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 ^1^^.-^S'^ 
 
 
 ■-^ '4. V 
 
 
f^PERTy 
 
 PEIITCETOIT 
 
 THSOLOGICAIi 
 
 BM 580 .C6 
 
 Gonder, Eustace R., 1820- 
 
 1892. 
 The origin of the Hebrew 
 
 religion 
 
THE 
 
 ORIGIN 
 
 HEBREW 
 
 RELIGION, 
 
 AN INQUIRY AND AN ARGUMENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 EUSTACE R.'CONDER, M.A., D.D. 
 
 Author of 
 The Basis of Faith;" "Outlines of the Life of Christ," etc. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY : 
 
 Paternoster Row; 65, St. Paul's Churchyard; and 
 164, Piccadilly. 
 
lirgumjent of the Trnci. 
 
 What rational explanation can be given of the Religion of Ancient 
 Israel? Characteristic features of the religion of the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures, i. Alliance of RELIGION with HISTORY. 2. 
 Oro-anic UNiTv^. 3. Development. Critical objections. Evidence 
 against authenticity of the books, negative ; in favour, positive. 
 ^I. Bible starts not with dogma, but HISTORY. Yet its whole 
 purpose religious : a history, not of hunian affairs with super- 
 natural episodes, but of God's dealings with mankind. Peculiarity 
 of the history : annals of 07ie family line, from Adam to Christ. 
 Distinguish between "substantial truth" and infallibility or inspira- 
 tion. Literary merit of Genesis. View of human hfe. Faith, 
 prayer, providence. Unique character of Hebrew national hfe. 
 Contrast between Genesis and subsequent books of Moses. i. 
 Miracles. Origin of Religion. Professor Max MuUer's view. 
 Modern repugnance to miracles. Hence rejection of Mosaic 
 authorship of Pentateuch. Science and miracle. Another form of 
 objection. Adequate purpose of miracles recorded by Moses. 
 2. Religious ceremonial, including, {a) a Sanctuary ; {b) Sacri- 
 fice ; {c) Priesthood. {a) The Tabernacle ; symbol of Divine 
 Presence. (p) Priesthood ; contrast with that of Egypt. {c) 
 Sacrifices. Ewald's erroneous assertion. Contrast with pagan 
 rites. Mutual connection of the rehgion and the history. Enor- 
 mous improbability involved in hypotheses of modern destructive 
 criticism. 
 
 II. Unity and Development. Nature of unity discoverable 
 in Bible. Must have adequate cause. Fundamental religious 
 idea : Being and Character of God. Creation. Man in moral 
 relation to his Maker. Divine authority and mercy. Contrast 
 with heathen literature. Divine attributes of 'RIGHTEOUSNESS' 
 and ' HOLINESS.' Transference of this latter idea to God. 
 Hebrew idea of holiness not ceremonial, but moral. Hebrew view 
 of SIN. Human interest of Old Testament Scriptures ; yet pervaded 
 with underlying thought of man's sin and sinfulness. Hebrew 
 terms. Conception of sin moral, not ceremonial. Central idea 
 which gives unity to religious teaching of Old Testament. Purity. 
 Tenderness. Needless to discuss the view which ranks the 
 Hebrew with pagan religions, since our whole inquiry refutes it. 
 Science is bound to study and give account of phenomena so 
 abundant and significant. Absurdity of hypothesis that the 
 national genius of the Hebrews produced their national religion. 
 The crucial test. The UNIVERSAL Religion. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE HEBREW RELIGION. 
 
 AN INQUIRY AND AN ARGUMENT. 
 HAT rational explanation, satisfactory to what 
 
 rational es- 
 
 a tliouditful and candid mind, can be pianation 
 
 ° ' can be giveE 
 
 given of tlie religion of ancient Israel, Jeiigfon of 
 as exhibited in the Old Testament iTieT* 
 Scriptures ? Are its existence and character ex- 
 plicable by the same causes Avhich have produced 
 the other ancient religions of the world ? We 
 may here leave out of view the question whether 
 in fact those religions sprang simply from the 
 working of the human mind, or had a common 
 root in primeval revelation. Let us take them as 
 we find them in the most ancient records. Would 
 it be a rational theory of the religion of ancient 
 Israel to say that it originally resembled the 
 religions of Assyria and Egypt, Phoenicia and 
 Greece ; but that these religions were somehow is gradual 
 
 development 
 
 arrested in their development, whereas the relierion ^ sufficient 
 
 ■■■ ^ ° explanation; 
 
 of Israel reached by gradual development that form 
 and force which nlace it in such stern but splendid 
 
The Origin of the Ilehretv lielifjwn. 
 
 What is the contrast with, the other faiths of mankind ? If so, 
 
 supposed what was the secret of this unique development ? 
 
 ment:' How Came it to pass that a small and despised 
 
 nation, destitute of philosophy and of art, whose 
 literature outside its sacred books has left no mark 
 on human thought, whose history was a series of 
 failures, culminating in the most tremendous over- 
 throw that ever crushed and broke up a people, 
 should have succeeded, where India, China, Egypt, 
 Greece, Eome, all failed ? How is it that Judsea 
 has produced in Christianity, which claims to be 
 simply the perfect floAver and ripe fruit of Judaism, 
 the one religion which has both the ambition and 
 the prospect of conquering the world, and furnish- 
 ing the supreme bond of unity for the human race ? 
 These are questions which claim the attention 
 of the thoughtful sceptic as much as of the Chris- 
 tian believer. He cannot afford to put them 
 lightly by. For doubt ceases to be ''honest doubt " 
 if it trifles with evidence. The only sceptic who 
 merits either respect or sympathy is he whose "open 
 eyes desire the truth." 
 
 The unique Whatovcr vicw WO adopt of the origin or of the 
 literature of toachius of tho Old Tcstamcnt Scriptures, Ave must 
 
 tlie Old o 
 
 dmit that they hold a unique place m literature. 
 
 Testament 
 Scriptures. 
 
 The translation into English, by eminent scholars, 
 of " the Sacred Books of the East," enables the 
 English reader to compare and contrast the Hebrew 
 Scriptures with all other sacred writings in their 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 5 
 
 structure and contents, as well as in their influence 
 on human thought and history. 
 
 Three characteristic features may be named as Three 
 
 , . . , . , . , . characteris- 
 
 deserving special consideration : the manner m tic features. 
 which the Hebrew Scriptures connect religion with 
 history ; their organic unity, doctrinal and his- 
 torical ; and their progressive development of 
 religious teaching."^ 
 
 What do you mean, it may be asked, by what is 
 
 •^ ' ^ } J meant by 
 
 speakinff of miity and development in the Old i^^ityand 
 
 i o t/ -L developnient 
 
 Testament Scriptures ? Do you mean to assume the Testament 
 authenticity of the several books, and that their ^'^"p^^^^^- 
 assigned dates correspond with the real order in 
 which they were produced? These are the very 
 points on which ' the most advanced modern 
 criticism' claims to have passed its sentence, and 
 overset the faith of ages. Of course. But it will 
 not do for modern criticism, while denying the 
 infallibility of the Bible, to claim infallibility for 
 its own conclusions. They too must be criticised. 
 No doubt there are points of minute scholarship 
 in Hebrew as in other ancient languages, where 
 the judgment of an expert is entitled to very great 
 respect. Yet even here, when the point is such The claims 
 
 of common 
 
 as can be made plain to an English reader, common sense. 
 sense may put in a claim to a vote. But such 
 
 ^ Other characteristics are treated with consummate force 
 and beauty in Henry Kogers' Lectures on " The Supcrhximan 
 Origin of the Bible." 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion, 
 
 The 
 
 account the 
 Scriptures 
 give of 
 themselves. 
 
 capital questions as whether the Pentateuch ^Yas 
 really written hy Moses, or is a tissue of forgeries 
 and fragments compiled a thousand years after his 
 death, do not hang on such elaborate niceties. They 
 must be weighed in bigger scales than those in 
 which critics weigh vowel j)oints and various 
 readings. They turn on broad and solid con- 
 siderations, as to which every thoughtful and edu- 
 cated English reader may qualify himself to form 
 a competent judgment. 
 
 The account these ancient documents give of 
 themselves has at all events a presumption in its 
 favour, until evidence be produced to prove them 
 unauthentic or spurious. Positive evidence against 
 them there is none, and in the nature of the case 
 can be none, unless a rival history of equal or greater 
 antiquity could be discovered. The arguments 
 against their veracity and antiquity are all indirect, 
 of the nature of objections. On the other hand, 
 the evidence in favour of the immemorial tra- 
 dition of the Hebrew nation as to their authorship 
 is positive, and of immense value ; consisting in 
 the structure and the contents of the books them- 
 selves. Add to this the impossibility of giving 
 any satisfactory account of them if they be 
 forgeries. 
 
 The candid sceptic may say, that having weighed 
 fairly both the evidence and the objections, the 
 latter appear to him to preponderate. But he must 
 
 The 
 
 indii-ect 
 character 
 of counter 
 arguments. 
 
The Origin of the Hebreiu Religion. 
 
 order an 
 argument 
 for its truth. 
 
 not treat the evidence as non-existent. And it is 
 a sound rule of botli common sense and criticism, 
 that when positive evidence is conclusive, even 
 insoluble difficulties cannot overthrow it. 
 
 Two other considerations deserve to be borne The 
 
 religious 
 
 in mind. First, that supposing the book^ of the ^^^^^^^l^^ 
 Old Testament to be genuine, any dislocation of ^IZ^^''"" 
 their real historical order (such as the conjecture order"^^ 
 that portions of the Pentateuch were written by 
 Ezekiel or by Ezra) must altogether confuse and 
 disguise their religious teaching. Secondly, that ^j^J^J^g^g, 
 if these books, taken in their traditional order, ?r^aditionai 
 exhibit a unity and progress which disappear on 
 any other arrangement, a powerful argument will 
 be supplied that the traditional order is the true 
 order. If the pieces of a model fitted in one order 
 produce a symmetrical building, and in any other 
 arrangement a shapeless heap, no sane mind doubts 
 which of these shows the design with which they 
 were fashioned. 
 
 Guided by these plain principles let us examine 
 those characteristics of the Hebrew Scriptures 
 above indicated ; viz., the vital connection they 
 present between religion and history ; the unity 
 of thought, sentiment, and practical aim underlying 
 their great variety of form ; and the progressive 
 DEVELOPMENT of rcKgious doctrino which they 
 display, — not final, but pointing forward to a 
 fuller unfolding. 
 
The Origin of the Hehreiv Religion. 
 
 The Bible 
 begins with 
 history. 
 
 Its aim is 
 religious. 
 
