III. Israel in Egypt and in the Wilderness VI. Establishment of the Monarchy VII. Solomon and the Division of the Kingdom VIII. Prophets and Kings of Israel and Judah 1. Western Asia (Early Times). 3. Palestine before the Conquest. CHAPTER I. EARLY NARRATIVES OF GENESIS. Israel's mission and history. THE history of the Hebrew race differs in one important respect from that of all other ancient nations. It is the story of a people which believed that it had been entrusted with a religious mission to the world. Strictly speaking indeed, Israel's national history cannot be said to begin before the period of the exodus from Egypt, but the Hebrew historians could never forget that they belonged to a race chosen by Almighty God to proclaim His Name to all the nations of the earth. Accordingly they took pains to collect, and to preserve with scrupulous care, not merely the popular narratives which described the supposed ancestry of the Hebrew people, but even those current traditions of the Semitic tribes which dealt with the origin of man and of the universe itself. The Old Testament accordingly begins with an account of the Creation, which is followed in due order by narratives describing the antediluvian world, the catastrophe of the Deluge, the formation and gradual dispersion of the primitive races of mankind. With the history of Abraham and his reputed descendants opens the record of Israel's own eventful career. Corresponding to the unique character and vocation of Character of the Old Testament as a history. Israel is the special peculiarity of the Book in which the greater part of its history is related. The Old Testament forms a library of national literature, containing a large amount of material which is not all of equal value or importance for the purposes of a modern historian. The historical books were gradually compiled by a series of writers who regarded the rise and progress of the Hebrew race almost exclusively from a religious point of view. It was not their aim to give a full and complete account of past events; nor did they attempt to harmonize strictly the various documents which they employed in the construction of their narrative. Their object was simply to trace the chequered career of a divinely chosen and divinely guided people; to describe, with such knowledge as they could command, its origin, its special vocation, its early migrations, its separation from other nations, its varied fortunes and achievements, its oft-repeated failures to rise to the height of its ideal calling, its sins and the chastisements which they provoked. We may in fact describe the Old Testament history most correctly as the record of God's providential dealings with the people of His choice: in other words, as a 'Sacred History,' which, while it provides the historian with valuable material for his purpose, needs to be interpreted, supplemented, and in some cases corrected, by evidence derived from other sources. Sources of information. i. The Old Testament. This brings us to the question, What original authorities do we possess for the history of the Hebrew people? The Old Testament itself of course is of primary importance. According to the arrangement of the Jewish Canon it consists of three portions, which were gradually arranged in their present shape, and were successively ranked as 'canonical Scripture' some time between the beginning of the fifth and the close of the third century B.C. The Law (Torah) comprises the five books of the Pentateuch. This The Law. division of the Old Testament, sometimes called 'The book of the Law,' carries back the history of the Hebrews to its remote origins and brings it down to the close of the wanderings in the wilderness of Paran. The Pentateuch also contains various codes of legislation, which evidently belong to widely different periods or stages in the development of the nation. A large proportion of this legal matter is arranged in the form of an historical narrative, describing in detail the special circumstances under which the various enactments were supposed to have been originally framed. The Prophets. The Prophets (Nebîîm) form the most important source from which our knowledge of Israel's history is derived. The name 'former prophets' was in fact applied by the Jews to four historical books: those of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The title ‘latter prophets' includes the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets (these last forming in the Jewish Canon a single book). The prophetical literature contains a considerable amount of actual history, but it is chiefly important in so far as it bears undesigned testimony to the moral and religious condition of the Hebrews during the particular epochs when the various prophets lived, taught, and wrote. These writings lay bare those currents of national thought and feeling which issued in the public actions, measures, or lines of policy adopted by Israel's kings or statesmen. They throw a vivid light upon the dangers, external or internal, which threatened Israel's welfare at different periods between the eighth and the third centuries B.C. The Hagiographa. The Writings (Heb. Kethubhim, Gk. Hagiographa) which form the third and last section of the Old Testament Canon, were probably collected at a comparatively late stage in Jewish history. For the most part they describe or illustrate the religious condition of the Jews, and their habits of thought and life, at a time subsequent to the return from Babylon (536 B.C.). They throw |