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Hh oe _ a a sa sh i 1 ih 4 on si ey Hate iP baliail as has pale vale F Fidel | ut te iba ai i Ve iA Hh M hi aitall Malia ai ta ia ti rate feloleis ese Wasa onai i 2 ba anabestel sb ALA ’ iia ith Wat H fish fy a be | ally oe ye 4 tint PRR LCS sisi 3) Tarde! nat ane Hepa a TO NT ae Sn ‘ ae Sifidea bathed A ogalialls rp va vi ae iy hey Pie nha 4 wi ditasal abatelisn ars a j i Minbar ps fe lke aay es Dated - fe rit thst “ia Rete. ay FA eer i it se Mepeep Key oS tieey yaaa ab th i fais Py iin ei it ghee iia pn ‘ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/historyoforepara0Obree cea ae RR tect aman eetneee crameeeteeemene oe eee eee | No. 2. RAMESKHS II. No. 4. SETI II. THE PHARAOH Ol THE BONDAGE. JON. J ra Ll the ON Bone OF THE PREPARATION OF THE WORLD FOR CHRIST. Rev. Davip R. iesen. D._D: SECOND EDITION; REVISED AND ENLARGED. FLEMING: H. REVELL COMPANY; Publishers of Evangelical Literature, NEw YORK: CHICAGO: TORONTO. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-one, By Davip R. BREED, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. CopPpyRIGHTED 1893, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY. All rights reserved. PREFACE. While the subject which is treated in the following pages is not a new one, there is no work devoted to its.separate consideration. There are books in which certain phases of providential history are discussed, and many in which events, as they pass in review, are appropriately attributed to the divine direction of human affairs. But it has seemed to me that there was a distinct call for yet another volume, in which such events should be treated comprehensively under a single title and with exclusive reference to the redemptive purpose of God. Such a work should prove a welcome help to Bible students, such as can- didates for the ministry, Sunday-school teachers and others in training for Christian work, and indeed to all who desire a better understanding of the conditions under which the Gospel was originally proclaimed. While it may not be necessary for one to acquire a general knowledge of history in order to read the Bible to ‘his own salvation, yet the story of Redemption is invested with a deeper meaning and conveys a much more impressive lesson when one has first obtained an intelligent apprehension of the nature of mankind’s iv. PREFACE. departure from God, and of the method employed to lead it back to himself—the preparation of the world for redemption and the preparation of redemption for the world. One thus instructed will understand not only the connection between the Old Testament and the New, but the relation of the times before Christ to those since Christ; he will behold in history the pro- gressive outworking of a great and gracious plan. This will sufficiently indicate my object in the prep- aration of the present work, It is commended to those classes which I have had in mind. I have en- deavored to consult their needs in the material em- ployed and in the method of its arrangement. I give also in the foot-notes references to a number of books which are within easy reach, for the benefit of the interested reader, who desires to substantiate the state- ments made or pursue them at greater length. I sincerely desire that the volume may be of real service; increasing the knowledge of redemption, lead- ing some to the Saviour and promoting the glory of God. Davip R. BREED. CHICAGO, Sept. 1891. PREFATORY NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION. A second edition of this book being called for, I have embraced the opportunity to make a number of important additions, including two entire chapters (V. and XII.), which seemed to be required in order to the full presentation of my theme. Certain valuable works, which have appeared since the publication of the first edition, have been consulted and the material thus furnished has been embodied in the text and indicated in the foot notes. The last edition of Brugsch, however, has added nothing and altered nothing, so that the references to the original work in two volumes remain. I wish to express my gratitute for the kind reception given to the work and my deep desire for its yet greater usefulness. Davin R. BREED. CHICAGO, May, 1893. CONTEN ES: ParT I. INTRODUCTORY: PERIOD OF INCLUSION. Giver. Seite CHOSEN “LAND. Location; Seclusion, 138; The Jordan Valley, 14; The Desert, 18; The Sea-Coast, The Mountains, 19; Highways, 20; Climate and Resources, 22; Compared with Egypt, 23; Cli- matic Zones, 26; Vegetable Products, 27; Minerals, 30; Popu- lation, 81; Special Sections—Decapolis, 32; Plain of- Jezreel, 382; Shechem, 338; Hepron, 34; Accessibility, 35. Cuap. I]. THe CuosEn PEOPLE. The Era of Inclusion, 89; Chaldzea and Abraham, 40; The Era of Seclusion, 42; The Chosen Race, Persistent Vigor, 48; Other Abrahamic Races, 47; Disposition, 50; Language, 51; The So-Called Monotheistic Instinct, 56. Part II. PERIOD OF SECLUSION: SEMITIC SUPREMACY. CuHar- tile “Eure SCHOOLING oF ISRAEL. Israel led into Egypt, 63; Egypt under the Hyksos, 64; Tanis-Zoan, 68; Joseph and his Brethren, 69; School begins, 74; The Expulsion of the Hyksos, 76; Hatasu and Thothmes, Tocmiune scl X= Dynasty, oO; Rameses Il, Sesostris, $1; Tanis rebuilt, 86; The Oppression, 91; Egyptian Idolatry, 94. Cuap. lV. Tur Apoprion oF ISRAEL. The Training of Moses, 102; The University of Thebes, 108; The Choice of Moses, 107; Moses in Midian, His Com- mission, 110; Condition of Egyptian Affairs, 111; The Nature of the Conflict, 115; The Course of the Conflict, 119; Deliver- ance, 124; Effect upon Egypt; Effect upon Israel, 126. Cuap. V. THE DISCIPLINING OF ISRAEL. The Wilderness, 130; Preliminary Discipline, 182; Special Discipline, 185; The Book of the Covenant, 140; The Moral Vill CONTENTS. Law and the Ceremonial, 143; Final Lessons, 145; Death of Moses, 147; Effects, 148. Cuap. VI. Tue Hope or ISRAEL. The Primitive Hope, 153; The Patriarchal Hope, 166; The National Hope, 161; The Hebrew Investiture, 165; The Period of the Judges, 167; Samuel to Solomon, 174; Political Decline; Brightening Hope, 180. Part III. Prriop or DirFusION; JAPHETIC SUPREMACY. Cuap. VII. Tue GREAT OVERTURNING. Nebuchadnezzar, 188; The Medes and Persians, 191; Cyrus, ' 192; European History begins, 193; The Second Exodus, 194; The Religious Effect, 195; The Political Effect, 198. Crap, VIII Tue Great INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION. The Mission of the Greek, 205; Greek Colonies, 206; Greek Thought, 209; Early Philosophers, 210; Socrates, 219; Influ- ence of his Philosophy, 224; Plato, 280; Aristotle, 233. - Cuap. IX. Tue HELLENIZING OF THE NATIONS. Exit Socrates; Enter Alexander, 239; Accession of Alex- ander, 242; Conquests of Alexander, 245; Influence of Alex- ander, 247; Succeeding Effects, 252; Division of his Empire, Results, 255; The Diadochi, 258; Antioch and the East, 260; Alexandria and the South, 264; Rome and the West, 268; Hel- lenism and the Jew, 270. Cuap. X. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE JEW. History of the “Grecian,” 275; The Jew of Alexandria, 280; The Septuagint, 284; Other Graeco-Jewish Literature, 259; Philo of Alexandria, 298; His Education, 294; His Peculiar Work, 295; Effects, 3038. Cuap. XI. Tur UNIFICATION OF THE WORLD. Prophetic Forecast, 307; Early History of Rome, 310; The Empire; Julius Casar, 313; Augustus, 319; Roman Law, 322; Roman Citizenship, 827; Roman Roads and Travelers, 330; Results, 334. CONTENTS. 1X CuHap. XII. THE CONSOLIDATION oF ISRAEL. The Return from Babylon, 837; Hellenism and Judaism, 339; Political Consolidation, 840; Antiochus Epiphanes, 341; The Asmonezans, 343; Judas Maccabeus, 840; Successors of Judas, 849; Jewish Independence, 350; Effects, 853; Herod the Great, 355; Religious Consolidation, 8357; The Chasidim, 358; Literature of the Period, 859; Scribes; Rabbis, 362; Hillel, 364; Pharisees, Sadducees, 365; The Sanhedrin, 868; The Temple, 369; John the Baptist, 370. Parr 1V.. THe KiIncpom or HEAVEN AT. HAND. CuHaP. XIII. THe DEsPpAaIR oF HEATHENISM. Sources, 875; Roman Liberality, 8376; Growth of Supersti- tion, 880; Skepticism, 884; Connection with Greek Philosophy, 389; Revolt, 8392; Epicurean and Stoic, 393; The Final Condi- tion; Despair, 397; Intense Desire, 400. GrArPex LV... Lune W ORLD JovVING ING.VW ICKEDNESS: Early Roman Virtues, 405; Conquest and Corruption, 406; Political, 410; Social, 418, Dependents, 415; Games, 421; Do- mestic, 425; Religious, 428. GHA PONG acaselenk, EhULENESSZOR ULIME.. The Jew in History, 482; Extent of Jewish Dispersion, 435; Jewish Expectation, 4386; Jewish Influence; Heathen Monotheism, 440; Proselytes, 442; Heathen Hopes, 448; Dei- fication of the Emperor, 447; Extent and Significance, 453. Cuap. XVI. Jesus AND THE RESURRECTION. The Struggle after Unity, 459; Unity the Key to the Gos- pel, 463; Unity by Reconciliation, 465; Unity in the Incarna- tion, 467; The Preaching of the Apostles, 471; Conclusion, 475. MAPS, CHARTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. MAPS, CHARTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. CoLORED MAPS. Palestine fo... os 0 haigs8is siete te thee oreo ee ee before page 11 Egypt under Rameses I1............--+-+000- cs ie ti The Roman Empire... 0: 0 seats! + ve eee “4 ee 9) PLAIN MAps. Horeb, “The Mount of God” .7..,... ses see page 136 Alexander’s. March) « . .'.5.2 sole se 20 ores ZOU Palestine under the Maccabees and Herod...... face “ 387 CHARTS: The Bondage and Exodus........ 00. sj. sets ene page 113 The Hope of Israel... 2. 00.0.0 2 Vs ce oer “« 164 The Five ‘Centuries before Christ. 7.1.0 4... ieee ce 202 The Asmonsans ...ee.-0s00+ 5355 oe enone “ ©6852 ILLUSTRATIONS. The Pharaohs:‘of the Bondage:: (1a. em woos L TONGS piece. The Fountain of Jezreel’.’....c0e face page 33 Tpsamboul cn ee ieee seis ee alee ee a = 81 The Ramesseum Restored... ...:.'... sen eee 6 8d The House.of Seti... 360. .d we ce 6 103 Greek Temple at Pestum’... -5 0.2)... € 207 Lhe Appian ‘Way . cova,» 00s oe ote eee ss 330) en SF pee if ngs npn le age Sacerittaets Vasari em le on atonal: hae | ti ae ie q ee a ‘ - i ie a) ? paren apa aol a ag + =” * a, - a eg 5 gg, hte — lee le ee -— OS Ss, am di ware | A ease sea Sa. abies Mizpch Me oF » Snap sy erRstemesh JERUSALEM 3 Hleshibon ei a * On- | S| : oy V0 Fp ee 3 Soe 2) uaa : Calan Paaee ea % ‘s oAduliam: cea ‘| ® 5 f Oa ‘ ; 6 SCallithos Hot Hel! of i 1292 ft. below sea on OT Satiw 40 31V0S R yy pe 0% )) youesvg “2 ; —s oo —— er ' | y's 4 oa a is ti “7 ‘ ant wig. _ —+ a ey ~~ & f a3 “z ; ; op vie /E Y.4 b rT , i a F Z r 4 . rs = Petry S| : | t A. | ° .. 5 ; jf’ id J 4 mi 7 * we = i _ say ef v F j P J Mi S PRs Ob ag tee’ — s : | . : . + ; . 4 1 } rT i: Sn a] } . - , Nema bho, 5 =~. an ; hod "> Cy~- 4 eric % 4 } 7 Ne > | : = es Ve ee {i = ‘ » - j : ‘ = real i - 7 - — ao 2 ”" Yi staan on — - _ —" — - — - tw a) a — cs Parr I, INTRODUCTORY: PERIOD oF INCLUSION. “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people accord- ing to the number of the Children of Israel.” —Deut. xxxii:8, CHAPTER J: THe CHOSEN LAND. GraptEeR ll: slHE CHOSEN. PEOPLE. CHAPTER I. LHR GHOSENTIEAND: Strictly speaking, the preparation of the world for the coming of Christ dates from the beginning. Christ is the ‘Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” But the formal preparation of the world for redemp- tion, and of redemption for the world begins with the call of Abraham. In that call there are three great coincident events—the organization of the Church of God, the founding of the Jewish Nation and the occu- pation of the Promised Land. In the design of the Almighty it was necessary to preserve the Church within the limitations of the nation, and to preserve that nation by its sequestration in a suitable land. Had it been his desire simply to communicate to some single man, and to his descendants, a knowledge of the truth, this would not have been necessary. Abraham might have been chosen, instructed and invested with a cer- tain heritage of faith, while he and his posterity were still permitted to remain at his old home in Chaldea. But in the design of God to extend the knowledge of the Messiah, and of the way of salvation to the whole world, it became necessary to prepare a chosen nation and to locate them in a chosen land. Abraham was not bidden to depart from Chaldza simply because of its heathenism; for the iniquities of the Canaanites, among whom he was sent, were even more abominable (1) So Schaff—Church History, §8; and others. I2 THE CHOSEN LAND. than those of the more cultivated people of Chal- dea, out of which he had been called. But Chaldea was an altogether unsuitable land for a nation charged with such a mission to the world; nor could there have been found in the countries immediately adjacent, nor in fact in any land except that to which the steps of Abraham were directed, a proper place for the devel- opment of such a nation as the Israelites were to be- come. We therefore read that the “Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation * * * and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” We shall discover as we proceed that in the choice of this people and in the choice of their land the Almighty had at that early time antici- pated the whole course of history, and inaugurated a plan which it was never necessary subsequently to modify. | ‘So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto ” and about 2000 years, B. C., entered the Land of Canaan. At that period the nations of the earth were just emerging from the darkness of their mytho- logical night, and almost at this exact point, the authentic history of the world begins. There are no records remaining of any of the nations which existed prior to this time, except those of Chaldzea, out of which Abraham was called, and of Egypt, in which for