"IgWi. I^e/'e Booki fur &e,^^>«&xgief a. ColUgt wi^tl^ Colony DIVINITY SCHOOL TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY _ THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK ' BOSTON * CHICAGO . DALLAS ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON - BOMBAY - CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY BY REV. JOHN A. RICE, A.M., D.D., LL.D. PROFESSOR OP OLD TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION IN SOUTHERN METHODIST DNIVERSITX THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1920 All fights reserved Copyright, 1920 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electiotyped. Published October, igao- TO MY SISTERS, MARY ANN RICE, TRANCES RICE CROSBY, ISABELLA STURTON RICE, AND MARTHA LOUISA RICE, AND MY MOTHER, RACHEL LISTON RICE, WHO BY SBLF-SACRITICING LOVE TOO DEEP FOR WORDS THREW OPEN THE GATES OF LIFE TO ME, AND MY SISTER, VIRGINIA RICE GODLEY, WHO WAS A FRIEND IN THE HOUR OF NEED, THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED. FOREWORD The author is trying to do four things in this book: First, to trace in broad outline the growth of the Old Testament, so that the untrained mind can think through its evolution. To many people this wonderful collection of booklets has little meaning as a whole. It is a confused and confusing mass of heterogeneous materials. Yet it came gradually out of the unfolding life of the Hebrews and the order of its coming is now well understood by those fanuliar with modern scholar ship. That order is suggested in the bird's-eye view given in the Table of Contents and exhibited in the pages that follow. Another end in view is the shifting of attention from texts and verses to men and books. We miss the power of this literature by minute dissection. Great truths are often here set forth, whole situations summed up, in single sentences of concrete gripping epigrams, brilHant paragraphs drive home telling messages, but even these can be fully appreciated only by understanding their historic origin and larger context. The Old Testament is not a coUection of texts but a series of books of life. In these rather than in detailed verses are to be found God's words to men. Yet another difl&culty in the way of the largest use of the Scriptures is the distance from us of the world out of which they came. We may not see at first glance that they are dealing with questions we ourselves are now grappling with. The Prophets, for example, were fight ing the very same battles now engaging the noblest weapons of the best social reformers. A brUHant novelist, the story goes, was addressing a preachers' meeting in the west recently and read a quo- Vm FOREWORD tation to them, with the request that those who would not put a man in jail for saying that hold up their hands. One or two hands went up. He said perhaps they did not understand the question and repeated it. Four hands went up. He then showed them that he was reading from the Greek text of James! One of the specifications in a charge of sedition against an American now on trial in the northwest is the publication of an arraignment of the government which happens to be an exact quotation without comment from Isaiah! The author has been at pains, even at the risk of criticism for too much preaching, to point out how these ancient men of God are walking our streets, challenging social wrongs, pleading for social righteousness; how Gk)d is seek ing to do for us what He sought to do for His people of old. And finally, it is hoped that this interpretation may bring relief to some who are still distressed about the results of scientific biblical criticism. We stand here on the Rock of Ages. ' Inspiration is a vital process. No change in the time-spirit or in the thought world can ever move us. We welcome as helpers the pioneers in every field of research. The new knowledge only makes faiti easier. The Old Testament thus understood leads logically up to the New and not only warrants but inspires the most passionate evangelism. For it breaks our bondage to the letter and replaces our shackles with wings. " The truth shall make you free. " My warmest thanks are due to my teacher and friend. Professor J. M. Powis Smith, Ph. D., of the University of Chicago, for reading the manuscript and making valuable suggestions, to my wife for verif jdng the references, for help in the criticism of literary forms and in countless other ways which made this book possi ble, and to The MacmiUan Company for extraorchnary courtesies. John A. Rice. Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, June 4th, 1920. CONTENTS Introduction . PAGE . ziii PART ONE BEGINNINGS CHAPTER I. Poetic Fragments (1400-1100 b. c.) 3 II. Longer Poems, Battle Songs, Dirges, Parables, Primitive Codes, and Short Stories (iioo- 850 B. c.) 6 III. Pre-prophetic Narratives (850-750 b. c.) 8 PART TWO PROPHECY AND THE PROPHETS 750-500 b. c.) I. Introductory 27 n. The Pre-prophetic Movement ^^ I. Moses to Samuel (down to iioo b. c.) 33 2. Samuel to Ahijah (1100-937 b. c.) $3 3. Ahijah to Amos (937-750 b. c.) 35 III. Amos: A Righteous God Demands a Righteous People (755-745 b. c.) 36 IV. Hosea: The God of Love Demands Loyalty (745- 735 B. c.) 42 V. Isaiah: The Majestic Holiness oe God; the Per sistence AND Power oe His Kingdom (740-697 B.C.) 47 VI. Micah: Doing Justice, Loving Kindness and Walk ing Humbly with God, the Essence of True Religion (740-697 b. c.) 54 is X CONTENTS chapter page VII. JE (The Blending of J and E, the Two Oldest Prophetic Documents, in the First Edition of THE Hexateuch, Judges-Sam. (650-625 B. c): The Spiritual Interpretation of History 60 Vni. Deuteronomy and D (650-550 b. c): God in Com mon Life 65 ; IX. Zephaniah: God's Part in a World War (626 b. c.) 71 X. Jeremiah: Rights and Responsibilities of the Individual (626-580 b. c.) 75 XI. Nahum: Vengeance upon Cumulative Wrongs (608- 606 b. c.) 82 XII. Habakkuk: The Answer Faithfulness Gets to Spiritual Perplexities (605-604 b. c.) 85 XIIL Obadiah: National Doom upon National Arro gance and Unbrotherliness (580 B- C-) 91 XIV. Ezekiel: The Role of Religion est Society (592-570) 92 XV. The Lamentations: Dirges of Broken-hearted Patriots (560 b. c-) 99 XVI. Isaiah of Babylon: The Vicarious Element in Human Progress (540 b. c.) 101 PART THREE THE PRIEST AND HIS WORK I. Introductory 113 II. The Codes: Laws Grow with Progressing Social Life (1200-400 b. c.) 120 III. The Final Editing of the Hexateuch; The Re ligion OF a Book (440-400 b. c.) 130 IV. Genesis: In the Beginning — God (440-400 b. c). . . 135 V. Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers: An Ancient Labor Movement (440-400 b. c.) 138 VI. Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles: The Worth of iNSTiTupoNAL Religion (300-250 b. c.) 144 VII. Esther: Loyalty to Blood Kinship (250 b. .c.) . . . . 149 CONTENTS xi chapter P^qj, VIII. The Psalter: The Soul of a People Progressively Uttered in Song (1000-150 b. c.) 152 IX. Poetic Forms: The Passion of a People Rhythm ically Told i^o X. The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry 173 XI. Religious Ideas of the Psalms 182 PART FOUR THE SAGES AND THEIR PHILOSOPHY I. Introductory 191 II. Job: Provtoence and Pain (500 b. c?) 200 III. Ruth: The Claims of the" OuTsmER upon the Church (430 b. c.) 226 IV. Jonah: God's Relentless Call to World Evan gelization (400 B. c.) 228 V. The Song of Songs: A Plea for Loyalty in Un- wedded Love (300 b. c.) 234 VI. Proverbs: The Art of Getting on in the World (950-250 B. c.) 240 VII. EccLESiASTEs: The Philosophy of the Self Quest (200 B. c.) 247 PART FIVE APOCALYPSES (520-168 b. c.) I. Apocalypse in the Old Testament 257 II. Haggai and Zechariah: Reugion in Reconstruc tion (520 B. c.) 261 III. MALAcm: The Religion that Counts (460 b. c.) . . . 265 IV. Isaiah 34-5: The Best is yet to be (400 b. c.) 269 V. Zechariah 9-14: The Price of Permanent Peace (250 B. c.) V 270 VI. Joel: Economic and Civic Aspects op REmoioN (350 B.C.) \. ... 27s XII CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE VII. Isaiah 24-27: Thy Dead Shall Live (170 b. c.) 284 Vni. Daniel: Inviolate Faith Invincible (168 b. c.) . . . . 285 PART SIX THE TEXT AND THE CANON I. The Text 293 II. First Step in the Making of the Canon (621 b. c.) 304 HI. Second Step in the Making of the Canon (444 b. c.) 308 IV. Third Step in the Making of the Canon (250 b. c.) 313 V. The Last Stage in the Formation of the Old Testament Canon (100 a. d.) 316 INTRODUCTION That the Old Testament is a great body of Uterature subject to the canons of literary interpretation, has come at last to be generally recognized. Let us survey briefly some of the underlying principles involved in its scientific study. Perhaps it will not be amiss to ask in the beginning what the theme of the Bible is. This question would seem to be superfluous, and yet wrong answers to it have tracked the course of the church through history in blood and tears, and until recently was a menace to freedom of inquiry even in Protestantism. Its theme was once supposed to be all truth and every aspect of truth was predetermined by its pronounce ments. It taught geography, and the sacred map radiated every part of the known world from Jerusalem, the center. It taught meteorology and falling stars, wandering comets, rumbUng thunders, flashing light nings, devastating floods, blighting droughts, earth quakes, cyclones — indeed, anything unusual in nature expressed divine moods, to be changed by Bible pre scriptions. It taught chemistry and physics, and its supposed magic passed for science. It taught hygiene and medicine. Only a few years ago, a friend of mine in Alabama was called out at midnight to find the passage of Scripture that would, if read aloud, stop the blood for a woman whose tooth had been extracted the day before. It taught philology, the origin of language and lan guages. It taught political economy, and its laws of trade, commerce, and industry were final. It taught astronomy and geology, and the processes by which the heavens above and the earth below came into being, XIV INTRODUCTION as well as their structure, could be determined only by revelation. It taught chronology, and the hour of creation was actually fixed at nine o'clock in the morn ing on the 23d of October, 4004 B. C, at least one thousand years after the development of two great dviUzations, whose annals have now come out of their ancient graves to help confiscate our littie systems that have had their day. It taught biology, and the genesis of all life was supposed to be described in detail. It taught anthropology, and the exact method of creation was read into the sacred page. It taught history, and every item of the infallible record was understood to have been dictated verbally, even in EngUsh according to many, by Omniscience to inerrant scribes. At every stage of this tragic story the whole truth of revelation and redemption was made to depend upon the absolute infalUbiUty of each and every one of these interpretations. "Falsus in uno, Falsus in omnibus," was the slogan. Even so great a scholar as Mr. Wesley thought that we had as weU give up the Bible as to give up witchcraft. But the growth of the historic and scientific spirit has routed the church, at the point of the bayonet, from one after another of these positions and forced a more vital approach to the Scriptures. Has that spirit helped us to find such an approach, or are we to go on henceforth, as hitherto, changing from position to position with advancing knowledge? Is there no stable principle that wUl hold in spite of all variations in the time-spirit? Suppose we empty our minds of all preconceptions and read, as we would any other Uterature, the first few chapters of Genesis. What would we understand these chapters to be talking about? What would appear to be their character and purpose? Would it not be that God is here described poetically as preparing the uni verse for man and man for the universe; that man is intimately related to God and his feUow man? Is not INTRODUCTION XV the central theme of these stories morals and reUgion? Is not everything else secondary and relatively unim portant? Would that not appear also to be the central theme of every other section of this Ubrary? Have we not here, then, the key to the real purpose and meaning of the Old Testament? Take an Ulustration from Jesus. He caUed the mustard seed less than aU seeds, and yet anybody knows that there are scores of seeds much smaUer. Is His statement, therefore, untrue? If He was teaching botany, yes. If He was illustrating the growth of the kingdom from a smaU beginning to world proportions, no. If the theme of the Bible be morals and reUgion, how can there be any conflict between it and science? The real battie has never been between science and reUgion but between science and theology, or really between a pseudo-science and a pseudo-theology, botii often for saking their proper fields to fight on ground aUen to both. It has never been God's word versus His works but an interpretation of the one against an interpreta tion of the other. The only points of adjustment Ue along the border of the psychological world where science is only now beginning to achieve estabUshed results. It might be possible for dogmatic reUgion and dogmatic science to clash here but the real Christian spirit will at once compel such an attitude on both sides, as that each will find the other a handmaid indeed. There need be no bitter antagonism, for how can the Ten Commandments conflict with the multipUcation table, geology with the Lord's Prayer, the Psalms with Boyle's law? What has the age of the world to do with the parable of the Prodigal Son? What has evolution to do with the Sermon on the Mount? How can a comet clash with the cross? Nor are we particularly concerned about agreements between science and the Bible. How can the binomial theorem agree with the Beatitudes? How can astrophysics agree with justification by faith? XVI INTRODUCTION The laws of optics with the love of God? Physiology with the witness of the spirit? We may weU dis trust aUke the worth of the harmonist and the dis- harmonist. Morals and reUgion, then, are the pecuUar and ex clusive theme of the Bible, but this does not imply that the Bible is a system even of morals and reUgion. It is V the record of revelations made by God of Himself to the Hebrew people, setting forth the meaning and value^ of existence, the providential purposes and redeeming efforts of God. These revelations were not primarily of truths or even of truth, but of Himself, of a person to persons. The Bible is, therefore, not a text-book on theology, not even a treatise on reUgion. It is a record of experience, the experience of the Ufe of God in the souls of men, of men scattered over a thousand years, in some cases distanced from each other by a thousand miles; and yet they are bound together by a common spirit, a common attitude towards the fundamentals of Ufe, a common reaUstic touch with God. And God always takes the initiative, always moves upon man rather than man upon Him, as in aU other sacred books. He is searching for men rather than men for Him. He descends to their levels to Uf t them to His own supernal heights. We are Uving in the midst of a changing world. We think of nothing as our fathers did. The atom, for example, once thought to be the least indivisible particle of matter, is now found to embosom countless thousands of electrons moving with unthinkable speed and power. We no longer Uve in a static world. All things are in motion. Everything is in a whirl. The whole universe is now thought of as a process, an endless ongoing out of an infimite past into an infinite future; not a crystal but a fluid, a turbulent stream of everlasting becoming. We are opening up not only the world of the infinitely smaU but also that of the infinitely great. Abraham INTRODUCTION XVU could see only three to five thousand stars at the most, while we have seen and mapped thirty milUons of suns not unlike our own, each the center of a system, giving us a universe of three hundred mUUon worlds aU in action. In the midst of this changing order, can reUgion alone be fixed, conceived in final form? Does not history show that religion to be vital must be conceived in terms of contemporary thought and feeling? Is it not neces sary, in other words, that each generation shaU redis cover and reinterpret God, just as it does everything else, in the Ught of its new knowledge? Has not aU dogma a social origin? Has not the atonement, for example, been interpreted in terms first of sacrifice, then of feudaUsm and after Anselm of autocratic government? Are we not now waiting for some one to interpret it in terms of democracy? An enlarging conception of God requires a changing conception of the Bible. When we understand the Bible to deal with reUgion and our conception of religion to be subject to the changing time-spirit, we get upon a sure foundation. The changeless law of change does not involve the substance of reUgion, but its forms. Chang ing the methods by which faith thinks and works — change of faith itself indeed — is not loss of faith. The Bible becomes far more vital when thought of as the greatest of all books of religious experience. It is important for the correct understanding of any Uterature that we appreciate its Uterary form. Is it prose or poetry? Is it simple narrative or epic? Is it parable or allegory? Is it drama, elegy, idyl, lyric, essay, oration, epistle? Nowhere do we need a keener Uterary sense than in some parts of the Bible. Even the Lord's Prayer, which is beautiful poetry, beginning in heaven, running the scale of human need and ending, is not without its Uterary difficulties. The first paragraph may be read: Or: XVm INTRODUCTION " Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, As in Heaven, so in earth. " "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy wiU be done, As in Heaven, so in earth. " The question, of course, is whether the last Une must be read with the three preceding or only with the one immediately before it; whether we petition for the haUowing of His name, the coming of His kingdom, and the doing of His will, all as in Heaven so on earth, or only for the doing of His wiU in Heaven so on earth. The value of Joshua's command to the sun to stand stiU depends upon whether it is prose or poetry. Under stood as prose, insurmountable difficulties at once arise; conceived as poetry, it is true and surpassingly beautiful. There is also a larger unity in every book that must be grasped. A friend of mine has put the habits of some of us rather graphically, when he charges that we know the Bible as the hog knows the pasture. He knows where to go to find acorns, we, where to find texts. The book of Job is a good illustration. At the end, what the friends have been saying is pronounced false, while Job is said to have spoken what is true. If we have been accus tomed to take the speeches of these friends as inspired and infallible, we are in the awkward position of ac cepting what is later denied. It is said that a judge of the Supreme Court of New York, in a decision still on record, wrote: "The highest authority in the world says 'aU that a man hath wiU he give for his Ufe.'" Now this "highest authority in the world" turns out to be INTRODUCTION XIX the Satan, for he is the one that said it (Job 2:4). The same is true of Ecclesiastes. Matthew's Gospel is best appreciated by remembering that it is an argument put in story form. The work of Paul had resulted in disturbing many people. They had not started out to throw overboard their ancient rites. Salvation by faith alone seemed to take out the foundations and leave the Jew in no better position than the rest of mankind. This book begins in the narrow circle of Judaism, and moves steadily forward by a well-arranged plan, showing that Jesus began His career within the bosom of the chosen people, offered Himself to them as their promised Messiah, was finaUy rejected by them and put to death; rose from the dead and commissioned His foUowers to make disciples of all the nations. The broadening of the church, therefore, to take in aU men, was God's original purpose. This cannot be fully realized until we reach the climax in the Great Commission. Another item in the thorough study of Uterature is the use of literary materials. Coming to the New Testa ment again, take the preface to Luke's Gospel with Professor Burton's analysis of it: " 'Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fuffiUed among us, even as they deUvered them unto us, which from the begin ning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of aU things accurately from the first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus; that thou mightest know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed.' From this statement we are enabled to glean the foUowing facts of interest and significance: (a) When the evangeUst wrote there were already in existence several narratives of the Ufe of Jesus, more or less complete, (b) These narratives were based, at least in the intention of their writers, on the oral nar ratives of the Ufe of Jesus which proceeded from the XX INTRODUCTION personal companions of Jesus, men who had witnessed the events from the beginning, and from the beginning had been ministers of the word, servants of the gospel. It is suggested at least that there was a somewhat defi nite body of such oral narrative, (c) In its scope this oral gospel was coincident with the pubUc life of Jesus. 'They who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word' are one class, not two; this phrase cannot mean, 'Those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses' and ' those who were ministers of the word.' From the beginning must therefore mean from the beginning of Jesus' ministry, not of His Ufe, and the implication is tiiat that which these transmitted was that which they knew, (d) These previous gospels nevertheless left something to be desired in respect of completeness or accuracy; our author recognizes a need for a book different from those of his predecessors, (e) Our evangeUst does not himself belong to the circle of eyewitnesses, but to those to whom the eyewitnesses transmitted their testimony, (f) Yet neither is he far removed from them; though others have preceded him in writing, he classes himself with those to whom the testimony of the eyewitnesses was delivered, and even associates himself under the pronoun 'us' with those among whom the events of Jesus' Ufe occurred, thus intimating that these events feU within his own time. (g) He had access, therefore, not only to these other writings, but to that Uving oral testimony from which these other writers drew, (h) He had made painstaking investigation respecting the material of his narrative, having searched all things out from the beginning, (i) He had in view in writing, not those to whom the history of Jesus was unknown, but those who had already been taught oraUy. Observe the significant testimony thus indirectiy borne that it was the habit of the church, even at this early day, to teach the Ufe of Christ, and the clear indication that this gospel at least was not for INTRODUCTION XXI unbelievers, but for believers, (j) His object in writing is to furnish his reader an entirely trustworthy record of the life of Jesus, an historical basis of faith." If these were the methods of the New Testament writers, we ought not to be surprised to find evidence of like uses of sources in the Old Testament. That the proph ets appropriated aU existing materials without giving credit, is shown by the fact that Isaiah II. and Micah IV. contain the same passages. So do Jeremiah LIX. 17-22 and Obadiah. Many other illustrations . might be given of the habit of these ancient writers to use current traditions, ideas and customs, superstitions, myths, legends and folk lore as weU as existing docu ments in the composition of their books. The depend- ance of Chronicles upon Kings for example. That there are Bibles back of and within our Bible, no real scholar will now deny. AU Uterature comes out of Ufe. Browning describes the old yellow book as having been "Secreted from man's Ufe when hearts beat hard. " Peoples live, then think, then write. Literature in its earUer forms is largely folk lore, gathering up what primitive eyes have seen in the world about them. It is not written down until later. Only with maturer thought does writing appear. This is exemplified in the Negro race. They waited for Mr. Harris, the immortal friend of Uttle chUdren, to record aU their fathers knew. Epoch-making authors are the creatures rather than the creators of their epochs, social outcomes rather than social causes. They interpret the foibles and vices, the vagaries and fancies, as weU as the aspirations and ideals, the joys and sorrows, the trials and triumphs of those they seek to lead to higher things. Literature as an interpretation of life is weU exempU- fied in the Sixteenth Century when the awakening of the human spirit is voiced in England by Shakespeare, in XXU INTRODUCTION France by Montaigne, in Italy by Tasso, in Spain by Cervantes. Six plays, it is said, have been written on the theme of Antony and Cleopatra. So were the themes of JuUus Caesar, Romeo and JuUet, Timon of Athens, engaging the pens of all Western Europe. In the Seventeenth Century Milton portrayed the spirit of the revolution in his greatest character, the magnificent Satan. The artificial Ufe of the Eighteenth is reflected in Pope. Tennyson in the Nineteenth interprets for us the new scientific spirit suffused with the abiding reU- gious instinct and experience; while Browning sings the survival of faith over the re-examined and re-estab- Ushed historic foundations of Christianity; and Ruskin enforces the growing recognition of noblesse obUge. The deepening social note of the Twentieth is voiced by such preachers as Mr. WeUs and the reUgious unrest by such as Mr. ChurchiU; both by the poets of today. The ^ Bible likewise came out of reUgion rather than reUgion out of the Bible. Its books are red hot messages through red hot hearts to red hot situations, seeking to interpret the deeper meaning of Ufe and experience in the light of the ultimate purposes of God, seeking to bring the rebel- Uous and unmanageable into Une with those purposes; seeking above all, to bring God Himself into personal and social consciousness. It often happened, therefore, that those who interpreted the times were in relentless opposition to the times, that the time-spirit and the Holy Spirit were in conflict, and that conflict produced the Uterature of the hour. The stream of the Ufe of God flowing through the soul of the Hebrew race expressed itself in at least five Q Uterary movements, and deposited as many types of Uterature in the Old Testament. The first of these is the prophetic. The history of Israel is one long series of crises and at every crisis there stands a man as the mouthpiece of God, not a foreteUer primarily but a forthteller, — one who sees the signs of INTRODUCTION XXm the times and tells what he sees, who hears God speak and tells what he hears. Priesthood and Ritual were the abiding institutions in Israel, and when the prophet waned, the priest came to the fore, and interpreted, in the forms in which we"; now have it, the past, present and future in terms of law, ritual and the cult. WhUe the prophet with his mission to the State was preaching righteousness, and the priest with his mission to the Church was formulating the code, the sage was slowly coming towards his own, with a message not to the State, nor to the Church, but to the individual of every race and in every place. They gave us such pMlos- ophy as the Jew was able to produce. Meanwhile the estabUshment of the reUgious com munity in place of the fallen nation called for hymns to be used in the worship of the Temple, and the Psalms « were coUected and afterward completed as Israel's hymn book. The last type of Uterature to be developed was the j apocalyptic as exemplified in Daniel. Crushed under the heel of relentless oppression, despairing of the pres ent and looking to the future, despairing of earth and turning to heaven, of the human and appealing to the divine, the apocalyptic vision pictures for weary hearts the ultimate grinding out of the world machine and the final bringing in, with a mighty cataclysm, of a new social order in which Jehovah's avenged people will rule the world in righteousness and peace. This coUection of booklets, mostiy anonymous, touches the whole range of human interest and expe rience, and is suffused with every type of emotion, from the most subtie humor to the deepest pathos. Its psychological interpretations are perfect, its art forms are true to Ufe. Every literary device known to the Semites is employed. To feel the full power of any part of the Bible, it is necessary to read it in the light of its historic origin and XXlV INTRODUCTION purpose. To understand Lincoln's Gettysburg speech requires a knowledge of the history back of it. Suppose a Chinaman, famiUar with EngUsh, but ignorant of Southern history, lands at New Orleans and sees in the morning paper that a great mass meeting wiU convene in Washington ArtiUery HaU that night, at which, among other things, "Dixie," whose words are printed, wUl be sung. He reads it and wonders why such words are so honored. He attends and sees five thousand people go wild the moment it is struck up. He is sur prised at their folly. To him it is nothing but a jingle and a hurrah. Now let him Uve among the Southern people until he can feel the thrUl of Confederate tradi tions; then let him go to a reunion of Veterans, and when the first note is struck, he joins ten thousand men and women from the East and the West, the North and the South, who "take their stand in Dixieland." Is it the same poetry, the same music? Yes, so far as it can be written down. But there is immeasurably more in it than the printed words can tell. The soul of an era is there. "In quietness and in confidence, shaU be your strength" is a great expression of faith, but it becomes far greater when we remember the tense situation and stirring times in which Isaiah uttered these noble words. Scholars have so opened up the ancient world to us that we can sit beside our inspired authors, look out upon the world through their windows, see the pressing prob lems they were seeking to solve, and even feel their warm breath on our cheeks. We can realize now, as never before, the divine human power with which they spoke. Coming out of the Ufe of the Hebrew people, the Old Testament is subject to and reflects the limitations and progress of their experience as well as the racial and per sonal equations of the writers. The Psahns could never have been attributed to Solomon, nor the Proverbs to David. Paul was the poet of the city, and saw but Uttie beyond city waUs. Jesus was the poet of the country, INTRODUCTION XXV and reveled in forests, fields, and flowers; insects, birds, and animals; mountains, hills, and valleys; sunshine and clouds; whistling winds and roaring floods. He felt the shepherd's tender care, now with his flocks within the fold, now leading them out to green pastures and beside stiU waters, now on the cold, dark mountains in search of the lost, now in the fellowship of the happy home-coming. He rejoiced in the vineyard, the vine- dressing, and the vintage. He appreciated the plow man's toil and the sower's task as well as the rural housewife's daily problems. And " ' Twas his to hear, on summer eves. The reaper's song among the sheaves." For aU truth hurries to the heart to which it belongs, and will go to no other. The contrast between the Semitic and the Aryan mind would lead us to expect Uke difference in their thought products. The Aryan has strength, vigor, accuracy, discrimination which make possible definite expressions in form, which gives us art; and in language, which results in science. They make possible also organizations in family. State, nation, and give us law and government. Their synthetic powers have worked out our philosophy. There is in the Semite, on the con trary, "a yearning after dreamy ease, a strange and ever present shiftlessness, a striking combination of pliabiUty and iron fixity, a spirit of unity and simplicity which make complexity and combination impossible, an idealism that controls life and thought." These made the Semite the religious genius of mankind, and put behind aU he did a religious background. Even his phUosophy, such as he had, was the reverse of the Greek, who moved upstream in search of God at the source, whUe he started with God at the source and moved downstream, seeing God everywhere. The Greek took the whole of things and tried to analyze them, which XXVl INTRODUCTION process resulted in "a God without a world and a world without a God"; the Hebrew conceived the whole of things as vitaUy in touch with and immediately created and controlled by God, who was everywhere unavoid able. The Greek was coldly inteUectual; the Hebrew passionately reUgious. The Greek's philosophy was a carefuUy wrought out system; the Hebrew's a deeply Uved out experience. He showed That "Ufe is not as idle ore. But iron dug from central gloom, And heated hot with burning fears. And dipped in baths of hissing tears. And battered with the shock of doom To shape and use. " To him everything was personal, even the thunder was God's voice, and nature but the mantle He threw around Hun. The ancient Semites have given us Uttie great epic poetry, unless Job be so classed; no science, no body of fiction, no painting or sculpture, no real philosophy, no government organization; but they have given the world its three greatest reUgions — ^Judaism, Mohammedanism and its final one, Christianity, and that is enough for any people. Revelation and its record are affected not only by the personal and racial equation but also by the knowledge and experience of the periods in which its several parts were produced. The growth of reUgious ideas depends upon the development of the people in general culture. Where there is successful teaching there must be not only an efficient teacher but also capable pupils. Even Omniscience adapts what it teUs to the capacity and needs of those who hear. We need not to be surprised, therefore, if we find the ancient Hebrews not unlike our selves, misunderstanding God, misinterpreting the signs of the times. INTRODUCTION XXVil Inspiration is attested, not by eradicating aU error at once, but by taking a motley mass of Bedouin as they are, and graduaUy Ufting them to divine levels. It ought not to offend us if cruel crime is practiced in the name of reUgion and with the claim of divine sanction. Nor should we be shocked to hear a primitive people sing, even in their sanctuaries: "O daughter of Babylon Happy shaU he be that taketh and dasheth thy Uttle ones against a rock. " It is a far caU from this to Micah's "What doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love landness, and to waUi humbly with thy God?" further stUl to the Saviour's setting a little child in their midst. Progress in the conception of reUgious fundamentals is easily perceptible through the Old Testament. In the earUest period God is Uttle more than the head of a tribe, Uving on Mount Sinai, riding on the clouds on His chariot, over to Palestine to fight the battles of His people, and then going back home. He is a war God. But the idea of Him advanced, enriched at every stage, tiU Jehovah, with infinite attributes, rules in righteousness and glorious majesty high over all. Man is at first valued in terms of the tribe, then of the nation; and at the fall of the nation, the individual arose over the ruins, supreme in his own integrity and charged with inaUenable responsi- biUties, to find his social self at last in world relations. So with ethical ideas. Duty is first national, then individual, then social; the emphasis shifting from generation to generation. Moral actions were at first external, then inward, then carried to spiritual heights. Sin was, in the beginning, failure as a nation to please the Deity. Then it was missing the mark, and finally voluntary violation of fundamental principles. Author ity was at first oracular, then ai set of rules, and at last universal principles. At first moraUty was obedience to XXVm INTRODUCTION a Sovereign Power, then compUance with a rigid routine, culminating in getting into harmony with the laws of the universe. There was never more than a smaU appreciation of international ethics, but within Israel their sense of obUgation was both "altruistic" and "theocentric," recognizing God always and everywhere, and having regard even for the dumb animals. Worship at first was very crude and simple. An altar was made of rough, unhewn stones on hiU tops, or under green trees, wherever family, community or tribe wanted one. A smaU house would be buUt near by to keep the utensils and implements in. It was a sort of country church. Later a central tabernacle or royal sanctuary was built. Later stiU the country churches were all closed up and the people compelled to worship at the central sanctuary. The temple was rebuilt and a more elaborate ritual provided. Meanwhile, the priest, who was at first a sort of janitor, later head man at the sacrifice, developed into a regular hierarchy, with an elaborate system of duties and privUeges, and codes covering the practical Ufe of the people. Perhaps the most interesting of all is the conception of redemption and the future life. At first trembling shades of disembodied spirits huddle together in a dark and dismal cavern in the bowels of the earth, — the wretched Sheol, where smaU and great, good and bad aUke, drag out a forlorn existence; where there is no re membrance, even of God. Then there shaU be a resur rection of the nation, and at last the individual wiU come back in flesh and blood to enjoy the messianic kingdom forever. In Israel, as everywhere, the old often survives and appears along with tiie new. But you ask: If the Bible is to be understood as teach ing only moral and spiritual truth, and its moral and spiritual conceptions are so unequal, so variable, where is the ultimate standard of values? Are we not left to the caprices of individual judgment and personal pref- INTRODUCTION Xxix erence? And are we not plunged into hopeless confu sion? Let us be reminded that on any theory of inter pretation there is nowhere in the Old Testament a sense of finaUty; there is everywhere that of incompleteness which carries us beyond itself. The greatest apologetic experiences a Christian minister has, are felt in trying to preach to the Jews in their own temple. One feels him self swept irresistibly beyond the circle of ideas in which they are Uving. We get to final truth only in the Christ, who is the fulfillment, not so much of detailed predic tions as of ideas and ideals, not so much of what He was to do as of what He was to be, to realize, to suggest, to symboUze; not so much of the externals of the king dom as of the spirit He was to enthrone in society. Has the Old Testament, then, been confiscated by Him? Do we no longer need it "for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for discipUne which is in righteousness? " Its pedagogical value wiU never cease as long as human nature endures. It is as indispensable now as it was in the First Century to bring us to a fuU apprecia tion of the Christ. In it we trace the genesis and growth of the spiritual Ufe which in the fullness of time He ful- fiUed; without it men can never intelUgently come to Him. It sounds the soul's abysmal deeps, penetrates its subtie mysteries, explores its measureless areas, catches its shifting moods, and turns its restless tides homeward. But what is the test of finaUty in Him? The best test of any truth is the inconceivabUity of its opposite or con tradictory. Those conceptions must stand supreme with us aU, which embody the highest ideals we can think. The finaUty of Jesus is to be found, therefore, in the ultimate things among which He "Uved and moved and had His being," in the viewpoint, attitude, and spirit which were His, and the power with which He Uved out spiritual realities. For He is indeed the con temporary of all ages, the citizen of all climes, the ideal of all races, the inspiration of all classes, the brother of XXX INTRODUCTION aU men. His God must be to us final because we cannot conceive one higher than our Father in heaven. His conception of man as the child of God, heir to all the riches of the Father, must be held supreme since we can conceive none beyond; His ethics, the science of brotherly love, and His t3^e of society, a universal brotherhood in which each Uves in feUowship with the Father and in fraternal service to others, must be ac cepted as the goal of aU our yearnings and social efforts until a better can be found. His method of redemption by love alone is rapidly coming to the fore as our only hope for the lost. His method of worship — ^a free spirit worshipping the Father in spirit and truth — cannot be surpassed, nor can we get beyond His outiook upon the future Ufe: the righteous risen to eternal feUowship in the kingdom of the undefiled, the unrighteous left out. He is the divine, human goal upon whom aU the lines of progress of the Old Testament converge, in whom alone aU the great ideas of the Old Testament — ^in themselves incomplete — ^find fulfillment. Nowhere else do we reach such a satisfying sense of finaUty as in Jesus. Above Him we can see nothing. But when aU that is said, we must stiU come back to the simple truth that He feeds the undying hungers of the human spirit, hungers for health, wealth, sodabiUty, knowledge, the beautiful, righteousness, God. He is the Bread of Life. The unspoUed heart of every type in every clime would spontaneously exclaim with Gilder: "Thou Christ, my soul is hurt and bruised, With words the scholars wear me out; My mind o'wearied and confused, Thee, and myself, and all I doubt. And must I back to darkness go Because I cannot say thdr creed? I know not what I think'; I know Only Thou art what I need." INTRODUCTION XXxi Every book must be judged in the light of its purpose. : A book on chemistry must be held responsible for chemistry and nothing else. There might be errors in history, phUosophy, reUgion, any other field of human interest, but these count for Uttle if it is a masterpiece on chemistry. So the Bible must be judged in the light of its purpose, which is to bring God and men into such satisfying relations with each other as that they shaU work together in blessed fellowship for the creation of a new sodal order characterized by righteousness, peace and the joy of holy Uving over aU the earth. Should errors in Wstory, science, phUosophy or in any other field of inquiry be found, they need not disturb us. The infaUibUity of our inspired book depends not upon these things, but rather upon the effective achieving of the end it sought and stUl seeks. That it has always accom pUshed this purpose, and accomplishes it stUl, none can deny. Here we meet Him face to face and find rest unto our souls. Then all nature "Witnessing, murmurs, persistent and low, 'E'en so, it is so.'" And the message of this book, thus completed in Him who embodied all that went before and determined aU that came after, is self-authenticating. Our first task is to bring it out of its ancient environment into our modern life, and feel its constant contact with the burn ing questions of our day. Its writers are Uving men, now actually walking our streets, sharing our struggles and seeking to help us solve our problems. To feel the ^ force of tUs truth is to come under the spell of the greatest possible apologetic for the Old Testament. Not until all the sacred books of the andent world, so rapidly coming to light, have been carefully interpreted, analyzed and classified, can the soUtariness of the Bible be externally set forth. But the one argument that all can feel and none entirely escape is that of Coleridge: XXXU INTRODUCTION ^ " It finds me " ; yes more, it ought to find me. Its appeal is like that of music, of painting, of sculpture, of archi tecture, to the finer instincts of the human spirit. With these, it rests its case. It does not need to be defended; it needs only to be understood, to be appredated as containing the word of God, not only for centuries long passed but for this and the ages yet to come. There are a few great trunk Une truths that trav- . ersed the universe in the olden times, that are here stiU and will be here forever. The Old Testament interprets for us some of these and shows us how to work in har mony with them, shows us above all how to Uve in feUowship with God, whose mind they declare and whose ultimate purpose they point out. The real power of the Bible over Ufe can neither be increased nor decreased by any arguments or devices of men. You can no more create or destroy gravitation than increase or decrease its divine efficacy with mere critical apparatus, except in so far as that apparatus reveals its spirit and aims. Its authority is out of the reach of its ehemies and above the help of its friends. The penalty of failure to get its message is self-inflict ing and Wordsworth's lines apply to the dullard here as well as in nature: "A primrose on the river's brim, A yellow primrose was to him. And it was nothing more. " Turner was once showing one of his gorgeous pictures to a superficial woman, when she said: "Oh, I don't see all that in nature." He repUed, "Don't you wish you could?" and walked away, leaving her in her helpless ness. "If ye wiU to do, ye shaU know; " if not, never. What the " Hibbert Journal " says of reUgion may be said also of the Bible, the world's greatest reUgious book, the world's most powerful expression of the reUgious Ufe and experience: INTRODUCTION XXxiu "The spirit that is in religion is that of uncompromis ing loyalty to the highest. Its fealty is entire, and re quires no confirmation by oath. It Uves in the whole, loves the whole with a patriot's devotion, and passes into utterance, or into action, with the felt strength of the universe at its back. ReUgion stands by a cause; but this rests on no reasoning, for it is the cause of Reason itself. ReUgion is not afraid of its future, suffers from no sense of insecurity, and speaks in language that is at once triumphant and serene. Religion, therefore, does not apologize for itself, does not stand on the defensive, does not justify its presence in the world. If theorists vindicate reUgion, they may do so; but reUgion comes forth in the majesty of silence, Uke a mountain amid the Ufting mists. AU the strong things of the world are its children; and whatever strength is sum moned to its support is the strength which its own spirit has caUed into being. ReUgion never excuses its atti tude, and when at last a voice is Ufted up, it simply chants the faith, until the deaf ears are unstopped and the dead in spirit come out of their graves to listen. " PART ONE BEGINNINGS THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY PoEHC Fragments (1400-1000 B. C.) Anyone reading the earUer Books of the Old Testa ment in a Revised Version, wiU note poetic fragments scattered here and there. The first of these is the Song of the Sword (Gen. 4:23 f.) : "And Lamech said unto his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: For I have slain a man for wounding me. And a young man for bruising me: If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold. Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold." Here we have an ancient folk song boasting arrogantly of the possession of weapons and of constant prepared ness for blood revenge. "This little three- verse song is already stamped with all the marks of Hebrew poetry — predse paralleUsm between the two halves of each verse, exalted, rhythmical language, and the use of spedal words belonging to the dialect of poetry." The Song of Triumph (Ex. 15:1 f.) celebrates the pas sage of the Red Sea and the destruction of the EgJTptians. It is probably a later re-working of an old battie song current among the people. The Smiting of the Rock by Moses (Ex. 17:6 f.) was probably also origiaaUy a 4 the OLD testament nsr the life of today popular poem. The devotion of Israel to Jehovah and the symbols of His presence among them is enthusias- ticaUy set forth in the Unes spoken at the taking up and setting down of the Ark (Num. 10:35 f-)- The Song of the WeU (Num. 21:17 f.) describes the enthusiasm of the community at the finding or dedicating of a weU in the desert. The much quoted outburst of Joshua over his conquest of the Amorites (Jos. 10:12,13) is a superb poetic expression of his faith in God. The greatest of aU the battie songs is that of Deborah (Jdgs. 5). It comes bubbUng out of the heart of heroic struggle with aU the rugged power of primitive verse. The word- painting particularly in v. 22 is so powerful that you can hear the clatter of the hoofs of the wild running horses. The poem gives us a wonderful insight into the history, particularly the reUgious conditions of the time. The people are oppressed, reduced to forty thousand capable of bearing arms but having none. The roads are de serted, because unsafe, tUl Deborah raises the battle cry, among the northern tribes. Judah is not mentioned. Reuben is reproved. Yahweh is a god of battle. He left Mt. Sinai, his holy dweUing place, to conduct in person the warfare of his people. The ethical standards are not high. HospitaUty was violated. The cries of mother love anxiously looking for her son that never would come back, are gloated over. The origin and meaning of the Song of Conquest (Num. 21:27) is not clear. It seems to refer to the conquest of the East Jordan territory before the entrance of Israel into Canaan. Another obscure reUc is given in Num. 21:14. Jotham's fable (Jdgs. 9) and Samson's riddle Qdgs. 14:14 f.) are early examples of the wisdom Uterature. "The technical structure of the fable is here found in such perfection and imbued with so fine a sarcasm as to suggest the conjecture that this form of composition must have been long and dUigentiy cultivated." It is probable that during this period primitive deca- POETIC fragments 5 logues were written, beginning with the Ten Words by Moses and including Exodus 34 :i4-26. This latter shows marks of settled Ufe and of agriculture as the means of subsistence. The fact that the Decalogue is called the "Ten Words" suggests that perhaps it consisted orig inally of ten Hebrew words in two pairs of five, put in that form because it was easy to number the two sets of five words counted on the fingers of each hand. There will be those who will ask at once about the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. It should be said, first of all, that the Pentateuch in its present form does not daim to have been written by Moses. We do not meet with this idea until much later. That Moses wrote something is stated in four places. Deut. 31 :9, 24, says that the law of Deuteronomy was written by Moses. This, it is supposed, was added by an editor during the exile. Num. 33:2 says that he recorded the names of the stations in the desert. This seems to have been in serted by a Post-Exilic editor. In Ex. 17:14 f., Moses is told to write the discomfiture of the Amalekites "on a leaf." Ex. 24:4 f. seems to show acquaintance with the tradition that Moses himself wrote a book of the Covenant. What this book is, we have no means of knowing. If it referred to the Ten Commandments, then what edition of those Commandments is meant, the one in Ex. 20, Deut. 5, or Ex. 34:14 f., or some other? On the other hand, however, the Uterary pecuUarities and historical references, as well as the general back ground suggested in the Pentateuch, point to a much later period for its composition. All these fragments, like the first, bear the character istic marks of Hebrew poetry. Like the early songs of aU primitive peoples, they have to do with things of in terest to the simple life of the community, the taunts of one tribe against another, the enthusiasm at finding water, devotion to the symbols of their gods, triumph in battle, ditties sung, fables told, riddles propounded. 