 
 war. At their request King Agrippa sent soldiers 
 to Jerusalem; at first they appeared to have some 
 
HEEOD AND THE ROMANS. 179 
 
 effect, but ultimately they were glad to make their 
 escape in safety from the city. The cohort in 
 Antonia was in like manner unable to hold its own ; 
 freedom was given it to withdraw ; but, contrary to 
 the terms of capitulation, it was put to the sword. 
 The war party now signalised its triumph over all 
 elements of opposition from within by the murder 
 of the high priest Ananias. 
 
 A triumph was gained also over the outer foe. 
 The Syrian legate, Cestius Gallus, appeared before 
 Jerusalem in the autumn of 66, but after a short 
 period raised the siege; his deliberate withdrawal 
 was changed into a precipitate flight in an attack 
 made by the Jews at Bethhoron. The revolt now 
 spread irresistibly through all ranks and classes 
 of the population, and the aristocracy found it 
 expedient itself to assume the leadership. An 
 autonomous government was organised, with the 
 noblest members of the community at its head ; 
 of these the most important was the high priest 
 Ananus. 
 
 Meanwhile Nero entrusted the conduct of the 
 Jewish war to Vespasian, his best general. In the 
 spring of 6j he began his task in Galilee, where 
 the historian Josephus had command of the in- 
 surgents. The Jews entirely distrusted him and 
 he them ; in a short time the Eomans were masters 
 of Galilee, only a few strong places holding out 
 against them. Josephus was besieged in Jotapata, 
 
180 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiii. 
 
 and taken prisoner; the otlier places also were 
 nuable to hold out long. Such of the champions 
 of freedom in Galilee as escaped betook themselves 
 to Jerusalem ; amongst these was the Zealot leader 
 John of Giscala. There they told the story of their 
 misfortunes, of which they laid the blame upon 
 Josephus, and upon the aristocratic government, as 
 having no heart for the common cause and having 
 treachery for their motto. The Zealots now openly 
 aimed at the overthrow of the existing government, 
 but Anauus bravely withstood them, and pressed so 
 hard on them that they summoned the Idnmaeans 
 into the city to their aid. These honourable 
 fanatics indeed withdrew again as soon as they 
 had discovered that they were being used for 
 sinister designs ; but in the meanwhile they had 
 accomplished the work of the Zealots. The old 
 magistracy of Jerusalem was destroyed, Ananus 
 with the heads of the aristocracy and very many 
 other respectable citizens put to death. The radi- 
 cals, for the most part not natives of the city, came 
 into power ; John of Giscala at their head tyrannised 
 over the inhabitants. 
 
 While these events were taking place in Jeru- 
 salem, Vespasian had subdued the whole country, 
 with the exception of one or two fortresses. But 
 as he was setting about the siege of the capital, 
 tidings arrived of the death of Nero, and the offen- 
 sive was discontinued. For almost two years (June 
 
HEEOD AND THE ROMANS. 181 
 
 68 to April 70), with a short break, war was sus- 
 pended. When Vespasian at the end of this period 
 became emperor, he entrusted to Titus the task of 
 reducing Jerusalem. There in the interval the in- 
 ternal struggle had been going on, even after the 
 radicals had gained the mastery. As a counterpoise 
 to John of Giscala the citizens had received the 
 guerilla captain Simon bar Griora into the city ; the 
 two were now at feud with each other, but were 
 alike in their rapacity towards the citizens. John 
 occupied the temple, Simon the upper city lying 
 over against it on the west. For a short time a 
 third entered into competition with the two rivals, 
 a certain Eleazar who had separated from John and 
 established himself in the inner temple. But just 
 as Titus was beginning the siege (Easter 70) John 
 contrived to get rid of this interloper. 
 
 Titus attacked from the north. After the lower 
 city had fallen into his hands, he raised banks with 
 a view to the storm of the temple and the upper 
 city. But the defenders, who were now united in 
 a common cause, taught him by their vigorous re- 
 sistance that his object was not to be so quickly 
 gained. He therefore determined to reduce them 
 by famine, and for this end completely surrounded 
 the city with a strong wall. In the beginning of 
 July he renewed the attack, which he directed in 
 the first instance against the temple. The tower of 
 Antonia fell on the 5 th, but the temple continued 
 
182 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xill. 
 
 to be held notwithstanding; until the i/th the daily- 
 sacrifice continued to be offered. The Eomans suc- 
 ceeded in gaining the outer court in August only. 
 To drive them out, the Jews in the night of August 
 10- 1 1 made a sortie, but were compelled to retire, 
 the enemy forcing their way behind them into the 
 inner court. A legionary flung a firebrand into an 
 annexe of the temple, and soon the whole struc- 
 ture was in flames.^ A terrible slaughter o£ the de- 
 fenders ensued, but John with a determined band 
 succeeded in cutting his way out, and by means of 
 the bridge over the Tyroiioeon valley made his escape 
 into the upper city. 
 
 No attack had as yet been directed against this 
 quarter ; but famine was working terrible ravages 
 among the crowded population. Those in command, 
 however, refused to capitulate unless freedom to 
 withdraw along with their wives and children were 
 granted. These terms being withheld, a storm, after 
 the usual preparations on the part of the Eomans, 
 took place. The resistance was feeble ; the strong 
 towers were hardly defended at all ; Simon bar 
 Giora and John of Giscala now thought only of 
 their personal safety. In the unprotected city the 
 
 ' So Josephus ( W. /., vi. 4, 5). According to Sulpicius Severus, on 
 the other hand, the destruction of the temple was no accident, but 
 commanded by Titus. Sulpicius probably derived his information 
 from Tacitus. Compare Bernays, " Ueber die Chronik des Sulpicius 
 Severus," 1861, pp. 48-61 {Gesammdte Abhandlungen, ii. 159-181), 
 and Mommsen, Romische GeschicJitc, v. p. 539, n. i. 
 
HEEOD AND THE ROMANS. 183 
 
 Roman soldiers spread fire and slaughter unchecked 
 (September 7, yd). 
 
 Of those who survived also some were put to 
 death ; the rest were sold or carried off to the 
 mines and amphitheatres. The city was levelled 
 with the ground ; the tenth legion was left behind 
 in charge. Titus took with him to Rome for his 
 triumphal procession Simon bar Giora and John of 
 Giscala, along with seven hundred other prisoners, 
 also the sacred booty taken from the temple, the 
 candlestick, the golden table, and a copy of the 
 Torah. He was slightly premature with his triumph ; 
 for some time elapsed, and more than one bloody 
 battle was necessary, before the rebellion was com- 
 pletely stifled. It did not come wholly to an end 
 until the fall of Masada (April 73). 
 
CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 THE RABBINS. 
 
 Even now Palestine continued for a while to be the 
 centre of Jewish life, but only in order to prepare 
 the way for its transition into thoroughly cosmo- 
 politan forms. The development of thought sus- 
 tained no break on account of the sad events which 
 had taken place, but was only directed once more 
 in a consistent manner towards these objects which 
 had been set before it from the time of the Baby- 
 lonian exile. On the ruins of the city and of the 
 temple the Pharisaic Judaism which rests upon the 
 law and the school celebrated its triumph. National 
 fanaticism indeed was not yet extinguished, but it 
 burnt itself completely out in the vigorous insur- 
 rection led by Simeon bar Koziba (Bar Cochebas, 
 132-135). That a consijicuous rabbin, Akiba, should 
 have taken part in it, and have recognised in Simeon 
 the Messiah, was an inconsistency on his part which 
 redounds to his honour. 
 
 Inasmuch as the power of the rabbins did not de- 
 pend upon the political or hierarchical forms of the 
 
 old commonwealth, it survived the fall of the latter. 
 
 184 
 
THE RABBINS. 185 
 
 Out of what hitherto had been a purely moral influ- 
 ence something o£ an official position now grew. 
 They formed themselves into a college which re- 
 garded itself as a continuation of the old synedrium, 
 and which carried forward its name. At first its 
 seat was at Jamnia, but it soon removed to Galilee, 
 and remained longest at Tiberias. The presidency 
 was hereditary in the family of Hillel, with the last 
 descendants of whom the court itself came to an 
 end.^ The respect in which the synedrial president 
 was held rapidly increased ; like Christian patriarchs 
 under Mahometan rule, he was also recognised by 
 the imperial government as the municipal head of 
 the Jews of Palestine, and bore the secular title 
 of the old high priests (nasi, ethnarch, patriarch). 
 Under him the Palestinian Jews continued to form 
 a kind of state within a state until the 5th century. 
 From the non-Palestinian Jews he received offerings 
 of money.^ 
 
 The task of the rabbins was so to reorganise 
 Judaism under the new circumstances that it could 
 continue to assert its distinctive character. What of 
 external consistency had been lost through the ex- 
 tinction of the ancient commonwealth required to 
 
 1 The following is the genealogy of the first Nasi : — Gamaliel 
 ben Simeon (Jos., Vit., 38) ben Gamaliel (Acts v. 34, xxii. 3) ben 
 Simeon ben Hillel. The name Gamaliel was that which occurred 
 most frequently among the patriarchs ; see Cod. Theod , xvi. 8, 22. 
 