 The Bible begins not witb dogma, but with 
 history. It says nothing of the being and attributes 
 of God, but shows the Creator at work. 
 
 "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." 
 
 It says nothing of religion, but shows the ancestors 
 of mankind created in the image of God, and 
 placed at the outset in moral relations of obedience 
 and responsibility to their Creator. This is its 
 method throughout. It gives us no religious 
 teaching apart from particular persons, places, and 
 events. Even the law of the Ten Commandments, 
 the most perfect summary of moral and religious 
 duty extant before Christianity, is recorded as 
 matter of historical fact — uttered by a Divine 
 Yoice to the assembled people of Israel, and 
 afterwards graven on stone tablets " with the 
 finger of God." Yet it is impossible thoughtfully 
 to study these writings without perceiving that 
 their whole aim and meaning is religious. The 
 story they tell is not that of human affairs, with a 
 mingling of the supernatural, but of God's dealings 
 with men. Even those painful and revolting 
 episodes which a historian anxious for the honour 
 of his race would gladly have omitted, are found 
 on this view to have their place and meaning. 
 Another peculiar feature of the early portion of 
 
The Oriyin of the Hehreiv Religion. 9 
 
 these records is, that they take the form of family The early 
 
 . . . Scriptures 
 
 annals. In Genesis iv. a fragment is given, tracing are family 
 the line of primogeniture for six generations. But 
 in chap. v. a new departure is indicated by the 
 title " The booh of the generations of Adam ; " and 
 the line is traced from Seth to Noah. In chap. x. 
 we have '' The generations of the sons of Noah," the 
 family tree of nations. In chap. xi. " The genera- 
 tions (or genealogic record) of Shem,'' traces the 
 line to Abraham. It has often been erroneously 
 supposed that this is a list of eldest sons. Abraham 
 himself, like Shem, was a younger son. Abraham's 
 line divides in the twin sons of Isaac; but it is 
 not till after the death of Isaac that the family 
 records take a new start ; chap, xxxvi. giving "The 
 generations of Esau, tvho is Edom ; " ^ and chap, 
 xxxvii. introducing the history of Joseph with the 
 words " These are the generations of Jacob!' After 
 this, there is no further break. The family of 
 Jacob gradually develops into the twelve tribes 
 which constituted the nation of the ''B'ney Israel,'' 
 Children of Israel. What makes this genealogical 
 character of Old Testament history the more note- 
 worthy is, that in the New Testament Scriptures 
 
 1 The discussions which have been raised on vers. 31, etc., 
 do not concern us here. See, e.g., the Speaker's Comm. on 
 this chapter. Supposing it can be shown that these verses were 
 added by a later pen, this no more affects the integrity and 
 authenticity of Genesis than our modern practice of making 
 additions to ancient books in the form of notes afifects the 
 authority of such books. 
 
The Origin of the Hebreiu Religion. 
 
 These old 
 genealogies 
 the starting 
 point of 
 Christianity. 
 
 A. continu- 
 ous chain 
 of Divine 
 manifesta- 
 tion re- 
 presented 
 by Old and 
 New 
 
 Testament 
 along a 
 single line 
 of human 
 life. 
 
 The fact 
 unique and 
 inexplicable 
 on any 
 theory but 
 the reality 
 of the 
 iJivine 
 manifesta- 
 tion and the 
 substantial 
 truth of the 
 history. 
 
 it is taken as the starting point of Christianity. 
 In the first and third Grospels, the line of A braham, 
 Israel, Judah, David, is traced down to Him whom 
 St. Paul calls "the second Adam." With Him 
 the record stops, never to interest mankind further. 
 
 Along this single line of human life, claiming 
 to connect the life of the first human being with 
 the times of the Roman Empire, the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, followed by the Christian Scriptures, 
 represent an equally continuous chain of Divine 
 manifestation and Divine dealing as having been 
 carried on, assuming for some fifteen centuries a 
 national form ; yet from first to last designed for 
 the benefit of all nations of mankind. 
 
 IN'othing parallel to this is to be discovered in 
 the whole domain of human literature, or of human 
 religion beside. It must have a meaning and an 
 explanation. And the more deeply it is studied, 
 the more difficult I beiieve it will be found to 
 invent any explanation other than the reality of 
 the Di^dne manifestation, and the substantial truth 
 of the history. If Moses was the writer of Genesis, 
 we can well understand how he may have been 
 able to collect and arrange the sacred traditions of 
 his forefathers, together with those which may 
 have been preserved in the family of the " Priests 
 of Midian," amongst whom he spent forty years 
 of his long life. But if Moses' authorship be 
 denied, and the Pentateuch supposed a compilation 
 
llie Origin of the Hehreiu Religion. 11 
 
 of late date by various hands, its form, style, 
 contents, and religious teaching furnish an in- 
 soluble problem. 
 
 'I have spoken of ^' the substantial truth of the no theory 
 
 of inspira- 
 
 history/^ because we must not here assume any ti^n 
 
 •^ *' assumed.. 
 
 theory of inspiration or infallibility. It is quite 
 possible to believe that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, 
 and wrote in perfect good faith, and yet to suppose 
 that he had no means of discriminating historic 
 fact from legendary fiction in the annals of his 
 forefathers. He wrote (it may be argued) what 
 he believed to be true ; but criticism is to be 
 applied to test the actual truth of his narrative. 
 Take for example the account of the Creation. To Pj^f^^i^ies 
 
 ^ felt with 
 
 some readers the employment of the word " day " fnspiratfoi^ 
 appears so irreconcilable with the facts of geology 
 as hopelessly to shut out the notion of Divine 
 inspiration. To others, on the contrary, no less 
 thoughtful and competent, the general agreement 
 of that marvellously terse record with the history 
 of life graven in the rocks, is nothing short of 
 a miracle of knowledge, utterly beyond the reach 
 of the unaided human mind in that remote age, or 
 indeed in any age previous to our own. 
 
 Again, the long term of life ascribed to the 
 antediluvian patriarchs, and to their descendants 
 down to Abraham (and even later), appears to 
 some critics self-evidently fabulous. To others, 
 the present brevity of human life, and the rapid 
 
12 
 
 The Origin of the Hehreiv Religion. 
 
 A paradoxi- 
 cal opinion, 
 that the 
 early nar- 
 ratives of 
 Genesis are 
 Divinely- 
 inspired 
 myths. 
 
 decay of the bodily organs, appear perplexing 
 and mysterious ; and it seems to them inherently 
 probable that the early generations of mankind, 
 nearer the fountain of life, possessed a far larger 
 share of vital power, involving a capacity no longer 
 possessed of renewing tissues and organs during 
 many centuries. 
 
 The paradoxical opinion has even been main- 
 tained, with great ability and with undoubted sin- 
 cerity, that the early narratives of Genesis are 
 mythical legends, but are nevertheless divinely 
 inspired. To those who bow with unreserved faith 
 to the teaching of our Lord and His apostles, the 
 testimony of the I^ew Testament to the historical 
 truth of those narratives, seems sufficient and 
 decisive. But at whatever judgment the reader 
 arrives on these and the like points (or even if he 
 holds his judgment in suspense), the religious 
 teaching of Genesis — the general view of Divine 
 manifestation to man and dealing with man — 
 abides the same, and demands to be considered and 
 accounted for. 
 
 The wonderful simplicity and terseness of the 
 Book of Genesis probably conceal from the mul- 
 titude of readers its transcendent literary merit. 
 The story of Joseph is perhaps the finest example 
 of narrative in literature ; while the speech of 
 Judah is an unsurpassed model of natural eloquence. 
 The story of the mission of Abraham's servant to 
 
 The 
 
 religious 
 teaching of 
 Genesis 
 unaffected 
 by the 
 judgment 
 formed on 
 such points. 
 
The Origin of the Hehreiu Religion. 18 
 
 Mesopotamia is equally perfect in its way ; but its 
 fulness of detail — the scale of the narrative — has 
 no parallel in Scripture. Had the Bible narratives 
 in general been given on a similar scale of detail, 
 the bulk of the Scriptures would have been 
 increased manifold. 
 
 The feature of Old Testament religion we have 
 been considering, is not peculiar to Genesis or to 
 the Pentateuch. It pervades the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures. It is not that History is made the medium of Religion 
 
 the soul of 
 
 reUqious instruction, i hat would be a most narrow the history 
 
 "^ , in the 
 
 and mistaken view of the matter. It is that Hebrew 
 
 Scriptures. 
 
 Religion is shown as the soul of history ; the 
 supreme reality and central power in human 
 affairs ; the deepest foundation of human life. 
 But while this key-note rings loud and clear specially so 
 throughout the Bible, it is struck in Genesis with Book of . 
 
 Genesis. 
 
 unsurpassed boldness and truth. God is shown 
 as the ultimate source of all being, preparing the 
 earth from the beginning to be the home of 
 man. Man's very existence is traced to God's God's 
 
 -TT- 1M -1 relation to 
 
 purpose to realize His own likeness m human the earth, 
 
 ■•■ •■■ man, 
 
 nature. Man is shown as conversant with God, society, 
 
 ' moral evil. 
 
 as soon as he began to know himself and the 
 world around him. The foundations of marriage, 
 property, labour, moral duty and responsibility, 
 are all laid in God's revealed will, and man's 
 conscious relation to his Maker. Moral evil, or 
 sin, is represented as wilful disobedience to the 
 
14 
 
 The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 
 
 Human 
 life as a 
 whole. 
 
 Faith. 
 Prayer. 
 
 Providence. 
 
 known will of God. The tendency to evil is shown 
 to be hereditary as well as personal ; and teeming 
 with seeds of increase. Human life is regarded 
 as a whole; and God is seen as the Ruler and 
 Judge of Mankind, as well as the personal Friend 
 and Saviour of every one who fears and trusts 
 Him. Faith, as the mainspring and sheet anchor 
 of the religious life ; Prayer, as direct personal 
 converse with the Unseen Father of spirits, and 
 as actually heard and answered by Him ; and 
 Divine Providence as regulating all human 
 affairs from the greatest to the least, are so ex- 
 emplified in these ancient Hebrew annals, that the 
 story of Abraham, of Jacob, of Jose23h, possesses 
 an undecaying charm for Christian minds of the 
 highest spiritual culture'. They are typical for all 
 time. No example of after ages has been able to 
 cast them into the shade. 
 
 The ^'Pentateuch" is so called because, from 
 time immemorial, perhaps by the author himself, 
 it has been divided into five sections or " books." 
 But there is no break of continuity. The narrative 
 passes briefly over the centuries, at first of peaceful 
 prosperity, then of bitter adversity, during which 
 Israel's descendants " increased abundantly, and 
 multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty." It 
 hastens to tell the story of the deliverance from 
 bondage, and of the creation of an organised nation 
 out of the twelve clans which claimed Joseph and 
 
 No break of 
 continuity 
 in the 
 Pentateuch. 
 