6 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY often by professional troubadours, or minstrels, around camp fires, at entertainments and popular assemblages. II Longer Poems, Battle Songs, Dirges, Parables, Primitive Codes, and Short Stories (100-850 B. C.) Poetry has now become somewhat more elaborate. Popular proverbs seem to be current (I. Sam. 10:11 f.; 24:13). The Blessing of Jacob in Gen. 49:1-27 is supposed to have taken its present form about this time. There may have been an earUer edition of it. The original Balaam oracles in Num. 23 :24 are assigned here. We have two song books quoted by name supposed to have been issued about this time: The Book of the Upright, quoted as sources, Joshua 10-13, II. Sam. 1:17; and The Book of the Wars of Yahweh, referred to in Num. 21:14. These seem to have been collections of battle hymns and popular poems celebrating the great deeds of heroes. There is a trustworthy tradition that David was a great musidan and poet. We have his dirge on Saul and Jonathan, erroneously caUed "The Song of the Bow," in II. Sam. i ¦.i'j-2'j. "It has ever been justly recognized as a real pearl of Hebrew poetry. And this is true both of its poetical form and of its contents, at once so simple and so stirring. The almost identical lament at the begin ning and at the end serve as a framework for six strophes, ea<± consisting of two verses, with two clauses each. The fifth of them corresponds with the first in fine con trast; the second and fourth utter the actual dirge for the dead; the third sings the praise of the faUen heroes." His elegy on Abner is recorded in II. Sam. 3:33. Sev enty-three of the Psalms have been assigned to him by the headUnes, but these headUnes are of no more longer poems, etc. 7 historic value than the headUnes in the daUy newspaper. They were put there by later hands, and often do not fit the context of the Psalm any more than the newspaper headUnes do the contents of the story. It is impossible to say positively how many, if any, Psahns he actuaUy wrote. This question wiU be taken up in connection with the development of the Psalter. Ancient tradition assigns certain parts of the Book of Proverbs to Solo mon. This will be considered in connection with the Wisdom Uterature. His Hymn of Dedication is given in I. Kgs. 8:i2 f. It is generaUy conceded that laws are now taking def inite form. David's dedsion regarding the spoil in I. Sam. 30:24 f. has held ever since. Whether the primi tive codes in Ex. 13, 20^^-23'^, 34^^'^*, originated here or in an earUer period, it seems certain that they are in existence at this time. Nathan's parable (IL Sam. 12:1-4), which probably belongs to this period, is so perfect as to suggest dedded progress in the Uterary forms used by the Sages. The Book of Judges is a chain of stories, each given in a complete cycle, telUng how the Israelites offended Yahweh, were abandoned by him to their enemies, got into trouble, repented, called upon Yahweh, and were deUvered by him through a hero raised up for the pur pose. The author seems to have gathered up these stories and put them together for the purpose of impress ing upon lus people the lesson that unfaithfulness to Yahweh is always punished. He would warn them against the dangers of apostasy. These stories differ in viewpoint, phraseology, and consistency. It is probable that they had been collected in an andent history of the Judges, back of our Book of Judges bearing that name. The stories themselves are sometimes apparently composite and seem to fall into two general types, one older than the other. The older Book of Judges is sup posed to have contained the histories of Ehud (3:30); 8 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Deborah and Barak (5); Gideon (8:38); Abimelech (9:22); Jephthah (12:7); and Samson (15:20); and not improbably also the wonderfuUy human story of Micah's idols and the migration of the Danites. The greatest of these heroes is Samuel, who voiced the new NationaUsm then arising among the hitherto disorganized tribes. Then foUow the stories of Samuel and Saul, of Saul and David, and of David alone, in the Books of Samuel. Samuel seems to have been a sort of old-time circuit rider, the embodiment of a new move ment of spiritual power in reUgion. He went from settiement to settlement apparently preaching, judging the people, and teaching them. We know of such communities at Ramah, Bethel, Gibeah, Jericho, GUgal, and probably at Carmel. These were aU centers of reUgious activity; guUds of the prophets seem to have been located here. The traditions of the fathers were thus kept aUve and used, no doubt, for pedagogical purposes. A professional class of singers and enter tainers had arisen who also probably used these mate rials to interest social gatherings. Many of these stories were thus repeated until finally written down and pre served for us in the stories badk of the Books of Judges and Samuel. in Pre-Prophetic Narratives (850-750 B. C.) The stream of the Divine Life flowing through the soul of the Hebrew people is now gaining volume and power. We have traced the poetic fragments that are back of the earUer Books of the Hexateuch and the later beginnings of Uterature deposited by this stream down to 850 B. C. It is impossible to give definite dates with certainty. Indeed, nothing more is necessary than to catch the general Uterary movement in its advancing pre-prophetic narratives 9 stages. We have caught gUmpses of the prophetic spirit voiced in the Ufe of Samuel and those that came after him. We now come upon the Titanic character EUjah (I. Kgs. 17 f.), (875-850), and his successor, EUsha (L Kgs. 19:19 f.), (850-800). It is safe to say that the stories of their careers were probably written down within fifty years after those careers were dosed. They are splendid examples of the short story so popular in the earUer period. Whatever detailed historical value may be attached to them, this much is beyond question, that they show the impression made by these moral giants upon the people of their day. EUjah was caUed out by the threatened danger of merging Yahwehism into BaaUsm, resulting in a reUgious Syncretism. EUjah faced Ahab and the Prophets of Baal with the demand for definite choice in reUgion. It had been supposed that the god was a member of the tribe and that he could not, therefore, aUenate the tribe, nor was it necessary that he should be chosen. This was an ad vance of dedded value. He faced this king again in Naboth's vineyard, presenting the daims of right against might, of the masses against the classes. It was nothing new for a king to confiscate the property of his people, but it was new for him to be denounced for it by a representative of the people. This impression of growing moral enthusiasm is destined to play an im portant r61e during the centuries to follow. EUsha was in every respect the opposite of his master and predeces sor. It was his mission to complete the work of EUjah. These men were in a high sense the consdence of their era. The story of EUsha was probably written down considerably later than that of EUjah. They both are presented as Uving in a realm of marvels. Another deposit of this spiritual movement belonging to the century 850-750, is the great Judean narrative embodied in tiie Hexateuch. An inteUigent reader with IO THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY open eyes cannot faU to detect a sudden change in passing from Gen. I:i-24a to 2:4b-4:26. The second section repeats the story of creation in a different order, in a different Uterary style, suggesting a different back ground and a different drde of ideas, as weU as a different phraseology. In the first story, there is a superabund ance of water; in the second, drouth prevaUs untU a mist went up from the earth; in the first story man and woman are created apparently equal; in the second, woman is made of a rib taken from man's side, evincing thus a conception of her dependence upon him as con trasted with the idea of equaUty. In the first section, God creates by speaking; in the second. He fashions man's body with His hands and breathes into him the breath of Ufe; in the first, the style is "ornate, meas ured, predse, and particular phrases frequently recur;" it is digmfied and smells somewhat of the lamp; in the second, it is free, simple, and naive — a few telUng strokes, and the picture stands out in consummate beauty. In the first story, God is invisible. His spirit brooding over the face of the waters; in the second, He is a big man coming down in the cool of the evening to investigate the progress of His new enterprise. He plants, brings, closes up, takes, sets, buUds, etc. He walks around in the garden and lectures the disobedient pair. He makes the serpent hitherto walking on end, to crawl henceforth on its stomach. In the first section. His name is Elohim; in the second, Yahweh Elohim or Yahweh. The background of the first fits Babylon with its flood stories; of the second, Palestine with its drouth. The difference in these two sections reappears time and again, more or less fully, through the Hexa teuch, and, it is now supposed, through Judges, Samuel, and Kings also. There are two explanations of the origin of the name Isaac (17:16-19 and 18:9-15), two accounts of the reason for Jacob's leaving home (27:46-28^ and 27:1-45), PRE-PROPHETIC NARRATIVES II two accounts of the origin of the name Bethel {28^^ and 35"), two of Israel (32^8 and 351"), two accounts of Esau (32^ 33^^ and 36^0. Not only are there dupUcates all through these earUer Books, but the stories often differ in substance. In the first account of the Deluge, for example, it is stated that two of every Uving thing of aU flesh shaU be carried into the Ark (6:19); in the sec ond (7:1-5), seven of a sort are to be taken. The three documents as dissected out by Kent ("The Beginnings of Hebrew History") may be illustrated in the following parallel accounts of the same events: Jacob's Departure to Aram Early Judean (J) Then Esau said to himself. The days of mourning for ray father are near, then will I slay my brother Jacob. But when the words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah, she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him. Behold your brother Esau will avenge himself upon you by killing you. Flee to Laban my brother at Haran, until your brother's anger turn away from you. (Gen. 27:41-28:9) Ephraimitic Prophetic (£) Then Esau hated Ja cob because of the bless ing with which his father had blessed him; and Rebekah knew it, and told Jacob and said. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice and arise, flee to Ldban and remain with him a short time until your brother's wrath turn away from you and he forget what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you thence; why should I be bereaved of you both iu one day? Late Priestly (P) So Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. Now when Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram, to take him a wife from thence, and that, as he blessed him, he gave him a charge, saying. You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother, and had gone to Paddan-aram, and when Esau also saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please Isaac his father, then Esau went to Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Ne- baioth, to be bis wife. 12 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY The Great Deliverance Early Judean And when Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites lifted up their eyes and saw the Egyptians mardung after them; and they were exceed ingly E^r^d, and they said to Moses, Was it because there were no graves in Egypt, that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? why have you dealt thus with us, in bringing us forth out of Egypt? Is not this what we told you in Egypt, when we said, "Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyp tians? For it were better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilder ness!" And Moses said to the people. Fear not, stand StiU and you will see the deliverance which Jehovah will accomplish for you to-day; for as surely as you now see the Egyptians, you shall never see them again forever. Jehovah will fight for you, but you are to keep stuI. (Ex. 14:10-15:21) Ephraimite Prophetic Then the Israelites cried out to Jehovah. And Jehovah said to Moses, Wherefore criest thou to me? Lift up thy staff and divide the waters. Late Priestly Narratives Then Jehovah said to Moses, Command the Israelites, that they go forward, and stretch out thy band over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the midst of the sea on dry ground. And then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall go in after them, that I may gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his host, through his chariots and his horsemen, and that the Egyptians may know that I am Jehovah, when I have gained glory for myself through Pharaoh, through bis chariots and through his horsemen. Then the pillar of cloud changed its posi tion from before them and stood behind them. And the doud lighted up tiie night; yet through out the entire night the one army did not come near the other. And Jehovah caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the bed of the sea dry. And it came to pass in the watch before Then the Messenger of God, who went before the camp of Israel con tinuaUy, changed his position and went be hind them, so that he came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was darkness. Then Moses Ufted up his staf and the waters divided and Israel went forward into the midst of the sea, and the Egyptians pursued; but Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the waters were divided, so that the Israelites went into the midst of the sea on the dry grotmd; and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. And the Egyptians went in after them into the midst of the sea, aU Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horse- pre-prophetic NARRATIVES 13 the dawn that Jehovah looked through the pil lar of fire and of cloud upon the host of the Egyptians, and he bound their chariot wheels, so that they proceeded with diflSculty. Then the Egyptians said. Let us flee from before Israel; for Jehovah fighteth for them against the Egyp tians. But tbe sea re turned to its ordinary level toward morning while the Egyptians were flying before it. And Jehovah shook off the Egyptians into the midst of the sea, so that not one of them re mained. Thus Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the power of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. Jehovah threw the host of the Egyptians into confusion, and brought the sea upon them and covered them. And when Israel saw the great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians, the people feared Jehovah, and they beUeved in Jehovah and in his serv ant Moses. men. Then Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out thy hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and their horse men. So Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the waters re turned and covered the chariots, and the horse men, even aU the host of Pharaoh that went in after them into the sea. But the IsraeUtes walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, the waters being a waU to them on their right hand and on their left. Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to Jehovah, using these words: I will sing to Jehovah, for he is greatly exalted; The horse and his rider bath he thrown into the sea. Then Miriam the pro phetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambour ine in her hand; and aU the women went out after her with tambour ines and with dandng. And Miriam sang to them. Sing ye to Jehovah, for he is greatly exalted; The horse and his rider bath he thrown into the sea. 14 the old TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Idolatry and Immorality of the Hebrews Early Judean Now the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab; for they called the people to the sacrifidal feasts of their god, and the people ate and bowed down to their god. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel. And he said to Moses, Take aU the leaders of the people and execute them before the sun that the fierce anger of Je hovah may turn away from Israd. (Num. 22:1-25:1-15) Ephraimite Prophetic Now Israel abode in Shittim. And Israel worshipped the Baal of Peor. And Moses said to the judges of Israd, Let each one slay his men who have worshipped the Baal of Peor. Late Priestly Narratives Then the IsraeUtes journeyed and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond tbe Jordan at Jericho. And, behold, one of the IsraeUtes came and brought to his kins men a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and aU the congregation of the IsraeUtes, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meetmg. And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congrega tion and took a spear in his hand, and went after the man of Israd into the large tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through the body. So the plague was stayed from the Israel ites. And those who died of the plague were twenty-four thousand. Then Moses went up to the top of Pisgah. And Jehovah showed him aU the land, even Gilead as far as Dan, and aU NaphtaU and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and aU the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean, and the South Country, and the Plain of the VaUey of Jericho, the dty of palm-trees, as far as Zoar. And Jehovah said Death of Moses (Dt. 34) So Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab. And he buried him in the ravine of the land of Moab over against Beth- Peor; but to this day no man knows of his burial- place. And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel Uke Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face, as regards aU the signs and the wonders which Jehovah Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, which fronts Jericho and died there according to the command of Jehovah. And Moses was a hun dred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, ndther had his natural force abated. And the Israel ites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; so the days PRE-PROPHETIC NARRATIVES 15 to him. This is the land which I promised with an oath to Abra ham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'I wiU give it to thy descendants;' I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. sent him to do in Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to aU his land, and as regards aU the deeds of power and all the great terror, which Moses wrought in the sight of aU Israel. of weeping in the mourn ing for Moses were ended. And Joshua the son of Nun was fiUed with the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the Is raeUtes hearkened to him and did as Jehovah commanded Moses. Passage over the Jordan (Josh. 3:2-5:1) Later Judean Then Joshua rose up early in the morning and he and aU the IsraeUtes came to the Jordan and spent the night there before they passed over. And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify your selves, for to-morrow Jehovah wiU do wonder ful things among you. Joshua also said to the IsraeUtes, Come hither and hear the words of Jehovah your God. Then Joshua seiid. By this you shall know tha.t a living God is among you, and that he wiU certainly drive out from before you, the Canaan- ites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, tbe Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebu- sites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into the Jordan. Aid it shaU come to pass when the soles of the feet of the priests that bear tbe ark of Jehovah the Lord of aU the earth shaU rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jor- Early Ephraimite Prophetic Then they removed from Shittim. Now after three days the ofScers went through the midst of the camp, and commanded the people, saying. When you see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it. Yet there shaU be a space between you and it of about two thousand cubits. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by whidi you must go; for you have never passed this way bdore. Also take twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe. And Joshua said to the priests, Take up the ark of the cove nant and pass over be fore tbe people. Late Priestly Narratives Then Jehovah said to Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that I will be with thee as I was with Moses, And thou shalt command the priests who bear tbe ark of the covenant, saying. When you come to the brink of the waters of Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. And the waters that come down from above shaU stand stiU. And it came to pass when the people re- Therefore when the feet of the priests who i6 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY dan shaU be cut off and they shaU rise in a heap. And so when those who were carrying the ark came to the Jordan — the Jordan ovei^ows its banks aU the time of harvest — ^its waters rose up in a heap, a great way off at Adam, the dty that is beside Zarethan, and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabab, the Salt Sea, were whoUy cut off. And the people stood opposite Jericho. moved from their tents to pass over the Jordan, the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant being before the people, that Jehovah dried up the waters of the Jordan, whUe all Israel passed over on dry ground, until the whole narion had completed the crossing of the Jordan. were carrying the ark dipped in the brink of the water, the waters which came down from above stood stiU. And the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of Jehovah stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jor dan. And it came to pass, when the whole nation had completed the cross ing of the Jordan, that Jehovah said to Joshua, Command them saying, "Take hence from the midst of the Jordan (out of the place where the priests' feet stood), twelve stones, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the camping-place, whereyou shaU pass the night, that this may be a sign among you, that, when your chUdren aik, in time to come, 'Wlat do you mean by these stones?' then you shaU say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.'" So they took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as Jehovah said to Joshua, according to the num ber of the tribes of the IsraeUtes, and they Then Joshua caUed the twelve men whom he had appointed of the IsraeUtes, a man from each tribe, and Joshua said to them. Pass over before the ark of Jehovah your God into the midst of the Jordan, and let every man of you Uft a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Is raelites; and these stones shall be for a memorial to the IsraeUtes forever. And the IsraeUtes did as Joshua commanded. And those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. And said to the IsraeUtes, When your cluldren shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying "What do, these stones mean?" then you shall instruct your children, saying, "On dry ground Israel came over this Jordan. For Jehovah your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you imtU you had passed over, as Jehovah your Then Joshua set up twdve stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day. The priests who carried the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan, until every thing was finished that Jehovah com manded Joshua to speak to the people according to aU that Moses com manded Joshua. And the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half- tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed be fore the Israelites, as Moses commanded them about forty thousand ready armed for war passed over before Jeho vah to battle, to the plains of Jericho. On that day Jehovah mag nified Joshua in the sight of aU Israd; and they feared bi'Ti as they feared Moses, aU the days of his Ufe. And Jehovah said to Joshua, Command the priests who carry the ark of the law, that they come up PRE-PROPHETIC NARRATIVES 17 carried them over with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there. Then the people passed over quickly. And it came to pass when aU the people had finished the passage, that the ark of Jehovah passed over and the priests, in the pres ence of the people. And when the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of Je hovah came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were Ufted up on the dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their pla.ce and went over all its banks as before. God did to the Red Sea which he dried up from before us, until we had passed over, that aU the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of Jehovah is mighty and that you may fear Je hovah your God for ever." Now when all the kings of the Amorites, who were to the west of the Jordan and aU the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how that Jehovah had dried up the waters of the Jordan from be fore the IsraeUtes, until they were passed over, they lost heart, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the IsraeUtes. out of the Jordan. So the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in GUgal, on the east side of Jericho. Gideon's Victory (Judges 7:8-22, 8:11-17) Early Judean And Gideon went up by the caravan road east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the host as it lay without fear of attadk. And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and gave them empty jars with torches within the jars. And he said. Look at me and do as I do, and say, 'For Jehovah and Gideon.' So Gideon and the hundred men with him came to the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when it had just been set, and broke in pieces the jars in their hands. And the three companies broke their jars and took the torches in their left 9:1-17, 28-29, 10:1-7, 20, 22-23, 31-32, 11:10-27, 31-32, i2:4b-5, 13:6, iib-i2a, i6:ia, 3, 15-16C, 17, 19-29, 2i:ib, 2b-5c, 23, 25:7-iia, 12-17, 19-20, 26b, 26:34-35, 27:46-28:9:29:24, 29, 31:18b, 33:18a, 34:i-2a, 4, 6, 8-10, 13-18, 20-24, 25 (partiy), 27-29, 35:9-13, iS, 22b-29c, 36, 37:i-2a, 4i:46,.-46:6-27, 47-5-6a (LXX), 7-11, 27b-28, 48:3-6, 7? 49:1a, 28b-33, 50:12-13. "Exodus 1:1-5, 7, 13-14, 2:23b-25, 6:2-7, 13, i9-2oa, 2ib-22, 8:5-7, i5b-i9, 9:8-12, 11:9-10, 12:1-20, 28, 37a, 40-41, 43-51, 13:1-2, 20, 14:1-4, 8-9, 15-18, 2ia, 21C-23, 26-27a, 28a, 29, 16:1-3, 6-24, 31-36 17:1a, i9:i-2a, 24:i5-i8a, 25:1-31, i8a, 34:29-35, c. 35-40. "Leviticus c. 1-16 (c. 17-26), c. 27. "Numbers 1:1-10, 28, i3:i-i7a, 21, 25-26a (To Paran) 32a, 14:1-2, 5-7, 10, 26-30, 34-38, c. 15, i6:ia, 2b-7a (7b-ii), (16-17), 18-24, 27a, 32b, 35, (36-40), 41-50C, 17-19, 2o:ia (to month) 2, 3b-4, 6-13, 22-29, 21:4a (to Hor), lo-ii, 22:1, 25:6-i8c, 26-31, 32:18-19, 28-3 2C, 33-36. "Deuteronomy 1:3, 32; 48-52, 34:ia (largely) 5b, 7-9- "Joshua 4:13, 19, 5:10-12, 7:i-9:i5b, 17-21, 13: 15-32, 14:1-5, 15:1-13, 20-44, (45-47), 48-62, 164-8, 17:1a, 3-4, 7, 9a, 9C-ioa, 18:1, 11-28, 19: 1-8, 10-46, 48, 128 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY 51, 20:1-3 (except "and unawares") 6a (to judgment) 7-9 {cf. LXX), 21:1-42 (22:9-34)," ("Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, Driver. ") One cannot follow the development of these Codes to their culmination in the Priests' Code without realizing afresh several important truths. First of aU, Moses far back in the tradition stamped his impress as a lawgiver upon the people so strongly that everything of a legal nature is understood as coming from him. In all essen tial respects this is tme, for while we may not know with certainty many of the detaUs of his actual achievements, we do know that he gave character to the sodal and re Ugious ideal that was to dominate Israel through aU the centuries. His was a creative personaUty of tremen dous power. It matters Uttle to us how many of these minute laws were actually given by him, for it is the spirit rather than the letter with which we are concerned. A second impression is that revelation is progressive. Beginning with a race of nomads Uving in pastoral simpUcity, God carried them forward through a period of agriculture into one of commerce and industry with its sodal and economic compUcations, giving them at each stage in the ongoing sudi tmths as they could use untU, passing to a higher state, they left the old behind. He answered their needs as those needs arose. That same process is going on throughout the earth today. Standards that worked before the war will not work in the reconstmcted sodal order. We must learn to apply old tmths to new uses, searching for new tmths to meet old demands. God is living stUl; so are His people. A third impression one cannot escape in all this legal evolution is the oneness of Ufe itself. The priest saw the reUgious bearing of every detaU in personal and sodal experience. Everything was reUgious; mere etiquette did not exist. The breach of good manners was immoral. There is coming to us now in a new sense the reaUty of THE CODES 129 the spirit as the one determining factor in life. What affects the spirit at one point affects it at every point. AU our laws have in the last analysis their reUgious bearing. We must realize God in control of aU things. Yet again, one cannot fail to see how utterly futile is the effort to regulate Ufe by law. Tmth is greater than any statement of it; Ufe than any description of conduct. No mles can be made that wUl cover every item. Essen tials wUl be omitted and nonessentials required. And mles that might cover one period would be antiquated in the next — old wine skins are troublesome to every gener ation. The Bible is not a law book but a Ufe book. And finaUy we are here reminded that change of faith is not loss of faith. The old forms and ceremonies we have been discussing have aU passed away never to re turn, but the spirit out of which they came, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, is continuaUy making new practical in junctions, meeting and mastering new issues, showing up vaster and vaster areas of tmth, and love and power. "I say that man was made to grow, not stop; That help he needed once, and needs no more. Having grovm but an inch by, is withdrawn: For he hath new deeds, and new helps to these. This imports solely, man should mount on each New height in view; the help whereby he mounts. The ladder rung his foot has left may faU, Since all things suffer change save God the tmth. Man apprehends him newly at each stage Whereat earth's ladder drops, its service done; And nothing shaU prove twice what once was proved. " 130 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY III THE FINAL EDITING OF THE HEXATEUCH: Tece Religion of a Book (440-400 B. C.) We have seen that the Hexateuch passed through a half dozen stages. The first was the writing of the oldest source (J) in the south by a prophet or series of prophets, about the time of EUjah and EUsha (850 B. C). It is so caUed because it alone has the divine name Jehovah (Yahweh) up to Exodus 3 :i4. It is a graphic document of rare Uterary power. The second stage was the writ ing of E in the north by another prophet or series of prophets, about the time .Amos appeared (750 B. C). It is so named because of its preference for Elohim up to Exodus 3:15. It is much more meager than J. It is also narrower, not connecting the history of Israel with that of the world. Each of the two has its own pecuUar phraseology, drde of ideas and interests, and Uterary characteristics, the older being "the story teUer and dramatist of the Old Testament." The third stage in the compUation of the Hexateuch is the combination of these into one consecutive whole (650 B. C), giving us JE. The fourth stage was the combination of JE with D, JED (550 B. C). This consisted of the incorpora tion of the Deuteronomic Code together with editorial revisions, additions to, and interpretations of, the history from the standpoint of this Code. The fifth stage in the development of the Hexateuch was the preparation of the Priestiy document (P) during the exUe (500 B. C.) by a school of Priests who, Uke the prophets, were shap ing the Uterary materials of Israel into a form expressive of their viewpoint. The narrative of Genesis is cast into a carefuUy wrought out framework, indicated by the recurring formula, "These are the generations of." Closer THE FINAL EDITING OF THE HEXATEUCH 13I inspection reveals the fact that along with this frame work there are also materials grouped according to a well-defined plan. These materials are uniform in char acter. Taken together they make a document which runs not only through Genesis but also to the end of the Hexateuch, a document that can easUy be dissected from the rest of the materials and is at once recognized as a unified whole. It is not a popular story but a bare outUne of history beginning with the creation. It is marked by a strong interest in minute detaUs. The drcumstances of an important event are given often at painful lengths. Everything is given from the stand point of the priest and the institutions of the IsraeUtish theocracy. Careful attention is given to chronology and dates. The days of creation, the age of the patriarchs, the exact time of the rise and fall of the waters of the flood, the length of a period, the dates of events in the wilderness are aU set down. Genealogies are espedaUy recorded. "The history advanced along a weU-defined Une, marked by a gradually diminishing length of human Ufe by the revelation of God under three distinct names, Elohim, El Shaddai (Gen. 17:1), and Jehovah (Ex. 16:3), the blessings of Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:28-30; 9:26) each with its characteristic conditions, keeping the covenant with Abraham, Israel with its spedal sign, the rainbow, the right of drcumdsion and the Sabbath (Gen. 9:12 f.; 17:11; Ex. 31:13)." The description of the tabemade with its furnishings and ceremonials is such as an architect might draw. Here as everywhere a distinct effort is made to give a concrete picture. The movements of Israel are aU in perfect order by tribes and famiUes. Great care is taken to give aU possible statistics. The description of the ark is minute. Extended lists of various kinds are numer ous. No effort seems to have been spared to gather together aU the facts about any subject in hand, but none was taken to clothe the dry bones with flesh and 132 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY blood. The author sets down his detaUs without enter ing into the emotional interests involved. Things of beautiful human import, such as the experiences of the patriarchs, connected with altars, wells, sacred trees and stones so picturesquely given in J and E, are en tirely lacking here. He does not feel the dramatic side of life and is therefore in no sense a real artist like J or E. One has only to read together the first and second chapters of Genesis to appredate the difference. The first smeUs of the lamp, moves in a dignified reahn, represents God as speaking from afar, as it were, with out locating Him, and his words as actuating in crea tion. WhUe in the second God is a big man, doing things like a man, with the emotions and interests of a man. We seem to see His form as He comes into close touch with His creatures and deals with them face to face. In the first He is hardly personal at aU; in the second intensely so. In the first he is transcendent; in the second intimate. These same characteristics of God appear throughout this stratum of the Hexateuch. No visions or dreams are given; no angels mingle with men; no description appears of God; no representation of his assuming a personal form. His revelations consist of symboUc speaking as a spirit would speak. P's outlook is narrow. UnUke the other documents, the promises of Yahweh are concerned solely with the chosen people and do not include other nations. The covenant of Yahweh is with his own alone. Even they do not worship Him untU the right sort of a place is provided and the right persons appointed to direct the worship. The first sacrifice recorded is that of Aaron and his sons (Lev. 8). There are no geographical details. Primitive humanity was vegetarian, no animal fat being permitted until after the flood and then with the proviso that the blood be not eaten. The only pre-Mosaic ceremonial institution is the Sabbath, observed by Gkid at the end of the week of creation, and drcumdsion. P never touches the deeper THE FINAL EDITING OF THE HEXATEUCH I33 problems of theology "such as the justice of the divine government of the world, the introduction of sin and evU, the insufficiency of aU human righteousness.": There is no Messianic outiook. The Uterary style of P is superficial "stereotyped, measured and prosaic." Stated formulae, methodical and predse descriptions, witn repetition for emphasis, are of frequent occurrence. The author, or possibly authors, are wooden, not unlike Ezekiel in lack of Uterary passion. The pre-exiUc period shows no sign of this legislation being in operation and it is not presupposed by Deuter onomy. The differences between P and Deuteronomy put P later. "Thus (a) in Dt. the centralization of worship at one sanctuary is enjoined, it is insisted on with much em phasis as an end aimed at, but not yet realized: in P it is presupposed as already existing, (b) In Dt. any mem ber of the tribe of Levi possesses the right to exerdse priestiy functions, contingent only upon his residence at the Central Sanctuary: in P this right is strictiy limited to the descendants of Aaron, (c) In Dt. the members of the tribe of Levi are commended to the charity of the IsraeUtes generally, and only share the tithe, at a sacrificial feast, in company with indigent persons: in P definite provision is made for their maintenance (the 48 dties, with their 'suburbs'), and the tithes are for maUy assigned to the tribe as a specific due; simUarly, whUe in Dt. firstUngs are to be consumed at sacrificial feasts, in which the Levite is only to have his share among others, in P they are reserved solely and expUcitiy for the priests. In each the stricter limitation is on the side of tiie P. (d) The entire system of feasts and sacri fices is much more complex and predsely defined in P than in Dt. Tme, the plan of Dt. would not naturaUy indude an enumeration of minute detaUs; but the sUence of Dt. is nevertheless sigmficant; and the impression which a reader derives from Dt. is that the Uturgical 134 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY institutions under which the authors Uved were of a simpler character than those prescribed in P. " The ritual legislation of J E is simpler than that of P and is in harmony with the practices during the period of the Judges and early kings. Deuteronomy Ues between J E and P in the development of its legislation and P shows the influence of Ezekiel, whose Utopia (40 to 48) put a strong impress upon late exUic and post- exiUc life. The religious conceptions of P suggest the latter part of the period of captivity, subsequent to Ezekiel. The legislation of the pre-exiUc period is here carried forward and expanded, elaborated, added to, reshaped and adapted to use in post-exilic times by the priests who were then in supreme authority. The sixth and last stage in the compilation of the Hexateuch was the fitting of J E D into the framework of P, resulting in J E D P as tiie final formula represent ing its growtii. This book took its place as the basis of Ufe in Israel upon the reorganization under Ezra and Nehemiah and holds stiU among orthodox Jews as final authority in reUgion. It came to be so severely binding in post- exiUc Judaism, that even Yahweh Himself had to keep it. It was in the strictest sense a rule of faith and practice. Every detaU of it therefore had to be minutely studied and the duties it required carefuUy defined. This resulted in the compUcated Ufeless pharisaism prevalent in the time of Jesus. The letter kUleth. It always does. There are those now, even in Protestant ism, who, like the scribes of old, insist upon binding heavy burdens grevious to be borne and la37ing them on men's shoulders. They insist upon what they caU the Uteral interpretation of the Bible. They do not seem to realize that they are seeking to enforce ideas Christ came to explode. The Bible cannot survive as a fixed rule of faith and practice for which it was never in tended. It is rather the world's greatest book of reU- genesis 135 gious experience on whose pages, inspired because inspiring, we meet God face to face and find rest unto our souls. IV GENESIS: In the Beginning — God (440-400 B. C.) "And what is that I hunger for but God? My God, my God, let me for once look on Thee As though naught else existed, we alone! And as creation cmmbles, my soul's spark Expands till I can say, — ^Even from myself — I need Thee and I feel Thee and I love Thee. " The Book of Genesis begins with the creation of the world and ends "in a coffin in Egypt. " The aim of the book is to describe in the first part (i-n) the prepara tion of the universe for man, give us the creation and early history, explain the presence of evil in the world, sketch the beginnings of civilization with their attendant evUs, account for the existence of separate nations and determine Israel's position among them; in the second part (12 to 50), the history of Israel's ancestors, the patriarchs, is given. As has already been said, the materials are set in a priestly framework, indicated by the recurring formula, "These are the generations of." This was done after the promulgation of the Law by Ezra, probably about 444 to 400 B.C. From that time on we have the book in substantially its present form. In the interpretation of ancient Uterature, there are two questions to be asked — ^first, what the author meant to say to his audience, secondly, what his words mean to us. In asking the first of these questions of the book of Genesis, we come at once upon the relation of the Bible to science, for there can be no doubt that the first chapters of Genesis undertake to answer with naive simplicity questions primitive peoples had to face — how 136 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY the universe, induding man and animals, came into existence; why women are subject to men; why they bear children in pain; why snakes crawl; how sin came into the world; how people came to wear clothes; why people suffer and die; why thorns and thistles that make farming so difficult — ^indeed why hard work at aU; what was the origin of races and languages, etc-, etc. The answers given to these and many like questions in Genesis conflict directly with our modem scientific con ceptions. We have now abandoned the effort to har monize the two, for to do so is to juggle with plain facts. The writers of these stories meant to say just what their simple words indicate and no amount of explaining away can make them mean anything else, so that we must take Genesis upon its face value. When we come to answer the second question, what these wonderful stories mean to us, it is easy to find the way out of our difficulty, for a narrative may be histori cally inaccurate yet psychologically tme. I once knew a lawyer, who after twenty childless years had a son bom to him. It was said that the next morning, when he walked down the street of his Uttle town, a calf was on the sidewalk, and he stroked it gently, saying, " Get out of the way for father." He may not have gone down town the next morning, or if he did, there may have been no calf on the sidewalk; but the story iUustrates, never theless, the exact state of his feelings. It may be his- toricaUy false but it is psychologically tme. AU that is told of the prodigal son may never have taken place in one man but it is tme nevertheless. Even if it could be proved which, of course, can never be done, that the wonderful things told in Genesis did not happen or happened in ways entirely different from those described, yet the great spiritual reaUties set forth hold good in every age of the world. It is in these that our interest lies. Whether we have here ancient tradi tions, or foUi lore or even myths and legends or the work GENESIS 137 of creative artists, we have at aU events a body of truth which we can never get away from. We may not think of God as creating a completed, fixed, universe instanter by a series of words in the long ago, but we see Him before our eyes in the timeless proc ess of creating a fluid universe in which nothing is fixed, nothing final yet, and in which all things are in the grip of universal struggle out of an infinite past into an infi nite future; and we feel Him involved at the heart of the stmggle with a far-reaching purpose to which the whole creation moves. In the beginning — God; at the end and at every point between — God. Out of this exhaustless tmth came the great realities that underUe Genesis and all the rest. We may not think of God as creating man instantly out of clay and breathing into his nostrils on the spot the breath of life, but we can see Him evolving this child of his love out of lower stages into higher and yet higher, in a tireless effort finally to perfect him in His own image. In either case it is God that creates. The method is immaterial. Nor does the Bible anywhere give the method. AU that Science can say only fiUs in what Scripture has left unsaid. We may not think of a snake bringing sin into the world by sinister suggestion, but we can think of man coming in his upward struggle to a point at which he passes from instinct to self-consdousness and to the consciousness of higher spiritual laws and then falUng before the first temptation and breaking them, for the tragedy of Eden is repeated in every human soul. We may not think of all our ruin and pain and the anguish in which they involve God also as the technical penalty of His failure with the first perfect pair; but we can think of them as a part of the birth pangs by which He is bringing forth the man that is to be. We may not think of the dangers of immortaUty being so great that God put Adam and Eve out of the Garden 138 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OP TODAY to prevent their eating of the tree of life and Uving for ever; but we can realize the infinite risk of being aUve and the infinite perU of endlessness. We may not think of God as deaUng with us after the manner of a man and directing mechanically the course of history, but we can think of Him as sharing our Uves while we share His and directing from within by spiritual processes the movements of men and nations. So the great spiritual reaUties of Genesis are stiU with us though their forms may be changed. It is a marvelous book of Ufe, surpassingly full of human interest and vital power. It appears even greater when we compare it with the sacred books of Babylon which cover in part the same field and use the same materials. The creation myth in other lands becomes here the beautiful story of creation by one God. The vulgar legends of gods mingling with women is here smoothed out into a story of men of prowess in Hebrew folk lore. In this way materials common to aU the Semites are purified and made to carry a high spiritual message which stands alone among all andent bibles. V EXODUS, LEVITICUS and NUMBERS (440-400): An Ancient Labor Movement. The book of Exodus teUs the story of the first great Hebrew labor movement. It continues the history from the closing of Genesis to the erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Together with Leviticus and Num bers, it gives the experience of Israel in the wUdemess and the laws represented as revealed to Moses there. The account is continued in Joshua to the settling in Canaan, the renewal of the covenant and the death of the great leader. The prophetic dement in J E and D is set in the priestiy frame. In these books we come upon other dasses of diffi- exodus, LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 139 culties, the first of which is connected with the story of the miracles, the wonders, the marveUous experiences of these nomads. Moses was a master magician, able to command with his magic wand the forces of nature like some mystic giant in fairy land. We must remember that these stories were told by sire to son, in Bedouin tents, by pubUc entertainers in sodal gatherings and by teachers in reUgious meetings, for 400 years before they were written down. We can imagine what an idealizing process must have gone on and how a halo was put around many cold facts. This would easUy account for the fairy-like character of many of these stories. To read them as if they were exact bloodless annals of bare facts is murder. To feel their charm and come under their power requires that we give play to vivid imagination and go with the authors into wonderland. The second difficulty we encounter here is moral. The IsraeUtes are ordered to despoU the Egyptians under pretext of borrowing. Brutal crimes are committed not only with Yahweh's approval but by His command. Wars of extermination are waged by divine order. The helpless and the hapless are butchered in the name of Yahweh. Most of the cmelties said to have been practiced during the world war can easily be dupUcated from this period. What shaU we say of aU this? Upon the theory of a Bible verbaUy inspired and equally binding in the ethical precepts of aU its parts, there is no answer. But this is not the claim the Bible makes for itself nor is it the claim that the modem wing of the church makes for it. It is a book of Ufe, the record of the experiences of men in God's deaUng with them and in thdr dealings with each other. This record shows how God took a primitive people, limited in their inteUectual outiook, in their ethical ideals, in their reUgious concep tions, limited in their understanding of Him,' and by slow degrees brought them out of their cmdities and I40 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY incapadties into a people, a nudeus of whom were prepared in the fulness of tine to receive His son. The Old Testament as a Source Book for ReUgious Education is only now beginning to be appredated. Its stories are unequaled for this purpose. The careful grading of aU this material brings to our hands exactiy what we need for every epoch of life from infancy up to maturity. The interests of every world through which the chUd passes on the way to himself are here ade quately provided for. But the wrong use of these materials is very dangerous. We may develop attitudes and antagonisms we can never cure. The chUd is far more intelUgent and far more sensitive to ethical prin dples than many of us suppose. We can do violence to neither the reason nor the consdence of our Uttie ones without paying an awful penalty. Here is the perU of untrained Sunday School teachers, the perU also of devout parents, who forget that their own theology is leagues away from that the child can either understand or accept. Better too Uttie reUgion, perhaps, than too much in the overwhelming task of diUd nurture, unless that reUgion is tempered with the keenest appredation of the intimacies of the chUd's world. The account of Moses, for example, may be so told as to create distmst of the whole Bible. Things were done under the claim of divine command that cannot be defended. Even though the people upon whom they practiced cmelty might have deserved punishment, tiiey could not, be cause of that fact, claim authority to inffict it any more than Germany could have insisted upon marching through Belgium because of the rubber atrodties in the Congo. The ancient Hebrews, not unlike ourselves, often understood God to order what they wanted to do and what the standards of thdr times approved. What ever does not square with the Sermon on the Mount, cannot be set down as God's will. There is much to be forgiven the chosen people. Remembering all the limita- EXODUS, LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 14I tions and pecuUarities of that day, the story of Moses, the great magidan, with his wonder-working wand, and his marvelous efforts as a sodal redeemer, can be so told as to charm old and young alike into the higher loyalties. These books come closer to us, if read as a record of a human stmggle not unUke that now going on. The labor world is coming to self-consciousness and things hoary with age are in danger of being overturned. The same elements that entered into the Exodus are present to day. In the first place, there was the autocracy of control in industry. One man held the weU-being of two milUons, if the figures are to be tmsted, in the pahn of his hand. From his wiU there was no appeal. This system kept the under class down. There was no outiook for them or for their children. They would go on forever, so far as they could see, in practical slavery to masters whose power was firmly entrenched. The people, for the most part, accepted with fataUstic submission the sodal order which condemned them to perpetual slavery. They did not suppose that even God had anything better for them. And why should they not be content? They got bread and clothes, and they would not know how to use much more. KilUng a few children did not matter, at least to their masters. They were foreigners too — "Sheenies" indeed. WhUe they were not allowed the right of pub Uc assembly and free speech, they could worship alone in a comer, and was that not enough? Most of them were content because no better day was in sight. At last two meddlesome agitators appeared among them. This, of course, was an impertinence to be resented by those on top. Why should these people be disturbed? They were not rebelling against conditions. They were satisfied, and had not invited outside inter ference. The agitators stirred up trouble by suggest ing that these slaves were God's people. There was 142 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY for them a promised land, where they could estabUsh a better social order, in which they could have freedom, shorter hours, better Uving and working conditions, and adequate share in the products of thdr toU. They could there enjoy as human beings the right to Ufe, Uberty, and the pursuit of happiness. AU this was told to a few of the leaders, and by propaganda the good news was soon spread. The people began to awake. They would join the movement. When the organization was suffidentiy advanced, the agitators requested for the people that they be aUowed to go into the wUdemess for a few days to worship. But Pharaoh would not even confer long with these walking delegates. They were not in his employ. They were radicals "boring in" from the outside. He read them a lectiure as interloping trouble makers and dis missed them. These slaves did not know how to use their leisure. They must be given more to do to keep them out of mischief. The "Bosses" were ordered to speed up the work by adding to the required tasks. There was no thought of Pharaoh's responsibiUty fbr their incapac ity for freedom or of his duty to teach them how to play. He did not reaUze that if long hours destroy the play instinct, the cure is not longer hours, but shorter, and better training. Then the people, at the first pinch of the fight, were ready to give up. They sent a committee to their master, and being answered with tighter terms, they turned against the agitators. "They hearkened not unto Moses, for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage." And Moses and Aaron lost heart. The people could not be held in line. Why go to Pharaoh again? But after a bitter battle with the discouragement of ingratitude, stupidity and disloyalty, these heroic leaders renewed their fight to save the peo ple in spite of themselves. They encountered the EXODUS, LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 1 43 arrogance of entrenched power and were trifled with, now by cold refusal, now by having the door shut in their faces, now by smooth promises made only to be broken, now by proposed compromise — "Only Ye shall not go very far away" — "Only let your herds be Stayed.'" At last Autocracy found itself helpless and surrendered to the inevitable. Then, raUying, it made a last dash to regain itself by force, upon which it always relies, — only to go down imder the blow of an invisible Power it could ndther understand nor resist. Then the people had their day. But they were as unscmpulous as their masters had been. By "direct action" they despoUed the Egjqjtians. They had created the wealth invested in luxuries, and God had given it to them! Under the first provocation, they discarded their leaders and took the reins in thdr own hands. They even made a reUgion to suit themselves. They had seen organized force go to pieces before their very eyes, yet failed to get their lesson. They did not have the courage to wait. God was so slow. The big stick gets quicker results than the big heart; therefore the big stick. Why not go badk to Egypt? "Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians," they had begged at the first. Nobody had ever seen the promised land. Ideals would not pay grocery bUls. Flesh pots were better than faith. Even if tiieir sufferings might save those who were to come after, the future could take care of itself. Suffident unto the day was the evil thereof. It was a trying ordeal for both parties. The Egyp tians and the IsraeUties had to learn to get on under untried conditions. They both had to run the infinite risk of being aUve in a new world. Ages waited upon their faithfulness. Either side could forget themselves into immortaUty or forfeit their place to worthier successors. This much was sure: God was on the human side of tilings. Between Autocracy and the People, then 144 TECE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY as now. He was with the people. Unsodalized power was doomed. VI EZRA, NEHEMIAH and CHRONICLES (300-250 B. C.): The Worth of Institutional Religion. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles were originally one, forming a comprehensive history of the Jews from Adam to the end of the Persian period. Ezra-Nehemiah is a composite work containing sources from different periods. The decree of Cyms in the first chapter, if original, is the oldest stratum, dating back to 538 B. C. The letters in the fourth chapter are supposed to belong to the reign of Artaxerxes (464-444 B.C.). The date of the memoirs of Nehemiah was probably 445- 432 B. C. They are in the first person and seem to have been written by Nehemiah for the author's own eye. In chapters 7 to 9, we have the memoirs of Ezra (458-f. B. C). There are three sections of the book of Ezra written in Aramaic — the correspondence with Arta xerxes (4:7-24a); the history of the rebuUding of the Temple (4:24b--6:i8) the edict of Artaxerxes, authoriz ing Ezra's mission (7:12-26). This forms a practicaUy continuous section (4:7-7:26) which may have been a part of an Aramaic history of this period consisting largely of offidal documents (45c B. C). These dates are placed decidedly later by some scholars. The materials for understanding the history of this period are very meager. There is Uttie of value for 200 years (538-332 B. C). Even the order of the coming of Ezra and Nehemiah has been a question. It seems now to be felt that Ezra came after Nehemiah. The books of Chronicles are supposed to have come from the same hand that wrote Ezra and Nehemiah, for the reason that the end of Chronides and the beginning of Ezra EZRA, NEHEMIAH AND CHRONICLES I45 are the same and both are of the same general char acter. They show particular fondness for genealogies and other Usts of famiUes and persons, for detaUed description of spedal reUgious celebrations, and pay special attention to the priests, the Levites, the musi cians, the singers and the gate keepers, the last bdng mentioned nowhere else in the Old Testament. The same method prevails throughout; so do the same linguistic pecuUarities which everywhere indicate dose kinship to the Priests' Code. The evidence seems to point to about 3oc^-25o B. C. as the date of the com- pUing of these books. The history as recorded in Judges, Samuel and Kings is not such as to please the priest. It does not show an imbroken line back to Moses with a continuous picture of priestly ritual in force. The Chronicler therefore rewrote the history to remedy this defect. He intro duced a great deal of new material, particularly about the Temple and its ministry and reUgious celebrations. He was concerned also to interpret Israel's Ufe as that of a church under divine guidance and control. He sought to reinforce the old doctrine that piety guarantees prosperity and wickedness brings adversity. The bad points in the characters of the old heroes such as David and Solomon were passed over or toned down, and in many cases the good points exaggerated. The northern kingdom is looked upon as apostate. Otherwise unknown characters, particularly seers and prophets, are brought in to emphasize tiie author's philosophy of history. We have here therefore a tend ency writing presenting a distorted picture in the interest of post-exiUc institutions and reflecting the notions of that period. There are two extremes from which people are today viewing institutional reUgion. One denies its value and pleads for the rights of the individual as against the group. Advocates of this view are unwilling to identify 146 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY themselves with the supposed customs and dogmas of the church. Not a few of these misunderstand what these customs and dogmas are. They do not appredate the fact that these have changed with the changing world and that formulae which meant one thing a quar ter of a century ago may mean an entirely different thing today. Those on the outside of the church do not seem to know that the progressives are insisting upon making our religious conceptions square with modern culture and are worthy of aU possible help from those who desire to see organized reUgion an abiding vital force in the world. Many of them are devout Christian people and belong logically within the fold, for it is somehow tme that great ideas and experiences in order to survive must get themselves institutionalized and the cumulative power of combined effort is everywhere apparent. "One shall chase a thousand; two shaU put ten thousand to ffight. " Whatever spiritual values one may realize must therefore be connected up with the institutions of reUgion, if they are to be made most effective in rendering service and be able to survive the inevitable changes of history. Those who hold the other extreme view are equaUy in error. They assume that there can be no Christianity outside the church and that the building up of the church is therefore the prime concern of Christians. If that is the task of the twentieth century, then Christian ity wiU have to leave the church to Uve, for it will be necessary to shut out aU manly preachers with prophetic vision and sUence every disturbing note. Peace at any price, prosperity at any cost, the bringing in of members and the attracting and holding of the wealthy — these are matters of first importance. Paul's commission to Timothy wiU have to be read somewhat as foUows: "I charge thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who sbaU judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach a platitudinous EZRA, NEHEMIAH AND CHRONICLES I47 word; be cautious in season and out of season; reprove only the absent and unknown; rebuke only the helpless; exhort with all possible smoothness, and teach only what everybody already beUeves. For the time has come when they wUl not endure the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, wUl heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; and are turning away their ears from the tmth, and turning aside unto fables. Therefore give them fables. But be thou very cautious in all things, shun hardship, dodge vital issues, do the work of a diplomat, fulfill thy ministry of pleasing" (I Tim. 4:1-5). AU this follows if the Chronicler's view of institutional reUgion is to prevaU. Here as everywhere there is a middle course. ReUgion must be institutionalized and the institution Christianized. The prophet must have foremost place, not only in the councils but also in the constructive work of the church. The universe is fluid rather than fixed; a stream rather than a crystal, and not even the hoUest of aU our institutions must be above revision and reconstruction to meet the changing needs of a changing world. The new wine of each epoch calls for new wine skins and wiU continue to caU until the end of time. The conception of the church as an institution for dispensing salvation must now give way to that of an institution for comforting the disconsolate, for rescuing the lost, for educating the child, for christianizing com munity life, for making the sodal ideal of Jesus prevaU, for enthroning God in aU human experience, everywhere in the world. Then, at least five things follow: She must find and face the facts. Insidious propa ganda for selfish ends is now a national menace. The living and the lives of millions are involved and imperUed. The investigation of the steel strike by the Interchurch World Movement should be but the beginning of a Protestant survey in the interest of humanizing not only the superpersonal forces but also all our relationships. 148 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY She must give the facts to the people. Alert and power ful men and women, who see Ufe steadily and see it whole, who are unafraid, provided with adequate money and machinery for getting the facts and the tmth, to the pubUc in right perspective, are the para mount need of the hour. We must have a new defimtion of news. It should be given from the Christian stand point. She must insist unflinchingly upon the Sermon on the Mount as the fundamental Constitution in the new sodal order. She cannot consent to go back with the reactionaries to the old individualism which made reUgion a fire insurance poUcy to keep men out of heU or at best a Ufe insurance poUcy to get them into heaven. Like tlie old prophets we face new frontiers whose chaUenge of the unexplored is our call and our commis sion, where authority is not in the past but in the future, not in the traditions of the fathers but in the ideals of those who are faithful to the heavenly vision. We can no longer be afraid of Jesus. She must herself practice what she preaches. The official mind has a strange facUity for forgetting to be socialized. It is easy for ecclesiastical bodies to pass sodal creeds. It is not always so easy to get ecclesiastics to enforce them, to make the business of the church live up to them. And she must leam to attack heroicaUy sodal causes rather than social symptoms. She must strike at the roots rather than the fruits of evil. It is a good thing to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflUiction; it is a better thing to go after the forces that made them father less and widows. It is a good thing to buUd hospitals and care for those who have been beaten up on the Jericho road; it is far better to clean up the road. Capacity for doing these things requires yet another. The sense of moral proportion is all too rare. A great ecclesiastical body in session whUe nine-tenths of the ESTHER 149 world is at war, quibbling over creeds, mles and mbrics, presents a pitiable spectade. A Pastor chastising an innocent girl for amusement that is under the ban, whUe her father, the Chairman of his Board, is grinding up Uttle chUdren in his mill, overworking tired women, holding down his employees to the lowest wages and longest hours possible, refusing even to treat for better conditions, exacting the highest prices the unsuspecting pubUc wUl stand, and drawing three hundred per cent dividend — ^would you caU that Pastor Christian? When shall we have a proportionate conception of both sin and righteousness? "Woe unto you, scribes and Phar isees, hypocrites! For ye tithe mint and anise and cum min, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faitii." (Matt. 23:23). The church of the mere Priest with his platitudinous piety and his perfunctory performances is an an achronism; the hour has stmck for the Prophet, for Jesus above aU. VII ESTHER: Loyalty to Blood Kinship (250 B. C.) The book of Esther was written probably about 250 B. C. for the purpose of boosting the Feast of Purim by giving an account of its origin. "And he sent letters unto aU the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuems with words of peace and tmth, to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as tiiey had ordained for themselves and for their seed, in the matter of the fastings and their cry. And the commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book" (Esther 9:30-32). The name of God does not appear and it is a non- I50 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY reUgious book. Esther was meant to be read at the annual merry making of Purim where people were expected to carouse until they were unable to distinguish between "blessed be Mordecai" and "Blessed be Haman. " The name of God might be profaned in the midst of such orgies and was therefore omitted. "Alone of aU the books of the Old Testament, he ascribes de Uverance to men instead of God. Fasting is the only reUgious rite that he mentions. " The story in a word is as foUows: Ahasuems, king of Persia, entertains the dignitaries of the empire. Vashti the queen has a banquet for the women. The king orders her to show herseU to his guests but she refuses, and lest her example should have a bad influence upon the wives of the empire, she is deposed and the wives ever3rwhere ordered to obey their husbands. Missing Vashti, upon advice, he gathers the most beautiful maidens available, Esther among them, the fact that she is a Jewess being concealed. She is chosen queen. Mordecai, whose kinship with her is concealed, discovers a plot against the Ufe of the king and reports it through the queen, but is not rewarded. Afterwards Ahasuems makes Haman chief over aU bis nobles and everybody is required to do obeisance to him, which Mordecai refuses. In revenge Haman determines to destroy the whole race of Jews, gets the king's consent and issues orders that they be slain. The Jews are alarmed and Mordecai appears before the palace in sackdoth and ashes. Esther hears of it and sends him other clothes that he may come into the palace but he refuses them. She then sends to inquire what the trouble is and is in tum begged by Mordecai to intercede, but the death penalty was visited upon anybody appearing before the king uncalled and she therefore objected, but finaUy consents, asking that all the Jews fast with her. When offered any favor she im'ght ask, she requests only that he and Haman come to her banquet. At the banquet the offer is re- ESTHER 151 newed and she asks only that he and Haman come to another banquet the next day. Haman goes out in high glee but, when Mordecai refuses to bow to him, hastens home, saying that aU his honors were worthless so long as this Jew Uved. He is advised to build a great gaUows and have Mordecai hanged. The next night was sleep less for the king and he has the annals of the kingdom read to him in which he finds the record of Mordecai's service without reward. At this moment Haman comes in and is greeted with "What shaU be done to the man whom the king desires to honor? " Assuming himself to be meant, he names several royal honors and is required to confer these upon Mordecai. He returns home in despair. WhUe he and his family and friends are talking over what they think is the beginning of his downfall, chamberlains come to carry him to the banquet with Esther where his plot is exposed. The king goes out in a rage and Haman falls upon Esther's couch to beg for his life. Returning the king is still more outraged by Ha- man's posture and commands that he be hanged on the gaUows he had prepared for Mordecai. The latter is installed in his place. In another uninvited interview, Esther begs for the reversal of Haman's edict of de stmction, and while this cannot be done, permission is given that the Jews defend themselves and slay thdr enemies. Successive slaughters follow tiU 75,000 enemies of the Jews are slain. Purim is instituted to celebrate their great deUverance. For reasons too numerous to mention here, the book is not regarded as historical. It is doubted whether even a historical kernel imderlies the narrative. It belongs to the same period and the same general class of Uterature as the Jewish romances, Daniel, Tobit, First Ezra and the story of Ahikar. It bears a dose resemblance to the cycle of legends back of these books. The book is a story of the sensual despotism of the king, of the selling of herself by Esther, of her relentiess 152 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY cmelty, of the sacrifidng of his cousin by Mordecai for his own interest, of his insolence and revengeful spirit, etc. The author gloats over the viUany he teUs of and the success it achieves. "There is not one noble char acter in the book." Yet in the midst of aU this riotous immoraUty, tiiere is one commanding note of immeasureable worth — a com- pdling plea for loyalty to our own and heroic courage in their service. Blood is thicker than water, and a strong race feeUng is no mean endowment. It is necessary for conserving race integrity and in heritance. It may, however, as here, breed antagonisms, suspicion, contempt, cmelty, and, as here, resort to chicanery and murder to settle its scores. This danger is increased where ethnographic differences appear in color Unes. The white man, the yeUow man, the black man, can each come to his own in the new sodal order now in the making, not by manoeuvering for position, nor by bitterly asserting his rights, nor by autocratic uses of social, dvic, or economic power, nor by the lyncher's rope or the machine gun, or by force in any form, which settles nothing, but rather by self-achievement and sacrifidal service to aU the rest in a spirit of mutual appredation and good wiU. Interradal brotherUness and cooperation, by which alone the world can be made safe, ask from each according to capadty and seek for each according to need. Race and color Unes are of GU)d; so is the spirit that shakes hands across them. VIII THE PSALTER: The Soul of a People Progressively Uttered in Song (1000-150 B. C.) The noblest contribution the Priest made to the Old Testament was the compilation of the Psahns, which was THE PSALTER 153 completed, perhaps, about the middle of the second century, B. C. "Praises, Book of Praises," is the title of the Psalter in the Hebrew canon. It was so caUed because it was considered to be essentiaUy a coUection of songs of praise or h37mns used in worship. In the Septuagint it was caUed "Psalms," songs to be accompanied by stringed instruments, probably because the word "Psalm" was in the titles of several of the poems. Many early Greek writers use the name "Psalter," which is properly the name of a stringed instmment, for a collection of Psalms used in pubUc worship. The collection is set off in five books, Book First closing with the doxology at the end of Psalm 41, "Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel From everlasting and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. " Book Two (Psalms 42 to 72) doses with a different \ doxology, "Blessed be Jehovah, God, the God of Israel, Who only doeth wondrous things; And blessed be his glorious name forever. And let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen." The Third Book (Psahns 73 to 89) closes with, "Blessed be Jehovah forevermore. Amen, and Amen. " Book Four (Psalms 90 to 106) ends "Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And let aU the people say, 'Amen.' Praise ye Jehovah. " 154 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY The 150th is itself a doxology, closing with "Let everything that hath breath praise Jehovah; Praise ye Jehovah. " It is supposed that these divisions were made toward the end of the second century B. C. The doxologies were used to make five books corresponding with the so- caUed five books of Moses and to provide a three years' course of Sabbath readings. The original divisions were into three books — 1-2-3 — 4'^> 42-89, and 90-150. Closer inspection reveals the presence of Psalters within our Psalter, smaller collections of Psalms or at least of poems that were apparently in circulation in separate volumes before they were combined into one Hymnal for use in the second Temple. The growth of the Psalter was not unUke that of "Gospel Hymns" which came out in successive numbers. The scheme below, whUe not vouched for as correct in every detail, at least iUustrates what happened: H)mnal No. 1 Miktam Seven Psalms have this heading — 16 and 56-60. The term means "golden piece." The poems are gems "artistic in form and choice in their contents." "They aU have rare words, strange combinations, and a vigo rous roughness of style, and express strong emotions, like the pre-exiUc prophets. They are dated in the early Persian period. Hymnal No. 2 -MaskU- Thirteen Psalms belonging to the late Persian period are so caUed. The word means a meditation, a medita tive poem. They are 32, 42-45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, 142. THE PSALTER 155 Hymnal No. 3 The Davidic Seventy-four Psahns have in their titles the name of David, which was formerly understood to mean that David was their author. These Psahns formed the first coUection made for use in the synagogues after the return from the ExUe. The background of these Psahns is such that it cannot be made to fit into the life and times of David. It is now realized that headlines in the Book of Psahns are worthless. It was proper that the name of David, the traditional father of reUgious poetry and temple worship, should be given to the first hymnal. This hymnal itself was probably issued in two editions — 2 to 41, except 10, which is a continuation of 9, and 33, which seems to have been added later, formed the first — and 51 to 72, the second. This latter doses with "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." They are in the main prayers. The literary style is vigorous, fresh and free from Aramaisms. There are few Uturgical for mulae. The suffering of the early post exiUc period is re flected as are the teachings of the pre-exiUc prophets, espedaUy Jeremiah. There are many points of contact with Lamentations and Isaiah 40 to 56. The fact that Psahn 14 is reproduced in 53 and 31 :i-3, in 71 :i-3, shows that this second edition was independent of a subsequent and former edition. The coUection was probably made in the early Persian period. Hymnal No. 4 The Korahite Eleven Psalms, 42-49, 84, 85, 87, 88, have in their tities, "A Psalm of the sons of Korah." These seem to have been taken from a collection made in the early Greek period for use in pubUc worship. They are characterized by an earnest desire to worship, confidence in Yahweh, who watches over his own, a "highly artistic 156 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY finish and sjmmaetrical poetic forms." These sons of Korah were prominent singers in the temple of the Restoration. It is probable therefore that these came from the late Persian period. They are "highly artistic in form," "highly poetic in content, and on the whole the choicest coUection in the Psalter from a Uterary point of view." Hjinnal No. 5 The Asaphic Twelve Psahns have "Asaph" in their tities and are supposed to have been taken from a coUection made in Babylonia in the early Greek period. They are 50 and 73 to 83. An editor seems to have inserted the second Davidic collection into the Asaph collection and then to have inserted that into the Korah coUection, which caused the division, first between 50 and 73 to 83, and second, between 42 to 49 and 84 foUowing. These Psalms were characterized by "vivid descriptions of nature; emphasis upon the care of Providence for the individual; the use of history for teaching purposes; exalted conceptions of God and subUmity of style" — all of which seem to show the exerdse of great care in making the selections. Elohim, the name used in P, is used here. Both were written in Babylonia where that name prevaUed. Hymnal No. 6 Mizmor Fifty-seven Psalms have "Mismor" in their titles which is understood to indicate their selection from a hymnal made for singing in pubUc worship in the syna gogues in the early Greek period. The word means a piece of music, a song with instrumental accompani ment. It comes from a root meaning to make melody, and was later appUed to instrumental as contrasted with vocal music. THE PSALTER 157 Hymnal No. 7 The Elohim Psalter Psahns 42-83 are characterized by the use of Elohim instead of Yahweh for God. These are thought to have been derived from a major Psalter, edited in Babylon in the middle of the Greek period. It is made up largely of poems contained in the previous minor Psalters. This name for God is seldom used in the other Psahns. His proper name, Yahweh, which is ordinarily used by them, is avoided here. The change from Yahweh to Elohim was evidently the purposed work of an editor. He seems to have taken Asaph as the basis of his coUection, which was made at the time when Jews were averse to pronoimcing the proper name of their God, Jehovah, and were accustomed to substitute some other for it. Hymnal No. 8 The Choir Director's Psalter In fifty-five Psalms the choir master is named, which is interpreted as meaning that they are taken from the major Psalter which bore this title. They were selected from previous minor Psalters for the prayer-book for the synagogues in Palestine in the middle Greek period. "Thirty-five of the fifty-four Mismorim were taken as a basis," sixteen are from Hymnal No. 3; four from Hymnal No. 4, and one from Hymnal No. 5. The divine name is retained. The term "Director" is used also by the chronider. Thirty-three of them were prayers, eleven hymns, and thirteen reUgious poems. It is dis tinctively a prayer-book. H3minal No. 9 The HaUds Eighteen Psalms are called "Hallels," songs of praise, because they have hallelujah in thdr titles. They formed a coUection first made in the Greek period and enlarged in the Maccabean, to be used in the temple 158 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY service. They are in the present Psalter in four groups, 104-107, 111-117, 135-136, 146-150. The separation is supposed to be due to the final editor of the Psalter. "104-7 constitute a tetrology, 104 being a Psahn of creation, 105 teUing the early history of Israel, 106 the Exodus, 107 tbe restoration." Hymnal No. 10 PUgrim Songs In the middle Greek period a Uttle song book was made for the pilgrims on their way to the three great feasts. They are caUed "Songs of PUgrimage," 120- 134. They are aU hexameters of one or more hexasticks and are social and patriotic; 129 is thought to be Mac cabean added later. The Final Hymnal After the reorganization of the worship in the Macca bean period the editor of the present Psalter undertook to prepare a h3Tnnal for this elaborate ritual and for use in the synagogues throughout the east and the west. It was as though a final editor coUected all the numbers of gospel hymns into one, adding others old and new, to make a hymnal that would be popular throughout the EngUsh-speaking world. This editor based the first part of his hynmal on the Palestinian Director's Psalter composed of thirty-five Mismorim, sixteen Davidic, four Korahite and one Asaphic. He put in the center the Babylonian Elohistic Psalter, popular in Babylon and among the Jews of the Dispersion, 42 to 83, and added 84 to 89. The third part combined the HaUels and the Pilgrim Psalter, adding others. Thus completed this great hymnal has as its background the whole his tory of the Hebrew race from David to Judas Maccabeus and is the product of a hundred inspired pens. Briggs assigns seven Psahns to the early Hebrew monardxy before Jehosaphat: 7, 13, 18, 23, 24b, 6oa, no; POETIC FORMS 1 59 seven to the middle monarchy: 3, 20, 21, 27a, 45, 58, 61, and thirteen to the late monarchy: 2, 19a, 28, 36a, 46, 52, 54, 55, 56, 60b, 62, 72 and 87; he assigns thirteen to the ExUe: 42, 43, 63, 74, 77a, 79, 8ib, 82, 84, 88, 89b, 90, 137 and 142; to the Persian period: 4, 6, 9-10, 11, 12, 14 (53), 16, 17, 22, 25, 31, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 71, 57a, 59, 64, 69a, 70 (equal to 40b), 75, 76, 78, 80, 83, loi, 109a, 140, 143, 144a, This outburst in the Persian period is attributed to the enthusiasm caused by the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, to the rebuilding of the altar and the Temple, to the restoration of worship in Jerusalem, to the struggles of the pious with the unf aithftd at home and to the antagonistic spirit abroad. Briggs assigns sixteen to the times of Nehemiah: 5, 8, 15, 26, 29, 30, 40a, 47, 51, 57b, 65, 66a, 69b, 138, 139a and 141; 11 to the late Per sian period: 27b, 36b, 44, 48, 49, 50, 68, 8ia, 85, 89a and 102a- He attributes to the Greek period, beginning with the conquest of Alexander, 83, 96, 100, 66b, 67, 73, 86, 91, 95, 108, 145, I, 19b, 24a, 71, 77b, 89c, 92, 94, 103, 139b, 144b and 119, besides the fourteen Pilgrim Psalms; 120 to 128, 130 to 134, and sixteen Hallels: 104-107, iii- 117, 135-136, 146, 148 and 150. He ascribes to the Mac cabean period: 33, 102b, 109b, 118, 139c, 129, 147 and 149. There must have been a Great Commission in some way authorized to do the gigantic task of compUing a Hymnal suited to the needs of the east and the west alie, in the synagogues as well as in the temple, and among all types of people. They must have been dis cerning men, versatUe in sympathy and interest, highly tuned poetic natures, with keen literary insight, and ridi religious experience, for their work has survived these two miUenniums and is growing more and more through out all the world. Poetic Forms There are two elements in Hebrew poetry — a meas ured beat recurring in each line, and rhythm of thought. l6o THE OLD testament IN THE LIFE OF TODAY That rhythm may be expressed in a single line which must be capable of being pronounced ui a single easy breath as the opening words of the i8th Psahn, "I love thee, O Je hovah." This is usuaUy found at the opening of a poem. The second higher poetical unit is the verse, consisting of two parallel lines, the second line meaning the same as the first or contrasted with it or adding something to it. Surely God is good to Israel; Even to such as are pure in heart. (Psalm 73:1.) These S3monymous Unes are set over against the foUowing: But as for me, my feet were almost gone; My steps had well-nigh sUpped. (Psahn 73:2.) These two pairs of synonymous Unes set over against each other antitheticaUy are foUowed by another couplet Ulustrating synthetic paraUeUsm. For I was envious at the arrogant. When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.(Psahn 73:3.) This paraUelUsm may extend to the tristich. We see not our signs: There is no more any prophet; Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. (Psalm 74:9.) Ask, and it shaU be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Matt. 7:7.) We have also the tetrastich. I wiU also praise thee with the psaltery. Even thy truth, O my God: Unto thee wiU I sing praises with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel. (Psalm 71:22.) POETIC FORMS l6l No servant can serve two masters: For either he wUl hate the one, and love the other; Or else he wUl hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. (Luke 16:13; Matthew 6:24) And the pentastich. Yea, mine own famiUar friend, in whom I trusted. Who did eat of my bread. Hath lifted up his heel against me. But thou, O Jehovah, have mercy upon me, and raise me up. That I may requite them. (Psahn 41 :9-io.) The number of Unes may run to the dekastich or be yond. In addition to the three basal types of paraUeUsm, a common one is the climactic or ascending rhythm. The first line is incomplete and the second takes up words from the first and completes it. This kind is found chiefly in the most elevated poetry. Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. (Psalm 29:1.) The voice of Jehovah shaketh the wUdemess; Jehovah shaketh the wUderness of Kadesh. (Psahn 29:8.) For he cometh. For he cometh to judge the earth. (Psahn 96:13.) Even the length of the lines sometimes has important meaning. Their advancing length may indicate advanc ing faith. This is beautifully illustrated in the 23d. Psalm, in which each Une when properly printed is longer than the one preceding. l62 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY The reverse of this usage expresses the opposite emo tion — faltering, faUing faith and grief. Budde has shown that there is a Kinah measure used in the lament for the dead throughout the prophetic period. "These were universaUy composed in verses of two members, the length of the first of which stands to that of the second in the proportion of three to two, giving rise to a pecuUar limping rhythm, in which the second member dies away and expires." Professional mourning women sang hymns in this measure at funerals. Amos uses this in wailing over fallen Israel. It is the measure of the book of Lam entations. The Virgin of Israel is faUen; She shall no more rise: She is cast down upon her hand; There is none to raise her up. The line is the first unit; the verse of varying length is the second; the third is the strophe. "The strophe is to the poem what the Unes or verses are in relation to one another in the system of paralleUsm. Strophes are com posed of a greater or lesser number of lines, sometimes equal, and sometimes unequal. Where there is a uniform flow of the emotion the strophes wUl be composed of the same number of Unes, and wiU be as regular in relation to one another as the lines of which they are composed; but where the emotion is agitated by passion, or broken by figures of speech, or abrupt in transitions, they wiU be irregular and uneven. The strophes are subject to the same principles of paralleUsm as the Unes themselves, and are thus either synonymous to one another, anti thetical, or progressive, in those several varieties of par aUeUsm already mentioned. A favorite arrangement is the balancing of one strophe with another on the same principle of the distich, then again of two with one as a tristich." (Briggs.) POETIC FORMS 1 63 The most frequent stmcture is the pair of strophes often doubled in two parallels as eight and sixteen strophes. The triplet is also common, though its mul tiples are less frequent. There are also poems of five and its multiples ten, fifteen and twenty strophes. There are few of seven. Those of eleven and twenty-two are limited to two alphabetical poems. Briggs finds eight of single strophes, fifty of a pair, thirty-six of three, twelve of five, three of seven. Psalms 42 and 43 were originally one poem of three stanzas with the refrain. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him For the help of his countenance. Such refrains occur repeatedly. "The eighth Psahn is a beautiful example of the hymn in two strophes of eight Unes each." Thiis also exempU- fies what Moulton caUs "The Envelope Figure," wMch means that the opening and closing Unes of a strophe or group of strophes are either the same or together make a unity which the intervening lines explain. These strophes may have ten or more lines. Yahweh, our Lord, How excellent is Thy name in aU the earth! Thou whose glory doth extend over the heavens, Out of the mouth of Uttie children and suckUngs Thou dost estabUsh strength because of Thine adver saries. That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I see Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, Moon and stars which Thou hast prepared; What is fraU man, that Thou shouldst be mindful of him? Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? 164 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY When Thou didst make him a Uttie lower than divine beings. With glory and honor crowning him, Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; AU things Thou didst put under his feet: Sheep and oxen, all of them; And also beasts of the field; Birds of heaven, and fishes of the sea; Those that pass through the paths of the sea. Yahweh, our Lord, How exceUent is Thy name in all the earth. " (Psahn 8.) By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns? Or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; But the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evU fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fmit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fmit Is hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shaU know them. Just as the increasing length of the Unes indicates ad vance in faith and the shortening of them the opposite, so the advancing length of the stanzas suggests advanc ing faith ; the opposite retarding faith. The latter is beau- tifuUy Ulustrated in one of the earUest odes composed of three strophes of six, five and four Unes each, producing a dirge-like effect. Come to Heshbon! Built, yea estabUshed be the dty of Sihon; For fire went forth from Heshbon, Flame from the dty of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of Amon. POETIC FORMS 165 Woe to thee, Moab! Thou art lost, people of Chemosh! He hath given over his sons into ffight. And his daughters into captivity. Unto the king of the Amorites, Sihon! Then we shot at them — He was lost — Heshbon unto Dibon — And we wasted them even unto Nophah, With fire unto Medeba. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah by the increasing number of Unes in the stanza over the preceding shows the suffering servant passing through persecution, through the jaws of death to ultimate triumph and sat isfaction with the travail of his soul. I Ui. 13 : Behold, my servant shall prosper, Shall rise, be Uft up, be exceedingly high. Like as they that were astonied before thee were many, — So marred from a man's was his visage. And his form from the children of men! — So shall the nations he starties be many, Before him shall kings shut thdr mouths. For that which had never been told them they see. And what they had heard not, they have to consider. II Who gave believing to that which we heard. And the arm of Jehovah, to whom was it bared? For he sprung like a sapUng before Him, As a root from the ground that is parched; He had no form nor beauty that we should regard him. Nor aspect that we should desire him. Despised and rejected of men. l66 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Man of pains and famiUar with aiUng, And as one we do cover the face from. Despised, and we did not esteem him. Ill Surely our ailments he bore. And our pains he did take for his burden, But we — ^we accounted him stricken. Smitten of God and degraded. Yet he — ^he was pierced for crimes that were ours. He was cmshed for guUt that was ours. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. By his stripes healing is ours. Of us aU Uke to sheep went astray. Every man to his way we did tum. And Jehovah made Ught upon him The guilt of us aU. IV Oppressed, he did humble himself. Nor opened his mouth — As a lamb to the slaughter is led. As a sheep 'fore her shearers is dumb — Nor opened his mouth. By tjTTanny and law was he taken And of his age who reflected. That he was wrenched from the land of the Uving, For My people's transgressions the stroke was on him? So they made with the wicked his grave. Yea, with the felon his tomb. Though never harm had he done. Neither was guUe in his mouth. V But Jehovah had purposed to bmise him. Had laid on him sickness; So if his Ups should offer guUt offering. POETIC FORMS 1 67 A seed he should see, he should lengthen his days. And the purpose of Jehovah by his hand should prosper. From the travaU of his soul shaU he see, By his knowledge be satisfied. My Servant, the Righteous, righteousness wins he for many And their guUt he takes for his load. Therefore, I set him a share with the great; Yea, with the strong shaU he share the spoil: Because that he poured out his Ufe unto death. Let himself with transgressors be reckoned; Yea, he the sin of the many hath borne, And for the transgressors he interposes. While parallelism of Unes indicates rhythm of thought meter is based upon the number of beats within the Une, three and five being most frequently used. The word is the unit. Two words may be run together into a single beat. These beats are used to express changing moods. Take as an example a passage or two from Joel, whose most characteristic movement is the staccato beat of the tetrameter, which he used with telUng effect. Notice how beautifully appropriate is the quick movement of the Unes in 2 :7-9, where the rapid, orderly march of the army of locusts is described: Like warriors they run, Uke soldiers they advance, They march each in his own way, and do not entangle their paths. None pushes the other, each goes on his own track. They plunge through the weapons, and are not held back. They msh upon the dty, they mn upon the waUs, They climb into the houses, through the windows they enter. The staccato movement used to describe the rapid and terrible march of the army of locusts in 2:7-11 changes l68 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY to the hexameter, to express the pleading tones of Yah weh's appeal in 2:12-14. Yet even now, is Yahweh's orade, tum unto me with all your heart, With fasting and weeping and mourmng, but rend your hearts and not your garments! And return to Yahweh, your God, for gracious is he and compassionate. Long-suffering, and plenteous in love, and relents of the evU. Who knows but He wiU tum and relent, and leave behind Him a blessing, (For) meal offerings and Ubations to Yahweh your Gkid? The hexameter is used also in measured address to the people and in giving the promise of Yahweh. Hebrew poets used rhythm, assonance, alUteration, onomato poeia. The sixth Psalm as arranged by Briggs shows the extent to which rhyme was carried. Yahweh, do not in Thine anger rebuke me. Yahweh, do not in Thy heat chasten me. Since I am withered be gradous to jwe; Since my bones are vexed heal me; Yea sorely vexed is my soul. And it is come, Yahweh, unto my death. O return, deUver my soul: For the sake of thy kindness save me. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: In Sheol, who wiU give thanks to thee? I am weary with my groaning; AU night make I to swim my bed; I water with my tears my couch. Because of grief wasteth away mine eye; It waxeth old because of mine adversary. All ye workers of iniquity, depart from we; For Yahweh hath heard the voice of my weeping; POETIC FORMS 1 69 Yahweh hath heard my suppUcation; Yahweh recdveth my prayer. They wiU be ashamed and wiU be sore vexed all mine enemies ! Word-play is quite common. "Joel, for example," says Sir George Adam Smith, "loads his clauses with the most leaden letters he can find, and drops them in quick succession, repeating the same heavy word again and again, as if he would stun the careless people into some sense of the bare, brutal calamity which has befaUen them." In the song of Deborah (Judges 5:22), the word-paint ing is so vivid that you can hear the wUd running of the horses in the sound of the words. The most character istic example of word-play is tbe apocalypse of Isaiah 24-27, the first two Unes of which translated are, "As the smiting of those that smote him hath he smitten him? Or as the slaying of them that were slain by him is he slam?" The first pentameter strophe of Psalm no is an example of assonance. Utterance of Yahweh to my Lord — Sit at my right hand. Until I put thine enemies — the stool for thy feet. With the rod of thy strength — rule in the midst of Thine enemies. Thy people wUl be volunteers — in the day of thy host, on the holy moimtains, From the womb of the morning there wiU be for thee, — the dew of thy young men. Sometimes the change of a single word or even a letter produces great force. 170 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY At the brooks of Reuben were great decrees of mind. Why didst thou dweU among the sheepfolds. Listening to the bleatings of the flocks? At the brooks of Reuben were great searchings of mind. (Judges 5:15-16.) A sUght change of decrees in the first Une to searchings in the fourth emphasizes the change of determination into timid, hesitating searchings of the mind. The very letters of the Hebrew speak with telling effect. "But when as in some passages of the prophets the speaker gives himself up to denounce or to impre cate, his Unes are packed with words stiU more fuU of gutturals. In Hebrew, to caU with the throat is to speak with vehemence- The dry cUmate and large leisure of the East bestow on the lower chords of the voice a greater depth and suppleness; and Orientals have elaborated their throat-letters to a number unmarked in any Westem alphabet." The gentlest measures of extraordinary beauty are produced by the mingling of the softer gutturals with the Uquids. Send out Thy Ught and Thy truth, They be that lead me! Why dost thou give in, O my soul, And be moaning upon me? Hold thou to God, for yet shall I praise Him, My courage, my God! (Psahn 43:3-5-) Comfort ye, comfort my people, Saith your God. (Isaiah 40:1.) The doubUng of consonants is made to produce a strong effect such as the crashing and reverberation of the sea or of peoples in tumult. POETIC FORMS 171 Than voices of waters immense More majestic than breakers of oceans, Majestic on high, Yahweh. (Psahn 93:4.) "Or the passage in which Isaiah has by long vowels rendered the slow Uft and roU of the biUows, but by doubled consonants their distinct booming; and then, as they are checked, their crash and hissing sweep along the Syrian coast (Isaiah 17:12-13)- He is using this as a figure of the vain tumult of the peoples against the God of Israel. " Woe, the booming of peoples multitudinous! As the booming of seas are they booming; And the crash of nations immense. As the crash of waters are crashing; (Nations — as the crash of great waters are crashing) - But he chides it, it fleeth afar. Chased as chaff of the hUls by the wind. As dust-rings in front of the storm. "The Hebrew poets, unUke the Greek, Uved in intimate touch with nature, though the word never occurs, caught its shifting moods and told its wondrous story in words none can miss. Hear one of them describe the mingUng of earthquake and thunderstorm. Notice how the former is felt only at the beginning and end of the piece. Between these the thunderstorm dominates — dominates even the earthquake, which is stiUed tUl it has passed. Never was a more sublime theophany. The equal massiveness and rapidity of the douds, the awful darkness, the thought of the pent-up waters packmg the heavens, the flash of the God's approach, the thun dering, the zigzags crossing and shivering through each other, the revel of the Ughtnings — aU is described In a way which defies translation." 