a season he sojourned; and the records of these countries are brief, and in a state of unintel- ligible confusion. This fact will bear repetition and (2) Gen. xii: 1-3. him; THE SECLUSION. OF THE LAND. 13 emphasis—that the call of Abraham and his settlement in Canaan are coincident with the beginning of authentic history. EOGATIONF OF “CHE LAND: The land of Canaan, which was to be the home of Abraham and his descendants, is located about mid- way between Chaldza and Egypt. In comparison with other countries which have exercised any considerable influence upon the world, its size is exceedingly small. From north to south it measures about 150 miles; while the average breadth from east to west, includ- ing that portion east of the Jordan which was settled by the Israelites, is about 60 miles. Its area corre- sponds approximately to that of Wales or Massachu- setts. But its very insignificance served the purpose of God. ‘This purpose was two-fold: first, to preserve the identity of his people by a careful seclusion, especi- ally from those great empires whose acquaintance would have been a means of moral corruption; second, to furnish them a central point of influence, from which their principles and hopes might be easily and naturally diffused. THE SECLUSION OF THE LAND. The seclusion of the people was secured by certain physical peculiarities of the land which have no paral- lel elsewhere on earth. They were separated from the great Oriental monarchies on the east by the desert, and by the vast fissure of the Jordan Valley. They were separated from the empire of Egypt upon the south by that “great and_terrible wilderness” which lay between the Valley of the Nile and Southern I4 THE CHOSEN LAND. Palestine. They were separated from the nations that should arise in the west by the Mediterranean Sea; and from those upon the north by the mountains of Northern Galilee. ; We shall note some of the particulars of these physi- cal features, beginning with the Valley of the Jordan. THE JORDAN VALLEY. The meaning of the word is ‘The Descender,” im- plying in the original the rapidity of its current. ‘This is the name uniformly applied to it in the Scriptures. While other streams may bear the prefix ‘ brook” or ‘‘river,” this one is always called simply ‘‘ The Jordan.” Its total length in a direct line is only 1o4 miles. It is thus about one-half the length of the River Thames in England, and less that one-half the length of the Hudson River. It issues from a cave near the site of Cesarea Philippi, and after flowing about five miles, unites with a second stream descending from Mount Hermon. Its source is about 1000 feet above the Mediterranean. Its mouth, where it enters the Dead Sea, is 1292 feet below the Mediterranean, thus giving to the river a total fall of about 2300 feet. The fall of the river when first leaving the Lake of Galilee is 40 feet to the mile, and in the next 60 miles the fall is 610 feet. With such a current it becomes virtually impassable, except at a small number of fords. The Arabs of the present day enumerate some forty of these, but they are mostly passable only in the sum. mer. The well-known fords are four in number: the first two just below the Sea of Galilee, now marked by remains of Roman bridges; the third at the con- THE FORDAN VALLEY. I5 fluence of the Jabbok; and the fourth opposite Jericho. During the larger part of the year the stream is a tor- rent confined in a narrow channel between precipitous banks; tortuous, treacherous, and hidden by a dense jungle; this jungle, and the terrace on which it grows, extending the entire length of the stream. It is thus described by a modern traveler: “A ride of three-quarters of an hour brings us on a desolate expanse of gray salt mud to the mouth of the Jordan. In dry weather the gray mud is encrusted with salt and gypsum and occasional layers of sulphur and oxide of iron. The river itself lies completely out of sight. Never, except from some com- manding height, can a glimpse be caught of the silvery bead which marks its course, until within two or three miles of its end when its forest fringe ceases; but its course can everywhere be traced by the deep green ribbon of foliage just peering above the upper banks, the tops of the trees which mark its border. All along this lower plain there are three sets of terrace banks. The old bed of the river, or rather the upper end of the lake where the mud deposits were laid against the slopes of the enclosing mountains, was about sixteen miles wide. This is the plain on which Jericho and Gilgal stood. Then we have the higher plain, which even now on rare occasions is flooded. This is covered with shrubs and scant herbage. Close to the river’s bank we descend fifty-five feet into a dense thicket of tamarisk, silver poplar, willows, terebinth, and many other trees strange to European eyes, with a dense and impenetrable undergrowth of reeds, and all sorts of acquatic brushwood. It is perfor- ated in all directions by the runs of wild boars, which literally swarm here; while the branches are vocal with myriads of birds. It is a startling contrast suddenly to descend into this narrow belt. Beneath this shade the Jordan, generally not above fifty yards wide, hurries on, in its tortuous but rapid course, muddy and dark, dashing from side to side, and forming curling eddies at each sharp turn, generally most difficult to stem and in most places too deep to ford, having generally ten feet of water. It is, however, easy enough for an expert swimmer to get across (4) Sinai and Palestine ,; Stanley, p. 290. 16 THE CHOSEN LAND. by choosing a spot just above one of these sharp turns, and steering himself with the stream until he strikes the opposite bank.” ©) It must be remembered in this connection that the Jordan of to-day is scarcely the Jordan of former ages. The destruction of the forests in Palestine has to some extent altered the character of the stream, giving to it a more unequal flow of water; but it appears that even as it is to-day, it would offer a serious obstacle to an invading army, or a passing caravan, consider- ing that even in our times, he must be an “expert swimmer ”’ who ventures to cross it. During the time of the Israelitish occupancy it was absolutely impass- able at certain seasons of the year. Even the fords of Jericho, where travelers were accustomed to cross, could not be attempted. Such was the condition of the stream when the Israelites under Joshua attempted its passage. ‘‘ Jordan overfloweth all its banks at the time of harvest;”® and its waters were consequently miraculously divided, as those of the Red Sea had been before. But the current of the Jordan 1s only a single item in the protective character of the western border. The eastern cliffs are very steep and rent by gullies of appalling depth. On the western side, towards the land of Israel, they are not so precipitous, but rise to greater heights; so that the Mount of Olives, which is 2700 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea, is about 4000 feet above the Jordan at Jericho. It is apparent, then, that the traveler who went from Jeru- salem to Jericho, and “fell among thieves,” is aptly (5)Canon Tristam in Picturesque Palestine, Vol. I, p. 164. (6) Joshua iii: 15. LEE VFORDAN VALLEY. ary described by the Saviour in his parable as “ going down” from the former to the latter place. The distance from Jericho to Bethany is only fifteen miles, so that the average ascent is 266 feet to the mile. In order to apprehend the extreme severity of such a grade it may be borne in mind that the average grade of the Simplon Pass, the colossal masterpiece of the first Napoleon, connecting Geneva and Milan, is only 190 feet to the mile. Mr. Edward L. Wilson, the distinguished photo- grapher and /¢¢erateur, whose lantern slides of three continents have been exhibited to admiring audiences the world over, thus describes his own journey over this road: “The climb from Jericho to Bethany is one of the most ex- asperating in Judea. There are a number of routes, but if any one is chosen sorrow is sure to follow the preference. After climbing say five hundred feet, turning, one may gain an appre- ciation of the true depression of the site of Jericho and of the Dead Sea. Now, the path runs up rocky defiles amid chalk hills, through stony valleys, and over blighted soil, up, up in the sun, until the tops of two giddy fragments of masonry are seen. These are in Bethany and form part of what is called the house of Martha and Mary.” @ The country was thus furnished by the Jordan with a wall and a fosse which were ordinarily impassable. But still beyond the Jordan lay that extension of the African desert which contributed still further to the separation of the land from the nations on the East. Around this desert Abraham himself traveled upon — his way to the promised land, going far to the North, following the Euphrates for 600 miles; and around this (7) Century Magazine, April, 1888. 18 THE CHOSEN LAND. desert even Alexander the Great himself, a man who did not suffer himself to be deflected by ordinary ob- stacles, was obliged to march after the subjugation of Egypt on his way to the fatherland of Abraham. THE SU ESE Rats Passing now to the south the peculiarity of the desert between Palestine and Egypt, and its influence as a factor in the seclusion of Israel, cannot be better described than in quoting from Dean Stanley an ac- count of his own experience while crossing it. He Says. “ The day after leaving Ayoun-Mousa was at first within sight of the blue channel of the Red Sea, but soon Red Sea and all were lost in a sand-storm which lasted the whole day. Imagine all distant objects entirely lost to view. ‘The sheets of sand fleeting along the surface of the desert like streams of water, the whole air filled, though invisible, with a tem- pest of sand driving in your face like sleet. Imagine the caravan toiling against this, the Bedouins each with his shawl thrown completely over his head, half of the riders sitting back- * wards, the camels meanwhile thus virtually left without guid- ance, though from time to time throwing their long necks side- ways to avoid the blast, yet moving straight onward with a beneficent sense of duty truly edifying to behold. I had thought that with the Nile our troubles of wind were over, but (another analogy for the ships of the desert) the great saddlebags act like sails to the camels, and therefore with a contrary wind are serious impediments to their progress. ‘Through this tempest, this roaring and driving tempest, which sometimes make me think that this must be the real meaning of a ‘howling wilder- ness,’ we rode on the whole day.” He also adds the following foot-note: “YT have retained this account of the sand-storm chiefly because it seems to be a phenomenon peculiar to this special region. Van Egmont, Niebuhr and Miss Martineau all noticed LHE SELA-COAST. ge) it; and it was just as violent at the passage of a friend in 1841 and again of another two months after ours in 1853.” ®) Such was that “Great and terrible wilderness.” " says Ebers, ‘ and could I illus- bavV cles la painter,’ trate Dante’s Inferno, I would have pitched my camp stool here and have filled my sketch-book, for there could never be wanting to the limner of the dark abyss of the pit, landscape, savage, terrible, immeasur- ably sad, unutterably wild, unapproachably grand and awful.” Tike SEA OAS TS Passing to the west we observe the sharp contrast between the coasts of Palestine and those of the neigh- boring countries. The shores of the Land of Israel have no indentations, no large rivers, and no deep havens, such as in ancient times, without the improve- ments of subsequent invention, were even more neces- sary than now for the protection of shipping. The entire extent of their sea-coast is unbroken except by the Bay of Acre, which furnished the only harbor. It was a very poor one, however, because so shallow; the only anchorage being on its extreme south, under the fe-woteCarmel.”™ (Che other landine-places, such»as Joppa and Cesarea, were in no sense harbors, but the most exposed and open roadsteads. Palestine could not be successfully invaded, then, from the west, either by conquering enemies or inquisitive friends, PE EAMOUNTATING, On the northern frontier the double ranges of Lebanon formed two important ramparts; the (8) Stzat and Palestine, p. 68. (9) Kzttto’s Cyclopedia ,; ‘““Accho,” 20 THE CHOSEN LAND. gate between, indeed, was open, but it was easily cuarded. : These were the natural fortifications of that land, so aptly described by Isaiah in his song of the vineyard: ‘‘HfYe fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it.” And in the succeeding warning, “T will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden dowa.”°” Or in the parable of the Saviour, “A certain man pianted a vineyard and set a hedge about it HIGHWAYS. The land thus fortified could not be easily traversed. Those highways from nation to nation which passed through it were built with difficulty, and generally avoided the interior. The location of the Roman roads, which must have followed, in the main at least, former routes of travel, are well known.