 The story 
 of the 
 deliverance. 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 15 
 
 his brothers as their ancestors. But it links on Linked with 
 
 • 1 1 f» T 111* ^^^*^ history 
 
 this history with the story of Joseph, by his of Joseph. 
 remarkable bequest concerning his embalmed re- 
 mains ; which bequest we are assured was reve- 
 rently obeyed on the departure of Israel from 
 Egypt, and finally carried out after more than 
 forty ye-ars in the Promised Land (Ex. xiii. 19 ; 
 Josh. xxiv. 32). 
 
 With the narrative of the Exodus, the forty 
 years in the wilderness, and the conquest of 
 Canaan, is interwoven the record of the National J^^tionai 
 Code and Constitution, political, religious, moral, constuu- 
 and social. The historic reality of the Divine 
 
 The 
 
 manifestation to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, is Divine 
 
 manifesta- 
 
 assnmed as the necessary starting-point of God's ^J,^^*^^^^ 
 dealings with their descendants. His promise to 
 Abraham is treated as a 'covenant,' to which 
 
 A fresh 
 covenant. 
 
 gS Wiin liitJii ucauciiuaiito. xxio jjivi^Lioo uv^ Jacob the 
 
 starting 
 point of 
 
 Divine faithfulness stands irrevocably pledged, dealings 
 
 with their 
 
 But a new starting point is given immediately descendants. 
 after the deliverance, by a fresh * covenant ' 
 granted by Jehovah, and freely accepted by the 
 people. . 
 
 ' ' Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out 
 of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of 
 Jacob, and tell the children of Israel ; Ye have seen what I did 
 unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and 
 brought you unto Myself. Now therefore if ye will obey My 
 voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar 
 treasure unto Me above all people : for all the earth is mine; and 
 ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. . . 
 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and 
 
10 
 
 The Origin of the llehveiu Religion. 
 
 The 
 
 description 
 of the 
 
 founding of 
 the nation 
 absolutely 
 unique. 
 
 laid before their faces all these words which the Lord com- 
 mauded him. And all the people answered together, and said, 
 All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned 
 the words of the people unto the Lord." (Ex. xix. 3-8.) 
 
 Such a record has no parallel, in fact or fiction. 
 Many law-givers have claimed Divine authority. 
 Many sacred books have been accounted Divinely 
 inspired. Many nations have deemed themselves 
 patronised by a national deity, and favourites of 
 heaven. But this description of the founding of a 
 nation, and laying the basis of national legislation, 
 by a solemn contract of sovereignty and obedience 
 between the Almighty Creator and the representa- 
 tives of the whole nation, is absolutely unique in 
 its sober majesty, severe literal reality, and moral 
 grandeur. 
 
 On the basis thus laid, the whole fabric of legis- 
 lation and framework of national life, according to 
 the books of Moses, rested. All the subsequent 
 history proceeds from this starting point. The 
 religion of personal faith, prayer, and obedience, 
 depicted in Genesis, is never lost sight of ; but it 
 is overshadowed by the religion of national faith, 
 public worship, and obedience to the law binding 
 on the nation. The Ten Commandments, and the 
 subsequent laws given by Moses, are expressed in 
 such a form that the word '' Thou " may apply 
 equally to the individual Israelite or to the nation. 
 Divine providence and government are illustrated 
 on a corresponding scale. The wanderings of 
 
 The "whole 
 fabric of 
 national 
 life rested 
 on this 
 Divinely 
 laid basis. 
 
The Origin of the Hehrevj Religion. 17 
 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the sufferings 
 and glory of Joseph, illustrate God's care and 
 control of personal history down to its least 
 details. Egypt, the Red Sea, Sinai, the desert, 
 the manna, the water from the rock, the pillar of 
 cloud and fire, teach a like lesson in regard to 
 NATIONAL history, on a scale never equalled, never 
 to be repeated. 
 
 The religious teaching of the remaining four 
 books of Moses stands therefore in vivid contrast 
 with that of Genesis, especially in two of their 
 most striking features : a stupendous series of 
 MIRACLES, and an elaborate religious ceremonial 
 involving a hereditary priesthood. 
 
 1. Two unparalleled miracles are recorded in The two 
 
 great 
 
 Genesis : the Deluo:e, and the Destruction of miracles in 
 
 o Genesis. 
 
 Sodom and its neighbour cities. These excepted, 
 miracles occupy no prominent place, save in the 
 form of those Divine communications, by voices, 
 visions, angelic apparitions, and the like, which 
 were indispensable in the absence of any written 
 revelation, if man was to converse with his Maker, 
 and learn His will. 
 
 The ori™, not simply of the Hebrew religion. The origin 
 
 ,, , ^ '' , of religion. 
 
 but of religion itself, as a prominent fact of human 
 nature and history, has been debated as a riddle 
 yet needino* solution. The Bible account of the TheBibie 
 
 -^ o ^ ^ account. 
 
 ORIGIN OF RELIGION is that man began his journey 
 
 on this globe not as a deserted orphan, turned 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 The Origin of the Hehreiu Religion. 
 
 adrift to seek God as best he could, but in com- 
 munion with the Father of spirits. God talked 
 with him, and he could talk with God. God 
 marked for him the path of duty, and it lay in his 
 choice to walk in it, or to wander from it. If men 
 ceased to know God, it was by their own neglect 
 and sin; because, as St. Paul says — "They refused 
 to have God in their knowledge." ^ 
 
 This view of a primeval revelation is strongly 
 combated, even by writers who hold that religion 
 is natural and indispensable to man. Professor 
 Max MUller, in his extremely able and fascinating 
 Lectures on the Origin and Science of Eeligion, 
 speaks even with contempt of the belief that 
 religion originated in Divine revelation. It is, 
 he argues, an absurdity. 
 
 According 
 to Max 
 Mullor, the 
 concept 
 of the 
 
 Divine must 
 come before 
 Divinity 
 can be 
 predicated 
 of this 
 or that. 
 
 "When man has once arrived at a stage of thought when 
 he caia call anything, be it one or many, God, he has achieved 
 more than half his journey. He has found the predicate God, 
 and he has henceforth to look for the subjects only to which that 
 predicate is truly applicable. What we want to know is, how 
 man first arrived at the concept of the divine, and out of what 
 elements he framed it ; afterwards only comes the question, how 
 he was able to predicate the divine of this or that, of the one 
 or of the man}'. ' ' ^ 
 
 By j)arity of reasoning it ought to be impossible 
 for a child to know its mother until it has '' found 
 the predicate," or "framed the concept," * Mother.' 
 
 1 Rom. i. 28, R.V. 
 
 2 Lectures on the Origin and Growth of BeJigion, page 642. 
 Ed. 1882. 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 19 
 
 Afterwards only ouo^lit to come the question to Contrary to 
 
 •^ ° -^ analogj'. 
 
 whom that predicate is applicable, and whether 
 he has many mothers or only one. The fact, as 
 everybody knows, is the other way. A predicate 
 implies language. A concept implies power to 
 abstract and generalize : it is a generalized judg- 
 ment, or group or series of judgments, applicable 
 in virtue of a common name to several objects. 
 None but a mother fully knows all that the pre- 
 dicate or concept " mother " stands for. But long 
 before the cradled child can perform any such 
 intellectual feats as abstraction and generaliza- 
 tion — not only before he can talk, but before he 
 suspects that there is such a thing as speech, he 
 is perfectly conscious of his mother's presence and 
 love. Feeling awakes while reason yet slumbers, 
 and opens the door to knowledge. The infant born 
 blind, to whom its mother is an invisible presence, 
 acquires the same emotions, the same certainty, 
 through the sensations of hearing and touch. The 
 nascent intelligence instinctively penetrates be- 
 hind the veil of sensation into the world of spirit. 
 
 Precisely similar, according to the account m a^ordance 
 Genesis, was the method by w^hich the Eternal account 
 Father of spirits revealed Himself to His new- with human 
 born offspring. We a]'e neither warranted nor 
 forbidden by any express statement to assume any 
 visible manifestation of Divine glory to our first 
 parents. They " heard the voice of the Lord 
 
20 
 
 The Origin of the Hehreiv Religion. 
 
 Thought 
 and speech. 
 
 The 
 
 acquisition 
 of language 
 
 God," They were sensible of an awful, com- 
 manding but loving and protecting Presence. 
 They conversed with their Maker. Thought and 
 speech are represented as already called into 
 exercise, in the naming of the lower creatures, 
 before man found "a help meet for him," — a 
 companion spirit akin to himself. It is reasonable 
 to think that the current of intellectual, moral, and 
 spiritual life, as well as physical, flowed strong, 
 so near to the fountain head. The task of ac- 
 quiring language, which toilsomely occupies two or 
 three years or more of infancy, may have been 
 condensed into a few weeks, days, or hours. Our 
 parents could already understand the language of 
 command, promise, and warning, when they were 
 placed under law, and their welfare made de- 
 pendent on their obedience. 
 
 Compared with recent hypotheses of the slow 
 and painful ascent of man from irrational, speech- 
 less, lawless, godless apehood, the Bible account 
 has at all events the advantage of dignity, beauty, 
 intelligibleness, and analogy with the known facts 
 of human experience. 
 
 The two tremendous miracles of destruction 
 which are repeatedly referred to in the New 
 Testament as typical examples of Divine judgment 
 on sin — the Deluge, and the overthrow of the 
 Cities of the Plain— stand out in awful and vivid 
 
 The Bible 
 account 
 of man. 
 
 contrast with the sreneral tenour of the narrative 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 21 
 
 in Genesis. These excepted, tlie miracles of the The 
 
 •^ miracles 
 
 Deliverance from Egypt, and of the Wilderness, ^f^the^^ 
 are as unprecedented in their colossal greatness ^ndemess. 
 as they are unique in character. Modern criticism 
 finds in these miracles unquestionable proof of 
 what it terms the " unhistorical " character of the 
 narrative. Eepugnance to miracles is a marked 
 feature of our age, though by no means peculiar 
 to it. The so-called scientific argument against The 
 
 scientific 
 
 miracles is in substance that mvented by David argument 
 
 against 
 
 in 
 substance 
 
 Hume' 
 
 Hume in the last century.^ Stripped of ingenious ™ks 
 rhetoric it amounts to this : Miracles are incredible ^^^^'''f' 
 because they are impossible ; they are impossible 
 because they have never been known to happen ; 
 and the proof that they have never been known to 
 happen is, that they are incredible and impossible. 
 Any experience, therefore, which affirms that they 
 have actually been witnessed must be false. Thus 
 barely stated, this celebrated argument makes but 
 a poor show of either science or logic. 
 