 = Comp. Gothofredus on Cod. Theod., xvi. 8, and Morinus, Exerc. 
 bibl., ii. 3, 4. 
 
186 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiv. 
 
 be compensated for by an inner centralisation pro- 
 portionately stronger. The separation from every- 
 thing heathenish become more pronounced than 
 before; the use of the Greek language was of 
 necessity still permitted, but at least the Septua- 
 grnt was set aside by Aquila, inasmuch as it had 
 now become the Christian Bible. ^ For to this 
 period also belongs the definitive separation between 
 the synagogue and the church ; henceforward Chris- 
 tianity could no longer figure as a Jewish sect. 
 Intensified exclusiveness was accompanied by in- 
 creased internal stringency. What at an earlier 
 period had still remained to some extent fluid now 
 became rigidly fixed ; for example, an authentic text 
 of the canon was now established, and at the same 
 time the distinction between canon and apocrypha 
 sharply drawn. The old tendency of the scribes to 
 leave as little as possible free to the individual con- 
 science, but to bring everything within the scope 
 of positive ordinance, now celebrated its greatest 
 triumphs. It was only an apparent movement in 
 the direction of liberty, if regulations which had 
 become quite impossible were now modified or can- 
 celled. The most influential of the rabbins were 
 indeed the least solicitous about the maintenance 
 of what was old, and had no hesitation in introducing 
 numerous and thoroughgoing innovations; but the 
 conservatives E. Bliezer ben Hyrcanus and R. Ishmael 
 ' Cod. Justin., Nov, 146. 
 
THE EABBINS. 187 
 
 ben Elisha were in truth more liberal-minded than 
 the leaders of the party of progress, notably than K. 
 Akiba. Even the Ultramontanes have never hesi- 
 tated at departures from the usage of the ancient 
 and mediaeval Church ; and the Pharisaic rabbins 
 were guided in their innovations by liberal prin- 
 ciples no more than they. The object of the new 
 determinations was simply to widen the domain of, 
 the law in a consistent manner, to bring the^m- 
 dividual entirely under the iron rule of system. 
 But the Jewish communities gave willing obedience 
 to the hierarchy of the rabbins ; Judaism had to be 
 maintained, cost what it might. That the means 
 employed were well adapted to the purpose of main- 
 taining the Jews as a firmly compacted religious 
 community, even after all bonds of nationality had 
 fallen away, cannot be doubted. But whether the 
 attainment of this purpose by incredible exertion 
 was a real blessing to themselves and the world may 
 very well be disputed. 
 
 One consequence of the process of intellectual 
 isolation, and of the effort to shape everything in 
 accordance with hard and fast rules and doctrines, 
 was the systematisation and codification of juristic 
 and ritual tradition, a work with which a beginning 
 was made in the century following the destruction 
 of Jerusalem. Towards the end of the 2nd centuiy 
 the Pharisaic doctrine of Hillel, as it had been further 
 matured by Akiba, was codified and elevated to the 
 
188 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiv. 
 
 positiou of statute law by the patriarch Rabban Judah 
 the Holy (Mishna). But this was only the first stage 
 in the process of systematising and fixing tradition. 
 The Mishna became itself the object of rabbinical 
 comment and supplement; the Tannaim, whose work 
 was registered in the Mathnetha (Mishna, 8evTipwcn<> 
 = doctrine), were followed by the Amoraim, whose 
 work in turn took permanent shape in the Gemara 
 ( = doctrine). The Palestinian Gemara was reduced 
 to writing in perhaps the 4th or 5th century; un- 
 fortunately it has been preserved to us only in part, 
 but appears to have reached the Middle Ages in a 
 perfect state. Even thus the process which issued 
 in the production of the Talmud was not yet com- 
 pleted ; the Babylonian Amorian carried it forward 
 for some time longer, until at last at the rise of Islam 
 the Babylonian Gemara was also written down. 
 
 In the 5th century Palestine ceased to be the 
 centre of Judaism. Several circumstances conspired 
 to bring this about. The position of the Jews in 
 the Roman Empire had changed for the worse with 
 the elevation of Christianity to be the religion of 
 the state ; the large autonomy which untU then they 
 had enjoyed in Palestine was now restricted ; above 
 all, the family of the patriarchs, which had come to 
 form a veritable dynasty, became extinct.^ But this 
 did not make an end of what may be called the 
 
 1 Comp. Gothofredus on Cod. Thcod., xvi. 8, 29, ad roc "post 
 excessum patriarcharum." 
 
THE EABBINS. 189 
 
 Jewish, church-state ; henceforward it had its home in 
 Baljylonia. From the period of the exile, a nume- 
 rous and coherent body of Jews had continued to 
 subsist there ; the Parthians and Sassanidse granted 
 them self-government ; at their head was a native 
 prince (Eesh Galutha — can be clearly traced from 
 2nd century A.D. onwards) who, when the Palestinian 
 patriarchate came to an end, was left without a rival. 
 This remarkable relic of a Jewish commonwealth 
 continued to exist untU the time of the Abassides.^ 
 Even as early as the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. 
 certain rabbins, at their head Abba Areka (Kab), 
 had migrated from Palestine and founded a settle- 
 ment for learning in the law in Babylonia. The 
 schools there (at Pumbeditha, Sora, Nahardea) pros- 
 pered greatly, vied with those of Palestine, and 
 continued to exist after the cessation of the latter, 
 when the patriarchate became extinct; thus they 
 had the last word in the settlement of doctrine. 
 
 Alongside of the settlement of tradition went 
 another task, that of fixing the letters of the con- 
 sonantal text of the Bible (by the Massora), its vowel 
 pronunciation (by the punctuation), and its transla- 
 tion into the Aramaic vernacular (Targum). Here 
 also the Babylonians came after the Palestinians, yet 
 of this sort of erudition Palestine continued to be 
 the headquarters even after the Sth century. 
 
 ^ See Noldeke, Tabari, 68, 118, and Kremer, Culturgeschichte des 
 Orients unter den Chalifen, i. 188, ii. 176. 
 
190 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xiv. 
 
 With this task — that of attaining to the greatest 
 possible conformity to the letter and of continuing 
 therein — the inner development of Jewish thought 
 came to an end. The later Hebrew literature, which 
 does not fall to be considered here, contributed very 
 few new elements ; in so far as an intellectual life 
 existed at all among the Jews of the Middle Ages, 
 it was not a growth of native soil, but proceeded 
 from the Mahometan or Latin culture of individuals. 
 The Kabbala at most, and even it hardly with justice, 
 can be regarded as having been a genuine product of 
 Judaism. It originated in Palestine, and subse- 
 quently flourished chiefly in the later Middle Ages 
 in Spain, and, like all other methodised nonsense, 
 had strong attractions for Christian scholars. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE JEWISH DISPERSION. 
 
 Something still remains to be said with reference to 
 the diaspora. We have seen how it began ; in spite 
 of Josephus (Ant,, xi. 5, 2), it is to be carried back 
 not to the Assyrian but merely to the Babylonian 
 captivity; it was not composed of Israelites, but 
 solely of citizens of the southern kingdom. It re- 
 ceived its greatest impulse from Alexander, and 
 then afterwards from Caesar. In the Graeco-Roman 
 period Jerusalem, at the time of the great festival, 
 presented the appearance of a veritable Babel (Acts 
 ii. 9-11) ; with the Jews themselves were mingled the 
 proselytes (Acts ii. 1 1), for even already that religion 
 was gaining considerable conquests among the heathen. 
 As King Agrippa I. writes to the Emperor Caius, 
 "Jerusalem is the metropolis not only of Judaea but 
 of very many lands, on account of the colonies which 
 on various occasions (eVt xatpav) it has sent out into 
 
 the adjoining countries of Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, 
 
 191 
 
192 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xv. 
 
 and Coelesyria, and into the more remote Pamphylia, 
 Cilicia, the greater part of Asia Minor as far as to 
 Bithynia and the remotest parts of Poutus ; likewise 
 into Europe — Thessaly, Bceotia, Macedonia, -iSItolia, 
 Attica, Argos, Corinth, most parts (and these the 
 fairest) of the Peloponnesus. Nor are the Jewish 
 settlements confined to the mainland only ; they are 
 found also in the more important islands, Eubcea, 
 Cyprus, Crete. I do not insist on the countries 
 beyond the Euphrates, for with few exceptions all 
 of them, Babylon and the fertile regions around it, 
 have Jewish inhabitants."^ In the west of Europe 
 also they were not wanting; many thousands of 
 them lived in Rome. In those cities where they 
 were at all numerous they, during the imperial period, 
 formed separate communities. Josephus has pre- 
 served a great variety of documents in which the 
 Roman authorities recognise their rights and liber- 
 ties (especially as regards the Sabbath rest and the 
 obsei-vance of festivals). Of greatest importance 
 was the community in Alexandria ; according to 
 Philo, a million of Jews had their residence there 
 under an ethnarch, for whom a gerusia was after- 
 wards substituted by Augustus. The extent to which 
 this diaspora was helpful in the difEusion of Chris- 
 tianity, the manner in which the mission of the 
 apostles everywhere attached itself to the synagogues 
 
 ' Philo, Legatio ad Oaium, § 36. 
 