“ From Egypt the road to the north passes through Gaza and follows along the sea-coast. This would seem to be the most natural and easy route; yet the plain along the Mediterranean is in Northern Galilee hardly a mile broad upon the average, and between the cliff and the sea there is at times barely room for a narrow road, while in some places, indeed, a passage has had to be cut out in the rock. The main road from west to east begins in the Bay of Acre, passes up the plain of Esdrelon to a point near the ancient Jezreel, then over the mountains north of Gilboa to the Jordan, follows (10) Is. v: 2, 5. (12) See Map. (11) Mark xii:1, HIGHWAYS. PAGE up the Valley of the Jordan for about five miles, and then strikes off toward the east. The road from Egypt to the north and east passes through Petra southeast of the Dead Sea, thence through Heshbon and Rabbath-Ammon, avoiding Judea altogether. These were the three principal routes of travel, and the roads in the interior were taken only by those whose objective point was one of the towns of Israel.” It was due to these peculiar physical features of the land that the people of Israel experienced that pro- found quiet which was substantially unbroken for centuries. It is true that there were- wars between the Israelites (or certain tribes of them) and _ the original possessors of the land which had not been driven out; and that certain sections were overrun for brief periods by their predatory hostile neighbors on the east and south. But these were matters of little consequence as affecting the general state of quiet and security which they enjoyed. In the meantime, in the period which elapsed be- tween the entrance of the Israelites upon their posses- sion and the death of Solomon, the foundations of the well-known nations of antiquity were laid. But while they were still in their traditionary age, the people of Israel, in their sequestered land, had attained the very summit of their national glory, perfected their political system, erected their glorious temple to Jehovah, and were established in those elements of spiritual power which were to be the source of all beneficent influences. (13) Hastory of the Romans under the Empire, Merivale, ch. xxix. THE CHOSEN. LAND. fo bo CLIMATE AND RESOURCES. A people thus kept to themselves must necessarily find in their own country, small though it be, everything essential to their well-being; and the land of Canaan is no more remarkable in those unusual physical feat- ures which shut it out from other lands, than in those equally remarkable climatic features by which its people were enabled to shut themselves in to them- selves—the fertility of its. soil, its mineral wealth, and its rich and varied vegetation. At the time of Abraham’s entrance it must have presented a very fair and lovely appearance to the eyes of the pilgrims who had been accustomed to the bare and monotonous plains of Mesopotamia. At that day there were but two towns of any importance east of the Jordan, Ramoth Gilead and Kir Moab. A dense population cultivated the tropical valley of the Jordan and the plain of the Dead Sea, but beyond this to the west, until the Phoenician settlements upon the coast were reached, there were but few colonists. Palestine proper contained but two respectable cities, Shechem and Hebron. ‘These and a few villages comprised the whole settled population. The hillsides had not yet been terraced and very few spots upon the plains had been, as yet, disturbed by the plow. The scattered timber lining the water-courses or dotting the moun- tains in irregular clusters, gave to the landscape the appearance of a park, and its whole aspect fulfilled its description as a “ Land of Promise.” The pastoral patriarch could lead his flocks where he would, so long as he refrained from the only breach GOMPARE DD WIL “EGTPT. 22 of early international law—an attempt to seize the wells of other tribes.“ The population. greatly increased between the time of Abraham and that of Joshua, but the character of the country was not altered. Moses described it to the people he was leading thither in these words: “The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig- trees and pomegranates; a land of oil-olive and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayst dig brass.” (5) And again: “The land whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven, a land which the Lord, thy God, careth for. The eyes of the Lord, thy God, are always upon it from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year.” (16) COMPARED. WITHe EGYPT. The people to whom these words were spoken would, in their imagination, compare the land which was thus described with the wilderness through which they had passed; and more particularly, with the land of Egypt, out of which they had come. They would remember that the land of Egypt, where they and their fathers had been dwelling, was habitable only in the delta of the Nile, and in the narrow strip of land upon its borders, which it was possible to irrigate. ‘They would remember also that the productions of the land of Egypt were for these (14) Canon Tristam in the Yournal of the Victoria Institute, No. 82. (15) Deut. vill: 7-0. CGM eutexiet lesloe 24 THE CHOSEN LAND. reasons limited; and they would look forward to the land which had been promised to them with inexpres- sible longing and delight. They were not to be dis- appointed. The land as it is now seen by travelers is scarcely the land into which the Israelites entered and where they continued to dwell. It has been’ greatly modified by neglect and waste on the part of its inhabitants and governors. Its forests have been cut down. ‘The surface soil, where it was formerly sus- tained by terraces, has been washed by the rain into the valleys and carried out to the seas. The rock- hewn cisterns in which, during the rainy seasons, they were accustomed to store an abundance of water, are destroyed or fallen into decay. The network of water pipes for irrigation are now only faintly traced in the ruins that remain. In some few favored spots may still be seen the remains of those works originally built by the predecessors of the Israelites, and into the enjoyment of which they entered, an illustration of which appears in the remarkable cultivation still sur- viving in the terraces of Mount Lebanon. Dr. George E. Post, of Beirut, an eminent authority upon this subject, declares that Syria and Palestine are suffering in common with all the East from the denudation of the forests and the consequent diminnu- tion in the rainfall, and the irregularity of its advent; although at the present time increasing cultivation and tree planting on Lebanon and in the maritime plains is exercising a favorite influence upon the climate and water supply. Could the heights of Lebanon be again clothed with their forests of cedar, a great change would come over the whole country. The COMPARL OD” Witt “HGl PT, 25 rains would set in earlier, continue later, come more mildly, and be less frequently accompanied with their present destructive floods. In the days of Israelitish occupation, however, there were abundant springs on the very summits of the highlands, some of which still flow at Hebron, Nablous and in other places. A few are yet found in the immediate neighborhood of Jerusalem, while more than forty may be counted within a radius of twenty miles. The mountains of Gilead are also rich in fountains, supplying several perennial streams. These fountains indicate the former condition of the country. ‘There were two rainy seasons. The “early rain,’ commencing about the first of November, and Ciomeattcr rain, sine pril. ) (he ‘vearly ‘rain’ was the more abundant, and fell during four months. The seasons, in consequence, were characterized by re- markable regularity. Famine was infrequent,“ and we hear of no very extended suffering in consequence thereof until the reign of Ahab. Up to the time of Christ and the “beginning of sorrows’ under the Romans, the land continued as it had been, and was capable of sustaining a vast popu- lation; though «¢ Now all is changed—all save the changeless things; The mountains, and the waters, and the sky— These, as He saw them, have their glory yet.” * * * “Dead lie His once fair fields; Barren the fallows where His sower sowed; None reaps the silver harvests of His sea; None in the wheat-row roots the ill tares out. (1%) Fournal Victoria Institute, No. 80. OSs)iSee Ruth 1: 1, and 2 Sam. xxicr. 26 THE CHOSEN LAND. The hungry land gasps empty in the glare; The vulture’s self goes famished; the wolf prowls Fasting, amid the broken stones which built The cities of His sojourn.” * * * * * * «The ways have shrunk Into a camel-path; the centuries With flood, and blast, have torn the terrace bare ~ Where the fox littered in the grapes.” (9) CLIMATIC ZONES. The land, though so small, has four distinct climatic zones. The extensive maritime plain and the Valley of the Jordan give rise to important contrasts. From its proximity to the sea the former region is much warmer than the highlands. The mean annual tem- perature is 70 degrees Fahrenheit. ‘The harvest ripens two weeks earlier than among the mountains. Citrons and oranges flourish. The second zone consists of the highlands. The average temperature of Jerusalem, which may be taken as a fair illustration, is 62 degrees. In this climate the grape, the fig, and the olive thrive. The third zone is that of the Jordan Valley, which is tropical. It concentrates the full radiance of the sun, rarely mitigated by any cloud, though chilled at times by the north wind. It is. parched by the south wind from the desert, and sheltered from the moist sea breezes of the west. Here the palm-tree grows in great perfection. Jericho, the “‘ City of Palm Trees,” was considered by Mark Antony a gift worthy to be bestowed upon Cleopatra. ‘Phe fourth zone consists of the elevated region east of the Jordan, with an extreme climate, the temperature rising during the day to So degrees, and sometimes falling during the (19) The Light cf the World, Edwin Arnold. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS, 27 night below the freezing point. But there is a large precipitation, rendering the country desirable for graz- ing purposes. Veli DAB EES RODUGLIS: A land with such a varied climate could, of course, be made to produce every plant that is useful to man. The oak, the pine, the walnut, the maple, the alder, the poplar, the willow and the ash grow luxuriantly - on the heights of Northern Galilee. Here the traveler from the more temperate lands finds himself in the midst of the vegetation of his own country. He sees the apple, the pear and the plum; wheat, barley, peas, potatoes, cabbage, carrots and lettuce. But in other sections of Palestine the traveler from more southern countries is no less at home. He will recognize the well-known forms of the oleander, the willow, the sycamore, the date palm, the pistachio, and the tall tropical grasses and reeds. He’may eat such fruits as the date, pomegranate, the orange, the banana, the almond. His eyes may be gladdened with the sight of fields of cotton, millet, rice, sugar-cane, indigo, tobacco, and other southern crops. Thus this little land of Palestine reproduces climates and zones which in other countries are separated by hundreds of miles. Dr. Post, of Beirut, in an address recently made before the Victoria Institute, claims that no other country in the world yields so large a number of food articles as Palestine. He gives a summary as follows: “The table-lands of Palestine, east and west of the Jordan, are about 2500 feet above the Mediterranean. The climate is (20) Life of Christ, Geikie, ch. ii. 28 THE CHOSEN’ LAND. considerably cooler than that of the semi-tropical maritime plains, and the rainfall in winter is abundant. * * * In closing, it may not be amiss to allude to the range and number of plants cultivated with ease in the open air of Syria and Palestine. “ WVigella arvensis, L., is raised from the black seeds which are known as the el-Habbat-es-sanda (the black seed), or Hab- bat el-Barakat (the seed of blessing). These seeds are sprink- led over the surface of the flat loaves of bread. They are the jitches of Isaiah xxviii,25-27. Theopium poppy, Papaver somni- ferm, £.,is common in cultivation, though opium is not made in Syria. The capsules are used in making sedative effusions. “Of Cructfers we have black and white mustard, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, cresses and radishes. “ Flax, rue, sorrel and cactus, Hicus Indica grow wild. “The Vine, with an endless variety of fruits, is universal, even to the height of 6000 feet above the sea. “There are maple, tamarisk, terebinth, Schoemus, Pride of India, and jujube trees. “The lemon, orange and citron are cultivated everywhere along the coast, from Tripoli southward. “Of Leguminose the number of cultivated plants is very large—lupine, beans, horse-beans, peas, lentiles, Czcer arietinum, mash (a species of Phaseolus), carob-trees, acacia (the shittim of Scripture), and the locust; the latter introduced. “Of Rosaceous plants, the strawberry, blackberry, peach, plum, almond, apricot, nectarine, apple, quince, medlar and Photinia Japonica, all flourish. Syria is pre-eminently a rose country, most cultivated varieties attaining an excellent develop- ment. “Of Grossudacee there are none which succeed well in this land, although gooseberries and currants have been cultivated. “The pomegranate is indigenous in the north, and the myrtle every where. ‘“¢ Fucalypti flourish in marshy ground. ‘“‘ Watermelons, musk-melons, squash, pumpkins and cucum- bers all reach a fine development. “Of Umbellifere, the coriander, dill, fennel, caraway, anise, celery, parsley, parsnip and carrot either grow wild or flourish under cultivation. VEGETASLE PRODUCTS 29 «Valerian grows wild, as also carthamus, chiccory and lettuce of several kinds, and artichokes are cultivated. “ Of Solanaceous plants the potato, tobacco, tomato and egg- plant are cultivated, and henbane and nightshade grow wild. “The sesame forms a considerable part of the produce of the plains. “The olive flourishes everywhere, and yields a considerable part of the wealth of the country. “ Figs, sycamores, mulberries, hemp and the ramie (Chinese silk) plant, all flourish. “The plane tree, the walnut, the edible pine and a consider- able variety of oaks, the hornbeam and the beech, are abundant, the latter two especially in Northern