172 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations also of the mountains quaked And were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils. And fire out of bis mouth devoured: Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; And thick darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a chemb, and did fly; Yea, he soared upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his hidingplace, his paviUon round about him. Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed, HaUstones and coals of fire. Jehovah also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered his voice, HaUstones and coals of fire. And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; Yea, Ughtnings manifold, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters appeared. And the foundations of the world were laid bare. At thy rebuke, O Jehovah, At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. And again in the twenty-ninth Psahn. Here the storm forms on the Mediterranean amid roaring thunders; passes over Lebanon, breaking the cedars, making the mountains skip like a calf or a wUd ass, passes with flashing lightning into the wUdemess, stripping the forests bare and terrorizing wUd animals, finding an echo of its tumult in the shouting of glory in the Temple. The disappearing of the storm into the desert brings the beautiful quieting assurance, — "Peace." Jehovah wiU give strength unto his people, Jehovah wiU bless his people with peace. THE SPIRIT OF HEBREW POETRY 1 73 Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty. Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength- Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name; Worship Jehovah in holy array. The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters: The God of glory thundereth. Even Jehovah upon many waters. The voice of Jehovah is powerful; The voice of Jehovah is fuU of majesty. The voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars; Yea, Jehovah breaketh in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion Uke a young wUd-ox. The voice of Jehovah cleaveth the flames of fire. The voice of Jehovah shaketh the wilderness; Jehovah shaketh the wUdemess of Kadesh. The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve, And strippeth the forests bare: And in his temple everything saith. Glory. Jehovah sat as King at the Flood; Yea, Jehovah sitteth as King for ever. Jehovah wUl give strength unto his people; Jehovah wUl bless his people with peace. X The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry Singing had large place in Hebrew lUe. "All that moved the souls of the multitude was ex pressed in song; it was indispensable to the sports of peace, it was a necessity for the rest from battie, it cheered the feast and the marriage (Is. 5:12; Amos 6:5; Jd. 14), it lamented in the hopeless dirge for the dead, (n Sam. 3:33), it united the masses, it blessed the indi vidual, and was everywhere the lever of culture. Young men and maidens vied with one another in learning 174 THE OLD testament IN THE LIFE OF TODAY beautiful songs, and cheered with them the festive gatherings of the viUages, and the stUl higher assembUes at the sanctuary of the tribes. The maidens at ShUoh went yearly with songs and dances into the vineyards (Judges 21:19), and those of Gilead repeated the sad story of Jephthah's daughter (Judges 11:40); the boys learned David's lament over Jonathan (II Sam. 18); shepherds and hunters at their evening rest by the springs of the wUderness sang songs to tiie accompani ment of the flute (Judges 5:11)- The discovery of a fountain was an occasion of joy and song (Numbers 21:17). The smith boasted defiantly of the products of his labor (Gen. 4:23). Riddles and witty sayings enUvened the sodal meal (Judges 14:12; I Kings 10). Even into the lowest spheres the spirit of poetry wan dered and ministered to the most ignoble pursuits (Is. 23:15 f.)." Their songs, like aU the rest of their Utera ture, were reUgious. Tlie Jew viewed all things from the standpoint of experience. He looked out upon the world from within. He was unable to transfer himself to the viewpoint of the outer and material and look inward. He was there fore incapable of writing drama, for he could not inter pret the f eeUngs and movements of another. Nor could he transfer himself from one world to another as could Browning. He could not become another person and Uve the life of another, presenting the world from the other's standpoint. He looked at everything out of life's Holy of HoUes- Even his word-painting, which is rich and beautiful, is given, not for its own sake but for the sake of the reUgious message it carries, for the sake of the inner Ufe in whose interest he speaks. It moves in the regions of sensations and impressions rather than of cold thinking. "It expresses emotion always by naming the sensations of which the emotion consists. Here is an expression from the Psalms of hope less despair: THE SPIRIT OF HEBREW POETRY 1 7$ 'Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with crying, my throat is dried: Mme eyes fail whUe I wait for my God.' Notice the number of sensations which are named: ' My throat is dried,' 'mine eyes faU,' and the sensation of sinking in deep mire with aU its implications of spas modic and desperate struggle." (Prof. J. H- Gardiner.) Another example is the apparition described in Job 12. EUphaz was asleep, yet half-seeing. He trembles, his bones shake; a sUght breeze passes before his face; his hair stands on end; the apparition pauses before him, giving a vague awareness of an object near; an image floats by; there is silence broken only by whispered words — aU given to produce in the reader the sense of terror taking hold upon a lone soul at midnight as a ghost hovers before him. So the sense of joy, of buoy ancy, is given in terms of the bodily accompaniments in us of these emotions. The Hebrew lends itself weU to this method of expression, as its words go back imme diately to things of sense, to concrete objects and acts in the outer world. To be jealous is to glow; to decide is to cut; to be angry is to boil; to burn, to breathe rapidly witli nostrUs dilated. ' Self is caUed "bone." What is good is "straight. " Modern psychology has come to the andent Hebrew way of describing the emotions. Pro fessor James analyzes fear, for example, into the feeling of quickened heart-beats, shaUow breathing, trembling Ups, weakened Umbs, goose flesh, visceral stirrings. Rage consists of ebulUtion in the chest, flushing of the face, dUation of the nostrils, cUnching of the teeth, impulse to vigorous action. "The unsurpassed power of the Hebrew poetry and its unfailing hold on our imaginations may be ascribed to this fact: that it always 176 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OP TODAY expresses emotions directly and concretely through sensations instead of describing them by words which are abstract and therefore pale. " This is one reason for the "permanent appeal" of these ancient poems. "The great body of our sensations and feelings does not change from generation to genera tion. The horror of despair at sinking in deep mire, the dread at the creeping mysteries of the night, or the deUght in uttering forth our joy in song — ^aU are the same thing for us today that they were for these andent Hebrews two thousand years ago." "Thus a Uterature which is able to express itself through these inalterable sensations has a permanence of power impossible to any Uterature which is phrased largely in abstractions and inferences from these sensations." Even in its sublimest strains, it is always simple and natural. The poet looked at things with a chUd-like directness. All thought and action are in close vital contact with Uving impressions and feelings. The Jew did not reason; he saw and told what he saw. Every thing with the Jew was concrete. His language was wanting in abstract terms and compound words. His words express things and actions rather than ideas. Even the adjectives are derived from concrete objects. Descriptions are often given in such minute detaU as to be tiresome. Witness the description of the crocodUe in Job. 41:12 f. His imagery is taken from the manifold variations of nature and life as the poet knew them — the heavens above, the earth below, the occupations of men in war and in peace, fighting, hunting, plowing, sowing, reaping, mining, trading, tending flocks, with moving caravans, in the tent and outside of it, in the Temple, among the mountains, on the grass, from the sea, the storm, animals and birds, historic places and inddents. The nature Psalms are weU known — 18, 19, 29, 65, 93, 104. But the imagination is given play only in subordi nation to reUgious sentiment. There is enthusiasm for THE SPIRIT OF HEBREW POETRY 1 77 moral goodness rather than for beauty. There is no mere expression of delight at the glories of nature, no use of imagery for the pleasure of the picture, Uttle sense of color. AU nature reveals God and is in sympathy with man and wiU come with him to judgment. The language makes it possible for the poetry to be wonderfuUy terse and condensed. The first verse of the 94,th Psahn has six Hebrew words, translated in the Revised Version by sixteen. In the loth and 1 2th verses of the fourth chapter of Job there are six different He brew words for Uon, including one for "whelps," which is not confined to the whelps of the Uon. It is impossible for the EngUsh reader to appredate the deftness with which the gorgeous imagery is woven. Hebrew poetry is vivid and dramatic. The very words seem often to quiver with Ufe and power and tiie images they suggest pass before you in Uving form. The words often seem to come from somewhere beyond the speakers, charged with pent-up passion. It is bold and daring. Job, for example, shakes his fist in the face of the Almighty (Job 7:12). Am I a sea, or a sea monster. That thou settest a watch over me? When I say, My bed shall comfort me. My couch shaU ease my complaint; Then thou scarest me with dreams. And terrifiest me through visions: So that my soul chooseth strangling. And death rather than these my bones. Much of our modem poetry, the best of it, has a sug gestion of playing at life; its characters acting parts, the authors looking on and penetrating Ufe's mysteries by "flashes of genius." Not so here. The poets of the Bible are aU in dead earnest. They bring forth thdr poems as the mother her child, because they must. The great poets of Israel "play upon the heart of the Hebrew 178 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY people as upon a thousand-stringed lyre, striking the tones with divinely guided touch, so that from the dirge of rapidly succeeding disaster and ruin they rise through penitence and petition to faith, assurance, exultation, and haUelujah; la3dng hold of the deep thoughts and everlasting faithfulness of God; binding the past and the present by a chain of Ught to the impending Messianic future; seeing and rejoicing in the glory of God, which, though now for a season shrouded behind the douds of disaster, is soon to burst forth in an unique day. " The Hebrews were people of great passion. Thdr emotional Ufe — their love and their hate alike — ^are "world great" because they were "world deep." In it we can feel the mighty bUlows of the soul's infinite sea now rolling in at high tide, now storm lashed and surging, now falUng back and ebbing away, now hushed into sUence, and rest, and peace. We can see in its shifting moods the Ughts and shadows of earth and sky, and reflected on its heaving bosom in beautiful pan tomime the movements of all the world- Professor A. R. (jordon has beautifuUy characterised it in his "The Poets of the Old Testament": "The distinction of the heaven-bom poet is that he not merely feels, and that more keenly than other men, but likewise gives immortal expression to the feelings that thus weU up within him- And perhaps no words can better convey the pecuUar quaUty of poetic speech than MUton's oft-quoted remark, that it must be 'simple, sensuous, and passionate! Other ideals have, indeed, held sway in their time. But tme poetry has always come back to the reaUties of nature and Ufe. Poetiy being the language of the heart, that style is most ap propriate which speaks directiy and unaffectedly to the heart. For the same reason, poetic diction is 'sen suous' or pictorial. The sphere of cold abstraction is altogether aUen to poetry. Its world is one of warm, full-blooded Ufe, suffused with glowing imagination. THE SPIRIT OF HEBREW POETRY 1 79 and rich in figures of speech — metaphors and similes and pictures drawn or suggested. In Uke manner, poetry is passionate. Being inspired by feeling, it must also throb with feeling. The touch of passion is, indeed, the truest test of the feeling which is the very soul of poetry. "If we may judge by these standards, the Hebrew speech approves itself one of the fittest vehicles of poeti cal expression. Like other Semitic languages, it is marked by great simpUcity of form. The rigidity of its three-lettered root scheme, its lack of precise dis tinctions of time within the verb forms, its weakness in connective particles, and its general incapadty for abstractions, prevented its ever attaining the subtle logical effects of Greek or our complex modern lan guages- But this very failure in philosophical grasp enhances the pictorial power of the speech. In Hebrew aU things appear in action. The verb is the predominant element in the sentence. And, though the shades of time distinction are blurred, the richness of the language in intensive forms throws the predse complexion of the act into clear, strong Ught. But even the simpUdty of the tenses heightens the pictorial effect; and the paratactic connection of the clauses gives the Hebrew sentence the appearance of a series of artistic strokes, often of gem-Uke briUiance. Hebrew possesses Ukewise a great wealth of synonyms, especially in descriptions of the common scenes and interests of Ufe, and in the region of feeUng. The language is equaUy rich in imagery. The daring boldness and luxuriance of its figures are, indeed, almost oppressive to the modern mind. But the He brew poet himself was unconsdous of any wanton riot of imagination. To him the bold, swift changes of meta phor were natural reflections of the play of passion in the soul. For Hebrew poetry is preeminentiy passionate. The 'simple, sensuous' speech is but a veil, which thriUs and quivers with the poet's every passing emotion. "The fiery energy of Hebrew is often felt to be gained l8o THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY at the expense of beauty. The profusion of compressed consonants, sibUants and gutturals even conveys to Western ears an unpleasing impression of pierdng in tensity and harshness. But the sharper sibUants are mainly expressive of keen emotions of grief or triumph, and are thus in artistic harmony with the passionate genius of the language, whUe the purity with which the gutturals are breathed from the open throat tones down the harshness that might otherwise be felt. Hebrew has its fuU share, too, of the more Uquid consonants, with a variety of vowel tones ranging from the rich broad 'a' to tJie Ught shewa, yielding the possibUity of a manifold interplay of sounds. The strength of the double letters, with the normal alterations of vowd and consonant, give the language also something of the tuneful flexibility of Arabic or ItaUan. The Hebrew poets were fuUy aware of the musical potentiaUties of their speech, and sensitive to the magical effects pro duced by harmonies of sound. The musical quaUty of Hebrew may be appredated even by the Western stu dent who Ustens sympatheticaUy to the rendering of the Sabbath service in the S3aiagogues espedaUy of the Span ish Jews. And the poetry of the Old Testament shows harmonious effects of surprising power. The repro duction of the furious gaUop of tiie strong ones 'by the waters of Megiddo,' or the crashing of the fatal blow on Sisera, in the sounding notes of Deborah's great battle- hymn (Judges v. 22-26), the unmistakable suggestions of the 'surging of the peoples, that surge like the surging of the seas,' and the ' rushing of the nations, that msh Uke the mshing of mighty waters' (Isaiah 17:12 f.), and Nahum's briUiant picture of the flashing and raging of the war-chariots at the assault of Nineveh (Nah. 2:3 f.), rank among the finest verbal effects in Uterature. But even apart from such obvious efforts of art, and the sim pler musical charms produced by aUiteration and asso nance, the Hebrew poets display a tme power in the wed- THE SPIRIT OF HEBREW POETRY l8l ding of sounds to tones of feeUng. Many of the Psalms are real studies in harmony. The first, for example, opens with a play of sibUants gUding into easy Uquids and labials, as the Psalmist passes from the dark and dan gerous paths of the wicked to contemplate the joyous fortunes of the good. With v. 4 the duUer sounds pre dominate, the tone only rising in sympathy with the ex pression of sure confidence in v. 6. The second Psahn offers a yet more remarkable example of tonal harmony. The tumultuous gathering of the nations is depicted in a series of mshing 'sh,' 'r' and 'm' sounds, supported mainly by heavy vowels. As the enemy take counsel together against the Almighty, the tone rises almost to a shriek through the succession of compressed con sonants, ' c,' ' s,' and ' h,' mingled with the sharper vowels, 'i,' 'e,' and short 'a.' In v. 3 the breaking of the chains is distinctiy audible in the snapping tones of the verb 'nenattekah.' The subsequent transition from the cahn majesty in which the Almighty sits enthroned in heaven to His outbreak of stormy indignation against the wicked is equaUy weU reflected in the sound of the verses. In contrast with the rage and tumult of this Psahn, the eighth offers a good example of the feeUng of repose and confidence suggested by the quieter tones of speech, whUe through the pastoral beauty of the twenty-third an unmistakable effect is produced by the gently rushing 'sh' sounds and the murmuring 'ms.' The same aesthetic pleasure is gained from a study of the finer passages of the Song of Songs and Job. In the glad spring-song (Song ii. 8 f) the vowels and consonants seem to dance in harmony with the rhythm. The chang ing moods of Job are likewise reflected in the sounds. Thus the general tone of the picture of Sheol (iU. 13 f) is grave and duU, the radiant vision of Job's past hap piness (ch. xxix) is pitched on a high, clear key, while the majesty of the divine utterance is sustained by a rich variety of the verbal harmonies. l82 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY "In close relation to the musical quaUty of poetic speech is its rhythmical movement. This also reflects the play of the emotions. Under the influence of any deep passion, the heart heaves beneath the tide of feel ing with a surging motion whose ebb and flow resemble the onward sweep of the breakers on the shore. Our quieter feelings find likewise their relief in rhythmical waves. And this is but part of a far wider movement; for Nature and Ufe are one vast universe of rhythms. In giving utterance to bis feelings in rhythmical forms, the poet is no doubt directly impelled by the inward movement of his soul. But stimuli from without also bear upon him. In his classical study of Work on Rhythm, Prof. Kark Biicher of Leipsig has traced the far- reaching influence of the rhythm of daUy labor in primi tive folk-poetry. But, even in these lower ranges of art, imitation of the sounds and movements of animal life makes likewise for rhythmical utterance. Arabic scholars are generally agreed in connecting the pecuUar stride of the typical Arabic poem with the slow, steady march of the camel. The rider crooning his lay insensibly fell into the camel's swing, and so gave his poetry that par ticular movement, though even in Arabic the more rapid rhythm of the gaUop may be caught at times. In the ascending scale of art, many other impulses touch the poet's imagination, causing his strain to 'Modulate with murmurs of the air. And motions of the forest and the sea, The voice of living beings, and woven hymns Of night and day, and the deep heart of man.' " XI Religious Ideas of the Psalms It is difficult to trace with certainty any development of leading ideas in the Psahns. Indeed the poetry of RELIGIOUS ideas OF THE PSALMS 1 83 worship is never to be interpreted as a source book of formal theological conceptions. There wUl certainly be contradictory ideas in scraps of poetry selected from any wide range of experience. Such is the case here. God is presented in the i8th Psahn, confessedly the oldest of them all, as a war God riding upon the thunder storm, fighting his batties with thunder, haU, stones, coals of fire. He is marching out of Seir, accompanied by earthquake and thunderstorm to fight the bat tles of Israel Qudges 5). In this very i8th Psahn also occurs the beautiful sentiment, "Thy gentieness hath made me great." So we may find scattered through the Psahns the crude reaUstic conceptions of Yahweh along with the most exalted. This should not surprise Methodists, for one of their hymns represents God as running the world with his nod (No. 99). The tenderness and severity of God are both found, but Jehovah's right eousness pervades and thrills everything. The conception of man also varies; from the most exalted position next to God, claiming privUeges with tbe Most High, to the lowest cr)dng piteously for un deserved help. But communion with God is intimate and sweet throughout. God's love never lets go and the Psalmist's faith never finaUy loses its grip. Worship is conceived as spiritual without tbe inter vention of sacrifice and offering. This represents the prophetic view which laid Uttle value upon, if it did not positively deny the vaUdity of, the cult. But there are Psahns also in which sacrifice is approved as a method of worship. Tbe ethical standards are not as high as those of tbe wisdom Uterature which voiced distinctively a moral and educational movement. There have been those who have found difficulty with tbe so-caUed Imprecatory Psalms as representing a low ethical standard. How are we to defend such vengeful passages as the foUowmg: "Ah, that wiU be a glad day for the righteous. He 184 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY shaU wash his feet in the blood of the wicked; So that men shall say, VerUy there is a reward for tbe righteous: Verily there is a God that judgeth in tbe earth " (Psahn 58), and again. Set thou a wicked man over him; And let an adversary stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him come forth guUty; And let bis prayer be turned into sin. Let bis days be few; And let another take his office. Let bis children be fatherless. And bis wife a widow. Let his chUdren be vagabonds, and beg; And let them seek their bread out of their desolate places. Let tbe extortioner catch all that be bath; And let strangers make spoU of his labor. Let there be none to extend kindness unto him; Neither let there be any to have pity on his fatherless chUdren. Let bis posterity be cut off; In tbe generation foUowing let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with Jehovah; And let not tlie sin of bis mother be blotted out. Let them be before Jehovah continuaUy, That he may cut off tbe memory of them from the earth; Because he remembered not to show kindness. But persecuted the poor and needy man. And the broken in heart, to slay them. Yea, he loved cursing, and it came unto him: And he deUghted not in blessing, and it was far from him. He clothes himself also with cursing as with his garment, And it came into his inward parts like water. And like oU into his bones. RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF THE PSALMS 185 Let it be unto him as the raiment wherewith he covered himself. And for tbe girdle wherewith he is girded continuaUy. This is my reward of mine adversaries from Jehovah, And of them that speak evU against my soul. Let it be remembered that we have here a record of what men said to God and not what God said to men. It is the hot outburst of pent-up indignation; tbe in dignation of an andent people who Uved largely in the reahn of the emotions and uttered them witbout re straint. We wUl do both ourselves and these writers grave injustice to read back into their times the so- caUed standards of our own. Noah was a righteous man in bis generation. He would not be a righteous man now. The moral strength of a people is measured by thdr capadty for indignation. A milk-and-water, easy-going, submissive, timid man that cannot be stirred into righteous fury, is not a Christian, whatever else he may be. The passivity of Jesus has been overdone. There were at least four things that brought Him to his feet with invectives unsurpassed for fierceness. These were the commerdalizing of reUgion, autocracy that laid burdens upon the helpless b^ prescribing impossible regulations for them, insincerity, and hj^ocrisy in high places. The love of Jesus was a consuming fire. Witness bis valedic tory to the Scribes and Pharisees on Tuesday afternoon of Passion Week. (Matt. 23). The sodal emphasis is strong; there is much regard for tbe poor and needy, the hapless and the helpless. But this was chiefly within Israel with Uttle or no inter est in the outside world. The feeling of social soUdarity was so strong that many interpreters understand the "I " used in some of the Psahns as referring to the per sonified nation or reUgious community rather than to tbe poet himself. Whether this is true or not, it cannot be denied that the feeUng was so powerful as to indicate l86 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OE TODAY a Strong church consciousness running through the ex periences of the post-exiUc times. The faces of the Psahnists were aU toward tbe sunrise. They beUeved tbe best was yet to be; that redemption would somehow come to Israel. The on-going stream of the Ufe of God in the soul of this race pointed everywhere to a Messianic time yet to come. The Messiah, the anointed one, was a term that might be appUed to king, prophet or priest, who bad received tbe anointing of oU. The first certain appUcation of the term Messiah to a definite individual as their deUverer occurs in the i7tb of the Psahns of Solomon, a Psalter outside the Old Testa ment in which Pompey is described, written, therefore, about the middle of tbe first century B. C. The idea of deUverance began early and developed late into that of a DeUverer. Optimism prevaUed ever5rwhere, based upon the beUef that God was pledged to the rescue of His own in the Messianic time when His kingdom would be set up on earth and the Jew and Jemsalem be tbe center of the whole wide world. To His Covenant with them they tumed when hope was darkest. DeUverance was to come not through a human individual but directiy from God Himself. The passages interpreted as referring to Jesus have been overworked. The value of prophecy in proof of His Divinity Ues not in the foretelUng of definite inddents. That would prove nothing. It Ues rather in the preparation of the Jews for Him. The old argument was, given Prophecy and Mirades and the Divinity of Christ foUows. The new argument is, given the Per sonaUty of Jesus and Prophecy as a preparation for His coming and Miracles as tiie extraordinary expression of that PersonaUty foUows. Such a Person argues a long line of movement toward the fuUness of time when the human spirit would be ready for Him. Such a Person could not touch this planet without shaking its very foundations. When we start with Him, therefore, there need be no trouble with tbe andent dogma of his Divin- RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF THE PSALMS 187 ity. And to start with Him requires only that we read the Four Gospels without presupposition or prejudice, with the wiU to do God's wUl. What have the Psahns to say about the after life? One of the marveUous things about the Old Testament is that it was a reUgion witbout an eternal outiook for the individual. The prophets received no word of com fort from beyond the grave. Tbe fact that this beUef was entirely absent before the captivity and rather un important in tbe later writers, has been interpreted as meaning that tbe sense of personaUty was hardly then realized. The center of the community was not tbe in dividual but the nation, the community, the famUy. In dividual self-consdousness is necessary to strong beUef in immortaUty. In the prophets it was the nation that sinned and was punished; it was tbe nation that was to win a resurrection by obedience. National unfaithful ness to Yahweh was the cause of their calamities. There was a sort of after Ufe held out to the individual in Sheol, a subterranean cavern in tbe bowels of tbe earth. The word probably means, "what is low, deep down." The idea probably grew out of bodies being buried to gether in caves. The soul was thought to hover near the body. There semi-consdous disembodied spirits dragged out a forlorn existence without remembrance and without hope. Tbe good and the bad are there. There was no idea of retribution and reward. The bad fared as well as the good. People prayed to be deUvered from Sheol, from the pit, which means that they prayed to be kept aUve in the upper world where feUowship and praise are possible. "For in death there is no remembrance of thee: In Sheol who shaU give thee thanks?" (6:5.) "What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to tbe pit? ShaU the dust praise thee? shaU it dedare thy tmth?" (30:9-) 1 88 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY "Oh spare me, that I may recover strength. Before I go hence and be no more." (39:13.) "I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no help. Cast off among the dead. Like tbe slain that Ue in tbe grave, Whom thou rememberest no more, And they are cut off from thy hand." (88:4-5). "WUt thou show wonders to the dead? ShaU they that are deceased arise and praise thee? SbaU thy lovingkindness be declared in tbe grave? Or thy faithfulness in destmction?" (88:10.) "The dead praise not Jehovah, Ndther any that go down into sUence." (115:17). There is no hope of a resurrection in the Psalter. The prophets beUeve in a national not a personal resurrection as a preparation for tbe Messianic kingdom; and tbe Psahnist's strength and inspiration are to be found, not in foregleams of a resurrection morning but rather in the richness and fulness of tbe Ufe here and now in intimate touch with God and in loyal obedience to His wiU. The Psahns and hymns of the andent world that have come down to us faU to voice our human heart cries and so belong to the dead things of tbe past, but this coUec tion of lync poems is destined to Uve while human nature endures. For they compass the measureless areas of life's restiess sea, sound its abysmal deeps, penetrate its subtie mysteries, catch its shifting moods, and tum even its tumult and its moaning into music that gladdens the world. PART FOUR THE SAGES AND THEIR PHILOSOPHY Introductory When the enemies of Jeremiah, in reply to bis attacks upon them, said: "Tbe law shall not perish from the priests, nor counsel from the wise, nor tbe word from the Prophet;" they gave tbe completest summary of the three chief classes of leaders at work in Andent Israel to be found in the Old Testament. They took thdr rise in one man, Samuel, who combined in himself tbe functions of aU three, i, Tbe first of these to be developed was, as we have seen, the prophet, who was tbe seer of bis time. His mission was not primarUy to foretell but to forth- teU the wUl of God. It was his not only to see the face of the sky, but to discern the signs of the times. The Pro phetic movement is perhaps tbe very greatest religious- Uterary movement of the ages. Tbe second rnove- ment in Andent Israel was the priestly. Beginning per haps with duties not unlike those of a sexton, tiiey developed into a powerful factor in Jewish Ufe. The third movement of spedal importance was that which gave rise to the Wisdom Literature. Tbe wise men are less known as a distinct class, than either of the other two, because the Historical Books were written by the Prophets and the Priests and from their standpoint, and because their methods of work were not such as to bring them into pubUc notice. We are left, therefore, to in ference and chance allusions for what we know of them. Theirs was really an inteUectual, an educational move ment. The first wise man of whom we bear was a woman — tbe wise woman of Tekoa, later tbe home of Amos. She was used by Joab to induce David to recaU Absolom. The second wise man was also a woman, the 191 192 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Wise Woman of the town of Abel, who saved the town by surrendering tbe head of Sheba to Joab. The first to achieve permanent renown in this field was Solomon, who was said to be wiser than all men — than those of the East and Egypt. He spoke three thousand Proverbs, and seems to have estabUshed in Jemsalem a sort of University, which was so famous as to attract students from many parts of the world. Ethan, the Ezraite, He- man, Colcol, and Darda, were weU-known contempora ries of Solomon in this line of work. The Prophets refer to the Wise as a distinct class. Isaiah foretold that the wisdom of their wise men should perish; and Ezekiel, that they should seek a vision of the prophet, but the law should not perish from the Priests, and counsel from the Elders. David quotes to Saul the proverbs of the An- dents. Job pictures tbe Wise reasoning together. At first they seem to have been divided into different schools and one school did not hesitate to call the wisdom of others foUy. But they seem to have come together later on in a great educational movement which remained al ways close to the people. They were the first to break the shackles of andent tradition and radal exdusiveness and come out in the open as universaUst, and individual ists. Their message was not to the State nor to the Church, but to tbe individual. They treated man as man. There is no evidence that they wore an offidal garb. The clerical coat of the modem clergyman as weU as the white robes of the Priests would not be needed by men Uving among men, and touching vitaUy the Uves of those with whom they were working. There is no evidence of eUgibiUty to the order secured by inheritance, nor of any formal induction into office. They made no claim to a spedal divine caU, nor even to inspiration. Their equipment seems to have been natural abiUty educated by experience. They seem to have been almost entirely old men, men who had stood the test of actual Ufe in contact with stem reaUty. It is INTRODUCTORY I93 not known whether they devoted aU thdr time to pubUc service. Nor are we told how they were supported. They seem to have received not fees, but possibly gifts. Prov erbs draws a graphic picture of tbe fool trying to buy wisdom, which would indicate that they were accustomed to pay for advice. They were contemporary with the Seven Wise Men of Greece. Their methods: They took their disdples wherever they found them, tumed aside with them, walked with them, asked and answered questions, always dealing Avith the individual, who was addressed as "My son." They were button-hole PhUosophers, peripatetics, alert for responsive souls in need of their message. They were "Reprovers in the Gate." It is thought that they were a sort of Ways and Means committee of large influence in tbe gates of the town, where government was admin istered. They went out also as messengers, with an appeaUng invitation to Wisdom's feast. They would therefore, occasionaUy make speeches from tbe Bema of the Prophets, on tbe streets, in the pubUc squares, at the gates. They were immensely popular with the people and seemed never to have suffered personal violence, as did the Prophets. There were, however, scomers who refused their teachings. The type of their work is in dicated by the fact that education can be substituted for wisdom in most places where that word occurs. They were old-time schoolmasters, each with bis inner drde of disdples, who fed at his table and drank at his soul- springs. Their relations to the Prophets and the Priests: They cared Uttle or nothing about ritual and the cult. Their interest in the nation was secondary. Proverbs uses man thirty- three times, but never mentions Israel. Tbe mission of the Prophet was to tbe State, and his mission culminated when the nation feU. He dealt with the pubUc rather than the people. His attitude toward the Priest was never, as a rule, partioUarly cordial, and the churchly 194 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY aspect of sodal Ufe was secondary to the national. The chief concern of the Priest was the Church, to which alone his message was given. Neither the Prophet nor the Priest dealt primarily with the individual, with whom alone the Sage bad to do. The message of the Prophet being to the State, and of the Priest to the Church, whUe that of the Sage was to tbe individual, the Prophet and the Sage, who dealt with sodal and personal char acter, would be sympathetic with each other and would work together, whUe both would be suspidons of the Priest, whose business was with mere externals, forms, ceremonies, ritual which at first were expressions of the reUgious Ufe but which later became substitutes for it. The Prophet and the Sage helped each other, worked band in hand. When the Prophet pictured the Messiah, he pictured Him as a Sage. "And there shaU come forth a shoot out of tbe stock of Jesse, and a branch out of His root shaU bear fruit. And the spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah." Tbe Prophet made free and full use of the Sage's material. "To obey is better than to sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams," is pure wisdom in form and content. The Sage's system of psychology is back of EU jab's prayer, "Let this chUd's soul come into him again," and an entire cosmogony back of Jonah's declaration that he was of Israel and that God made the sea and tbe dry land. Jotham's fable and the parable with which Nathan brought David to bis knees were wisdom in form as weU as substance. Indeed, almost every prophet appropri ated more or less of the Sage's thought. Their literary forms: Among aU primitive peoples, poetry, which is tbe mother-tongue of thought, marks the beginning of Uterature. The reason of this is that rhythm helps the memory, and Uterature in its initial stage depends upon memory for transmission. The INTRODUCTORY 195 wise men used this form even in their latest productions, which smell of the lamp. It is necessary to keep in mind that Hebrew poetry is characterized by rhythm of thought rather than sound. The basis of it is two paral lel Unes. These may be synonymous, expressing identi cally the same thought, for example: "How shaU I curse whom God hath not cursed, "How shaU I defy whom the Lord bath not defied;" or expressing simUar thought, as: "Sun, stand thou stUl upon Gibeon; And thou. Moon, in tbe valley of Aijalon. "And tbe sun stood stiU, and the moon stayed, UntU the nation bad avenged themselves of their enemies. " (Joshua 10:12-13.) The second form of poetry is antithetic, in which the second Une is set over against tbe first: "A wise son maketh a glad father, "But a fooUsh son is the heaviness of his mother. " The third form is synthetic, in which the second Une adds something to the first or makes comparison with it: "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is Than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." "Answer not a fool according to bis foUy Lest thou also be like unto him. " The special forms employed by the sages are the simili tude, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord, " tbe riddle, such as Samson's, "Out of tbe eater came forth food And out of tbe strong came forth sweetness. " 196 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY This illustrates the use of tbe riddle in sodal life. Sam son was entertaining his friends at a seven-days' feast on the occasion of Ins wedding (Judges 14:10-18). One of the oldest pieces of wisdom Uterature in the Old Testament is Jotham's fable, where be rebukes the men of Shechem for going by him to select a king, with the story of the trees that went forth on a time to anoint a king over them (Judges 9:7 f.) Not less powerful is the parable, such as Nathan's story of the ewe lamb. We are aU familiar with tbe simple proverb stiU current among us: "Tbe fathers have eaten sour grapes. And the chUdren's teeth are set on edge." One of the oldest paradoxes is tbe one just quoted, " Answer not a fool according to bis foUy." The splendid Gnomic essay on wisdom in the early chapters of Prov erbs, and tbe description of tbe drunkard are fine exam ples of stiU another wisdom form. Tbe didactic drama, such as the Song of Songs, the phUosopbic drama of Job, the phUosophic horoily of Ecclesiastes, and personification, in the early chapters of Proverbs, exampUfy for us their more developed Uterary forms. The scope of their thought-world: Every race and every individual alike creates bis own pecuUar thought- world, according to personal and radal equation. The Semite had a world aU his own. There were certain unique elements in his make-up. He has been char acterized by "a yearning after dreamy ease," "a strange and ever-present shiftlessness, a striking combina tion of pUabUity with iron fixity, a spirit of unity and simpUdty which made combination and complexity impossible." He had a sort of ideaUsm that controUed life and thought and determined his reUgion, for it put a sort of halo over and around all things. Tbe Aryan, on the other band, has strength, vigor, accuracy. INTRODUCTORY 197 discrimination, which produce sdence, art, law, organ ization, the epic, tbe drama, and phUosophy. The Semite, being without these inteUectual elements, has given us no epic poetry, science, developed phUosophy, real fiction, and no strict governmental organization. He had depth and force of character, capadty for work, and vivid imagination that gave reUgious intensity. Their ideaUsm developed tbe Prophets, who have not appeared fully developed outside the Semites, and to gether with their "yearning after dreamy ease," explains their pictures of the future, their temple worship, and their widely scattered synagogues. Wisdom took a wide range. It covered not only their rudimentary phUosophy, but aU that passed for science. Solomon is reputed to bave known something of horti culture, agricultiue, botany, natural history, law, government, as weU as practical ethics. The prophets were ideaUsts, the Priests rituaUsts, the Sages utiUta- rians. They were concerned with the things of today, and had so little eye for tomorrow that they say nothing of Israel's andent hope, the Messiah. In politics, the Prophets were progressives, insurgents even, the Priests, standpatters, and the Sages were independents. The first division of their thought realm was tbe world plan. Their cosmogony is preserved for us in Genesis. The earth there is a flat surface resting on pUlars below, yet floating, so to speak, on tbe waters of the great deep, whose fountains sprang up through crevices in tbe earth. Above was tbe firmament of Heaven, a fixed dome, and stiU above it were tbe upper floods which poured down when tbe windows of the firmanent were opened. StiU above these upper floods was the throne of God, from which everything that is and that is coming to pass, is brought about by direct exercise of wUl, witbout tbe intervention of intermediate causes. The second division of their thought reahn was the art of practical Uving, the way to get on in the world. 198 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY The third division was the spedal problems of life. They asked three questions; first. What are the laws of the universe, that I may bring myself into harmony with the world plan; second. What are the laws of life, that I may know how to Uve; third. What are the problems of Ufe, and what their solution, that I may Uve intelU gently. Outside wisdom: Tbe Jew came in contact with aU the peoples of the ancient world. Tbe blood of almost every race flows through bis veins, and tbe thought of every people probably influenced him more or less. Tbe Sages, coming in the later periods of Hebrew and Jewish history, had tbe advantage of the manifold and multi form experiences through which their fathers had come. We are not surprised, therefore, to find in the Old Testa ment reUcs of outside wisdom, for aU peoples bave had their wise. The Proverbial Uterature of Egypt and Arabia is stUl extant. The architect of Solomon's tem ple, whose name is forgotten, was a Tyrian. Balaam was a Sage, Job an Arabian Sheik. Tbe book of Job con tains a large foreign element. The warhorse is an Arabian steed, the hippopotamus is Egyptian, the very language is different from the Hebrew of any other book, containing many words not found elsewhere, influenced very largely by Arabic and Aramaic. Greek influence on the wisdom Uteratur§ seems to have been strong. Tbe period of tbe devefopment of Greek phUosophy was synchronous with that of the Hebrew. Tbe epoch reaching from 600 to 250 B. C. marked the phUosophical awakening and growtb of both peoples. What a pity that whUe tbe names of the seven wise men of Greece and their successors are preserved to us, those of almost aU in Israel are forever lost. The fact that there was no particular proprietary right in authorship among the Semites is not without its value, in that ideas, rather than individuals, were then, as they are now, the real rulers of the world; yet nothing can repay us for the loss INTRODUCTORY I99 of the names and careers of the authors of Job, Eccle siastes, The Song of Solomon, to say nothing of scores of others who helped to produce the literature of the Old Testament. While the development of Greek and Hebrew Philos ophy were contemporaneous, they are of two whoUy different t37pes. The Greek went up the stream of being so to speak, in search of God at its source. The Hebrew started with God at the source, went down stream find ing Him everywhere. Tbe Greek took tbe whole of things and tried to analyze them, which process resulted in a God without a world, and a world without a God; the Hebrew conceived the whole of things as vitaUy in touch with and immediately created and controlled by God, who was everywhere unavoidable. The Greek was coldly intellectual; tbe Hebrew passionately reli- gous. The Greek phUosophy was a carefully wrought out system; tbe Hebrew a deeply Uved-out experience. He showed: That "life is not as idle ore, But iron dug from central gloom. And heated hot with burning fears, And dipped in baths of hissing tears. And battered with the shock of doom To shape and use. " To him everything was personal, even tbe tbtmder was God's voice, and Nature but the mantle be drew around him. These men of old swept tbe whole horizon of practical every-day interests and preached for the first time a cosmopolitanism that came to its fulness in Jesus of Nazareth. They were the humanists of Israel and their ideals were fully and finally reaUzed in Him who spake as never man spake. Their methods were perfected by Him. The wisdom of Proverbs is the Logos of the pro logue of John's Gospel. These three great movements 200 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY began with one man, who was Prophet, Priest and Sage, for Samuel was aU these; each movement completed its final cycle in Jesus, who grew in wisdom, increased in power as a prophet, and enriched and fulfiUed the world's noblest ideal of Priest. "Tho' tmths in manhood darkly join. Deep-seated in our mystic frame. We yield aU blessing to tbe name Of Him that made them current coin; For Wisdom dealt with mortal powers. Where truth in closest words shaU faU, When truth embodied in a tale SbaU enter in at lowly doors. And so the Word had breath, and wrought With human hands the creed of creeds In loveUness of perfect deeds. More strong than aU poetic tiiougbt; Which he may read that binds the sheaf. Or buUds tbe bouse, or digs the grave. And those wUd eyes that watch the wave In roarings round tbe coral reef. " II JOB : Providence and Pain (500 B. C.?). In order to understand Job, it is necessary to recaU the doctrine of suffering prevaUing in Israel before his time. It was held that suffering is not the work of some superhuman power hostUe to God, but came into the world because the first man disobeyed. It is in the world with God's permission and is made use of by Him in His deaUngs with individuals and nations; it is a club with which He punishes. When a man sins, be he peas- JOB 20I ant or king, be must suffer because of bis sin. No man ever sinned and escaped. Forgiveness does not rid us of penalty. When a nation sins, it must suffer. On the other band, suffering is proof of sin; great suffering, of great sin. SUght suffering is often sent to attract the notice of the sinner and turn him from his sin; an other, and another, may follow; if unheeded, severe afffiction comes. So that affliction involves sodal dis grace. What consolation is offered by the prophet to tbe sufferer? No immediate reUef is given except the assurance that later all wUl be right. The prophetic remedy is idealization. The prophet Uves in the future, yet he never comforts with promises of another life. He either did not know anything of the hereafter or for some reason undivulged he made no use of it. Tbe future beyond the grave, so far as he knew, was dark. Sheol was no consolation. There the small and the great, the young and the old, the good and tbe bad, disem bodied, dragged out in a dismal cavern in the bowels of the earth a forlorn semi-consdous existence in which even God was forgotten. The prophet himself begged God not to let him die, because he could not praise God in Sheol, and God wanted praise. How did the men of those days support their faith in God? The opening cry of the 22d Psahn is a suggestion or the answer: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? " This was tlie keynote of the hour. These words breathe at once an ineradical beUef in (jod and an almost ab solute despair. The great minds of the period were StmggUng with the problem, which had been terribly intensffied and mystified by the faU of Josiah. Deu teronomy had promised that if the people would be good they would prosper. Josiah had done bis best to en force tbe law of Deuteronomy and make himself and his people holy, and yet in the height of bis glory he went down trailing trouble for tbe nation after him. Only a Uttie while, and tbe captivity came, with all its 202 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY horrors. Tbe people were ruthlessly torn from thdr homes, the graves of their loved ones, the places made holy by andent traditions, from their Temple in which alone they had been taught they could worship God ac ceptably; tom away from everything tbe human spirit holds dear, and dragged a thousand miles away to be sub ject to an aUen power. And it was not the wicked who suffered most. The poUtidans had made the trouble. Tbe rank and file of tbe people, many of them, were doing their best and were not consdous of sin great enough to warrant such a calamity. Many of tbe leaders were flourishing, because they were glad to make terms with the Government, having no principle at stake. The devout and loyal souls who were innocent were the ones upon whom the blow feU. They could not under stand; they were dazed. The 53d chapter of Isaiah had set forth gloriously the doctrine that, after aU, the innocent do suffer for the sake of those wbo came after. I can imagine the author of the Book of Job and the author of the 53d Chapter of Isaiah taking a walk to gether. Tbe author of Job said to the author of this other great poem, "You have given us a great book, but is there no other word to be said? Is there no reUef avaUable now for those in the bitter throes of agony? " The author of Isaiah, seeing tbe point, repUed, "Try your hand." And this broken-hearted sage dipped his pen in bis own heart's blood and set out to save himseU and bis suffering people. He presents first in the pro logue: Tbe Conffict of Faitii with the Facts of Life (Ch. 1-2). He takes an andent folk story in prose and spUts it in two and fits bis poem in the middle. This ancient folk story gives a beautiful picture of an andent Arabian Sheik, happy, with plenty, in tbe bosom of a large and joyous family. There was not a care, not a fleck on the sky anywhere; there was nothing to do but to go on a ceaseless round of feasting and rejoidng, beginning the JOB 203 first day of each week in the eldest brother's house. That every possibiUty of the least sin which might incur trouble should be removed, the father required each child to take a bath, change his clothes, and be offered sacrifice for them aU, lest they might have unwittingly renounced God during tbe previous week. MeanwhUe, a convention of the officers of the universe assembles. The Satan whose office was to test tbe pretentions of men, he being a sort of incarnation of the testing proc esses of Ufe, a kind of sifting providence, appeared among the other officers with whom he properly belonged, to give a report of his work. His experience had made him a c3tuc, and to cure his cynicism, Jehovah asks him whether he has considered the peerless Job. The Satan repUed that he had, that Job was weU paid for his piety, in that be and bis home were hedged about by such splendid rewards. He was not serving God for naught; only touch what he has, and he wUl teU you goodbye. In order to vindicate Job, apparently, the Satan is given permission to take all, but forbidden to touch his per son. Job, though considered perfect by God, is being played for like a pawn, but knows nothing. On tbe very day on which sacrifice bad removed every vestige of possible sin, society, exemplified in the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, combined with Nature in tbe form of Ughting and cyclone to pelt the Sheik with alternate strokes until nothing was left. Job had received the news sitting, then rose, rent his tunic to symbolize his broken heart, shaved his head to remove tiie last rem nant of ornament, put his forehead in the dust, sym bolizing devout submission, and said: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shaU I return thither; Jehovah gave, and Jehovah bath taken away; blessed be tbe name of Jehovah." A second convention of tbe officers of tbe universe assembles. Yahweh asks the Satan for a report on Job, at the same time pronouncing him perfect and upright. 