THE JEWISH DISPEKSION. 193 
 
 and proseucliai, is well known from the New Testa- 
 ment. That the Christians of the ist century had 
 much to suffer along with the Jews is also a familiar 
 fact. For at this period, in other respects more 
 favourable to them than any other had previously 
 been, the Jews had occasionally to endure per- 
 secution. The emperors, taking umbrage at their 
 intrusiveness, more than once banished them 
 from Rome (Acts xviii. 2). The good will of the 
 native population they never secured ; they were 
 most hated in Egypt and Syria, where they were 
 strongest.^ 
 
 ' The place taken by the Jewish element in the world of that 
 time is brilliantly set forth by Momrasen in his History of Rome 
 (bk. V. ch. ii. ; Eng. tr. iv. p. 538 seq., 1866) — "How numerous 
 even in Rome the Jewish population was already before Caesar's 
 time, and how closely at the same time the Jews even then kept 
 together as fellow-countrymen, is shown by the remark of an 
 author of this period, that it was dangerous for a governor to offend 
 the Jews in his province, because he might then certainly reckon 
 on being hissed, after his return, by the populace of the capital. 
 Even at this time the predominant business of the Jews was 
 trade. . . . At this period too we encounter the peculiar antipathy 
 of the Occidentals towards this so thoroughly Oriental race and 
 their foreign opinions and customs. This Judaism, although not 
 the most pleasing feature in the nowhere pleasing picture of the 
 mixture of nations which then prevailed, was, nevertheless, an 
 historical element developing itself in the natural course of 
 things, . . . which Csesar, just like his predecessor Alexander, 
 fostered as far as possible. . . . They did not, of course, contem- 
 plate placing the Jewish nationality on an equal footing with the 
 Hellenic or Italo-Hellenio. But the Jew, who has not, like the 
 Occidental, received the Pandora's gift of political organisation, 
 and stands substantially in a relation of indifference to the state, 
 
 N 
 
194 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xv. 
 
 The position of the Jews in the Roman Empire 
 was naturally not improved by the great risings 
 under Nero, Trajan (in Oyrene, Cyprus, Mesopo- 
 tamia), and Hadrian. The East, strictly so called, 
 became more and more their proper home. The 
 Christianisation of the empire helped still further 
 in a very special way to detach them from the 
 Western world.^ They sided with the Persians 
 against the Byzantines; in the year 614 they were 
 even put in possession of Jerusalem by Ohosroes, 
 but were not long able to hold their own against 
 Heraclius.2 With Islam also they found themselves 
 in greater sympathy than with Christianity, although 
 they were cruelly treated by Mahomet in Arabia, 
 and driven by Omar out of the Hejaz, and not- 
 withstanding the facts that they were as matter 
 of course excluded from citizenship, and that they 
 were held by Moslems as a whole in greater con- 
 tempt than the Christians. They throve especially 
 
 who, moreover, is as reluctant to give up the essence of his national 
 idiosyncrasy as he is ready to clothe it with any nationality at 
 pleasure and to adapt himself up to a certain degree to foreign 
 habits — the Jew was, for this very reason as it were, made for a 
 state which was to be built on the ruins of a hundred living polities, 
 and to be endowed with a somewhat abstract and, from the out- 
 set, weakened nationality. In the ancient world also Judaism 
 was an effective leaven of cosmopolitanism and of national de- 
 composition." 
 
 ' For a brief time only were they again favoured by Julian the 
 Apostate ; comp. Gibbon, chap, xxiii. 
 
 ^ Gibbon, chap, xlvi. 
 
THE JEWISH DISPERSION. 195 
 
 well on what may be called the bridge between 
 East and West, in Mauretania and Spain, where 
 they were the intellectual intermediaries between 
 the Arab and the Latin culture. In the Sephardim 
 and Ashkenazim the distinction between the subtler 
 Oriental and the more conservative Western Jews 
 has maintained itself in Europe also. Prom the 
 8th century onwards Judaism put forth a remark- 
 able side shoot in the Khazars on the Volga ; 
 if legend is to be believed, but little was re- 
 quired at one time to have induced the Russians 
 to accept the Jewish rather than the Christian 
 faith. 
 
 In the West the equal civil rights which Caracalla 
 had conferred on all free inhabitants of the empire 
 came to an end, so far as the Jews were concerned, 
 in the time of Constantine. The state then became 
 the secular arm of the Church, and took action, 
 though with less severity, against Jews just as 
 against heretics and pagans. As early as the year 
 315, Constantine made conversion from Christianity 
 to Judaism a penal offence, and prohibited Jews, 
 on pain of death, from circumcising their Christian 
 slaves. These laws were re-enacted and made more 
 severe by Constantius, who attached the penalty of 
 death to marriages between Jews and Christians. 
 Theodosius I. and Honorius, indeed, by strictly 
 prohibiting the destruction of synagogues, and by 
 maintaining the old regulation that a Jew was 
 
196 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xv. 
 
 not to be summoned before a court of justice on 
 a Sabbath-day, put a check upon the militant zeal 
 of the Church, by which even Chiysostom, for 
 example, allowed himself to be carried away at 
 Antioch. But Honorius rendered them ineligible 
 for civil or military service, leaving open to them 
 only the bar and the decurionate, the latter being 
 a pi'ivilegium odiosum. Their liberty to try cases 
 by their own law was curtailed ; the cases between 
 Jews and Christians were to be tried by Christian 
 judges only. Theodosius II. prohibited them from 
 building new synagogues, and anew enforced their 
 disability for all state employments. Most hostile 
 of all was the orthodox Justinian, who, however, was 
 still more severe against Pagans and Samaritans.^ 
 He harassed the Jews with a law enjoining them to 
 observe Easter on the same day as the Christians, 
 a law which it was of course found impossible to 
 carry out.^ 
 
 In the Germanic states which arose upon the ruins 
 of the Eoman empire, the Jews did not fare badly 
 on the whole. It was only in cases where the state 
 was dominated by the Catholic Church, as, for 
 
 1 Cod. Theod., xvi. 8 : " De Judaeis, Coelicolis, et Samaritanis ; " 
 Cod. Just., i. 9 : "De Judseis et Coelicolis." With regard to these 
 ccelicolse, see Gothofiedus on Cod. TJieod., xvi. 8, 9, and also 
 J. Bernays, "Ueber die Gottesfurchtigen bei Juvenal," in the 
 Comm. Philol. in hon. Th. Mommsen, 1877, p. 163. 
 