Syria. The castor-oil plant is almost universal. “Of monocotyledons, the palm, the banana, many liliaceous flowers, the Colocasia antiquorum (which is cultivated in marshy ground), many kinds of iris, tulip and crocus flourish in appro- priate situations. ‘Grass is not cultivated for hay, except on the farm of the Damascus Road Company, at Sheturah, in Cele-Syria. Never- theless, the success of this company, which makes the hay there raised a considerable part of the food of its large number of horses and mules, warrants the belief that hay could be made one of the staples of Syria. “6 Maize, wheat, barley, sorghum and sugar-cane are staples. The papyrus is now confined to the Huleh, and perhaps the marshes of the Kishon. A;e VT a alt ° 4 GHAPTER! Lik ELLES GOS DINGP ROP IEE: In the execution of the purpose of God it became necessary to prepare a people for the prepared land. The choice of this people was not, as is too commonly supposed, an arbitrary one. ‘They were selected with reference to certain qualities which they possessed and certain advantages which they had enjoyed, fitting them to become the leaders of the world in the exten- sion of the divine redemption. There had been due preparation for their advent, just as there subsequently was for the advent of the Redeemer. The providential history of the world leads up to Abraham; just as it leads up to the Seed of Abraham, the Saviour. The period which leads up to Abraham may be called dai b> INCLUSION: It is characterized by the inclusion of the people of God among the nations, as the period which follows Abraham is characterized by their seclusion. In order to justify this seclusion of the Hebrew race it was the design of the Almighty, in the course of his providence, to show that unless the chosen people were set apart by themselves, the knowledge of the truth would have become hopelessly lost, and the redemption of the world indefinitely retarded. Therefore, after the judgment of the ante-deluvian world and the destruction of its people in the flood, 40 THE CHOSEN “PEOPLE. the Almighty started the whole race anew by the preservation of a single family, to whom he vouch- safed the knowledge of himself. No attempt was then made to separate a single tribe from others. Although Shem, the youngest son of Noah, was selected as the father of the chosen seed, the intercourse of his descend- ants with those of the other sons of Noah was absolutely unrestricted. The leaven was hid in the meal; the question which was to be answered in the course of history was whether the leaven would permeate the lump or the lump quench the leaven. Again “men began to multiply on the face of the earth.” The judgment of the former age was forgot- ten; and the lapse into idolatry and immorality was almost as swift as it had been originally. We are taught by the Scriptures that the immediate descend- ants of Noah plunged at once into sin. Of Shem alone are we positively informed that he acknowledged the Lord as his God. It is presumed that his son, the grandson of Noah, was an idolater; and all the nations which sprang from Noah shared inthe same decline. For hundreds of years together there was not so much as a solitary exception. ‘The world had again reached © a condition similar to that which obtained just before the flood; and by its persistence in that condition demonstrated its incapacity to conserve truth and righteousness, except under special conditions which the Almighty himself should arrange and impose. CHALDAA AND ABRAHAM. The culminating point in this period was reached when the Chaldeans obtained supremacy over their CHALDAZA AND ABRAHAM. Al neighbors, and the Chaldean government became the central and sovereign one. Coincident with this cen- tralization of political power in the hands of the Chaldzeans there was a culmination in their iniquities. We observe the same state of things existing upon a small scale at the call of Abraham, which we shall hereafter observe at the advent of Christ. ‘ The full- ness of time’ had come in just the same sense. The world, in its increasing ignorance of God, and its deepening departure from him, was ripe for some distinct divine intervention. An extended account of the religious condition of Chaldea at the time of Abraham cannot here be given. It is sufficient for our purpose to note that at the time of Abraham’s migration a new dynasty had taken possession of southern Mesopotamia. Of this new dynasty Sargon I. was the founder. His empire was the most extensive which the world had as yet known. Sargon had carried his conquests far to the west; left his image on the rocks of the Mediterranean coast, and even crossed the sea to Cyprus.“ That the religion of his empire might be in keeping with its political magnificence it was formulated, under his influence, into a complete system.” The divinities were arranged in imperial order into a graduated hier- archy,and their respective worship was defined; idolatry was thus dignified, and received a new and powerful impulse. Chaldza and its subject kingdoms were committed to it. The civilization of the world that (1) The Bible and Modern Discoveries ; Harper, p. 4. (2)See The Ancient World and Christianity , De Pressense, ch. il. flours with the Bible, Geike, I., 305. Ancient Empires of the East, Sayce, pp. 112, 295. 42 THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. then was, its political power, its social life, and its religious condition, were determined. The gods which, before this time, were like the people, com- paratively simple and unobtrusive, were lifted, together with their monarch, to a supreme place and glory. Abraham before his departure was the witness of this sad deterioration. Hesaw the great army of priests which the increasing demands of idolatry had multi- plied. He heard them chant the liturgies which the great mental awakening had created. He was the witness of the early rites of magic and divination—now reduced to a system. Possibly he was a witness also of the awful horror of human sacrifice which was commonly practiced in his own land. Such was the condition which threatened to become universal, when he received his call, and the era of inclusion ended in the signal failure of mankind. THE ERAZORsSEC Uso: Abraham is now designated to be the founder of a new era, of which the seclusion of the people of God shall be the characteristic feature. He is a citizen of Ur, the capital of Chaldea. His very name (Abu- ramu ) 1s found on an early Babylonian tablet.” He is alsoa descendant of the blessed Shem, the son of Noah. But this is not all. Though there appears a special fitness in the designation of Abraham, he might have been all that we have represented him to be and yet have been unfit for the peculiar work which was contemplated in the purpose of God. That (3) Abraham: The Typical Life of Faith, Breed, ch. i. () Lhe Bible and Modern Discoveries ; Harper, p. 4. PERSISTENT VIGOR. 43 purpose looked to the far distant future, and required for its execution a suitable agent. The choice of the Almighty, therefore, had respect to the agent, as it always has. ‘The same discrimination was shown in the choice of Abraham which was afterwards displayed in the choice of Moses and of Paul. TLE GHOSE NENAGH, The race which was to spring from Abraham was to be endowed with those peculiar qualities which should render them fitting agents for the custody and transmission of the truth. We shall direct attention, first, to such qualities as they shared with kindred races; then, to such qualities as distinguished them from others; and then, to the divine addition to their natural endowments. PERSISTENT VIGOR, The persistent physical and intellectual vigor of the Hebrew race has been frequently emphasized. The scientific principle as to the persistence of the type and conformity thereto, has never seen such a remarkable illustration. It hasbeen generally remarked even by ethnologists, who view the matter not from a religious standpoint, but from a scientific one. their kinsmen by their disposition. In selecting his agents the Lord had respect to the amiability and tranquility of the Jewish mind. He chose the gentle Isaac, not the furious Ishmael. The descendants of Isaac have never been great warriors. They never made extensive conquests. Even the dominions of David and Solomon were insignificant in comparison with the great empires of the Old World. More par- ticularly, be it remarked, they never sought to prose- lyte by force. What an exceedingly sad commentary it would have been upon the history of the chosen people had they reflected at any time the spirit of the Ishmaelite; or raised a rallying cry similar to that of Mahomet and his successors, ‘‘ The Koran, Tribute, or the Sword!” ———eESEooo LANGUAGE. 51 But perhaps the most remarkable of those endow- ments which fitted the Hebrews to be the custodians of the truth, was their possession of a language which was signally distinct from most of those with which it came in contact by its alphabetic form. While the written speech of other nations was cast in some complicated syllabic or hieroglyphic system, the writ- ten forms of this language were such as to adapt it to the purpose of God. It was specially suitable to be cut upon stone and used for monumental Inscrip- tions. ‘The tables of the law which Moses received from the Almighty would have suffered greatly in their force and perspicuity, if indeed their meaning could have been expressed, had they been carved in the forms which Egyptians or Assyrians were wont to use. Ideographic systems, even after they have assumed a somewhat phonetic character or passed into syllabic form, have certain serious defects. The range of ex- pression is limited. They are largely confined to the sensuous and concrete, and more particularly, the same symbol must be employed to denote a variety of objects and of sounds which are somewhat closely allied to each other. Take for example, and as a single illus- tration from the Egyptian syllabary, the sign for “lapis lazuli.” The Egyptian name for this stone is khesteh. But the first syllable of this word, used alone, means “ to stop,” and the second, “ pig,’ so that the sign for lapis lazuli is a man stopping a pig by pulling his tail. Clearly then such a language was not adapted to the purpose of divine revelation, in which there must 52 THE CHOSEN, PEOPLE. be precision, as well as the opportunity for the coinage of new words wherewith to express new ideas—ideas entirely disassociated from ambiguous symbols. ‘The Almighty, therefore, chose a people in possession of an alphabetic system capable of expressing a wide range of thought, and more especially capable of conveying abstract truth. At what date this language was reduced to that written form, which preceded its alphabetic form, it is impossible to determine. The date is so remote as to be lost in the mists of antiquity. We only know that when the people from whom the Hebrews sprang first appeared, this language was the common property of all the nations between Assyria and Egypt, with differences only of idiom. The Phceenician was long supposed to be the oldest language of its class. It can be traced to a date 1000 years, B. C. It was more widely extended than any of the other early languages. The whole ancient world being the vantage ground of Phcenician enter- prise, it was naturally disseminated over the widest possible space. The Greek and Roman alphabets were its products. According to tradition, Cadmus, the Pheenician, introduced the art of writing into Greece, giving to it the old alphabet of sixteen letters. But by reason of this very dissemination of the Phcenician lan- guage it yielded to foreign influence, became corrupt and lost its distinctive character.“ At the present time we are unable to determine the original form of the common language, but the (2) Literary Remains of Emanuel Deutsch, 304-307; Enc. Britt., Art. “ Alphabet.” \ LANGUAGE. 53 Flebrew, as we know it, unquestionably approaches very closely to the primitive type. Before Abraham left Chaldza this language in its early form had been im- pressed upon the tablets of clay which formed the books in use in that age of the world. Libraries of such books had been collected and by their means as- tronomy, mathematics, law and government had been studied and reduced to writing.“ Recent discoveries in Palestine have shown that lonowsbetore thes Exodus: even, .Ganaan ‘had\-its libraries, its scribes, its schools and its literary men. ‘The annals of the country were inscribed upon clay in characters of the cuneiform syllabary. Exten- sive correspondence was carried on between the various Semitic nations speaking the same general tongue. The tablets recently discovered at Tel el Amarna in Egypt comprise the correspondence of various officials scattered throughout Syria and Mesopotamia, dealing with all sorts of governmental matters and abounding in information with regard to many details of civil and social life. ‘Ihe collection cannot be the only one of its kind. Similar libraries must still be lying under the soil, not only in Egypt, but doubtless in Palestine and farther Syria. There is little doubt among archeolo- gists that such libraries still await the spade of the ex- cavator on the sites of such places as Gaza, Kirjath Sepher, and others celebrated in ancient writings for their literary fame.