dynasty rather than the vindication of the Law and its principles. It is only just to admit that the Pharisees did not look for a mere kingdom of this world. The Sadducees, on the other hand, had no special interest in Messianic prediction, and held aloof from the popular expectation. Their policy was that of opportunists who waited on events, neither sharing the religious ideals of the common people, nor sympathizing with the hopes that stirred their hearts. They had no preju : dice against heathen culture, and they were only anxious to avoid needless collision with the power of Rome. But the influence of neither party, Pharisees nor Sadducees, availed to restrain the outbreak of those elements of disorder and defiance which rallied round the sect of the Zealots and Jewish history, so far as it is traced in this book, ends with the desperate and ruinous venture of an enthusiasm which had once been enlisted in a worthy cause and had produced glorious and heroic deeds, but which now in its degeneracy brought upon the Jewish nation a catastrophe tersely described in the memorable sentence of Josephus. "I shall speak my mind here at once briefly :- That neither did any city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world.”1 The fall of Jerusalem was not the last act in 'the Hebrew tragedy.' A complete history of Judaism would have to tell of all that the Jews were made to suffer during the middle ages, of all that to the shame of Christianity they endure in certain parts of Europe to this day. Rabbi Ben Ezra's 'Song of 1 Wars of the Jews, v. 11, § 5. 2 A suggestive little sketch of Jewish history under this title has been recently published by Col. C. R. Conder (Blackwood and Sons). death' gives voice to the age-long cry of his people to the God of their fathers: "By the torture, prolonged from age to age, By the infamy, Israel's heritage, By the Ghetto's plague, by the garb's disgrace, And the summons to Christian fellowship," by these untold woes and sufferings Israel still mutely appeals to the compassion of Him whose purpose of grace stands sure: I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God. 1 Hos. ii. 23. Cp. Rom. ix. 25, xi. 31 foll. APPENDIX I. THE DOCUMENTARY SOURCES OF THE NARRATIVE. Chapters I.-IV. The Hexateuch. Until the ninth or eighth century B.C., the only records of Israel's history were those contained in song or saga. A few such national lyrics, or fragments of them, are still preserved in the Pentateuch and the Historical books of the Old Testament. Perhaps the oldest of these is the Song of Deborah (Judg. v.) which was apparently composed shortly after the victory described in it. The Song of the Bow (2 Sam. i. 17 foll.) may well be an authentic work of David himself, as also perhaps the short elegy on the death of Abner (2 Sam. iii. 33 foll.). Other lyrical fragments containing historical allusions are the excerpts from the Book of the Wars of Jehovah (Num. xxi. 14, 15), the Song of the Well (ibid. 17, 18), and the Song of Triumph over Sihon (ibid. 27 foll.). Certain passages are borrowed from the Book of Jashar, which was probably a collection of ballads celebrating the exploits of national heroes (Josh. x. 12, 13), and possibly a passage in Solomon's prayer of dedication, 1 Kings viii. 12 foll.=viii. 53 LXX. with the addition ouk idoù αὕτη γέγραπται ἐν βιβλίῳ τῆς ᾠδῆς. (See Driver, LOT, p. 192.) Probably other collections of the same kind existed and were recited at religious festivals. Some longer lyrics, which seem to belong to the time of the monarchy, are also included in the Pentateuch: the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix.), the Song of Moses at the Red Sea (Exod. xv.), the Prophecies of Balaam (Num. xxiii., xxiv.), the Song and Blessing of Moses (Deut. xxxii., xxxiii.). The earliest attempts however to form a continuous historical narrative probably originated in the so-called 'Schools of the Prophets.' Two such versions of the history were gradually formed during the century before 750 B.C., and are incorporated in the Hexateuch. The Jehovistic document (J) so called because it habitually uses the divine Name Jehovah, bears traces of having originated in Judah; the Elohistic document (E), employing the divine Name 'Elôhim, was apparently composed in the Northern kingdom. There are well-marked differences between these two documents which may be studied in well-known books on the literature of Israel, but both are alike in their religious purpose and standpoint. Both are rightly called prophetical narratives in the sense that they embody some of those religious ideas of which the great Hebrew prophets afterwards became the exponents; but strictly speaking they give a picture of the higher elements in the religion of the pre-prophetic period. From a historical point of view the importance of these two narratives lies in the fact (i) that they are based on ancient traditional narratives and written sources, (ii) that they reflect the religious and moral ideas current in the age of the early monarchy. About the middle of the seventh century as it seems (c. 650), these two "Prophetic" sources were skilfully combined in a single narrative (JE), the result of the unknown editor's work being a mosaic constructed by the piecing together of sections taken from both documents. Somewhat later (in 621), the code which forms the kernel of the Book of Deuteronomy (D) was promulgated, and accepted as the basis of Josiah's reformation. In course of time this code was provided with a historic setting, and combined with JE, by the school of writers under whose influence the original code had already been compiled. They carefully revised the earlier history from the religious standpoint of Deuteronomy, and in particular made numerous additions to the last section of JE — that which relates the history of the conquest of Canaan. The result of their work is generally described by the formula JED. During the exile a new code of ritual law was compiled, possibly under the actual direction of the prophet Ezekiel (c. 590-570). This is known as the Priestly Code (P). It did not actually contain much new matter. It was rather a codification and exposition of ancient priestly usages and traditions. Probably at a somewhat later time P was enlarged by the incorporation of the ancient Law of Holiness (Levit. xvii.-xxvi.). This in turn was followed by a new version of the history, intended to be a kind of framework for the legislation. The aim of the writer, or school of writers, to whom we owe the composition of the Priestly narrative, was "to give a systematic view, from a priestly standpoint, of the origin and chief institutions of the Israelitish theocracy. For this purpose an abstract of the history is sufficient; it only becomes detailed at important epochs, or where the origin of some existing institution has to be explained; the intervals are bridged frequently by genealogical lists, and are always measured by exact chronological standards."1 At some period between the death of Ezekiel (c. 570) and the first visit of Nehemiah to Jerusalem (444), the Priestly narrative and code were combined with the Deuteronomic work above-mentioned (JED) and the main portion of it was promulgated at Jerusalem in the assembly described in Neh. viii., ix. It is important however to bear in mind that the Law must have been enlarged by minor additions and expansions during the period that follows the death of Nehemiah. The historical value of the Hexateuch. The materials available for the reconstruction of the earliest period of Israel's history are thus seen to belong to various dates, and are drawn from various sources not all of equal value and importance. The most detailed and statistical narrative — that of P is the furthest removed from the actual events, and therefore the least to be depended upon. It gives an ideal sketch of institutions and incidents the exact details of which were lost in remote antiquity. "It is only in form an historical document; in substance it is a body of laws and precedents having the value of law, strung on a thread of history so meagre that it often consists of nothing more than a chronological scheme and a sequence of bare names . . . It follows with certainty that the priestly re-casting of the origins of Israel is not history (save in so far as it merely summarizes and reproduces the old traditions in the other parts of the Hexateuch) but Haggada, i.e. that it uses old names and old stories, not for the 1 Driver, LOT, p. 126. 2 The part so promulgated was probably the Pentateuch without the narrative contained in the book of Joshua. |