 2 Gibbon, chap, xlvii. 
 
THE JEWISH DISPERSION. 197 
 
 example, among the Spanish Visigoths, that they 
 were cruelly oppressed; among the Arian Ostrogoths, 
 on the other hand, they had nothing to complain of. 
 One thing in their favour was the Germanic prin- 
 ciple that the law to be applied depended not on the 
 land but on the nationality, as now in the East 
 Europeans are judged by the consuls according to 
 the law of their respective nations. The autonomy 
 of the Jewish communities, which had been curtailed 
 by the later emperors, was now enlarged once more 
 under the laxer political and legal conditions. The 
 Jews fared remarkably well under the Frankish 
 monarchy ; the Carolingians helped them in every 
 possible way, making no account of the complaints 
 of the bishops. They were allowed to hold pro- 
 perty in land, but showed no eagerness for it; 
 leaving agriculture to the Germans, they devoted 
 themselves to trade. The market was completely 
 in their hands ; as a specially lucrative branch 
 of commerce they stUl carried on the traffic in 
 slaves, which had engaged them even in ancient 
 times.^ 
 
 ' Agobardus Lugdunensis (9th century) wrote four pamphlets 
 against the Jews. He was no superstitious fanatic, but one of the 
 weightiest and most enlightened ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages. 
 Compare, further, Stobbe, Die Juden in DeutscMand (Brunsw. 
 1866), p. 199 seq., notes 6 and 8, and Georg Jakob, Ueber die Han- 
 delsartikel, icelche die Araber aus den nordischen Landern bezogen 
 
198 ISRAEL AND JUDAH, chap. xv. 
 
 Meanwhile the Church was not remiss in seeking 
 constantly repeated re-enactments of the old imperial 
 laws, in the framing of which she had had para- 
 mount influence, and which she now incorporated 
 with her own canon law.^ Gradually she succeeded in 
 attaining her object. In the later Middle Ages the 
 position of the Jews in the Christian society deterio- 
 rated. Intercourse with them was shunned ; their 
 isolation from being voluntary became compulsory '■> 
 from the 1 3th century onwards they were obliged to 
 wear, as a distinctive mark (more necessary in the 
 East than in the West), a round or square yellow 
 badge on their breast. ^ The difference of religion 
 elicited a well-marked religious hate with oft-re- 
 peated deadly outbreaks, especially during the period 
 of the crusades, and afterwards when the Black 
 Death was raging ( 1 348-50) . Practical consequences 
 like these the Church of course did not countenance ; 
 
 (Berlin, 1 891), p. 8 scq. The Jews carried on a trade in Slavonian 
 children in the Mahometan East by way of Spain ; they castrated 
 the boys. 
 
 ^ Compare Decret. i., dist. 45, c. 3 ; Decret. ii., cans. 23, quEest. 8, 
 u. 9, cans. 28, qu. I, c. IO-12 ; Decret. iii., de consecr., dist. 4, c. 
 93 ; Decret. Greg. 5, 6 ("De Judseis, Sarracenis, et eorum servis"), 
 5, 19, 18 ; Extrav. commun. 5, 2. 
 
 - Comp. Du Oange, s. v. " Judtei ; " also Renter, Gescli. d. 
 Aufkldrung im Mittdaltcr, i. 154 seq. In spite of all the legal re- 
 strictions laid upon them, the Jews still continued to have great 
 influence with the princes, and more especially with the popes, of 
 the Middle Ages. 
 
THE JEWISH DISPERSION. 199 
 
 the popes set themselves against persecutions of the 
 Jews/ but with imperfect success. The popular 
 aversion rested by no means exclusively on religious 
 considerations ; worldly motives were also present. 
 The Jews of that period had in a still higher degree 
 than now the control of financial affairs in their 
 hands; and they used it without scruple. The 
 Church herself had unintentionally given them a 
 monopoly of the money market, by forbidding Chris- 
 tians to take interest.2 In this way the Jews became 
 rich indeed, but at the same time made themselves 
 still more repugnant to the Christian population 
 than they previously were by reason of their re- 
 ligion. 
 
 Having, according to the later mediteval system, 
 
 1 IJeoret. ii. 23, 8, 9. Alexander II. omnibus episcopis His- 
 panise : Dispar ... est Judseorum et Sarracenorum causa ; in 
 illos eniin, qui Christianos persequuntiir et e\- urbibus et pro- 
 priis sedibus pellunt, juste pugnatur, hi vero ubique servire parati 
 sunt. 
 
 - Decret. Greg. v. 19, 18. Innocent III. in name of the 
 Lateran Council : Quanto amplius Christiana religio ab exaotione 
 compescituv usurarum, tanto gravius super his Judseorum perfidia 
 insolescit, ita quod brevi tempore Chiistianorum exhauriunt facul- 
 tates. Volentes igitur in hac parte prospicere Christianis, ne a 
 Judceis immaniter aggraventur, syiiodali decreto statuimus, ut, si 
 de caetero quocunque prtetextu Judaei a Christianis graves im- 
 nioderatasve usuras extorseriot, Christianorum eis participium sub- 
 trahatur, donee de immoderato gravamine satisfecerint competenter. 
 . . . Principibus autem injungimus, ut propter hoc non sint Chris- 
 tianis infesti, sed potius a tanto gravamine studeant cohibere 
 .Judaaos. 
 
200 ISEAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xv. 
 
 no rights in the Christian state, the Jews were 
 tolerated only in those territories where the sove- 
 reign in the exercise of free favour accorded them 
 protection. This protection was granted them in 
 many quarters, but never for nothing; numerous 
 and various taxes, which could be raised or changed 
 in a perfectly arbitrary way, were exacted in ex- 
 change. But in countries where the feeling of 
 nationality attained to a vigorous development, the 
 spirit of toleration was speedily exhausted; the 
 Jews were expelled by the act of the state. Eng- 
 land was the first kingdom in which this occurred 
 (1290); France following in 1395, Spain and Por- 
 tugal in 1492 and 1495. In this way it came about 
 that the Holy Roman Empire — Germany, Italy, 
 and adjoining districts — became the chief abode of 
 the Jews.^ In the anarchy which here prevailed 
 they could best maintain their separate attitude, 
 and if they were expelled from one locality they 
 readily found refuge in some other. The emperor 
 had indeed the right of extiqDating them altogether 
 (with the exception of a small number to be left as 
 a memorial) ; but, in the first place, he had in 
 various ways given up this right to the states of 
 the empire, and, moreover, his pecuniary resoui'ces 
 
 1 The Polish Jews are German Jews who migrated in the Middle 
 Ages to Poland, but have maintained to the present day their 
 German speech, a mediaeval South-Frankish dialect, of course 
 greatly corrupted. 
 
THE JEWISH DISPEESION. 201 
 
 were so small that he could not afford to want 
 the tax which the Jews as his " servi camerse " 
 paid him for protecting their persons and property. 
 In spite of many savage persecutions the Jews 
 maintained their ground, especially in those parts 
 of Germany where the political confusion was 
 greatest. They even succeeded in maintaining a 
 kind of autonomy by means of an arrangement 
 in virtue of which civil processes which they 
 had against each other were decided by their 
 own rabbins in accordance with the law of the 
 Talmud. 
 
 The Jews, through their having on the one hand 
 separated themselves, and on the other hand been 
 excluded on religious grounds from the Gentiles, 
 gained an internal solidarity and solidity which has 
 hitherto enabled them to survive all the attacks of 
 time. The hostility of the Middle Ages involved 
 them in no danger; the greatest peril has been 
 brought upon them by modern times, along with 
 permission and increasing inducements to abandon 
 their separate position. It is worth while to recall 
 on this point the opinion of Spinoza,^ who was well 
 able to form a competent judgment: — "That the 
 Jews have maintained themselves so long in spite 
 of their dispersed and disorganised condition is not 
 at all to be wondered at, when it is considered how 
 
 ^ Tract. Theol. Polit. c, 4, ad fin. 
 
202 ISRAEL AND JUDAH. chap. xv. 
 
 they separated themselves from all other nationalities 
 in such a way as to bring upon themselves the hatred 
 of all, and that not only by external rites contrary 
 to those of other nations, but also by the sign of 
 circumcision, which they maintain most religiously. 
 Experience shows that their conservation is due in 
 a great degree to the very hatred which they have 
 incurred. When the king of Spain compelled the 
 Jews either to accept the national religion or to go 
 into banishment, very many of them accepted the 
 Roman Catholic faith, and in virtue of this received 
 all the privileges of Spanish subjects, and were de- 
 clared eligible for every honour ; the consequence 
 Avas that a process of absorption began immediately, 
 and in a short time neither trace nor memory of 
 them survived. Quite different was the histoiy of 
 those whom the king of Portugal compelled to 
 accept the creed of his nation ; although converted, 
 they continued to live apart from the rest of their 
 fellow-subjects, having been declared unfit for any 
 dignity. So great importance do I attach to the 
 sign of circumcision also in this connection, that I 
 am persuaded that it is sufficient by itself to main- 
 tain the separate existence of the nation for ever." 
 The persistency of the race may, of course, prove a 
 harder thing to overcome than Spinoza has sup- 
 posed; but nevertheless he will be found to have 
 spoken truly in declaring that the so-called emanci- 
 
THE JEWISH DISPERSION. 203 
 
 pation of the Jews must inevitably lead to the 
 extinction of Judaism wherever the process is ex- 
 tended beyond the political to the social sphere. 
 For the accomplishment of this centuries may be 
 required. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX/ 
 
 Judaism and Christianity. 
 