 Professor Huxley has clearly and candidly pointed out the Huxley on 
 
 error of Hume's argument {"Hume," p. 133). Buthe misses the 
 mark altogether when he tries to illustrate the incredibility of 
 miracles from the supposed alleged occurrence of some isolated 
 incredible phenomenon, such as the apparition of a live centaur. 
 The miracles of Scripture are not isolated occurrences. Their 
 evidence consists in their setting, their vital place in the history, 
 and the impossibility of really explaining the history without 
 them. If a race of centaurs had left their bones in the rocks, 
 we should be compelled to believe in their existence ; and the 
 miracles of the Pentateuch and of the Gospels have left stronger 
 witnesses than fossil bones — living results, 
 
 Hume, 
 
22 
 
 Tlte Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 
 
 The 
 
 necessity 
 of scepticism 
 to deny 
 the Mosaic 
 aiithorship 
 of the 
 Pentateuch. 
 
 The effect 
 of intense 
 culture of 
 science. 
 
 Hence the sceptic is forced to maintain that the 
 Pentateuch was not written by Moses. Because, 
 setting aside not only insj)iration but even honesty, 
 if the great Lawgiver simply j^ossessed ordinary 
 common-sense, it is incredible that he should have 
 based his whole legislation on imaginary prodigies, 
 and appealed to the whole nation to testify to the 
 truth of accounts which every man, woman, and 
 child knew to be fables. If then Moses really 
 wrote the Pentateuch, the miracles recorded in 
 Exodus and Deuteronomy must really have taken 
 place. They are facts of which science is as much, 
 bound to take account, as of any other facts in 
 human experience. 
 
 That the intense culture of science begets in 
 many minds a disposition to scepticism regarding 
 miracles (or even scepticism of a wider range) is 
 neither a stain upon science nor an argument for 
 unbelief. It is simply an example of the infirmity 
 of human intellect. Absorbing devotion to any 
 branch of study always involves the j^eril of getting 
 the intellect cramped in one attitude, the mental 
 vision stinted to one focus. Pre- occupied with the 
 grand ideas of immutable law, and of the un- 
 changing order of nature, the student of science 
 is apt to forget that in every experiment by which 
 he interrogates nature, every word he utters, every 
 movement of his limbs and fingers, he is a living 
 example of the power of personal will to control 
 
The Origin of the Hebreiu Religion. 23 
 
 nature without interrupting the uniformity of law. 
 
 A miracle is simply an exercise of the Divine will ^^^i^^g 
 
 to produce a special result. It is absurd to suppose 
 
 the Creator devoid of that power which is put 
 
 forth by every child who flings a stone into the 
 
 air, hits a mark with an arrow, or in any other 
 
 way subjects matter and force to his will. It is 
 
 ridiculous to assert that the Almighty Maker has 
 
 so tied His own hands with the laws of His own 
 
 universe, that He cannot do what He sees wise 
 
 and good to do. 
 
 '' Miracles," the sceptic may rejoin, "are not refomder. 
 abstractly impossible, but it is incredible that 
 the Creator would ever derange the grand and 
 solid order of His universe for the purpose of 
 astonishing or converting a few thousands of half- 
 barbarous Hebrews, the rest of the world mean- 
 while remaining ignorant of the alleged miracles." 
 The argument is thus removed from scientific 
 ground, where it has no real standing, to the moral, 
 which is doubtless its proper field. Calmly ex- Reaiiyan 
 
 -^ *• '' argument m 
 
 amined in this light, the objection against the ^^J^^Jfef 
 miracles of the Pentateuch is transformed into a 
 powerful argument in their favour. For supposing 
 that the special exercise of Divine power which 
 we term miracle is credible, provided the end to 
 be answered is of adequate importance, let the 
 reader consider whether any end could be more 
 worthy than to impress the mind of a whole nation 
 
24 
 
 The Origin of the Hehreiu Religion, 
 
 The 
 lessons 
 designed 
 to be 
 
 taught by 
 miracles. 
 
 In no other 
 way could 
 the Hebre-Wf 
 have 
 learned 
 them. 
 
 with an indelible force which no lapse of time 
 could weaken, the lesson of the omnipotence, 
 wisdom, goodness, and power of the Creator, and 
 the vanity of whatever else is called God ; to 
 inspire their faith, attract their love, awe them 
 into implicit obedience, and prepare their minds 
 to receive the Divine law as the basis of personal, 
 social, and national life ? Especially if this nation 
 traced back its origin to ancestors to whom special 
 Divine manifestations had been made, and promises 
 given regarding their remote posterity; and was 
 designed in fulfilment of those promises to keep 
 alive the li^-ht of sacred tradition, and to furnish 
 in the fulness of time the teachers of the whole 
 Human Race. 
 
 In what other way is it conceivable that these 
 lessons could have been effectually taught to the 
 Hebrews ? True, the immense majority of man- 
 kind were ignorant, and even down to the present 
 day, are ignorant both of the miracles and of the 
 lessons. But this is but one example of a law 
 which governs all human progress. Truth, like 
 light, radiates from fixed centres. Great discoveries 
 destined in the long run to revolutionize human 
 life and history, are at first the possession of a few, 
 or of a single mind. As matter of historic fact, an 
 unbroken living chain of religious faith, teaching, 
 sympathy, prayer, and practice, connects the tent 
 of Abraham and the legislation of Sinai, through 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 25 
 
 the life and teaching of Jesus, with the religious 
 life of modern Christendom, and with the moral 
 power (the only one yet discovered) which has 
 shown itself capable in the Sandwich Islands, in 
 Polynesia, in New Guinea, in Madagascar, in 
 South and Central Africa, of lifting half- barbarous 
 or wholly savage and brutal tribes into civilization, 
 morality, and liberty. 
 
 2. The second strona: contrast between the The Mosaic 
 
 ^ ceremonial. 
 
 religious teaching of Genesis and those of the later 
 books of Moses, is presented by the elaborate 
 EELiGious CEREMONIAL Ordained by the Mosaic 
 law. The leading elements of this system were 
 three : a sanctuary or consecrated centre of wor- 
 ship ; sacrifices, most accurately discriminated and 
 classified, and an hereditary priesthood. 
 
 The Tabernacle, or " Tent of the Testimony," The 
 which accompanied the march of Israel, taken 
 down when the host moved, and set up where they 
 halted, taught the great principle (a lesson like- 
 wise taught at the Burning Bush, and at Sinai) 
 that sanctity is not inherent in any consecrated 
 spot, but depends on the Divine Presence, to be 
 expected and bestowed wherever the people of 
 God are assembled. What the Tabernacle was to 
 the Camp, the Temple afterwards was to the Land 
 and to the Holy City. 
 
 The principal idea symbolised in the Tabernacle Jlnc?^^^' 
 was evidently that of Divine Presence — Jehovah 
 
26 
 
 The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 
 
 Worship and 
 
 sacrifice 
 
 secondary 
 
 to the idea 
 
 of the 
 
 Divine 
 
 Presence. 
 
 An here- 
 ditary 
 Priesthood. 
 
 dwelling in the midst of Israel. The ideas of 
 worshijo and sacrifice were secondary, dependent 
 on this. The pillar of cloud and of fire was the 
 visible miraculous witness that this Divine Presence 
 was a reality. The people were to consider them- 
 selves a nation of priests. Sanitary regulations, 
 military order in camp or on march, political 
 assemblies, personal behaviour, as well as religious 
 worship, all were to be ruled by this sublime idea 
 — the presence of the Divine King with His chosen 
 people.^ 
 
 An hereditary priesthood was familiar to the 
 Israelites as an Egyptian institution. But whereas 
 the priests of Egypt were a territorial caste, over 
 whose lands the State had no control (Gen. xlvii. 
 22, 26), the law of Moses enacted that the tribe 
 of Levi should not share in the division of the 
 land of Canaan, excepting a number of allotted 
 
 ^ E.g., Ex. XXV. 8; xxix. 42-46 ; xxxiii. 15, 16 ; Lev. xxvi. 
 12 ; Deut. xxiii. 14. Our English translators have not been 
 careful to preserve the distinction between the two Hebrew 
 words applied to the tabernacle ; mishkan, habitation, and 
 ohel, tent. The term ShchinaJ', \ised in later Hebrew for the 
 manifestation of the Di\dne glory, is connected with the first 
 word (cf. John i. 14), The two ai'e distinguished in Ex. xl. 
 18, 19. The habitation or tabernacle proper was the structure 
 of gilded boards, with its hangings of woven work. The tent 
 of goat's hair (Ex. xxvi. 7) was spread over this inner structure. 
 The covering {mikseh) of leather and sealskin (see Sjyecdri-'s 
 Comm. on Ex. xxv. 5, for this rendering) seems to have been a 
 light strong waterproof over-roof, to throw off rain and snow. 
 The same word is used of the deck or roof of Noah's ark, 
 Gen. viii. 13. 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 27 
 
 cities, eacli with a narrow strip of land surrounding 
 it. Consecrated to the service of Jehovah, they 
 were to be sustained by the freewill offerings of 
 the nation. 
 
 Animal sacrifices, unlike the tabernacle and ^^^^^^^ 
 the tribal priesthood, were no novelty. From 
 the beginning they had been recognised as the 
 appointed mode of Divine worship. The Book of 
 Genesis contains no record of their institution; 
 but the statement (Gen. iii. 21) that after the 
 transgression of our first parents the Lord God 
 clothed them with skins, has been reasonably 
 interpreted to imply that they were commanded to 
 sacrifice the beasts whose skins they w^ere then 
 instructed to prepare and wear, as symbols of the 
 covenng or pardon of sin through atonement. 
 
 What appears to have been novel in the sacri- The 
 
 ^ ^ classification 
 
 ficial ritual established by Moses, was the elaborate ^f^^.J'^J^f 
 distinction and classification of animal sacrifices 
 under the three principal kinds of burnt- offering, 
 sin-offering, and peace-offering or thank-offering. 
 The name for the first literally means " that which 
 goeth up," namely, in fire and smoke to heaven. 
 The second (the name for which properly means 
 '' sin "), includes the "trespass- offering." Autho- 
 rities are divided as to the meaning of the name 
 of the third class — "peace-offering," or "thank- 
 offering " ; but the general idea is the same. Ewald fJ^^^^jV', 
 asserts that previous to the legislation of Sinai " the 
 
28 
 
 The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 
 
 Destitute of 
 
 adequate 
 
 proof. 
 