“ (13) Abraham: His Life and Times» Deane, 8. (14) Prof. Sayce in the Victoria, No. 93; see also the Contemporary Review, Dec. 1890. Prof. Sayce announces such a discovery at Tel-el- Hesy (Lachish), dating back to the Amorite days before the Conquest, in the S. S. Zzmes, Aug. 27, 1892. Indeed, a letter found at Lachish is— strange to say, the companion of one found at Tel-el-Amarna! the first written by an Egyptian scribe, the second written by his Amorite corre- spondent' 54 THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. The interesting discoveries in Northern Arabia have afforded even more valuable information with regard to the state of letters in those early times. They have demonstrated the great antiquity of the Minean king- dom, and of the spread of its power from the south of Arabia to the frontiers of Egypt and Palestine. It preceded the rise of the Kingdom of Saba, the Sheba of the Old Testament. We have been made acquainted with the names of thirty-three Minaan sovereigns, cov- ering an extended period of time. Their subjects are shown to have been a literary people; but the most astonishing fact which has been discovered with regard to them is that they used an alphabetic system of writing, and their inscriptions are found not only in their southern homes, but also in their colonies in the north. These inscriptions are older than the oldest known inscription in the Pheenician letters. The Pheenician alphabet is probably derived from the Minzan, or at least from one of the Arabian alphabets of which the Minzean was the mother. These discoveries of the great antiquity of alpha- betic writing among the people of Arabia have greatly modified the views which have been current with regard to the earlier history of the Old Testament. It can no longer be assumed that the tribes to whom the Israelites were related were illiterate nomads, and that the people who were led out of Egypt by Moses had no opportunity of making acquaintance with books and written records, and of formulating their own laws ina language cast in alphabetic form. No critic will now maintain that letters were unknown in Israel before the time of Samuel; for it has been shown that Ee 4 a LANGUAGE, 55 the Oriental world, even in Northern Arabia, was a literary one, and that in Canaan, before the Exodus, education was carried to a high point. It had its libraries, schools and pupils, even before the conquest. The language of the chosen people is thus seen to have assumed a peculiar character, both in its inner sense and in its outward form. Its principal wealth and strength consisted in its. religious and ethical element. It is probable that certain revelations of the AI- mighty were committed to writing soon after the time of Abraham; yet such a period was permitted to elapse before the coming of Moses and the formal con- struction of revelation as should suffice for the neces- sary development of the language under its alphabetic form. During this period certain words embodying the new ideas concerning God came to have a recog: nized meaning, and certain forms of expression passed into common use, and were thus clearly understood before the Pentateuch was composed and the body of Mosaic laws given to the people. At the same time, the fact that the dialects of all the Semitic nations between Assyria and Egypt were derived from one common type, and bore the same resemblance to each other that French, Spanish and Italian bear to each other at the present day, made the intercommunication of thought with those people comparatively easy, enabling the Hebrews to communicate to them when they desired a knowledge of their religious system. A distinct providence, therefore, appears in the _ choice of this peculiar people, invested with its rich and flexible language. But there is still another 56 THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. respect wherein the interposition of the Almighty is distinctly apprehended. THE SO-CALLED MONOTHEISTIC INSTINCT. It has been claimed by some skeptical philosophers of our own age that the Hebrews were the possessors_ of a certain monotheistic instinct inclining them by nature to the worship of one God, and out of which their religious system was subsequently developed, and therefore that no part of their endowment was divinely given. M. Renan claims that the Jews had no other revelation than that which they carried with them in the blood of their veins, or read on the sands of the desert, where there fathers had encamped. He says, in his History of the Semitic Languages: “ They never would have reached the dogma of the divine unity had they not found it in the most imperious instincts of their minds and hearts. The desert is monotheist.” ‘This claim is simply preposterous. The children of Abraham even before the time of Moses on several occasions mani- fested idolatrous tendencies, and upon the first dis- appearance of Moses after their departure from Egypt they forsook the worship of God, and set up the golden calf in his stead.“ It is not necessary to call the attentioa of the student of the Scriptures to the many other instances in which the same idolatrous tendency was displayed. They were never cured of it until the Babylonish captivity. Max Muller in his essay upon Semitic Monotheism finally disposes of Renan’s theory. His conclusion, though we cannot endorse its every word, may be here quoted: (15) See De Pressense’s Religions Before Christ, p. 194. EEE EE aL LHE SO-CALLED, MONOTHEISTIC INSTINCT. 57 “If we are asked how this one Abraham possessed not only the primitive intuition of' God as he had revealed himself to all mankind, but passed through the denial of all other gods to the knowledge of the one God, we are cortent to answer that it was by a special ‘divine revelation. We do not indulge in theological phraseology, but we mean every word to its fullest extent. The Father of truth chooses his own prophets, and he speaks to them in a voice stronger than a voice of thunder. It is the same inner voice through which God speaks to all of us. That voice may dwindle away and become hardly audible, but it may also, from time to time; assume its real nature with the chosen of God and sound into their ears as a voice from heaven. A “divine instinct” may sound more scientific and less theologi- cal, but in truth it would neither be an appropriate name for what is a gift of grace accorded but to few, nor would it be a more scientific, that is to say, a more intelligible word, than “special revelation.” The important point, however, is not whether the faith of Abraham should be called a divine instinct or a revelation. What we wish here to insist on is. that that instinct or that revelation was specially granted to one man and handed down from him to Jews, Christians and Mohammedans, to all who believe in the God of Abraham. Nor was it granted to Abraham entirely as a free gift. Abraham was tried and tempted before he was trusted by God. He had to break faith with his fathers. He had to deny the gods who were worshipped by his friends and neighbors. Like all the friends of God he had to hear himself called an infidel, and an atheist; and in our own days he would have been looked upon as a madman for attempting to slay his son. It was through special faith that Abraham received his special revelation, not through instinct nor through abstract meditation, nor through ecstatic visions. Even with the little we know of him he stands before us as a figure second only to One in the whole history of the world.”(16) Such were the characteristics and advantages which the Hebrew shared in common with kindred races ; such were the features which distinguished him from them; and such was the divine addition to what we may call (16) “ Chips,” 1:367. 55 THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. his natural endowments. The Almighty certainly added a special revelation, the faith to receive it, and the land in which it might be developed. Rania ve PERIOD OF SECLUSION: SEMITIC SUPREMACY. “For even the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh; even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER PET: Vals: =—SOM1. AN 7: THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. THE ADOPTION OF ISRAEL. THE DISCIPLINING oF ISRAEL. ‘¢ THE Hoprt-.or ISRAEL.” . Z a = . ee Pete oreo wee pe ee aa — “1 ~* 7 etna nate 74, oY Ts oa ay f ‘e _ - . <= PN nt | asian = Sot oe 4s pe ome | 7 SISA POE ae dim, Ovi Se wy at =:4 vs eee ' i as | ye i rf = me . : i » hs j ay, | —— we aah af s ewsp Lipa i ae mae ’ peut tle: Rs ie - wear ME wo eae 4 a . apt? Dy ve A UKM nS e Ramoth Gilead se Wile ie Sl Te ASN slg Rwy NS PIN AT as x i” r Moab it sue 4. we > S Ms BRE (9 F ae Be" © ee X ee usa A lf aya Zi. “alten ie ones wi AN) My, NY — WARY ys A by / c WH eee a sway await,” ~ ‘ i wm iS A x > x) : Mite, \ Nt NS Dr < STA toe RAN Ay as %, Jilethyia ae 6 3 zZ TIN Ws } sent & v Sy 5 LN ed gE Fa me M if A \S = rd sty! 4th mS IN e ii s a is Paigppolis 3 Anteopol "a @ & Ra mss mI bia) hepa A PORTION OF THE Hermopolis aed ul UNDER RAMESES II. x i i x 5 x nm oO » la! lon oO oC bal ™ eH ol ° o » 5 ee TI 2ppaes® ta” Sit — "Apne! “en Wvre.w -: ey 6 hal p 6 e at TS ee oe ~ a ] A r — —s = —s “citthteitee A i ALLA ELLIO N : It . ' eta ia = . 7 sy ‘ + - C FI YIWECE ¥ BLOELIO“N “£4 panei BE rene OF CHAPTER. IIE THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. The history of the people of God before Christ, as we have indicated in a preceding chapter, is divided into three periods, that of Inclusion, of Seclusion, and of Diffusion. Each of these periods is distinguished by its own characteristic features. The first closed with Abraham. The second is distinguished by the inde- pendent existence of the Hebrew nation, and also by the preponderance of Semitic influence. The third is distinguished by the loss of Hebrew independence and the preponderance of Japhetic influence. Considering these last two periods, the first has its outlook towards Asia; the second towards Europe. The first period is that of the Hebrew; the second, that of the Jew. . In the present work we are not concerned with the history of those nations with whom the people of God were never closely associated. Doubtless they all had a share in preparing the way of the Lord, and the study of their providential history is exceedingly in- teresting. But we content ourselves with an examin- ation of the history of such nations only as came in contact with the people of Israel, confining ourselves to the period during which they were associated. The great Semitic empires had a calling to fulfill in training the Hebrew for his own special mission, and during the period of seclusion the purpose of God had particular reference to the education of his chosen 62 THE SCHOOLING OF JSRAEL. people. This is the testimony of Scripture. A num- ber of quotations might be given of which the following are illustrations. The Almighty in his message to Pharaoh uses the following language, which may be applied not only to Pharaoh but also to the people whom he represented and over whom he ruled: “And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.’ Subsequent passages will be recalled in which distinct reference is made to the schooling which Israel received in Egypt, especially at the time of the Exodus. “He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel ok Our knowledge of Egypt has been greatly increased by recent explorations. The events of its history have been ascertained with a precision which was not possi- ble half a century ago, and we have been made well ac- quainted with its people. The very mummies of their kings have been discovered, unrolled from their long wrappings and displayed to the wondering eyes of the nineteenth century. ‘These mummies are in such a state of preservation that their features plainly appear and indicate their character; while the rolls which accompany them, or the inscriptions which they them. selves cut upon their monuments, give an account of their deeds. ‘The sites of old cities have also been definitely ascertained. Their walls have been uncovered, and the fragments of their buildings which remain have enabled us to restore them with a good degree of ac- curacy. Many other data have also been furnished, Ceti 1x 16;-Romsixs 17, (2) Ps, cill:7. ISRAEL LED INTO EGYPT. 