 The post-Deuteronomic legislation is not addressed to 
 the people, but to the congregation ; its chief concern is 
 the regulation of worship. Political matters are not 
 touched upon, as they are in the hands of a foreign lord. 
 The hierocracy is taken for granted as the constitution of 
 the congregation. The head of the cultus is the head of 
 the whole ; the high priest takes the place of the king. 
 The other priests, though his brothers or his sons, are 
 officially subordinate to him, as bishops to the supreme 
 pontiff They, again, are distinguished from the Levites, 
 not only by their office, but also by their noble blood, 
 though the Levites belong by descent to the clergy, of 
 which they form the lowest grade. The material basis 
 of the hierarchical pyramid is furnished by the contri- 
 butions of the laity, which are required on a scale which 
 cannot be called modest. Such is the outward aspect of 
 the rule of the holy in Israel. Inwardly, the ideal of 
 holiness governs the whole of life by means of a net of 
 ceremonies and observances which separate the Jew from 
 the natural man. " Holy " means almost the same as 
 
 1 See Wellhausen, SJcizzen i. (1884), p. 86 eeq. 
 207 
 
208 APPENDIX. 
 
 "exclusive." Originally the term was equivalent to 
 divine, but now it is used chiefly in the sense of religious, 
 priestly, as if the divine were to be known from the 
 worldly, the natural, by outward marks. 
 
 It had so fallen out, even before the exile, that the re- 
 form of the theocracy which the prophets demanded began 
 in the cultus ; and after the exile this tendency could 
 not fail to be persisted in. The restoration of Judaism 
 took place in the form of a restoration of the cultus. 
 Yet this restoration was not a relapse into the heathen 
 ways which the prophets had attacked. The old meaning 
 of the festivals and of the sacrifices had long faded away, 
 and after the interruption of the exile they would scarcely 
 have blossomed again of themselves ; they had become 
 simply statutes, unexplained commands of an absolute 
 will The cultus had no longer any real value for the 
 Deity ; it was valuable only as an exercise of obedience 
 to the law. If it had been at first the bond connecting 
 Israel with heathenism, now, on the contrary, it was 
 the shield behind which Judaism retreated to be safe 
 from heathenism. There was no other means to make 
 Judaism secure; and the cultus was nothing more than 
 a means to that end. It was the shell around the faith 
 and practice of the fathers, around the religion of moral 
 monotheism, which it alone preserved until it could 
 become the common property of the world. The great 
 public worship gave the new theocracy a firm centre, 
 thus keeping it one and undivided, and helped it to an 
 organisation. But of more importance was the minor 
 private cultus of pious exercises, which sorved to Judaise 
 the whole life of every individual. For the centre of 
 
APPENDIX. 209 
 
 gravity of Judaism was in the individual. Judaism v?as 
 gathered from scattered elements, and it depended on 
 the labour of the individual to make himself a Jew. 
 This is the secret of the persistence of Judaism, even in 
 the diaspora. The initiatory act of circumcision, which 
 conferred an indelible character, was not the only safe- 
 guard ; the whole of the education which followed that 
 act went to guard against the disintegrating effects of 
 individualism. This is the real significance of the in- 
 cessant discipline, which consisted mainly in the observance 
 of laws of purity, and generally of regulations devised to 
 guard against sin. For what holiness required was not 
 to do good, but to avoid sin. By the sin and trespass 
 offerings, and by the great day of atonement, this private 
 cultus was connected with that of the temple ; hence 
 it was that all these institutions fitted so admirably into 
 the system. The whole of life was directed in a definite 
 sacred path; every moment there was a divine command 
 to fulfil, and this kept a man from following too much 
 the thoughts and desires of his own heart. The Jews 
 trained themselves with an earnestness and zeal which 
 have no parallel to create, in the absence of all natural 
 conditions, a holy nation which should answer to the 
 law, the concrete embodiment of the ideals of the 
 prophets. 
 
 In the individualism thus moulded into uniformity lay 
 the chief difference which separated the new period from 
 the old. The aim was universal culture by the law, that 
 the prophecy should be fulfilled which says : " They shall 
 all be taught of God." This universal culture was 
 certainly of a peculiar kind, and imposed more trouble- 
 
 o 
 
210 APPENDIX. 
 
 some observances than the culture of our day. Yet the 
 strange duties which the law imposed were not universally 
 felt to be a heavy burden. Precepts which were plain 
 and had to do with something outward were very capable 
 of being kept ; the harder they seemed at first, the easier 
 were they when the habit had been formed. A man saw 
 that he was doing what was prescribed, and did not ask 
 what was the use of it. The ever-growing body of regu- 
 lations even came to be felt as a sort of emancipation 
 from self. Never had the individual felt himself so 
 responsible for all he did and left undone, but the re- 
 sponsibility was oppressive, and it was well that there 
 should be a definite precept for every hour of his life, 
 thus diminishing the risk of his going astray. Nor must 
 we forget that the Torah contained other precepts than 
 those which were merely ceremonial. The kernel did 
 not quite harden into wood inside the shell; we must 
 even acknowledge that moral sentiment gained very per- 
 ceptibly in this period both in delicacy and in power. 
 This also is connected with the fact that religion was 
 not, as before, the custom of the people, but the work 
 of the individual. A further consequence of this was, 
 that men began to reflect upon religion. The age in 
 question saw the rise of the so-called "Wisdom," of 
 which we possess examples in the Eook of Job, in the 
 Proverbs of Solomon and of the Son of Sirach, and in 
 Ecclesiastes. This wisdom flourished not only in Judah, 
 but also at the same time in Edom ; it had the uni- 
 versalistic tendency which is natural to reflection. The 
 Proverbs of Solomon would scarcely claim attention had 
 they arisen on Greek or Arabian soil ; they are remark- 
 
APPENDIX. 211 
 
 able in their pale generality only because they are of 
 Jewish origin. In the Book of Job, a problem of faith 
 is treated by Syrians and Arabians just as if they were 
 Jews. In Ecclesiastes religion abandons the theocratic 
 ground altogether, and becomes a kind of philosophy in 
 which there is room even for doubt and unbelief. But 
 speculation did not on the whole take away from depth 
 of feeling ; on the contrary, individualism helped to 
 make religion more intense. This is seen strikingly in 
 the Psalms, which are altogether the fruit of this period. 
 Even the sacrificial practice of the priests was made 
 subjective, being incorporated in the Torah, i.e., made 
 a matter for every one to learn. Though the laity could 
 not take part in the ceremony, they were at least to be 
 thoroughly informed in all the minutiae of the system ; 
 the law was a means of interesting every one in the 
 great public sacrificial procedure. Another circumstance 
 also tended to remove the centre of gravity of the temple 
 service from the priests to the congregation. The service 
 of song, though executed by choirs of singers, was yet 
 in idea the song of the congregation, and came to be 
 of more importance than the acts of worship which it 
 accompanied and inspired. The Holy One of Israel sat 
 enthroned, not on the smoke-pillars of the altar, but in 
 the praises of the congregation pouring out its heart in 
 prayer; the sacrifices were merely the external occasion 
 for visiting the temple, the real reason for doing so lay 
 in the need for the strength and refreshment to be found 
 in religious fellowship. 
 
 By the Torah religion came to be a thing to be learned. 
 Hence the need of teachers in the church of the second 
 
212 APPENDIX. 
 
 temple. As the scribes had codified the Torah, it was 
 also their task to imprint it on the minds of the people, 
 and to fill their life with it ; in this way they at the same 
 time founded a supplementary and changing tradition, 
 which kept pace with the needs of the time. The place 
 of teaching was the synagogue ; there the law and the 
 prophets were read and explained on the Sabbath. The 
 synagogue and the Sabbath were of more importance 
 than the temple and the festivals ; and the moral in- 
 fluence of the scribes transcended tliat of the priests, 
 who had to be content with outward power and dignity. 
 The rule of religion was essentially the rule of the law, 
 and consequently the Rabbis at last served themselves 
 heirs to the hierarchs. At the same time, while the 
 government of the law was acknowledged in principle, 
 it could at no time be said to be even approximately 
 realised in fact. The high-born priests who stood at 
 the head of the theocracy, cared chiefly, as was quite 
 natural, for the maintenance of their own supremacy. 
 And there were sheep in the flock not to be kept from 
 breaking out, both in the upper and in the lower classes 
 of society; the school could not suppress nature alto- 
 gether. It was no trifle even to know the six hundred 
 and thirteen commandments of the written law, and the 
 incalculable number of the unwritten. Religion had to 
 be made a profession of, if it was to be practised aright. 
 It became an art, and thereby at the same time a matter 
 of party : the leaders of the religious were of course the 
 scribes. The division became very apparent in the time 
 of the Hellenisation which preceded the Maccabaean 
 revolt; at that period the name of Pharisees, i.e., the 
 
APPENDIX. 213 
 
 Separated, came into vogue for the party of the religious. 
 But the separation and antipathy between the godly and 
 the ungodly had existed before this, and had marked 
 the life of the congregation after the exile from the 
 very first. 
 