 Ideas 
 
 symbolised 
 in sacrifice. 
 
 most varied forms of sacrifice had been long iu 
 operation, each with its special drift and correspond- 
 ing belief.^ But he can furnish no proof of this 
 assertion beyond the casual intimations in Ex. x. 25 ; 
 xviii. 12 (possibly Gen. xxxi. 54), that some dis- 
 tinctions were recognised. The sacrifices of Noah 
 and of Job are expressly called '' burnt- offerings " ; 
 and from Genesis xxii. 2 we gather that tbose 
 of Abraham were of the same character. It is 
 generally acknowledged that the most prominent 
 idea symbolised in this kind of sacrifice is that 
 of complete consecration to God. But the idea of 
 atonement for sin is very plainly recognised in Job 
 i. 5 ; xlii. 8. In like manner, the idea of atone- 
 ment must not be excluded from the peace-offering, 
 as is plain from Lev. iii. I, 2 ; xvii. 1-14. During 
 the sojourn in the wilderness, when the main 
 sustenance of the Israelites was the daily manna, 
 no beast was to be slaughtered for food without 
 being treated as a peace-offering.^ 
 
 The sacredness of blood, as representing the 
 soul or life, was indicated in the law given to Noah 
 (Gen. ix. 4). But the atoning value of blood is 
 first distinctly set forth in the case of the Passover 
 Lamb (Exodus xii.), which may be considered the 
 prototype of the peace-offerings. Ewald truly 
 
 The 
 
 sacredness 
 of blood. 
 
 ^ Avtiquitics of Israel, p. 25, Solly's translation. 
 ^ Compare Deut. xii. 15, 16, for the modification of this law 
 after they entered the Promised Land. 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 29 
 
 says : " No heathen nation had such ideas about 
 human sin and Divine grace as had the people of 
 Israel ... so that it was only in this nation that 
 the blood assumed this unique and exalted sig- 
 nificance, and only there that it became the centre 
 of the whole sacrificial procedure." 
 
 Among heathen nations, as in the poems of Heathen 
 Homer, we find the custom of offering to the 
 gods a portion of the flesh and a libation of the 
 wine at banquets. At first sight this seems closely nesem- 
 
 . blance to 
 
 to resemble the thank-offering or peace- offering oi the thank- 
 Hebrew worship. But on reflection we discover a ^^^^^j^^ 
 wide and important difference between sacrificing Difference. 
 a part of the feast and feasting on a sacrifice. In 
 the one case, the gods were invoked as guests at 
 the banquet ; in the other, God Himself is regarded 
 as bidding His children to His table. Thus, of 
 the seventy chiefs who with Moses, Aaron, and 
 two of Aaron's sons, were admitted to the feast of 
 the peace-offerings in Sinai, on the ratification of 
 the covenant, and to a vision of the Divine glory, 
 we read, '' They saw God, and did eat and drink." 
 (Exodus xxiv. 5-11.) 
 The connection between Relision and History, connection 
 
 '-' " between 
 
 noticed above as the first great distinctive character ^n^gj^tory 
 of the religion of the Old Testament Scriptures, is Sarkfd'with 
 stronerlv marked with reprard to these three essential Sbemade, 
 
 ^ ^M Priesthood, 
 
 elements of the system set up by Moses: the andsacri- 
 
 '' X ./ £(.jj^l liitual 
 
 Tabernacle the Priesthood, the Sacrificial Ritual, of Moses. 
 
30 
 
 The Origin of the Hehreiv Eel ig ion. 
 
 The 
 
 religion and . 
 history 
 apart from 
 each other 
 inex- 
 plicable. 
 
 All three, in the records which have come down 
 to us, are insej^arably interwoven with^the main 
 facts of Hebrew story, — the deliverance from 
 Egypt, the encampment at Sinai, the covenant 
 between Jehovah and His people, the gi^'ing of 
 the Law, the stubborn rebelliousness of Israel, and 
 the consequent delay of their entrance into Canaan 
 until the death of Moses in the fortieth year from 
 the Exodus. You cannot explain the religion 
 apart from the history, nor the history apart from 
 the religion. Criticism may, in the judgment of 
 the critics, pull the whole fabric to pieces ; but it 
 is powerless to supply anything even reasonably 
 probable in its place. 
 
 A great deal has been made (in the interest of 
 this destructive criticism) of the alleged incon- 
 sistency between the provision in Deuteronomy 
 (chap, xii.) for a single sanctuary in the land of 
 Canaan, and the record in the subsequent history 
 of altars set up and sacrifices offered at various 
 centres of worship : as by the people at Bochim ; 
 by Gideon at Ophrah ; by Manoah at Zorah ; by 
 Samuel at Ram ah, Gilgal, Bethlehem ; by David 
 on Moriah ; by Elijah on Carmel.^ 
 
 The discrepancy, if there be one, belongs to 
 Deuteronomy itself, which commands the oifering 
 of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings on an altar 
 
 The single 
 sanctuary 
 enjoined, 
 and the 
 many altars 
 actually 
 Bet up. 
 
 ^ JuJg. ii. 5 ; vi, 24 ; xiii. 16 ; 1 Sam. vii. 17 : x. S ; xvi. 2 ; 
 2 Sam. xxiv. 25 ; 1 Kings xviii. 30. 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 31 
 
 of stone on Mount Ebal. It is true tliat when 
 this command was carried out by Joshua, the 
 tabernacle was probably set up at Shechem (Josh, 
 viii. 30-35) ; but the sacrifices were offered, not 
 on the brazen altar, but on the separate altar on 
 Mount Ebal. The fact is, that all these cases are The original 
 
 la-sv regard- 
 covered by the promise connected with the original ^^^^^.g^^JJ 
 
 law regarding altars (Ex. xx. 24-26): "In all '^^<^'^'^'^- 
 places where I record My name, I will come to 
 thee, and I will bless thee.'' Sacred associations 
 naturally gathered round any spot where the taber- 
 nacle stood for a considerable space of time. Unity 
 of national worship was not endangered by the 
 building of an altar on any special occasion by a 
 recognised representative of Divine authority, like 
 Samuel or Elijah. What would endanger it was J^^^^^^J^ 
 the practice of private unauthorised sacrifices, such J^j-Jna^ 
 as those condemned in 1 Kings iii. 2; xxii. 43; ^°^^^p- 
 2 Kings xii. 3.^ 
 
 As the recorded history of ancient Israel fur- The history 
 
 the only key 
 
 nishes the only key to the rehgion of the Old *°jj^?^ 
 Testament, otherwise inexplicable, so the religion 
 
 1 When Solomon sacrificed at Gibeon, the Tabernacle was 
 still there, though the Ark had been brought to Jerusalem 
 (1 Chron. iv. ; xvi. 37-40; 2 Chron. i. 3-6). It is doubtful 
 whether the Tabernacle was for a time set up at Bethel ; see 
 Judg. XX. After its removal from Shiloh, we find it at Nob 
 and Mizpeh ; but these are probably the same ; and Gibeon was 
 so near, that possibly only one sacred place is referred to under 
 all three names. See Tent Work, ii. 105, 116-120. Conder's 
 Eandhooh to Bible, pp. 275-277. 
 
The Origin of the Hebveiv Religion. 
 
 bears witness to the history. Solomon's Temple 
 pre-supposes the Tabernacle. It actually contained 
 the Ark. But the Ark and the Tabernacle pre- 
 suppose the wandering in the Wilderness ; which 
 in its turn pre-supposes Sinai and the Deliverance. 
 The whole history from the birth of Samuel attests 
 the importance of both the Ark and the Tabernacle. 
 David's institutions, which survived the Captivity 
 and lasted into the Christian era, attest the 
 national importance and numerical strength of the 
 tribe of Levi ; their sacred character ; and the 
 hereditary priesthood of the descendants of Aaron. 
 How can these (joined with the fact that Levi 
 was a landless tribe) be explained apart from a 
 legislation coeval with the existence of the nation ? 
 In a word, is it rationally conceivable that a nation 
 so numerous, compact, tenacious of tradition, yet 
 sturdily independent, prone to strife, and obstinately 
 addicted to forbidden rites, should have been per- 
 suaded (before, during, or after the reigns of David 
 and Solomon) to receive a body of new institutions, 
 forged laws, and fictitious public annals, and that 
 this astonishing fabrication, unparalleled in all lite- 
 rature, should have gained that prodigious hold on 
 national belief and reverence which the writings 
 ascribed to Moses undeniably possessed after the 
 return from Babylon ? 
 
 The demands made on our faith by modern 
 sceptical criticism far exceed in fact those made 
 
The Origin of the Hehreiu Religion. 
 
 by all tlie miracles of the Bible. Because in the There is an 
 
 . , . .,.,.. PI adequate 
 
 latter case, apparent physical impossibilities find explanation 
 an adequate explanation, — to wit, in the exercise miracles. 
 of Divine power for worthy ends ; whereas, in the 
 former case, moral impossibilities are presented for 
 our belief w^ith no explanation at all. 
 
 II. 
 
 The intimate blending of history and religion, 
 which we have noted as the first great characteristic 
 of the Hebrew Scriptures, is the condition of the 
 two other characteristics also indicated : Unity unity and 
 and Development. These may be best considered ment. 
 not separately but together. For development 
 implies unity. And the unity discoverable in the Tjie nature 
 Bible is a unity of growth ; not formal and 
 mechanical, but vital, internal, spiritual. 
 
 Clearly, if the books of the Old Testament 
 possess any real unity, it must be of this nature. 
 .For they do not compose a Book in any ordinary 
 sense of the word. They are a library, a literature. 
 They range over a thousand years. Their writers 
 differ widely in character, genius, education, 
 position. They reflect the most opposite phases of 
 national life. Diversity of contents and variety 
 of form could scarcely be more strongly exemplified 
 than in this collection of annals, laws, biography, 
 poems, aphorisms, prophetic oracles. If the uuity 
 I) 
 
 of the 
 unity. 
 
e34 
 
 The Origin of the Hehretu Edifjion. 
 
 The unity 
 must have 
 an adequate 
 cause. 
 
 of these sacred writings were merely artificial 
 and conventional, conferred by authority and 
 custom, it would dissolve at the touch of serious 
 examination. If, on the contrary, deep below this 
 diversified and broken surface we find a unity of 
 thought, an unbroken vein of religious teaching, 
 growing richer from age to age, then this unity is 
 a fact more important than the diversity. It must 
 have an adequate cause. It demands an intelligent 
 explanation. If natural causes cannot explain it, 
 we must infer supernatural. If human authors 
 could not (or manifestly did not) combine to pro- 
 duce it, the only possible explanation is Divine 
 Authorship.^ 
 
 Does such unity, progressively unfolding itself, 
 actually characterise the Hebrew sacred writings ? 
 To answer this question, let us take first the fun- 
 damental idea of all religion, — the being and 
 CHARACTER OF GoD. The Book of Genesis opens 
 with affirming the deepest relation we and all 
 other beings sustain to God as our Creator, Meta- 
 physical questions as to self- existence, eternity, 
 infinity, space, and time, the nature of matter and 
 of mind, are never raised. Yet in fact they all lie 
 wrapt up in the plain historical statement that " in 
 
 The being 
 and 
 
 character 
 of God 
 according 
 to the 
 opening of 
 the Book 
 of Genesis. 
 
 the beginning, God created the heaven and the 
 
 ^ For a powerful exhibition of some as])ects of this great 
 subject, see Henry Rogers' Lectures on the Superhuman Origin 
 of the Bible, pp. 152-181. 
 