6 2 which need not here be described, by the aid of which we are able to construct a correct picture of the Egypt of the Pharaohs. So, then, when the Lord led Israel down into Egypt, it was for the express purpose of putting him to school, and the Egyptians should be his teachers. Let us observe in the present chapter how the school was conducted, and in the next the lessons which were taught. ISRAEL LED INTO EGYPT. The descendants of Abraham had developed into a little clan. They numbered, all told, seventy souls, of whom four—Joseph, his wife, and two sons, were in the land of Egypt; and sixty-six remained in the land of Canaan. Under the inspiration of the divine promise they had already begun to feel the stirrings of an incipient national life. The name “Israel,” by which they were forever after to be known, had been assumed by them. It was a mysterious name, the meaning of which they themselves alone understood, but it foreshadowed both struggle and victory. There were how twelve families of them, the progeny of a single man, and with the promise of rapid increase. Already there had been some collision between them and their expatriated kinsmen of other clans, and there was great danger lest in the conflicts that would certainly ensue either with these or with alien tribes, they should be overpowered by superior numbers and sub- stantially exterminated. They were but a “little flock,” but since it was the “ Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom,” it became necessary that they should be taken under the sheltering care of some 64 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. great power whereby their preservation and multipli- cation would be insured. For this the divine provi- dence now provided. EGYPT UNDER THE HYKSOS. The time of the Hebrews’ entrance into Egypt was most favorable to their reception, from the fact that its northern portion was in the hands of a Semitic people, from the same general section as their own original fatherland. The native races had been driven to the south, and the Hyksos, or ‘“‘ Shepherd Kings,” were in possession of Lower Egypt. ‘The word Hyksos is a compound of “ Hyk,” a king, and "1 S5Osem a shepherd, or, more correctly, a nomad. The origin of these people has not yet been definitely ascertained. Recent researches seem to point to Mesopotamia as their native place, where, at the time of their invasion. of Egypt, important events were taking place. The King of Elam invaded Babylonia, plundered the country, and carried away from the city of Urukh to his capital, Shushan, a large amount of spoil. It cannot be affirmed that the invasion of Egypt is connected with this particular war, but it is probable that the struggle between the Elamites and the Mesopotamians brought about the Hyksos invasion of Egypt. The Elamites themselves, did not probably proceed as far as the Nile, but they drove out of the country a mixed multitude, belonging probably to different races, which overran Egypt under powerful leadership. This is the conclusion of M. Naville. If it is correct, the Hyksos cannot longer be considered the barbarians that they were formerly supposed to (3) FYournad of the Victoria Institute, No. go. Loli l UNDER THE Fitness. GS have been. They belonged to nations which had already attained a high degree of civilization; and it was for this reason that Egypt, under their dominion, did not seriously suffer in its internal life. Its con- quest was signalized by devastation and ruin; but the conquerors submitted to the influence of their more refined subjects, and easily adopted the principal features of their civilization, which was not altogether unlike their own. For nearly 500 years, ending about 1900 B.C., these people had sovereign possession of the country, and ruled in Egypt in much the same way as the Moors in Spain; but in consequence of the hatred with which they were regarded, the native princes, on their resto- ration of power, endeavored to obliterate every trace of their sovereignty. The largest number and the most interesting in character have been found within a few years, at Bubastis, the Pi-Beseth of Scripture,“ which, though a very ancient city,®) became one of the chief centers of Hyksos power. But as it was adopted as a royal residence by later kings of native dynasties, its Hyksos monuments were mutilated or destroyed. The case is the same throughout the sentire Hyksos territory. There is now and then a statue showing a fresh type of men, altogether distinct from the natives of the country. The faces are broad and flat, the cheekbones are higher than those of the Egyptians, the lips are thicker, the jaws are wider, and the mouth is full of a stern determination. Their (4) Iezek. xxx: 17. (6) Eeypt under the Pharaohs, Brugsch, I, 6, and II, 16 (6) For an account of these discoveries, see A/zss Edwards in the Cen- tury Magazine, Jan., 1890. 66 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. hair and beards are dressed in a different way, and their clothing, oftentimes consisting of the skins of animals, indicates a more northern origin. The first great leader of this singular people who united the invading hordes and brought them under a single sceptre is known as Salatis. It would appear from the account of Manetho, the Egyptian priest and scribe quoted by Josephus, that this man was made the head-king with the consent and co-operation of the others. The invaders seem for a time to have been divided into several powerful bands. But the desire to secure a stronger central government overcame in time the separate interests of the leaders and the divided sovereignty was united in a single person. A colossal head has been discovered near Memphis which is sup- posed to be the portrait of Salatis.” He wears a heavily plaited wig very unlike that of the native Egyptians, and the ornaments of his head-gear are quite uncouth and barbaric in style. This head, like the celebrated “ Black Sphinx,” which is also doubt- less a portrait statue of some great Hyksos leader, is cut from black marble, for which these people showed a manifest predilection. Salatis fixed his royal resid- ence at Memphis, at the apex of the Delta. The site of this city is to-day a desolate waste, only a few piles of stone and a single fallen statue remaining to mark the site of what was once a flourishing capital of the greatest nation in the world. But in order to guard against invasion from the east Salatis fortified and garrisoned his most exposed cities. He seemed to be more solicitous concerning the war- (7) Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, Miss Edwards, 145. | EGYPT UNDER THE HYKSOS. 67 like tribes upon the east from whom he had himself proceeded than on account of the conquered Egyptians. He foresaw that the Assyrians might endeavor to penetrate through the tribes upon their west and make an attack upon the kingdom which he had acquired, and it therefore became especially important for him to guard the routes leading from Egypt to the east. He therefore rebuilt and fortified a city which he found upon the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and which on account of an old religious legend with regard to the worship of the left leg of Osiris was called Avaris (Ha-uar; “the place of the leg.”)® Salatis also chose for his second royal residence an ancient city in Lower Egypt, celebrated not only in secular history but in sacred history as well, as we shall note particu- larly under our next topic. He dwelt at Memphis for the greater part of the year, and came to his northern capitalronly at the period of harvest in order to collect his tribute and review and dicipline his troops, but his successors made this city their constant capital, and it continued to be so during the whole period of Hyksos domination. Three dynasties of the Hyksos are known to the students of Egyptian history, numbered in the records, XV, XVI and XVII. The first of these ruled only in the Delta. The second was supreme over the whole country, the native rulers in Upper Egypt having been reduced to mere tributaries, and their territory divided among a number of petty princes. The third (8) The site of Avaris is not definitely determined. By some author- ities it is identified with Tanis. Records of the Past, New Series, Sayce, II, 4o. 68 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. dynasty felt the influence of the Egyptian revolt and were obliged to fight for their place and power, and were finally expelled from the country. The native sovereigns who succeeded them cherished such an exceeding aversion to their memory that, as has been noted, they destroyed almost all of the records of their reign, even the monuments which they left being recut or broken into fragments. In conse- quence the names of but three Hyksos kings are known to us, Salatis, the founder of the first dynasty, and two kings with the same name Aphobis (Apepi). The last Aphobis stands at the head of the third and last dynasty of the Shepherd Kings. There is now but little question among Egyptologists that it was during his reign that the children of Israel entered Egypt. But even before their coming other races of the common stock had sought refuge in the country. There is evidence from the monuments that the land was colonized during many generations by Edomite and Ishmaelite settlers, and the succeeding immigra- tion drew many even from distant Assyria. ‘There- fore, it was not strange that when the famine occurred in Canaan, the Hebrews should have fol- lowed a well-worn track and gone down into Egypt. TANIS-ZOAN. The capital of these Hyksos Kings to which we have referred as a place of great interest is known in the Bible as Zoan and in secular history as Tanis. The Egyptian name of this place is T’san. ‘This was changed into the softer form of Tanis by the Greeks, FOSLPH "AND THIS BRETHREN. 69 but the initial T’s is the same letter as Z, like the Ger- man ‘ Tset,” so that T’san becomes Zan or Zoan. During the long period of Hyksos domination this city was the center and glory of Northern Egypt. It is a particularly interesting place to the student of provi- dential history, since it is intimately associated not only with the coming of the Hebrews, but also with their departure... A passage in the book of Numbers™ informs us that this city was built seven years after Hebron in Canaan. But Hebron was an old and well known town in the days of Abraham, so that the foundation of Tanis must date from great antiquity. The references to it in the Scripture are quite frequent for the reasons which have been given, and the Hebrews had special cause to remember it because of the “ marvelous things which the Lord did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt in the field of Zoan.”“” To this place Abra- ham journeyed at the time of the famine in Canaan, and in the palace of one of its Hyksos kings his wife came very near to being a fair captive for life. To this place Joseph was brought by the Midianitish caravan and sold to the captain of Pharaoh’s guards. JOSE Pilea NDS HIS BRETHREN, By a singular course of providential circumstances, familiar to the readers of the Bible, Joseph was deliv- ered from imprisonment and advanced to exalted station. His promotion was the work of Aphobis iemeocetounder ol ithe last Flyksos dynasty..’ It (9) Numbers xiii: 22. (1O}"PSAIXxVill= F2. 70 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. is fully set forth in the early traditions of the Christian Church, and receives very remarkable confirmation from the monuments. An inscription at Eilethyia, in Upper Egypt, relating to Baba, a captain under King Taa II, by whom the Hyksos were expelled, contains these words: ‘“‘I collected corn as a friend of the harvest god. I was watchful at the time of sowing, and when a famine arose lasting many years, I distributed corn to the city each year of the famine.” ? is an occurrence As a famine “lasting many years’ of the very greatest infrequency in Egypt, and as only one such famine is known to history, this must be the same as that which Joseph had foreseen and for which he had provided, and definitely fixes his regency under the reign of the king whom Christian tradition has designated as his Pharaoh.“ , There is also a celebrated papyrus in the British Museum which dates from the fourteenth century B. C., the age of the great Rameses. Dr. Brugsch describes its contents as: “An ancient Egyptian fairy tale, the oldest fairy tale in the world.” It was composed by a scribe named Anna for Seti II, the grandson of Rameses II, when he was crown prince. ‘The first por- tion of it has a remarkable resemblance to the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, and there is little doubt that the scribe worked into his tale the same incident which the Bible has recorded. The chief persons in the tale are two brothers and the elder brother’s wife. The younger brother is falsely accused, very much as Joseph was; flees from his brother’s wrath, and, aided by the Sun-god, experiences a peculiar transformation. (11) Brugsch, Vol. I, ch. xii. FOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN. va The woman meets a well-deserved fate, and the two brothers are in the end reconciled, the younger becoming king of Egypt and the elder his regent and successor. rom these and other evidences which are furnished by tradition and history, it is now universally conceded that Joseph was, as the Bible declares him to have been, an Egyptian prime minister, and lee his king was Aphobis IT.° We read in Genesis that “‘ Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-paaneah, and he gave him to wife Ase- nath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On.” This wife Asenath was the mother of his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Her father was the priest or “‘ prince ” of On. This was the name given to a distinguished city then at the height of its opulent and intellectual influence, the site of which has in modern times been well determined. The situation is marked by the ruins of the modern town of Matariyeh, the suburb of the old temple town of Heliopolis, half a mile distant. The name occurs several times in the Bible. Ezekiel calls it “Aven” and Jeremiah “‘ Bethshemesh.” This last name is only a transcription into Hebrew, having the same signification as Heliopolis in Greek, ‘ The City of the Sun.” The name of the city doubtless refers to the form of worship which was there celebrated. It appears, therefore, from the Scriptures and from the corroboration afforded by the Egyptian monu- ments that Joseph enjoyed special influence. under (12) A very instructive article, illustrating Joseph’s life in Egypt by the Egyptian records, will be found in the Yournal of the Victoria Instz- tute, No. 57. (13) Gen. xli: 45. 72 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. this shepherd king. He was also in a position to confer special privileges upon his brethren. A certain paragraph in the Bible story which has given consider- able trouble to historians and to commentators becomes entirely intelligible in view of the facts which have been stated. Joseph instructed his brethren, when the king should call for. them and ask,‘ What is your occupation?’’ to answer, “Thy servant’s trade has been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,”’ and the same historian gives the reason: ‘For every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians." The brethren of Joseph were instructed to say that they were shepherds (which was the truth with regard to them), hoping it would bring them at once into favor with this king, who was not an Egyptian by descent, but a foreigner. They would thus be shown to be akin, not to the native princes on the south, but to the invaders of the north, and might thus be expected to become their faithful allies.