204 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY the best man on earth (he had been the richest man in the East). The Satan repUed that be had, and that bis only mistake was in supposing he prized famUy and wealth most; it was reaUy bis health; take that, and he wiU teU you goodbye. That vindication may be com plete. Job is given into his hands, but Ufe must be spared. There is an inmost area in us aU, where tbe protection of Providence is absolute, so long as we are loyal. Job becomes a leper, banished to the garbage heap without tbe gates, forsaken by God and man. Even the wife of his bosom begs him to renounce God and die, whether by suidde is not certain. His answer to it all was, "ShaU we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evU? " He pays splendid homage in pain to the absoluteness of Yahweh, which was then thought to be the highest type of reUgion. Months pass; reports of the awful tragedy spread. Princely friends of the faUen Sheik come by appoint ment to comfort him. They sit down, in tears, with him for seven days, the period of mourning, their gar ments tom to symbolize their grief; after which, sedng in their faces deep suspicion, be boils over. He bad hitherto agreed with them in the conviction that there was a mathematical relation between sin and suffering; so much sin brings so much suffering, so much suffering argues so much sin. But be had not committed sins great enough to warrant the suffering now infficted on him. Here was a conffict between faith and the facts of Ufe. The First Cycle of Speeches (Ch. 4-14.) The Fight for the Freedom to Think These three friends represent three sources of au thority in reUgion. EUphaz, the oldest, is intellectual, cahn, dignified, godly; a man of strong reUgious prej udices, something of a Puritan and a mystic. Though THE FIGHT FOR THE FREEDOM TO THINK 205 kind of heart, he is rather cold in his bearing, a lecturer rather than a comforter. He gives experiences and warn ings, representing the prophet, and speaking what be has received by revelation. The scene in the 4th Chapter describing bis vision has been caUed tbe most wierd passage in the Uterature of the world. The second friend, BUdad, represents tradition, the wisdom of the ancient sages. He is ready to rest his case, finally, upon the conclusions of tbe thoughtful of all times. Prec edent is with him the last word. He thinks what is new is not true, and what is tme is not new. He is a phi losopher and an observer of men and things. His uni verse is fixed rather than fluid, a crystal rather than a stream. Zophar, tbe third of the friends, represents common sense. He is a practical layman of strong conviction and lives by his convictions. He is intoler ant, somewhat arrogant, superfidal, wordy. He is not concerned so much with religion as such, or with theo logical discussions, as be is with bringing things to pass according to tbe dictates of tbe native instincts. Job represents the independent thinker of the exiUc and early post-exilic period. He sjonboUzes, in a way, the chosen people in tbe midst of their calamity. Tbe problem is a soul, rather than a subject — a soul over whelmed and in search of tbe way out. AU three friends, as weU as Job, were ignorant of secondary causes. All that was done in andent times was done by God, whether it was good or bad. Job differs with them now only in bis consciousness of innocence, which had been attested even in Heaven, although he does not know it. Seeing in the faces of his friends deep suspicion, he curses bis birthday, lamenting that he bad not been stiUbom, if he had to be born at aU, and now longing for death. He catches a glimpse of the semi-consdous rest in Sheol and quiets for a moment, then bursts out again, insinuating thmgs against God. He is thus revealed a heretic, and must be brought back to right thinking. 206 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY So, in the first round, the speeches appeal to Job's in- teUect, pleading the character of God. EUphaz sets forth His purity. His transcendence, His goodness; BU dad, His discriminating justice; Zophar, His insight. EUphaz opens the debate. He is surprised that Job, wbo has comforted others, is now himself giving way imder grief. His integrity should be his confidence. The innocent never perish imder affliction; only tbe wicked are destroyed Uke beasts of prey. He has bad a vision which revealed to him the unapproachable purity of God in contrast with tbe imperfections of aU His creatures. These imperfections breed sin and sin brings trouble, to which man is, therefore, bom, as tbe sparks fly upward. The thing to do is not to murmur, which is very dangerous, but to tum to God, whose ways are wonderful, whose power is great, whose purpose is only to do good, and whose chastenings bring richer blessings. Job, in reply, is surprised that his calamity is not weighed with his complaint. The arrows of the Almighty have stuck in him. Men reason from the cry of beasts to their suffering, so bis outcries should have argued bis anguish. He passes into a momentary frenzy. Meeting tbe suggestion of EUphaz about perishing, he longs for death as his utmost consolation. He cannot stand it much longer, and why should he? Even bis friends, from whom be had a right to expect help, bave taken sides against him because tbey were afraid of God. He had asked nothing from them but sympathy. He de mands to be shown the sins at which they are hinting. Some other explanation must be found than his guUt. He was capable of saying whether bis calamities were deserved, and he would not Ue. AU his troubles are but a part of the common human lot of misery and helpless ness. He wiU, therefore, speak his mind. Turning to God, he demands to know whether God is treating him so because He is afraid of him. Is he dangerous to tbe Uni verse, like a sea or a sea-monster, that has to be watched THE FIGHT FOR THE FREEDOM TO THINK 207 and subdued? He loathes life. Is not man too mean a thing for God to give so much attention to him? Is such conduct not unworthy of God? If he has sinned, what business is it of God's; why does He not take away his sin? You will yet seek me, and it may be too late. BUdad ignores Job's defense and assault upon bis friends, and takes up Job's daim to be right against God and bis assertion that the race is in the cruel grip of force. He contends for tbe discriminating rectitude of God, shown both in the punishing of sin and the re warding of righteousness. Job's chUdren had received, be hints, only their due, and their father wiU be restored to even greater prosperity, if be wiU only seek God- The wisdom of the ancients, which is our highest author ity, shows how rapid and complete the downfall of the wicked is. God wiU not cast away the perfect man- He wUl fiU Job's mouth with laughing, while his haters, who are wicked, shall be undone. But how, sneers Job, can a man be righteous with God, with whom migbt is right, who is irresistible, unaccountable, unapproachable, irresponsible, incompre hensible, perverse even? He would listen to nobody, re veal Himself to nobody. Even if He should reveal bunself to Job, he could not beUeve that it was He. " Even if I were perfect, he would prove me perverse." He dares to say it: " I am perfect, yet I am held guUty." There can be no trial, for there is no arbiter. Let Him take His rod away from me and give me a chance to answer- He then tries to find what, in tbe Divine nature, can explain his trouble and sufferings. He pleads to God not to make him guUty by mere arbitrary wiU. Do you do it, be asks, because you enjoy it, or are you making a mistake, or are you afraid you are going to die before you get me? You made me and you bave been kind- Did you expend aU your skill on me, in order tbe more effectively to plague me? Why did you give me existence at aU? Was aU your former goodness only concealed 2o8 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY maUgnity? Let me alone, and give me a Uttie comfort before I plunge into the night. Job has boldly declared his innocence in the face of aflaictions which prove him guUty. Zophar would, therefore, bave God, who is omniscient, speak as Job wishes. Then the sufferer would become aware of the sins that cause his sufferings. "Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? He is high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth. And broader than tbe sea. " This incomprehensible wisdom detects men's hidden sins, which cause sudden calamities. Job, should, there fore, put away evU and unclouded happiness will foUow. Zophar has made it plain that the omnisdent wisdom of God condemns Job as a sinner, and men, who are hollow, should therefore be sUent. The friends were, of course, right. Job answers. Wisdom would die with them, but be knows as much about the Divine wisdom and power as they do. Tbey bave the advantage of him, only because pain makes him helpless. Everybody knows that God sways His creatures with absolute power, in nature and sodety, alike. No moral distinc tions in Him are apparent- The friends do not under stand- Silence would be golden for them. He desires to plead bis cause before God, and wUl go before him, let come what may. "Behold, he wiU slay me; I have no hope: "Nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him." His courage is at the full, because he is now estabUshed in tbe consciousness of innocence, though aware of the THE FIGHT FOR THE FREEDOM TO THINK 209 sins of his youth. He asks to be shown what his in iquities are. WUl God harass a driven leaf? He is wast ing away like a moth-eaten garment. Man that is bom of woman is of few days and full of trouble. None are clean. Since his days are fixed, be pleads for a Uttle respite, a Uttie rest. There is hope for a tree, which, if cut down, wiU sprout again, but none for man, for whom there is no awakening. Sinldng into the depths, bis soul revolts from the blackness of utter despair and be asks whether, after all, we may not Uve again, whether God will not yet claim, in anotiier reahn, the work of His own hands. He pursues, eagerly, that beautiful phantom for a moment, driven on by the instinctive demands of bis inmost self, with a prayer that he might be hidden in Sheol until God's wrath be overpast. He has now lost fellowship with God, but bis malady wUl pass, though God's anger pursue him to tbe grave. There is no hope for him on this side. He longs to remain in Sheol until he shall be caUed back into the Divine feUowship, with a complete return to Ufe again, only to fall back once more into the dark. The first cycle of speeches starts with Job's complaint, in Chapter 3, making insinuations against God. Each of the friends appeals to Job's intellect, in an effort to bring him back to right thinking about God, the first pleading Divine purity and universal goodness, the second. His discriminating rectitude, the third, His onmisdent insight. Each closes with an exhortation to return to God and aU will be weU. Job's answer is that their arguments do not fit bis case. He does not need to be taught about (jod; he knows as much as any of them. He does not need to be exhorted to go to God; that is just what be most desires. He even chaUenges God to a trial of his case. He speaks unreservedly and fearlessly. his whole mind, and, in the face of all odds, wins for himself the freedom to think. 2io the old testament in the life of today The Second Cycle of Speeghes (Ch. 15 to 21) The Fight for Freedom of Conscience Tbe friends have utterly failed to correct Job's heresy. AU their arrows have missed the mark. His passionate dedarations of innocence and his irreverent speeches convince them that the trouble is not inteUectual, but moral. They have given aU they know about the attri butes of God, in answer to which, they have received not only a violent personal attack from Mm, but also a bold challenge to God Himself- They are shocked. His behavior explains aU; yet greater danger was imminent. This is but another example of the fate that befalls the wicked. Their thoughts now turn from heaven to earth, from God to man. Job's conscience must be aroused. He realizes, for tbe first time, bis tme position, his utter desolation- Man and God, alike, hold him guilty. Tbe friends draw closer around Job, painting alarming pictures of tbe disasters that befall the wicked, sUentiy saying, "Thou art the man." He must now fight for freedom of consdence- Eliphaz takes the lead, insinuating that Job is a wind bag- His wild talk is not only unprofitable; it is dan gerous. "Yea, thou doest away with fear, And binderest devotion before God." Young people must not have such suggestions made to them. Old people must not be disturbed. Even if tme, it is dangerous. Like Socrates be would cormpt youth. Like Jesus he would lead the people astray. Like a modem scholar alive in the modern world he would upset things. The hazard of tbe nonconformist was too great. Even if he had opinions of his own, he must keep still- But his own words condemn him. Was he the first man bom? Are the consolations of God too small for him? EUphaz is deeply wounded at tbe treatment he. the fight for freedom of conscience 211 an aged and dignified counsellor, has received- Job's speech is destructive of all godUness- How can a man tliat is bom of woman be righteous? If there were any other way to be bom, be migbt bave a chance. Even the heavens are not clean, much less, man. In conse quence of this uncleanness, there are three vanities written upon tbe achievements of the wicked: Dissatis faction in enjo3anent — the sound of terrors is in his ears; uncertainty in possession — ^in prosperity tbe destroyer shaU come upon him; disappointment in pursuit — for vanity shaU be his recompense. Job now realizes that not only must he bear the en mity of God, under which he staggered in the first cycle, but also the universal aUenation of mankind. He is stamped a hypocrite by the world of bis day, disgraced, because his sufferings have proved him such. He is alone, and yearns for sympathy. The awfulness of tbe isolation crushes him. He has nothing left but his own consciousness of innocence, to which he cUngs all tbe more desperately. He wiU never be vindicated in this Ufe. His fate is that of a martyr. "Yet, right is right, since God is God. And right the day must win. " His vindication would, therefore, finaUy come, even at the hands of God Himself. Men are mocking him, but he Ufts his tear-stained face to heaven, begging for a pledge, even here, that hereafter bis name shall be cleared up. He begins his reply with an expression of weariness of bis friends' meaningless speeches. "If your soul were in my soul's stead, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you." He ffings back, with scorn, the consolations of God they bave been offering him. He hardly knows whether to speak or not. He staggers on with complaints to God, about God, who has made desolate aU his company, and about bis friends, who bave gathered themselves together against 212 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY him and to whose jeers God has deUvered him. God, Himself, is dashing him to pieces. He pours out bis tears unto God, begging that a man's right with Him and against men, be upheld and a pledge be given that his character will yet be deared. He repudiates the hope offered by his friends of restoration in this Ufe, looking only for the grave. Then, rising to supernal heights, he declares magnificentiy, in tbe face of all the moral wrongs prevaUing in God's rule of the world and in men's deaUngs with each other, yet shall the righteous hold on bis way and he that bath dean hands shaU wax stronger and stronger. But as for him, bis purposes were broken off, and only the dark awaits him. EUphaz had interpreted punishment in terms of terrors of tbe guilty. Consequently, BUdad, in order to arouse those terrors, attributes punishment to the order of nature and tbe moral instinct of mankind, both of which are against tbe sinner. He arraigns Job for counting them, his friends, as beasts: God had not tom him; he was tearing himself. Does Job expect a mirade to be wrought for his sake? The whole universe is against the wrongdoer; be is trapped, everywhere he turns. The terrors that overtook Job are so graphicaUy described as to be unmistakable, though given in gen eral terms: Job's leprosy, the brimstone that burned up bis property, the tree withered from the roots up, the horror and devastation of man, finally chasing him out of tbe world — ^aU these are saying, "This is the place of him that knoweth not God; this is the fate. Job, that awaits you." Job feels the sting and repudiates the inferences tbe friends are drawing from his calamities, which are due to God, alone, tbe author of his present terrible fate. God has deserted him utterly, so bave all his servants and intimates, so has everybody else; even Uttle chUdren mock him. Sinking to the lowest deeps of degradation and despair, he suddenly leaps to tbe assurance that God THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE 213 will yet appear to vindicate him, and that his eyes shaU see Him on his side. "But as for me I know that my Vindicator Uvetii, "And at last be will stand up upon the earth." "And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed, "Then without my flesh shaU I see God;" "Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, "And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger." He faints, in contemplation of this glorious outcome. Consdousness returning, he warns his friends. Zophar is stirred into fiery indignation, and hastens to rebuff Job's attack upon tbem and his appeaUng from them to posterity, threatening tbem with Divine punish ment. He had accused God of wronging him, shockingly, and yet this same God was to be his final Vindicator. BUdad had emphasized the certainty of the sinner's downfall under the automatic action of moral law, which rises up against sin. Zophar emphasizes the brevity of his prosperity and the reflex action of sin, bringing its own punishment. Sin, which is sweet in tbe mouth, turns to tbe poison of asps in the stomach. The achieve ments of tbe wicked, be shows now, as EUphaz did, to be subject to three vanities: Dissatisfaction in en joyment—his meat is the gaU of asps within him, un certainty in possession — that which he labored for shaU he restore, a fire not blown by hands shaU consume him; disappointment in pursuit — ^when he is about to ffil his belly, God wiU cast the fierceness of His wrath upon him. This powerful picture of dire distress, like that painted by BUdad, says to Job, "Thou art tbe man." Job, at the beginning of the first round, was so busy with thoughts of God as to be unable to take up, con secutively, the arguments of the friends. In the second, he is busy with thoughts of God's terrifying wrongs done 214 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY him, and not until the third catalogue of horrors makes its pointed appeal to his consdence does he come to himself. "There is much humanity in Job, and his mind moves by preference in the region of human feel- ins, the rights of tbe wretched, the daims of sentient Ufe, the mysteries of human existence and the riddles of the world, and it is unwilUngly that he descends from this region into the arena of disputation. It is only the corrosive language of Zophar that awakens him on each occasion to the particular meamng of his friends' ad dresses. Both times bis challenge brings Job into the field, tbe first time with aU the bitterness of sarcasm (Ch- xU-), and now with the trenchant force of an argu ment from facts- " EUphaz had offered Job the consolations of God. Job repUes that the consolation be wants is that tbey shaU Usten to him until he has bad his say, and then mock on if they like. Tbe facts are aU against them. The wicked are prosperous; their seed is estabUshed with aU good things. It is no answer to say that God will heap up his iniquity for his chUdren; that is not a square deal. Why should they be wiser than God? Character does not determine fortune. Why attribute to God what He does not do? The pictures you have drawn to arouse me are not true; history denies them all. Anybody who has travelled could tell them better. In the first round, the friends faUed to reach Job's heresy because he showed that their arguments did not fit his case, and he won the freedom to think for himseU. They faUed to reach him in tbe second round, because be flatly contradicted their interpretation of Gkid's providence in the world, proving his contention from tbe facts of human experience. Even if those facts were tme, they would not fit his case, for he was more con sdous now than ever of his own personal integrity. His consdence is in his own keeping. He has won its free dom. The friends must, therefore, seek still another THE TRIUMPH OF CONSCIOUS INTEGRITY 215 approach to him. There is but one thing left. They dose in upon him with definite charges of specific sins. The Third Cycle of Speeches (Ch. 22 to 31) The Triumph of Conscious Integrity EUphaz opens with the assertion that a man's right eousness is no gain, wickedness no loss, to God. The cause of their experiences is, therefore, to be sought in themselves. Suffering could not be due to piety; it must be due to sin. He then catalogues such sins as a power ful, irresponsible, rich skeik of that day would be ex pected to commit, and these things were done because Job supposed God to be in tbe heights of heaven and that He did not know. He again exhorts Job to be reconciled to God, with the promise of peace and prosperity. Job, in reply, wishes he knew where be might find God. He would plead his cause before him. "Behold, I go forward, but be is not there; And backward, but I cannot perceive him; On tbe left band, when he doth work, but I cannot be hold him; He hideth Mmself on the right hand, that I cannot see him. But he knoweth the way that I take." He eludes me, because He knows that, if tried, I would come forth as gold. He is determined to destroy me. He is unapproachable, irresponsible; might, with him, is right. I am, therefore, terrified at His presence. Why does He not bave judgment tribunals, where tbe wrongs of the world can be righted? His picture, here, of des titution and misery is pitiably pathetic. His description of social wrongs is telUng. Where is God in it all? He gives two answers: First, that of tbe friends, perhaps ironicaUy (18 to 31). He follows that with a tme picture 2X6 the old testament in the life of TODAY as he sees it, dosing with, "And if it be not so, now, who wiU prove me a Uar? " He has won against his friends, but is himseU left with the problem of an unrighteous God on his hands. BUdad is unable to controvert the facts of experience presented by Job, and so makes his last argument, be fore retiring from the field, for a right attitude of humU- ity and reverence toward God. Whatever tbe facts of history may be, such arrogance as Job's is to be con demned, and the dominion and tbe purity of God, in contrast with the Uttieness of man, must hold sway over us. Job, in reply, outdoes BUdad in magnifying the great ness of God. He begins with scathing sarcasm at BU- dad's irrelevant talk, asking bow aU that helps him that is witbout power. It is not the question of the greatness of God, but of His justice that is troublesome. Tbe material in the third cycle is badly dislocated. It is assigned to wrong speakers. Rearrangement is very difficult. Zophar does not come back. He represents common sense, which is usuaUy the first to give down in a reUgious discussion. The next two chapters present serious difficulties. As tbey are arranged. Job seems, in chapter 27, to contra dict the position he has hitherto held. Chapter 28, which is a beautiful ode to Wisdom, has no apparent connection with the context. In Chaper 29, Job gives a sorrowful retrospect of his character and history, in which he draws a telling picture of the ideal old man, his personal reUgious Ufe and character, his family relation ships, his position of service in tbe community, and par ticularly in the government, and his general influence in society. They waited for bim as for the rain. Tlus is contrasted with his present abject condition. He closes with a solemn oath, denying all types of wickedness that would account for this contrast, and yearning, mean- TRADITION S LAST WORD 217 whUe, for God to answer him and dear up his con fusions. Tbe last attack has failed. There is no more tbe friends can say, and Job rises high over all, Uke a towering mountain over the Ufting mists, supreme in tbe consdous ness of his personal integrity. He has won tbe right to think for himself and to be the keeper of his own con science. His questions are not yet answered, but though in the grip of anguish, he is greater than anything men, or bis condition, might say about bim. The Elihu Speeches Tradition's Last Word (Ch. 31 to 37) We come, here, upon another Uterary difficulty. The speeches of Elihu make little contribution and are thought, by some, to bave been added by a later hand. As given in the text, be listens to tbe debate in silence imtil its end, and then begins with an apology for speak ing, in view of bis youth, but saying that he is compeUed to speak or be would "burst." Angry, he attacks, first, the friends for their failure, and then Job, making four speeches. In the first, be upbraids Job for complaining that God will not answer him. God answers men in several ways — by dreams and visions, by illness and by angels. Secondly, Job's charge that God has defrauded bim of his right is untrue. God can do no wrong; injustice in tbe Ruler of the Universe is inconceivable. Job has spoken without wisdom. Let his trial continue until lus rebelUon is subdued. Thirdly, Job's complaint that righteousness does not profit more than sin is not true. Neither affects God, who is exalted above all. Their effects, must, therefore, be found among men. Tbe exceptions can be explained. Fourthly, EUhu presents the disciplinary value of af flictions, and closes with a description of tbe greatness. 2i8 the old testament in the life of today wisdom and unsearchableness of God, apparent, partic ularly, in tbe heavens above. A terrific storm is gathering. Darkness is settUng down upon the face of aU tbe earth. He comments upon the clouds, the raindrops, tbe thunder claps, the Ught ning, the sudden fall in temperature, tbe wind, the dark ness, the golden splendor of the north, untU he sUnks down, frightened into silence by the fury of the gathering storm. Tradition has uttered its last word. Job is there, with nothing more to say, perplexed, groping and yearn ing, but unafraid. The Answer Out of the Storm (Ch. 38-42 :6) Through Nature to God Job must find peace, somehow, but not by the methods hitherto foUowed. He has fought bis way to freedom. How shall that freedom be made to thrUl with joy? He has not fulfiUed the prediction of the Satan and bidden goodbye to God, but has not yet found Him in any sat- isf3dng sense. Hence the answer from God, for which he had so passionately cried, comes in the form of a theoph any out of the whirlwind, with the initial demand: "Who is this that darkeneth counsel By words witbout knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; For I wUl demand of thee, and answer thou me." Then follows a magnificent panorama of nature, animate and inanimate, of things in the sky and on the earth. Were you at the laying of the foundations of the earth? Wbo laid tbe comer stone, when the morning stars sang together and aU the sons of God shouted for joy? Who shut up tbe sea, staying its proud waves? Have you been commanding tbe morning? Have you visited the springs of the sea? Walked in the recesses of tbe deep? En tered tbe gates of death? Have you measured the breadth through nature to god 219 of tbe earth? What is the way to tbe home of Ught and darkness? Doubtiess you know, since you were their contemporary. Have you entered tbe treasures of snow and haU, which I have reserved to do battle with? Have you gone over the paths of light and wind? Who has hewed out a channel for the torrential rain and the lightning? Hath the rain a father, or the dew? Tbe ice and the frost a mother? Have you loosed tbe consteUa- tions, and led tbem in their courses? Do you know the law of their government? Do you command the clouds and the lightning? Do you understand the clouds that pour out revivifying rains? Wbo feeds tbe lion and the raven? Do you know tbe wUd goat's travaU, or the hind's? Who has given the wild ass his freedom, to scorn the city and range tbe mountains? Can you make the wUd ox your servant? The ostrich, though cruel and careless, yet outdistances tbe horse and his rider. Have you made the war horse to leap like a locust, with terri ble snorting, undismayed, into the fury of the battie? Did you give wisdom to tbe hawk to migrate southward; or to the eagle to soar to the crags, whence she searches out prey for her young? Again, tbe voice out of the whirlwind demands: " ShaU he that cavUleth contend with the Almighty? He that argueth with God, let him answer it." Job repUes, "Behold, I am of small account. What shaU I answer thee I wiU lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I wiU not answer: Yea, twice; but I wUl proceed no further." And the voice continues: "Gird up thy loins now like a man: I wiU demand of thee, and declare thou unto me." 220 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY WiU you condemn me to justify yourseU? Do you think you could govern the world according to your conception of righteousness, bringing down the wicked and tbe proud? Could you take my place and answer your own questions? Job is then invited to try his hand in managing tbe hip popotamus and the crocodUe, both of which are described after tbe manner of Arabian poetry, in tiresome detail. If he cannot manage these, bow could be govern the world? Job repUes, "I know that thou canst do all things. And that no purpose of thine can be restrained." Then the words of the Almighty echo through bis own soul: "Wbo is he that hideth counsel Witbout knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; Things too wonderful for me, wbjcb I knew not." He echoes again tbe words of the Almighty: "Hear, I beseech thee, and I wiU speak: I wiU demand of thee, and declare thou unto me," and gives his final response, which is the climax of the poem, "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: But now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myseU, and repent In dust and ashes." Tbe drama is over. Job has not yet been told anything about the story of tbe Prologue. He does not know that not only on earth, by the 'mfe of bis bosom, who knew him best, but in heaven, by God Himself, his integrity has been passed upon and approved. Why did not the THROUGH NATURE TO GOD 221 drama end by teUing bim? The initial movement started with an insinuation against him by the Satan. He is now vindicated, but knows nothing. If be had been told, he would bave been lifted above the conditions un der which the tragic victims of outrageous fortune are condemned to fight their battles in the dark. Tbe book moves to tbe end in the reahn of ordinary human experience. How, then, does it answer tbe bitter cries of broken hearts, who, in perplexed anguish, bave lost their way? There are three answers given: First: In reply to the question, "What bave we done, that God shoiUd treat us so? " tbe Book answers, "Noth ing." We are all entangled in the common human lot, with sodety on the one band, typified by the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, and with nature, typified by the Ught ning, the cydone and the leprosy of Job, on the other. Since we are mixed up with people, the innocent are Uable to suffer. My business and social relationships may be such that I am robbed and ruined, for no fault of mine. In deed, I am but a dead man, warmed over, with ten. thousand forces deUvering the product of their struggles for countless thousands of years into my soul and body. My next door neighbor may have diphtheria and aU my cluldren die, for no fault of mine. I am in a world where innumerable forces of nature bave their play, and may go down in a Titanic, or be hurled into atoms by earth quake, fire, flood or storm, without tbe sUghtest tinge of sin. Sin usually causes suffering, but there are other sources of suffering also. The second answer given is that an effective way of dealing with our problems is to view them in the Ught of the whole vast range of things. They shrivel up into nothing in the perspective of infinity. President Arthur Schuster dosed his address before tbe British Associa tion for tbe Advancement of Sdence in 1915 with this story: "An American friend, who possessed a powerful 222 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY telescope, one night received tbe visit of an ardent poUtician. It was the time of a Presidential election, Bryan and Taft being tbe opposing candidates, and feel ing ran high. After looking at clusters of stars and other celestial objects, and having received answers to bis various questions the visitor tumed to my friend: 'And aU these stars I see,' he asked, 'what space in the heaven do they occupy? ' 'About the area of the moon.' 'And you teU me that every one of them is a sun like our own? ' 'Yes.''And that each of tbem may have a number of planets circulating round tbem Uke our sun? ' 'Yes.' 'And that there may be Ufe on each of these planets?' 'We cannot tell that, but it is quite possible that there may be Ufe on many of them.' And after pondering for some time, tbe poUtidan rose and said: 'It does not matter after aU whether Taft or Bryan gets in.'" He whose attention is diverted from the Uttle world where personal calamity crushes to the limitless areas of large interests, where Ufe is seen whole and seen steadUy, wiU gain wonderful peace. Thirdly: God, after aU, answers our deepest questions, not in the region of cold inteUect, but by flooding tbe lower deeps of the reUgious life with the satisfying sense of HimseU. Job, driven Uke a quivering leaf over the shUt- ing centers of Ufe's raging storms, comes to complete seU-surrender in taking the last step, the step that left the world with its problems and perplexities, its rewards and punishments, its threats and promises, its ease and its pain, a vanishing quantity far behind, and brought him into inmost reaUty, where all our enigmas are solved, where all the confusions and entanglements and con- THROUGH NATURE TO GOD 223 tradictions of Ufe bave their deeper meaning unveiled, where the strength of the universe enters our souls, where our baffled and broken purposes find fulfillment, where the voice of the heart's anguish is hushed, — the region of eternal truth, eternal rest, eternal peace. He reached this region through nature whose panorama revealed to him the presence and power, the wisdom and goodness, tbe patience and care, of Exhaustless Love that keeps watch over its own. Job knows Uttle more now than he knew at the beginning, but he has met God face to face, and although he does not know much more about Him, he knows Him. He can now say, with Saul: There-were witnesses, cohorts about me, to left and to right. Angels, powers, the unuttered, unseen, the aUve, the aware: I repressed, I got through them as hardly, as stmggUngly there. As a runner beset by the populace famished for news — Life or death. The whole earth was wakened, heU loosed with her crews; And tbe stars of night beat with emotion, and tingled and shot Out in fire tbe strong pain of pent knowledge; but I fainted not. For the Hand stiU impeUed me at once and supported, suppressed AU tbe tumult, and quenched it with quiet, and holy behest, TiU tbe rapture was shut in itself, and the earth sank to rest. Anon at the dawn, aU that trouble had withered from earth — Not so much, but I saw it die out in tbe day's tender birth; 224 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY In the gathered intensity brought to the gray of the hiUs; In the shuddering forests' held breath; in the sudden windthriUs; In the startied wUd beasts that bore off, each with eye sidling stiU Though averted with wonder and dread; in the birds stiff and chiU That rose heavUy, as I approached them made stupid with awe; E'en the serpent that sUd away sUent, — ^he felt the new law. The same stared in the white humid faces upturned by the flowers; The same worked in the heart of the cedar and moved the vine-bowers; And the Uttie brooks witnessing murmured, persistent and low. With thdr obstinate, aU but hushed voices — "E'en so, it is so!" The Epilogue (42:7-17) The Authority of Experience It is a glorious tribute to spiritual freedom when the Lord declares, in the EpUogue, to EUphaz that what be and his friends bave said in defense of their traditional theology is wrong, and what Job has said, though poured forth wildly, out of the deeps of bis seething soul, over whelmed, is right. Job has now gone through the three stages of the nor mal, inteUigent, reUgious man: First, the period of con formity, witbout disturbance, with little doubt and less faith; secondly, the period of storm and stress, when the soul begins to awake to Spiritual ReaUty; when tbe whole universe must be thought through, as far as possible, and the individual oriented in the midst of THE AUTHORITY OF EXPERIENCE 225 its infinities; thirdly, the period of final certainty and peace, in which the awakened but satisfied soul seeks self-expression in vital service to sodety. Job's friends must now be saved at his altar. He has a right to minister there, because he has that experience which alone can give real priestiy authority. He has en tered into the spirit's holy of hoUes by the door of grief and pain, and can now come out with the consola tion and tiie cure provided by God Himself. He comes out in a brighter world. He had offered sacrifice, in tbe Prologue of tbe book, but only for his own family. There was no thought of anybody else. Now, his sacrifice is offered for the cmel heresy htmters who had prodded him to desperation. It is a jar to pass from the magnificent poetry of the main body of the book into the prose conclusion, which offers atonement for what he bad endured by giving him, in material things, twice as much as be bad before. Gold earrings and money, a double number of sheep and cam els, oxen and asses, are a pitiable recompense for aU be had suffered. Seven new sons and three new daugh ters, be tbey never so charming, can never take tbe place of those asleep under the sod. We almost wish, therefore, that this part of the andent folk-story, into which the poem has probably been inserted, had been destroyed. Yet, the marveUous growth in spirit evinced by comparison of tbe Job of the Prologue with the Job of tbe EpUogue, gives a compeUing message; for Job, who had Uved only a self-centered life before bis calamity, now has a world God, a world vision, a sense of world brotherhood, a world commission, a world passion, and is, therefore, through and through a world man. 226 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY m RUTH: The Claims of the Outsider Upon the Church (430 B. C.) The book of Ruth is a love story of enchanting beauty. A Hebrew family migrates from Bethlehem to Moab, where tbe father soon dies and the two sons marry Mo- abite girls, and, ten years afterwards, die. Poverty- stricken, the widowed mother decided to return home, where better times are reported to have come. The two daughters-in-law start with her, but she advises them to stay among their own people, as she can have no more sons to be husbands for them, and kisses them goodbye. Orpah turns back in tears, but Ruth says, "Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from foUowing after thee; for whither thou goest, I wiU go; and where thou lodgest, I wiU lodge; thy people shaU be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest, wiU I die, and there wiU I be buried; Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." So they two went on until tbey came to Bethlehem, where their arrival in distress makes a sensation. Ruth asks permission to go out and glean, and comes to the fields of Boaz, a rich bachelor kinsman of her father-in-law. Boaz is attracted by her, gives her tbe freedom of his fields, issues orders for her protection and invites her to drink the water his servants bave drawn. She faUs upon her face, asking why he so favors her, a stranger. He teUs her it is because be has heard of her loyalty to her mother-in-law, leaving her own people and coining among strangers, to take refuge with a strange God. She is his guest at luncheon, and returns home laden with plenty. Naomi sees to it that she gleans in the fields of Boaz to the end of the harvest, when she invents a desperate RUTH 227 hazard. She makes Ruth dress up, go to the threshing floor and put herself in the power of Boaz. That night, when be is drunk, the device succeeds. Ruth reminds him of his kinship. So, sending her away at daybreak with plenty of grain, he goes to the pubUc gate of the town, where he finds a nearer kinsman, caUs court and secures, in legal form, tbe right to purchase Naomi's homestead and marry Ruth. They marry, and she becomes the great-grandmother of David, the ideal king of andent Israel. This story is dassed, in the Hebrew Bible, with tbe latest section of tbe Old Testament writings. It con tains some Aramaic words, and bears marks of being written long after the period of tbe judges, in which tbe scene is set. These times are looked back to as long dst — ^so long past that the customs then prevalent are a:-tiquated and littie understood. The interest in the genealogy of David seems to point to a date when David had become tbe ideal of the nation. Great emphasis is placed upon the fact that Ruth, a foreigner, comes among strangers, wins their confi dence, and soon stands out recognized as a character of strength and beauty. Her mother-in-law protested against her coming, because there was no outlook for ber marriage. The question of the intermarriage of Jews with foreigners seems now to be up. AU these items converge to suggest that the book is an inspired tract, written in protest against the cmel re forms of Ezra and Nehemiah. They undertook to estabUsh, in place of tbe faUen state, a reUgious com munity made up only of pure-blooded Jews. They required tbe breaking up of those homes whose wives and mothers were foreigners. There were those, four of whose names are especially given, wbo fought these reforms. This opposition doubtless grew in strength until it expressed itself in a Uterature of protest, a part of which is the Book of Ruth. It says to the reformers, 228 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY "Be careful! The great-grandmother of David, our greatest king, was a Moabitess. These outsiders have great spiritual possibiUties; they make claims upon us we dare not deny." This Uttie tract makes a like appeal to the church of today. The by-standers are everywhere. The foreign ers are crowding our shores. Ainerica is the world's great melting pot. The church must hear the sUent call of the outsider and adapt her message and her method of work to their understanding and needs. TV JONAH: God's Relentless Call to World Evangelization (400 B. C.) To appreciate this poweful Uttie booklet, it is neces sary to understand how it came to be written. When tbe Jews came back from Babylon, they set up, not a State, but a church, a reUgious community. Their experience with outside nations had been very bitter and so they graduaUy became narrow and seffish. Even God was theirs in a sense so pecuUar as to make Him in their feeUngs owe nothing to anybody but the Jew. When Ezra and Nehemiah came and led their reforma tion, they undertook to shut out from the community everybody but Jews. Theirs was to be a reUgion based primarily upon blood. Even to this day tbe Jew cannot think reUgion apart from race. This makes Paul's aboUshing distinctions more wonderful. The great out side had nothing to give tbem, and they in tum owed nothing to the great outside. A protest was made against this narrowness and that protest grew stronger and stronger until a broad-minded writer expressed it in this Uttie book. The hero of the story Uved in tbe reign of Jeroboam tbe Second (II Kings 14:25), 781-740 B. C, but the JONAH 229 story was written very much later. Some of the reasons for thinking so are, tbe language and style, whose pecuUarities are like those of the writings in the late period. The Psalm in Chapter 2 is largely a compilation of verses taken from our Book of Psalms, some of those quoted bdng post-exiUc. The Assyrian empire seems to have passed away long since, for the name of the king is not given, and be was therefore not contemporary with the writer. The statement is made that Nineveh was an exceeding great city. The title, "King of Nine veh, " which was not in use whUe the empire was stand ing, is used instead of "Great king of Assyria." Nine veh is referred to as quite unknown to those for whom tbe book is written. The term "God in Heaven" is post-exiUc. The spirit of tbe prayer in Chapter 2 is late. Tbe general teaching of tbe book seems to bave come out of the prophetic work now long completed. AU these items point to about 400 B. C. as the date of its writing. Many cheap jokes have been told at the expense of this Uttle book, and people generaUy do not seem even yet to understand its real message because tbey try to read it as Uteral history. Professor Bewer well says: "At almost every step the reader who takes tbe story as a record of actual happenings must ask questions. How was it possible that a true prophet should disobey a direct divine command? Is it likely that God should send a storm simply in order to pursue a single person and thus cause many others to suffer too? Do such things happen in a world like ours? Is it not curious that tbe lot should faU upon Jonah at once, and evi dentiy without manipulation on the part of the sailors, and tibat the sea should become cahn directiy after he had been thrown overboard? That the great fish was at once ready to swaUow Jonah may be passed, but that Jonah should bave remained in tbe fish for three days, and three nights and should have prayed a beautUul 230 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY psalm of thanksgiving inside, exceeds the limits of credi- biUty, not to mention tbe point that tbe fish did not simply eject him but threw bim up on the shore. What an exaggerated idea of the greatness of Nineveh the author had! What language did Jonah speak in Nine veh? How could tbe people understand him? And what a wonderful result foUowed his preaching! Tbe greatest prophets in Israel had not been able to accom pUsh anything like it. It is so unprecedented that Jesus regarded it as the most astounding wonder of tbe story (Luke II, 29). Is it not strange that absolutely no trace has been left of tbe universal, whole-hearted repen tance of the Ninevites and that the later prophets who prophesied against Assyria knew nothing of it? And what shaU we say of the extraordinarily spveedy growth of the plant?" It is a prose poem and like aU poetry is vague. The author is not interested in such detaUs as a mere histo rian would bave to give. He does not teU us anything about the kind of sins Nineveh was guUty of or what became of tbe dty after it was spared. He leaves Jonah in the air and