TJie Origin of the Hehreiv Religion. 35 
 
 earth." Creation appears in the record as an creation 
 
 ■"■ ^ a process 
 
 orderly process, crowned with the birth of man. ^^thlS 
 Its successive stages — the hidden stirring of life ^^^.^^ 
 under the dark waters, the dawn of light, the 
 formation of an atmosphere, the upheaval of 
 islands and continents, the growth of plant life, 
 the appearance in the clear sky of sun, moon, and 
 stars, the appearance on the stage of life of fishes 
 and other marine animals, reptiles, birds, mammals, 
 last of all man — display a wonderful agreement 
 with the latest discoveries of human science. But 
 a height is reached of which science knows nothing, 
 in the account of the Creator's beneficent delight 
 in His work (Gen. i. 31) ; and in the assertion of 
 a Divine type and purpose in man, the lord of 
 creation (v. 26-28). 
 
 Man is represented as from the first placed in Man placed 
 direct moral relations with his Maker. A specially moral 
 
 relations 
 
 prepared home, work, the Sabbath, marriage, and ^^\^^^ 
 a positive command, the test of obedience, bless 
 and fence his life. Disobedience is represented as 
 putting him (as it needs must) in a sadly altered 
 relation to God. He is called to account, found 
 guilty, sentenced to the loss of Eden, made subject 
 to death. No explanation is given of that awful 
 word. If bodily dissolution, simple animal death 
 be meant, then it is evident that execution of the 
 penalty — " in the day that thou eatest thereof, dying 
 thou shalt die^' — was deferred. If the history 
 
36 
 
 The Origin of the Hehreiv Religion. 
 
 means us to understand that it was rigorously 
 carried out, then evidently something else is meant 
 than animal death, howsoever closely connected 
 with it. Nevertheless, man retains his highest 
 privilege, — direct converse with his Maker. Not 
 to repeat here what has already heen said con- 
 cerning sacrifice, we see God reasoning with Cain, 
 when his mind is dull with discontent and mur- 
 derous jealousy, seeking to win him to repentance, 
 and cheering him, as Adam and Eve were cheered 
 after their transgression, with words of grace and 
 promise (Gen. iv. 6, 7). 
 
 We shall search in vain the sacred books and 
 the entire literature of Pagan nations, for any 
 adequate parallel to these representations of the 
 absolute authority and just severity of the Creator, 
 united with fatherty tenderness towards the sinner, 
 and effort to win him to repentance, or hold him 
 back from sin. But parallels abound throughout 
 the Hebrew Scriptures. As examples, we may 
 refer to the startling description of Divine sorrow 
 over man's sin, and the hundred and twenty years' 
 respite granted in Noah's time to the doomed 
 world ; ^ the place assigned to intercession, as of 
 Abraham for Sodom, of Moses for Israel, of Job 
 for his friends ; ^ the pathetic warnings of Moses 
 
 These 
 representa- 
 tions of God 
 and man 
 unparalleled 
 in Pagan 
 literature. 
 
 Parallels in 
 the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. 
 
 ^ Gen. vi. 3, 5-7. 
 
 ^ Gen. xviii. 23-33 ; Ex. xxxii. 30, ff. ; xxxiii. 6, 7 ; Job 
 i. 5 : xlii. S. 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 37 
 
 to Israel ; ^ the echo of those warnings by his 
 successor, Joshua ; ^ Samuel's faithful and solemn 
 rebuke to the National Assembly, joined with the 
 assurance that the Lord would ''not forsake His 
 people, for His great name's sake ; " ^ Isaiah's call 
 to come and reason together with God, joined with 
 a gracious promise of pardon to the penitent ; ^ 
 Jeremiah's thunderbolts of terror, flashing and 
 pealing through a tempest of tears ;^ Ezekiel's 
 trumpet blast of warning ; ^ the homely remon- 
 strance and final warning of the latest of the 
 prophets.'^ The list might be indefinitely extended. 
 The preaching of John the Baptist, the last prophet 
 of the Old Testament, sounded afresh the key note 
 which thus rings through the Hebrew Bible. Its 
 full-toned harmony is heard in the preaching of 
 Jesus : in His invitation to the " labouring and 
 heavy-laden ; " His picture of the prodigal re- 
 turning to his father ; His lament over impenitent 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 From these specimens it is clear that a consistent a con- 
 strain of teaching, in the form not of dogma but of strain of 
 
 teaching 
 
 historic narrative and practical appeal, pervades g^/J^g^^*^*^ 
 
 the books of the Old Testament. Human life is "'^^*- 
 
 everywhere regarded in direct moral relation to 
 
 Divine law, authority, and mercy. The appeal is 
 
 ^ E.g. Deut. vLii. 30. - Josh. xxiv. 14-25. 
 
 3 1 Sam. xii. 7-25. * Isa. i. IS 
 
 5 Jer. ii. 2-13 ; iv. 1-9 ; v. 9-31 ; ix. 1-24. 
 
 6 Ezek. xxxiii. 7-20. ' Mai. i. 6-11 : iv. 1. 
 
38 
 
 Tlie Origin of the Hehreiu Religioi\ 
 
 Two words 
 describing 
 the Divine 
 character. 
 
 sometimes chiefly to the nation, sometimes to in- 
 dividuals. But in both cases one fact is to he 
 noted, unaccountable (I think) on the supposition 
 that we have here no Divine message, hut simjily 
 men seeking to instruct their fellows. The aim 
 throughout is not to inform and convince the 
 intellect, but to affect and control the affections, 
 conscience, and conduct. 
 
 The portraiture of the Divine character thus 
 progressively set forth, must be further studied (if 
 we desire any clear view of it) in two words of 
 very frequent recurrence and high significance, — 
 ^righteous' (or 'just') and 'holy.' The words 
 intimately connected with these must of course 
 be included. The intuitive belief in the justice of 
 God as "Judge of all the earth" is the foundation 
 of Abraham's plea for Sodom. A sense of justice 
 and a keen hot resentment against injustice spring 
 up so soon in the breasts of children, that we are 
 sure human language very early contained words 
 to denote these feelings. As soon as men formed 
 any notion of moral goodness, human or divine, 
 the attribute of righteousness must inevitably have 
 entered into it. 
 
 'Holiness' is a more difficult, more advanced 
 idea. It does not naturally spring up in a child's 
 mind. The words expressing it do not occur in Ge- 
 nesis, excepting in the statement that God blessed 
 and sanctified — hallowed or made holy — the 
 
 Righteous- 
 
 Holinesu. 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 39 
 
 seventli day. This excepted, the notion of holiness 
 meets us first in the command to Moses to strip off 
 his sandals, because he was standing on " holy 
 ground" (Ex. iii. 5). The spot was consecrated 
 by the Divine Presence. The original meaning of Thgr^^ 
 this group of words seems to have been separation, meamug. 
 q.d., to God's service : consecration. A difficulty 
 obviously arises, in the transference of such words 
 to God Himself. What is really meant by the 
 command '' Be ye holy, for I am holy ? " The The real 
 reply must be sought not in logic but in feeling, ^^gi^tl^ 
 Moral ideas enter the intellect through the emotions. *^' ^''^^''^'■ 
 Reverence, awe, rigorously pure worship, imply 
 corresponding qualities in Him to whom they are 
 due. The stronger the emotions, the more vivid 
 the idea. The faultless purity, rigid separation, 
 absolute surrender, mysterious reverence, with 
 which the Mosaic law invested every thing or 
 person consecrated to God, trained the worshipper's 
 feelings regarding God ; and these feelings gave 
 birth to ideas in their own likeness. God's own 
 innate holiness came to be recognized as the fountain, 
 from which the holiness belonging to things, 
 persons, actions, times, places, streamed forth. 
 Hence the central idea of holiness in the Old The central 
 Testament is essentially moral or spiritual. To holiness in 
 
 , , , - the Old 
 
 suppose it ceremonial because largely taught by Testament 
 ceremonies, is a shallow but fatal error. The ^JJ^.^^! 
 smallest amount of intelligent reflection must have 
 
40 
 
 The Origin of the Hehreiu Relig 
 
 ion. 
 
 Ceremonial, 
 ritual 
 holiness 
 could not 
 belong to 
 God. 
 
 The 
 
 importance 
 of the fact 
 in relation 
 to the 
 origin of 
 the Hebrew 
 religion. 
 
 The Ten 
 
 Command- 
 ments not 
 ritual, but 
 monJ . 
 
 tauglit the Hebrew worshipper that ceremonial, 
 ritual holiness could not belong to God. God's 
 holiness could mean nothing less than that nature 
 and character which make Him supremely worthy 
 of worship and love ; what in modern phrase we 
 express by 'supreme moral excellence/ or 'spiritual 
 perfection/ 
 
 The importance of this fact in regard to our 
 inquiry into the origin of the Hebrew religion 
 cannot be exaggerated. It lies at the very heart 
 of that rehgion. JS'o explanation is worth looking 
 at which does not account for it. The evidence 
 of its reality must be sought in careful study, not 
 only of the books of Moses, but of the commentary 
 suppHed by later writings — especially the Psalms, 
 Proverbs, and prophetic books— on the view of 
 Divine holiness actually held and taught by the 
 rehgious authorities of the nation. It pertains, 
 however, to the very outset of such study to bear 
 in mind that the Ten Commandments — the starting 
 point of the whole law — are not ritual, but moral. 
 The tenth refers purely to inward desire and wiil.^ 
 The law of the Sabbath is no exception, for absti- 
 nence from labour is not a ceremony, but as j^rac- 
 tical a thing as abstinence from theft or perjury ; 
 and the moral results of the religious observance of 
 the Sabbath are as real and wide-reaching as those 
 of obedience to any other commandment. 
 
 ^ Comp. Rom. vii. 7. 
 