 It was the law that gave the Jewisli religion its 
 peculiar character. But, on the other hand, a hope was 
 not wanting to that religion; the Jews cherished the 
 prospect of a reward for the fulfilling of the law. This 
 hope attaclied itself to the old prophecies, certainly in 
 a very fantastic way. The Jews had no historical life, 
 and therefore painted the old time according to their 
 ideas, and framed the time to come according to their 
 wishes. They stood in no living relation with either the 
 past or the future ; the present was not with them a 
 bridge from the one to the other ; they did not think of 
 bestirring themselves with a view to the kingdom of 
 God. They had no national and historical existenc e, 
 _ and m ade no pre parations to proc ure such a thing for 
 themselves ; they only hoped for it as a reward of faith- 
 ful keeping of the law. Yet they dreamed not only of 
 a restoration of the old kingdom, but of the erection of 
 a universal world-monarchy, which should raise its head 
 at Jerusalem over the ruins of the heathen empires. 
 They regarded the history of the world as a great suit 
 between themselves and the heathen. In this suit they 
 were in the right; and they waited for right to be done 
 them. If the decision was delayed, their sins were the 
 reason; Satan was accusing them before the throne of 
 God, and causing the judgment to be postponed. They 
 were subjected to hard trials, and if tribulation revived 
 
214 APPENDIX. 
 
 their hopes, with much greater certainty did it bring 
 their sins into sorrowful remembrance. Outward circum- 
 stances still influenced in the strongest way their re- 
 ligious mood. 
 
 But the old belief in retribution which sought to justify 
 itself in connection with the fortunes of the congregation 
 proved here also unequal to the strain laid upon it. Even 
 in Deuteronomy it is maintained that the race is not to 
 suffer for the act of an individual. Jeremiah's contem- 
 poraries thought it monstrous that because the fathers 
 had eaten sour grapes the teeth of the children should be 
 set on edge. Ezekiel championed, in a notable way, the 
 cause of individualism on this ground. He denounced 
 the Jews who had remained in Palestine, and who re- 
 garded themselves as the successors of the people of 
 Jehovah because they dwelt in the Holy Land and had 
 maintained some sort of existence as a people. In his 
 view only those souls which were saved from the dis- 
 persion of the exile were to count as heirs of the promise ; 
 the theocracy was not to be perpetuated by the nation, 
 but by the individual righteous men. He maintained 
 that each man lived because of his own righteousness, 
 and died because of liis own wickedness ; nay more, the 
 fate of the individual corresponded even in its fluctua- 
 tions to his moral worth at successive times. The aim 
 he pursued in this was a good one ; in view of a despair 
 which thought there was nothing for it but to pine and 
 rot away because of former sins, he Avas anxious to 
 maintain the freedom of the will, i.e., the possibility 
 of repentance and forgiveness. But the way he chose 
 for this end was not a good one ; on his showing it was 
 
APPENDIX. 215 
 
 chance which ultimately decided who was good and who 
 was wicked. The old view of retribution which allowed 
 time for judgment to operate far beyond the limit of the 
 individual life had truth in it, but this view had none. 
 Yet it possessed one merit, that it brought up a problem 
 which had to be faced, and which was a subject of re- 
 flection for a long time afterwards. 
 
 The problem assumed the form of a controversy as to 
 the principle on which piety was rewarded — this con- 
 troversy taking the place of the great contest between 
 Israel and the heathen. Were the wicked right in saying 
 that there was no God, i.e., that He did not rule and 
 judge on earth 1 Did He in truth dwell behind the clouds, 
 and did He not care about the doings of men 1 In that 
 case piety would be an illusion. Piety cannot maintain 
 itself if God makes no difference between the godly and 
 the wicked, and has nothing more to say to the one than 
 to the other ; for piety is not content to stretch out its 
 hands to the empty air, it must meet an arm descending 
 from heaven. It must have a reward, not for the sake 
 of the reward, but in order to be sure of its own reality, 
 in order to know that there is a communion of God with 
 men and a road which leads to it. The usual form of 
 this reward is the forgiveness of sins ; that is the true 
 motive of the fear of God. That is to say, as long as it 
 is well with him, the godly man does not doubt, and so 
 does not require any unmistakable evidence by which he 
 may be justified and assured of the favour of God. But 
 misfortune and pain destroy this certainty. They are 
 accusers of sin, God's warnings and corrections. Now is 
 the time to hold fast the faith that God leads the godly 
 
216 APPENDIX. 
 
 to repentance, and destroys the wicked, that He forgives 
 the sin of the former, but punishes and avenges that of 
 the latter. But this faith involves a hope of living to 
 see better things; the justification of which the good man 
 is sure must at last be attested by an objective judgment 
 of God before the whole world, and the godly delivered 
 from his sufferings. Hence the constant anxiety and 
 restlessness of his conscience ; the judgment passed upon 
 him is ultimately to be gathered from the external world, 
 and he can never be sure how it is to turn out. And a 
 principle is also at stake the whole time, namely, the 
 question whether godliness or ungodliness is right in 
 its fundamental conviction. Each individual case at 
 once affects the generality, the sufferings of one godly 
 person touch all the godly. "When he recovers and is 
 saved, they triumph; when he succumbs, or seems to 
 succumb, to death, they are cast down, unless in this 
 case they should change their minds about him and 
 hold him to be a hypocrite whom God has judged and 
 unmasked. In the same way they are all hurt at the 
 prosperity of an ungodly man, and rejoice together at 
 his fall, not from jealousy or pleasure in misfortune for 
 its own sake, but because in the one case their faith is 
 overturned, while in the other it is confirmed. 
 
 The tortures incident to this curious oscillation between 
 believing and seeing are set forth in the most trenchant 
 way in the Book of Job. Job, placed in an agonising situa- 
 tion, condemned without hope to the death of sinners, and 
 yet conscious of his godliness, demands vengeance for his 
 blood unjustly shed. But the vengeance is to be executed 
 on God, and in such a case who can be the avenger ? There 
 
APPENDIX. 217 
 
 is no one but God Himself, and thus the striking thought 
 arises, that God will be the champion against God of his 
 innocence, after having first murdered it. From the God 
 of the present he appeals to the God of the future ; but 
 the identity between these two is yet maintained, and 
 even now, the God who slays him is the sole witness of 
 his innocence, in Avhich the world and his friends have 
 ceased to believe. God must be this now if He is to 
 avenge him in the future. An inner antinomy is in this 
 way impersonated ; the view of the friends is one of 
 which the sufferer himself cannot divest himself ; hence 
 the conflict in his soul. But, supported by the un- 
 conquerable power of his good conscience, he struggles 
 till he frees himself from the delusion ; he believes more 
 firmly in the direct testimony of his conscience than in 
 tlie evidence of facts and the world's judgment about 
 him, and against the dreadful God of reality, the righteous 
 God of faith victoriously asserts Himself. 
 
 Job in the end reaches the conclusion that he cannot 
 understand God's ways. This is a negative expression of 
 the position that he holds fast, in spite of all, to himself 
 and to God ; that is to say, that not outward experience, 
 but inner feeling, is to decide. This inner feeling of the 
 union of God with the godly meets us also in some of the 
 Psalms, where, in spite of depression arising from un- 
 toward circumstances, it maintains itself as a reality which 
 cannot be shaken, which temptations and doubts even 
 tend to strengthen. It was a momentous step when the 
 soul in its relations to God ventured to take its stand 
 upon itself, to trust itself. This was an indirect product 
 of prophecy, but one of not less importance than its direct 
 
218 APPENDIX. 
 
 product, the law. The prophets declared the revelation 
 of God, -which had authority for all, but along with this . 
 they had their own personal experience, and the subjective 
 truth of which they thus became aware proved a more 
 powerful solvent and emancipator than the objective one 
 which formed the subject of their revelation. They 
 preached the law to deaf ears, and laboured in vain to 
 convert the people. But if their labour had produced no 
 outward result, it had an inner result for them. Rejected 
 by the people, they clung the more closely to Jehovah, in 
 the conviction that the defeated cause was favoured by 
 Him, that He was with them and not with the people. 
 Especially with Jeremiah did prophecy, which is designed 
 primarily to act on others, transform itself into an inner 
 converse with the Deity, which lifted him above all the 
 annoyances of his life. In this relation, however, there 
 was nothing distinctively prophetical, just because it was a 
 matter of the inner life alone, and was sufficient for itself ; 
 it was just the essence of the life of religion that the 
 prophets thus brought to view and helped to declare 
 itself. The experience of Jeremiah propagated itself and 
 became the experience of religious Israel. This was the 
 power by which Israel was enabled to rise again after 
 every fall ; the good conscience towards God, the profound 
 sentiment of union with Him, proved able to defy all the 
 blows of outward fortune. In this strength the servant, 
 despised and slain, triumphed over the world ; the broken 
 and contrite heart was clothed and set on high with the 
 life and power of the Almighty God. This divine spirit 
 of assurance rises to its- boldest expression in the 73rd 
 Psalm ; " Nevertheless I am continually with Thee ; Thou 
 
APPENDIX. 219 
 
 boldest me by my right hand ; Thou guidest me with Thy 
 counsel, and drawest me after Thee by the hand. If I 
 have Thee, I desire not heaven nor earth; if my flesh 
 and my heart fail, Thou, God, art for ever the strength 
 of my heart, and my portion." 
 