%) The policy of Joseph in this instance displays his usual wisdom. It was entirely successful. The He- brews at once entered upon the enjoyment of certain special advantages in view of the fact that they belonged to the same general stock as the Hyksos kings, and especially in view of the fact that one of their own number occupied the second place in the kingdom and had already rendered distinguished services. (14) Gen. xlvi: 33, 34. (15)See The Bible and Modern Discoveries , Harper, p. 70. —_ = LHE SCHOOL-HOUSE OF ISRAEL. 1é, Here then in the vicinity of the capital city of Tanis is the school-house of Israel. The “ Field of Zoan” in the days which we are considering was a rich alluvial plain, well adapted to the pursuits of those shepherds who had entered Egypt under Salatis, and well adapted also to the avocation of Joseph’s brethern who were shepherds themselves. Its original character cannot be inferred from the condition of the region to-day. It is now a barren waste. Many miles of it have been covered by the salt waters of Lake Menzaleh. The broad fields where the Israelites pastured their flocks, have many of them been converted into desolate © marshes. Heaps of sand have been piled over other sections, and the glory of the land has departed. But in the days of Joseph it was a section of great fertility and beauty.“ M. Naville locates the particular section which was colonized by the Israelites in the general region lying between the present city of Belbeis and Tel-el-Kebir. At that time it was not one of the prov- inces of Egypt nor divided among the inhabitants who were regularly settled. It was rather an uncultivated district, sufficiently watered to produce good pastur- age and might be suitably assigned to foreigners with- out despoiling the native inhabitants. There is an allusion to the section in a certain Egyptian inscription written after the Exodus, in which we are told that ‘the country near Bailos (Belbeis) was not cultivated, but lee as pasture for cattle.”“" There was thus only a short distance between the royal residence of Joseph and the territory allotted to his brethren. He settled his family near himself in the section which was best (16) Picturesque Palestine; 11: 361. (17) Victoria Institute, No. 9o. rES THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. fitted for the breeding of cattle, and probably adjoin- ing the pastures of the king’s own flocks; because we are informed in the sacred story that certain of the brethren of Joseph were entrusted with the keeping of the royal cattle as chief of the king’s herdsmen. SCHOOL ‘BEGINS. Under such favoring circumstances the School of Providence is opened. It is to be a graded school, and the grades shall be fourinnumber. The Israelites now enter upon the first grade. If they are ever to become a settled people they must be taught to give up their roving habits. ‘They must cease to be nomads, such as their cousins the Ishmaelites still remain, and be transformed into agriculturists. This then is the les- son of the first grade. ‘The transformation is easily and naturally effected. The royal patron of these Israelites was once a nomad himself. Joseph, his vice- roy has been one also. It will be easy to follow where they lead. So at the first grazing is combined with husbandry, though in order even to grazing certain agricultural methods must necessarily be employed. The monuments are very rich in detail showing in full the means employed by the farmers of that early age. Indeed, the system has changed but little in the course of centuries. The cultivation of the fields was accom- plished by irrigation, canals running from the river banks to the greatest distance permitted by the lay of the land, with smaller canals branching from them and covering the whole face of the country as with a network. The water was raised from the river by (18) Genesis xlvii: 6. . . SCHOOL BEGINS. 75 various machines like those still in use. The sim- plest machine was the ‘“shadoof?’ which consisted of a long heavy pole with a rude bucket on one end and a lump of Nile mud upon the other. There was also the more complicated ‘‘sakkieh,”’ which consisted of an endless chain moving about a toothed wheel and operated by ox or camel power. To this chain was fastened a number of buckets which dipped and dis- charged the water in rotation. The Israelites without doubt used these machines as the Egyptians do to-day, and cultivated their fields with the same rude wooden plows which the traveler in the land of the Pharaohs sees 1n our own age. Nor was it all work with them. The Scripture refers to the abundance which they enjoyed in the pro- lific climate. The rivers were full of fish, the plains abounded with game, and a large variety of wild fowl were found upon their waters. Goshen was a sports- man’s paradise. So for several generations during the first session of their school, the life of the people passed pleasantly away. But the preparatory grade completed the scholars must be conducted into the next. In the second grade they shall study the science of building, for into that land in which God will lead them by and by they must not only plant vineyards and till farms, but they must also erect houses, raise the walls of cities, and at last build a temple for the earthly dwell- ing place of their Eternal King. For this second term, however, a new class of teachers is provided; and the king arose ‘‘ who knew not Joseph.” 70 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. THE EXPULSION OF THE HYKSOS. The empire of the Hyksos was now upon the eve of its decline. The same king who had made Joseph his regent became involved in serious trouble with the native princes upon the south. It would appear that the power which was so long enjoyed had encouraged him to put upon them an indignity beyond any which they had yet suffered and which even in their weak- ness they were not prepared to tolerate. Aphobis attempted to impose the worship of his own Semitic god, ‘‘ Baal-Sutekh,” upon the native races. Baal-Sutekh is a compound of a Semitic word with an Egyptian one. The Semitic ‘“‘ Baal” is a familiar one to the Bible student. Where it stands alone it signifies only ‘‘ Lord,” but it is often used in composi- tion to denote a particular divinity. Thus we have in the Scripture such compositions as ‘‘ Baal-Berith,” the Lord of the Covenant, ‘‘ Baal-gad,” the Lord of For- tune, ‘‘ Baal-Zebub,” the Lord of Flies, and many others. The name ofthe Hyksos god is itself preserved in scripture in “ Baal-Zephon,” the name of the place where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.“® Set, Sutekh, is an old Egyptian word. The god Set, who is also called Typhon (Zephon) was the Destroyer, and had been worshiped from the foundation of Mem- phis, the seat of his peculiar cult. ‘The Hyksos kings had compounded his name with that of their own god, and Baal-Sutekh (Baal-Zephon) was the peculiar divin- ity of the invaders. The very composition, however, was an offense to the native Egyptians, and the at- (19) Exodus xiv: 9. THE EXPULSION OF THE HYKSOS. fea tempts to introduce his worship among them by force was resisted as no other act of tyranny had been. In all ages no question so fires the heart as a relig- ous one; no battle is so desperate as that which con- cerns the altar and its sacrifice. It was so then. The attempted indignity nerved the native Egyptians for a conflict to which they had been hitherto unequal. At this time, according to a papyrus in the Brit- ish Museum, there was an under-king in the south, Ra-Sekenen, by name. He had incurred for some reason, Which does not appear, the special displea- sure of the tyrant of the north, who sought to hurl him from his throne, and for this purpose manu- factured a pretext to carry out his intention. He required of him to give up the worship of his own gods that Baal-Sutekh might be the sole di- vinity of Egypt. Ra-Sekenen made a reply to the king’s messenger, which is lacking, owing to the mutilation of the papyrus. We know that the foreign messenger was hospitably entertained and sent back to the court of his king, while Ra-Sekenen in all haste called his counsellors about him, and while they were silent in their great apprehension and grief, himself determined what he would do. The details of the history cannot here be given.®? It is enough for us to record that Ra-Sekenen inaugurated the successful uprising of the native Egyptians against the foreign tyrants, and became the Garibaldi of Egyptian independence. ‘The native Egyptians chose him for their leader and elevated him to the sovereignty, (20) A translation of the papyrus is given by Prof. Maspero, in Records of the Past, New Series, Vol. II, 40. Prof. Maspero, however, is inclined to treat the story as a historical romance. 75 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. wherein he assumed the name of Ta-Aken as his royal designation. He was a capable, judicious and brave man, and finally fell in battle fighting for the independence of his people. His body was hastily embalmed, taken to Thebes and buried. The conflict between the native and foreign princes lasted many years, until the Hyksos were driven into their last strongholds in the Delta. They were finally besieged in the city of ‘Tanis, their capital, which was sacked and its inhabitants slaughtered, while the great temple of the god Baal-Sutekh (whose imposed wor- ship had been the occasion of the revolution by which the native princes were re-invested with dominion) was burned with fire. HATASU AND THOTHMES. The dynasty of native kings which followed the res- toration continued in power for about three hundred years. It is known as the XVIII. Its earlier kings were occupied with the work of reconstruction, and nothing of special value to us is to be noted concern- ing them. But about midway in their history we come upon two sovereigns of great ability, during whose reign Egypt was signally happy and prosperous, and the children of Israel, as yet unoppressed, must have made remarkable progress in every way. To this period should probably be referred the seventh verse of the first chapter of Exodus in which, after the record of the death of Joseph and his generation we read: “The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty and the land was filled with them.”’ HMATASU AND THOTHMES, 79 The first of these two great sovereigns was a woman, Queen Hatasu, well called the Queen Elizabeth of Egyptian history.2 She reigned about thirty years, with results very similar to those of the Elizabethan era. It was a period of invention, of intellectual re- vival, of long voyages of discovery, of increasing wealth, and above all of profound peace. Queen Hatasu built vessels of greater size than any ever con- structed and upon a new model. This revolution in Egyptian ship-building produced results in character and importance not unlike those that transpired upon the development of steam navigation in our own age. The Egyptians became a sea-going people. This brought at the first culture and wealth, and soon led in turn to political ambition, extension and conquest. But while the Israelites were spectators of all this and shared in its advantages, we.are more particularly concerned on their account with more important feat- ures. ‘The Israelites were not in Egypt to learn navi- gation. They were there first of all to learn from the sovereigns of this period how to build; and although the plan, first of their tabernacle and afterwards of their temple, was divine; yet it were preposterous to suppose that no human elements of training were in- cluded. On the contrary it is a most singular fact that the Israelites dwelt in Egypt at the very period when its sovereigns gave their particular attention to this branch of architecture. Queen Hatasu heads the list of the more conspicuous temple-builders of Egypt. The development of Eeypt- ian architecture during the five hundred years which (21) See Pharaohs, Fellahs and Lxplorers, Miss Edwards, chap. viii. SO THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. succeeded bears a close resemblance to the develop- ment of Gothic architecture in Europe. It is marked by three distinct periods. First, that of the plain and simple, corresponding to the Anglo-Norman style. Second, the stately and massive, corresponding to the best Gothic; and third, the ornamental and meretri- cious, corresponding to the perpendicular or flamboy- ant. The reader will, however, note well the fact that the Israelites never took lessons in the third style, as it did not make its appearance until one hundred years after the Exodus. Hatasu was succeeded by her brother, Thothmes lI. While he was not in all respects the greatest of the kings of Egypt, he was at least her greatest military genius. He is called the Alexander the Great of Egypt. But we are not concerned with his wars. He was a temple-builder of conspicuous note, and the re- mains of his great temple at Thebes are still standing. The columns are polygonal, very regular and plain, unbroken by any figure whatsoever.