CHAPTER XXIII

JUDAISM REJECTS THE SOCIAL PROBLEM

Society has always included contrary tendencies within its developing structure.-The growth of social institutions takes place at the point of contact between two or more classes, races, or "interests." In the long period before the Exile, Hebrew society was ruled alternately by the Israelite and Amorite traditions inherited from its double ancestry. When the Israelite tradition was dominant, the social problem was recognized; and when the Amorite tradition obtained ascendency, the social problem was rejected or suppressed. The ruin of the nation led to the triumph of the Israelite standpoint and the establishment of "the Jewish church." Like all social institutions, however, the Jewish church came into being at the point of contact between "interests." Although Judaism developed the appearance of great fixity and solidity, the principles on which it was based represented contrary tendencies. "Jewish religion," as has been truly said, "is to a large extent a fusion of inconsistent elements, of prophetic and priestly origin, respectively."

The social problem was at length rejected by the forces that silenced prophecy and enthroned the priesthood.-Speaking of the priests in the Roman period, Professor Riggs observes: "The emoluments of their office brought them wealth and luxury, and gave them little interest in the spiritual demands of their exalted position." The priests and scribes were the custodians and administrators of the Torah; and while in most cases they were devoted to the worship of One God as earnestly as the great prophets, they tended to identify religion with 1 Cheyne, Jewish Religious Life after the Exile (New York, 1898), p. 28.

2 Riggs, History of the Jewish People (New York, 1900), p. 227.

the ritual forms and ceremonies by which the One God was worshiped. Ritualism was necessary to the devotion and consecration by which the Bible religion grew strong in the world. "For the great majority of people, rites and ceremonies are a necessary expression of their religion, and a necessary aid to its nourishment." But ritualism carries its own peril with it. The danger that lay before Judaism was the tendency to fight the worship of "other gods" without opposing the injustice and unrighteousness with which "other gods" were identified by the great prophets. A large part of the membership of the Jewish church compromised with ritualism; and this was true especially of the leading priestly families and their wealthy allies. While Judaism brought much that was noble into the world, and while it established a positive religious advance, it included a strong tendency to bring back the ancient "Amorite" tradition under a new and subtle form.

The work of the great prophets before the Exile gave expression to a prejudice against the wealthy, in which there was little or no attempt to draw distinctions; and it was only as this prejudice was partly overcome that rich men like Nehemiah (supra, p. 209) were able to share actively in the reconstitution of Israel and the establishment of the Jewish church. Wealth is necessary to the religious process. The reconstitution of Israel was very largely the work of consecrated rich men. These men paid the bills of Judaism; and in time the upper classes began to regard themselves as the proprietors of the Jewish church. There was always a tendency among the Jews to identify the wealthy and the priestly classes, and merge them in a single body opposed to the interests of the common man.

Although there could no longer be a conflict of parties over the question, What is the will of God? (since the divine Law was now in book form), yet there could be a difference of opin

I

' Editorial, Biblical World, (Chicago, November, 1911), p. 292.

ion over the interpretation of the Law. And here the priests and scribes, and their wealthy allies, had the advantage over the common man. For the Law was in their official keeping and they could interpret it in their own way. The great prophets would have denounced the forces that ultimately came into control of Judaism. According to the New Testament, the scribes and Pharisees tithed mint, and anise, and cummin, but left undone the weightier matters of the Torah -especially justice, or mishpat (Matt. 23:23; Luke 11:42). They devoured widows' houses; and then made long prayers (Mark 12:38-40; cf. Isa. 5:8, etc.). They unconsciously witnessed that they were the successors, or "sons," of them that slew the prophets (Matt. 23:31).

On the whole, the social problem was rejected by the Jewish church. The problem itself was not abolished, of course; but it no longer took the positive, creative place in religious life that it held before the Exile. This was because the religion of Israel was already created. There would have been nothing for prophecy to do at this time, save to criticize. And thus the rejection of the social problem went along with the silencing of prophecy and the enthronement of the priesthood.

