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.

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) com

i. The Old Testament.

The Law.

prises the five books of the Pentateuch. This

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 (Nebtim) 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. Kethûbhim, 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

but little light on earlier periods of Hebrew history. Only a few of the books can be described as historical works (e.g. Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, which were originally combined in a single book). Others, such as Esther and Ruth, seem to be historical only in form, and may be regarded as 'studies' of certain incidents or epochs of Jewish history, written from a religious point of view and intended to convey a particular moral. None of these books, however, considering their peculiar character and the date of their composition, can be safely employed as independent or complete sources of information.

ii. Evidence of archaeology, inscriptions,

etc.

Such, briefly described, is the nature and scope of the historical documents contained in the Old Testament. But the evidence derived from this source does not stand alone. During the nineteenth century the research of many scholars in various fields of investigation has accumulated a mass of information which has shed a vivid light upon the course of Israel's history and upon the gradual growth of its religious customs and ideas. It is indeed a remarkable fact that Israel itself supplies practically little or nothing that supplements or elucidates the biblical narratives, no inscriptions, no tombs, no monuments.1 But in Assyria, Babylon, Phoenicia, Egypt and elsewhere, tablets, monuments and hieroglyphic inscriptions have been discovered which illustrate to a remarkable extent the primitive beliefs of the Semitic race, the incidents of Hebrew history, the relations of Israel to the neighbouring peoples, and other similar matters. It is not too much to say that recent discoveries have in a great measure revolutionized the study of the Old Testament. They have in many ways vindicated both the honesty and the accuracy of the Hebrew

1 The inscription found in the tunnel of Siloam throws some light on the topography of Jerusalem, but otherwise is of little historical interest. For a description see Sayce, Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments, ch. iv.

historians; but at the same time they have enabled us to understand and fairly appreciate the necessary limitations under which they worked. We now perceive that the inspiration which we justly attribute to the Old Testament writers did not protect them from occasional errors and inaccuracies, nor did it hinder them from freely using their own judgment in the selection and arrangement of their materials. But although their manner of writing history was in general the same as that of other oriental historians, a careful and reverent study of their work makes it evident that they were in a true sense 'inspired': they were endowed with a God-given insight which led them to read history in the light of the divine purpose, and guided them to discern the true moral significance of the events which they recorded.

iii. Later

The historical books close with an account of the work of Nehemiah (c. 430 B.C.). For information respecting the subsequent period we have to depend authorities. for the most part on extra-canonical authorities. The writings of Josephus and a few allusions in classical literature help us to some extent: but it must be admitted that comparatively little is recorded of Jewish history during the period of nearly 300 years between the death of Nehemiah and the age of the Maccabees. The first and second books of Maccabees are fairly trustworthy for the period which they cover, and there are various apocryphal and pseudepigraphic writings1 which contain information bearing upon the history, and the characteristic beliefs, of post-exilic Judaism. Speaking broadly, however, the age of Hebrew history of which we are most easily enabled to form an accurate idea, is the eighth century B.C., the period, that is, during which Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah fulfilled their ministry in Israel and Judah. The writings of these great prophets help us to estimate the real importance of the events summarily recorded in the

1 e.g. some portions of the Sibylline Oracles, the Fourth Book of Esdras, the Psalms of Solomon, the Book of Enoch, etc.