CHAPTER V

THE ANCIENT SEMITIC PEOPLES

Israel was one of a number of Semitic peoples.-The nation called "Israel," which appears in the foreground of Bible history, is one out of many social groups constituting the great Semitic race. One of the important facts calling for attention in sociological study of the Bible is the racial connection of Israel with surrounding peoples. The Semites are identified with the region lying at the junction of Europe, Asia, and Africa. In ancient history this remarkable race was distributed over the Arabian peninsula, the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean, and the valley of the Nile. These localities contained populations wholly or partly Semite. The Arabian peninsula was the field of the Arabs. The valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates were the seats of the Babylonians. The Nile valley was the home of the Egyptians. At the eastern end of the Mediterranean, on the coast itself, were the Phoenicians. Farther inland were the Canaanites, or Amorites, the Arameans, or Syrians, the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and Israelites.

All of these peoples have similar characteristics; and their languages evidently developed out of an earlier Semitic speech whose elements are common to all the peoples of this race. It has remained for modern science to point out broadly the racial connections and affiliations of Israel. But the legends of the Hexateuch admit the same fact. The ancestors of Israel are said to have lived in the region of Babylonia, and to have migrated westward into Canaan and Goshen (Gen., chaps. 11 ff.). Israel and the surrounding nations have ties

of common blood. The entire situation suggests that the earlier, prehistoric homeland of the Semitic race was the peninsula of Arabia. On this point, Barton writes as follows in his work on Semitic evolution:

The peculiar conditions of life which the Arabian deserts and oases have presented for millenniums are the matrix in which the Semitic character, as it is known to us, was born. . . . . The Bedawi are always underfed, they suffer constantly from hunger and thirst, and their bodies thus weakened fall an easy prey to disease; they range the silent desert, almost devoid of life, where the sun is all powerful by day and the stars exceedingly brilliant by night. This environment begets in them intensity of faith of a certain kind, ferocity, exclusiveness, and imagination. These are all Semitic characteristics wherever we find the Semites; and there can be little doubt but that this is the land in which these traits were ingrained in the race.'

Comparative study of the institutions pertaining to all the Semitic nations has been a factor of large importance in modern scientific interpretation of the Bible. We have already made some reference to the Semitic neighbors of Israel; and we shall have occasion to do so more frequently as our study proceeds. We shall now turn to some of the institutions that were common to the Semites, and which have to be reckoned with in sociological study of the Bible.

* Barton, Semitic Origins (New York, 1902), p. 28.

CHAPTER VI

KINSHIP INSTITUTIONS OF ISRAEL

The fact of kinship, the tie of blood, was emphasized very strongly in ancient society. The nations of ancient history were not composed of individual persons, in the modern sense. They were made up of "houses," or families, which were organized on the basis of blood relationship. The family group takes its origin amid the darkness of prehistoric times. It is the foundation stone of savage and barbarian society; and it has always been a powerful factor in the life of the great historic civilizations. The farther back we go in ancient history, the more important the family becomes. In fact, ancient society was regarded as an extension of the family; and the nation Israel was commonly referred to, in terms of kinship, as the "children of Jacob-Israel," or the 'family of Israel." It is at first rather difficult for the modern mind to realize the strength of the kinship idea in ancient society. Only with an effort can we grasp the importance of the blood bond among races more primitive than ourselves. In ancient history, and also among the more backward peoples now living on the earth, kinship is the only ground upon which a social group can be constructed. It is the central tie around which the activities of life revolve. The modern civil state puts the tie of blood in a subordinate and inconspicuous place; and it overlays the family idea with an imposing network of political relations. But in an ancient society like Israel, the civil state was impossible and unthinkable. The simpler organization of life in those ages thrust the bond of blood clearly into the foreground. Not only so; but the fact of kinship itself was treated from a standpoint unlike that of the present day.

The family in ancient Israel differed greatly from the modern family. The standard form of the Israelite and Semitic family was what is now called the "patriarchal." A patriarch is simply a "ruling father." ruling father." In accordance with this idea, the head of an Israelite family group was called in Hebrew the baal,. Where this word occurs in the Old Testament, it is variously rendered "master," 'owner," "husband," etc. The baal was the legal owner of the household group standing in contact with him. He was the proprietor of his wife, or wives, children, slaves, cattle, houses, lands, etc. The various phases of domestic life in ancient Israel were disposed with reference to this principle of subordination.

The position of the family head is illustrated to good effect by the laws of the Book of Exodus. Thus we read: "If an ox gore a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned but the baal of the ox shall be quit" (Exod. 21:28). In translating this passage, the English versions render the term by the word "owner." Again, we read: "If thou buy a Hebrew slave, six years shall he serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he be baal of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him" (Exod. 21:2, 3). The phrase here italicized is rendered by the English versions, "If he be married." Another example is found in Isaiah, as follows: "The ox knows his owner, and the ass the stall of his baal" (Isa. 1:3). Thus we see that the same Hebrew term indicates proprietorship of a wife and ownership of an animal. The word baal, used in this way, is not familiar to those who read the Bible only in modern translations. But it is well known through transliteration as a noun commonly applied to the local gods of the Amorites. These gods were thought of by their worshipers as the divine owners, or masters, of the fertile soil of Canaan. The term baal is also known, to some extent, as an element

'We shall discuss the application of this term to the gods later.

in "theophoric" proper names, as "Jerub-baal, who is Gideon" (Judg. 7:1), "Esh-baal" (I Chron. 8:33). Whenever it occurs in the Hebrew text merely as a common noun, as in the cases quoted above from Isaiah and Exodus, it is not transliterated, but is rendered by terms like "owner," or "husband." Study of this word is highly instructive regarding the constitution of kinship groups among the Israelites. In view of these considerations, the following well-known passage acquires new interest:

A worthy woman who can find? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her baal trusteth in her; and he shall have no lack of gain. She doeth him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchant ships. She bringeth her bread from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth food to her household, and their portion to her maidens. She considereth a field, and buyeth it. With the fruit of her hands she buyeth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with strength, and maketh strong her arms. She perceiveth that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the distaff, and her palms hold the spindle (Prov. 31:1019).

It is to be observed that the ideal wife, according to this passage, can turn her attention to almost any kind of work, day and night. Such a woman will not only work by lamplight; she will rise in the dark hours of the morning, prepare breakfast, and set the household slaves to their tasks. It is to be noticed, however, that the writer distinctly implies that such a person is only an ideal. For he asks, Who can find such a woman? And then he adds that, even if she were found, she would be so valuable that her price would be far above that of rubies.

The mention of price calls up another phase of the subject. The Israelite wife was virtually the property of her husband; standing almost in a chattel relation to him. A wife was obtained by outright purchase, either in money or goods,