°? This is the Norman age of Egyptian architecture. Lh Ex Xe DY NAS LY. We pass now over a clean century ana reach the XIX dynasty. It is the most remarkable in Egyptian history, and it is the dynasty of the Hebrew bondage and exodus. It displayed physical vigor and intellectual power beyond any that Egypt had as yet seen. Under its kings the former invaders of the country were followed into Asia and still further humiliated. The Egyptian conquests were extended until almost all (22) Pharaohs, Fellahs , p. 173. ry LLO% GTNVS Sd l ss 2 LHP D ENA SI: Sr Syria had fallen under the yoke, and the Egyptian sovereigns reigned supreme from Ethiopia on the south, to the Orontes on the north, and the Euphrates on the east. The first king of this dynasty is Rameses I., the first sovereign of the great Ramesside. He was suc- ceeded by his son Seti I. Mark well his name. Seti, or Set, is the same as Sutekh, the name of the god of the ancient Hyksos! Seti I. was a great warrior and a great statesman, but he was a greater architect and builder. In him and his more illustrious son Egyptian architecture passed into its second stage, corresponding to the best period of the European Gothic, and those splendid edifices were erected at Thebes, which are still the admiration and despair of the civilized world. There was growth, and very rapid growth, in arch- itecture under Seti I. His great temple at Abydos, about one hundred miles north of Thebes, is built in the style of the former dynasty, though more massive and symmetrical. But towards the close of his reign a great architect appeared. His name was Bak-en- Khonsu. This Egyptian Angelo deserves the credit for the advance in architecture which is noted during the reign of Seti. His work is massive and symmetri- cal beyond description, and no mere language can do it justice. Meanwhile let us remember the Israelites were at school, fitting themselves to become the teachers of mankind. RAMESE Sei ba (So ES0OS TRIS.) But King Seti only prepared the way for his more 82 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. remarkable son. He was to his successor what Philip was to Alexander, or David to Solomon. His wife, whose name was Tua, ranked as a pure Egyptian, for her father was such, but her mother was a princess of Mesopotamia, and in her face the Egyptian and Assyrian lineaments, as shown by her portrait- statue which still exists, were strangely but beautifully blended. She gave birth to the Pharaoh of the bondage, the king who made slaves of the Children of Israel, and obliged them to serve with rigor until their eroans entered into the ears of the Lord God of their fathers. Rameses II. was the greatest of all the kings of Egypt. He kept his throne for sixty-seven years, and died a centenarian. His reign was distinguished by an intellectual and political renaissance in which the power and glory, which had been on the increase from the accession of his grandfather Rameses I., culminated. The most remarkable of all facts, however, in con- nection with him, and without which his remarkable character and career cannot be fully explained, is this: He was not an Egyptian by descent, but an Assyrian. His grandfather, Rameses I., was a usurper. Little is known about him, except that he was in some way allied to the Shepherd kings who had been expelled from the country two hundred years before. Seti, the son of Rameses I. and the father of Rameses II., in order to assure the right of his descendants to the throne of Egypt, married the Egyptian princess Tua to whom we have just referred. Rameses II., there- fore, held his throne in the estimation of his sub- jects by rights inherited from his mother, while he RAMESES II. (SESOSTRIS.) 53 himself upon his father’s side was an Assyrian. Historians have always been perplexed by his peculiar- ities. ‘They were convinced that he did not belong to the pure Egyptian race. Years ago Lenormant called attention to the classical regularity of his features, denoting an origin drawn from some other people than the descendants of Ham.) There were also indications that the race from which he was descended was allied to that of the Shepherds, many of whose followers, notwithstanding the wars of extermination, still remained in the delta of the Nile. As though in keeping with this theory, an inscription discovered at T’anis records the re-establishment by Rameses of the worship of the national deity of the Hyksos in their ancient capital—of which more hereafter. The reader is familiar with the ‘‘ Finding of Pharaoh” in July, 1881, by Emil Brugsch Bey. In connection with this remarkable discovery it has been finally determined that Rameses the Great is the explanation of the hitherto enigmatical statement of Isaiah: ‘“‘ Thus saith the Lord God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed then without cause,” °) At the time of the accession of Rameses, and doubt- less owing largely to his authority, Semitic influences preponderated in Egyptian affairs. The coming of the Semitic hordes had produced in Egypt very much the same effect which the incursion of the northern barbarians produced upon Italy in the early centuries of our own era. At first they blighted and wasted (23) Ancient Ffistory of the East, Book III, chap. iii. (24) Is. lii:4. See UVarda, George Ebers: chaps. ix and xxvi. 54 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. that which they had overcome; but after a time tne infusion of fresh blood reinvigorated the effete people, and the outcome was a new Egypt, as subsequently it was a new Italy. Egyptian civilization experienced a new birth. Egypt became young again. Satiated with the traditions of thousands of years which had now vanished into the past, they found a positive pleasure in the fresh and lively vigor of the Semitic spirit. ‘There was a new generation of poets, histori- ans, sculptors and architects; and the age of Rameses was to Egypt what the age of the Medici was to Italy. The most flourishing period of Egyptian history was introduced. Egyptian art and literature attained their highest perfection, while both show distinct traces of Semitic influence.?) The Egyptian language is at this point enriched with foreign expressions. ‘The letters and documents of the time are full of Semitic words. The scribes seem to have felt a sentimental craving for the use of them, without any real necessity, in order to give to themselves, in the eyes of the public, an air of learned culture. At the head of the long list of graceful and distinguished writers stands the poet Pentaur, the Homer of Egypt, some of whose productions have come down to us. It is for such reasons, therefore, derived from the condition of affairs at this juncture, that we are justified in characterizing the Egyptian domination during the entire period of Hebrew residence as Semitic. Rameses himself is the flower and crown of the age. He has extended his empire both south and east, until Ethiopia, Arabia, Syria, and even a portion (25) See ‘‘ Uarda,’’ chap. vill. ‘Vict Wag Davis Gl ay ga RNS by) PORTIONS OF THE RAMESSEUM RESTORED. RAMESES II. (SESOSTRIS,) 85 of Mesopotamia, have been added to it.°? Heisa man of such remarkable physical power as to be able single-handed to overcome a host of enemies, and in the thick of the fight to cut his way through opposing numbers, even after his charioteer has been slain, and he must not only wield his weapons, but guide his horses also. His great muscular power is associated also with remarkable physical endurance. He surpasses all other Egyptian monarchs in the length of his reign. He is a man of intense activity. He is the greatest of all Egyptian builders. His monuments cover the soil of Egypt and Nubia in incredible numbers. There is scarcely a ruin that does not bear his name. Some of the most remarkable temples were built by him, notably the celebrated Ramesseum of Thebes, and the rock Temple of Ipsamboul.°” The former building was a splendid monument, and one of the most perfect of Egypt—the work of Bak-en-Khonsu. “¢ As we stand in the shadow of its mighty columns,” says a certain writer, “we begin to realize the majesty of the Theban sanctuary and the magnificence of the king who could rear such a temple to his praise. There on the pylons was the spectacle of his triumphs. Above all, the supreme scene where, de- serted by his body-guard, and surrounded by the enemy, Rameses throws himself into the thick of the fray, with single arm deals death around, kills with his own hand the chief of the Hittites, and crushes the fleeing foe under his chariot wheels; and when his officers crowd around him with servile solicitations, denounces them for their cowardice.” (28) The colossal portrait-statue of Rameses, with which this temple was adorned, was the most gigantic figure which the Egyptians ever carved out of a single block (26) Ancient History , Rawlinson, 84. (27) See Hours with the Bible, Geike, HI, 76. (28) Picturesque Palestine, Il, 433. “ Uarda,’’ ch. xlvii. 86 THE SCHOOLING OF ISRAEL. of granite. It was fifty feet in height, and weighed nearly 1200 tons. TANIS RE-BUILT. But in the providence of God, and in order that the divine control of human affairs might be distinctly set forth and emphasized, Rameses was led to select for his permanent abode and chief royal residence the ancient capital of the Hyksos. For 300 years ‘Tanis had lain in ruins, but for the divine purpose connected with the emancipation of the chosen people, it must be rebuilt, and Rameses, the oppressor of the Israelites, is the king who is selected to do the work. Although he had raised his monument in Thebes, and held public court in Memphis, and dedicated a temple in Heliopolis, yet no one of these was to be his permanent abode. His dominions were so extensive towards the east and north that it became necessary for him to reside in some city in the northern part of Egypt, and therefore at his royal command ‘anis arose from its ruins. Its fortifications were strength- ened. It was magnificently adorned. Ebers has given us some idea of the splendor with which the king surrounded himself in a description of his royal palace at Thebes. He tells us that it was more like a little town than a house. The part for use by the royal family commanded a view of the Nile, from which it offered to the passing vessels a pleasing prospect, as it stood amidst its gardens and its picturesque buildings. It contained immense state rooms and a banqueting hall, and comprised three rows of pavilions of different sizes, extending in symmetrical order. ‘These were TANIS RE-BUILT. 87 connected with each other by collonades or by little bridges, under which flowed canals that watered the gardens and gave the palace the aspect of a town upon islands. ‘The walls and pillars, and even the roofs, blazed with many colors, and at every gate rose tall masts, from which red and blue flags streamed when the king was in residence.© Such was Thebes; but Thebes should be eclipsed by Tanis. : The mass of the Roman population thus consisted (15) Merivale; ch. xxvil. (lv) Mommsen; I, 365. (16) Beginnings of Christianity , Fisher, 193. 416 THE WORLD LYING IN WICKEDNESS. of two most unmanageable classes, slaves and men- dicants. Let us consider them in order. (1.) Slaves: Among the 12,000,000 native Ro- mans under Augustus there were scarcely 2,000 pro- prietors,“* and it is reckoned that inthe entire Empire there must have been 6,000,000 slaves, of which 1,300,000 or more were in Italy.“ These creatures were not regarded as men, but as so much insensate property. The slave was not supposed to have a free will nor any claim whatever upon the justice of his master, nor any capacity whatsoever for virtue in him- self. Such had been the sentiment of the world, and its wisest men had from the first defended it. Aristotle justified slavery on the ground that some men are capable only of bodily labor.” Varro in his work on agriculture names three kinds of implements for tillage: the dumb, such as wagons; those that utter inartic- ulate sounds, such as oxen; and those that talk.@» The slave then is simply an instrument for tillage. Even Cicero, writing to a friend concerning the death of a slave, apologizes for his feelings concerning him. Speaking of one of the preetors who had caused a slave to be crucified as a punishment for some slight offense in the chase, he significantly says, “ thes might, perhaps, seem harsh.” The slave had no rights; he could not hold property, and therefore he could not be prosecuted — for theft. He could not contract marriage, and no action could be brought against him for adultery. He was not supposed to have any relations, and although (18) Merivale; ch. ili. . (19) Mommsen; III, 494. (20) Outlines of Greek Philosophy ; Zeller, § 62. (21) Ullhorn, 132. n a it might be said of him that he had a father or children, the language possessed no legal meaning. His testi- mony was not admitted in a court of justice, and if it was to be taken he was first subjected to torture. Slaves were bought and sold, given and received, inher. ited and bequeathed, according to caprice or need. They might be hired or lent, and if the one to whom they were committed treated them badly, it was not regarded as an injury to a person; but merely as a deterioration of property, and the loss was made up to the owner. The slave market was conducted as a cattle market, and its contents when purchased were assigned according to their capacities to some handi- craft or art, and even to begging or the brothel. They were often chained in front of the gate as we chain our dogs. Inthe museum at Naples there is a cast of a Pompeian slave, which was made by filling the cavity in which the body had rested with plaster, showing the iron band about his waist to which the chain was fastened. Slaves who ‘cultivated the fields suffered severely. They worked in chains and spent the night on the damp ground of their prison houses. But their condition was scarcely as bad as that of the slaves who labored in the great factories, in their scanty clothing and their heavy chains, compelled to toil all the day in the filthy workhouse without respite. Certain pictures which have been given to us by the authors of the time reveal the condition and sufferings of these poor people. There was nothing to prevent an irritable or drunken master from exercising his cruelty upon an innocent slave except the pecuniary 418 THE WORLD LYING IN WICKEDNESS. loss which he might suffer, and this could be but little, as the market was glutted with the commodity.