The common man took the same place in Jewish society that he had in all the ancient civilizations.-While the re-establishment of Israel brought with it a positive religious advance, and registered a large gain on the spiritual side of the evolutionary process, it brought no great relief to the common man. From the purely economic standpoint, Jewish society was organized upon the same institutional basis that prevailed in all the great civilizations of antiquity. The Jewish upper classes held the

The Torah enjoins kindness and charity for the poor; but even supposing charity was actually practiced as there demanded, it still remains a fact that charity has no effect on the rate of wages. Other things being equal, the civilization in which there is the largest spirit of charity will be the one in which the common man will ultimately achieve the largest liberty. But it is the rate of wages, and not the practice of technical "charity," that measures the liberty of the people and the final success of civilization. The picture drawn by ben Sirach, at which we glance below, accords with all that we are able to discover about the lower classes in Jewish society.

lower orders in slavery, monopolized the soil, and controlled the operations of commerce and manufacture. A most interesting and instructive piece of testimony relative to the Jewish estimate of the common man is found in the Wisdom of Sirach, which we reproduce:

The wisdom of the scribe cometh by opportunity of leisure; and he that hath little business shall become wise.

How shall he become wise that holdeth the plow; that glorieth in the shaft of the goad; that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labors, and whose discourse is of the stock of bulls? He will set his heart upon turning his furrows; and his wakefulness is to give his heifers their fodder.

So is every artificer and workmaster, that passeth his time by night as by day; they that cut gravings of signets; and his diligence is to make great variety. He will set his heart to preserve likeness in his portraiture, and will be wakeful to finish his work.

So is the smith sitting by the anvil, and considering the unwrought iron. The vapor of the fire will waste his flesh; and in the heat of the furnace will he wrestle. The noise of the hammer will be ever in his ear; and his eyes are upon the pattern of the vessel. He will set his heart upon perfecting his works; and he will be wakeful to adorn them perfectly.

So is the potter sitting at his work, and turning the wheel about with his feet; who is alway anxiously set at his work; and all his handywork is by number. He will fashion the clay with his arm, and will bend its strength in front of his feet. He will apply his heart to finish the glazing; and he will be wakeful to make clean the furnace.

All these put their trust in their hands; and each becometh wise in his own work. Without these shall not city be inhabited; and men shall not sojourn nor walk up and down.

They shall not be sought for in the council of the people; and in the assembly they shall not mount on high. They shall not sit on the seat of the judge; and they shall not understand the covenant of judgment. Neither shall they declare instruction and judgment; and where parables are, they shall not be found. But they will maintain the fabric of the world; and in the handywork of their craft is their prayer (Sirach 38:24-34).1

I The Book of the Wisdom of Sirach was written more than a century before the time of Christ. It was never adopted into the Hebrew Bible. We quote from the Revised Apocrypha (Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York), but with different punctuation and paragraph arrangement.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE STRUGGLE FOR DELIVERANCE

The Jews longed for deliverance from trouble. In the midst of social conditions like those at which we have just glanced, it is but natural that a great longing for deliverance and help should grow up. The Jewish "messianic hope" has been one of the stock themes of Christian theology. It was at first viewed by the gentile world as a thing essentially unique, standing out of relation to the common thought of mankind; and the subject was not set in its true light until recently. Only in the last generation have we been able to see it in connection with the universal forces that move history.

All peoples have had the desire to escape from difficulty and graduate into a happier condition. Without this feeling, the movement of progressive civilization would be unthinkable. The Jewish longing for deliverance, redemption, or salvation, was founded upon tendencies that are potent wherever men are found; but the hope itself took a form peculiar to the time and the people among whom it arose. The thoughts of the Jews naturally flowed in the channels. cut by their ancestry. The pre-exilic Hebrews, like other ancient peoples, looked up to their god for help. Where the Babylonians trusted in Marduk, and the Egyptians in Amon, the Hebrews had faith in Yahweh. They believed that Yahweh would save them from their enemies and make them triumphant over their foes, in his good time, or “day.” The original idea of the Day of Yahweh was therefore base and materialistic. In opposition to this view, the great prophets declared that the Day would be (1) a time of punishment, after which (2) a righteous remnant would be saved and glorified. The destruction and exile of Israel was regarded