us to guess what finally happened to bim. He uses stereotyped forms of speech to make bis story uniform. He goes far enough to drive home his lesson and then stops. Every now and then somebody teUs us of a new dis covery which proves Jonah true — a fish satisfying the conditions, a new sea yarn like this one, etc. We seem not yet to have reached tbe point where we do not need to confirm tbe spiritual message of a document by things outside of itseU. No amount of spectacular dis play, no number of miracles wrought in tbe external world, can confirm or deny what this book said to the people of 400 B. C, and says also to those of 1920 A. D. As soon as we get away from the Uteral interpretation of the story as history, our difficulties disappear. Such a fish story has gone the world over. "A narrative accord- JONAH 231 ing to which a man was swallowed by a monster, re mained a long time inside of it and came out later safe and sound, was told among many peoples. Maritime peoples naturaUy spoke of a large fish or another sea-monster, inland peoples of a woH or bear or dragon or some other animal. The mode of deUverance varied, though some times it was tbe same as in the story of Jonah. The essen tial point, however, is the same with all. Our story of Jonah is therefore but one of a large number" current along tbe coast of Palestine. "The story of Perseus and Andromeda is localized at Joppa, tbe port at which Jonah embarked. And our autiior took this rather common feature of tbe swaUowing of a man by a fish and bis subsequent deUverance, and used it in bis own manner. But bis story is altogether different from those others. Tbey are mostly mythical stories about the sun, bis is a prophetic story, pervaded by the truest spirit of Israel's reUgion. To our author the mythical element has en tirely disappeared. He uses tbe fish episode merely in order to bring Jonah back to tbe land. " Tbe story as the medium of a reUgious message is one telling characteristic of effective preaching today. So much so that many sermons are little more than collec tions of tales. A genius may yet arise that wiU make each sermon simply a parable carrying a single tmth to the hearts of the bearers. Our author so tells the story as to make it God's relentless call to world evangelization. That caU comes to aU who know God, for aU wbo do not. If Jonah, a Jew, must go to Nineveh, tbe metropoUs of the bitterest enemies the Jew ever had, then anybody wbo knows must go to everybody wbo does not. The caU is disobeyed at our perU. The author uses the storm and the fish to portray the dangers of disobe dience. We must give our message or lose it. It is based upon the native human instincts. Jonah, fast asleep in the lower part of the boat, is aroused and 232 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY urged to pray, but be wiU enter into no religious exer- dses along with foreigners. Lots are cast, and he is chosen as tbe cause of the trouble. Asked for an ac count of himself, he confesses bis fear of Yahweh, the God of Heaven, maker of the sea and tbe dry land, and that he is fleeing from Him. When the last desperate straits are reached and it passes from a reUgious to a humanitarian question, Jonah, foUowing bis deeper and broader instincts, is ready to be offered up for the salvation of the ship. He teUs them to throw him over board, and thus offers up his Ufe as a vicarious sacrifice. "At first, Jonah fled from the tmth; at last, he laid down his Ufe for it. " The psalm attributed to him in the stomach of the fish does not fit the situation, and has either been mis placed or added by a later hand. DeUvered, tbe caU comes again, for it is relentiess; it never lets up. It is reinforced by the spontaneous response of tbe unspoUed human heart. We next find him a lone mis sionary, unbacked, unautbenticated, walking the streets of a great dty a part of one day, preaching in an unknown tongue, and using one sentence: "Yet forty days and Nineveh shaU be overthrown! " At this, the whole nation — ^people, king and animals — ^is dothed in sackdoth and cries for mercy. This magruficant re sponse of the native instincts to the unautbenticated message is the sign of Jonah mentioned by Jesus, accord ing to Mark, which is the oldest of the Gospel stories. This caU, in its ongoing, confiscates the Ufe that has not the courage of its vision. Jonah is angered, not be cause his prophecy is not fulfilled, but because what he had foreseen in the character of God is now validated. "He meets again not only God, but the tmth from which he fled." He sees be is too narrow to follow vthe heavenly vision. He wants to die, for tbe foundations on which he has buUt his Ufe are now discredited. He re- JONAH 233 fuses to move forward with advancing tmth. He wiU not subscribe to the formula, "God of all, or not God at aU." Only the chosen people are His; aU others de serve only to perish. Like many another, be sulks in tbe shade of his tent, feeUng no longer any sense of a Divine Commission. He is now Uke many of his suc cessors only an obstmctionist. Tbe caU which comes to aU who know for aU who do not know, which is disobeyed at our peril, which is based upon the native human instincts, wbidi is reinforced by the response of the unspoUed heart, which confis cates in its ongoing the Ufe that has not the courage of its vision, reaches its climax in tbe divine appeal to the gospel of personal attachments. A gourd vine springs up, shelters Jonah for a day, then withers. Jonah is glad of it, and faints for sheer rage when it dies. He is scathingly rebuked: "Doest thou weU to be angry for the gourd? " And he repUes, "I do weU to be angry, even unto death." Then Yahweh says, "Thou hast bad regard for the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night; and should not I bave regard for Nineveh, that great dty, wherein are more than six- score thousand persons tbat cannot discern between thdr right hand and their left hand; and also much cattie? " "God has vindicated His love to the jealousy of those wbo thought that it was theirs alone. And we are left with this grand vague vision of the immeasurable dty, with its multitude of innocent children and cattle, and God's compassion brooding over aU." Our attachments for things earthly are manifold and deep. By these predous devotions, countless for aU of us, God is pleading with this and every generation that we foUow our instinctive logic from tbe things we love, though they have cost us Uttie at most, to His love for all mankind, for all sentient life, indeed, that has cost Him so mudi. 234 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY The spirit of the book is much Uke that of the parables in the 15th chapter of Luke — tbe Lost Sheep, tiie Lost Coin and the Lost Son. AU three are but successive stages of one parable, presenting the joy of God over tbe restoral of even one that was lost. This three-fold parable was given in answer to the complaint of the Scribes and tbe Pharisees, "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." The center of these stories is not the lost sheep, tbe lost coin and the lost son, but the yearning of the heart of God for bis own, tbe worth He places upon even one, and tbe joy that foUows every restoral. So, here, we bave a flasb-Ught into the depth, the breadth, tbe power of tbe Infinite Care that broods over aU. V The Song of Songs: A Plea for Loyalty in Unwedded Love (300 B. C.) The title which was added later, and is therefore worthless, ascribes this book to Solomon. It is the Song of Songs, that is, the best of the Songs for which Solomon is famous. But the general feeUng is that the book was written quite late in the history of Judaism, perhaps somewhere about the Third Century, B. C. This feel ing is based upon conspicuous pecuUarities of tbe lan guage, such, for example, as the form of the relative pronoun, the cirde of ideas, the background revealed in the book, its story, etc., and is reinforced by its tadt censure of polygamy and an appeal for monogamy. The leaders of the people were at this time anxious about famUy Ufe, and were using vigorous means for further ing the purity and efficiency of the home. Other methods of interpretation have been proposed- The one that held sway longest was tbe aUegorical, making it represent a dialogue between God and His people, Christ and the Church, Christ and the individual soul, etc. According the song of songs 235 to another theory, it is some sort of drama; just what has not been agreed. Tbe latest theory is that it is a coUection of erotic poems, sung or redted during the seven days of the marriage festival. AU things considered, it seems most probable that it is a drama, the story of which is as foUows: The Shulamite is a country girl, Uving probably with ber widowed mother and two brothers in the hiUs of Judea. She goes down to a walnut garden by the road side one spring morning, "To see the fresh green plants of the valley. To see whether tbe vine bad budded, and the pome granates were in flower." King Solomon's procession passes on the way to his summer home in the Lebanons (1:2-8). Frightened, she starts to run, but they caU her back and she is swept along with them to the Palace. The King is enamored of ber, but she refuses bis suit. To win her over to him, tbe women of the royal house hold praise Solomon and the pleasures of Ufe there. She naively pleads her unfitness for such honors, say ing she is sunburnt because her brothers made her keep the vineyards. WhUe they are pressing tbe deUghts of Solomon, her thoughts are with ber absent lover, and she taUcs to him aside. She meets the King in his parlors (1:9-2:7), but bis fulsome flattery serves only to intensify her devotion to her absent lover, whom she addresses aside, explain ing to Solomon that she is only a "Rose of Sharon, a Uly of the vaUeys " — ^just a country flower — ^unable to bloom in the gorgeous atmosphere of royalty. Over come by the inmshing memories of predous experiences with her lover back in tbe hiUs, she faints and cries for restoratives. RaUying, she adjures tbe daughters of Jemsalem, 236 the old testament in the life of TODAY "By the gazeUes and by the harts of tbe field. That ye stir not up, nor awaken love, UntU it please." As the gazeUes and the harts are coy and free, so love must spring spontaneously from within and not be in duced from without. Later, her lover comes to find her (2:8-17). She feds his approach in the distance by a sort of telepathy, and describes to tbe courtwomen his movements until he appears at the lattice in the waU, singing to her. She repeats to the women the song he is singing, in which he begs that she come away with him, that she let him see her form, bear her voice. She sings, in answer, a Uttie vineyard ditty: "Take us the foxes, Tbe Uttie foxes That spoU the vineyards; For our vineyards are in bloom." Growing uneasy for him, she begs bim to flee until night, when he can return with greater safety. She has had an exciting day, retires agitated and dreams of his return (3:1-5). The next morning, half awake, she teUs her dream to the women, dosing with another exhortation that tbey "stir not up nor awaken love until it please." A great pageant is arranged to overawe her, and King Solomon comes up from the wUdemess in royal array (3:6-11). In answer to her question, "What is this ^at cometh up from the wilderness? " the bystand ers, pointing out to the Shulamite the gorgeous splendor of his equipage, praise the King. He meets her again in the parlors and again presses his suit. Assuming that he has won, he remarks as he goes out tbat he wiU take a walk among the hiUs until evening (4:1-7). As he leaves, her shepherd lover comes THE SONG OF SONGS 237 and speaks to her through the lattice, begging that she come with him (4:8-5:1). A beautiful interview foUows, with the lattice in tiie waU between tbem. That night, she has another dream of his coming and teUs it to the women next morning (5:2-6:3). They become interested in the lover who so absolutely com mands her, and ask what kind of a beloved be is. Her magnificent description of him makes them aU the more anxious to know him; discovering which, she jealously snatches him bade, sasdng in substance, they need not trouble any further, she belongs to him and be to ber. Solomon makes another appeal to her in substan tiaUy the same terms as before, adding that he would make her the queen of his harem (6:4-13). She ex plains how she came to be caught that morning when she was carried away from home. Then foUows a scene, probably in the dressing room, where she is prepared by the courtwomen for a final interview with the king (7:1-5). When she meets him in tbe parlor, he continues the women's vulgar praises (7:6-8:4). Tbe vulgarity of the women and the king, at this point, is intended to empha size the contrast between tiie sensual world in which they Uve and the spiritual world in which she, as the embodiment of pure love, Uves. At the end of his vol uptuous description, he says, "And the smeU of thy breath like apples; And thy mouth like tbe best wine. . . ." she snatches the word from him — "That goeth down smoothly for my beloved, GUding through the Ups of those that are asleep." She then exdaims in triumph, "I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me! " and breaks away from the king, who now recognizes that he is powerless to reach her and lets her go. 238 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY With a parting shot at the courtwomen, adjuring them not to "stir up nor awaken love until it please," she leaves the palace for ber country home with ber shepherd lover (8:5-7). Arm in arm they go over the hiUs, by the Uttle vUlages, across the meadows, through the wilderness, pointing out places precious even from chUdhood and recounting stories of tbe old times, as tbey go. Their reminiscences culminate in her trium phant paean, which is the climax of the poem: "Set me as a seal upon thine heart. As a seal upon thine arm: For strong as death is love. Exacting as the grave is affection; The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, Its flames are flames of God. Many waters cannot quench love. Neither can floods drown it: If a man should give aU tbe substance of his bouse for love. He would be utterly despised." During the marriage feast that foUows (8:8-14), she recaUs what ber brothers used to say of her; tbat if she proved to be a waU, resisting attacks and preserving her innocence, tbey would give her a large dowry; that if she yielded like a door, aUowing an enemy to pass her defenses, tbey would bar ber in. With a thriU of joy, she proudly exclaims, "I bave been a wall — tbe guardian of my honor! " AU the luxuries and glories of the world have been contemptuously spumed for the riches that simple love brings. She is aied by tbe bridegroom to let his companions hear her voice, and she sings tbe words she had spoken to him through the lattice in the Lebanon palace: "Flee, my beloved, and be Uke a gazelle Or a young hart upon tbe balsam slopes." THE SONG OF SONGS 239 "The poetry of tbe song is exquisite. Tbe movement is graceful and Ught; the imagery is beautiful and sin gularly picturesque; tbe author revels among the de Ughts of the country; one scene after another is brought before us — doves hiding in tbe defts of the rocks or resting beside the water brooks, gazeUes leaping over the mountains or feeding among the liUes, goats re clining on the sloping biUs of Gilead, trees with their varied foUage, flowers with bright hues or richly scented perfume, are ever supplying the poet with a fresh pic ture or comparison; we seem to walk with tbe lover him self, among vineyards and fig trees in tbe balmy air of spring, or to see the fragrant, choicely furnished garden which the charms of his betrothed call up before his imagination. The number of animals and plants, as weU as works of human art and labor — ^many not mentioned elsewhere — ^which are named in tbe song is remarkable. The poet also aUudes to many locaUties in a maimer which usuaUy shows him to have been personaUy famUiar with them — ^Kedar, En-gedi, tbe Sharon, Bether (if this is a proper name), Lebanon (several times), tbe hiUs of GUead, David's tower in Jemsalem witb its hanging shields, Amana, Senir, Heimon, Tirzah, Mabanaim, Heshbon (the pools of the gate Batbrabbim), tbe 'Tower of Lebanon looking out towards Damascus,' Carmel, Baal-hamon: those which be seems to be most famiUar with and to which he turns most frequently being locaU ties hi North Palestine, espedaUy in or near Lebanon." The growtii of the Shulamite is one of tbe charms of the book. In the beginning she is only a shy country girl, overawed by the glamour of the King and the Court. She apologizes for her sunburnt complexion and her country ways. She is only a rose of Sharon, unable to bloom in that gorgeous setting. In the end, she faces them all with a consdous power that is overwhelming. "Thou art terrible as an army with banners," Solomon dedares, and begs — 240 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY "Turn away thine eyes from me. For tbey make me afraid!" We have in Hosea a telling account of the faithful ness of wedded love. It would be strange if there were in the Bible, which is intended to be the Book of Life, no discussion of the sex question, which plays such an enormous r61e in sodal Ufe. The appeal this book makes for loyalty in unwedded love should be thundered from every house top and preached by every fireside. America never needed so badly as now to bring back her young people to emotional sanity and loyalty. VI PROVERBS: The Art of Getting on in the World (950-250 B. C.) The making of Proverbs: Every nation has them. Tbey are the crystallized wisdom of a race. They are poetic in form, easUy transmissible in oral tradition. Popular Proverbs often run through many generations. Their origin: Tbey are sometimes the outgrowth of an historical inddent. For example; Saul was seen among the dervish-like Prophets, raving with them, and hence the proverb: "Is'Saul also among the Prophets?" They are sometimes developed from riddles, such as Samson's, sometimes derived from a fable, sometimes the result of simple comparison, sometimes the product of the meditation of the wise. These are of course academic. The structure of the book: There are reaUy eight books of Proverbs bound together in one. Their combination was probably a growth. The different layers of the book are distinguishable by headUnes that appear between the different sections. The divisions are as follows: I. Chapters 1-9. This is an introduction to the book. PROVERBS 241 originaUy written, it is thought, shortly before the exUe as an introduction to tbe second section. It is a somewhat logical discussion of wisdom as contrasted witb folly, setting forth the purpose of tbe book, and giving exhortations to a young man, a disdple of the sage, outUning the dangers inddent to youth, and commending wisdom as a guide. The paraUeUsm is prevaiUngly synonymous. 2. 10:1-22:16. This is introduced by the heading "Tbe Proverbs of Solomon." It is supposed to be the oldest section of tbe book, belonging to the golden days of the monarchy. It consists of pithy aphorisms, each verse a complete proverb, and is without logical connec tion, though there is great regularity of form. The parallelUsm in ten to fifteen is antithetic, while in the rest it is synthetic. The tone is tbe brightest and hap piest of all the book, though there are fewer distinctly reUgious proverbs. The subjects concern man in his ordinary occupation, the rewards of virtue and the paths to fortune are described. Prosperity is indicated. References to the king are bright and happy, the spirit of good-cheer and hopefulness is felt throughout. 3. 22:17-24:22. Introduced by "IncUne thine ear and hear the words of tbe wise. " It is hortatory like the first section, made up of pmdential maxims rather than individual proverbs. Advice is given on many subjects. The king and Jehovah are to be spedally feared, and revolution dreaded. It is supposed to have been written shortly before tbe exile. The paraUeUism is synthetic, mnning into six, seven, or even eight Unes, resulting in quatrains. 4. 24:23-24. The heading is, "These also are of the wise. " These few verses are an appendix added to the third section. 5. 25-29. The caption is: "These also are the prov erbs of Solomon, which tbe men of Hezekiah, King of Judah, copied out." Two-membered verse prevaUs 242 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY although the didactic dissertation, reaching even to ten lines, occurs. The paraUeUsm is mostiy synthetic. The general character of this section is very like number two, which is attributed to Solomon. The utiUtarian ele ment exceeds the reUgious or the phUosophical. The general tone is not so happy as number two. The king is not set in so favorable a Ught. He is spoken of not from the standpoint of the king, but of a dtizen of the middle dass. It reflects the grinding down of the people by taxation. It seems to come out of a changed state of sodety. Agriculture is inculcated. It is supposed to be an appendix to number two. 6. 30. "The words of Agar, son of Jakeh, the Mas- site, " It is a cry of skeptidsm. 7. 31:1-9- "The words of Lemuel, King of Massab, which his mother taught him. " A body of maxims for the guidance of a king. 8. 31 :io-3i. There is no title. This is thought to be the latest appendix. It is an alphabetical poem de scribing the ideal woman. The background: Historical. This is Uttle indicated. There is no reference to a fact or inddent or person that fiixes the place of the book in the history of Israel. The historic conditions reflected are different in the different sections. The name of Solomon, to whom the second section is attributed is worth hardly more than a head line in a modern newspaper. It was customary in the later periods for an author to write over the name of some great man who stood out in the tradition as repre sentative of the field of thought in which he was worlang. Moses stood for law, David for the psalms, and Solomon for wisdom. They often gave an archaic background to their productions. The absence of a national spirit and of aUusions to Hebrew national traits and customs would point to the loss of the nation, and the change from a nation into a reUgious community after the exile, as the period out of which the book in its final form came. PROVERBS 243 The social background: Monogomy is assumed. Life is urban rather than rural. Tbe vices mentioned are distinctiy those of the dty, — ^perjury, theft, robbery, greed, unchastity, gossip, murder. There are references, however, to agricultural, pastoral, and commerdal life. The allusions to Kings are variable, some favorable, others unfavorable. Private dtizens might meet them sociaUy. FamUy government is by parents who are considered entitled to obedience and respect from their children. Tbe mother has equal honor with tbe father. Woman is a power in the home for good or evil. The happiness of the home depends chiefly upon ber. The religious background: There is no mention of idolatry. A large body of tbe wise are referred to. The only distinctively Jewish element in tbe book is sacrifice, mentioned five times; three put character above cult (15 :8, 21 :3-27) ; tbe others (7 :i4 and 17:1) refer more par ticularly to feasting. There is no reference to temple or priest, prophet or Israel, or Israel's covenant with Jehovah. The temple cult is recognized, but is of Uttie moral value. Substitute God for Yahweh and the book wUl suit any other nation as well as Israel. The source of the Sage's authority is his own intuition or insight. He mentions neither Moses nor the Prophets, nor a coUection of sacred books. There are two quotations (Pr. 30:5 and 6) one from Psahns (18:31), the other from Deut. (4:2 and 13:1), but neither is named. Theological Conceptions: God. — Monotbdsm is as sumed. There is no reference to Angels or other super natural beings. God is thought of in His nature as omnipotent, omnisdent, unchangeable, unsearchable, glorjdng in conceaUng a thing, just, loving the righteous; in His relation to the world, as Creator, sovereign of the universe, controUing tbe tbougbts and actions of men, directing the destiny of the lot, determimng the issue of 244 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY batties, having a purpose, even for tbe wicked, judging human actions, rewarding human conduct. He abom inates falsehood, perverseness, evil devices, unjust meas ures, unjust dedsions, pride, skeptidsm, and an interest ing group of hateful sins. He is the champion of the widow, tbe poor, tbe wise, the righteous, and those wbo tmst Him. Man: Man is in nature everywhere the same, finite, faffible, possessed of a Gkid-given conscience, is never satisfied, a peculiar sorrow in every heart, sensitive to joy or pain, capable of rising above adversity, not too faithful, bis physical health depending upon his state of mind. Tbe word fool seems to mean uneducated, foUy the absence of education. If you substitute un educated man for fool many passages wiU become more intelUgible. The uneducated man is characterized as- inattentive, dull, unskiUed in speech, dissatisfied, proud of his lack of education (15:21 and 10:23), i™" provident, indiscreet, untmstwortiiy, disgusting, un endurable, dangerous- Education, on tbe other band, seeks to acquire understanding, knowledge, wisdom. The instructors are one's parents and the Sages them selves. DisdpUne plays an important r61e. Education is better than riches, is a guide to right speech, secures favor, brings victory, is the source of wealth, and in sures a long and peaceful Ufe. Family relations are made much of. The obUgations of the son to bis parents are strongly set forth, but the daughter, as usual in the Orient, is disregarded. The dependence of parents upon their chUdren for happiness is Ukewise emphasized. The relations between husband and wife are fuUy char acterized, the wife sharing with tbe husband the respon sibilities of government. She is a source of woe or happiness to her husband. The ideal wife is tmsted by her husband, faithful to bis interests, industrious and pmdent, charitable, provident, wise and kind, worthy of honor. The Sage does not encourage mere formal PROVERBS 245 sodabiUty, but does beUeve with aU his heart in loyal friendship. The same picture of poverty and riches to be found in aU ages is here also. Poverty is thought to be caused by intemperance, bad friendships, oppression, laziness. It has its disadvantages, but it is preferable to dishonesty. Then, as now, wealth was gained by vio lence, inheritance, gift of God, good conduct, labor, diUgence. When acquired justly wealth is good; un justly, bad. Tbe golden mean, neither great riches nor great poverty, is best of aU. Man in his legal relations is described in some detail. Tbe spedal duties and poUtical relations of kings, princes, nobles, and judges are given. Their proper attitude toward tbe people and the people's attitude toward them described. Tme patriotism, genuine love of country is enjoined. Ethics: Its ethical standards are high, even regard for beasts is not forgotten. Man owes it to himself to avoid indolence, disdainfulness, greed, hatred, anger, jealousy, revenge, ingratitude, contention, flattery, dis simulation, lying, breach of confidence, treachery, slan der, evil machinations, oppression of the poor, sen- suaUty, temptation. He owes it to himself also as a member of sodety to cherish justice, uprightness, faith fulness in friendship, charity toward another's faults, consideration, wisdom in dealing with the unwise, tact, kind words, helpfulness, UberaUty, mercy, love, kind ness toward an enemy, right desires, meekness, purity of heart, righteousness, temperance in aU things. He owes God reverence, submission, regard for tbe pro phetic word, honor, tmst. The book seeks to estabUsh a safe, peaceful and happy famUy and community Ufe. Stress is laid upon honesty, tmthfulness, love, justice which is exalted everywhere, chastity, kindness, regard for the poor, for property rights and human Ufe, modesty, discretion, self-control, industry, thrift, temperance, forgiveness, humiUty, reverence. Woman is regarded 246 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY only as a wife and housewife, but the position accorded her is as high as in Egypt, Greece, or Rome. Yet, strange to say, some vital virtues are not mentioned, to-wit: courage, fortitude, moderation in thought, self-sacrifice, intellectual tmthfulness, which was foreign to the Jewish mind, beauty as an element of life. There is no recognition of intemational ethics, and no inquiry into the psychological basis of the moral Ufe. Life is mainly external and practical. There is no reference to sorrow for sin, no inward struggle with temptation, no process of conversion. "Consdence" and "duty" bave no corresponding Hebrew words. Not abstract ideas, but how to get on in tbe world was the chief concern. Sin is conduct in violation of the laws of our being, and salvation is deUverance from earthly evU. There is no reference to the Messiamc Hope. Worship: The Sage was not particularly sympathetic with sacnfice. Character counted for more with bim than cult. Nor did he tolerate even prayer on the Ups of tbe wicked. But he wbo worships sincerely can count on bemg beard. Redemption and the after-life: As usual, in the cmder parts of the old Testament, Sheol is the abode of aU classes alike and has no moral significance. Divine judgments rewarding virtue and punishing sin are meted out here and now. Tbe idea of ethical immor taUty does not appear. Literary characteristics: There is a rather large Ara maic element. This became the language of Westem Asia about 400 B. C. There are comparatively few Greek words and only eight or ten Arabic. There are very many late Hebrew words, several of which are not found elsewhere in tbe Old Testament. In many places the style is artffidal. When aU the facts are taken into consideration, we seem to have in tbe Book of Proverbs a sort of epitome of the crystallized practical wisdom of tbe Hebrew race. ECCLESM.STES 247 This process of crystallization went on through the whole history and was gathered together in its final form probably long after the exUe. VII ECCLESIASTES: The Philosophy of the Self Quest (200 B. C.) There were two movements in the ancient world tbat affected tbe stream of the LUe of God flowing through the soul of tbe Hebrew race. Tbe first of these was the scattering of the Hebrews, the Jews later, over the face of the earth, untU they were found in Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome — everywhere, indeed. Tbe letters of First Peter and James, in tbe New Testament, were written to tbe Dispersion, which was the name by which they were called. The second movement that affected Jewish life and thought was the expansion of Greece. Xenophon and the officers and soldiers who came back from the Peloponnesian War brought a new conception of tbe outside world. Finding something of value among barbarians, a scheme of colonization was projected in Asia. Alexander later undertook to unite the whole world, with Greek culture as tbe cementing force. The progress of HeUenization was extensive and persistent. It invaded Palestine. A race course, theater and gym nasium were buUt in Jericho, and a theater in Jerusalem. The DecapoUs, tbe ten dties around tbe Sea of GalUee, expressed the new spirit. Large numbers of Jews, many aristocrats among them, came under tbe influence of this UberaUzing movement. The meeting of these two currents, Jewish reUgion and Greek culture, produced a new type, which prepared the way for Christianity. The second, third, and fourth centuries B. C. were times of transition. The old faith was shaken to its foundations. 248 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Of course, a reactionary movement set in, and the con ffict was fierce, culminating in the fiery times of the Mac cabees. In tbe struggles of such transition periods, many lose their way, tmable to hold on to the old or think through the new. They are lost in the maze. This is probably what happened to the author of Ecclesiastes. He seems to have gone tbe whole round of enterprise and adventure in search of himseU, and, at tbe end, teUs his whole story, wabbling from one extreme to another, as it had happened, to help others who migbt be overwhelmed by the universal shaking up of things. He takes tbe name of Solomon, who stood out as tbe embodiment of every thing in Wisdom, as Moses did for everything in Law and David for everything in Song. Pseudonymous writing was common at the time. Several facts make it impossible to ascribe the book to Solomon. Linguistic pecuUarities are against it. There are something Uke one hundred words or expressions found only in post-exiUc Hebrew Uterature. The au thor writes as U he had been king over Israel, but had now ceased to be, and he would hardly bave spoken of aU that had been before him in Jerusalem, when there had been only two on tbe throne. The viewpoint is not that of a king, but of an oppressed people. The back ground is post-exiUc; the spirit is late. It is generaUy admitted tbat more bands than one were engaged upon it. Luther was tbe first to break away from the traditional view of the Solomomc authority, thinking it to be a compUation of books from the great Ubrary in Alexan dria. Another view is that it was a book written by a pessimist, telling the worst side of the human story, with dangerous impUcations which were corrected by later insertions. That there have been insertions, one can scarcely doubt; how many, it is impossible to say. The body of the material, however, may well have been the product of one hand, under the speU of shifting move- ECCLESIASTES 249 ments and emotions. Even the pessimist has bright mo ments, and tbe optimist, times of gloom. The book opens (i:i-ii) with a picture of tbe endless cycles of nature, which brings us back tomorrow to where we are today, with no gain and no knowledge of things that bave gone before. AU is vanity. Then he gives a sort of summary of his search for him seU (1:12-2:23) by surveying aU human enterprises, only to find that increased knowledge increases pain. Joy is not to be found in material things. AU that money could provide of sensual pleasure in every form is se cured. He goes aU tbe gaits, getting only vanity and a striving after wind in retum. He tries playing tiie fool, with the same result. Why aU his toUs, the products of which are to go to another who may tum out to be a fool? Anyhow, death levels aU. There is no rest, and so tbe best motto is: Enjoy drink and work for its own sake. This is God's way. And we are helpless before God (3:1-15), wbo has set everything in fixed seasons in which we can only go our Uttle rounds, doing what has been done before us. We yeam to know, but God has set ignorance in our hearts, to make us afraid of Him. What He does, lasts; we can neither add to nor take from it. Tbe best for us is to have a good time. The revolving drcles go according to a divinely made world order, in which we are held fast. Tbe same condusion is reached by observing that men are like beasts in their treatment of each other, and, Uke beasts, they die, ending, alike, in the dust, (3:16- 4:12). There is nothing better, tberefore, than to re joice in our work. He sees tbe tears of the oppressed, wbo bave no comforter, and be congratulates the dead more than the Uving; and better than dther, is he who has never been bom. Sharp competition and jealousy are everywhere. Rivalry is vain. Tbe miser is inhuman, even to himseU. Cooperation is the strength of men; a threefold cord is not easUy broken. 250 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Turning to tbe study of poUtics (4:13-16), be discovers the vanity of popularity. What has reUgion to offer? It is fuU of shams (5 :i-7). Do not go to church because it is popular; go witb a pur pose, if at aU. Obedience is better than ritual, better, also, than hasty vows. Fear God alone. HoUness, for- maUsm, hypocrisy, frivolous excesses, dreams, etc., are often substituted for vital reUgion. He pleads for sincerity and reverence. Returning to tbe oppression so common in the Orient (5:8-6:12), he is not surprised tbat tbe under dasses are crushed, since so many above them in the satrapial hierarchy are engaged in spying on each other, with a view to squeezing the ones below them. Yet, monarchy has its advantages in an agricultural land. He who loves sUver wiU not be satisfied with sUver. When goods increase, eaters increase. Sleep, so sweet to the laborer, is often denied tbe miserly rich, who shaU go out at last, after useless vexation, naked. Blessed be tbe man to whom God gives wealth, with tbe power to eat of it and rejoice in his work. To some, this is denied. They may have an hundred children and yet be denied even burial. An untimely birth were better, because the foetus reaches Sheol "by a shorter and less agonizing way," finding more rest there than one who Uves two thousand years witbout tbe satisfactions of Ufe and proper burial in the end. A fixed fate determines all. Who can con tend with God, and who knows what shaU be after Hun? After a group of proverbs (7:1-14), Koheleth makes another great arraignment of life (7:15-9:16). He sets forth the uselessness of extremes, even in righteousness and reUgion. Realty is deep, deep. Who can find it? He pays bis respects to women, not one of whom he has ever found tme. God made men upright, but tbey have sought out many contrivances. Character transforms one's countenance. Be careful of your attitude toward ECCLESIASTES 25 1 a king; one never knows what an irresponsible despot wiU do, and there is no furlough in war. Righteousness and godlessness are the same ui their final results, yet the prindple that it shaU be weU with those who fear God and not weU with the wicked, holds. Nevertheless, tbe righteous and tbe wicked often change places in reward. Gladness is good. AU things are in God's bands, whose work man cannot fathom, and of whose bate and love we can never be sure. Death comes to all, the righteous and tbe wicked, the reUgious and the irreUgious, after which aU alike are forgotten and none have any portion in what is to come after. Therefore, brighten up, enjoy life with wine, the woman you love and the work you do, doing with might what your bands find to do, for there is no work, nor reckoning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither you are going. AbiUty and merit do not count; the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Human benefactors are soon forgotten. The passage 9:17-10:20 is probably made up largely of interpolations. It consists of proverbs, notes on the proper attitude toward rulers, comments upon the ways of despotism, etc., closing with a warning against sin of aU kinds, even in thought, since a Uttle bird might carry tbe secret. He has gone the rounds, halting at nothing, hesitating nowhere, and comes now to bis final advice (11:1-12:8): Be generous, casting not your luxuries, but your bread, your necessities, upon the waters. You cannot prevent the rain. If you toss a stick in the air for divination, you have no control over the result. A weather observer will never sow. You cannot understand the mysteries of God, who makes the way of the wind and the bones in the womb. From the morning until the evening of Ufe, do manfuUy tbe fuU round of Ufe's duties, never hesitating at uncertainties; revel in the sheer joy of Uving, for life is good, though brief. Sheol is an unsubstantial reaUty; there wiU be no joy there. Make the most of youth. 252 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Gratify your desires; put away vexation; take the line of least resistance. Your prime is soon over; give yourself to its deUghts. Remember your Creator in tbe first of Ufe, tbat you may have Him in the last, when tbe enjoy ment of Ufe grows less, the douds returning to darken its brightness; when the hands tremble, the legs bend them selves, the teeth be few, the eyes lose thdr luster, tbe Ups shut, tbe voice quivers with the mstling of the toothless gums; when you shaU awake witb the twittering birds, when the notes of music cannot be heard; when short ness of breath makes it hard to cUmb; when your waUc is fuU of terrors, because you cannot handle yourseU; when the hair is white; when the simplest wdght is a burden; when stimulants to appetite faU. For man goes to his eternal house, and the mourners go about the streets. Enjoy Ufe whUe the sUver cord is not broken, so tbat the golden bowl hanging by it, feeding the lamps, falls and is smashed; enjoy life before the water jar is shat tered at tbe spring and can carry no more water, or the water wheel be broken at the weU so that you can draw no more; enjoy Ufe here and now, before the body returns to the earth and the spirit to Gkid wbo gave it. The dosing verses were probably added later. He has probed Ufe and the world, fearlessly and relent lessly. He has stated his condusions frankly, undeterred by any personal or sentimental reason. He has been com pelled to find tbe older reUgious conceptions inadequate, tbe new imperfect and unverified. The mists banging over his outiook bave forced him to pessimism, but never theless, his concluding advice, in accordance with the philosophy which more than once during this century came to the front, is manly and healthy, if not altogether inspiring: Enter into life heartily; be kindly; venture to sow and reap, and fiU the whole round of Ufe's duties while you can. Let the young man make the most of bis youth, for the inevitable decay of bodily powers wiU come with ECCLESIASTES 253 advancing age and the unconsdousness of Sheol wiU ter minate aU. After aU his wanderings, during which he threw over board many things, he seems to round out bis career with confidence in God and our final relations to Him. He presses home on every page the insuffidency of the world. He has tried it aU. There is nothing in the best it can give. Bjnron's Unes written on his thirty-sLsth birthday teU his experience: "My days are in the yeUow leaf: The fruits and flowers of love are gone; The worm, the canker and the grief Are mine alone!" He pleads that we shaU readjust the inadequate faith of past ages to the changing order of tbe world today, hold ing to that which is vital. He would encourage educa tion, but warns against depending upon it. He would preadi with teUing power the gospel of work. He would make reUgion vital and wholesome. He would exhort that we give out tbe best we have in kindly service to aU wbo need; that we view aU things from the standpoint of the heart's holy of boUes, with emotional sanity and in the perspective of final values, and that we put into the first of life those things which we sbaU need in the last of life. PART FIVE APOCALYPSES I Apocalypse in the Old Testament" One cannot go through a museum where mural tablets from andent Babylon are assembled without a better appredation of tbe fantastic figures used by Old Testa ment writers from Ezekiel on. These figures are hard for us to understand because they are so far away from anything we bave experienced. Indeed the chief diffi culty in biblical interpretation lies in the fact that it is impossible for most of us to transfer ourselves back to these long-gone eras in a far-off atmosphere and feel the power of emotions, ideas, ideals and methods of thought ruling there. Tbe Uterature secreted by tbe prophets from Hebrew Ufe, when hearts were beating hard, was fresh and crea tive, but was succeeded by tbe sterile period of scribism when Judaism became the reUgion of a book. Life never goes back. There is a vast difference between a period Uving in tbe tbrUl of newly discovered wonder lands and one given over to forcing its own Ufe into tbe moulds of the past. The spiritual fertUity of the one gives place to the steriUty of the other. A great revival of reUgion is not seldom followed by a long protracted attempt to measure everything and determine every thing by what was thought and done when Ufe was at the fuU. An age of criticism when the products of past spiritual genius are dissected, classified, sys tematized, is an age of timid halting, of cautious hesi tation, of fear and distmst, rather than love and courage. It is always in danger of forgetting that tmth is bigger than any definition of it, life far greater than any possible description of it. It may be an age in which men Uve 2S7 258 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY by what tbey deny, rather than by what they affirm; by what tbey hate, rather than by what they love; by what they fear, rather than by what they hope; by their dead levels, rather than by their enthusiasms. It may be an age in which men give more attention to taking care of the Ark of the Covenant than to realizing the infinite spiritual resources of whidi it is a symbol- It is an age tiierefore in which men kiU each other for the love of God. For be who wiU not submit to the sway of the dead band is a heretic. Such was the period of pharisaism whose scribes were given to squaring the issues of their day with the letter of the law. The scribes looked to their sacred Uterature, not only for rigid rules of life, but also for inspiration and hope in times of distress. What had the prophets to say about an hour like this? What escape do tbey offer? What promise? It is always easy to imd in the Scrip tures something of what we are looking for. Many ancient prophesies bad not been fulfilled. When wiU Gk)d make them aU good? When wiU He visit and redeem His people? Such questions burning in the troubled hearts of tbe devout found answer in the work of the scribes who, "by symbolizing what was Uteral and Uteralizing what was figurative" sought to work out a scheme of history that gave comfort and kept hope alive. Such methods cannot long survive in tbe chilling atmos phere of cold facts. The spirit must break through lan guage and escape in the form of fantasms and find a larger world for the play of its creative imagination. Such is the origin of the apocalyptic Uterature. Prophesy passed into scribism and scribism through cold storage into apocalyptic. Charles says that prophesy and apocalyptic agree in having made known through the Divine Spirit the char acter, wUl and purposes of God and tbe laws and nature of His kingdom. These were revealed by God and not discovered by man. Tbey agree also in simUarity of APOCALYPSES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 259 materials and methods. Ezekiel, Joel and Zechariah show us tbe beginnings and the general type. Charles points out also that prophesy and apocalyptic differ in very important particulars. Prophecy still be Ueves that this is God's world and that in this world His goodness and tmth wiU yet be justified. The past is or- ganicaUy connected with the future. Tbe prophet gives himself to the present and the issues immediately before bim and is concerned witb the future chiefly as it grows out of the present. History is the normal development of tbe race, of tbe Hebrew race in particular. The prophet is an optimist; tbe apocalyptic is a pessimist as to this world and the present. The world will grow worse and worse untU by a final cataclysm God changes aU things. This identical doctrine is preached to-day. Despair ing of tbe present we must turn to tbe future. The best the gospel offers is to prepare the elect for escape from imminent doom, meet the Lord at His second coming, and enter witb Him upon His Messianic reign. There is no good reason, therefore, for missionary effort. Tbe world is hopeless. There are no longer any prophets. Revelation ceased in the first century. God finished His last word to men. Then He sealed that word up in the two groups of booklets we caU tbe Bible. If anybody bad anything to say from 175 B. C. to 100 A. D., he was Ukely to speak in tbe name of some great man in the past, — ^Daniel, Enoch, Moses, Ezra, Baruch, Abraham. The andent prophet dealt primarUy with his own na tion; iaddentally with other nations round about. Only a few had a real world view and none had more than an outUne philosophy of history. The apocalyptist, on the other band, sought to vindicate God and His deal ings with His people, through long periods of distress at the bands of other nations by working out a scheme of things tbat would set forth the original divine purpose. 