Hie rig ill of the Hehreiv Religion. 41 
 
 Many readei'S ^\'iil be a^Ya^e that a completely TMsview 
 
 . . "' disputed by 
 
 different view is maintained by critics and divines scholars of 
 
 eminence. 
 
 of undoubted ability and scholarship, who claim to 
 stand in the front rank as leaders of Biblical science 
 and of theological thought. In the movement 
 long and strenuously carried on for the disinte- 
 gration of the Bible, an important place is filled 
 by the view that the Levitical or legal teaching 
 and the prophetic teaching of Old Testament 
 Scripture are independent, inconsistent, and con- 
 tradictory. If David — to whom the organization The inwaro 
 of the priests and Levites, the regulations of the spiritual 
 
 •^ _ . . views of 
 
 Temple ritual, and the very building of the Temple J^J^,!^^^'^ 
 were owing— says that ^' the law of the Lord is H€?^' 
 perfect, converting the soul," and prays to be kept th^rituar 
 from " secret faults," and to have " a clean heart 
 and a right spirit " ; if Solomon declares " the fear 
 of the Lord " to consist in departing from evil, 
 and " the knowledge of God" to be inseparable 
 from ''righteousness and judgment and equity, 
 yea every good path " ; if Isaiah and Amos speak 
 with scorn of sacrifices and prayers offered by 
 those " whose hands are full of blood " ; if Micah 
 asks '* What doth the Lord require of thee but to 
 do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly 
 with thy God?" it is maintained that the strong, 
 clear, deep stream of teaching of which these are 
 samples must flow from another fountain than that 
 which teaches that ''the blood of bulls and of goats, 
 
42 
 
 The Origin of the Hehreiv Religion. 
 
 The Mosaic 
 authorship 
 of Deut- 
 eronomy, 
 denied by 
 this school. 
 
 The 119th 
 Psalm, a 
 refutation 
 of this 
 criticism. 
 
 and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, 
 sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh." ^ 
 
 Of course, this school of critics denies that Moses 
 was the author of Deuteronomy ; otherwise, their 
 view would be at once convicted of error, since 
 none of the prophets can go beyond the simple 
 comprehensive statements of Deuteronomy, which 
 describe religion as essentially consisting in love, 
 faith, and obedience.^ Perhaps a sufficient refuta- 
 tion of the view in question is supplied by the 
 hundred and nineteenth Psalm. This perfectly 
 unique composition gives us the views and feelings 
 of a pious Israelite (of what tribe, rank, or calling 
 we have no means of guessing) concerning the 
 Divine Law. The written Word of God, under a 
 great variety of names (the Rabbins reckon ten), 
 is here described as an ideally perfect standard of 
 character and conduct, ''righteous and very faith- 
 ful," "very pure," and "exceeding broad''; by 
 giving heed to which the young man may " cleanse 
 his way," the afflicted servant of God be quickened 
 and comforted, the entrance of which " giveth 
 light, it giveth understanding to the simple." 
 " Thy righteousness," exclaims the Psalmist, " is an 
 everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth." 
 It seems impossible to rise to a higher conception 
 
 1 Heb. ix. 8-14. 
 
 2 E.g. Dent. vi. 4, 5 ; viii. 1-3 
 
 12-21 ; xiii. 4: xv. 7-10: 
 
 XXX. 1-6, 11-15, 20. 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 43 
 
 of Divine truth, or a loftier level of sj^iritual temper 
 and thought than this remarkable psalm exhibits. 
 Is it critical acumen, or is it mere blindness, which 
 can discern in that law in which the Psalmist 
 beheld such Divine wonders, nothing but the work 
 of priests and forgers ; a melange of superstitious 
 inventions, heathen traditions, fictitious histories, 
 and pious frauds ? ^ 
 
 One other point, the importance of which cannot 
 be over-estimated, demands careful consideration. 
 Over against the conceptions of Divine righteous- The 
 
 IT 1 . 1 T 1 Scripture 
 
 ness, holiness, and purity, the Hebrew Scriptures viewofsiu. 
 set that of their dark opposite — human Sin. The 
 one 'cannot be understood apart from the other. 
 No theory of the origin of the Hebrew religion 
 merits serious attention which cannot give an honest 
 and satisfactory reply to the question. Whence teas whence 
 the idea of dn ivhich pervades the Old Testament derived? 
 Scriptures derived ? 
 
 Not even the poetic and historic literature, far The varied 
 
 and un- 
 less the sacred books, of all other ancient nations, rivalled 
 
 ' human 
 
 can stand comparison with the Hebrew Scriptures iS?Hcbrew 
 in human interest. No phase of human life is ^'^"p*'^®^' 
 unreflected in that wondrous mirror ; no note is 
 left untouched throughout the diapason of human 
 emotion. Every vicissitude of human fortune finds 
 
 1 These are not random words, but a guarded and a moderate 
 statement of what is implied necessarily in the theory that the 
 laws of Moses were not given by God, and that the so-called books 
 of Moses were forgeries c»f later ages. 
 
44 The Origin of the Hehreiv Religion. 
 
 The under 
 lying- 
 thought of 
 the whole. 
 
 a jjlace in these pages, from the throne to the 
 dungeon, from the cradle to the grave. E very- 
 type of human character is represented, fi'om the 
 most heroic greatness or saintliest purity to the 
 most unbridled and revolting wickedness. A pro- 
 cession of empires passes across that narrow stage. 
 We hear the jubilant songs of harvest and vintage, 
 the music of feasts, the stern hymn of warriors, 
 the paean of victory, the choral chant of temple 
 worship, the wail of the dirge. Yet with this 
 unrivalled fulness and all but endless variety of 
 human interest, national tradition, and individual 
 portraiture, it is no exaggeration to say that one 
 dominant character pervades the whole delineation ; 
 one thought underlies the whole, even where it 
 does not appear on the surface ; one deep sorrowful 
 note rings like a knell through all the music. It 
 is that which St. Paul utters when, quoting from 
 the Old Testament, he says that "all have 
 SINNED, and come short of the glory of God." ^ 
 
 For the proof that this is so, the reader must be 
 referred to the entire body of Hebrew Scripture. 
 He must not merely scan its letter, but labour to 
 guage its drift and fathom its spirit. In this at- 
 tempt it is indispensable that attention be given 
 to the terms under which this conception of sin is 
 presented. The Hebrew language is rich in moral 
 synonyms. Nine principal words may be noted, 
 ^ Rom. iii. 23. 
 
 The proof 
 to be dis- 
 covered by 
 attentive 
 studv of 
 the Old 
 rcstament. 
 
The Origin of the Hebrew Religion. 45 
 
 without separately noticing the various forms in 
 which some of them appear. Our translators have 
 observed no certain rule in rendering them. 
 
 1. Ghattath {chattaah, chef); Sin; perhaps ori- Tcnnsused 
 
 . . for present- 
 
 srmally ' error, ' missing the mark. ingthe 
 
 " *^ ^ conception 
 
 2. Pesha' : Transgression; perhaps 'breach.' 
 
 3. Resha' : Unrighteousness; wickedness. 
 
 4. AsJiam : Guilt ; perhaps originally ' default,' 
 
 the word is rendered * trespass ' in the 
 law concerning ' trespass-offerings.' 
 
 5. Avon : Perversity ; crime. 
 
 6. Aven : Yanity ; iniquity. 
 
 7. '-£Ve/('a«;M^); Wickedness; depravity; properly 
 
 * twisting aside.' 
 
 8. Ma'al: Trespass. 
 
 9. Ra' {ra'ah): 111; evil.^ 
 
 One fact of immense interest comes out from this The Hebrew 
 
 conception 
 
 list of words ; namely, that the Hebrew conception ^^^^^ ^^^ 
 of sin was moral, not ceremonial. This is as true ^'^^^°^°"^^^- 
 of the Law as of the historical and prophetical 
 writings. The reverse might have been looked for. 
 Considering the prominence given in the ceremonial 
 law to ideas of defilement and purification, we 
 
 ^ The English reader may find the occurrence of each Hebrew 
 word in Dr. Young's Concordance, by looking under all the 
 
 English words, "sin," " iniquity, " etc. 
 
46 The Origin of the Hehreiv Religion. 
 
 miglit have expected these symbolic notions to be 
 reflected in the terms employed to express sin. 
 Not one of these terms has any such meaning. 
 Not only so. Although it is certain that in Hebrew 
 as in other languages the words used for moral 
 attributes and sentiments must have been originally 
 metaphors taken from objects of sense, yet in none 
 of these Hebrew words is the metaphor obvious.^ 
 Their etymology is rather matter of learned con- 
 jectures than of certainty. The inference is plain. 
 These words were so anciently and so constantly 
 used in a moral sense, that the metaphoric meaning 
 
 Words f or 
 
 moral 
 
 attributes 
 
 originally 
 
 metaphors. 
 
 The 
 
 metaphoric 
 sense had 
 died out of 
 
 words before had died out of them before the Hebrew language 
 
 the language- 
 took the 
 earliest 
 form in 
 which we 
 find it. 
 
 took the earliest form in which we find it. They 
 had come to stand for the purely moral ideas of 
 disobedience to law, infraction of right, and desert 
 of blame and penalty. 
 
 The reader can therefore easily estimate the 
 value of the assertion sometimes made as con- 
 fidently as if it were a scientific discovery, that the 
 idea of sin entertained by the ancient Hebrews was 
 that of ceremonial defilement, to be got rid of by 
 ceremonial purification, or of definite outward acts, 
 to be balanced by other definite acts of atonement 
 
 ^ They contrast curiously, therefore, with a great number of 
 Enghsh words, in some of which the metaphor Kes on the sur- 
 face (as upright, base, heartless, dose-jisted) ; while in others (as 
 right, tvrong, perverse, transgression), it is transparent to any one 
 who has a moderate knowledge of etymology. Our word ' sin,'' 
 on the other hand, is a very ancient word, and seems to have 
 had a moral meaning from the first. 
 
The Origin of the Hebreiv Religion. 4' 
 
 or penalty. The Hebrew language itself bears The 
 irrefragable witness that the pollutions and puri- s^nse of ' 
 
 ^ ceremonial 
 
 fications ordained by the ceremonial law were but p^"fica- 
 
 •' tions. 
 
 symbols of a stain they could not reach and a purity 
 they could not bestow ; the pollution of the heart 
 and conscience by inward sin, and the purification 
 of Divine forgiveness and restoration to God's 
 image. If the penitent exclaimed, '' Thou desirest 
 not sacrifice, else would I give it,'^ he spoke in 
 perfect accord with the law, which ordained for 
 such crimes as murder and adultery, not sacrifice, 
 but " death without mercy." And if he prayed, 
 " Hide Thy face from mij sins ; and hlot out all 
 mine iniquities; create in me a clean heart, and 
 renew a right spirit within me; " he but interpreted 
 the deepest lessons of the law, which shone through 
 its ritual as through a transparent veil: lessons 
 which the great Law-giver himself declared that 
 God's own voice had proclaimed in his ears. (Ex. 
 xxxiii. 19 ; xxxiv. 6.) 
 