 The life surrendered is here found again in a higher 
 life, without any expression of hope of a hereafter. In 
 the Book of Job we do indeed find a trace of this hope, 
 in the form that even after the death of the martyr, God 
 may still find opportunity to justify him and pronounce 
 him innocent ; yet this idea is only touched on as a 
 distant possibility, and is at once dropped. Certainly 
 the position of that man is a grand one who can cast into 
 the scale against death and devil his inner certainty of 
 union with God — so grand indeed that we must in 
 honesty be ashamed to repeat those words of the 73 rd 
 Psalm. But the point of view is too high. The danger 
 was imminent of falling from it down into the dust and 
 seeking comfort and support in the first earthly experience 
 that might offer, or, on the other hand, sinking into 
 despair. Subjective feeling was not enough of itself to 
 outbid the contradictions of nature ; the feeling must 
 take an objective form — a world other than this one, 
 answering the demands of morality, must build itself up 
 to form a contrast to the world actually existing. The 
 merit of laying the foundations for this religious meta- 
 physic which the time called for belongs, if not to the 
 Pharisees themselves, at least to the circles from which 
 they immediately proceeded. The main features of that 
 metaphysic first appear in the Book of Daniel, where we 
 find a doctrine of the last things. "We have already 
 
220 APPENDIX. 
 
 spoken of the transition from the old prophecy to apo- 
 calypse. With the destruction of the nation and the 
 cessation of historical life, hope was released from all 
 obligation to conform to historical conditions ; it no 
 longer set up an aim to which even the present might 
 aspire, but ran riot after an ideal, at the advent of which 
 the historical development would be suddenly broken oflF. 
 To be pious was all the Jews could do at the time ; but 
 it caused them bitter regret that they had no part in the 
 government of the world, and in thought they anticipated 
 the fulfilment of their wishes. These they raised to an 
 ever higher pitch in proportion as their antagonism to 
 the heathen became more pronounced, and as the world 
 became more hostile to them and they to the world. As 
 the heathen empires stood in the way of the universal 
 dominion of Israel, the whole of them together were 
 regarded as one power, and this world-empire was then 
 set over against the kingdom of God, i.e., of Israel. The 
 kingdom of God was entirely future ; the fulfilling of the 
 law did not prepare the way for it, but was only a statu- 
 tory condition for its coming, not related to it inwardly 
 as cause to effect. History was suddenly to come to a 
 stop and cease. The Jews counted the days to the judg- 
 ment ; the judgment was the act by which God would 
 at once realise all theif wishes. The view thus taken of 
 the world's history was a very comprehensive one and 
 well worked out from its principle, yet of an entirely 
 negative character ; the further the world's history went 
 wilfully away from its goal, the nearer did it uninten- 
 tionally approach its goal. 
 
 In this view, however, the earth always continued to 
 
APPENDIX. 221 
 
 be the place of hope ; the kingdom of God was brought 
 by the judgment into earthly history ; it was on earth 
 that the ideal was to be realised. A step further, and 
 the struggle of the dualism of the earth was preluded 
 in the skies by the angels, as the representatives of the 
 different powers and nations. In this struggle a place 
 was assigned to Satan ; at first he was merely the accuser 
 whom God Himself had appointed, and in this character 
 he drew attention to the sins of the Jews before God's 
 judgment-seat, and thereby delayed the judicial sentence 
 in their favour- but ultimately (though this took place 
 late, and is not met with in the Book of Daniel) he came 
 to be the independent leader of the power opposed to 
 God, God's cause being identified withThat ofThe Jews. 
 But as this prelude of the struggle took place in heaven, 
 its result was also anticipated. The kingdom of God is 
 on earth a thing of the future, but even now it is 
 preserved in heaven with all its treasures, one day to 
 descend from there to the earth. Heaven is the place 
 where the good things of the future are kept, which 
 are not and yet must be; that is its original and true 
 signification. 
 
 But the most important question came at last to be, 
 how individuals were to have part in the glory of the 
 future ? How was it with the martyrs who had died in 
 the expectation of the kingdom of God, before it came 1 
 The doctrine of the zakuth was formed : if their merit 
 was not of service to themselves, it was yet of service to 
 others. But this was a solution with which individualism 
 could not rest content. And what of the ungodly 1 Were 
 they to escape from wrath because they died before the 
 
222 APPENDIX. 
 
 day of judgment 1 It was necessary that the departed 
 also should be allowed to take some part in the coming 
 retribution. Thus there arose — it is remarkable how late 
 and how slowly — the doctrine of the resurrection of the 
 dead, that the kingdom of God might not be of service 
 only to those who happened to be alive at the judgment. 
 Yet at first this doctrine was only used to explain par- 
 ticularly striking cases. The Book of Daniel says nothing 
 of a general resurrection, but speaks in fact only of a 
 resurrection of the martyrs and a punishment of the 
 wicked after death. With all this the resurrection is 
 not the entrance to a life above the earth but to a second 
 earthly life, to a world in which it is no longer the 
 heathen but the Jews who bear rule and take the lead. 
 Of a general judgment at the last day, or of heaven and 
 hell in the Christian sense, the Jews know nothing, 
 though these ideas might so easily have suggested them- 
 selves to them. 
 
 It is not easy to find points of view from which to 
 pronounce on the character of Judaism. It is a system, 
 but a practical system, which can scarcely be set forth 
 in relation to one leading thought, as it is an irregular 
 product of history. It lives on the stores of the past, 
 but is not simply the total of what had been previously 
 acquired ; it is full of new impulses, and has an entirely 
 different physiognomy from that of Hebrew antiquity, 
 so much so that it is hard even to catch a likeness. 
 Judaism is everywhere historically comprehensible, and 
 yet it is a mass of antinomies. We are struck with the 
 free flight of thought and the deep inwardness of feeling 
 which are found in some passages in the Wisdom and in 
 
APPENDIX. 223 
 
 the Psalms ; but, on the other hand, we meet with a 
 pedantic asceticism which is far from lovely, and with 
 pious wishes the greediness of which is ill-concealed-; and 
 these unedifying features are the dominant ones of the 
 system. Monotheism is worked out to its furthest conse- 
 quences, and at the same time is enlisted in the service 
 of the narrowest selfishness ; Israel participates in the 
 sovereignty of the One God. The Creator of heaven and 
 earth becomes the manager of a petty scheme of salvation ; 
 the living God descends from His throne to make way 
 for the law. The law thrusts itself in everywhere; it 
 commands and blocks up the access to heaven ; it regulates 
 and sets limits to the understanding of the divine working 
 on earth. As far as it can, it takes the soul out of 
 religion and spoUs morality. It demands a service of God, 
 which, though revealed, may yet with truth be called a 
 self-chosen and unnatural one, the sense and use of which 
 are apparent neither to the understanding nor the heart. 
 The labour is done for the sake of the exercise ; it does no 
 one any good, and rejoices neither God nor man. It has 
 no inner aim after which it spontaneously strives and 
 which it hopes to attain by itself, but only an outward 
 one, namely, the reward attached to it, which might as 
 well be attached to other and possibly even more curious 
 conditions. The ideal is a negative one, to keep one's 
 self from sin, not a positive one, to do good upon the 
 earth ; the morality is one which scarcely requires for its 
 exercise the existence of fellow-creatures. Now pious 
 exercises can dam up life and hold it in bounds, they may 
 conquer from it more and more ground, and at last turn 
 it into one great Sabbath, but they cannot penetrate it at 
 
224 APPENDIX. 
 
 the root. The occupation of the hands and the desire of 
 the heart fall asunder. There is no connection between 
 the practice and the ideal. 
 