26o THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY The world was mechanical, made and set by God, and would grind itself out in His good time. Meanwhile it was necessary to be patient and hold on to Him untU the final trend to things should bring the Jew to tbe throne of tbe world. The coming and going of empires marked the grinding that was going on. Tbe apocalyptist became the vent for the pent-up fury of His suffering people. They portray tberefore a doom of merdless and irre mediable cmelty awaiting heathen oppressors and ex haust themselves in a futUe effort to satisfy their re lentiess hatred in this life. They tumed to the next to picture tbe damnation of the widced. During this period tbe doctrine of future rewards and punishments took definite form. AU this is another at tempt to adjust the doctrine of Deuteronomy, according to which righteousness secures temporal prosperity and suffering is caused by sin alone, to tiie facts of Ufe. An dent promises and present experiences were in conffict. The prophets bad nothing to say about tbe future of the individual but much to say about the resurrection of the nation. Since Jeremiah, however, tbe individual bad compelled consideration. His righteousness also must find adequate reward, if God is to be justified. Hence the doctrine of tbe resurrection of the individual. In working out both of these conceptions, tbe apocalyptist gives his philosophy of history in which the course and consummation of aU things are traced. In the Messianic Kingdom or in heaven itseU the Jew wiU come to his own. This method of writing in pictures became tremen dously effective when under the persecutions of tbe Syr ian kings it was impossible to write current history in plain language. One would have done it at tbe peril of his Ufe. But it was easy to give a message of telUng power such as Daniel's in enigmatic S3anbols, utterly meaningless to the outsider, but rich in spiritual sugges tion to the initiate. Tbe two outstanding books in which this was done are Daniel and Revelation. To un- haggai and ZECHARIAH 261 derstand either of these with any degree of thoroughness involves the mastery of the whole apocalyptic movement. Our interest in tiiat movement Ues in tbe fact that early Christianity came out of it. Jesus HimseU made use of the materials and methods of these writers. Tbe thoughts and ideals, the spirit and hope, of the world into which He came can be understood only in tbe Ught of the apocalyptic Uterature. II HAGGAI and ZECHARIAH 1-8: Religion in Reconstruction (520 B. C.) We ordinarUy think of the retum of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity as the march of a mighty host back to take charge of their andent possessions once more. As a matter of fact the indications are that those who returned were comparatively few in number and of smaU account. Many of the people had grown wealthy and were having a good time. Why should they hazard their fortunes upon a sentimental adventure? They were willing to contribute to the upbuUding of the home land and so materials were gathered and, permission being given by the new authorities in Babylon, the procession starts under Zembbabel and Joshua. They bring back among other things the sacred vessels of tbe temple, carried away by Nebuchadnezzar and now restored by Cyms. Perhaps four months of tmdging brought them home. Viewed with the eyes of tbe world and of the hour, it was but a meager stream of tbe reUgious life trickling its tedious way across the desert waste, only to find its long expected outlet but another desert. Yet in tbat Uttle stream the ages are embosomed. The exiles returned from Babylon to found, not a na tion, but a church, not a State, but a reUgious commu- 262 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY nity. Tbe hope of tbe people scattered among tbe great empires of tbe world had now died out forever. Once on the soU of the promised land again, tbey probably sought out and settled in their old habitats. Seven months after the retum tbey gathered at Jem salem to reestabUsh formal worship. The altar was rebuUt and sacrifices and feasts were resumed. In a few months tbe foundation of the temple was laid with proper ceremonial; yet there were tliose wbo wept at the contrast between the new and tbe old. Opposition soon developed from tbe half-beatlien Samaritans, who sought to share in the work of reconstruction. Irritated at being refused, they set about obstructing tbe work by threats of violence and by intrigues at the Persian Court. So that for fifteen long years it stood stiU. MeanwhUe their own houses were fitted up in the most approved styles. They excused themselves by arguing that the time had not come for Jehovah's house to be buUt. Per haps every pastor since with such a task on hand has met this argument. How could tbey get on without a Temple? Could reUgion survive without a center for its expression and practice? They migbt have thought so but for a with ering drought that threatened universal famine. Short crops sometimes do more to bring on a revival than aU the evangelists. When the critical moment arrived, Haggai came forward with bis first message to tbe leaders of the people on their feast day. His appeals in four addresses stung them into action and in less than a month they resumed work on the Temple. There were those who were bitterly disappointed, but the prophet's eye could see even the GentUes bringing their gifts tUl finaUy the new Temple would be more glorious tiian the old. He was soon joined by Zechariah, wbo saw Hag- gai's message reinforced in a series of eight visions. Messengers announced the divine displeasure at tbe maUdous delight of tbe heathen in Israel's disasters. HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH 263 God loves his people. The time for the rebuilding of the Temple is at band. Four horns of iron, symbolizing the powers that had afflicted Israel are to be shattered by four smiths. A man with a measuring Une appeared to measure Jemsalem, but it was useless. God is her de fense and her glory. Joshua, tbe High Priest, dothed in filthy garments, is put on trial. The garments are changed for rich apparel, thus symboUzing the sentence of pardon upon the people. He becomes a symbol of tbe sprout of tbe stock of David, yet to be their final deUv erer. A seven-lamped chandeUer with seven pipes tapping a central reservoir, witb two oUve trees beside it, suggests to the prophet the exhaustless resources at bis command, "Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit," saith Yahweh of Hosts. A roll, carrying a curse upon criminals, ffies over tbe whole land. An ephah goes forth with a woman in it who symbolizes wickedness, which is now banished to tbe land of unhoUness. Four chariots come out from between two mountains of brass, drawn by horses red, black, white and grizzled. They are the winds going to execute judgment on the beatben who rejoiced at the aflaiction of God's people. The people were thus told that better days were coming, the Temple would be re buUt, the land cleansed and their enemies judged. The High Priest is crowned, apparentiy with the feeUng that the Messianic Kingdom is now to appear and he is to be tbe Messiah. For two years tbe prophet is sUent, then comes again to reaffirm Jehovah's passion for His chosen people as the pledge of the enthronement of Jemsalem to be the spiritual head of the world. That like ours was a time of reconstmction. AU the institutions of andent Israel were to be reestabUshed, all their laws rewritten and aU their ideals adapted to the new situation. SbaU we bave tbe wisdom of Haggai and Zechariah that wiU recognize religion as the most vital, the deepest, the most detemuning factor in personal and 264 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY sodal Ufe? WiU we undertake to give it the place these men gave it? WiU we have tbe courage to organize business in recognition of the supremacy of the spirit? WiU man or the machine be on top? Unless the Spirit of Jesus Christ takes possession of the forces of recon stmction, and of tbe coming sodal order, aU our fighting wiU go for Uttie. The reUgion of the new day must take possession of the whole Ufe. These reformers would plead for an adequate expression of reUgion in our sodal institutions. There are at least two great lessons for us in the work of these two men of God. First, they give us a caU to make the material side of our reUgious Ufe an expression of tbe spiritual values we wish to conserve. A thing can not be Christian and be shoddy, if one knows how to make it otherwise. Church biuldings, church furnish ings, the materials of worship, parsonage, the institu tions, such as orphanages, coUeges, hospitals, sodal settlements, indeed any building, machinery or enter prise that is an expression of Christian sentiment, must express tbat sentiment adequately. He bath made everything beautUul. Our architecture is, much of it, little less than a crime. It does not represent tbe Chris tian ideal. It comes out of the Middle Ages with the superstitions and misconceptions of tbat time stiU dingmg to it. Let us hope for tbe coming of a master who wiU eliminate the excrescences and misinterpreta tions of even our best church architecture and give us in reality the beautiful spirit of Jesus done in stone. BuUd perfectiy but do not depend on your buUding. The ma^uficent cathedrals in Mexico and other cathoUc countries attest the limits of art as a preacher of the Gos pel. There are some things machinery cannot do. How tragic tbat poverty and fflth, superstition and vice, ignorance and ignominy, Uve together under the shadow of these glorious structures. How tragic tbat depraved priests should minister at those gorgeous altars, to MALACHI 265 debauching people, aU aUke without God, witbout ideals and without hope in the world! These reformers were right. ReUgion is basal; basal in sodal as weU as in individual Ufe. Take God out of the atmosphere of our country and our institutions wiU crumble. "ReUgion's aU or nothing; it's no mere smile O' contentment, sigh of aspiration, sir — No quaUty o' the fineUer-tempered day Like its whiteness or its Ughtness; rather, stuff C the very stuff, Ufe of life, and seU of self. " III MALACHI: The Kind of Religion That Counts. (460 B. C.) The history of Israel w£is one long series of brilUant hopes foUowed by disUlusionment. When the exUes returned and rebuilt the Temple and renewed the ritual service, it was expected tbey would enjoy a new heaven and a new earth witb prosperity and plenty on every hand; but it did not tum out so, and when the disiUu sionment came, the enthusiasm kindled by Haggai and Zechariah waned and indifference and worldUness foUowed. God was indifferent. Righteousness was of no avail. Why should tbey take reUgion too seriously? This was the condition when an anonymous prophet, whom we call Malachi (My Messenger) appeared. The Jewish community was under a Persian ruler who dealt rather favorably with them, so tbat they had no partic- cular grievance against outside nations. Marriages with heathen and haJf-heathen women of the land were common. The temple tax was neglected; moral and reUgious laxness prevailed from the Priests down; de pression and discontent were abroad; poor crops, in stead of the rich abundance promised. The retuming 266 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY pUgrims upon the reestabUshment of the ritual found only distress. Such is the general situation described in the book. It fits closely into the period of Nehemiah. The exact date is impossible to determine. Scholars differ as to whether it belongs before the coming of Ezra, before tbe mission of Nehemiah, or shortly before or shortly after Nehemiab's second visit to Jemsalem. Perhaps 460 is reasonably correct. Maladii is unUke the older prophets in style, being more prosaic and more appredative of ritual. His method is Socratic, giving questions and answers rather than sustained argument. His spirit is of tbe prophetic type. His task is to re kindle faith in the flagging hearts of a discouraged peo ple. He pleads for the reUgion tbat counts. That reUgion is first of aU based upon the love of God for us. "I have loved you," saith Yahweh. This is the only satisfying foundation to build upon — our love for God, our love for men, any emotion, indeed, is too evanescent and uncertain. Mere tmth is too cold. Ac tion may proceed from without, but when we are an chored in tbe changeless love of the Infinite we are secure. It caUs out the response due a father by a son. The son honoreth his father and a servant his master. "If, then, I am a Father, where is my honor, and if I am a Master, where is my fear?" Such response makes the offering of poUuted or de fective gifts impossible. It makes the perfunctory spirit impossible also. The reUgion that counts expresses itseU in noble leadership. Of the Priest, Malachi says, "The law of tmth was in his moutii, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips: be walked with me in peace and uprightness, and tumed many away from iniquity. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek tbe law at bis mouth, for he is the messen ger of Jehovah of hosts." "This is a conception of the MALACHI 267 importance and dignity of tbe priesthood that is un surpassed, if it be ever equaled elsewhere in tbe Old Testament." Truly such men are the consdence of the people. Tbe reUgion that counts recognizes aU men as chil dren of a common Father and brothers to each other. Have we not aU one Father? Hath not one God created us? It therefore keeps a brotherly attitude toward aU men. " Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? " Such reUgion does not hold tears to be a sufficient atonement for sin. "Ye cover tbe altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping and witb sighing, insomuch that He regardeth not tbe offering any more, neither receiveth it with good will at your hand." Tbe straight ening out of moral defects is necessary, tears or no tears. This is particularly tme with immoraUty that affects the beautiful relationships of the home. Here loyalty, deep and lasting, is the taproot of Ufe. Tbe reUgion tbat counts understands Gkid's care, is incapable of charging Him with indifference. It seeks to make each day a preparation for a greater day that is to follow. It has its EUjahs to prepare the way for the completer coming of God into aU our life. It is therefore ready for whatever testing process may be necessary. It supports adequately its own institutions, and does not find its profit in material blessings. Good men may go hungry, bad men may have plenty, those that brought in the tithes may still suffer. Tbe rewards of reUgion are in the enriching of Ufe itseU rather than in material benefits. The process of the spirit brings spiritual re sults, and while those who conform to spiritual law are better prepared to grapple with the exacting laws of labor, business, and trade, stiU the ends sought are in the higher reaUties, where there is no lost good. Trouble comes sooner or later, as it was coming to the Jews 268 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY in the time of Malachi, to those who expect material profit for spiritual loyalty; but disappointment can never come to one wbo follows unflinchingly the up ward way, looking here and now first for things that are above. "Ask and ye shaU recdve; seek and ye shaU find; knock and it shaU be opened unto you," announces a law as certain and as dependable as the law of gravitation. "AU we have wiUed or hoped or dreamed of good shaU exist; Not its semblance, but itseU; no beauty, nor good, nor power Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist When eternity affirms the conception of an hour. The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too bard. The passion that left the ground to lose itself in tbe sky, Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard; Enough that be heard it once: we shaU hear it by- and-by." The disciples of such an ideal are intensely sodal in their nature. They speak often one with another be cause the innermost things of the spirit are too predous to hoard. They are riches that grow richer by being shared. The Master understood this and made spedal promise to even two or three gathered together in His name. The feUowship of such kindred spirits Ufts us above the strife of Ufe and puts a halo over aU things earthly. The reUgion that counts looks and Uves forward and not backward. "Unto you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise, witb beaUng in its wings; and ye shaU go forth and gambol as calves of the staU." The day of God, which is yet to come, may mean dis- ISAIAH 269 tress to others, but it brings freedom and joy to His own. And finaUy such reUgion gives itseU to vital mission ary effort. Its agents seek to tum the hearts of the fathers to the chUdren and the hearts of the chUdren to thdr fathers in every home, in every land. IV ISAIAH 34-35: The Best is yet to be (400 B. C.) An outburst of apocalyptic passion is imbedded in the heart of Isaiah (34-35). The nations are summoned to hear their doom and the picture of the cmelty to be infficted upon them is not unlike the stories out of tbe European War. Yahweh bath a Day of Vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion, and this ven geance visits desolation and min upon aU tbe nations round about, upon Edom in particular. Then comes a beautiful vision of the wUdemess and the dry land made glad, the desert rejoicing and blossom ing as the rose. Human Uls are to be removed; men and nature renewed; the way of hoUness opened up in which even fools can waUj witbout erring; and sorrow and sighing shaU flee away. It is deUghtiul to find in the arid areas of 400 B. C. the stream of reUgious experience bursting forth in such a gladdening prospect as this: "The wUdemess and the dry land shaU be glad; and the desert shaU rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shaU blossom abundantiy, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shaU be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Jehovah, the exceUency of our God. "Strengthen ye the weak bands, and confirm tbe feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart. Be strong, fear not: behold, your God wiU come with ven- 270 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY geance, with the recompense of God; he wUl come and save you. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of tbe deaf shaU be unstopped. Then shaU a lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shaU sing; for in the wUdemess shaU waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the glowing sand shaU be come a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water: in tbe habitation of the jackals, where tbey lay, shaU be grass with reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shaU be caUed The Way of Holiness; the unclean shaU not pass over it; but it shaU be for the redeemer: the wayfaring men, yea fools, shaU not err therein. No Uon shaU be there, nor shaU any ravenous beast go up thereon; they shall not be found there; but the redeemed shaU walk there: and tbe ran somed of Jehovah shaU retum, and come with singing into Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shaU obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sigh ing shaU flee away." V ZECHARIAH 9-14: Foundations of Permanent Peace (300-250 B. C.) In passing from the eighth chapter of Zechariah to the ninth, we leave one atmosphere, one world, and enter another. It is impossible for an intelUgent reader not to feel tbe difference. How can we account for it? Scholars find reason to beUeve that here, as in other books of tbe prophets, tbe second part is from a different hand. Pro fessor MitcheU gives at length ("Intemational Critical Commentary") tbe data upon which this conclusion rests. First, tiiere are no dates in the last six chapters and no reference to any person or event by which a date can be ZECHARIAH 271 fixed, while the first eight chapters are carefuUy dated. The first person is not used here as in tbe first eight chap ters. There are no visions here. As to Uterary form, the first eight chapters are rather monotonous prose, only now and then becoming spasmodicaUy rhythmical, whUe the second part, with probable lost words restored, be comes a section of double tristics, not whoUy unlike Second Isaiah. We have here therefore an elaborate poem of which Zechariah seems to have been incapable. The forms of expression characteristic of the first part do not recur in the last six chapters under similar circum stances, and vice versa. Tbe vocabulary is different. Zechariah repeatedly refers to "the former prophets"; chapters 9 to 14 do not, although the points of contact with other books are much more numerous. The author does not seem to know anything about Haggai. There are fewer passages paraUel with Micah, Jeremiah and Second Isaiah; about as many as from Amos and First Isaiah; but twice as many from Hosea and almost three times as many from Ezekiel. Job is referred to twice and Deuteronomy three times. There is a different concep tion of God, whose wiU in the first eight chapters is made known through angels, whUe He hides Himself from human eyes. In the second part God appears suddenly to rescue His people from the terrific blow. The nations named — ^Damascus, Hamath, GUead, As- s3Tia and Egypt — ^had no touch with the Jews between 520 and 516 B. C. The peaceful atmosphere of tbe first part is changed to one of war, in the second part; the bitterness of feeUng toward outsiders is intense in the sec ond part. Nations are gathered to the Uttie town of Jemsalem and overthrown at sight of Yahweh, whUe in the first eight chapters things are expected to go on as usual under the Persian king. The cmelty and ex travagance of the second part is absent from the first part. The Messianic kingdom portrayed in tbe first part is to extend from the land of Hadrak in tbe north 272 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY to the desert south of Gaza, while in tbe second part it extends only from Geba on tbe north to Rimmon on the south, i. e., in the former part the author claims everything ever promised them, whUe in the second Judah's territory alone is promised. In chapters i- 8, the head of the kingdom is to be Zembbabel, then on the ground, while in 9, i-io, he has not yet ap peared and will not come until the country is subdued for him. Zechariah promises his people only such peace and prosperity as will aUow long happy Uves, but the promises of the second part are fantastic, aU nature being involved. The ethical standards of tbe first part are higher than in the second where there are no ethical pre cepts. Ceremonial cleanness is emphasized in the second part; "Holy unto Yahweh" is to be put even upon the beUs of the horses. These are in substance the reasons for assuming different authorship for tbe two divisions of the book. But the question remains, is the whole of tbe second part by the same pen? Here again both tbe substance and the style are quite dissimUar. Chapters 9 to 11, with 13 :7-9 added, seem to be a unit. What date does its background suggest? Some scholars think pre-exiUc, because the northern kingdom is spoken of as stiU ex isting and in friendly relations witb Judah. Eg3^t and Assyria, whither Israel wiU be taken into captivity, are contemporary. Teraphhn and diviners suggest pre- exiUc conditions. The nations threatened are tbe ones mentioned by Amos. The author would therefore be a contemporary of Amos and Hosea. Chapters 12 to 14, without 13 :7-9, are also a unit, and are thought by some to be pre-eaUc on the basis of the reference to mourning for King Josiah in the last years of the kingdom (608- 586). Recent scholarship, on the other hand, is increasingly disposed to place both sections late in the post-exiUc period. The captivity is presupposed. No reference is 7ECHARIAH 273 made to a Davidic king in Jemsalem. Great emphasis is placed upon worship and feasts in Jemsalem in the Messianic Age. The priests are prominent. The Greeks are mentioned as Israel's most formidable enemies. We have, set forth in these six chapters, the founda tions upon which permanent peace must rest. First of aU a new type of leadership. The leader is to be, not a man of the sword, arrogant, selfish, given to dis play, merciless toward his enemies, exacting toward bis cUents, using the trappings of power, with whom migbt is right. He is to be, rather, righteous, saved by tbe touch of a Higher Power, lowly, unpretentious, witbout the in signia of war, a man of peace, though he may have to fight to secure it, proclaiming peace to the nations, ex ercising quiet dominion from sea to sea; himself trained in the school of suffering, be is to be the servant of his age. His ideals must be spiritual and the means upon which he reUes for their enforcement also spiritual. Tbe coming of this new leader involves, of course, the overthrow of the old, of the shepherds of the people who feed upon them instead of feeding them, who offer tbem 'up as sacrifices to their own seffish ambitions and inter ests. The State came into existence by one tribe going out and conquering another and bringing them into serv itude. History is a long story of the strong feeding upon tbe weak, offering tbem up on tbe altar of their own greed- War has been mainly the few sacrifidng tbe many. Tbe prevaiUng nationalism sets one group over against another in a stmggle for the ascendency. All this must pass and a new way be found for distributing tbe prod ucts of our industry. Tbe old reUgious leader, with his dogmatism, with his extemal authority, his narrow sectarianism, bis pro fessional airs, must go also. It would be useless to fight against autocracy abroad and practice it at home. Democracy must prevail. Tbe new passion for reaUty must sweep away those forms and ceremonies, those 274 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY institutions as well, which are unvital. The true prophet must take charge and, if possible, save the people, even in spite of themselves. The two symbols of his office are to be deUght and union — deUght indicating first of aU God's good wiU toward His people and as a consequence tbe good wiU of people toward each other — ^union indicating the finding of points of agreement and emphasizing them, the em- bradng indeed of the moral and spiritual forces under one universal redemptive purpose. The barbed wire fences that divide must be cut away and the whole area of the reUgious life made over for concerted action in the interests of sodal betterment. We have been sinning together. Our community ideals have tolerated things that are insufferable, encour aged tilings that are immoral- Great fortunes have been buUt up by methods of piracy; graft has been aU too common. Powerful organizations have found devious ways by which not only to escape the law but to use it for their own advantage. Our commerce and industry, our business and toU have centered in the dollar rather than in the man and has not seldom forgotten to be hu man. There has been opened up a fountain for sin and uncleanUness. We bave been going wrong as a commun ity, and as a community must come to the mourner's bench. President WUson in bis first inaugural address made this prophetic caU. God wiU bring us out of this baptism of blood, let us hope, a purified people, more zealous for works of good wUl for aU the world. Though this be a day of gloom, at evening-time there shaU be Ught. This can come, however, only upon condition that we shall realize in our personal experiences, as weU as in our sodal readjustments, tbat God is king over aU the earth and must have sway everywhere. There is salvation in no other. JOEL 275 VI JOEL: Economic and Civic Aspects of Religion (350 B. C). The Uttle Book of Joel raises about aU tbe critical questions involved in tbe interpretation of the Old Testament. For example: Is the book a unit? There are those who deny it, because of the differenc^e of interest and subject-matter and the difference in style between the first two chapters and the last two. The first two, they claim, treat of a locust plague and a drought as disciplinary punishment of the Jews; tbe last two treat of the final judgment of the nations and the protection and the glory of the Jews. The passages of tbe first part which refer to judgment are supposed to be interpolations: 1:15, 2:ib-2, 2:10- II, 2:6 and 2:20. The second section, except 4:9-14, is not up to tbe level of tbe first. It is supposed that tbe interpolator wbo worked over part one, worked over part two, also, adding 3:4b, 4:17a, 4:2b.3, 4:18-21, 3:4b-5, 4:4-8. Whether there is a difference of inter est and subject-matter between tbe two parts depends upon what the theme of the book is; if it is Yahweh, then there is a logical movement through both. The evi dence submitted is not suffident to cause us to break it up. Most of the passages in question are probably quotations from other Prophets, with which, of course, Joel would be famiUar. The course of thought is logical, despite possible insertions. A picture of the land desolate and mourning because of the locust plague and drought, is drawn first. The Prophet views tiie visitation as a call to national humiUation and repentance, because it is to him a harbinger of the Day of Yabweb, now impending with overpowering violence from tbe "Over-Power." Then foUows a fuUer description of the signs of the approach 276 THE OLD testament IN THE LIFE OF TODAY of the awful day. Yahweh is leading on a terrible army, Uke an army of locusts. The darkened heavens, tbe roaring thunder, the trembling earth, are tokens of His rapid approach. It is not yet too late. Repentence might avert the disaster. Then there is a pause. And Yahweh answers His people's prayer with material blessings, followed by the outpouring of the prophetic spirit upon even tbe common servants and handmaidens, so tbat when the Day of Yahweh finaUy comes its terrors wiU light on Israel's foes, and tbat judgment is de scribed. A digression describes the spedal doom of cer tain spedal enemies of tbe Jews. Then tbe final crisis, tbe destruction of tbe nations, tbe eternal sanctity and security of Jerusalem with Yahweh in Zion, is pictured. The Background of the Book There are silences that are sigmficant. There is no reference to tbe Syrians, the Assyrians, tbe Chaldeans, tbe Babylonians or tbe Persians — all world powers with which the Jews were long in touch. There is no mention of tbe Northern Kingdom nor of the Ten Tribes, the author's interest being confined to Judah and Jerusalem, Israel being the name of tbe oppressed people- There is no reference to king, prince or high priest, elders and priests being the officials. He mentions Tyre, Sidon, Pbillistines, Greeks, Sa beans, Egypt and Edom. Tyre and Sidon and aU PhUistia had taken the treasures of the Jews and carried tbem into their temples, and had sold their sons in slav ery to the Greeks. The Jews would yet seU their sons to tbe Sabeans. Yahweh's heritage is scattered among the nations, and is a reproach. Tbe VaUey of Jehoshaphat is mentioned, caUed, presumably, after the name of the King. A terrible scourge of locusts has just passed. The com munity is so smaU that a pubUc meeting can be caUed JOEL 277 by a trumpet blown m Zion. The Northerner is men tioned, but tbe meaning is not clear. There is no dvic ideal, apart from tbe cult. Slavery is accepted. Monogamy is assumed. There is no class stratffication. Tbe people Uve in houses with windows. There is at least one walled dty. Drunkenness is the only moral evU designated- The people are supported by agriculture and by pas turing herds and flocks. Barns, wine presses and oU vats, pruning hooks, sickles, ploughshares, threshing floors, wheat, barley, "grain," pahns, pomegranates, apples, figs, all pass in review. So do flocks, herds and beasts of tbe field. There is Uttle, if any, suggestion of commerce or trading, except among slave dealers. Manufacturing is confined to tbe implements of agricul ture and of war. The only reference to education is tbe teaching of the chUdren the terrors of the plague. The Temple is standing. Tbe Priests are the minis ters of Yahweh. The Elders are important. The cessa tion of the ritual performances is held to be a direful calamity. Tbe fast is highly regarded. Religious rites are tbe center of community lUe. Idolatry is not re ferred to; nor is the Law. The idea of holiness attaches to tbe city and to tbe Temple. When finally renewed, no stranger shall pass through them. Community re Ugion is strong. Meetings are important. Yabweb is in immediate control of nature and uses its forces at wiU. Repentence may change tbe course of nature. He is tbe God of Israel, yet determines the des tinies of other nations. He is righteous, rewarding and avenging His peculiar people. Sin is made little of. A square deal seems to be tbe social ideal. Pandering among foreigners is practiced. There is no recognition of international ethics. Community repentence and community worship are inculcated. Redemption is materialistic deliverance from material Uls, yet after 278 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY the return of prosperity, spiritual reUgion is to pre vail. The Literary Relationships of the Book Literary relationships with Ezekiel, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Obadiah, Nahum, Psalms, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Kings, Numbers, Micah, Amos and Malachi are in(U- cated, Joel probably quoting in the main, using, also, words and phrases current in later Judaism. The Date AU these considerations place tbe book either before 800 or after 500 B. C, with increasing certainty that it is to be dated about tbe middle of tbe fourth century. Literary Characteristics Is Joel written in prose or poetry? Tbe sUghest study of the text shows that it is poetry, reaching as high as seven, if not ten, Unes to tbe stanza, making at least a decasticb. His meter is easily discoverable. Hex ameters, pentameters, tetrameters, etc., aU occur witbout any apparent order of sequence. He makes rhythm express the changing moods of his message. His most characteristic movement is the staccato beat of the tetrameter, which be uses with telling effect. Notice how beautUuUy appropriate is tbe quick movement of the Unes in 2 :7-9, where tbe rapid, orderly march of tbe army of locusts is described: "Like warriors tbey mn, like soldiers they advance, Tbey march each in bis own way, and do not entangle their paths." Observe how weU he accentuates the terseness of the Unes in the description of tbe ravages of tbe locusts : JOEL 279 "That which tbe shearer has left, tbe swarmer has eaten. And that which the swarmer has left, the lapper has eaten, And tbat which the lapper has left, the finisher has eaten!" (1:4) See how the stirring effect is heightened in the prepa ration for war: "Prodaim this among tbe nations: Consecrate war, arouse the mighty men!" (4:9) The staccato movement used to describe the rapid and terrible march of the army of locusts in 2:7-11, changes to the hexameter, to express the pleading tones of Yahweh's appeal in 2:12-14: "Yet even now, is Yahweh's oracle, tum unto me with aU your heart, With fasting and weeping and mourning, but rend your hearts and not your garments!" Joel, along with the other Hebrew poets, used such devices as rhythm, assonance, alUteration, onamatopoeia. All tbe lines of verses from six to ten of the first chapter rhyme, except the second line in the sixth verse. Word-play is found in many places. Of the first sec tion of the book, George Adam Smith says: "Letter for letter, this is one of tbe heaviest passages in prophecy. The proportion in Hebrew of the liquids to the other letters is not large, but here it is smaller than ever. Tbe explosives and dentals are very numerous. There are several keywords, with hard consonants and long vowels, used again and again: Shuddadb, 'tbbaab, 'iimlal, bobbish. The longer lines into whicb Hebrew parallelism tends to mn are replaced by a series of short, heavy phrases, falling Uke blows. Critics bave caUed it rhetoric. But it is rhetoric of a high order and 28o THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY perfectly suited to tbe prophet's purpose. Look at chapter i:io: Shuddadb, sadheh, 'abblah 'adhamah, shuddadb daghan, h6bhlsh tirdsh, lumlal yishar. Joel loads bis clauses with the most leaden letters he can find, and drops them in quick succession, repeating the same heavy word again and again, as if he would stun the careless people into some sense of the bare, brutal calamity which has befallen them. " What type of poetry is the poem as a whole? The Drama is defined as "A composition in prose or poetry accommodated to action, intended to portray Ufe or char acter or to tell a story by actions and, usuaUy, dialogue tending toward some result directiy based upon them; a play. It is designed or composed as though to be per formed by actors on the stage. " The Hebrew mind was subjective. It Uved on the things of tbe spirit and was at its best only when expressing inward experience of its own. It could not adequately describe the experiences of others, and it could not transfer itself from one world to another without carrying over its own subjective atmos phere. Hence, tbe presenting of dramatic action in telUng form was beyond its reach. Job is the nearest we have to this achievement. Yet there are those who refuse to call it drama because of the paudty of action and movement. Tbe Song of Songs is denied a place in dramatic Uterature. Yet both have so many marks of tbe drama that I am disposed to class them as such. But Joel could not possibly be so classed. Is it epic? There is no " central hero whose exploits or fortunes are tbe thread of the discourse. " Job has been called the "Epic of the Inner Life." Is it a lyric, or a coUection of lyrics? There are not a few of tbe strophes, or stanzas, that are easUy set to music and sung and that are expressive of tbe poet's feeUngs, but it is prevaiUngly "descriptive of outward incident or event." So that, whUe there are lyrics here, it could be hardly so named as a whole. JOEL 281 Shall we caU it, then, a collection of odes? These short poems, "suited to be set to music or sung," typi cally characterized by varying length of time and com plexity of stanza forms are, as a whole, "not expressive of sustained noble sentiment with appropriate digmty of style." "If ffight be the regular image for tbe move ment of lyric poetry," says Moulton, "the ode is the song that can soar tbe highest and remain longest on the wing." "Speaking generally," he continues, "we may say that it may be distinguished from other lyrics by greater elaboration and (so to speak) structural con sciousness. " WhUe there may be passages in Joel of the character here described, we can hardly find one t37pe that fully describes this poem. Nor can we call it a Sonnet. Shall we call it an idyl? WhUe its imagery is pastoral to a degree, it is not a "Uttle picture in verse" like Ruth, which is "simple, calm, more concerned with situation than with action." Is it to be interpreted allegoricaUy or Uterally? Tbe general concensus of opinion understands it to be Uteral. Joel the Man We do not know anything about the facts of the au thor's Ufe, beyond bis father's name, yet bis general characteristics are revealed in part in the Book. His name is a confession of Faith: "Yabweb is God." This suggests devout parentage and careful reUgious training. This is not so virile as the chaUenge in EUjah's name: "My God is Yahweh!" His interest was entirely Judean. If Israel was stiU in existence, he did not feel responsible for their welfare. Whether he Uved in Jerusalem is not certain. He evi dently knew aU that was going on there- He has not the old time consdousness of sin, although such a consdousness is present. He feels the strong 282 THE OLD testament IN THE LIFE OF TODAY blows infficted because of sin. He beUeves in united prayer. Even the forces of nature can be reached through Yabweb. He is a devout rituaUst and a veritable high churchman, but be beUeves in ritual not as a substitute for, but as an expression of, our reUgious life. Repentance must tear tbe heart and not the garments. He feels the terrors of famine in the country and is strongly sympa thetic with his countrymen and powerfuUy moved by their cries. He beUeves in an economic background con genial to efficient reUgion. He feels tbe glory of the com mon man, and beUeves in his place in sodety, expecting him yet to come to his own. He was a poet rather than a prophet. He saw and felt the world of reaUty. His aesthetic life is strong. He Uved in the world of the beautiful. His eye for detaUs was wonderful- Living close to the people, he voiced in exquisite rhythmics trains the deeper reaUties of their Uves. Tbe smooth, even-flowing movement of his beautiful Unes tells of great care as a writer and deep rhythmic Ufe as a man. His Message Joel, suffering with his people from the devastations of a locust plague, which be describes vividly, urges the assembUng of aU classes to call upon God to avert a fur ther calamity, whicb he terms "The Day of Yahweh." He then idealizes the locusts and describes them graph ically as an invading army, which can be averted by turning to God. Yahweh wUl hear, and prosperity wUl retum with the retuming reUef and rains, after which even servants wiU receive the spirit of Yahweh. He fore sees the coming of Yahweh and urges preparedness. The climax is reached in tbe gathering of multitudes — "multitudes in the vaUey of dedsion" — to be destroyed, while the Jew is enthroned under God. There are some exceedingly modem notes in the book. JOEL 283 While we may not accept his view of the locusts and the drought as a result of sin, we are feeUng a need for a spiritual interpretation of nature, which is but God un folding Himself in material form. His caU for community repentance of community sins — ^violations of economic laws, tbe using of techni- caUties to inffict wrong upon our brethren — ^might bave been written today. It is remarkable that he promises a revival of reUgion after tbe retum of material prosperity and that that re vival would give even slaves a spiritual endowment for the tasks of daily Uving. Tbe Spirit of God, in tbe Old Testament, was up to this time thought to be a special gUt to spedal men, or heroes, for spedfic services. The architect of Solomon's Temple was said to have had it; Samson was made strong by it. Gideon prepared to fight. It had not yet been conceived of as an equipment for daUy experiences. The time wiU come when the common man wiU have it, but tbat time has not yet arrived. Pe ter said that was the meaning of Pentecost. We are only now learning tbe importance of right economic conditions as necessary to the effident reUgious Ufe. It is difficult to be pious when one's children are crying for bread. Pinching poverty must be driven out before tbe full tide of spiritual prosperity can come in. The Divine Element in our everyday Ufe is destined to gain in power until it shaU wipe out, with irretrievable doom, those agendes which have been preying upon the spirit. The last note in his appeal is for poUtical freedom as a condition of permanent reUgious freedom and hope. It is only after national oppressors have been destroyed that God is to dweU in Zion. These, then, are the words this andent poet would speak to us today across the intervening centuries. He would plead for a spiritual interpretation of nature, for community repentance of community sins, for the crea- 284 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY tion of a sodalized world. He promises a Divine ele ment in the most commonplace life, equipping us for the discharge of the most commonplace duties. He warns against unbrotherliness by portraying for us the Nemesis tbat waits for those who violate the holy relationships between man and man, and finaUy, he makes dvU and poUtical freedom necessary to effidency. vn ISAIAH 24-27: "Thy Dead Shall Live" (170 B. C.) We have here first of all a picture of universal judg ment. Over wide areas devastation and min prevaU. The Jews are scattered over the earth, poor, distressed and helpless. They are poUtically dependent, bave no king of their own and seem to look up to tbe priest as of tbe highest rank. This would fit a late post-exiUc pe riod. So would the circle of ideas revealed in the book. The physical resurrection of the individual points to the time of Daniel (165 B. C). Death is to be aboUshed. The heavenly hosts are to be imprisoned. War in heaven is expected. Tbe two leviathans and the dragon wiU be in conffict- Yahweh's enthronement in Zion, the nation's violators of the eternal covenant, the great trumpet that is to call the elect, the Jews' righteous indignation — aU these together suggest a very late date. Tbe style and language are post-exUic. Here we have then a picture of wide-extended judgment out of which comes Yahweh's redeemed people, joined even by the dead, reanimated, saved by God for whom they have waited to estabUsh a new social order. Songs to be sung by them are scattered through the passage. This is the old, old story. Distress and devastation do not dry up the stream of life, but gushing forth out of DANIEL 285 the desert wastes, it hurries on to the renewal of all things. ^ Let none lose heart therefore. Though we are hurled into the night, it wiU be sunrise everywhere to morrow. VIII DANIEL: Inviolate Faith Invincible (168-165 B. C.) In order to appredate fuUy the Book of Daniel, it is necessary to understand tbe persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria. In about 172 B. C, he got into trouble witb Egypt over the possession of Palestine. For three or four years they were at each other's throats. Becoming suspicious of the Jews, be sacked Jemsalem, massacred or enslaved large numbers of its inhabitants, robbed and desecrated tbe Temple. He now determined to extirpate the Anti-Helenistic party, because he suspected tbem of sympathizing with Egypt. The greater lus troubles with Egypt, tbe greater his determination to convert or destroy everybody sup posed to be out of line with his desire to consoUdate the Syrian state by estabUshing a common dvilization. Bitter presecution of tbe Jews foUowed; many were mar tyred. Tbe practidng of their ritual and the keeping of tiieir Bible were forbidden on penalty of death. Every body was commanded to worship the Emperor, upon whose coin the words "God Manifest" were stamped. Tbis might mean but Uttie to other people who already had more than one God, but it was impossible for the Jew who was a monotheist. The crisis was finaUy pre- dpitated when AppeUes, a royal officer, came to Modein, a smaU town upon tbe Judean hiUs, and ordered all tbe inhabitants to join in a sacrifice to the King. Among those who came were Mattathias and his five sons, John, Simon, Judas, Eleazear, and Jonathan. The royal officer tried to get Mattathias to lead in the sacrifice and prom- ,286 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY ised that the Government would take care of him, where upon Mattathias kUled tbe Jew wbo was attempting to offer sacrifice, his sons tore down the altar and the entire family fled to tbe mountains. Tbey were soon joined by loyal brethren, and the Maccabean War started, war waged by the Syrians for the specffic purpose of destro3Tng the Jewish reUgion. It was a noble stmggle on the part of the Jews for the right to life, Uberty, and, the pursuit of happiness. One result of this War was the caUing out of new re Ugious books, among tbem several of tbe Psalms, and most notable of aU, tbe Book of Daniel, written for the purpose of encouraging faithful souls to stand fast in thdr integrity loyal to tbe traditions of their fathers. The author takes an andent story of Daniel at the Per sian Court and fits it into this hour. Daniel and his three friends are tempted to eat food held unclean, but refused and stood the test of physical exceUence better than aU those who ate tbe food. The King dreams a dream that none of his interpreters can explain. Daniel is caUed and without difficulty makes it dear. The King makes a great feast dedicating an image. At a given sig nal the crowd is expected to faU down and worship. Three Hebrews refuse and are put into the fiery furnace, but escape unhurt. A royal decree is issued declaring God's kingdom to be universal. The King has another dream which is interpreted also by Daniel. A great royal feast is in progress, when a hand writes a sentence of doom upon the waU. Its meaning, unknown to the astonished crowd, is given by Daniel wbo is made the third ruler in the kingdom. Jealousy arises and a plot foUows. A decree is issued forbidding everybody to pray to any God except the King for thirty days, upon penalty of being cast into the den of Uons. Daniel, with fuU knowledge, deUberately disobeys and suffers the penalty, but again escapes unhurt, because be had tmsted in God. His accusers and their famiUes were aU fed to the Uons. DANIEL 287 King Darius decrees that men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, whose kingdom is steadfast forever, who deUvers and rescues, working signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. Then in the seventh chapter begins Daniel's vision re veaUng in four symboUc beasts successions of world powers culminating in the Kingdom of (Jod estabUshed forever. The first beast seems to mean Babylon; the second, the Kingdom of tbe Medes; the third, the King dom of Persia; the fourth, the Greek Empire and Anti ochus IV. ; after that, tbe Judgment; then tbe Son of Man appears who is given rulersbip over aU nations forever. These are followed by perplexed question and answers. Two years later, Daniel has another vision, in which the ram symbolizes the Medes and Persians; the goat, Greece, with its great bom, Alexander, and Uttie bom, Antiochus. The vision is then interpreted. An explanation is sought to be made in enigmatical numbers of the unfulfiUed prophesy of Jeremiah, that tbe captivity would be over in seventy years. Tbese figures, like aU enigmas, were probably understood by the initiated, but critics are not able with assurance to fix their exact meaning. This much we can be sure of; that they refer to a difficult sit uation of that time and were an attempt at the solution of a distressing problem then pressing upon tbe people. They make no concrete reference to any period of history then future. Antiochus IV. is the central target at which the author is aiming. The troubles in the world are ex plained as due to disturbances in the upper reahn among angels and other supematural beings. Tbese disturb ances are expressing themselves in the stirring history of that tragic hour. A part of the book is written in Aramaic. The sym bols used are famiUar to the Oriental student, many of them appearing among the bas-reUefs and tablets of Babylonia and Persia. Tbe author is unknown, but belongs to the troublous times and is involved in the 288 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY distressing conditions at tbe beginning of the Macca bean stmggle. WhUe the details of the book are difficult, its message is dear. Its first plea is for loyalty to self. Whether the young Hebrews ate tabooed food contrary to their law; whether Daniel prayed witb open window, or whether, indeed, be prayed at aU; whether tbe three Hebrew chUdren feU down with tbe crowd and wor shipped the idol — these were questions of smaU mo ment to others. Why not eat foreign food with mental protest? Why not bow down witb the body, whUe tbe spirit defies the world? Why not pray in secret? To do this would mean for these Jews self-desecration, would have meant the profaning, tbe defiling of the inmost self. Thomas Nelson Page teUs a beautiful story of an old Confederate soldier given to drink who period ically got into trouble, but was regularly helped out, raUying every time when tbe debauch was over, but at last in an evU hour be pawned his gray jacket that had been through aU the years the raUying point of his manhood. He then lost his grip upon himseU and went down to raUy no more. He was a brave man untU he desecrated himseU, and then it was aU over. Tbe Book of Daniel sought to say to tbe persecuted Jews: the fire never was kindled that can bum tbe loyal soul; the Uon never roared tbat can reach tbe faithful — such are in violate. Such are also invincible. The powers of evU wiU ex haust themselves. Tbe world machine wiU grind itself out. God's people can afford to wait. There was no outlook for tbem to the mere human eye, but to the faithful tbat venture upon tbe andent promise of God, all things work together finaUy for good. "The op posite of faith is not doubt, but timidity." These were a mere handful of people bounded over the world without resources and without friends. Yet the future belonged to them. They would survive empires, races, DANIEL 289 and nations. The ideas for which they stood were des tined to rule the world. There was an invincible band tbat moved the kingdoms of this world about Uke so many chessmen on a board. Huxley said life was a game of chess, only we cannot see tbe man playing on the other side. Tbese Hebrews saw him and knew He was playing not against them but for them. It did not matter much whether he was on their side. It mattered a great deal whether they were on His. Though He may not always seem to rule. He does always over rule. He has tbe last move. And His is the last word. Tbey were and could afford to be patient untU the game was played out, when each for himself should realize the promise: 'Thou shalt rest and shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days." PART SIX THE TEXT AND THE CANON The Text "The following Ust gives tbe number of known Hebrew manuscripts in existence with the names of Ubraries or private owners possessing tbem. Tbe dates in pa rentheses are those of the printed catalogues of the col lections. England Bodleian, Oxford (1886) . . 2,541 E- N. Adler 1,476 British Museum (1893)- . . 1,196 Cambridge University. ... 762 Jews' College (1903) 580 Beth-Hamedrash (1884) . . 147 C. D. Ginsburg 80 Trinity College, Cam bridge 29 Christ Church, Oxford 13 France and Switzerland Paris, Bibliotheque Na- tionale (1866) 1,313 Baron Giinzburg 900 Basel 20 Bern 20 Nimes iS Lyons 12 Elsewhere 9 Russia St. Petersburg 880 Friedlandiana 300 Germany and Austria- Hungary Munich (1897) 408 Hamburg (1878) 355 Berlin (1897) 259 Vienna (1847) 257 Breslau Seminary 190 Strasburg (1881) 51 Leipsic, RatsbibUothek (1838) 43 Erfurt (1863) 17 Budapest Seminary 12 Geiger (Hochschule), Ber lin 12 Italy Parma (1803, 1880) 1,634 Vatican, Rome (1756) .... 