 We are thus brought back to the central con- The central 
 
 . . conception 
 
 ception which gives unity to the religious teaching 
 of the whole body of the Hebrew Scriptures, — the 
 
 MORAL CHARACTER OF GoD, IN PERSONAL RELATION 
 WITH MAI^KIND AND WITH EACH HUMAN BEING. 
 
 This great central doctrine (which includes the 
 truths of man's personality, moral character, and 
 accountableness) is developed by means of human 
 history and experience, — especially the experience 
 
 of the 
 rcliarious 
 teaching of 
 the Old 
 Testament, 
 
48 
 
 The Origin of the Sehrevj Religion. 
 
 Four lines 
 of illus- 
 tration. 
 
 Public 
 history. 
 
 SjTnbolism 
 and media- 
 tion. 
 
 Prophecy. 
 
 Personal 
 experience. 
 
 Purity of 
 Old Testa- 
 ment moral 
 sentiment. 
 
 of sin. Four main lines of illustration combine to 
 unfold this greatest of lessons. (1) Public history, 
 especially as concerued with, those calamities which 
 the Scriptures represent as Divine judgments on 
 sin : as the Deluge, the destruction of Sodom, 
 the overthrow of Pharaoh, the punishment of 
 the rebellious Israelites, the extermination of the 
 depraved idolaters of Canaan, the Babylonish 
 captivity, the overthrow of Babylon. (2) Symbolic 
 worship and priestly mediation. (3) Prophetic 
 ministry, interpreting God's law, will, truth, and 
 promises, (4) Personal experience ; vi^ddly illus- 
 trating, on the one hand, the care and guidance of 
 God's providence, and leading and teaching of His 
 Spirit, bestowed on those who fear Him ; on the 
 other hand, the life of faith, penitence, prayer, and 
 loving obedience to God. In this last method the 
 teaching of the three other methods is brought to 
 a practical focus. It may be summed up in the 
 words in which the most sorrowful of the prophets, 
 in the most mournful book of Scripture, utters his 
 peaceful faith : " The Lord is good unto them that 
 wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him." 
 (Lam. iii. 25.) 
 
 One of the strongest points of contrast between 
 the religion of the Old Testament Scriptures and 
 heathen religions is its purity of moral sentiment. 
 Paganism deifies lust. The orgies of the wine^god 
 in Greece, the abominations of which it is a sliame 
 
The Origin of the Hebreiu Religion. 49 
 
 even to speak practised in the temples of Babylon contrast 
 and Phoenicia, the priestly frauds which made it I'^^gi^^s. 
 hard for Roman augurs to keep their countenance 
 in one another's company, find no counterpart — 
 nothing but stern condemnation — in the religion of 
 Jehovah. Vices shamelessly practised among the 
 cultured Greeks, and sung about by the most 
 elegant Eoman poets, were branded with infamy 
 among the Hebrews. When these plague-spots 
 infected Israel (as they often did) it was always in 
 connection with idolatry ; and they were denounced 
 by the prophets as the sure precursors of national 
 ruin. Vice and crime are no doubt described, when 
 the purpose of the Scripture narrative requires, 
 with antique plainness of speech shocking to our 
 modern taste. The failinpfs and sins of pious men sympathy, 
 
 ° ^ with moral 
 
 are recorded with merciless candour. But never ^"^• 
 can one detect a trace of sympathy with vileness, 
 cruelty, intemperance, or falsehood. Even those 
 terrible denunciations of transgressors which modern 
 readers are often at a loss to reconcile with the 
 spirit of the Gospel, draw their severity from that 
 intense moral indignation against wrong, in which 
 modern sentiment is defective ; and which in those 
 rough times was a needful safeguard of moral 
 purity. 
 
 Yet the religion of the Bible is no less remarkable Tenderness 
 
 ..,.,, p . of the Bible. 
 
 lor its tenderness than for its severe purity. Once 
 
 in five hundred or a thousand years, when morality 
 
 E 
 
 Historic 
 fidelity of 
 the Old 
 Testament 
 ■wirhout 
 trace of 
 
50 The Origin of the Hebrevj Reliyion. 
 
 is on the brink of perishing among men, the sword 
 of justice smites and spares not. Hostile criticism, 
 blind because hostile,, fixes on these rare and long- 
 deferred examples of divine severity (always pre- 
 faced by forbearance and warning), and overlooks 
 the fact that the prevailing representation of the 
 divine character places mercy, compassion, kindness, 
 tenderness among its foremost attributes. Heathen 
 poets have sounded the depths of human sorrow, 
 passion, and pity ; but nowhere in pagan literature, 
 least of all in the religious books of heatheudom, 
 can we catch even the echo of that full-toned 
 Comfort of tondemess and gracious comfort which rings 
 
 the Hebrew ° _ " 
 
 Scriptures, through the Hebrevy Scriptures, assuring us that 
 Divine care "the Lord is vcrv pitiful and of tender mercy." 
 
 for mankind ♦' •■ 
 
 and the Evcn the lower animals are represented as largely 
 
 lower ere a- ^ a j 
 
 tures. sharing divine care and compassion. It is not a 
 
 little significant, that the rainbow, that smile of the 
 tempest in which the myths of heathendom saw 
 only a bridge for spirits to cross, is in the book of 
 Genesis the emblem of God's remembrance of man's 
 frailty, and faithful promise both to mankind and 
 to the lower creatures. " His tender mercies are 
 over all His works." 
 
 It has not seemed necessary formally to discuss 
 the view which regards the God of the Old Testa- 
 ment, or of the Pentateuch, as a national Deity, 
 and the Hebrew religion as but one among the 
 many national religions of ancient heathendom. 
 
The Origin of the Hehreiv Religion. 51 
 
 If the outline here traced be just, this theory is 
 refuted at every step, and has no standing-room. 
 It is contradicted by the basis laid for religion in ^J^J^^^^^^ 
 the account of Creation, in harmony with which earth.^°^' 
 is the constant prominence given to the claims of 
 Jehovah as Creator of all things ; by the express 
 claim of sovereignty and ownership over all nations 
 made in those very passages in which Israel is said 
 to be, for certain purposes, a chosen people ; ^ by 
 the universal views of divine providence which per- 
 vade the whole history, and are grandly summed 
 up in Psalm cvii. ; and by the world-wide promises 
 which ring like unearthly music along the course 
 of prophecy, from the promise to Abraham, that in 
 him ALL NATIONS should be blessed, to such declara- 
 tions of universal divine sovereignty, and such 
 invitations to all nations to worship Jehovah as 
 are contained in the Psalms.^ The intense national ^^,",„^ess 
 pride and narrowness of the Jews, especially as the an argument 
 time drew near for their ancestral faith to take its Dmne 
 
 origin of 
 
 destined form as the universal religion, afford a f^^^^^^^^ 
 moral demonstration that these anticipations in the 
 Old Testament Scriptures of the world-wide phi- 
 lanthropy of the New, owe their inspiration to a 
 higher source than Semitic religiousness or Hebrew 
 genius. 
 
 1 E.g. Gen. xv. 14, 16 ; Ex. ix. 29 ; xix. 5 ; Deut. vii. 6-8 ; 
 viii. 19, 20. 
 
 2 E.g. Ps. xxii. 28 ; xxiv. 1,2; Ixvii. 2-4 ; xcv. 3-6 ; xcvi. 
 10 ; c. 1, 2. 
 
52 
 
 The Origin of the Hehreiv Religion 
 
 The 
 
 eonclupion 
 from the 
 argument. 
 
 Inadequate 
 explanation 
 refuted. 
 
 The foregoing review, necessarily brief and con- 
 densed, appears not simply to warrant but to compel 
 the conclusion, that when the most has been made 
 of all the parallels and resemblances which can be 
 collected from the sacred writings of other ancient 
 religions, the Eeligion of Ancient Israel, from 
 Abraham to Malachi and John the Baptist, stands 
 majestically and superhumanly alone. 
 
 Science herself may well be interrogated at the 
 bar of common sense, and asked to give account of 
 phenomena covering so vast a range of human 
 experience, and of such surpassing grandeur and 
 unique interest. The only explanation, apart from 
 that embodied in the Hebrew records themselves, 
 seems to be that the little nation of Israel, inferior 
 in all other respects to all the great nations of 
 antiquity, possessed a unique religious genius, by 
 the force of which they outstrij^ped in this one field 
 the whole human race ; and finally gave birth to 
 the universal religion of Christ. This hypothesis 
 will not bear serious scrutiny. In the first place, 
 it denies the facts to be explained, and substitutes 
 romance for philosophy. For if even the main 
 outlines of Hebrew history are to be trusted, it was 
 not the Nation which produced the Religion, but 
 the Religion which produced the Nation. Secondly, 
 it contradicts all the evidence respecting the 
 character of the Hebrew people. The stern rebuke 
 of their great Lawgiver : '' Ye have been rebel- 
 
The Origin of the Hebreiv Religion. 53 
 
 lious against the Lord from the day that I knew 
 you" (Deut. ix. 24), is re-echoed by the whole series 
 of projDhets. Two of the lessons of the Decalogue 
 the Jews indeed learned from the Babylonish cap- 
 tivity, and never afterwards forgot : hatred of idols, 
 and reverence for the Sabbath. But their religious The 
 
 . , . . religious 
 
 development as a nation durmg the following five development 
 centuries consisted not in the perfecting of Old Tes- Babyi^o^nish 
 tament teaching, and the raising of public and pri- '^''p^''''^^ • 
 vate life to the level it required ; but in substituting 
 the Rabbi for the Prophet, and encasing religious life 
 in the most elaborate crust of mechanical formulas 
 men have ever invented or groaned under. When 
 the crowning test was applied, by the appearance 
 of Him to whom all the prophets bore witness, the 
 religious leaders of the nation proved yet more blind 
 than the multitude whom they cursed as ignorant 
 of the law. They could see in Jesus neither " grace Their 
 and truth," nor "the glory as of the Only-begotten chrfitT'' 
 of the Father." They condemned the holiest, 
 wisest, greatest, and best of Teachers as a blas- 
 phemer and traitor ; and crucified their King. 
 But in the hands of the Crucified One, the religion what the 
 
 Hebrew 
 
 of the Hebrew Scriptures, — the relisrion of Abra- religion 
 
 ■"• ° became 
 
 ham, Moses, David, Isaiah, John the Baptist, freed ofthl^''"'^^ 
 from all that was national, local, temporary, became *^^^"^^'''^' 
 the one possible universal religion for mankind. 
 
^•\ Present Day Tracts, No. 28. }*-^^ 
 
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