 The Gospel develops hidden impulses of the Old Tes- 
 tament, but it is a protest against the ruling tendency 
 of Judaism. Jesus understands monotheism in a different 
 way from His contemporaries. They think in connection 
 with it of the folly of the heathen and their great happi- 
 ness in calling the true God their own ; He thinks of the 
 claims, not to be disputed or avoided, which the Creator 
 makes on the creature. He feels the reality of God 
 dominating the whole of life, He breathes in the fear of 
 the Judge who requires an account for every idle word, 
 and has power to destroy body and soul in hell. " No 
 man can serve two masters ; ye cannot serve God and 
 Mammon ; where your treasure is, there will your heart 
 be also." This monotheism is not to be satisfied with 
 stipulated services, how many and great soever ; it de- 
 mands the whole man, it renders doubleness of heart and 
 hypocrisy impossible. Jesus casts ridicule on the works 
 of the law, the washing of hands and vessels, the tithing 
 of mint and cummin, the abstinence even from doing good 
 on the Sabbath. Against unfruitful self-sanctification 
 He sets up another principle of morality, that of the 
 service of one's neighbour. Ho rejects that lofty kind of 
 goodness, which says to father and mother, If I dedi- 
 cate what I might give to you, that will be best even for 
 you yourselves ; He contends for the weightier matters in 
 the law, for the common morality which sees its aim in 
 the furtherance of the well-being of others, and which 
 commends itself at once to the heart of every one. 
 
APPENDIX. 225 
 
 Just this natural morality of self-surrender does He call 
 the law of God ; that supernatural morality which thinks 
 to outbid this, He calls the commandment of men. Thus 
 religion ceases to be an art which the Rabbis and Pharisees 
 understand better than the unlearned people which know 
 nothing of the law. The arrogance of the school fares ill 
 at the hands of Jesus; He will know nothing of the 
 partisanship of piety or of the separateness of the godly ; 
 He condemns the practice of judging a man's value before 
 God. Holiness shrinks from contact with sinners, but 
 He helps the world of misery and sin ; and there is no 
 commandment on which He insists more than that of 
 forgiving others their debts as one hopes for forgiveness 
 himself from Heaven. He is most distinctly opposed to 
 Judaism in His view of the kingdom of heaven, not as 
 merely the future reward of the worker, but as the present 
 goal of effort, it being the supreme duty of man to help 
 it to realise itself on earth, from the indi vidual outw ards. 
 Love is t he mea ns, and the community of lov e the enH ? 
 
 Self-denial is the chief demand of the Gospel ; it 
 means the same thing as that repentance which must 
 precede entrance into the kingdom of God. The will 
 thereby breaks away from the chain of its own acts, 
 and makes an absolutely new beginning not conditioned 
 by the past. The causal nexus which admits of being 
 traced comes here to an end, and the mutual action, 
 which cannot be analysed, between God and the soul 
 begins. This miracle does not require to be understood, 
 only to be believed, in order to take place. With men 
 it is impossible, but with God it is possible. Jesus not 
 only affirmed this, but proved it in His own person. The 
 
 P 
 
226 APPENDIX. 
 
 impression of His personality convinced the disciples of 
 the fact of the forgiveness of their sins and of their second 
 birth, and gave them courage to believe in a new divine 
 life and to live it. He had in fact lost His life and saved 
 it ; He could do as He would. He had found freedom 
 and personality in God, who alone is master of Himself, 
 and lifts those up to Himself who seek after Him. 
 
 Jesus works in the world and for the world, but with 
 His faith He stands above the world and outside it. He 
 can sacrifice Himself for the world because He asks 
 nothing from the world, but has attained in retirement 
 with God to equanimity and peace of soul. And further, 
 the entirely supra-mundane position, at which Jesus finds 
 courage and love to take an interest in the world, does 
 not lead Him to anything strained or unnatural. He 
 trusts God's Providence, and resigns Himself to His will, 
 He takes up the attitude of a child towards Him, and 
 loves best to call Him the Heavenly Father. The expres- 
 sion is simple, but the thing signified is new. He first 
 knows Himself, not in emotion but in sober quietness, to 
 be God's child ; before Him no one ever felt himself to 
 be so, or called himself so. He is the first-born of the 
 Father, yet, according to His own view, a first-born 
 among many brethren. For He stands in this relation to 
 God not because His nature is unique, but because He is 
 man ; He uses always and emphatically this general name, 
 of the race to designate His own person. In finding the 
 way to God for Himself He has opened it to all ; . along 
 with the nature of God He has at the same time discovered 
 in Himself the nature of man. 
 
 Eternity extends into the present with Him, even on 
 
APPENDIX. 227 
 
 earth He lives in the midst of the kingdom of God ; even 
 the judgment He sees inwardly accomplished here below 
 in the soul of man. Yet He is far from holding the 
 opinion that he who loves God aright does not desire that 
 God should love him in return. He teaches men to bear 
 the cross, but He does not teach that the cross is sweet and 
 that sickness is sound. A coming reconciliation between 
 believing and seeing, between morality and nature, every- 
 where forms the background of His view of the world ; 
 even if He could have done without it for His own person, 
 yet it is a thing He takes for granted, as it is an objective 
 demand of righteousness. So much is certain; for the 
 rest the eschatology of the New Testament is so thoroughly 
 saturated with the Jewish ideas of the disciples, that it is 
 difficult to know what of it is genuine. 
 
 Jesus was so positive that He did not feel any need for 
 breaking old idols, so free that no restraint could depress 
 Him, so unconquerable that even under the load of the 
 greatest accumulations of rubbish He could still breathe. 
 This ought ye to do, He said, and not to leave the other 
 undone ; He did not seek to take away one iota, but only 
 to fulfil. He never thought of leaving the Jewish com- 
 munity. The Church is not His work, but an inheritance 
 from Judaism to Christianity. Under the Persian domi- 
 nation the Jews built up an unpolitical community on the 
 basis of religion. The Christians found themselves in 
 a position with regard to the Eoman Empire precisely 
 similar to that which the Jews had occupied with regard 
 to the Persian ; and so they also founded, after the Jewish 
 pattern, in the midst of the state which was foreign and 
 hostile to them, and in which they could not feel them- 
 
228 APPENDIX. 
 
 selves at home, a religious community as their true 
 fatherland. The state is always the presupposition of 
 the Church ; but it was at first, in the case both of the 
 Jewish and of the Christian Church, a foreign state. 
 The original meaning of the Church thus disappeared 
 when it no longer stood over against the heathen world- 
 power, it having become possible for the Christians also 
 to possess a natural fatherland in the nation. In this 
 way it became much more difficult to define accurately 
 the spheres of the state and the Church respectively, 
 regarding the Church as an organisation, not as an invisible 
 community of the. faithful. The distinction of religious 
 and secular is a variable one ; every formation of a 
 religious community is a step towards the secularisation 
 of religion ; the religion of the heart alone remains an 
 inward thing. The tasks of the two competing organisa- 
 tions are not radically different in their nature ; on the 
 one side it may be said that had not the Christian religion 
 found civil order already in existence, had it come, like 
 Islam, in contact with the anarchy of Arabia instead of 
 the Empire of Rome it must have founded not the Church, 
 but the state ; on the other side it is well known that the 
 state has everywhere entered into possession of fields first 
 reclaimed to cultivation by the Church. Now we must 
 acknowledge that the nation is more certainly created by 
 God than the Church, and that God works more power- 
 Jully in the history of the nations than in Church history. 
 The Church, at first a substitute for the nation which 
 was wanting, is affected by the same evils incident to an 
 artificial cultivation as meet us in Judaism. We cannot 
 create for ourselves our sphere of life and action j better 
 
APPENDIX. 229 
 
 that it should be a natural one, given by God. And yet 
 it would be unjust to deny the permanent advantages of 
 the differentiation of the two. The Church will always 
 be able to work in advance for the state of the future. 
 The present state unfortunately is in many respects only 
 nothing more than a barrier to chaos ; if the Church has 
 still a task, it is that of preparing an inner unity of 
 practical conviction, and awakening a sentiment, first in 
 small circles, that we belong to each other. 
 
 Whether she is to succeed in this task is certainly the 
 question. The religious individualism of the Gospel is, 
 and must remain for all time, the true salt of the earth. 
 The certainty that neither death nor life can separate us 
 from the love of God drives out that fear which is opposed 
 to love ; an entirely supra-mundane faith lends courage 
 for resultless self-sacrifice and resigned obedience on 
 earth. We must succeed : sursum corda I 
 
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