580 Turin (1874) 294 Mantua (1878) 178 Florence 130 Angelica, Rome (1878) ... 54 Bologna (1887) 28 Victorio Emanuele, Rome (1878) 28 Modena 27 Venice (1886) 19 293 294 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Spain and Portugal Columbia Umversity loo _ ., _, Sutro, San Francisco 13s Escurial 75 Toledo 42 Holland and Scandinavia Elsewhere ^7 ^ , , „ „, , Leyden (1858) 116 Upsala (1893) 38 Rosenthal 32 United States Jewish Theological Semi- Copenhagen (1846) 16 nary. New York 750 Lund (1850) 6 Besides these there are other coUections not yet cata logued; some in private hands, e. g., those of Dr. M. Gas- ter of London, and of the late D. Kaufman, at Buda pest, others in pubUc Ubraries, as, for example, the AUiance IsraeUte Library. Tbe fragments of the Cairo Genizah, numbering many thousands, and scattered in Cambridge, Oxford, London, and Paris, are not in- duded. Many Ubraries, as the Bodleian and BibUo- theque Nationale, have received notable accessions since their catalogues were printed." (The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. VHI, page 315.) The oldest coUection is that in the Imperial Library of Petrograd, formerly in the Odessa BibUcal Sodety Library. There are 146 in this coUection, including the Pentateuch manuscript brought from Derband, whicb is said to have been written 604 A. D. It con sists of 45 skins, 226 columns and is composed of six pieces. The oldest complete dated manuscript in book form in existence is here. It is dated 916, A. D. It consists of 225 foUos, each divided lengtiiwise into two columns witb twenty-one lines to the column. The old est in the British Museum is the Masoretic Bible written, it is claimed, alaput 820-850. It contains the Penta teuch and consists of 186 foUos, 55 of which were at one time missing but have been added by a later hand. Tbe oldest in tbe Bodleian Library is dated 1104. The old est in Cambridge is beUeved to belong to tbe tenth cen tury. The oldest in the National Library in Paris goes THE TEXT 295 back to 1286. The oldest in the Adler CoUection is dated in tbe ninth century, the oldest in Vienna, in tbe tenth. The Pentateuch of the Malabar Jews is now in Eng land. Samaritan manuscripts of tbe Pentateuch are to be found in the British Museum, the Bodleian, Petro grad, Palma, and Vatican Libraries. It is claimed that whUe the temple was still standing there were standard Codices of tbe Pentateuch kept there as models for accuracy. When tbe manuscripts were worn out tbey were kept from profanation by being buried in the coflfins of dead scribes. Consequentiy there are none in existence very old. Tbe first materials used in writing were stone, metal and wood. Papyrus was used as far back as the late Tolomaic or early Roman period in Egypt. The skins of animals were used, tbe hair being rubbed away and tbe hairy side written upon. Leather and fine vellum appear among the oldest manuscripts. Paper was known to the Chinese at a very early period. The Arabs are said to have learned to use it in the middle of tbe eighth century. Tbe manuscripts were aU written with great care according to prescribed mles. About tbe seventh cen tury a system of punctuation was invented caUed the masora, to preserve the traditional pronunciation. Copyists were so scrupulous that they copied even errors. If a letter was made too smaU or too large, it was reproduced. If left out it was inserted, as we would insert witb a caret. If repeated it was written and a dot over it showed that it was to be left out in reading. There were various writings in many places and mar ginal notes indicate that another word was to be sub stituted for tbe one in the text. The vowels attached to the word to be omitted are those of tbe word to be read and not its own vowels. Tbe new word is given in tbe margin with the notation, "keri or kere" (read 296 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY thou or read). These marginal writings are of various kinds. The difference between the text and the mar gin often tums upon points of a purely formal character, such as varieties of orthography, punctuation, gramat- ical form. Others were designed to soften expressions, which they thought were not decorous to be read aloud, whUe a smaU proportion of them make a change in sense and are either critical conjectures or readings which once must have stood in tbe text itseU. Every possible precaution was taken to preserve tbe text as it came to tbe band of the copjdst. The result is tbat in aU these manuscripts we have practicaUy tbe same text as far back as the Apostles, although it is not cer tain tbat any of the manuscripts themselves were ex tant before the tenth century A. D. The power of tbe scribes was in the time of Christ at its height. AU Ufe was based upon the law. There must tberefore be a correct text of the law. The majority mle prevaUed. If a word had two scribes against it and one for it, it was rejected and they changed words they did not Uke; for example, as Ish-Baal to Ish-Bosbeth because they did not want the name of Baal used at all. Mention has already been made of the fact that the Samaritan Pentateuch was probably carried off by the priest Nehemiah, who had been expeUed from the Temple, and made the basis of tbe Ufe of the Samaritans. This text was written in the old Hebrew characters which were graduaUy supplanted by tbe Aramaic letters now in use in Hebrew. The differences between the Samaritan and the regular Hebrew text, whUe considerable, are not great enough to raise any important questions. Tbe most valuable translation is the Septuagint. This translation was made to supply the need of the rich Jewish population of Egypt, especiaUy of Alexan dria, where many fine synagogues were buUt. Soon after tbe conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Egyptian dialect of the Greek became the language of the people. THE TEXT 297 This created a need for the Bible in their own tongue. Oral translations were made in the sjnaagogues and be fore long were written down. The Law was translated, then tbe Prophets and tbe Psalms. Tbe other writings were not used in tbe synagogues and so were left to be translated for private reading later. It was made at intervals probably from the middle of tbe third cen tury B. C. to the dose of tbe first century B. C. It is not a perfect translation. There were no Hebrew grammars or lexicons in existence, so tbat some passages were misunderstood. Tbe text was changed in others for dogmatic or traditional reasons, or to make it con form to the ideas of tbe translators. StiU others were changed to clear up ambiguities or to gain tbe "diffuse fulness" of which they were fond. Still we can use it to dedde when the Hebrew text was transposed, added to, taken from or changed. The use of this translation exdted the bostUity of tbe scribes and every effort was put forth to discredit it. In the first haU of the second century A. D. Aquila, a pupU of tbe great Rabbi Akiba, made a very Uteral translation of tbe offidal text. Only fragments of this bave been preserved. About the same time another Greek version was made by Theodotian, said by Iren- aeus to bave been a proselyte of Ephesus. He sought to make tbe Greek text of the Septuagint conform to the offidal Hebrew text. Apart from the book of Daniel only fragments remain. About the same time Sym- machus, said to have been a Samaritan who tumed Jew, translated the O. T. to correct Samaritan errors and make better Greek. There are also fragments of three other Greek trans lations. These efforts show widespread dissatisfaction with tbe Septuagmt. Origen (232-254 A. D.) at Caes- area made an effort to settie the question by estabUsh- mg a reUable Greek text of tbe 0. T. He brought to gether m his Hexapla the Hebrew text, the Hebrew 298 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY text transUterated into Greek characters, the three ver sions of AquUa, Theodotian, and Symmachus, and a revised Septuagint text. Various other translations were made, until at the beginning of tbe fourth century A. D. there were three rival texts of the Greek Bible in use. Tbe earUer manuscripts of tbe Greek Bible are called Uncials, or Majuscules, because tbey were written in capital letters without accents; tbe later were called Minuscules because they were written in a smaUer hand. The oldest of the Uncials is the Code Vatican of the fourth century A. D., catalogued B. It contains most of the 0. T. and nearly aU of the N. T. "Written in an uncial hand of the fourth century on leaves of the finest veUum made up in quires of five; the lines, which are of 16 to 18 letters, being arranged in three columns containing 42-44 lines each, excepting the poetical Books, where tbe lines being stichometrical the columns are only two. There are no initial letters, although the first letter of a section occasionaUy pro jects into the margin; no breathings or accents occur prima manu, the punctuation if by the first band is rare and simple. Of the 759 leaves which compose the pres ent quarto volume, 617 belong to the O. T. The first thirty-one leaves of the original codex have been tom away." (Swete.) Tbe next oldest is the Codex Sinaiticus catalogued, dis covered by Tiscbendorf in 1844-59. It too belongs to the fourth century A. D. It is now in the Royal Library in Petrograd. The story of its discovery is a thrilling one. "Written in an undal hand ascribed to the middle of tbe fourth century, and in lines which when complete contain from 12 to 14 letters and which are arranged in four columns of unusually large leaves of a very fine veUum, made from the skin of tbe ass or the antelope. The leaves are gathered into quires of four, except two THE TEXT 299 which contain five. There are no breathings or accents; a simple pomt is used. In the N. T. tbe MS. is complete, in the O. T. it is fragmentary. " (Swete.) The third great Uncial is the Codex Alexandrinus, caUed A. It is now in tbe British Museum, dating from the fifth century. It was in the possession of the Pa triarchs of Alexandria from at least the end of tbe thir teenth century tiU it was presented to Charles I of Eng land in 1628. It is tbe most perfect of the great codices that contain the Septuagint. "Written in an undal hand of the middle of tbe fifth century on veUum of fine texture originaUy arranged in quires of eight leaves, occasionally (but chiefly at the end of a Book) of less than eight; three of four and twenty letters go to a Une, 50 or 51 Unes usually compose a column, and there are two columns on a page. Large initial letters, standing in the margin, announce the commencement of a paragraph or section, excepting in vol. iU, which appears to be tbe work of another scribe. There are no breathings or accents added by the first hand; the punctuation, more frequent than in B, is stiU confined to a single point. The three volumes which contain the O. T. now consist of 630 leaves. Of these volumes only nine leaves are lost and five mutilated." (Swete.) Tbe fourth important manuscript of the Greek Bible is tbe codex Ephraem, C, of the fifth century, now in the National Library of Paris. "It is a bundle of fragments, preserving three fifths of the original manuscript in the undal character. " It is a palimpsest, i. e., a manuscript of the Bible that had faded or been washed out and a work of Ephraem the Sj^an written over it. The Syriac Version. The O. T. was translated from the Hebrew into the Syriac for the most part in the second Christian century. The offidal Syriac Bible, caUed the Peshitto in the west, the Peshitta in the east, 300 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY grew out of the older translations into its present form perhaps in the fifth century A. D. Tbe Latin Vulgate. Jerome, caUed by Briggs the greatest BibUcal scholar of ancient times, gave his Ufe largely to securing a Latin Bible (390-405), caUed the Vulgate. He used the text of the Scribes and the Greek versions. The most important codices are Amiantinus (716 A. D.) in the Laurentian Library, Florence, and the Toletanus at Toledo (eighth century). Tbe Targums, translations and paraphrases of the Hebrew in Aramaic. Not later than tbe second century B. C. Aramaic was so thoroughly the language of the Jews in Palestine, Syria, and the Orient as to require oral translations of tiie Scriptures as read in the Syna gogues so that the people could understand them, A special class of men were developed for this purpose. Their translation was in use in the time of Cluist and was probably used by Him and His Aposties. The O. T. was quoted in the New from these Targums. They were modified and improved upon from time to time before they were written down. They do not in aU respects conform to tbe offidal text of the Scribes, but in some respects represent an earlier text. Some of them go back to the second or third century A. D. Quotations in the Tahnud and the oldest Mid- rashim, the New Testament, tbe Apocr}^ha, and other contiguous Uterature. Talmud is a term appUed to a coUection of works embodying the oral Law handed down to the Jews by tradition, in contradistinction to- tbe written Law. Tbe origin of this traditioii-^ig^un- known. Its commencement may safely be- dated back to the ExiUc period, in which the Sjflfagogue was es tabUshed to teach and interpret the Word. It is the foremimer of the Church. The'fiebrew term for inter pretation is Midrash, whidf includes also expansion of the Scriptures. It comes from a root which means to inquire into. The Midrashim appear in two forms — tbe THE TEXT 301 Halakha, which seeks to find out the exact meaning of the Law — and Haggada, whicb seeks to draw out from the passage in hand words of inspiration and help by enlarging and applying its meaning. There were schools active in this work of interpretation and expansion extending over many centuries, known by (Ufferent names, each name designating a different period. I. The Sopherim, Scribes, commencing with Ezra and extending to tbe Maccabean period (450-100 B. C). Littie is known in detaU of their Uterary activities. They are said to have originated many other things, the saying of grace after meals, for example. 2. The Zuggoth, Pairs, a name given to the leading teachers that flourished between the Maccabean period and tbe Herodian (150 B. C. to 30 A. D.). Five such pairs are recorded in tbe Rabbinic Uterature, extending over five generations, concluding with HUlel and Shammai. Each pair is said to represent the president and vice president of tbe Sanbedrin. 3. The Tannaim, Teachers (10 to 200 A. D.), com mencing witb the schools of Shammai, the staunch conservative, and HiUel, the Uberal, whose grandson, GamaUel was Paul's teacher, and extending in four generations to Rabbi Jehuda, tbe Patriarch, a great- grandson of HiUel. Tbe Uterary productions of aU these teachers are, as far as extant, embodied in the Mishna, which is tbe main depository of tbe Oral Law. The word suggests repetition and what can be gotten by repetition. It was compUed by Rabbi Jehuda, the Patriarch (220 A. D.), and is divided into six orders, Sedarim, trac tates, each tractate into sections, and these sections into paragraphs. There are 63 tractates under the foUowing tities: Seeds, seasons, women, damages, sacred thmgs, purifications. These show the wide range of mterest covered. 4. The Amoraim, Speakers, interpreters, the author- 302 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY ities who flourished from 220 to 500 and whose chief work was to expound the Mishna. There were two classes of them — the Babylonian and the Palestinian, tbe former being caUed Rab, tbe latter Rabbi. They are classffied in five generations. During tbe third generation (320-370 A. D.) the schools in Palestine de clined on account of tbe reUgious persecutions under tbe reign of Constantine. Their Uterary productions make up the two Talmuds, tbe Palestinian and the Babylonian. "The main object of these Talmuds is the interpreta tion of the Mishna, tracing its sources, giving its reasons, explaining obscure passages, as weU as real or seeming contradictions by the aid of paraUel passages in the Mishnas, iUustrating its matter and expounding its contents by giving such cases as Ufe and altered drcum stances were constantly furnishing." The text of the Talmud proper as distinguished from the Mishna is caUed Gemara, supplement or complement to the Mishna. 5. Tbe Saborai. Tbe fifth class of Teachers were the Saborai, explainers, meditators upon tbe words of their predecessors, whose activity is supposed to have ex tended over the whole of tbe sixth century. Their work seems to bave been mainly to comment upon the Tal mud by means of explanatory speeches, additional controversy and final dedsions upon the opinions of their predecessors. They are peculiar to Babylon, Palestine having no corresponding group. It can easUy be seen tbat scattered aU through this mass of material there are quotations from Scripture, which, when carefuUy examined, wiU in many cases help to settle doubtful texts. Attention to paraUeUsm, rhythm, meter, often compels changes in the text such as are of value in moving back toward the autograph. Textual critics begin by working their way back through tbe Palestinian manuscripts and citations in tbe later Uterature to the text of Ben Asber, tenth century THE TEXT 303 A. D. Tbey then trace back from this text to that of the Sopherim in the second century by using tbe three streams of Massoretic tradition, the Palestinian, tbe Babylonian, the Karaite, arranging intervening texts as far as possible by age, beginning witb the Arabic version, which is the first back of Ben Ashi, and checking up witb the Vulgate which is evidence for the fourth century. The most valuable helps here are the Talmuds and the Midrashim, espedaUy as much of this material antedates tbe Massoretic text. The consonantal text of the Mishna, which was fixed in the middle of the second century A. D., is substantiaUy ours. Having reached the best condu sions possible as to tbe text of the Sopherim in the second century, critics work their way back to the Mac cabean text through the Targums, the S3niac, citations in the New Testament, the Apocrypha, the Pseudo- epigrapha, Josephus, and PhUo. From that Maccabean text through tbe Septuagint and the Samaritan ver sions, they seek the text of the law and tbe Prophets when these were put into the canon. And finaUy, having by these successive stages worked our way back as far as possible the results reached at the various points are compared- ParaUel passages and ver sions, dtations of earUer writings in later ones, are aU carefuUy examined and this is supplemented by testing the rhythm and meter of poems and making such emen dations, additions, eUsions and other changes as may be required to restore tbe marred poetry to its original form — by aU these processes the best avaUable text is reached. This, however, is stiU very far from tbe autograph copy. In many cases disturbances are so great as to make a satisfactory text utterly impossible. This fact has its bearing upon a now exploded theory of verbal inspiration. If we are required to have a Bible every word of whicb is perfect, conveying perfectly the Divine idea, then let us face the fact tiiat we not only have no 304 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY such Bible, but we can never have it. Fortunately we are slowly coming to understand that our chief concern sboidd be the vital appreciation of the spirit, the move ment of thought, the growth of ideals, tbe progressive revelation of God to its completion in the PersonaUty of Jesus Christ, and that these are not in the least affected by the dilapidated condition of much of the Old Testa ment text. II First Step in the Making of the Canon (621 B. C.) "And tbe king sent, and tbey gathered unto him all the elders of Judah, and of Jerusalem. And tbe king went up to tbe house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and aU tbe inhabitants of Jerusalem with bim, and the priests, and tbe prophets, and aU the people, both smaU and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in tbe house of Jehovah. And the king stood by tbe pUlar, and made a covenant be fore Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his com mandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with aU bis heart, and all bis soul, to confirm the words of this covenant tbat were written in this book: and aU the people stood to the covenant," (II. Kings 23:1-3). This is the beginning of the long process of canoniza tion which ended in the sixteenth century in the formal designation of tbe books composing our Bible by the CouncU of Trent. Israel bad had a Uterature, as we have seen in the earlier divisions of this book, for some three centuries. Tbe great pioneer work of the forerunners of tbe prophets leading up to those of the eighth century has been traced in some detaU, so tbat a rather extended Uterature was more or less current among the people; although it is not probable tbat more than a smaU per cent could read. FIRST step in the MAKING OF THE CANON 305 It has been pointed out that national coUections of patriotic songs, of shorter poems, such as battle songs and various types of folk lore, bad been made long before. Much of the traditional history of Israel was preserved and transmitted oraUy, probably sung at sacred festivals, around camp fires, at social gatherings and in the home circle, for instruction and inspiration. Their history was finally written down and embodied in the prophetic nar ratives of the earUer Old Testament books. It has been pointed out also tbat rudimentary legal codes appear to bave been written, probably for the guidance and instruction of the officers of the law. These codes had their beginnings in judgments and dedsions by the priests in the sanctuary in answer to questions brought them by the people. Many of them grew up oraUy, probably long before they were commited to writ ing- The earUest tradition we have of a written code is tbat of the Decalogue, inscribed upon two tablets of stone. The old Book of the Covenant in two editions (Ex. 20:20 to 23:33) has been described in brief. The beginnings of the laws of holiness (Lev. 17 to 26) are thought to bave been in existence at tbe earUer period also. The tablets of stone, the tradition is, were kept in the ark, which was looked upon as a symbol of Jehovah's presence among His people. Quotations from priestly laws before tbe exUe are very rare. Tbe few we have (Deut. 14:4-20;!. Sam. 2:22;!. Kings 8:1, 5), prove noth ing more than that some such collections existed perhaps for the private use of the priests. We have shown tbat each of the three periods of He brew history had its governing code, the Book of the Covenant for the early period, tbe Book of Deuteronomy for the middle period, and the Priests' Code for tbe late period. The prophets never appeal to a written law as their source of authority. Hosea mentioned tbe way in which Jehovah makes himseU known to his people, but does not name a book (12:10). 3o6 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY The prophetic movement has been traced from simple beginnings, when prophesy witb its raving, roving der vishes, was taken over from the Canaanites by Israel through the work of the forerunners to its culmination in the great prophets of the eighth century, Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Micah. AU this indicates tbat Israel bad a considerable body of Uterature previous to the time of Josiah, but there is Uttie evidence that up to this time it had been coUected into one book or had in any way assumed tbe sacred authority of canonical scrip ture, with perhaps the single exception of the Decalogue. Israel, like other andent nations, seems to have bad ar chives in the sanctuary and to bave preserved their doc uments of value. "Out of the passages generally quoted to show that we should attribute the preservation of the Old Testament Scriptures to the practice of storing ar chives in the sanctuary, one passage refers to tbe two tables of stone (Exodus xl. 20), three passages to the sub stance of the law of Deuteronomy (Deut. xcu. 18, xxxi. 24-26) II. Kings XXU. 8) ; one, a very doubtiul case, to a writing of Joshua which has not survived Qoshua xxiv. 26) ; one, to a law of tbe monarchy, of which we are told nothing beyond the fact that Samuel committed it to writing and laid it up before tbe Lord (I. Samuel x. 25). At the most, then, it may be said, tradition, as repre sented by these passages, favours the view that some por tions of the earliest law were wont to be preserved in sacred precincts. But, judging from tbe history, it does not appear that, until tbe reign of Josiah, any such por tions of the law received the veneration of the people to which tbey afterward became entitled." When tiierefore HiUdah the high priest acddentaUy found tbe book of tbe law in tbe temple in 621 B. C. and sent it to the king by Shaf an tbe scribe, we enter upon a new stage of Israel's history, for aU great reUgions of long lasting power have somehow centered in a book. Why he did not consult Jeremiah or Zephaniah or possibly FIRST STEP IN THE MAKING OF THE CANON 307 Nahum and Habakkuk, if tbey were then old enough, we do not know. The king, startied by its contents, sent a commission of five men to Huldah the prophetess say ing " Go ye, inquire of Jehovah for me, and for the people, and for aU Judah, concerning tbe words of this book that is found; for great is the wrath of Jehovah that is kin dled against us, because our fathers bave not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us." Huldah's reply only confirmed his alarm and be called a conference at once, read the book to tbem and to aU of the people and had tbem ratify it, joining bim in a covenant before Jehovah to keep the words written in this book. This is the first stage in the making of the Holy Scrip tures. That this first canonized scripture was the Book of Deuteronomy is shown by the description of the book, by the character of tbe denundations it contains, by tbe likeness of its reforms to those carried out by the king, such as the closing of tbe country churches and the cen tralizing of tbe worship in the Temple at Jemsalem, by the likeness of the kinds of idolatry and superstition he attacked to those denounced in Deuteronomy, by the character of his passover, by the general condition of tbe times reflected in the book, by the correspondence of its contents to the title by whidi it is called, namely, the Book of the Covenant, by tbe quotations from Deu teronomy given by the historian who preserved tbe ac count, by tiie length of the book which easUy aUows the several readings refened to — ^by aU these, scholars con- dude beyond doubt the Book of the Law was the main part of Deuteronomy. As has been shown elsewhere, it was written during the troublous times of tbe seventh century when foreign things, including foreign gods, were popular everywhere and tbe land was drenched with paganism and immoral ity. This book was written in a time of crisis to save the hour. It was a people's book, makmg an appeal for 308 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY a holy God, worshipped by a holy people, in a holy place, under holy leaders. The enthusiasm it stirred marks tbe beginning among the Hebrews of the love and reverence for Holy Scripture stiU so strong in the world. The in fluence of the book upon those wbo came after was very great. Jeremiah bad been a prophet five years when it was discovered. What his attitude toward it was is un certain. He was formerly thought by some to bave made drcuits of tbe country witb this book in his band, preach ing its enforcement among the people. On tbe other hand, be was so antagomstic to tbe perverted ritual of bis day and to reUance upon extemal authority, that some think he was attacking Deuteronomy when he said, "How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes hath wrought falsely." (Chap. 8:8.) Ill Second Step in the Making of the Canon (444 B. C.) "And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place tbat was before tbe water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring tbe book of the law of Moses, whicb Jehovah had commanded to Israel. And Ezra tbe priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and aU that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the sev enth month. And he read therein before tbe broad place that was before the water gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women, and of those that could understand; and the ears of aU the people were attentive unto the book of tbe law. And Ezra opened tbe book in the sight of all the people (for be was above aU tbe people) ; and when he opened it, aU the people stood up. And Ezra blessed Jehovah, the great God; and all tbe people answered. Amen, j\men, witb the Ufting up of their hands: £ind they bowed their SECOND STEP IN THE MAKING OF THE CANON 309 heads, and worshipped Jehovah with their faces to the ground." (Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6.) This describes tbe second step in the formation of the Canon. From 621, tbe date of the canonization of Deu teronomy, untU now (444), there has been no other rec ognized book of Holy Scripture. Attention has already been called to tbe great Uter ary activity of the exUic and early post-exiUc period. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, the author of Lamenta tions, the author of Second Isaiah, the author of Job, the Uterary editors — ^what a galaxy! It is impossible to say whether tbey were aU working in touch with each other or independently. Several types of mind are represented in this group. Evidence abounds tbat tbey were stu dents of the history of their people. Wbo could say what promise the future held? Was this to be the end of their dreams? Tbe old prophetic spirit lingered on and labored hard to preserve the residts of their predecessors. The spirit of the Deuteronomist expressed itself by re touching with their pecuUar hortatory style many of the old books. Indeed, there seems to bave been a sort of school of editorial workers that existed for 200 years and did much to influence the popular ideals. This was the time when the Sage rose in giant-like strength to grapple with the problem of suffering, which was breaking the hearts of tbe people. This was the time, also, when the rituaUst and tbe legaUst prepared to come to his own. The HoUness Code, wbich was an advance upon Deuteronomy, was set forth in answer to the needs of the hour. Ezekiel's code, which was an ad vance upon the Holiness Code, was drawn as a sort of ceremonial ideal for the Ufe of the redeemed community. MeanwhUe priestiy pens were busy gathering together and formulating the laws and traditions of the past. They had as a basis of their work the minor codes which have been mentioned, particularly that of Ezekiel. They had also additional traditions, possibly documents, aU of 3IO THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY which they used to weave into one consecutive story and set in a definite framework everything that bore upon their history or institutions. The result of aU these activities was embodied in the Pentateuch. Deuteron omy was thus privately supplemented by the combin ing of J E D and P, tbe retouching of it aU by D, and tbe uniting of tbe five books into one whole. This was the law of Moses, in wbich Ezra was a ready scribe and which was in his hand (Ezra 7 :i4) when he went up from Babylon "to seek the law of Jehovah, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances" (Ezra 7:10). It was probably the Priests' Code soon after incorpo rated in the completed Hexateuch. When tbe psychological moment came, he called tbe people together, read it and bad tbem ratify it. It was to them a new book. It contained requirements in addition to those in Deuteronomy, such as the obser vance of tbe feast of the tabernacles (Deut. 16:13-17) Numbers 29:12-38) and changes in tithing (Deut. 14:22-29; Numbers 18:21-32). Tbe Levites seem to be more conspicuous than the priests in the promulga tion of this law. We enter now upon a second stage in the reUgion of Israel. The priestly laws contained in the Pentateuch are to be the basis of tbe whole Ufe of the community. There was no longer to be a hereditary group of men in exclusive possession of the key of knowledge. Judaism begins to be the reUgion of a people's book, of a series of books indeed, which must be interpreted authorita tively. Since everybody was now to have the law for themselves, there must be a way provided by which its meaning can be as certain as possible. This caUed for a new professional class whose sole business was to ex plain tbe law. Both the prophet and the priest must tberefore give place to tbe scribe as the authoritative teacher. It was a critical moment in tbe history of Judaism. Liberalizing tendencies had so developed that SECOND STEP IN THE MAKING OF THE CANON 311 even the priests seem to favor a poUcy of free intercourse with non- Jews for the material advantages to be gained. The t3^e of officialdom here developed never changed tiU the Temple was finaUy destroyed by Titus m 70 A. D. Tbe priest was always to be found on the side of the loaves and fishes. Many of them, Sadducees, were out and out materiaUsts. Not a few denied the doctrine of the future Ufe which came in the late post-exUic period to be central in tbe reUgion of the Pharisees. It was a new theology. Tbey were standpatters. Tbe Pharisees were heretics. This later UberaUzing tendency threw itself against the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah and might bave won but for the place the Torah was given in sodal and reUgious Ufe. A new standard of that which is holy and unholy, clean and unclean, right and wrong, was raised for all Jews, not only in Jemsalem but in Babylon, in Alexandria, in the Dispersion, everywhere. Though narrow and severe, Ezra and Nehemiah thus saved the day by inculcating Judaism which was a new t3^e of reUgion, requiring submission to the yoke of the law. This was the beginning of tbe legalism, which developed into an oppressive system by juggling scribes, Jesus and Paul sought to destroy. Ryle gives several reasons for beUeving that the law read by Ezra was substantiaUy tbe Pentateuch. From the earUest time at wbich mention is made of the Hebrew Canon it is spoken of distinctively as a separate group from the Prophets and the other Writings. It is impUed by the exceptional reverence paid to the laws of Moses in tbe post-exUic writings of tbe Old Testament. Chroni der assumes it. Malachi appeals to it. So late a Psahn as the 119th dwells upon it. No other authoritative standard is appealed to till we get to Daniel in the second century B. C. It is impUed in the spedal defer ence accorded to the Pentateuch by Jews of tbe later time in comparison with that which they paid to their other scriptures. Ecclesiasticus (22:23) eulogizes it. 312 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY Antiochus sought to destroy it. Tbe great care with which it was translated into Greek and made the first installment of the Septuagint indicates great veneration. PhUo ascribes to it the highest gift of divine inspira tion. The early acceptance of the Torah alone as sacred scripture is impUed. For a long time ssmagogue lessons were selected from it alone. Tbe title of the Law was long afterwards used to designate the whole Hebrew canon of scripture as a result of earlier usage and of tbe higher esteem in which the Law was held. The drcum- stantial evidence of tbese converging Unes is greatly strengthened by the Samaritan Pentateuch, tbe only • canon of scripture recognized by the Samaritans. When the grandson of EUasbib, supposed to bave been tbe renegade priest of the time of Manasseh, was ejected by Nehemiah in 432 B. C, he seems to have carried to Samaria a copy of tbe Torah. This Samaritan Penta teuch, still recognized by tbe Samaritans as tbe only canon of scripture, is written in tbe early Hebrew or Canaanite characters and not in the square Hebrew or Aramean characters in which our Hebrew Bibles are written. These old Hebrew characters are tbe same as those in which the Siloam inscription belonging to tbe age of Hezekiah (700 B. C.) was written and bear general resemblance to the characters in Mesa's inscription on tbe Moabite stone (900-850 B. C). Tbese old char acters were long in use but were graduaUy supplanted by the Aramean, both continuing together for a consider able period. The alphabet of tbe Samaritan Pentateuch is considered a late modffication of this Hebrew writing which probably continued tUl the fourth or third century B. C. Under tbe influence of the Dispersion the Aramean finally supplanted this alphabet. We bave then the Torah whicb was received by tbe Samaritans at the close of the fifth or at the beginning of the fourth century B.C. as a crowning testimony to the position held by lie Torah at that time as the sole authoritative scriptures of the Jews. third step in the making of the canon 313 Third Step in the Making of the Canon (250 B. C?) Ezekiel saw a vision. And described the different beings of the chariot. He also made mention of Job (among the prophets) Wbo maintained aU tbe ways of righteousness And, moreover, as for the Twelve Prophets, — May their bones (flourish in their place). Who recovered Jacob to health. And deUvered him (by confident hope). (Sirach 49:8-10.) "Since many things and great have been deUvered unto us through the Law and the Prophets and tbe others who followed after them — for whicb things' sake we must give Israel the praise of instruction and wis dom — and as not only must the readers themselves become adept, but also the lovers of learning must be able to profit them wbich are without both by speaking and writing; my grandfather Jesus, having given him seU much to the reading of tbe Law and the Prophets and the other books of our fathers, and having acquired considerable famiUarity therein, was induced also him self to take a part in writing somewhat pertaining to instruction and wisdom, in order tbat those wbo are lovers of learning and instructed in these things migbt make so much the more progress by a manner of Ufe (Uved) in accordance with the Law. Ye are entreated, therefore, to make your pemsal with favour and atten tion, and to be indulgent, if in any parts of what we have laboured to interpret we may seem to fail in some of the phrases. For things originaUy spoken in Hebrew have not the same force in them when they are translated into another tongue; and not only these, but the Law itseU, and the Prophedes, and the rest of tbe books, bave no 314 the old TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY smaU difference when they are spoken in thdr original form. (Prologue to Book of Sirach i to 14.) "The things which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me." (Luke 24:44.) The first of tbese quotations is from the book of Sirach which was edited about 180 B. C. The second is from the prologue to the Greek translation of that book wbich was edited about 130 B. C. In the first of these the sigmficant point is that tbe prophets are named as a coUected whole, implying that they had already assumed their present form, and that they foUow Ezekiel as in the Hebrew canon. In the second quota tion there are three references to three divisions of sacred Uterature among the Jews showing tbat tbe second Canon, that of the Prophets, had assumed definite form and tbe third was on the way. Here for the first time we bave this distinct classffication of Old Testament books. What happened during the three hundred years between Ezra and the grandson of Sirach is conjectural. We can be sure tbat the Law, because of its use in the temple ritual, in the synagogue services, in pubUc meetings, as weU as in private Ufe, has come to be regarded with Uttle less than awe. But can a book setting forth a fixed rule of faith and practice be an en during inspiration? Does it not lack the richness and fulness and freedom of Uving reaUty? Besides, this Book of the Law was itself in part the outcome of the pro phetic spirit. These men of God created no widespread inspiration in Israel, though their ideals were the high- water mark of spiritual achievement in tbe whole world at that time. In the days of Isaiah, in conffict with popular ideals, the prophets were in the pubUc mind disturbers of the peace, heralds of distress, traitors to thdr people; but all that has passed now. The days of canonization are at hand; the days of contempt are over. It was impossible that such a noble inheritance as the THIRD STEP IN THE MAKING OF THE CANON 315 prophetic writings should not find increasing apprecia tion. When time has been allowed for the dissecting process of legaUsm to begin to show its strength, tbe restless spirit of the devout would tum to tbe Uving springs bubbUng up out of these vital revelations of the Uving God made to the heroes of the past. The continuation of the narrative of the Pentateuch in the Book of Joshua bound the two together for a time, but later tbe Books of Judges, Samuel and Kings were found to breathe a spirit more nearly akin to Joshua and so it was separated from the Pentateuch and united witb tbem. These books were aU found to bave the prophetic viewpoint and to contain prophetic teachings expressed with marvellous dignity, beauty, vividness and simpUdty. The prophet's philosophy of history runs through them aU and tbat philosophy bad been working itself out before their very eyes. The doom he has pointed out as foUowing wrong had been fulfiUed in their own experiences. The voices that had spoken for (Jod in the long ago and sought to hold the people to the upward way were now bushed and the best they could hope for, therefore, was the beginning of a new cyde by the retum of Elijah the mightiest of the fore mnners. Under conditions such as these tbe leaders of tbe people naturally turned with fresh appredation^ to the Uving words so long neglected. There is a tradition that Nehemiah began a collection of the prophetic books. Whether tme or not such a coUection was made at a later day. The prophetic books bear evidence of having been retouched, reshaped and added to during tbe post- exiUc period. Amos for example has passages much in the tone of Deuteronomy and closes with a material istic picture of tbe Messianic time that migbt have been written by a Deuteronomist upon the assumption that Israel would bave turned to God and her piety would have become the pledge of prosperity. Fmger prints of the scribes are found everywhere. 3l6 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY It is thought a century is suffident time for these various forces to work themselves out in a movement toward the classffication of the prophets as Holy Scripture, which movement, by the end of another century, com pleted their canonization. Choice passages in these books would soon begin to be selected by tbe scribes to be read in tbe synagogues. Finding the reUgious value of such passages would tend to set tiie books apart as sacred and thus help forward their canonization. V The Last Stage in The Formation of the Old Testament Canon (loo A. D.) "It has not been the case with us that all aUke were allowed to record the nation's history; nor is there with us any discrepancy in the histories recorded. No, the prophets alone obtained a knowledge of the earUest and most ancient things by virtue of the inspiration which was given to tbem from God, and they committed to writing a dear account of all the events of their own time just as they occurred " (chap. 7). Josephus then proceeds to give a description, in greater detail, of these inspired writings. He points out that, because they were divinely inspired, they were able, although only twenty-two in number, to convey a perfect and com plete record. His words are: "For it is not the case with us {i. e., as it is with the Greeks) to have vast num bers of books disagreeing and confficting witb one another. We have but two and twenty, containing the history of all time, books that are justly beUeved in. And of these, five are tbe books of Moses, wbich comprise tbe laws and the earUest traditions from the creation of mankind down to tbe time of his (Moses') death. This period falls short but hy a Uttle of three thousand years. From tbe death of Moses to the (death) of Artaxerxes, last stage in formation of OLD TESTAMENT CANON 317 King of Persia, tbe successor of Xerxes, the prophets who succeeded Moses wrote the history of the events tbat occurred in their own tune, in thirteen books. Tbe remaining four documents comprise hymns to God and practical precepts to men. From the days of Artaxerxes to our own time every event has indeed been recorded. But tbese recent records bave not been deemed worthy of equal credit with those which preceded them, on ac count of the failure of the exact succession in wbich we treat our Scriptures. For although so great an interval of time {i. e., since they were written) has now passed, not a soul has ventured either to add, or to remove, or to alter a syUable; and it is the instinct of every Jew, from the day of his birth, to consider those (Scriptures) as the teaching of (Jod, to abide by them, and, if need be, cheerfully to lay down Ufe in their behalf. " We have in the above quotations from Josephus (Contra Apionem, about loo A. D.) tbe first distinct statement of the completed Canon of the Old Testament. His Canon has twenty-two books, Ruth being reckoned with Judges and Lamentations with Jeremiah. This Canon is now fijced and final. Thirteen books of the prophets, Ryle says, are probably the following: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Ne hemiah, Esther, Job, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamenta tions, Ezekiel, tiie twelve minor prophets. The four books or hymns of practical precepts are probably tbe foUowing: Psahns, Song of Songs, Proverbs, Ecclesi astes. What happened between the acceptance of tbe prophetic canon and the completion of the third is, Uke what happened in the previous period,— matter for conjecture. Certain books, which, because of the author to whom they were attributed, because of some allegorical interpretation made of them, and because of their intrinsic worth or for some other reason, were slowly gravitating together. When Antiochus Epiphanes (i68 B. C), sought to 3l8 the OLD TESTAMENT IN the LIFE OF TODAY eradicate tbe religion of the Jews by destro3dng their scriptures, great enthusiasm arose not only for their sacred books, but also for any others that migbt be thought valuable. A movement therefore for the col lection and preservation of their Uterature arose spon taneously. There is a tradition that Judas the Mac- cabee led this movement. There would be a disposition of course to bold in increasing reverence those books that proved most helpfid during these stormy times. These would be entmsted to offidal scribes for spedal care. Among the first to reach this higher valuation would clearly be the hymn-books in popular use. Be fore long the coUection would include Proverbs, Job, Ruth, Lamentations, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Esther and Chronicles. During the half century following the edict of Antiochus Epiph anes, aU tbese probably came together in a third canon which was completed, say by the beginning of the first century B. C, although there were books in the Ust long held uncertain. Questions of canonicity assumed an acute form upon the fall of Jerusalem (70 A. D.). The whole Ufe of Judiasm had to be readjusted to the new conditions now confronting tbe Jew throughout the world. It was important therefore that in the midst of the rapid change going on everywhere they should settle definitely what books were to constitute their canon. Tbe form in wbich the question of canonidty was presented was whether a given book defiles the hands. To touch a holy thing was to defile the hands— therefore, a book tbat defiled the hands was deemed holy and entitied to a place in the Canon. In a great assembly in Jamnia near Joppa (90 A. D.) Rabbi Akiba, a commanding spirit, settied in the usual dogmatic way of such men whether Canticles defiled the bands by saying: "God forbid; no one in Israel has ever doubted tbat tbe Song of Solomon deffles tbe LAST stage IN FORMATION OF OLD TESTAMENT CANON 319 hands." Like many a successor they were often most certain where they knew least. By the end of the first century, A. D., the books mak ing up the Old Testament were officiaUy determined, but this official approval was preceded by a long proc ess of selection made by the heart hungers of tbe peo ple. The same is tme of the New Testament, whose Canon was never offidaUy determined until tbe CouncU of Trent. Until that time, therefore, we bad no Bible whose various strata can be shown to bave been defi nitely passed upon by any authoritative Christian body- Canonization was accompUshed by popular needs. Let us, in conclusion, be reminded again that the books of the Old Testament are what might be called "occa sional writing." Some situation arose that needed to be dealt with. Israel was going wrong and somebody must, if possible, arrest her downward course. Social condi tions were intolerable and reformation was imperative. AUen enemies threatened ruin and their oncoming must be met. Tbe politicians were leading the people astiay and must be checkmated. Doom was impending and tbe reUgious forces must be ralUed. A spedal spiritual need arose and must be answered. The people were dis couraged and must be heartened. The flock were sbepberdless and must be led. Questions were up that must be settled. Laws for their guidance must be codified. Songs for their worship must be prepared. Books for ReUgious Education were called for. A perUous hour has stmck and everything was in a dancing balance. Who would go to the rescue? Such issues were used by (Jod to inspire men to speak for Him. Our method of interpretation, therefore, requires that we find out exactly wbo the audience were, what the issue was, how it was met, what exactly the given book meant to say to those for whom it was written and how it said it. Then a careful study wUl reveal tbe great underlying 320 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIFE OF TODAY prindples involved. These hold in every age among all peoples. For all truth is one, is God's tmth, and fits into the unspoUed hearts of aU His children. It finds and feeds His own. It is thus attested His Word. There is no situation in all the reaches of human experience where this Word will not bring guidance to races and nations and show the way in every hour of need for all men who wiU to do (Jod's wiU. This marveUous coUection of booklets, more than half poetry, mostly anonymous, seeks no defense, shuns no attack, asks only that we test tbe pledge it brings of God's saving and satisfying touch upon the human spirit, and venture upon its promise of a world redeemed through Jesus Christ our Lord in whom dwelt aU the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Pridted in the United States of America YALE UNJVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 03918 5245 'V Jill ijW. iii '* lir ¦I ill I J . '".i'ii'lifl.'i' m? M'Ll|l''H' ' I I.I|iH,' ,1!, il.!!*i| !,.! liiiiiiif A itiiiuii'ih U.I 'k'. )>iL^ .libL .''". w 111' I Wll'id 1 1